He nodded. “Aye, all right.”
They leveled up their horses.
“On the count of three. One, two, three!” Olivia cried, kicking her mare into a flying start.
Next to her, Edan’s stallion leaped away, the muscles in its powerful flanks rippling as it powered ahead.
Keeping low in the saddle, Olivia urged her mare to go faster, the beast’s hooves thundering as they flew over the ground towards the tree. Edan, having the advantage, soon took the lead, but Olivia was not deterred. To be racing was enough in itself. She felt exhilarated, alive, and did everything she could to close the gap between them, her joyful laughter echoing in her wake.
Of course, Edan reached the tree first. But it was only a few seconds later that she joined him and reined the mare in, panting as she patted her neck and thanked her for her efforts. Olivia could not keep the grin off her face. She was pleasantlysurprised to see Edan smiling too, looking as if he had enjoyed the race.
“I told ye I’d win,” he said matter-of-factly, not at all out of breath as she was.
“Aye, but only because yer horse is more powerful. Ye said it yerself,” she replied teasingly. “I think Bessie here did a grand job. Extra oats for dinner, old girl.” She scratched the mare’s ears in the way she knew she liked, laughing when Bessie whickered with pleasure.
“Ye’re a grand horsewoman, I’ll give ye that. But I didnae realize ye’re so competitive,” Edan said, eyeing her with curiosity.
Olivia was flattered by the compliment. However, energized by the race and feeling in a mischievous mood, she could not resist taking a little dig at him.
“How could ye? Ye hardly ken anythin’ about me.”
His eyebrows rose sharply at her forthright reply.
After a moment, he said, “Come on, we still havenae reached our destination.”
“All right. Which way is it?”
He turned his horse and pointed to a track running in a north-easterly direction across the moors. Olivia followed his line of sight and spotted a copse of pine trees some distance away along the track.
“All right. I’ll race ye there,” she said, gesturing to the trees.
“Another race? My, ye are competitive,” he replied with what she thought was a ghost of a smile.
It was hard to be certain because his beard concealed so much of his expression, but she was slightly confident she was on the right track as she positioned herself next to him.
“It makes things a bit more interesting,” she said, excited again at the prospect of another challenge. “Are ye ready?”
“Aye.” He nodded.
“All right. On the count of three. One, two…” She took off, laughing. “Three!”
“That’s cheatin’!” she heard him shout as Bessie raced ahead.
But his protest was soon drowned out by her triumphant laughter as she galloped towards the pines. Edan soon caught up with her and powered past her and Bessie without a glance.
“Come on, girl, ye can do it,” she urged Bessie as they drew ever closer to the bridge, her eye on Edan as she strived to catch up to him.
Then, to her disbelief, when he was only a few hundred yards away from the bridge, he suddenly parted from his horse in the most curious way. His horse thundered ahead, while Edan flew through the air and crashed down to earth, closely followed by his saddle.
Terror gripped Olivia.
“Edan!” she shouted, standing up in her stirrups as she urged Bessie forward.
Glancing at his saddle as they sped past, she noticed that the girth strap, which should have held it firmly in place, had sheared off.
How on earth could that have happened?
But she pushed the question aside for the moment, more worried about Edan. She reined Bessie in a few feet away from where he was lying and jumped down.
