Page 116 of The Defiant Curse

“Hey,” he said, finding some carrots in a bucket. He fed the horse one, and it nudged him.

That made his heart happy. For the first time, in a very long time, he felt weightless, like this place sucked out all the bad, and gave him joy.

Petting the horse, and hearing the goats call for him…

Yeah, he liked it here.

Going into the stall with Hamlet, he scratched him by the ears, and the horse bumped his face with his own.

“I think I like you,” he said. “You’re a gorgeous guy,” he said, seeing he was male. “Will you let me put a saddle on you?” he asked. “Want to go for a ride?”

The horse neighed at the ‘R’ word.

Clearly, he did.

Oh, well, it appeared he was going to go inside and see if any of those boots fit him. Since it was a nice day, and he had time to waste, he was going to take a little ride.

Once back inside, he checked out the boots by the door, and one of the pairs was his size. Going to the tablet, knew what he needed.

Clothing.

Ethan hadn’t packed nearly enough in his rush to get the hell out of there and to his wife.

At the tablet, he took a chance and left a message for Michael.

‘Can you get me some things in town? I’m not packed for horses and chopping wood. I’m staying, but don’t tell her I’m here. I want to see if she wants to see me first. As for fixing the mess, that’s the plan. I’m not leaving Scotland without my wife, and I don’t care how long it takes. Thank you for being worried about her. I love you, EJ.’

After leaving that message on the control panel, he headed back out, borrowing the boots. Once in the barn, he got the horse ready.

It was a damn good thing he’d been with Charlie when she had her lessons. He’d been on a horse more than once with her, holding her in front of him as she learned to ride. What he’d realized was you could take the man off the rez, but you couldn’t take the Native out of the man.

He was a horse person.

Apparently.

Once he got Hamlet ready, he climbed onto the back of the horse and was amused.

He came all the way to Scotland to ride a horse, when he was five miles from a reservation where his daughter took her riding lessons.

Granted, it was a reservation he’d been kicked off not once, but twice in his life.

Oh, and unless he made the ‘correct’ decision about choosing his role as Shaman or in the FBI, he was booted again.

Yeah, he had some soul-searching to do regarding that, too. For Ethan, it was never easy.

Now, life was definitely trying to tell him something.

Now, he just needed to figure out what.

Chapter Seven

Twenty Minutes Earlier

Drive To The Village

Nine A.M.

For those of them heading into the village, it was time to meet up with Gabby and have a fun day. The only issue was that Elizabeth was incredibly quiet. You’d have to be an idiot not to know that something was bothering her.