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“She’d better this time,” Mac grumbled, “or we’ll lose this one, sure as I’m standing here.” He shifted the matchstick from one side of his mouth to the other. “Moon Shadow’s colts need all the help they can get. Come on, Ebony, be a good girl. Lie down.”
“Moon Shadow?” Zane asked. “He’s the sire?”
Mac’s troubled gaze shifted from the horse to Tiffany in unspoken apology. ‘That he is.”
Zane’s eyes narrowed as he studied the anxious mare. “Where’s the vet?”
“He was at another farm—said he’d be here on the double,” Mac replied.
At that moment, Ebony Wine’s water broke and the amniotic fluid began cascading down her black legs.
“Looks like he might be too late,” Zane observed wryly.
Without asking any further questions, he rolled up his shirt sleeves, walked to a nearby basin and scrubbed his arms and hands with antiseptic.
“What’re you doing?” Tiffany demanded.
His gaze was steady as he approached her. “I’m trying to help you. I’ve spent most of my life with horses and seen enough foals being born to realize when a mare’s in trouble. This lady here—” he cocked his dark head in the direction of the anxious horse “—needs a hand.”
Mac looked about to protest, but Tiffany shook her head to quiet him. “Let’s get on with it.”
Ebony Wine stiffened as Mac and Zane entered the stall. Her eyes rolled backward at the stranger. Mac went to Ebony Wine’s head and talked to the horse. “Come on, Ebony, girl. Lie down, for Pete’s sake.”
Zane examined the horse and the bulging amniotic sac beginning to emerge below her tail. “We’ve got problems,” he said with a dark frown. “Only a nose and one leg showing. Looks as if one leg has twisted back on itself.”
“Damn!” Mac muttered. His hands never stopped their rhythmic stroking of Ebony Wine’s head.
Tiffany felt her heart leap to her throat. Moon Shadow’s foals were having enough trouble surviving, without the added problems of a complicated birth. Against the defeat slumping her shoulders, Tiffany forced her head upward to meet the cruel challenge fate had dealt the mare. Her vibrant blue eyes locked with Zane’s. “What do you want me to do?”
“Help with supplies.” He pointed in the direction of the clean pails, scissors and bottles of antiseptic. “We’ve got to get that foal out of there, and my guess is that this lady isn’t going to want our help.”
The sound of the door to the foaling shed creaking open caught her attention and brought Tiffany’s head around. Vance Geddes, his round face a study in frustration, let the door swing shut and hurried down the corridor to Ebony Wine’s stall.
He took one look at the horse and turned toward the basin. “How long has she been at it?” he asked, quickly washing his hands.
“Over half an hour,” Mac replied.
“And she won’t lie down?”
“Not this one. Stubborn, she is.”
“Aren’t they all?” Vance’s gaze clashed with the stranger attending to Ebony Wine. Zane responded to the unspoken question. “Zane Sheridan.”
“‘Evening,” Vance said.
“I was here on other business, but I thought I’d help out. I’ve worked with Thoroughbreds all my life, and I think we’ve got problems here. One leg’s twisted back. The foal’s stuck.”
“Great,” Vance muttered sarcastically, entering the stall as quietly as possible. “Just what we need tonight.” His eyes traveled over the mare. “How’re ya, gal? Hurtin’ a little?” he asked as he studied the glistening horse.
“How can I help?” Tiffany asked, forcing her voice to remain steady as she noticed the tightening of Vance’s jaw.
“Be ready to hand me anything I might need,” Vance replied and then positioned himself behind the mare to confirm what Zane had told him. “Damn.” He shook his blond head and frowned. “All right, let’s get him out of there.”
Ebony Wine moaned as her womb contracted, and the foal remained stuck in the birth canal.
“This is gonna be touchy,” Vance whispered, as warning to the tall man standing next to him.
Zane’s body tensed and he nodded curtly, before he helped Vance carefully push the foal back into the mare so that there was less danger of breaking the umbilical cord and to give more room to coax the bent leg forward. Time was crucial, and both men worked quickly but gently, intent on saving the mare and her offspring.
