“Can I offer anything to help distract you? A drink? A rival newscast? Hard candy? Some tissues to shred?” She was teasing and Samantha laughed then. What a wonderful woman she was and she seemed to understand it all.

“I'll be all right, but come to think of it…” She looked across the table at Caroline, looking like a very young girl with an enormous request, like Mom's mink stole for the senior prom. And the long blond hair loose on her shoulders only helped to make her look younger in the soft light. “I do have a favor to ask.”

“What's that? I can't imagine anything here you can't have.”

“I can.” Samantha grinned like a little kid.

“And what might that be?”

Samantha whispered the two magic words. “Black Beauty.”

For a moment Caroline looked pensive, and then suddenly she looked amused. “So that's it, is it! I see…”

“Aunt Caro… may I?”

“May you what?” Caroline Lord sat back in her chair with a regal air and a twinkle in her eye.

But Samantha would not be easily put off. “May I ride him?”

There was no answer for a long moment as Caroline grew anxious. “Do you think you're up to it yet?”

Samantha nodded slowly, knowing the truth of what Josh had said: If you had it, you never lost it. “I do.”

Caroline nodded slowly. She had watched Sam riding into the main compound as she and Bill had stood at her large picture windows. Sam just had horses in her bones. It was a part of her, instinctively, even after not riding for over a year. “Why do you want to ride him?” She cocked her head to one side, her dinner forgotten.

When Samantha answered, her voice was gentle and her eyes had a faraway look, her ex-husband's broadcast forgotten, along with the woman to whom he had fled. All she could think of now was the ravishingly beautiful black stallion in the stables and how badly she wanted to feel him beneath her as together they raced into the wind. “I don't know why.” She looked up at Caroline honestly. And then she smiled. “I just feel as though, as though”-she faltered for a moment, her eyes distant again-“as though I have to. I can't explain it, Caro. There's something about that horse.” She smiled a distant smile, which was instantly reflected in Caroline's eyes.

“I know. I felt it too. That was why I had to have him. Even if it makes no sense for a woman my age to have a horse like him. I had to, just this one last time.” Samantha nodded her complete understanding and as the two women looked into each other's eyes they felt the same bond that had always held them together, across the years, across the miles. In some ways they were as one, as though in their souls they were mother and daughter.

“Well?” Samantha looked at her hopefully.

“Go ahead.” Caroline smiled slowly. “Ride him.”

“When?” Sam almost held her breath.

“Tomorrow. Why not?”

6

In the morning as Samantha poured her aching body out of bed, she only felt its pain for the first few instants. After that she remembered her conversation with Caroline, and nothing hurt anymore as she ran to the shower and stood there, with the hot water pounding down on her shoulders and her head. This morning she wasn't even going to take the time for breakfast. She didn't care about breakfast. Not today. All she needed was a cup of coffee from Caroline's kitchen, and after that she would sail out to the barn. Just thinking about it made her smile. It was all she could think of this morning. And the smile was still dancing in her eyes as she ran the last steps to the barn. Two of the men were talking quietly in one corner, but other than that there was no one there. It was still much too early for most of them to be there. They were eating breakfast and trying to wake up as they gossiped about the local news and the usual ranch talk in the main dining hall.

Quietly, almost stealthily, Samantha picked up Black Beauty's saddle and walked toward his stall. But as soon as she had done so she saw the two men eyeing her, one with raised eyebrows. They had both stopped talking and were watching her with a silent question. Just as silently she nodded and slipped into the stall. She made soft murmuring noises to soothe him, running a hand down the long graceful neck and patting the powerful flanks as he eyed her nervously at first, backing and sidling, and then stopping as though to sniff the air near where she stood. She rested the saddle on the stall door, and then slipping the bridle over his head, she led him from the stall.

“Ma'am?” The voice surprised her as she looped the reins around a convenient post so she could saddle Black Beauty. She turned around to see who it was. It was one of the two men who had been watching her, and she realized then that he was a good friend of Josh. “Miss Taylor?”

“Yes?”

“Uh… do you… I don't mean…” He was mortified, but clearly worried, and Sam smiled her golden smile. This morning her hair was loose down her back, her eyes brilliant, her face pink from the chill December air. She looked incredibly beautiful as she stood beside the coal-black Thoroughbred stallion, like a tiny palomino at his side.

“It's all right.” She was quick to reassure him. “I have Miss Lord's permission.”

“Uh… ma'am… does Tate Jordan know?”

“No.” She shook her head firmly. “He doesn't. And I don't see why he should. Black Beauty belongs to Miss Caroline, doesn't he?” The man nodded, and Sam smiled the dazzling smile again. “Then there shouldn't be any problem.”

He hesitated and then backed off. “I guess not.” And then with a worried frown, “You ain't scared to ride him? He's got one hell of a lot of power in those long limbs.”

“I'll bet he does.” She looked at his legs with pleasure and anticipation and then swung the saddle onto his back. For Black Beauty, Caroline had also acquired an English saddle, and it was this that Samantha was strapping to him now. It was as though he knew the feel of the smooth brown leather, unlike the cumbersome Western saddle Samantha had been riding for two days. This was a saddle she knew better, and a breed of horse she had often ridden, but a horse as fine as this one was a rare gift in any horseman's life.

A few minutes after she had saddled him, she tightened the girth again, and then hesitantly one of the two ranch hands moved closer and gave her a leg up onto the gigantic black horse. At the feel of a rider on his back, Black Beauty pranced nervously for a moment, and then with the reins well in hand, Samantha nodded at the two ranch hands and walked Black Beauty quickly away. He pranced and sidestepped quite a lot on the way to the first gate, and then as she let him through it, she allowed him to break into a trot, which rapidly became a swift canter as they made their way across the fields. The sky was by then streaked with the first signs of daybreak, and the light around her was pale gray becoming almost gold. It was a magnificent winter morning and she had beneath her the most magnificent horse she had ever ridden. Unconsciously a broad smile broke out on her face and she let Black Beauty gallop as she moved with him across the fields. It was the most extravagant feeling of freedom she had ever known and it was almost like flying, as together, like one body, they sailed along. It seemed hours later when she forced herself to make him change direction, and slowing him only a little, she began to head home. She still had to ride with the men that morning, and what she had done was forfeit breakfast to ride this magnificent horse across the fields. It was only a quarter of a mile from the main complex that she finally succumbed to temptation and jumped the huge horse across a narrow stream, which he cleared with ease, and only after they had passed it did she notice that not far from them Tate Jordan was riding his own handsome black and white pinto and glaring at her as she raced along. She reined in a little, veered and rode toward him, wanting, just for one moment, to rush him and show him how well she rode. But instead she resisted the temptation and just allowed herself to gallop gaily in his direction on the back of the handsome beast. She slowed him down to a canter, and Black Beauty was prancing happily as they reached Tate.