Ride a Dark Horse Read online

  She hoped Hank was also a bit of a gambler, that he’d be willing to take a chance on her.

  Hank interrupted Cassie’s thoughts. “Melissa will be here in just a few minutes. She was wondering whether the kids might be interested in a snack.”

  “That’s very kind of you. For the moment though, they seem pretty taken with your photo gallery. I noticed you rode at Devon, Mr. Sawyer.”

  “Call me Hank. Everyone does. I hardly know who they’re talking about when I hear Mr. Sawyer.” His gaze skimmed the photographs on the wall. “Yes, a couple of those pictures are from Devon. I’m just glad I wasn’t riding against you when those were taken.”

  At Cassie’s startled look, Hank smiled and continued, “Of course you didn’t realize this, but I saw you compete both at Devon and Washington the year you were racking up points to qualify for the national team. You were amazing. And the way you handled that stallion, On The Mark, was incredible. You were what, barely nineteen, and you could hardly have weighed more than one hundred and ten, but you had him flying over those fences in the jump-off as if he were a merry-go-round pony in Mary Poppins.”

  The image of On The Mark being like a carousel ride brought a wide grin to Cassie’s face. “He was a great horse, a great teacher. I was lucky to ride him so early on in my career. He taught me how to listen. And he taught me how important it is to figure out what makes each horse tick. In On The Mark’s case, it was his pride.”

  “Interesting. How did you come to that conclusion?”

  Cassie’s hands lifted, gesturing as she explained. “He had such natural ability and he knew it. He was a cocky son of a gun. I realized that it really bothered him if he even so much as nicked a fence. He hated it, it threw off his whole performance. So I did my darndest to set him up perfectly for each and every fence. Then I tried not to mess around too much and let him do the rest of the work. By the end of that season, he was in a class by himself. Nobody could beat him.”

  “Well, when I got your résumé, your name rang a bell. It didn’t take long to remember what you achieved with that horse. Those were some remarkable rides, Cassandra.”

  She felt a blush stain her cheeks. “Thank you. And please call me Cass or Cassie. I don’t think I’ve quite grown into Cassandra yet.”

  That might be true enough. Although he knew from her résumé that Cassie Miller was twenty-four, there was a youthfulness to her face, especially with that charming blush that made her look hardly out of her teens.

  Far too young to be the mother of five-year-old twins.

  But the children looked a lot like her, he noted. Deep blue eyes and blond curly hair. It was like seeing the finished product when you looked first at the twins and then at Cassie. Even though Cassie’s hair was pulled back from her face, accentuating her wide, high cheekbones and her full lips, he figured that in about ten years, Sophie would be a close copy of her mother. Jamie, too, looked like he would be equally good looking.

  Cassie Miller stood an easy five foot eight—good, she’ll be big enough to handle Orion—and her body looked strong and fit. His glance next took in the long legs and well-defined arms revealed by the ribbed cotton top she wore under her jumper.

  Hank would have been deeply embarrassed if someone had pointed out to him that he was cataloging Cassie’s attributes much as he might a horse he was interested in acquiring. But he would probably have argued that he had no use for a rider who wasn’t physically up to the challenge of riding their stallion, any more than he would be interested in purchasing a swaybacked, knock-kneed horse. Luckily, she had the look of a rider who kept her body in peak condition.

  Hank motioned for her to take one of the seats near his desk as they waited for his wife. As Cassie rested her elbows against the wooden arms of the chair Hank noticed there was no wedding band on her left hand. Interesting.

  He was on the verge of broaching the awkward topic of why Cassie Miller’s bid for the national team had come to a disappointing nothing, when his wife, Melissa, and their housekeeper, Mrs. Harris, came into the office. As he stood up to greet the women, he gave his wife a fond smile.

  Melissa had been his wife for thirty years and Hank loved her even more now than he had when they first married. She was his mate, partner, best friend, and his lover. She was also as good a judge of human character as she was of horseflesh. Hank wanted Melissa here for the interview with Cassie. Even with her excellent résumé and the memory of her skill with horses, Cassie was nevertheless something of an enigma.

  Why hadn’t she continued competing, trying for the national team? After the Olympics, being a member of the U.S. equestrian team was most riders’ greatest ambition, so what had prevented her? Riders with the kind of talent and skill she had just didn’t drop off the face of the earth without a trace. As Hank remembered it, after that dazzling year, Cassie had vanished from the show circuit as if her season as the hot young rider to beat was just a dream. The question had been bugging him ever since he’d recognized her name at the top of her résumé.

  He glanced at the twins, considering.

  No, not even a pregnancy should have kept her away from the circuit for so long. Pregnancy would have side-lined her for a year, eighteen months at most, but she’d disappeared and hadn’t come back. He wondered if perhaps the twins’ father might have tried to discourage Cassie in her riding career, but if that was the case, what was she doing applying for the job at Five Oaks?

  Thank heaven for Melissa. Hank had no doubt that a few subtle questions from his wife would provide them with answers to whatever had been going on in Cassie Miller’s life.

  2

  H ank introduced Melissa and Mrs. Harris first to Cassie and then to the twins, who were still inspecting the photographs on the wall, arguing quietly between themselves over which horse they would most like to ride.

  Melissa Sawyer listened to the heated debate for a moment, a smile playing across her lips. Crouching down to the level of their faces, she managed to draw their attention.

  “Well, aren’t you big kids! You seem to know so much about horses. It must have taken you a long time, years and years. Let me guess, you must be seven years old. No, you’re only five?” She shook her head as if in disbelief. “I can’t believe how very grown-up you are.”

  Cassie smiled as she saw Sophie and Jamie’s faces light up at Melissa’s compliment.

  “You know Mrs. Harris just finished baking some chocolate chip cookies. I was going to bring them over but they’re still a bit hot, and I thought you might enjoy a glass of lemonade. If you’d like, Mrs. Harris can take you up to the house and you can have your snack there. Then, when your Mommy’s finished talking to us, we can take a tour of the stables. I’ll show you my favorites.”

  Jamie and Sophie looked up at their mother for permission. A smile and a nod from her had them scampering off with Mrs. Harris, already chattering like magpies.

  “Thanks for providing such a delicious diversion for the children. At times I think they’re all mouths. When they’re not talking, they’re eating so much I get a stomachache watching them. I have to warn you, though, you probably won’t have anything but crumbs left for tonight. Jamie and Sophie are regular vacuum cleaners when it comes to freshly baked cookies.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about that. Hank and I eat far too many cookies as it is.” She reached up to give her husband a kiss on the cheek. “I thought maybe it would be easier to talk if there were just the three of us.”

  Cassie nodded in agreement. “Once Jamie and Sophie start talking, it’s like being caught on a runaway train.”

  “Five-year-olds can be like that. They’re beautiful, your twins. They must have kept you quite busy when they were born.”

  Hank hid a smile. This was vintage Melissa. Smooth and easy, she conducted a nice, friendly inquisition. Most people never stood a chance once she got them talking. He’d lay odds his wife was as curious as he to find out more about this young woman with the two adorable children. He even sus
pected she’d already looked at Cassie’s ring finger and noticed it was bare. It hadn’t taken him all that long, and Melissa was a woman. They always seemed to zoom in on things like that. Detail oriented, or something like that. If he’d had to ask Cassie these personal questions, he would have felt like a bull in a china shop. He was more than happy to let his wife take over.

  Just then, he caught Cassie taking a deep breath, as if bolstering herself. Like she realized full well what sorts of questions Melissa might ask. Abruptly he decided he wanted to make her as comfortable as possible.

  “Uh, why don’t we all sit down. Here, Cassie, take this chair; Melissa, you can sit in this one.”

  Cassie lowered herself gracefully into the canvas director’s chair opposite Hank’s. A hesitant smile lifted the corners of her mouth. “Yes, well actually, Mrs. Sawyer—oh, thank you—Melissa, Sophie and Jamie aren’t my natural children. I adopted them. They were my brother Tom’s and my sister-in-law Lisa’s. When Sophie and Jamie were only ten months old, their parents died, along with my father.”

  “Oh dear, how dreadful! What happened?”

  “There was an accident. I was in college at the time. Tom and Lisa were living in Princeton, New Jersey. Christmas was just a week away. Tom had invited Dad to stay with them for the holidays. Our mother had died several years earlier and Lisa and Tom wanted Dad to share Christmas with his only grandchildren. I was invited, too, but was planning on joining them Christmas Eve. I was busy getting ready for a trip down to Florida to compete in some shows before the second semester started. Our other brother, Alex, couldn’t make it. He’d just started his job at a Wall Street firm that fall. They were working him like a dog. He didn’t even think he was going to get Christmas Eve off.”

  Hank and Melissa didn’t bother interrupting Cassie’s rambling narrative. It was clear from the tense expression on her face that the death of her brother, father, and sister-in-law was still far too traumatic.

  With an effort, Cassie pulled her thoughts together. There were very few times she wished she smoked cigarettes, but this was definitely one of them.

  “It happened on Route 1 as they were driving back to their home in New Jersey. An eighteen-wheeler was in the next lane over. The driver fell asleep. Truckers have to log so many miles . . .” Cassie’s voice faltered. Hank glanced down at her hands. They were knotted tightly in her lap, the knuckles white under her skin.

  “The truck went out of control, careening directly into Tom’s car. There was no time to avoid a collision. The force of the impact sent Tom’s car through the guardrail, into the oncoming traffic. Another couple were killed besides Tom, Lisa, and Dad. They were in the car that Tom crashed into . . .” Cassie’s piercing blue eyes lifted, meeting the Sawyers’ sympathetic gaze. “I hate to admit it, but sometimes I wish the truckdriver had died, too. He came out of that wreck with a severe concussion and several broken ribs. A night in the hospital and he was home.”

  “I’m sure that’s a perfectly natural reaction, Cassie. How could you not feel that way toward the person responsible for taking the lives of three members of your family?” Melissa reasoned gently. “I know that if something like this had happened to Hank and our children, I would have tried to strangle the man with my bare hands, deserving or not.”

  Cassie smiled gratefully at Melissa. Distractedly she combed her fingers through her hair loosening more strands from her chignon. “You’re right, of course. Alex and Thompson both said the same thing. And the truckdriver was filled with grief and remorse over the accident. For a long time he kept calling and writing letters. That almost made it worse.”

  Hank drew a hand over his face, wishing he could wipe away the harrowing images from his mind. No wonder Cassie Miller had dropped out of sight from the horse show circuit.

  “It was a blessing the babies weren’t in the car, too.”

  “Yes. My father had invited Tom and Lisa to go to the opera with him. Dad was a big opera buff. That’s why they were driving back to Princeton so late. Jamie and Sophie were at home with the live-in nanny and housekeeper Bessie Thompson.” Cassie gave a small smile. “Thompson—she hates being called Bessie—says it makes her feel like a cow and that at her age that’s a double curse: to be old and a cow. Ridiculous, but I’ll do just about anything to make her happy. She and Alex really pulled me through some bad times.”

  Cassie stopped for a minute and gave the older couple a wry smile. “Sorry, I realize this is a somewhat unusual interview. I doubt you expected to hear such a sob story when you asked me down here. But I thought it best to tell you about the accident.” Her blue eyes met Hank’s squarely. “Since you saw me compete, you’ve doubtless been wondering why I stopped riding just when I was so close to earning a spot on the national team.”

  Hank’s head nodded in silent confirmation.

  “My plan had been to see just how far On The Mark and I could go. We’d had a great season in the Northeast, and I’d been looking forward to the winter circuit in Florida. And some people I’d met wanted me to show their horses down there. But then suddenly in the space of twelve hours, I had two beautiful ten-month-old twins.” Her lips curved. “Looking back, I can only thank God Sophie and Jamie weren’t identical. That would have been a real mess!”

  Melissa and Hank laughed, wanting to put her at ease, still stunned by her tragic story.

  “How terribly sad for all of you. It must have been difficult becoming a mother without any warning,” Melissa offered sympathetically.

  “Boy, you can say that again! I knew absolutely nothing about kids. There were moments after the accident when I wished I hadn’t been bitten by the horse bug so early and had spent a little time during my early teens babysitting. Instead, I knew textbooks worth about equine management, yet I couldn’t even put on Jamie’s diaper properly! When Jamie and Sophie were newborns, I’d held them in my arms and watched Lisa nurse them, but I was in school, caught up in my riding, and all my spare time was devoted to being with my fiancé, Brad. We’d only recently gotten engaged.”

  Melissa was taken aback when Cassie’s delicate features hardened at the word fiancé. She’d already noticed the absence of a wedding ring. Had Cassie’s engagement, like the rest of her life, taken a sudden and unpleasant turn?

  It was amazing how in the short space of fifteen minutes since she had met this young woman Melissa already liked Cassie more than anyone she’d encountered in a long time. From listening to her recount her story, Melissa had learned enough to know Cassie was caring and resilient. Someone who took her responsibilities seriously. If Hank considered her a good enough trainer to work with their horses and a good enough rider to handle Orion, Melissa would do everything she could to ensure she was offered the job at Five Oaks.

  Yes, there was something special about Cassie. It had taken courage and strength to tell a tale that tragic to strangers. Cassie had spoken with the kind of dignity that made Melissa want to get to know her even better. Melissa had an intuitive feeling that Cassie would mature into an exceptional woman.

  What bothered her, however was the very wrong note that had sounded when Cassie had mentioned her fiancé, Brad. What had happened between the two of them?

  Melissa had always prided herself on knowing when to respect a person’s privacy, but this time she was going to succumb to her curiosity, or nosiness, as she was sure Hank would call it. She justified herself with the thought that it was important to know whether this Brad person would play a role in Cassie’s decision to accept the position at Five Oaks. So she excused her rudeness at broaching what was obviously an awkward topic.

  “I suppose you and your fiancé decided to postpone the wedding until your life was more settled?” As prying went, this lacked subtlety, but Melissa decided a certain amount of directness might prove the easiest path to take.

  She didn’t need to glance over at Hank to realize he was frowning warningly at her. After three decades of marriage, Hank and Melissa knew each other’s thoughts as well as
they knew their own. Hank clearly felt that Cassie had already revealed quite enough of her personal life.

  Cassie fell silent as she wondered how to describe the aching disappointment, the sense of betrayal she experienced at Brad Gibson’s hands. She’d never told anyone the whole story. And however much she instinctively liked and trusted the Sawyers, she wasn’t ready to reveal its full ugliness. Not yet, anyway. Maybe never.

  She’d met Brad at college in the fall of her sophomore year. Brad, a senior economics major, was bright and ambitious, with plans to enter law school the next year. Boyishly handsome, he’d been a campus star popular with his frat brothers, and with a grade point average that all but guaranteed his acceptance at any of the law schools to which he was applying.

  Cassie had fallen for him hard. When she remembered the depth of her infatuation, she consoled herself with the knowledge that she’d been only nineteen, far too naive and sheltered because of her commitment to her riding.

  Brad had been Cassie’s first serious boyfriend, and her first lover. His blond good looks, his Connecticut upbringing, his prep school education exuded sophistication. His self-assured charm had dazzled Cassie completely. At the time, Cassie remembered bitterly, Brad had seemed equally enamored of her. And when he’d proposed, Cassie had been radiant with happiness.

  Looking back now Cassie was immensely grateful to her father. He’d insisted upon a long engagement for the couple, that they wait until Cassie, too, graduated for the wedding to take place. How disastrous it would have been if she and Brad had actually married.

  She still had difficulty comprehending the underlying roots of Brad’s behavior. What she knew for certain was that after the accident, Brad changed. Unfortunately however Cassie was oblivious at first. Shock, grief, and the need to be with her family—with Alex, Jamie, and Sophie—were overwhelming. And by the time Cassie began to resurface from the depths of her loss, Brad’s feelings had . . . cooled. The quaintness of that expression made Cassie shudder inside. The reality had been to watch, stunned into helplessness, as her lover transformed himself into a selfish stranger.