"Oh. Well. That is good news," she said.

"Yep, that's how I see it, too. So I thought I'd come out here and offer you something truly pleasurable." Was the man actually flirting with her? Lenobia squelched the nervous thril she felt and instead leveled a cool, steady gaze on him. "I cannot think of any possible way for you to offer me pleasure."

She was sure his eyes started to lighten, but his gaze remained as steady as hers. "Well, ma'am, I assumed that would be obvious to you. I'm offerin' you a ride." He paused and then added. "On Bonnie."

"Bonnie?"

"Bonnie. My horse. The big gray girl standing right there nuzzlin' you. The one who likes cookies."

"I know who she is," Lenobia snapped.

"Thought you might like to ride her. That's why I came out here with her all saddled up for ya." When Lenobia didn't speak, he tilted his hat and looked vaguely uncomfortable. "When I need to relax-to remember to smile and breathe-I get on Bonnie and gall op her. Hard. She can move for a big girl, but it's a little like ridin' a mountain, and that makes me smile. Thought it might do the same for you." He hesitated and added, "But if you don't want to, I'll take her back inside."

Bonnie nudged her shoulder, as if offering the ride herself.

And that decided Lenobia. She'd never turned down a horse before, and no human, no matter how uncomfortable he made her, was going to cause her to start.

"I believe you could be right, Mr. Foster." She stood, took the reins from him, and flipped them over Bonnie's widely arched neck.

She could tell she'd surprised him by the way he moved. He was on his feet in an instant.

"Here, I'll give you a leg up."

"No need," she said. Lenobia turned her back to him and clucked to the mare, encouraging her to walk forward along the back side of the bench.

Moving with a lithe grace that came from centuries of practice, Lenobia stepped from the ground to the seat of the bench, and then the iron backrest, easily finding the stirrup and swinging up, up, and into Bonnie's saddle. She noticed immediately that he'd shortened the stirrups of his wide Western saddle to accommodate her much shorter legs, so even though the seat was too big, it felt comfortable rather than awkward. She looked down at Travis and had to smile because he seemed so very, very far below her.

His grin answered hers. "I know."

"It's different from up here," she said.

"Yep, sure is. Take my girl out. She'll remind you to breathe and smile. Oh, and Lenobia, I'd 'preciate it if you'd stop call in' me Mr. Foster." He tipped his hat to her, added a smile and a long, slow, "If you please, ma'am." Lenobia only raised an eyebrow at him. She gave Bonnie a squeeze with her knees and made the same kiss noise she'd heard Travis making.

The mare responded with no hesitation. They moved off smoothly. The wind had continued to pick up and with the warmth this evening Lenobia was reminded of spring. She smiled. "Maybe this long, cold winter is over, Bonnie girl. Maybe spring is coming." Bonnie's ears flicked back, listening, and Lenobia patted her wide neck. She pointed the mare north and rode along the stone wall past the broken tree that had been the site of so much pain, past the stables and arena. They rode, alternatively walking and trotting, all the way to the place where east joined north, in the corner of the rectangle that encompassed the campus grounds. By the time they'd reached the corner, Lenobia felt she had Bonnie's rhythm and her trust. She turned the mare so that she was pointed back in the direction from which they'd come.

"All right, my Bonnie big girl, let's see what you're made of." Lenobia leaned forward, squeezed her knees, kicked with her heels, and made a loud kiss noise while she flipped the ends of the reins on the big mare's butt.

Bonnie took off like she thought she was a quarter horse out of the roping shoots.

"Ha!" Lenobia shouted. "That's it! Let's go!"

Bonnie's huge hooves drove into the ground. Lenobia could feel the mare's powerful heartbeat. The warm night air whipped her hair back and the Horse Mistress leaned even farther forward, encouraging Bonnie to let loose-to give her everything.

The mare responded with a burst of speed that shouldn't have been possible for a creature who weighed two thousand pounds.

As the wind whistled around them, lifting Lenobia's long silver hair in time with the Percheron's mane in that magickal dance that melded horse to rider, Lenobia thought of the ancient Persian saying: The breath of heaven is found between a horse's ears.