if she had nothing better to do than brush a horse. “That bag has all my emergency supplies in it, so if we have an emergency, you need to know exactly where the bag is.”
“Like carry it everywhere?” he asked, eyes wide.
“Nope. No sense in that, is there? Not if we know where it is.”
He grinned. “You’re smart!”
“I agree.” She smiled down at him, looked up, then paused, gazing over Isaiah’s shoulder.
Her eyes went still. The hand moving the brush faltered slightly, and her pretty smile faded just enough for Isaiah to turn around.
His mother stood ten paces back. Her expression said she was ready to do battle. He braced his legs and folded his arms, because if Stella Woods had a gripe with anyone, it was with him. Not the beautiful veterinary surgeon who was trying to establish a much-needed new business.
And not the softhearted little boy whose smile had disappeared the moment he spotted his grandmother coming their way.
Stella glared as she strode forward.
He met her halfway. “You come in peace for a poor neglected animal, I hope.”
“What are you doing, Isaiah Michael?” she hissed, and he hoped Liam couldn’t hear the venom in her voice. “You know better than to give shelter to a mean horse.” She uttered a bad phrase in her native tongue, a phrase he’d never heard come out of her mouth before. “She has already taken a life from us, one that was precious and good. Now we should let her give up her spirit and be done with it. Isaiah, I’m begging you.” She clasped his arms with her hands and gripped hard. “Do not save a murdering horse. It cannot be done.”
It would be so much easier to play along.
He’d stayed quiet all these years, knowing the truth and realizing there was little a child could do to change things.
But he was a child no longer, and God had put this opportunity in his path. Only a soulless man would shrug off this chance. “We would condemn a beautiful creature because of an accident, Mother?”
Her brow drew down. “A thrown child is no accident.”
And here it was, the moment he’d been destined to face for twenty-one long years. “But a horse spooked by careless humans may react. And then the blame lies not with the animal, but with the person who knew better.”
Her mouth dropped open.
She stared at him. Her eyes went wide before they narrowed in stark anger. “You cast blame with your words, Isaiah.”
“Then I apologize because there is no blame intended, Mother.” He hoped his tone offered assurance. “Accidents happen. We understand that. But it was wrong to lay blame on an innocent horse. It’s been twenty-one years. The horse is sick and old. We should care for her the way you did for my grandfather in his time.” She’d taken good care of Gray Cloud and set a beautiful example of how one should treat the aged. But his words didn’t seem to hit their mark.
She stared at him.
Then the horse and Charlotte and the boy.
And then she scraped her feet against the stony drive, spinning fine gray dust into the air. “If you do this thing, I shake the dust of your existence from my feet. You can no longer be a child of mine. It is either the horse or your mother, Isaiah. There is no room for both in your heart.”
And there it was.
The ultimatum. An ultimatum she’d made to others when angry. He’d heard it several times over the years and now it was his turn. And because she was a grudge holder, it was a promise he knew she’d keep. “But there is room.” He stepped forward, hoping for a compromise with the woman who had borne him. The mother who had raised him. She loved him and loved these children. An enforced separation wasn’t good for him, but it would be especially hard on Andrew’s two kids. “My heart has room for both. It’s time to let the truth set us free. Especially for her.” He indicated the horse with a slight nod.
“You are young and foolish and wrong.” Exasperation hiked her voice. “You think you see, but you do not, and your actions bring grief and harm to so many. Do as you will.” She threw her hands into the air. “From this day forward you mean nothing to me.”
“Grandma?”
She’d raised her voice on purpose. Liam heard. And Charlotte must have heard, too.
Stella ignored the longing in the boy’s voice and stomped away.
“Grandma!” Liam began to dart her way.
Isaiah caught him up and held him close. “Let her go, Liam. She’s angry right now. We’ll give her time, okay?”
“But why is she mad? Is she mad at me? Again?” He buried his face against Isaiah’s shoulder. His body shook but no tears came.
And when Isaiah raised his gaze to Charlotte, she looked from him to his mother and back as if the whole thing caused her way too much pain.
And then she quietly went back to brushing the poor, neglected horse.
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