Secrets and Revelations (Bellingwood #4) (9 page)

Polly grinned and shook her head. Those horses attracted the most interesting people.
This young girl with her pink and purple striped hair, heavy piercings and tattoos would fit right in with Sycamore House's eclectic family. If she wanted to love those big animals, Polly was fine with that.

"I don't see any reason why you couldn't. It's hard work, but if Eliseo agrees, you can start tomorrow."

"Really?" Rachel said. "That's so cool! Thank you. I'll come over after work. What should I wear?"

"Your oldest, most comfortable jeans and t-shirt. You will need to get some work boots. But mostly you want to be comfortable. Eliseo will be good to you, but there is still a lot of hard work out there.
You'll shovel horse crap and haul bales of hay, so you need to be prepared to be exhausted."

"I work in the kitchen over at the nursing home all day. It will be great to be outside. I can hardly wait!" She grinned across the table at Billy, who smiled back.
Doug, who was sitting across from Polly, coughed loudly.

"Alright, enough goofy love stuff," he said. "Isn't there dessert here somewhere?"

He stood and picked up his plate. Billy took Polly's plate from her. Within moments they cleared the table and Rachel escaped back into the kitchen. Doug returned with dishes filled with cake and ice cream.

"Rachel made a spice cake and Billy and I made homemade ice cream today.
Mom had four freezers so she let us have one. I like living on my own and deciding that I can make ice cream whenever I want it."

After dinner was completely finished and the table cleared, the boys seemed uncomfortable as to what to do with the rest of the evening. Rather than make them deal with it, Polly decided to take off, so she told them how wonderful the meal had been.

She changed her shoes back in her apartment and headed down the steps with her dog, snapping the leash onto his collar before heading out.

"Dinner's over. Taking a walk with Obiwan,"
she texted to Henry as they walked north toward downtown.

"Was the date everything you thought it would be?"

"And more! It was a little awkward, but oh well. They're good boys."

"Yes they are. Did you meet Billy's girlfriend?"

"I did. How did you know about her?"

"I pay attention. And she's hard to miss."

"There is that!"

She and Obiwan crossed the highway and headed downtown to the park across the street from the Methodist
church. Obiwan had never marked that as his territory and she knew he'd love the new smells.

Polly didn't think about it when she saw lights on inside the bank, but when she heard yelling coming toward the front door, instinct caused her to crouch with Obiwan behind the bumper of a car.

In moments, Cindy Rothenfuss stormed out of the building, then turned around and yelled back, "I will make you pay for this, you son of a bitch. You won't get away with it, I promise you that!"
She opened the door of her Lincoln Navigator, slammed it closed, started the SUV and screeched out of the parking space, paying no attention at all to the car that was coming toward her. The driver swerved and stopped, waiting for her to pass, then drove on.

Polly and Obiwan walked as casually as possible past the front door of the bank and she peered inside, trying to see if anything was amiss, but the lights had been turned out except those in the back, so there was nothing to see.
They walked on past the post office and crossed the street to get to the park, where she took a deep breath.

"That woman is nasty to everyone. Do you suppose that was her husband?" she asked as Obiwan ambled around sniffing at individual blades of grass. He didn't respond, just pulled her further and further into the park.

He rousted a young high school couple off a picnic table. They jumped when he loudly sniffed behind them and looked guilty as Polly smiled and walked on. They exited the park at the other end of the block and made their way back downtown. There were a few people standing outside the Jefferson Street Alehouse, smoking cigarettes, who said hello as she passed by. The pizza place was busy and the smells coming out of the front door had Obiwan pulling toward it, but she drew him away and around the corner.

"It's been a good day,"
she texted to Henry when she got inside the garage.
"We're home and heading upstairs. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Good night," he replied, "I love you
.”

Hearing sounds of activity in her home gave Polly a lot of joy. It was
Friday afternoon and the place was hopping. People continued to arrive with quilts and the men who were working on the addition were in and out of the building. Andrew and Jason were swimming and due back any minute. Polly turned around in her chair in time to see them come flying across the parking lot. She watched until they entered the front door and heard them laughing as they ran upstairs.

That gave her a notice that Jason would be ready to head for the barn and the horses.
She spun back to her desk and saw Billy Endicott and his girlfriend come in the main door of the office.

Rachel
had listened to Polly and dressed in normal street clothes - jeans and a t-shirt, with her hair pulled back under a ball cap and very little makeup on her face. Polly wouldn't have recognized her on the street were it not for the very distinctive pattern of piercings. She looked so much younger and more vulnerable.

"Is this a good time?" Billy asked as they entered her office.
He pointed to a chair and Rachel sat down.

"It's great," Polly assured them. "Jason just ran upstairs to change his clothes and all I have to do is pull on my work boots. Are you coming out with us, Billy?"

"I might walk out, but as soon as Rachel gets comfortable, I have things to do!"

Rachel looked at Polly with her big, brown eyes and shyly smiled. "He wants to level up tonight and there is some big quest that's happening."

"Oh!" Polly laughed and slowly nodded. "Sure! I get it!"

"Whatever," Billy said.

Eliseo came around the corner from the kitchen and Polly called his name. He turned into the office.

"Eliseo, this is Rachel, the girl I asked you about. I think she's ready to work."

Rachel stood up and put her hand out. Eliseo took it and said, "It's nice to meet you, Rachel."

He didn't blink at her piercings or striped hair, simply smiled and asked. "What drew you to our horses?"

Polly felt a lump in her throat, but stayed completely quiet. She'd never heard him speak about the horses or for that matter, anything at Sycamore House with a sense of ownership. It thrilled her to realize he felt like he was part of the family.

"I love animals," Rachel responded. "You should see the walls of my room. They're covered with posters and pictures of horses. We couldn't afford to have one and I never fit in with the 4-H crowd. I used to drag Mom down to the State Fair every year to the horse shows. Now I go by myself. I like the way riders and their horses seem to communicate. They don't use words like we do, they just seem to understand each other."

"There's a lot of learning and practice before that happens," Eliseo responded, "but you're right. That's one of the best feelings there is. Horses, just like dogs and cats, know what their owners want. Sometimes they give it to them, sometimes they have to be coerced and sometimes they're just plain brats about it. But, there is nothing more powerful than being accepted by one of those animals. It's an extraordinary gift."

"That's what I thought," she said. "My dog licks my face when I cry and then sometimes he does silly things to make me feel better."

Rachel slipped behind Billy's chair and stood talking to Eliseo. "He never cared about what I looked like."

"Horses don't care about any of that stuff either. They want to know you are trustworthy and that they are safe with you."

"I hope I'm both of those."

The two continued to talk to each other as they left the office. Billy and Polly looked at each other in shock until she giggled at him.

"What was that all about?" she asked, laughing.

"I don't know!" he said. "She was all nervous about this. She even cried upstairs in my apartment because she was so worried. I told her you weren't scary and that Jason was a good little dude and since she knew you two it would be just fine."

"I've never heard Eliseo say that many words all at once," Polly said.

"Rachel talks all the time to me, but not to someone else. You heard her last night."

"Not very much, I didn't."

"Exactly!"

Jason came running down the stairs and she smiled at him when he entered her office.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"Eliseo and Rachel are already down at the barn," she said. "Go ahead and I'll be there in a bit."

He tore off and she heard him slam open the side door to the outside.

"Sorry!" he called and then there was silence.

"Do you want to go down to the barn with me?" Polly asked a stunned Billy.

"I don't know what to do now," he replied. "I thought she needed me, but she doesn't. I don't want to get in her way."

"Come with me anyway. Both of you might as well get used to being down there."

"I'm not going to be there very often," he said, following her out of the office.

"Bet me," Polly laughed. "You know there's wireless internet down there, don't you?"

"Yeah, but," he thought for a minute. "Oh! I can play games from down there, too!"

"Uh huh."

They got to the barn in time to see Jason pull himself into his saddle. Eliseo lifted Rachel onto Nan's bare back and then swung himself up behind her. She clutched the horse's mane with her fingers and Eliseo reached around her to hold the reins.

"Don't hold too tight. You aren't going to fall and you don't want to pull her mane. If you can, try to sit up straight with your hands on your thighs.
I've got you," he said to the girl.

He clicked his teeth
and turned Nan so they could leave the barn. Jason followed suit and Polly and Billy stood watching as they left to walk around the large pasture.

"We'll be back in just a few minutes," Eliseo said. "I want her to know what it feels like when you look at the world from this perspective."

Polly shook her head and watched as he took his young protégés out. This really was his home. She wandered to the feed room and brought out a bale of hay to break up in the stalls. She made sure the stalls were ready for the evening.

Billy sat down on one of the benches and then realized he should be a gentleman and asked, "Can I help with anything?"

"No, you're fine, I've got it," she replied, her mind working. She wanted to think about how to turn Eliseo's passion for horses into an opportunity. It would be wonderful if he could spend his days out here rather than scrubbing toilets, washing sheets, and cleaning guest rooms.

They weren't ready to make that change yet and he certainly wasn't complaining. Everything around Sycamore House was done well and he had the time to spend with her horses. Polly wasn't sure when he slept and she hoped he was able to get some work done on the little house he was renting. When she'd negotiated for him to take over her former custodian's rental house, Eliseo was to receive a year's free rent in exchange for massive repair work on the place. The extensive damage was caused by two men looking for loot from a theft committed years ago in Iraq.

She motioned for Billy to join her and they walked out from Nan's stall to the space under the overhang. Demi and Daisy were eating hay from the old tractor tires beside the barn. They glanced up and then went back to what they were doing.

Nat, Nan and their riders were at the other end of the pasture. Eliseo was showing Rachel how to hold the reins, while keeping Jason and Nat in his field of vision. He leaned forward to listen to something Rachel said, then laughed and sat back.

"I think she likes it," Billy said, kicking hay out of the way of his feet.

"I think she does
, too. She looks more comfortable on the horse now than she did at first."

Eliseo said something to Jason and turned Nan back to the barn.
Jason continued to ride the outer edge as Eliseo and Rachel crossed the pasture. They rode into the far entrance. Billy and Polly went back inside to meet them.

"How did it go?" Billy asked.

Eliseo swung off the horse and then lifted Rachel down. Polly watched her legs hit the ground and buckle for a moment before she caught herself.

"Oh, Billy!" she cried and ran to hug him. "It was the most wonderful thing ever!"

"I'm coming back early tomorrow morning," she said to Polly. "If I can learn to ride Daisy, I can go out with all of you."

"That's great," Polly nodded, smiling. The girl hadn't let go of Billy and he had a small little grin tickling his mouth.

"Rachel is a good learner. She listens real well and knows what I'm telling her.” Eliseo said.

He winked at the two young people, "We weren't on the horse very long, but she's going to hurt a little in the morning. It will be best if you don't let that stop you
, Rachel. We'll put you to work and make sure those muscles get strong. I think you’ve had enough for tonight, though."

"I can help," she protested. "Billy doesn't need me around to run his quest."

Billy said nothing, but continued to hold her hand as if he couldn't believe she was being so affectionate in front of other people. "It's okay," he said. "Whatever you want to do."

"Polly has most of the work done in here," Eliseo commented. "Jason and I can bring the horses in when he's finished. Be here at
six thirty in the morning and I'll put you to work."

"Really?" Rachel looked at him and then at Polly, who shrugged her shoulders.

"Can I hug her one more time?" the girl asked. She pulled Billy with her and approached the big, black horse. Her arms didn't wrap very far around Nan's neck, but everyone recognized that Rachel had completely fallen for the animal. Nan brushed her chin across the top of Rachel's head and looked at Billy who backed away.

"I don't think I'm cut out to be a cowboy," he laughed. "But I'll buy you a hat, Rachel."

She released the horse and took his hand again. Polly watched his eyes land on the girl's hand in his and then he looked at Rachel in surprise. "Do you want to go down to Boone for supper?" he asked her.

"Don't you have to be online?"

"It can wait. I'll just go upstairs and tell Doug that I'm not going to be there. You have to drive, but I'll buy."

The two of them chattered as they left the barn hand in hand.

"Go on, Polly. Jason and I have this tonight.” Polly heard Eliseo speak to her and nodded. She was still trying to process the strange behaviors people around her had just exhibited.

"Thank you, Eliseo. I think you just changed that girl's life."

"She's a good girl. I'll bet no one has ever given her much to look forward to."

"Well, thank you."

Polly walked out of the barn and up to Sycamore House, still thinking about the change that had come over Rachel. A few moments with Eliseo and a giant horse and she was practically bubbling. Polly was a little proud of Billy for catching on so quickly and rewarding the transformation. She didn't know many boys like that. Maybe he just liked having the girl pay attention to him.

She entered the newly finished covered walkway leading to the side entrance and opened the door into Sycamore House, only to be assaulted with a familiar voice stridently demanding recompense.

"Really," Polly thought. "Recompense. She used that word."

Polly walked to
ward the sound of Cindy Rothenfuss' voice and was surprised at the scene in front of her. Billy was holding Rachel tightly and the girl's face was hot red. She looked as if she were ready to spring, given the option.

Jeff was standing between Rachel and Cindy, attempting to calm the older woman down, but to no avail.

"Stop it!" Polly said, as firmly as possible. "Now what is going on?"

As soon as she asked the question, she knew she'd made a mistake. Mrs. Rothenfuss rushed up to Polly and began yelling.
She'd gotten close to her face and Polly stepped back. The woman pressed forward and Polly retreated again. When it happened the third time, Polly put her hands out and physically stopped the woman by grabbing her upper arms.