Star Gazer (5 page)

When she heard a rustling sound from a stall several yards away, she went over to see what was there. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Jordan was surprised to see a large, black draft horse standing in the back corner with its head hung low.

Jordan leaned over the stall door, attempting to get the horse to move forward. She couldn't tell if it was a mare or a gelding, but whatever it was—even in the dark stall—she was sure it was beautiful!

“Come here, baby,” she crooned. The horse flicked its ears, but remained where it stood in the gloomy corner of the stall.

She
had
to see this horse. Already she sensed something wrong, the way it stood in the shadows like it didn't want to be bothered.

Jordan stepped back and looked up and down the aisle. There were a few people at the other end, but no one in the immediate vicinity. She eyeballed the Do Not Enter sign. Then she took a deep breath, flipped the latch on the door, and walked into the stall.

five

Jordan stood there for a moment, sure the horse and any person within twenty feet could hear the banging of her heart against her ribs. Stepping into a dark stall with a very large horse she didn't know wasn't a very smart move on her part. There was a good reason for the Do Not Enter signs on the stalls. What if the horse suddenly charged her?

She was about to back away when she heard the soft blowing of the black horse's nostrils as it tried to catch her scent. “It's okay, pretty one,” Jordan said softly, sizing up the large animal. She took a careful step forward and waited for the horse's reaction. The big horse flicked its ears back and forth at the sound of her voice and the crunch of the straw under her feet.

Jordan took another step and held out her hand for the horse to sniff. The horse stretched its thick, arched neck, touching its muzzle to her hand. The soft, warm breath tickled Jordan's palm and she let out a loud giggle. Startled, the horse pitched its head high in the air.

“Easy,” Jordan said, noticing that the beautiful animal had a large white star in the center of its forehead. She reached up and touched the horse's muzzle, which was still raised rather high. “Everything's okay,” she murmured. The draft lowered its perfectly shaped head and Jordan stroked the white spot between the horse's eyes. “Aren't you gorgeous!” she said in awe, and the horse lowered its head even more, nudging her gently with its nose.

A minute later, footsteps sounded outside the stall and Jordan held her breath, hoping she hadn't been discovered. She backed deeper into the shadows and tried to make herself as small as possible. If she got caught, she'd embarrass Nicole's parents, and her own mom wouldn't be all that happy to find out that she'd disobeyed the rules.

“I think there's someone in there,” a man said as he poked his head into the stall and peered around. “Go in and check, would you, please?”

Jordan's stomach did a double flop when the latch slid open and the door creaked. She was busted!

A tall boy walked into the stall, staring into the shadows before he spoke. “Jordan…? What are you doing here?”

The voice sounded very familiar. “Jacob?” Jordan asked. Even though she had wanted to see him again, part of her hoped it wasn't him. How could she explain being in the stall with a huge draft horse when the sign outside clearly warned Do Not Enter?

Jacob held his hand out. “Come on, Jordan. Get out of there. Didn't you read the sign? This mare outweighs you by about two thousand pounds.”

Jordan let him take her hand and lead her out of the stall. “The horse wasn't dangerous,” she muttered, humiliated that she'd been caught breaking the rules. She hoped they didn't boot her out of the auction. Not only would she be in a lot of trouble, but she also wouldn't be able to bid on those pretty chickens she'd found.

Jacob closed and latched the door. The mare stepped from the back corner and walked to the center of the big stall, her ears pricked in their direction. Jordan thought she noticed a bit of a limp in the horse's step.

“Hmmm…she must like you,” Jacob said. “That's the most interest she's shown in anything since they brought her in.” He took off the flat-brimmed straw hat and brushed back his hair. “Have you been here before?” he asked, putting his hat back on.

“Umm, not really,” Jordan said. “How about you?”

Jacob grinned. “Yeah, I kinda work here. My dad's the auctioneer.”

That announcement got Jordan's attention. She'd never been to a live auction, but she'd seen auctioneers on television and wondered how they could talk so fast. Most of the time she had a hard time figuring out what they were saying.

Now that she knew Mr. Yoder was the auctioneer, she felt even worse about breaking the rules. He'd been kind to her. But Jacob didn't seem too upset, so maybe it wasn't such a big deal. “That's pretty cool,” she said. “I bet it's fun working here.”

“It beats sweeping floors,” he said. “It's a lot of hard work, but you meet a lot of interesting people and animals.”

“What do you mean?” Jordan cocked her head, interested.

Jacob leaned on the stall door. “Every person and animal here has a story. Take this mare, for instance.” He plucked a piece of hay from the rack and twirled it between his fingers. “Her name is Star Gazer. She's a registered Percheron mare and is from Gilbert Sutton's Farm. She used to belong to his daughter, Karina. She named her Star Gazer after her favorite pastime.”

At the mention of the Sutton name, Jordan's ears perked up. “Wasn't his son one of the boys who caused the accident with you and Brother Fisher?” she asked.

Jacob nodded.

At the moment, Jordan didn't like Gilbert Sutton very much. She stared at the large black mare with the white star and frowned. “This horse is beautiful. Why would anyone want to get rid of her?”

“I'm not sure. They say she used to be one of Sutton's best skidding mares.”

“What's a skidding mare?” Jordan asked, sure that the question would just make her seem even more ignorant.

Jacob didn't seem to find anything wrong with the question. “Around here we have a log-pulling contest at the fair every year. They call it
skidding
. You hook up a team of horses and pull a set of logs through some obstacles without touching or moving any of them. It's a timed event. Gilbert Sutton has won it the past four years in a row. He's pretty proud of that.”

“Did Star Gazer ever win one of those contests for Mr. Sutton?” Jordan asked.

Jacob thought for a few seconds before answering. “I believe she did. But when Karina went away to school a few years ago, the mare missed her so much that she lost all interest in pulling.”

“That's so sad,” Jordan said. “Star Gazer must have really loved her owner. She's missing her best friend.” She felt her throat tighten and quickly pushed those sad thoughts aside.

Jacob nodded. “I know. Animals have feelings, too. Once Star gave up on pulling loads, Mr. Sutton didn't have any use for her. He's got a lot of really good brood mares already, so he shipped her off to auction.”

“He just threw her away?” Jordan was appalled. Her heart ached for the abandoned mare. No wonder she had felt drawn to her. “Who would get rid of such a beautiful animal? Couldn't Mr. Sutton find some other use for her?”

“That wasn't the only problem,” Jacob said. “This mare is lame in her front feet. My dad looked at her, though, and he couldn't find anything wrong other than some problems with her hooves. They're really short and badly chipped. Dad said that might be why Mr. Sutton is unloading such a nice mare.”

“How much will a horse like this bring at auction?” Jordan asked.

“It's hard to predict,” Jacob answered. “But I'd say she should bring somewhere around eighteen hundred dollars. It all depends on who's here and how badly they want the animal.”

Star Gazer took several more gimpy steps and stuck her head over the door, pushing her nose at Jordan again. Jordan felt the velvety softness of her muzzle and laid her cheek against the side of the mare's head. Star smelled of hay and horse and long rides across the fields on a warm summer day.

Jordan sighed. It would be a dream come true to own this horse. If only Mr. Sutton had waited a few more months to send her here. If she'd had time to save more money, maybe she could have talked her mother into letting her buy the big draft horse. But for now, she was just here for…chickens. “I hope someone nice will buy her,” Jordan said, her heart squeezing at the thought of not being able to take this magnificent creature home with her.

Jacob's brow furrowed. “I doubt it. Not with the packers here,” he added as if he expected Jordan to know what that meant.

“Packers?” she asked.

Jacob's eyes widened in surprise. “You don't know about the packers?”

Jordan shook her head.

“Never mind then. Forget I said anything.” He turned and walked down the barn aisle. “Enjoy the auction. I'll talk to you later.”

Jordan frowned. He sure had cut the conversation short. Why would…? Suddenly, she understood. “Wait a second,” she said, running down the aisle after Jacob. She grabbed his sleeve before he could get away. Jacob wouldn't look her in the eye, and Jordan knew her suspicions were right. “She's going to be sold to a place that will put her in a dog food can, isn't she?”

Jacob nodded. “Probably, but you never know, someone might buy her for a pet.”

Jordan felt sick. “How can they let those buyers come in here?”

Jacob shrugged. “We can't keep them from coming to the auction. They get to bid just like everyone else. I know it seems like a bad thing to a lot of people. But if an animal is too old, or sick, or broken down, there's not a whole lot you can do. It's sad, but it's a fact of life.”

“But what about the ones that are fine and healthy?” Jordan shoved her hands into her pockets and kicked at the ground, sure that she wasn't going to like the answer to her question. “They can buy healthy animals, too?”

“Yeah,” Jacob nodded. “That's the part I don't like. If there's no one in the audience willing to outbid the packers and buy a healthy horse, then the unlucky animal will go to the same place as the sick or injured ones.” He patted Star on the neck. “Let's just hope there's someone here who wants to buy her and take her home to spoil her.”

Jordan's shoulders slumped. She wished
she
could be the one to buy the mare. When she looked into the gentle brown eyes of the beautiful draft horse, she felt like crying. She reached out and straightened the horse's long forelock. Star Gazer needed rescuing, but there wasn't a thing she could do to help.

six

“There you are,” Nicole said, making her way down the barn aisle toward Jordan. “And I see you found Jacob.” She pointed toward a stall at the end of the row, where he stood helping a customer.

“You
knew
he worked here and you didn't tell me?” Jordan squeaked.

“I wanted it to be a surprise.” Nicole tossed her hands in the air and shouted,
“Surprise!”
She hiked her purse onto her shoulder and smirked. “I hope you two had a nice little conversation.”

“Ugh!” Jordan smacked her palm to her forehead. “Jacob caught me in a stall with a horse.”

“Which stall? Which horse?” Nicole asked, amused at the situation even though Jordan looked like she wanted to crawl into a feed bin.

Just then, Star poked her head over the stall door and nuzzled Jordan's hair.

Nicole jumped. “Oh, my, I didn't see you!” she told the horse, then turned to Jordan. “You mean
this
horse?
Right here?
With the big Do Not Enter sign over its head?”

Jordan nodded as she stroked the draft horse's neck. “That would be the one,” she said sheepishly.

“Well, they haven't booted you out yet, so I guess you're probably okay,” Nicole said. “And…you got to see Jacob again.”

Star Gazer nuzzled Jordan once more and she happily turned her attention from the embarrassing encounter with Jacob back to the horse. “Isn't she beautiful?” Jordan brushed her hair back into place. “Her name is Star Gazer.”

She waved the flies off the horse's face. “Jacob said she came from the Sutton farm. Mr. Sutton didn't want her anymore, so he just threw her away.” She stared into the mare's eyes, her heart aching for the big black mare. “I wish I could buy her, but Jacob says she'd probably go for around eighteen hundred dollars. I just wish I'd had another year to save up.”

“She is pretty…in a big, clunky sort of way,” Nicole said. “But what would you do with her? You don't have any harness or a cart or wagon. If this mare came off the Sutton place, she's a pulling horse.”

“I could ride her,” Jordan said, looking up at the height of the mare's back. Dakota would seem like a pony beside her.

Nicole started to laugh, but changed her mind when she saw that Jordan was serious. She came closer, standing next to the horse. The draft mare towered over them. “That's a long way up there, pal. Won't that be scary being so far off the ground?”

Jordan thought about it. She hadn't had that many riding lessons, and the horses she'd ridden had all been fairly short. Maybe her friend had a point. “I'd find some good use for her,” she said, defending herself. “She deserves better than being hauled to the auction just because someone didn't want her anymore.” She stood silent for a moment, listening to Star Gazer's steady breaths. “Jacob says the packers might buy her.”

Nicole stared at Jordan in disbelief. “Are you sure? My dad said he'd heard a rumor that the packers had a guy who bought stock at this auction. He said the guy doesn't always buy just the sick or injured ones either. I didn't believe it.”