night, and by morning the air was crisper than I wanted the horses to be in all day.
I was able to move them over to the other barns. Circle Q didn’t need three barns these days.
The truck arrived at 8:00 A.M. sharp to dispose of the horse, so Julie and I were in the barn with high-power hoses and buckets of bleach water before Katie was at school. She had a fund-raiser meeting in the morning and was going to be grading papers in the afternoon.
She’s been a trooper once I explained how things went down. She was safer with me away from her at the moment, and, until we got the magic cleared from the barn, I didn’t want to risk her showing up here and being influenced by any residue.
She agreed to come out to Circle Q for dinner. Mary was delighted. Five women around the dinner table should shake any of the negative energy that lingered after we cleaned things up.
We took our time in the barn, making sure to scrub every nook and cranny. Even if we couldn’t see anything foul. With the hidden runes and pain writing, I didn’t want to take any chances we missed something else.
While we were on our hands and knees scrubbing with good, stiff brushes, Julie began to open up about some plans.
“I’m thinking about working for Mary some,” she said, wiping the sweat off her forehead with the back of her wrist. “She needs the help, and I need a good launching pad.”
I let her talk, nodding and grunting where appropriate, but I wanted her to talk it out.
“I had the idea,” she went on, watching me like I was gonna shy away or something. “What if we took the regular customer list and split it, giving you the lion’s share of solo work.”
I started to protest, but caught myself. If she saw me flinch, she didn’t let on. She’d built this business, damn it. It was her client list, her sweat and tears.
“You and I can work the bigger farms, do the big work together, but if you take all the little places, the ones you already know, it will give me time to work on the ranch here. I already know I can’t rebuild on my land until the fireweed we planted has a couple of years to grow and leach away the dragon taint.”
“That’s true,” I interjected. Wanted her to know I was paying attention.
“Besides,” she said, sitting back on her haunches and looking at me. “You’re damn good at farrier work. And we both know you could use the money.”
I nodded, pleased with the compliment. “Thanks.”
“I’ve been thinking on it. Maybe I’ll get a couple of horses. Do some riding again. I used to ride all the time as a kid. That’s why I got into the farrier gig, you know.”
I smiled, making sure to keep scrubbing. She rarely talked about her childhood in Texas.
“My old man kept a couple hundred head of cattle as a hobby,” she went on. “But really he worked as a geologist for the oil companies.”
I wondered how she got on with her old man. She never gave any indication she had trouble of any kind, but sometimes benign neglect is just as painful in the long run.
“I assume you’ve talked to Mary about this?”
She nodded. “Some of this came from her, sure. I’ve been thinking I needed to get back on my feet for a while now. Mary just gave me a good excuse to quit stalling. And this.” She waved her brush through the air, taking in the entirety of the stall, barn, whole dragon-infested world. “We need to band together against the crazy bastards.”
“Amen,” I said, slopping my brush into the bucket of sudsy water. I stood up, stretching my back and rubbing my knees. “Sounds like a good plan.”
She stood as well, leaning against the wall, but doing a damn sight better than I’d figured she’d do. The femur break and muscle trauma from where the giants had tortured her had me worried, but she was a fighter. Her physical therapist said she was stubborn as a mule and strong as an ox.
And she thought she was going soft.
“Reminds me,” I said, picking up the bucket to pour
I was able to move them over to the other barns. Circle Q didn’t need three barns these days.
The truck arrived at 8:00 A.M. sharp to dispose of the horse, so Julie and I were in the barn with high-power hoses and buckets of bleach water before Katie was at school. She had a fund-raiser meeting in the morning and was going to be grading papers in the afternoon.
She’s been a trooper once I explained how things went down. She was safer with me away from her at the moment, and, until we got the magic cleared from the barn, I didn’t want to risk her showing up here and being influenced by any residue.
She agreed to come out to Circle Q for dinner. Mary was delighted. Five women around the dinner table should shake any of the negative energy that lingered after we cleaned things up.
We took our time in the barn, making sure to scrub every nook and cranny. Even if we couldn’t see anything foul. With the hidden runes and pain writing, I didn’t want to take any chances we missed something else.
While we were on our hands and knees scrubbing with good, stiff brushes, Julie began to open up about some plans.
“I’m thinking about working for Mary some,” she said, wiping the sweat off her forehead with the back of her wrist. “She needs the help, and I need a good launching pad.”
I let her talk, nodding and grunting where appropriate, but I wanted her to talk it out.
“I had the idea,” she went on, watching me like I was gonna shy away or something. “What if we took the regular customer list and split it, giving you the lion’s share of solo work.”
I started to protest, but caught myself. If she saw me flinch, she didn’t let on. She’d built this business, damn it. It was her client list, her sweat and tears.
“You and I can work the bigger farms, do the big work together, but if you take all the little places, the ones you already know, it will give me time to work on the ranch here. I already know I can’t rebuild on my land until the fireweed we planted has a couple of years to grow and leach away the dragon taint.”
“That’s true,” I interjected. Wanted her to know I was paying attention.
“Besides,” she said, sitting back on her haunches and looking at me. “You’re damn good at farrier work. And we both know you could use the money.”
I nodded, pleased with the compliment. “Thanks.”
“I’ve been thinking on it. Maybe I’ll get a couple of horses. Do some riding again. I used to ride all the time as a kid. That’s why I got into the farrier gig, you know.”
I smiled, making sure to keep scrubbing. She rarely talked about her childhood in Texas.
“My old man kept a couple hundred head of cattle as a hobby,” she went on. “But really he worked as a geologist for the oil companies.”
I wondered how she got on with her old man. She never gave any indication she had trouble of any kind, but sometimes benign neglect is just as painful in the long run.
“I assume you’ve talked to Mary about this?”
She nodded. “Some of this came from her, sure. I’ve been thinking I needed to get back on my feet for a while now. Mary just gave me a good excuse to quit stalling. And this.” She waved her brush through the air, taking in the entirety of the stall, barn, whole dragon-infested world. “We need to band together against the crazy bastards.”
“Amen,” I said, slopping my brush into the bucket of sudsy water. I stood up, stretching my back and rubbing my knees. “Sounds like a good plan.”
She stood as well, leaning against the wall, but doing a damn sight better than I’d figured she’d do. The femur break and muscle trauma from where the giants had tortured her had me worried, but she was a fighter. Her physical therapist said she was stubborn as a mule and strong as an ox.
And she thought she was going soft.
“Reminds me,” I said, picking up the bucket to pour
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