Rocky Mountain Bride (Rocky Mountain Bride Series Book 2) by Lee Savino Page B

couldn’t help but feel safe in his arms. True, her bottom was screaming in pain, but she felt she’d deserved her punishment and weathered it.
    “Do you forgive me, Miles?” she asked.
    “I do, sweet wife.”
    “Good. I want to be the best wife I can be for you.”
    He kissed her head again, his lips lingering. “I know. You already are.”
    She felt confused by his words, and wanted to ask him, but he laid her down in the bed and climbed in after her. Tucked under his chin, with his arm at her waist, she fell asleep.
     
    *****
     
    For the next few days Miles worked long hours in the fields, preparing to move the cattle and horses to their winter pastures. Carrie took over as many duties at the homestead, talking Miles into letting her feed the horses. He made a makeshift wagon she could pull with the grain and hay bales. Her dresses loosened as her body grew lean and strong.
    One afternoon, she fed Belle and noticed the mare was chuffing and pawing the ground. Worried, Carrie watched Belle pace, stopping to flick her tail and kick at her abdomen. A milky substance oozed from Belle’s teats.
    She was about to foal. Picking up her skirts, Carrie raced west, over the stream and through the thin copse, arriving at the western pasture just in time to remember that Miles had taken them all to the winter pasture. He could be a few miles away with the cattle, riding Monty. On foot, she’d never reach him in time.
    A rough whinny broke her thoughts, and she whirled to see Lightning. The big stallion still had a pen to himself while Miles worked on training him.
    She approached the white horse’s pen slowly. When the stallion raised his head and sniffed at her, she held out her hands like Miles. “Steady boy, I just need a ride.” The horse nibbled at her fingers, looking for treats, and she bent and pulled up some clover for him. As she fed him, she stroked his beautiful nose. He seemed much calmer now.
    “All right, boy,” she said, opening the gate. The horses’ ears twitched forward as she called to him. “Come on. We need to hurry and tell Miles, Belle is about to drop her foal.”
    The horse took a step forward, and she beckoned eagerly. Then, with a cry, the stallion rushed the gate. Carrie stepped aside just in time for the big body to avoid knocking her down. She fell down in the muddy grass, arms over her head as Lightning kicked out his back legs.
    “Oh no.” She scrambled to her feet as the horse went galloping towards the next hill to the west, and the open plain beyond. She ran after him, lungs burning, but unwilling to let him crest the hill, and drop out of sight.
    Just as Lightning reached the top of the hill, a rider appeared from the right, riding hard. Miles leaned over Monty’s sleek body, moving as if he and the horse were one. The bay and stallion disappeared over the crest.
    Carrie swallowed her shout and followed. She ran up the hill, just in time to see Miles close the distance to the white horse streaking across the plain. Monty drew abreast with the stallion, and quicker than she could guess, Miles sat up straight in the stirrups, arm waving a lasso high over his head. The rope flew from his hands and settled around Lightning’s neck, and Monty immediately shied to the right, pulling the stallion off his course. Within seconds, horse and rider had slowed to a trot, and Lighting turned obediently back to his pen.
    Watching on the hill, Carrie felt like cheering before she remembered what she had done. She turned and ran back to the pen herself, arriving just before the horses.
    Miles looked furious, and she gulped, wondering what awful price she’d pay for disobedience.
    “Stand back from the gate,” he said in a voice like thunder, and she jumped back with a squeak.
    She waited, staring at the ground until two pointed boot toes came into her sights. Miles took her arm and led her over to the stump she remembered from earlier.
    “Bend over, hands on the stump.”
    She