The Ties That Bind

Robert had tried one more with the cherry jelly and had declared himself done. One by one they all tossed their sticks into the fire. Robert settled back in his chair feeling satisfactorily full. He felt peaceful tonight. Kate settled back in beside him and took his hand, looking up at the stars feeling peaceful.

"It just doesn't get any better than this," she sighed.

"Nope," he agreed. "I wish I had a sickle for every night we've spent like this."

"We're one of the few people who probably do, my dear," she laughed.

Brian leaned back and closed his eyes. He was tired tonight. The stars were gorgeous, he gave them that. But he was too tired to really enjoy them. Not tonight. Khaat could see it on his face. A good nights sleep would make him feel like a new man. Khaat wasn't quite so tired, but then again, she hadn't had exactly the same sort of stress the wore on him.

"Tired?" she asked him quietly.

"Yes," he confessed.

"Why don't you go to bed? Turn in early. It really isn't disrespectably late."

"Maybe," he said. "Maybe I'll go set up a room the girls and then put them to bed," he sighed. "Before I fal asleep." He got up and excused himself. He went inside , picked up the baby bag and went upstairs to set up a room.

"He'll be himself in the morning," Khaat said to eveyone else. "He's just more tired than he knows."

steven chuckled and nodded " I think we all are after Angus's wonderful cooking " he said and gave a yawn himself " well im going to take a stroll around the grounds before I turn in for the night " he said and aperated down to the barn below.

Jack chuckled and held jess closer to him and sighed " they have the right idea , I mean about this place and night being perfect " he said softly to her he felt her head move to rest against his chest and smiled as he held her there loving the cool night air and quite sounds around them " is it always this quiet around here?" he asked looking at Khaat as he spoke .

Jess chuckled and moved closer to him her mind on her children who were with his mother she liked this place and hoped one day she could bring them to see it. She felt the cool breeze against ehr face and sighed thinking why could they not have come here months ago . Her mamories now faded and her thought under control again thanks to jefery but she could not help wonder what she would have become if she had not gone to him. Would she have become a monster lossing all that she cared about in that one instant. She gave a sigh and got comfortable against jack the smell of his aftershave lulling her into her peaceful place again.

"I don't know," Khaat said. "I haven't been to this estate before either. I do know that our place back home is usually this quiet. And it does become a blessing. Especially after a long day at work. Thats when I value it most of all. Oh, and I promised that horse I would take him out for a walk. Maybe I'll still do that."

"Tonight?" Robert frowned.

"Yeah."

"Be very careful if you do, "he said. "Its not a good idea."

"I am always careful, Daddy," Khaat smiled, excusing herself and apparating out.

"Sure you are," Robert sighed unhappily. "Why do I have a nagging feeling that this is not going to go so well?"

"Because it generally isn't a good thing to ride at night?" Kate sighed. "I think I'll stay up til she returns."

"Me too," Robert said.

steven was down at the stables checking on the foal and its mother he heard movment and walked over to where it was " Khaat?" he said in suprize " what are you doing down here?" he asked as he walked back to the mother horse stroking her neck as she took out an apple he had taken from off the table and offered it to the horse who ate it hungrly the foal nuzzaling for its feed of milk from its mother. Steven smiled as it filay started to feed " looks like they both might be ok " he said looking at Khaat " you want me to come with you I could use the extra riding practice its been a while since i was on a horse " he said moving to a palamino horse who picked up its bridal in its teeth making him laugh " well looks like this one wants to be ridden , if thats ok with you " he took the bridel and placed it over the horse's head then lead it out tying it to a post he saddled him making sure the strapps were not too tight so to chaff the horse as they rode them.

He held the horse and lead him out side " of cousre I could just go for a ride by my self but then I would not be doing my job " he said and looked at her. Inside he hated the idea of her going alone but didn't want to push her into thinking he was only her bodyguard , nope he was her freind too and knew all too well what dangers could arise out riding alone and at night and he didn't want that to happen not to her.

"Sure," Khaat said, "That would be fine." She tossed a blanket on the black stallion, picked up a saddle, tossed it on the horse, cinched it around the horse, and put a bridle on the horse. She double checked it and all appeared to be well. She was pleased that she could still wrestle the weight of saddle. Brian's training was paying off.

She led the horse out of the stables and mounted it easily. "Well," she said, "I think I'm ready. You?" She felt the host pull at the reigns, eager to go and to run. "Whoa, Boy," she said, petting him. "He wants to run. I can feel it. He just hasn't been run in so long that he's just dying to run. I feel sorry for how long it must have been for him to stretch his legs."

She restrained him and made him start at a slow walk. She wasn't going to start him at a run, no matter how much he wanted to. She wanted him to warm up. "He is not going to start this workout in overdrive. I refuse," she told Steven.

Steven mounted his own horse and cantered next to her as they moved " good choice he might hurt his legs if he sprinted with out warming up " he said and pulled back his own from doing the same " its anice place this estate " i was thinking of bring Delilah and the kids out here some time , you know once its all safe for them to be out here" he said and watched how her horse moved " yeah hes an impatiant one, but some times we need to run free for a bit, you know just to let things go " he said and jeed on his horse to run as fast as it could he pulled the rains back and turned him so he faced her smiling " it clears out the cobwebs, sit around and you become stuffy and a couch potatoe " he said and grinned as he reared his horse its whinniy braking the silance of the night " its great to be back on a horse " he said and laughed a little.

Waiting for her he smiled as he saw her draw cloer to her. He didn't know if it was from just being cramped up but he felt great out in the fresh air on horse back " I use to ride horses on my rance when i was small my father would take me camping I loved hearing the old tales he would spin " he said grinning as he waited for her to join him. He patted the horse who moved inpatianly under him " wow its ok I know you love to run but we have to stay with Khaat too " he saod softly and the hourse stood still its ears moving to pick up any sounds it could other than the ones the second horse made.

Khaat's horse only put up with so much of Khaat holding him back. Then he became disobedient and took off like he'd been shot out of a gun. A lesser rider might have been frightened and miffed, but Khaat simply decided to let him run and get it out of his system. She shifted easily in order to accomodate her horse's change of pace.

""He has a mind of his own," Khaat shouted as they passed Steven. "Sorry about that." She wasn't really worried whether Steven could keep up, except that Khaat's horse was a bit bigger and his strides were huge and long. Steven's horse would have to run a bit harder to keep up with the enormous black stallion she was on. She was beginning to wonder of the horse had sired a cold that would be just as big as this one was.

The horse dashed off the trail when the trail curved and kept running in a straight line, right through a small woods. The next thing she knew, something crashed hard down on her head and she fell hard onto the ground as her horse gallopped off into the darkness. Her vision went black for a moment, and when she looked up, the black horse and disappeared into the black of the night.

"Damn," she cursed softly, her head pounding. She laid her hand to her head and found a goosegg already forming, and blood on her hand. "Well, that'll be pretty in the morning," she sighed. She looked to see what she had hit her head on. She looked up, and saw she had not seen a low hanging treebranch in the dark of night at the speed she was riding. "What an idiot," she cursed herself. "Just one more thing Daddy will never let me live down." And besides that, she'd lost Brian's horse. She didn't know if he would ever come back.

Steven saw Khaats horse taking of shouting as he passed 'freedom!!' to steven . sighing he turned his own galloping hard after her he heard a hard thump ahead of him and pushed his horse harder till he saw a figure laid on the ground in the middle of the trail, his horse pulled up and stood obidiantly still while he jumped off to kneel down he took out his hank and water bottle he ahd clasped to his hip and dampened it down with the ice cold water " this should stop some of the swelling " he said and placed it on her head " can you stand ?" he asked quite prepered to carry her to the horse if he had to. Then he shook his head " dumb question for some one with ahead wound. " he said and gently scooped her up in his arms. Lifting her on to the horse he turned his back to her anf gave a loud whistle he did it twice and looked around " he'll come back in his own time when hes hungry , we'll leave the side door open and check in the morning " he said loking up at her.

"Brian and Daddy are never going to let me live this down. I really do ride better than that," she sighed. "Its my own fault. He just took off on a run and I decided to just let him. First mistake. The second mistake was not anticipating that he might not keep to the trail. He was in too big of a hurry. I should have slowed him down. Thanks. I'm glad you were here tonight. But are you sure we should leave the side door open? Kieran mentioned to me he's been having a lot of coyotes on the place. They could certainly make a lot of trouble in the stables. And our horses could not fight back. Not as weak as they are. Maybe I'll let Daddy patch me back up and then go back out and look for him. I dont' know. I do feel like I need to redeem myself."

She began to plan in her head how to get around the estate at night. Map. Wand. Lumos spell. Rope. Hm. Sugar cubes or carrots. One or the other. Maybe a jacket. The longer the night got, the more cold it would get up here in the mountains. Part of her problem was that Brian had not showed her much at all of the grounds. She had the map , but she hadn't actually seen much except the house and the stables. The rest was completely new for her.

Steven chuckled " no problems and he was in to much of a hurry " when she mentioned about the cyotes he looked seriose as he lead the horse back to the stable ." hum he never mentioned anything like that to me, but ok may be not leave the door open, the paddock is open so if he comes back he can stay there till morning, I'll leave a bail of hay and some food out for him. " he looked at her and shook his head seeing the look on her face as they walked " hes probably long ways away from here, best let him calm down and get it out of his system, then he'll come back." he said " and don't worry, i did the same once, he threw me , think i was twelve at the time and he broke my arm " he chuckled " that horse was my best freind after that, if its any consolation you did well hanging on for as long as you did " he smiled thinking of the tan and black palamino he 'd had all those years ago " well if your up to it tomorrow, i could take you around and show you all the paths jack and I have found here , some are beautiful, did you know just over there is a water fall and the spray makes rainbows all day" he said chukaling as the stable loombed on the horizon there in the paddock walking around was the black horse loking proud of its self " great he came back on his own" he said and looked at her " guess hes feeling guilty for throwing you" he said and looked up at Khaat " hows the head ?" he asked.