“I can’t be calm about it. I don’t know how you can be.”
“Because I looked in his eyes today, closer than you are now to me. I felt his hands burning cold on me. And it wasn’t fear running through me. It has been; there’s been fear mixed in, even with the power so full and bright. But not today. We’re stronger, each one of us alone, stronger than he is, even with what’s in him. And together? We’re his holocaust.”
He skirted the counter, laid his hands on her shoulders again. Gently now. “We must stop him this time, Branna, whatever it takes.”
“And I believe we will.”
Whatever it takes, he thought again, and brushed his lips to her brow. “I need to keep you from harm.”
“Do you think I need protect
ion, Fin?”
“I don’t, no, but that doesn’t mean I won’t give it. It doesn’t mean I don’t need to give it.”
He kissed her brow again.
Whatever it takes.
• • •
HE HAD BUSINESSES TO RUN, AND THE WORK DIDN’T WAIT until it was convenient for him. Ledgers had to be balanced, calls had to be made or returned, and it seemed there was forever some legal document to read and sign.
He’d learned early that owning a successful business required more than the owning of it, and the dream. He could be grateful Boyle and Connor handled the day-to-day demands—and all the paperwork, time, and decision-making on the spot that engendered. But it didn’t leave him off the hook.
Even when he traveled, he stayed keyed in—via phone or Skype or email. But when he was home, he felt obliged to get his hands dirty. That held the pleasure of grooming horses as he prized that physical contact and mental bond. More than using a currycomb or hoof pick, the grooming or feeding or exercising gave him an insight into each horse.
Nor did he mind cleaning up for the birds at the school or spending time carefully drying wet feathers. He’d gained a great deal of satisfaction in having a hand training the younger ones, and had found himself bonding particularly with a female they’d named Sassy—as she was.
Though the days grew slowly longer, there rarely seemed enough hours in them to do all he wanted or needed to do. But he knew where he wanted to be, and that was home.
Nearly a year now, he thought as he stood with Connor in the school enclosure, kicking a blue ball for Romeo, their office manager’s very enthusiastic spaniel. The longest straight stretch for him since he’d been twenty.
Business and curiosity and the need for answers would call him away again, but no more, he hoped, for months at a time. For the first time since the mark had come on him, he felt home again.
“I’m thinking the winter, and the slower demand, makes the best time to experiment with the hawk rides we talked of before.”
“We’d offer something more than special to those who come here for some adventure.” Connor gave the ball a kick, sent the dog racing. “I’ve worked out the pricing on it, should we give it a go, and Boyle grumbled as he does so it seemed in line.”
“As do I. It’ll require a different waiver, and some adjustment on the insurance end of things, and I’ll see to that.”
“Happy not to pick up that torch.”
Fin took his turn to boot the ball. “The other end is scheduling, which I’ll leave to you and Boyle to coordinate. We’ve got Meara and yourself as experienced riders and hawkers, and Iona’s done well with the hawking.”
“And none better on a horse. So that gives us three who could take the point on a combination. You’d be four.”
Fin glanced over as Connor grinned at him. “I haven’t run a guided since . . . not since the first few months Boyle and I were getting it all off the ground.”
“Sure you could go out anytime, I’m certain, with one of the others, as a kind of apprentice.”
Connor set to kick, and for the hell of it Fin blocked, took the ball himself, added some footwork remembered from boyhood before he sent it flying.
“After a match then?” Connor asked.
“I’ll take you on when I’ve time, and that’ll be after I’ve done a draft of a new brochure for you and Boyle to have a look at. Meanwhile, you should have another who can hawk and ride and handle a small group—as I think we’d keep this combination, at least at the start to groups of six and under. Who strikes you?”
“I’ve some with more hawking experience, but I’d say our Brian. He’s the most eager to learn the new, try the different.”