“She’s a top runner for a position, although I get the impression Kehoe is looking for any excuse to push her down lower on the list.”
Dylan shook his head. “I wish I got him. He’s always performed at the highest level, for Alan and for us, but he’s . . .”
“Got his own agenda. And he’s not an easy man to warm up to,” Sidney finished for him. “I remember Alan was ambivalent about Kehoe, but his work was always top notch. It was Lynn who admired what he’d done with the camp so much. You know the camp was always her baby. She and Kehoe collaborated on it a great deal to make it what it is today: a valuable program that demonstrates every aspect of Durand’s philosophy while seamlessly benefitting children at the same time. I think if it weren’t for Lynn valuing Kehoe so much, Alan might have shifted Kehoe to some foreign office years back.”
“I didn’t know Alan wasn’t particularly fond of him,” Dylan said. Or that Lynn was. The sound of the hand dryer going on in the bathroom down the hall distracted him. He turned toward the door.
“She’s shaken some by having the testing done today, Dylan,” Sidney said quietly. “It hasn’t defeated her, though. I’m beginning to wonder what would. You’re going to have to tell her how Lynn died eventually.”
He pressed his mouth together, unwilling to promise the psychiatrist anything yet. Alice was his sole guide in this, not Sidney.
“DID you plan ahead for us to ride at Riley Stables this evening?” Alice asked him in amazement ten minutes later. They were flying down the rural route that followed the Lake Michigan shoreline, Dylan at the wheel. He’d just told her they were going to ride and then have dinner.
“I did. I have some clothes for us to change into in the trunk. You seemed a lot more comfortable on Kar Kalim yesterday morning, so I thought the time might be right for another lesson.”
He referred to the fact that after she’d dodged her follower and they’d had that impulsive, scorching tryst in the woods, he’d taken her back to the stables on his horse.
“I was too busy thinking about other things to be nervous,” she said wryly. “But I was more relaxed than I was with Quinn. Kar Kalim is an amazing horse.”
“So you don’t mind?”
“No,” she said honestly. “It sounds nice.”
In fact, it had been a unique and wonderful experience for her last Saturday, to go to the stables and their special dinner, to escape for a period of time from the shadows and mysteries of Castle Durand . . . to share stolen moments with Dylan. It’d felt as if an entire new aspect of her personality had flowered, being with him on that sunny day and romantic, star-filled night. The Durand home and grounds drew her in so many ways, but there was a darkness to it, too, an oppression that felt so hard for her to shake at times.
Presently, sunshine filled the sedan and glowed all around them like a warm embrace. Dylan looked so handsome and in control behind the wheel of the luxury sedan, his suit jacket in the backseat and his tie loosened. She felt happy. The moment of existential angst she’d experienced at the hospital had entirely faded, thank God. Dylan was right. They just needed to deal with things one moment at a time.
He glanced over at her and did a double take.
“Why are you smiling?” he asked, his mouth twitching.
“I’m just glad you planned this. That’s all.”
He arched his brows, staring at the road again. “Then I’m glad. I was worried about you, back there at the hospital.”
“I’m fine,” she assured. She was starting to feel like a tape recording, saying that over and over again.
He gave her a quick smile that went all the way to his eyes, and Alice experienced a rush of relief. He wasn’t going to push her into talking about what had happened at the hospital. Not now, he wasn’t.
“Do you want to try riding on your own this time?” he asked her.
“Do you think I’m ready for that?”
“With the right mount, I think you were born ready.”
OF course, Dylan had already discussed with Kevin Riley, the owner of Riley Stables, what he considered to be the right mount for Alice. After they’d changed into riding clothes, Dylan and Kevin introduced Alice to the horse. She was a beautiful gentle mare with a glossy mahogany coat and liquid brown eyes. She was much smaller and more delicate than Quinn or Kar Kalim, which Alice appreciated. Her fear of heights and falling had not disappeared by any means, and she doubted it ever would entirely—especially now that she knew the original cause of her phobia. But the pretty mare was a lot less intimidating than either Quinn or Kar Kalim.
For Alice, it was love at first sight. Her name was Shenandoah, but Kevin called her Doah for short. Alice did, too, as she petted and murmured nonsense to the patient, appreciative mare.
“I guess you know how to pick them,” Kevin told Dylan with a knowing grin before he left them to their ride.
When she first mounted alone, she had her misgivings about whether or not this was a good idea. True, Doah was a good deal closer to the ground than Quinn or Kar Kalim had been, but there was no Dylan holding her securely from behind, either.
Certainly there were no moments of Dylan providing her with mindless ecstasy to erase her anxiety, either.
He was right there, though, at first guiding Doah and Alice on the lunge line. They stayed within the confines of the large enclosure at first, Alice and Doah making circles around Dylan as he held on to the lunge and patiently instructed her on riding basics. Alice’s nervousness faded by degrees, replaced at first by cautious optimism and, slowly, by the thrill of mastering a new task. Doah was extremely well trained and exquisitely sensitive to even her subtlest commands.
Finally, Dylan said he thought she was ready to take an easy ride on the path that led along the lakefront. He alighted on his chosen mount, a big chestnut stallion with fire in his eyes, and they headed at a slow pace toward the golden lake.