to give meaning to the moves, but it was nothing but noise to Aaron’s ears.
Such a beautiful horse needed no additional story to be admired. The rider’s overdone gown and abundance of hair detracted from the beauty as far as Aaron was concerned. They were a distraction he narrowed his eyes to remove.
Though he wouldn’t discount the lady’s skill in being able to stay atop the horse’s back, he could see no signal from the rider to guide the horse. Likely the animal had been taught the routine by someone else and performed it so often that it would go through the motions, rider or no.
Murmurs of delight swelled through the crowd as the white horse knelt and the faerie dismounted to bestow a rose upon one of the boys crowded close to the fence. She climbed back on the horse, and the pair departed while the storyteller crossed in front of the crowd with a basket on a stick, collecting coins from the awed observers.
Aaron stepped away. There would be more shows today, perhaps even two or three. Well-trained horses and skilled riders should be rewarded, but he wanted to see the entire show before depositing his coins.
In the meantime, there were plenty of stalls in which he could have horse-related conversations and seek out someone ready to be molded into an excellent jockey, or at least an adequate one.
His hopes faded as he finished perusing the second full row of stalls without a single prospect. He’d circled back to the performance area, so he secured a position near the front but far to the right. Tales of the faerie queen must have spread, because several boys were already clustered near the center of the fence.
Though the traveling group had likely been here for days, it still drew a large crowd, and Aaron’s expectations grew. He glanced over the variety of people, stopping on a little boy edging his way into the crowd at the opposite end of the fence from Aaron.
Aaron had been that little boy staying carefully out of everyone’s way. Before his father had swooped in with a sense of responsibility and sent Aaron off to school, there’d been no fancy clothes or quality horseflesh. Aaron’s admiration for the animals had been fed by traveling shows such as this one.
They’d been his escape.
The performers didn’t care if he’d ruined his mother’s life or his father considered him the embodiment of sin’s consequences. They didn’t call him names or pretend he didn’t exist. They gave him the same show they gave everyone else.
Aaron took note of the boy’s height and what he was wearing so he could find him after the show and create some sort of errand that would earn the boy a coin.
The show began, and Aaron frowned. It was obvious why the faerie queen came out last, despite the uninspiring story supposedly being all about her. Other riders, dressed as wood nymphs and sitting atop brown horses, did little more than avoid falling, confirming his suspicions that the horse trainer should be receiving the applause. To the untrained eye, the display was fabulous, but even though Aaron hadn’t a clue how to make a horse walk with his forelegs high and stiff, he knew what it looked like to give a horse a command.
A few acrobats were mingled into the show, but soon the faerie queen made her entrance, eventually reaching the point where he’d begun watching the first time.
The horse paused for the others to clear the area, then, instead of moving forward, reared up until it was standing tall on its back legs. The crowd gasped and cheered while Aaron’s gaze flew to the rider’s face. A grim frown flashed across her mouth and then the horse was back on the ground. Moments later, the routine continued as if nothing had happened.
Obviously, the faerie’s skills far surpassed those of the other performers. Still, she had to be relying on the horse’s knowledge of the routine, considering she often knelt upon the horse’s back, with one leg draping down the animal’s side.
Was the trainer here? Perhaps behind the wall that had been erected as a backdrop for the performance? Aaron wanted to meet him. Had he trained the horses with a firm, caring hand instead of fear and pain? Was he short in stature himself, allowing him to easily train horses for female riders?
Perhaps God had a miracle for Aaron after all.
Once more the horse knelt and the faerie queen dismounted. The cluster