Black Keys (The Colorblind Trilogy #1) - Rose B. Mashal Page 0,80

smiling and almost forgetting everything I was going through, while I watched the mother in amusement as she fed the two little ones and then helped them to stand up. They moved around her and she rubbed her head against their bodies and they did the same. Pure love. Pure love was shining out from the three of them; it was very touching and I couldn’t help myself as I stared and–loved.

“Can I touch them?” I asked in a quiet voice, not looking back at the prince. For the first time, I found myself wanting to touch a horse while knowing I could–unlike with Salma, that the prince had told me I couldn’t touch, and Thunder, that I was too afraid to touch. I still wanted to ask, since I had no idea whether or not it might offend his brother.

“Of course,” he said, “Just go slow with the twins.”

I nodded and moved to stand right beside them, then moved my hand slowly and carefully to touch them, one at a time. They were even softer than Thunder, and I felt like I could never get enough of touching them and enjoying their softness and their company.

One of them rubbed its forehead to my chest and my heart swelled just looking at the little foal. But then I felt the prince’s hand as it touched mine and I flinched. “Shhh,” he said before pushing on the back of my hand that he was touching, forcing my hand to push the little horse’s neck away from me.

“Hey!” I protested, frowning. “Why did you do that?” I asked, so scared that the push had hurt the little creature.

“You have to show them you’re in control, or they’ll demand more playing time, and then they’ll be upset when you don’t have it. Don’t worry, they are stronger than you think. I’ll have to teach you a thing or two about horses,” he told me, moving his hand away from mine.

I didn’t understand why I should show them I was in control or whatever, but I had to admit that I didn’t know anything about horses. I was surprised that I wanted to learn, just not knowing why I would need to at the same time.

I nodded again, still not looking at him.

“What are their names?” I asked.

“They are not named, yet.”

“Why not?” I wondered.

“They are waiting for you to name them,” he replied.

I turned my head to look at him. “Me? Why?”

“They are yours, Princess. My brother’s wedding gift for you.” He offered me a small smile.

“Oh, my God! Are you kidding?” I exclaimed, and he shook his head, smiling. “This is so wonderful!”

“They are the same as Salma’s species, purebred Arabian horses. They were born on the morning of the wedding, that’s why my brother said they’d be yours. He said the girls themselves wanted to be, since they arrived earlier than expected,” he smiled. “I just met them earlier when I was here for Salma.”

“They are only four days old?”

“Yes.”

“Wow!”

“He also said that it was a good sign, twins are very rare in horses, he said our marriage will be a very successful one,”

I didn’t know why he was telling me that, I believed in signs, but I didn’t believe in this one. Our marriage was never going to be anything like that. It was impossible.

“It’s so generous of your brother, I want to thank him,” I said, deciding to change the subject.

“Sure, you’re going to meet him next week anyway when you start working on things here,” he said, and I frowned, not replying. “I mean, your brother said you’ll be handling things from now on instead of him. I understand if it’s not your wish now but…” he paused. “Whatever you want, Princess, we’ll figure out something.”

I nodded, looking away from him.

I just want to go home…

I watched the twin foals for a few more minutes, closed my eyes for a moment and opened them again with a sigh before I said the next words, “Hope and Faith.”

“Beautiful names, Beautiful Princess.”

“Wait,” I said to the prince once again when we made it to the garden where the opening to the tunnel was. I bent down in front of the bed of red flowers that circled the garden with other yellow ones, then I picked a dozen of the red ones. They weren’t so easy to pick but I managed, all the while feeling the prince’s eyes on me.

When we made it to the door of the tunnel, the prince