proudly on a horse, looking down at him, and loosely holding the reins of a second horse beside her. She looked down at Sam, expressionless. She wasn’t smiling.
But then again, she was looking at him.
Despite himself, he found himself approaching her.
“What are you doing here?” he asked her.
“I’m going for a ride,” she said. “Women are not al owed to ride around here. At least not the way I would like to ride.
So I take my horse of sight from the others.”
Sam looked over and saw the vacant horse beside her, and saw her stil staring at him. He couldn’t figure out her expression; she was just too hard to read. Was she inviting him to join her?
Or was she waiting for him to walk away, to leave her alone? And if so, who was the second horse for?
“I hope I’m not intruding,” Sam said, trying to figure it out. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“I’m never startled,” Kendra said. She stared at him, then looked away, as if watching something on the horizon.
“I’m going for my afternoon ride,” she announced, then suddenly turned her back, and began walking away on her horse. She dropped the reins of the other horse. “You can join me—that is, if you’re unafraid,” she added, her back to him as she rode off into the woods.
Sam looked at the vacant horse, and he could not believe it. Had she just invited him to join her?
Was it a date? She sure had a funny way of asking. Maybe she was just too proud, too embarrassed to real y ask him.
Whatever it was, he didn’t want to miss his chance. Despite his new resolve, when he was actual y in her presence, al his resolve went out the window. He had to be with her. It was a physical thing, something he could not stop if he chose.
He hurried up to the horse, jumped on, and kicked it, so that it was trotting after her. Within seconds, he caught up.
She broke into a trot, and moments later, the two of them were trotting through a broad, winding forest trail.
*
It felt like they had been riding for hours when Kendra final y stopped. It had been a chal enge for Sam to keep up with her, as she was so unpredictable: at some points, she had broken into a gal op, across open fields, without notice. At other moments, they had trotted together beside streaming brooks, in and out of the forest, clearings, meadows.
Final y, she had turned and taken a narrow path up a gently sloping hil , covered in fields of flowers. She’d found a spot under an ancient tree, and had dismounted and tied her horse to a branch. Sam did the same, and as he saw the wel -worn marks in the branch, he guessed she had been to this spot many times before.
Ignoring him, she turned her back and walked to a bubbling stream nearby. She knelt and splashed cold water on her face. She ran it through her hair and as she did, she pul ed her hair out of its bun and let it fal around her shoulders.
Sam watched, mesmerized, as the sun shone through her hair. He had never seen anyone more beautiful. He could not believe his luck in being here right now. Why had she chosen him? She hadn’t exactly invited him, but she hadn’t exactly told him not to join her either. And even though she did a great job of ignoring him, and had barely said a word to him the entire afternoon, he stil sensed that deep down she liked having him with her. He only wondered if it was because some company for her was better than no company at al , or if she real y wanted him there.
Kendra turned to him.
“I’d like to sit in the grass,” she said. “There is a blanket in the saddle.”
Sam at first didn’t realize what she was talking about; but then he looked over at her horse, and saw a large silk blanket sitting in a pouch. He realized she expected him to unfold the blanket and lay it out for her.
It annoyed him a bit. He was not her servant. At the same time, he just figured that this was the treatment she was used to, and he didn’t want to rock the boat over it. Plus, he real y didn’t mind. So he took out her large, pink blanket, and laid it out