The woman slowly pulled her hand away.<\/p>\n
Her back still pressed against the wooden stall.<\/p>\n
Fear covered her face.<\/p>\n
She looked from the horse\u2014<\/p>\n
to the rifle\u2014<\/p>\n
to the rugged man standing in the shadows.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t mean any harm.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man said nothing.<\/p>\n
Just kept watching her.<\/p>\n
Carefully.<\/p>\n
Like he was trying to decide whether she was dangerous\u2014<\/p>\n
or broken.<\/p>\n
The horse shifted beside her.<\/p>\n
Not nervous.<\/p>\n
Not aggressive.<\/p>\n
Calm.<\/p>\n
That seemed to catch the man\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n
His eyes narrowed slightly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat horse doesn\u2019t let strangers touch him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman looked at the animal.<\/p>\n
Then back at the man.<\/p>\n
Voice shaking.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he knew I was scared.\u201d<\/p>\n
A long silence followed.<\/p>\n
Dust drifted through the fading sunlight.<\/p>\n
The man finally stepped closer.<\/p>\n
Still cautious.<\/p>\n
Still unreadable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho are you running from?\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman lowered her eyes.<\/p>\n
Her breathing unsteady.<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n
That was answer enough.<\/p>\n
The man glanced toward the barn door.<\/p>\n
Then back at her torn dress.<\/p>\n
The bruises on her wrists.<\/p>\n
The mud on her shoes.<\/p>\n
He understood more than she said.<\/p>\n
Suddenly\u2014<\/p>\n
the horse stepped between them.<\/p>\n
Large body moving protectively in front of the woman.<\/p>\n
The rugged man froze.<\/p>\n
Surprised.<\/p>\n
The woman did too.<\/p>\n
The horse turned its head slightly.<\/p>\n
Standing beside her.<\/p>\n
Shielding her.<\/p>\n
The man stared at the animal in disbelief.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s never done that before.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman looked at the horse.<\/p>\n
Tears filling her eyes again.<\/p>\n
For the first time that day\u2014<\/p>\n
something had chosen not to fear her.<\/p>\n
The rugged man slowly lowered the rifle all the way.<\/p>\n
His expression softened.<\/p>\n
Just enough to be noticed.<\/p>\n
Then he reached into his coat.<\/p>\n
The woman flinched.<\/p>\n
But instead of a weapon\u2014<\/p>\n
he pulled out a small brass key.<\/p>\n
He tossed it gently onto a hay bale beside her.<\/p>\n
The woman looked at it.<\/p>\n
Confused.<\/p>\n
The man nodded toward the side door of the barn.<\/p>\n
Voice low.<\/p>\n
Steady.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat opens the back gate.\u201d<\/p>\n
A pause.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone\u2019s hunting you\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
His eyes shifted to the horse standing beside her.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026they\u2019ll have to get through both of us first.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The woman slowly pulled her hand away. Her back still pressed against the wooden stall. Fear covered her face. She looked from the horse\u2014 to the rifle\u2014 to the rugged man standing in the shadows. \u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d she whispered. \u201cI didn\u2019t mean any harm.\u201d The man said nothing. Just kept watching her. Carefully. Like he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}