CHAPTER 1
Ty Borden walked his fiancée, 22 year old horse trainer Amy Fleming, as close as he could get to the turning rotors of the waiting helicopter, holding on to her as long as possible before she left on a four month trip to Europe. "We'll talk, every day." she reassured him, squeezing his arm. All he could do was nod, looking toward the ground in front of them, avoiding the angel-blue eyes that would surely threaten his resolve to let her go.
Amy could see that Ty was doing the best he could to hold himself together. The thought of Ty hurting like this was making it hard for her to leave, but this was the opportunity of a lifetime for a small rancher's granddaughter looking to make her mark on the international equestrian stage. The two young lovers had learned the hard way that the difficult decisions they would face as a couple needed to be made together, as a team. When Prince Ahmed Al Saeed offered the job as Head Trainer to his World Championship contending equestrian jumping team to Amy, she and Ty discussed the pros and cons of the position, deciding it was too good of an offer for her to pass up. If she were successful, it would mean a huge jump in her status as a highly sought after horse trainer and their future together would be set. She was already known as the "Miracle Girl" in her native Western Alberta home for the amazing things she could do with horses, but this was a whole new level at stake for her professional reputation.
"You know I love you." She told him. "I'll be back before you know it." Amy turned to face him as they slowly kissed and said their farewells.
"I love you too." Ty said, still looking down. "We'll be OK…I'll be OK…promise."
The snow swirled past him while he watched the helicopter slowly rise above the horse barn of Heartland Ranch. Ty was twenty feet in front of the rest of the Bartlett-Fleming-Morris family as they all raised a hand to offer an anxious farewell to the passengers. The aircraft disappeared to the northeast over the rim of the valley, headed toward Calgary and the awaiting personal jet of the Prince.
As he turned and walked toward his truck Ty noticed that his feet felt as if his shoes were filled with lead. Each step was heavy and his thoughts were with Amy, who had never been any closer to flying than the back of his old Norton motorcycle. He hoped that she would not be too frightened, or get air sick.
"Hey." Lou Fleming-Morris, Amy's older sister, said as she stepped to his side as he walked by.
"You OK?" she asked.
"As good as I'm goanna be for quite a while now, I guess." He shrugged.
"Ty, you know she loves you more than anything. Everything is going to be all right."
"I hope you are right, Lou. Everything I care about most in my life is up there in that helicopter with a guy that has a whole country's resources at his disposal, and I worry that he has an idea he can show Amy what it would be like to be the real Princess of….whatever the hell they call that place."
"C'mon Ty. Its goanna take more than that to get Amy's attention. Look….. what does she love most in her life? She likes to work with horses, here, with us…..with you! You two make a great team, and she knows that."
"Lou, she's never had the world at her feet before, and you can bet Ahmed will make sure that she sees what it would be like for her to be in that position."
"Well, Ty, if you really feel that way, why on earth did you agree to let her go on that trip?"
"Because, Lou, she has passed up some great opportunities before, maybe because she was thinking about me…about us. What if she wakes up one day, living here in Hudson, and starts thinking about what might have been? I do not want to be the reason that she gave up the chance to take her career as far as she wants to go with it. If I did that to her, it might be as bad as if I were to lose her now."
Lou put her hands on Ty's shoulders and gripped them hard. "You need to stop worrying. It will just drive you crazy to think about all the 'what ifs'. It's going to be OK, I just know it."
Ty opened the door of his truck, slid into the seat, and reached to start the engine. 'If I hurry, I might be able to get to the airport and stop her!' He thought, then rejected. 'These next four months are going to really suck.
