A/N: I know, I'm terrible. I'm just going to leave this here.
The next few weeks passed quickly, the days pretty much the same. Winter was on the way, and the cooler weather was settling in to stay. The days were still mostly mild in temperature, but Del had already managed to fall victim to a cold and had been out of school the last two days. Due to Del's absence, Buck was making the walk from school to home alone. He was about halfway home when he heard a shriek come from up ahead, just past where the road bent around the big oak tree. Buck stopped, startled by the sound, and listened only to hear the noise again, only this time, he heard laughter too. That didn't sound like a good combination to Buck, and he took off running towards the sound.
Rounding the bend, Buck slid to a stop when he saw Matt Patterson and Julia Morgan. Matt had Julia's lunch pail and was holding it out of her reach. Julia was trying to grab it from him, but every time she came close, Matt would pull it away.
"Give it to me, Matt," she cried, making another lunge for the pail.
Matt was grinning wickedly as he swung the pail over his head. "You can have it as soon as you can get it."
Missing her target yet again, Julia stamped her foot. "Give it to me."
"No. Come and get it. That's all you have to do is walk over here and get it."
Buck watched as Julia jumped for her pail. He hadn't had any problems with Matt in over a year, and most of the time he tried to avoid the boy, but when Julia almost fell from Matt yanking the pail away again, he couldn't keep quiet any longer. "Leave her alone, Matt," he yelled.
Matt's eyes hardened when he saw Buck. "Stay out of this, Wilmington."
Seeing Matt's attention on Buck, Julia tried again to get her pail back; again she failed. Matt seemed to forget about Buck and went back to Julia, laughing as she repeatedly jumped for her pail.
"Stop being mean to her," Buck said. "Just give it back."
Matt sneered. "Why should I?"
"Cause there's no reason to be mean. She ain't done nothin' to you. Give it back."
Matt continued to hold the bucket aloft but did stop swinging it around. "Who's gonna make me, Bucky-boy? You?"
That made Buck pause. Matt was a good head taller than him, and stronger too, and Mama didn't like him fighting; he didn't think she'd like Matt being mean to Julia either. "If I have to."
Matt and Julia both looked his way like neither could believe what they'd heard. Finally, Matt scoffed. "You'd fight me for her? Why? Do you like her?"
"No, I just . . . just give it back."
"No." Matt looked between the two and laughed before continuing in a sing-song voice. "Buck likes Julia. Buck likes Julia. Buck likes Julia."
"Stop," Julia cried, her face was red and Buck thought she looked like she was about to cry. For some reason, he didn't like that.
He strode over to Matt. "Shut up. Just give her bucket back." Matt ignored him and continued his annoying chant. Taking a deep breath and praying his mother would understand if this did turn into a fight, Buck gave the older boy a shove.
The unexpected push caught Matt off guard and he stumbled back a couple of steps. When he was steady he glared at Buck. "What are you doin'?"
"I told you to give it back," Buck said. "If you don't want a bloody nose, drop it."
Matt continued to glare for a long moment before that wicked grin came back. "You want me to drop it? Fine." He gave the pail a hard throw into the field beside the road. "Go find it you little freak." With that, he turned and ran off down the road.
Buck glanced at the field and sighed. Why did Matt have to do that? It could take forever to find a lunch pail out there. At least, Matt was gone now. He started out towards the field and was stopped by a hand on his arm. Turning he found Julia beside him.
"Thank you for helping me," she said, smiling shyly.
Buck felt a blush come to his own face and hastily looked away. "It's no big deal," he mumbled before walking out into the dead weeds. It got dark kind of early now; if Julia wanted her lunch pail back before sundown they'd better start looking for it.
The two of them searched for well over half-an-hour before Buck finally located the missing lunch pail. "I got it," he called holding it up so she could see, but he waited until they were back on the road before he passed it to its owner.
Julia smiled when she once again had her pail. "Thank you again," she said. "You didn't have to do that."
Buck shrugged. "Matt's just a jerk. No one should be mean for no reason like that."
"I guess you're gonna be late getting home, huh? Will your mother be mad?"
Another shrug. "Not when I tell her why."
Julia's smile got a little bigger. "You're sweet, Buck." Then without any warning, she leaned over and kissed his cheek.
Buck wasn't expecting that and his face turned bright red. Why had she done that? "W-what was – that for?" he said finding it suddenly hard to talk.
"Just because. Will I see you tomorrow?"
"Uhh-huh."
She gave him a little wave and giggled in the same way Becky sometimes did. "Bye, Buck."
"B-b-bye," he managed to get out, ready to get out of what had become an awkward situation, he certainly didn't want to give Julia another chance to kiss him. Buck turned toward home and all but ran the whole way.
It was almost dark out and Ida was starting to get worried. Buck had been so good lately about being home when he was supposed to that she couldn't help but wonder if something was wrong. She kept telling herself she shouldn't get worked up over this, there could be a perfectly good reason for Buck's lateness. But all the times in the past when Buck had been very late it had been because of a problem. She finally decided to finish getting dressed before she got too upset and was almost done when she heard the door to his room open and close.
She went to the room next door and knocked softly. Her knock was immediately answered by a "come in." She entered the room and fond Buck changing out of his good school shirt. "Is everything all right, Buck?"
He looked at her and nodded. "Uhh-huh. Sorry I'm late."
"What happened?" she asked when no information concerning his tardiness was offered. He wasn't dirty or bloody, and he didn't look guilty.
"Nothing really."
"Where have you been?"
"I just got tied up comin' home."
"Tied up with what?" Ida continued to watch Buck, looking for a sign that would tell her what her son had been up to.
"I was . . . helpin' somebody."
That piqued Ida's curiosity; what could he have been helping someone with that he didn't want to tell her about? "Who were you helping?"
Buck finally heaved a sigh. "Julia Morgan."
The name wasn't familiar to Ida. "Who's that?"
"A girl from school." Buck had gotten another shirt on and sat down on the edge of his bed. "I was coming home and Matt Patterson had taken her lunch pail. I just helped her get it back."
Ida sat next to Buck. She now understood his reluctance to talk about what he'd been doing, although she wasn't sure whether he didn't want to talk because Julia was a girl, and he still claimed to hate girls, or because young Patterson had been involved. "Oh. How did you do that?"
"I just told him to stop pickin' on her," he said with a shrug.
"Did he stop?"
"Yeah. After I told him I give him a bloody nose if he didn't. But he did throw it into a field, and we had to go look for it. It took a little while to find it."
"You helped her look for it too?"
"Yeah." Buck sighed again. "Why's Matt such a jerk all the time?"
"That's just how some people are, Buck. They have to make others miserable to make themselves feel better."
"He almost made Julia cry."
Ida smiled, glad that Buck sounded bothered by the fact that someone had been bullied. "I think Matt learned how to act that way from his father. It's not right, but sometimes people don't know how else to feel important."
Buck seemed to think about her words for a moment before speaking again. "I would have hit him if he'd hadn't of stopped. Is that bad?"
"Well, I rather you not start fights, but I am proud of you for sticking up for Julia. And for helping her look for her lunch pail."
"So you're not mad because I'm late?"
"Of course not," Ida replied, kissing the top of his head. "I'd much rather you be a little late for helping someone then be on time and leave Julia to be bullied. Run along downstairs. I'll be down in a minute to get you some supper."
Buck rushed out the door and Ida had to smile as she listened to him run down the stairs. It had been almost a month since John had asked her about the horse, and she had given it a lot of thought. She had carefully considered the points John had mentioned when he first asked her about it, as well as Buck's behavior these last several weeks. Outside of a couple of harmless pranks with Del, he had continued to behave in and out of school. The question that had bothered her the most was if Buck was really ready for that responsibility? It wasn't that Ida didn't want Buck to have a horse, but she knew that a horse was a much larger responsibility than a dog. It would require more food, more attention, and cost more than Fred.
Since she and John had talked, she had managed to come up with a list of excuses for not allowing Buck a horse, but between John and her own mind, every one of them had been debunked. The only thing she hadn't been able to rectify was the cost. John had already told her he would buy the animal, but the problem was how the board for a horse would be paid. It would, of course, have to be kept in the livery, and she had no intention of letting John pay for it. As it turned out, John had a solution for that too, which he had told her about earlier today. The only doubt that had remained was if Buck was really grown up enough, and by defending Julia today, he had just told Ida how grown up he had gotten.
She smiled, almost sadly, as she thought back to how indignant Buck had sounded when he'd told her about Matt being mean to Julia. Whether she liked it or not, Buck was growing up, and she had to admit, she believed he was ready for a horse of his own. She'd tell John tomorrow, but first she needed to feed her son.
John had known the day he'd first asked Ida about the horse she would eventually give in, and he had talked to the livery owner, Frank Sims, that very day about purchasing Guinevere for Buck. The mare was perfect for the boy's first horse. Not only was Buck familiar with her, but they were a good match together. She already had a lot of good training on her, but there were plenty of things Buck could still teach her, and at seven she was old enough to be a pretty solid animal but young enough that she and Buck could have many good years together. All he had been waiting for was for Ida to finally give him the go-ahead. And the day she did the final transaction was made.
It was two days after John had officially bought the mare that he was finally able to have a day with Buck. Again they went to the hotel for breakfast, and John told Buck they were riding today. Riding was all he had planned, wanting to give Buck plenty of time with his new horse.
"You reckon Guinevere is available today?" Buck asked as they walked from the hotel to the livery. He'd been ecstatic when he'd found out about the plan for the day.
"We'll have to see," John said. Ida had suggested waiting until Christmas to give Guinevere to Buck, but John had known he wouldn't be able to wait that long. He was having a hard enough time keeping it quiet until they got out of town.
When they arrived at the livery, Buck ran up to Sims inquiring about his favorite horse. He had positively beamed when the man had told him the mare was free and hurried off to get her ready.
Sims turned to John with a smile, "I take it he doesn't know yet?"
John shook his head. "I'm waiting till we get out of town."
"You're gonna have one happy boy on your hands soon," Sims said before getting back to work.
For the next hour or so they rode making idle small talk about school, and even girls. Buck told John about the incident with Julia and Matt, and although Buck was still adamantly claiming he had no use for girls, John suspected Buck was very close to admitting he did like them. And he couldn't help but notice Buck's blush when the unexpected kiss had come up. The conversation did give him the perfect opening for talking about the mare, though.
"So Guinevere is still the only girl you like?" John asked.
Buck nodded. "Yep. I mean, Becky's all right, but she's Del's girl so I kinda have to like her."
John wondered exactly when Del had gotten old enough to 'have a girl" but Del wasn't meant to be the main topic of conversation today. "Hold up a minute, Buck," he said pulling his own gray up. Buck stopped and looked at John expectantly.
"I've been talkin' with your mama lately and we've decided, I mean she's agreed . . . do you think you're ready to take care of a horse of your own?"
Buck nodded. "Well, yeah. I usually saddle Guinevere when we go ridin', and I always rub her down afterwards. You know Del's parents gave him Red for his birthday."
"I do know," John replied. Buck had talked about it quite a few times, and Del being given the horse was one of the things that had got him thinking about Buck needing his own horse.
"You don't have a place to keep a horse like Del does, though."
"It could stay in the livery like Stony," Buck reasoned, referring to John's horse.
"It could, but that costs money. Would you be willing to do a little work every day to pay for it?"
"Yes." Buck's eyes were shining now. John had a feeling Buck knew where this was headed.
"I thought you would be. And me and your mama both think you'll be able to take care of one."
"Am I getting a horse?"
John smiled. "Not getting, boy. You got one. If you're interested in owning Guinevere that is."
"Guin . . ." Buck looked down at the horse he was riding. "You're buying me Guinevere?"
"She's bought, son. As of now she's all yours."
"She's mine? Really?" John nodded. "Guinevere's really mine?"
"She's really yours." Buck grinned and nearly launched himself at the deputy. "Whoa," John said. "Try to stay on her. I don't want to have to tell you'll mama you fell off the first day you rode your horse.
Buck was still grinning when he righted himself. "She is mine, ain't she?"
"She is. And we got all day to see what she's got in her. How 'bout we start by racing over to those trees."
If possible, Buck's grin grew and without any coaxing, kicked Guinevere into a lope. John waited for a second before following on the gray. Letting Buck get a hundred yards or so ahead of him, John gave the gray his head and let him run after the mare. This was Buck's day and he had no intention of beating the boy at the race, but as he watched Buck and Guinevere he wasn't sure the head start had been necessary.