The first day or two of the week passed quickly. Karen tried to stay busy with all kinds of simple tasks around the house that Victoria allowed her to do when she asked for something to do to keep busy after her homework was done.

"Well, we do have a few horses that need some exercise since we got the new ones in. And we don't always have time to take them out for rides while working with the newer ones. Why don't you take them out and ride them for us?" Victoria said when she asked if there was anything she could do around the house to help out while she was out of school. "Audra can show you which ones need the exercise this afternoon. You can figure out a schedule for them and, even when you go back to school, we can keep the schedule for them on your behalf."

"Thank you, Ms. Victoria." Karen hugged Victoria in gratitude. She didn't want to feel like she needed to be coddled. Her pa and brothers had never coddled her and she thought she had come out all the better for it.

"You're welcome, dear girl. I'm glad I could find something for you to do. But I don't want you ignoring your studies to do this. You need to spend some time on those as well. You don't want to fall behind in your classes."

"Of course not. I'll use the warmer afternoons to study while the mornings will be for the horses. It'll help me to make sure that I'm awake and ready for the day. Then, when I sit down to study in the afternoon, I'll feel like I've already accomplished something and I'll want to keep going. It'll make it easier for me to get started on my studying."

"That sounds like a plan," Nick said. "A plan that is simple is the easiest to carry out."

"Thank you, Nick. I appreciate that."

"If you like, Karen, Heath and I can help you with your studies if you need it," Audra offered.

"Thank you, Audra. I will ask if I need the help.

Audra smiled at the young woman. She could see Karen getting quite far in life with her attitude.

That afternoon, Audra showed Karen which of the horses would need exercising. There were only three of them and Karen quickly came up with a rotation for exercise that would have a different one going first each day. That way they would have some variety and so would she.

That very afternoon, Karen took to each of the three horses and got to know them. She made sure they knew her scent and her voice. That way, when she started riding the next morning, they would know that she was a friend. Audra watched her work with the horses and was very impressed. She was very talented with the animals, had a way with them even.

Audra couldn't wait to tell her mother how good Karen was with the three older horses in the stable. She knew that one of them, Flamestar, could be more than a little spirited at times but she was certain that Karen could control him. She just seemed to have a natural knack for taking care of horses. Almost as if she spoke their language.

As Audra watched Karen, so did Heath. He didn't seem to be watching her but Audra knew that he was. He was very careful with her. She hoped that one day she would find a man who would treat her like Heath treated Karen.

The following morning, right after breakfast, Karen headed out to the barn to start exercising the horses. She worked the first two with no problems. Then, she moved to saddle Flamestar. He was a little skittish when she first went to put the saddle on his back. He even reared a little.

"Now, Flamestar, we went over all of this yesterday. We talked about this and you agreed to behave yourself for me. Are you going back on that now?" The horse shook his head and Karen nodded. "Good. Because I would hate to have to go into the house and tell Ms. Victoria that you won't behave yourself. You know how she feels about things like that."

The horse nodded and Karen nodded in return before putting the saddle blanket and the saddle on the majestic horse. Then she led him out of his stall and over to a clear space just outside the stable door.

Stepping into one stirrup, she swung into the saddle and settled in. "Now, Flamestar, let's see just what you can do. I can tell you'll need a bit more exercise than the other two. I think I'll let you run for a bit."

She nudged him just a bit. The horse reared up and bolted, Karen clinging to his saddle and bridle with both hands. She wrapped the reins around one hand and both hands were clutching the saddle horn so as not to lose her seat on the horse.

She had screamed when Flamestar reared. She hadn't seen that Heath, Nick and Jarrod had run out onto the porch and had seen the horse run off with her clinging tightly to the saddle.

All three men ran for the stable and saddled up their own horses. Audra had wandered in as they were preparing to follow after Karen. "Audra, go tell Mother that we're going after Flamestar and Karen. He reared and bolted. We could only see that she was holding on to the saddle with both hands."

Audra gasped and looked around the stable. "All three of you are going?"

"We are," Jarrod replied. He turned to his sister to see the fear on her face. "Audra, don't worry. We'll bring her back and she'll be just fine. You'll see." He touched Audra's cheek to comfort her. "Now, please go tell Mother what happened. We're heading out as soon as we're ready."

Audra spun and ran for the house, holding her skirts up so that she could move faster. She burst into the house just as the boys rode out at a full gallop after Karen. "Mother?" she called.

Hearing the fear in her daughter's voice, Victoria stepped out of her office to find Audra standing in the middle of the living room nearly in tears. "Audra, what is it?"

"Karen was exercising the horses just as she told you she would. She'd already worked with Talisin and Cordin. She was prepping Flamestar to go. According to the boys, he reared and bolted. Karen was holding on as tight as she could from what Jarrod told me. They just left to go after her and Flamestar. Mother, do you think she'll be okay?"

"I'm certain she will, dear. Your brothers will find her and bring her and Flamestar back. You'll see." Victoria could only hope that she was right and her sons would do her proud in bringing the young woman and the horse back where they belonged, both safe and sound.

Jarrod, Heath and Nick were riding hard to try to catch up to Karen. Flamestar was a fast horse, all three boys knew this. He also had some serious stamina. It wouldn't be easy to get him to settle down once they did catch up to them.

All three men were trying hard to figure out what may have spooked the horse to rear like that. Flamestar was normally spirited, yes. But he didn't normally do things like this. Something had to have happened to cause him to rear like that.

Heath was watching closely to make sure that, if Karen had fallen off at some point in Flamestar's panic, they didn't run her down. He didn't want to see her hurt.

There she was! They had found her! Flamestar was still moving, just not as quickly.

Jarrod spurred his horse just a little bit harder and moved out in front of the other two. He was amazed that Karen was still astride the horse after the way he'd taken off so wildly.

But she was slumped in the saddle as if defeated. Jarrod knew that he and his brothers needed to get her back to the house and quickly. Then, they could evaluate her and see if she was hurt or not.

Jarrod's horse hadn't even come to a full stop before he was swinging his leg off the horse and stepping down to the ground. He strode over to Flamestar and stroked his head.

Then, he stepped back toward Karen. "Karen? Karen, are you alright?"

"I can't get my hand out of the reins. I wrapped them around my hand to try to hold on better and now I can't get it out. It hurts, Jarrod. It really hurts." He saw the tears splashing down over her hand.

Jarrod turned to see Heath riding up on Karen's other side. "Here's what we're going to do, Karen. Heath's on your other side. I'm going to step to his other side and let Nick up here so that he will be at an angle to see what's going on. He'll help get your hand untangled. When he does, I want you to slide over in front of Heath. He will take you home while Nick and I try to figure out what caused Flamestar to rear like that. Then, we'll bring him home."

"Do you think he'll be okay?" she asked.

"I think so. Now, I'm going around to Heath's other side now. That's just in case you slip coming over to Heath."

Jarrod did exactly what he had described to the young woman. It didn't take long for Nick to be able to untangle Karen's hand from the reins. It seemed to have been twisted and it was swelling. Once that was done, Heath wrapped an arm around Karen's shoulders and pulled her over to his horse to sit in front of him. She curled into him, wrapping her left arm around his back to anchor herself.

"Heath, take her back to the house. Nick and I will take his saddle off and see if we can figure out what made him rear like that. It shouldn't take long and then we'll bring him back to the house and take care of him." Heath nodded and turned his horse around, heading back to the main house. He held on to Karen who was also holding on to him. Her right hand was curled up in front of her as if she were protecting it. Her left was wrapped around behind him and fisted in his shirt, clinging to him for dear life.

Once Jarrod and Nick were certain that Heath was on his way home with Karen, they moved swiftly to remove Flamestar's saddle. When they removed the blanket underneath, they found the problem. A row of small sandburs was lined across the blanket. It seemed there were a few of them. Karen's slight weight coming down across the saddle would have been enough to make the horse rear the way he had.

"Someone sabotaged this blanket. They made sure that Karen would cause him to rear. But I don't think they figured on her being the horsewoman that she is." Jarrod shook his head. Running his hand over the horse's back, flanks and withers on one side as Nick did the same on the other, the two men made certain that there were no burs left in his coat.

They careful placed the saddle back on the horse without the blanket. The blanket was rolled and tied into the saddle so that it could be shown to the sheriff. Maybe they could discover who had sabotaged the blanket in order to hurt Karen like that.

Whoever it was would learn that no one messes with the Barkley family and gets away with it.