Little House an Alternate version (Connected with the Alternate story): Chapter Three: Life's New Experiences.
Every day after school, now Laura has been out in the barn with her new horse playing with her getting to know her instead of studying. Grace went out there to keep an eye on the pair since Isaiah has been picking up more hours at the mill. After Charles had passed away Isaiah took over Charles's position at the mill and now works close with Hanson at the mill. Now Isaiah is like almost a foreman at the mill working longer hours so Grace is always keeping an eye on Laura and her new horse to make sure nothing bad happens to either of them.
Laura gets out of the stall to grab some brushes to brush her new horse's black coat. Grace says "She sure is shinny isn't she?" Laura smiles as she starts to brush her, she replies "Yes she is Ma, I like her coat shinny like a diamond should be". Grace smiles as she pets Laura's new horse to tell her "Dear, but not all diamonds always shine up to all of their potential".
Laura stops for a moment to try to figure out what Grace meant by her last words, she says "What did you mean?" Grace goes into explaining more "Well some people only do enough work to get by on and call that good enough, and that is all they do, I don't accept that way of thinking and neither should you". Laura says "Well I try and I will try to ride her too so she can be trained to do a lot of cool things". Grace smiles to say "Well, dear I hope she will work out for you, but be prepared for disappointments when working with animals". Laura says hopefully "I am sure we will get a long and learn to work together". Grace got done petting the new horse, and starts to leave when she saw Mary and John Jr. sitting on a bench out in the back yard having their own special time together.
Mary says "Did you know that Miss Beadle thinks you're going to graduate soon?" John replies "Yes Mary we had talked about it off and on, and I am getting pretty good grades, as far as right now is concerned ". Mary smiles to say "You might get to go to college soon John won't that be wonderful?" John sighs to say "Well, Mary yes and no I mean I got roots here and you, don't really want to go too far away". Mary smiles and holds John's hands to say "For now we won't talk any more about it, just enjoy our time together, I mean college is far away yet, so instead of worrying about it let's just forget for a while and have fun". John smiles and says "Yeah let's not grow up to fast come on let's go out to the creek for a while and hang out". Mary nods in agreement John turns his back to see his Ma standing at the entry way of the barn watching her children John walks up to her and asks "Ma is it okay if me and Mary go to the creek for a while?" Grace replies "Yes dear, when you come back supper will be ready". John smiles to say "thanks Ma".
John walks over to where Mary was standing and they both took off for the creek to have some alone time from everyone else. Grace turns then back to Laura and her new horse she was taking off the halter and putting on a bridle Grace stops Laura and her horse by standing in the door way, Grace asks "Laura what do you think you're doing?" Laura replies "I want to try to ride her just a little bit". Grace puts a tight grip on the reins below Laura's hands to say "I forbid it Laura you know the rules, no riding an unsafe horse until Isaiah is around to watch you!" Laura says "I have to try beside now we got her so gentle!"
Laura says "I'll get her out to the corral there to see how she does I just want to do one round before supper please Ma?" Grace finally caves against her better judgment as she looks into the horses eyes Grace knew that she didn't trust the untrained horse to be as safe or as gentle as Laura claims but she knew Laura was going to do it any ways.
Laura went to the corral and got the gate closed without much help from Grace. As Grace forgot about checking on supper warming up in the stove she took to watching Laura like a hawk working with her new horse. She knew Laura didn't even have a saddle for her yet but she still was thinking about riding her.
Laura walks with her horse around the corral going all the way around several times just making sure the horse was going to behave and get the feistiness out of her. Grace watches nervously since the horse always seemed to have a fast pace prance to her and always held her head up high extremely high like she was more Arabian type of horse than anything.
Laura was watching her horse to see how high strung of a personality she was and what she was dealing with, she knew her Pa didn't have a lot of time to help her train the horse so Laura decided to take the jump and see what she could do.
As Laura was walking with her horse Grace didn't like this horse in particular she wish Isaiah would of taken more time to find her one that could have been a little calmer in personality. As Grace watches the two pair she gets more nervous as the young horse steps with high steps and very quickly, sometimes even getting ahead of Laura for a bit when she shouldn't. Grace didn't know a lot about horses she let that go to Isaiah for deciding what kind of horses to use for the farm work and riding purposes.
Carrie had opened the door to Grace's house and called her to come inside She let Laura know that she was going inside to see what Carrie had wanted. Laura nodded to let Grace know she got the message, and Laura finally stopped her horse near the fence of the Corral.
Laura lead the horse to stand near the fence Laura had climbed on the top rail to hop on the back of her horse, and did! Laura sat straight up on the horses back with her legs dangling down, the horses sides she quickly made the rope that she lead with into reins to guide the horse around the corral. She nudged the horse ever so gently to move, which she did slow and steady.
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While Laura was learning all about horse training Mary and John were busy learning about something else far more inmate and sincere. Mary and John was exploring behind the woods where the creek was. Mary stopped to look at the water moving in the creek she saw her own reflection in the water itself. Mary says "John the water is so beautiful and clear here, it's amazing that I can see myself in it. John smiles at Mary to say playfully "yeah don't forget the rocks down on the bottom! They can hurt!" Mary playfully pushes John Jr around a bit. John then takes Mary's hand into his and says "Come on I found something here that might interest you". Mary asks John "What is it dear? Something special?" John turns to Mary and says "Yes you can say that dear".
John finally gets to the cave where he wanted to show to Mary. He stops and clears away some of the weeds blocking their path. John says to Mary "Well dear what do you think?" Mary walks a head a little and then says "What are we going to do with a cave dear?" John smiles and says "A lot of things it could be our special place Mary! And a hide out too!" Mary smiles as she is just catching on to what John was trying to tell her. She said "I am thinking it can be a wonderful place John! Let's go inside can we?"
John leads Mary inside the cave, while John waits for Mary to catch up, he notices there was a small water fall inside the cave, john makes the remark, "Mary I thought of us when I first found this cave here, but I didn't know there was a water fall on this side of the cave". Mary walks a little to stand on the other side of John to watch the waterfall trickle down real slow at first and then as it got closer to the bottom a little bit faster. Mary says gently to John, "John if I didn't know any better you brought us here to you know!" John turns to smile at Mary to say "So what if I did! Not going to hurt anything and besides I love you Mary!"
John turns to face Mary and he holds her in his arms and says to her "I love you dear, don't you see this moment was meant to be for us, and only us! We need to take this moment and enjoy it!" Mary says "Please John no more talking let's just get lost in the moment lets loose ourselves to all this privacy that we never had before".
Mary and John lost each other that day the two became one and a united front on that very moment. John was the first to say "I love you Mary Ingalls! I am glad I am here in your presence". Mary smiles as she runs her fingers through John's hair and starts to unbutton his shirt, she says "yes I love you, always have and always will". John and Mary backed up against the wall of the cave, kissing each other. They went to the back side of the water fall kissing and losing each other into a fiery passion.
Now it was almost dusk and John and Mary sat next to each other out of breath, John says "I love you, this day was the best". Mary smiles and says "yes it was can we get back to the others?" John grabs his clothes and he also gets Mary's dress, he says "I suppose we should so no one would know what we're up too!" Mary smiles and she stops John for a moment to say "thanks for bringing me out here, this was a nice little break from being around my sisters all the time!" John and Mary hurry up to dress and get their shoes back on so they can get back to the house for their supper.
Finally Mary and John walked out of the cave more united than ever, walking together hand in hand to show their unity, and what little did they know that despite their committee to each other will bring troubles ahead from others around them! Is Mary and John stepping into the land of forbidden love? (To be Continued).