Regina did show Emma that she was serious about her threats and she had her working in the barn. Emma was now mucking out the stall for Rocinante and she was grateful that the horse wasn't a pain in the ass like his master.
Rocinante was close enough to Emma to see inside his stall and she could've sworn that he was making sure that she was doing a decent job. "I'm actually good at thing type of labor, so your stall will look good as new." She leaned in closer to the horse, "I even have something special for you."
She took an apple out of her pocket and held it out in her hand. "I was going to eat it for lunch, but I thought that you'd appreciate it a lot more than I would." Rocinante looked at it, then at Emma, and back at the apple again. After he waited a few moments, he took a large bite out of the apple.
"What do you think you're doing?!" Regina cried out as she ran into the barn to take the remaining part of the apple out of Emma's hand. "This is from my own tree in the garden. How dare you think that it's appropriate to feed someone else's horse, especially an apple!"
Emma rolled her eyes, "I highly doubt eating an apple is going to harm him any." Regina huffed, "Of course it won't cause any harm. I'm the only one that feeds him apples and it isn't your job." Emma shrugged, "I know, but he'd been doing such a good job of making sure I was doing my job so I thought it was only fair. You've a good guard here on your hands."
Regina raised her eyebrow and Emma could've sworn that she saw a hint of a smile. If she did, it quickly vanished. The princess made Emma give her enough room so that she could look at the stall herself.
Emma could tell that Regina wanted to say something critical, but the truth was that Regina couldn't find a reason. She took a step back and ended up tripping over the threshold into the stall.
The blonde had caught her as Regina fell and she pulled her close to her. "I got you, princess." She said nonchalantly as she realized how close Regina was to her body. Regina held her breath and she reluctantly pulled away from Emma. She had turned around to face Emma.
"Thank you for…" Regina's voice trailed off and Emma nodded in understanding. "I'll be here to catch you when you fall, Regina." She whispered low enough for only regina to hear her.
The brunette faced the blonde and cleared her throat, "You did an adequate job, so I think you should help me when I go out riding every morning." Emma nodded and did her best not to give away the fact that she was happy to hear the news.
"Do you know how to ride a horse?" Regina asked curiously. "No, peasants don't get that luxury, princess." Emma said. Regina sighed, "I'm sorry that I referred to you with that term." Emma chuckled, "Are you apologizing to your servant?" Regina rolled her eyes, "I think I should take back whatever I was saying…"
"No way princess, you can't take that back now that you said it!" Emma grinned brightly at her. "Oh hush up, you." Regina took her riding crop off of the door inside the stall and tapped Emma's cheek with it. She leaned in close and said, "If you don't behave then I'll have to use this on you." Emma felt a shiver run down her spine as Regina said those words.
Regina smiled at her and returned to being serious, "If you don't know how to ride a horse, then I'll have to teach you. I know that you're determined to prove that you can handle whatever I throw at you. Are you up for the challenge?"
Emma chuckled, "I'm up for it, but are you ready for me?" Regina blushed and Emma moved a little closer to her. "I'm ready to learn from the master." Regina smirked, "I won't go easy on you." Emma raised her eyebrow, "I never dreamed of it."