Please See Chapter 1 for warnings and disclaimers.

Vin had experienced quite a scare seeing his charge in with the wild horse and the excess adrenaline did nothing for his temper. Putting his leg up on the watering trough he quickly pulled Torie over his knee and landed seven hard smacks to her rear.

When he set her right, there were unshed tears in her eyes, but no remorse. Far from it, in fact. Torie was livid. "You've got no call, no right!"

"Ya damn near got yerself trampled!"

Hardly even aware of what she was doing, Torie landed a firm kick to Vin's shin and turned to run in the opposite direction. She was too angry to even think about what she was doing. There was cursing behind her and she heard someone in pursuit. Running behind and then in between the clapboard buildings, Torie looked for a hiding spot. Not paying close attention to where she was going, she ran headlong into what she thought for a moment was a wall. Unfortunately, the wall had arms and quickly had her restrained.

Chapter 6

"Hey now there, honey, slow down," came a gentle rumbling voice. "Where you headed so fast?"

Torie looked up into kind pale blue eyes, and cursed her luck. She had run right into Josiah. "Merde!" she swore quietly. "I just had a start is all," she explained, wondering how long it would take for Vin to catch up. Not that it really mattered now. Caught was caught.

Josiah knelt down and looked into her green eyes. "And what gave you such a fright little one?" he asked kindly.

"I did," Vin stated coming up behind the other man.

"Ah, well brother Vin's likely to give a body a fright now and again," Josiah said with a grin, though he could tell there was definitely more to this story.

Biting her lip, Torie looked cautiously up to meet Vin's eyes, but found the tracker remarkably calm. Actually he looked somewhat concerned. "You alright, Torie?" he asked approaching slowly as if afraid to scare her off.

"Yes sir," she answered, deciding against a snide mention that her rear end stung a bit.

"Best come on along with me then. Think we need to have a little talk."

She cast a pleading look at Josiah, but he simply chuckled and coming to his feet gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "I'm on my way to see Nathan if either of you need me."

Staring at her feet, Torie didn't move an inch. She was trying to determine if Vin was mad and what this talk might entail. In the back of her mind was the warning Chris had given her when she arrived. The one advising her never to hit, kick, bite, or otherwise try to injure any of his friends. Of course there was also the far more recent injunction that she was to stay in eyesight of one of the seven peacekeepers at all times. With a heavy sigh, the girl figured whether now or later, she was definitely in trouble.

Vin stepped in front of the girl and slowly lifted her chin. "Hey, Pumpkin, I jest wanna talk, okay? Ya ain't scared of me are ya?"

Her green eyes took on a fierce glint at that. "NO!"

"Didn't think so. How 'bout you an' me go for a little ride on Peso?"

Torie could not imagine what game Vin was playing at, but she agreed. Going for a ride was better than a boring lecture, being placed in the corner, or worse yet another spanking. She had no illusions that she might escape from Vin, but that didn't mean that she couldn't use this opportunity to scout the area a bit for when she did leave.

The two rode for about twenty minutes before Vin pulled up next to a little pond and dismounted. He lifted Torie from the horse and then, tying the reigns loosely to a low hanging branch, offered the animal something from his pocket. As he turned, he watched Torie walk to the waterside and skip a rock across the water.

She had calmed considerably just as he'd hoped. Many a time he had needed to get away and clear his mind and a ride out and away from people always served to do just that. Vin figured the girl was chafing under her Pa's new rules, not to mention how Chris went about enforcing them.

"Don't expect I scared ya so much as made ya mad, huh?" Vin said coming up beside, Torie.

The girl shrugged, pressing her lips firmly together. She did not even want to think about what happened in town, much less discuss it.

"Reckon I shoulda calmed down a mite before doin' what I did, but I ain't sorry I did it. I'm thinkin' ita'd gone worse fer ya iffin it'd been yer Pa who 'as there."

Here Torie turned to scowl at the long-haired sharpshooter. "You had no right!"

"See, Pumpkin, thet's where yer, wrong. Yer Pa's prob'ly the best friend I got. Fact is those six men are like family ta me."

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, torn between arguing and just ignoring the man. Vin's relationship with the other peacekeepers had little bearing on his right to punish her as far as she was concerned. Still, it was probably best not to press her luck. So far he was being rather decent about being kicked in the shins and her impromptu get away and Torie saw no reason to poke a stick into a hornet's nest.

"I kin tell this is all purdy different an' new ta ya," he said with a grin, "But ya ain't alone. Jest want ta make sure ya know thet."

The girl gave a nod, acknowledging to herself, at least, that it was rather nice of the former bounty hunter to reach out like this. "So, are you planning to tell him?"

Vin smiled down at the girl. "'Fraid one of us'll have ta."

Torie sighed. Yeah, just as she suspected. Nothing else was said for some time. Vin took a seat with his back to a tree and looked over the water, his thoughts his own. The girl walked along the edge of the pond, smiling as a hawk descended to pluck a fish from the water. What would it be like to have such power and freedom, to fly without abandon? Her mind went back to the gray horse and she sighed.

Watching the girl Vin wondered at her thoughts. Most likely she was plotting her next get away attempt. He smiled, thinking about her escape from Ezra and JD, which reminded him of something he'd been meaning to ask the girl, "Torie, where'd ya hear a Palo Duro Canyon?"

The girl looked up in surprise, before lowering her gaze and giving a shrug. "Not sure," she obfuscated. "Just heard it somewhere I suppose."

"Not much in thet part a Texas. It ain't really a place many would a heard 'bout," he commented well aware that the girl was holding something back.

"Like I said, I'm really not sure where I heard about it," she answered resolutely. Seeing that he'd get no other answer the tracker gave a nod, tucking the mystery away to puzzle over another time

***

Actually, the explanation of the morning's events went far better than Torie might have expected. Not only was Vin kind enough to leave out the part about her kicking him, but he also made the point that running was clearly an emotional response, not an honest attempt to get away. Chris seemed to take the news in stride.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" he asked sternly, after hearing the tale.

"Well, I am sorry," Torie responded quietly in her soft southern accent, "But I don't really think that horse was a danger to me. We understand each other."

Chris sighed, "Torie, I already told you that horse is wild and that you should stay away. Yosemite's thinking of setting it free because it can't be gentled."

"You could do it," the girl drawled softly. "Buck said you were the best there was."

Rather taken aback, Chris had no reply for quite some time. "Sweetheart, that's not my horse."

"But it could be. If, he's already thinking about setting it loose, Yosemite would most definitely accept a modest offer."

The gunman was shaking his head unsure how a chastisement on her behavior ended up in a discussion of him buying her a horse. "Torie-"

"I'll promise to stay… at least until he's gentled," she added quickly.

Chris paused at this, giving an apprising look to the girl before him.

"Please Papa," she pleaded, well used to the guile involved in getting a parent to agree to such an appeal.

As it turned out she was far more experienced than he was at this. 'No wonder Ysebella gave into her every whim', Chris thought to himself. He knew that having a horse so readily accessible would only make his job more difficult, but the month or more that it took to break the horse would give him some time. "How do I know you I can trust you about staying?"

"I'll swear to it…on Mama's grave."

Chris nodded, satisfied, "Might be I'm not able but if I can do it, it's anywhere from a day to a week before he'll take a saddle and rider. Another week or even a few before he's green broke. After that, could still be another couple weeks before he's ready for you to ride."

The girl's brow knotted in thought, and Chris could tell that she was serious by the consideration that she gave his comment. Though she hardly wanted to put off the search for her mother's killers for that long, she had to weigh the benefit of having a horse at her disposal. Finally she nodded, "Okay."

"And you aren't to so much as go near him without me until I say it's safe."

"Okay."

"Swear to it?"

"I swear."

"I'll talk to Yosemite."

She smiled, unable to restrain herself from throwing her arms around Chris in an exuberant hug. He returned the embrace, savoring the moment and running one hand through her soft hair, noticing how the afternoon sun brought out the golden highlights even more. "Thank you, Papa," she whispered, before backing away somewhat ashamed at her uncommon show of affection.

"I wouldn't get too excited just yet," he cautioned. "We haven't finished talkin' about earlier today."

Torie took a step back biting her lip, really hoping to have side stepped that issue.

"Vin took care a you climbin' inta the corral so I'm willing to let that stand, though you'd best know you got off easy there. As for running off like ya did, I think you owe me some corner time."

"But, I didn't really mean to," she wheedled.

"Which is why you won't be sporting a sore backside while yer facing that corner."

TBC