Chapter 223 – Bill and John Dive In
When they got over to the horses, Jack pulled a couple of mints out of his pocket and handed two to Elizabeth. She looked at him confused.
"Crinkle the wrapper." Jack said.
Jack crinkled the wrapper and Elizabeth saw one of the horses that was fairly close flick his ear forward. Elizabeth crinkled the wrapper again and the horse immediately came over.
"This is Bubbles." Jack said.
He took Elizabeth's hand and had her hold it out flat. He then put the mint in the center of her palm.
"Just hold your hand out flat." Jack said. "He smells it, he is looking for it."
Elizabeth did as Jack said. She giggled when Bubbles took the mint from her palm.
"So that is your secret." Elizabeth said.
"I do give them mints." Jack said. "But not all the time. I always give Bandit one after a show. I gave one to Irish Charm to get him to calm down. Horses are like toddlers. I once heard it said, if all else fails, bribe them with candy. Give a horse a mint and crinkle the wrapper like there is another one, and they will be guaranteed to follow you."
Elizabeth smiled and knew that she would have to remember that.
"So where do you get these?" Elizabeth asked.
"I order them in bulk." Jack said. "I always keep some in my locker and tack case. I have them in almost all the feed rooms. I have a jar of them in my room. I never leave my room without a few in my pocket if I am going to be around the horses. I even had some when we were in Canada."
Elizabeth smiled as she was watching Jack pet the horse. He then called over the other two by name. He encouraged Elizabeth to feed them each a mint. He introduced each horse. They allowed her to pet their muzzle. They stood there along the railing petting the horses for a bit. Jack was telling her more about them.
"Jack." Elizabeth said. "I have a question for you. Looking at Bubbles and Squeak, you said they will probably be as close to twin horses as you will ever get. What did you mean?"
"Okay, beyond them having the same sire." Jack said. "They were born within days of each other and when one mare rejected her foal for whatever reason, he was put in with Bubbles and his momma. So she raised both of them, even though they did supplement feed Squeak with a bottle, which is how he got his name. So they were raised as twins. Responsible breeders never allow a twin pregnancy to develop since the rate of complications for mare and foals is so high. So with every mare we breed, we confirm pregnancy and if there is a twin, one is eliminated. We have only had it happen a couple times since twins in horses are rare anyway.
The only way genetic twins are possible in horses would be to say we breed Athena with Captain's Brass, then transfer the embryo to say, Candytime, my broodmare. Then wait one cycle and rebreed Athena and Captain's Brass. You could have genetic twins, but one foal would be Athena's and one Candytime's. Barring rejection, they would be raised by the mare that birthed them. We have enough mares with good bloodlines that we haven't done embryo transfers in a few years. We could, but we don't. It is a lot to get two mares on the same cycle. It requires a lot more coordination and monitoring. Would I do it with a fully equipped vet on staff, probably. We could expand our broodmares and not be so picky about bloodlines if they were going to carry another mare's embryo. More often than not, when you do that, you end up with siblings born in the same year, but raised by different mothers. I know several farms that do it regularly, but like I said, it is a lot of work."
"I think I understand." Elizabeth said. "You would never knowingly allow a mare to carry twins because it is dangerous."
"Yes." Jack said. "The risk of losing one or both foals is very high. The risk of losing the mother during or after labor is high. Overall, just too risky."
"Got that." Elizabeth said. "But you could have genetic twins using a second mare, but the foals wouldn't be raised as twins."
"Correct." Jack said. "It is complicated. A sire can have several foals on one ranch in a year. Or across several ranches depending on things. That is why meticulous records must be kept for horses. And referred to when choosing breeding partners. You can't breed siblings or half siblings going back two or three generations.
Take Bubbles, Squeak and Wex. Bubbles and Wex are full brothers, and a half brother to Squeak. So if we were to breed them, we would have to verify that the mare doesn't share a sire, dam, grandsire or granddam anywhere, otherwise you risk complications. We are lucky in that those three came from stables in Ireland and none of our current horses are from Ireland. We would still check but it would most likely be safe to breed with any of our mares.
Then take my broodmare, Candytime. Her dam is no longer alive, but we have several half brothers to Candytime from both her dam and sire. So we would have to check records before breeding her with any stallion on the ranch. That is one thing I am looking forward to with the new computer system. It will automatically eliminate all the combinations we can't breed and only list potential suitable breeding partners. Obviously we would double check records, but it will make the process easier when we start looking at who we are going to breed."
"I don't think I saw your broodmare, Candytime." Elizabeth said.
"No." Jack said. "But you have seen one of her foals, Jellybean. I don't think any of her other foals are still here. We have one, Lemonhead, racing in California."
"Did she have a foal this year?" Elizabeth asked.
"No." Jack said. "She was bred, but unfortunately the pregnancy was lost. We don't know why. She is however on the list of confirmed pregnancies for next year. Because she had a loss, she will be watched a lot closer this year."
"Who was she bred to this year?" Elizabeth asked.
"An outside stud we use, called Saturday Night Swing." Jack said. "Hopefully, we have four of his foals next year."
"Cool." Elizabeth said.
Satisfied that the three horses were okay, they headed back to the house.
"Jack, you are okay that Abigail's niece, Caitlin, is coming over tomorrow and the Fourth?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yes, absolutely." Jack said. "I am sorry I didn't think of it before."
"It is okay." Elizabeth said. "Hopefully we will get along, Abigail is positive we are what other needs."
"Good." Jack said. "Abigail is rarely wrong when she says people are a good match, even as friends."
"I look forward to meeting her." Elizabeth said. "Rosemary wasn't wrong when she said I don't have many friends. I know a lot of people but very few I would call friends."
"And that is okay." Jack said. "Hopefully, Rosemary realizes her mistakes and makes a sincere apology. Either way, you can have other friends. We will have to look into some groups on campus and see about joining one or two. Doug, Lee and I already talked about joining the Columbia Catholic Ministry. As my wife, I am sure you would be more than welcome to join."
While Jack and Elizabeth had gone for a walk, the rest of the house relaxed. Nathan made the bacon jam. Once he had cleaned up the kitchen, He headed back downstairs to where Lee and Doug were. They were still watching horse racing. The moment that Nathan sat down, Cody crawled back into his lap to play. Nathan didn't care much about the commentary, so between races, he played with Cody. They had their own races with the wooden horses. Frank looked over and smiled at the site. He knew that Nathan was meant to be a father and hoped that he got past whatever barrier he had made for himself when it came to romantic relationships.
While the guys were downstairs, the girls happily played in the library. Not only did they have the barrel of monkeys, mosaic tiles and Tangram, but Missy had run downstairs and grabbed the Chinese checkers. The four girls all played together. They were able to teach Opal how to play and she caught on surprisingly quickly and almost beat Maddie in the end. They talked about different things and it was decided that they would ask Opal's mother if she could go for a trail ride with the twins and Becky the next day.
John, Bill and Peter had been in the office all afternoon. Bill was able to go over everything he knew about the case from years ago, as well as what Bill and his friend had learned over the years of investigating. Peter did research for them as they used the board to lay things out and connect different people together. As they got into John realized that he knew more than he realized. He had heard conversations over the years. They didn't mean anything to him at the time, but thinking back, he realized that this group of men that seemed to run this club, were doing under everyone's noses right out in the open. Bill had brought a list of names to see if John knew anything about any of the various people. John was able to fill in a number of gaps in what Bill was able to learn about the individuals.
John also realized that the men had developed a sort of code for talking about things. Anyone over hearing it would think that they were talking business. John also realized that much of what happened did so over golf and beers at the club. The more John learned the more upset he was. He also realized that his own son had been involved for years, even back to when John had been in the Senate. The various names on the board read like a who's who of the top companies. Several high ranking or former high ranking police officers were suspected to have participated, especially when you started looking at who some of their daughters had married.
Bill and John both took a moment to say a prayer that Thomas hadn't had a daughter, because there would have been no way that John would have been able to deal with things if Thomas had sold her to the highest bidder. It was bad enough that he was connected to at least seven women that he had affairs with. John knew that there was a daughter, but he also knew that God knew what he meant when he said the prayer. Bill unfortunately was also able to connect at least three different men to Charlotte based on things that they knew over the years that seemed innocent at the time. Such as trips or events that Charlotte had gone to and had someone escort her because Thomas was gone or couldn't go.
The one good thing that came out of the afternoon was that they had identified several young women who were "engaged" to various sons of top executives. They decided that they would have Devin's guys do more in depth research into several of the supposed engagements to see if they could find any evidence. They created a plan moving forward and what they were going to do to try and end things so that no young woman would suffer like many of them were. Bill was thinking of his own daughter. While John paused to think of his daughter and wondered if her fate wasn't just as bad as some of these women that they were looking at.
Gran, Trish and Abigail had been able to sit and catch up once all the baking was done. It had been awhile since they had had the opportunity to just sit and talk. Trish and Abigail talked more about online school vs true homeschooling. Gran once again offered her and James' support in whatever they needed to help Peter. By the time that they decided it was time to start gathering everyone, Abigail had a clear plan moving forward regarding what she needed to talk to Bill about.
It was four thirty when Katie knocked on the back door. Abigail quickly got up and let her in.
"Thank you so much for letting Opal stay up here all day." Katie said.
"No problem." Gran said. "She had fun with Becky and the twins. The other good thing will be that she will know someone when she starts school."
"Yes." Abigail said. "Becky will be in fifth grade at St Clement's. I will talk to the principal and see if Becky can be assigned as Opal's buddy. Fifth graders are assigned a kindergartener to help. They show them around, eat lunch with them, make sure that they get on the right bus. I am sure that Becky would love to do it, especially since it sounds like they have been making plans for the summer."
"Thank you for that." Katie said. "If Opal got picked up on the bus from here, would Becky be on the same bus?"
"I believe so." Abigail said. "We live about five miles up the road. We have a small hobby farm with a few chickens right now."
"Thank you again." Katie said. "I was able to get so much done this afternoon. I was able to get plants and seeds ordered. I talked to the guys from the greenhouse company and it sounds like that they would be here Thursday and Friday to reset the four greenhouses. I am excited to get my hands in soil. I was able to get some pots and soil today, so I will be starting plants as things get here. If Jack or Nathan ask, I was able to look at the three new horses and have added supplements to their feed. Let me know if you want fresh chives, parsley or similar up here. I should have some in a couple of weeks."
"I am glad that you had a productive afternoon." Gran said. "I will let JP and Nathan know about the horses. And I would love fresh thyme, chives and parsley when you get it."
"I will make sure that you get some." Katie said.
Trish came back out of the library with Opal.
"Mom, mom." Opal said, running to give her mom a hug.
"Did you have a good afternoon?" Katie asked.
"It was the best." Opal said. "Maddie, Missy and Becky taught me how to play some games, we played in the pool. They invited me to go riding or in the pool with them sometime tomorrow. Becky was telling me about school."
"Why don't you put the toys away and we can head back to the apartment." Katie said. "I got your favorite mac and cheese for supper."
Trish saw what Opal had, so stepped forward.
"She can take those two toys with her." Trish said. "Elizabeth had bought them for the kids. They arrived today."
"Thank you very much." Katie said. "If you are sure about tomorrow, then just let me know when you will be going, maybe I could go as well."
"We will do that." Gran said. "It will probably be sometime after two, even if we don't go, you are more than free to take a couple horses out."
"Her swimsuit is hanging up downstairs." Abigail said. "It can stay there. Becky is going to leave hers as well."
"Thank you for everything." Katie said. "Opal what do you say?"
"Thank you." Opal said. "I had fun."
"You are very welcome, sweetheart." Gran said. "Enjoy your supper and see you later."
Opal waved as she skipped out the back door. Katie waited a moment and then turned back to Gran for a moment.
"I honestly can't thank you enough." Katie said. "I haven't seen her that excited since she first came to live with me again."
"That is wonderful to hear." Abigail said. "I will talk to the principal next week or the week after and then I will get with you."
Katie nodded and then left out the back door as well. Katie watched as Opal skipped across the yard. She hadn't seen her like that since they left the mountains. She was glad that her happy, joyful, outgoing child was coming back. No matter what happened with the job, she knew that answering Nathan's call and agreeing to come up to New York would be one of the best decisions that she had made. Not only was she surrounded by gorgeous land and horses, but she was able to do what she really wanted and that was to help people and animals with her knowledge of plants. Not just advise tourists about what was at roadside stands.
She had been floored by the generosity of James and Margaret since she had first arrived earlier in the week. Not only had they provided her with a job and a place to live, they had opened their home to her daughter. She didn't want for nothing and they were providing opportunities for her daughter that she could never have dreamed of. She had had the opportunity to talk to several other employees as she had started to look over the horses and figure out plans for how to improve things. She had been surprised when James had sat her down that first morning and told her what they wanted to do, but they weren't sure how to go about it. He admitted that his grandson had done tons of research and they knew that it was what they wanted for all of their horses, but they were unsure how to start. James had shared some of what Jack wanted for the future of the ranch. He had then shared that his dream was to see horses born here be sold all over the world because they were better than other ranches. She had agreed to help in the office while she got things moving and then she would focus on the greenhouses and setting up what was needed to individualize what each horse needed, starting with the jumpers and racehorses, then moving on to the breeding facility and then finally the retirement center.