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“I’ll go left,” Robert said, steering his horse off the muddy path.
“Come on,” Des said, nudging his horse to the right. “Percy, you’re with me. Let Minnie do the work. Don’t fight her.”
“Okay,” he said eagerly.
Now, he had been born and raised on a sheep farm, and yes, he’d seen horsemen work flocks of sheep. He could manage along with the best of them, even as young as thirteen, he was out there working the sheep with grown men.
But he ain’t ever worked cattle, and truth be told, he wasn’t sure exactly what Des had meant about letting Minnie do the work. A rider was always the one in charge. But he didn’t doubt Albie or Des. And he might not have known how to work cattle, but he knew horses.
And some were smarter than people. So if they said to put Minnie in charge, that’s what he’d do.
And oh boy.
It was all he could do to hold on.
She turned on a dime, cutting cattle in and out, rounding them up, always keeping the advantage and never stopping, until they had the herd heading for home.
Percy grinned the whole way back, despite the sleet and misty rain and the freezing cold.
It was hard work. He was panting and muscle-sore. But he’d loved every minute of it.
When they got back to the homestead, Albie was at the front paddock, gate open, and the cattle funnelled through. Except one cow tried to break away; Minnie darted for it, and it quickly fell back into line. Percy laughed and cheered. “Best day ever!”
Albie shook his head, but it did get a smile out of him, and he headed back to the house.
Des ordered the horses back to the stable. “I’ll tend to the horses,” Percy volunteered. He slid down off Minnie and took the reins of Des’ horse. “Leave them with me.”
They did, and a short while later, he had all horses unsaddled, brushed, and safely in their stables with some fresh hay as a reward. Then he went in search of Des.
“Albie wants to see you,” Des said.
So he went in search of Albie. Found him inside, clanging pans in the kitchen, but there were books strewn across the table. Well, he didn’t find Albie so much as his backend poking out, his head in the bottom shelves, muttering and cussing to himself.
He admired the view for half a second before he cleared his throat. “You wanted to see me?” Percy asked.
Albie donked his head on the shelf and stood up, rubbing the spot. “Ow.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I wasn’t being quiet or nothing. You were just...” He gave a pointed nod to the bottom shelf. “Busy.”
“I was looking for... never mind,” he said. Clearly, he wasn’t in the best mood. “You enjoyed your morning,” he noted, walking past Percy to the table where he began to tidy up the books. “Des said you did well, considering.”
Considering he’d never done it before.
“I think I can give full credit to your horse,” Percy replied. “I just had to hang on. Des said to trust her, and he was right. Is your head all right? You banged it pretty hard.”
That gave Albie some pause and he sighed, settling on a smile. “It’s fine, thank you.”
They stared at each other for a moment until Percy’s heart squeezed. He let out a breath. “Des said you wanted to see me.”
“Ah, yes.” Albie turned away, seemingly annoyed again. “If you want to make the damper for tonight, you’ll need to get started.”
“Oh, of course.” Percy hadn’t realised the time. He couldn’t help but notice the edge to Albie’s clipped tone or the way he was handling those books. “Is everything good?”
“Yes, of course, it’s just...” Albie shook his head. “It’s nothing.”
“It is something,” Percy pushed. “You can tell me. I won’t tell Des or Robert.”
Albie looked at him then, his eyes fierce, but something in them gave way, defeated. “I’m not very good with this stuff,” he blurted out, frowning at the books he held. “This was my father’s business. He understood it. The percentages and taxes and stock prices. I can’t make heads nor tails of it. I’ve wasted a whole day. I can barely—” He stopped there, mad at himself again.
