They’d wandered off to forage again, in spite of the more than adequate supply of food we’d left them in the stable. It wasn’t snowing yet, but the air had the heavy feel of an approaching storm, and I wasn’t prepared to lose the horses if it came during the night. I made the stalls as comfortable as I could, then went searching for them.I found Rowan’s horse in the garden, digging up what root vegetables the summer people had left behind. I clucked my tongue and she came along easily enough. Mine wasn’t in the yard, so I took a lead rope and followed the only path into the woods. I hadn’t gone far when a rustling noise from behind a thick stand of pines stopped me. I moved quietly in case it was something other than the horse. The lake was a safe enough place in the summer, but I didn’t know what creatures might take advantage of the never-frozen water during the winter.It was nothing but the black and white horse, standing in a small clearing and rubbing her hairy side against a tree with a thick, twisted trunk.
