After dinner, we all trouped out the barn to have Sam try things on. He looked very nervous, but apparently, having his mother and aunt there was enough to keep him from running. He transformed in one of the unused stalls and stepped out into the light of barn’s central path. He shook his head at Meredith who simply walked over to him with a saddle pad in one hand and his halter, which we had thoughtfully grabbed, in the other.

“Okay, mister,” she said. “Let’s try this out, shall we?”

Slipping the halter over Sam’s ears, she buckled it loosely, then gently placed the soft pad on his back just behind his withers. His ears flickered back, but this did not seem to alarm him overly much, and Meredith let the pad sit there for a few long minutes before taking the lead of his halter and walking him slowly in a circle. Sam followed her without question, the tension leaking out of his stride as he got used to feeling the pad shift on his back.

Halting again, Meredith let go and looked him squarely in the eye.

“Good. Now, I’m going to lay just the saddle across your back, okay? No girth or stirrups just yet. Try not to embarrass yourself.”

Sam laid his ears back, but Meredith ignored him and picked up the saddle she had brought with her from the tack room. It was a fairly standard English style saddle, brown with brown suede knee rolls and a low cantle that rose behind the small seat for the rider. Sam snorted at it and edged slightly away, but a quiet word from Susan made him settle and allow Meredith to place it over the saddle pad. Sam shook and the skin on his neck shivered, but he again stood still, though trembling. Meredith led him around once again and walked him until his shaking subsided.

Sam’s uncle stepped over to where Sarah and I stood out of potential explosion range, and whispered, “He’s doing very well. I’ve seen a few clan members come through this training, both from Meredith’s clan and others. Believe me, I’ve seen saddles go straight out that barn door, and Meredith standing and confronting an angry or frightened stallion or mare over the wearing of it. He’s going to be fine.”

I nodded, but kept my eye on Sam the whole while. Meredith then picked up the girth and led all of us out into the yard.

“This part is harder,” she said. “We need to put the girth on the saddle or else Laura will fall off when you move. If you feel the need to do anything, try to wait until I tighten the girth enough.”

Sam nodded and then stiffened as Meredith buckled one side of the girth and brought it under to attach to the other side. He trembled and stomped his feet as she tightened and checked the buckles. Then she backed up a little to give Sam room.

The explosion, when it came, was frightening in its violence. Sam leapt into the air, whirling, bucking, and squealing, biting at the saddle as he tried in vain to get it off. We all stood back, except for Susan who let her son vent for a few moments, then walked calmly over and caught his halter. When he saw who had him, he calmed down, but he still shook hard. Meredith came back over to him, took the halter from Susan and walked him around until the shaking stopped. Sam finally breathed a huge breath out, and Meredith tightened the girth a little more so that it was snug. Sam looked at her sheepishly, and then followed her docilely as she walked him around in circles again.

Stirrups were next, but were tied up out of the way after Sam had a chance to feel them touch his sides as he walked. Then came the bridle. Meredith first held out the bit for Sam to smell, and he recoiled a little but sniffed it just the same. Meredith then asked him to open his mouth, and she gently put the snaffle between the gaps of Sam’s teeth. The face Sam made me giggle, and he turned to look at me reproachfully as if to say, “Hey, you come try this.” This only made me giggle more. Sam just shook his head and proceeded to mouth the bit, testing it with his tongue and playing with it without really pushing it out of his mouth. Meredith slipped the headstall over Sam’s ears and attached the clips to the bit gently on either side, leaving the straps loose. Sam shook his head and the bit stayed in place, though there was still room him to move it if he so chose.

“Well,” said Meredith. “How does that feel?”

Sam made a face and pushed the bit out from the gap in his teeth. It couldn’t fall out, so he let it fall back down into the gap. Meredith held up the reins, when Sam gave a tentative nod, clipped them on and handed them to me.

“Obviously, you’d use the full bridle eventually and tighten the straps for the bit. Otherwise, it would be easy to notice that the bit was not really held in place by anything. This is an easy beginning for him. Normally, they just do not wear tack.”

“We do recognize the necessity for wearing it, though, in certain circumstances,” said Susan. “I’ve had to work with some others who have been going through the same thing of late. We have a couple of other mixed pairs living outside of the clan lands, and you can bet that they have been very careful. The internet has made life that much more complicated for us.”

One of Sam’s teenaged cousins, Ted by name, came out into the barn and looked at Sam. He gave a half laugh, and turned to Meredith with a grin.

“You’re letting Sam wear my tack?”

Sam looked at Meredith and then at Ted, his expression puzzled.

“Oh yeah, you haven’t heard, have you?” said Meredith. “About a year ago, Ted’s gift decided to show up. A bit later than normal, but he adjusted pretty well. He and his brother Matt do local shows together. Jumping mostly.”

Susan looked at her sister in amusement, “And you encourage it?”

“Sure,” said Meredith, her eyes twinkling in amusement. “Lets me live vicariously through my kids and all since I never got the genes right. You know, come to think of it, Ted looks a lot like Sam when he’s in horse form. I wonder…”

“Hmm?”

“Ted, how’d you like to come with me to Massachusetts for a few weeks? Give your cousin a hand with a problem or two. It’s summer vacation, and Dad could probably spare you, if that’s okay with the two of you.”

Uncle Peter nodded.

“Sure,” said Ted, “What can I do?

“Pretend to be Sam in horse form so we can fool this chaser,” said Meredith. “If he sees Laura with you and Sam leading Fáilte, it’ll take the heat off him as the suspect at least.”

“True,” said Susan. “That could work pretty well. Plus Ted is used to carrying a rider, so he’ll be steadier if he has to carry you. I think it will work. In fact, I think I may tag along for a few days. I had been planning a surprise visit to see my offspring before I headed back anyway.”

Sam snorted and pawed the ground shaking his head irritably. Meredith smiled and undid the tack, brushing Sam lightly with a dandy brush before letting him go off to change and dress himself. Moments later, he reappeared, still buttoning his shirt.

“Can’t say no, can I?” he asked with a rueful smile.

His mother smiled angelically at him.

“Not with a bit in your mouth, you can’t,” she said. “Do you have room for all of us?”

“I’ll manage,” said Sam. “Besides, I’ll get to catch up with Teddy and hear all about his show jumping. Maybe I will take up dressage, now that the whole family has lost their minds.”

“I wouldn’t try it, mister,” said Susan in a mock-threatening tone. “Just because my sister’s kids have lost their minds does not mean that my son is going to lose his too.”

Sam snorted but he shot me a look that seemed to say, “Challenge accepted?” I gave a brief nod and trouped back inside with everyone else for what turned out to be a very homey evening and later, a comfortable bed to share with Sam.

“Guess what?” he said. “Welcome to the family.”

“How do you know that I’m okay by them?” I asked.

“Meredith has plenty of guest rooms. If she didn’t approve, we wouldn’t be staying in the same room.”

“Ah, I see,” I mused. “I mean, we’ve spent plenty of nights together before, so I guess I didn’t give the room assignments a thought. This has been a very strange turn of events for one day.”

“Exactly,” said Sam, turning out the light. “And a bit overwhelming to boot. It’s going to take me a while to get used to the idea of tack. I’m not thrilled, but I can see the advantages.”

“I’m just worried that I’m going to end up hurting you,” I said, curling up in the crook of his arm.

“Well, you are kind of bossy, and I am handing you the reins, literally. You’ll get used to it.”

“Bossy!” I exclaimed. “I’ll show you who’s bossy!”

I leaned in and kissed him hard. He responded by flipping me over and suddenly his lean body was on top of mine. We both froze and looked at each other in the dim light of the room, unsure of what to do or if we were about to push a boundary that the other one wasn’t ready for. Sam raised a hand and stroked my cheek, gently pushing back my hair from my face. I looked up at him, willing him to see that I was fully accepting him for who and what he was.

“Is it okay?” he murmured. “You’re not just reacting to this afternoon, are you?”

“No,” I said back. “No, it’s time.”

He rolled to the side and divested of the last of his clothing. I did the same. The rest of the night was a long, slow exploration that left neither of us with any doubts about our compatibility as partners.

We got back to Andover about 1:00 the next day to an enthusiastic cat and a couple of missed calls on the landline. Sam had gone back to his house with his mother while Meredith and Ted had gone over to Meredith’s friend’s house to get the little mare settled in. They’d return later that night to Sam’s house where we’d all be meeting to have a solid supper and a planning session. Sarah went to take a shower and when she was done, we settled in to some well-needed housekeeping chores. Dishes needed doing, clothes needed washing, and the small dust bunnies of cat fur had doubled in size over the last few days. It didn’t take much cat to make dust bunnies breed like crazy.

Finally about five o’clock, we got in the car and went over to Sam’s. The house seemed way too busy, what with his aunt, cousin, and mother there. His cousin was in the kitchen, cooking. This apparently was Teddy’s other new skill. His was a purely gustatory infatuation, but he was all about experimenting with different spices and flavors. By the time we got there, there was some sort of pasta going with a home made sauce that was a reduction of this or a roux of that…I was honestly so lost after the first sentence that I just contented myself with smelling, and later eating, the wonderful food.

After dinner, we sat down to try to figure out what Jarrett’s, if that was his real name, plan was. He had obviously been watching us for a few days at least. The field by the cabin had a gate near it that was usually locked, but it gave a clear view of the meadow for anyone who drove by. Our best guess was that Jarrett had driven by one day, assuming he lived in the area as he claimed, and had stumbled upon us playing in the field. It would have been easy to find us again as we had kept close to the same time – foolishly on our part – and then just wait for the right day to come speak to us.

Our best guesses as to who he was were varied. He was, at worst, a member of the Boston group of Mystery Seekers, as it turned out they called themselves. At best, he was an overly nosey neighbor who had noticed something odd about the chestnut stallion he had seen playing in the field and had decided to investigate. Either way, he had tried to gain more information about us. Susan surmised that he might have seen me with the horse in the field and driven around to see me come out with a man. That might have been enough to spark his curiosity into spying on us.

“We’ve only been going on Wednesday evenings and on weekend afternoons,” said Sam thoughtfully. “We could go other times, but he might miss us. Also, how can we get Fáilte in without parking a horse trailer in the circle?”

“We could park it on Judson Street,” said Sarah. “It’s a dead end, and there is a trail that leads around Rabbit’s Pond and right to the Sanctuary. That should be no problem. He could even follow us back there to see the horse trailer, and there would be the evidence.”

“Brilliant,” said Meredith and looked pointedly at Teddy. “You think you can handle riding in the trailer?”

“I think I can manage, yes,” he said, and grinned. “We’ll give him something to see.”

“Remember,” said Susan. “We are not out to hurt him, just trick him into thinking Sam is a normal human being. Run in the field, play with Laura, and come to her when called. Otherwise, act like a horse. No heroics.”

“I got it,” said Teddy. “Same as I do with Matt. Horse. Big like rock, hard like rock, dumb like rock.”

“Not too dumb, please,” I said. “I get enough of that at work.”

“Speaking of which,” said Sarah, “we all have work in the morning. I think we need to head home if we are going to have any chance of being coherent tomorrow.”

“Agreed. Do we want to try tomorrow evening?” I asked.

“Let’s stick to the schedule and go Wednesday,” said Sam.

“Yes,” said Meredith with an evil cackle. “And tomorrow, we can practice riding lessons.”

“Oh, joy,” said Sam.

Teddy poked him with an elbow.

“If I can do it, you can, Coz,” he said.

Sam grimaced and walked us to the door.

“See you then,” he said, kissing me goodnight.