n pretensions.The horse was lathered, and when the trees opened out for a space, he halted for a moment's rest--relaxing the reins no morethan enough to take the strain off his wrists, and keeping a sufficient grip as to discourage any notions the outheidie creaturemight still be entertaining. They stood among a grove of silver birch, at the lip of a small rocky outcrop above a forty-foot drop;he thought the big bay held much too high an opinion of himself to contemplate self-destruction, but in case he had any thoughtof flinging his rider off into the laurels below...The breeze was from the west. Jamie lifted his chin, enjoying the cold touch of it on his heated skin. The land fell away inundulating waves of brown and green, kindled here and there with patches of color, lighting the mist in the hollows like the glowof campfire smoke. He felt a peace come over him at the sight, and breathed deep, his body relaxing. Gideon relaxed too, allthe feistiness draining out of him. Slowly, Jamie let his hands drop lightly on the horse's neck, and the horse stayed still, earsforward. Ah, he thought. This was a Place, then.He thought of such Places in a way that had no words, only recognizing one when he came to it. He might have called it holy,save that the feel of such a place had nothing to do with church or saint. It was simply a place he belonged to be, and that wassufficient, though he preferred to be alone when he found one. He let the reins go slack across the horse's neck. Not even athrawn-heided horse like this Gideon would give trouble here.Sure enough, the horse stood quiet, massive withers steaming in the chill. They could not tarry long, but he was deeply glad ofthe momentary respite--not from the battle with Gideon, but from the press of people.He had learned early on the trick of living separately in a crowd, private in his mind when his body could not be. But he hadlearned early, too, the enchantment of solitude, and the healing o...
