Treachery: Day 10

Word Count: 60,026

Summary of Events:

Adeline couldn't sleep because of the images of the Leonard boy's injuries and her sister's death kept her awake. Edward had a meeting with Mr. Leonard that wasn't terribly cordial. Adeline watched as Edward got the saddle onto the colt's back for the first time. A caller came to the Leonard's and Edward had to get the dog to leave the horse alone, he then worked with the horse for fun, making good acquaintance of the owner. Adeline watched as Edward worked to get the colt to wear the saddle with the cinch fastened . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

"Adeline watched as Edward went around to the colt's other side, reached down, and rubbed the colt's belly gently before grabbing the cinch slowly and bringing it up the colt's belly.

The colt, however, wasn't liking that idea, and stepped away. Edward dropped the cinch and stepped back. Every time Edward made an attempt the colt started away from him, eventually moving around so that Adeline could see the side Edward was working at.

Edward got the colt to stand still for him to rub his belly, then went to work with the portion of leather looped up on the side of the saddle he was on until it was unrolled to a significantly longer length than the cinch on the other side.

Wary, the colt looked around at the length before sniffing, nosing, and nipping at the strap. Adeline wondered what the strap was called why it was so long. She watched as Edward dropped the strap and then rubbed the colt's belly again before feeding the end of the long leather strap through the ring on the end of the cinch.

Slowly Edward pulled on the end, which eventually started raising the cinch off of the ground. The colt startled, Edward stopped pulling. Adeline wondered if she ought to go in and take hold of the colt for Edward, but, being as he hadn't said anything, she didn't think she ought to — lest she upset him.

The colt finally lowered his head and yawned. Edward then resumed pulling the cinch until the colt showed signs of panic again. After getting the colt to relax one more time Edward ended up getting the cinch fully against the colt's belly.

Adeline watched silently as the colt shifted his weight around before bending his head down between his legs and trying to take a bite out of the cinch.

Edward uttered a sharp reprimand before going into his murmur. The colt eventually relaxed, yawning and tossing his head.

"Get him oats," Edward said.

Adeline climbed over the fence and brought a handful of oats out of her pocket, which she fed to the colt while stroking his neck. Edward spoke the words of affirmation as the colt snacked.

Once her hand was as empty as it would get she brushed the remaining slobbered oats onto the ground and dried her hand on her pant leg, then she went back to the fence to let Edward keep working.

Carefully he fed the leather strap around back through the ring it was attached to on the saddle and tightened it. Instantly the colt startled and pulled away. It took some time for Edward to get the colt caught again.

It was slow progress, not that Adeline was entirely surprised, it was probably strange to the colt to have something tied around his middle, but eventually Edward got the cinch totally secured around the colt."