Castaway Colt Read online

  Did the deepening sun wrinkles around Kimo’s eyes indicate disbelief or amusement?

  “Yeah,” she said adamantly. “A young colt, like maybe three months old, I’m guessing, and he didn’t look old enough to be out there alone.”

  “Out where?”

  “Night Digger Point Beach.”

  “I’ll go see what I can find,” Kimo said.

  Assuming he’d mistakenly said I instead of we, Darby turned Navigator to follow.

  “Nope,” Kimo said, shaking his head. “Cathy told me to send you home to try on gym clothes.”

  Darby was grateful that Aunty Cathy, the ranch manager and sort of her stand-in mother at ‘Iolani Ranch, was handy with a needle and willing to alter her daughter Megan’s outgrown gym clothes. Darby had already spent the money her mother had sent on new boots, so she was glad her gym uniform would be free.

  But why should she quit riding and go back now? It couldn’t take longer than five minutes to try on shorts and a T-shirt.

  “That is, if I saw you,” Kimo said.

  Darby caught Kimo’s shrug as he squinted into a breeze scented with ferns and flowers.

  “Too bad you didn’t see me,” Darby said with an answering shrug.

  Then she sent Navigator off at a jog, leading Kimo to the spot where she’d last seen the white colt.

  Together, Darby and Kimo searched a stand of ohia trees that looked different from others she’d seen. Sparse as wizards’ staffs thrust into the ground, they provided a promising hiding place, but the colt wasn’t there.

  They followed hoofprints to a stretch of black-sand beach covered with multicolored rocks. From pewter gray to salt white and coppery brown, they’d been pounded by the ocean until they were smooth and round as cobblestones. Neither Darby nor Kimo thought the colt would try to cross that loose surface if he had a chance to walk elsewhere.

  At the edge of a damp forest, Darby saw shell-shaped fungus clinging to tree trunks. She mistook white globs on some rocks as far-flung sea foam until she rode close enough to see that it was some sort of lichen.

  After hours of searching, Kimo finally told her to ride on back to the ranch.

  “I’ll keep looking until dark,” he promised.

  Darby knew he would, but if tomorrow hadn’t been her first day at a new school, she wouldn’t have ridden back alone.

  Sweaty and frustrated, Darby rode up from the broodmare pastures to the ranch yard.

  Megan was already home from soccer practice. She could tell because the brown Land Rover with the ‘Iolani Ranch owl painted on the door was parked in front of Sun House, and Peach, the Australian shepherd who rode shotgun each time anyone drove into town, wasn’t waiting in his usual seat. The next time the Land Rover goes to town, I’ll be riding shotgun, Darby thought.

  Her stomach gave a nervous twist. Darby knew she was silly not to be looking forward to school.

  She was a good student, so it shouldn’t matter if eighth grade was part of the high school here.

  “I’ll do fine,” Darby muttered to Navigator.

  Navigator’s coffee-colored head bobbed along with his steps. He’d enjoyed the workout, Darby thought. She patted his neck in thanks for his good-natured energy in searching for the white colt. She wished they’d found him, but she had faith that Kimo would.

  Darby unsaddled Navigator and started brushing the dried sweat from his coat. She looked down the road, past the fox cages. Judge was still standing at Hoku’s corral fence.

  The old bay horse belonged to Mrs. Allen, the owner of Blind Faith Mustang Sanctuary and the Dream Catcher Wild Horse Camp in Nevada.

  When the ranch horse had been born, who would have guessed he’d end up in Hawaii? But Darby had adopted Hoku and brought her to Wild Horse Island, and Mrs. Allen had sent Judge along so that Hoku had a stablemate for her voyage.

  On their arrival at the ranch, Jonah had told Darby not to let Hoku choose Judge—or any other horse—over her.

  Since then, Judge had been grazing with other horses in one of the lower pastures.

  According to Kit and Kimo, though, while Darby and Hoku had been in the rain forest last week, Judge’s longing neighs had been endless. Somehow he’d known Hoku was gone.

  Since their return, Judge had plodded up the hill to visit the mustang filly several times each day.

  Now, Darby checked Navigator’s hooves, thanked him for not picking up rocks, and gave him a shoulder pat that told him to move off and look for dinner.

  Then Darby hung up her saddle, left her saddle blanket to air, hooked her bridle on its hanger, and strode down the road toward Judge.

  “Get away!” Darby called to the old horse, but she must not have sounded any scarier than she felt.

  Judge gazed at her as if he must have misunderstood. Darby pretended to scoop up a rock to throw at him.

  The sweet old horse just tilted his ears forward, trying to understand, until she felt a guilty ache.

  “Shoo,” Darby said, then fluttered her hands toward Judge.

  Judge greeted her with a low rumble, and when she got close enough that Hoku switched her attention to Darby’s odd gestures, Judge rolled his eyes and jogged away.

  Hoku neighed after him, but the old bay kept moving.

  “Hey, pretty girl,” Darby said.

  She smooched at the sorrel filly, counting the seconds until Hoku turned back.

  Hoku’s ears swiveled toward Darby like delicate golden leaves turning to the sun.

  Darby sighed, took a quick look around to be sure no one was watching, then tightened her ponytail.

  Hoku rushed to the fence. Her coppery chest pressed against the rails until Darby held out her hand. Then Hoku eased her head over the top rail.

  “Our secret.” Darby mouthed the words, but didn’t say them loud enough for even Hoku to hear.

  She’d only known for a week that the filly would come to her when she tightened her ponytail.

  She loved the secrecy of it, and the idea that Hoku had chosen this silent signal.

  Hoku dusted her lips over Darby’s palm, then snorted, as if clearing an unwelcome scent from her nostrils.

  “Don’t tell me you can smell that colt,” Darby said. “Besides, you’d like him. You two could play together.”

  As soon as she’d said the words, Darby reconsidered. Hoku already had a horse pal: Judge. If Darby supplied her with an equine playmate like the white colt, what would Hoku need with a human friend?

  “Joking,” Darby whispered.

  After feeding the filly, she headed toward Sun House, eager to tell Megan, Jonah, and Aunty Cathy about the white colt.

  In the entrance hall, Darby tugged off Megan’s scuffed burgundy boots and added them to the pile of shoes that Megan, Cathy, and Jonah had lined up, toes to the wall.

  Something fragrant wafted from the kitchen, but Darby passed it to check out the noise in the living room.

  A television news broadcast provided background for conversation, but Darby knew no one would mind if she announced her news.

  Megan and Aunty Cathy hadn’t noticed her yet when Darby began, “Hey, you’ll never believe—”

  Aunty Cathy bit through a thread from the final stitch of her sewing, held up a pair of red shorts, and asked, “What do you think?”

  Struggling to focus on the favor Aunty Cathy had done for her, instead of the colt, Darby said, “Wow, thanks.”

  Lehua High’s school colors of red and gold were still eye-catching on the much-washed shorts and gold T-shirt sitting atop a stack of freshly folded clothes.

  “I don’t know that I’d go so far as a ‘wow,’” Aunty Cathy said, laughing, “but you’re welcome. And they’ll do for the rest of the semester.”

  “Hey,” Megan greeted Darby. The older girl sat cross-legged in front of the television, but her gaze was focused on the textbook in her lap.

  “Hey,” Darby answered. “You’ll never guess what I—”

  Megan glanced up, smiled, and asked, “A
re you excited about tomorrow?”

  “Sure.” Darby tried her best not to sound impatient.

  “Not nervous?”

  “No,” Darby fibbed.

  “The best thing about school is that you get a fresh start every year,” Aunty Cathy pointed out.

  Tomorrow would have been a fresh start, Darby thought, if Megan—star forward on her soccer team—hadn’t missed an important game.

  The team had lost.

  You should have heard all my teammates. They wouldn’t stop harassing me until I told them the whole stupid story, Megan had said, rolling her eyes as she’d explained to Darby that instead of taking the blame in silence, she’d admitted she’d missed the game because she’d had to make sure her city-slicker houseguest—Darby—hadn’t broken her neck after jumping off a cliff to rescue a horse.

  Darby hoped the students at Lehua High School had more to do with their brain cells than remember her name.

  “Here comes the story we’ve been waiting for,” Megan said suddenly. “It’s something about a missing horse.”

  A missing horse? On the news? Darby’s mind started making connections.

  “Hey, I bet—”

  But Aunty Cathy was already shouting, “Jonah! You’ll want to see this!”

  “I won’t,” his booming voice insisted, but Darby heard her grandfather padding down the hall.

  Darby was surprised to see him. Jonah usually worked until Kimo had left for the day and Cade and Kit had gone to the foreman’s house for dinner.

  Rubbing his wet hair with a towel, her grandfather pointed at Darby. “Why didn’t you see off that old gelding that was bothering your filly?”

  “I did,” Darby said, confused.

  “Good,” Jonah answered, then left the towel hanging around his neck as he faced the television’s scratchy picture. “Now hush.”

  As they all stared at the screen in silence, Darby made out a surfer gliding along a white-tipped wave and the sound of strumming ukuleles.

  “What’s that got to do with a lost horse?” Jonah grumbled.

  “It’ll be on after the commercial,” Aunty Cathy said. She was standing, but she didn’t leave the room.

  “They showed Babe in the little preview thing,” Megan assured Jonah.

  “Dressed like an angel.” Jonah’s sarcasm suggested that he didn’t consider his sister angelic.

  “Everything up at Sugar Sands Cove is white. It’s their signature color,” Megan explained. “I think it’s cool.”

  “Cool,” Jonah repeated. “My big sister is very cool when it comes to money.”

  Darby’s brow tightened in a frown, but she kept quiet. She hadn’t yet met her wealthy great-aunt.

  “Makes me crazy up there,” Jonah muttered. “And now she’s got the pupule idea that throwing away money will make her more.”

  Aunty Cathy handed Darby the gym clothes, but kept her eyes focused on the television as she said, “Sometimes it’s true that you’ve got to spend money to make money.”

  “But those tourist rides,” Jonah grumbled.

  Tourist rides at Sugar Sands Cove or ‘Iolani Ranch? Darby wondered. ‘Iolani was a working ranch, and Darby had figured out that every hour of every day was needed to keep it running. Just as she was about to ask for details, the news came back on.

  “A Moku Lio Hihiu innkeeper makes an appeal for the return—”

  “Innkeeper.” Jonah sneered, but this time both Megan and Aunty Cathy shushed him.

  “—and tells how a valuable cremello foal was swept overboard during a struggle with the sea…”

  The screen was filled with the vivacious, concerned face of a Hawaiian woman with short, shingled hair and slick mango-colored lipstick.

  “I just hope he’s okay. He’s such a baby,” she said.

  “Babe Kealoha Borden is best known for the world-class Sugar Sands Cove Resort, which she opened with her internationally famous polo-player husband…”

  So that was her great-aunt Babe, Darby thought.

  The reporter’s voice continued as photographs showed Babe in gauzy white, floating through the plush rooms and lavish gardens of her resort, which then dissolved into a shot of her as a flower-bedecked parade rider.

  “…is also known for her love of horses. ‘My mare Flight foaled while she was on Maui for training,’” Babe said on-screen. “‘When Stormbird, her colt, was ready to travel, they started for home….’” Babe’s voice trailed off and Darby heard the breaking of waves in the background. “‘Rough water came out of nowhere. My grandson brought the horses up on deck so that they’d be safer in case the storm turned worse.’”

  The reporter’s dramatic voice picked up the story, saying, “The storm did turn worse. The boat cap-sized. And though Flight was saved due to what Borden describes as Yawn’s heroic actions—”

  “Oh, gag me,” Megan muttered.

  Darby caught just a glimpse of a Nordic-looking guy with blond hair, blue eyes, in openmouthed laughter as he hauled on ropes in what might be a sailboat race. He must be about college age, Darby thought, and he sure didn’t look worthy of Megan’s scorn. Or the name Yawn.

  “—little Stormbird jumped into the rough seas between Maui and Moku Lio Hihiu, and is presumed lost.”

  When the camera returned to Babe, she held up a photograph.

  Darby’s heart beat faster. She squinted, trying to see better, but the camera lens was dazzled by star flashes that came from Babe’s diamond rings as she went on. “He didn’t drown,” Babe insisted. She faced the camera with a determination that made Darby glance at Jonah. Chic clothes and elegant manners couldn’t hide the family stubbornness. “He’s come ashore somewhere, and I’m counting on your viewers’ spirit of aloha to help find him.”

  As the reporter came back on, he joked, “The aloha spirit is not all the Bordens are counting on. The family has offered a substantial reward for the safe return of little Stormbird.”

  In khaki pants and Hawaiian shirt, the reporter stood next to a palm tree on Sugar Sands Cove’s grounds.

  He held up a poster of a check showing a figure with more zeroes than Darby could make sense of right away, but she heard the reporter ask, “Isn’t that a lot to pay for such a young horse of unproven worth?”

  “His worth is proven to me,” Babe said, crossing her arms.

  “You can see more photographs of Sugar Sands Cove Resort and learn the details of this amazing offer on our website…”

  Darby didn’t hear another word, because the camera zoomed in on a color photograph of Flight and Stormbird.

  Small and pale, the colt would have been hard to make out, standing next to his snow-white mother, except for one spot of color.

  The colt looked out of the television with turquoise eyes.

  Chapter 3

  “That’s him!” she gasped.

  “Shh!” Megan, Aunty Cathy, and Jonah all said, still staring at the television, but Darby couldn’t hold in her excitement any longer.

  “No, you’ve got to listen. That colt I told you about—he’s Stormbird. I found him!”

  “Darby, honey, when exactly did you tell us about this colt?” Aunty Cathy asked.

  “Now.” Darby took a deep breath. “Since I came in, I’ve been trying to!”

  “Speak up, then,” Jonah said.

  “We found him on Night Digger Point Beach, and then he followed us—”

  “‘We’?” Megan asked.

  “Me and Navigator. And Kimo’s still out looking for him.”

  “And he looked like that colt?” Megan gestured toward the television. She was as excited as Darby.

  “He is that colt,” Darby insisted, but her words became giggles as Megan jumped to her feet, keeping her arms wrapped around her ribs as if she was trying to contain her delight.

  Darby could see that if it was up to Megan, the two of them would be leaping onto horses and galloping toward Night Digger Point Beach right now.

  But Jonah reined them both in. “Tel
l me why you’re so sure it’s not some other colt,” he asked.

  “His eyes are blue,” Darby said, “and his coat is creamy white. Oh, and his nose is pink,” Darby added, recalling how the colt had looked up to study her.

  “Cremellos have pink skin,” Cathy said, “not black, like white Andalusians and Arabs.”

  “Too fancy for me,” Jonah scoffed, but Darby saw a slow smile lift one side of his black mustache. Then her grandfather laughed out loud. “Good. Sounds like we’ll be keeping that money in the family.”

  “And you say you know where he is?” Aunty Cathy sounded cautious.

  “Why didn’t you bring the colt in?” Jonah asked.

  “I know where he was,” Darby explained.

  “Tango will find him!” Megan interrupted.

  That was a great idea, Darby thought. Megan’s rose roan mare would have perfect instincts for the task. Tango had been a wild horse, then a captive one. She’d been trained, then freed by an accident, and now she was home again.

  But Jonah hadn’t gotten that far in the plan. “You say Kimo’s out looking for him right now,” Jonah mused.

  “I would have kept searching with him, but he told me Aunty Cathy wanted me to try on my gym clothes,” Darby said as Aunty Cathy walked, smiling, toward the kitchen.

  “Gym clothes!” Megan shook her head in disbelief, and then she was on her feet, practically dancing as she slung an arm around Darby’s shoulders.

  “If Kimo doesn’t find him, Darby—my old buddy, old pal—I’ll help you. And we’ll split the money!”

  “Dinner’s ready,” Aunty Cathy called.

  “Mom!” Megan yelled at the wall between the living room and kitchen. “We’ve got to go find Stormbird!”

  “Kimo will bring him, if he’s out there,” Aunty Cathy shouted back.

  Darby couldn’t help looking at Jonah.

  “I know it’s him,” Darby persisted. “He’s the right age and everything.”

  “And how many white colts with blue eyes are out wandering around alone?” Megan asked Jonah, then wheeled on Darby. “He was by himself, right?”

  “Yes,” Darby said. “And lonesome, too. He wanted to play with Navigator.”

  Aunty Cathy returned. Carrying a platter loaded with food, she sidled in between the two girls and indicated that they should follow her to the table on the lanai.