“Don’t have to. You two have a mutual admiration society going on.” She located the pigs wallowing in the large mud pit she’d dug a few days ago for Wilbur. Harley was going to fit right in. “I like Regan a lot, although he’s already telling me I’m doing this horse thing wrong.”
“What does he think you’re doing wrong?”
“Letting the horses roam the property, for starters.”
“Well, Regan prefers more order than that, but those six horses are pretty old. I don’t think it’ll hurt to let them have some freedom in their golden years.”
“I, um, have more than six, now. And they’re not all in their golden years.”
“Oh? How many do you have?”
“Twenty-one.”
“Good golly, Miss Molly! What did you do, advertise?”
“Not exactly, but I’ve talked to people when I go into town. Oh, and I redesigned the website and made sure it came up on all the search engines. It’s a kick-ass site, if I do say so.”
“I’ll bet.”
“I guess the word got out that I was here and had room for more horses.”
“I’m sure it did.” Nick was quiet for a bit. “Lily, you don’t have room in your current barn to keep twenty-one horses forever. You’ll have to renovate that barn and add more stalls.”
“What do you mean, forever? Won’t people come and adopt some of them?”
“Not usually. You have a sanctuary, which means you take in animals that are too sick or old to be ridden anymore and you keep them until they die.”
“Oh.” How embarrassing. She hadn’t understood the basic premise of the project she’d taken on. “What do you call a place where you adopt out some of the horses?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe an equine rescue facility. But not a sanctuary.”
Lily swallowed. “Well, that’s what I need this to be, then, an equine rescue facility, at least for the animals I’ve taken in since I arrived. They’re not old and ready to die. People didn’t want them, so I accepted them. I thought that was what I was supposed to do.”
“It’s okay. No harm done. But you can’t ever adopt out those original six. They’re there for the duration.”
“I did figure that, but the barn holds twelve, and I thought it was a shame for the other stalls to go to waste.” Still, she felt like an idiot.
“Don’t worry. You can sort this out. What’s your plan for the adoption process?”
“Um...I’m working on it.” She hated to admit that no plan existed yet, but it couldn’t be that hard. She’d had no trouble finding people who wanted to get rid of horses, so now she needed to find the other half, the ones who wanted horses. “I should also probably mention the chickens.”
“What chickens?”
“Rescue chickens. I have nine of them.”
“How the hell did that happen?”
“I said yes to one person, and before you know it, I had nine.”
Nick sighed. “Do you know anything about chickens?”
“Enough to know I don’t want a rooster!”
“That’s a start.” He didn’t sound quite as confident now.
“I’m okay with the chickens, Nick. Mom and Dad had some a few years back, so they’re helping me figure it out. I also have two potbellied pigs. You’d be amazed how much info Google can dig up on potbellied pigs.”
“Good Lord. You know, Lily, you don’t need to accept every animal that shows up at your gate.”
“That’s what I tell myself, but I worry what will happen to them if I don’t.”
He sighed. “Yeah, that’s a problem when you get into the rescue business, but here’s the deal. You have accepted twenty-one horses, nine chickens and two pigs. I’m sure they keep you busy.”
“They do.” She had almost no downtime these days. She hadn’t played a video game in weeks, and her meditation practice was shot, but so far she’d kept up with the critters.
“Think about the animals you already have before you take in any more, okay? You owe those animals your best, and the larger your numbers, the less you’ll be able to give them your best.”
“I could hire help.”
“You could, but you’re still limited to the space you have. When winter comes, you’ll want to keep the horses in the barn most of the time, and that barn’s not big enough for twenty-one horses.”
“I could add on or build another one, like you said.”
“But where does it stop? Are you planning to buy more land and just keep building barns? How big an operation do you want?”
Lily took a deep breath. “I don’t want a big operation. I love this property just the size it is. It suits me, and the idea of employees gives me hives. I’d have to fill out IRS stuff and get them health insurance and learn how to be the boss of them.”
“If you don’t want to expand, you know what you have to do.”
“Right. Turn away any incoming horses until I adopt some out and make room.” Her stomach hurt. How could she refuse to take a homeless animal? That would kill her.
“Good. And about letting them roam everywhere, you might want to—”
“I know. Regan pointed out that they won’t be adoptable unless they have good manners, and some of the younger ones aren’t all that well behaved. A couple of them act like they want to fight with each other. I probably need to stop letting them run loose.”
“Yes, you do. They need to adapt to normal restrictions or nobody will want them. A well-trained horse is much easier to adopt out.”
For the first time since she’d moved onto the property, she felt uncertain that she’d done the right thing. She should have asked more questions instead of blithely leaping into something because it had sounded cozy. She’d liked the idea of doing something good for the planet. On the surface a horse sanctuary had seemed romantic and not particularly complicated. She’d loved the name of the place. Someone with the last name of King should have a kingdom, right?
If she’d understood that she was only supposed to take care of animals on their last legs, she might not have bought Peaceful Kingdom. Sure, somebody needed to do it, but she didn’t have the temperament. She’d be bored out of her tree, which might have been why she’d encouraged the locals to bring in more horses and liven things up.
Now she had to whip these newly acquired equines into shape fast and find them good homes so she could keep taking in the needy ones that would be lining up outside her gate with woeful expressions in their beautiful big eyes. The word was spreading, and in tough economic times, many people couldn’t afford to keep the horse they’d bought in a burst of optimism. That was the story most everyone had given her when they’d arrived at her gate.
Her next admission was so hard to make. “Nick, I don’t know how to train a horse.”
“That’s no problem. You’re a smart person. I’ll talk to Regan and see if he can help you. I’ll help you, too, when I can, but Regan has a little more free time than I do. He’ll probably agree. He’s a good guy.”
She latched on to this new topic with relief. “Speaking of Regan, what’s his deal, Nick?”
He hesitated. “What do you mean?”
“You don’t have to tell me if