Claude shrugged. “That’s the way it’s done. Blue will get over it. She always does.”
A surge of sorrow and anger welled up in Julia’s chest. She knew hard decisions sometimes had to be made when working with animals, but taking a three-day-old foal away from its mother was ridiculous and cruel. For the first time in her life, she was so mad she didn’t care what Claude or anyone else thought. The horses belonged to her now, and she had pledged to take care of them. “Where is she?” she asked again.
He lifted his chin, indicating the other end of the barn. “In with the nurse mare who delivered last night.”
“What’s a nurse mare? Explain it to me like I’m in first grade.”
Irritation furrowed Claude’s brow. “A nurse mare is a horse who just foaled and is able to produce milk. We use nurse mares to nurse other foals, foals that might be worth money. Like Blue’s filly, Samantha.”
“So the nurse mare is taking care of two babies?”
“No, just Blue’s.”
Julia frowned. “What about the nurse mare’s foal? Where is it?”
Claude went back to spreading straw.
“Where is it? Tell me.”
He looked at her, his face flat. “We send nurse mare foals to auction.”
“Is that what that truck was doing here? Picking up the nurse mare’s foal?”
Claude nodded.
“So you took Blue’s three-day-old filly away from her and gave it to the nurse mare, then took the nurse mare’s newborn away from her and sent it to auction?”
He took off his gloves and fixed hard eyes on her. “The sooner you learn that nurse mare foals are by-products of the racing industry and the pharmaceutical industry, the better off you’ll be. Some farms let nurse mare foals starve, club them to death, or sell them for skin and meat. We don’t do that here.”
“Well, how do you know the foal won’t be sold for skin and meat at the auction?”
“I don’t.”
Julia bunched her hands into fists at her sides. “Go get it.”
He gaped at her. “Beg your pardon?”
“I want you to put Samantha back in Blue’s stall with her. Then I want you to go get the nurse mare’s foal and bring it back here.”
Claude sighed loudly and shook his head. “Sorry, but that’s not how it’s done, Miss Blackwood. This is a business, not a place for bleeding hearts.”
“Well, I own this business now and we’re doing things my way. No more taking foals away from their mothers and no more sending newborns to auction.”
Claude straightened his shoulders and jutted out his chin. “We’re trying to make money here. We raise racehorses and show horses, not barnyard pets.”
“I don’t care. I’ve seen the books and we’ve got plenty of money. And while I’m in charge, we’re not taking babies from their mothers. We’ll have to figure out another way to make things work.”
Just then, Fletcher came into the barn. “What’s going on?”
Claude came out of the stall and yanked off his gloves. “Ask her,” he said, and stormed away. He exited through the open barn door, got in his truck, slammed the driver’s side door, and sped out of the driveway, gravel shooting from his back tires.
Fletcher looked at Julia, eyebrows raised. “Where’s he going in such a hurry?”
Despite her conviction that she was doing the right thing, she was on the verge of tears. Her knees shook as adrenaline left her body. Putting her foot down and saying what she thought was exhausting. “To get the nurse mare’s foal and bring it back here.”
“What? Why?”
“I don’t want foals taken from mares or sent to auction,” she said. “Ever.”
Fletcher crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, his face somber. “Okay. But that means more time between births and fewer horses to sell.”
“I don’t care. Blackwood Farm is doing perfectly fine, and if we have to get by on less in the future, we’ll figure that out when the time comes. But I refuse to make money that way. Now, will you please help me give Samantha back to Bonnie Blue?”
He put on a pair of gloves and studied her, the hint of a grin on his face. “Yes, Miss Blackwood.”
She turned and started down the aisle in the other direction.
“Hey, where are you going?” he said. “I thought you wanted help taking Samantha to Blue?”
“You can do it,” she called over her shoulder. “Their stall needs to be cleaned.” She entered Blue’s stall and got to work.
In truth, she needed to be alone. The thought of foals being taken away from their mothers, ripped without warning from everything familiar and loved, then starved, clubbed, or sold for meat, tore her heart to shreds. Tears filled her eyes as she imagined Blue and the nurse mare, scared and confused and frantic, wondering why someone had taken their babies. She could almost feel the horrible, heavy pain in their chests, the terror and helplessness in their minds. It didn’t matter that they were animals. Mares still possessed the maternal instinct. She had seen it with her own eyes when Bonnie Blue looked back at her newborn filly. It was love at first sight. Her mother had never looked at her that way, but Julia had studied enough interactions between mothers and daughters to recognize unconditional love when she saw it. Then another thought hit her and she had to stop working.
How many foals had been taken away from their mothers at Blackwood Manor Horse Farm? How many horses’ hearts had been broken because of her parents’ greed? How could anyone be that callous year after year after year? What kind of people were her parents anyway?
CHAPTER 21
LILLY
Wearing a white silk gown, kitten heels, satin evening gloves, and a white feather boa, Lilly shivered in front of a cracked mirror in the cooch show dressing tent, despite the fact that it was well over ninety degrees outside and the inside of the tent felt hotter still. She hadn’t eaten a thing all day, and her empty stomach twisted with nerves and bile. Behind her, half-naked women wiped red lipstick off their lips, scrubbed beauty marks from their cheeks, and peeled tassels off their nipples. They were done for the night, and now it was time for the final cooch show act—Lilly Blackwood. It was all she could do not to throw up.
Earlier, Josephine had insisted Rosy and Ruby add color to Lilly’s face, so Ruby drew a beauty mark above Lilly’s mouth while Rosy lined her eyes with black liner and applied fake lashes.
“What did Cole say about Mr. Barlow putting you in the cooch show?” Ruby said. She patted a makeup brush into a pot of rouge and brushed it over Lilly’s cheeks.
“He punched a hole in the wall of a boxcar and nearly broke his hand,” Lilly said.