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raised his head to inspect the area before allowing the others to satisfy their thirst .
    Klee frolicked. He ran around Artemisia in ever-widening circles as if she were a maypole and there was a tether between them. He took short jaunts away, high stepping and kicking out with his hind legs, already imitating his brother and father, but then rushed back to the security of his mother. He ran to Mary and nibbled a little too roughly at her neck. She shook him off.The excited foal turned his attention to Wyeth, who sent him tumbling with a playful kick. Klee pranced up to Sargent and pestered him to engage in a bout of rambunctious play. Artemisia pushed herself between the father and son to dissuade Klee, but the eager baby darted around her, bucking at the big stallion’s back legs. Sargent whinnied and nipped at him. Artemisia saw that Sargent was preoccupied with standing guard. She intervened again, positioning herself between Klee and the others. Over and over the colt tried to reenter the circle, but Artemisia moved as he moved, blocking his advances toward the band .
    Klee soon became anxious. He hung his head and approached Artemisia with penitent baby steps. When he leaned in to nibble her neck, she relented, and permitted him back into their small community .

M AYA WONDERED FOR THE THOUSANDTH TIME IF HER new family would welcome her. She straightened her plaid skirt from beneath the scrunch of the airplane seat belt, brushed lint from her white blouse and blue cardigan, and looked out the window of the airplane at the strange landscape below. The pilot had announced that they were flying over Nevada and into Utah, but there were no towns that she could see, only barren brown flatlands, dry lake beds, and the occasional canyon that dropped into the muddled unknown.
    The plane had reached its cruising altitude and seemed to float. Maya wondered at the peculiarity of time. It seemed as if hours slowed from this vantage. Maybe that’s what happened, she thought. Seconds andminutes had elongated, making room for the crush of events that changed her life. Since the moment Grandmother had tasted imaginary pepper in her scrambled eggs, Maya felt as if she had lived months instead of only the last twenty-four hours.
    She closed her eyes but could not escape yesterday’s unforgettable images: Grandmother’s body disappearing on a rolling bed into a white ambulance; the doctor in the white lab coat who delivered the unbelievable news; Grandmother’s lawyer, Mr. Benedetto, rushing to meet them at the hospital, still in his tennis clothes after being called off the courts; and later, the incongruity of walking back across the threshold of the house on Altadena Lane without Grandmother.
    It had been late afternoon when Mr. Benedetto escorted Maya to the couch in the living room. Mayahad always liked his shiny bald head with the smile of curly gray hair around the back and the way his eyeglasses perched so far on the end of his nose that they looked as if they might fall off. He sat in the wingback chair across from her and leaned forward with sincere interest. “Maya, I’m very sorry about your grandmother. It was a massive stroke. According to her wishes, there will be no service. And I’ll take care of all the other arrangements. You should know that there’s a trust for your college education, but we don’t have to talk about that until a much later date. The house and the furniture have been left to the Historic Pasadena Heritage League. They’ll use it for functions … weddings and such. All of the personal and small household items will be put in storage for you, for some day when you’re ready for them. Right now, we need to be concerned about yourcare. I’ve asked the housekeeper to stay with you overnight until I can make arrangements. It looks as if you’ll have to leave a little early for Wyoming this year.”
    â€œWyoming?”
    â€œWell, yes