“Rosa is happy,” Ram said, hoping to restore Karak’s dignity.

Karak grunted. They continued with their calculations. From the back door, the women emerged and walked to the other house. Ram and Karak finished their work. Karak announced that he would rest on one of the outside cots. After that, they could visit Fredonia Park together.

Ram wandered to the animal shed, thinking that he would hitch a mule up to the buckboard. The mare had come up lame two days before and she had refused oats since yesterday morning. He heard a soft footstep in the dirt and looked up to find the new woman at the shed door. She nodded at him.

Ram entered the mare’s stall to feed her again but she put her ears back; he had never gotten on well with horses. In Lyallpur, the work had been done by oxen who were calm and sturdy and slow to excite, and that had suited Ram. The mare missed Amarjeet. Nothing could be done about that. Adela entered the stall too and spoke to Ram in quick Spanish and glanced at him, but he did not understand. Something in her manner discouraged him from asking her to repeat her words. What was the woman doing here?

She talked softly to the horse while touching her nose, running her hand along the injured leg. The horse would never have allowed him to do that. How could she take such liberties when she had just arrived as a guest, when the other women were chattering away at the Eggenberger house, as they were supposed to?

She reached down and picked up the horse’s hooves, one by one. “The horse is hurt,” he said slowly in Spanish.

She answered him, but, again, he could not understand. Her tone did not seem polite.

“Stop!” he said. “We called for the veterinarian.”

The Mexican workers understood his Spanish, and Ram was very proud of that, but this woman did not stop what she was doing. She bent down to touch both of the front legs, one at a time, and shot him a piercing glance. She reached for the lead and attached it to the mare’s harness.

“What do you think you are doing?” he said quickly in Punjabi, not caring if she did not understand him, only wanting to be more sure of himself. The alarm in his voice surprised him. He was glad she couldn’t understand what he said. She spoke swiftly back at him. Was she angry too, now? Then she turned abruptly and led the horse outside. Ram would not dare put a hand on a strange woman, but he marched out of the shed to find Jivan near the pond, washing his hands and face.

“Do you know that new Mexican girl is inside the shed, taking away the mare?”

“Taking away the mare?” Jivan still had soap in his eyes, and he blinked rapidly.