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    Phantom Stallion: Wild Horse Island #2: The Shining Stallion
    Phantom Stallion: Wild Horse Island #2: The Shining Stallion
    Phantom Stallion: Wild Horse Island #2: The Shining Stallion
    Ebook175 pages2 hours

    Phantom Stallion: Wild Horse Island #2: The Shining Stallion

    By Terri Farley

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Ever since Darby rescued her wild filly mustang, she's been having a tough time at her grandfather's ranch. And after she accidentally endangers one of his loyal and steady horses, she can't help but wonder if she really belongs on a horse ranch at all.

    But then a shadowy horse shows up, prowling the grounds at night. Could it be the legendary Shining Stallion of Hawaii? And why is Darby the only one who has seen him? One thing is certain: When the mysterious stallion sets out to challenge the wrong horse, only Darby can stop him—before anyone gets hurt.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMar 24, 2009
    ISBN9780061888830
    Phantom Stallion: Wild Horse Island #2: The Shining Stallion
    Author

    Terri Farley

    Terri Farley is the author of the Phantom Stallion series. Her research for the series led to her awareness of mustangs and the challenges they face. Terri lives in Verdi, Nevada. Learn more about Terri and her work at terrifarley.com.

    Read more from Terri Farley

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    Reviews for Phantom Stallion

    4/5

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    • 3/5
      The Wild One is a Georgian romance about Juliet, an American who became pregnant by a British officer killed at Concord. She and her baby come to England to find help from his family. Gareth, his younger brother, is the Wild One of the title.Juliet and Gareth are likeable enough. However, I really couldn't buy Gareth's 'growth' throughout the story; he's pretty immature at the beginning and remains so despite the responsibility of a wife and child. I did not find his ultimate solution to their living arrangements to be believable. I also had trouble believing that Juliet could be so in love with her Charles and then forget him so readily for his brother.However, I did like the other siblings and the epilogue ensures that I will probably continue the series in order to find out what happens next.
    • 3/5
      The Wild One
      3 Stars

      Juliet Paige and her baby daughter are on their way to meet her deceased fiancé’s family in England, when her coach is waylaid by highwaymen. Little does she know that the young gentleman who comes to the passengers’ rescue is none other than her lover’s younger brother, Gareth de Montforte. Gareth, known as The Wild One for his rakish ways, is smitten with Juliet from the start and vows to reform and become the husband and father she and her daughter deserve. Now all he has to do is figure out how to go about it …

      A wonderful premise and solid writing, but the story contains themes that are simply not my cup of tea. Consequently, this review reflects my own personal foibles and those who do not share them will probably enjoy the book more.

      To begin with, I’m not fond of heroines who have had a child with a man other than the hero. For me, it undermines the romance and emotional connection between the characters. That said, Gareth’s interactions with baby Charlotte are sweet and endearing.

      Second, Gareth is a definite beta hero and initially comes across as childish and irresponsible. While, he does mature as the story progresses, the damage is done and he never quite manages to fulfill his potential.

      Finally, although Juliet is a strong and admirable heroine, the fact that she is in love with the hero’s brother at the outset of the story puts a damper on their chemistry. Yes, she grows to love Gareth, but the specter of Charles is always there in the background.

      The secondary characters are interesting, especially Lucien who is the alpha hero that Gareth is not. I have a thing for the staid, stuffy and repressed hero who needs to find the perfect woman to bring him to his knees. Thus, despite my issues with this particular story, I will probably continue with the series sometime.
    • 3/5
      I liked the author's voice a lot. Her characters are very well written. However, I enjoyed the first 2/3rds of this book the most. I understand that Gareth has to 'grow up' but I did not like the way this is done in the last part. It somehow seems unconnected to the first part of the book. Still, good enough to recommend this and to want to read more.
      3 - 3,5 *
    • 4/5
      This was pretty good. I decided to throw in a quick historical romance and this one worked out. The story was really good and kept my interest. Gareth was very sweet and wild but a bit immature at the same time. I did admire Juliet's determination take care of herself and ability to love Gareth despite all the challenges he presented! But that ending totally flipped the script for me! I will picking up book 2 ASAP! Not a cliffhanger but...oh just read it and you'll see!!
    • 4/5
      A wonderful start to a great series. I enjoyed the story line of Juliet and Gareth and can't wait to see what happens in the next chapter when the illustrious Charles returns. Juliet is left a single mother, alone, broke, and in very much need of the family of her dead betrothed. She travels to England in search of his family in hopes that the Duke will take her young daughter as his ward, since she is his niece. But the journey is wrought with danger and before she even arrives at the castle, her coach is waylaid by thieves. But then a rescuer appears and wanders into danger himself only to save the others. Why does this stranger seem so familiar? Then he tells her his name...Gareth De Montforte...brother to her dead lover.
    • 4/5
      THE WILD ONE opens the de Montforte series which is about four brothers and a sister.Gareth's story is filled with humor and heart break, but what I liked best was this heroin's story and the way she handled herself (although at times she did get my goat up!) despite the situations Gareth put her into.Gareth is the third son of a Duke, and current Duke's spare heir. He is not exactly a black sheep of the family, even though he is described as such, but a twenty-three year old scoundrel whose reputation is well-deserved. He is the leader of the Den of Debauchery, a group of lazy and mostly mischievous young-bloods of the county.Gareth's immaturity is evident to all and everyone is forgiving of it only because of his good heartedness and happy disposition to every situation he finds himself in, from an midnight debauchery stunt gone awry to the accidental run in with the highwaymen in which he almost ends up killed. It was really hard not to like a man like that! Yes, his immaturity gets him in hot water with all and saundry, but deep down all this man needed was the right woman to give him love and support, and this is where our heroine comes in handy.Juliet Paige is in England for one reason only: to request help of Lucien, Duke of Blackheath who is the brother of her deceased fiancé, Charles de Monteforte. It has been more than a year since she last saw her beloved Charles, and now that she's left the war-torn Boston with Charlotte, her and Charles' little girl, she is weary and apprehensive about meeting this formidable family. The uncertainty of their future is weighing heavily on her shoulders, but she is determined to make their acquaintance and introduce them to Charlotte.As she nears the home of the family, her stage coach is stopped by vicious band of highwaymen.Gareth de Monteforte is on his way home from yet another night of debauchery and while racing his friends, he comes upon the grisly scene, and it never occurs to him to abandon it, but comes to the rescue of the travelers, especially when he witnesses the heroic stance of Juliet.There's so much to recommend this story, but what I liked the best was the family dynamic between all the brothers and their little sister. The story doesn't falter in pace and for the most part is humorous, with some tender moments, especially the romantic ones between Juliet and Gareth. The sensuality of their first union is really touching and hot at the same time. Most of the story is predictable, yet I still found it interesting and entertaining. My only complaint, if you can call it that since I thoroughly enjoyed the read, is that I wished the author made it longer, and with it delved more into the relationship of all the characters.All in all, very enjoyable if short read, with plenty of angst, humor and action. This one's a four quill and I'd say hot and sweet romance.Melanie for RCJR eZine
    • 5/5
      I scarfed these down like candy. Harmon's de Montforte brothers are each delicious, and every book is better than the last. Unfortunately, most are out of print, but if you see them in the used bookstore, definitely grab a copy.

    Book preview

    Phantom Stallion - Terri Farley

    Chapter 1

    The girl and horse stood nose to nose.

    Trade winds swirled the scents of trees and cinnamon-red dirt around them. Truck tires crunched on the rough road to ‘Iolani Ranch, a goat’s bleat mixed with birdsong, and the harsh neigh of a stallion rang out from a distant pasture.

    But the girl only noticed her horse’s hay-sweet breath and the flick of her flattened ears. Darby smiled at Hoku’s determination to win their stare-off.

    She’d named the filly Hoku, the Hawaiian word for star, after the white marking on her chest, but Darby Carter couldn’t help comparing the young horse to something else.

    Nitroglycerine, Darby thought as she stepped toward her golden-red filly. One wrong move could make that chemical explode.

    Darby scuffed her boots in the dirt. She couldn’t move any closer without ramming into the filly, but Hoku didn’t know that.

    The sorrel braced her legs and tossed her mane. Her stare stabbed past strands of ivory forelock.

    Friendship was one thing. Giving in to a halter was something else.

    Hoku would never be truly tame. Darby knew that haltering her mustang was about as safe as playing with explosives.

    Hey, good girl, don’t look so worried, Darby said.

    Hoku vibrated with a silent nicker and her head rose an inch. For a second, Darby felt as if they were the only two creatures on the island, but then Hoku glanced over Darby’s shoulder, through the corral rails, and glared at their audience.

    Stay close.

    Darby didn’t turn at Cade’s voice. His eyes tracked her moves, but he wasn’t adding up her mistakes. He was keeping her under surveillance for her own good.

    Not that Cade and everyone else on ‘Iolani Ranch thought she was insane, but she’d understand if they did. To say she’d made a few big mistakes last week was an understatement. She’d given new meaning to the term horse crazy.

    But I’ve learned my lesson, haven’t I, pretty girl, Darby said.

    Hoku’s eyes widened in curiosity as Darby sauntered around to the horse’s left side.

    Darby and Cade had been talking since dawn about how to halter the head-shy filly. Staying close, without doing anything Hoku found scary, was the first step.

    Once, a man had tried to beat the filly’s wild horse wariness out of her. It hadn’t worked. Hoku’s spirit matched her fiery gold coat. She hated men and she didn’t like anyone, even Darby, touching her head.

    Exhale, Darby whispered to herself. Hoku shouldn’t feel tension quaking off her.

    After three quiet breaths, Darby leaned her shoulder against Hoku’s.

    The filly didn’t shift away. Instead, she rearranged her front hooves to return the gentle pressure.

    Perfect. Darby barely breathed the word before raising her arms in a hug and rubbing the filly’s poll.

    At last Hoku relaxed. Her head drooped until her lips were even with Darby’s knees.

    Now came the hard part. Could she tie a soft rope halter on Hoku’s lowered head?

    Stay close, Cade repeated.

    Darby guessed she should have given some sign that she’d heard him the first time, but after all, shouldn’t a horseman like Cade know she didn’t want to set off Hoku by having a conversation with him? Cade had studied the way of Hawaii’s cowboys, the paniolo, and he was apprenticed to her grandfather Jonah, a man known as the Hawaiian horse charmer.

    Hear me? Cade asked.

    Darby risked a tiny nod. That was all it took to detonate the filly’s wildness.

    Hoku bolted into a gallop. Strides meant to cross an endless range took her around and around the corral.

    Darby kept herself from groaning, but her arm had a mind of its own. It flung the orange rope halter down in frustration.

    Hoku’s front legs lifted. Her hooves jounced down as if the halter was a snake and she wanted to pound the life out of it. Then, Hoku wheeled and raced in the opposite direction.

    Your temper just set you back an hour, Cade pointed out, but she still didn’t look at him.

    She knew what she’d see: brown eyes set in a sun-browned face beneath a brown luahala hat that hid the only spot of color about him, the tight blond braid of a paniolo.

    Squinting her eyes against the dust swirling around her, Darby snatched up the halter. She sorted it back into shape by touch, without taking her eyes off Hoku.

    Reversing her morning’s progress, Darby backed toward the fence until she collided with it.

    Go away. Please.

    Jonah wants me to supervise—

    But—

    And he’s the boss, Cade finished.

    Wishing she could communicate with Cade as well as she could with Hoku, Darby considered the hand-me-down boots she’d accepted from Megan Kato, the ranch manager’s daughter. Scuffed through the reddish finish of the oxblood leather, they were real cowgirl boots and Darby loved them, but they didn’t supply any ideas on how to convince Cade she needed to be alone with her horse.

    We’ll be okay, Darby promised, and when Cade didn’t contradict her, she slid her eyes around far enough to see that he was staring up at the pillowy gray clouds.

    Suppose it’s this storm that’s got Luna so spooky? Cade asked her, and Darby heard the stallion neighing from the lower pastures again, though he was usually quiet during the day.

    It doesn’t look like much, Darby said. She hadn’t been in Hawaii long, but the clouds didn’t look like they were holding a downpour that would send her scurrying inside to curl up on her bed with a book. Maybe you should go check on him.

    Cade’s second silence had to mean a weakening in his resolve.

    Maybe I will, Cade said. Something’s got him stirred up. He pushed back from the fence so abruptly, the post joint creaked with a sound like a starter’s gun. Be right back.

    Yes! Cade’s retreat worked like magic. As the boy turned away, Hoku slowed to a jog, then a walk. Then she stopped, sneezing at the dust halo she’d raised.

    Hoku, Darby said brightly as if she hadn’t seen her horse for days, and the filly watched Darby tighten her black ponytail. Here’s what I think. We need to stop worrying about what Shan Stonerow did to you and get on with our lives.

    When the sorrel sidestepped, Darby decided that getting on with life wasn’t a concept a horse could grasp.

    I know, Darby sympathized. He was a bad guy. He hit you in the face, but that won’t ever happen again.

    Darby closed her eyes, trying to send the filly an image of snow melting off the range, of warmth replacing cold.

    We’re starting over, like springtime.

    Darby stood close enough to touch Hoku’s withers. She lifted her hand slowly and stroked the filly’s golden mane. She crumpled it between her fingers, imitating the way horses groomed each other with gentle bites.

    We were making such good progress before you escaped. We can do it again.

    Hoku shook her mane. She swung her head around to look at Darby. Her neck wrinkled like satin from all Darby’s brushing, but her eyes questioned the girl.

    Holding the halter’s nosepiece open with her left hand, Darby inched her right arm higher, to ease the loose end of the headstall into position. When Hoku didn’t move away, Darby delighted in the circle she made with her horse.

    Hoku nudged the treat pouch Darby carried around her waist.

    Why yes, I do have hay for good little mustangs, she told Hoku. Darby slipped the nosepiece around Hoku’s nose as the filly’s agile lips worked at the pouch flap. You love hay, don’t you?

    Darby heard the scuff of boots behind her, but she concentrated on getting the loose end of rope through the loop over Hoku’s poll. All she had to do now was tie it.

    She knotted the rope.

    That doesn’t look right, she thought, but Hoku would lose interest if she didn’t taste hay. Right now.

    Darby drew her hands back slowly, as if balancing. The halter stayed on.

    She unsnapped the treat pouch and Hoku snatched a mouthful of hay. She gave a single chomp before swallowing, then nudged Darby for more. The sorrel didn’t back away until she’d eaten every stalk of hay and licked Darby’s hand for traces she’d missed.

    Ta da! Darby announced, turning to Cade.

    Except that it wasn’t Cade. It was Kit Ely, foreman of ‘Iolani Ranch.

    Good work. He flashed Darby a smile, which looked extra white in the shade of his black Stetson.

    Then, looking down to make an unneeded adjustment to his short leather chaps—Darby thought he called them chinks—Kit said, Kinda wonder why you didn’t snap on the lead rope while ya had her.

    Darby looked at the tangerine-and-white-striped rope lying in the dirt nearby and sighed. Me too.

    She swiped a raindrop off her cheek, then bent inch by inch to gather up the rope.

    Darby heard Hoku’s mane flip from side to side as she shook her head.

    Darby’s fingers closed over the rope. Straightening slowly, she saw the orange halter fall off Hoku’s head.

    I guess I didn’t tie it right, Darby muttered.

    Hoku snorted and gave a triumphant buck.

    You’ll get it, Darby. Kit’s voice was as encouraging as a pat on the back. It just takes time.

    Darby wasn’t sure when Kit left and Cade returned, but after a long time of coaxing and feeding Hoku more hay, she managed to rehalter the filly.

    Attaching the lead rope was another story. Hoku ran and bucked, kicked and squealed, until Cade told Darby it was time to give up.

    She almost got a hoof through her cheek piece that time. Better call it a day.

    Okay, Darby agreed, then remembered why Cade had left. Is Luna okay?

    She felt almost silly asking after the stallion. The big bay ruled this ranch, but to Darby, every horse here was a miracle.

    I don’t know what’s gotten into him, Cade said, shooting a glance at Hoku.

    What did that mean? Darby wondered as Cade walked toward the tack room.

    He glanced over his shoulder to see her safely through the gate as it closed between her and Hoku.

    By then it was raining steadily, but Darby still didn’t want to leave her horse.

    She felt good about their progress. After all, she and the filly had only been in Hawaii for two weeks.

    Darby’s horse-handling skills were improving, even though she was working toward a goal she didn’t want to reach.

    Once Darby could halter and lead Hoku without trouble, Jonah would exile them to the rain forest. Raised in the urban web of Southern California freeways, Darby was scared of the jungle.

    But how bad could it be? She was in paradise, surrounded by horses, and one of them belonged to her!

    As if Hoku hadn’t had enough of Darby, either, the filly pressed against the fence. Darby rested her hand on Hoku’s neck. The smooth curve of muscle beneath the sorrel’s skin was no longer hot from injury. It slid beneath Darby’s palm as the filly walked off to drop her nose into her water bucket.

    Hey, Darby said, grinning. Isn’t she doing great? When Cade faced her, he nodded, but she noticed his jaw kind of shifted to one side.

    Would she have noticed that ill-at-ease movement if Cade’s jaw hadn’t shown signs of being broken and healing sloppily?

    Something was wrong. And now that she was outside the corral, Darby felt shy again.

    Darby eased the collar of her blue shirt away from her neck. She wiped the back of her hand over her rain-wet forehead. And waited.

    Jonah wants to see you, Cade said.

    Of course he did. She’d been silly to

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