"Yes, he's here. I'll call him for you."
She liked the riding instructor's slender face and especially his bright blue eyes that seemed to have a mischievous or playful laugh in them.
An undulating sea of boys of various ages and heights looked her way. Barbara singled her godson out instantly, though she had not seen him in over a year. His straight but unruly blond hair, and the sunlight he seemed to be bathed in, gave him away. He was taller and older than his six years, looking like a junior edition of his father.
It almost amazed her, as Timothy's aura nearly blinded her. She had never seen him standing in it before.
And it isn't the sun, she reasoned, because that's behind the clouds! "Cadet Tim Riordan," the instructor called out, not militarily but as if between friends. "Someone to see you."
"Auntie Barbara!" a boy's happy, excited voice broke out from among the coterie of young riders brushing their horses.
A handsome blond boy, tall for his age, ran to her from the large pony he had been grooming, a mount Barbara thought suitable for a boy of six to ride.
She was quick to notice.He even tosses his blond mane, as his father had, to keep it out of his eyes! Not embarrassed to show emotion in front of his peers, Tim welcomed her embrace. He returned it with an enthusiastic hug that nearly sent Barbara stumbling backwards.
The boy's only request was a plea, spoken in a whisper. "Don't call me Timmy? I'm Tim now."
After a tearful reunion, the tears on Barbara's part because the young cadet disciplined himself enough to restrain his, though not without some difficulty, she held him at arm's length.
"Why, Tim, you're almost a man already!"
Barbara's godson accepted the compliment proudly.
"He really is," the riding instructor confirmed. "Tim, introduce us?
"Aunt Barbara Markey," Tim said as if with expected formality, "this is one of my instructors, Captain Collier."
She recognized the name.
"Stephen," he added quickly. "The 'Captain' is not official army. Strictly an academy title. I teach science and history, horseback riding, and just about anything else except art or flying. I can't draw, and get airsick in planes. I'm also Tim's counselor."
Barbara liked his voice. It was not too deep and seemed to have a laugh in it somewhere, like someone else's she had loved. The man and his voice.
From Stephen Collier's introduction, she already learned more about him than she expected to, and all of it was okay with her. He didn't have to know how to fly a plane, if his male ego wasn't threatened because she did.