"Whoa," Alex said gently as he brought the horse under control. He reached down to Carmen again. "This time let me lift you and don't try to get your leg over until you are up high enough to do so safely."
She reached up and he grabbed her left arm. She gripped his arm with her right hand, feeling the muscles bunch under her hand. When she was high enough, she lifted her right leg and wiggled over the horse's back in a most unladylike manner. Finally seated behind Alex, she put her arms around his waist. She had ridden bare back only enough to know that it was neither comfortable nor easy to stay on the horse.
Alex didn't appear to have any problem staying on the horse. His legs were both longer and stronger than hers, but he was also sitting closer to the girth instead of trying to straddle the barrel.
They made better progress on the horse, but now they were more visible again. Hopefully no one would be looking for them in this direction. Then again, if no one knew to look for them here, that didn't leave much chance of rescue, either.
She lifted her head from Alex's back. "How much further is it?"
"We'll get there before dark."
"How can you be sure where we are?"
He chuckled. "Jonathan and I studied the maps, remember? I recognize the shape of this mountain."
She frowned. "There was a picture of the mountain?"
"In a way; the contour lines indicated the elevation. Ever since I can remember, I've had the ability to see it in my mind's eye as 3-D. Dad was always impressed by that ability, so we worked on it. He would get topographic maps of an area and I would draw it as it would look. Then we would go there and see what it actually looked like. Of course, that exercise improved my ability."
Carmen sighed and laid her head against his back again. "You never told me about that."
He was silent for a few minutes as the horse plodded along. When he finally answered, his voice was controlled. "I haven't done it since he died."
And likely would have avoided it had the need not arisen. It had taken him years to warm enough to his biological father to call him Dad. Yet when they were in the cabin, Señor Medina was the first person he thought of for help. That would have made Señor Medina proud. Unfortunately, he would probably get the actual request for help from Jonathan or Katie. Actually, that wasn't an unfortunate outcome. Hopefully someone would call for help, since neither she nor Alex could.