Abia was looking frazzled, so Nathan decided to get the water for his bath himself, ignoring the comments of the other men in the kitchen,<br/><br/>So he loved his horse.  That horse had carried him through several battles and had been wounded for her troubles.  So he felt he owed his horse the same loyalty that she had given him.  If other people saw their horses as merely beasts of burden, that was their problem.  Which was why he wasn't going to loan his horse out to anyone he had his own doubts about.<br/><br/>Nathan slipped up the stairs with the buckets of water, expecting to get an earful from Abia if she saw him doing it.  The girl really needed to get some full-time help, not the part time variety he'd seen come to her aid when needed.  He was tempted to stay in town awhile to give her some help, but he was a wanderer who found it hard to stay in one place for too long.