“Hilary, we both had a few too many glasses of wine and she forgot for a moment that I am a married man.”
“I hope Adam, for Kate’s sake you didn’t forget. I don’t want to be responsible for divorce here.”
“No… I made my excuses and left. I think Sally was a bit disappointed, she was a bit off with me this morning, shall we say.”
“I thought it had been a bit stilted between you two.”
“It’ll be fine. I rather flattered, she’s a pretty lass, if I wasn’t married to Kate…”
“But Adam, you are!”
Hilary’s harsh tone surprised me somewhat. “Hilary, I can assure you. With all I’ve been through, I only have eyes for Kate.”
Hilary relaxed. “I’m sorry… Kate said exactly the same to me. I just couldn’t forgive myself if something happened to you two.”
“I appreciate that. I’m going back home tomorrow, it will be great to see her, we’ve never been apart for this long before.”
“Oh, young love… Look, I can help Sally with the yard tonight, why don’t you get off now. It’ll give you a bit more time at home.”
I didn’t need telling twice and quickly packed my holdall into the back of the stables Land Rover and was soon driving across the moors towards Cumbria and home.
* * *
I glanced up from the arena as I saw the car approaching, I didn’t recognise it as one of our liveries or one of my students and was puzzled until I saw Adam step out. I told my riders to continue and climbed over the arena fence, rushing towards him and grabbing him in my arms.
“You’re not supposed to be here until tomorrow!”
“I can go back to Yorkshire if you like!”
“Don’t you dare! Oh goodness, you’re thin. Are they not feeding you?”
“Hard work… Lots of it… And that Sally’s a real slave driver.”
I hugged him. Adam felt gaunt, I could feel his ribs beneath his shirt, but I had missed his touch and his reassurance. I wanted to hold him forever, but it was Sunday afternoon, I had to get back to lessons. Adam promised to take over for me later, to give me a break as soon as he had got everything settled.
I breathed a sigh of relief, I would never admit it to Adam, but I was struggling by myself. Not the work, the girls were amazing and worked so hard, it was the responsibility, the worry of having people’s horses in our care and the staff themselves, their livelihoods and safety. It sometimes just became too much when I was trying to cope by myself, but I couldn’t allow Adam to waste this opportunity and had promised myself I would put a brave face on it. The girls knew I was struggling, hell, I’d only been a working pupil myself a year ago and now I was running what was promising to be a successful equestrian centre.
If only I could run it without the people, I snorted to myself. The horses had their foibles, going lame and losing shoes at the most inopportune moments, but it was the human personalities on the yard that caused me real grief. I knew it was the same everywhere, every stable had its own cast of characters.
From ‘the know it all’ livery who would pontificate to everyone they knew better, the timid ones who would groom their horses for hours but had never been in the saddle and of course, the ones who just wanted to cause trouble. Whether it was stealing peoples grooming kit and equipment or just bitching and making a bad atmosphere. Whatever happened, in these stables the buck stopped with me and I was starting to buckle under the weight of this responsibility.
* * *
The farmhouse kitchen was untidy, this worried me as I knew Kate was always orderly and neat almost to the point of obsession, it was why she was such a great groom, her horses and stables had always been immaculate.
She had always told me she was coping; things were fine. She always moved on from the conversation to what I was doing when we spoke; however, it was clear from the state of the normally clean and tidy farmhouse I needed to pay her more attention.
I grabbed a cloth and cleaning solution and, starting with the filthy cooker, started to scrub and clean.
* * *
Honestly, I was a bit cross as I finished my last lesson. After promising to help me by teaching some of my lessons, I’d not seen Adam all day. My anger soon dissipated when I stepped back into the farmhouse. The flies and smell of stale food gone, replaced with the fresh smell of lemon-scented cleaning solution. I hadn’t even noticed how quickly the food and grime had built up. The kitchen was spotless, I kicked off my boots and saw the living room had been hoovered and tidied, the pile of receipts and invoices which had been scattered on the floor had been sorted and filed, the piles of boots had been arranged and my good leather riding boots had even been polished. Oh, God, I’d let things slip without even realising! I found Adam upstairs folding my, now freshly laundered clothes and placing them, neatly into the chest of drawers.
“Hello, babe!” He hugged me warmly. “Is there anything you want to tell me?”
Oh God, he could read me so well and, as I looked up into his eyes, I felt mine fill with tears. I started to babble about not coping. Adam sat me down, holding my hand and listened. Finally, I ran out of words.
“I am so sorry… Mostly that you felt you couldn’t tell me…”
Oh no… I blubbed again. Adam held me tight, how I’d missed his arms and his embrace. Here, in his arms, the world couldn’t get to me.
“Right… I have one thing I need to do before we discuss this properly…”
“What?” I wiped my eyes with my sleeve.
“This…”
I was caught unawares as he grabbed me, pushing me onto the bed. I squealed as he pulled my polo shirt from my body. Pausing for a moment, he laughed.
“Kate Louise Bishop. How much hay do you have in your bra…?” I blushed before he grabbed my bra and had deftly unfastened it, he leaned down, kissing me. Oh, the tingles ran through my body. “Oh… and you stink!”
I snorted about to say something insulting but found myself swept off my feet, I kicked and struggled but was unable to escape as Adam dragged me into the shower, switching on a flood of warm water. I protested we were both dressed, admittedly him more than me now. He shushed me, unbuttoning my breeches and slipping them down my legs before kicking them away. We embraced, kissing under the stream of water and I felt my worries wash down the drain with the soapy water. There is nothing better than having the man you love shampoo your hair, especially when he goes on to lather your body in suds, paying special attention to all your sensitive places.
Towelled off we dived onto the bed, and I properly welcomed my husband home.
* * *
“Right, we need to discuss this. It’s clear we cannot continue this way with you struggling to cope alone…”
We sat at the dining table, I’d cooked a meal which we had devoured and now we’re well into our second bottle of red wine. “There need to be changes made.” Kate started to speak. “No, it isn’t fair for me to be away all the time. I’ve called Hilary and told her you need me more around here; we’ve come to an arrangement.”
“Oh God that just sounds so pathetic. I can cope, honestly Adam. It just got out of hand for a bit.”
“Kate, I don’t want you to have to just cope. I’ve been selfish. Hilary agreed I can work part-time, and spend more time here or I can wait to spend time with her, we can try to get someone here to help run the yard and then…”
“No!” Kate stuttered. “No, I don’t want you to give up this opportunity.”
“Okay, well if I work four days a week with Hilary and the rest here. I’ll do the weekends here, that’s when we’re most busy. I was selfish to just go away and leave you to cope all by yourself.”
“You’re not selfish, I pushed you to do this. Adam, it’s all my fault…”
“Stop sulking young lady. You know I will have to work doubly hard when I am with Hilary. Come here.”
We hugged; I could almost feel the tension leaving Kate’s body before she had been like a wound spring.
“So, Sally, Adam will be here four days a week, he needs to support Kate. Honestly, I was a bit selfish taking him away full time, they are just starting their own business. It was too much for her to cope alone.”
“She could cope, she’s just being stupid.” Sally slammed down her wine glass.
I had hoped ordering Sally’s favourite meal from the local Chinese takeaway and plying her with some rather nice wine would have softened the blow, but it was clear from her obvious reaction, my groom was sulking.
“Sally, he can help out as much as he can and I’ll still give him lessons.” I looked up as Sally snorted, rolling her eyes. “Right! What is wrong with you?”
Sally took a deep breath, subtly wiping her eyes before looking up. “He’s not good enough for you…” Her voice was quiet, she was avoiding eye contact with me.
“What? Don’t be such a silly girl…”
“No… If he wants to work with you, he needs to commit. Bloody part-timer, what good is that?”
“Sally! Adam and his wife are running their own yard. He is working bloody hard to try to keep that going as well as work here. It was just too much to take him away from there full-time, but he has potential as a rider.”
“Potential? What good is that? I’m tired of you messing me about. I thought you were giving me someone to help me.”
“Sally, I’m not messing you about. Certainly not deliberately and I’m really sorry you feel that way. If you need more help, I am sure I can stretch to another groom to help you.”
“But, I’m your groom. You can’t just replace me!”
“I’m not replacing you. Sally, you said you can’t cope, I’ve offered to get you help. Honestly, you aren’t making sense.”
“No… Why would I make sense? Why would you even listen to me? I’m only your groom, after all…”
“Sally! Please. What are you saying? You’re vital to me and all I do. You are pivotal to me winning competitions. I really couldn’t do this without you. You are so much more than my groom, I hope you are my best friend also, after all these years together!”
“Well, maybe I just don’t want someone like you as a friend?” Sally snapped, sloshing wine from her glass.
“Go to bed!” I stood up snatching the wine glass from Sally’s hand.
“What? Now you’re treating me like a child just because you don’t like what I’ve said.”
“Sally, you are acting like a fucking child! Just get out of my sight.”
* * *
“Oh, where did the weekend go?”
“Kate, I’ll be back soon… Thursday night at the latest.” I hugged her before throwing my bag into the back of the car. “I love you…”
I knew she was hurting, I hoped we could be able to find a way to make this work. The week would be quieter and I could support her on the weekends. I switched on the radio and enjoyed a relaxing drive.
It was all quiet on the yard as I returned, it was Monday evening the traditional equestrian day off and there hadn’t been any events over the weekend. I parked up and walked to the static, pulling open the door. I noticed the caravan seemed to smell worse than usual, there was more than the normal damp odour.
Looking around the living area seemed to be okay but the smell was stronger from the bedroom. Pulling open the door it was immediately obvious why. My bed was covered in a large pile of dung. It looked like someone had spread wheelbarrows full over the bedclothes. I sighed, leaving the caravan and fetching plastic feed bags and gloves from the tool shed.
I spent time alone cleaning tack and ensuring the laundry was done, loading bandages, saddle pads as well as my own bedclothes into the rusty washing machine in the shed before hanging them on the washing line to dry. The yard was quiet, the horses resting, I fed and skipped out alone before retiring to the caravan for a meal with the provisions I had collected over the weekend.
* * *
“Hi, Sally…” I smiled cheerfully as I stepped into the feed shed the next morning. She nodded sullenly and went back to sorting out the feeds. I ignored her and started to dish out breakfast for the horses. The morning was quiet, I rode many horses yet noticed no helpful groom was standing by to take my horse at the end of each session so I walked them back to the yard myself, having let them cool down, brushed them and hung the tack up for later when I would, no doubt be left to clean it myself.
I could see Hilary bristling as I returned to the arena, but ignored the obvious tension and mounted up to start exercising my next ride. I got back into the work of developing my riding position and planning for stride distances between jumps.
It was three hours later when I finished riding, and another two hours for me to groom the horses properly, after this I’d taken a short break to drive into the village for some additional supplies. The yard was quiet on my return so Hilary helped me feed the horses before I skipped them out.
“Far be it from me to ask. But what the hell have I done wrong?”
Hilary surveyed me. “Adam, you haven’t done…”
“No… Thank you for being so nice, but, as you may have noticed, I’m a man in a predominantly female-led industry. I do realise when I’m the reason for the unrest on a yard. So, what have I done to cause this friction?”
Hilary sighed, leaning on a feed bin. “It’s not you directly. Sally’s upset. She’s under a lot of pressure.”
“And? Come on… That was a very nice polite answer. What’s really happened?”
“Okay, if I’m honest I think she has a bit of a crush on you and now, as you won’t be here as much, she’s become deeply jealous. Oh, and I sent her to bed on Saturday night.”
“You did what?” I couldn’t help laughing.
“She was acting like a child so I sent her to bed…”
“Ah, no wonder she mucked out into my bed…”
“What!”
“Nothing…” I realised from Hilary’s look she wouldn’t drop it. “I came back and found she had skipped out all weekend and missed the muck heap.”
“Missed the-… Oh, shit!”
“Lots of it… Look, say nothing. No… She was cross, it’s water under the bridge. Right, I’m going to clean the tack.”
“I’ll find her and…”
“Hilary no… Let her sulk. I’m quite happy to work. I promise you; it will sort itself out.”
“If you think so?” Hilary hugged me. “Thank you, Adam… I’m so sorry.”
* * *
Cleaning tack was deeply therapeutic and I was more than happy to sit quietly with the dusty radio switched on cleaning and polishing the leatherwork. I’d been there for over an hour when the door opened gently. I smiled as I saw Sally look tentatively around the door. “Hello, stranger… Not seen you for most of the day, are you okay?” There was a moment when I thought she might turn and run, but she stepped into the room, her shoulders hunched, looking down at her feet.
“I’m sorry…” She stuttered the apology, avoiding eye contact with me.
“What’s up?”
“Look, Adam, I‘ve been a real arsehole. I dumped all that crap on your bed and I’ve been a snotty bitch to you all day.”
“Ah, it was a funny prank to play. I’m not mad at you…”
“I don’t deserve these…” Sally held out the flowers and chocolates I’d bought from the local shop. The card had read, ‘I know you had a tough weekend…’
Death Rider (The Rider Series Book 2) Page 4
