by Maggie Joan
Panic swarmed me. Time? Time for what? Edith grabbed the phone and hung up on the operator. Then she grabbed my wrist and marched me outside. Merry escorted her, snapping at my ankles. With nothing to lose anymore, I took great pleasure in taking a swing or two at the damn creature. I missed, unfortunately, but it made me feel better for a split second.
Edith marched me back over to the shed I’d initially woken up. She unbolted the door and shoved me inside. “You ungrateful girl,” she said. “We’d have accepted you into our family.”
Barry appeared in the doorway, his bulging frame struggling to fit through the door. Carrying a roll of silver duct tape, he bound my ankles and wrists and then sealed my mouth shut too. He handed Edith the tape and reached behind his back.
My fear notched up a hundred levels. When he pulled a handgun out of the back of his trousers, I fell over and scrambled across the floor to the corner of the shed. A sinister smile spread over his lips. He raised his arm, gun in hand. Seconds later, everything went black.
***
A screaming horse woke me up. I opened my eyes, my head absolutely on fire and throbbing like anything. I lifted my hand to the source of the pain only to find I couldn’t move my hand at all. I was back on the table, strapped down, duct tape over my mouth.
Every time I blinked, searing agony shot through my temple like an electrical bolt of molten lava. My shoulder ached and out of the corner of my eye, I could see red smears on the bandages.
Footsteps sounded around outside, more than one pair.
“Steady, easy!” shouted a man. “They’re traumatised. Don’t rush them.”
I heard hooves clambering up something. A ramp, maybe? Had the police come at last? I lifted my head, ignoring the cries from my shoulder, and looked at what I thought was the door. Except it wasn’t. It was a wall. A corrugated sheet of metal.
What? I thought I’d been put back in the shed? I glanced around my new surroundings to see I’d been stuffed in what appeared to be a wall cavity. Daylight shone through the underneath of the curved sheeting, allowing me to make out what appeared to be boxes, cardboard boxes. Where the hell was I?
I tried rocking the table from side to side but it was heavy and stuck fast. I made as much muffled noise as I could until my throat felt raw.
“We’ve looked everywhere,” a male voice said. “No sign of her. Maybe she managed to escape.”
“No,” replied a female. “She’s here somewhere. Keep looking.”
I made as much noise as my throat and duct tape would allow but it appeared to not work as the footsteps faded away.
Time ticked by. I didn’t know if it was minutes or hours but however long it was felt like an eternity. I heard another ear-piercing scream, and I knew that was Blue. Various shouts sounded through the air along with the scuffle of boots and hooves.
“Watch out!” someone yelled, before a thud hit the ground.
Hooves clattered along the gravel, a persistent neigh accompanying them.
“Get him back!” someone else shouted.
“I need my gun!” someone else yelled.
I started to really panic then. Gun, what sort of gun? They couldn’t shoot Blue, they just couldn’t. If he died, a part of me would die with him.
The hooves came closer, getting louder. Then they stopped. I heard heavy breathing and snorting coming from my left-hand side. Then hooves pacing up and down. Was that Blue? Did he know where I was? I made as much noise as I could, in case he was on the other side of the wall by some sheer miracle.
“Easy now,” said a male voice, soft and gentle. “No need to be scared. We just want to help you.”
Blue snorted and I heard him stamp the ground with his hoof.
“Don’t corner him,” said someone. “If you corner him, he’ll fight back.”
I started crying then in my frustration to just be heard. Blue stomped the ground again with his hoof.
“Wait!” someone cried. “He’s trying to tell us something.”
Come on, for goodness sake.
“Look,” said a woman. “There’s straw piled up against the inside of the barn, but do you see any straw poking out from the outside wall? Is this hollow?” she said, smacking her hand against the metal wall. “That’ll be a yes then.”
I heard hands running across the sheeting and people calling my name. A couple of minutes passed by before someone shouted out, “I’ve got a door!”
Daylight poured in as the makeshift door was wrenched open. Within seconds, the entire area filled with people, people who just wanted to help me and get me to safety. I realised then that actually, my species did have redeeming qualities. I’d shown Blue that people could be trusted and in some bizarre return of the favour, he’d allowed me to see the exact same thing.
Chapter 25
Everything that followed was just a blur. I was carted off in an ambulance thanks to my bullet wound and my head injury. I had asked everyone to let me see Blue, but they ignored me, more concerned with getting me to hospital. I hoped and prayed they didn’t hurt any more than he already had been.
Apparently, Edith had done a good job of patching me up. I had a concussion and a nasty cut from Barry’s pistol whip, but other than that, I was ok. I had to stay in overnight for observation and they put me on a drip of antibiotics because of my shoulder, just in case.
Marsha came running into my room the instant they said I could have visitors. “Oh, you, silly, silly girl! I’ve been worried sick about you!”
“I’m sorry,” I said, bursting into tears. “I’m so sorry. Please don’t hate me.”
“I could never hate you,” she said, squeezing my hand. “I’m just glad you’re ok.”
We sat and talked. I told her everything I’d been thinking and feeling. She listened intently and I knew I’d made a grave error in judgement. But that had led me to Blue, so had it really been an error in judgement or a blessing in disguise?
A knock sounded on the door and a middle-aged brunette woman in a beige trouser suit opened it. “Hi,” she said, flashing an ID card. “I’m DCI Baker. Can I come in?”
I nodded. I figured this might come at some point.
“I appreciate you’ve had a tough time of it, Blue, but I really need to ask you some questions. Is that ok?”
“Of course.”
I wanted to do anything I could to help with the investigation. I didn’t know anything about what had gone on as of yet, but I guessed it wasn’t just a case of them kidnapping me.
“I can’t share details with you, but I need you to tell me as much as you can remember about what happened from the minute you first saw them.”
I took a deep breath and recalled everything I could remember, right down to the stupid little dog that sold me out.
“Speaking of being sold out,” Marsha said. “I think you have some people wanting to come and see you.”
My happiness fell like a stone through water. “I’m not interested.”
“They just want to say sorry, Blue.”
I shook my head. “If you smash a plate and say sorry, does it put itself back together?”
Marsha shared a look with DCI Baker. “Well, no.”
“There’s no going back for me. That’s a part of my past, including the people in it. I don’t want to look back, I want to look forwards.”
Marsha cleared her throat. “What shall I tell them? They’re waiting downstairs.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Tell them I’ll write them a letter.”
Marsha grinned. “Touché.”
DCI Baker laughed. “I’ll leave you be now, Blue. But don’t worry about a thing. I have a feeling everything will work out just fine.”
She winked at me and left the room, leaving me wondering what exactly she meant.
***
The doctors kept me in for two days, much to my annoyance. I was only allowed home on strict instructions for bed rest and Marsha did her utmost to ensure I stayed put. I didn’t dare disobey her afte
r the hell I’d put her through. When a knock sounded on the front door, I somehow managed to restrain myself from running down the stairs when I heard the friendly voice of DCI Baker.
A few seconds later, a knock sounded on my bedroom door.
“Come in,” I said, hoping to God that I’d be given some good news.
The door opened and her familiar smile greeted. “Hi, Blue. How are you feeling?”
“Like my shoulder has been ripped out and put back in the wrong place.”
She laughed and sat down on the edge of my bed. “I have some news for you regarding Blue.”
My heart lurched and my mouth ran dry. “Oh?”
“We found his original owners. He was stolen around six weeks ago from an Irish stud down in Truro. This particular gang have made quite a habit and a fair amount of cash from stealing high end stud horses and holding their owners to ransom. Blue would have been their biggest payday yet. Until you came along.”
I smiled but couldn’t hide the rising disappointment that I’d be losing him forever. Truro was only an hour away, but I knew how things like this went. Contact slowly faded into nothing once daily life settled back to normal and in a years’ time I’d be all but a memory from another lifetime.
“When is he going home?”
“He went home when you were found,” she said, patting my hand.
I bit back tears, blinking the water away from my eyes furiously. I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye. Goodbyes had never been my thing but there was something unfinished, unresolved almost, between me and Blue and I felt I needed closure on the time we’d spent together and the connection we’d shared.
“It’s a good home, isn’t it?” I asked, my voice trembling.
DCI Baker nodded. “The best. He has everything any horse could ever desire. A huge stable full of soft straw and meadow fresh hay, acres of lush green grass to run around in, and mares in the next field.”
I smiled. So long as he had his freedom, that was all that mattered.
“But he’s not happy.”
My breath caught in my throat. “What do you mean?”
I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. A strange couple stood in my bedroom doorway. The man was tall and slender, his blue eyes full of care and warmth. The woman, I presumed his wife, was quite short and plump, a big cheery smile on her face.
“Hi,” she said. “I’m Wendy George and this is my husband, Nick. Can we come in?”
I nodded. “Sure.”
“We’re Blue’s owners,” Wendy said, rushing to my bedside. She grabbed hold of my right hand and squeezed it tight. “We can’t thank you enough for what you did for our boy. He’s a challenging chap at the best of times.”
Nick stood behind his wife with his hands on her shoulders. “Blue’s mother died giving birth to him. The foster mare we put him with took to him initially, then two days later almost killed him when she rejected him. We were too busy to hand rear him ourselves, so we entrusted him to some friends of ours. He became rather difficult in his behaviour as he grew and as soon as he didn’t need bottle feeding, they turned him out into a fifty-acre field and let him run free as a wild horse.”
I didn’t know what to say. I thought all this time that Blue’s issues stemmed from the mistreatment at the farm. My heart bled for him and I wanted nothing more than to go to him and soothe his pain in any way I could.
Wendy cleared her throat and said, “They lied to us and said they were working with him every day, said he was an absolute angel. We arranged for him to stay there until we had room for him back at the stud. It made sense if he was happy and they were happy for him to stay there. About a year ago, when he turned four, we sold one of our older stallions and decided to bring Blue home. When we went to pick him up, we found a wild horse with a hatred for humans so deep, we had to have him sedated just to get near him.”
I gasped and put my hand to my chest. “But why did he hate people so much? If he’d just been left to roam free?”
Nick answered. “Unfortunately, their children found it funny to chase him with their quad bike and throw things at him. When we told them our plans to collect him, they decided to bring him in and try to tame him. They beat him without mercy. Eventually he retaliated and kicked one of them, putting them in intensive care for a week. Of course, when we got there, we knew none of this.”
I couldn’t hold back my tears. Poor Blue. How could people be so cruel? Despite all that, he chose to put his trust in me, he chose to be around me, he guided me across the moor like a guide dog and let me on his back. I wanted nothing more than to hug him right now.
“It’s ok,” Wendy said, her own eyes welling with tears. “He’s safe with us, we promise. We’ve added more cameras and bought two more guard dogs.”
“But,” Nick said. “He’s not right. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s depressed. He won’t eat or drink. All he does is stand at the back of his stable looking sorry for himself. The vet is at a loss with him. He’s in perfect health.”
My heart cracked in two. “Have you tried putting him out in the field?”
Wendy nodded. “All he does is stand at the gate waiting to come back in.”
I took my hand back and threw off my quilt. “I need to see him.”
“Whoa, hold on there, Missy,” Marsha said.
I hadn’t even noticed her standing in the doorway.
“Marsha, you don’t understand—”
“The horse is depressed, I know, but you’re on doctors’ orders. That shoulder of yours isn’t going to get any better if you don’t do as your told.”
“He needs me. If he’s not even drinking, he could die. I’ll be fine.”
Wendy turned around and looked at Marsha. “I’m sorry,” she said. “For dropping this on you. But we’re desperate. He’s had such a rough start to life and when we heard what Blue here had managed to achieve with him in just a few days, we had to give this a shot.”
Marsha nodded. “I understand.”
“It’s only an hour away. I’ll be back by teatime,” I said, looking at Marsha with the best puppy dog eyes I could muster.
“Actually,” Nick said. “We were thinking that maybe we could discuss, with all parties of course, you being with us on a more long term, permanent basis.”
My jaw dropped. What?
Silence fell for several seconds before Marsha said, “Let’s get the horse settled first, hmmm?”
DCI Baker patted my hand and winked. “Told you it’d all work out.”
Chapter 26
A lot of details had to be worked out in regards to me living with the George’s permanently but for now, I was going to see my soulmate, the only other living being who understood me and accepted me for my warts and all.
Marsha had insisted on coming with me. I don’t think she fully understood the depths of the bond I shared with Blue but the fact she wanted to see it for herself meant the world to me. As much as I regretted putting her through hell for the last two weeks, I didn’t regret what I’d decided to do by running away that night because if I hadn’t, I’d have never met Blue and just as importantly, he’d have never met me.
DCI Baker had been right. The stud was absolutely gorgeous. Acres of rolling green fields, huge electronic black gates at the entrance, a massive sandy coloured country house, it really was something out of a dream.
An American style barn and Olympic sized dressage arena sat behind the house. Excitement tingled through my veins. What an amazing place. This is exactly the kind of place I dreamed of, somewhere that would be featured in movies or magazines and now suddenly, it was in my life.
We pulled up in front of the open barn doors. I jumped out before anyone could say anything and ran inside.
“Blue!” I said, running down the centre aisle, looking in the stables either side of me. “Blue?”
I heard shuffling from near the bottom end and picked up my pace. His familiar handsome face popped over the stable door. His brown eyes lit
up and he whinnied at me so loud I had to stop and cover my ears.
When I reached his stable door, I yanked it open and threw my arms around his neck, crying into his mane. When I felt his nose nuzzling my back, I hugged him even tighter.
“Hey, boy,” I said, pulling back and scratching his chest. “How are you doing?”
He touched his nose to my shoulder and then snuffled through my hair.
“I’m fine,” I said, giggling at him. “You need to eat and drink or no more scratches.”
He bobbed his head up and down, wandered over to his automatic drinker and took a long drink before settling into his pile of hay.
“Wow,” Wendy said. “I’m speechless. I literally don’t know what to say.”
I smiled. “He’s a very special boy.”
“Clearly, you’re a very special girl,” she said, grabbing my hand and squeezing it. “We can’t thank you enough.”
“You don’t need to thank me. I need to thank you. He’s changed my life.”
“I think you’ve changed his.”
Marsha came and gave me a hug and said, “I think you’ve both changed a lot of people’s lives.”
I glanced back at Blue and smiled. “Yes, that’s true. But so long as we don’t run anymore then our lives won’t change, will they?”
Tears flooded Marsha’s eyes. “You’ve never wanted to stay and fight for anything before, have you?”
I shook my head.
“I’m glad you’ve found your home, Blue. Home is where your heart is and he is clearly where your heart is.”
As I glanced at the gorgeous Connemara stallion before me, I realised Marsha was right. I thought home was a place, somewhere you had to be, but actually home was a connection, something you felt with another living being. Blue was definitely my home and I knew I was his home too. Soul mates aren’t just for people, they’re for every living thing. Even wretched ankle biting terriers.
A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
I hope you enjoyed Blue’s story. If you did, I would be eternally grateful if you could leave a review to let others know how much you enjoyed it. Even one sentence is fine. Thank you so much!
