Rudy glanced down at his daughter, a light of new understanding in his eyes. “So you’re not afraid of getting on a horse,” he said slowly, “and you’re not afraid of riding a horse . . .”
His voice sounded strange. Kit looked up at him, wondering what he was getting at, and saw that light in his eyes. It seemed to shine right into her, and then — Kit’s whole body tingled in sudden realization. The awful disjointed memories from six years ago shuffled around in her brain, finding a new order that suddenly made sense. “I’m afraid of being dragged,” she breathed.
Rudy said nothing, letting her work through the next step.
Kit smiled, a big, wide toothy smile that spoke of new hope and courage. “Come on, TK!” she called to the horse in the arena. “We’ve got some baby steps to take together!”
Kit took TK to his stall and stayed inside with him, closing the door. Nobody else was in the stables. The peaceful quiet of the English country afternoon seeped through her, and she tried to project that feeling to TK.
“We’re friends, right?” she asked him. “I don’t want to hurt you, and you don’t want to hurt me.” She turned a bucket upside down and sat on it.
TK lowered his head to her level as if listening.
“So, between us, I’m still a little scared. So I’m going to face it head-on.” Kit pulled her phone from her back pocket and tapped her timer app. “Thirty minutes of uninterrupted cuddle time. No matter what. Starting —” She programmed in thirty minutes and tapped the Start button. “Now.” She set the phone aside and stood up. “Nobody ever got dragged during a cuddle,” she informed TK, who huffed a hot breath at her as if to agree that the very idea was silly. Then he tried to nibble on her jacket.
Kit pulled her arm away, laughing. “Oh, I’m sorry, am I boring you?”
TK huffed again and nudged her.
His mellow mood gave Kit encouragement. “Okay. Let’s just hug it out.” She shifted closer so that his enormous horse head pressed against her chest. They were practically eyeball to eyeball. “Good boy,” she murmured, petting his cheek. “Good boy.” She put her arms around his massive neck. TK stayed still as she continued closer, pressing the side of her face against his skin.
He was wonderfully warm, and she could hear him breathing inside, big inhalations of air whooshing up and down his windpipe like a bellows. The musky scent of his body calmed her. She hadn’t let herself get this close to a horse in so many years! Yes, she had visited her dad’s ranch on the weekends and had helped with chores in the stables, but only when the horses were out in the pasture.
Still, she had never lost her fascination for horses. Watching them gallop across open fields in playful groups, kicking up their heels and chasing each other, or playing with the big rubber balls that her mother bought for the babies in the spring. She had often laughed until she cried watching foals, all long skinny legs and no coordination, fumble around with the huge bouncy balls, trying to jump on them and falling off sideways, their short tails flapping in excitement at absolutely nothing but the fun of being alive.
Horses were amazing creatures, overflowing with personality if you took the time to notice. Freckles hadn’t been a jerk at all. He had been a sweetheart, gentle enough to take care of an eight-year-old rider. It hadn’t been his fault that instinct had told him to flee a perceived danger, whatever it had been that day. The simple shadow of a passing raven could spook a horse. It was just the way they were.
And TK wasn’t a bad horse, either. As she hugged him, Kit felt as if he was trying to show her that he liked her and that he would be good to her if she was good to him. “Baby steps are nice,” she murmured, closing her eyes and hugging him tight.
Will followed Josh down the steps of the main campus building. All academic classes were held within its many rooms, and they had just finished a math test up on the third floor. Josh seemed to be pleased with how he’d done, but Will couldn’t help but worry. He wasn’t good in math, and that last problem had been a killer. He hated dealing with numbers. All he wanted to do was work with horses. They made a lot more sense to him than numbers did. And people, for that matter.
He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that when the snake landed on his shoulder, it took him a good two seconds to recognize it — the sudden unexpected weight, the long, thin body draped over him, the diamond-shaped head pointing right at his face.
He screamed, jumping around and thrashing in terror, totally out of control. Nothing mattered but getting the thing off him. Every student in the lobby turned to stare as he danced in a mad circle, still screaming, until it dropped to the floor.
To his credit, it was a snake. And he had every right to hate snakes, especially if they fell on him from out of thin air. But a rubber snake? “Nav,” he growled.
“No, haven’t seen him,” Josh said innocently, making a quick getaway.
“Nav!” Will hollered.
Nav waved cheerily from the stairs. “Was one of the First-Form girls just here? Because I swear I heard shrieking,” he commented, sauntering down to lobby level and retrieving the rubber snake. “My ears are still ringing.”
“Ha, ha!” Will thundered. “Are we even?”
“We’re even.” Nav draped the snake over his shoulders and stuck out his hand. “Gentlemen’s agreement?”
Will reluctantly shook his hand. “You’re lucky no one important was here.”
Nav pulled his mobile out of his jacket pocket. “Oh! What do I have here?” He held it up to show a video playing — a video of Will battling the rubber snake. “Eighteen seconds of pure joy!” With a wild laugh, he darted away with his prize.
“No!” Will shouted, running after him. “No, Nav! Nav, don’t you dare! Get back here!”
They disappeared down the hall amid the laughter of the other students.
Back in the stables, Elaine was stomping her way to TK’s stall. Not only was she frustrated at not having been invited to tea with Lady Covington yet, but being ordered to deliver an invitation for exactly that to Kit Bridges was like rubbing salt in the wound.
She reached the stall and peered inside. Kit was there, as she’d been told, only the girl was asleep, right there in the hay. Elaine thought sleeping in a stall to treat a fear of horses was pretty stupid, but she also thought Kit Bridges was stupid, so there you go.
She placed the invitation on the door, leaning it against the bars so that Kit would see it when she woke up. Having completed her distasteful mission, she left.
It never occurred to her that TK would get involved. Elaine was hardly gone before he sniffed at the scented paper that Lady Covington always used. It smelled nice, like flowers. TK liked flowers.
He lipped the envelope into his mouth and ate it.
Days passed, and Kit made progress with TK. She hadn’t ridden him yet. She hadn’t even tried to mount him. She was still working up the courage, but she knew the right time would come soon. She hoped it would. On a break from classes, she went to the stables.
Dressed in jeans, work shirt, work boots and a warm jacket, she maneuvered a wheelbarrow with a pitchfork over to TK’s stall. “Hey, buddy,” she greeted him. “Move over. Let’s get this stall spick-and-span.” She set up a little feedbag in the corner and tied him there so he would stay out of her way. He stuck his nose in the bag and started munching.
“You can use the indoor arena,” came Rudy’s voice from down the corridor, “just clean up your tack afterward. I don’t want to be your stable maid.”
“Roger that, Mr. B. Thank you,” Josh’s voice replied.
The two of them reached TK’s stall as Kit started to clean. “Whoa,” Josh said. “Is that what you’re wearing to afternoon tea? That’s risky.”
Kit gave him a you’re nuts face. “No, this is what I’m wearing to muck out TK’s stall. Er, what tea?”
“Afternoon tea,” Josh explained. “With Lady C? You’re supposed to be there in, like, fifteen minutes. It’s posted on her schedule.”
Ki
t looked from Josh to her dad and back again. “It’s the first I’ve heard of it!”
“You usually get an invitation from your house prefect,” Josh told her.
“Elaine wouldn’t . . . would she?”
Rudy held up a hand. “Now, that sounds like some serious conclusion jumping.”
“I don’t know. Girl warfare might be too complicated for your boy brain.” Kit pulled a stray strand of alfalfa from her hair. “How do I do tea? What am I supposed to talk about with Lady C for an hour? This is going to be a disaster!” She noticed more alfalfa in her hair and nervously pulled at it.
Rudy shook his head. “I’ve always been proud of how you don’t overreact.”
“I need a buffer,” Kit decided. She looked straight at her dad. “I need a wingman! Rudy?”
“Oh, no, I can’t,” Rudy said quickly, injecting an I’m very busy tone to his voice. “Josh needs help getting Whistler back in order. Right, Josh?”
Josh smelled trouble and decided to help it along. “No, he’s cool,” he said to Rudy. He figured that if he kept his expression innocent, Rudy would never twig to the fact that he found this entire situation extremely amusing. As far as he could tell, Kit had her dad wrapped around her little finger.
“I’ll see you outside Lady C’s office in ten,” Kit told her dad. “And change your boots. They’re gross.” She pushed her shovel into Josh’s hands with an unspoken order to put the mucking gear away for her and left. Rudy glanced down at his grime-covered boots, sighed, and headed for his office to change.
Josh grinned. Oh, yeah, Kit was head of the Bridges family, all right.
Kit dressed back into her school uniform in under two minutes while reading from her mobile at the same time. “‘Compliment the food. Compliment her dress.’ Oh, thanks, tea etiquette website, I never would have thought of that!”
“Yes, you would have,” said Anya, who was also getting dressed.
Kit faced the dorm room’s big mirror, struggling with her hair. “Can you imagine? ‘Oh, hello, Lady C. Do you mind changing? I can’t look at that dreadful outfit for the next hour. And your cookies taste like cat food.’”
“Don’t clink your spoon against your cup,” Anya advised, grabbing up her books, “and don’t pour the tea unless you’re invited. It’s a real honor to be asked.”
“Thanks for being truly helpful.”
“You have to be at Lady Covington’s in seven minutes and three seconds!”
Kit studied herself in the mirror. She didn’t look half bad, for someone dressed in a boring uniform. At least she’d gotten control over her alfalfa hair. After straightening her jacket, she turned to find Anya struggling to carry too much stuff. “That’s a lot of books.”
“I have to ace my architecture project, especially after I fluffed the big event,” said Anya. “I just want to stay on top of things.”
“You’re paired with Nav, right? He seems like a smarty-pants.”
Anya set her books back down and rooted around in her jewelry box. She held up a pair of earrings. “Do you think these earrings say hardworking and intelligent?”
“I don’t know what you’re so worried about. You’re going to do great.”
“Thank you. And you know, Kit, you can use anything from my wardrobe.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I’d really like that. Good luck! Got to dash! Bye!”
Kit glanced at the time on her phone. “Right. Five minutes and forty-eight seconds. Just enough time for a finishing touch.” She opened Anya’s wardrobe and gasped. She’d never peeked in there before and had no idea that it was a doorway to haute couture. “Oh,” she murmured. “Hello there!”
Anya arrived in the student lounge, hunched over by the weight of all the books she was carrying. When Nav saw her dilemma, he jumped up, ever the gentleman. “Let me help you, Anya.” He took her books and put them on the table, which allowed her to slip her tote off her shoulders and hang it on the back of a chair.
“Thanks,” she said brightly. She couldn’t wait to begin. Nav was a good student and would no doubt be a great project partner, and she fully intended to wow him with her own brilliance. Between the two of them, she was sure to ace this! Good grades were her only hope in winning back Lady Covington’s faith in her.
“So,” said Nav, “we need to choose a British landmark on which to base our drawing. There’s Big Ben —”
Anya cut him off, excitedly pulling a folder from under her book pile. She had already considered Big Ben, which was one of the most well-known landmarks in London. The entire structure was actually the Houses of Parliament and Elizabeth Tower, while the name Big Ben technically referred only to the enormous bell in the clock tower. But most people just called the entire structure Big Ben.
Anya knew it was a very significant landmark, but she wanted to really stand out with this project. “I did some research,” she proudly stated, “and these are my thoughts. I’ve highlighted the ones of interest.” She stopped, noting how Nav’s mouth had dropped open in shock at all the material she had assembled. Had she gone too far? It was so hard to tell. She decided to let him take the lead. “Or Big Ben,” she said, gently pulling the folder back out of his hands. “And just never mind that stuff.”
“Excellent,” said Nav. “I’ll get started on my half after lunch.” He prepared to leave.
“Wait!” Anya had one more idea. “Anyone can draw Big Ben. Why don’t we build a scale model? I mean, we could really make an impression with this project.”
Nav’s eyes lit up. “That’s an inspired idea! And I know exactly what to do to take it to the next level of genius!” He bent over his papers and began to scribble notes while Anya opened their textbook.
Kit dashed into the main building, determined to get to Lady Covington’s office on time. She was cutting it close, but it had taken her a few minutes to choose a finishing touch for her outfit from the amazing choices in Anya’s wardrobe. She’d never been to an English tea, though she’d seen them on TV shows. Characters on TV always dressed up for tea, so she’d chosen a little pink froufrou hat to add some spice to her otherwise bland uniform.
She turned a corner to find Elaine flipping through a handful of printed posters. The unexpected sight of the girl angered Kit. She glanced at her mobile. “Four minutes, six seconds.” She had enough time. “Quick question,” she said loudly at Elaine. “Who is it that is responsible for delivering invitations from Lady C?”
Elaine took her sweet time acknowledging the question. When she finally opened her mouth to answer, though, she said, “Oh!” Her eyes scanned Kit from head to toe then back up to her head. “I see you’re ready.”
“Yeah,” said Kit, “I didn’t get an invitation until just now. So how does the system work exactly?”
Elaine focused back on her posters. “I delivered yours promptly after instruction. I left it in your donkey’s stall.”
“Well, I never got it.”
“Hm, interesting.” Elaine pretended to think it over. “Oh, wait. No. It’s not!”
Kit wanted to kick herself. How could she have expected any other answer from someone like Elaine? “Thanks a lot.” She resumed her way down the hall.
“Oh, love the fascinator, by the way,” Elaine added with a syrupy smile. “Dead-on for teatime.”
Is that what this kind of hat is called? A fascinator? Kit thought. She could probably trust Elaine to know such a thing, but the fact that Elaine complimented her on it? Don’t try to figure it out, she advised herself.
When she reached Lady Covington’s office, her dad was already there, seated and looking incredibly uncomfortable. “Hello!” Kit hurried over to the empty chair and sat. “I thought I was on time! Ish.”
Lady Covington stared at her with a strange expression, then smiled. “One might consider arriving ahead of schedule, but perhaps another day.” Her smile actually got bigger. “And your father has decided to join us for tea.”
“Oh, yeah.” Kit glanced
at her dad, who grimaced back at her. She wished he could fake his way through awkward social situations, but he wasn’t that kind of guy. If he was nervous, everyone within a mile knew it. “I invited him. Is that bad?”
“Worse things have occurred . . . in a general sense,” Lady Covington replied, “but perhaps it’s good he’s here. We have much to discuss. Would you care to pour the tea, Mr. Bridges?”
“Oh, I’m not much of a tea drinker,” Rudy said, planting a forced smile on his lips. “I’m more of a coffee man.”
Lady Covington turned to pick up a beautiful three-tiered serving tray filled with delicate tea cakes and pastries, so Kit took the opportunity to kick her dad in the shin for saying something so lame. Clueless, Rudy glared back at her while keeping the fake smile. If Kit weren’t feeling so anxious, she would have laughed out loud.
Instead she watched the headmistress place the tray on the table next to an ornate tea set. Lady Covington poured the tea herself, handing cups to Kit and Rudy whether they wanted them or not, then poured for herself. Kit tried to memorize every move she made in case this occasion were ever to happen again, but seeing as it had started off so badly, she doubted that it would. Still, one could never predict the future, so she attempted to salvage the situation. “Isn’t this a lovely spread, Dad?” she said, trying to use ESP to tell him, Compliment her pearls! Compliment the tea! Say something!
He did: “Oh, yeah. And that chocolate cake looks almost as good as your mom’s mud pie.”
Kit Meets Covington Page 10
