by Meg Buchanan
Milly nodded and slid off her horse too. She took off her helmet and shook out her hair, then smiled at him over Tobias’s back.
“We can finish for the day. I need to go into town anyway.” They wandered back to the stables leading the horses.
“What do you need in town?” he asked.
“Just stuff.” She took Karim’s reins off him. “If Fred really does need you, I can put them away.” She could be really nice too. And he really liked the way the day had started. A gentle ride along the river in the morning. Then stopping for a while in the clearing and having sex.
At the clearing they were be completely alone again. They talked, made love, and talked some more with nobody around.
The horses didn’t seem to mind.
After work, he was getting into his ute to leave. Milly had rung to say she was going to Hamilton to check out flats with Tessa and she’d see him in the morning.
Bloody Ewan and Gary came over.
Gary leaned against the tray. “She finally get sick of you this morning, drummer boy?”
“Piss off.” He slammed the door of his ute shut. Unfortunately, it was a hot day and he’d left the window wound down this morning. He could still hear them.
Ewan leaned against the door of his own car.
“Maybe she’ll want one of us now. At least she wouldn’t have to teach us to ride.” He hadn’t seen either of them doing dressage. They were always hunched over the backs of the racehorses, stirrups high. He had to get better at riding eventually.
Gary and folded his arms. “Not me. I’ve got too much pride to be some rich bitch’s riding toy.”
Cole ignored them and turned on the ignition.
“She push you around like that in the sack too?” Ewan said over the sound of the motor.
He considered getting out of the ute again and punching them. One of the advantages of working around trainee jockeys and not being one, they tended to be a lot smaller than you.
But he didn’t. Tom would want to know why they were fighting, and it could all get messy. He left them to it and went home.
22. Chapter Twenty-Two
Early morning again. He’d spent the past month helping Milly with her horses. Even Gary and Ewan accepted that’s what he did now. They’d given up giving him shit about it. Milly took Karim’s reins from him and led both horses to the edge of the clearing beside the river. She draped the reins over a branch; the way she had the first time they were here. She came back to him.
“Let’s just talk. I’ve got something to tell you.”
Something to tell you usually meant bad news, and she’d been distracted for the last couple of days. Everything went on alert.
He’d been expecting this. He knew this thing with Milly had to be too good to last. “Are you giving me the flick?”
She shook her head.
A relief, because when they weren’t in the riding arena, he really liked her.
She sat down on the edge of the river bank.
“The grass is wet,” he said. Bloody damp with dew again. But it always was this early in the morning.
“You don’t usually mind,” she said.
He sat down beside her, their boots dangled over the side of the bank. The water meandered in the weeds below.
“What do you have to tell me?” Might as well hear the worst.
“Mother skyped last night.” That happens in some families. “She still wants me to stay with her this year.”
Milly hadn’t mentioned that since before Christmas. He looked at her, shocked. She was leaving?
She studied the river and trees on the other side.
“Mum suggested I bring Karim and Tobias. She says she and Joe could help me train them and I would get experience.”
“Did you say you’d go?” He’d just found her. After a few stops and starts they’d finally got things sorted.
Milly nodded.
“For how long?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. A year maybe.”
“Fuck,” he said slowly. He hadn’t expected that. He was the one who finished things. Not the girl. And he didn’t want things to finish with this girl anyway, even though she’d turned out to be bloody bossy.
“When do you leave?”
“Next week.”
“Next week?” No time.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity,” Milly added. “If I want to be a top rider, this is what I should do.”
“Yeah.” He turned enough to see her face.
She looked sad and anxious and excited all at the same time. But like she worried about how he would react.
He wasn’t going to spoil this for her.
He put his hand behind her head, pulled her closer and kissed her. A kiss tinged with sadness. He wanted her to stay. But if he had a chance to do something he loved, would he stay to be with her?
Probably not.
A sadness hung over them. They made love slowly and carefully.
When they got back to the house, Tom came out to meet them.
“Did Milly tell you her news,” he asked.
“Yeah.” Cole dismounted. Even though he’d decided to be happy for her and not spoil it, he could feel anger at her bubbling up. Ewan and Gary had been right. He was just something to play with until she was ready to get on with her life.
She’d already proved she could just walk away from things she didn’t have any use for anymore. She barely mentioned Wildfire now and she didn’t bother with Hunter much either. He exercised Hunter and groomed him and kept his stall clean. When he couldn’t do it, Fred did it. Never Milly. She’d said she wouldn’t take Hunter to England with her either. Even if he hadn’t got injured he would have been too old.
Now she was treating him like she treated that horse.
But he loved her.
How could she even think about going away for a year?
The week went by. The early start in the morning, the ride along the river bank to stretch and warm the horses up. The long rest in the clearing, and then back to the house for more training.
Only two days to go before Milly left, and she still had them doing dressage, and he was bloody sick of it. As usual, as soon as they were in the arena, she started ordering him about.
He still needed the job, and it was interesting most of the time even though Milly had turned out to be bloody bossy. Over the last few days when he couldn’t be bothered with her any more, he used Fred as an excuse to get away, but if she kept this up he’d tell her where she could stick her horse training.
“No, keep a steady, consistent rhythm. The horse shouldn't speed up or slow down during a dressage test.” He tried to do it. But Karim seemed to have a mind of his own this morning.
“How am I going to take him with me if he doesn’t know what to do, Cole?” she snapped. “Warm him up at all three gaits, then ride him at the trot. On the short sides, sit the trot or take your two-point position,” she ordered.
He tried to follow the instructions, but the bloody horse wasn’t obeying.
Milly sat on Tobias bellowing out orders, and criticising.
“No, on the long sides you pick up a posting trot. Bend him around your inside leg and turn his nose towards the centre of the circle. Ride half circles and progress into the serpentine.”
He tried to get the horse to bend around his inner leg on the circle, the way she wanted him to, but nothing he did was right.
“No, Cole, keep changing direction. You have to ride in equal amounts counter clockwise and clockwise, so you don't strain the horse's muscles on one side of the body.”
Orders, orders, orders! She really thought he was some sort of mechanical riding toy. He’d had enough of this.
He turned Karim to leave the arena and rode away from her. “I quit! I can’t do a bloody thing right this morning,” he said over his shoulder. She could bloody do it herself. He’d go and find Fred and see if he had any work for him.
“You can’t quit. I’ve only got two days.
”
“Your problem, not mine. I’m going back to mucking out the stables. At least I get that right occasionally.”
He rode out of the arena and headed for the stables.
“Get back here,” she ordered.
“Fuck you.” He could do without Miss Gaisford if she could do without him.
Fred must have seen the argument. He walked a horse along the water bath. Backwards and forwards patiently. His old crinkled face didn’t look surprised when Cole came over to him.
“Lovers’ tiff?” Fred asked.
Cole nodded.
“Okay,” said Fred. “Keep him going up and down. I’ll keep an eye on Milly for you.”
For the rest of the day Fred found him jobs. Cole did them while the old trainer watched Milly work with the horses. She kept going until late afternoon.
At knocking off time, Cole sat in the ute and watched Milly. Now she’d taken Tobias out to the jumps.
He couldn’t leave her on her own, especially if she was jumping. That would be a sackable offence, even if she didn’t come off.
Everyone else had left. Fred was ready to go too. He was just doing the final checks around the stalls.
He watched for another few minutes.
She rode Tobias harder and harder now and started taking risks. He knew enough to be able to see that.
He got out of the ute. He’d go and tell her he was headed for home and that she had to stop riding for the day.
Milly cantered over. She’d finished the course before she bothered to take any notice of him. He’d been leaning on the fence trying to get her attention for a couple of minutes.
“I thought you’d quit,” she said.
“I have, and I’m going home now, so you have to stop.”
“Pffft.” She turned the horse around to start the course again. “You can go if you want to. I’m going to keep riding.”
Bitch.
“Get off, so I can go home.”
“I’m not stopping you.” She cantered away and did the loop that would set Tobias up for the next jump.
“Milly, get back here!” He would never know if that shout caused it, or the way Milly dug her heels in did. Or if Tobias had just had enough for the day. But instead of galloping at the jump and flying over it effortlessly, the way he should have, he got the approach wrong, and was on the wrong foot at the jump.
He refused.
And came to a dead stop.
Milly flew over his head.
She seemed to land hard and just lie there.
It looked like Tobias wheeled off to the side and didn’t stand on her, but she still didn’t move.
Cole ducked under the arena fence. He shouldn’t have upset her. She was leaving the day after tomorrow. He ran across the paddock. He should have just done what she said, and not made her angry enough to keep riding just to show him.
Now she was hurt.
He didn’t dare guess how badly hurt. It seemed to take an eternity to get to her and she still hadn’t moved.
He crouched down beside her.
“Milly?” He touched her face, but no response.
She lay on her stomach. Her eyes were closed. There was a mark on the side of her face where she must have hit the dirt.
“Milly, talk to me.” Still no response.
She had one arm out to the side. That looked all right. The other tucked under her and he couldn’t see it. He didn’t want to try and turn her over until he knew he wouldn’t do any damage.
“Come on, Milly. Wake up. Move.” He could hear the desperation in his voice.
Her legs looked all right, stretched out behind her, one straight, one bent at the knee, but no strange angles, and she was breathing. He could hear the little panting breaths.
“Milly, come on.” He touched her face again, undid the strap of the helmet and took it off.
23. Chapter Twenty-Three
He heard uneven running steps behind him. He looked around and Fred was nearly across the paddock. Fred got to them and crouched down on the other side of Milly.
“Is she breathing?”
Cole nodded. He could feel the tears slide down his cheeks. He felt completely useless and still didn’t know what to do.
“You got your phone on you, Cole?”
Fred hadn’t tried to move Milly either.
Cole nodded again.
The old man stood up. “Ring for an ambulance, boy, then ring Tom and tell him what’s happened.”
Hands shaking, Cole made the calls. He got the ambulance and gave the directions to get to the stables.
He couldn’t contact Tom.
Fred went to catch Tobias and came back to them leading the horse.
“You stay with her. I’ll put this one away and bring a blanket.”
“Do you think she’ll be all right?”
Fred steadied the horse.
“No idea, just don’t move her until we know what we are dealing with. And keep trying to get Tom.”
Cole sat beside Milly He touched her face, stroked her hair and talked to her. He stopped long enough to try to get hold of her father.
Fred came back with a blanket and helped spread it over Milly. It seemed to take an age for the ambulance to arrive. Milly still didn’t regain consciousness. But at least she was breathing.
The next day, the doctor who examined Milly in A&E and admitted her to hospital stood at the end of the hospital bed.
“Just a bump on the head and the breath knocked out of her. No permanent damage,” he said to Tom. “Take her home and make her rest for a few days.”
Milly sat up in bed, a bit of a bruise on her cheek. “But I’m flying to England tomorrow.”
The doctor picked up her chart. “I’d cancel that flight and book another in a week or so. Give yourself time to get over the concussion.”
“We can do that.” Tom stood up ready to go. “I’ll go and get the car and bring it round while you get dressed, Princess. Cole, you wait here until she’s ready and come her down her. See if you can do that job properly.”
Cole nodded. Bloody Milly. Somehow, he copped all the blame for her coming off Tobias. Maybe someone had let slip about the argument and leaving Fred to do the watching.
Back at the house he got landed with looking after Milly again.
“Just make sure she doesn’t do anything,” said Tom before he left to go back to whatever meeting he’d been called away from yesterday. “And this time do what you’ve been told to do.”
Maybe Tom didn’t know about the fight, because he acted like he and Milly would want things this way. But he was still copping it for Milly’s stupidity.
So here he was again, her minder.
He sat there on the end of the couch, elbows on his knees, thinking about how the last few days had gone. Milly had been bloody unpleasant all week, and yesterday she’d excelled herself. Was a total bitch for most of the day. Then she got angry, rode her horse like a maniac, and came off. She always did exactly what she wanted without thinking about how it affected anyone else.
From the moment he saw her fall he felt like his heart had been pulled out of him.
Then when she came to, the first thing she thought of was whether she could still fly to her mother’s.
She didn’t care about him or how he felt.
“What’s wrong, Cole?” Milly sat on the other end of the couch, legs tucked up under her, leaning on the arm. She was still in the skinny jeans, camisole and sneakers her father had taken to the hospital for her to change into. She had a puzzled look on that flawless face, flawless except for the big bruise on her cheek.
“Nothing.”
“You’re not still angry with me, are you?”
“No.” Of course, he was still angry at her. The two people in this world he cared most about seemed intent on killing themselves and no matter how hard he tried he didn’t seem to be able to stop them.
He couldn’t stand this.
He stood up. “I’m going.” The oth
ers would be waiting for him. The last practice before their first night at the pub next week
“But, Dad said you had to look after me.”
“He must have forgotten it’s my day off.” He looked at his watch. “I’m meant to be at the shed.”
“Can I come?”
“Nope. You’re meant to be resting.”
“And you’re meant to be looking after me.”
He went over to the door. “I’m sure you are safe in the TV room.”
“Is this because I wouldn’t stop riding when you wanted me to?”
“Some of it. And because you chose to ride a bloody dangerous horse. He’s thrown you twice now.”
“It isn’t Tobias’s fault.”
He snorted. “It never is, is it?” He opened the door.
She slid off the couch and came over. “Or is this because I’m leaving?” She put her arms around him and rested her head on his chest. “You could come with me.”
He kept his hand on the door handle. “As what?” He was too tall to be a jockey, didn’t know enough to be a trainer, couldn’t ride well enough to do what she did, and couldn’t afford the gear or the horse anyway.
That left going as her minder and if she didn’t care if she got hurt, why should he?
She looked up at him. “A groom? You could help me with the horses there too. I’m sure Daddy would pay your fare if I asked, and Joe would give you a job, if I wanted it.”
Yep. All he meant to her was someone to help her with the horses.
“Nah. Daddy can’t buy you this toy,” he said to her. Besides he wanted to try this thing with Stadium at the pub in weekends. He wouldn’t mind seeing how that went. And his father couldn’t look after himself. He’d finish up dead too.
Milly looked hurt.
She dropped her arms and stepped back.
“What’s got into you? Why won’t you come with me?”
He wasn’t the one who decided to ride a dangerous horse, and nearly killed himself. Again. He’d end this now, before she succeeded in doing it and he had to watch. He’d broken up with girls before. Plenty more where she came from.
