by Amanda Wills
‘I didn’t get much sleep. One minute I was shivering, the next I was boiling hot. I expect it’s nerves.’
‘Maybe,’ said Kristy doubtfully. Annie had dark shadows under her eyes and her skin had a greyish tinge to it. ‘Are you sure you’re not ill?’
‘Don’t be daft. I’ll be fine. But I might get a drink, if that’s OK? Can you keep an eye on Jigsaw?’
‘I’ll do better than that,’ said Kristy, rolling up her sleeves. ‘I’ll finish washing him.’ She tweaked the gelding’s ear and he gave her a friendly nudge. Soon she was elbow-deep in the bucket of soapy water, working the shampoo into suds. She dipped Emma’s rubber mitt in and worked the suds into his coat in a circular motion, concentrating on his white patches.
One she was happy with his body she dipped his tail in the bucket and used her fingers to work in a generous squirt of shampoo. It was immensely satisfying, watching the water turn grimier and his tail cleaner, even if it still wasn’t quite as white as Annie’s complexion. Next she turned her attention to his mane. By the time Annie reappeared, her hands wrapped around a mug of coffee, Kristy was rinsing him off with the hose.
‘You drink your coffee. I’ll dry him off.’ Kristy rummaged around in the grooming box for a scraper.
‘You’re an angel,’ said Annie.
Was it Kristy’s imagination or did Annie’s voice sound shaky?
‘Did you used to get nervous before dressage competitions?’ she asked.
Annie shook her head. ‘That’s the weird thing. I never did. Perhaps it’s the thought of performing in front of a load of teachers. I was always so useless at school.’ She laughed, but it turned into a cough. ‘Oh look, the twins are here.’
The next couple of hours flew by as they washed the three ponies, plaited manes and oiled hooves. Kristy checked her watch. It was a quarter to ten.
‘You’d better get changed. We need to be gone in fifteen minutes.’
‘Alright, bossy boots,’ said Norah.
Kristy smiled sweetly. ‘I learnt from a master.’
Norah tutted, but her eyes were twinkling. ‘Haha, very funny, I’m sure.’
Once they reappeared in their costumes Kristy lined them up beside their horses so she could take a photo. She smiled.
‘You look amazing. Miss Raven is going to be super impressed.’ She consulted her clipboard. ‘Ponies, tick. Riders,’ she glanced briefly at Annie, who was staring vacantly into space but was at least present and correct. ‘Tick. Music?’
‘I gave it to the school secretary on Friday,’ said Norah.
‘Excellent,’ said Kristy, ticking it off her list.
‘Everyone ready?’
‘Tick!’ Sofia and the twins chorused.
Kristy grinned.
‘Nutters,’ she said fondly. She realised it didn’t matter she wasn’t riding. She was just glad to be part of it all. She felt a stab of sadness Jigsaw was there in Cassius’s place. But she was determined find him, no matter how long it took. Her priority today was to help her friends perform an unforgettable quadrille worthy of their school’s one hundredth birthday.
She checked Jigsaw’s girth. Annie was gripping the reins so tightly her knuckles bulged.
‘Are you sure you’re OK?’ Kristy whispered.
‘I do feel a bit…spacey. But I’ll be fine.’
‘Is Emma coming to watch?’ asked Sofia, trying to soothe an over-excited Jazz.
‘My mum and dad are picking her up at half past,’ said Kristy. ‘Right, are we all set?’
The others nodded.
‘Then let’s do this!’
Kristy pedalled in front of the others, stopping every now and then so they could catch her up. It was only a couple of miles to their school if they went the back way. They should be there by half ten, which gave them plenty of time for last minute preparations before their performance at eleven.
As they rounded the corner to the school Kristy’s eyes widened. Length after length of bunting in the school colours of navy and plum adorned the metal railings and navy and plum helium balloons tied to the gateposts danced crazily in the breeze. Every space in the car park had been taken up and people had doubled parked in the road outside.
‘Crikey, there are loads of people here,’ said Norah, who always suffered from last minute nerves.
‘Not as many as there were at the New Year’s Eve show,’ said William reassuringly. ‘And anyway, we’ll be fine. We’ve practised so hard for this.’
Norah flashed her brother a quick smile. ‘You’re right.’
‘Miss Raven said we’re to go in through the side gate,’ Kristy reminded them, holding her breath as Jazz shied at the balloons, her eyes on stalks.
‘Steady girl,’ said Sofia, hardly moving in the saddle.
‘William, you go first. Copper’s bombproof,’ instructed Kristy. ‘Jazz next, then Silver and Jigsaw.’
Sofia followed William past the balloons without incident. Silver spooked but Norah was ready for him. She gave him a pony club kick in the ribs and he crabbed past with flared nostrils. But when Jigsaw clocked the balloons he span around in panic and clattered down the lane, sparks flying from his hooves. Annie shrieked and Kristy clutched her handlebars and stared after them in horror.
‘William, go after them!’ cried Norah.
‘No,’ said Kristy, thinking quickly. ‘Jigsaw might think it’s a race and go faster. If I cut across the school fields I can intercept them at the end of the road. It’s got to be worth a try.’
Kristy hauled her bike around and set off, pedalling furiously down the school drive, past the humanities block and tennis courts and across the playing fields, where the school band was already playing to hundreds of people. She skirted around the back of the crowds, bouncing over tussocks and dodging errant toddlers.
There was an area in the far corner where the wire fence sagged and sixth-formers sneaked out at lunchtime to head into town. Kristy powered towards it, her shoulders hunched over the handlebars and her thighs burning.
At last she reached the corner and flung her bike down in the grass. In the distance she could hear the pounding of hooves. She listened carefully. There were three beats. Jigsaw must have slowed to a canter at least. She sprinted to the junction where the lane met the main road. Cars tore down the road, oblivious to the ton of horse bearing down on them.
Shielding the sun from her eyes, Kristy waited for Jigsaw to appear around the bend in the road. When he did her heart skipped a beat. He was riderless. Annie must have fallen off.
Kristy ran beside the main road, waving her arms frantically. A showroom-shiny saloon car slowed, and she waved her hands even more furiously.
‘Stop!’ she cried, and the saloon slowed to a halt beside her. The window whirred open and the driver, an elderly man in a trilby hat, beckoned her closer with long, bony fingers. Kristy leant in. The plush interior had the unmistakable whiff of brand new car about it.
‘Has there been an accident?’ he said.
‘Not yet, but there will be,’ said Kristy breathlessly. ‘There’s a bolting horse and he’s coming this way. I need to stop him before he gets to the main road.’
‘Shall I call the police?’
Kristy shook her head. ‘No time.’ She glanced desperately behind her. She could see Jigsaw in the distance. He was growing bigger with every stride. Suddenly she had a brainwave. ’Can you park your car across the road? That should stop him.’
The old man raised bushy eyebrows. ‘And if it doesn’t?’
‘It will,’ said Kristy. ‘So can you do it? Please?’
The man nodded once, turned the ignition and the engine purred into life. He glanced in his rear-view mirror and manoeuvred the car so it was parked across the road.
It was just in time. Jigsaw was now so close Kristy could see the whites of his eyes. His stirrups flapped against the saddle, increasing his panic. Kristy walked slowly forward, her eyes fixed on the gelding’s face and her arms outstretched.
/> ‘Whoa,’ she called. Even to her own ears she sounded high-pitched and panicky. She took two deep breaths and tried to steady her voice.
‘Steady, Jigsaw, there’s a good lad. It’s alright. There’s nothing to be frightened of.’
The gelding’s pace faltered and Kristy took another couple of steps forward. ‘Whoa,’ she crooned. Jigsaw’s ears flicked forward.
He’s listening to me, she thought jubilantly.
Cymbals crashed shrilly as the school band reached a crescendo. Jigsaw quickened his pace to a four-beat gallop.
For one terrifying moment Kristy thought the big gelding was going to leap over both her and the car. But she stepped forward and spoke to him again, as calmly as she could. He hesitated and Kristy reached up to grab his reins.
Her hands closed over the leather and Jigsaw skidded to a halt with all four legs braced, wrenching the muscles in her shoulder. He was no more than a metre from the car. Kristy’s legs almost buckled beneath her as she realised how narrowly they had avoided disaster.
Jigsaw was blowing heavily, his flanks heaving like a pair of bellows. Kristy tightened her grip on his reins and stroked his neck, talking to him softly.
The old man climbed stiffly out of his car and joined her.
‘That was brave,’ he said.
‘Or stupid,’ she admitted. ‘Thank you so much. Your lovely new car, it could have been completely trashed.’
‘Ah, it’s only a car,’ he said, doffing his trilby at her. ‘At my age you realise what’s really important. And you two, will you be alright?’
Kristy swallowed. Her shoulder stabbed with pain, she had no idea where Annie was and the quadrille was due to start in about fifteen minutes. But Jigsaw was safe. That was the most important thing.
She leant against the big gelding and nodded. ‘We will.’
21
Mane Attraction
Kristy ran up Jigsaw’s stirrups and loosened his girth a couple of notches. She felt his legs for signs of heat, relieved he appeared remarkably unscathed. Once she was sure he’d stopped blowing she turned him back up the road towards the school. Her bike could wait. The big gelding walked beside her docilely.
Half expecting to find Annie lying in the middle of the road clutching a broken bone, Kristy was surprised it was empty apart from the odd straggler, late for the centenary celebration. She tightened her grip on the reins as she led Jigsaw past the balloons, but he didn’t even flinch.
‘You old fraud,’ she told him.
She spied Silver’s dappled rump beside the tennis courts and quickened her pace. It was five to eleven. As long as Annie was OK they could still make it - just.
William was the first to see them. He waved frantically and shouted something to the others, who spun around and watched them approach with open mouths.
Kristy’s eyes searched for Annie. Her parents and Emma were there, and William, Sofia and Norah were all on their ponies. But there was no sign of Annie. Kristy’s blood ran cold as she pictured her on a stretcher being carried into the back of an ambulance.
Norah and Silver were heading straight for them.
‘Oh thank goodness you’re here,’ she said.
‘Where’s Annie?’
Norah waved a dismissive hand. ‘In the back of your car. She’s fine. She didn’t even fall off. She managed to pull Jigsaw up, got off because she said she felt dizzy, and then he took fright again and she let go of his reins, the silly idiot.’
‘Norah, she can hear you!’ cried Sofia, pointing to the open car window.
‘I don’t care,’ said Norah. ‘She’s let us down big time.’
Kristy’s mind was working overtime. ‘You’ll be OK. You’ve done it with three before. Just remember when you ride up the centre line to spread yourselves out a bit more and -’
‘We’re not doing it with three,’ said Norah.
‘I know it’s not ideal, but needs must. There are only three of you,’ Kristy pointed out.
‘Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong. There are four of us.’
It took a moment for Norah’s words to sink in. Kristy shook her head. ‘Don’t be silly. I can’t do it. I’ve never ridden Jigsaw before, I don’t know the routine and I can’t wear this,’ she said, looking down at her faded jeans and sweatshirt.
‘Number one, you’ll be fine riding Jigsaw. You’re just as good a rider as Annie.’ Norah shot a filthy look in the direction of the open car window. ‘Number two, you probably know the routine better than all of us. You’ve watched us doing it enough times. And number three, Annie’s already changed into some of your old clothes your mum found in the boot. So you can wear her outfit.’
‘But -’
‘Please, Kristy. Do it for the team?’
Kristy looked imploringly at her parents and Emma, who had joined the three children.
‘Come on, kiddo, you can do it,’ said her dad.
Emma nodded. ‘Jigsaw’ll look after you. He rides like a dream.’
‘Unless he sees a balloon,’ said Kristy, playing for time. If she procrastinated for long enough they’d have to go on without her.
‘There aren’t any balloons on the playing field, I’ve checked,’ said her mum.
‘What would Cassius say?’ said William. ‘If he wasn’t a horse,’ he added.
Blushing as she remembered how Cassius had spoken to her in her dream, Kristy pictured his kind, wise face and her heart ached. He had loved performing in front of everyone at the New Year’s Eve show. Of course he would want her to go out there and strut her stuff. ‘Alright, I’ll do it,’ she muttered.
Sofia whooped and William punched the air. Norah jumped off Silver, rummaged around on the passenger seat of the car and handed Kristy the spare costume. ‘You’ve got precisely three minutes. Go!’
Kristy’s stomach was somersaulting. She wasn’t sure if it was with nerves or excitement. She dived into the back of the car to change. Annie was sitting in the passenger seat, wrapped in their tartan picnic blanket. Her teeth were chattering.
‘Are you OK?’ said Kristy.
‘Your mum reckons I’ve got the flu. She’s going to drop me home after the show. I’ll be fine after a couple of days in bed.’
‘You don’t mind if I take your place, do you?’ Kristy asked.
‘’Course I don’t. You’ll love Jigsaw. Just remember one vital thing,’ said Annie.
‘What?’ said Kristy.
‘He hates balloons.’
Emma was holding Jigsaw with her good hand. His head was high and his nostrils quivering as he watched the proceedings. He suddenly seemed enormous and Kristy was gripped by panic.
‘I don’t think I can do it,’ she croaked.
Emma was brusque. ‘Of course you can. He’s a push button ride.’
‘But I don’t know which buttons to push!’ Kristy cried.
‘Take five deep breaths and calm yourself down. You don’t want to transmit your nerves to him, do you?’
Kristy shook her head.
‘Good. So listen to me, Kristy Moore. You are the best stable hand I have ever had. You have a lovely way with horses. Just look at Jigsaw now.’
The big gelding had dropped his head and was nuzzling the pockets of Kristy’s pinafore dress, hoping for a treat.
‘Jigsaw knows you and he trusts you. And he will try his heart out for you. So don’t be a wimp and get on and ride!’
Kristy checked his girth and pulled down his stirrups. Her dad gave her a leg up and she stroked Jigsaw’s neck.
‘Ready?’ called Norah.
Kristy looked down and met Emma’s eye.
‘Have a bit of faith in yourself,’ her boss said softly. ‘You can do it.’
Kristy dipped her head. Emma was right, she could.
She gathered her reins and grinned at them all. ‘Ready!’
Half a dozen sixth-formers were clearing away the mini trampolines and wooden horses the gymnasts had used in their routine. The quadrille was the penul
timate performance, and was to be followed by a parade of children wearing the school’s many uniforms and sports kits over the years.
The four riders lined up at the far end of the hockey pitch, Norah with Sofia, Kristy beside William. Adrenalin flowed through Kristy’s veins, kicking her nerves into touch. She felt alert and completely focussed on the task ahead.
Beneath her, Jigsaw shifted his weight as they waited for Miss Raven’s cue to go. The skewbald gelding was bigger than Cassius by half a hand and was much narrower than her beloved Percheron. She was glad they’d ditched the vaulting.
The loudspeaker crackled and Miss Raven’s voice carried across the playing field towards them.
‘Thank you to our talented gymnasts for a truly excellent performance. And now it is my great pleasure to introduce our very own quadrille team, Mane Attraction!’
‘Mane Attraction?’ spluttered William. ‘Sis, what were you thinking?’
Norah was puzzled. ‘It’s a play on words. A pun.’
‘It’s cheesy, that’s what it is.’
‘Neigh, it’s not,’ said Sofia.
‘Yeah, why the long face? Don’t be a neigh-sayer, William,’ said Kristy, giggling.
She was still grinning like an idiot as they trotted into the ring and stopped in front of their headmistress. Holding their reins in their left hands, they dropped their right hands to their sides and nodded as one. Miss Raven acknowledged their salute with an approving smile and a dip of her head. The first uplifting notes of their music filled the air and they were off.
Norah and William peeled off to the right and Kristy followed Sofia to the left. Jigsaw’s stride was longer than Cassius’s but when she asked him to collect he did so immediately, shortening his stride so she could keep half a length’s distance between him and Jazz. Their crossover at X was as accurate as any they’d done in their practice sessions and when they passed Norah and William at the bottom of the arena the twins were grinning as widely as Kristy was.
They followed Jazz’s golden rump up the long side of the arena and crossed the diagonal again at X.
