And it was over.
They had done it.
She could hear the crowd; but they were far away in a single sound beyond her numb mind. She was so tired she could barely hang on. Storm was still nervous about the rain but he was tired too so it tempered him.
Her leg hurt like heck.
Her helper-horse and rider came up to gallop next to them. Jolene made herself ride up on the saddle the way Herbert taught her even though her legs could barely support her weight.
Bernie rode up next to her. He smiled large at her with big brown eyes. "You did it!"
"We could never have done this without you Bernie."
They both blinked back tears.
Tears of joy, tears of pain.
Patrick ran out to her. Mud sprinkled his white suit. His face was drawn and pale but he smiled and his violet eyes shined proud.
"Yer did it Little Red…yer and yer Big Storm. But get off that horse so I can beat your arse and good because you could have killed yourself and I almost let you."
Jolene slid off Big Storm and closed herself into Patrick's arms.
It had stopped raining. And the sun was shining bright.
She looked up at the sky toward the twin spires.
It was a full rainbow that stood out in that afternoon sky.
When it rained in sunshine, there was always a rainbow. It was always just that way.
We did it Daddy.
Chapter 10
Horse racing in Kentucky is rich in history, dating back to 1789 when the first race course was laid out in Lexington. However, it was almost 100 years later, in 1875, that Churchill Downs officially opened and began its tradition as "Home of the Kentucky Derby."
While traveling in England and France in 1872-1873, 26-year-old Col. M. Lewis Clark, devised the idea of a Louisville Jockey Club for conducting race meets. Clark toured and visited with a number of prominent racing leaders, including England's Admiral Rous and France's Vicompte Darn, vice president of the French Jockey Club.
Upon his return from Europe, Clark began development of his racetrack which would serve to showcase the Kentucky breeding industry. The track would eventually become known as "Churchill Downs." The first reference of the name Churchill Downs came in an 1883 Kentucky Derby article reported by the former Louisville Commercial.
"The crowd in the grand stand sent out a volume of voice, and the crowd in the field took it up and carried it from boundary to boundary of Churchill Downs." Churchilldowns.com - July 23, 2012.
"I won't go to the doctor, I won't!"
Patrick was kneeling in front of her holding Jolene's leg and examining the skinned and bruised flesh. "You wouldna' see the medics and now you refuse the doctor? Don't be a silly woman, you need to get a few stitches and have this cleaned up." They had removed her boots and hiked up her pants leg to where the fabric had torn and she had gotten caught on something inside the gate.
Herbert shook his head. "Mighty big gash, Patrick is right. We better take you by the hospital just for a quick look."
Jolene crossed her arms. "No. I won't. All I need is some Epsom salts and a bath. You said you rented a hotel room for tonight because of the celebration party so just take me there, with the bandages, Epsom salts and some alcohol and I will be fixed up in no time."
"Araah girl, tell me why you won't go to a doctor?"
"My Mamma taught me all about home medicine. Why her mamma's mamma took care of soldiers in the Civil War. They followed them doctors around and found out what was to be done. My mamma said you only go to the doctor if you are near dead cause they don't use the same medicine we do. They got all this funny stuff they use, but my momma had her herbs and other things she grew that work better."
Patrick stood up, his eyes angry blue fire. "Alright then, I'll get you the stuff, even as crazy as I think you are. I never heard of someone afraid to go to a doctor."
"I don't need no doctor Patrick. My mamma taught me most of what I need to know. I'll be able to make myself better much faster and not get some infection or get my leg sawed off for a minor scratch."
Patrick picked her up and hauled her all the way to the truck, grumbling and cursing. "Leg sawed off, like that is likely to happen. Crazy country folk are worse than the Irish."
Herbert laughed hard and pulled out his little bottle of Bourbon and took a swig. "You don't know the half of it Patrick."
*******
"Patrick, I never imagined a party so big. I still can't believe I am here. Did you see that movie star Janice Lamb?"
Patrick chuckled. "I did see her."
"Wow, she looks so pretty. I can't believe she came over to talk to you."
Patrick looked down at her, his eyes shading darker purple and sending out heat that made her insides tickle. "I see yer not as impressed with an Earl as you are with Janice Lamb then? Well I'll tell you Jolene yer look just as pretty as Janice. In fact, I'd say yur even more beautiful."
Jolene felt the heat in her cheeks. "That is nice to say Patrick."
Patrick peered down at her injured calf. "How is your leg?"
She beamed back at him. "The salt soak and bandages did the trick just like I knew they would. But it does look a little ugly with the dress doesn't it?"
Patrick's eyes whispered over her. "Well, you look so pretty in your dress that no one is likely to notice."
Jolene blushed to the tips of her ears and looked down at the lavender chiffon dress Patrick had given to her several weeks ago. He said no matter how they did in the Derby they would come to the Galt House Hotel for the after Derby Party that raised money for the permanently disabled jockeys.
The gown fell in elegant wispy tiers from the waist with a modest sleeveless and lace covered bodice. It dropped to just above the knee and showed the unfortunate but glorious injury from the Derby.
Aunt Paula would have said it was a "Sexy Girl Dress."
Jolene had even put on pink lipstick and eye shadow.
She slid her gaze back to Patrick who stood next to her in his dove grey tuxedo with a matching lavender bow tie that made his eyes look lighter than usual. "You look really handsome too Patrick." Jolene whispered her cheeks flaming. She didn't dare look at his face to see his response.
Patrick laughed soft and deep sending warm delicious shivers through her limbs. "Now come on my beautiful jockey, let us go meet the governor. He has asked to be introduced to yer. And there is Penny Chenery over there too. I know you'll be wanting to meet her."
Jolene's heart beat fast. "I don't know about meeting those important people Patrick. What am I supposed to say?"
"Just say hello the way I taught you and you can just listen if it would make it easier for you."
All of the jockeys were there and Patrick smoothly guided her around to meet them. They were dressed in tuxedos similar to Patrick's and all of them had warm handshakes and congratulations for Jolene.
Patrick let her have a few sips of his sparkling wine and pretty soon she found herself in animated conversation with several different people.
There was a notable band at the party and it wasn't long after alcohol began to flow that people were hitting the dance floor to wiggle, wave and shake in time with the pop songs that everyone knew and loved.
Patrick tugged her arm. "Come dance with me Jolene."
Jolene's heart went to a gallop as she was closed in Patrick's arms and he looked at her with his beautiful blue eyes sparkling mischief. While he twirled her around smiling, Jolene felt his intense heat sifting through her dress and left her skin tingling. It felt like a steam iron everywhere he touched her…only not too hot…just hot enough.
Patrick's dark blue eyes were shining like the sun while he swept her around the room laughing and sending her heart soaring.
When the song ended he tugged her tenderly from the dance floor. "Jolene yer a good dancer."
"I practiced a lot when Aunt Paula had her parties."
Patrick's eyes went dark and he gripped her arm. "Yer were dan
cing with those men like I saw at your aunt's house?"
Jolene's heart quickened and the awful incident of being pinned down by Chad ran headless and painful through her head. Shame suffused her entire being. "Oh no Patrick, I danced in my own room by myself."
Patrick picked up a slow grin. "Sounds like something yer would do."
The evening was magic. Jolene met so many famous and glamorous people. A number of guests asked for her autograph. She posed for a thousand pictures, some with Patrick, but many with complete strangers.
She danced so many times that her feet and her injured leg really began to hurt. Most of those dances were with Patrick. By midnight she was exhausted and barely able to keep on her feet or lift her eyelids.
When she emerged from the ladies room Patrick caught her eye. The low lights shadowed his face and accented the angles of his cheekbones and jaw. He made his way over to her. "Time to go home sleepy."
He tucked her into the car with great care and started the drive home before he launched his missile. "So then Jolene, I have been thinking and talking to a couple of people after the race. I've made a decision that Calvin Brock will be riding Big Storm in Preakness and you'll be sitting pretty in a box."
Jolene bolted up from her lazy position, with her head lying back on the seat, rubbing her throbbing leg. "What do you mean Patrick?"
Patrick grazed her with his eyes then looked back at the road. "What I mean is that you won't be riding Storm in any more races."
Jolene stared at his profile now fully awake with blood pounding in her ears. "You have got to be kidding me? I am tired Patrick so I must have heard you wrong. Storm could be a Triple Crown winner and I need to ride him!"
Patrick gripped the wheel tighter. "No, Little Red you'll not be riding him anymore. You almost got very hurt today. As it is your leg is really going to hurt you for a while and I'll have no more of that…you wanted to run the Derby, you ran the Derby. That was our deal. From here on out it is Calvin."
She rose further up in her seat leaning closer to him. Panic and hurt raced each other inside of her heart. "You can't mean that Patrick, you just can't….that isn't fair, we just got a little caught up in the gate…just like Man O'War…you know that story…best race horse ever.…it could happen to anyone." Jolene grabbed his arm. "Did you already talk to him?"
"Yes."
"How could you?" Jolene whispered harshly.
"Yer could have killed yurself."
"I didn't get hurt….just a little bit…just one scratch."
"But it dunno happen to someone with experience…you could both have been very hurt. You almost came off that horse going full speed. There'll be no more and that is my final word, or he doesn't run at all."
Jolene's breath came in short hot bursts. "I hate you Patrick McCabe!" She flattened back in her seat to put distance between them.
He turned to her for an instant, his eyes intense inside of the darkened truck. "And when Belmont is over, we'll be looking at your new school and sending you local to get started on your lady training before studies start, so you'll be ready for those mannered girls when they arrive in the fall."
"No!" She pressed herself against the car door to gain distance between them. "I can't believe you would do this!"
He turned on the dark country road that was the last leg of their journey. "We made a deal and that is my final word."
Angry silence and hurt filled the car for the remainder of the journey. Jolene held back her sobs long enough to pull the handle and drop from the truck when they pulled into the long driveway and stopped in front of her home.
When she got to the front door of her house she stopped and turned and leveled him with a hateful glare and yelled over the simmering motor of the SUV. "I hate you so much Patrick McCabe. I swear I am going to run away from here and never come back!"
Patrick shot out of the truck and caught her just as she got to the door.
"Where are you going to run to Jolene? Back to your Aunt Paula?"
He was so close now she could smell his intoxicating scent mingled with the faint aftershave that made her tremble. "Just maybe I will!"
His eyes sparkled in the almost-full-moon. "What about Travis and all those men?"
"What about them...maybe I will meet someone nice? Nicer than you."
He stepped closer to her and his heat reached out to climb around her senses and pull her closer. "Yer not going to meet anyone nice there Jolene."
Jolene didn't know why she suddenly took off in this direction but her outrage and anger drove her like a bat out of hell. "I saw you put that mare in with Coal Minor last week. I started thinking I wanted to know what it was like."
He blinked several times then blew out a low whistle. "You mean like being covered by a stallion."
"No, don't be an idiot...you know I mean a man."
"Yer too young to be thinking those things Jolene."
"I am 19 Patrick; most girls have been doing it for several years now."
He tilted his head with merry speculation dancing into his eyes. "Surely, you don't want to be covered by one of those men at your aunt Paula's?"
"It is making love Patrick and you know it, you are just trying to turn me off from thinking of doing it."
He laughed softly and touched her hair. "You think one of those men are going to make love to you Jolene?" He tugged her into his heat. "You think they will be gentle and kind in the taking?"
Jolene was trembling so hard she could barely stand. "I don't know. But maybe it is not supposed to be like that...I mean, the mare was kicking up a fuss but she let him do it. I hear Aunt Paula screaming but she claims she loves sex. Seems like a kind of hurt that the girl likes."
Patrick closed her body into his. "Yer have never been with a man have you Jolene? Not even a pet?"
"Well, I mean Travis has tried to trap me in a corner grabbing me and stuff and I hated it so much, but seems like everybody likes it...and I was thinking of it when I saw Coal Minor and the mare and I imagined myself with a man that way and it made me all tickled in the nasty-girl spot."
"Jolene." His voice was harsh and gravely. "Don't say those kinds of things."
He had pulled her against him and she could feel his peepee hard against her tummy. She instinctively rubbed herself against him. He groaned. "Why not? I am just telling you about..."
He cursed and tugged her into the darkened house past her wagging dogs to her bedroom. Moonlight spilled through the window.
"Maybe if I give you a little taste, you'll know the difference between what your Aunt Paula is up to and what making love is really all about.
His lips crashed into hers with infinite deliberate gentleness that sent searing heat between her thighs. "Patrick....," she breathed against his mouth while wrapping her arms around him and closing herself into his hard body.
He pulled her dress off with black velvet words, leaving her naked and shaking in the moonlight. He gently pressed her back onto the bed, his breathing labored, his eyes glowing and his nostrils flaring. He followed her down with murmurs of the forbidden.
He gently pressed her legs apart and touched her damp nasty-girl flesh. Jolene moaned and bucked against his hand. His teeth grazed along her shoulders and down to her breasts where he flicked the pebbled pink erections with his tongue and fingers. Jolene screamed.
He pressed his fingers deep inside of her while flicking her hard naughty-girl-nub with his thumb. Jolene came off of the sheets moaning and panting. His pulsing fingers slid across her aching wet stiffness in a perfect rhythm while his dark chocolate voice caressed across her breasts.
"You are so beautiful and so hot Jolene," he whispered against her ear. "Now come for me my naughty girl."
His teeth sank into her shoulder just as her world burst open and she convulsed under his hand with cries of utter pleasure-abandon. She thrust her body against his hand and moaned while she returned to the night. He held her for several minutes, then the room and his posture turned cold. He
stood, pressing his hand down his tented jeans as if in terrible pain.
"Now I am going home and we will forget this ever happened."
"Patrick, please don't send me away, especially after this...how can you?"
His eyes were cold, even in the pale moonlight. "This is especially why you have to go. I shoudna' have done this, but I wanted you to know and .... well...I am leaving now before I go and do something really stupid."
When he strode out of the bedroom to the door and walked out into the cool misty night, Jolene wrapped herself in the sheet and followed him on panicked feet. "I hate you so much Patrick!"
He slid into the car and started the engine then stuck his head out the window. "Someday you will understand. And someday yer will thank me Little Red."
Chapter 11
Calvin H. Borel (born November 7, 1966) is an American jockey in thoroughbred horse racing and rode the victorious mount in the 2007 Kentucky Derby, the 2009 Kentucky Derby and the 2010 Kentucky Derby. His 2009 Derby win with Mine That Bird was the second biggest upset in Derby history behind Donerail, and Borel's winning margin of 6 3⁄4 lengths was the greatest in Derby history since Assault won by 8 lengths in 1946. On May 1, 2009, Borel won the Kentucky Oaks aboard Rachel Alexandra, only the second time since 1993 that a jockey has won the Oaks-Derby combo, and just the seventh time overall a jockey has accomplished this feat in the same year. On May 16, 2009, Borel won the 2009 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico with thoroughbred filly Rachel Alexandra. In doing so, Borel became the first jockey to win the first two jewels of the Triple Crown on different mounts. Borel's nickname is Bo"rail" because he stays so close to the rail to save ground.
Big Storm had won the Triple Crown.
Everybody said Big Storm was Patrick's horse. The Earl of Meath.
But she knew the truth.
He was Dancer's Dream's horse.
Daddy's horse.
And her horse.
And she had only been able to watch from a stupid box. With Patrick's fancy friends and all those women that loved to hang about him like flies at a picnic.
Once Upon a Misty Bluegrass Hill Page 9
