“Did you do that?” the girl whose saddle had come loose said. “You tampered with our stuff? That’s messed up, Sasha.”
“Come on guys.” Sasha looked around the group desperately. “It was just a bit of fun.”
Will was standing off to the side. I couldn’t believe I’d fallen for the whole thing. I wouldn’t have even come to the stupid party if it hadn’t been for him and for Mickey, who had begged me to go.
“Emily is right,” Will said. “It was a stupid and dangerous prank.”
“Oh, what do you know,” Sasha snapped.
“He knows that what you did was wrong,” Jess said. “You could have killed us and that’s not funny.”
“Yeah,” someone else agreed.
People were turning on Sasha and she didn’t like it. I backed away as they started accusing her of trying to lame their horses so that they couldn’t beat her at the next show. All I cared about was getting Bluebird out of there.
We were walking up the sandy hill to the barn when Will ran after us.
“Wait,” he called out. “Are you okay?”
“Leave me alone,” I said.
“Why?” he asked.
“Why?” I stopped and stared at him. “Don’t try and tell me you weren’t in on this little prank of Sasha’s.”
“Wasn’t I just defending you back there?” he said. “Didn’t I tell you that she’d do anything to win?”
“I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
“So that’s it?” he called out after me. “You don’t need anyone? You just go off and conquer the whole world by yourself?”
“Pretty much,” I replied.
Back at the barn I hosed the salt water off Bluebird and the tears were back. I couldn’t stop crying. I sobbed into his wet mane and he snuffled me with his nose, trying to tell me that it was all right. He was okay.
It was only sheer luck that he hadn’t been hurt and I knew it was my fault. It was bad karma because I’d wanted Cat to fall off. The same thing I’d tried to do to her, Sasha had done to us. It was the universe telling me what an idiot I’d been. I was a fool and I knew it.
I put Bluebird back in his stall and texted Esther, asking her to please come and get us. Then I sat there and waited for her to reply.
Other people came back with their horses, all of them talking about what an idiot Sasha had been but I was pretty sure that if I hadn’t had the guts to call her out, they wouldn’t have said anything and this probably wasn’t the first time that Sasha had done something like this. It was just the first time that she hadn’t been able to get away with it.
“There you are.” Mickey stuck her head into the stall. “I thought I’d find you hiding in here.”
“I’m going home,” I said. “As soon as Esther texts me back, I’m out of here. I won’t spend a minute longer with these horrible people.”
“I hear you,” Mickey said. “It was awful what Sasha did. I can’t believe she gets away with stuff like that.” She looked around and then stepped into the stall, lowering her voice. “But don’t you want to know what happened to Cat?”
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
Just as I'd predicted, Cat had fallen off as soon as the horses started to gallop. She landed face down in the wet sand and everyone laughed at her. Not that it really mattered much since almost everyone had fallen off anyway, thanks to Sasha's little tack tampering stunt. I was just glad that she hadn’t been hurt and that the horse was okay too. The gray had apparently headed straight back to the barn and gone into his stall. It was such a relief. I was never going to try and mess with someone like that again.
Several of the girls came up to me and said how grateful they were that I'd had the guts to stand up to Sasha. I didn't really know what the big deal was. All I'd done was told her the truth. Any one of them could have done the same. There only seemed to be two people who still wanted to prove their worth. Cat and Jess. Both of them were whining about how they needed a second chance.
"Forget it," Will told them. "The race is over. There are no do-overs."
"Fine," Cat said. "Then what else can we do?"
"Nothing," he said.
"But I heard there was a shipwreck that you can gallop to when the tide is out. We could have a race to that instead?"
"Don’t be stupid,” Will said. “Do you know how many people have died trying to get out there and back before the tide traps them?"
"Um, a lot?" Jess said. "That's what makes it a challenge."
"I'm up for it." Cat nodded.
"You don't even have a horse," I said, not able to stand by and listen any longer. "You're going to risk someone else’s horse on a stupid dare?"
"Why don't you butt out?" Cat glared at me. "I'll do whatever I want."
“Cat please,” I begged. “Try and be reasonable. You need to learn to ride properly first. You can’t just go galloping about. It’s not safe.”
“Stop being such a baby,” she said. “I don’t need you to protect me. I can take care of myself.”
I left them discussing the best way to ride out to the wreck. There was nothing I could do or say to stop Cat. This time it wouldn’t be my fault. This time she was the one making the decisions.
"Why do people have to be such idiots?" I asked Bluebird.
I checked my phone but Esther hadn't replied so I texted her again in case the first message hadn't gone through.
"Are you going to stay down here the whole time?" Mickey asked.
"I may," I said. "I don't trust these girls with my pony."
"Don't you think you're being kind of a drama queen?" Mickey said. "Blowing this whole thing out of proportion? Sasha said she was sorry."
"Sorry doesn’t make up for the fact that she could have seriously hurt someone with her little prank."
"Well at least your stepsister fell off," Mickey said.
"And that hasn't deterred her at all. She's over there now, trying to organize a gallop to some stupid shipwreck with Jess."
"She's just blowing hot air." Mickey shook her head. "Jess would never do something like that and risk hurting her expensive horse."
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” I said.
But suddenly, as if our words had conjured him out of thin air, there was Mr. Eastford striding down the barn aisle with a look of fury on his face.
"Where is my daughter?" he snapped.
It was perfect. I couldn’t have planned it better if I’d tried. I pointed to where Jess stood with Cat, satisfied that now there would be no race to the wreck.
"See?" Mickey grinned. "She's in big trouble."
Jess saw her father and ducked behind Cat but it was too late. She was busted.
"What is going on here?" he yelled, his voice echoing through the barn.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Mr. Eastford and Jess, whose face was beet red.
"Nothing," she said.
"Nothing? Nothing? It doesn't look like nothing. You bribe the groom to bring you here and you’re messing around with this horse I just bought for you to win on. A horse you begged me for that cost a small fortune."
"I know how much he cost." Jess rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to keep reminding me every five seconds.”
"Do you? Because you certainly don't seem to care if he gets hurt. Cavorting over the beach like some sort of lunatic. It’s ridiculous. How dare you behave this way? Get your stuff. Now."
"No," Jess said. "I'll come home when I'm ready."
"You'll come home now. Don't force me to drag you out of here in front of your friends."
Jess planted her feet but the look on her face told me that she wasn't sure defying her father was the best plan of action.
"Amber?” Mr. Eastford called out.
Amber appeared from the tack room, her face pale. She'd obviously been hiding behind the door, listening to everything that was going on and was probably in as much trouble as Jess was, even though she hadn’t brought her own horse.
Amber didn't bother and debate the issue. She just got the shipping boots and went to put them on Hashtag.
"Why are you doing this to me?" Jess cried, her eyes welling up with tears.
"If you ever pull a stunt like this again, I'll kill you. Now get in the truck."
"No," she said.
"Get in the truck, now. I'm not going to tell you again."
When Jess didn't move, Mr. Eastford grabbed her arm and dragged her outside.
"Should we do something?" Mickey said.
"I'm not getting in the middle of that," I said.
Amber led Hashtag outside and loaded him into the trailer that Mr. Eastford had brought and then they were gone in a cloud of smoke.
I felt kind of bad for Jess. We'd all been stupid in coming here. Somehow we thought stepping into the lives of the rich and famous would rub off on us and make us better but the only thing it did was make us look like losers.
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
Esther never replied to my text. I tried to call her but it just went through to voice mail. I thought that maybe she was punishing me by not coming to pick me up. Maybe she realized that I'd made a mistake and now I was going to have to see it through. But I was also worried that something bad had happened to her. She said that she was going to ride Saffron. What if she'd fallen off and been hurt while no one was around?
Eventually I got hungry enough that I left Bluebird in the barn and went up to the house. Despite the fact that almost everyone at the party had called Sasha out on the awful trick that she played on us, no one else had left. They were all by the pool with the music blaring or inside lounging on the giant leather couches. Cat was there, trying to talk to an older man who I assumed was Sasha and Will's father. He didn't look very interested in what she had to say. In fact he kept trying to walk away from her and she kept following him, her hands moving quickly as she tried to explain her point. I knew it didn't matter what she said. He was never going to invest in Derek's stupid little taxi service.
I grabbed a plate of leftover pizza from the kitchen and took it up to the room that Mickey and I were sharing. I didn't know where she was. Probably out in the pool, having a good time. I wondered if maybe I would have been doing the same thing if I'd left Bluebird back at Sand Hill. Then again, if I hadn't brought him, I was pretty sure that I wouldn't have been interested in coming at all. I ate the cold pizza and hated myself for getting sucked into the situation.
I was staring out the window miserably when there was a knock at the door.
"Emily?" Will said gently through the wood. "Can I come in?"
I didn't answer, begging him silently to go away, which he eventually did. He could go stuff himself. Even if he wasn't in on the whole thing, he had to have known that his sister was going to pull some kind of stunt. He could have warned me but he didn't and the tiny little bit of something that I'd felt for him had vanished for good.
It was late by the time Mickey came up to bed. The music was still blaring away downstairs, the beat vibrating through the walls but I pretended to be asleep anyway. I didn't want to talk about how awful the party was or why I felt the need to hide up in the room away from everyone else. I knew Mickey wouldn't understand.
She made a big deal out of getting ready for bed, probably hoping that she would wake me and we could talk but I didn't budge and every now and then I let out a little fake snore. Eventually she gave up and got into her bed and it wasn't long after that I heard her actually snoring for real, although I lay still for a while longer to make sure she wasn’t faking like I had been.
The music finally faded away and people came upstairs. Doors slammed and people called out goodnight to one another and eventually the house fell silent. I checked my phone again under the covers. No reply from Esther. It was the middle of the night now, too late for her to come and get us anyway. I'd have to wait until morning and hope that she showed up. She was probably still mad that I'd wanted to come and if word got back to her about what had happened, she'd be just as furious as Mr. Eastford was. I imagined her calling up my mother and telling her how irresponsible I'd been and I started to feel a little sick and thirsty. I slipped out of bed and padded softly across the room, then opened and closed the door gently. I didn't have to worry about rusty hinges making a noise and waking Mickey. In this house everything was a well-oiled machine.
I tiptoed down the sweeping staircase, trying to remember where the kitchen was. Everything was neat and tidy. The house keeper must have stayed up long after everyone went to bed, picking up abandoned plastic cups and plates of food. It didn't look like they'd been a party at all, which was pretty impressive considering that when I'd come through the house to go up to my room it looked like a hurricane had swept through it.
The kitchen was empty with just the green light from the clock on the stove lighting the room and the full moon that spilled through the windows. I searched in the cupboards for ages until I found a glass and then I couldn't figure out what button to press on the refrigerator because it had about a million. Finally I managed to get water to come out and I was drinking it when I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye.
At first I wasn't sure what it was. Something out there on the beach. I could see the waves crashing on the sand and the moon reflecting on the watery horizon but there had been a flash of white and then it disappeared from view. I stood there wondering whether I'd just imagined it or worse, that maybe it was a ghost or something but then I saw it again. The wisp of a tail and the silhouette of a girl on the back of a horse. Someone was riding down to the beach.
I dashed outside just in time to see my stepsister riding out towards the ocean.
"Cat," I called out desperately. "What are you doing?"
But she didn't answer and then she was gone and I didn't know what to do. Go back to the house and wake someone or follow her?
CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
Cat was riding the gray horse across the wet sand. The tide was out and there were lumps of seaweed strewn about like monsters sleeping in the dark. I knew where she was going and what she was doing. She was going to ride out to the wreck. She was going to prove to everyone that she knew what she was doing and that she belonged here but the tide was already starting to come back in. Water lapped around the old wooden mast that pointed up into the sky, the white crests rising and falling as water splashed around it. Even if she made it out there, she'd never make it back.
"Cat," I screamed.
She looked over her shoulder, saw me and then looked away. I knew that no matter what I said or did, she was going to do this and there was nothing I could do about it except stand there and watch her ride to her death. I thought about all the times I'd actually wished her dead but that was just my imagination, a way to cope with someone so horrible that you couldn't stand to be around them. This was different. This was Cat actually facing the possibility of death and if I stood there and did nothing, I knew I'd never be able to forgive myself.
I ran back to the house and sprinted up to our room, slamming the door and shaking Mickey awake.
"Leave me alone," she grumbled.
"You have to wake up," I cried. "Cat has taken the gray horse and is riding out to the shipwreck. The waves are already coming in fast. She's never going to make it. Wake the others, find Sasha's dad. I'm going to get Bluebird and try to stop her."
"Wait, what?" Mickey said.
She had sat up and was rubbing her eyes but I was already halfway out the door.
"Get help," I said. "Bring them down to the beach."
I ran back to the barn, grabbing Bluebird's bridle without a second thought. I'd told Mickey to get help but I knew that in reality there was nothing anyone could do. If Cat and the horse were stranded, they'd be washed out to sea before anyone could call the fire department or the coast guard. And what would they do? How were you supposed to save a horse that was drowning?
Esther had
once told me a horrible story about a girl who swam her horse out into the ocean. Horses can swim but it’s hard for them to turn in the water. It's easier for them to swim in a straight line and that's just what this horse did. He swam and swam and no matter what the girl did, she couldn’t turn him. Eventually he got too tired to swim anymore and once he went under, he never came back up. The girl was left treading water for hours before she was rescued.
I didn't want that happening to the poor horse that Cat had stolen but what if it happened to Bluebird? I promised him that I'd never do anything stupid again and yet here I was, slipping on his bridle and galloping down the path to the beach without a second thought. Perhaps I could catch Cat and the horse before they got too far. Maybe I could convince her to turn back before it was too late.
CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
By the time we galloped onto the beach, I couldn't see Cat or the horse. We flew across the sand, following the hoof prints that they had left behind. Then I saw her, a speck in the distance.
"Cat," I screamed but she didn't hear me.
The tide was coming in fast. The water was already up to Bluebird's knees. I could see the gray horse ahead and watched in horror as he sunk into the deep water and started to swim. Cat was clutching his neck.
"Turn back. Cat, please."
I didn't know if she just couldn't hear me over the crashing of the waves or if she didn't want to hear me but the water was getting deeper. I was going to have to make a decision. Swim Bluebird after them or turn back to shore. I looked over my shoulder at the beach. People with flashlights were making their way down from the house. Mickey had done as I asked and woken people up to help. I could turn Bluebird around. Say that I tried but that the water was too deep for my pony. Leave them to figure out how to rescue Cat and the horse she had stolen. But I kept seeing the face my mother would make if anything happened to Cat and I knew that if another sister died on horseback, I'd never be allowed to ride again. There would be nothing I could say that would stop her from getting rid of Bluebird and keeping me from the barn until I was eighteen. Those long, horseless years stretching ahead of me like a prison sentence were the reason that I closed my legs around Bluebird's sides and encouraged him on.
Beach Ride (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 9) Page 10
