I looked at the puddle forming around my boots and thought I could feel my socks wet inside them. That meant they had a hole that I didn’t know about and wasn’t going to make for a very fun show. I couldn’t even afford new boots and Esther and her niece now had a nice barn, horses and money. Hanna may have got tossed off at the beach but even before that I could tell she was a good rider. She had a tight seat and soft hands and if she jumped like that then she probably was Junior Jumper champion in Sweden three years in a row just like Esther had said. She was going to be some serious competition and I really didn’t need serious competition in my life right now. For once, I just wanted things to be easy. And to have boots that didn’t have holes in them.
“Maybe you two could be like sisters,” Esther said.
I knew she was only trying to help but the last two sisters I’d had hadn’t worked out so well but I hadn’t been able to tell Esther any of that so instead I just smiled.
“Maybe,” I said.
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
We settled our horses in and watched the rain. Dad and Esther stayed for a while. They were standing at the end of the barn talking. I couldn’t help wondering if they were talking about me. Mickey would say that I was paranoid and that the whole world didn’t revolve around me but I just had a feeling that Dad would blab everything that had happened to me to Esther and I wished that I’d told him not to. Then again, I hadn’t known that we were going to see her today.
“Fresh meat,” Jess said, wrinkling her nose at Hanna.
“She’s nice, leave her alone,” I said.
“Whatever,” Jess said. “Like I’m threatened by some weird girl with an accent.”
She strode off into the tack room leaving a wake of silky perfume behind her. I wished that I had her confidence because I wasn’t so sure that Hanna wasn’t a threat. She may have been invited to be our alternate but if she turned out to be as good as I expected her to be, she could replace anyone of us on the team. Jess was the weak link though. She’d be the one who would get replaced. Or I would, if I lost my nerve again.
I busied myself cleaning my tack even though it was already clean. Rose and Andy were huddled in the corner talking in low voices and laughing every now and then. Jess was sitting with her feet propped up on a chair, texting on her phone and Hanna was just sitting quietly not doing anything.
“Duncan likes to see us being busy,” I told her. “Even if your tack is clean, you should clean it again or else he’ll find something worse for you to do.”
“Thanks,” she said. “And hey, I wanted to tell you that I’d been invited to come here but Esther told me not to.”
“She’s trying to protect me,” I said. “But she can’t.”
“She can help you though,” Hanna said. “I know she wants to. You were all she talked about while she was away.”
“But she has to help you now,” I said, scrubbing at Bluebird’s bit so that I wouldn’t start to cry.
“She can always help both of us,” she said. “I think she has enough to go around. If you don’t mind sharing.”
“I don’t mind,” I said.
The truth was I kind of liked Hanna and hating her wasn’t going to get me anywhere. She was Esther’s niece. It wasn’t like I could just get rid of her and she had just as much reason to be there as I did.
“Maybe we could start over,” I said, then I stuck out my hand. “Hi, I’m Emily, it’s nice to meet you.”
“I’m Hanna,” she replied, shaking my hand. “It’s nice to meet you too.”
Then we both laughed.
I think that maybe Hanna and I had finally got off on the right foot and perhaps we’d be friends after all. At least, it wouldn’t hurt to try.
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
It thundered all morning and lightning hit in the field across from the ring. Some of the horses fussed in their stalls, the highly strung ones who couldn’t tolerate things like thunderstorms or loud noises. Bluebird didn’t care, as long as he didn’t have to go out in it. He stood quietly in his stall and ate his hay, then put his head down and took a nap.
Andy’s horse Mousse fussed and fretted, too nervous to eat but Hanna’s bay didn’t even seem to hear the din as the rain bounced off the metal roof. The mares were the ones who were really upset about the storm though. Rose’s mare Noelle was wide eyed. She stood as still as a statue, not moving at all. She wouldn’t eat her hay and even though Rose went into her stall and talked to her in a low, soothing voice, the mare wouldn’t budge. But at least she was doing better than Jess’s mare who had completely lost it. She spun around in circles and tried to rear. I was worried that she was going to hit her head on the ceiling fan but Jess didn’t seem worried. In fact, she was completely ignoring her poor mare.
“That horse needs a sedative,” Andy said.
“Then she won’t be able to compete, will she?” Hanna asked as we stood there watching the panicked horse.
“No one is giving my horse a sedative,” Jess yelled out from inside the tack room.
“No, she wouldn’t be able to compete if her horse had a sedative,” I told Hanna, thinking about Walter and how he’d drugged his horses so that they would win. “And it wouldn’t be fair.”
“You should know,” Jess called out again.
“If you want to join in the conversation then you should come out here,” I yelled back. “Otherwise, shut up.”
Andy looked at me with a smile and nodded like he approved. Hanna looked a little horrified.
“Jess and I have a long and sordid history,” I told her. “It’s complicated.”
“Sounds like it,” she said.
“Just keep your distance from her and you’ll be fine,” I said in a low voice as we walked away. “And make sure she doesn’t feed your horse anything. Jess knows every dirty trick in the book to get ahead and she isn’t afraid to use them all.”
“What a horrible girl she is.” Hanna shook her head.
“I know,” I said. “And yet half the time I feel sorry for her.”
“That’s because you’re a masochist,” Andy told me as he walked by with a flake of hay.
“Probably,” I told him.
“All right kittens,” Duncan said. “It’s time to get your paws wet. The lightning and thunder has stopped and we might as well get on with it.”
“But it’s still raining,” Jess whined.
“And you’ll get wet,” Duncan told her. “But you won’t melt. Now tack up.”
“I really wish I’d brought some rain gear,” I grumbled under my breath.
“I have some extra stuff you can borrow if you like,” Hanna said.
“Really?” I said. “Thanks.”
I felt like a horrible person for being so cold to Hanna on the beach. She was a nice person and she was being nice to me. And in return I was going to help her navigate the tricky waters of this whole team thing and I was going to make sure Jess didn’t ruin things for her like she always tried to do for me because I could already see Jess eying her up like some kind of conquest. Another notch in her belt that she’d be able to mark off if she ruined things for Hanna like she was always trying to do for me.
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
We rode in the rain like drenched rats. Our horses didn’t like it any more than we did. Bluebird was used to being in the rain but that didn’t mean he liked being ridden in it. Luckily I’d had a pair of rubber reins in my tack trunk and so they didn’t slip through my fingers as I tried to control my willful pony.
Duncan wasn’t mean enough to make us actually jump a big course in the rain but he was keen to remind us that at a show, classes wouldn’t be cancelled just because it was wet. They’d only be delayed if there was thunder and lightning for safety reasons.
The horses followed one another in sloppy circles. None of them did what they were supposed to. It was embarrassing really and made me think that perhaps I should be riding in the rain more often. Duncan was right. It would suck to lose at a s
how just because of a little rain. Only this rain wasn’t exactly little. It was coming down sideways, blowing in our eyes and up our noses and I could barely see where I was going. Bluebird almost ran into Mousse’s butt and got a threatening hoof in his face as a result. Luckily there was no contact but I was fully aware of the fact that my pony could have had his head smashed in. After that I circled him and kept him further away from the group.
“All right,” Duncan called over the sound of the rain. “Line up.”
We did, looking like a sorry pack of riders and horses.
“I’ve set up the trot poles,” Duncan called out. “Go down them to that cross rail and then two strides to the small vertical.”
“You’re not serious,” Jess yelled over the sound of the howling wind. “You want us to jump in this?”
“What happens if the weather is like this on the day of the Olympics?” Duncan yelled back. “Would you just say no thank you to that gold medal?”
Jess scowled at him and her mare pinned her ears. Twice she’d almost bucked Jess off and I was actually surprised that she’d managed to stay in the saddle this long.
“Right?” Duncan said. “Anyone else want to give up?”
None of us did. Not out loud anyway. Instead my brain was still silently screaming that this was a horrible idea. That jumping in the pouring rain was perfect way for Bluebird to slip and fall and break a leg but I had to get over that fear. I knew it. Duncan knew it and I think Bluebird knew it too. He fussed about and tried to pull away from the pack and towards the jumps.
“I’ll go first,” I said.
“Are you sure?” Duncan asked me, for the first time looking a little worried.
“Absolutely.” I nodded.
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
I don’t know why I was worried about my pony jumping in the rain. I knew that he’d jump in the rain, the snow, in a hurricane. He’d do it anytime, anywhere if I asked him to. He trotted eagerly down the line of poles and I patted his neck to steady him. He popped over the cross rail and then fit in a neat two strides to the vertical and jumped that with feet to spare.
As I asked him to walk he looked around and sighed as if to say, that was it?
“Good,” Duncan called out. “Next.”
There wasn’t a mad rush for anyone else to jump. Rose looked positively green, Jess was trying to pretend that she wasn’t there and Andy was having a problem keeping all four of Mousse’s hooves on the ground.
“I’ll go,” Hanna said.
“Show off,” Jess mumbled under her breath.
“You could have volunteered,” I told Jess as Hanna gathered her reins up.
“I didn’t hear what Duncan said,” she lied.
“He said if you don’t get it together then that new girl will be replacing you on the team,” Andy told Jess.
“Or you,” she told him as Mousse kicked out at the lashing rain.
But the fact was that Hanna was a good rider. She navigated her horse down the line and he jumped in a workmanlike manner, not even caring that the wind blew so hard that one of the jump standards fell over after he jumped it and came crashing down behind him.
“That’s not a real horse,” Jess said. “He’s a carthorse.”
“He jumped the jumps didn’t he?” I said. “Let’s see you go and do it if you’re so smart.”
“Fine then, I will,” Jess said.
She grabbed her reins, yanking her poor horse in the mouth. The mare threw her head up and almost hit Jess in the nose. She then dug her spurs into the horse’s sides and the mare surged forward into a ragged canter.
“Trot,” Duncan yelled at her over the sound of the rain and the wind but Jess didn’t listen.
Maybe she didn’t hear him. Perhaps she didn’t have any control over her mare anyway. But she did nothing. She just sat there as the horse leapt over the poles on the ground, stepping on them and slipping as they rolled away from her hooves. My heart jumped into my throat. I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t like Jess but I didn’t want to see her or her horse hurt. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.
Duncan called out for her to sit up, pull on the reins, circle her horse but Jess didn’t. The mare leapt sideways over the cross rail and then galloped the two strides to the vertical. She didn’t make it in two strides. She made it in a stride and a half. The mare decided that it wasn’t worth the effort to try and jump the fence. She threw in a buck and scooted to the left and Jess flew out of the saddle and over the jump.
“Told you she could jump,” Andy said.
“It’s not funny,” I said as Jess let out a blood curdling scream.
I’d seen Jess fall off before. She fell off all the time. And usually she liked to milk the attention, sobbing and wailing and limping her way out of the ring but this time was different. This time she didn’t move. All she did was scream and I couldn’t get the sound out of my head.
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
The ambulance arrived just as the rain was finally letting up. We’d all taken our horses back to the barn and one of Duncan’s grooms had come to collect Jess’s mare who was still as wild as the wind. We all stood by the fence as the paramedics brought the stretcher into the ring where a mud drenched Jess sat sobbing as Duncan stood next to her, shaking his head.
“Do you think she’s really hurt?” Rose asked.
“Probably,” I said. “Duncan wouldn’t call an ambulance if it was nothing.”
“But Jess could make him believe it’s something when it’s nothing,” Andy said. “You know she is a really good actress.”
“I feel sorry for her,” Hanna said as the paramedics huddled around Jess.
“That’s because you don’t know her,” I said. “But I feel sorry for her too.”
I didn’t like to see anyone get hurt. It wasn’t good for them, for our team or for the sport. And without Jess we were a rider down. It was just as well that Hanna had shown up when she did because it didn’t look like Jess would be riding in the show tomorrow, especially since they were making her lay down on the stretcher.
“I hope you feel better soon,” I told Jess as they took her past us.
“Drop dead,” she said.
“Well her spirit hasn’t been broken,” Andy said.
We could hear her yelling at the paramedics as they loaded her into the ambulance.
“You can’t cut my boots off,” she screamed at them. “These are custom made, Italian leather boots. They cost more than you make in a year. You come anywhere near them with scissors and my father will sue you.”
“I feel sorry for the paramedics,” Andy said as we all walked back to the barn, the rain still dripping off everything and the ground wet with puddles.
“I feel sorry for the doctor she gets when she arrives at the emergency room,” Rose said.
“I just feel sorry.” I sighed. “I shouldn’t have egged her on.”
“Duncan would have told her to jump anyway,” Andy said. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Then why do I feel so bad?” I said.
“Because something bad happened,” Hanna said, putting her arm around me. “And bad things happening always makes people sad.”
“Jess wouldn’t be sad if it was one of us,” Andy said.
And the sad thing was that I knew he was right.
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
None of us really liked Jess but that didn’t mean we wanted to see her get hurt either. After all, she was a member of the team, no matter how horrible she was. We sat around as the rain started up again, cleaning our tack and polishing our boots so that we wouldn’t have to think about all the horrible things that could have happened to Jess at the hospital because let’s face it, no one liked going there and when they did it was usually because they were in a massive amount of pain.
“Was it bad?” I had asked Duncan.
“I don’t know,” he said with a shrug. “Could be a sprain. Could be broken. We’ll know more soon.”
“But s
he won’t be able to ride tomorrow will she?” Andy said. “I mean obviously she’s not going to be magically better by then.”
“It’s doubtful,” Duncan said, looking at Hanna. “Do you think you have what it takes to fill in for her on the team?” he asked her.
I expected Hanna to say something about how she was the Junior Jumper champion three years in a row and that our little team competition was nothing compared to what she had faced in Europe but to my surprise she was humble.
“I’ll do my best,” she said. “But I don’t want to take Jess’s spot permanently. I’ll just fill in until she is better.”
“Very well,” Duncan said.
“That was nice of you,” I told her after Duncan had walked away.
“Yeah, you didn’t have to be that nice,” Andy said. “Jess doesn’t deserve it.”
“I know what it is like to be injured,” Hanna said. “And I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”
All I could think was that Hanna was a better person than I was because part of me had been glad that Jess had fallen off, mostly because it meant that she wouldn’t be able to torture Harlow anymore if she couldn’t ride for a while but I knew that a sprain or even a break wouldn’t keep Jess out of action for long. Her father would see to that. After he’d sued everyone involved of course.
That night we lay on cots in the tack room. Andy was snoring and the horses were shuffling out in their stalls. I’d stayed with Bluebird until everyone else had gone to bed, telling him that tomorrow was a big day and that we had to do well. All of us did. But I didn’t want to be the one who let down the team and now that Jess wasn’t riding we really stood a good chance at placing in the competition.
“You need to let that pony get some sleep,” Duncan said.
He’d come down to the barn in his sweat pants. Obviously the night check was not below him and I thought of Missy with her nanny and security guard and all her new grooms and wondered if she even wandered through the barn at night, checking on the horses one last time before she went to bed. Putting their needs above hers. I doubted so. Missy had changed and I didn’t like who she’d become and I missed Socks almost more than I could bear. Socks. Harlow. All my horses were slipping away. At least Bluebird was mine and always would be.
Two Strides (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 30) Page 7
