by Kate Lattey
We met Hayley halfway up the second hill. She saw us coming and urged Copper to put on a burst of speed, but when she reached the gate at the top of the rise, she brought the horse to a halt and waited for us to catch up. Dad was livid, and gave her an earful, but Hayley seemed unfazed by his scolding.
“Get off that horse, right now!”
“What, and lead him all the way home?” Hayley asked him in disgust. Despite her tone, she swayed slightly in the saddle, and I noticed that she was paler than usual. Dad saw it too, and his attitude changed slightly.
“Tess will bring him home. Come on, off the horse and onto the bike, right now.”
Hayley complained, but she did as she was told. She shoved Copper’s reins into my hands and climbed onto the quad, holding onto the rack at the back for balance as Dad turned around. Copper fidgeted next to me, and I eyed him dubiously. At almost seventeen hands, he was a lot taller than Rory. Hayley gave me a condescending look, then spoke.
“Ride him home,” she challenged me. “Since you’re already dressed for it.” There was a glint in her eyes as she waited for me to refuse, but I was fed up with being considered a wimp.
“Maybe I will.”
Hayley’s eyebrow lifted higher. “Go on then. We’ll wait for you to get on.”
Dad had the bike pointing downhill, and he could’ve just driven off, taking them out of sight within moments and letting me off the hook. But he didn’t. He let the bike idle and he watched me manoeuvre Copper into a position where I could reach his stirrup. I had to really spring up to get my leg over his back, and he sidled restlessly as I shortened my reins and found my offside stirrup.
“All set?” Dad asked, then started his slow descent without waiting for me to respond.
I let Copper follow, hoping he wouldn’t do anything stupid. He felt huge, and his neck was long, his head miles away. The ground seemed far below us, and his long legs ate up the ground as he strode down the hill. I took a breath, and told myself to relax, and that he’d be fine.
And he was fine, until the quad went around the corner and left us alone on the side of the hill. Feeling abandoned, the big chestnut horse tossed his head and started jogging nervously. I swallowed hard and tried to keep my thoughts calm.
“It’s okay,” I told him. “They’re just around that corner. We’ll catch up in a minute.”
I tried not to think about everything that could go wrong. I tried to ignore how hard he was pulling at the reins, and how my arms were already starting to ache. I desperately tried not to think about how fast he would go if he bolted, and how I wouldn’t have a hope in hell of stopping him.
Breathe, I told myself. He can’t relax if you’re all tense. I forced myself to be calm, and it almost worked. I ran what I hoped was a reassuring hand down Copper’s long neck as we rounded the corner and saw the quad bouncing along in the distance. I glared at them, wishing they’d waited for me. Then again, I didn’t really want Hayley’s eyes on me the whole time, so maybe it was better this way.
I used my seat and legs to shift Copper back and forth across the wide section of track, and he responded well. I tested the brakes and he slowed when he was asked, and I started feeling more comfortable on him.
“You’re not so bad really, are you?” I asked him, reaching forward again to give his long neck another pat.
Then a rabbit shot out from underneath a nearby gorse bush. Copper spooked, Colin yelped and took off in pursuit, and the rabbit doubled back and ran straight between Copper’s front legs. He froze in place, every muscle tensed as his brain struggled to cope with the terrifying situation he’d just confronted. I had time to grip tight before the big horse plunged his head down, humped his back up, and started cantering down the hill. I dug my knees into the saddle, wishing I’d thought to shorten my stirrups when I got on, and pulled as hard on the reins as I could, trying to stop him. The brakes that had worked so reassuringly well just moments ago had now completely failed. Copper set his jaw against me, turned his head to the side, and went even faster.
“Stop, Copper!”
We were approaching the gate onto the road, and with his head turned aside, I knew he hadn’t seen it. I tried to straighten him, but he was still completely ignoring my futile aids as his long legs flew across the grass. My heart thudded heart and I could hardly breathe as I pictured myself being flung over the metal gate if he skidded to a stop in front of it, or launched into the air if he tried to jump it. Or slamming hard into the ground if he caught a foreleg and flipped right over it…
A mottled blur shot out in front of Copper, barking determinedly. The horse was startled out of his bolting, and came propping to a halt in a series of unseating bounds. I lost my stirrups and my balance, but somehow managed to stay in the saddle as I looked gratefully down at Colin. Grabbing my chance, I slid to the ground and stood there next to the big horse, my legs weak and knees shaking.
“I hate you, Hayley,” I told the evening air as Colin jogged up to me, looking pleased with himself. I dropped to a crouch and pulled him in for a hug, burying my face in his thick coat and listening to him pant in my ear. He twisted his head around and managed to lick my cheek.
“You stink,” I told him, my voice sounding as shaky as I still felt. “You need a bath, buddy boy. And thanks for saving my life just now.”
I straightened back up and led Copper towards the gate. He followed me docilely through, but once I’d latched it on the other side, I ran up his stirrups and pulled the reins over his head. No way was I getting back on him, even though the road home was straight and wide and almost never had any traffic on it. I wasn’t taking any more risks today.
Halfway home, Copper slowed down and lifted his head, listening. I was still a bit shaken up, and didn’t want to deal with any more of his rubbish, so I tugged at the reins to hurry him up, but the awkward creature decided to halt instead. He turned his head to the side and let out a shrill whinny, and I looked back over my shoulder to see a black pony jogging up the road towards us. His rider was bareback, his long legs hanging down almost to the pony’s elbows, and I recognised Jonty. Oh, great. Just what I need – more questions. I kept walking, dragging Copper along behind me. He came reluctantly, still fixating on the pony approaching him.
“Quit being so needy, would you? You don’t even know Tani.”
Copper gave me a sideways look that clearly said Exactly, and Jonty rode his pony down into the drain along the side of the road next to me. With his pony in the ditch, our heads were practically level as he looked at me curiously.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“You fall off?”
“No.”
“Then why are you walking?”
“Because I want to.”
I kept my eyes fixed ahead, refusing to look at him. Jonty lifted a hand to adjust his faded baseball cap, then reached forward and scratched Tani between the ears. The pony shook his head in irritation, then plunged his nose down towards the grass on the side of the drain, swiping a mouthful as he jogged along. Jonty barely moved, keeping his balance effortlessly, then grinned at me.
“Wanna swap? You can ride Tani, he’s safe as.”
I looked at the scruffy little pony, scurrying along next to me with only an old rope halter on his head.
“Without a saddle? No thanks.”
“Sure? You’ve still got a bit of a walk,” he pointed out.
As if I didn’t know that. It would’ve been much quicker to go back across the farm, but I hadn’t felt like dealing with Copper if another rabbit spooked him, and the road had seemed like a safer – if longer – route. I wasn’t sure I could rely on Colin to save me if it happened again, and anyway, he’d loped off to patrol the paddock next to us for rabbits, and was now just a mottled blur in the distance.
“I’m sure,” I told Jonty.
“Suit yourself.” Tani dropped back a little, and I thought Jonty would leave, but he didn’t. He rubbed the black pony’s scrubby ma
ne, then kicked him on so he was level with me and Copper again. “Hey, I’m sorry for pissing you off at school today. I didn’t mean to, I was just…well, being nosy I guess.”
He sounded sincere, and I felt bad for how I’d treated him.
“It’s okay. Sorry for being so rude. You didn’t deserve that.” A cricket buzzed out of the tall grass and landed on my arm, and I brushed it off as we walked. He still didn’t ride away, and before I could stop myself, I told him the truth. “Hayley had a seizure yesterday.”
Jonty turned to face me, looking genuinely concerned. “No way!”
“Yeah.”
“Like a real, full-on seizure?” He started waving his arms and legs around in demonstration, and I glared at him. Why had I thought it was a good idea to tell him any of this? The image of Hayley in the bathtub that was still seared into my consciousness was nothing like his comic re-enactment.
“No, not like that,” I snapped. “But yes, a ‘full-on’ seizure.”
He looked a bit guilty and resumed his relaxed posture. “Sorry. You know what I meant. I used to go to Scouts with a kid who was epileptic. Bit scary the first time you see it, eh?”
“Yeah. More than a bit, I’d say.”
I stumbled slightly over a half-buried rock in my path, and Copper spooked, rolling his eyes at me. No wonder Hayley had no patience with this horse. I’d felt bad for him before, seeing how irritated she got with him, but he wasn’t exactly endearing himself to me either. I could tell Jonty was watching me, but for once in his life he didn’t say anything. Bayard and I could ride in companionable silence for hours, but I felt uneasy when Jonty wasn’t talking. I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was waiting for me to say something else, so I rummaged around in my head until I came up with something.
“Hayley’s not epileptic though. I mean, she never has been before. So we don’t know why it happened or if it’s ever going to happen again, or anything.”
“Well that sucks. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t ride away either. I wondered what he was sticking around for, because it clearly wasn’t the scintillating conversation we were having.
The silence grew longer between us, becoming awkward the longer it lingered for, so I grabbed the one thing at the front of my mind and said that.
“You’re looking a little big for that pony now.”
“Yeah, just a bit.” Jonty grinned, looking down at his feet, which were hanging level with Tani’s knees. “I guess I forgot to stop growing.”
“Forgot your saddle too?” I asked lightly, but he shook his head.
“Nah. Dad sold it years ago.”
“Oh. Bummer.”
Copper startled at an invisible ghost, his shod hooves skidding on the road. His saddle had cost five thousand dollars – I remembered because Dad had choked on his coffee when Mum had told him what she’d paid. Whatever Jonty’s dad got for his old Wintec would hardly have been enough to buy one of Copper’s stirrup leathers, and I wondered why the tack had been sold but the pony allowed to remain.
Jonty stared up the road ahead of us as we approached our driveway. “Well, tell Hayley I hope she’s feeling better soon.”
I stopped abruptly, my panic rising. “You can’t tell her I said anything. You can’t tell anyone.”
Jonty raised an eyebrow at me. “Keeping it quiet, eh?”
“Yeah, I guess. I mean, you know Hayley. Never admit to your weaknesses, right?” I was less worried about Jonty himself knowing than about him spreading it around school. If Hayley returned next week to find everyone buzzing about her new-found epilepsy, she’d kill me. Perhaps literally.
“But…” Jonty seemed like he was about to argue, then shrugged. “If you say so.” He saw my anxious expression, and smiled reassuringly. “My lips are sealed.”
“Promise?”
“Yeah, of course. You can trust me.”
The corner of his mouth quirked up in a half-smile as he spoke, and I found myself smiling back, hoping I could believe him. I thought again of Mia, and her unexpected crush on him. She was still giving me the cold shoulder, and I knew from past experience that I still had some apologising to do to get back into her good books.
I looked over at Jonty, his long legs swinging against Tani’s round sides, trying to work out what Mia saw in him. Not that he was ugly or anything, but there were several boys in our year who were much more attractive, at least in my opinion. He caught me looking at him so I spoke quickly before I could lose my nerve.
“Do you have a girlfriend?” I cringed inwardly as soon as the words left my mouth. Smooth, Tess. Real smooth.
Jonty broke into a crooked grin and lifted an eyebrow, looking highly amused. “Tess Maxwell, are you asking me out?”
I could feel my skin burning as I shook my head. “No! I was just…wondering.”
“Being nosy?” he teased, and I smiled despite my deep embarrassment.
“Yeah, something like that. It doesn’t matter, anyway. Forget I asked.”
He was still grinning, but much to my relief we’d finally drawn level with our driveway. Copper tugged eagerly at the reins, ready to get back to the barn and have his dinner. Jonty pulled Tani to a stop, and the pony immediately stuck his head down again to eat the grass.
“Well, see ya,” I said to Jonty. “Thanks for walking me home.”
He shrugged and said something that I didn’t catch, because I’d suddenly realised that Colin wasn’t with me. I whistled sharply, and my dog appeared from a patch of scrub in the paddock and came sprinting towards us on his short legs.
Copper fidgeted impatiently, but I held him still as Colin scrambled between the wires of the fence onto the side of the road. Jonty leaned down to give him a pat, and Colin put his front paws up on Tani’s shoulder and positioned his head in easy reach of Jonty’s hand.
“Coming up?” he told Colin, who didn’t need to be told twice, and willingly launched himself up onto Taniwha’s back. The pony’s head shot up as Jonty caught Colin and held him in place.
“You’re all right, mate,” he told his pony, who seemed reassured by his voice and calmly resumed eating as Colin eagerly licked Jonty’s chin.
“Now you’ve done it. He’s going to expect the horses to carry him all the time now,” I told Jonty, who laughed.
“Sorry. He’s such a cool dog.”
I smiled back at him. “Yeah, he is.” Copper stepped sideways, narrowly avoiding my foot, and I looked at Colin. “C’mon then, you.”
Colin launched himself off Tani’s back and trotted up to me, and I let Copper start walking. Jonty sat on his pony’s back, swinging his legs idly as he let Tani eat.
“Hey Tess!” I turned and looked back at him as Copper dragged me towards home. “The answer to your question is no.”
It took me a moment to realise what he was talking about, but there was no mistaking the meaning behind the quick wink he shot at me before he turned his pony around. So now I’d succeeded in discovering that he was single, but somehow I’d made him think that it was me who was interested, when nothing could be further from the truth. As usual, when I’d tried to fix something, I’d inadvertently made it ten times worse.
CHAPTER FOUR
“I have a question.”
Bayard looked over his shoulder at me as Rusty strode up the track ahead of us. “Shoot.”
“If you had a crush on someone, but you were too shy to even talk to them, and then one of your friends talked to them for you and found out they’re single, but never even mentioned your name so it’s not like they would even know that you’re the one interested, would you be mad at them?”
Bayard blinked a couple of times, and furrowed his brow. “Huh?”
I nudged Rory up to ride alongside Rusty, even though the sheep track we were following was narrow, and I was making her walk on the uneven edge of the hill. She laid her ears back in displeasure at my decision-making, but did as she was
told.
“If you had a crush on a girl, and you told one of your friends, and they talked to that girl for you and found out she didn’t have a boyfriend, would you be glad that your friend had made that effort on your behalf or would you totally freak out and tell them they’re a horrible person?”
“I don’t know.” Bay looked completely flummoxed by my line of questioning. “Why are you asking me?”
“I have no idea,” I said honestly. “Because you’re my only friend right now?”
Bay didn’t say anything in response to that. I sighed and let Rory fall back in behind Rusty again, where she felt that she belonged. She shook her mane triumphantly and shoved her nose up against his scruffy tail, making it clear to me that she was a born follower.
I tried once more, giving up all attempts at subtlety. “One of my friends has a crush on…this guy, and I happened to be talking to him so I asked him if he had a girlfriend and he said no. Then I told my friend that, thinking I was doing her a favour and that she’d be pleased, and she went nuts and told me I shouldn’t have been asking him ‘obvious’ questions like that. But I never even mentioned her name, so I don’t know what she’s so worried about.” I sighed. “I don’t get girls.”
Bayard raised his eyebrows at me as he brought Rusty to a halt at the top of the hill. The ponies puffed heavily, trying to get their breath back after their steep hike.
“You think I do?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Guess not.” I tried to picture him with Mia instead, but I couldn’t. I was finding it hard to imagine him with any girl, really, although I wasn’t sure why.
I kicked my feet free of the stirrups and listened to Rory’s heavy breathing as Bayard swung down off Rusty’s back and started pulling fencing tools out of his saddle bags. We’d come up onto the ridge to fix the Taranaki gate, a colloquial name for a gate made out of a section of moveable wire fence. Everyone hated it, because it was so difficult to open and close, but one of the newer farmhands had taken a mob of sheep through it this morning, then cut his hand badly when he tried to get it wired shut again, and had to go to hospital for stitches. So Dad had sent Bayard up to take a look at it, which I’d assumed would only take a few minutes. But the whole section of fence was decidedly saggy, and when Bayard pulled out the wire strainers, I groaned and flopped forward on Rory’s sweaty neck.
