Pony Jumpers 4- Four Faults

by Kate Lattey

  Stop. Don’t stoop to that.

  “Fire away.” Jonty latched the gate and sat up, looking at me expectantly.

  “Last week, when you didn’t come to school…” I started, but the words died on my tongue as Jonty’s face clouded over fast.

  “I was sick.” His usually open expression was suddenly closed to me, and he wouldn’t look into my eyes. I felt my heart sink even as I nodded and pretended to believe him.

  “That’s what I thought.” An awkward silence stretched between us. Misty pawed the ground impatiently, and Colin whined, wondering why we were standing around when we could be running. “But you’re feeling better now, right?”

  “Yeah. I’m fine.”

  Jonty still wouldn’t look at me. He picked up Copper’s reins and sent him into a fast canter. Colin leapt after him delightedly, and Misty plunged his head down and bucked hard, then shot off in pursuit.

  I’d lost all semblance of control. I called out to Jonty to stop, but he either didn’t hear me or chose to ignore me, heading Copper down the hill and galloping him along the bottom of the gully. Misty followed, setting his concrete neck against me as he barrelled on. Copper reached the copse of trees at the end of the gully and Jonty swung him around to the right, heading towards the old sheep yards. My arms were like frayed wool, with no strength left, so I just clung on and planned all of the names I was going to call Jonty when he eventually stopped. Which was going to be soon, because there was a big wooden one gate in front of us that nobody in their right mind would attempt to jump. But he barely even checked Copper, and the big horse took off a half-stride early and flew over the five-barred gate with Jonty folded forward over his neck.

  I had no option but to hold on as Misty flung himself over the gate, right on Copper’s heels. He pecked on landing, pulling the reins through my hands, then launched into a series of triumphant bucks. I sat the first two, but then he swerved as his back came up and I knew I was a goner. I flew through the air and landed hard on my back. The wind was knocked clean out of me, and I lay still, struggling to breathe as Misty’s hoofbeats faded into the distance.

  I could hear Colin whining anxiously, then his wet tongue was licking my face and neck.

  “Are you okay?” Jonty was crouching over me now, his eyes wide and face as pale as his brown skin would allow. “Shit, Tess, I’m sorry. Are you hurt?”

  His hand was on my shoulder, but I slapped it away before pushing myself into a sitting position as I slowly managed to draw breath back into my lungs.

  “What…the…hell?” I asked him in gasping breaths.

  “I’m sorry! I was just being stupid, I didn’t mean for you to get hurt.”

  He wasn’t getting off that easily. Still mad, I reached over and punched him in the arm as hard as I could. “You suck,” I told him.

  “I know,” he readily agreed. “Hit me again if you want. I deserve it.”

  He turned his arm closer to me, giving me a better shot at it, but his genuine remorse had taken the wind out of my sails. I shook my head, and looked around for Misty, but there was no sign of him.

  “He ran away. I don’t think he’ll get far though. There’s a fence just over there,” Jonty said confidently, pointing in the direction Misty had fled.

  But I shook my head. “The big mob are in here,” I told him. Colin started to lick my cheek again, and I gave him a quick hug. “The gates are open all the way down to the road. Besides, he jumps fences. He’ll be halfway home by now. Damn.” I looked down at my dog. “It’s a shame you’re not trained to fetch lost ponies. You’re not trained to do much of anything, are you?” Colin wagged his tail happily, not understanding my words and thinking he was being complimented.

  I tried to stand up, and Jonty held his hands out to me, pulling me to my feet. “You can ride Copper home,” he offered gallantly. “I’ll walk.”

  I wondered if I had the nerve, then decided I was probably okay if Jonty was walking alongside me. I pulled my helmet off and dragged my knotted hair out of its ponytail, then fastened it into its thick ponytail again. My back ached as I raised my arms above my head, and I winced.

  “I’m sorry,” he said again.

  “Yeah, me too, I guess. That’ll teach me for being nosy, eh?”

  “You can be nosy if you want,” Jonty told me. “I don’t mind.”

  “Well.” I was still feeling out of sorts and a little ornery. “You obviously do.”

  Jonty swallowed hard, but stayed silent. Whatever it was that Bayard had been talking about was clearly serious, and he really didn’t want to talk about it. And abruptly, I realised that I didn’t care anyway.

  “You can just say it’s none of my business,” I told him.

  “I would tell you, but I just…”

  I reached up and touched his cheek, and he looked right at me. “It’s fine. You’re allowed to have secrets. Even from me,” I added with a smile, and then his hands were sliding his hands around my waist and he was pulling me in towards him. He was warm and solid and I moved my hand from his cheek to the back of his neck, leaning willingly into his embrace as he lowered his head and brushed his lips across mine. I felt my breath catch, and I made an involuntary hiccupping noise. Jonty pulled back a little, cautiously measuring my reaction.

  “You okay?”

  I nodded, then smiled. He met me with his crooked smile, then leaned in, and kissed me again.

  As first kisses go, I got one of the good ones. Everything else faded, all my problems and heartache and the bruises on my body and the mud and sheep shit on my jeans, until it was just me, and Jonty, and all the places where our bodies were touching each other, and the incredible sensation of his lips pressed against mine.

  It was Colin who broke it up when he started barking. I was willing to ignore him, but Jonty pulled his head back to see what was exciting my dog’s attention.

  “It’s probably just a rabbit,” I assured him, but I was wrong.

  “Not a rabbit. We’ve got company.”

  I looked over my shoulder and saw the last person I wanted to see right then – well, with the possible exception of either of my parents. Bayard was jogging Rusty towards us with a face like thunder, and he was dragging Misty reluctantly alongside him.

  If it hadn’t been for Misty, I would’ve told Bayard to bugger off and quit ruining the moment, but I did actually appreciate that he’d bought my pony back for me, although his timing was spectacularly bad, and I knew I was about to get another lecture. Jonty’s hands slipped from my waist and I sighed, reached down to pick up my discarded helmet, then started towards Bayard, trying to act casual.

  “Thanks. C’mere you.”

  I took Misty’s reins and started looking the pony over, making sure he didn’t have any cuts or scrapes on him. He seemed fine, but his reins were broken at the buckle, which wasn’t going to go down well when Mum found out about it.

  “Are you okay? That looked like a bad fall.”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a few more bruises to add to the collection.”

  As I spoke, all of my scrapes and bruises burst into life, as though I’d just reminded my body of their existence and my brain had to immediately catalogue everything that hurt. Which was my back, my ribs, lungs, left wrist, right hip, and head. But I was still in one piece and still standing, at least. Bay must’ve seen me wince though, because he didn’t look convinced. He glanced over at Jonty, who’d just caught Copper and was walking slowly towards us, and his eyes narrowed.

  “That was his fault.”

  “That Misty bucked me off? Hardly.”

  “He shouldn’t have galloped off like that, with you clearly out of control.” Bayard was indignant on my behalf, and I wanted to tell him to quit it. I tossed up whether to admit that Jonty was at fault, or to just pretend everything was fine. In the end I decided against either option – it wasn’t Bay’s business anyway what Jonty and I got up to, and the sooner he worked that out the better.

  “Bay, quit fussing.
We’ll just walk home. You can go back to whatever it was you were doing.”

  Jonty reached my side as I knotted Misty’s reins together and pulled them over his head, then bent my knee for a leg-up. Jonty willingly grabbed my calf and boosted me into the saddle, and Bayard turned without a word and rode back the way he’d come, his posture rigid in the saddle.

  “He really doesn’t like you,” I commented lightly as Jonty swung back up onto Copper.

  “Nope.” Jonty slid his offside foot into his stirrup and shortened his reins. He offered no explanation as to why, but he didn’t seem confused by it either. Clearly there was something going on between those two that I didn’t know about. None of your business, I reminded myself once more.

  “Well, he’s always been a bit weird,” I said with a shrug. “There’s no accounting for taste.”

  A slow smile crept onto Jonty’s face as he rode Copper up alongside me. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  I grinned back at him. “You should.”

  And our conversation ended there. We rode the rest of the way home in companionable silence, our stolen kiss lingering between us like a secret too precious to talk about, but sitting firmly at the forefront of both of our minds.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “Tess is here!”

  I heard Katy yell across the yard as I grabbed my bag out of the tray of Dad’s ute, and AJ came bounding towards me with a welcoming smile, then enveloped me into a warm hug.

  “Hi! I’m so glad you came. We’re going to have such a good time. Hi,” she introduced herself to Dad as he stepped out of the cab. “I’m AJ. Nice to meet you.”

  “John Maxwell,” he said, shaking her hand. “Likewise. Is your mum around?”

  “Not mine, but Katy’s mum is in the house, I think. No wait, she went into town to get some groceries or something. But she’ll be back soon. And Katy’s here. This is her place.” She waved an arm at Katy, who was walking across the yard towards us in shorts and bare feet. “Don’t worry about Tess, we’ll take good care of her, promise.”

  Dad glanced at his watch, realised he was running late, and stepped back into the ute. “Okay. Have fun,” he told me. “Don’t lose any toes.”

  I smiled weakly at his joke. “I’ll try.”

  Dad nodded, put the ute into reverse, and headed out of there. AJ picked up my bag and led the way towards the house.

  “C’mon, let’s get you settled in. We’re just waiting for Susannah and then we’re going to play some games in the arena. We’ve been setting them up all morning, I can’t wait to try them out!”

  “Ready, set, go!”

  I saw Squib burst forward like a grey blur on my left, and Susannah’s dark bay started snorting and broncing on my right. I urged Gully forward, letting the grey and white pony canter down to the other end of the arena, where AJ had already flung herself off her pony and was shoving an entire biscuit of dried Weetbix into her mouth. I dismounted and followed suit, but the dry cereal was almost impossible to eat. I turned my head to watch Susannah as she picked up the Weetbix and looked at it sceptically, then delicately bit off a corner.

  “This is an eating race, not a gourmet banquet,” Katy yelled at her. “Eat faster!”

  My mouth was full of dry Weetbix that I was struggling to swallow. Gully snuffled at my shoulder, wanting to see what I was doing, then snatched the remaining Weetbix out of my hand and ate it himself. I stared at him for a moment, wondering if that was allowed, but nobody seemed to have noticed. I swallowed what was left in my mouth and swung back up into the saddle and headed back over the finish line.

  AJ yelled something to me, but whatever she was trying to say was completely lost in amongst the Weetbix stuck in her mouth. Susannah had already thrown her hands up and conceded defeat, and Katy declared me the victor.

  “How’d you do that?” AJ asked me incredulously as she jogged Squib back to the start line. “Ugh! That game was impossible.”

  I looked at Katy, wondering if she’d seen what happened. She winked at me, then turned to AJ. “Magicians never reveal their secrets, right Tess?”

  “Right.”

  Susannah was still leading Forbes back to the start, shaking her head in disgust. “I can’t believe that’s an actual mounted game. I thought we were just going to have bending and flag races. Eating a dry Weetbix is practically child abuse.”

  “Oh lighten up and quit being such a princess,” Katy said dismissively. “Saddles off, the next race is bareback.”

  “You just want to see me fall off,” Susannah grumbled, then turned her head and spat out some residual Weetbix. I thought for a moment that she was going to refuse, but she unbuckled Forbes’ girth and pulled his saddle off, and AJ and I followed suit.

  At the end of the afternoon I was declared the overall winner by virtue of the fact that I was the only one who hadn’t fallen off. That in itself was actually something of a miracle, because Katy had made us do all kinds of crazy things, including a bareback obstacle course around her garden that included riding under the clothesline, carrying several stuffed animals while weaving between her mum’s rosebushes, then getting off and leading our ponies while pushing a wheelbarrow with Katy sitting in it. I’d never had so much fun on horseback, but the ponies were pretty well fed up with us by then, so we turned them out and went into the house for a snack.

  “That was fun,” AJ said happily, lying down on the floor and letting Katy’s little dog jump all over her.

  “That was insane.” Susannah sat at the table, tapping manicured fingernails delicately against a glass of orange juice. Her polo shirt had a grass stain down one side and there was mud on her expensive breeches, but she looked happy. “I can’t believe that actual mounted games are anything like that.”

  “Course they are,” Katy insisted. “Right Tess?”

  “Sure,” I agreed. “All the time.”

  “You two are so full of crap,” AJ said from the floor, her voice muffled in the carpet. “Ow! Critter, stop eating my hair.” She propped herself up on her elbows and fended off the little dog. “But I wish they were. Just add some jumping into that and I’d be all over it like a rash.”

  “We’ll jump tomorrow,” Katy promised her as the front door opened and Critter started yapping wildly.

  Katy’s mum came into the house, laden down with bags of groceries. “Hi girls! Having fun?” Her eyes skirted past AJ, who apparently was a fixture and didn’t require recognition. “Hi Susannah, how’s Forbes treating you?”

  “Fine, thanks,” Susannah said politely, and Katy snorted.

  “Only bucked her off three times today,” she said triumphantly.

  “I seem to remember him bucking you off a time or two,” her mother replied curtly, then turned to me. “Tess, honey, lovely to see you. How’s Hayley doing?”

  “Um, okay I think.” I’d managed to stop thinking about my sister up until then, but her words brought the reality of the situation crashing back.

  The tension in the room thickened, then Katy rolled her eyes and headed for the door. “I’m going to feed out. Sus, if you wanna feed Forbes you should probably do it at the same time.”

  “Okay.” She stood up as AJ rolled over and got to her feet.

  “I’ll stay here and help Deb with dinner,” she said. “Chuck Squib a feed for me?”

  “As if he needs it,” Katy scoffed. “He’s practically busting the seams out of his cover as it is. But I’ll throw him a handful of chaff.”

  “And a carrot,” AJ insisted, and Katy rolled her eyes.

  “Can I help?” I asked, and Katy grinned at me.

  “My three favourite words,” she declared as we followed Susannah out of the house. “Yes you can! Man, I should invite people over more often, I’d never have to work again.”

  “Are you asleep?”

  “What?”

  “Are you asleep?”

  “If I was asleep, would I be answering you?”

  “Well I don’t know AJ, maybe you
talk in your sleep.”

  “Okay fine. I’m asleep.”

  “I was asleep.”

  “Shut up Susannah, nobody asked you.”

  That was Katy’s voice. I was picking them out in the darkness as we lay on the living room floor, exhausted after our night ride. We’d stayed up watching movies after dinner, then taken four of the ponies out bareback over the hills in the moonlight. I’d never ridden in the dark before, but it had been amazing, and once again Gully hadn’t put a foot wrong. I hadn’t realised how much nicer it was to ride a pony you could trust, and I knew it was going to be even harder to get back on Misty after this.

  We’d all staggered into the house half an hour ago with aching legs and half-closed eyes and collapsed into our sleeping bags, exhausted. I’d been right on the edge of sleep when AJ had started talking and woken me up again.

  “Tess.” AJ’s attempt at a whisper was more like a hiss, and right in my ear. “Are you awake?”

  “Do I have a choice?” I asked her, and Katy laughed.

  “Sorry,” AJ whispered again. “Can I ask you a question?”

  I sighed, and rolled onto my side to face her. “Yeah, what?”

  I hoped it wasn’t going to be about Hayley. I knew exactly as much as they did about her current condition, and although I’d been checking my phone religiously to see if Mum or Dad had sent me an update, it had remained silent.

  “Is Jonty your boyfriend?”

  I heard a sleeping bag rustle and saw the outline of Katy as she propped herself up onto her elbow and looked at me. Susannah, who had claimed the couch on account of having fallen off the most many times and thus being the most in need of a comfortable bed, was also awake and watching me.

  Two days ago, I could’ve easily said no. But now I wasn’t so sure.

  “Um.” I was glad they couldn’t see me blushing. “Not really.”

  “Not really,” Katy repeated. “What does that mean?”

  “I don’t know,” I told her. “It’s…complicated.”

  “Have you kissed him?” AJ asked, as direct as ever.