Blaze of Glory

by M. Garzon

  “What do you think of him?” Dec asked when they reached us.

  “He’s beautiful. A really nice mover, too.” As we watched, the new horse gave a series of enormous, twisting bucks. “And very athletic, apparently. Who does he belong to?”

  “He’s yours,” Dec replied quietly.

  “I — what?” I whispered. My face was frozen in shock.

  “Happy birthday.” Dec smiled. Beside him, Seth was grinning hugely.

  I turned back to the fence, too stunned to speak. On my other side, I felt Jaden’s hand brush my arm.

  “I was going to let you find your own horse,” Dec said. “Makes more sense, of course, but then the opportunity to buy this one came along and I had to act fast. I have a feeling you’ll get along, though... he’s Blaze’s half-brother.” He finished the sentence quietly.

  I stared at him. “What?”

  He nodded slowly, his pale eyes assessing my reaction. “They have the same mother. Can you see the resemblance?”

  Now that I was looking for it, it was obvious. This horse was a bit taller and leaner, but the shape of the head was the same, and his movement, especially, marked him as Blaze’s brother. He had the same raw athleticism. He had a stripe down his face and a snip that went off to one side, along with one white sock on his left hind. He was gorgeous. And he was mine. I glanced at Jaden; this had his signature all over it.

  ‘You?’ I mouthed. He shook his head, grinning. I didn’t fully believe him, though.

  I turned back to Dec. “But Dec — how? He must have cost a fortune.”

  He shrugged. “When we sold Zac I put the money away for you, for school. But you need a horse of your own to compete with, so I guess you’ll be working for your university education.” He winked at me.

  I threw my arms around him. “Thank you.” I whispered it against his shirt, afraid my voice would break.

  “Well... you’re welcome, honey,” he said, patting my back a bit awkwardly.

  I turned back to my new horse, my heart inflating. “Does he have a name?” I asked.

  “They were calling him Cal around the barn. Why, do you have something in mind?” Dec said.

  “I like Cal. It can be short for Caliente.” That was perfect, with his flame-hot coloring. “But I have a different show name in mind for him.” I glanced at Jaden. He was watching me in that intense way of his that made me want to... I got a grip on myself. “I’m going to call him Renaissance Man.”

  I felt a movement next to me. I knew Jaden would understand who my horse was named for.

  I slipped through the fence boards to go acquaint myself with Cal. I was almost in the center of the paddock when he wheeled suddenly and headed toward me at a full gallop; he bounced to a gangly, graceless halt a few feet from me.

  “You’re going to have to cut it a lot closer than that to impress me,” I said, laughing.

  After I’d put Cal in the barn Jaden pulled me into the feedroom. I looked at him questioningly. It was daytime — we couldn’t hide in there with boarders in the barn. He handed me a camera, and I held it, confused.

  “Consider this it on permanent loan to you,” he said. He grinned at my look of delighted understanding. Months before, I had mentioned to him that I regretted not taking more pictures of Blaze while he was alive. The subject had only come up the one time. Trust Jaden to remember. I turned the camera over in my hands; it was medium-sized, digital, and seemed to have a lot of controls. Well, I could learn. After all, I had the perfect motivation.

  * * *

  Marty qualified for the Royal, but my first classes there were with Cameo. The large ponies went on Saturday, so there were quite a few spectators, although thankfully the Coliseum was nowhere near its seating capacity of over eight thousand — I was nervous enough. I had a number of my own personal cheerleaders in the stands, and they got to see Cameo win Champion of her division. The Tremblays were thrilled; I was incredibly happy and so proud of sweet little Cameo. I had a week to recover before competing again with Marty.

  Everyone came to watch Marty’s class, except for Uncle Peter, who was away on business. The rest of my family were present, as were Teri, Julia, and Caley. I felt fortunate to have ridden in the enormous arena the previous week with Cameo. It had given me a chance to get used to the lights, television cameras, and constant motion of spectators flowing in and out of the stands. Marty, however, hadn’t had the same opportunity, and I prayed that he would take it all in stride and not succumb to his habit of bucking when he got emotional. Since it was a jumper class, my goal would be to get the fewest ‘faults’ by leaving all the rails up, but it was also possible to incur time faults so if Marty bucked, I’d have to keep going as well as I could because pulling up would mean losing the class.

  I felt nauseous and weak as I walked the course with Karen beforehand; the fences looked huge, some considerably wider than I was tall. Karen kept up a stream of advice and warnings, but my mind had taken on sieve-like qualities and I couldn’t absorb any of it. By the time we returned to the hitching ring I was shivering with nerves. I’d asked Jaden to stay in the stands so I wouldn’t be distracted by his presence, but I suddenly wished he was here, warming me, as always, with his touch, his eyes, and his words.

  We started warming up. The hitching ring was a large rectangle. The entrance from the Horse Palace was at one end, the in-gate at the other, and on one of the long sides was the mouth of a wide aisle lined by concession stands, through which people milled constantly. Marty didn’t like the aisle with the people very much; the sudden movements and sounds drew his attention away from the fences, and I could sense his occasional surges of nervousness. I reassured him as best I could and allowed him to take a good look down the aisle — the Coliseum was bound to be even more impressive for him.

  I let Marty look around as much as I could after we entered the arena; my ears were buzzing so loudly that I barely heard the announcement of our names, “Téa Everson, riding Martinique” as we picked up a canter. As I’d feared, Marty was intimidated by the Coliseum — his head was high and he was craning his neck to ogle everything, rather than focusing on me.

  “Listen to me, now, Marty,” I told him sharply. “Come on, buddy.”

  He flicked an ear back and brought his nose down just in time for our first fence. One, two, three... we jumped seven fences without incident when, with no warning, Marty plunged his head between his knees and started bucking. A collective gasp went up in the arena, followed by loud oohs and aahs as I threw my shoulders back, cursing. He bucked around an entire corner before I got his head up again, and I kicked him in frustration as we lined up our next fence. He didn’t like my show of temper, and matched it with his own — he flattened his ears back and took off, galloping our next two lines barely under control. I was shocked not to hear any rails coming down, and from the sounds of things, so were the spectators.

  “Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” I panted as I coaxed him back to a reasonable pace. Our last two fences felt easy by comparison, and a cheer went up as we landed. By some miracle, we’d gone clear.

  I jumped off in the hitching ring and, after lots of patting, handed Marty to Teri so I could watch the rest of the rounds with Karen. Only two other people went clear, Alex and a woman I didn’t know. Since we were all within the time allowed, there would be a jump-off. I walked back to the hitching ring on shaking legs.

  * * *

  I rode Marty around the warm-up ring, trying not to panic as I remembered Alex’s round with Moose. The horse was such a behemoth he made the jumps look small, and his stride seemed about twenty feet long. I didn’t know how we could beat him in a class where speed was of the essence; he could cover the distance in about half the number of strides it would take Marty.

  Karen was nervous too, but her nerves took the form of increased irritability. She yelled at me to jump the practice fence again. I didn’t want to do any more, I wanted to save Marty’s energy for the ring, but I didn’t dare contradict her. We p
icked up a shaky canter. As we passed the ‘people’ aisle I glimpsed a tall figure out of the corner of my eye — a fraction of a second was all it took to recognize Jaden. I pulled up immediately, ignoring Karen’s bellow.

  He patted Marty and leaned against my leg, getting as close as he could. His face clouded with concern in response to the expression on mine.

  “I’m scared,” I whispered. Some small corner of my brain still managed to register shock that I would admit fear to anyone.

  “I know, corazón. But it will all work out — have faith.”

  I cracked a small smile at hearing him quote my own reassurances back at me, but it quickly faded. Karen was sounding increasingly choleric behind me.

  “Karen giving you a hard time?” he asked.

  I nodded mutely. He reached up and put his hand on my stomach. I hadn’t been aware of how tightly clenched it was, but under the warmth of his touch it relaxed, and I was able to take a deep breath. His gorgeous sun-kissed eyes burned into mine.

  “I know she’s a great coach, Téa, but right now... I think you should ignore her. You’ve got incredible instincts, go into the ring and follow them.”

  He tapped his hand twice over his heart, reminding me, his eyes still holding mine. I nodded, not trusting myself to speak, and walked Marty over to the in-gate. When I glanced back Jaden was leading Karen away with his hand on her shoulder, and she didn’t look unhappy.

  “It’s just you and me, buddy,” I whispered to Marty as I patted his neck.

  Jaden might have had faith in my instincts, but I felt very uncertain as Marty and I ventured forth for the second time. I had no idea what strategy to adopt, so I simply aimed for the obvious — go fast and jump high. The danger was that since I wasn’t keeping him quite as controlled, Marty could easily turn our round into a rodeo exhibition, which would be disastrous. I sent up a silent prayer as we cantered around the first corner.

  Maybe my prayer was heard because Marty was phenomenal. He loved the speed and increased freedom of the jump-off, and got so involved that he forgot to worry about the crowd. I barely heard the exclamations from the stands as we raced around the arena; his smaller size allowed him to make sharp turns with ease, and I heard a roar go up as we landed after our last fence — we’d set a scorching pace. The woman had gone first and had a rail down; the pressure was on Alex now.

  Moose jumped a beautiful round, but he couldn’t touch our time. When the ribbons were called, Marty had won. I felt ten feet tall as we led the victory gallop around the arena. I let Marty have his head and pumped my fist into the air, grinning. I didn’t care if he bucked now, I felt like I could fly.

  Back in the hitching ring, I exchanged hugs with a jubilant Teri and Karen before handing Marty over to them. I was hot and breathless from exertion and quickly stripped off my helmet and jacket. I looked up to find Jaden striding rapidly toward me, a look of blazing pride on his face, and I didn’t think — I just ran. I threw myself at him, his strong arms caught me, and the cheers and whistles of the surrounding riders serenaded us as we kissed.

  It was odd how among all that noise, the sound of one throat being cleared could echo so distinctly. I suppose it was because the throat in question was Dec’s.

  We froze for an instant and then quickly broke apart, though Jaden kept my hand tightly in his. He pulled our hands behind his back, trying to move me behind him, but I stood my ground; I wanted us to face this hurdle together, as a team of equals. When he caught my eye I raised my chin a fraction, and he nodded before we turned to face our assembled family.

  We advanced slowly and stopped in front of Dec. His face was inscrutable. His eyes traveled quickly from Jaden to me, taking in our clasped hands, and returned to Jaden’s face.

  “Uncle Dec, we have something to tell you,” Jaden said, squaring his shoulders. I was impressed with how natural his voice sounded, but his hand gripped mine even harder.

  Dec’s eyebrows crept up a fraction. He didn’t say anything.

  Jaden took a deep breath. “Téa and I are together,” he said firmly. “What I mean is, we’re involved. Romantically.”

  Dec raised his arm; I felt Jaden flinch slightly through our hands, but he didn’t move as Dec dropped a hand onto his shoulder and gave him a light shake.

  “Did you really think, son,” he drawled, “that you’ve been that discreet?”

  Jaden stole a glance at me. I’m sure my look of shock mirrored his.

  I nervously scanned the faces of our friends and family. Caley was grinning widely, as were Seth and Julia, standing with their arms around each other. Stacey’s mouth was hanging open; the look of scandalized-yet-delighted incredulity on her face contrasted sharply with the expressions of shock and consternation featured on both her parents’ visages. Gran was tight-lipped. Finally, my eyes came to rest on Aunt Paloma. She was clearly both horrified and distressed, her eyes shining with unshed tears. She didn’t falter, though, as she stepped toward her son and slapped him hard across the face. She turned on her heel and walked rapidly away. Jaden turned to me in anguish.

  “Go,” I urged him, releasing his hand.

  I watched him weaving through the crowd until the weight of many eyes made me turn back to our family, my mouth dry and my heart racing. Seth came to my rescue.

  “Hey, Sis, shouldn’t you be getting Marty back to his stall?” he asked.

  “Yes, I should,” I agreed in relief, looking around for him.

  “We should head home,” Uncle Robert sighed. “Congratulations, Téa.” He didn’t smile at me, but I appreciated the sentiment.

  “You’ll keep us updated on this, uh, situation, Declan?” Aunt Penny asked, shooting me one last dismayed look.

  After assuring her that he would, Dec headed toward the rest of us, now crowded around Marty. I averted my eyes quickly, feeling ashamed even as I did so. I walked through the echoing Horse Palace surrounded by Seth and my friends, receiving occasional pats on the back and congratulations on the way. Dec kept pace with us silently.

  By the time we got to Marty’s stall, the tension was palpable.

  “Do you guys want to go with Marty to the shower stalls?” I suggested to Seth. He held my gaze for a moment, making sure, but at my nod, he agreed and he and Julia followed Teri and Karen, who shook her head at me over her shoulder, grinning.

  I took a deep breath and faced Dec.

  I opened my mouth but found myself at a complete loss for what to say. I forced myself to meet his eyes. They were troubled but, to my relief, not angry.

  “You could have told me,” he growled.

  “Yes. I should have,” I agreed quietly.

  “Hmpf.” He crossed his arms. “How long has this been going on?”

  I swallowed. “Since July,” I admitted.

  He nodded. He didn’t look surprised.

  We were interrupted by Jaden’s arrival. I almost ran to him; by force of long habit, we left a wide space between us when we stopped. I examined his face — he looked devastated, but he recovered his wits first and pulled me into his arms. I held him tightly, feeling Dec’s eyes on us.

  “Sorry I left you on your own,” he whispered in my ear.

  “No, it’s fine, of course you had to go. What did she say?”

  He tensed. “She wouldn’t talk to me.”

  I pulled back so I could see him. When I caressed his cheek he leaned into my hand, his face tormented.

  “Despite everything I put her through when I was younger, my mother never once raised her hand against me. She was always willing to listen, at least.” He swallowed hard. “I don’t know if she’ll forgive me this time.”

  We both started as Dec spoke right next to us. “Give it some time. This has been a shock to everyone, your mother most of all.”

  We dropped our arms quickly, and Jaden faced him.

  “I apologize for not being honest with you,” he said quietly. No one could have doubted his sincerity.

  Dec grunted. “I take it this is ser
ious?” he asked gruffly.

  Jaden reached for my hand before answering. “It’s as serious as it gets.”

  A spasm crossed Dec’s face.

  “Do you remember when you picked me up from Mateo’s?” I said hesitantly. “The questions you asked me... I thought you might have suspected, even then.”

  “Well, naturally I speculated, the two of you couldn’t keep your eyes off each other all summer.” He stared hard at Jaden. “When I began to suspect what was going on... well, I planned to confront you, at first. But I waited; I wanted to be sure before I started making accusations. And then a funny thing happened — everyone got really happy. It seemed as though every time I walked into the house or the barn someone was laughing. Even the students and boarders were affected by the mood you two created.” He looked at me, finally. “I haven’t seen you like that since your mother died. After everything you’ve been through, well, I didn’t want to take that away from you. So I lived in denial of what was developing in front of me. I found ways to justify your more dubious behavior to myself.” He shook his head, doubtful. “I don’t know if I did the right thing. Maybe, if this had been nipped in the bud...”

  I made myself look him in the eye. “We tried, Dec. We really tried to stay away from each other. We spent months making ourselves miserable, but we’re like magnets. Once we get close, we just can’t stay apart.”

  I stepped nearer to him.

  “I didn’t mean for this to happen, Dec, but please-” my voice broke, and I stared at the ground. I didn’t even know what I was asking him, exactly. I felt his hands on my shoulders.

  “We’re going to have to talk about this a lot more, but I’m not handing down any final judgments.” I hugged him quickly. “This is going to take some getting used to,” he sighed.

  I had barely turned back to Jaden when a man and woman I didn’t recognize came forward.

  “Hi, you’re Téa Everson, aren’t you?” the woman asked politely. At my nod, she went on, “I’m with Horse Sport magazine, I’d like to congratulate you on your double win this week. Could I ask you some questions for an article we’re doing on emerging talent?”