Dreams (3 page)

“Me? Never,” Luke protested. “I just don’t see why you want to mess around with things like that. Len’s ways work. He’s won enough in the ring.”

Ellie bristled. “It’s not just about winning!”

Luke raised his eyebrows. “Isn’t it?”

“No!”

He gave her an amused look. “Say what you like, Ellie, but you like to win too. I know you do. I saw it at that last show we went to. And you know there’s no point doing stuff like join-up here. You’ll never convince Len to use horse-whispering ways. I mean, can you imagine him chatting to a horse before it went into the ring—what’s he going to say? ‘Come on, Picasso, I’ll give you a carrot if you do a great gallop?’”

“See, you don’t know anything about it!” Ellie said hotly. “Horse-whispering isn’t about actually
whispering
to horses. It’s about listening to them, reading their body language and—”

She broke off as she saw Luke’s broad grin. “Gotcha!”

Ellie let out an exclamation of annoyance. Of course Luke knew perfectly well what horse-whispering was about even if he chose not to try it. He had just been winding her up, refusing to take things seriously as always. “Oh, you…” She swung around angrily to pick up three haynets to take to the ponies. As she did so, she caught her foot in a long piece of bale string. She would have gone flying if Luke hadn’t stepped forward and grabbed her just in time. He steadied her.

“Have a good trip?” he inquired.

Ellie flushed and pulled her arm away, embarrassed. Just then, a pretty girl with straightened blonde hair and lashings of dark eyeliner came in. It was Sasha, the junior groom on the yard, and Luke’s girlfriend for the last four weeks.

“There you are,” she said to Luke. “Didn’t you hear me calling you?”

“Sorry, babe. I was just…” Luke glanced at Ellie and grinned. “Just helping Ellie out.”

Sasha immediately gave Ellie a suspicious, narrow-eyed look.

Oh, puh–lease!
Ellie thought, almost laughing out loud at the thought she would be anything like Sasha and fawn all over Luke for his attention.

“I’m taking these to the ponies.” Ignoring the older girl’s death-ray stare, she grabbed as many haynets as she could carry.

“Watch your step, Ellie!” Luke called innocently as she left the hay store.

Ellie had to bite back her laugh. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d made her smile—his ego wouldn’t be able to cope! Shaking her head, she carried the haynets down the yard.

THE MORNING PASSED IN
a bustle of activity as the horses were groomed and exercised, and the stables mucked out. As well as Luke, the three grooms worked full-time on the yard: Stuart, an ex-jockey in his forties, was the yard manager; Helen, his girlfriend, was the senior groom; and Sasha was the junior groom. Ellie and Joe helped whenever they weren’t at school. The Easter holidays had just started, so Ellie knew they could expect to be on the yard from dawn until dusk, often longer.

Len’s standards were exacting. He never failed to let anyone know if a horse they brought out to be ridden was in a state below his expectations. The yard was swept twice a day, tack cleaned every time it was used, stables bedded down with thick beds of clean straw or shavings, and the feed and water buckets always scrubbed. Anyone who cut corners or was caught not working would be shouted or even sworn at. Len was tireless himself and he wouldn’t tolerate laziness or slackness.

Despite her uncle’s brusqueness and temper, Ellie enjoyed working on such a professional yard. It was hard work but exciting, and the horses were amazing to ride. Len had made no secret of the fact he hoped for a stellar year from his show team. Ellie would ride the smaller ponies and Joe the larger ponies, while Luke rode the Intermediates and riding horses and Len the hunters and hacks. As well as Len’s own horses and ponies, there were the liveries he produced for clients and took to shows. The aim was to get as many horses and ponies as possible qualified for the two big shows in the season—the Royal International Horse Show at Hickstead in July, and the Horse of the Year show in October which everyone called HOYS. Everything was focused towards that—and to winning once they got there.

“Do you still want to go out for a ride at lunchtime?” Joe asked Ellie as they fetched brooms to sweep the yard later that morning.

“Definitely.” It was a lovely day and Ellie was really looking forward to just ambling along on Spirit, chatting to Joe. Spirit and Merlin were great friends too. She knew they’d like to be out together.

She and Joe went to the muck heap and began sweeping up the loose straw. Helen and Sasha were riding out on Hereward and Oscar, two of the hunters, and Stuart was lunging Milly, one of the ponies Ellie rode, in the circular ring. Luke was in the main schooling ring nearby, helping Len with Troy, a young working hunter, who was refusing to jump.

Ellie watched while she swept. Troy was a gentle giant of a horse and usually very willing to please, but today he had his ears back. Every time Len turned him towards a jump he stopped dead and ran backwards, despite Len swearing at him and digging in his spurs.

Ellie frowned. Troy’s bay coat was dark with sweat. “There’s something wrong with him,” she said suddenly.

“What do you mean?” Joe asked, stopping sweeping to look at the horse.

Ellie couldn’t explain it, but it was as if she could feel the pain pulsing off Troy. She’d always been able to sense animals’ emotions and feelings, and since she’d started talking to Spirit that ability had grown stronger. “He’s in pain.” She saw Joe give her a strange look. “I imagine,” she added hastily. “Dad always said that horses usually only play up if they’re hurting or scared.”

Joe nodded thoughtfully. “My books say that too.”

Luke picked up a long lunge whip and cracked it behind the horse’s back legs. Even though Ellie knew Luke had just cracked the whip in the air and it hadn’t touched the horse, she still flinched. Troy leaped forward at the sharp sound.

“Get him across the back legs as I come up to the fence this time!” Len ordered.

Ellie couldn’t bear it. Troy was in pain. She could feel it. They shouldn’t be hitting him to force him to jump. She started forward impulsively. “No!”

“Ellie!” Joe grabbed her arm in alarm. “What are you doing?”

She struggled against him wildly. “They mustn’t hit him! There’s something wrong!”

“You don’t know that for sure. Anyway, Dad’s not going to stop just because you say!” Joe saw her face. “Think of Spirit, Els. If you make Dad really mad, he might say you can’t keep him here any more. Then what will you do? There’s nowhere close enough you could cycle or walk to. You’ve got to be sensible!”

Every bone in Ellie’s body wanted to stop what was happening in the ring, but she knew what Joe was saying was right. Whether she liked it or not, her uncle had a hold on her. She looked back at the ring, completely torn.

“I hate it too,” Joe told her more quietly, still holding her arm. “You know I do, but we can’t do anything about it. We just can’t.”

Troy was slowing down as he approached the jump. “Now!” Len’s angry voice allowed no argument. “Get him!”

Luke caught the bay across the back legs with the cord of the whip. Troy leaped forward and this time jumped. He cleared the fences and came around again. His eyes rolled fearfully as he saw Luke with the whip but he jumped without hesitation.

When he had jumped the fences three times, Len brought the horse back to a trot. He patted Troy’s neck. “Well, we got there in the end. Stubborn bastard.” He let the horse walk around on a loose rein to cool off.

Luke came in from the menage. Ellie glared at him as he passed.

“What?” he said, seeing her look.

“You shouldn’t have hit Troy like that,” she said accusingly.

Luke frowned. “It worked.”

“But you didn’t stop to think why he wasn’t jumping. There might be something wrong with him!”

“Len checked though. He’s not lame, his mouth’s fine. There was no reason for him to be acting up like that.”

But Ellie wasn’t appeased. She knew what she’d felt when she’d looked at Troy. “There
is
something wrong. I’m just sure there is. I bet you didn’t look hard enough.”

Luke rolled his eyes. “Give me strength. I suppose you’d have had a little chat with him and then it would all have been OK?”

“Don’t be stupid!” Ellie glared at him, not in the mood for joking now.

“Ellie,” Joe put in. “Luke didn’t have a choice. He was only doing what Dad said. He couldn’t have done anything else.”

Ellie turned on him angrily. “You said you thought there was something wrong with Troy too and you certainly don’t believe that’s how horses should be treated. Don’t take his side!”

“It’s not about taking sides,” Joe protested. “I’m just saying Luke had to do what Dad told him.”

Ellie looked from one to the other and then, with an angry exclamation, she walked away.

“Hormones,” she heard Luke say knowingly to Joe.

It took all her self-control not to go back and slap him. She reached the courtyard and then took a breath. What should she do? Really she should carry on sweeping but she wasn’t going back to the muck heap while Luke was still there. Instead she went to the field and brought Spirit in.

He saw her opening the gate and came trotting over, ears pricked. As he reached her, Ellie felt a rush of relief. Being with Spirit always made her feel calmer. She stroked his ears and cheekbones, letting her upset over the argument with Luke fade away.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” she whispered to him. “You’re more important than anything. I love you so much, Spirit.”

Spirit lifted his muzzle to her face. She smiled. She didn’t need their minds to be connected to know that he was saying it back.

Buckling on Spirit’s headcollar, she took him back to his stable. Her thoughts turned to Luke and Joe. Time after time, when she was irritated with Luke, Joe would step in and defend him. She shook her head. Joe was too nice at times. By rights, he should thoroughly dislike Luke. After all, his dad had never made any secret of the fact that he wished Joe was more like Luke. Joe had been small for ages and slightly built, no good at sports and far quieter than Len. Not at all competitive, he would never willingly have gone in shows, but it had turned out he was very successful in the ring and won a lot. He was a brilliant and gentle rider and the more sensitive horses really responded to him. And despite having so many reasons to dislike Luke, Joe didn’t. They weren’t best friends or anything but they always got on just fine.

Ellie put Spirit in his stable and went back on the yard. Joe was just coming down from the muck heap with the two brooms. “It’s all done up there. You OK?” he asked.

She nodded, not wanting to talk about it. “Thanks for doing the sweeping. Do you still want to go out for a ride?”

“Definitely. Though I can’t stay out for long. Helen’s just asked me if I can help her this lunchtime. She wants to leave an hour early today, so she’s going to work through her lunch break and she needs someone to hold Pericles and Hereward while she trims them. There’s no one else around—Stu’s with Dad planning the show schedule, and Luke and Sasha are having lunch together. So is it OK if we just have a quick ride? It’ll be difficult for Helen to do the horses on her own.”

“Sure.” Ellie said. It was typical of Joe to cut his lunch break short to help someone out.

They headed out as soon as they could, riding into the woods that clustered on the slopes behind the stables.

Spirit and Merlin walked side by side, ears pricked. Although Merlin was almost twenty, he was very sprightly. He was a sweet-natured pony, always eager to please.

“How many years have you had Merlin?” Ellie asked curiously.

“Ten. I got him when I was six,” Joe replied. “I was just coming out of the lead-rein classes. I’d had a mad little pony called Pepper—he was good on the lead rein but crazy off.”

“I didn’t know you’d done lead-rein classes.” Ellie giggled. She had seen the lead-rein ponies at the show she’d been to. Their riders had looked very cute in their tiny polished jodhpur boots and the large velvet hats that made their heads look too large for their bodies. The girls had all worn red ribbons in their hair. She looked at Joe teasingly. “Bet you looked lovely in red hair ribbons.”

“Ha ha.” Joe grinned. “I looked very smart in my show outfit I’ll have you know.”

“Did your dad used to lead you?” Ellie couldn’t imagine it.

“No, Mom did.” Joe rarely talked about his mom. She and Len had divorced when Joe was eight and she lived in Devon now. It was a long drive so Joe only visited occasionally. Ellie had seen pictures of her in Joe’s room. She had the same sandy-brown hair as him and a wide, friendly smile. It was hard to imagine her being married to Len. But then Ellie found it hard to imagine anyone being married to her uncle.

Joe changed the subject back to the pony. “Anyway, I got Merlin when I was six. He always looked after me in the show ring. I swear he used to watch the other ponies jump the course and then he’d simply take me around. He’s brilliant, aren’t you, boy? Best pony ever.”

Merlin tossed his head as if aware he was being praised.

They rode on for a few minutes in a companionable silence. Ellie thought back to that morning. She’d loved watching Joe work with Solo. He was so good at things like that—so patient and keen to try things out. She glanced at him curiously.

“Do you still think about working on a different yard when you leave school?” Joe was due to leave in a few months after his GCSEs and he had once told her he would love to work on a yard specializing in natural horsemanship, a yard that helped problem horses. Ellie’s stomach clenched. She hated the thought of him leaving but if it was what he really wanted, then maybe he should do it…

“I’d love to,” Joe replied. “But Dad would never agree to it. He expects me to work here.”

Ellie shrugged. “So?”

Joe smiled at her reaction. “So…I just know I couldn’t enjoy myself if I felt I’d let him down. Anyway, it’s OK here. Well, it has been since you arrived…” He stopped himself.