“Oh… No… Not at all. I’m not here to try and stop the hunt. I’m here to meet a friend.”
“Didn’t think you looked the sort who would be a bloody sab, I can usually tell a rider, but you can’t be sure these days. Barbara Shields.” She flung her hand out for me to shake. “I was the local Pony Club DC, but a bit of a gammy leg means I support when I can but don’t hunt anymore.”
“Oh, I don’t hunt. I run a yard in Cumbria with my husband.”
It was what I always said when I was asked what I did. However, did I really run it with Adam anymore? I shuddered at the thought of what the future could bring. Barbara smiled before excusing herself to greet others who she clearly knew well.
I surveyed the scene, one which would have not changed in many years. The collection of horses and riders, drinks in hand ready for a day galloping through the muddy fields, hounds now chasing an aniseed trail. I couldn’t see Sally amongst the riders so started to make my way towards the horseboxes.
There were several trailers pulled by ancient Land Rovers, older horse boxes and then, in the furthest corner of the car park a newer looking box. It was white with a flowing horse logo painted down the sides. As I looked towards it, I recognised her familiar face.
“Sally?” I’d walked towards the box; the groom was busy putting tack into lockers on the side of the vehicle. She turned to face me a look of shock and disgust in her eyes. She grabbed me by the shoulders and dragged me to the rear side of the horsebox, away from prying eyes.
“You? What the hell are you doing here?”
“Sally… I just wanted…”
“You just nothing… Look, I’m trying to restart my career here. I don’t need the scandal of what happened-…”
“Elizabeth?” A female voice shouted Sally looked up at the call.
“Wait here.” She hissed. “Yes, miss!” Sally walked around the box. I edged towards the front, looking around the cab I saw Sally being addressed by a woman on a fine-looking bay hunter. Sally checked the girth and martingale before polishing the woman’s boots in the stirrups. She wished her a good day’s hunting before watching her turn the horse towards the pack as it started to leave the pub car park. Sally turned on her heel, again grabbing my shoulder and pulling me back, behind the box.
“Who’s she? And, who is Elizabeth?”
“I’m Elizabeth, it’s my middle name. The horse world is a small one and no one wants a groom who was involved with… Well, with what your fucking husband did. He ruined everything! Now, please. Forget me and let me get on with my new life.”
“Sally… Elizabeth? I need help, I know Adam didn’t do it. I just need to speak with you.”
“No…” Sally turned on her heel and started to walk away.
“But please… It’s important.” I grabbed her arm, she turned towards me scowling.
“Christ Kate! Are you thick or something? No, I mean it. I want nothing to do with you or your husband. Please, I’m begging you… Piss off!”
“I just need a few minutes of your time…”
“Can you not see I’m busy…” Sally started to walk away.
“I recognise her.” Sally stopped dead in her tracks. “She’s that famous actress, I thought I knew the face. She married some…-”
“Kate… No…” Sally rushed back towards me, pushing me forcibly against the horsebox. “Shit! You’re not going to leave this, are you? Okay, but please not today, not with her around. She’s hunting today but I’ll be alone on the yard tomorrow, they are hardly ever at the house when they aren’t hunting. Come round then, I’ll give you the address for the stables.” She scribbled an address on the back of a receipt and forced it into my hand.
“Tomorrow?”
“Take it or leave it, and I wish you would just leave it. After all, Adam did to us.” Sally shook her head, pushing past me she opened the cab door and started the engine. I had to leap back as she pulled the horsebox out of the car park.
* * *
I stood in the car park, the hunt had left and there were only the empty horseboxes and trailers left. I hadn’t intended to stay overnight, but it was clear that was the only option I had. I looked at the piece of paper Sally had handed me, I supposed I had better find somewhere to stay.
The pub sign said it offered rooms so I walked inside. Despite everything, the bar was deeply comforting, with a log fire burning in a huge fireplace and collections of old photographs, paintings and brasses lining the walls.
“Good afternoon.” The woman behind the bar was middle-aged, with greying blond hair and a warm smile. “Not following the hunt? I don’t blame you, what with that nasty weather. Better off in the warm and dry!”
“Yes, this is lovely. I need somewhere to stay for the night, it says you have rooms?”
“Oh yes, it’s quiet at this time of the year. Just one night, is it?” I nodded. “Come on then. Have you got cases to carry?”
“Ah… No, I wasn’t expecting to have to stay.”
“Travelling light? Well, we’ll look after you properly, don’t you worry.”
We climbed stairs behind the bar and she showed me to a cosy room. After a moment she bustled away and returned with a wash bag, towels and a bundle of clothes.
“Here, you are. I think my daughter is about your size. It will let you get out of those wet clothes, and here are some toiletries.”
“Oh…” I blushed, somewhat taken aback by her generosity. “Oh, thank you, I can’t…”
“Of course, you can, Jane’s moved away now so these are left here. I know they aren’t all that fashionable. Now, have you eaten, because, if you don’t mind me saying you look peaky? No? Well, get changed and come down when you’re ready and I’ll fix you something.”
I stuttered thanks. The woman left the room. She had left me a pair of jeans, a blouse and clean underwear. I was thankful to be able to get warm and dry.
* * *
“Ah, there you are! Come on, sit down next to the fire.” She bustled me towards a table and I sat down. She was only gone for a moment before she came back with a plate loaded with shepherd’s pie, vegetables and gravy. I hadn’t felt hungry, but now, with this delicious meal in front of me, I felt famished and ate quickly.
“The clothes suit you, it’s like having Jane back in the room!” The landlady smiled as she collected my empty plate, leaving a slab of pie with steaming custard in front of me.
“Oh, thank you…”
“Now, you won’t mind me asking, but what brings you down here, all unprepared?”
“I was trying to catch up with an old friend, she works for Isla-Mae Gomez.”
“Oh… Poor her!” She snorted. “We’ve seen little miss snooty, not that she would come in here. Married his lordship and now you would think that she owns everyone in the village. I don’t like to speak ill of her but, well let’s just say she doesn’t have many fans down here. At least she doesn’t spend too much time here. Thinks the manor house is too cold and wants to be with her London friends or over in America. I saw she was hunting today, it’s the only thing she cares about when she is down here. She’ll be off again soon until the next meet. But, hark at me going on. You eat your pie, looks like you need feeding up!” she chuckled as she took my dinner plate away.
The apple pie was wonderful but had a massively soporific effect on me and I found myself starting to doze beside the crackling fire.
“Go on, you go up and have a nap. I’ll make sure you’re woken for dinner. If you leave your wet clothes in the laundry bag outside your door, I’ll wash them.”
“I can’t ask you to do that!” I protested.
“You didn’t ask, I offered, I wouldn’t have if I didn’t want to…” She smiled warmly. “You need looking after girl…”
I nodded, I was feeling a bit lost and did need looking after, but without Adam, there was nobody who would fulfil that role. I wiped my eyes, hoping she hadn’t seen me start to cry and did as I was told. Climbing the stairs, I slipped
into the warm bed. Despite not being able to sleep at home, here, with a full stomach and following the exhausting drive, I was out like a light.
When I eventually woke, it was dark outside the window and there was the sound of music and people in the bar below. I dressed quickly and made my way downstairs.
“Oh hello! I was going to wake you up soon. You looked exhausted. Are you feeling better now?”
“Yes, much better thank you.”
“Right, take a seat. Dinner is almost ready.”
The bar was busy, filled with lots of people in mud-splattered breeches fresh from the hunting field. I was welcomed warmly as I walked across the bar. Barbara who I had seen earlier made a beeline towards me.
“You should have joined the field. It was a good hunt today; I mean it’s a set trail but we had good sport.”
“Thank you, I was a bit tired after my drive.”
“Yes, Cumbria. Tracey was telling me.” She gestured towards the landlady. “You’ve got a yard up there? Do you hunt?”
“Sadly not…”
“Ah, there’s still time. Right, I must mingle…”
The evening was pleasant, again Tracey placed a huge plate of food in front of me which I wolfed down, I was soon falling asleep and so bid Tracey goodnight and slipped into a dreamless sleep.
* * *
I was woken from my slumber by the glorious scent of bacon and made my way downstairs where I was once again presented with a plate of food I just couldn’t refuse. Although I could have easily stayed longer, I had to get on with the reason why I was down in Devon. I paid Tracey, thanking her for everything.
“I don’t know what is eating you up, young lady, but just know that there are always people who can help you.” I gulped, choking back tears. “Now, do you know where you are going?” I pulled out the receipt and showed her. “Oh no… This isn’t the right address. You said your friend works for the actress?” I nodded. “Well, she has given you totally the wrong address. You need to go across to Redbridge. It’s just through the village. You can’t miss it, there are a pair of gatehouses, just turn down the driveway. Good luck and you are always welcome back here.”
I thanked her and left. It was a short drive through the tiny village before I reached the pair of gatehouses, she had been right, there was no way I could have missed this huge estate unless someone deliberately gave me completely the wrong address. I could understand Sally wasn’t keen for me to speak with her, but this seemed excessive.
I drove towards the imposing gates which were closed, getting out of my car I could see that, unless I had a key or the correct code for the electronic pad on a post beside the roadway there would be no way in which I would be able to get through.
Frustrated, having come this far I got back into my car and reversed back onto the road. There had to be another way in? I drove slowly, following the line of the large brick estate wall until, a few minutes later I came across a smaller gateway with a five-bar gate. I parked my car off the road, driving down the partially hidden track before tucking it, nose-first into the undergrowth so it wasn’t immediately obvious and climbed over the gate.
There was a rough track leading through a dark forest, it seemed nobody had used this path in a very long time and I was about to turn around and give up when I saw light between the trees and a clearing ahead. I was soon standing on the edge of a large, well-maintained parkland, in the distance, I could see a huge manor house, and some distance behind it, there were stables and farm buildings.
It was a long walk, I realised I was in the open and kept waiting for someone to stop me and ask me why I was trespassing, but all seemed silent and lonely. Eventually, I was crunching through deep gravel in front of the house, the windows were dark, it looked as if there was nobody home. Maybe this had been a wild-goose chase. I kept walking around the building towards the stables.
As I turned the corner I saw the large courtyard of stables, Sally was there as I walked onto the yard, grooming a bay thoroughbred. She swore loudly as she turned having heard me approach.
“So, you found me?”
“Yes, thanks for the clear directions, it’s almost as if you didn’t want to see me. I’m sorry Sally, I don’t want to cause you any trouble. I just want to speak with you.”
“Okay!” She shook her head. “Let me put him away and then we can talk.”
She led the horse to its stable and bolted the door closed. Sally led the way to the tack room. I looked about in awe, it was immaculate, better than our own home let alone our scruffy tack room, it was filled with the most expensive tack and equipment. She filled the kettle and switched it on, taking two mugs from a cupboard under the sink as I looked at the saddles and bridles.
“This is a lovely place.”
“Yes, they have money to spend, which makes a change. I just have to keep their hunters fit and drive the horsebox for them for meets. Otherwise, I am pretty much left alone. Excuse me for a moment.” Sally stepped from the room, I let my eyes wander around the room daydreaming of one day owning such expensive, handmade tack. “Sorry about that, I was out of sugar.” She poured the now boiling water into the mugs and handed me one of them.
“Sally, I want to speak to you about Adam. Look I’m sorry to bring it up. But I know he didn’t… Well, you know?”
“You are saying, you think he didn’t kill that poor girl in cold blood and bury her body in a shallow grave. Is that what you are trying to say?”
“Well… If you must put it like that… It’s just, I saw the CCTV and, look I think it proves it can’t be him?”
“How?” Sally looked up shocked.
“It’s the tool shed. Specifically, the doorway. Didn’t he hit his head the first day on the yard? It’s just the CCTV images seem to show someone who is shorter than the doorframe.”
“Really? Is that it? That is your winning clue which will let your murderer husband go free?”
“Well…”
“I’m sorry, about what happened… You’ll excuse me for not wanting to believe you.”
“Sally. I am sorry to bring this up. You have to understand I am doing this for Adam. I just can’t believe that he would do this. It isn’t like Adam, he was such a caring man. I need to believe he couldn’t be capable of doing something so, well, so shocking.”
“But Kate. He did. I thought he was a nice guy too, but then he hit Olivia. I watched that back on the CCTV, what he did was totally brutal. It shocked me. Kate, more than that, it scared me. If he was capable of doing that to an innocent young girl, what could he do? Well, it seems he went and finished up the job. I’m just glad they caught him before he killed Hilary, or me… Ugh!
Kate, you are lovely. So innocent and trusting. He was a monster. He could have killed you. Have you thought about that? He just saw red and hit that girl and then, late at night, planned to stab her through the heart. The thought of it gives me goosebumps. I only knew him for a short time, well, like you. Maybe neither of us really knew him, or what he was capable of?
You have to understand, with all I have been through I needed to move on. I needed to escape, the memories of that place, seeing Olivia’s face as she was stabbed, how she cried. Her body, buried there in the…
Sorry…”
Sally wiped her eyes. I sat in silence for a minute or two, unsure what to say to her. He had hit Olivia, perhaps she was right? We both sipped our tea, Sally staring at me as I drunk the hot liquid.
Death Rider (The Rider Series Book 2) Page 18