Of course, I couldn’t talk. I was so tired I hadn’t even checked if there was any food in Kate’s kitchen and didn’t feel like eating anyway. As I said good night to Dan I felt lonely for the first time. Suddenly, without hard work and purpose or the grooms around me, the dark countryside and quiet farmhouse felt exceptionally empty.
In the end, I had opted just to go to bed, realising if Dan had been there he would have told me off for not looking after myself. However, after the early start, long drive and manual labour I fell, almost instantly, into a dreamless sleep.
* * *
I woke confused, looking around the room it took me a few seconds to realise where I was and what I was doing there.
As I showered, I thought of my frustration. Kate had been last seen in Devon, yet here I was hundreds of miles away. I should be doing more to try and find her, but what could I do? And what if… I felt a chill in my body despite the warm water. What if something had happened to her or if she had done something drastic? What if the pressure had become too much for her? I tried to put the thought from my mind, but it kept niggling away at me, she had been through so much it could break anyone. What was the point at which we decided that she wouldn’t be coming back? And what would happen if and when we reach that point?
I’d spoken with her mother and father. They had been beside themselves, yet so grateful I had agreed to look after the stables until she returned. None of us wanted to think of the alternative. Maybe, just maybe, if nobody said it out loud it wouldn’t happen.
I rinsed the shampoo from my hair and switched off the shower, it was time to get down to the yard, help with feeding the horses and then work the staff to the point where their fears were pushed back from the forefront of their minds. It probably wasn’t the right thing to do, but it was all I could think of.
Caroline was in the feed shed as I came down. She greeted me briefly and went back to dishing out the feed bowls which the other girls started to take around the stables. I grabbed a pile and started to feed hungry horses, and so started another day.
* * *
The door opened, light spilling into the near darkness.
“There you are, Hilary.” A loaf of stale bread was flung across the floor. “Where is she?”
There was a flurry of movement as Sally stepped into the doorway, I slamming my body into the door which hit Sally hard knocking her from her feet. I took my chance and leapt over her, bursting into the open doorway.
“Come on!” I yelled, reaching out for Hilary.
There was a split second of silence and then a terrifying crack. I fell to the ground screaming in agony. I watched as Sally slowly got to her feet, carefully brushing the dust from her breeches. She stepped towards me as I lay on the floor reeling from the sudden pain which had caused my muscles to convulse.
“Isn’t it funny Kate what you find in an old dairy. You see I found this.” Sally pulled out the object, it was like a large fork with metal prongs at the end of a long handle. She forced it onto my shoulder, pressing the trigger. The shock was blinding, I screamed, my body convulsing again as I writhed in agony. “It’s a cattle prod, but I think you guessed that. Now, I’m sure it hurts a hell of a lot on that setting, which is, number four. Shall I see what happens if I turn it up to the maximum?” I gasped, sobbing, snot dripping from my nose pleading with her not to make me experience the shocking pain again.
“No! Leave her! You monster. What the hell happened to you?” Hilary sobbed.
“What happened to me?” Sally smiled, walking towards Hilary, holding the prod outstretched towards her.
“No… Please! No…” The electricity was like a thunderbolt to her body, she screamed struggling to escape the charge, falling at Sally’s feet.
“You happened. You pathetic bitch…”
Sally grabbed my collar, dragging me back into the room. I was totally helpless, my muscles refused to obey me and pain still echoing in my skull.
“Right, that’s the last food you get. You had better make it last.”
The door slammed shut, there was the sound of bolts being pushed firmly closed.
“Oh, God Kate… Are you okay?” Hilary scrambled towards me, gripping my shoulders as I clutched my stomach.
“Oh, Hilary… I’m getting stomach pains…” I was doubled over in agony.
“Well, that shock and we haven’t eaten…”
“You don’t understand. I’m pregnant… What if I lose the baby?”
30
Three’s a Crowd
I took the folded sheets of paper and sat heavily on the bunk. Amanda had tried to be tactful, how was I? Was I coping? They had high hopes that they may have some evidence that could help my case. All positive stuff, and then, on the last page the bombshell.
‘Please don’t worry, but Kate has gone away. We’re not sure where she is, but we are doing all we can to look for her. I’ve gone back to Glebe Farm to look after things with the girls so that things will be in order when she returns. I’m sure she just needed some time, she’ll come back so soon.’
But, what if she doesn’t come back. I had seen the newspaper headlines about Kate but thought it was nonsense, the same sort of lies they were saying about me. But, what if it was true? Oh, God what if something had happened to her or she had done something to herself? What could I do? I knew that Amanda would be doing her best, but I couldn’t just leave Kate out there, lost. But there was nothing else I could do… I sat with my head in my hands.
* * *
“You’re pregnant?” Hilary stared at me her eyes wide. “But… But… Oh, God!…”
I nodded, it was clear that, even when she had thought that there was no way in which our hopeless situation could get any worse, I had managed to find a way. She stood up, running towards the door, slamming her fists into the wood, yelling and screaming at the top of her lungs.
* * *
I looked at my phone, it was an unlisted number. I pressed the button and said hello.
“Amanda!” My heart sunk.
“Adam, how are things?”
“Where the hell is Kate? What’s happening. Look I don’t have long, but tell me what’s happening to my wife!”
“Calm down. Look, she left the yard, she went to Devon. No, listen. It’s where Sally is now, she managed to find where she went. Hilary had tried to tell us something about the CCTV, we know it’s not you coming out of the toolshed with the pitchfork. Kate went to ask Sally about it. I know she was there, but then… Well, no one has seen her since. I know… But what can I do? Yes, of course, I have the police involved. Yes, I went down there… No… No, I don’t think she would have done that. Look, be strong.”
We managed to say goodbyes before the line cut off.
* * *
“For fuck’s sake Hilary! You have been screaming for over an hour now. No one can hear you except me, and I don’t give a fuck, I thought I’d made that clear. So, do yourself a favour please, roll over and die.”
“She’s pregnant you bitch!” Hilary grabbed Sally’s shirt, before falling to her knees before her. “Look. Do what the hell you want to me. But please, have some humanity, let Kate go. Sally, this isn’t like you. You’re a caring person, please… I’m begging you, have some heart.”
“Have you finished? First, I intend to do what I want to you. I hope to make you suffer and Kate’s suffering is all your fault. This is all your doing. It’s no better than if you had done it to her yourself. And as for heart, you broke mine, so please, don’t expect me to have any remorse for either of you.”
Hilary stood up quickly, lunging for Sally, but she was too fast, slamming the baton into the side of her head with a sickening thud. Hilary crumpled on the ground.
“I am very sorry this is happening to you. But, it’s out of my hands. Now, unless you want to both die sooner, get her to be quiet, when or should I say if she wakes up. Her yelling is giving me a headache.”
The door slammed shut.
* * *
> “What the hell do we do Dan?”
“Mandy there isn’t much we can do. Devon and Cornwall have her details and a missing person’s report has been filed. Her vehicle hasn’t been tracked on any major roads since the last ANPR hit we had. The police are doing what they can, but there isn’t much more anyone can do.”
“But, if her vehicle hasn’t been tracked again, she must still be in Devon? I need to go back down there.”
“To do what? What do you think you can do down there? The police are looking for her…”
“I don’t trust the groom. I’ll go back there. I need to speak to her again.”
“Mandy, no! She made it clear you weren’t welcome. She’s been through a difficult time, I can understand why she doesn’t want to be reminded of what happened. Where she is working is private property, you can’t just keep going there uninvited. Please, let her live her life.”
“But, the invoice. It proves Kate was there, and at the pub, they said she was there.”
“So, she went there. She saw the groom, so what?”
“But she lied to me…”
“Mandy, you arrived unannounced, the sister of the person accused of killing one of her close colleagues. Damn it she found the girl’s body, of course, she doesn’t want to be reminded of it, now if Kate went to see her and then you arrived without warning. I can understand why she reacted that way. Please, leave her alone now. The fact Kate was there doesn’t mean she is there now. Speaking with the groom may have been the last straw for her. I told you there are only traffic tracking cameras on major routes down there but she may have driven somewhere else.” He stopped speaking for a moment. “Look, Mandy please leave it to the police.”
“Right… But why can’t they search the place Sally works?”
“What? You want them to get a search warrant for the house and massive grounds of a famous film star just because Kate visited their groom and she told her to go away? That is not probable cause, there is no way they would get a warrant. Please just listen to yourself? Mandy, be sensible?”
“Dan… I’m sorry, you’re right. I apologise. I’m worried about her, that’s all.”
“Honestly, we’re all worried about her.” She sighed. “Okay. Tell me, how are the stables doing?”
I realised he was trying to distract me, but felt it was better to play along and so we chatted about my day and the horses sharing small talk before wishing each other a good night and disconnecting the phone call.
* * *
I cursed the stupid woman. It had started to rain when she had arrived at the pub so she’d refused to mount the horse I’d spent hours preparing. Instead, she got back into the car and had been driven away leaving me standing there clutching a pair of reins and an equally confused horse. I’d cursed her silently as I led the horse into the back of the lorry, preparing to return home.
After the short drive, I leapt down from the cab. It was quiet in the yard. Hilary’s yelling earlier had worried me. The likelihood of my holier than thou mistress coming to see the stables was minimal, but I would struggle to explain the distant sound of screams. I hoped that she would remain quiet, maybe I had hit her a bit hard. It would disappoint me if she had got away that easily.
I busied myself unloading the horses, I’d exercised them in the morning so I basically had a free afternoon, maybe things weren’t as bad as I thought. I was in the tack room, putting away the kit boxes when I felt a presence behind me.
“Elizabeth.”
“Oh, Sir…” I turned slowly. Smiling coyly.
“You know you don’t have to call me sir. But you know I do rather enjoy it when you do…” He stepped towards me, one hand reaching for my waist, allowing it to slowly slip downwards across the seat of my breeches.
“I must be respectful to the lord of the manor. Sir.” I turned towards him, dipping my head down, avoiding eye contact.
“Now, have you been a naughty little groom?”
“I don’t know what you mean, sir?” I gave him my most coquettish look, batting my eyelashes, he was a sucker for that.
“Oh, I think you do…”
My heart fluttered as he took me in his arms, kissing me roughly. I could smell his cologne and feel the rough tweed of his jacket as he ran his hands across my chest.
“Oh, not here… Sir!”
He smiled as I took his hand, leading him from the tack room, he paused to collect a riding crop from the hook by the door. I pushed open the door of an empty stable, the floor laid with a thick bed of fresh, sweet-smelling straw. I took a step back, unbuttoning my blouse slowly, letting it fall to the floor, his eyes widened as I released my bra and slid my breeches down my legs.
As I lay there, the scratching of the straw in my back and one of the UK’s most eligible bachelors between my thighs, I felt the fringe benefits to this job really made all the difference.
V
Hopelessly Searching
“Horses of The Rich And Famous - It may surprise you to learn that many Hollywood stars are also keen equestrians. See our list of horsey celebs on page 17.”
Pony Magazine
31
After The Act
We lay spent on the warm straw, there I was, my breeches pulled down. Of course, I was still wearing my polished riding boots, just as he liked. His passion had been short-lived, and, as always somewhat furious but, at least for him, deeply satisfying.
Ever since my first week when Edward, newly married to the beautiful actress yet sadly clearly missing something physical in his life, had made my acquaintance and soon afterwards seduced me with frightening rapidity. Not that there was much seduction, he was a powerful, rich man who owned a large house and country estate. What was there not to like? I was always up for a little, entertainment of the male variety and, despite some obvious shortcomings, he was a pleasant distraction in what otherwise could have become a rather boring existence.
What made it better was the fact that he had what the world lusted over. What the gossip columns called the most beautiful woman in the world, yet he made regular visits to the stables or my cottage where he would make himself very much at home in my company. No more was I ‘only the groom’. Now I was the other woman, the mistress, the distraction and eventually, I would be the reason for the breakup of his marriage, all being well. I could see a payday for me in the future when the affair had run its course. A nice ‘kiss and tell’ story which, when suitably embellished, would be lapped up by the gutter press. Oh, I was intending to have my cake and eat it, as it were.
He was a naturally handsome man, famous in his own right as a playboy in his youth with the suggestion of an affair with at least one royal princess and there was that famous and well documented coming to blows, where he was punched by a prince in the horse lines at a polo match in Windsor Great Park. Of course, that was all behind him now. His marriage last year in Monaco to Isla-Mae Gomez, star of the big screen and television with a series of blockbuster movies and awards to her name. This was, as the gossip columns put it, a sign he had put his bad-boy life behind him. I was guessing that, in his mind at least, screwing your wife’s groom really didn’t count.
I could have very much maintained this rather cosy arrangement but for one thing, and she was standing silhouetted in the doorway of the stable. The stream of abuse first in her native Spanish tongue and then English made it clear she disapproved, and neither Rupert saying he thought she had gone to London or the offer for her to come in and join us as I was, in his words ‘deliciously filthy and of no consequence’ had the desired effect and he rushed after her apologising whilst simultaneously pulling up his trousers.
Death Rider (The Rider Series Book 2) Page 22