Fly-by-night
Page 15
‘Say something,’ said Ted.
‘Please give us your opinion, Miss Hollis.’ Ron was grinning.
Her father gave her a little pat on the shoulder and said, ‘Leave the child alone. Her constitution isn’t up to all this excitement in one day.’
‘Her constitution needs a few sandwiches, by the look of it,’ her mother said. ‘Can’t you tie that pony up somewhere, so we can have our lunch?’
Ruth noticed, for the first time, that the event was over and the ponies were all tied up and their owners picnicking. She saw Peter coming up the hill on Woodlark, carrying a red rosette in his hand, and behind him was the bay, Clipper, with a blue rosette tied to his browband. Peter saw her and shouted across:
‘Go on! Are you dreaming?’
He came across, grinning. ‘Major Banks wants you, over by the Land-Rover.’
‘Oh.’ Ruth turned to set off for the Land-Rover, but Peter said to her, ‘Take Fly, you idiot.’
‘What for? Why does he want to see me? My face is all right.’
Peter made a despairing face. He spoke to her very slowly, as if to a foreigner: ‘He — wants — to — give — you — a — rosette.’
The miracles were coming in shoals. White as a sheet, Ruth tightened Fly-by-Night’s girths and mounted, and followed Peter down to the Land-Rover. (Her parents said to Ted, ‘Do you think she’s all right? She does look queer.’ Ted said, ‘She probably thinks she’s been killed and has arrived in heaven.’ ‘Don’t talk like that, Ted,’ his mother said severely.)
When Major Banks saw Peter he said, ‘What, you don’t want another one, do you? Wait till this afternoon.’ He was standing with all the score-sheets spread out on a little table, and a boxful of rosettes. He looked very cheerful.
‘No, sir, it’s Ruth. You said she had won one.’
‘Oh, that’s right. You came sixth, dear. Very good show. How’s your face? All right?’
‘Yes, thank you.’ Ruth took the white rosette he handed her.
‘Lucky it wasn’t your eye, eh?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘That’s the lot, then. Go and have your lunch. Well done.’
Ruth rode slowly back towards the horse-box with Peter. She was speechless. Peter looked at her, smiling.
‘Shock too much for you?’
She nodded.
‘You’ll ride pairs with me this afternoon?’ Peter asked.
‘Me?’
‘Yes, you.’
‘Not Clipper? I can’t see out of one eye.’
‘What does that matter? The other eye’s enough, isn’t it? Fly’ll take you.’
‘All right. Yes.’
Ruth rode back to her parents, and Ted and Ron, who were eating sandwiches in the car. When she glanced behind she saw Peter giving his red rosette to Pearl, as if it were a discarded programme. She looked down at her own, shining white in her fingers, and started to count the miracles that had happened that day. The radiance was still spreading. The white rosette would be her dearest treasure until the day of her death.
‘Have a sandwich?’ said Ted.
THE END
About the Author
Kathleen M Peyton is a top-selling author of more than thirty novels, the best-known of which is FLAMBARDS which, with its sequels, was made into a TV serial. She lives in Essex with her husband.
Also by K. M. Peyton
No Roses Round the Door
The Sound of Distant Cheering
Dear Fred
Pattern of Roses
Prove Yourself a Hero
Righthand Man
Flambards
The Edge of the Cloud
Flambards in Summer
Flambards Divided
Pennington’s Seventeenth Summer
Beethoven Medal
Pennington’s Heir
FLY-BY-NIGHT
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 17431 7
Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK
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This ebook edition published 2014
Text copyright © K M Peyton, 1968
First Published in Great Britain by Oxford University Press, 1968
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