Riders

by Jilly Cooper

  Huge cheers greeted China and Romania and everyone stood up. Then, on a note of crazy informality, the American athletes came on to an earsplitting roar. They all wore tracksuits, so, unlike other countries, there was no division of the sexes. Joyous as otters they swarmed, rowdy and exuberant, in total disarray. All carried cameras and were soon snapping away at one another and the other teams and the stadium, then fighting their way through to the other side of the parade to photograph Mom in the stands.

  Even when the black athlete came on carrying the Olympic torch on the last lap, there was doubt whether she’d ever make it, as the U.S. team swayed around her clicking away like pressmen.

  “The Marx Brothers seem to have taken over,” said Rupert.

  But finally the little flame, all the way from Greece, was lit and, after the endless speeches, the doves of peace fluttered into the blue in their thousands.

  “I hope you’ll take note,” hissed Fen to Rupert, “and stop bitching at Jake.”

  Then the beautiful girl singer stood up and started belting out “Reach out and touch someone” and everyone was breaking formation and kissing each other and shaking hands. Fen found herself kissed by Ludwig, Count Guy, and Rupert, and three times by Ivor.

  “Oh, Christ, here comes Griselda,” said Rupert. “I’m off. One must draw the line somewhere.”

  “I told you not to wear mascara,” said Jake, as Fen wiped her eyes.

  And suddenly it got to her—the Olympic ideal. Despite the sniping, the commercialism, the chauvinism, and the heartbreak, here she was in Los Angeles, carrying her own torch for Britain in front of this wonderful, friendly, deeply moved, appreciative crowd.

  For a few minutes her misery over Dino and over Jake and Helen was put aside as she suddenly realized the magnitude of her achievement, that at nineteen she’d been picked to ride for Britain. For without all the competitors, there would be no competition. And if there weren’t people prepared to lose bravely and with a good grace, there wouldn’t be any winners. True greatness was the ability to pick yourself up from the floor.

  “Isn’t this your best moment ever?” she whispered to Jake. He nodded, too moved to speak.

  “It’ll be even better when we go home with the team gold, and the gold, bronze, and silver in the individual,” said Rupert. “Oh, look there’s my Romanian,” and, shoving through the crowd, he grabbed her. For a second she gazed at him with her slant-eyed impassive Slav face, then the crowd shoved them together, and he was kissing her.

  “First base,” said Jake, wondering if Helen was looking.

  “Ludwig’s going to lose that bet,” said Fen. “Can’t you hear the clang of iron curtains dropping?”

  After the ceremonies they met Helen, who’d been watching with the Eriksons.

  “Wasn’t it wonderful?” said Fen. “You must feel jolly proud to be American.”

  Tolerant suddenly, because Dino not coming to the Games had made her even more aware of the agonies of being in love, she moved aside to introduce herself to the Eriksons and apologize for not being able to make it to the party, leaving Helen and Jake a moment alone together.

  “I was watching you the whole time,” whispered Helen, her eyes glowing. “Conscious of you every single moment, so proud that you finally made it here after all those setbacks, knowing you’d be thinking of me.”

  Jake felt once again the great weight of her love.

  57

  They had eight days to kill before the individual event. It was a bit like being on holiday, knowing war was going to break out any minute. Griselda sweated and became more and more bad-tempered. Fen wilted. Ivor fell asleep on the beach and woke up scarlet down one side of his face. Jake, being dark-skinned, fared better. For the first time in his life he was really brown. Suzy Erikson was constantly phoning him. Rupert went skiing, racing, surfing, pursued Miss Romania, and played endless games of poker with Ludwig, Count Guy, Carol Kennedy, and Wishbone to the despair of their chefs d’equipes, who felt that nations should stick together. At each game, honoring Dino’s absence, they left an empty chair. But he didn’t show up.

  Fen kept hearing little bits of news of him. There was a huge piece headlined “The Agony of Dino Ferranti” in the Los Angeles Times the day after Manny was shot. Carol Kennedy had also spoken briefly to him on the telephone.

  “I guess he’s still in shock,” he said. “I offered him Whittier to ride, but he’s simply not interested.”

  Countless times a day Fen looked in her pigeonhole at the Olympic village, hoping that, among the telegrams and cards from well-wishers, there might be a letter from him.

  Jake had frightful trouble sleeping in the Olympic village. The weight lifters were so fed up with his chain-smoking that they made him go outside and smoke in the passage. Often he didn’t bother to go to bed at all, just staying up to watch television. Once Ivor discovered you could watch cartoons all night, Malise had great difficulty getting him to bed, as well.

  Malise organized a team trip to Disneyland, and Fen had to hold Ivor’s hand when he got scared in the haunted house and during the pirates’ battle, and calm him down when he became overexcited after shaking hands with Mickey Mouse. In amazement, Fen gazed at the massive overweight Americans, stuffing themselves with hamburgers, hot dogs, and ice cream, and exhorting her through capacious mouthfuls to “Have a nice day.”

  “Have you ever seen people so fat?” she whispered to Jake. “D’you think Griselda’s got any Los Angeles blood?”

  “No,” said Rupert, overhearing, “Griselda’s far too unpleasant. They remind me more of your wife, Jake.”

  Just for a second Fen thought Jake was going to spring at Rupert.

  “Don’t rise,” she pleaded, putting a hand on Jake’s arm. “He’s only trying to wind you up.”

  Everywhere they went they were mobbed by autograph hunters, mostly Americans who had no idea who they were, but who were currently obsessed by anything Olympic. Rupert, because of his dazzling looks, his beautiful American wife, and his earlier successes on the American circuit was the one whom they recognized. But not always.

  “I know you,” screamed a crone with a blue rinse, as they were leaving Disneyland. “You’re in television?”

  “No, I’m in shorts,” snapped Rupert.

  Rupert kept up his jogging every morning and was soon joined by Miss Romania. Progress was obviously being made. After a week he produced a pair of pale blue panties for Ludwig. “That tag inside says ‘Made in Romania.’ ”

  “How do ve know?” grumbled Ludwig. “I don’t speak Romanian. It might say somezing quite different, like ‘Made in Los Angeles.’ ”

  “It’s Miss Romania who’s being made in Los Angeles,” said Rupert.

  “Vot is her English like?” asked Hans.

  “Nonexistent, thank God,” said Rupert. “But she thinks our vicked capitalist vays are absolutely marvelous!”

  The eight days dragged by. Gradually, Hardy and Desdemona seemed to be coming together, as Fen and Jake waited on tenter-hooks to see which three British riders of the five would be selected to jump in the individual. As Americans went on winning medals by the bucketful in every contest and the “Star-Spangled Banner” was played over and over again, the commentators reached new levels of chauvinistic hysteria. They seemed hardly to recognize that other countries existed, so there was a hardening of purpose among the British team.

  On Friday, to break the monotony, they had a mock competition—two rounds, then a jump-off. Carol Kennedy, riding his dark brown mare, Scarlett O’Hara, beat everyone by five seconds in the jump-off.

  “Either he’s a lunatic risk taker or that mare is phenomenally fit,” said Rupert. “If it’s the latter, we’re in trouble.”

  Hardy, overfresh and full of himself from his long rest, knocked a fence down in the first round, but Jake was very pleased with him. Rocky jumped superbly. Apart from one silly mistake in the jump-off, he didn’t put a hoof wrong. Desdemona, also on tremendous form, came fourth, s
ailing over the fences with all her old bounce, somewhat reviving Fen’s spirits.

  “All right,” said Malise. “That’s the team for the individual: Rupert, Jake, and Fen.”

  Fen didn’t dare look at Griselda.

  Arriving at the stables on the Saturday, however, Fen found Sarah with a long face. Desdemona couldn’t put her near hind down. She must have bruised it.

  Fen, Sarah, and Jake stayed up all night, poulticing her foot and trying to reduce the swelling, walking her out to test the stiffness under the huge Los Angeles stars. By morning Fen thought she was all right. The British vet and the American national vet thought otherwise, and went into a huddle with Malise. Fen felt her presence was purely incidental.

  “She’s stiff behind and there’s swelling. I think she may have chipped a bone,” said the national vet.

  “She needs at least a week’s rest,” said the British vet.

  “A week,” said Fen, aghast. “That rules out the team event, too.”

  “I guess so,” said the American. “I’ll have another look on Friday, in case you’ve wrought miracles, but I’m afraid tomorrow is definitely out.”

  For Fen, who’d been up all night, it was too much.

  “Fucking bureaucrats,” she screamed. “You don’t know a bloody horse from your elbows. Give her a shot of bute. She’ll be fine. She’s often stiff in the morning.”

  The American vet, nettled, accused Fen of treating her horse like a machine.

  Jake and Sarah took Fen’s part, and a very undignified yelling match ensued, listened to with glee by all the surrounding grooms and riders, who were frantically translating for one another.

  Finally Malise removed Fen by the scruff of the neck and took her off for a cup of coffee in a quiet corner of the British Supporters’ Club.

  “You must pull yourself together,” he told her.

  “There’s nothing left of myself to pull,” wailed Fen. “Desdemona’s okay She’s my horse. I ought to know.”

  “When you see the course tomorrow,” said Malise gently, “you’ll understand. You might get by in a Nations’ Cup or in a Grand Prix, but Desdemona’s forte is speed, not jumping huge, daunting fences, which she’d really have to stretch herself to get over. I know you love that pony, but I can’t let you ride if you’re going to be nervous about pushing her every inch of the way.”

  “Everyone goes on and on about winning not being important and the taking part is all that matters. I’m not even allowed to take part.”

  “You’ve got years ahead.”

  “But I may never get a horse as good as Des.”

  “If you don’t ruin her tomorrow, you’ll probably have a chance of another two cracks at the Olympics on her. How would you live with yourself if you jumped her and lost her for good, like poor Dino?”

  At the mention of his name, Fen put her head down on the table and sobbed her heart out. “I’ve tried, truly I have, I’ve tried to be cheerful. I’ve taken Ivor to Disneyland three times. But I did hope to see Dino. We were a bit close once.”

  Malise patted her shoulder. “I know how you were looking forward to seeing him, and now this. It’s wretched.”

  “Can I fly home?”

  Malise shook his head. “That’s not part of the deal. You’re still reserve. If anything happens to any of the others you’ll have to jump their horses. I’ll need your help tomorrow to see how the course is riding, to cheer us all up. Griselda isn’t any good at that. She’ll still be sulking because I haven’t picked her.”

  “You must be joking,” said Fen. “I’ve been as cheerful as a corpse the last few months.”

  “And I need you to look after Jake; keep him calm. D’you think he’s missing Tory?” Malise raised an eyebrow. Fen had the feeling he was fishing.

  “Yes,” she said. “I’m sure he is.”

  The same afternoon Rupert went racing with Ludwig and Guy. Jake broke his vow and, submitting to Helen’s pleading, drove her into the mountains. Looking for wildflowers, he was reminded of the picnic he had had with Tory and the children the day before the World Championship. Then he had found the lucky clump of tansy. Now Helen’s gold tansy in the breast pocket of his shirt was warding off evil.

  Helen found Jake boringly worried about Fen.

  “She’s very young. She’ll have other opportunities.”

  “You don’t think that when you’re young,” said Jake, “and she’s had such a sod of a two years. Losing Billy, then being sent to Coventry, then losing Dino, and his not turning up at the Games, and now this. She’s very brave; makes very little fuss.”

  I need you far more than she does, Helen wanted to shout. She was fed up with the entire Lovell family. She was jealous of Fen, and she was fed up with Suzy going on about how attractive Jake was, and assuming that he must be madly in love with Tory not to submit to Suzy’s charms.

  Not having been alone with Jake for days, she wanted to pour out her troubles. Now she was faced with his total detachment. He seemed to have cocooned himself against the outside world. He wasn’t interested in the news, or plays or the concerts she had been to at the Hollywood Bowl, or even how appallingly Rupert was behaving. She failed to appreciate that the sensitivity with which he had listened to her and taken her to bed during the summer had a flip side of terrible nerves and vulnerability to outside pressures before a big class.

  Finally, when tired of walking, they collapsed onto the grass, he lay with his head on her belly, not speaking, just gazing up at the snowy peaks against the stormy dark sky, luxuriating in the cool air until he fell asleep. Unable to bear wasting precious time when they could be making love, Helen woke him up.

  “Jake, d’you really love me?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “You’re not showing it much at the moment.”

  Jake sat up on his elbow, his eyes deeply shadowed in his tanned face.

  “Can’t you understand that the emotional cauldron of the Olympics either makes or breaks you? I can’t afford distractions.” He took her hand and placed it on his breast pocket so she could feel the gold tansy. “But I keep you next to my heart the whole time.”

  “I hoped I’d inspire you,” she wailed.

  “You do,” said Jake, then, remembering Dublin, “but you also distract me. I don’t want to spend tomorrow, when I should be concentrating on winning, worrying that I’m going to slip up or betray myself in front of Rupert.”

  “Don’t you even want me there?”

  “Of course I do. Just don’t expect me to wave and smile during the day. People say I’m rude and ill-tempered. I just want to go inside myself before a class. If I have to worry whether you’re happy, it’ll be one more pressure.”

  Seeing her uncomprehending face, he said, “There’s so much at stake—our whole future.”

  “I get so lonely at big classes,” said Helen petulantly. “I’m almost glad Mother’s coming tomorrow.”

  She pulled Jake towards her. “Please kiss me. I want you so badly.” But kissing was all he would do, which left her feeling profoundly uneasy. When Rupert had been mad about her in the early days, he’d always made love to her before and after and, frequently in the caravan, in the middle of classes.

  On his way back from the races that evening, Rupert dropped into the Olympic village to collect his post and found a letter postmarked Perthshire. Ever-cautious Amanda had not used headed writing paper, but she apologized for being “utterly bloody” about the looking glass and admitted that she was missing him very much, that they’d all be staying up to watch him tomorrow, and to wish him good luck. She’d be back in London in September.

  Equally cautious, Rupert tore her letter up and was about to throw it in the litter bin when he pieced it together again to see if it were really true. He felt absurdly pleased, and wondered why the hell he’d been playing around with Miss Romania. He had better go back to Arcadia and get some sleep. They were walking the course at seven-thirty.

  Malise Gordon was not a reli
gious man, but he prayed before the individual that night. He must try and be a good loser and not make any of the three riders feel too awful if they made a cock-up, and try and keep them calm without transmitting any of his fears and worries. Ivor had a good horse and didn’t usually suffer from nerves, but he lacked fire in his belly. Jake was desperately short of sleep and likely to crack. Rupert was far too confident and Rocky much too fresh. On the right day they were invincible, but Malise felt apprehensive. He felt ridiculously touched that Fen had sent him a good-luck card with a black cat on it. “To the best chef d’equipe in the world,” she had written inside. “We’ll live to fight another day, love, Fen.”

  58

  Jake slept fitfully, wracked by half-dreams. It was the opening ceremony and the singer turned into Helen, sobbing into a microphone that Jake didn’t love her. Then he was in the ring with girths breaking and bridles coming off. Finally he dreamed that Hardy had a heart attack in the ring. Lying there in the blazing sun gathering flies, he suddenly turned into Sailor. Jake woke up screaming, crying his eyes out. The next minute one of the weight lifters was sitting on his bed, patting his shoulder with a huge hand, the other was lighting him a cigarette. Having notched up a silver and a bronze the day before, they could afford to be magnanimous. As it was half-past three, they said, there was no point in Jake going back to sleep for an hour, so they might as well have a cup of tea and all chat to take his mind off things. Jake would rather have been left alone, but he was touched by their concern.

  The weight lifters were dozing off as, with a feeling of unreality, Jake put on the new socks, the white breeches, the shirt, and tied his tie with trembling fingers. He was all in white like a bride, until he pulled on the gleaming brown-topped boots, and shrugged his way into the new red coat, with the black velvet collar and the Union Jack on the pocket. The day had actually come, as it came to boys going back to prep school, or to men in the condemned cell.

  “Good luck,” mumbled the weight lifters sleepily. “We’ll watch you on the box. Sock it to ’em.”