Second Chances (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 25)

by Claire Svendsen

  Jess hobbled over to the fence with the help of Duncan, leaning on his shoulder and wincing as she limped across the footing but I was pretty sure she was just putting on an act. Duncan didn’t buy it though.

  “Take a minute,” he told her, handing her a bottle of water. “If you don’t need to go to the hospital in five minutes then you are back in the saddle, understood?”

  Duncan swung up into Jess’s saddle and took the horse down the line. Valor jumped it perfectly. I stole a look at Jess who wasn’t watching. It was clear that the problem wasn’t the horse but her. I had to wonder if she was going to be the one replaced by the alternate after all.

  “Who is next?” Duncan said.

  We all took turns and when we’d done it to his satisfaction, he made us drop our stirrups and do it without them. I was kind of out of practice. Esther used to make us ride without stirrups all the time and every now and then my Dad would suggest it and I’d make a sour face and that would be that. I could feel my legs burning as I wrapped them around Socks’ sides and tried to jump the fences without collapsing on his neck. The only saving grace was that I had ridden Bluebird bareback a lot recently and so my muscles were stronger than they would have been.

  Rose was a pro, probably because she was one of those girls who was thin and light and could easily cling to the back of her horse like a tick. Andy had almost as much trouble as I did and so did Scott, the other guy, who up until now had slipped under the radar unnoticed.

  “This is your homework before the show next week,” Duncan said. “I want you all to ride for an hour every day without stirrups.”

  “Great,” Andy moaned.

  “And I don’t mean just trail riding either. I mean proper work. Jumping a gymnastic exercise or a course.”

  “Like he’ll be able to tell anyway,” Andy whispered.

  “Oh I’ll be able to tell,” Duncan said.

  He jumped off Valor and handed him back to Jess.

  “Your turn,” he said.

  “My ankle doesn’t feel quite right,” she said. “Maybe I’d better get it checked out.”

  “Fine,” Duncan called after her as she fake limped her way back to the barn. “But the next time I see you, I’ll expect a doctor's note.”

  “Wow, it's just like being back at school,” Rose said.

  “Yeah without the cafeteria food and the realization that you forgot to do your homework,” I said.

  But all in all the clinic was fun. Socks didn’t disappoint or let me down in any way and I was letting out his braids as I waited for my father to come and pick me up when Duncan walked past our stall and stood there looking at me.

  “Did I do something wrong?” I finally said.

  “No.” He shook his head. “In fact you are doing everything right. Keep up the good work.”

  And so I prepared to leave the clinic with a light heart and a good feeling about the December show where hopefully we would win and be able to donate a ton of money to charity. I was still riding the high when Dad came to pick me up, running into the barn with a look of panic on his face and just like that the good feeling was gone.

  “What is it?” I said. “Is it Bluebird? Is he sick again?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “It’s Faith. She’s ridden off the farm and I can’t find her anywhere. You are going to have to help me look for her because if I have to call her parents and tell them that we lost their daughter, we’ll never get any boarders ever again.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The ride home was quiet. We didn’t speak. Dad didn’t ask me how the clinic went and I didn’t ask how he had managed to let Faith ride off the property without stopping her because really none of that mattered anyway. We were going to have to find her and I knew exactly where she would have gone. She would have ridden off into the woods that she found so alluring. Into those dark and intimidating woods that she thought looked like fun.

  The kid was fearless and that was fine but there were all kinds of things in there to spook a pony and who knew how overgrown and dangerous it was. Plus I seemed to remember that back when we’d ridden it the path had been frequented by four wheelers and the irresponsible teenagers that rode them and had little regard for kids on ponies.

  “Can you take care of Socks?” I asked as the trailer finally pulled down the drive. “I’m going to tack up Bluebird. I know where she will have gone. I just need a pony I trust to find her.”

  “Fine,” Dad said. “But take your cell phone and call me when you find her.”

  “If I find her,” I mumbled under my breath, grabbing my saddle from the trailer.

  The trails stretched for miles and then branched out into fields and onto other paths. If she’d gone beyond the woods then there was little chance that I’d find her tonight. The sun was already sinking low on the horizon. It was getting late. If I didn’t find her before dark then we’d have to let her parents know that we’d lost her and then all hell would let loose. They’d call the police who would come with searchlights and dogs and all kinds of mayhem and we’d be labelled the barn that lost a little girl and her pony and didn’t tell anyone for hours until it was too late and the kid was dead in a ditch.

  “I’m sorry boy,” I told Bluebird as he stood by his feed bucket and nickered when he saw me. “I need you. I promise you’ll get a good meal when you get back but right now we have to find Faith and Macaroni, okay?”

  He put on his best grumpy face as I pulled him out of the field and tacked him up, grabbing my helmet from my father and slamming it onto my head before leaping into the saddle and cantering down the drive. I left Dad behind holding Socks. I only hoped he would give him the rub down that he deserved because he’d really been a great horse today at the clinic. He hadn’t let me down. In fact he’d shown that he was an amazing jumper. Maybe even better than Valor, a fact that I was sure Jess would have been mad about but I couldn’t think about that right now. All I could think about was Faith lying in a ditch. Faith wounded and bleeding from the head or unconscious. Macaroni all tangled up in the bushes and vines, his leg twisted and broken as Faith lay there wailing for help.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  We trotted down the road at a brisk pace. It wasn’t safe to canter in case a car came along but once we got to the gap in the hedge, I let Bluebird have his head and we galloped across the field until we got to the stream. The cows were closer this time and there was a farmer with his dog, a black and white collie. He waved his arms and yelled something, probably telling us to get off his land but we didn’t stop. We followed the water until we reached the open gate and trotted through.

  There were the woods. Dark and just as scary as they had been the first time only now the sun had almost set and the woods were not only dark but almost impossible to see through. I should have brought a flashlight. I took out my phone and turned on the camera flash and it lit up the trees but in reality it just made everything look scarier and Bluebird spooked at the shadows so much that I had to turn it off.

  “Faith?” I screamed. “Are you out here? Yell if you can hear me.”

  I listened but there was no reply.

  “Macaroni?” I called out. “Here boy. Come on. I’ve got carrots. Let's go home.”

  But there was no clatter of hooves and no buckskin pony came galloping down the beaten path.

  We walked between the claustrophobic trees, my heart pounding in my throat. Bluebird stepped over roots that were twisted and gnarled. This was nothing like the open trail that we rode on at Fox Run. Here a horse could easily slip and break a leg. Everything was covered in moss and mold. It was green and black and slippery. If Faith had tried to trot or canter, Macaroni would surely have fallen. I looked down the gullies that lined the trail, hoping not to see the leg of an upside down horse or the pink sweater of a young girl and I didn’t. But not finding them was almost as bad as finding them would have been. It was going to be really dark soon and then Bluebird and I would be lost out here as well and I couldn’t let
that happen.

  “Faith,” I called again. “If you can hear me, please answer.”

  Bluebird and I stood and listened and then I heard something. At first I thought it was birds, or even worse bats. The flapping of wings. But then I realized it was the gallop of hooves and then there he was, all disheveled with leaves and twigs stuck in his mane and tail and mud up his legs and under his belly. Macaroni with a wild look in his eyes as he galloped towards us. His reins were broken, trailing down his neck and his saddle was lopsided but Faith wasn’t in it. She wasn’t clinging to his neck or holding on for dear life. She was nowhere to be seen at all.

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  “Easy boy,” I called out to the panicked pony.

  Bluebird let out a nicker and Macaroni stopped in his tracks and snorted. I walked Bluebird forward and was able to snag the broken reins before Macaroni took off again. A quick glance told me that he was mostly okay but he had a lot of scratches on his legs and a rather nasty cut on his chest. I wondered if he’d fallen and if he had, maybe he’d crushed Faith. Had she even been wearing her vest like I’d made her the day that we went out together because if she hadn't and the pony had fallen on her then there was the possibility that she was lying out there in the dark with broken ribs or worse, a broken back.

  But I knew that I couldn’t look for Faith and take care of Macaroni at the same time.

  “I’ve got the pony,” I called Dad and told him. “You need to come and get him. I haven’t found Faith yet.”

  “Is he okay?” Dad asked, worry in his voice.

  “He’s a mess,” I said. “Muddy and scratched up. I think he may have fallen.”

  “I’ll be right there,” Dad said when I told him where I was.

  “Oh and bring a flashlight,” I said before he hung up.

  “You’ll have plenty of those,” Dad said. “We have company.”

  Then he was gone. As I walked Macaroni back to the entrance to the woods I knew what he meant. Faith's’ parents had shown up to pick her up and that meant that my father had to tell them that their daughter was missing, which also meant that they’d be mad that we hadn’t told them before.

  I’d been at the clinic. It wasn’t my fault but who knew how long Faith had been gone before my dad even noticed. What if she’d been out there all day? If she was seriously hurt she could have got help by now but what if it was too late? I leant over the side of my saddle and threw up into the bushes. The adrenaline of the day and now the panic that was losing Faith who was not only a boarder but a friend was too much. I couldn’t take it. Everything had been going so well. I didn’t want it all to go wrong now. I wiped my mouth on my sleeve, my stomach still churning and Bluebird walked on a few paces before I had to stop him and throw up again.

  By the time I got to the edge of the woods there were lights and people. Dad had brought the trailer. Macaroni balked at all the commotion and I had to encourage him forward until Dad finally grabbed him.

  “Easy pony,” Dad said, patting him on the neck. “Now what did you do to your little kid?”

  Faith’s parents were standing there wringing their hands. Faith’s mother looked like she had been crying. Her father looked pale. I wondered if that was how my parents looked the day that Summer fell off and was rushed to the hospital. The day that she died.

  “I’m going back in,” I said.

  “No,” Dad said. “It’s too dark and dangerous.”

  “I don’t care,” I said. “Faith is out there. Give me a flashlight.”

  And before he could do anything about it I had snatched a flashlight from his hands and turned Bluebird on a dime. Now we were the ones galloping over the twisted, slippery roots without a thought for our own safety because I had to find the kid who looked up to me before it was too late.

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  I knew that Dad would go back to the barn and get Canterbury and then he would come out and help me look for Faith but the truth of the matter was that first of all he had to tend to Macaroni. The pony was scared and probably in shock and might even need the vet. That cut on his chest was pretty deep. There was a chance that it needed stitches and there was no one at home to take care of him except my father. No Henry or other experienced grooms to step in and take over so that he could come back out and help me. Instead it was just me and my pony and the flashlight that swung back and forth, its beam a yellow beacon that I hoped Faith would see, even if she was too weak to call out.

  But I knew the kid was tough. If she could, she’d be out there looking for her pony and not at all interested in coming back until she found him, which was why I was hoping that she was okay.

  We walked through the scary woods, an owl hooting high above us and the call of wild dogs in the distance. The moon was full but in the thick of the woods, you couldn’t really tell. Every now and then a patch of white light would break through the branches but other than that they were too thick to let any light through at all and then it started to rain. Small specks at first that dotted my arms but then the sky opened and fat drops fell through the trees and drenched me. Bluebird pinned his ears and tried to turn back for home.

  “I’m sorry,” I told him. “If Faith is out here then we have to stay out here too.”

  He didn’t like that very much. I had to kick him with legs that felt like jelly after riding all day and he let me know his displeasure by letting out a little buck but we pushed on until we reached the other side of the woods. But we still hadn’t found Faith.

  “Faith,” I called across the dark field. “Where are you?”

  The open field was wide and inviting and I didn’t want to go back into the woods where dark things crawled across my skin and there were noises that I could neither identify or wanted to. Things that were better left to the imagination. Or not, if you had an imagination like mine that made everything out to be a serial killer or a deadly insect.

  The rain was less now but I was already wet and starting to shiver. Bluebird wasn’t feeling much better. I buried my hands in his warm mane and asked him to trot across the grass to warm up. As we did lights came into view, a farmhouse in the distance. Perhaps they had seen Faith or heard Macaroni galloping around their field. It was worth a shot. After all I couldn't ride around in the dark forever and if it got much later Faith’s parents would definitely call the police, if they hadn’t already and the next thing we knew we’d have search dogs and helicopters all over the place and our reputation would be ruined forever.

  “Please let me find Faith,” I said out loud to the dark night sky and as I did the rain clouds parted and the full moon came into view. I took that as a good sign. I had to. I didn’t have any other faith left.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  The farmhouse was modern, not half falling down like ours was. The porch was brightly lit and there were rocking chairs and little tables for coffee cups with Christmas cactus all in bloom. Everything was laid out all nice and neat like the people who lived there really cared about stuff like that, unlike my mother who had stuck a half dying poinsettia outside and called it a day.

  Inside through the windows I could see a Christmas tree, its colored lights shining brightly and I thought that was how our farm should be. Instead it was dark at night because we were trying to save on the electric bill and sometimes we lit a couple of candles but since Mom was deathly afraid of the place burning down we usually just watched the TV in the dark, an old one that sputtered and crackled with static because we didn’t have cable, only a coat hanger for an antenna and then we all usually gave up and went to bed.

  Bluebird snorted as we went down the drive and a couple of curious horses came to the fence to say hello. The farm looked warm and inviting but for all I knew we were walking into a trap. Maybe the pretty farm was no better than the creepy woods but as I got off Bluebird and stood there wondering where I should tie him so that I could go and knock on the door, it swung open.

  “Hello?” the man said. He was middle aged with salt
and pepper hair and a kind smile.

  “Hi,” I said awkwardly. “I’m so sorry to bother you but I’m looking for a young girl. She fell off her pony in the woods. Have you seen her?”

  “I think you’d better come inside,” he said. “You can put your pony in that pen over there.”

  He pointed to a little paddock and I took Bluebird over to it and made sure it was safe before I pulled off his saddle and bridle.

  “I won’t be long,” I said, giving him a quick hug and smelling his sweet mane.

  For all I knew, I’d never see him again but I walked up towards the house because I’d never been so tired in all my life and I wanted to find Faith but I didn’t think I could look anymore. And out in the darkness a horse nickered and Bluebird answered. It trotted to the fence. A gray mare. Was it really Noelle, Rose’s horse? In the dark night with the full moon behind the clouds I couldn’t be sure but I hoped beyond hope that it was and that I wasn’t walking into some kind of trap.

  I clutched my phone tightly in my pocket as the man held the door open and I walked inside. For a moment I was blinded by the bright lights and the fire that was crackling in the hearth, warding off the cold damp night and I blinked a couple of times and then I saw her, Faith, sitting at the kitchen table with her clothes all muddy and wet and her wrist in a bowl of ice.

  “Faith,” I cried as I dashed over and hugged her tight.

  “Ouch,” she said.

  Her face was dirty and streaked with dried tears and her wrist was swollen and purple.