by Amanda Wills
On the seat was the battered, black suitcase her dad used as hand luggage. Next to it was a carrier bag with the barrel of the biggest Nerf gun Poppy had ever seen poking out of the top. Charlie would be beyond excited. She walked over, picked both bags up and put them by the door. Poppy looked around her again. Her dad’s big suitcase was by the sink. She tried lifting it but it was so heavy she could barely haul it an inch off the ground. He’d have to come and get it later. There was no sign of any other bags but as Poppy turned to go she noticed the interior door that led to the horse area. She paused. Ted hadn’t said if he had any horses in the back but it wouldn’t do any harm to poke her nose through the door and have a look, would it?
‘Of course it wouldn’t!’ she exclaimed, her voice sounding unnaturally loud in the empty space. There was a thump from the horse area and a low noise that sounded very much like a whicker. Poppy reached for the door handle.
The light from the groom’s area revealed the first of three padded partitions which stood at an angle to the sides of the lorry. Peering around the partition she saw a Dartmoor foal, blinking nervously behind a haynet that was almost as big as he was. Poppy smiled and went to stroke his nose, but he shrank from her touch. ‘Don’t worry, little fellow. I’m not going to hurt you. I just wanted to say hello. Are you all on your own?’
At the sound of her voice there was another whicker from the stall next to the foal. Poppy felt the hairs on her neck stand up. She hardly dared to look at the foal’s companion but when she did she gasped. Standing with his legs slightly splayed was a skeletal grey pony. He looked as insubstantial as a wraith, but when he turned his brown eyes to Poppy they burned with life. ‘Cloud!’ Poppy breathed. She flung her arms around his bony neck and he stood patiently while she sobbed noisily, snot mingling with the sweat and dried blood in his tangled mane.
Minutes passed as they stood locked together. Poppy’s mind was reeling. Could Cloud be for her? But how had her dad known about him – she’d never mentioned him in any of her emails. And anyway, things like that only happened in stories, not to girls like her.
More likely Cloud was destined for the flash-sounding Redhall Manor Equestrian Centre where he would be used as a riding pony for spoilt rich kids. But at least he was safe from the brutal hands of George Blackstone. Poppy realised that was all that mattered.
She hugged him fiercely. ‘I’ll find out where you’re going and I will always look out for you, Cloud,’ she muttered into his mane.
‘No need for that. He’s staying right here,’ said a cheerful voice. She looked up and saw Ted opening the ramp of the horsebox.
‘But I don’t understand –’ she gulped, wiping her nose on the sleeve of her jumper.
‘Your dad bought him at the pony sale in Tavistock this afternoon. My boss offered the lorry to bring him back to Riverdale. He’s as thin as a stick and very nervy but you two seem to have made friends already!’
Mike and Caroline were standing at the bottom of the ramp, arms around each other, broad smiles on their faces.
‘It’s Cloud!’ Poppy told her stepmother, the disbelief on her face giving way to joy.
Caroline’s blue eyes were sparkling. ‘I thought it might be from the way your dad described him.’
‘But Daddy, how did you know?’
‘I’d like to take the credit but I’m afraid it was all down to Ted’s boss, Bella. We bumped into each other at the pony sale this afternoon. She’s a force to be reckoned with, I tell you.’ Ted chuckled at the accurate description of his boss as he undid the first two partitions of the horsebox.
‘I was looking for a foal for you but Bella said no, two novices together would be a mistake. Then this one walked into the ring and Bella reckoned he would be perfect for you, Poppy. He looked like a mess to me but she sounded so sure I found myself bidding. It was me against the knackerman,’ said Mike succinctly. Poppy shuddered.
‘Then a man standing next to us told me the pony had killed a girl. I didn’t know whether to believe him or not. But before I had a chance to ask Bella if it was true the bidding was over. Someone had bought him.’
Poppy held her breath as her dad continued. ‘It was Bella. She told me he belonged to Riverdale and that I could pay her back later. And suddenly I was the owner of a dappled grey bag of bones with a notorious reputation and not much else. I had no idea you two had already met,’ Mike finished, looking at his tear-streaked daughter. She was leaning heavily against Cloud, while he rested his head on her slight shoulder. It gave the illusion that they were propping each other up.
‘I don’t understand how he ended up at the pony sale. I thought George Blackstone would have wanted to keep him,’ said Poppy.
‘I can answer that,’ answered Ted. ‘Apparently he came off the moor yesterday afternoon in the drift near Waterby.’
Poppy and Caroline nodded. They’d guessed that much.
‘He was taken back to Blackstone’s farm. Blackstone’s a miserable old sod who lives on the other side of the village,’ Ted explained to Mike. ‘According to gossip, Blackstone went into the back of his lorry with the pony. Who knows what he intended to do but knowing Blackstone it wasn’t to give the pony a titbit. His farmhand Jimmy found Blackstone a while later. He’d fallen and knocked himself out. He was out cold for quite a while, apparently. Jimmy had to slap his cheeks a few times before he came round. Other than a blinding headache he was as right as rain. Unfortunately.’ Ted added with feeling.
Poppy looked at the streaks of dried blood that were caked to Cloud’s flanks and wondered what had gone on in the back of that lorry. She laid her cheek gently against Cloud’s as Ted continued. ‘Blackstone decided last night to send the pony to the sales. He wasn’t prepared to throw good money after bad, Jimmy said. Cloud here was one of the last lots of the afternoon. Bella recognised him as soon as he came into the ring. And the rest you know. Right, shall we unload him now?’
Poppy pulled the quick release knot and led Cloud slowly down the ramp and around the back of the house to the stables. As she passed the kitchen window she saw Charlie watching her, a huge grin on his face. Her heart was threatening to burst as she undid the bolts of Chester’s stable. The donkey looked up and hee-hawed loudly when he saw his old friend. Cloud limped straight over and they nuzzled each other affectionately.
‘It’s a bit of a squeeze. Do you think they’ll be OK in there together?’ asked Caroline, who was watching over the stable door.
Poppy looked at them and smiled. ‘I think so. He looks pretty settled already, I’d say.’
‘We’ll get the vet out to have a look at his leg. You do realise it’s going to be a long journey, getting him back to full strength, Poppy? His leg might be so badly damaged you’ll never be able to ride him. And if it does heal it’s been years since Cloud has had anyone on his back. We’ll be starting from scratch,’ said Caroline.
Poppy was glad her stepmother was planning to help. It felt right.
‘I know, Mum. All I care about is that he’s safe and he’s here. Anything else will be a bonus.’
Caroline smiled. Cloud Nine lay down, exhausted, in the thick straw, with Chester standing over him as if keeping guard.
They knew they had a long road ahead of them, but they would travel it together. All that really mattered was that Cloud had finally come home.
Against all Hope
Chapter One
Poppy McKeever held her breath and waited for the vet to speak. A dark cloud had followed her like a shadow all day. The suspense of not knowing was almost unbearable. Cloud’s ears flicked anxiously back and forth and when Poppy looked down at her hands she realised she’d been clasping his lead rope so tightly that her knuckles had turned completely white. The vet lowered Cloud’s leg to the ground and straightened her back. Poppy tried to read her expression but she was giving no clues. Her face was calm, composed, professional. In contrast, Poppy felt like screaming. Cloud’s ribs jutted out like the furrows of a newly-ploughed field an
d his brown eyes were fixed on Chester. The donkey was watching the proceedings with interest from over the stable door while Poppy’s brother, Charlie, was surreptitiously trying to listen to his own heartbeat with the vet’s stethoscope. Her stepmother, Caroline, gave Poppy an encouraging smile, although she looked as pale and worried as Poppy did.
‘Well,’ said the vet, her tanned arms reaching for her medicine bag. ‘Do you want the good news or the bad news?’
Poppy’s heart sank. ‘The good news?’
‘For a pony that’s spent the last five years living wild on the moor he’s in remarkably good shape. He is underweight and his teeth definitely need a rasp, but his eyes look healthy and his chest is as clear as a bell. There’s nothing wrong with his general health, at least nothing that a bit of TLC won’t sort out.’
Poppy gave Caroline a quick smile. ‘But what about his leg?’
‘Ah, that’s the bad news, I’m afraid. As you know he’s very lame on his near hind leg and we need to work out what’s causing it. If it was a stone or an abscess in his foot or, say, a pulled tendon, it would be easy to spot. But I can’t see or feel any obvious sign of injury.’ The vet ran her hand along Cloud’s leg from his hock to his hoof again, shaking her head. ‘I think we’ll have to get him to Tavistock and X-ray his foot. It may be a fractured pedal bone, which is a worry.’
‘What’s a pedal bone and why is it worried?’ asked Charlie, who had dropped the stethoscope on the ground and was making a beeline for the vet’s bag of instruments, some of which looked as if they belonged in a medieval torture chamber. Caroline deftly swept the stethoscope and the bag off the ground and into the hands of the vet, who took them with a grateful smile.
‘A pedal bone is a bone in a horse’s foot,’ she told the three McKeevers. ‘It runs roughly from here to here.’ She drew a line with her index finger from the top to the bottom of Cloud’s hoof. ‘Occasionally a horse can fracture its pedal bone. It’s an impact injury. You could fracture it by landing heavily on a rock for example, which this chap could easily have done while he was out on the moor.’ She gave Cloud’s bony rump a gentle pat and he shifted his weight to the other leg. ‘The only way to tell is with an X-ray. We’ll get that done and hopefully we can rule it out.’
‘What happens if his pedal bone is fractured?’ Poppy asked, her nails digging into the lead rope.
‘Well, he would need to be fitted with a special shoe that immobilised his foot. A good farrier would be able to make that.’
‘My friend Ed’s dad is a farrier!’ said Charlie.
‘There you are then. And once the shoe was fitted Cloud would need complete stable rest for up to two months. We’d X-ray his foot again after a few weeks to see if there were any signs of the bone healing and then it’s a waiting game I’m afraid. If it does heal he should make a full recovery but if it doesn’t it’s not good news. He’ll never be completely sound.’
‘You mean Poppy would never be able to ride him?’ Caroline asked.
‘No, I’m afraid not. Anyway, I’d better get going. I’ve two more calls to make before evening surgery. Phone in the morning to make an appointment for the X-ray and once that’s done we can see where we stand. In the meantime keep him in his stable, just to be on the safe side.’ The vet saw the lines crinkling Poppy’s forehead. ‘It’s no use worrying about something that might not happen. You concentrate on fattening him up and leave his foot to me.’
Poppy nodded, her face a picture of gloom. She led Cloud into his stable while Caroline walked around the side of the house with the vet and watched as her mud-splattered Land Rover disappeared down the Riverdale drive. Chester whickered softly and gave the pony a nudge. Poppy slipped off his headcollar and gave them each a bucket of nuts.
The trauma of being rounded up in the annual drift and then sold at auction with the native Dartmoor ponies had taken its toll on Cloud. He’d been so exhausted the night before that he'd barely been able to stand up. As well as being as thin as a stick he shrank to the back of the stable if anyone except Poppy, Charlie or Caroline went near him. Poppy hoped his anxiety was something she could heal with time. But if his foot was broken would she even get the chance?
Chapter Two
‘There you are!’ said a familiar voice. Poppy turned to see her best friend Scarlett’s freckled face, framed by dark red hair, peering into the stable. ‘Did Cloud have a good night? He’s scoffing those nuts like there’s no tomorrow but he still looks like an equine coat hanger, Poppy. I thought I heard a car on the drive. Was it the vet?’
Scarlett’s chatter always cheered Poppy up and she felt more positive as she filled her friend in on the prognosis as they walked together into the kitchen.
Her dad was reading the paper at the kitchen table, his glasses perched on the end of his nose. Mike McKeever was a war correspondent for the BBC and when he wasn’t on an assignment in one of the world’s trouble spots he was based in London. It was unusual to find him at home. He smiled when he saw the girls.
‘Hello Scarlett. How are your mum and dad?’
‘Good thanks, though it’s a busy time of year for them, what with the harvest and everything.’
Caroline was chopping tomatoes. ‘Have you eaten?’ she asked Scarlett, who shook her head. ‘Fancy some dinner? It’s only pizza and salad.’
‘Sounds good to me,’ said Scarlett, sitting down. ‘Hey, have you heard the news?’ The McKeevers looked at her blankly. ‘You know those two old cottages on the edge of the Blackstone farm? Jimmy Flynn, George Blackstone’s farm hand, lives in one with his mum and dad but the other one’s been empty since old Mrs Deakins died three years ago. Anyway, Mum says new people are moving in next week. And guess where they’re coming from?’
‘Crikey, I’ve no idea,’ said Caroline.
‘London!’ she announced. ‘You might even know them.’
‘Hardly likely, Scarlett. London is massive. Millions of people live there. It’s not like Waterby where everyone’s related,’ laughed Poppy.
Scarlett waved her hands airily. ‘Whatever. Anyway, it’s a mum and her daughter, according to Jimmy’s auntie’s brother-in-law, who’s married to one of my dad’s second cousins.’
‘See what I mean?’ said Poppy, raising her eyebrows at her dad and Caroline.
‘I’m not sure how old the girl is and I have no idea what’s happened to her dad,’ continued Scarlett. ‘One thing I do know - the cottage is an absolute dump. I wouldn’t move there if you paid me. I went inside once with Mum not long before Mrs Deakins was taken into hospital. She was a nice old dear, although sadly lacking in the dental department.’
‘What?’ asked Poppy’s dad.
‘She didn’t have any teeth,’ Scarlett grinned.
‘You are funny Scar. People moved in and out of our old street in Twickenham all the time. It’s not that big news,’ Poppy said. But despite this her curiosity was stirred. It wasn’t that long ago that the McKeevers had made the move from Twickenham to Devon in search of a quieter life.
‘Once they’re in we’ll go and say hello,’ suggested Scarlett. Poppy wasn’t keen on meeting new people but Waterby was such a small village she had to concede that this was a major event.
‘If we must,’ she agreed reluctantly.
Cloud’s X-ray was booked for the following Saturday. The week flew by. Poppy set her alarm for six every morning so she could spend an extra hour grooming the pony before school. She became familiar with the contours of his body and discovered that he loved being rubbed behind his ears but was ticklish under his stomach and stamped a back foot to remind her if she happened to forget. He leant on her when she picked up his feet and nibbled on his lead rope when he was bored. Poppy would sing her favourite hits to him as she trimmed his tail and combed his mane and she always went straight to his stable after school to spend another hour with him.
‘He knows when you’re on your way home,’ Caroline told her over dinner one night. ‘He starts banging on the stable door ab
out ten minutes before the bus gets in. Anyone would think he’s psychic.’
When the time came to take Cloud to the veterinary surgery in Tavistock Caroline enlisted the help of Scarlett’s dad Bill. He arrived at Riverdale with his Land Rover and trailer and they loaded first Chester and then Cloud. Poppy had been adamant that Chester should come too – she knew he would have a calming influence on the Connemara. Poppy spent the journey craning her neck to watch Cloud and Chester through the open slats of the trailer. The minute Bill pulled into the yard behind the surgery she unclicked her seatbelt and scrambled out. Cloud was damp with sweat and his ears jerked back and forth. She could feel him trembling beneath her touch. Chester, on the other hand, looked completely at ease.
Charlie led the old donkey down the ramp and Poppy followed with Cloud close behind. The vet appeared from the open doors of a building at the far end of the yard. ‘Follow me,’ she said. ‘The X-ray equipment is in the barn. We’re all set up and ready to go. It shouldn’t take too long.’
The concrete yard was flanked on one side by a line of kennels under a wide pitched roof. Each kennel housed a different dog. Some lay quietly, sleeping off the anaesthetic from earlier operations, others whined or barked as Poppy and Charlie led Cloud and Chester past.
‘These are the dogs that are in for treatment. The cats are all inside. We also have a couple of stables, but they’re empty today,’ said the vet.
As Poppy turned to look at the stables Cloud stopped, raised his grey head and whinnied. She tugged his lead rope and clicked her tongue encouragingly. ‘Come on, Cloud. It’s just an X-ray to see what’s wrong with your leg. No-one’s going to hurt you, I promise.’
Chester’s hairy rump was disappearing into the barn but Cloud refused to budge. He was staring at the last kennel before the double barn door, with feet planted firmly to the spot.