The Auction a Romance by Anna Erishkigal

by Anna Erishkigal

  "It's too late, Mommy," Pippa said. "I bought Luna with my own money."

  My mobile phone buzzed. Another text message. Adam had said sometimes this end of the barn got reception. For some reason, the mobile had decided to start working today of all days. I slipped it out of my pocket and began recording video and voice. I flattened the camera into my palm and held it down discreetly by my leg so that, even if Eva noticed, she'd think I was holding it to make a call.

  "Look at him!" Eva gestured towards Luna with disgust. "It's a broken down old nag that's almost dead!"

  "Her name is Luna," Pippa corrected. "-I- saved her, and now she belongs to me!"

  "Wouldn't you rather have Flying Dutchman?" Eva asked.

  "No," Pippa said. "Because to get him, I'll have to go live with you."

  Eva's expression turned furious with hatred, her mouth the grim, red hourglass of a black widow spider. She gestured at her limousine driver, Frederick, who was also Maynor Jackson's 'muscle.'

  "Go and get her," Eva said. "Before we're late for court."

  "No!" Pippa shrieked.

  Frederick stepped into the stall and came with me.

  "Come on, Miss Bristow," Frederick reached towards Pippa. "Don't want no trouble. Let's just get in the car."

  Thunderlane raced between them, a black-and-tan blur, and bared his fangs, snapping and growling at the two adults who had his little mistress all upset. I stepped between them and shoved my finger in Frederick's face.

  "Back off!" I hissed. "This is private property. If you lay a hand on her, I'll have you arrested for assault and battery on a child."

  Frederick halted, his expression unreadable. He wore that disinterested look that all security guards wear when they're ordered to do something, but bear no personal stake in the outcome.

  "Mrs. Bristow would like to see her daughter."

  I fingered my mobile phone, praying the microphone was picking up everything that was said.

  "Ms. Jackson is under a temporary order that Pippa doesn't have to see her until the court orders otherwise. So show me a court order or a subpoena, or else I'm calling the police."

  Frederick stepped back.

  "She's right, Ma'am," Frederick said. "I'm here to help you, not to help you break the law."

  "How dare you!" Eva hissed. "Get her, or I'll have you fired."

  "Better fired than in jail," Frederick said blandly.

  If the situation wasn't so dire, I might have laughed.

  "Fine! Then I'll get her myself." Eva stepped into the stall and grabbed Pippa by her arm.

  Pippa shrieked.

  I tried to grab her away, but Eva shoved me aside. My foot hit the edge of the mattress and I fell onto the floor. Thunderlane snapped at Eva, but Frederick grabbed the dog by the collar and dragged him, yelping, into the opposite stall and slammed the door.

  "Let go of me!" Pippa screamed.

  Eva dragged her by the arm.

  If there was one dirty trick I'd learned from my bitch of a mother, it was to document everything so you could use it as evidence later. I swung my camera phone around and aimed it at Eva dragging her daughter, kicking and screaming.

  "I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!" Pippa screamed. "I don't want you to be my Mommy anymore. You left me at that horse camp and refused to come when I called until I ran away! I want Rosie to be my Mommy, not you!"

  She kicked her mother, and then she bit her hand.

  Eva slapped Pippa in the face, and then she hit her again and again until Pippa fell, and then Eva continued to beat her by kicking her on the ground. If there'd been a pitchfork in the room, I would have stabbed the bitch in the stomach. Lacking that, I scrambled back onto my feet and aimed the camera phone to document the beating.

  "Let her go," I hissed. "Or I upload this video to Facebook."

  "What does it matter?" Eva waved her hand at me dismissively. "You're a nobody. Did you really think you could steal my husband?"

  She clenched her hands around Pippa's wrist, so tight it made her daughter cry out in pain. This was the woman who'd made a scene at Adam's mother's funeral, in front of 300 witnesses, in front of the Nutyoon chief of police. She stared into the camera phone, so arrogant in her belief that nobody could touch her because of her father's money that she didn't care if the whole world saw her for who she really was.

  The ground beside me erupted in a flurry of scrawny white legs and a broad, bony torso. With a groan, Luna heaved herself to her feet and stepped towards Eva Jackson like the pale horse described in the book of Revelations, skeletal and filthy, riddled with puss and disease, and butted Eva Jackson with her head.

  That Gitano sense of knowing whispered…

  --I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death.--

  Eva shrieked and let go of Pippa's arm. She rubbed at her arm as if, where Luna had touched her, her flesh now burned.

  "Welcome to Judgment Day." I hit upload. "There. It's done. Now the entire world will see just what kind of mother the Jackson Oil heiress really is."

  Luna nuzzled Pippa.

  Pippa threw her arms around her horse.

  Eva pointed at the camera phone. "Take that thing away from her!"

  Frederick stepped towards me.

  "Back off!" I aimed the camera phone at him. "It's already uploaded. As of this morning, Luna had 7,000 Facebook friends."

  Frederick stopped, his dark eyes hooded. He turned to Eva with all the blandness of a butler announcing it's time to go eat dinner.

  "We have to go, Ms. Jackson. It's a two-hour drive to Brisbane. If we don't leave now, you'll be late for court."

  "I ordered you to get Pippa for a witness, Frederick!"

  Frederick glanced at the camera phone held in front of me like a sword, still recording. Whether or not it possessed enough reception to upload was an entirely different story, but they didn't know that.

  "Your father sent me to protect you, Ma'am. Even if that means I have to protect you from yourself."

  Luna whickered and moved to separate Eva and Pippa. While the little white mare didn't have a mean bone in her body, she was clever enough to recognize when somebody was afraid of a horse, even a skinny little white pony, only 11.2 hands tall. Eva shrieked and stepped back, right into a pile of horse manure. Frederick saved her before she hit the ground. Pity. It would have been funny to have Eva show up in court stained with crap.

  "Goodbye, Eva," I said.

  "You haven't heard the last of this!" Eva hissed. "I'll make Adam fire you and boot you out into the street."

  I waved the camera phone in her face.

  "Speak into the camera, bitch."

  Frederick grabbed Eva by the waist and dragged her out of there.

  I hugged Pippa, and then I let Thunderlane out of the opposite stall. The dog took off towards the courtyard, barking and growling until Eva's limousine disappeared. He came trotting back, tail wagging like a cross of valor at his own canine bravery.

  "Good boy." I patted his head.

  Pippa hugged Luna.

  "She's going to be okay."

  The little white mare whickered and put her head down on Pippa's shoulder, reluctant to be separated from her, even for an instant. Pippa sobbed into her pony's neck, but they were the frustrated, happy tears of a kid who'd just moved beyond some great challenge, not the helplessness of the last time she'd tangled with her mother.

  "Luna defended you," I said. "Just like the dog did. See? You really do have friends."

  Pippa let go of Luna and buried her face in my belly.

  "I meant it," Pippa said.

  "Meant what, nipper?"

  "I want you to be my Mommy."

  A sensation akin to the feeling you get when you see a litter of golden retriever puppies, combined with a rainbow, birds singing, the scent of myrtle, and the exhilaration when Harvey leaped over a hedge, all swelled my heart until I thought it might burst out of my chest with joy. Tears welled in my eyes as I kissed the top of h
er horse-manure-and-straw strewn blond hair.

  "What? No more Fairy Queen?"

  "The Fairy Queen isn't real," Pippa said. "But you are."

  I gave her a hug and sighed.

  "It's not up to me, nipper," I said. "But I will always be your friend."

  *

  I left a cryptic message on Adam's voicemail telling him Eva had stopped by, but he never called back, nor did I elaborate about what Eva Jackson had seen. I had no doubt that, the minute she got into court, she would give him an earful. By eleven o'clock, somebody uploaded my video to YouTube, the video went viral, and was broadcast on the afternoon news. When Adam still didn't call I left a second message, but I knew he was in court and must be angry we hadn't told him about the pony. When the crunch of tires finally moved up the driveway it was close to sunset. My heart beat faster and my stomach fluttered with a nervous tremor. Thunderlane's nose pointed upwards and sniffed the air. His tail thumped nervously against the mattress.

  "Daddy's home." Pippa's eyes grew wide with worry.

  "Don't worry, sweetheart," I said. "Your father loves you. Whatever happens, we will face it together."

  A tall, ominous shadow stood in front of the stable door. If I hadn't already seen Adam transform into his alter-ego, I might have sworn the man on the painted stallion stood in the barn. He looked at Pippa seated on the mattress next to the white pony that lay, not on its side, but with its hooves tucked underneath it like a cat, merely resting.

  "Daddy," Pippa said. But she did not rise to run into his arms.

  "Rosie. Can I speak to you?" Adam's words came in clipped, tight syllables.

  "I'll be back in a minute, nipper." I tousled Pippa's filthy pigtails. "Remember what the vet said. Only handfuls of grassy hay."

  I rose to my feet, dusted the hay off of my jeans, and slipped past Adam in silence. There would be hell to pay for bringing home a horse, but Pippa was his now. There wasn't a judge in all of creation who would give back custody to Eva after she'd beaten Pippa live on YouTube.

  Adam didn't simply lead me outside the stall, but kept on walking, straight out into the middle of the courtyard. The sinking sun lit off his golden hair and turned it fiery red like some ancient statue of the god of war. A sick feeling settled into the pit of my stomach. When Adam finally turned to face me, his eyes glowed green with fury.

  "Adam, I…"

  "Get out," Adam growled.

  "Wh-what?"

  "Get out of here, Rosie. And don't come back. Don't you ever come back here! Do you hear me? Not ever."

  I stared at my employer in numb disbelief, the man I'd just stood down a female viper for. A strange sense of vertigo made the Condamine River Ranch swirl around me.

  "You're firing me?"

  "Yes," Adam hissed. "Now pack your suitcase and leave."

  "B-but … Adam … you can take the vet bills out of my bonus."

  Adam trembled with fury. He clenched his fists, his shoulders bunched up like he was ready to haul up and deck somebody.

  "Do you have any idea what you've just done?!!"

  I stepped back, fearful he might strike me.

  "I didn't let Eva take her," I said. "I told her she couldn't take her unless you said it was okay."

  "You uploaded pictures of my daughter to Facebook!" The vein pounded blue in Adam's temple. "Do you know how hard I've worked to keep Pippa out of the newspapers? And then I walked into court this morning and got blindsided with pictures of Pippa sleeping in the barn next to a half-dead horse along with requests to give her money!"

  "But … Adam … I just thought…"

  "Get out!" Adam pointed towards the road. "I'm going into the barn to see what damage you've done to my daughter, and when I come out again, you'd better not be here."

  He turned and headed back towards the barn.

  "B-b-but my things?"

  Adam paused, but he did not turn around.

  "I'll send them to you, along with your final paycheck."

  He disappeared inside the barn door.

  I stood alone in the courtyard, unable to move while his words sank past my fog. Four nights ago, Adam had wanted to make love to me, and now, today, he'd just thrown me out like the trash.

  You always knew it would end like this...

  I walked shakily into the house, unsteady and numb, and packed my casual loafers and black kitten heels, my five pairs of work slacks and button-down shirts, my black knit dress, my undergarments and the few T-shirts and shorts I owned. The eloquent golden dress and golden slippers beckoned from the depths of the closet, so shiny, so bright, like a fairy tale about a princess who'd gone to the ball. A huge, empty feeling ached in the spot where the golden-haired prince had just taken a knife and cut out the scullery maid imposter's heart. I didn't belong in Adam Bristow's world. I shut the door and left the dress behind forever.

  I stared at the picture of the girl on the white pony who'd reached out from the grave to become my confidante and friend. I wanted to cry, but I felt too numb to shed any tears.

  "I'm sorry, Katherine."

  I grabbed my laptop, my suitcase and my purse, and rolled it out into the garish orange living room which had begun to feel like home. Home? What a joke! I didn't have a home!

  I stared at the black leather aboriginal bracelet which Adam had used to mark me as his. Anger welled up from that deep wellspring of injustice for all the rotten things I'd ever suffered. Who the hell did he think he was? After all I had done for him, to just throw me out like trash?

  I stormed into the kitchen, pulled a serrated steak knife out from the drawer, and stabbed the blade underneath the black leather straps and sawed it, back and forth, screaming, until I sawed the bloody thing off! I left it sitting on the counter with the knife which bore streaks of my blood. There. It was done. Now Adam could never find me in my dreams.

  I dragged my suitcase out to the car, my legs so shaky they threatened to collapse, and slammed it into the back seat. I glanced at the barn, hoping Adam would come out and say he was sorry. But no. Not only had he just thrown me out, but he'd never even given me a chance to explain.

  Thunderlane came trotting out of the barn, sat down next to my car door, and whined. I patted his furry head.

  "Goodbye, my friend. Take good care of Pippa."

  Crying so hard I couldn't see the road, I started up the Falcon and drove into the setting sun.

  Chapter 48

  I sat in Sienna's apartment in Gold Coast, only it wasn't Sienna's apartment, for the far wall looked out over the Condamine River Ranch. Standing at the entrance, the man on the painted stallion stood next to his horse, a dark figure wearing a black drover's hat, his expression grim. The painted stallion, which seemed bigger every time I saw him, bowed his head up and down, trying to dislodge his bit, and pawed the ground.

  Come, he beckoned.

  "What are you doing here?"

  I checked to make sure I wasn't wearing slippers, for if I wore slippers, I knew I must be sleepwalking. No, I was fully dressed.

  "Go away," I said. "Your son threw me off your land."

  The man on the painted stallion grabbed the saddle horn and swung up into his saddle in a smooth, well-practiced move. The horse backed up, but the man refused to give him his head. He beckoned to me again.

  "Oh, what the hell," I said. "It's not like I have anything left to lose."

  I stepped out of Sienna's living room where I'd spent the last two nights, having arrived after midnight the evening Adam fired me and spent all day yesterday alternating between crying inconsolably and screaming that I hated him. Only the fact Adam didn't like his father made me follow the grim horseman now.

  The cattle station was as it always was in the dream time, eerily silent, for there was never any sound here, but I could feel the vibration of peepers peeping and crickets chirping and great big bullfrogs giving their throaty harrumphs. The man rode slowly, waiting every time I stopped to catch my breath.

  "Couldn't you at least have b
rought Harvey?"

  As usual, the man on the painted stallion didn't reply.

  "Has anybody ever told you that you're a great conversationalist?" I called after his back. He didn't answer. And I'd thought Adam was taciturn.

  The man on the painted stallion led me along a path that I hadn't been able to find again after the last time he'd brought me here, not that I'd had any time, but even before he led me over the rocks with the petroglyphs, I knew where he was taking me by the dancing blue lights which shone up from the hole.

  "Why do you keep showing me this well?"

  The man on the painted stallion rode down the thorny embankment into the billabong where, deep beneath the earth, the Great Artesian Basin fed the pond. The billabong was full of water tonight, and in the center a blue Mimi-fairy danced, worried about the small, dun-beige calf which had fallen into the deep part and struggled to keep her head above the water.

  "I'm coming, sweetheart!" I called. I turned to the man on the painted stallion, whose enormous horse stood in the water up to its knees. "Are you going to help me this time, or what?"

  The man on the painted stallion pointed at the dun-beige calf. On her haunches glowed not the CRR cattle brand of the Condamine River Ranch, but a different brand, one which looked like a unicorn and a fairy holding up a golden crown. I felt for the bracelet Adam had given to me, but I had cut it off and left it behind.

  "Who cares if it's not your calf," I shouted. "Decent people would help it no matter what!"

  The man on the painted stallion gestured at our surroundings and then stared back down on me from his lofty seat, his expression irritatingly unreadable.

  "Figures," I grumbled. "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." I jabbed my finger up at him. "Has anyone ever told you that you're a heartless bastard? The least you could have done is bring me Harvey!"

  The blue light of the dancing Mimi lit up the man's chiseled features that, other than the fact he was several decades older, I might as well have been staring at Adam. A lump rose in my throat. Despite all his claims to be a kinder, gentler man, it turned out that Adam took after the old bastard after all. The man on the painted stallion touched the brim of his black drover's hat, and then he rode his horse back up the embankment and disappeared.