by Stacy Gregg
“It’s really cool.” Georgie passed the ring back to him.
“No,” James said. “It’s for you. I want you to wear it.”
“You want me to have your polo ring?”
“Of course,” James said, as he slipped it on Georgie’s finger. “You’re my girl, aren’t you?”
*
Georgie carried the ring in her pocket around school the next morning.
“Why aren’t you wearing it?” Daisy asked as they sat down to lunch with Alice and Emily.
“I thought it was against the school rules to wear jewellery,” Georgie said weakly. The truth was, the ring didn’t feel right on her finger.
“Can I try it on?” Alice asked as she sat down with her lunch tray.
Georgie dug the ring out of her pocket and put it down on the table, but before Alice could lay a hand on it Emily had swooped it up. “MY precious!” she hissed when Alice tried to take it off her.
“Oh, for God’s sake, Gollum! Give it here!” Alice examined the ring and slipped it on to her finger to admire it.
“It’s not as glam as the one Wills gave to Kate,” Daisy said, “but I guess it’s OK.”
“It’s not an engagement ring,” Georgie said.
“Well it sounds like he thinks so…” Daisy said.
“…which makes Kennedy your sister-in-law,” Alice added.
“And on that cheery note,” Georgie stood up and snatched her ring from between Alice’s fingers, “I am going to go to polo class.”
“Are we still meeting you after school at the stables for stick-and-ball?” Alice shouted after her. “Or will you be too busy making plans for your royal wedding?”
Georgie wished she felt as excited as her friends did about the polo ring, but she kept thinking about Riley.
When James dropped her back at Badminton House after the movie he had leaned in close to kiss her and Georgie actually found herself flinching! She made excuses about being seen by the housemistress, then ducked inside, closing the door on him. It felt like she was betraying Riley, being out with James – which was totally crazy! Georgie couldn’t wait to get out on the polo field and clear her head.
She had decided to ride Belle again for Heath Brompton’s class that afternoon. The polo master already had it in for her, so it was probably best if she didn’t turn up on one of the new green Thoroughbreds.
As Georgie rode across the polo fields she noticed that the class was bigger than usual. When she got closer she realised that there were senior riders mixed in amongst her usual classmates. She felt a knot tighten in her stomach as she saw that one of the seniors was Conrad Miller.
“I’m merging three of my classes today,” Heath Brompton explained to the students. “As you know, the Blainford Round Robin begins next week and I thought this would be a good opportunity to get some chukkas under your belts.”
Heath Brompton surveyed his riders. “There should be enough riders here for two teams from each boarding house. I’ll leave it to you to sort it out amongst yourselves, and allocate shirt numbers.”
Heath Brompton frowned at Georgie. “Parker, you’ve got no team so I guess you’re on the sidelines.”
“Actually, sir,” Georgie said, “I’m going to be playing in the Round Robin.”
“So where are the rest of your team mates?”
“They don’t take polo as an option subject – they’re in the eventing class,” Georgie explained, “but we’ve got permission to enter a Badminton House team. I thought the headmistress would have spoken to you about it by now?”
Heath frowned. It was clearly news to him, but he didn’t want to let the students know that the headmistress had gone over his head and granted permission.
“Of course I know about it, Parker,” he harrumphed. “You can join Luhmuhlen today – they need an extra player. We’re playing King of the Field. The rules are pretty basic. If you win, then you stay on.”
He turned to the polo class. “Right, let’s have my boys from Burghley House up first, shall we?”
The first two teams on the field were both from Burghley House. Conrad was leading one of the teams wearing the number three shirt and Georgie had to admit that even though she couldn’t stand him, he was a good player. Every time the ball shot free from the pack it was Conrad who got to it first. He had perfect timing at the gallop and an accurate swing, but the rest of his team mates weren’t up to the same standard and a lot of the play was choppy and messy. There was a lot of mad galloping up and down the field, but very little in the way of goal-scoring. In the end, the only two goals were both scored by Conrad. His team stayed on the field to face the next challengers.
Heath Brompton blew his whistle. “Luhmuhlen? You’re up next!”
“Hey, Parker,” Conrad gave her a malicious grin as she rode past him to take her place on the field. He made a gesture as if slitting his throat. “You’re mine.”
It wasn’t a hollow threat. From the moment that Heath Brompton threw the ball in, Georgie spent most of the game simultaneously trying to get her mallet on it and do her best to keep out of Conrad’s way. But wherever she was, Burghley House’s head prefect was right behind her.
Every time Georgie tried to make a play for the ball, Conrad would maliciously ride her off the line. One minute into play, she had the ball and suddenly Belle was reeling sideways as Conrad shoulder-barged his mare into her flank.
JP was right beside her and he pulled his mare up and raised his stick in the air to appeal to Mr Brompton. “Foul, sir! Conrad deliberately rode into her from behind!”
Heath Brompton blew his whistle. “No foul! Play on!”
The scores were tied at nil all and they were three minutes into the chukka when JP broke loose to make the first promising run for Luhmuhlen. Georgie rode Belle alongside him, in case he needed to pass the ball to her. She was focusing so hard on following the ball that the body blow from Conrad took her totally by surprise. Conrad had ridden up and cut right in front of her, using his mare’s shoulder to block Georgie in. It was a totally illegal, dangerous move, but he clearly didn’t care. Forcing Georgie to a stop, he took a second charge at her, ignoring the polo ball entirely as he slammed his mare into hers, body-checking her with his shoulder at the same time.
The unexpected impact flung Georgie sideways out of the saddle, but Belle moved to stay underneath her, so that Georgie was able to grasp at the neck strap where the martingale connected to the saddle and cling on long enough to get herself back upright again.
By the time she was aware of what Conrad had actually done to her, the Burghley prefect was long gone, up ahead of the rest of the players, chasing the ball and acting as if he hadn’t just tried to intentionally push her off her horse.
Heath Brompton hadn’t seen the foul so Georgie had no choice but to pull herself together and get back into the game. The Burghley team had just made it one-nil and this time it was Luhmuhlen’s ball. JP took the opening shot and struck it straight to Georgie who tore off with it up the field. She could hear the hooves of the pack thundering behind her as she took a forehand shot to steer the ball towards the goal. The pack were gaining on her. This time she was on the alert for an attack from Conrad and as he went in for another shoulder charge she pulled Belle up abruptly and knee-barged him this time, riding him off his line. Conrad squealed like a stuck pig and threw up a stick in the air to cry foul. “Ref! She tried to eye-gouge me!”
The referee’s whistle went. “Foul. Penalty to Burghley!” Georgie couldn’t believe it. “You have got to be kidding me! I didn’t do anything!”
Heath Brompton’s mouth became a thin line. “That’s a foul by you against Miller, Parker. Step back into line and let him take the shot.”
Georgie was trembling with suppressed rage as she took up her position with her team mates and was forced to watch as Conrad scored a penalty against them straight between the posts.
There was just one minute left in the chukka as Georgie took up her position ready f
or Heath Brompton’s throw-in.
The ball was picked up quickly by the Luhmuhlen team. JP had the lead and the others were chasing him down the field. Georgie leaned forward over Belle’s neck and as the mare got closer to the action, she manoeuvred to swing back with her mallet. She felt a snag as her stick caught in mid-air and then she glanced back over her shoulder just in time to see Conrad. He had hooked her stick with his own and in one deft move he grasped Georgie’s polo stick in his other hand and pulled his mare up as he gave the stick a firm tug.
The sudden, violent yank on the other end of her stick was enough to throw Georgie’s balance completely. She lost her stirrups and found herself plummeting straight down to the ground beneath the hooves of the ponies. She was on the field right in the middle of the pack and there was nothing she could do to avoid being trampled apart from curling into a ball, hands wrapped tight over her helmet. She felt a hoof catch her sharply on her right arm and then the pack had cleared and the next thing she knew JP was down on the ground by her side helping her up.
“Are you OK?”
Georgie was shaking with shock. She nodded. “I’m fine.”
Heath Brompton was running across the field towards them. He had a worried look on his face. “Parker, are you all right?”
“I’m fine, sir.”
“What happened?”
“Conrad hooked my stick and pulled me out of the saddle.”
Heath Brompton looked shocked. “Is that what happened here, Miller?”
“No, sir,” Conrad shook his head with an expression of pure innocence. “I did hook her stick, but it was an accident and I let go straight away. The real problem is that Parker got her reins tangled in her mare’s mane and muddled herself up.”
Georgie couldn’t believe it. “That isn’t what happened, sir! He did it on purpose! He pulled me off my horse!”
Heath Brompton’s already well-grooved brow took on some new furrows as he appeared to consider the possibility of Conrad’s guilt. But if he had any doubts about Burghley House’s star player he soon dismissed them.
“Parker,” Heath Brompton took her polo mallet from her, “I think you’d better take your mare back to the stables.”
“But, sir,” Georgie protested, “it wasn’t—”
“Parker!” The polo master was adamant. “Go now – and while you’re there, hog her stupid mane like I told you to do last week!”
*
By the time Georgie had reached the stables she was in tears. The shock of the fall had made her start to weep, but it was the unfairness of it all that kept her crying. She hated the way Conrad had the trust of the teachers just because he was a senior. He was always going to get away with it. And now, once again Heath Brompton thought of her as a liability. The look on his face made it clear that he wished she didn’t exist.
Georgie had undone Belle’s tack and sponged the mare down. She was just sorting out her feed when the girls arrived for practice.
“What happened to you?” Alice asked when she saw the grass stains on Georgie’s jodhpurs.
“Conrad Miller,” Georgie said. “He pulled me off my horse.”
“You’re kidding!” Emily was horrified.
“Do I look like I’m in the mood for jokes?” Georgie asked as she marched back across the corridor with Belle’s feed.
“Are you OK?” Daisy asked. “I mean, can you still ride? Do you want to have stick-and-ball with us, because it’s OK if you don’t.”
“Oh, I’m riding!” Georgie said through gritted teeth. “We need to get those mares trained up if we’re taking on Conrad in the Round Robin.”
She turned to Alice. “Could you do me a favour and saddle Marco up for me? There’s something I need to do before we ride.”
While the others went to get the horses ready Georgie went to the tack shed and hunted around in the recesses beneath the grooming kits. When she found what she was looking for she returned to Belle’s stall. She plugged the clippers into the power socket in the wall and stood there mesmerised by the whirring vibrations. Then she walked over to Belle and grasped a thick hank of the mare’s lustrous jet-black mane and began to shave.
Chunks of mane fell to the floor as she ran the clippers up the mare’s neck. Georgie looked at the beautiful black mane lying on the floor, but felt no remorse. All she felt right now was a grim determination to see this through to the end. If Conrad thought he could terrorise her and push her around then he was wrong. She would meet him on the polo field and next time she would play it her way. Next time she would win.
Chapter Ten
Belle’s mane was gone and all that was left was a hedgehog stump of black hair that ran along the crest of the mare’s neck.
She looks like a different horse, Georgie thought. She didn’t even look like a mare any more, the girlish prettiness had somehow vanished and all that remained was the bare, brutal anatomy of her neck, the hard outline of her shoulders and withers.
“Wow!” Alice leaned over the door of the loose box. “You actually did it.”
Georgie was still staring at her, shocked by the transformation. “She looks naked.”
“She looks like a warrior,” Alice said. She smiled at Georgie. “Come on, while you’ve got the clippers out – let’s do them all.”
Hogging off Belle’s mane had been hard for Georgie, but there was a sense of excitement in the task as they worked their way through all the horses together.
Daisy and Emily got another set of clippers out of the tack room and they worked in two teams. By the end of the hogging session there was a huge pile of black and chestnut hair on the floor.
“If we glued it all together we could make a miniature pony,” Emily suggested. Her sense of humour failed though when the time came to cut into Barclay’s mane.
“Are you sure you’re OK?” Daisy said when she saw the look on Emily’s face.
“I’m fine,” Emily insisted. “Just get it over with!” She had held the big black horse steady as Daisy ran the clippers up the crest, but when Daisy had almost reached Barclay’s ears Emily suddenly yelled, “Wait!”
She reached out and took hold of the last hank of mane up by his bridlepath.
“OK, cut now.”
As Daisy sheared through the mane, Emily kept the hank of hair tight in her fist and then put it in her pocket.
Not all horses are willing to stand still for the clippers and predictably the worst was Marco. After nearly being stomped on and kicked by him several times, Georgie groaned, “I give up!”
“But he’s half-hogged!” Alice said.
“Put a twitch on him,” Emily suggested.
The twitch looked a bit like a torture device, but it was actually a very useful piece of kit. It was a wooden baton with a rope loop attached to the end of it. Within moments of the twitch being applied to his top lip, it was as if Marco had been sedated. He stood utterly relaxed as Alice took the clippers and finished the job.
“Good boy!” Georgie released the twitch and Marco gave his head a brisk shake, as if he was waking up from a hypnotist’s trance.
The girls lined the sixteen horses up and admired their efforts.
“They look like a proper string now,” Georgie said.
Alice looked at the drifts of horse mane piled ankle-deep on the floor. “Let’s clean up,” she said. “It’s too late to train today, but tomorrow, after school, we play.”
*
Over the next week the Badminton House team really began to take shape. The girls met every day after school for stick-and-ball out on the playing field, working to Alice’s roster, each riding four horses in a session.
After the first training session with Jet, Georgie had spent some extra time with the mare, at first just standing alongside her and holding the mallet, and then, once the mare seemed OK with that, taking its handle and stroking her all over with it to let her know that the mallet wasn’t going to hurt her.
The first time she carried a mallet on Jet the mare wa
s tense and jogged about anxiously, side-stepping every time Georgie tried to take a shot. By the second session on the polo field, Georgie was swinging the stick back and forth and Jet was cantering along without a care.
The Dupree ponies were far superior to the new Thoroughbreds. The best of them all was undoubtedly Desiray. The little dun mare was a true polo pony, gutsy and tough.
According to Alice, if Desiray could talk she would have told you how thrilled she was to be making a comeback from her untimely retirement. When Alice tacked her up, Desiray would tremble with anticipation and by the time she reached the field she would be in a lather of white sweat from excitement before she even began to play. On the pony lines during her warm-up Desiray was prone to bouts of high-spirited bucking, but once she was on the field she was as focused and ruthless as her rider. She loved nothing better than to run another mare off the ball and would come shoulder-to-shoulder with her rival and then perform a neat shoulder charge to take possession without any cue whatsoever from her rider.
“She plays way better than I do,” Alice said proudly.
Of the Dupree ponies, Daisy’s favourite was Jada, a stocky and serious mare. But Daisy’s absolute favourite turned out to be the little fifteen-hand bay, Francine, who she’d bought off the track at Keeneland.
Francine and Daisy both shared a love of speed and a killer instinct for driving straight into the pack and swiping at anything that moved until they got to the ball.
When the pack were chasing the ball Emily often held back, but she was quickly developing into a smart tactical player with a very good arm for making long shots up the field. Her favourite mare was Vita, the pretty brown mare with the socks and white star, who was fit and sound and good at covering the ground quickly.
Despite having favourites, the girls tried to roster the ponies around so that everyone got a turn trying out each horse.
There was one pony on the roster however that no one was pleased to be given. Marco was a nightmare.
“Why have I been lumbered with Spinner again?” Daisy groaned on Friday when she saw that she had been rostered on to the chestnut gelding.