by Kate Lattey
He smiled. “Well then, thanks. They’re all mental about horses.”
I ask the question that’s been on the tip of my tongue for a while. “How come I never see them riding Tani?”
Jonty shrugged. “They do, sometimes. But it’s a bit tough without any tack, and that’s long gone. Phoebe’s keen, but she gives up easy if it gets hard. Bella would rather groom than ride, but she can’t get him to look like the horses in the magazines no matter how hard she tries.” He grinned, but as I cast an eye over Copper’s sleek coat and his matching tack, I wondered if his good looks were a large part of the appeal for them.
“What about Morgan?” She didn’t strike me as the type to be easily star-struck.
“Morgan’s a decent rider, but she’s a bit weird about riding Tani because he’s mine.”
“Are you no good at sharing?” I teased him, and he grinned.
“Nah, I don’t care. It’s not like I ride him much anyway, but she won’t ride him without getting my permission first. I’ve told her a hundred times to just take him on and treat him like her own, but she won’t. She takes everything real seriously, Morgan. Everyone else in our house just runs around like lunatics, trying to keep up with each other, while Morgan sits in the corner and judges us all.” He was smiling, but there was an edge of concern to his voice that he couldn’t quite disguise.
“I don’t think she likes me much,” I said idly, but Jonty quickly shook his head.
“Are you kidding? She really looks up to you. Seriously,” he insisted, seeing my sceptical impression. “Didn’t you notice her making a beeline for you as soon as we stopped?”
“I think by me you mean Misty,” I corrected him, but he shook his head again.
“Nope, that was all you.”
“Why on earth would she look up to me?” I asked him. “There’s nothing special about me. Hayley’s the brave, successful, talented one.”
“Hayley’s also the mean, arrogant, bullying one,” Jonty replied. “Why would someone as sensible as Morgan look up to her?”
I was starting to feel uncomfortable, so I shifted the topic slightly. “You’re lucky that you get on so well with your sisters.”
He laughed. “Nice to know we gave that impression. We kinda have to get along, most of the time, since there’s not much room in that house to get away from each other.”
Now I felt even more awkward. I knew my face was flushing bright red, my pale skin betraying my emotions as always.
“I can ask Dad to get that window fixed, if you want,” I said, then wished I’d never spoken. Jonty’s face closed up slightly, and I saw his jaw clench.
“It’s okay, I’ll do it. I’ve been meaning to get round to it actually, just keeps slipping my mind. But I’ll do it in the next day or so. Don’t worry your old man about it.” There was an urgent edge to his voice that made me feel a little guilty.
“I wasn’t…I didn’t mean…” Words failed me, and I stared forward again, fixing my eyes on the road between Misty’s curved ears.
“I know what you meant,” Jonty said, and his voice was back to normal now. “You were just trying to be nice.” I looked over at him, relieved that he understood. “That’s what I like so much about you.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
By some kind of unspoken agreement, Jonty and I kept our friendship under wraps in public. It wasn’t that I was embarrassed to be friends with him, and I’m sure he knew that. It was just that we operated in such different social circles at school, and Jonty didn’t fit into my group of friends any more than I did into his. Especially with Mia still being frosty towards me, despite my efforts to smooth things over. I couldn’t figure her out. Did she still think I looked down on Jonty? Her assumptions may have had a touch of truth to them a couple of weeks ago, but things had well and truly changed since then.
I rode with Jonty every day over the farm. Again, by unspoken consensus, we never ventured into the jumping paddock. I had zero interest in jumping Misty, who was still a handful over the hills and still scared me, although I was slowly learning to cope with him. And after Copper had jumped so well for Jonty that first day, Hayley had decided that he was only allowed to hack him. Her claim was that she didn’t want Copper getting used to Jonty’s “different” style of riding. I didn’t believe her – Copper preferred Jonty’s more relaxed style to Hayley’s aggressive techniques – but like Mia, there was no arguing with her once she had her mind set on something.
Hayley’s headaches continued to plague her, but the seizures had stopped. The doctor still cautioned against doing anything too strenuous, which Hayley had milked for almost two weeks. Until Wednesday morning, when I was sitting in the kitchen eating my breakfast, listening to Dad muttering about the cost of hiring good shearing gangs, and Hayley marched into the room in her school uniform and threw her bag onto the table, making my orange juice slosh over the rim of the glass. We all looked at her in surprise as she tossed her hair back over her shoulder and sat down.
“What’s for breakfast?”
“Darling, are you sure?” Mum was immediately in full-on fuss mode. “You don’t have to go back to school until you feel up to it. The doctor said…”
“I know what the doctor said, but I feel fine. I’m going to die of boredom if I sit in this house any longer, and you said I can’t ride until I’m back at school, so I’m going back to school.” She looked at me. “So you can tell your boyfriend that I’m taking my horse back.”
I swallowed my mouthful of toast. “He’s not my boyfriend.” I could feel the colour rising in my cheeks as Dad lowered his newspaper and looked at me over the top of it.
“Who’s got a boyfriend?”
“Not me,” I told him.
“She’s just making a joke,” Mum assured him. “She means the boy from down the road. Johnny Fisher.”
“Jonty,” I corrected her, and Hayley started batting her eyelashes and making kissing noises. I kicked her under the table, and she kicked me back with a vengeance, bruising my shin and making me wince.
Dad lifted his newspaper again as Mum beamed at Hayley. “Well, you’re obviously feeling yourself again. Let me fix you some breakfast, and I’ll give you both a ride to school. No need to catch the bus today.”
“I don’t mind getting the bus,” I said quickly. I wanted to give Jonty some warning that he was about to lose his riding privileges. I knew he’d be disappointed – and so would I, to be honest. But Hayley saw through me right away.
“Aw, do you sit next to him every day? Hold hands and make googly eyes at each other?”
“No. Shut up.” I grabbed the last bit of toast off my plate and took my dishes into the kitchen, where I dumped them on the bench. “I liked you better when you were sick.”
“TESSA!” Mum’s voice was outraged, and Dad was glaring at me, but Hayley just leaned back in her chair with a self-satisfied grin. If the words had hurt at all – which they probably didn’t, given her thick skin – she clearly considered it worthwhile to have gotten me into trouble.
“Sorry,” I muttered. “I didn’t mean it.”
“Sure you didn’t.” Hayley wasn’t going to let it go, and everyone was still staring at me, so I went and sat in my room until they were ready to leave.
I tried to find Jonty at school, but he’d turned suddenly elusive. Why is it that when you’re trying to avoid someone, you can’t stop running into them, but when you need to see someone, they’re nowhere to be found? I scoured the school for him between classes, but by lunchtime I still hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him. After fifteen minutes of sitting with my friends and listening to them gossip about a TV show that I didn’t watch, I stood up.
“I’m going for a walk.”
They all looked at me like I was mad, then exchanged surreptitious glances between themselves.
“Why?”
“I just don’t feel like sitting down, that’s all.” I lifted my bag onto my shoulder and took a few steps away from them.
&nb
sp; “I’ll come with you.”
My heart sank as Evelyn scrambled to her feet, grabbing up her own bag, but I couldn’t easily say no without raising questions that I didn’t want to answer. So I nodded, and waited for her. She fell into step next to me as I headed towards the sports fields, figuring that would be where Jonty might hang out.
“How come you weren’t on the bus this morning?”
“Mum drove us.” I let the sentence hang in the air for a moment, then followed it up with the logical continuation. “Hayley’s back at school.”
“That’s great!” Evelyn was genuinely enthusiastic, but she caught the look on my face. “Isn’t that a good thing?”
“I guess. I mean yes, sure. Awesome. Hayley’s back to her usual self. Just what I always wanted.” I hated the bitterness in my voice, but I’d enjoyed the reprieve from her constant taunting and nagging more than I’d realised until it had gone.
“Well, you didn’t want her to be sick,” Evelyn continued, once again not getting it at all.
“True.” I didn’t want to think about what I’d said at breakfast. We were at the sports fields now, and there was no sign of Jonty, or his friends, so I decided to bite the bullet and just ask Evelyn. “Was Jonty on the bus this morning?”
She looked at me sideways. “I didn’t notice. Why?”
“Just wondering.” The look on her face forced me to explain. “He’s been riding Hayley’s horse while she was out of action. But she wants to ride him again now, and I wanted to tell him before he turned up at our place this afternoon. So he didn’t get disappointed.”
Evelyn blinked a couple of times, staring at me. “Jonty’s been coming to your house every day after school?”
“Yeah.”
“You never said that.”
I shrugged. “Does it matter?”
She rolled her eyes. “Are you kidding? You know that Mia’s got the biggest crush on him, but you never thought to invite her over after school when he’d be around? So she could talk to him and get to know him?”
“It’s not like that though,” I tried to explain. “I mean, it’s not like he comes over and we just hang out and chat. He rides Copper and then he goes home.”
I didn’t mention that I rode with him. That was more information than Evelyn needed – especially since I already knew this was all going straight back to Mia.
“Sure, but he has to saddle the horse up and stuff, right?” Off my reluctant nod, she shot me a triumphant look. “So she could’ve talked to him then. Honestly Tess, sometimes you’re so self-absorbed. I can’t believe you didn’t even think of that.”
I had to bite my tongue then, even though I wanted to explode. She had no idea, and never would. But I knew from past, painful experience that losing my temper only led to hurt feelings. Yelling at Hayley had never worked. Trying to get my point across with Mum had never worked. I’d long since given up on all that.
“Well, he’s not here.” Evelyn spoke decisively. “Shall we go back?”
I hesitated, knowing the conversation I’d end up trapped in. “I’m going to keep looking. You go back if you want, I don’t mind.”
Evelyn hesitated, clearly feeling torn. I started to walk away, and after a few moments, glanced back over my shoulder. She was heading in the opposite direction, full of gossip and judgement over my apparently poor decision-making. I shrugged my bag higher onto my shoulder, and kept moving.
“Hey, Tess.”
I looked over my shoulder as I tied Misty up outside the barn, and saw Jonty striding towards me with his trademark crooked grin. The sense of relief that I felt surprised me. I never had found him at school that day, but I’d sent Mum a text to say I was catching the bus home. She hadn’t argued, simply replying that was fine since she was taking Hayley to the shops after school for a haircut. It had all seemed like the perfect plan, but Jonty hadn’t been on the bus, so I’d had to sit with Evelyn who kept making pointed comments about it and being snarky on Mia’s behalf. It had been the longest bus trip of my life so far.
“Hey! Where’ve you been all day?”
Jonty’s grin widened as he walked up to the rack and grabbed Copper’s halter and leadrope. “Aww, did you miss me?”
“Hardly,” I lied. “But I have something to tell you.”
He quirked one eyebrow upwards. “Sounds intriguing. Let me go grab Copper and you can fill me in.”
“It’s actually about that.” I unclipped Misty’s backstraps and dragged his cover off over his rounded hindquarters. “Hayley’s back at school and she wants to ride him again.”
“Oh.” Jonty put in a masterful effort at containing his disappointment, but I’d learned to read him well enough in the past couple of weeks that I could see through his attempt. “Well that’s great. That she’s feeling better, I mean.”
“Yeah.”
He swung the halter from his fingertips as he looked towards the house. “Is she coming down to ride with you?”
I pulled a face. “God, I hope not. She’s in town with Mum, getting her hair done or something. She’ll be back later.”
“I’ll bring Copper in and groom him then, eh?” Jonty suggested. “Have him ready and clean for her when she gets back, save her the effort.”
I frowned. “You don’t have to do that. She’s not an invalid.”
“I don’t mind. He’s been pretty good to catch lately, but it’ll save her some time if he decides to be a prat again.” He turned on his heel and strode away towards Copper’s paddock.
I picked up Misty’s body brush and curry comb, and he rolled his eyes at me.
“I guess he really is as whipped as the rest of her boyfriends,” I muttered to the grey pony as I got started on his pale coat.
It was nice to have his companionship while we groomed the horses. I took my time over Misty, brushing his tail out until it was soft and silky, and pulling the straggly ends of his mane to even it up. One of Misty’s strangest quirks was that he actually liked having his mane pulled. He lowered his head and closed his eyes and seemed to genuinely enjoy the sensation. Copper, on the other hand, flinched every time he heard me tear out a few strands of Misty’s mane, his nervous Thoroughbred sensibilities overpowering his limited common sense.
“That horse is the biggest drama queen,” I muttered as I tugged a few more strands of Misty’s mane free.
“He’s just emotional,” Jonty defended him. “Us guys are allowed to show our emotions, you know. We can’t be all macho and tough all of the time.”
I laughed, turning to let a few wisps of Misty’s mane float away on the light breeze, and came face to face with Bayard. He had a face like thunder, and it startled me.
“You okay?”
He shrugged, his eyes skimming off mine and instead focusing on the small piles of white mane scattered across the concrete.
“Come on, use your words,” I teased him, and his expression got even darker.
“Can I talk to you?” His mumbled speech was barely audible, but I was used to him and could translate pretty well.
“Sure. That’s what I’m trying to get you to do.” I glanced at Jonty with a grin, but he was around the other side of Copper, invisible to me. “What’s wrong?”
Bay’s eyes had followed mine, and narrowed almost to slits. “Not here.” He nodded towards the barn, and I sighed.
“Fine. I was going that way anyway.” I took the lead, marching into the barn and around the corner into the tack room, where I grabbed Misty’s bridle off its peg. Bayard stood in front of the saddle racks with his arms folded.
“I don’t think you should spend so much time with him.” He motioned with his head towards the outside wall, where Jonty was standing on the other side.
“What?” I stared at him in astonishment. Was he jealous? It was so unlike Bayard to even care what I was doing that I was momentarily floored.
“He’s not a good influence.”
“Excuse me?” His eyes were still narrowed, but now mine were wi
de as saucers. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t I?”
“No!” I shoved past him and grabbed Misty’s saddle, but his bulk was blocking my path to the door. “Get out of my way.”
“Ask him why he wasn’t at school today,” Bayard challenged me.
“Why? It’s none of my business,” I replied, immediately wishing that I already had, but it was too late now. No way was I going to give Bayard the satisfaction of winding me up.
“Everything okay in here?” Jonty was in the doorway now, leaning one shoulder against the frame and looking at us.
“It would be if Bay would get out of my way,” I snapped.
Bayard sidestepped, letting me past, but the thunderous look on his face never eased. I had a matching expression as I stomped to the door, and Jonty straightened up and held out an arm, wordlessly offering to take my saddle. I handed it off to him with a smile which he briefly returned before heading back out to the horses. I followed him, wondering despite myself exactly why he hadn’t been at school, whether or not I should know or care, and what Bayard knew about it that I clearly didn’t.
Surely it was nothing. Bay must’ve just got the wrong end of the stick, or something. I was summoning up the courage to ask him as he lifted Misty’s saddle onto his back, dodging the pony’s habitual cow-kick, when we heard boots crunching on gravel.
“I’m baaaaack!”
Hayley was surprisingly grateful that Jonty had made the effort to groom Copper, and she quickly enlisted him to tack up for her as well while she mucked about with her boots and helmet, strutting around the barn like she owned it and loudly commiserating with Misty that he had to be ridden by a loser like me. I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore her. Somehow over the past two weeks, I’d become used to the relaxed vibe that Jonty gave off when he was dealing with Copper. For someone who always had a lot of energy, he could be remarkably calm when he needed to be, and his mellow attitude had rubbed off on me and Misty as well, without us really noticing. But now Misty was standing at attention, his head following Hayley wherever she went, and Copper had already broken out into a nervous sweat at the very sound of my sister’s voice. If I hadn’t known her better, I’d have been worried, because that horse was wired. But Hayley liked her horses best when they were on edge, and I knew any warning I gave her would fall on deaf ears.