by Janet Gover
Carrie guided Finbarr the last few strides down to the bottom of the gorge and turned his head away from the herd and back towards where she’d seen Justin fall. There he was, once more atop the big bay gelding, racing towards her as fast as the horse could go.
A sob of relief caught in her throat. Then she saw the blood on his face, and a terrible chill engulfed her.
‘Carrie.’ His voice echoed off the high rock walls. ‘I’m okay. Let’s go.’
Then he was beside her. Despite the blood on his face, he was grinning.
‘You did great,’ he shouted over the sound of horse’s hooves.
Her heart swelled with joy and pride as the horses galloped side by side.
‘I’ll take the left flank,’ Justin called. ‘You take the right.’
‘Okay.’
She pushed Finbarr to the right to take up her station. Justin moved towards the left. Ahead was the heaving sea of black and brown and grey bodies. The brumbies were moving a little more slowly now. Exhaustion was overriding fear. Some of the foals were falling behind, stumbling in the heavy sand of the gorge. Only the stallion seemed still full of energy. A gap was beginning to open between him and the rest of the herd.
‘Try to push them up a bit,’ Justin yelled. ‘We don’t want him to get too far ahead. We need to keep them all together.’
Carrie nodded. She pushed Finbarr to more speed and swung her whip. The harsh crack sent the mares lunging forward with renewed energy. The gap closed.
She glanced over at Justin, who waved his approval.
How good that felt. Carrie’s heart was beating fast, her muscles straining as she rode with every ounce of skill she possessed. For the first time in months, she felt totally alive.
The gorge was growing even narrower, pushing the racing brumbies into a tighter mass. They were almost there. They had almost succeeded. The yard they had worked so hard to build was not far away.
It was up to Quinn now.
Quinn’s fingers curved around the familiar shape of the camera. Her hands were still. Her arms poised. Every nerve in her body was alert for the first sight of the wild horses. She was carefully hidden among some boulders, just a short distance from the wide-open gates leading to the yard. The two metal gates had been partly obscured with small scrubby tree branches. The fence posts likewise had been disguised. The camouflage wouldn’t stand up to close scrutiny, but hopefully the horses wouldn’t see the trap until they were inside. It was Quinn’s job to shut those gates, blocking the brumbies escape back the way they had come. Carrie and Justin would be there too, on horseback, ready to block the herd if they turned. But the gates were the most important factor. Quinn had to get them shut.
She cocked her head, listening for the first sound of the brumbies’ approach. She’d heard the two shots. Dan setting the horses on their way. But since then, there had been nothing but silence. The high walls blocked any other sounds from further down the gorge. Quinn would have sold her soul to know what was happening back there.
She lifted the camera and focussed on the place where the horses should emerge. This was the essence of being a photographer. Being prepared. This was the one important thing she had never failed at. It was who she was. Other women could be wives and mothers. Not her. That carefully wrapped package in the back of her Hummer was testimony to that. She was a photographer. Without that she would be nothing and no one. With her camera she could create beauty. It was the most important thing in her world. The only thing in her world.
She felt them coming, rather than heard them. A vibration running through the rocks. Her finger poised over the shutter release.
The stallion burst into view. In the zoom lens, she saw his eyes, wild and ringed with white. His nostrils flared as he gasped for breath. Again and again she depressed the shutter release … pulling back to show his sweat streaked coat and straining muscles. Behind him, the herd came into view. Wide-eyed and exhausted, they were falling behind. The mares with foals at foot had dropped to the back of the mob which was starting to string out along the gorge. Quinn realised with a start that the stallion would likely reach the back fence of the yard before the rest of the brumbies were safely inside. The instant he scented the trap, he would turn and try to send the others back the way they had come. If she was just a few seconds late, they’d be gone. Or if the exhausted mares didn’t respond, the stallion could simply bolt and escape alone. They might catch the rest of the herd, but lose the most important horse of all.
She lowered her camera, letting it fall the last few inches to the ground as she tensed her muscles, ready to run.
Below her the stallion shot past the gates without breaking stride or realising that he had run into a trap. Quinn forced herself to remain motionless until the first mares were in the gateway, then she leaped to her feet. She flung herself down the bank, and grabbed the first metal gate, swinging it shut behind the last of the trailing foals. But that one gate was useless without the other. Only when the two were locked together was the trap sprung. She darted to the other side of the gorge to pull the other gate forward. The branches used to hide it were now getting in her way. She tugged at them to free them, aware of every passing second.
Looking up, she saw the stallion halt in his headlong flight as he saw the way ahead was blocked. He reared high into the air, striking out with his powerful front legs, then he dropped to the ground and spun around, his eyes seeking an escape route back the way he had come. With a harsh scream, he flung himself back through the herd towards the gate, teeth slashing to clear his way. Quinn tugged at the gate and felt it give, then catch again. She wasn’t going to make it!
Subconsciously she registered a sound of a car door slamming as she wrapped her fingers around one last branch and pulled with all her might. She was rewarded by the sound of snapping of timber as she dragged it free. Hoofbeats were approaching fast from behind her. Carrie and Justin were almost there. But almost might not be good enough. Then Dan appeared. He ran into the rapidly closing gap and stood there, arms spread wide to block the stallion.
It all happened so very fast.
Carrie and Justin bore down on horseback, whips cracking. But they were still just a fraction too far away to have any effect.
Dan let out a mighty yell and the big stallion suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. He swung his head, his eyes wild as he searched for escape. The only way out was past the man standing defiantly in the open gate. The stallion flattened his ears against his head and lunged forward, mouth open and teeth bared.
Quinn froze in fear. Get out of his way, she screamed silently in her head.
Dan moved. He jumped forward, towards the oncoming stallion. With movements almost too fast to see, he raised his rifle, pointed the barrel up at the sky and pulled the trigger.
The crash of the shot caused the stallion to shy away at the last possible second and hurl himself back through his mares looking for an escape in some other direction.
Quinn grabbed the gate and dragged it shut, dropping the metal latch into place with a loud clang. Beside her, Dan slid home the metal bar they had designed for extra strength.
It was done!
The stallion screamed in anger as he tore around the enclosure, desperately searching for a way out. For one heart-stopping moment, he ran straight at the back fence, gathering himself as if to jump to freedom. But at the last minute he swerved away. The rest of brumbies milled about, looking for a way out, but the race down the gorge had taken its toll. Mares stopped moving, their heads hanging in exhaustion as their foals collapsed beside them. The stallion trotted over to the steep cliff face that enclosed him, he pawed at the earth, but there was nowhere for him to go. He turned and followed the line of the back fence, searching for weaknesses, snorting his anger and fear.
Quinn turned to face Dan. He was standing there looking, not at the horses, but at her. His face was alive with emotion. Exhilaration. Joy. Relief. Then Carrie and Justin were with them. Quinn barely had time to not
ice the blood on Justin’s face before he grabbed Carrie and lifted her high into the air. He spun her around and then dropped her back to earth so he could kiss her. There was much back-slapping and hugging all round, and when Dan grabbed Quinn and hugged her, she thought they would all explode with happiness.
Then she caught a glimpse of movement over his shoulder.
There was no congratulation on Thomas Lawson’s face as he walked into their midst. He stood for a few moments watching the brumbies in the yard. The stallion was still searching for an escape. He flung himself from one side of the trap to the other, his head tossing, and his eyes wild. He slashed with teeth and hooves at the other horses around him. He crashed his sweat-streaked body against the wooden fence, then lifted his head and screamed in anger and frustration.
The park superintendent watched the furious horse for a minute then turned to Dan.
‘So. You’ve caught him. Congratulations. But how the hell do you expect to get that wild animal transported out of the park?’
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The question hung in the air. Four people turned away from the park inspector, back towards the wild-eyed stallion. Quinn had to admit, it was a reasonable question.
‘I’ll get him there,’ Justin said, quiet determination in his voice as he casually wiped a trickle of blood from his cheek.
‘Yes, we will.’ Carrie stepped to Justin’s side.
Quinn had to admire their determination, but looking at the stallion, she had her doubts. He was pacing the fences, his coat a lather of sweat. His eyes still white ringed and fierce. Everything about the taut muscles of his body, and the tossing of his head declared his wildness. Every few minutes he would let loose an almost human scream of anger and frustration. Even his mares were not safe near him. He vented his temper on them whenever they got too close.
‘I’ll truck them out,’ Justin told the inspector.
‘You’ll never get that animal onto a truck,’ Lawson said.
Another angry roar from the stallion seemed to underline the statement.
‘Yes, I will,’ Justin declared, his voice firm with determination. ‘I just need a couple of days to get him settled.’
The inspector looked at Quinn and glanced down at her hands. He was looking for her camera. The camera she had carelessly dropped in the dirt as she ran to shut that gate. Quinn suddenly felt almost naked.
She stared back at the inspector anyway, trying to convey to him that just because she had no camera to hand, she could soon retrieve it, if there was any need to document what was going on.
‘All right,’ the inspector said. ‘You’ve got two days. Then I’m taking over.’
Two days seemed a very short time to Quinn – but it was more than she had expected.
‘I wish you luck,’ Lawson said as he turned away. ‘You’re going to need it.’
The four of them stood silently watching him leave, taking with him the joy they should have been feeling at their success. Behind them, the thudding of hooves simply served to highlight the problem they now faced.
‘I’d hoped to have a bit more time,’ Justin said quietly.
‘You can do it.’ Carrie placed one hand on Justin’s arm. ‘I’ll help you. Look what we’ve already done. We’ve got them now. No one is going to stop us.’
Carrie was speaking quite softly, leaving Quinn with a feeling that she was somehow intruding on a private moment. She turned and walked briskly back to her former hiding place. Her camera was there, looking a little forlorn in the dust. She picked it up and carefully checked for any damage. There was none. What on earth had possessed her to just drop her precious camera like that? That was just not like her. Her cameras were more than her livelihood. They were the only thing in the world that gave her any peace or satisfaction.
‘Quinn?’ Dan appeared at her side. ‘Is everything all right? You just walked away.’
‘I came back for this.’ She held the camera up. Dan nodded but his face was sombre.
‘Damn him!’ Quinn said angrily. ‘Why did he have to do that? Come back and spoil everything. We should be celebrating right now.’
‘Yes, we should,’ Dan said. ‘And we’re going to. Let’s go and do whatever has to be done to make those horses safe. Then I need to take a look at Justin’s head. Good thing Doctor Adam gave us a first aid kit.’
‘I didn’t know you were a medic,’ Quinn said as they walked back to the others.
‘In my unit we all had to have first aid training. To deal with field injuries.’
He said it in a calm, matter-of-fact way. Quinn glanced sideways at him. In the short time she’d known him, any reference to his military service had been accompanied by a tightening in his voice and a stiffening in his manner. Not this time.
‘It’s a good thing you’ve got such a hard head, my friend,’ was Dan’s diagnosis a few minutes later as he gently examined Justin’s wound. ‘You’ll have a splitting headache for a while, but I think you’ll live.’
‘Thanks.’ Justin winced as Dan applied butterfly stitches to close the wound on his head, while Carrie hovered in a protective fashion.
Dan finished and tossed a couple of bloodstained bits of gauze into the fire pit. ‘I think we should head to the billabong to wash away some of the dust and sweat.’
This was a side of Dan that Quinn hadn’t seen before. As they walked towards the cars for the trip to the swimming hole, Quinn realised what it was. Dan was happy. She’d never realised before that a veil of unhappiness had hung over him like a shadow. That shadow had been lifted. She guessed she had something to do with that, and was glad. She only hoped that when she left … No. This wasn’t the time to think those thoughts. They had achieved their aim and captured the brumbies. They would all be working together a bit longer to get the horses back to Justin’s place. After that … well, after that could just wait. Dan was right. Tonight they deserved to celebrate.
As celebrations went it wasn’t ever going to make the pages of some celebrity magazine. But to Carrie it was perfect. It had started at the billabong where the four of them had washed away the dust and sweat. They had romped about in the water, splashing each other like teenagers and laughing to rival the kookaburras. By the time darkness had truly fallen, they were back at their campsite, drying in the flickering light of a campfire.
Quinn surprised them all by pulling flour and salt and herbs from her supplies in the back of her Hummer. With the help of some butter remaining in their icebox, she quickly mixed up a thick dough. She wrapped the dough in foil and cleared a space for the damper on the glowing coals. From the icebox they also took the last of Trish Warren’s offerings – a tub of some sort of meat stew – and set that to cooking on the fire. It wasn’t long till the rich smells of the food filled the cool night air.
Carrie took no part in the cooking. Quinn had it all under control. Dan and Justin were doing the blokey barbecue and beer thing, talking together slightly away from the womenfolk. They had retrieved the last few cans of beer and were obviously set on incorporating that into the celebrations. In typical male fashion, they were thinking only about the moment. And she wasn’t going to deny them that. Justin had achieved something really important today. He had forged his own future. He deserved to celebrate.
Carrie had a lot to think about and was glad to sit quietly, slightly removed from the others. Because she had done something really important today too. She had escaped the past and opened new chances for her future. She just wasn’t sure what she wanted that future to be.
She could ride again! For the first time tears welled up behind her eyes. After all these long months when she felt so lost. So unlike herself. She had found that thing which was at the very core of her soul. When she saw Justin’s horse fall today, all her fears had come flooding back. Memories of that dreadful day at the races had threatened to overwhelm and paralyse her. But all she knew was that she had to get to Justin. So strong had that need been, she could barely remember leaping onto F
inbarr and sending him racing down the gully. Her feelings for Justin had thrown off the shackles of fear and humiliation and despair that had left her crippled since her fall at the Birdsville Races. She had done it to help Justin – but in doing that, she had saved herself. Tomorrow she could walk up to Finbarr and swing herself onto his back without the slightest hesitation or doubt.
She wasn’t ready to be a jockey again. She needed exercise and hard work to bring her muscles back to race fitness. But she could do it easily. The trainers and owners she knew might hesitate to hire her at first, remembering the past. But once they saw her ride again, they would welcome her back. She could become that woman Justin had seen steer that big grey horse to victory. The woman he had admired from the sidelines. The woman a lot of people had admired and cheered. And she should not forget the financial reward that waited for her if she returned to top form.
If that was what she wanted.
Carrie heard movement from the direction of the stockyard. She got quietly to her feet and slipped away from the campfire. Two large forms loomed up out of the darkness. The stock horses had been fed and hobbled just outside the yard where the brumbies were held. Justin hoped they would be a calming influence on the wild horses. It had worked on the mares, but not on the stallion.
Carrie patted Finbarr and moved past him to stand at the gates.
There wasn’t much moonlight, but there was enough for her to see the stallion pacing restlessly around the big yard. The other horses had moved towards the middle. Some were munching on the last of the hay bales that Carrie had tossed over the fence earlier in the evening. Others were sleeping on their feet. The foals and the older mares were lying down, exhausted after the run through the gorge. Mariah’s son wasn’t resting. He stopped and raised his head, sending a harsh scream out into the night. He turned and began pacing back around the fence. He saw, or sensed, Carrie standing by the gate and launched himself at her, ears flat back, mouth open to show his teeth gleaming in the moonlight.