As Fleckie had done, Horner cleared both the fences and also left the ring to be followed in by Jesse Bailey on his grey horse Barbary. When they entered a rustle swept the crowd, for Jesse was well-known locally. He sat down firmly in his saddle as he circled the field and when he gathered the horse beneath him, he bent forward to whisper something to it. Then they plunged forward in a canter and as they reached the first fence Barbary changed his stride, stood back on his haunches like a cat and reared up high into the air. The man on his back raised himself till he was standing straight upright in the stirrups and together they flowed high over the pole as if they were turned into liquid. Barbary landed with all four feet close together and Jesse spread both arms along his neck with a broad smile on his face. They’d cleared the obstacle by a good foot and a half.
While the crowd was cheering, Odilie turned to Grace with her eyes gleaming in excitement. ‘I could do that. I could do that with my little mare. She could out-jump the lot of them, I’m sure of it!’
Grace, who was sitting on the grass rubbing her leg, sighed, ‘Oh Odilie, haven’t you had enough adventure for one day?’
‘No, listen Grace, I’m serious. I’d like to jump,’ said Odilie and before Grace could stop her, she stood on tiptoe and shouted out to the gypsy who was in charge of proceedings, ‘Can anybody enter a horse?’
He laughed. ‘Anybody with an animal good enough!’ he called back and an old man beside the girls added, ‘But I’ve been coming here for sixty years and I’ve never seen this won by anybody except a gypsy.’
The girls faced each other without speaking while Grace shook her head vehemently but Odilie paid no heed to the warning. She held up a hand and told her friend, ‘Wait here for me. I won’t be long. Go over and tell that big gypsy that I want to enter, too. Go and do it now, Grace. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes.’ Then she turned and ran off towards the line of trees where her horse was tied up.
Grace stared after her in consternation but, rising obediently to her feet, she limped tiredly through the crowd to the front and pulled at the gypsy’s sleeve. ‘My friend would like to enter a horse, please,’ she said.
He looked down at her in astonishment. ‘Where is it?’ he asked.
‘It’ll be here directly. It’s being fetched in about fifteen minutes. Can you wait till then?’
Gib laughed good-naturedly. ‘All right. We’ll hold off for a bit.’ He did not mind a slight delay because it gave more time for people to lay bets and for the excitement to rise. He threw back his head and yelled to the crowd, ‘We’re to have another entry so the jumping will start again in fifteen minutes.’
Adam Scott was about to leave the crowd when he heard this announcement but as he turned to go he noticed that the girl who had spoken to the big gypsy was walking away – and she limped! He stared at her very hard and then his face lightened. He was wearing his broadest smile as he pushed his way through the close-packed ranks of people to reach her and when he did, he put a hand on her shoulder from behind to stop her walking away. Beneath his fingers he felt her jump with surprise. She turned quickly round and stared at him. ‘I’ve been looking for you everywhere,’ he said.
She gazed back at him and he saw that her eyes were the same colour as the sky above their heads. As he looked into them a feeling of complete and utter happiness flooded through him in a surge of delightful warmth.
‘Oh, it’s you!’ she said in a wondering voice that showed how pleased she was to see him. Then recovering herself, she spoke more formally and remarked primly, ‘It’s nice to see you again.’
He looked into her face beneath the floppy bonnet and cast all pretence aside as he told her, ‘I was afraid you weren’t at the Fair this year. I was so disappointed because I thought you’d gone away and got yourself married or something.’
‘Oh no, nothing like that,’ she said in a soft voice. He was surprised but pleased as well to see that she was so poorly dressed and wearing such a shabby bonnet. Last year she’d been more ladylike but he did not mind if she turned out to be just a poor country girl, because that gave a shepherd a better chance with her.
Smiling he proffered his arm and told her, ‘You look tired. Will you lean on me?’
It seemed to Grace as if the world around her was singing as she took his arm. She smiled at him and said, ‘My friend’s gone back to town. She’s on some scheme… I’ve to wait here till she returns.’
‘In that case I’ll wait with you. I’ve been looking for you all day and I’ve only just found you so I’m not going to lose you again now,’ he told her. It was amazing how they slipped into easy conversation, as if their acquaintance had only been interrupted by a few moments and not by a year. They were delighted with each other. He thought she was even prettier than he remembered and she was thrilled by him because he was all she had imagined and more. Neither of them were entirely sure that they were not in fact asleep and dreaming.
‘Let’s sit down here and wait for Odilie,’ she said, sinking on to the grass. He settled by her side and took her hand. It felt so right to be held like that by him. In wonder they stared at each other and the loneliness of them both was completely vanquished.
* * *
Meanwhile Canny’s daughter was running at full tilt through the press of people, dodging this way and that to avoid collisions, brushing past family groups, swerving round gossipers standing in her path. She grabbed the bridle of her pony from the boy who was watching it and climbed inelegantly aboard, not caring that her skirt was kirtled up around her knees as she pushed her feet into the stirrups. Then she went cantering out of the fairground and back up the road to Lauriston.
In the stableyard of Havanah Court, the boys sitting idly on upturned buckets in the sunshine looked up in astonishment when their mistress came clattering into the yard on the puffing old pony. ‘Where’s Stevens?’ she called imperiously.
They looked shiftily at each other because they knew that in the absence of his employers, the head groom had slipped over the footbridge to see what was going on and cast a professional eye over the gypsy horses.
Odilie groaned, ‘I should have guessed – he’s gone to the Fair, hasn’t he? But you lot can do it. Get my new mare ready. I’m taking her over there now – and hurry up, hurry, hurry!’ She slipped off the pony and stood harrying them while the boys ran about, bringing the suede side saddle out of the harness room and giving the chestnut mare’s coat a final polish with a silk cloth as Stevens always did before they put on her tackle. Odilie took one look at the saddle and cried, ‘Not that! Get me a cross saddle. I’ll ride astride!’ In a few minutes her pretty little mare was standing fully accoutred on the cobbles and Odilie, adjusting her recalcitrant bonnet, prepared to mount.
At this point one of the older boys protested, ‘But Miss Odilie, you cannae ride such a bonny mare dressed like that. You should go in and put on your habit. Your father’ll be fair mad if he sees you…’
Odilie gathered up the reins and urged her mare forward. ‘I haven’t time to change. I’m in a hurry. The jumping contest’s about to start. I don’t want to miss it.’
Then she clattered off again leaving an astounded group of boys staring after her.
The gypsy jumping contest was famous and when the word went round that it was about to start again with an unknown outsider taking part, the other attractions lost their customers and the show people put up boards saying that business would start again in an hour for they too wanted to see the fun.
When Odilie rode up to the ringside, people were pressed close together elbowing each other in search of a good place. Grace saw her arrive and stood up to wave, gesturing that she had spoken to Gib. Odilie waved back and rode directly at the gypsy, forcing her horse through the people. When she was near him she cried out, ‘Who jumps first?’
He looked up and she saw a spark of admiration in his eyes which she guessed was for her horse. Trust a gypsy to see the mare’s quality first, she thought. She did not realise that s
he herself looked wild and farouche enough to engender admiration as well. Her stomach was churning with a mixture of emotions – exhilaration, the thrill of danger and the challenge of competition. Gib laughed at her obvious impetuosity. ‘Want to make a bet, miss?’ he asked.
‘All right, I will,’ she said, and thrust a hand into her skirt pocket. To his surprise she brought out a golden guinea and proffered it to him.
‘Who’ll you bet this on?’ he wanted to know.
‘On myself of course,’ said Odilie.
‘On yourself?’ Gib was genuinely astonished this time.
‘Yes, on myself. What odds will you give me?’ she demanded.
‘Let’s get this straight, you can’t jump. Women don’t jump,’ he spluttered.
‘Don’t be silly,’ Odilie told him. ‘You’ve been waiting for the fourth contender, haven’t you? Well, that’s me. My mare’s a fine jumper and so am I. We can do as well as any of those men.’
‘Go away miss, you’ll get your pretty neck broken,’ groaned Gib.
‘That’s my problem, not yours. I want to jump,’ snapped the girl.
In desperation he turned to the other contestants who were waiting impatiently behind him. ‘Let’s get on with it. We’ve waited long enough,’ snapped Fleckie.
‘But this girl says she wants to jump,’ said Gib.
‘Let her. She’ll not last long,’ was Fleckie’s shouted reply as he rode his horse into the ring at a hard canter.
A rustle swept the crowd because the fences were raised to well over five feet for this second round. Fleckie seemed to have lost his concentration because his horse’s hooves tipped the first pole as it leaped and the wooden bar went flying. His supporters groaned, for that meant he was out of the contest. When he realised what had happened, he took a short cane out of his boot and started laying viciously into his horse till his son ran forward and stopped him – not because he was being cruel but because, if he broke the animal’s skin, its potential sale price would fall.
Horner entered next and, warned by Fleckie’s fate, was very careful, cantering round the ring slowly, eyeing the fences and judging exactly where his horse should leave the ground. Then he rode up at what seemed like a slow pace, gave a touch of the spurs at just the right moment – and cleared them both. The crowd howled delightedly.
Gib’s hands were full of money as people laid even more bets and all the while Jesse sat staring straight ahead, seemingly unaware of what went on. His face looked as if it was made of marble, like a pagan statue, with dark ringlets of hair falling in clusters down the back of his neck. Every woman in the crowd was acutely conscious of him.
The crowd was very silent when he came in to jump and again he cleared both fences. He was followed by a neat chestnut that came cantering into the ring with a girl riding astride on its back. She had taken off the blinding sunbonnet and curls of hair flew around her face. Though she was as dark as any gypsy and very poorly dressed, everyone could see that her mare was magnificent and must have cost a good deal of money. The saddlery was top quality as well and the crowd nudged each other in amazement asking, ‘D’ye think she’s stolen it?’
At the back of the crowd Grace stood up to watch with a face drained of colour. She hung on to Adam Scott’s arm, not realising how her fingers were biting into his flesh and gasped, ‘Oh, Odilie! I hope she doesn’t hurt herself. She’s so reckless.’ Adam put his hand over hers and tried to calm her but he could feel how she was trembling as she leaned on him.
‘Don’t look. I’ll tell you when it’s over,’ he whispered. Like Grace, the crowd held its breath while Odilie cantered around the enclosure. She sat well down in the saddle, head high and back as straight as a lady going hunting. ‘Go on lass, show them!’ came a jocular voice from the audience.
Bending and weaving like a reed in the wind, she headed slowly for the first fence, eyes gazing fearlessly ahead at the obstacle. The mare gathered herself at just the right place, leaped upwards as if it had been propelled from a gun and landed with forelegs extended on the other side. Odilie was still bolt upright and secure in the saddle with her whip unused in her hand. She did exactly the same at the second fence.
The crowd howled in excitement and Adam yelled out, ‘She’s over them both!’
Grace gave a huge gulp as she opened her eyes and hopped excitedly up and down calling, ‘Hooray, well done, hooray!’ Even the other contestants raised their fists in congratulation.
‘Put the pole up to six feet,’ called someone in the crowd and Gib gave the orders for this to be done but said that this time only one fence need be jumped. Then he walked over and asked the girl, ‘Are you going to try? It’s a big fence.’
She was quite calm. ‘Of course I’ll try,’ she said.
‘The lady will go first,’ Gib called out to the crowd and once more Odilie entered the ring but this time she decided on a different tactic. Instead of taking a long slow run she set off at a flat-out gallop that sent clumps of earth flying in every direction from her horse’s hooves. She and the mare looked like a bundle of gutta-percha as they bounced up in the air, hovered for a moment above the pole – and landed safely on the other side.
‘She’s done it again, the lassie’s jumped clear,’ people in the crowd yelled in disbelief and thumped each other on the back as she rode out of the ring. When Horner followed her he sent the fence flying. It was Jesse’s turn last and the silence was total as he cantered in. Not a leaf stirred in the sultry air and all that could be heard was the drumming of hooves on the hard ground. He circled the enclosure twice, staring at the fence all the while, and then he gathered his horse – but just at the moment when its hooves should have left the earth, a shot rang out from somewhere among the watchers. All eyes turned to where a swirl of cordite smoke could be seen drifting towards the sky. Someone in the press of people had let off a pistol and the noise made Barbary swerve in terror and bump into the fence. With a terrible crash the pole fell down.
‘The lassie’s won! The lassie’s won!’ called out a voice and Horner ran into the ring with his arms in the air.
‘You bastard, you did it, you did that!’ cried Gib, running in after him and taking the exulting man by his shirt-front. Soon there was a melee of fighting gypsies in the middle of the field and Odilie’s victory was forgotten as a battle raged around her.
She was looking about with rising panic and wondering how to get away when the gypsy on the grey stallion pushed his way through to her and said, ‘You’d better get out of here. Follow me.’
When they emerged on the outside of the enclosure, he turned in his saddle to say to her, ‘Well done. You’d probably have won anyway because that’s a grasni shantu you’ve got there.’ When she did not react to the Romany expression he added, ‘A fine mare, as we say.’ He looked in frank admiration at both the girl and her mount. She proudly lifted her chin to meet his glance and in the second that their eyes met, it seemed to both of them that another shot had been fired. Odilie gasped and blinked her eyes as an explosion of light lit up the air around her and Jesse too looked shaken as if he had experienced a shock. Blinking he raised his hand to brush the hair back from his eyes for when the girl’s stare met his a strange flash of light had dazzled him. He looked around in surprise but no one else seemed aware of it.
The man and the woman sat gazing fixedly at each other in silence while their horses panted and fidgeted beneath them. They found that they were breathless too and felt as if they had received an earth-shattering shock. The entrancement between them was broken, however, when a man pushed his way through the throng to reach them. He clapped a hand on the shoulder of Jesse’s stallion and announced loudly, ‘I’m Simon Archer from the Circus Royale and I’m looking for a stunt rider. You were both magnificent – you’d make a wonderful pair in the ring. I’ll hire both of you to give a display tonight if you like.’
The mounted gypsy looked down at Simon as if he could not understand what was being said. ‘What?’ he asked
in a bemused way.
Odilie looked at Jesse first and then back at the showman before shaking her head. ‘Sorry, no,’ she said. Both men thought that she looked incredibly beautiful with tightly curling tendrils of dark hair clustering around her face and sticking to her cheeks. The heat was oppressive and she raised a bare forearm to wipe her glistening forehead as she gathered up the reins in preparation for riding away.
‘Wait,’ said Jesse Bailey in a hoarse voice. He ignored Simon completely.
She dropped her reins and looked at him.
‘Wait. You bet Gib that you’d win. You’ll have to collect your prize – ten bars.’ Even to Jesse his own voice sounded strange.
The girl smiled and said, ‘That’s right. I forgot but it doesn’t matter. I don’t want the money.’
‘Money doesn’t matter? Don’t be silly.’ Jesse sounded angry as if she was belittling the contest.
‘I don’t want it. I only wanted to win,’ she said, picking up the reins again and driving both heels into her mare’s flanks.
Simon, standing there, shivered because the physical attraction between them was palpable. He could almost smell it. He looked up at the man again and put a hand on his knee, shaking it this time to secure Jesse’s attention as he repeated, ‘Listen, I mean it. Come to my ring tonight at seven o’clock. And bring the girl. I’ll pay you well if you give that jumping display again. The crowd will love it.’
St James' Fair Page 27