For The Love of Horses (Pegasus Equestrian Center)

by Diana Vincent

  The next stall’s top door creaked noisily when she tried to open it. Startled, she hunched down to the ground, trying to make herself small. She heard horse hooves moving in hay inside the stall, but nothing else. Cautiously she stood up, and then peeked into the stall to find a very dark horse with head lowered over a mound of hay, eyeing her. “Cory?” She shone her flashlight again low, but met disappointment when she illuminated bay markings. The door again creaked when she closed it up and latched it, and she froze in place, holding her breath. When nothing happened, she swallowed down her fear, and moved to the next stall. Fortunately, the door opened silently, but when she shone her flashlight on the horse inside, she found another bay. The next two stalls housed a gray and a chestnut. The sixth stall was empty. Where is Cory?

  She had reached the end of the stalls, and started to turn the corner, when suddenly bright light illuminated the back side of the stable. She suppressed a startled cry and crouched down, looking quickly around. She remained frozen as the seconds ticked by. It’s just a motion detector light, she realized. She rose from her squatting position, wondering where they had put Corazón, and just about ready to give up.

  A deep, gruff bark and then a low, rumbling growl preceded a dark shape that darted swiftly around the corner of the stable and rushed toward her. Sierra swallowed hard to hold back a scream, and she froze again, her eyes wide open in fright as a huge Rottweiler bounded into view and stopped only a foot in front of her with teeth bared in a slobbery snarl out of which the rumbling growl sounded. Remembering everything she had learned about dog safety, she kept her arms tight to her side, lowered her head and looked sideways at the dog, forcing herself to keep still and not run.

  She sensed a light coming on inside the second story of the stable, but did not dare turn her head away from the dog. She heard a door open, footsteps pounding down a set of stairs, and then another door opened. Then the footsteps crunched on the gravel around the stable, approaching behind the wavering light of a flashlight.

  “Good boy, Maverick,” a man’s voice said and then commanded, “sit.”

  The dog obeyed and sat on his haunches but still growled through his bared teeth at Sierra. The man came up and snapped a leash to the dog’s collar. Only then did she dare look up. She recognized the man as the same groom who had taken Cory from her at the show.

  “May I ask what you think you are doing on private property?” he asked in an authoritative voice.

  “I…I was just leaving,” Sierra stuttered, her voice quivering. “I just wanted to see Cory, th’that’s all.”

  Pulling a cell phone from a pocket, the man punched a number and said into the phone, “Sir, there was an intruder, a young lady…yes sir…no sir, I don’t think you need to call the police.”

  The police!

  “Yes sir.” He disconnected the phone and gestured with his hand toward the big house and said, “Mr. Clark would like to speak with you.”

  Sierra nodded shamefully and stepped onto the path the man indicated and walked with heavy steps toward the house, the man with the dog following behind. Her heart thumped so hard that she heard the blood pounding in her ears, and she could feel the heat rising from her chest up her neck to her face and she knew she had turned deep red in shame and embarrassment. Please don’t let Dean be home!

  The vast, spreading mansion of many stories, back decks, and windows further intimidated her; even its backside imposing. At one of the doors the man knocked, and a woman who apparently expected him, opened the door and ushered Sierra inside. “This way,” she said and Sierra meekly followed her through what seemed to be a mud room into a hall and down to the doorway of a dining room. Several people sat around a large table under a bright chandelier. The woman stepped aside and gestured for Sierra to enter the room.

  And then Sierra sank to the ultimate of humiliation when Crystal Douglas’s voice called out triumphantly, “Why it’s Sierra!” Every eye in the room gaped at her and then laughter emanated from both Crystal and Dean. Sierra felt the heat in her face, and she ducked shamefacedly to stare at her feet.

  “Do you have an explanation for trespassing on my property?” a stern voice asked.

  Sierra’s head whipped up at the sound and she looked at the man sitting at the head of the table, studying her through cold eyes behind a pair of gold-framed glasses. She licked her dry lips and tried to find her voice. “I…” she croaked and swallowed several times.

  “Well..?” His voice rose a decibel. “What is your name?”

  “Sierra,” she managed to whisper.

  “What?”

  “Her name is Sierra Landsing,” Dean informed his father.

  “You know this intruder?” Mr. Clark asked, raising his eyebrows and turning his attention to his son.

  “Oh yes, she rides out of Pegasus,” Dean spoke triumphantly.

  “Ah, that’s why she seems familiar,” another voice chimed in. Sierra glanced in that direction and recognized Crystal’s father, Walt Douglas, Tess’s business partner.

  Great, he’ll tell Tess!

  “I bet she came to steal my horse,” Dean added.

  Sierra’s eyes were drawn to look at him; his face wearing an expression of extreme satisfaction; thoroughly enjoying her humiliation.

  “No!” Sierra cried out, finding her voice and turning to face Mr. Clark. “I just wanted to see Cory…check that he is okay. I didn’t think Dean would let me in.”

  “Got that right,” Dean agreed.

  “Cory? We don’t have a horse by that name, do we?” Mr. Clark’s brow furrowed and he turned to the woman seated next to him, Sierra assumed Mrs. Clark.

  “It’s the new horse, Diablo,” Dean explained.

  “I know this girl,” Crystal chimed in. “She can be very sneaky and underhanded. I think you should call the police, Mr. Clark.”

  “Yeah, Dad, call the cops,” Dean said conspiratorially and barely suppressing his mirth as he studied every aspect of Sierra’s stricken face.

  Mr. Clark directed a suspicious stare at his son, and then returned his attention to Sierra. “Please enlighten me,” he said in a menacing tone. “What would possibly make you think you needed to check on the welfare of a horse in my stable?”

  “I…” Sierra squeaked, very intimidated by this man, and could find no answer.

  “Do your parents know what you’re up to?”

  “No…no, of course not.”

  Mr. Clark studied her with a piercing gaze that Sierra felt could almost penetrate into her mind. Her knees trembled and her lower lip quivered under the intense scrutiny. At last he diverted his eyes to look a long moment at his son and then at Crystal. Even those two froze beneath his stare and kept their mouths shut.

  Then he sat back in his chair, frowning, and ran a finger over his upper lip. “Maria,” he suddenly addressed the woman who had remained standing behind Sierra. “My cell phone.”

  “Yes sir.” Maria stepped away briefly and returned with a phone that she handed to Mr. Clark.

  “Your parents’ number,” Mr. Clark ordered, poised with the phone to tap it in. When Sierra hesitated, swallowing to find her voice in her dry mouth, he added, “I call your parents or the police; your choice.”

  In a weak, high-pitched voice, Sierra managed to speak her mother’s name and cell phone number.

  He punched in the number as she recited it to him, and stared at her as he waited for an answer. “Mrs. Landsing?”

  Sierra imagined the shock and worry that would be on her mother’s face as Mr. Clark informed her that her daughter had trespassed on his property, and he would keep her here until she came to pick her up. She kept her eyes focused on a painting on the wall behind Mr. Clark, keeping her face turned away from the others at the table.

  “Very good. Maria, escort this young lady to the foyer, and remain with her. Let me know when her mother arrives.” Mr. Clark directed after he disconnected.

  “Wait,” Dean said before Maria could lead her away. “Whi
le we’re waiting for her mother, and since she wants to see my horse so bad, how about if I just take her to see where we keep Diablo.” Dean flashed a look at Crystal, and an evil smile turned up the corners of her mouth.

  “Oh, yes, Mr. Clark,” Crystal said in a sugary, sympathetic tone. “If she wants to check on Diablo we should let her.”

  Mr. Clark again eyed Crystal and Dean with suspicion, knowing them well enough that they were plotting something. But as far as he was concerned, as long as it had no impact on his own interests, he could really care less. “Suit yourselves,” he said, and turned his attention away.

  “Come on, Sierra,” Dean said tauntingly, and getting up from the table, came around to where Sierra stood in shame. He grabbed her by her upper arm to turn her about and then propelled her out of the room and back the way she had been brought in. Crystal followed close behind. “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” Dean mocked, “I am so shocked at what such a little goody-goody is capable of doing – trespassing, and trying to break into our stable.” He tsked again. “Sierra, were you planning on stealing my horse?”

  He continued to tease her mercilessly all the way down to the stable, with Crystal laughing in high amusement at his every jibe. The feel of his hand firmly around her arm filled her with aversive nausea; as if it was a snake that encircled her bicep. She flashed back to how once his touch had given her electric thrills, whereas now it was sickeningly repulsive.

  They reached the stable, and the groom stepped out to open the main door and flick on lights. Dean pushed her inside and then propelled her down an aisle in front of several stalls where startled horses flipped their heads up as they passed by.

  At the back of the stable, opposite the row of box stalls, they came to a very small enclosure without an outside window and high walls. The door had only one small barred window. This isn’t a stall; it’s a jail cell! Dean pushed her up to the door to where she could look inside. In the far corner, Cory stood with defensive posture; head high, ears flat, and eyes rolling.

  “Cory,” she cried out involuntarily. The horse did not react as if he recognized her; so intent on self defense from the boy he did recognize as his tormentor.

  “You see, he’s a difficult one; kicks and bites at the grooms, and we can’t risk any of them getting hurt. So this is where Diablo lives. He doesn’t get turned out. He only comes out of this stall when me or Caroline want to ride him. Louis can handle him, so he gets him ready for us, and of course he needs some very aggressive handling and lunge work before he’s safe to ride.”

  Sierra gulped in air, feeling as if she was going to faint. A sob escaped from her throat, as hard as she tried to hold it in, and tears ran freely down her cheeks.

  “We want this devil to earn his keep, so Caroline’s already showing him in jumper shows. But as soon as school is out, he’ll be out in a competition every weekend, maybe both days. Caroline and I will trade weekends to ride him, and if it works out, I might take him eventing on a Saturday, and she’ll take him to an open jumper show on Sunday. How long do you think any horse will hold up under that kind of a schedule, huh?

  “So, sweetheart, that’s your fine horse’s life now.” Dean laughed heartily, and as if the poor animal was not tortured enough already, he grabbed the length of chain attached to the lead rope hanging on a hook, and swung it at the iron bars so that it clanged with a very loud racket.

  Cory half reared inside the small space, swung his hindquarters to face outward, ready to kick, and stood visibly trembling in fear.

  “Nooo…oh God,” Sierra sobbed.

  “Oh yes,” Dean retorted. Then he leaned in and snarled into Sierra’s ear. “You should never have rejected me, sweetheart.”

  She whirled to face him, anger rushing in. “When did I ever reject you, Dean?” She spat out his name. You played with me last year. You broke my heart over and over.”

  “Oh, what a pity.” Dean’s face contracted into a mocking look of sympathy. Then the expression contorted into tight anger and he hissed, spit spraying out and hitting her face. “You never should have walked away from me at the dance last year. You made a fool of me and I had to go after that fat bitch.”

  Sierra stared at him in horror. How could anyone be so self-centered…selfish…mean? She had no concept of such malice.

  “Excuse me, the young lady’s mother has arrived,” the groom interrupted as he approached them.

  “Take her back to the house,” Dean ordered, turning away.

  “Follow me, Miss,” the groom directed coming up to guide her away with a hand on her elbow. She meekly allowed the groom to steer her away with her legs feeling like two thick icicles that she could barely move, and the rest of her body trembling. She whipped her head around when she heard a horse squeal.

  Dean looked at her, smiling maliciously. He had a pitchfork which he had thrust through the bars of Corazón’s stall, taunting him.

  *****

  “You’re going to hear about it from Tess, I’m sure, so I might as well tell you what happened,” Sierra said to River the next morning on the way to school.

  “What happened?”

  She told him about getting caught last night. She kept her eyes on the road and hoped River could not see the shame and humiliation she felt. She described Cory’s dreadful living conditions and Dean’s plans for Cory - plans to break him down. “They called my mom to pick me up. You can imagine how horrible that was to see the look of disappointment on her face.”

  “Sierra…” River’s heart filled with a jumble of sensations; a mixture of love and pride for what Sierra had dared to do, and anger and hatred again rising at how they had humiliated her and how they were treating his horse. He could not find words to express how he felt; how much he loved her and wanted to protect her.

  “River, what are we going to do?”

  He swallowed down the bitterness rising in his throat, but he could do nothing about the sharp needles of pain that radiated from the center of his chest throughout his being.

  Apparently, Sierra didn’t expect an answer from him, for they drove the rest of the way to school in gloomy silence.

  When Sierra parked the truck in the student parking lot and cut the engine, they both sat a few minutes, staring vacantly into space as they struggled with their troubled thoughts.

  When Sierra sighed deeply and placed her hand on the door handle, River broke the silence. “Sierra, I’m going to steal him back,” he said with such conviction in his tone that she knew he meant it, and had already been thinking about it.

  “You can’t steal him!” she said in alarm, dropping her hand from the door handle and facing him.

  “Why not?”

  “Because…well, you’ll get caught. They’ll know it’s you or they’ll certainly suspect you.”

  “I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but you accomplished one thing by going over to the Clarks last night.”

  “What’s that?”

  “It sounds like their security is very tight, so I won’t be able to steal him from their place. But…”

  When he didn’t say anything further but sat thinking deeply, she asked, “But what?”

  “At a horse show,” he answered, meeting her eyes. “I simply take him from the stall when no one is around.”

  “What if there is always someone guarding him?” she said after thinking about his idea.

  “Then I have to somehow distract whoever is on guard.”

  “River, I don’t know…they’ll know it’s you who takes him. They’ll just get him back again.”

  “They might know it’s me and I might go to jail, but I won’t take him back to Pegasus. I’ll have to find some other safe place to keep him.”

  “There’s got to be a better way…a legal way,” Sierra said, desperately trying to think of something plausible. “We could sue…we could claim abuse,” she said, thinking out loud.

  “Yeah, that will work about as well as it did at the show,” River said bitterly.

  S
he just didn’t know, and he was probably right. If they did sue, the Clarks could very quickly change Cory’s living conditions and present a much different picture than what she had seen last night. And she had a suspicion that legal proceedings would take way too long. Or worse, if they sued, would Cory somehow meet with an unexplained accident? No, suing was not a good idea.

  She thought about the possibility of taking Cory from a show. With most everyone very focused on their own horses, would anyone think it strange for someone to walk up to a stall and lead a horse out? She thought of all the times they had been to competitions; how many times their horses had been left in the stalls unattended while as a group they went off to walk their courses, or to watch each other in between their own events.

  Sierra visualized a scene in her head, could it work..? A plan formed and she said, “River, I’ll help you steal him.”

  As she suspected, he shook his head. “No, Sierra; absolutely not. I don’t want you in trouble.”

  “You may have to let me help you,” Sierra said with determination. She grabbed his hand as he started to speak, squeezing his fingers. “No, just wait. Let’s think about this and figure out the best way to get him away…without getting caught. I have an idea…”

  *****

  After school as Sierra was tacking up Pan to ride on the trail and River groomed Pendragon in the crossties next to her, Tess came up to them wearing a stern expression. Sierra stepped away from Pan and out into the aisle to face Tess.

  “Yes, I trespassed on the Clark property last night. I just wanted to check on Cory,” Sierra blurted out, anxious to get this over with.

  To her surprise, Tess smiled as she shook her head. “I could have told you they have way too much security to sneak into their stable.”