Dreams (8 page)

Ellie stared at him. “Why don’t you just tell him you can’t? Tell him you’re busy—that you’re already doing something with me?”

Joe shook his head. “I can’t. The sponsorship is so important to the yard. It would be wrong of me not to go.” He looked appeasingly at her. “You understand, don’t you? It’s only a movie we’re missing. We can go another time.” He turned to the house. “Are you coming in?”

Ellie shook her head. “No…not just yet.” She felt as if he had just dumped a bucket of cold water all over her.

“OK. Well, I’ll catch you later.” Joe hurried inside.

Ellie walked slowly to Spirit’s stall. Suddenly her secret hopes seemed mad.

Reaching Spirit’s stall, she hugged him until she heard the house door bang. “Ellie!” Joe was calling faintly for her. “Ellie!” She didn’t answer.

After a few minutes, she heard his footsteps as he came to find her. “I’m off.” His hair was brushed and he’d changed into smart clothes. “I’ll see you later. I have to go. I’m sorry I can’t go to the movies.”

Not sorry enough to stay
, Ellie thought, still hurting, but trying to hide it. “Sure. See you later,” she shrugged.

“Yeah. Later.”

Joe hurried away, leaving her feeling worse than ever. He hadn’t even realized she was upset. A few minutes afterwards she heard the sound of the car engine revving.

Ellie felt like kicking the stable wall, but instead she stroked Spirit. “I’d better get something to eat,” she sighed. “I’ll come and see you afterwards.”

She set off towards the house.

“Thought you were going out tonight?” Luke said, as he led Gabriel out on to the yard in his traveling boots and lightweight rug.

“Yeah. Me too,” muttered Ellie.

“Where’s Joe then?”

“Gone to Jeff Hallett’s with Len.”

Luke looked at her incredulously. “You’ve been stood up for Jeff Hallett! Oh, that’s good!” He started to grin.

“Not stood up,” Ellie rushed in defensively. “Joe had to go.”

Luke spluttered. “He didn’t
have
to go. He could have said no. I mean, it’s going to be full of oldies. No one expects him to be there. He could have talked Len out of it if he’d wanted to. But I guess it was his famous sense of duty kicking in.”

Ellie turned away swiftly. She didn’t need Luke echoing the thoughts that were in her head. She was angry enough with Joe as it was, but she didn’t want to criticize him with Luke. She continued towards the house.

“Hey, Ellie! Wait up!”

“What?” she said miserably.

“Why don’t you come to the horse show with me this evening? You could take Gabriel in a class.”

Ellie stared. “I couldn’t do that!”

Luke shrugged. “Why not?”

Ellie opened her mouth. There were all sorts of reasons why not. For a start, what would her uncle say? And she’d only ridden Gabriel once before—how could she possibly take him in a show-jumping competition? But looking into Luke’s blue eyes, she realized that to him there really was no reason why she couldn’t go to the show if she wanted. He just didn’t see obstacles the way most people did. She felt a surge of wonderful excitement.

“Well?” he went on. “If you want to, you can. You’ll need your show clothes, though.”

A smile caught at her lips. She would do what she wanted this time. “OK, I’ll come!”

The car park at the show was lit up by big floodlights. Luke parked the trailer and they jumped out. People were unloading horses, fixing tendon boots. The pony classes had already been on and ponies were being loaded back into horseboxes, riders wearing Puffa jackets over their show clothes to keep warm and clean.

“Let’s see what class is on now,” Luke said.

Weaving through the crowds, they headed for the indoor school where the competition was taking place. They walked into a cafe where the smell of hot dogs, sawdust and frying onions filled the air, with people sitting on the red plastic seats holding polystyrene cups of coffee as they watched the jumping. One wall was glass and Ellie could see a steel-gray horse jumping around a course in the school. Luke checked with a pretty red-haired girl with a ponytail behind the counter. “What class is it, Jodie?”

“The Novice Jumping.” Jodie smiled at him. “I was wondering if you would be here today, Luke. I haven’t seen you for a month or two.”

“Been missing me?”

“Maybe, maybe not.” But Jodie’s blush gave it away.

“I’ve missed
you
.”

Ellie rolled her eyes. Honestly! Couldn’t Luke go anywhere without flirting? She wondered if Jodie was the reason Luke hadn’t wanted Sasha at the show. Luke caught her expression. “This is Ellie, by the way, Jodie. She’s Joe’s cousin and she’s living with us now.”

“Oh, right.” Jodie looked Ellie up and down.

Luke headed for the door. “Come on,” he said over his shoulder to Ellie.

Ellie folded her arms. “Excuse me?”

When he didn’t look around, she followed him. “I’m not Pip, you know!” she hissed.

“What do you mean?”

Ellie spoke indignantly. “Ordering me around like that.”

Luke grinned. “Why do you always have to argue? Come on, quit with the mood. We’re at a show. Let’s enter you in a class.” He strode off.

“Luke!” Ellie ran after him. Now they were there, the reality of the situation was starting to sink in. “I really can’t go in a class.”

“Why not?” Luke’s eyes searched hers. “You want to, don’t you?”

“Well, yeah,” Ellie admitted. She desperately wanted a chance to jump. “Of course I do but—”

“Then do it.”

“But—”

“Listen to yourself! You’ve been spending too much time with Joe. But this…but that…” Luke imitated. He spread his arms. “Who cares about buts? Look, there’s the secretary’s office.” He bounded up the steps into the small wooden shed where people entered the classes and collected their numbers. Before Ellie could stop him, he was fishing some money out of his pocket and entering her and Gabriel in the Gamblers’ Stakes.

She stood there open-mouthed. “You’re crazy, Luke!” she said, unable to stop herself from smiling as he jumped back down the steps and handed her a number.

He grinned. “Nope. You’re the crazy one. You’re going to be taking Gabriel in the Gamblers’ Stakes!” Chuckling, he strode back to the horsebox.

There were four jumping classes for the horses. The main jumping classes were the Novice, Intermediate and Open Jumping. Luke was taking both horses in the Open Jumping. The final class of the night was the Gamblers’ Stakes, a class where each rider had to jump around the ring for two minutes, collecting points for every fence they jumped, with the hardest and biggest fences having the most points attached. The rider with the most points won.

“How do you think the horses will do?” Ellie asked as they tacked up.

“Oh, I’m not going to jump Pericles fast. He really is just here for the experience,” Luke replied. “He’s not a speed horse and it wouldn’t be fair.”

“What about Gabriel?” said Ellie.

“He’s totally different. He could have been a show jumper. The problem is stopping him once he’s in the ring.”

“Oh, great!” Ellie groaned, her stomach turning somersaults.

“You’ll be fine!” Luke told her airily. “Just point him at the jumps and hang on. He’ll do the rest!”

Both horses were on their toes, sidling around as Ellie and Luke mounted. Standing at 15.2 hands high, Gabriel was taller than Ellie was used to, and with his head up and his hocks—his back legs—underneath him he felt as if he’d grown a couple more inches. “Steady, boy,” she soothed, stroking his neck as he jogged towards the working-in area. Used to Luke’s heavier weight and stronger hands, Gabriel pulled at the bit. Ellie murmured to him. She wished she could take him somewhere quiet and try connecting with him, talk to him, but with Luke there it was impossible to slip away.

The working-in ring was full of horses cantering around or going over the practice jumps in the center of the ring. Occasionally, grooms would risk their lives to dart across the ring and tighten a noseband or fix a boot. As Ellie began to trot Gabriel around he snatched at his bit, but soon he began to settle down. When she felt he had calmed down enough, she turned him towards the practice fence. Instantly, his ears pricked and he plunged forward. Grabbing hold of his plaits, it was all she could do to cling on and use her legs as he raced at the fence. He cleared it by miles, making her fly up from the saddle.

“Whoa!” she gasped. She pulled him into a circle and slowed him down. Her heart was pounding but her eyes were shining. What a jump!

“Having fun yet?” Luke grinned as he cantered steadily over the jump on Pericles and rode up beside her.

She grinned. “You bet!”

Pericles jumped a steady clear round in the Open Jumping but there was nothing steady about Gabriel’s round. Luke raced him over the course, but to Ellie’s delight he went clear. She threw her arms around the horse as Luke halted, patting his neck. “He’s in the jump-off,” she said, feeding him mints.

The jump-off was for the ten horses who had all gone clear, and was a timed event—the fastest round with the fewest faults would win. Pericles jumped clear again, but Luke stuck to his word and didn’t rush him. With Gabriel it was a different matter. Riding superbly, Luke galloped him around the course and cut inside fences in a way that no one else dared to do, almost seeming to lift the horse over fences. As they approached the last jump, a wide parallel, Luke pushed Gabriel into a gallop. Ellie held her breath. They were almost home! Gabriel reached the fence but was just too far off. He caught the back pole with his hooves as he landed. It bounced to the ground. Four faults.

“Damn!” said Luke as he rode out, but his eyes were exhilarated. “If we’d have nailed that last fence we’d have won by miles. God, what a round!”

No one else came close to Luke’s time, but there were five clear rounds in the jump-off so in the end Pericles was fifth and Gabriel sixth. Luke went into the ring on Pericles, leading Gabriel, to collect his two rosettes. When he came out he stuffed them carelessly into his jacket pocket.

“Don’t do that, you’ll crease them,” Ellie told him.

“So?” Luke laughed. “I’m not going to keep them. Who cares about a fifth and sixth rosette—winning’s what counts.” He patted Gabriel’s neck. “Next time…”

At the indoor school the course was being rearranged for the Gamblers’ Stakes. When it was ready, Ellie walked around it on foot to work out the route she would take. The jumps looked very big compared to the ones she had jumped on Picasso in the working hunter pony class. She noticed a couple of easy fences, but jumping those wouldn’t win the competition. Her eyes were drawn to the fences that carried the most points. First, there was a big double with two wide spreads, then an imposing upright fence made of bright green and white planks, and finally a massive red wall that was worth twice as many points as anything else. Ellie walked up to it. She could barely see over the top. Could she really jump it?

For a moment she wondered what Joe would say if he’d been there. She could almost hear him telling her not to even try it, that it would be stupid.

She hesitated, then walked back to the collecting ring where Luke was holding Gabriel. “You ready for this?” he asked.

She took a deep breath. “Oh, yes.” She couldn’t wait to get into the ring. The atmosphere of the show had taken her over. Stroking Gabriel’s warm neck, she watched as the first competitor was called in.

When it was her turn Ellie rode into the ring, her heart in her mouth. Gabriel was excited to be in there again. The seated area was now full with people and she could hear Gabriel’s snorts echoing through the quiet air as she rode around, waiting for the bell to tell her to start.

Just keep jumping
, she thought, excitement gripping her.

Be sensible
, she heard Joe’s voice again in her head. She pushed it away.

Luke was standing in the cafe. He grinned and gave her a thumbs-up and she grinned back. The next minute the bell was ringing out and she was off. Gabriel raced towards the first jump—a small spread, then over the gate, the parallel bars and then the big double. All thought of being sensible had vanished from her mind now. She turned Gabriel again and again, facing him at the fences, aware of the points racking up. The urge to win was beating through her, the desire to jump faster, bigger…

Suddenly she found herself at the top of the ring with the choice between the wall and the small spread again. She didn’t hesitate. Gabriel thundered towards the wall. Ellie had never jumped anything so big in her life. It loomed in front of her, red, white and massive. She held her breath as Gabriel sank back on to his hocks and then he was soaring through the air, clearing it easily. It felt like a lifetime before they landed and she tensed, waiting for the fall of bricks, but there was nothing apart from the sweet sound of his hooves as he cantered on. She’d done it! Elation surged through her, and in the final seconds she turned towards the double and flew over both fences one more time, landing just as the bell rang to end her round.

Gasping for breath, eyes shining, patting Gabriel over and over again, she rode out of the ring. Luke leaped over the fence to meet her. “God, no one else has even attempted the wall.” He looked amused and impressed. “That was awesome, Ellie!”

Slithering off, she threw her arms around Gabriel. “He was brilliant!” She felt like she had fireworks going off inside her.

“Told you—I knew you’d enjoy it.”

Ellie enjoyed the moment when she went into the ring to collect the red first-place rosette even more. She led the lap of honor and cantered out, feeling as if every cell in her body was buzzing. She was so glad she’d listened to Luke and gone to the show, so glad she’d just gone ahead and done it. Whatever happened, whatever trouble she got in, she’d always have that night. It was the same as when she’d bought Spirit. She knew she shouldn’t have done it, but she hadn’t listened to that sensible bit of her brain and was so glad she hadn’t.

“So, it makes up for not going out tonight?” Luke said as they led Gabriel back to the trailer.

“Definitely! I loved it!”

“Knew you would.” He tapped his nose. “See, I know everything.”