THE NEXT DAY was Christmas Eve. In the morning, Jess helped her mother in the herb patch, picking and bunching thyme for the markets. As she walked between the raised mounds of soil, her feet crushed the mint that crept uninvited onto the pathway, releasing a waft of toothpasty scent. But Jess’s mind was on other matters. She had to present a good case to her mother.
She tossed an empty cardboard box onto the pathway, then began.
‘Mum,’ she said, rummaging through the thyme plants looking for some fresh shoots. If she acted helpful and busy, her mother might be more receptive. ‘You know the little foal I told you about?’
‘Hmmm.’
‘Lawson Blake wants to buy her.’
‘So what’s wrong with that?’ her mum asked, holding a bunch of sprigs and snipping the base into neatness. ‘I know you don’t like him, but isn’t he a farrier? Surely that would be a good home.’
‘No, it would be an absolutely terrible home,’ said Jess. ‘He is way too heavy-handed to own a filly like Walkabout.’
Caroline tossed the herbs into the waiting box. ‘I’m sure Harry wouldn’t let her go to a cruel home.’
‘But Lawson has already roughed her up. I saw him. He and another horrible man threw a rope around her neck and nearly strangled her. She was terrified; you should have heard her squealing. She has all these rope burns around her neck and now I can’t get near her and—’
‘Hey, hey, hang on,’ said Caroline. ‘Calm down and explain things to me. Why did he rope her? What did Harry have to say about him doing that?’
‘Harry doesn’t own her, Mum. That other guy does – the guy that roped her. And besides, Lawson is Harry’s son, so he wouldn’t say anything against him.’
‘What!’ said Caroline. ‘You didn’t tell me Harry was related to Lawson Blake.’
‘He’s nothing like Lawson, Mum.’ Jess decided it was as good a time as any to pop the question. ‘Can’t we buy her?’
‘Since when has Lawson Blake been Harry’s son?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Jess, impatiently. ‘Probably since he was born.’
‘Yes, well, that makes perfect sense, doesn’t it,’ said Caroline, rubbing her chin.
Jess resisted the temptation to roll her eyes.
‘Mum, this is really important to me. Walkabout is a special horse. She’s one in a million. We can’t let Lawson Blake get his hands on her. You saw what happened to my face that day. Just imagine what would happen to a horse under his care. We can’t let that happen, Mum, we can’t.’
Caroline started to pick more thyme. She motioned with her secateurs for Jess to do the same. ‘Well, your father and I were planning to buy you a new horse after Christmas. But are you sure you want to buy a foal? Wouldn’t it be better to buy a horse that you can ride straight away?’
‘No, I just want her. It’s hard to explain. There’s something about Walkabout that is so much like Diamond. Walkabout was born the day Diamond died. She was born under the coachwood trees down on the river. Mum, I think they’re . . . spiritually connected.’
Jess looked pleadingly at her mother. Surely Caroline would understand how important this was. ‘Diamond was buried under a coachwood tree. That must be their totem, Mum.’
Her mother looked a little confused, but she smiled. ‘Are you saying that Diamond has been reincarnated as Walkabout?’
‘Well, I . . .’ I sound as kooky as she does. ‘No . . . Well, sort of.’
Caroline smiled. ‘I think the karmic yoga has done you good, darling. How much do her owners want for her?’
Here we go . . .
‘Two thousand dollars.’
‘Two thousand? You’ve got to be kidding!’ said Caroline. ‘Crikey, Jess, we don’t have that sort of money.’
‘Not even if we use my savings? I have two hundred and forty-six dollars.’
‘We’ll get you a new horse, but we really don’t have that much money. How about we go looking after Christmas and get you another one?’
‘I don’t want another one,’ Jess said flatly.
‘I hate to disappoint you, darling, but two thousand dollars? We could put a new engine in the tractor for that. We could do many things with two thousand dollars, and buying a horse isn’t high on the list.’ Caroline looked at her daughter. ‘Besides, you never know what else might come up.’
‘What about my education fund that Grand-dad left for me?’ Jess asked. It was a last-ditch effort, but she was desperate.
Caroline just gave her a cold don’t-even-think-about-it stare.
Jess sighed. She picked up the full box of thyme, put it on the back of the truck with the others and pulled out another empty one. There was no point even talking about it. She’d never be able to buy Walkabout.
When Jess arrived at Harry’s place later that day, Grace and Rosie were riding Legs and Nosey around the arena. Tom and Luke sat on the rails, yelling instructions to them. Jess walked over and rested her elbows on the middle rail, peering through the slabs of timber.
‘Just sit quiet, Rosie,’ Tom called out. ‘He’s still fresh. He might pigroot.’
Rosie answered something Jess couldn’t hear and continued walking Nosey around on a light contact.
There was the clink of a metal gate latch and Katrina led Chelpie into the arena.
‘Hi, Katrina,’ said Jess.
Katrina relatched the gate without answering or turning around.
‘Well, that was a waste of breath,’ Jess muttered.
Katrina mounted and began circling Chelpie at the other end of the arena. The little white mare dazzled with whiteness, even though it wasn’t a particularly sunny day. She stretched her perfectly rounded neck down into the bit and walked with such floaty poise that she looked almost surreal.
At the other end, Grace cantered a couple of circles on Legsy and then, with barely a pull on the colt’s mouth, she commanded him to slide on his hocks into a halt. Then she lifted the reins to the left and the colt bounced into an easy canter again, loping steadily towards the fence. At the rail, Grace released the reins and gave him a pat, signalling that work was over. Legsy stretched his neck, puffing gently.
Grace looked over at Luke, who was sitting on the rail. ‘Can Jess have a ride on Legsy?’
Luke shrugged. ‘Wanna ride?’ he asked Jess.
She shook her head.
‘He’s really sensible,’ said Grace. ‘Come on, if we’re going to be besties, you’ll have to get back in the saddle soon. You won’t have much fun just mucking out stables all the time.’
Jess leaned against the rail. ‘Not today, Gracie. I don’t feel like it.’
Tom twisted around and looked down at her. ‘Why so glum, chum?’
‘Harry reckons Lawson is going to buy Walkabout.’
Tom raised his eyebrows with surprise.
‘That’s bad!’ said Grace.
‘Lawson can be rough with horses,’ said Tom. ‘That’s why Harry won’t let him ride Biyanga.’
‘I know,’ said Jess, glad that they understood.
‘Why would he want Wally?’ said Luke, pushing Legsy’s head from his lap. ‘She’ll be too small for him.’ He brushed a large blob of white slobber off his jeans and frowned at Grace, who was grinning. ‘Get him off me!’
Grace reined the horse back a step.
‘Harry reckons it doesn’t matter how small she is,’ said Jess. ‘Sometimes the smaller ones are better on their feet. He says she’s the best foal Biyanga has ever produced.’
‘Maybe if Lawson can’t ride Biyanga, he thinks Wally would be the next best thing,’ said Luke.
‘He’s just trying to get back at Harry for not letting him ride Biyanga,’ said Grace.
Tom shifted up the rail towards them. ‘Why don’t you buy her, Jess?’
‘I already thought of that,’ said Jess. ‘I asked Mum this morning and she said no. Wally’s worth two thousand dollars and we just don’t have that much money.’
Tom whistled. ‘That’s a lot of money for a freshly weaned filly.’
Grace called out to her sister. ‘Hey, Rosie, did you hear that? Lawson is going to buy Walkabout.’
Rosie rode towards them, a horrified look on her face.
‘He was in the mares’ paddock yesterday. I saw him rope Walkabout and nearly strangle her. It was so awful,’ said Jess.
‘Lawson actually used to be quite nice before he had that big fight with Ryan,’ said Grace.
Rosie glanced over her shoulder. ‘Something happened in their family, but we’re not allowed to know what. Harry gets a bit narky if you ask him about it.’
‘Yeah,’ said Grace. ‘We’re too young and stupid to understand, apparently.’
‘Well, he probably knows that you’d go flapping your mouth off to everyone if you knew,’ said Rosie.
‘Would your mum let you have Walkabout if you could find the money?’ asked Tom.
Jess shrugged. ‘Yeah, I guess so.’
‘Well then, somehow we have to find two thousand dollars,’ he said.
Jess stared at him. Easy for him to say. His family was rich. If he was in this position, he would just . . .
‘Hey,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you buy her, Tom?’
Tom grinned and gave Nosey a pat. ‘I kinda had something else in mind.’
Jess’s face dropped. ‘Oh.’
‘And besides, you should own her, not me. She’s your little buddy.’
Rosie spoke up. ‘I think we should unsaddle these horses and have a crisis talk in the tackroom.’
‘Yeah,’ said Grace, kicking off her stirrups and jumping off Legsy. ‘This is really bad.’
‘The feedroom would be better,’ said Luke, climbing down from the rails. ‘There’s not much to sit on in the tackroom.’
‘Yeah, and it’s more out of the way, too,’ said Tom, turning to glance at Katrina. ‘Not so close to you-know-who’s stable.’
‘Okay, let’s put these horses away and meet in the feedroom in ten minutes,’ said Rosie, leading Nosey towards the gate.