JESS SAT UNDER the trees in the mares’ paddock. Walkabout snuffled her head and breathed puffy kisses over her cheeks. She smiled. ‘You’re so cute, Wally.’
‘Hey, Jess.’
She spun around. Luke had a halter in his hand.
‘You’ve come to get her, haven’t you?’
He nodded.
Jess looked to the ground.
Luke slipped through the fence and sat down next to her. ‘You’ll still be able to see her all the time, and break her in one day.’
‘I feel like I’ve let her down.’
‘Nah, you haven’t. You don’t have to own her to have that bond with her. Connecting with a horse isn’t about owning it.’
‘Reckon?’
‘You already proved it.’ He shrugged. ‘I can’t afford to buy Legsy either, but he’ll always be my mate. Harry’ll never have the same bond with him that I do.’
‘Can’t you save up for Legsy? All those ribbons and prizes you win. You’d have a much better chance than me.’ Luke and Legs had won the working stockhorse class at the draft and knocked off half the open riders. Jess was only just beginning to realise what a good rider he was.
‘Every time I win a class on him, his value goes up.’ Luke laughed at the irony. ‘I get to ride him. That’s good enough for me.’
‘At least you don’t have to worry about Lawson buying him,’ she said.
‘No, he’ll just inherit him.’
Jess laughed. ‘He’d have to kill Harry off first.’
Luke looked down and picked at some grass. ‘Harry’s got lung cancer, Jess.’
Jess was stunned. ‘Hey?’
‘Lawson will get Legs. One day.’
‘Harry’s got cancer?’
‘It’s not real bad,’ said Luke. ‘Harry’ll fight it. He’ll be around for ages yet.’
‘It’s still terrible.’
‘He’s a tough old fella,’ said Luke, as though trying to convince himself as much as Jess. He looked up and tried to smile. ‘Take more than that to knock him around.’
‘Wouldn’t he leave you Legsy?’
‘Lawson’s blood, Ryan’s adopted, I’m fostered,’ he said, explaining the hierarchy again. ‘There’ll be enough fighting over Biyanga without me putting my hand up for Legsy.’
Jess was stunned. ‘So Lawson’s going to get both our horses?’
‘Lawson’s all right,’ said Luke. ‘He’s pretty good with his own horses. Doesn’t fuss over them much, but he’s fair.’
‘He won’t care about them the way we do, you know he won’t.’
‘Maybe not,’ Luke shrugged. ‘Maybe yes, but in a different way. Harry reckons he was nuts about that horse, Dusty. He’s pretty fussy about what happens to Marnie, too.’
‘He wasn’t too happy about her getting pregnant.’ Jess couldn’t help but giggle.
Luke grinned. ‘He freaked.’
Jess thought of Muscles grunting over Marnie, and the min min lights dancing around her belly while she nibbled on mulga seeds. Suddenly her heart skipped a beat.
‘Oh, Luke!’ She stood up. ‘Luke! ’ ‘What?’ He looked at her as though she’d gone kooky.
‘The lights! The three white lights!’
‘The min min lights?’
‘Bob said they were ghosts!’
‘Thought you said they were just gas balls?’
‘Do you reckon they were gas balls?’
‘I reckon they were weird.’
‘Diamond got her name because she had three silver diamonds on her rump. When the three lights were circling around me I thought it was her, giving me a message, telling me I would win the campdraft.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Yeah, I know, that didn’t happen.’
‘So?’
She lowered her voice. ‘Do you reckon they could have been Diamond’s spirit? Her ghost? They disappeared into Marnie’s belly – while she was eating mulga seeds!’
‘Mulga seeds?’
‘I planted mulga seeds on Diamond’s grave! My auntie sent them to me,’ Jess grinned at him, ‘from Longwood!’
Luke looked totally baffled.
‘Reckon Lawson would sell me Marnie’s foal?’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because the vet’s coming this morning to give her a needle.’
‘Oh my God, I have to stop him!’
She tore her phone from her pocket.
‘Lawson!’
‘Jess. You haven’t changed your mind, have you?’
‘Yes – well, no . . . well, kind of. Has the vet been yet?’
‘He’s here now. Why?’
‘Don’t do it. I want the foal. Can I buy the foal?’ She paused. ‘Please?’
‘I don’t even know if she’s pregnant. She’s getting a needle just in case.’
‘Lawson, please don’t give her that needle. It’s the min min!’
‘What are you on about now?’
‘Diamond got her name because she had three silver diamonds on her rump. There were three min mins, that night at Longwood. They disappeared into Marnie’s belly, while she was eating mulga seeds!’
‘What?’
‘I planted mulga seeds on Diamond’s grave! They were from Longwood!’
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. Jess imagined the faces he was pulling.
‘Are you back on that totem trip again?’
‘Umm,’ Jess thought about it. She was, she definitely was. ‘Yes,’ she said.
‘Girls and bloody horses,’ she heard him groan. ‘Jess, I don’t know what you’re on about, but you shouldn’t go getting all excited about something that may not have happened. I don’t even know if she’s really pregnant.’
‘She is. I know she is. I have two hundred and forty-six dollars. I’ll buy the foal from you.’
‘Oh, forget it. She’s my good mare,’ said Lawson. ‘If she had a foal, it’d put her out of action for eleven months. Plus another six months until the foal is weaned.’
‘You can still ride her for about six or seven months, so it would really only be about a year,’ she corrected him. ‘Less, even.’
‘Nup,’ said Lawson.
‘Well, I’ll just have to sell Dodger and buy Walkabout, then. You promised me first option, remember.’
‘Yeah, but— but . . .’ Lawson stammered. ‘This is crazy. Are you blackmailing me?’
‘Not really,’ she grinned. ‘I’m doing you a favour. You get your once-in-a-lifetime horse and I get mine.’
Lawson gave a defeatist sigh. ‘I’ll get the mare tested.’
When she snapped her phone shut, she noticed Luke staring at her. ‘What?’ She couldn’t get the smile off her face.
‘You just got a foal out of Marnie for two hundred bucks?’
‘Ahuh.’
‘Can you ring him back and ask if I can have Legsy for two hundred bucks?’
She shoved him on the shoulder. ‘Don’t be silly.’