Aunt Flora was what Jade’s granddad would call a ‘character’. She pushed her heavy black-framed glasses up the bridge of her nose and called to Pip in an implausibly high voice. ‘Let me see you, my darling one!’

Andy had warned Jade that her aunt was ‘a bit weird’ and could sometimes be ‘not mean, just scary’. This was a fair description, Jade had thought as she watched the aunt in her stonewashed jeans, ancient work boots and bright purple blouse slam the door of her Morris Minor.

A woman apparently accustomed to doing several things at once and everything quick-smart, Aunt Flora ignored Jade’s welcome and got straight down to business, firing off question after question about Pip. ‘Who owned Pip before you?’ The awkward story of Pip’s rescue from the pound made Flora raise her eyebrows. ‘What work had Pip done before her illness?’ Jade’s proud mention of the showjumping championships also fell flat. Flora, it seemed, was not a fan of jumping. It was only when asked about Pip’s soundness and quietness that Jade felt capable of answering satisfactorily.

‘Definitely sound enough for short lead-rein beach walks? Definitely quiet enough for tiny beginners?’ Flora interrogated Jade one last time.

‘Yes and yes.’ Jade produced the vet certificate she had had prepared, stating that Pip was now well enough for very light riding.

Flora squinted at the page — first peering over the top of, then through, her glasses. ‘Hmm,’ she said finally. Jade couldn’t tell whether this was a good or a bad ‘Hmm’.

‘Just go and say hello to Pip, Flora,’ said Andy, who had come along to give Jade moral support. (Her aunt needed no such thing.)

‘All right.’ Flora sighed, before again emitting the surprisingly high and affectionate greeting, ‘Come here, my beauty, my little chicken.’

Even Jade had never treated Pip to such sickening endearments. The old black mare raised her head quizzically, like a person who isn’t quite sure if a ‘hello’ is meant for them or someone else.

‘Come and say good morning to Aunt Flora, angel.’ Flora felt in her jeans pocket and found a slightly withered chunk of carrot. ‘Morning-tea time?’

Jade smiled, watching the funny aunt and her beloved pony meeting. Seeing the carrot and sensing the kind tones, Pip pricked her ears and joined them at the fence line. Taking the carrot gently in her lips, Pip rested the side of her face against Flora’s shoulder as she chewed.

‘We will be fine friends, won’t we, my love?’ Flora said, stroking the pony’s mane.

‘Tangled and full of burrs,’ Flora announced, looking at Jade.

‘I’m sorry,’ Jade said hurriedly, wanting to point out that there was, at most, one or two burrs stuck in Pip’s mane. ‘I thought I’d got them all out.’

‘She’ll be given a wonderful, caring home at Samudra — my riding school,’ Flora went on. ‘I think she’s just what I’m looking for.’

Andy clapped her hands together. ‘Awesome! I knew she’d be perfect.’

Jade, stinging a little from Flora’s complaint about Pip’s mane, tried to match Andy’s enthusiasm. She thanked Flora profusely.

‘It makes it much easier to say goodbye to her, knowing that she’s going to a kind home,’ Jade said, hugging her old pony’s neck possessively.

‘Pip will be treated like royalty — you needn’t worry,’ Flora said. ‘Largely, she’ll just be a paddock mate to steady the young ones who don’t go out on the treks. I think she’ll make a wonderful minder for them. And, when there are very nervous or inexperienced clients, she’ll go for short rides, and never so much as break into a trot. The sea might do her feet some good, too.’

It did indeed sound like the perfect home — the only place that Jade could bear to send Pip to after her comfortable life at Mr White’s.

‘When are you going to collect Pip, Flora?’ Andy asked.

Jade imagined dismantling the temporary fence of the diet paddock, pulling out the pigtail posts and coiling up the electric tape. She swallowed.

‘Next week, if that’s convenient for you, Jade? I have to come back to town then anyway, to run some annoying errands. Those French backpackers who’ve been helping with the horses for the last fortnight are moving on. It’s a real pain coming up to high season. There’s enough work for Nellie and me as it is, and with all the summer holiday riders and without those two extra pairs of hands, well I just don’t know how we’re going to manage. I mean, they could barely speak English and learnt the ropes painfully slowly, but we’ll still miss their help.’

‘So, you need two extra pairs of hands?’ Andy asked.

‘Yes, badly.’

‘What about Jade and me?’

Jade glanced at Andy, eyes wide. ‘What?’ she mouthed behind Flora’s back.

‘Would you?’ Flora asked, her voice softening as if the girls were horses. ‘It’d be hard work, you know. Not just a riding holiday — though there would be plenty of riding, too, of course. You’d be welcome to bring your ponies. Speaking of which, is that handsome boy yours, Jade?’ Flora was pointing at Taniwha, who, startled by the workers thinning apples off the trees behind the back paddock, had begun a slow, showy trot along the fence line, tail high in the air.

‘Yep, that’s my monster — Taniwha.’

‘What is he? Anglo-Arab cross?’

‘I think so. Anglo-Arab and Kaimanawa.’

Flora looked at Jade with new interest. ‘Do you know anything about endurance riding, Jade?’

Jade had heard of it, and told Flora as much.

‘That pony has real endurance potential, if you ask me.’

‘Flora rides in endurance races and breeds horses especially for it,’ Andy explained with some pride.

‘If you do decide to come with Andy and help me over the summer, bring Taniwha!’ Flora demanded. ‘We can have a go at training him up.’

‘Wouldn’t that be cool, Jade, if Tani really loved endurance racing? He’d finally be good at something,’ Andy said.

Jade wanted to object and say that Tani was a really good jumper when he wasn’t manic, but instead agreed weakly.

‘This is so exciting! Will you take us back with you when you collect Pip next week, Aunt Flora?’

‘Don’t call me “Aunt Flora”,’ said Aunt Flora. ‘It makes me sound like an old spinster.’

Jade opened her mouth, but closed it again quickly.

‘Anyway, yes, provided your parents don’t mind me whisking you away and turning you into slaves over the holidays, I’ll take you back with me next Wednesday. You are sure that you can hack the work? Early mornings, more than just your own pony to care for?’

‘Yes!’ Andy shouted. ‘I can’t imagine a better way to spend the summer.’

Jade thought back to the summer before Pip got laminitis. There had been shows every weekend, no school, nothing to do but ride. Of course, it hadn’t been the best summer — and that was an understatement. Jade’s first summer without her mum had not been easy at all. But she had coped. With Pip and her granddad, Jade had coped.

‘Won’t it be amazing, Jade? Nothing but swimming, riding and working with horses all day,’ Andy sighed happily.

‘It does sound good. But I’ll have to talk to my dad.’ Yes, her dad probably wouldn’t be keen on Jade spending Christmas away from home. With just the two of them, plus granddad, if anyone was away the family felt too small.

‘Tell him it’ll be character-building,’ Andy said, making Aunt Flora laugh.

‘Tell him that mean old Flora is going to keep you out of trouble by giving you plenty of wholesome jobs to do. You could also mention that it’s a very nice beach, just in case he’s interested in joining you.’

That was an idea: Christmas at the beach. That’s how Jade would pitch it.

Tradition. Ads on TV with Santa Claus in red and white togs, surfing. Not having to cook ham or turkey — barbecue or picnic instead. And, as Andy had suggested, character-building hard work. On her bike ride home from Mr White’s, Jade listed again and again in her head the arguments that might win her dad over.

‘No,’ he said. They were sitting out on the back deck, both eating cheese and piccalilli sandwiches. ‘We’re having Christmas at granddad’s, end of story.’

‘Why?’ Jade whined.

‘Because I said so.’ Her dad wasn’t even arguing well. His fishing magazine was open next to his plate and his eyes didn’t rise from the page.

‘Flaxton is landlocked,’ Jade announced.

‘What?’

‘Why are you reading a fishing magazine?’

Her dad stared at her, a smile beginning. ‘I picked it up at work. Is this another reason for traipsing out to some beach for Christmas?’

‘Yes.’ Jade wasn’t a good liar, so didn’t even try. ‘Yes, it is. You are clearly interested in fishing. You can’t fish in Flaxton, but you can fish in the sea. Ocean Bay has the sea — so, we should go to Ocean Bay!’

‘I think I’ve said this before, but I hope you’re planning to study Law one day.’

Jade grinned. ‘Have I won yet?’

Her dad sighed deeply and shook his head, a defeated man. ‘Almost. We’ll leave it up to your granddad, shall we? And where would we stay? Did Aunt Flora have an answer to that? In an expensive bach, I guess.’

Granddad and money. Jade could have predicted that these would be the moot points. They never seemed to be far from her father’s mind.

‘Granddad would love the beach!’ Jade tried. ‘Barbecue for dinner every night. And he could bring Holly; you two could take her for long walks every night.’

‘We’ll see. Just don’t be too pushy.’

Visiting Granddad wasn’t pushy, was it? Jade could have waited until dinner time the following evening — they often ate together on Sundays — but there was nothing wrong with making the forty-five-minute bike ride to Granddad’s house, her first home in Flaxton.

On a summery mid-afternoon, it was a pleasant ride. Jade couldn’t remember how unfamiliar this road had once been. When her granddad had driven her home from the bus stop and she had gazed silently out the window, looking for horses in the paddocks, she hadn’t noticed street signs or known what crops were growing in each field. All she had seen was Pip, standing in the paddock of the farm-animal pound with a scrawny ginger-coloured goat. Other than Pip, nothing had stood out in Flaxton that day. It had seemed empty and quiet.

Somehow, Flaxton had grown rather than shrunk as Jade became more familiar with the little town. Cities and schools, she had noticed, seemed to get smaller and more manageable as one got used to them. Flaxton, by contrast, had opened up — it had proved itself liveable, something Jade hadn’t been sure of at all as her granddad had first parked his Falcon in the driveway of what was to be her new home.

Wheeling her bike up the same driveway now, Jade found her granddad looking under the bonnet of a silver Honda. A small black-and-white dog was sprawled in the sun behind him, looking up now and then at her master as if to say, ‘This is so boring.’

‘Holly!’ Jade called. The young fox terrier’s ears pricked. Seeing Jade, the dog leapt to her paws and did her sideways run to meet her.

‘Nice surprise.’ Her granddad wiped his hands on a cloth and closed the bonnet of the Honda. ‘What can I do for you, Jade?’

‘Nothing,’ Jade said in a high-pitched voice. ‘Just saying hello.’

Granddad stared at her for a moment, then smiled. This made Jade feel slightly guilty: it was true, she seldom bothered to ride out to see her granddad unless she wanted something.

‘I think it’s time for a cold drink. Might even have some biscuits somewhere.’

The two went inside, followed by Holly, whose mood had much improved at the unexpected visitor’s arrival.

‘Do you like fishing?’ Jade asked, as she looked for clean glasses in the kitchen cupboard.

‘Not especially.’

‘No?’

‘Not really my cup of tea. Why do you ask?’

‘Dad was reading a fishing magazine today. I think he might be really into it.’

‘Reckon we should get him a fishing rod for Christmas?’

‘Maybe.’ Jade steered the conversation closer to Ocean Bay. ‘That’d be a great idea if we spent Christmas out at a beach.’

‘Here they are … Can biscuits go off? I think they’re quite old.’ Granddad slowly opened the packet and put five biscuits on a plate.

‘If we went to Ocean Bay, we could stay at a bach next to a riding school. And Holly could come, too.’ Jade bit into one of the biscuits. Its texture wasn’t quite right; the biscuit was too soft and crumbly, and the jam too hard and gluey.

‘Whose bach?’

Jade wasn’t sure. ‘A friend of Andy’s Aunt Flora …’

‘Where’s this beach?’

‘Ocean Bay. You know —’

‘I do, actually. Nice swimming beach.’

Jade grinned. ‘So you’re keen for a beach Christmas?’

‘I didn’t say that.’

‘C’mon, Granddad, it’ll be fun. We won’t have to even try cooking a ham — it can all be barbecues.’ Jade thought she saw her grandfather’s face soften a little.

‘I thought the ham last year wasn’t too bad.’

Jade bit her tongue. ‘You like barbecuing.’

‘Why are you so set on this beach idea? Something about a riding school, you said?’

Seeing that honesty was the only option now, Jade told her granddad the whole story. He listened and sipped at his lemon cordial. When Jade had finished explaining, he frowned, thoughtful.

‘You know the problems already, don’t you? Your dad wants you with us over the holiday — and so do I, for that matter. If we all go to the beach, we can still have a family Christmas, but it may not be as simple as all that. I can’t believe that there would still be baches available there only a couple of weeks out from Christmas Day.’

‘Maybe you could stay at the riding school with me?’ Jade suggested.

‘If you had to choose between Christmas with me and your dad, and working with the horses, which would it be?’

Jade frowned now. ‘Why don’t you two just come with me?’

‘Because it’s probably not practical.’

Jade’s face fell. Her mouth pursed in a sullen way her grandfather recognized well.

‘Look, girl, me and your dad can survive a Christmas without you, if you’re that set on going.’

‘You’re making me feel guilty,’ Jade whined.

‘Nope. I’m being practical.’

‘It’s the same thing!’

‘Jade, I’ll talk to your dad. Maybe we could drive out for Christmas Day. It’s not so far, really. What about a picnic on the beach? I could bring along the ham?’ Granddad was trying to be jolly.

Jade smiled. ‘Maybe that could work? If you and Dad didn’t mind? I don’t want to feel selfish.’

Her granddad raised his eyebrows. ‘You don’t want to feel selfish? Silly old thing — you should be having fun with your mates at your age. And if your idea of fun is working free for someone’s auntie over the Christmas holidays, then that’s fine.’

Jade’s eyebrows crept together again. ‘You think it’s a bad idea?’

‘For most people, yes. But you’re a funny girl, Jade. It might be exactly your idea of a good time.’

Freewheeling down Kopanga Road towards the strawberry-pink bungalow her dad had bought nearly a year ago, Jade spotted Laura walking her dogs, Bubble and Squeak. Slowing down, and throwing a leg over the bike until she was standing on just one pedal (something Jade had only recently mastered), she called to her school friend.

‘Come back to my place. Mum’s just baked a cake,’ Laura answered. Laura’s mum was always baking.

‘Okay.’

‘Oi, give it a rest, Squeak. He hates bikes for some reason.’ One of the terriers was straining on its leash and snapping at Jade’s front tyre. The dog was so small and unthreatening that they had to laugh.

‘Bubble’s very well-behaved; it’s such a shame about Squeak,’ Laura sighed.

Laura’s house, behind the local café, was conveniently around the corner from Jade’s. In no time they were herding dogs and a bicycle through the back gate, and breathing in a rich chocolaty smell.

‘Have you told Jade about our Christmas plans?’ Laura’s mum asked, handing the girls slices of still-warm cake.

‘I was just about to. We’re going to the beach!’

‘What?’ Jade felt like the words had been taken out of her mouth.

‘The Coromandel! My uncle has a boat now and everything. Finally, a Christmas away from Flaxton.’

‘And I won’t be in charge of the cooking: merely a sous-chef, this year,’ Laura’s mum grinned. ‘That’s why we’re all in such a good mood. One more week, then the café is closed for a fortnight. A proper holiday at last. It’ll be bliss.’

Jade smiled. ‘I’m getting out of Flaxton and going to the beach for Christmas, too — to Ocean Bay.’

‘Really?’ Laura’s mum looked confused. ‘I bumped into your dad at the supermarket not long ago. He told me you were spending the day with your granddad.’

‘Oh, yes,’ Jade went on. ‘Dad and Granddad will join me out at the beach for a picnic on Christmas Day.’

‘So you’ll be out there by yourself? How come?’ Laura asked.

‘You know Andy, from pony club? Her Aunt Flora has agreed to take Pip for her riding school. When she was around inspecting her, Flora asked me and Andy if we’d like to work for her over the summer. It’ll just be lots of riding and swimming and looking after horses, so we said yes.’

‘Amazing!’ Laura’s eyes were wide. Although she wasn’t particularly interested in horses, she could see the allure of the riding school. ‘Won’t Becca feel like she’s missing out?’

Jade hadn’t considered that. ‘Becca’s busy with the show season,’ she said quickly.

‘And are you sure your dad doesn’t mind you being away? How long are you staying with this Aunt Flora?’

‘He’s okay with it. Andy and I will leave on Wednesday and stay for a few weeks, I think.’ As Jade answered each question, her certainty gradually departed.

‘Well, it sounds like fun. Nothing like Christmas at the beach, is there?’ Laura’s mum said.

‘I’ll tell Dad you said that. In fact, I ’d better go home and talk to him about it some more. Wednesday’s only three days away! Thanks very much for the cake, and have a great time in the Coromandel.’

‘You’re welcome, dear, and you have a nice Christmas, too — wherever you are.’

Laura’s mum clearly wasn’t convinced. But Jade was determined now. Come Wednesday, she would be at the beach.