‘They’ll be fine,’ Stevie said for the fortieth time. ‘Nick Saunders is a well-known international rider.’ Stevie knew this because she’d Googled him – more than once. ‘He’s not going to let anything happen to them. Anyway, why don’t you come with us?’
Fern screwed up her nose. ‘Ugh. I can’t think of anything worse than standing around in the mud and the rain, getting cold and soaked in a barn.’
‘If it’s in a barn, you’re hardly likely to get rained on,’ Stevie argued. As much as she was looking forward to seeing Nick again, she wasn’t looking forward to supervising her wayward nieces.
Fern waved a languid arm in the air. ‘You go. You’re more used to the outdoors. I’m going to have a nap.’
‘Mum? Do you want to come?’
‘No chance. I’m going to watch Give us a Clue on TV and have a nice cuppa. If you’ve got normal tea, that is.’
‘You know I have. You’ve been drinking it for the past two days.’ Stevie marched into the kitchen, yanked open a cupboard, got out a box of “normal” teabags and slapped it down on the table. ‘Help yourself to cake,’ she added. Not that her mother needed any invitation – she had practically eaten Stevie out of house and home since she’d arrived, all the while insisting she needed to lose weight. Stevie thought her mother was eating for two – herself and Fern!
On the way through the practically empty tea shop, Stevie whispered to Cassandra, ‘Wish me luck. If you need anything, call me.’
‘I can manage,’ Cassandra said. ‘We’re hardly overflowing with customers.’
‘Don’t remind me. At this rate the business will be sinking along with the village.’
‘It’ll perk up, you’ll see,’ Cassandra promised, but Stevie saw her friend cross her fingers.
With a heavy heart, she bundled the children into the car, and set off into the wild.
A couple of miles later she saw a sign for The Furlongs, and she turned off the main road. A series of twisting turns down a narrow lane and one false turn into the drive of someone’s secluded bungalow later, and they had arrived. Thankfully, the rain had eased off so she could actually see out of the windscreen, but she was still grateful to leave those nasty lanes behind. You never knew what you might encounter around the next horseshoe bend – give her London traffic any day. Not that she had driven much in London (too hard to find a parking space), which was why she’d been on foot the day a big red bus had taken a bit of a shine to her.
Impressive, Stevie thought, her gaze darting around as she drove the car slowly up the drive and parked it next to a humongous horsebox, all shiny and sleek. It looked more like one of those big American RVs she’d seen in a film, than a vehicle for moving horses from one place to another.
So far, so good.
She was further impressed with the yard itself. An L-shaped, one-storey run of stables (she knew this because some of them had horses’ heads poking over the top of the half-doors) was flanked by the side of the house, and the yard in front was cleaner than her kitchen floor. She’d expected mud and grass, and other stuff (horse poo, mainly) but it was pristine.
Even the kids were overwhelmed, because she hadn’t heard a peep out of them since they’d got out of the car.
‘That’s a horse,’ Jade said, breaking her silence and pointing to the nearest stable.
‘Yes, it is,’ Stevie agreed, wondering if they should wait here or go up to the house and knock on the door.
‘It’s very big,’ Jade added in a small voice.
It certainly was. The damned thing towered over them, its enormous black head tossing up and down, its nostrils flaring. It appeared ready to gobble them up. Thank goodness it was in its stable, Stevie thought, although she had an awful feeling it could get out if it really wanted to.
‘I see you’ve met Ebony,’ a voice from behind said, and Stevie whirled around, seeing Nick walking towards them. ‘She’s only a baby, just two years old, but she’s a sweetheart.’
Yeah, Stevie had met sweethearts like that before – playground bullies who fooled adults into thinking butter wouldn’t melt when they were, in fact, the spawn of the devil.
‘You can stroke her if you like,’ Nick said. ‘She won’t bite.’
Stevie stared at him doubtfully, as he lifted Jade up, taking the child to within an inch of the creature’s nose.
‘Here, let me show you, then you can do it,’ he suggested, and the little girl nodded.
Nick patted the long nose, then scratched the animal under the chin, as if it were a huge dog. Then it was Jade’s turn.
‘It’s warm and hairy,’ she said in wonderment.
‘Stroke the end of her nose,’ he suggested.
Jade did so and giggled. ‘It’s very soft.’
‘Horses have quite delicate noses and lips,’ Nick explained, ‘and just like you and me, they’ll jerk back in surprise if you make any sudden movements around their head because they’re worried you might hurt them.’
‘I’d never hurt it,’ Jade vowed solemnly. ‘Can I get on it, now?’
‘Not this one, she’s too lively for a novice like you.’
‘What’s a novice and can I be one?’ Macey asked, tugging at the hem of Nick’s jacket.
Stevie met Nick’s gaze and they smiled at each other. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all, Stevie hoped.
‘Let’s get you kitted out, then I’ll show you which horse you can ride,’ Nick said.
As he led them across the yard, Stevie leaned in close. She’d intended to ask him a question, but ended up sniffing him instead, as the glorious scent of man and aftershave reached her nose.
She took another deep breath, then realised he was giving her a quizzical look.
‘Er, um, aren’t the horses a bit big for the girls?’ she asked, coming to her senses. He had smelled really nice, though, and for some reason it seemed familiar. Giving herself a mental shake, she tried to concentrate on his answer.
‘I’ve got a couple of Shetlands,’ he said, as if that was supposed to make sense to her. Were they jumpers, like Argyle and Fair Isle, and if so, why was the choice of knitwear important?
‘Old Mrs Bont had to give up her smallholding a couple of years back and she was desperate to find them a good home, so I offered to take them in, along with Sydney, the donkey. She still comes to visit them when she’s feeling well enough.’ It was Nick’s turn to lean in close. ‘Cancer,’ he said in a low voice. ‘Such a shame.’
Stevie was still grappling with the image of a donkey wearing a pullover.
‘Tia,’ he called, as the little group came to a halt outside an open door. Stevie checked out the inside – no horses, thankfully, but lots of shelves and things dangling on hooks.
Tia appeared at the top of the slight ramp leading from the house to the yard and wheeled herself slowly down it. Stevie wondered if she should offer to help, but took her cue from Nick, who remained right where he was.
‘Nice to see you again,’ Stevie said politely. Tia turned as if to go back inside.
‘Are you going to help sort the kids out, or what?’ Nick asked his sister.
‘Or what?’ Tia retorted.
Stevie felt distinctly uncomfortable. There was a subtext going on, and she had no idea what it was. ‘Maybe we should come back another time?’ she suggested. Like never.
‘No!’ brother and sister shouted in unison.
Jade jumped and Macey’s little hand stole into Stevie’s larger one, gripping it tightly.
‘Let’s find you a hat, shall we?’ Tia said to the girls with a smile which didn’t quite reach her eyes. She looks sad, Stevie thought and wondered if she’d been crying. There was a slight redness around her eyes, but for all Stevie knew, she might have hay fever, or had been chopping onions, or was allergic to horses. It could be anything, but whatever it was, it was certainly none of her business.
Nick grunted, ‘I’m off to saddle up.’ Stevie watched him leave, wondering what all that was about.
‘Are you going to ride, too?’ Tia asked, breaking into her thoughts, and Stevie shook her head.
‘No, thanks, I’ll keep my feet firmly on the ground. I can’t risk breaking an arm if I fall off. I’ve already broken my leg once this year.’
Stevie saw Tia’s mouth tighten, and she had an awful idea she knew how Nick’s sister had ended up in a wheelchair. Oh God, she’d just put her foot right in her mouth.
‘Who would do the baking?’ she trilled, trying to turn the subject away from broken bones, but not doing a very good job of it. She waved her arm and waggled her fingers. ‘You need both hands to cook. At least I do.’ Shut up, Stevie. Please.
Stevie followed her own advice and clamped her lips shut.
‘I meant to congratulate you on the tea shop,’ Tia said, wheeling into the store room and glancing up at the shelves. ‘It’s lovely. Come here, poppet,’ she said to Jade. ‘Let me have a look at you.’
The girl moved closer and Tia peered at the girl’s head. Jade peered back.
‘Why are you in a wheelchair?’ she asked, with a child’s uninhibited frankness. ‘Can’t you walk?’
‘No, sweetie, I can’t.’ Tia said this with a smile, and this time it did reach her eyes. She was really beautiful when she smiled, Stevie thought; a feminine version of Nick, with her dark, curling hair and her blue eyes. Where his features were planed lines and rugged handsomeness, hers were delicate and pale, but the family resemblance was still there.
‘Sorry,’ Stevie said, remembering her manners. ‘I forgot to introduce you. Tia, this is Jade, and this is Macey.’ Stevie put a hand on the youngest child’s head.
‘What lovely names!’ Tia exclaimed, putting a hard hat on Jade’s head, and wiggling it about, before taking it off again and reaching for another. ‘There, that one should do it.’ She gave the second hat a tug and checked the chin strap. ‘It’s got to be tight, otherwise it won’t do its job,’ she said to Jade. ‘Your turn,’ she turned to the younger child.
Macey stepped forward for her own hat fitting.
‘My mummy says Aunt Stevie will end up an old maid like Peggy.’
‘Who’s Peggy?’ Tia asked, as Stevie let out a snort of disgust. She really must have a word with her darling sister about her ridiculous stories when she got back. Fern was filling her children’s heads with nonsense.
‘Peggy was old and had lots of cats,’ Jade said. ‘And she didn’t have a husband, and no children either. Mummy said she was lonely.’
‘She most certainly wasn’t!’ Stevie said. ‘She had loads of friends, and I used to visit her all the time in London.’ She stopped short of saying, “unlike your mother”.
Jade turned an innocent face to Stevie and announced, ‘Mummy said you only did that to get your hands on her intetrihance.’ She stumbled over the word, but the meaning was clear, and Stevie seethed. How dare Fern say that!
Taking a deep breath, and trying not to let her annoyance show (it wasn’t the children’s fault their mother was such a bitter cow), Stevie plastered a false smile on her face.
Tia saw Stevie’s expression and gave her a gentle smile. ‘You’re not exactly an old maid; you’re probably younger than I am. There’s plenty of time to prove them wrong.’
Suddenly all the light went out of Tia and her expression closed up. Stevie noticed her hand gripping the armrest of the wheelchair.
‘It doesn’t help that Peggy left nearly everything to me,’ Stevie said, trying not to disrespect Fern in front of her own children. ‘That’s bound to cause some friction.’
‘Is that how come you own the tea shop?’ Tia asked, wheeling out of the storeroom and heading across the yard in the direction Nick went earlier.
‘Yes. Peggy left me enough money to buy it, and it’s doing well so far, fingers crossed, although this darned rain doesn’t help.’
Tia glanced up at the sky. The rain was still holding off for the moment, but ominous black clouds roiled in the distance. ‘We usually get a spot of awful weather in summer,’ Tia said, ‘normally as soon as the kids break up from school, but nothing like this. Look, girls, there’s Nick with your ponies.’
Nick was waiting in the arena, holding the reins of two small orangey-coloured horses.
‘That horse is really small,’ Jade said. ‘It’s Jade-size.’
Tia laughed. ‘It certainly is! This is Pickles, and that one there is Marmite. They’re Shetland ponies, not horses. They’re too small to be horses.’
‘Will they get any bigger?’ Macey asked. ‘I’ll get bigger, and one day I’ll be as big as Jade.’
Stevie smiled. Jade was only a few inches taller than her sister, but to someone as little as Macey, Stevie guessed every inch must count.
The next hour or so was spent following Jade on Pickles, who was led by Nick, around and around the arena. Stevie led Marmite with Macey on board and the little girl wore the biggest smile Stevie had ever seen.
Nick let his sister do the talking and Tia proved to be an excellent instructor.
‘Hold the reins, like this,’ Tia had said, ‘and pull gently this way if you want him to turn, but don’t worry about that for now because Nick will keep a hold of Pickles until you’re confident enough to steer him yourself.’
‘Look, Aunty Stevie, I can drive it!’ Jade called when Nick finally relinquished his hold on the reins and let Jade ride by herself.
He stood to one side, while Stevie carried on leading Marmite (“Don’t let go, Aunty Stevie. I’m not a big girl like Jade”), and she missed watching him striding ahead of her.
Finally, the lesson was over, and the children were tired but happy, and dying to tell their mother all about their adventure. They were actually quite sweet when you got them away from Fern, Stevie decided.
‘Thank you both so much,’ Stevie gushed to Nick and Tia. ‘I’m grateful to you for letting them come here and ride. It’s been the highlight of their visit.’
It most certainly was, because with the waterfall pouring down from above, the poor little mites had hardly been out of the flat since they’d arrived. Tanglewood and surrounding areas were lovely if the weather was good, but if the weather was poor, activities were rather limited unless you wanted to go shopping, and even that wouldn’t take more than an hour, although you could always drive to the nearest big town if the situation became desperate.
Stevie had noticed how most people had tended to barricade themselves into their houses, only venturing out for necessities like bread and milk, or to go to work, or visit the doctor. A few intrepid locals walked their dogs, but Stevie guessed the walks were briefer and further apart than normal.
Thanking Nick and Tia again, Stevie was deep in thought as she left The Furlongs. She’d really enjoyed herself today, but that wasn’t what was playing on her mind. Something was clearly bothering Tia, and she was such a lovely person that Stevie was concerned about her.