Daniel and Zoe were negotiating a bend in the narrow road when, with shocking abruptness, they suddenly came face to face with two ponies approaching head on, side by side across the road and travelling at speed. Only the blinkers on their bridles and the breastplates across their chests showed that they were being driven, their drivers sitting low down and out of sight behind their flying heels.
With no time to brake, Daniel swore and swerved as far onto the grass as he was able to without losing his nearside wheels in the ditch and the driver of the animal closest to him swerved into the one on the other side, which in turn mounted the grass verge. The three vehicles drew abreast for a fraction of a second in a flurry of hooves, flying tails and screeching tyres. There was a light clonk as something impacted the side of the Merc and then they were past, miraculously without any apparent injury.
There were two more ponies approaching, some fifty yards behind the first pair and travelling more moderately and in tandem, so Daniel waited where he was, with two wheels on the grass and two on the tarmac. The man driving the foremost of these glared at Daniel in passing, as though the fault for the near collision was his, but the second driver acknowledged him with a touch of his baseball cap, sitting close behind his pony in a lightweight, tubular framed contraption that hardly looked strong enough to bear his weight. The barely-there seat was low down so that the driver’s knees and feet were higher and spread wide to allow the animal’s hind legs room to move. This was the kind of racing sulky used for trotting races the world over.
Behind the driven ponies came several vehicles, predominantly 4x4s and pick-up trucks, with men and boys observing the race, if race it was.
As the last of the cavalcade passed, Daniel glanced at Zoe.
‘You OK?’
She nodded, a little white-faced.
‘Well, it looks like we’ve found your friends,’ he observed mildly. ‘Was any of them Shane, or could you not see?’
‘No, I didn’t see him, but I think one of the ones in the cars might have been his dad.’
‘Well,’ Daniel said, driving on slowly to find a place to turn round, ‘I guess we’d better follow them.’
‘Shane would never race his new pony on the roads. He’s saving her for the proper races and he’s always said road racing is too risky for good horses, besides being bad for their legs,’ Zoe said, but a note of uncertainty belied the confidence in her words.
‘Hmm …’
‘What do you mean, hmm?’ she demanded as he found a pull-in and began to manoeuvre the car.
‘Nothing really. It’s just that I imagine a group like that could put a fair bit of pressure on a lad.’
‘He’s not a kid!’
‘I didn’t say he was,’ Daniel returned in soothing tones. ‘I just wouldn’t be completely surprised if they’d been egging him on to try out his new horse, that’s all.’
Zoe muttered something inaudible but Daniel didn’t ask her to repeat it.
It took them another couple of minutes to come up with the Travellers again and when they did so, around another bend in the winding road, it was immediately apparent that the two foremost sulkies had met a second motorist on the narrow causeway and this time their luck had run out.
They were travelling across open moorland now and, going over a rise and dropping in a swooping curve into the dip on the other side, the road crossed a shallow stream in the bottom by way of an old stone bridge. One of the sulkies was halted on the grass at the side of the little hump-backed bridge, but one had attempted to cross it and was now on its side at the bottom of the bank, a piebald pony struggling to find its feet between shafts that had been twisted by the fall. The motorized observation fleet were scattered around on the road and turf, and a family saloon was on the bridge itself, one front wing ominously crumpled against the centuries old stone parapet.
People swarmed over the area like ants around a stirred-up anthill, mostly concentrated around the car on the bridge and the damaged sulky beside it, and even at a distance it was easy to see that tempers were well and truly frayed.
‘Oh shit!’ Daniel breathed, slowing the Merc as he approached the scene. Parking on the verge close to a pick-up truck with enormous wheels, he told Zoe to stay put and got out of the car.
It took a conscious effort not to go straight into traffic officer mode and start ordering the situation but he decided that for the moment the justifiably angry owner of the damaged saloon was holding his own and not in any actual physical danger from the massed ranks of Travellers he faced, so Daniel turned his attention to the stricken pony still struggling in its harness on the other side of the bank.
Splashing across the shallow stream, he took in the situation rapidly. The sulky driver had been thrown from his seat and was now lying on the turf some ten feet away, being administered to by half a dozen of his friends or family. He appeared to be conscious, if dazed, and was cradling his left arm, but Daniel decided he wasn’t in any immediate danger and transferred his attention to the pony, which had somehow got a leg the wrong side of the bent shaft and was held there by the twisted leather straps of its harness. Unable to get up it was thrashing about in a way that presented a very real danger not only to those trying to untangle the mess of leatherwork but also to the long, thin cannon bones of its lower legs.
Instinctively Daniel assumed command. A young boy was trying without much success to hold the pony’s head and Daniel pushed him unceremoniously out of the way and took his place. Forcing the animal’s neck and head flat to the turf, he used his weight to hold it there, effectively subduing its struggles. The warm smell of sweaty horse filled his nostrils.
‘Don’t faff about! Cut the bloody traces before he breaks his leg!’ he snapped at the other two men, who glanced blankly in his direction and then at each other.
‘Oh, for God’s sake! Haven’t you got a knife?’ Daniel asked starting to reach into his pocket for his own super-sharp penknife, but apparently their reaction had been merely to the shock of having a stranger issuing orders, for one of them said, ‘I got one,’ produced it and got swiftly to work.
Within moments the pony’s legs were free of the leather traces and the shaft, and as one of the two men pulled the ruined sulky out of the way, Daniel lifted the pressure from the animal’s sweaty neck and it surged to its feet, staggering wildly until it found the flat ground beside the stream.
Unnerved by its ordeal, the pony’s eyes were showing white and its ears flicked to and fro as it alternatively tugged against Daniel’s restraining hand and barged into him with its head. Daniel spoke to it in a low voice, stroking the animal’s damp black-and-white neck and scratching it behind one ear, and gradually it stopped trying to break free and began to calm down.
The boy Daniel had displaced at the pony’s head was standing a few feet away staring at him. He looked to be around twelve years old and wore jeans and a Man United shirt.
‘I think he’s OK, now,’ Daniel told the lad. ‘Sorry for pushing you.’
The boy’s only response was a shrug but then he said, ‘Her’s a mare.’
‘So she is.’
The sulky was standing back on its bicycle tyre wheels now but the shaft was badly bent and one of the wheels stood at an angle. It clearly wasn’t going anywhere behind a horse until it had been mended and the two men were regarding it gloomily. After a moment, the man who had cut the traces abandoned his companion and came over to inspect the pony, running his hands over her back and down her legs in a knowledgeable fashion.
‘She’s taken the skin off that leg,’ Daniel observed, looking round the piebald ribcage to where a long graze showed from hock to fetlock on the inside of the mare’s off hind.
‘Bit of a scrape,’ the man agreed. ‘Bloody stupid driver! Should have given way. He could see we were coming. Horses have the right of way. It’s the law.’
Daniel could have said a few choice words of his own about idiocy and the rules of the road but he didn’t think they would be well received and there was nothing to be gained by putting the Travellers’ backs up, so he held his tongue.
‘I’ll take her now,’ the man said, coming forward and putting his hand on the rein. He was a stocky, middle-aged individual with a heavy signet ring on one finger and a gold chain lying on the mahogany skin of his neck.
‘OK.’ Daniel stepped back, adding silently, My pleasure. Please don’t mention it.
Turning round he found the rest of the scene had changed little while the drama with the piebald mare had played out. The man who had been thrown from the sulky was still seated on the ground surrounded by three or four men and boys. His arm was twisted at an awkward angle and from his white face it was easy to see that he was in a great deal of pain.
Daniel stepped towards the group.
‘I’d say that might be dislocated. Has anyone called an ambulance?’
Heads turned his way and one of the men said, ‘Dunno.’
‘Well, you need to get him to A and E,’ Daniel said. He left the sulky driver and his mates and climbed back up the bank to the road where the car had been backed off the bridge and its furious owner was inspecting the damage while a plump woman in cropped trousers and what should have been a loose T-shirt stood nervously by the open passenger door, as if ready to dive back inside.
Having looked closely at the crumpled front wing of his car and given voice to his opinion that it would very likely be a write-off, the car’s driver took out his mobile phone and proceeded to take photos of it from every angle before straightening up and doing the same for the damaged stonework of the bridge.
He was keeping up a diatribe about the reckless behaviour of the Travellers, which began to morph into a general condemnation of their way of life, and although Daniel could sympathize to some extent he felt the man must either be brave or very stupid, given the numbers of Travellers there were on and around the bridge. Based solely on his policeman’s instincts, he decided it was probably the latter.
Two or three of the Traveller men were responding to the man’s unwise comments with increasingly angry remarks of their own and when he turned the lens onto them, they stepped forward and the tone of their voices turned distinctly menacing.
Daniel was reluctantly preparing to step into the breach when, faintly, drifting on the breeze across the moorland came the sound of a siren.
A hush fell as everyone on the scene strained to hear with more certainty and after a moment or two, the sound came again. The middle-aged, perspiring car owner gave the Traveller men a look of triumphant self-righteousness, which was almost entirely lost on them as the sound had galvanized them into action.
There followed maybe half a minute of frantic, scurrying activity during which all the Traveller men and boys disappeared into or onto vehicles like water running through a colander; the piebald pony was hitched onto the back of one of the three remaining sulkies and with a clatter of hooves, a roar of engines and a screech of tyres the entire lot funnelled onto the road, streamed up the other side of the hollow and disappeared over the rise.
Daniel found himself alone on the bridge save for the aggrieved car owner and his passenger, and Zoe, who unsurprisingly had disregarded his instruction to stay in the car and was now standing on the far side of the stream staring at the ridge over which the cavalcade had disappeared. As if sensing Daniel’s eyes on her, she turned her head and looked at him but, before he could speak, his attention was claimed by an exclamation of outrage from the man by the car, who was also gazing after the Travellers.
‘It’s outrageous! They can’t just take off like that!’ he protested, turning to Daniel.
‘I think you’ll find they just have,’ Daniel observed.
‘But … but look what they’ve done to my car!’
‘Strictly speaking the bridge damaged your car. I suspect, even if they had stuck around, you may have had a fight on your hands trying to prove that the accident was their fault. After all, whatever the police may suspect, there would have been a lot of witnesses prepared to swear that you were in the wrong. And on top of that, I’d be very surprised if they had any form of insurance for you to claim on.’
‘But I have a witness, too. Evie was in the car – she saw. And you – you must have seen what happened.’
‘No, I didn’t,’ Daniel said, shaking his head. ‘When I came over the hill, it was all over bar the shouting.’
The siren was a good bit closer now and the man looked speculatively at Daniel.
‘But you don’t have to say that, do you?’ he said.
‘I’m not lying to the police, if that’s what you’re suggesting,’ Daniel said mildly. ‘But I will tell them that I passed the Travellers earlier and they were driving recklessly. That and the sulky they left behind should be enough to back-up your story.’
‘Daniel?’ Zoe had come onto the bridge. ‘We need to get going if we’re going to catch them up.’
‘They’re friends of yours?’ the car owner expostulated. ‘Oh, that’d be right! You didn’t think to tell me that, did you?’
Daniel ignored him.
‘We can’t just drive off,’ he told Zoe. ‘The police’ll be here in a minute.’
Zoe made a face.
‘Do we have to? Shane wanted to talk and we didn’t get much time.’
‘Oh, so he was there. Well, I’m sorry but the answer is yes, we do have to wait for the police but hopefully it won’t take too long.’
Zoe looked petulant but the approaching siren was very close now and within seconds blue flashing lights were visible in the encroaching gloom. The police car came over the rise and swooped down to the bridge where it stopped and disgorged two young officers.
Daniel heaved a sigh and waited for the inquisition to begin.
Daniel suspected the two police officers might have been nearing the end of their shift, because they dealt with the disgruntled car owner and the scene of the collision with admirable brevity.
They appeared to accept the tale of woe but the man’s complaint against the Travellers suffered a check when the breathalyser was produced and showed that he had been drinking. Not very much over the limit, he was nevertheless invited to accompany the two policemen back to the local station, and having given their details, Daniel and Zoe were free to go on their way.
The light was fading fast now and the first thing Zoe said as they settled back into the Merc was, ‘We can’t go home until I’ve had a chance to talk properly to Shane. He said he’d wait for us back at the camp. He’s got an idea but he didn’t have time to tell me before.’
‘All right.’
Zoe looked at him suspiciously.
‘All right?’ she echoed.
‘Yes. We’ve come this far. It’d be a bit stupid to turn round and go home now. Against my better judgement we’ll listen to Shane’s idea, but we can’t be too long. It’s not fair on your mum.’
‘We won’t. Shane said he’d be waiting for me.’
‘Well, our first problem will be seeing if we can even find the place again.’
After a couple of wrong turnings, they finally found themselves bumping down the stony track that they had taken earlier. It was overcast and had started to rain again, and consequently was almost dark. Daniel began to wonder what time they would eventually get back to Tavistock and made a mental note to call Lorna again before they set out.
‘Shane said he’d wait for us at the top of the rise so we don’t have to go all the way into the camp,’ Zoe said, bringing his thoughts back to the matter in hand.
‘Good. I wasn’t especially looking forward to having a conversation with his whole bloody family listening in.’
‘Shane says he’s not happy,’ Zoe said then. ‘His father’s pressuring him to run the mare on the roads and he doesn’t want to.’
‘Well, as you said earlier, he’s not a kid,’ Daniel pointed out.
‘I know, but it’s not easy when you’re living in a group like that.’
‘Yeah. I wouldn’t want to do it.’
Zoe shot him a look that showed his remark had hit home.
‘Well, that’s why he wants to get his own van,’ she said, as if that would resolve all their potential problems.
‘So was he one of the drivers today?’
‘Yes. It was just supposed to be a tryout but then one of the other guys challenged him …’ Zoe tailed off, perhaps realizing that she was inviting further remarks about immaturity from Daniel, but he felt he’d already made his point and said nothing.
About fifty yards before the Travellers’ camp would come into view over the rise, Daniel’s dipped lights picked out the three trailers parked at the side of the track. He switched to sidelights and edged forward, and as they approached, a figure stepped out from the shelter of one of them.
‘That’s him! That’s Shane!’ Zoe said, somewhat unnecessarily.
As they got out of the car, the young man stepped forward, holding out his hand to Daniel with a surprising diffidence.
‘Hi. Shane Brennan. I guess you must be Daniel. Thank you for looking after Zoe.’
‘Pleased to meet you, at last.’ Daniel shook the proffered hand, finding the lad’s grasp firm. ‘But to be honest, I was somewhat blackmailed into this trip and I could cheerfully have wrung her neck a few times over the past few hours!’
‘She can be a bit headstrong,’ Shane agreed with a fond sideways look at the girl, who was now holding onto his other arm and leaning her cheek against his shoulder.
‘Well, thank you very much!’ she exclaimed through gritted teeth and punched his arm. He smiled and the closed, slightly wary expression habitual to many of his kind, dissolved into genuine warmth.
For the first time, Daniel felt that Lorna might really have cause for concern over the relationship. By the available light, he could see that the young man was a similar height to himself, with broad shoulders, dark hair and eyes and high cheekbones. With naturally olive skin and that particularly engaging shy smile, it was unsurprising that Zoe had fallen hook, line and sinker for him. He was film-star material; the only wonder was that in a culture where the youngsters often made their vows at sixteen or seventeen, he had made it to nineteen in the single state.
‘Well, this is all very pleasant, but we have a problem to sort out and besides,’ Daniel added, turning the collar of his leather jacket up against the intensifying rain, ‘I’m beginning to get very wet!’
Shane squinted up at the sky as if only just noticing the rain, and pointed at the nearest of the trailers.
‘We could talk in there,’ he suggested.
Five minutes later, Daniel was heartily regretting agreeing to listen to Shane’s idea. Zoe, oblivious to his reservations, was looking from one to the other of them with shining eyes.
‘I think it’s a brilliant idea! We can do that, can’t we Daniel?’
‘No! We can’t!’ he said decisively.
Her face fell.
‘Oh, but why? It solves everything. What’s the problem?’
‘The problem?’ Daniel repeated incredulously. ‘You two are barking mad, that’s the problem! Steal the mare and take her back to Tavistock? I can’t imagine how you could possibly think I would agree to it. It’s crazy!’
‘But it’s not stealing! I lent Shane the money, so technically she’s mine,’ Zoe protested.
‘I don’t somehow think Shane’s father will see it that way,’ Daniel observed. ‘Does he even know where you got the money for the horse?’
‘Not exactly,’ Shane hedged.
‘So what, exactly?’
‘I guess he thinks I bought her with my wages. He doesn’t know how much I paid.’
‘He didn’t ask you?’ Daniel queried. ‘Or you lied?’
‘Daniel!’ Zoe exclaimed, indignant on her boyfriend’s behalf, but both the men ignored her.
‘You don’t know my da,’ Shane said, looking uncomfortable. ‘He’s just so …’ He spread his hands, unable to find the words. ‘When he wants something, he just keeps on till he gets it. If he knew how special the mare was, he’d want her and he’d find a way to get her off me. If we was still at Hawkers, I could’ve kept her in secret but as it is … Well, I didn’t have time to arrange anything, so I had to bring her along. Thing is, he’s beginning to guess, ’specially after today.’
‘I bet he got Jimmy to challenge you, just so he could see her go,’ Zoe put in, and he nodded.
‘Yeah, I ’spect you’re right. Look, I should be getting back. I just said I was checking on the ponies. Someone’ll come if I’m much longer. Will you do it? It’d be the best thing for the mare to be away from here.’
‘No,’ Daniel said again. ‘The mare may be yours – or Zoe’s – but the trailer isn’t. And besides, if they come after us, they’d catch us in no time. There’s only so fast you can go towing a trailer.’
‘But they won’t know she’s gone till the morning,’ Shane pointed out. ‘Anyway, I’ve thought about that. If I can sneak the pick-up out early tomorrow morning and head off, they might think I’ve taken her. I’ll make them think I’m heading north and by the time they find out I haven’t got her, you’ll be long gone.’
‘So why don’t you?’ Daniel asked. ‘Take her north, I mean.’
‘Where would I go? If I stayed with family, word would get back and they’d catch me in no time – you don’t know how the Traveller network works. Wherever I ended up, Da would put the word out and that’d be that.’
‘And what’s to stop the Traveller network finding us?’ Daniel asked.
‘Well, they won’t know your car, will they? And a trailer’s a trailer.’
‘As long as they don’t remember it from earlier.’
‘But you’ll be back home in a few hours,’ Shane told him. ‘Probably before anyone knows she’s gone.’
‘What’ll your dad do if he catches you?’ Zoe asked with concern.
‘He’ll likely go crazy for a bit, but it’ll pass,’ he told her. ‘At least the mare will be safe. If she stays here, Da will make me run her on the roads. He can see she’s special and he’s already talking about setting up a match race for her but that’s not what I want …’ He stopped talking and stood looking at Daniel.
‘Please, Daniel,’ Zoe said, wheedling. ‘She’s my horse.’
‘So what are you going to do with her? Sell her to get the money back for your mum?’ he asked with some asperity, feeling himself being backed into a corner.
Shane turned his gaze sharply to Zoe.
‘It was your ma’s money?’
‘Oh, look, let’s not worry about that now,’ she said, glaring at Daniel. ‘Are we going to save her or not?’
‘But, Zoe! If it wasn’t yours … ’
‘Oh, never mind that now. She knows about it, now, anyway,’ she said dismissively.
Shane gave her a long look, and Daniel felt sympathy for the lad, who was perhaps only just realizing the potential implications of a life with Lorna’s headstrong daughter.
‘I should go before they start wondering where I’ve got to,’ Shane said then, glancing at his watch and edging towards the trailer door. He held out a ring with two keys on it. ‘After midnight would be best, cos Da or Jimmy’ll be up for a late check around eleven.’
‘We’ll do it,’ Zoe said, reaching for the keys, but Shane swiftly enclosed them in his hand.
‘It’s Daniel’s decision,’ he said, waiting.
Daniel sighed. In spite of himself, he liked the boy. He put out his hand for the keys and ignoring Zoe’s hissed, ‘Yes!’ said, ‘The field padlock and the tow-bar lock?’
‘That’s right,’ Shane said. ‘Thank you.’ He turned, ducked through the low door in the front of the trailer and was gone before Daniel had a chance to change his mind.
Left alone in the vehicle, Zoe gave Daniel an impulsive hug.
‘Thank you soooo much.’
Daniel unpeeled her arms from around his neck.
‘I can’t believe I just agreed to this,’ he stated heavily. ‘And God knows how I’m going to explain it to your mother. But right now we need to go. If anyone sees the Merc here we’re stuffed, good and proper!’