Kate's Progress (33 page)

Kate was glad to see Jack, Flick and Theo sitting together, with Jocasta, who seemed to be behaving like a big sister to him. She was wearing her rosette behind her ear like a flower and seemed to be delighted with herself and everything else.

She was also glad to see Camilla and the Brigadier sitting side by side with their heads together, talking contentedly and sharing cider from the same cup. Now and then Camilla looked up at him in a way that Kate would have sworn was admiring. Evidently Jeremy thought so, because he sat a little way off staring at them moodily, not talking to anyone else, and savaging his lunch as though he wanted to make something suffer.

Magic surprised her when he was led down from the trailer by letting out a huge, long whinny that made his sides vibrate. His head was up and his ears were so pricked, they were almost crossed.

‘He’s just excited,’ Susie said affectionately. ‘He loves all this stuff, dear old boy. Maybe I’ve been premature in retiring him. He’s fourteen, but he’s still got plenty of go in him.’

He looked around him at everything with such a tangible equine delight that despite the butterflies, Kate was really pleased she would be riding him. It was nice to give a fellow-creature pleasure. For the first time she stopped minding about Henna. Susie had plaited his mane and put a shine on his coat – not easy to do with a grey. Eric, who had gone to fetch Kate’s number, came back to pat him admiringly and say, ‘He really looks the business. I’m actually envying you, having this ride. I wish I’d entered now, but it’s late in the season and I thought my boy had had enough.’

‘I’ve been envying her all morning,’ Susie said. ‘Have you seen the opposition?’

‘The ineffable Mrs Murray’s riding Fly Direct, and Celia Carnforth’s brought Surprise Me. Obvious first and second. Then there’s Brightwell, though he’s not on form, and I spotted Tudor King being walked about. I don’t know who’s riding him. They ought to be placed.’ He looked at Kate. ‘You could easily make fifth. But anything could happen. That’s the joy of pointing. I’m just praying for Mrs Murray to fall off.’

Kate smiled. ‘That’s mean.’

‘You haven’t met her.’

‘Anyway, I’m not expecting to be placed. I’m just here to have fun. As long as I don’t let him down,’ she added, patting the firm grey neck.

‘Just remember what I said, keep your legs on and keep contact with his mouth,’ Susie told her, ‘and you’ll be fine.’

‘There’s your real competition,’ Eric added, gesturing with his head. ‘If I read the runes right.’

Kate glanced to where Henna had been led out, and was dancing about on the end of her rope like a sprat on a griddle. ‘Competition?’ she said vaguely, puzzled.

‘And Ed is the prize,’ Eric said with a wicked grin.

Kate blushed, and Susie berated him. ‘Now stop that, Chubby. Behave yourself.’

‘Chubby?’ Kate queried, feeling better.

‘It’s not what you think,’ the round-faced Eric said with dignity. ‘I happen to be a champion coarse fisherman. I got my nickname for a prize-winning catch of chub. One of them was a real monster – a nine pounder!’

‘Eight pounds thirteen,’ Susie countered.

As they rode down to the start, Kate’s butterflies were completely routed by her concern over Henna. The mare was wildly excited, was tittuping about, making as much progress sideways as forwards, and was back to her bad old head-tossing habit. Addison, she noted, looked magnificent in the saddle, but her expression as she tried to control her mount was grim. Kate thought she was hanging on to the mare’s mouth too hard, and longed to call out some advice – but to say that would not have been well received was an understatement. Ed would have told her what was what during the practice yesterday, anyway. And Addison, as an experienced rider, ought to understand.

At the start, Kate found herself more or less in the middle, and Henna was several horses to her right. She looked about quickly at the others, and thought they all looked like hardened professionals, with steely eyes and grimly determined mouths, and their horses were all gorgeous, gleaming beauties packed with muscle under their shining coats.
The hell with them
, Kate thought, patting Magic’s neck.
I’ve got the nicest horse in the world and I’m going to have fun
. Magic’s ears were going back and forth, and he was fidgeting on his toes and mouthing his bit eagerly.

There was some surging about as horses tried to go and were reined back, and Kate, busy looking around her, missed the actual ‘Go’. But Magic knew the drill, and as the other horses leapt forward, so did he, almost unseating her. She lost a stirrup, and spent the gallop to the first jump desperately fishing for it. Magic rose like a bird and she grabbed a handful of mane to make sure she went with him. On the other side she found the stirrup, regained her balance, and settled herself down, all nerves gone.

It was amazingly exhilarating, the hard pounding of hooves, the solid, muscular bodies to either side, black and brown and bay and chestnut, the snorting breaths, the flash of legs below and the narrow focus of the green and brown course between the pricked grey ears. In a pack they galloped, gradually spreading out after the first hurdle. There were horses ahead of her now – but plenty behind her, too. Jump after jump appeared before them, Magic thrust down with his mighty hind quarters and they flew and landed and galloped on. It was heaven, it was glorious! She never wanted it to end.

She caught a glimpse of Henna off to her right. The mare was sweating and trying to poke her nose, but Addison, crouched forward, seemed to have an iron grip on her. She seemed to be controlling the head tossing by sheer force. Kate had a moment to think
poor Henna
, but another jump was coming. There were five horses ahead of her, she thought, startled – only five! And Magic was going strongly, his muscular shoulders working under her hands, feeling as though he could do this for hours yet. A light contact with his mouth told her he had more to give. She would have to decide when to let him out. But they were well placed for now. Another jump. As he rose, she saw two horses going up at the same moment on her left, and Henna just a beat behind, rising on her right.

She began to cherish the idea that they might come in somewhere – not first second or third, but fourth or fifth did not seem out of the question, and she
so
wanted to do him justice, the darling horse! A loose horse galloped past on her left, stirrups flapping. Someone would be walking home. Without its rider it was keeping up easily, almost cantering, and at the next jump it went round the end rather than over, giving it several lengths’ lead.

Another jump coming. She glanced up and saw the leaders, some way ahead now, veer left after it, and realized it was the turn Susie had warned her about. The horses to her left were moving over, taking the line, but she was more or less in the middle and a touch on the rein kept Magic going straight. A glance right showed Henna pounding along, level with her, matching stride for stride. Addison, crouched and grim, returned the glance; then Kate saw her drive Henna on faster.

Not time to race yet
, Kate thought. Henna pulled ahead, white foam flying from her mouth now, spattering back over Addison’s boots.
Concentrate on the turn after landing – don’t want to lose too much ground
.

It happened in an instant. Afterwards, Kate only had a broken memory, a jumble of fragmented impressions, but she knew what must have happened. In the last paces before the jump, Henna, perhaps seeing the line of the lead horses, or perhaps at Addison’s instigation, veered suddenly left, across Magic’s path. He swerved left to avoid her, unbalancing Kate; he stumbled slightly, and made a heroic effort to clear the jump. She remembered the touch of the brush on her legs as he went through the top of it. He stumbled on landing, took another stride and fell, on his knees and over on to his side. Kate lost him at the stumble, hurling off sideways and forwards. Her left foot caught a moment in the stirrup and there was a violent, wrenching pain, so fierce it made her feel sick. Then the ground came up and hit her, and there was a momentary trembling, thundering, wind-shaking feeling as the rest of the field went past her.

Somehow, Ed was there. She was still feeling sick and confused, but had managed to get to her knees, seeing Magic a little way off – the darling horse had stopped for her. She saw a spectator run forward and catch his rein to lead him off the course, glad to see he was moving smoothly, didn’t seem to be hurt. She tried to stand up but the savage pain in her ankle and foot made her cry out –
broken it
! she thought dismally – and she collapsed again, her head spinning. And it was then that Ed reached her. She wondered how he had got there so soon. He was kneeling beside her, his hands on her.

‘Don’t move,’ he said. ‘Where does it hurt?’

‘My foot. Left. Think it’s—’ she began, trying to sit up, but the black whirlies got her and she slumped back down.

‘I said, don’t move,’ he said grimly. She looked up vaguely into his face and thought how good it was to be in his hands, even if he did look angry.

‘I love you,’ she said, or thought she did. He didn’t seem to hear her. He was feeling his way down her leg.

‘Can you move your toes?’ he asked.

‘You just told me not to move,’ she protested mumblingly, closing her eyes. But she moved them.

‘Thank God. Not broken then. I’m going to carry you up to the first-aid tent. Quicker than waiting for them to bring a stretcher.’

‘Don’t need a stretcher,’ she muttered.
Just you
. She didn’t think she said that out loud.

His arm was under her shoulders, his other under her knees, and he lifted her and stood up as though she weighed nothing at all. ‘Good job you’re so small and light,’ he said with a grunt.

Nice compliment, shame about the grunt
, she thought, and then wondered what was wrong with her. As well as sick, she felt rather drunk, and her thoughts didn’t seem to be entirely under her control.

Being carried up a slope, even by a tall strong man, was not the most comfortable thing, especially with a foot and ankle waking from shock into throbbing pain. But her hand was on the back of Ed’s neck, and her head was against his shoulder, and the subtle, wonderful smell of him was around and inside her, so on the whole she didn’t mind. It was better when they were on the level. She opened her eyes and said, ‘Magic?’

Susie was beside them – where did she appear from? She said, ‘He’s fine. Eric’s boxing him, but he seems fine.’

‘Not his fault,’ she mumbled, closing them.

‘You were doing so well,’ Susie said. ‘It’s a shame. But it wasn’t your fault. Just an accident.’

Tactful
, Kate thought.
Not going to blame Addison with Ed there.
She opened her eyes again and saw the first-aid tent ahead, with the first-aiders hovering outside, looking excited and pleased at having a real casualty coming in. One of them was holding the stretcher.
Sorry, not this time, guys
, she thought. And then she saw, beside the tent opening, looking at them, the smart man from Cothelstone, still in his ritzy suit, hair immaculate.
Where he is, there shall ye find Phil Kingdon also
. Why was he staring at her? ‘It’s him,’ she said, gripping Ed’s neck to convey the urgency. ‘That man. Saw him at Cothelstone with Phil.’

‘Don’t worry about it now,’ Ed said, but she knew he had looked, had seen and registered the man, so she relaxed. And when she looked again, he’d gone.
Scared off by my hero
, she thought contentedly.

Except he wasn’t
her
hero, was he? And she’d let Magic down, let them all down. Now he’d think she couldn’t ride for nuts and would be extra glad he hadn’t let her out on Henna, and he’d despise her. She’d made trouble for everyone and she wished she was dead.

There was an actual, real doctor who showed up at the tent, so it wasn’t just the first-aiders, and because of that, on Kate’s pleading, she was allowed to go home when her ankle had been strapped up. Or back to The Hall, at any rate.

‘You can’t look after yourself when you can’t walk,’ Ed had said tersely. ‘You’ll stay at The Hall for as long as is needed. I still think you should go to the hospital for a check-up.’

‘The doctor said I was all right,’ Kate asserted. She didn’t want to make any more trouble than she already had. Nothing broken, just a sprain; nothing to be done for it but support and rest, and alternate hot and cold compresses; paracetamol for the pain. Ed was worried about concussion but the doctor had looked into her pupils with his little pen light and said he didn’t think she had it.

Camilla, unexpectedly, backed Kate. ‘Don’t fuss, Ed,’ she said. ‘People fall off horses all the time. I bet Kate’s fallen off plenty of times in her life. All she needs is rest and quiet.’

Ed carried her to the Brigadier’s car and put her in, settling her fussily, frowning to himself. He had to drive the box back so had to leave her to Harry and Camilla. Kate now had a pounding headache and wanted nothing but to sleep, so she didn’t care who drove her. But at the last minute, when Ed had withdrawn and was about to shut the car door, Susie took his place, leaned over her to reassure her that Magic was really all right, and added in a whisper, ‘Don’t you want to know how Addison did?’

Kate didn’t care, but knew she would want to know later, so she opened her eyes again. Susie was grinning. ‘She came in third.’ A momentary pang of jealousy. ‘But she missed out half the jumps. She fought Henna all the way round and Henna won, went round the end instead of over. She was eliminated.’

Kate wished she could join in Susie’s glee, but she could only feel sad. For Henna most of all, but for Ed too, and even Addison. You had to be feeling top-notch, she discovered, to get any pleasure out of
Schadenfreude
.

Jocasta was the first one in to see her the next morning, tiptoeing in, breathing heavily, carefully carrying a mug.

‘Are you awake?’ she hissed penetratingly. ‘I brought you up some tea.’ Kate struggled to consciousness. ‘How are you feeling?’