Moonstone Promise (26 page)

Shara grinned cheekily. ‘Would we do such a thing?'

Lawson frowned. ‘You can go down on foot, Shara. Take a bucket of molasses and call them up. Jess, you get behind them on that old stockhorse and do a head count of forty-three.' He raised his voice in the direction of Grace, who was at the other end of the stable block, tethering her horse. ‘Gracie, can you slip a halter on that grey out in the yards and bring her in? Leave the big gate open for the cattle to come through.'

Jess rode back out of the building and quickly cast her eyes around the house yard for Luke. She barely saw him now that he was working for Lawson. He was usually out in the work ute, doing the trimming jobs. When he'd worked at Harry's place, she'd always known where to find him, but these days their paths rarely crossed. Jess couldn't see the ute. He must be out again.

She rode down the laneway, Shara clomping behind her. Then, while Shara stood calling out and banging on the bucket, Jess made a wide circle around the cattle. Red and white baldy faces popped out from behind trees, and bellows came from around the bend, as the herd began to wander through the rain towards the molasses. Jess didn't need to do much but sit there and count them as they plodded by. On the other side of the river she thought she could hear Chelpie's distressed whinnying above the sound of the rain.

Jess counted thirty-nine head of cattle, with four more emerging from the bushes below, and pulled her phone from her pocket to text Shara, who she could see pouring the molasses into the yard trough.

going to check Chelpie, somethgs wrong

She watched Shara pull her phone out, thumb a message and wave to her, as she opened the gate for the cattle.

Buzz, rumble.

Shara: will get Rocko + follow u down.

Jess trotted back across the flats towards the river. The rain pelted at her and she had to keep her chin down to shield her face. As she ducked under tree branches, she could see the white pony in the distance, her hind legs pulling at the fence wire.

Typical. Wish the Pettilows would fix their fences.

As Jess approached, she saw that Chelpie's legs were caught. Jumping down from Dodger, she checked for injuries and found none, so she carefully untwisted the wire and lifted Chelpie's back feet out of the tangled mess. As she slipped off the last of the wire, the mare squealed and lashed out with both hind feet. Jess only just managed to duck, and Chelpie's hooves connected instead with Dodger's flank. Dodger jumped sideways and, finding himself loose, trotted off across the flats with his reins dangling. Chelpie cantered after him.

‘Oh, don't run away,' moaned Jess. ‘
Dod
ger!' She pulled her phone from her pocket and messaged Shara.

can u grab D?

She tucked her phone away and stood waiting, hands on hips. Moments later, Shara emerged from the river on Rocko, leading Dodger behind her. ‘What happened?' she asked. ‘You okay?'

‘It's the last time I help that stupid horse,' said Jess. ‘Now we'll have to stuff around for hours trying to catch her.' Her boot squelched with water as she stepped into the stirrup, and a trickle of water crept under her collar and ran down her spine. Her saddle was like a wet sponge.

‘She's headed towards Lawson's place,' said Shara, turning Rocko. ‘Hope she doesn't make trouble.'

‘Great,' mumbled Jess, as she watched Chelpie prancing about in the pouring rain with her tail in the air. ‘That's all we need.'

DIAMOND SPIRIT

A man Jess had never seen before stood holding
the flyscreen door open.
‘Do you own an Appaloosa pony?' he asked.
‘Yes.'

‘It's stuck in the cattle grid down near the old drovers' yards.'
Jess's blood ran cold.

At the start of the summer holidays, the unthinkable happens when Jess's beloved pony Diamond has a terrible accident. Why won't Shara, Jess's closest friend, tell her what happened down on the river flats that day? Jess suspects the worst, and feels as though she's lost not just one best friend, but two.

But new friends and new horses come into Jess's life, along with the chance to compete in the Longwood campdraft. And there's one little filly who needs her help . . . Can Walkabout heal Jess's broken heart in return?

OPAL DREAMING

‘What did you decide to call her?' asked Lawson,
looking over Jess's shoulder at the little chestnut foal.
‘Opal,' said Jess, gazing, besotted, at her once-in-a-lifetime horse.
‘Bad luck stones,' grunted Lawson.

Finally the day has come when Jess can bring home her filly Opal. But after Opal almost drowns in a flooded river, she becomes ill and won't get better.

When Opal becomes so savage with pain that no one can go near her, Jess wonders if the secrets of the land might hold a cure, and jumps at the chance to go droving with her friends – and Luke.

Can Jess find the answers she's seeking – and her dream boy as well?