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16
‘Peter’s a character, isn’t he?’ Gus said to Abigail after they’d taken Peter up to the waffle shack on their way to the stables. Peter and Abigail had played Jenga over and over again, she’d shown him her room, and when the noise level increased, Gus went up the stairs to find them performing stunts in her bedroom, which involved leaping from the lowest chest of drawers to the bed, doing a forward roll and finishing standing up at the head of the bed. He’d wanted to let them keep doing it but his responsibility as a parent had him urging them to be careful and not climb on the furniture or worse, bang their heads on the wall at the finale of their move.
‘I told him all about horses and keeping safe,’ Abigail informed him as they got back into the car on The Street and carried on towards Heritage View.
Gus wondered whether that was why Peter had turned to stunts – Abigail was probably getting serious, the way she did about horses, and Peter wanted to swap the seriousness for fun. And who could blame him?
‘I can’t see Denby,’ Abigail moaned as they pulled in at Heritage View.
‘I can’t see anything, it’s raining too hard.’
Abigail climbed out of the car and popped up a bright yellow umbrella over her head. ‘He might be in the far paddock. I’ll go find Hazel.’ She ran off before Gus had a chance to answer.
Gus was relieved he couldn’t see Hazel’s ex-boyfriend’s car anywhere as he picked up the bag that Abigail had forgotten. It contained carrot and apple slices, enough for Denby and probably the rest of the horses here, she’d cut up so many. He’d told Abigail she’d have to ask Hazel’s permission to feed the horses first and when he saw his daughter move from the stable block, clearly having had no luck finding Hazel and heading for the office, Gus was happy to see she must be doing just that. He popped up his umbrella and briefly hovered at the fence to say hello to dependable Franklin, sympathising at his location in a rain-soaked paddock.
But he didn’t have much of a chance to pay the horse any attention because Abigail came running from the direction of the office, screaming.
Gus tore towards her as she yelled something about Hazel, a man, her office.
Gus made it past the stable block and around the side, and raced straight through the office door, where he pulled a stocky man off Hazel, who was pinned to the desk, terrified.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ he roared at the man, who seemed stunned at the intervention. ‘Go find Arnold!’ he urged Abigail. He needed the backup, but it was more that he didn’t want Abigail to witness this.
Hazel didn’t move; she was in shock, leaning against the desk, her breathing heavy. The man was still in Gus’s clutches and Gus had no intention of letting go.
‘I said, what are you doing here?’ Gus demanded. The man, dressed in grubby jeans and an old sweatshirt, crumpled beneath Gus’s fist and wouldn’t look at him, only sneer at Hazel.
‘She knows what she did,’ he slurred and then, more spitefully, ‘she’s a monster.’
Gus manhandled him out of the office, well away from Hazel, just as Arnold came charging towards them.
‘Look after Hazel,’ Gus yelled to Abigail, who was crying but ran into the office and slammed the door shut behind her.
‘She destroyed my family,’ the man spat before he saw Arnold with his phone against his ear. ‘What the fuck are you doing?’
‘Calling the police.’
‘Now look here…’
‘Be quiet,’ said Gus. ‘Shut up and stop throwing your weight around.’
Gus kept a hold of the man, who was wittering on about Hazel and how she’d ruined him, and between him and Arnold, they shunted him away from the office and out in front of the paddocks.
The police were there in no time at all, and Gus gladly handed the man over to them before he charged back to the office. Arnold was already on the phone, calling their parents, by the sounds of it.
A female police officer had gone ahead of Gus and had already sat down beside Hazel. Gus opened his arms for Abigail, who was hugging Hazel, and she left one comfort for another.
‘Has he gone?’ Hazel asked, eyes glazed as though barely registering much at all.
‘He’s being taken away now,’ Gus assured her. He went to her side, crouched down on his haunches and put a hand on her knee, his other hand holding Abigail’s. ‘You’re safe. I promise you.’ He wasn’t sure she even heard him, but for now, he had to look after his daughter and Hazel had the female officer with her.
‘You really are safe, love,’ he heard the policewoman reiterate to Hazel before he closed the office door behind him and Abigail. He wanted to stay there with her, put his arms around her and hold her close, keep both of his girls at his side.
Arnold was on the phone again when Gus and Abigail came out of the office.
‘I called our dad,’ he explained, ‘and I’ve cancelled lessons for the rest of the day so I can be with Hazel.’
Hazel had plenty of people in her corner. ‘Can I do anything?’
