AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Arnold shook his head. The rain had finally stopped. ‘I’d just put the horses back into the paddock so everything is sorted.’ He was about to go into the office when he registered how upset Abigail still was. Her bottom lip wobbled, and he crouched down to meet her at eye level. He put a hand against her cheek, his thumb brushing away a tear. ‘Thank you for being there, for getting help.’
When Arnold went into the office, Gus hugged Abigail again. It seemed she didn’t want to leave.
‘I never got to ask if I could feed the treats to the horses.’
‘We’ll do it another time. How about we go and watch them in the paddocks?’ Perhaps it would do her good not to be whisked away too quickly, to realise that this was a safe space now, the nightmare had finished.
They waited by the paddocks and fussed any horse that came their way and eventually Arnold emerged, having talked with the police officer. He immediately eyed the bag of treats cast aside on the floor. ‘How about we feed the horses together?’
Minstrel was first over to the fence and Abigail giggled as she held out her hand flat with a piece of apple, and the horse’s lips tickled her palm to claim her treat. Next up was Peony, then Milton, and Pebbles wasn’t daft – not wanting to miss out, the dappled gelding trotted over to the fence where Abigail was in charge.
Gus saw Arnold look over to the remaining police car parked up, one having gone to take the man away. ‘Who was he, Arnold? He wasn’t a stranger, was he?’
Arnold shook his head, conscious of Abigail as she tried to get the attention of Sherbert before she’d let any of the horses have seconds. They moved a few steps away.
‘It was close to three years ago now,’ Arnold began. ‘Hazel was teaching one day and at the last minute added another boy to her list of riders. That man here today was the boy’s dad. He’d booked his son in and told us his son had plenty of experience. Turned out that experience was being led around on a rein on holiday once or twice. That wasn’t a problem, but his behaviour was. Hazel kept telling him to take it slow, I heard her say it more than once, and I could see for myself that the boy needed to calm down and listen.’
‘Don’t tell me, he didn’t.’ Gus put a thumbs up at Abigail when Sherbert finally sensed something was going on at the fence and came to claim a piece of apple or carrot.
‘He was all over the place, arms high, reins loose, looking in the other direction as though he was on a plastic horse at the funfair rather than on an animal with a mind of its own. My sister had to tell him three times to put his feet back in the stirrups. He just wasn’t listening, at all. I knew Hazel had her work cut out for her, but my sister is very capable.’
Abigail’s giggles as Sherbert nudged her for another treat had Arnold telling her to go ahead with seconds for all of them. ‘The boy, Levi, wanted to skip the basics, he was all about going faster; he thought going around in a circle in the school was dull and didn’t mind telling us. I couldn’t wait for the lesson to end as I pushed a wheelbarrow past, it wasn’t nice to listen to it. Usually you look over, you take pride in the progress riders are making, even give tips, but that was a lesson I wanted nothing to do with. And when Hazel rolled her eyes at me, I knew she was thinking the same. I thought I’d empty out the wheelbarrow and then go and give her a hand. But as I was emptying it out, I heard Hazel yelling for help. I knew then that something had gone horribly wrong.
‘Levi had fallen off. He’d got cocky, was messing about, he’d dug his heels in to make his horse move and he’d called out to another rider, “Look, no hands!” as he dropped the reins. His horse took exception to the chaos and got annoyed, turned suddenly, and off Levi came. He collided with a fence, knocked his shoulder badly. By the time I got over there, he was lying on the ground, breathing but not moving. And his hat had come off, he must’ve played with the straps – Hazel said he kept moaning about having to wear it, how he wanted to have a cowboy hat like they did in the movies.’
‘Bad idea,’ said Gus, smiling over at Abigail, thankful she was laughing as the horses all wanted to know her this afternoon, rather than thinking about what she’d just seen.
‘Very bad idea. There was some blood at the side of his head, and one look at his twisted form and it was clear his shoulder was out and his leg too. Hazel had already called an ambulance, we covered him with a blanket, and waited. It was terrifying. I went with Levi in the ambulance and his mother met us at the hospital. They rushed him into surgery, and I came home. The hospital wouldn’t give me any updates after that, but we got one from his dad a few days later.’
‘The man just now.’
‘He showed up one day and cornered Hazel when she was mucking out one of the stables. She was distraught at what had happened, but she couldn’t fall apart, not when we had a business to run. He confronted her much in the charming way he did today. With a lot of yelling and accusations. Told her he’d lost earnings having to care for his boy, might lose his job and never work again if his boy needed further treatment, which I don’t think he ever did. I heard the commotion and found the man in the stables, a pitchfork in one hand, the other arm pinning Hazel against the wall.’
Gus swore. ‘Good job you were there.’
‘He was vile. Shrieking at my sister, telling her she wasn’t fit to be in charge of kids, accusing her of negligence, that he was going to sue and finish her for good. He called her plenty of choice names too, which I won’t repeat. That’s why Hazel has shied away from teaching kids or anyone inexperienced. She was beginning to improve, she was starting to think she’d try again. She even thought she might try with Abigail – my sister is a brilliant rider and teacher, it’s not her capabilities that have taken a knock but rather her confidence.’ He shrugged. ‘She must’ve changed her mind though, I’ve no idea why. One minute, I thought she’d come and see you, and the next, she was getting drunk at the pub and didn’t say another word about it.’
Now Gus had seen what she’d gone through with that man, it made sense. She’d been strange with him after the art class, which he now knew had more to do with his anger afterwards than any nakedness. Then they’d begun to bond a bit, he’d even thought it might go further, but then she’d seen him and Julie arguing. She must have thought he was yet another parent who had anger issues and after knowing what had happened with that man today and before, it was no wonder she hadn’t wanted to teach Abigail. She hadn’t wanted to put herself in that position again.
‘So the man never took it any further?’ Gus asked.
‘He didn’t. But clearly he never let it go, given his reappearance.’
When Abigail came back over, treats all gone, she and Gus left Arnold, Hazel, and the police officer to it and headed for home.
The first thing Gus did when he got back to the house was call Julie. Not something he often did if Abigail had a problem, but he wanted today’s events to come from him, for her to know that their daughter was fine, she was safe. It was a fresh start for them in the village, but he also needed to respect that it was a new chapter for Julie too.
After talking to his ex-wife, he passed the phone over to his daughter so they could talk, and when she was at last happily telling her mum about the horses and the treats she’d fed them, he retreated into the kitchen and made a mug of coffee.
As he sat listening to the happy sounds of Abigail chattering away, he thought about Hazel. He finally had answers as to why she was reluctant to teach his daughter or any other child, for fear the same might happen. She’d lost confidence after that man had scared her half to death and told her she was such a terrible human being. Gus hoped that Hazel might someday be able to see what happened for what it actually was. An accident. Just like Abigail’s had been. And he hoped that rather than looking behind her all the time, at ways it could’ve been avoided, Hazel could now begin to move forwards.
But he was also worried that today’s incident might put her right back to square one.
