Keeping Chilly (The October Horses Book 3) Read online

  I studied Nipper worriedly but, other than his half-finished hay net, he looked fine. I’d just cleaned out his stall and I’d seen him drinking water so I was pretty sure he wasn’t colicking.

  I’ll ask Julie to check on him later, just in case, I thought, pushing down my worry. I had a tendency to overthink things and expect the worst since the whole almost-dying-thing. But I was working on it.

  “All right, everyone, be good. I’ll be right back,” I told the horses, turning eagerly toward the ring to find Nicholas and my lunch.

  I hadn’t taken more than two steps when the crowd around the ring began to gasp and then dozens of screams erupted.

  Chapter 2

  Bree

  I froze for a second, trying to figure out what could possibly be wrong. There was lots of shouting and the sound of pounding hooves and multiple horses squealing and snorting. An anxious father ran past me, clutching his sobbing little girl to one shoulder.

  “Loose horse!” somebody yelled. “We need an ambulance. We need a vet.”

  Cries rang out from all directions. Hooves thundered directly toward me and suddenly I wasn’t frozen anymore.

  “Whoa, Dragon,” I said firmly, stepping out in front of her. “Whoa, good girl. You’re all right.”

  She could have trampled me. She thought about it, if her rolling eyes and half-rear were any indication, but then she slid to a halt instead, blowing hard with the sharp, cracking sound that usually was the warning that a horse was about to explode.

  “Pretty girl, smart girl,” I said soothingly in a sing-song voice, taking hold of her broken reins that were dragging on the ground. “Please don’t have hurt Chloe too badly. Come on, Dragon. Let’s go to your stall and get some lunch. There’s a good girl.”

  She listened to me for once, dropping her head and stuffing her nose roughly into my armpit as if for comfort.

  Sirens cut through the sunny afternoon, sounding horribly out of place on such a nice day. Dragon threw her head up again, letting out an ear-piercing bellow and dancing away from me, dragging me sideways a few steps. I took a deep breath, planted my feet, and willed myself to be calm.

  I wanted nothing more than to race to that warm-up ring and make sure that Chloe was okay, but Dragon was my first priority right now. I could feel her whole body shaking with agitation, and I knew that at any second, she could whirl around and take off again.

  Step by step, talking to her the whole time, I guided her firmly into her empty stall and rolled the door back with trembling hands.

  “Easy girl,” I crooned, wincing when I saw the drops of blood that had oozed from the corner of her mouth. She must have stepped on the reins and caught herself in the mouth somehow along the way.

  She let me take the bridle off but, the second she was free, she shot backwards, spinning around to pace anxious circles around her stall like a tiger, her sky-high adrenaline telling her that she needed to keep moving.

  “All right, good girl,” I said, “easy buddy. You’re all right. I really should have taken that saddle off first, before I took your bridle off, hey?”

  I just kept talking to her, saying nonsense words until her inside ear flicked at me and she huffed out a deep breath, slowing a little. She finally stopped at her water bucket and plunged her nose inside to suck up the water greedily. It was just enough time for me to unbuckle her girth and pull the saddle off. I backed hastily out of the door, locking it tightly behind me before I dumped her tack in our makeshift tack room and took off toward the ring at a run.

  The scene was pure chaos when I got there. Two ambulances, and people yelling and scuttling around in all directions. Maisy’s happy, upbeat freestyle music was still playing, layered over the cheerful sounds coming from the carnival, and it was all a sharp contrast against the disaster that was unfolding here.

  “Where is everyone?” I said out loud, desperately looking around for my crew. I felt a stab of relief as I caught sight of Julie and Lorne in the warm-up ring and I broke into a run as I headed toward them. They were both kneeling down next to a slumped figure on the ground next to three ambulance attendants in high-vis vests.

  “Oh, Chloe,” I said, bursting into tears when I saw her pale face smudged with dirt. She was awake but one eye was nearly swollen shut and she looked like she was trying not to throw up. The attendants were moving her gently from the ground onto a stretcher and she cried out with pain as they swiftly strapped her down and maneuvered her toward the ambulance.

  “Where’s Dragon?” she called weakly, catching sight of me.

  “She’s fine, I promise. She’s back at her stall. Are you all right?”

  Stupid question. Of course, she wasn’t all right if she was being loaded into the back of an ambulance.

  “It wasn’t her fault,” Chloe said. “It was Thor … I mean Titan. Dragon saw him fall. The other horses bolted and she just panicked.”

  Titan fell? I thought, looking around, but the crowd was too thick to see anything of what was happening in the other ring.

  “I’m going to ride in the ambulance with her,” Julie said, squeezing my arm. “She took a really hard fall. I’m sure her leg is broken. They’ll do x-rays to make sure it isn’t something worse. You can get everyone safely home? You can manage the horses?”

  “Yes, of course,” I said. “Jeremy and Lorne can drive the trailer. And Nicholas has his car here. We’ll meet you at the hospital once everyone is home.”

  She nodded and gave me a quick hug before climbing into the vehicle after Chloe.

  My throat closed up as I watched the ambulance pull away.

  “She’s okay,” I said out loud to reassure myself. I looked around, wondering where Lorne had disappeared to. And where was Nicholas? And Jeremy? He had just finished his ride on Lauren’s horse so he must be around here somewhere.

  Titan fell, Chloe had said. But what did it all mean?

  The edge of the main arena was packed with people. Little kids were crying, and some adults were, too. Some people just stared in shock and the rest of the crowd was buzzing with horrified whispers. And beyond them, above all the noise, I heard someone wailing. An agonized cry of loss and bewilderment that cut through me right to the bone and made the hair on the back of my neck stand on edge.

  I’d done my time in palliative care and I was no stranger to what the aftermath of death sounded like. The haunting, anguished sound brought tears to my eyes.

  Numbly, I pushed my way to the front of the crowd, dreading what I’d see. But I felt called that way for some reason. I wanted to help if I could.

  “Don’t look, Bree,” a voice said and Nicholas was there, putting his arms tightly around me and trying to turn me away so he could block me from seeing the terrible scene. Which was sweet of him. But, considering that I’d dealt with more death in my short life than most people ever did, it was also totally unnecessary. I was much stronger than I looked.

  Before I could tell him any of that, I caught sight of the horrible scene in front of me.

  An ambulance was parked in the middle of the ring with all of its doors open. And so was the familiar truck of our farm vet, Dr. Anderson. A handful of people were gathered close together nearby, holding up coolers and sheets to block the crowd’s view of the disaster scene.

  But nothing could block out the hysterical sobs of Maisy.

  “Did Titan … die?” I asked, my voice coming out a squeak. I knew it must be him. It was the only thing that made sense. But it was hard to associate that crumpled black heap on the ground with the proud and beautiful horse that I’d seen standing regally in his pasture so many times. “What happened?”

  “I don’t know,” Nicholas said, “she was cantering out on him and he just dropped like a stone. She’s lucky she jumped clear when he fell. She could have been crushed.”

  “Heart attack, most likely,” an older woman next to me whispered. She ducked her head right next to mine, her moist breath uncomfortably close to my ear. “I’ve seen it happen be
fore. Tragic.”

  “An aneurism could do that, too.” A woman in a blue jacket turned around, overhearing our conversation. “Sometimes the vessels in their brain just rupture. Such a shame, too. I heard she was supposed to go to Europe next month with that rider development program.”

  “Maybe it was drugs,” a sharp voice said, rising above the others. “Considering the crowd she ran with, I wouldn’t be surprised. I told the vet right when he got here that the horse should be tested. There’s probably a lot of insurance money involved.”

  I swivelled around in astonishment, surprised by the venom in her voice. Her appearance didn’t match up with her bitter words at all. She was much younger than she’d sounded, probably fifteen or sixteen, but she had a sour, embittered look about her. Her heart-shaped face and elegant blonde hair pulled back in a bun would have been pretty if she hadn’t worn a murderous expression.

  She glared at me and then her eyes widened as she noticed Nicholas. Colour stained her cheeks and she tucked a flyaway strand of hair behind her ear.

  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Girls looking at Nicholas like he was next on the menu was something I’d reluctantly had to get used to.

  I glanced downward at the girl’s dusty breeches and tall boots. She had her phone in her hand, held out at a strange angle as if she’d just lowered it.

  She hadn’t been … she wasn’t videoing this, was she?

  The girl caught my eye and then looked abruptly away, pressing her lips together.

  “Now, now, Peyton,” the first woman said. “That sounds like sour grapes to me.”

  “She used to ride with that coach, didn’t she?” someone beside her asked. “The one who got the suspension for drug use and for hurting the horses. Didn’t he do jail time or something? Wasn’t he caught selling drugs to kids?”

  “He did way worse than that.” Peyton kept her eyes fixed on the ring and her mouth twisted into almost a snarl. “Maisy was one of his best students at the time. I bet the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. He probably taught her everything he knew.”

  “We don’t know that,” the first woman who’d spoken said firmly. “We shouldn’t gossip when we don’t know the facts. It’s obvious she loved that horse.”

  The blonde girl rolled her eyes and made a disapproving noise in her throat.

  “Well, there was a reason Lauren fired Maisy from riding her horses and hired that Scottish guy instead. I heard …” Her lecture was cut off abruptly by the sound of shouting from the ring.

  I peered through the throng of people to see a tear-stained and disheveled Maisy standing between Titan and Dr. Anderson. He was a vet who’d come to see our horses often at the farm. He was normally a nice, cheerful guy but he wasn’t smiling now.

  “Get away from him,” Maisy yelled, holding her arms out to the side as if she was herding a rogue cow. “I want my own vet to look at him. Don’t you dare come any closer.”

  “What is she doing?” the woman beside me whispered but I just shook my head. I had no idea.

  The vet lowered his voice and said something I couldn’t hear but Maisy’s already anguished face flushed a deeper red and she was breathing so hard that it looked like she’d pass out. She shook off the first-aid attendants who were trying to escort her to the waiting ambulance, flailing out wildly with both fists until they left her alone.

  I looked around the crowd, wondering where her family and friends were. Why was she all alone? Didn’t she have anyone to help her? The people who were holding the blankets around Titan’s body looked uncomfortable, like they definitely wished they had not volunteered for the job.

  “Come on Bree, we should get the horses home. We can’t do anything more here.” Nicholas tugged gently on my hand.

  I didn’t want to go. I couldn’t shake the feeling that Maisy didn’t have anyone there for her. But what could I do? She would hardly appreciate a stranger stepping in at the worst moment of her life. Would she?

  I wiped my eyes and heaved a shuddering breath as we walked back to the stalls. That was the thing about loving people and animals. Sometimes you had to let them go.

  As if he’d guessed my thoughts, Nicholas suddenly stopped and pulled me up against his chest, wrapping his arms tightly around me.

  I let myself lean against him, still marvelling at the fact that I had someone in my life that I could be this close to. That I could trust and let myself go with. I always felt like I had to be so strong and stoic around everyone else, because any sign of weakness might mean that my disease was coming back.

  But not with Nicholas. He was like being around the horses; I could just be myself around him and not worry about weirding him out.

  “We should go,” I said finally.

  He kissed the top of my head, laced my hand in his and together we headed back toward our stalls.

  Chapter 3

  Bree

  Lorne and Jeremy were already silently packing all our things into the trailer’s small tack room. The somber mood was much different to how happy we’d been when we arrived at the show grounds early that morning. It felt like a lifetime ago.

  Jeremy didn’t look up at any of us while we quietly finished loading all the gear into the truck and trailer; he just worked with a grim look on his face, ignoring us all.

  “Are you okay to leave?” I asked him quietly. “Your owners don’t mind?”

  “No, they agreed that it was best to leave.” He cleared his throat, looking at me as if he were startled to find himself not alone. “My last horse is young and he was already upset with everything going on. No point in pushing him.”

  “Yeah, good idea.” I nodded. That was one thing about Jeremy. No matter how gruff, and sometimes insensitive, he was around people, he wasn’t that way about the horses. Their needs always came first.

  “Lorne and I will drive the horses home,” he said abruptly. “You and Nick here clean the stalls out, and collect the ribbons and prizes from the office. We’ll meet you back at the farm.”

  Nicholas made a low grumbling noise at being called Nick, a name he hated, but didn’t argue. Jeremy was bossy, and he was good at rubbing people the wrong way sometimes, but now wasn’t the time to remind him that we weren’t his servants.

  “All right, fine,” I said quickly. “We’ll see you back at home.”

  I didn’t care about collecting my own ribbons but some of those were Chloe’s from her morning rides on Nugget, and I knew she’d want to have them. And we had to strip our stalls clean, or the show management would levy us with a fine.

  We helped Lorne and Jeremy load the horses back into the trailer. All of them practically leapt inside, eager to be home. Even Dragon was on her best behaviour.

  We waved them off and then I grabbed a wheel barrow so Nicholas and I could set to work pulling all the shavings out of the stalls and taking them over to the giant manure pile on the edge of the show grounds. With two of us working, it didn’t take us long, even though I was distracted and kept staring over toward the arena where the crowd was slowly drifting away.

  I couldn’t see from this far away, thank goodness, but I’d overheard someone saying that some heavy machinery had arrived to put Titan’s huge, limp body onto a flat-deck trailer and take it away.

  I wondered what they did with horses when they didn’t die at home. Did they get cremated like people? Were there horse graveyards somewhere?

  “You doing all right, Bree?” Nicholas asked softly.

  “Yeah, all right. You?”

  “It was pretty shocking, actually. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

  I reached out and grabbed his hand, giving it a tight squeeze. “Come on, let’s get our ribbons and test sheets and then get out of here. I want to go home.”

  We kept our hands linked as we went up to the show office, which was packed with people wearing tear-stained faces and gripping fist-fulls of Kleenex.

  “He was such a nice horse,” somebody said as we slipped in the open door.
“She’ll never get another like that.”

  “Maisy has lots of faults,” another lady said bluntly, “but she loved that animal. This is going to devastate her. That’s the end of the road for her.”

  “Oh, don’t say that,” someone else said, “I’m sure she’ll get back on her feet once she’s had time to grieve …”

  “Nope, I heard a rumour that they’re out of money. Bankrupt. That’s the last horse like that she’ll sit on. That’s for sure.”

  “Quiet now, that’s just gossip,” the girl behind the desk said sharply, “now is not the time. I’m sorry loves,” this part was directed to me and Nicholas. “What can I get for you?”

  She quickly gave us the stack of test sheets and ribbons that Chloe, Jeremy, and I had earned.

  “Don’t forget Chloe’s saddle pad and her gift certificate to the tack store, dear. She was reserve champion in her division with that nice grey. Do you know how she’s doing yet?”

  I felt the interest in the room shift toward us as everyone turned in our direction.

  “No,” I shook my head, feeling the heat rising in my cheeks. “I think her leg is broken but that’s all I know. Julie went with her to the hospital.”

  “Poor thing. Well, a broken leg isn’t so bad. She can spring back from that soon enough. I suppose that means Jeremy will pick up the ride on that nice bay mare you have then.”

  “Oh, I ... I’m not sure,” I said, gulping. But suddenly I knew that’s exactly what was going to happen. And having Jeremy ride Dragon would hurt Chloe much more than a broken leg. It was the thing she’d feared the most, her worst nightmare come true. It would devastate her.

  “We have to go.” I turned and hurried back outside, pushing through the crowd, dragging Nicholas with me.

  I took a deep breath when I was back in the sunshine, away from that claustrophobic office. The adrenaline of the day seemed to wear off all at once, leaving me exhausted and a little sick to my stomach. It didn’t help that I hadn’t eaten anything since our pre-dawn breakfast of oatmeal and coffee.