I considered. The situation had everything that would usually have me running a mile, with its countless undercurrents and a stroppy bastard who was already pissed at seven o’clock in the morning. I considered some more, then asked the only question that mattered. ‘Will he get into trouble if I don’t?’
Henry sighed. ‘I’d love to say no.’
‘But?’
‘Blaine’s requests to Finn are never merely that.’
‘Oh well.’ I looked out of the kitchen window at a cloudless cerulean sky. ‘At least it’s a nice day for it.’
*****
‘You can ride Ruby, I’ll take Bruno.’ Finn led a stunning thoroughbred chestnut mare from the stable block, past a sedate, handsome bay. She was fifteen hands high, and Finn’s bare arms corded with tight muscle as he struggled to hold her. ‘Stand still, you stupid bitch,’ he chided, and slapped the skittish animal on the side of her head. Her rolling eyes shone with a malevolence that promised an interesting ride. ‘You want a hat?’
I shook my head. ‘It’ll give me more of a reason to stay on.’
‘Your funeral,’ he smiled.
I ignored him. Nothing mattered now except wiping that evil grin off Finn’s face. I would rather have broken my neck than backed down.
‘Need a leg up?’
I glared at him. ‘No.’
The moment I sat in the saddle I had a feeling that dumb pride was about to get me killed. Even as I shortened my stirrup leathers Ruby began to buck and rear like a mustang, and I was briefly tempted to dismount before the smart option was snatched away as a stray carrier bag blew across the yard. Ruby gave a high-pitched squeal of terror, made one last attempt to buck me off and bolted from the yard with the speed of an Ascot favourite.
As we galloped across the field behind the stable block I could only hang on for grim death and hope I would survive long enough to kill the man who had just set me up.
Finn
Nicola, Blaine’s groom, drove into the yard in her thirty-year old mini and brought it to a squealing halt just inches from the steaming muck-heap. She sprinted across the cobbles without killing the engine or shutting her door. ‘Finn!’ she hollered as she ran, ‘Who the hell is that on Rube?’
‘She’s staying at the Hall…’
Nicola’s eyes widened in alarm. ‘Oh God Finn, she’s a guest?’
‘Yes. Well, no… Kinda,’ I stumbled. ‘Why? Is there a problem?’
‘Ruby’s the bloody problem. Blaine took her out at the start of the week and lamed her; rode her hard on tarmac for three hours straight. We’ve had to stable her for the last four days, and you know what she’s like if she’s inside for half an hour.’ Nicola shook her head in exasperation. ‘You stupid bugger!’
I had never sobered up so fast in my life. A pint of breakfast vodka evaporated from my bloodstream like magic and as I leapt into Bruno’s saddle I prayed that Lilith was as good a rider as she had claimed. A quarter of a mile away, on the margins of the cornfield, a horse’s chestnut flank flashed bright in the morning sun before it bolted into the woods. On Ruby’s back, thank an unusually benevolent God, sat Lilith Bresson.
As I might have guessed, she was doing everything right. Sitting deep into the saddle, letting Ruby have her head until she ran out of steam, and taking her uphill to slow the pace. Taking her uphill towards an abandoned quarry.
I kicked Bruno into a flat-out gallop as we hit the edge of the field.
Lilith
At first sheer fury suppressed any fear, but as we crashed into dense woodland and Ruby still showed no sign of stopping I began to think that one or both of us was heading for certain death.
I didn’t know the terrain – had no idea if the next turn would bring us out onto a road, or some rock-studded field. I forced myself to breathe as normally as I could: my inhaler was in my t-shirt pocket but it may as well have been on the moon for all my hope of reaching the bloody thing.
With the thundering of my pulse in my ears echoing Ruby’s hoof beats I didn’t hear Finn’s approach until he was next to me, matching Bruno’s gait to ours. At first I thought he was trying to ride me off and finish the job properly; he brought Bruno level with Ruby’s right flank and reined him hard to the left so that my mare was forced to break her stride. She stumbled and veered so wildly that I had to throw myself across her neck to stay mounted.