Fortune and the Golden Trophy (8 page)

Avery turned back to Mr Cheeseman. “Gordon, how many hoof prints exactly did you find on your green?”

“Three!” Mr Cheeseman announced, his face puce with rage.

“Three?” Avery was trying to remain straight-faced. “You’re in a state because of three hoof prints?”

“It might just be three hoof prints to you and your larrikin riders,” Mr Cheeseman fumed, “but it has ruined the state of the eighteenth green. I’ve seen the patch-up job you’ve done on that fence too, so don’t tell me you don’t know that a horse escaped last night.”

“Gordon,” Avery said, “we are victims of the vandals just as much as you are. The fence had been cut clean through with wire snips and one of our horses got out. Luckily, we caught him before any real damage occurred and thankfully the horse is fine.”

“The horse?” Mr Cheeseman sputtered with rage. “I don’t give a toss about your horse!”

“Then you’ll forgive me if I don’t care much about the state of your golfing green,” Avery said coolly. “As you rightly pointed out I have fixed the fence—which is shared between the pony club and the golf club. I will of course be forwarding your half of the repair costs on to
you, Gordon, and I would appreciate prompt payment. Wire doesn’t come cheap, you know, and neither does my time.”

Gordon Cheeseman’s eyes narrowed. “You think you’re being funny, don’t you, Avery? Well, I’ve had enough. This is the last straw. I am no longer willing to put up with your pony club. I will be taking this matter to the district council. Your lease is coming up for renewal—let’s see whether you can keep your club grounds once I’ve lodged an official complaint against you!”

And with that, the mad golfer strode off in a huff. His dramatic departure was slightly marred when he stepped in a pile of Fortune’s poor in his sparkling white golf shoes.

“Don’t laugh, you’ll make matters worse,” Avery admonished the girls, but he couldn’t help smiling as he watched Gordon Cheeseman stomp away.

“Does he mean it?” Kate asked. “About telling the council on us?”

Avery nodded. “I’m sure he does. It’s exactly the opportunity Gordon’s been waiting for. He’s been trying to get rid of us for years.”

Suddenly, no one was laughing. This time, it looked like Gordon Cheeseman might actually succeed.

Avery called Issie and Stella the next day and asked the girls if they were able to come over after school to help him out with something. He was very vague about details so the girls got a bit of a surprise when they arrived at Winterflood Farm and he introduced them to three more new horses in the paddock.

There was a very pretty palomino named Lulu and two matching strawberry roans called, rather unimaginatively, Roanie and Strawberry. “Don’t blame me,” Avery said, “I didn’t name them. Aidan did.”

“Aidan?” Issie said. “They’re from Blackthorn Farm?”

Avery looked surprised. “I thought you knew. That was why I didn’t bother with details on the phone. I assumed Aidan had already called you.”

Issie looked embarrassed. Aidan hadn’t called her. In fact, she hadn’t spoken to him since that uncomfortable scene in the kitchen a week ago. “He didn’t call me. I didn’t even know he’d been here,” Issie admitted.

“He still is,” Avery said. “He’s going to be moving in with me for a few weeks while we school up the horses.”

“What?” Issie couldn’t believe it. “Where is he now?”

“In the kitchen making us all some afternoon tea.”

Issie stomped towards the house with Stella following hot on her heels. She couldn’t believe it. Aidan was supposed to be her boyfriend and now she had found out that he hadn’t even let her know he was moving in with Tom!

Aidan’s face lit up when he saw Issie in the kitchen doorway. “Hey…” he started cheerfully, but then he took in Issie’s frown.

“Is there something wrong?”

“Something wrong?” Issie was furious. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming to stay? You said you were going to call me, but you never did!”

“Don’t you want me to be here? Is that it?” Aidan looked hurt.

“No! I mean yes, I do want you to be here.” Issie suddenly felt embarrassed to be talking like this in front
of Stella. “It’s just that I wish you would tell me stuff. I mean, you turn up out of the blue and I didn’t even know you were coming and then Avery tells me you’re staying! I thought you were really busy at the farm.”

“I was,” Aidan said, “but I’ve got Bill Stokes from down the road covering for me. He’s feeding Butch and Blossom and the ducks. Hester has the rest of the horses with her on the film set. Lulu, Roanie and Strawberry are the remaining ponies coming up for auction. I’m going to stay around for a few weeks with the horses and school them with Avery to get them ready for the sales.”

“Well,” Issie harrumphed, “you could have told me first. I felt pretty stupid finding out from Tom.”

“I should have told you? Yeah, right! Like the way you told me that you were going to Spain?” Aidan shot back. “Issie, I didn’t even know you were going and then I get an email and you’re at El Caballo Danza Magnifico!”

“That was different,” said Issie defensively. “That was…”

“Why was it different? Because I’m supposed to call you even though you never call me?” Aidan said. “Man, I don’t believe you, Issie. I go to all this effort to uproot my whole life and move the horses here just so I can
spend some time with you, and you’re angry because I surprised you? I can’t win!”

“Aidan…” Issie began. But it was too late. Aidan had stormed off towards the stables in a fury, leaving Issie standing bewildered in his wake.

Stella and Issie stood there for a moment in silence, and then Stella turned to Issie. “So, your boyfriend’s back then?” she grinned. “You must be pleased.”

“Don’t push your luck, Stella,” Issie snapped. “It’s not funny.”

Issie didn’t get it. Aidan was angry at her? He had to be kidding! She was the one who was angry at him! It wasn’t her fault she hadn’t called before she left for Spain. Everything had happened so fast when Storm was stolen—she didn’t get the chance.

But now it seemed like Aidan thought that she didn’t care about him. Of course she did! She had been so happy to see him that day he turned up in her kitchen, then he’d dropped the bombshell about Fortune and left again. Issie had started to think that maybe he didn’t want to hang around because he didn’t want to be her boyfriend any more. So when he turned up again out of
the blue, she didn’t know what to make of it. Issie groaned. The whole thing was just a disaster. Was Aidan still her boyfriend or not?

When Issie got home she spent the rest of that evening staring at the telephone, willing it to ring. She wanted Aidan to call and tell her it was all a big misunderstanding and that everything was OK. Three hours later, when the phone had refused to ring, she thought about picking it up herself and calling him. But then she got cold feet. What if Aidan didn’t want to speak to her? He had been pretty mad when he stormed off. Maybe it was over and he didn’t know how to tell her?

She went to bed that night unable to stop thinking about Aidan. She thought about how his dark fringe hid those gorgeous pale-blue eyes, how cute he looked in his jeans and the faded old tartan shirts he always wore. She felt totally miserable that they might be splitting up.

By the next morning, however, Issie had pulled herself together. She was being ridiculous, she decided, moping about, waiting for the phone to ring.

Get over it
, she told herself firmly. As of this moment she was going to put Aidan out of her mind and the best way to do that was to focus her energies on her horses.

Avery had written out a rigid exercise regime to get
Fortune into shape. Issie was supposed to hack the piebald out on a road ride each day with thirty minutes of non-stop trotting. And so, the day after her fight with Aidan, Issie headed for the pony-club paddocks after school with big plans for kick-starting the piebald’s new healthy workout regime.

Fortune was lying down under one of the magnolia trees in his paddock, snoring as usual, when she arrived. This time when he saw her, the horse actually bothered to get up, clambering inelegantly to his feet.

“Well,” Issie said to the piebald as she slipped his halter on, “at least you seem to know who I am now.”

Fortune eagerly snuffled up the carrot that the girl offered him. He was hungry. He had been in the short-grass paddock for a few days now and his belly had already lost some of its grass bloat.

“We’re going for a big trot today, Fortune, to get you fit,” Issie told the piebald. Her plan was to ride him at a walk down the verge of the main road until they reached the back roads that led to the River Paddock. Once they were on the back roads, they would be able to trot on the grass verges. They could keep up a steady pace all the way past the River Paddock until they reached Winterflood Farm. Then they would turn around and trot back again.
Issie figured that would be at least half an hour of nonstop trotting—just what Avery had ordered.

The excursion didn’t start well. Fortune was back to his old nappy ways. But Issie was firm with him and gave him a light wave with the stick as Avery had shown her, and the piebald soon knew she meant business.

Once he was out on the open road, Fortune almost seemed to be enjoying himself. His head was raised up high and his ears swivelled back and forth as he listened to Issie’s endless stream of conversation. Issie always liked to talk to her horses, using her voice to make them relax. However, today her voice wasn’t calming at all. It was squeaky and high-pitched as she carried on a non-stop rant. Poor Fortune was getting a total earful about just how stupid boys were!

“…and then he has the nerve to say that he was only trying to surprise me!” Issie told Fortune. “What does that mean? Why didn’t he tell me he was coming? Why does he have to turn up without warning like that?”

Beneath her, Fortune swivelled his ears back and forth as he listened intently. He gave a grunt which could easily have been interpreted as a sympathetic “there-there”.

The ride continued like this for the next ten minutes as they headed down the main road. When they finally
turned into the side road, with wider grass verges and less traffic, Issie stopped talking so much and began to focus on riding, urging Fortune on into a steady trot. Once again, the piebald was a little bit nappy at first, but then he trotted on, his springy paces throwing her up and down in the saddle as they bounced together down the road.

It was a perfect day to be out riding. The grey skies had cleared and it was one of those fresh, early spring days when the sun isn’t too hot on your skin. Everything was going brilliantly until they reached the T-junction at the corner of the road and turned down the esplanade that led towards the River Paddock.

Ahead of them, coming in the opposite direction, also at a trot, was another horse and rider. Issie kept on trotting, smiled and waved a friendly hello at a distance, then a few moments later her face dropped as the horse and rider drew closer and she realised who they were. Marmite and Aidan!

Aidan smiled and waved back to Issie, then clucked Marmite on, heading towards her. When the two horses were just a few metres away from each other Aidan slowed down to a halt, clearly expecting Issie to do the same. His smile faded as he realised that Issie wasn’t
slowing down at all. She kept trotting straight past Aidan as if he wasn’t even there.

“Hey!” Aidan said. “Wait! I want to talk to you. Issie! I want to talk about what happened yesterday at the farm.”

“Sorry,” Issie called back over her shoulder as she sped on, “I can’t stop. Avery told me I have to do thirty minutes of non-stop trotting on Fortune to get him into shape. If you want to talk to me, you better keep up.”

Aidan sighed. Why did Issie have to be like this? She was so infuriating! Undaunted, he pivoted Marmite around on his hindquarters and urged the brown pony into a vigorous trot. Within a minute they had caught up to Issie and Fortune. Now the two riders were side by side on the grass verge, Marmite and Fortune keeping perfect stride with each other as they trotted on.

“OK,” said Issie, “what did you want to say?”

“Me?” Aidan said. “I thought maybe you might want to say something, Issie. In fact, I was expecting you to call me last night.”

Issie was feeling so uncomfortable now she couldn’t bring herself to look at Aidan; instead, she looked straight ahead as she rode. “I really wanted to call you,” she said, “but I thought you didn’t want to speak to me.”

“Issie! Don’t be ridiculous!”

“Oh!” Issie was insulted. “So now I’m being ridiculous? Listen, Aidan, I understand if you don’t want to go out with me any more, but there’s no need to be mean.”

“Don’t want to go out with you?” Aidan was confused. “I thought you didn’t want to go out with me! I get one lousy postcard and you don’t even call me when you get back, and all your emails from Spain went on about some guy called Alfonso…”

Issie couldn’t believe it. “You’re jealous of Alfonso?” she said.

“No!” said Aidan. Then he reconsidered his answer. “OK, yes. I’m jealous. I admit it! Happy now?”

“Aidan, that’s nuts! Alfie is my friend. You’re my
boyfriend!
”

Aidan groaned. “How am I supposed to know that if you don’t tell me? You never called me before you left…”

“Hello! My colt had been stolen!” Issie said. “And I know I should have called you when I got back home, but I felt so miserable about leaving Storm in Spain, I didn’t want to phone you up and burst into tears.”

Aidan looked at her and shook his head. “Issie, that’s what I’m here for. You should have told me what you
were going through. I just want to be there for you and help you.”

“Really?”

“Totally! Why do you think I turned my life upside down to be here? I miss you so much! Issie, I just want things to be the way they were before.”

“Well, that’s all I want too!” said Issie. She had been keeping Fortune trotting this whole time and the piebald was striding out nicely as she posted up and down.

“Then you’re still my girlfriend?” Aidan asked.

Issie felt the flutter of butterflies in her tummy. “I’m still your girlfriend,” she smiled.

Aidan rode Marmite closer to Fortune now, trying to keep in stride as the two horses trotted on.

“Umm, Issie?” he said.

“Yeah?”

“Can we stop trotting? Just for a minute?”

Issie shook her head. “Uh-uh. Tom said I have to do thirty minutes of non-stop trot to get Fortune fit. It’s only been twenty minutes so far. I can’t stop.”

“OK then,” Aidan said, smiling at the stubbornness of his girl. “I guess I don’t have a choice. I’m going to have to do this your way.”

He rode Marmite even closer to Fortune, so that his
knees were bumping against Issie’s.

“Hey!” Issie said. “You’re too close. What are you doing?”

“Giving my girlfriend a kiss,” announced Aidan. And with that, he leant over as he rose out of the saddle with a swift bounce and the next thing Issie knew Aidan’s lips had connected with her own in the briefest, most fleeting of kisses. Then they were both trotting on once more and Aidan pulled Marmite away so that the horses weren’t squashed up against each other.

“This is my stop,” he said, gesturing to the turning up ahead that led to Winterflood Farm. “I’ll see you later, OK? Maybe we can go to the movies tonight? Pick you up at eight?”