Springtime at Cherry Tree Cottage (30 page)

‘Is there anything else you need? Would you like a wake-up call?'

‘What time do you normally start on the yard?'

‘Between seven and seven thirty. I can't start too early because I have to wake Maisie and take her to the house for breakfast before school. It's unfair to expect her to sit around for hours while I'm doing the horses, and I can't leave her here home alone. But tomorrow, her grandparents are dropping her straight to school, which makes a change.'

‘Okay, I'll do Rafa beforehand.'

‘Don't worry about that.' He smiles ruefully. ‘The money isn't great, I'm afraid, not much more than board and lodging. That's probably one of the reasons why Kerry left. She thought she wanted to be a stunt rider when she arrived, but she's more into jumping and eventing.'

‘Thanks, Robbie. I'm just glad to have a roof over my head.' The rain continues to patter against the window. ‘This is a lovely room.'

‘I keep it shut up most of the time, unless we have friends to stay. It's a shame really.' He hesitates with his hand on the doorknob. ‘In the morning you'll see that it looks out on to the cherry trees … Sleep well,' he adds.

‘Goodnight.' I watch him close the door behind him, then turn off the light and slide into bed under the fresh-smelling duvet, still wearing his shirt like a caress against my skin. How can I sleep when I've lost my job? How can I possibly have peace of mind when I'm under the same roof as the gorgeous and generous Robbie Salterton?

According to my phone, it's gone eight when I wake up, wondering what I'm doing in a strange room, wearing somebody else's shirt. I sniff at the cotton. It smells of fabric conditioner, the one I associate with Robbie, and then I remember what happened last night and how I'm supposed to be ready for work.

I jump out of bed and open the door to find a neat pile of my clothing on the landing alongside a mug of cold tea. I dress quickly in a navy polo shirt and jeans, clean my teeth, and rush out of the cottage and down to the yard to find Robbie.

He's walking towards the stables with a couple of head-collars slung over his shoulder.

‘I'm so sorry I'm late,' I say, joining him. ‘I feel terrible.'

‘It's fine. There isn't an award for employee of the year,' he jokes. ‘You're here in time to help me turn Rafa, Diva and Paddington out and bring the rest in. Did you sleep okay?'

‘I did. I wasn't expecting to.' Rafa whinnies at me and the sun comes out.

‘You're welcome to go and see Mel anytime today.'

‘Thanks, I need to pick up my things.'

‘So you aren't going to try to get your job back?'

‘No, as I said last night, I'm through with it. He'll have to cope without me. He was confident that he'd find alternative cover and it won't be long until he's back on the road.' I gaze at Robbie who's frowning, as if he thinks I'm making a mistake. ‘I need to move on.'

‘As long as you're sure. You're welcome to take the Land Rover – the keys are in the ignition.'

Robbie and I turn Paddington out with T-rex and put Rafa and Diva into adjacent paddocks. They touch noses, then start necking over the fence, nuzzling each other.

‘Love at first sight,' Robbie says. I'm aware that his eyes are on me, not the horses. I blush, sensing the tension between us. ‘That's a surprise. Perhaps Diva will be less stressy now that she's found a friend. She puts the others off by squealing and pulling faces at them.'

I take a pic to send to Sarah. A text comes straight back.

Aww, sweet! On the way to the hospital. Wish me luck xx

‘What's up? Is Mel begging you to come back?'

‘My friend's in labour. I'll be on tenterhooks all day.' I break off abruptly.

‘You can talk about it in front of me,' he says. ‘Life goes on. Does she know if she's having a boy or a girl?'

‘A girl.'

He smiles gently as we start walking to the barn to collect the mucking-out tools. ‘I don't think I could have coped with a boy. Maybe one day …'

‘Do you want more?' It hadn't occurred to me before that Robbie might not only want a mum for Maisie, but more children too.

‘I'd love Maisie to have a sibling or two. She'll make a great big sister – as you saw with Paddington, she's more than bossy enough.' He starts to walk back to the yard. ‘Shall we make a start on the mucking out?'

‘Of course. I shouldn't be standing around chatting.' I follow him to the barn where he opens the door and reaches inside for a shavings fork. As he hands it to me, our fingers touch and my body bursts into flame. Slowly, he leans in and brushes his lips against mine. I reach out and grasp his arm to steady myself, and somehow the fork ends up clattering to the floor, and he pulls me roughly into the shelter of the barn, closing the door behind us. I put my arms around his neck as he draws me close, pressing the length of his body into my curves. I want him so badly that I can hardly breathe.

‘Robbie,' I mutter. ‘Remember what we agreed last night?'

‘Yes, but there is one enormous problem with that.' A big issue springs to mind immediately, something hot, hard and throbbing its way into my consciousness.

‘It's that I fancy you like mad and I can't keep my hands off you. There, I've said it.' He holds himself still. I can see the pulse at his neck, marking time as he waits for me to respond.

‘You know I won't be here for long …'

‘So you've said a hundred times.' A shadow crosses his eyes as a swallow flies across the rafters above. ‘We could go back to before, if it's what you want too. We can spend time together, mess around with the horses – we could teach Rafa some tricks … We'll be exclusive – that's as important to me as it is to you. And we'll not worry about the future, just take it day by day. What do you think?'

‘It sounds good,' I say, ‘but what about Maisie?'

‘I'd rather she didn't know.'

‘Oh? I kind of hoped we wouldn't have to tiptoe around in secret.'

‘It's better that she's clear that we have no ties and that you aren't a permanent fixture. She'll be sad when you leave anyway. I'd rather not confuse her.'

‘You mean you don't want her to know that her dad sleeps with women.'

He shrugs. ‘It sounds like a double standard, but she's too young to understand adult relationships. As far as she's concerned, love and romance is about princes bringing glass slippers and princesses lying waiting to be woken by a handsome hero.'

‘That all sounds rather politically incorrect. Aren't there princesses who go around kissing a lot of frogs before they find “the one”?'

‘I don't want Maisie to think that it's okay to sleep around.'

‘Isn't that a little hypocritical? I mean, it's unusual nowadays for someone to meet and stay with the same partner for life.' I hesitate, noticing the look on his face. ‘It's all right, I understand. You don't want her to have to grow up too soon.'

‘That's right. I want her to have a childhood.' He touches his nose to mine. ‘Do you think we can do this?'

‘I guess it adds to the experience,' I say with a small inward sigh. ‘It's just that when I'm with someone, I want to shout it from the rooftops.'

‘I'm not that special.'

‘Oh, you are.' I tilt my head for a kiss, and stand there locked in an embrace until the sound of Sally Ann's voice rings out from the yard outside.

‘Where is everyone this morning? Robbie?'

With a growl of frustration, he releases me, and we emerge blinking into the sunlight with wheelbarrows and tools.

‘Oh, there you are,' she says. ‘Dillon didn't come home last night and there's lots to do. Flick? What are you doing here? No, there's no need to tell me. I can guess.'

‘It isn't how it looks.' Robbie explains about Mel giving me the sack, although he doesn't give the reason, just says that there was a misunderstanding. ‘Flick's going to help us out in return for board and lodging until everything's sorted out.'

‘You can stay in the big house, if you like,' she says, turning to me. ‘Neil and I are rattling around in there.'

‘She's staying in the cottage with me and Maisie,' Robbie says hastily.

‘Thank you for the offer though,' I say. ‘It's very kind of you.'

‘So, what are your plans?' Sally Ann asks.

‘I'm going to collect my belongings today, then I'll start looking for another job.'

‘There's plenty of breakfast to go round – you must join us later.'

I thank her again before Robbie and I make a start. We chat while we're mucking out the stables that were occupied the previous night.

‘How is Nelson?' I ask as I make banks of clean bedding around the edge of Rafa's stable.

‘He's far from being right,' Robbie says from the doorway. ‘I've started him in light work so he doesn't drop too much muscle, but he doesn't like the hard ground, even with the pads and new shoes.'

‘Don't expect too much too soon.'

‘I'm trying to be patient, but I've got to have him right to have any chance of getting the TV contract confirmed. I don't think I can do it without him. We could use Scout as our lead horse, but he hasn't got the same presence as Nelson. You and Matt are giving me the “let's wait and see” scenario. What do you really think? You must have seen other horses with navicular. How many of them come sound enough to work? How long should I continue to flog a dead horse?'

‘Well, for one, he isn't dead yet, and two, I'm not that experienced – it's Matt you should be talking to.'

‘I need you to be straight with me.' He lowers his voice. ‘I need you to confirm what I think I already know, that he's had it. He'll never be fit enough to be part of the team again.'

‘I can't say that. There's always a chance.' I start to wilt under the pressure of his gaze. ‘A very small chance …'

‘Thanks for being honest with me,' he says gruffly. ‘I needed to hear that.'

We empty the wheelbarrows on to the muck heap, then have breakfast with Dillon, who has made an appearance at last. We return to the yard.

‘What next?' I ask Robbie.

‘It's time for some team practice,' he says. ‘We need Scout, Dennis, Turner and Carlton and some music. I don't think the horses take any notice of it, but it helps me and Dillon. It's always good for the horses to get used to noise anyway. When I was doing a display with the Pony Club as a kid, there was a twenty-one-gun salute going off while we were waiting in the collecting ring. The ponies went ballistic – I don't know how everyone stayed on.'

I smile at the thought.

‘Is this like a full dress rehearsal?'

‘No.' He grins. ‘I don't want the hassle of doing my make-up. I'm going to try Dennis out as lead horse today.'

It's my job to have the right horses ready at the right time and make sure that there's music playing through the loudspeakers on the perimeter of the arena. Luckily, Kerry was somewhat OCD about organisation, employing labels and colour-coding, so it's easy to match the tack to the horse.

I take ten minutes out to watch the brothers working the horses. I'm not sure that Dennis is up to being lead horse. He is more of a follower than a leader, hanging back when Robbie brings him and the other horse in the pair alongside Dillon's two, making it hard for him to keep his balance. I'm beginning to see how much Robbie relies on Nelson. He isn't going to be easy to replace if it comes to it.

I can see too why the TV producer would pick Nelson as the lead actor's mount for the series. Dennis is lovely, but he doesn't possess the same charisma and verve.

Robbie and Team Eclipse have a big problem on their hands … or should that be hooves?

When they return to the yard, I wash the horses down, pick out their feet and put them in their stables, where most of them have a good roll in their beds. Scout looks over his stable door afterwards, his mane adorned with pale cream curls of wood-shavings.

We stop again for lunch, when I finally get round to collecting my belongings from Wisteria House. I apologise to Louise for not letting her know I was going to be late.

‘Never mind,' she says, as she opens the front door to me. One of the hens, bereft of feathers, sits perched on the banister behind her. ‘I'm here all day anyway until it's time for the school run. It's good to see you.'

Mindful of my recent conversation with Robbie, I decide to keep my mouth shut.

‘I'm sorry about my husband. I don't know what gets into him, but he speaks first and thinks later. He seems to have some idea that you're seducing his clients ready to steal them away when you set up your business, and he's still smarting a little about the horses as therapy sessions for Ashley. He seems to think that you influenced me when it's clearly not true. It was my decision.'

‘I'm not stealing his clients, really I'm not.'

‘I know. I've sat him down and given him a lecture – I've told him you're a decent person with ethics, so you wouldn't do any such thing. He was still mad last night, but he's calmed down today.'

‘Where is he?'

‘He's gone out with the truck – I told him not to, but would he listen? It isn't even six weeks since his op, yet he reckons he's fit enough to shoe a couple of quiet ponies by now. I expect he's preparing his apology right this minute.' She hesitates. ‘You are bringing Rafa back this afternoon? Ashley missed him this morning. We both did.'

‘I'm sorry, I'm not coming back.'

‘Mel didn't mean whatever he said or did to offend you. We need you.'

‘I can't work for him any more.' Even if I can't tell her the real reason for the blow-up, I can vote with my feet. I can't stand by and pretend nothing's happening. I'd feel like a fraud. ‘Robbie's offered me a temporary job.'