The Loner (25 page)

He spoke with pride. ‘At long last I’m free of you – of all of you. From now on, there’s no need for me to feel guilty or unwanted. I can be my own man.’

His voice hardened. ‘As long as I live, I never want to see or hear from you again.’

‘You ungrateful little toe-rag!’ Patsy hit out, but when hecaught her by thearm, shebegan to sob. ‘You owemefor taking careof you all theseyears.
You owe me!
’

‘I oweyou nothing!’ Hebrushed by them. ‘Now get out of my way.’ Heran up thestairs and into theroom which heshared with his younger brother – half-brother, he reminded himself. He closed thedoor and sat on theedgeof thebed, shaking his head and trying to take it all in. ‘She’s right,’ he muttered. ‘I
am
a bastard. I belong to nobody.’

And then he remembered Judy, and Annie too. ‘Thank You, Lord,’ hemurmured, ‘for thekind and honest people You brought into my life.’

Quickly now, hepacked a bag and ran down the stairs; the man gone, the woman pleading for him to stay. He didn’t hear; he wanted no more of it. So, without a word or backward glance, he fled from that place.

This house, these people, were his past. The future was out there, and he meant to grasp it with both hands.

It had been a costly time, but now they were into the month of January, and chaos was replaced with normality. There were still cold, breezy days, but with the odd flicker of bright sunshine.

And the harsh months of 1961 already seemed a distant memory.

This particular Saturday afternoon was pleasantly mild, and having time to spare, Lucy strolled into the stable to see if Dave was there. She loved chatting to him. Humming her favourite Buddy Holly song, ‘Listen To Me’, she was feeling on top of the world, but her good mood came to a halt, along with the song, when she saw the expression on his face. Dave was checking the hooves of her father’s best mare, Molly. ‘I don’t like the look of this,’ he told her grimly. ‘I saw her limping a few days ago when Seamus was riding her back from the fields.’

‘Did you tell him?’ Lucy came closer.

‘Yes, but he rounded on me – said it was none of my business and that
he
was dealing with it. I took that to mean he’d already seen the vet and was treating it. But when I came in this morning, she was sweating badly. I suspected an infection, but I couldn’t be certain until I took a look.’

Bending down, he raised the mare’s hoof to wedge it between his knees; as he prodded it with the flat blade of the knife, he reeled from the stink that came up. ‘Jesus!’

‘What is it? What’s wrong?’

Dave didn’t answer straight away. Instead, holding his breath against the stench, he gently dug until he had located the culprit – a long bramble-thorn deeply driven into the mare’s soft hoof. With that done he eased the iron-shoe away, reeling again when the pus was revealed.

‘Well done, girl.’ Patting her side, he carefully lowered the mare’s leg to the ground and when in distress she hobbled over to the far corner, he burst out of the stable, securing the door behind him. ‘Damn it!’ He shook his head angrily. ‘What in God’s name is Seamus playing at? Why didn’t he get the vet out to her?’

‘Is it bad?’ Lucy could see he was worried. ‘Will she be all right?’

‘Not if Seamus has anything to do with it. It’s real bad, Lucy. The infection has gone right down into the soft flesh. There’s a mass of pulp and the hoof was tightly swollen under the shoe. We’d best get the vet out straight away. She’s in a lot of pain.’

Following him to the yard office, Lucy waited anxiously while Dave telephoned the vet; he was in the middle of describing the mare’s symptoms, when Lucy’s father arrived. Standing in the doorway, Frank Thomson listened to Dave’s every word.

‘By my reckoning, the hoof’s been infected for some days now,’ Dave was explaining. ‘No, I’ve no idea why you weren’t called earlier. Yes, I managed to dig out the thorn, and I prised the shoe off … lots of pus, yes. She’s got a temperature. She seems in a bad way.’

He finished the conversation. ‘Thank you. Yes, I will.’

Frank was at his side as he put the receiver down, his face hard and angry. ‘Where’s Seamus?’ While Dave was talking, Lucy had told her father everything she knew.

‘I saw him go off about an hour ago. He should be back soon.’

‘Show me!’ Enraged, he stormed out of the office.

Together with Dave and Lucy, he went straight for the mare’s stable. Dave was the first in. ‘Oh no, she’s gone down!’ Lying flat on her side and panting heavily, the mare was struggling to breathe.

Shouting instructions to them, Dave went inside. ‘We need buckets of hot water and salt … plenty of salt, and towels … some cotton-wool. Quickly, Lucy. HURRY!’

While Lucy ran to get help, Dave tended the horse and Frank got to his knees, soothing the stressed animal and promising her that she would be all right.

By the time the vet arrived, Dave had drawn out as much of the foul-smelling pus as he could, before bathing the hoof several times in warm salt-water. Lucy was laying cold compresses across the mare’s forehead, and Frank was in the office, having summoned two of the junior grooms, to satisfy himself that they had had no idea how bad the mare was. ‘We’re never allowed near her,’ admitted the young girl. ‘Seamus keeps us up the other end of the yard.’

Frank excused them, and when they were gone he slammed his fist on the desk. ‘You’ve a lot to answer for, my man!’ he growled. ‘It seems you’ve forgotten whose yard this is!’

In the stables, the vet had concluded his examination. ‘How is she?’ Both Dave and Lucy were deeply concerned. ‘Will she be all right?’ Dave sensed the news was not good.

Scrambling to his feet, the vet slowly shook his head. ‘Where’s Frank?’ He and Frank had known each other these past ten years and more.

‘He’s in the office, I think.’ Before he could leave, Dave needed to know. ‘Will she pull through?’

‘I’m not sure. We’ll have to wait and see.’

‘But she’s
got
to be all right!’ Lucy was close to tears.

The vet explained, ‘If the infection had been treated earlier, she would have had a better chance of recovering. But it’s been left so long, there are complications. Her lungs are affected.’ He spoke solemnly. ‘I’ve done all I can; it’s up to her now. All you can do is stay with her, keep her warm and calm, and hope the antibiotics do their work. But like I say, it’s not good.’

‘But when will we know?’ Lucy asked brokenly. ‘What else can we do?’

‘There is nothing else to be done,’ he assured her. ‘The next twenty-four hours will be crucial.’ He glanced at Dave. ‘It might be as well if Miss Thomson waits inside the house.’

‘No!’ Lucy was adamant. ‘I want to stay with Molly.’

‘That’s all right,’ Dave assured the man quietly. ‘I’ll be here with her.’

‘Well, if you’re sure… Just do what you’re doing – mop her face with a cool cloth, and keep her warm.’

Dave was desolate. ‘What are her chances?’ he asked once more.

‘Fifty-fifty, I’d say. She’s strong. She won’t give up without a fight.’ He made his way across the stable. ‘I need a word with Frank.’

They saw the two men meet up in the yard; they saw Frank’s face go pale as the conversation progressed, and when the vet was gone, Frank came across to join them. ‘Molly is my best mare.’ His voice was thick with pain. ‘Aren’t you, me beauty?’ Gently, he stroked the horse’s sweating sides.

‘The vet says she’s got a fifty-fifty chance.’ Lucy had never seen her father so distressed. ‘She’ll pull through, Daddy. She’s strong, you know that.’

Frank looked down at the mare, and he shook his head. ‘I’ve seen how these infections can take hold,’ he told her sadly. ‘I hope you’re right and she does somehow pull through, but she’s got a hell of a lot of work to do, before she can shake this off. So don’t get your hopes up, sweetheart. Let’s just wait and see, eh?’

After a last whispered word or two of encouragement to the mare, he quickly left, his shoulders bent and his step determined.

A short time later, he saw Seamus arrive. ‘I want a word with you, Macintyre!’ He called him into the house.

‘What’s wrong, guv?’ Bold and arrogant, Seamus confronted him.

For what seemed an age, Frank took stock of this man, a man he had trusted with his prized animals; a man who had callously abused that trust and might have cost him one of the finest brood mares in the land.

‘Frank!’ Seamus was blissfully ignorant of his boss’s anger. ‘You called me in. Mind telling me what I can do for you?’

His face fell when Frank snapped back, his voice low and trembling. ‘‘‘What can you do?’’ You can go and collect what’s yours and take yourself off my property. I never want to see hide nor hair of you again.’

The younger man was visibly shocked. ‘What the devil are you talking about? What d’you mean, get off your property?’ Even now, his arrogance blinded him.

Fixing him in his glare, Frank stepped forward until he was so close he could see the tiny red veins in the other man’s eyes. ‘I’ve been a fool,’ he growled. ‘I’ve trusted you … given you too much power, until now you act like you’re lord of your own kingdom.’

‘What on earth are you getting at?’ Never having witnessed such rage in this usually tolerant man, Seamus instinctively stepped back a pace, his voice shaking with fear, his eyes wide and bewildered. ‘I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.’

Desperately controlling the urge to lash out with both fists, Frank continued to glare at him. ‘If I were you,’ he said, ‘I’d get out of here as quick as you can, before I cause you a deal of pain – just like you caused that poor mare lying in the stables.’

When the head groom’s eyes lit up with comprehension, Frank went on, ‘Oh! So now you know what I’m talking about! You neglected a simple thing like a thorn in the hoof, and now Molly is down, and the vet doesn’t give her a cat in hell’s chance of recovering.’

‘But I was onto it!’ Seeing his cushy lifestyle coming to an end, Seamus began screaming. ‘It was nothing – I would have got round to it. Damn it, she was fine when I left this morning. It’s that fool of a boy you took on – he’s the one responsible. Why don’t you go and ask
him
what he’s been up to? Meddling, that’s what! He knows nothing about horses – nothing!’

‘Dave is more of a horseman than you will ever be.’ Frank was beginning to lose control. ‘He knows every bit as much as you – probably more. And out of the two of you,
he’s
the one to be trusted. So, like I say, pack your bags and get out of here, as fast and as far from here as you can.’

He thrust him away. ‘If I were you, I’d go right now – because I don’t know how long I can keep it together … if you know what I mean.’ His eyes said it all, and the other man saw the violence there, yet still he was defiant.

‘I want what’s due to me! I’m owed three weeks’ wages and severance pay. And I’m going nowhere without it.’

‘You’ll get nothing from me!’

‘Then I’m not leaving!’

Frank smiled, which was more frightening than his temper. ‘Is that so?’

With one lurch he had Seamus by the collar of his shirt. With the other hand, he took hold of the seat of his pants and with a mighty heave he threw him outside, where he landed hard on the ground, screaming and shouting and promising all kinds of retribution.

When Frank took a step towards him, he was gone … fleeing across the yard like the coward he was.

Having heard the commotion, Dave and Lucy had come to the stable door and witnessed the scene. ‘It’s no more than you deserve!’ Dave called out, and fearing that he too would confront Seamus, Lucy called him back to the mare. ‘She’s trembling, Dave… she must be cold.’ With great tenderness, she drew the blanket up and over the mare’s flanks. ‘There must be something we can do to help her?’

‘You heard what the vet said, Lucy.’ Realising that Molly had gone into convulsions, Dave took Lucy by the shoulders and spun her round to him. ‘Go indoors,’ he ordered quietly. ‘This is no place for you just now.’

Realising something bad was about to happen, Lucy would not be persuaded. ‘No, Dave. I want to stay here, with you.’

‘No.’ He led her towards the stable door. ‘You have to trust me, Lucy. You really shouldn’t be here.’ Opening the door, he walked her outside. ‘I’ll call you if anything happens.’

‘Promise?’

‘I promise.’

With Lucy making her way across the yard, Dave returned to the mare. ‘Easy does it.’ He wiped her forehead with the cool cloth. ‘Breathe easy, sweetheart. The fever’s got a hold of you. Once that’s broken, you’ll begin to feel better.’ But he was not hopeful, because now, her eyes were rolling and her whole body was shivering. He drew the blanket higher, and prayed a little. She didn’t deserve this, but what was worse, it could all have been avoided.

Ever since he’d worked at the stud farm, Dave’s love and respect for horses had grown, along with his knowledge of their ways. With the exception of Madden, the big, nervy stallion, the horses here were biddable, trustworthy creatures – a joy to deal with, and a deep balm to Dave Adams’s troubled heart.

From across the yard, the shouting got louder. ‘I HOPE SHE DIES!’ Seamus was yelling shrilly. ‘From the first time your boyfriend set foot on this yard I knew he wouldn’t rest until he got it all – my job and you, you little whore. Oh yes, he wanted you all right, and by God he’s got you now, hasn’t he, eh? I expect the two of you have already climbed into bed, haven’t you? Well? Answer me, you little bitch!’ He raised his hand to slap her.

In minutes, Dave had raced across the yard to launch himself at Seamus. ‘You bad-mouthed bastard, I ought to tear you limb from limb!’ He swung a clenched punch which caught Seamus between the eyes and sent him reeling backwards to the ground.

Before Dave could follow up, however, Frank had gripped Seamus by the arm and was frog marching him across the yard, where he threw him out of the gates and into the lane, together with his bag of belongings.

As he walked away he didn’t look back, but Seamus’s raised voice carried across the yard.

‘YOU’VE NOT SEEN THE LAST OF ME, ESPECIALLY NOT YOUR SLUT OF A DAUGHTER AND HER GYPSY BOYO. OH, I’LL BE BACK ALL RIGHT, AND MARK MY WORDS, WHEN I DO, YOU’LL BE SORRY, THE LOT OF YOU!’