Secrets (9 page)

“And in first place, number 272, Ellie Carrington riding Woodhouse Picasso!”

“You did it, lass!” exclaimed Len.

Ellie felt elation explode through her. People nearby started to congratulate her. The steward ushered Picasso in and she trotted him to the top of the line, where she was presented with a blue rosette—the first place rosettes at the Royal International were always blue, unlike those of most shows, and a blue sash was placed around Picasso’s neck.

“A beautiful round! Well done!” the judge smiled, patting Picasso. “He’s a fantastic pony.”

Ellie had to stand for pictures and then set off on the lap of honor. It was brilliant to be leading it and when she rode around for the second time on her own she let him thunder down the long side, her grin stretching from ear to ear as the crowd clapped.

“We did it!” she whispered to Picasso as she leaned forward against his neck. “We won!” It was the best feeling ever!

Ellie came down to earth with a bump when she finally returned to the horsebox. Helen had been texting Luke too, but he had ignored her and she’d been trying to get everything ready on her own. Ellie joined in, but now there was the added task of preparing Picasso for the overall working hunter pony championship, which would take place after the 13 hands-high class and was open to the first and second place winners in each of the three working hunter pony classes.

There was so much to do. As usual, the Armstrong children did nothing to help. They couldn’t even be bothered to walk up the hill to the stables, but simply waited at the ring for Ellie and Helen to bring their ponies to them.

However, despite the rush, it was a successful afternoon, with Emmie Armstrong coming fourth in the lead-rein class and Oliver Armstrong scooping the Reserve Supreme Champion in the show-hunter pony championship in the main ring. Ellie went one better when Picasso won his championship and became working hunter pony Supreme Champion. She saw Luke in the stands, laughing with Anna, Bea, Liam, Daniel and Claire. They all cheered as she won and Luke gave her a thumbs-up. She rode out of the ring, expecting him to come over and congratulate her, but he had already gone off again.

Ellie could feel anger and hurt simmering inside. She and Helen had done everything they could to prevent Len realizing Luke wasn’t around helping. Luckily, Len had been with the Armstrongs and Ellie was sure her uncle thought Luke was working with her.

But he’s not
, she thought to herself as she wearily rugged Picasso up and then checked the other horses’ haynets and water. They were all in their stalls now—the day’s work finally done.
He’s off having a good time
.

She went back to the trailer and found Helen sitting on the ramp, looking completely exhausted. Her face was pale and she had her head in her hands.

“Hey,” Ellie looked at her in concern. “You OK?”

“I’ve got such a headache,” Helen groaned. “And there’s still the tack to clean and the trailer to sort.”

“I’m not surprised you’ve got a headache. You’ve been working like a mad thing all day. Have you eaten?”

Helen shook her head. “Not since breakfast.”

“But that’s nuts.” Even Ellie had found time to grab a hot dog mid-morning. “You’ve been up since 4 a.m. Stay there. I’ll bring you something, then we can do the tack together.”

Ellie hurried past the horseboxes to the nearest burger van and bought cups of tea and burgers for Helen and herself. She carried them back carefully on a cardboard tray. When she returned, she found Helen holding a pair of Luke’s show breeches in her hands and staring at them.

“What are you doing with those?” Ellie said. Helen looked up. “Luke’s just given them to me.” There was a note of disbelief in her voice. “He said he wants me to wash them for him for tomorrow.”

Ellie stared at her. “You’ve got to be joking!”

Helen gave a slightly hysterical laugh. “Nope. He just came by with Anna and those friends of his from next door, gave me his breeches and said could I wash them for tomorrow.”

Ellie was already shaking her head. “Oh, that is
it
! He’s not getting away with this. Not after ditching this afternoon!” Her temper exploded and she put the tray down hard, spilling the tea. “I’ve had enough.” She grabbed the breeches and marched around the ramp.

Chapter Nine

“
ELLIE, WHERE ARE YOU
going?” Helen called.

Ellie ignored her. She had never felt so angry. How dare Luke just give Helen his breeches! How dare he not help and get things ready for the next day!

She could hear music and laughter coming from Bea’s caravan. She stormed in. Luke was lounging on the sofa, his arm around Anna. Bea and Liam were next to them. They were all laughing at Daniel and Claire who were doing an imitation of
Strictly Come Dancing
.

“Hey,” Luke said, seeing Ellie. “Come to join us?”

“No, I haven’t!” she snapped. “I’ve come to give you these!”

She held up his breeches.

“Oooh, now where did you get those, Ellie?” Claire said suggestively.

Daniel laughed. “Yeah, did you know about this, Anna?”

Anna giggled. “Maybe there’s something you’re not telling me, Luke.”

The way she spoke showed she clearly didn’t think of Ellie as the slightest threat, which sent Ellie’s fury even more sky high. “You’ve done nothing this afternoon, Luke!” she blazed. “You haven’t lifted a finger to help. You didn’t even come to see me in the ring!” For a moment she saw a flash of contrition in his eyes, but she was too mad to stop. “Stop being so selfish! Helen’s exhausted. There’s tack to clean, the trailer to tidy and all you’re doing is sitting in here. If you want your breeches washed, then do them yourself!”

Opening the garbage can, she threw the breeches inside along with the dirty takeaway boxes and teabags.

“Ellie! What the hell are you doing?” Luke leaped to his feet, the contrition vanishing from his face. “They’ll stain!”

Ellie swung around and marched out.

Daniel whooped and clapped. She could hear Liam, Bea and Claire laughing.

“She’s gone nuts!” Anna gasped.

Luke flung open the door of the caravan. “Ellie!” he yelled furiously.

She marched around the side of the trailer, rage pounding in her ears. Stopping on the far side, she took a breath.

Helen was there. “What was that about? What did you do?” she gasped.

Ellie could feel her anger starting to subside. “Gave Luke his breeches back.” She felt a grin tug at her mouth. “I don’t think he’ll be asking you to wash them again.”

“Why?” Helen looked much better now she’d had some food and a drink.

Ellie grinned. “Come on. I’ll tell you while we sort the trailer.”

Ellie went to bed early that night. She knew it was going to be another 4 a.m. start the next morning, with Oscar going in the first hunter class at 7.30 a.m.

No sleeping in for me on my birthday
, she thought ruefully as she climbed into her sleeping bag.

Helen had already gone to bed too. Len was out at the pub again and she had no idea where Luke was—probably at the disco with Anna. As Ellie thought about him, she felt angry all over again. She hated him when he was as selfish as he’d been that day. Yes, sure, he’d been upset about seeing his parents, but it was no excuse to treat everyone else badly.
Stupid idiot
, she thought. For a moment she remembered stuffing his breeches in the garbage. Had he washed them and removed the stains? What did it matter?

Turning over on her side, she pushed all thoughts of Luke firmly out of her mind and went to sleep.

“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!”

Ellie woke to the sound of Luke’s singing. Her alarm hadn’t gone off yet. She sat up, disorientated, blinking like a mole. Where was she? Seeing the canvas all around her, she remembered she was in the tent.

“
Happy birthday, dear Ellie …
” The door to her sleeping compartment opened and Luke poked his head in. “
Happy birthday to you!
”

Grinning, he thrust a bacon sandwich into her hands.

“Luke! What are you doing?” She glanced at her alarm clock and saw it was 7 a.m. Her heart almost jumped out of her chest. “I’ve overslept!” She started to scramble out of her sleeping bag.

“Don’t worry,” Luke said. “I changed your alarm clock to let you sleep in.”

“You did what?” She stared at him, dumbfounded.

“It’s your birthday. I told Helen to sleep in too and I got Hereward and Oscar ready. We’re only putting the two of them in the ring today. It was no big deal.” Ellie sat back, her brain trying to readjust. Something he’d just said came back to her. “You came in here and changed my alarm clock?”

“Yep!” he said, grinning. “You look cute asleep, you know. Like Sleeping Beauty with your hair spread all around.”

Ellie blushed. The thought of Luke coming in and seeing her while she was asleep was very unsettling.

“Here you are! It’s not a birthday without presents,” Luke said, putting a package on her sleeping bag. “I wondered about giving you flowers or chocolates, but I thought you might like these better.”

Ellie looked inside. She saw a bag of horse treats, a new pair of show gloves and a small purple box. She opened the box. Inside, there was a silver chain with a tiny pendant of a show horse trotting.

“Luke!” She felt lost for words. She looked up into his blue eyes. “It’s beautiful.”

“It’s just something small. I’m sorry about yesterday,” he said ruefully. “I was an idiot. It was just, well, you know …”

As his words trailed off, she felt the last of her anger vanish. She couldn’t stay angry with him.

“I’ll make up for it today. You and Helen can have an easy day and I’ll do all the work, then tonight I’ll take you out and we can celebrate your birthday. Deal?”

She swallowed, still touched by the gifts and the fact he’d been thoughtful enough to let her and Helen sleep in. “Deal.”

“Happy birthday,” he said again, leaning forward to kiss her forehead. She pulled her head back in surprise and his lips missed her forehead, brushing instead against her mouth. Ellie felt a sharp jolt run through her. She stared at him, eyes wide.

“Well, that was unexpected,” he said, looking at her softly. “But unexpectedly nice.” She found she couldn’t look away from him. He smiled as he moved back.

“You’d better get up now, though, or Len will be on the war path—and that bacon sandwich will go cold.” She nodded, and then to her relief he was gone, the flap falling back across her sleeping compartment. She flopped down, her heart beating like a drum. Luke had just kissed her on the lips—OK, he hadn’t meant to but … but …

She put her fingers to her mouth. She could still feel the shock that had run through her.

When Ellie emerged from her tent and went to the stables, she found Helen putting Wisp, Fizz and Milly back on the trailer, ready to drive them home to the yard—Picasso and Bill would stay on, having qualified to take part in the Supreme Ridden Pony Championship on Sunday. Helen was whistling while she worked and looked very cheerful.

“Happy birthday! Wasn’t it nice of Luke to let sleep in?” she said. “And he bought me some breakfast. He can be OK at times.”

Ellie smiled, her heart feeling light. “Yeah, he can, can’t he?” She had on her silver pendant. “Look, he bought me this for my birthday and he said he’ll do most of the work today.”

Helen grinned. “So we’re forgiving him then?” Ellie nodded. “I think we are!”

Once the ponies had been loaded up and had left, there was little for Ellie to do. She didn’t ride the big hunters like Oscar and Hereward and Luke had prepared both of them, so all she had to do was help give them a final polish before Len rode them into the ring. They were lovely horses. Dapple-gray Hereward, who was in the heavyweight class, was a gentle giant at 17 hands high. Oscar, a dark bay, lightweight hunter, was smaller but very good-natured.

Oscar came seventh in his class and Hereward won—two more rosettes and another sash to decorate the trailer on its return that afternoon.

Len was in a very good mood and went off with Hereward’s owners to celebrate.

Ellie headed back to the stables to muck out and prepare for the new horses who would be arriving later, but Luke was already there doing it. “I can manage,” he told her. “Go and chill.”

“It’s OK, I really don’t mind,” she said, setting to work on the box Milly had been in.

“So what do you want to do tonight?” Luke said, stopping by her stall door with a wheelbarrow. “We could go to the disco … or go to the disco … or go to the disco!”

“Let’s go to the disco then!” Ellie grinned.

“And what do you want to eat? Pizza? Burgers? Or we could get a Chinese from the takeaway and eat in the trailer?”

“Chinese,” said Ellie. She was a bit fed up with burgers and pizza now.

“Cool. Sorted!”

Luke picked up the handles of the wheelbarrow and pushed it away. Excitement flickered through Ellie at the thought of the evening ahead.

At seven o’clock, Ellie was ready. It was a warm, sultry summer night and she was wearing new denim shorts and a white top that she’d bought with some birthday money her grandma had sent her. She’d had to wait for ages to use the showers, but had managed to wash her hair. It hung slightly damp in waves down her back. Her legs and arms were slim and tanned from working outside so much of the summer, but her hands felt rough from all the grooming and washing, and she had bruises on one thigh and a scratch that was healing from when she’d last fallen off Picasso. She thought of Anna’s perfect legs and groaned at the comparison, but then she caught herself. After all, it wasn’t as if she fancied Luke.

“No, you absolutely don’t,” she reminded herself as she tried to put on some eyeshadow and mascara, using a small pocket mirror. Her blue-gray eyes stared back at her, wide and hopeful.
No, no, no
, she told herself firmly. She brushed on some lip gloss and decided she was ready.

Emerging from the tent, she went to the trailer. Luke was unpacking the boxes of Chinese from a carrier bag at the table. “You look good,” he said, with a friendly smile.