Longshot полностью

Touchy got an unmistakable signal from my leg and obediently turned towards home. I decided I would hold on to Mackie’s horse as long as it would come too, and as if by magic he got the going-home message and decided not to object any further.

We had gone perhaps three paces in this fashion when Mackie woke up and came to full consciousness as if a light had been switched on.

‘What happened...?’

‘You fainted. Fell this way.’

‘I can’t have done.’ But she could see that she must have. ‘Let me down,’ she said. ‘I feel awfully sick.’

‘Can you stand?’ I asked worriedly. ‘Let me take you home like this.’

‘No.’ She rolled against me onto her stomach and slid down slowly until her feet were on the ground. ‘What a stupid thing to do,’ she said. ‘I’m all right now, I am really. Give me my reins.’

‘Mackie...’

She turned away from me suddenly and vomited convulsively onto the snow.

I hopped down off Touchy with the reins of both horses held fast and tried to help her.

‘God,’ she said weakly, searching for a tissue, ‘must have eaten something.’

‘Not my cooking.’

‘No.’ She found the tissue and smiled a fraction. She and Perkin hadn’t stayed for the previous evening’s grilled chicken. ‘I haven’t felt well for days.’

‘Concussion,’ I said.

‘No, even before that. Tension over the trial, I suppose.’ She took a few deep breaths and blew her nose. ‘I feel perfectly all right now. I don’t understand it.’

She was looking at me in puzzlement and I quite clearly saw the thought float into her head and transfigure her face into wonderment and hope... and joy.

‘Oh!’ she said ecstatically. ‘Do you think... I mean, I’ve been feeling sick every morning this week... and after two years of trying I’d stopped expecting anything to happen, and anyway, I didn’t know it could make you feel so ill right at the beginning... I mean, I didn’t even suspect... I’m always wildly irregular.’ She stopped and laughed. ‘Don’t tell Tremayne. Don’t tell Perkin. I’ll wait a bit first, to make sure. But I am sure. It explains all sorts of odd things that have happened this last week. Like my nipples itching. My hormones must be rioting. I can’t believe it. I think I’ll burst.’

I thought that I had never before seen such pure uncomplicated happiness in anyone, and was tremendously glad for her.

‘What a revelation!’ she said. ‘Like an angel announcing it... if that’s not blasphemous.’

‘Don’t hope too much,’ I said cautiously.

‘Don’t be silly. I know.’ She seemed to wake suddenly to our whereabouts. ‘Tremayne will be going mad because we haven’t appeared.’

‘I’ll ride up and tell him you’re not well and have gone home.’

‘No, definitely not. I am well. I’ve never felt better in my whole life. I am gloriously and immensely well. Give me a leg-up.’

I told her she needed to rest but she obstinately refused, and in the end I bowed to her judgment and lifted her lightly into the saddle, scrambling up myself onto Touchy’s broad back. She shook up her reins as if nothing had happened and set off up the wood chippings at a medium canter, glancing back for me to follow. I joined her expecting to go the whole way at that conservative pace but she quickened immediately I reached her and I could hardly hang back and say hold on a minute, I haven’t done this in a while and could easily fall off. Instead, I tucked in my elbows as instructed and relied on luck.

Towards the end Mackie kicked her horse into a frank gallop and it was at that speed that we both passed Tremayne. I was peripherally aware of him standing four-square on the small observation mound, though all my direct attention was acutely focused on balance, grip and what lay ahead between Touchy’s ears.

Touchy, I thanked heaven, slowed when Mackie slowed and brought himself to a good-natured halt without dumping his rider, Friday or not. I was breathless and also exhilarated and thought I could easily get hooked on Touchy after a fix or two more like that.

‘Where the hell did you get to?’ Tremayne enquired of me, joining us and the rest of the string. ‘I thought you’d chickened out.’

‘We were just talking,’ Mackie said.

Tremayne looked at her now glowing face and probably drew the wrong conclusion but made no further comment. He told everyone to walk back down the gallop and dismount and lead them the last part of the way, as usual.

Mackie, taking her place at the head, asked me to ride at the back, to make sure everyone returned safely, which I did. Tremayne’s tractor followed slowly, at a distance.

He came stamping into the kitchen where I was fishing out orange juice and without preamble demanded. ‘What were you and Mackie talking about?’

‘She’ll tell you,’ I said, smiling.

He said belligerently. ‘Mackie’s off limits.’

I put down the orange juice and straightened, not knowing quite what to say.

‘If you mean do I fancy Mackie,’ I said. ‘then yes, she’s a great girl. But off limits is right. We were not flirting, chatting up, or whatever else you care to call it. Not.’