At Long Odds (A Racing Romance) (24 page)

‘You’ve woken up, have you?’ she said.

Ginny opened her numb and swollen lips to answer, but only a small croak emitted from her dry throat.

‘It’s all right, don’t try to talk. Here’s some water. I’m going to put another pillow behind you, okay?’

Ginny grimaced as the nurse eased her body until she was almost sitting up. Taking a clumsy sip from the glass of water offered to her, Ginny felt the first respite from the pain as the cool liquid quenched her throat.

‘How are you feeling?’

‘Like death,’ Ginny wheezed.

‘You’re very much alive, thankfully. You took quite a tumble, I believe. Been out cold for about seven hours.’

‘Figured I could do with a lie-in.’ Ginny made a poor attempt at humour. ‘Can I have some more water?’

‘Yes, of course you can. Here you go. I’m just going to let the doctor know you’re awake.’ Padding out of the room in her flatties, the nurse disappeared beyond the corner. Gingerly, Ginny moved each limb in turn, flexing her fingers and toes, and raising each arm and leg a couple of centimetres in turn. No broken bones, thank God, although her body still ached like an inflamed wisdom tooth. Her head felt like she had a hangover from hell, but without the benefit of having a good party the night before to make it worthwhile.

Right on cue, some green scrubs and stethoscope swept into the room. An elderly man came over to her bedside and peered at Ginny.

‘Hello, Ginny. I’m Doctor Proctor.’

‘Seriously?’

‘Yes. Seriously,’ he replied with a complete sense of humour failure. ‘How’s that head feeling?’

‘Sore. I feel exhausted.’

‘You need some more rest. First, I’m just going to shine a light into your eyes, okay?’

Ginny opened her eyes wide and tried not to shy away from the white sword of light that pierced her brain as he examined first one then the other for pupil reaction.

‘You’ve suffered a concussion, so you’ll be staying with us for a while yet. I know you’re hurting but the best thing for you right now is sleep. You’ll feel better I promise.’

‘Can I have something for the pain?’

‘I’ll have someone bring you some Paracetamol, not to worry. But more importantly, get some rest. Best healer there is.’

‘Okay,’ Ginny murmured, closing her eyes. She didn’t hear the doctor leave the room as sleep once more overcame her, blotting out the pain.

*

When she awoke again, things seemed quieter. It must be night time, she decided. And the doctor had been right. She
did
feel better. Her head didn’t feel quite so sore, and although her mouth and one eye still felt tender and swollen, her thoughts were sharper and she felt more able to deal with the pain. She was surprised by how rested she felt when her sleep had been so interrupted by jolted dreams. Firstly, there had been Mark, riding Kenya out of Ravenhill Stables, looking very odd. Then Caspian’s race, except this time he had been beaten – by Silver Sabre.

Ginny grimaced as the image took on a greater clarity. And although it had only been fleeting, she thought she remembered the tall, broad-shouldered outline of someone she knew in the doorway to her hospital room, his face bathed in the shadows with only a shard of light angling off his prominent cheek bones. Despite not saying anything, she felt he understood her helplessness. But he was gone the moment she blinked. And then… Ginny frowned as she tried to remember more, but couldn’t. It was fading away like sand in an hourglass.

She reached out with a shaky arm and pressed the call button beside her bed. A minute later, the same nurse as before came in.

‘Hello, feeling any better?’

‘So-so,’ she replied with a weak smile. ‘Can I have some water, please?’

‘Let me get you sat up first. Here you are. Can you hold it okay?’

Ginny took the glass from the nurse and held it to her tender lips.

‘What time is it?’

‘Just after seven o’clock. There are some very anxious people waiting down in the canteen for you. Do you want me to let them know you’re awake?’

‘Who?’

‘Your mother and father, I think. And a young couple.’

‘Yes, please,’ Ginny said, wondering who the young couple were. Her brother, Ray and his girlfriend, Sarah, probably.

*

She closed her eyes, waiting the few minutes for her family to appear, then groggily opened them when she heard their entrance.

‘Lovie, are you awake?’ her mother’s anxious voice appealed. ‘Can you hear me?’

‘I can hear you, Mum.’

‘Oh, darling. We’ve been so worried.’

‘Sorry.’ Looking around her at the concerned faces gazing down at her she did feel bad. She managed an apologetic smile. Her mother and father, and Alex and Kerry gathered around her bedside. Ginny thought for a moment of the pleasure Kerry might have felt had she heard the nurse refer to her and Alex as a ‘couple’.

‘Does it hurt?’ Kerry said.

‘A little.’

‘Ask for morphine, it’s great,’ Alex recommended.

‘Alex!’

Ginny had more success at smiling as Beth Kennedy, looking shocked, chided the young American.

‘Has the doctor told you anything?’ Jim asked.

‘Just that I’ve got concussion and I need to rest.’

‘You got off fairly lightly then.’

‘What do I look like? It feels like I’ve been hit by a bus.’

‘You look it too, I’m afraid,’ Beth said, her face grimacing in sympathy.

‘You’ve got a real shiner,’ Alex added, looking impressed. ‘Do you remember what happened?’

‘Only vaguely. We were riding along. I think I looked behind at you guys, and then my stirrup leather snapped. I can remember seeing Libran’s chest in front of me – not a pleasant memory. But then I blacked out. The next thing I remember is waking up here.’

‘It was quite a fall,’ Alex said.

Panic rose in her chest as the memory of Caspian’s accident was wrenched into Ginny’s thoughts.

‘Is Libran okay?’ she asked.

‘Oh, he’s fine, don’t worry,’ Kerry reassured her. ‘He stopped when he got to the top, then jogged back down like he was taking himself out for his morning workout. If he hadn’t been caught I wouldn’t have been surprised if he took himself back to the yard and hosed himself down and got on the horse walker.’

‘Who needs work riders?’ Alex added.

‘But that’s not all,’ Kerry continued, her cheeks tingeing pink with excitement. ‘You missed the best bit. We all pulled up to see how you were. Obviously, you were out cold. But Julien Larocque was out on his hack, watching his horses work.’

‘Oh, God, did I upset him again?’ Ginny groaned.

‘I should say so, but not how you think. He came charging over – poor hack probably hasn’t gone that fast in years, jumped off to see how you were, then pulled out his phone and called an ambulance. It was so heroic,’ Kerry swooned.

‘Seemed a perfectly normal thing to do,’ Alex said.

‘Oh, come on, Alex. You saw. It was the
way
he did it. The skid marks his horse made must have been ten feet long. He practically threw you out the way so that he could get to Ginny. He really did look upset.’

‘I thought you two were sworn enemies?’ Alex said.

Ginny frowned. They
had
been sworn enemies, until only recently. Whether they could be considered friends was different. Alex was right; it was a perfectly normal thing to do. When someone took a bad fall, it wasn’t unusual for others to rush to their aid. When some poor rider is lying prostrate in the middle of the track, you didn’t just carry on working. But with everything that had happened in the last couple of weeks, maybe he was a little concerned for her. For a moment her thoughts switched to her dream. The figure in the doorway, she now knew had been Julien. Had it even been a dream?

‘We were, but –’ Ginny started to explain, but stopped. Things were complicated enough without giving everyone the impression she and Julien Larocque had suddenly become friends. There was nothing
wrong
with them being friends of course, but people would look for an explanation for this sudden change of heart. And Ginny couldn’t let them know the reason. Neither did she want to claim to be his friend, in case he didn’t feel the same way. Just because he had tipped her off about Mark Rushin didn’t necessarily mean he wanted to swap friendship rings with her. She would look foolish, and probably end up with hurt feelings if she was wrong. ‘You’re right, Alex. It would have been a normal thing to do. We might not get on great together, but not even Julien Larocque could be so heartless as to stand around and refuse to help.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Ginny was allowed home after a couple of days having been cautioned not to ride work for a few more. On her first evening home, whilst helping Sally G in the kitchen to prepare her welcome home shepherd’s pie dinner, they were interrupted by a knock on the door. Jack, the Siamese, who hadn’t left her side since her return, dug his claws into her shoulders where he was happily draped.

Wiping her hands on a cloth, Ginny hurried to answer the door. Her ready greeting smile faded as she swung the door open and found Julien Larocque standing on the step. He did a double-take as well when he saw Jack’s head next to hers.

‘Julien?’ Ginny said, surprising herself by the little leap her heart took.

‘Bonsoir.
Er, is this a bad time?’ he said as she made no move to let him in.

‘Of course not, no. Come in, come in. Um, come through to the, uh –’ Kitchen so he could watch her peel potatoes? Not likely. ‘Uh, the patio.Lovely warm evening.’

‘Does the NHS now issue feline-design neck-braces for cat lovers?’ he asked, stepping inside.

Ginny grinned.

‘Jack: my bodyguard and protector until something dangerous happens. He’s just happy I’m home.’

‘I’m sure.’

Ginny gave Jack a push and reluctantly, he jumped off. Julien leant down to stroke his silken fur before following Ginny.

She led her unexpected guest through the house, detouring via the kitchen. Sally G, standing against a worktop vigorously chopping onions, was dressed in her customary floor-length gypsy skirt with Jesus sandals, a billowing silk shirt and head scarf. It was an image Ginny was now accustomed to, but which she knew from personal experience, was a bit of a shock when you first met her. Julien didn’t turn a hair though.

‘Sally G? This is Julien Larocque, my – er –’ Friend? Rival? Adversary? ‘–
neighbour
at the yard. Julien, this is Sally G, my landlady.’

‘A pleasure,’ Julien said, inclining his head.

‘I’d shake your hand, darling, but they reek of onions. Nice to meet you though.’

‘Is it okay if we go sit outside?’ Ginny asked, feeling a little guilty. She had, after all, being in middle of helping to cook dinner. Shepherd’s pie was about as complicated a meal as she was capable of.

‘Of course, darling. You leave me to it. Best thing, I think. There’s a bottle in the fridge. Take it out onto the deck and relax.’

Ginny hoped Julien missed the face-contorting wink Sally G threw her.

*

Armed with a chilled bottle of white and two glasses, she led the way to the back of the house and outside. The sunlight was still strong and cast dappled shadows through the trees onto the lengths of wooden flooring, a faint breeze moving the shadows, creating an illusion of animation.

‘Have a seat,’ Ginny gestured to a chair, before settling herself. ‘I’m afraid this isn’t the same quality as your uncle’s wine, but it’s not terps either.’

‘How are you feeling?’

‘Stiff, but okay. Still carrying the war wounds though,’ she grinned, pointing at her black eye. She poured the wine into the two glasses.

‘It was a horrible fall. Did you not learn how to fall when you were younger?’

‘Out of practice, I guess. Although, having said that, the last time I fell off was –’

Julien smiled. He took one of the glasses from her.

‘In front of me,’ he finished for her.

‘Not just in front of you.
Because
of you.’

‘I’m glad I still have that effect on women.’

Ginny snorted with derision before taking a gulp of wine, though at the same time knowing he wasn’t altogether inaccurate.

‘Kerry said you came over to help. Thanks.’ She felt her cheeks prickle with heat as she remembered Kerry’s recount of events.

‘It was nothing. Anyone would have done the same.’

Despite herself, she felt her heart drop a level and she let her gaze fall to the patio deck. Ridiculous as it might sound, she didn’t want him to have helped her like he would any rider on the Gallops. She subconsciously had wanted him to have helped because he cared.

Which was silly really, she reprimanded herself. It didn’t matter to her whether he cared or not.

‘The stirrup leather snapped,’ she said, needing to explain, but then seeing the expression on his face, she added ‘but you knew that already, didn’t you?’

He nodded.

‘It’s such a careless thing,’ she continued. ‘But…’

‘But what?’

‘I don’t know,’ Ginny shrugged. ‘It just seems really odd. I’ve always made sure the saddlery was in good nick. When any stitching begins to wear, I get it fixed immediately. I don’t understand how I could have let it get to the point where it actually
broke
.’

‘Your staff might have overlooked it,’ Julien suggested.

‘No, I don’t think so. They wouldn’t be so sloppy. It’d be their own lives they’d be endangering. I don’t think they would’ve been that careless. The other alternative is the actual quality of the saddlery. It could’ve been badly manufactured, couldn’t it?’ She looked to him for reassurance that the whole thing was an innocent accident.

Julien was silent for a moment, his brows drawn together in a frown as he digested her words.

‘Do you think that maybe it didn’t break because of normal wear and tear?’

She swallowed, at last forcing herself to contemplate the worst.

‘You mean did someone do this on purpose?’

Julien paused, then nodded, his expression grave.

‘Sabotage?’

‘Yes, it’s plausible considering current events.’