Wes turned out to be irritatingly nice.
I wasn't sure if it was to rub in Lilac's command the first day, or if she just was mean only where Lilac was concerned, but without the stress of the Santa Anita looming or Lilac's presence, Wes was a pretty nice person.
"Here, I grabbed these for you," she said one cheerfully blue morning, swinging BD's tack over the stall door, startling both me and the horse. "I heard you ask Willifred about going on a trail ride and thought I could tag along. Spain needs a getaway from the track."
I suspiciously poked the saddle, wondering if the girth was cut or something. "Spain?"
She grinned. "His nickname used to be 'Pain', as in the ass, but one of our grooms has a lisp. It stuck."
Oh. Bloody Murder.
The girth turned out to be fully intact. I slipped the pad over BD's sleek back and followed up with the saddle. "I guess you can come," I said grudgingly. Something told me that she would either way, and I would have more power in the situation if I was the one who allowed her to come, rather than setting a rule she could- would- break.
"Great! I already had that one groom- Mellie- tack him up, so we won't take too long to be ready."
With that, she was gone. "We don't have a Mellie," I said to BD, who flicked his ears but gave me a bored stare. "So she must've meant Mary. Poor thing. 'Spain' truly is a pain in the ass."
He was. The colt had only been at Piperson Farms for two days and already he'd broken three fences, run over an older groom, tore his automatic waterer from its corner in the stall, and spent the rest of his energy terrorizing us with screams and whinnies. My first impression, that he was like the old Bloodless Day, was entirely wrong. The old BD had been dark and angry and cunning, like a shark. Bloody Murder was more obviously dangerous- a pond of pirhanas.
I swung onto BD, savoring the view. Long green Kentucky hills spilled out before us, speckled with sleek brown Thoroughbreds under a cloudless sky. BD had yet to recover, but I'd hoped that a ride on such a gorgeous day would help him. "We should visit the pond in the east field," I murmured. "Maybe some water will help."
The fire inside the colt had dimmed and dangerously rode the line of burning out. He was exhausted, and now we only had two weeks to fix him. I lifted my reins and turned him towards the woods, trusting but not hoping that Wes would catch up.
She did. Spain jingled furiously at his bit as they trotted up behind us, eyes rolling and chest flecked with foam. Despite myself, I could not help but admire Wes's riding- certain in her seat, an unmoving leg, and soft hands that kept the Thoroughbred from bolting but didn't hinder him. "Sorry," she said cheerfully as he bumped into BD's shoulder, making him stumble as we started up the hill towards the trails. "He's a bit excited. We gave him yesterday to rest after the trailer ride."
I glowered at Spain and he glowered back, gaze filled with defiance and malevolence. This wasn't a horse that wanted to be told to run. This was a horse that wanted to fight, to tear into other stallions and completely dominate them. The only thing that stood between him and injury or death to BD was a slender silver bit.
"It's okay." It wasn't. We concentrated on keeping the racehorses away from each other until we entered the woods, where I let BD drop back behind the jigging Spain. Dappled sunlight fell through the trees, patching the woods in a quilt of dark green and light. Fallen leaves crunched beneath the horse's hooves, silencing them in areas of moisture.
"This is nice," Wes called back. Spain had lengthened the distance between us, and her braid swung side to side as he jigged. "We don't have things like this at home."
"Neither did we, where I came from." The reply came before I could think about it, and already I was relaxing into conversation.
"Where are you from?"
Something told me not to tell her. That didn't make sense- it was perfectly harmless information, that she could find at any old time. "California," I finally replied.
"Neat-o." Did her voice sound calculating, or was it just my paranoia? "Were we near your old home in Santa Anita?"
"Close enough," I admitted, hardening my voice just enough for Wes to get the hint.
Though she made no perceptible movement, Spain suddenly stopped and spun, back towards BD, who stopped and flattened his ears. He'd been doing that a lot lately. I frowned down at his mane. "Where are we going? Is there a good cantering strip? Spain wants to stretch out a bit, and maybe a bit of speed will wake up your horse."
"Um," I recollected the field I'd first run Granite in. "There's a field up ahead that's safe to gallop in. It's pretty large."
"Great! Let's go!" Again, I didn't see the motion in her hands, seat or legs, but Spain spun again, mouth cracked open as he strained against the bit, and Wes urged him into a trot.
BD refused to quicken his pace, and I was left feeling like I did ten years ago, just a kid on a lazy lesson pony at summer camp. Nothing like a Thoroughbred about to run in the Derby.
When we reached the field, Wes was already cantering Spain in circles, an exercise I well understood. If pointed in a straight line, any wind loving Thoroughbred would have grabbed the bit and bolted. So Spain's head was bent nearly to her foot as he fought to straighten, but Wes remained unmovable in the saddle.
I waited for BD to get excited at the sight of a faster horse. To want to run faster, and show that horse who was truly the king of the wind. He did no such thing- his head lowered to brush lips against grass, and I let the reins slip through my fingers to give him his head, sighing.
It didn't look like his spirit was making a comeback anytime soon.
*****
Lilac was brushing Goodie when I found her, his dark coat already gleaming from the suggestion of reflection. The colt nickered as I stepped towards his stall, then half closed his eyes and wriggled his lip in contentment as his jockey's brush hit the spot.
"Lilac! You'll never guess-"
"How was your ride?"
I froze.
Lilac's voice manhandled the seemingly innocent question into a landmine. I would have to tread very carefully.
"It was alright," I managed. "BD isn't cured or anything, but he's-"
"And Wes?"
She wasn't looking at me, instead closely inspecting a spot on Goodie that refused to start shining. She and I both could tell that the cause was rain rot, but her gaze narrowed and I knew it wasn't the tiny spot of fungus that was so interesting to her.
"She's... Lilac, she's actually nice. I'm not going to befriend her or anything, but-"
Lilac inturrupted me. "Anna, I can't tell you who you can and cannot be friends with. It's not right."
Irritation growled through my throat, making Lilac look at me. I locked gazes with her and kept it, so she couldn't glance away. "It's also not right that I befriend the girl who is dedicating her life to antagonizing you. One trail ride doesn't mean anything."
"Anna..." Lilac swept the brush over Goodie's shining shoulder one more time before setting it down and coming over to where I stood. "I'm not jealous, but I am worried. Half of her meanness stemmed from your being friends with me, but the other half- it's because your horse was a threat to hers. Now that BD is out of the picture-"
"Not yet," I said firmly, defiantly. "We have some time to fix him."
"Not yet," Lilac agreed, though her shrug indicated otherwise. "But she also knows that her getting close to you will tick me off, which is why she's doing it. Go ahead and do what you want, but be careful, alright?"
"Okay," I said softly, surprised by the turn in the conversation. Goodie stepped closer to Lilac and gave her a nudge, then popped his face over the stall door to demand affection from me as well, which I readily gave. He really was a sweet horse.
Lilac's icy gaze melted a bit as she said, just as softly, "some people forget that this is just a game. Just don't get hurt, okay?"
*****
"Have a nice ride?"
Jack was sitting on the couch in the lounge, his bad leg lifted onto the coffee table. He flipped idly through a magazine, dark eyes peering over the top. My stomach twisted, not unpleasantly.
"Fine, yes," I managed. "BD isn't better, but I guess it was good conditioning..."
"And Wes?"
My stomach twisted again. Guilt. "She's not so bad when she isn't around Lilac. I'm not trusting her or anything, but I don't see the harm in riding with-"
The magazine fell to reveal a grin. "Anna. No need to get defensive. I was just asking. Did you hear what his barn name is?"
"Spain! I was almost insulted!" With a returning grin, I tossed myself onto the couch next to Jack, digging out a package of M&Ms I'd stolen from Lilac's snack supply up in her house.
"What for? You're not Spanish."
"Non-believer. I'm half. Mom's from northern Spain, closeish to France, where she met Dad." I popped a chocolate into my mouth and offered the bag to Jack. He took it and began to carefully pick out the red ones.
He gave me a sideways glance. "I didn't know that. But I guess I can see it, just a bit. Have I met your mom?"
It struck me that he hadn't. "Or my dad. That's weird, I never really thought about you guys meeting my parents. Lilac did, and a few school friends."
"Huh. Maybe I'll meet them next week."
I snuggled deep into the couch, taking back my M&Ms. "You missed one of the reds. What's next week?"
"Prom."
"Prom!"
"Yes, prom, you socially inept nerd. Will you go to prom with me?"
*****
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT