The very, very annoying alarm that Harper set on her phone rang out in the room. It caused both of the hardly awake girls to groan and roll away from the sound, it felt like they had hardly slept from the nerves of what was ahead of them. The alarm was set extra early so that they could get ready calmly for what was ahead of them. From the noise in the corridors, many people had the same idea as them and some were already awake.
After turning the alarm off, Zoe ran into the bathroom to grab the first shower, so Harper set out her clothes on her bed from where they were already out of her bag from the day before that. Luckily, the room had a steamer so that they could get the creases out of their clothes and Harper took it upon herself to steam Zoe's shirt for her as it was a little crinkled.
By the time that she had finished steaming them all, she set them out on their beds and Zoe came out of the shower. Harper showered quickly and washed her hair, she was still amazed that she dyed her hair platinum blonde, she just couldn't get over it. She used the hair drier to get her hair just damp enough to braid properly.
She kept her pyjamas on and let Zoe braid her hair down into a bun and let her tie it with a blue ribbon. Zoe didn't want to do too much with her hair, and she chose just to put it into a bun.
The time caught up to them quickly and Harper had to put on her uniform. She slipped the shirt, tie and jodhpurs on but left the jacket folded in her backpack which she was taking with her to the grounds. Instead of her jacket, she just put on Pin's green hoodie to keep her shirt clean (there were several things inside that could clean muck off of her white jodhpurs quickly if needed.) Luckily, the hickeys that had darkened across her chest were mostly covered by her shirt and the collar covered all but one of the top ones, which was then covered by concealer.
At breakfast, none of them really felt that they could stomach anything, but they took some food with them to the grounds as it was not good to go ride on an empty stomach. Most teams seemed to be the same, it was a lot quieter in the room than the night before and there was an air of nervousness.
"Right," Marcus stated as he stood up once he saw that they couldn't eat anything, "we better get going, grab your bags and meet out front in five minutes."
They all retrieved their bags for the day in silence and started the walk to the grounds in silence, they could have taken the bus, but they chose to walk instead to attempt to calm their nerves. The air was crisp, and they could hear the sounds of the horses waking up and it encouraged them to walk just that little bit faster to see them.
The grooming kits were already set outside of the stables that their horses were in, the staff had taken care of the horses that night, but they had to get them ready and remove any mud that had gotten onto them.
Harper took Robin outside of his stable and used his head collar to tie him up just next to it. She slipped his rug off and put it away inside of the stable, so she started to groom Robin, he had gotten some mud on him from God knows what, so she needed to get that out. Grooming Robin always calmed Harper down and she let herself get lost in picking out his hooves, brushing his mane and tail, oiling his hooves, getting all the dirt and stains off of his legs, brushing his body and brushing his face gently.
Her train of thought was interrupted when an event organiser came over to her and handed her the number that she needed to wear; it was number fifty-eight. She also slipped the small number card into the see through pocket in Robin's saddle pad.
Once he was fully clean, she started to braid his mane and tail. She did a simple braid on his tale and did a running braid on his mane. For extra safety, she put the black tendon boots onto Robin that her dad had gotten her for Christmas last year. Luckily, they didn't go up in flames with the stables.
As their team was going practically last with their round, they had a lot of time before they had to start riding. However, this time passed very quickly as by the time that Harper had saddled Robin up and had finally pulled her own jacket on, it was almost time for her to go and warm Robin up.
But, she had just enough time to go and watch Pin's round before she had to go and warm up, which made her really happy.
When she arrived at the actual course, she saw that Pin had just started his round, "is he riding Elvis?" Harper smiled when she realised that Pin was doing things his own way and she couldn't be prouder.
As there were no screens at the event, Harper had to wait until Pin came from the other direction of the course. She waited anxiously and hoped that he would do as well as he could, it would be awesome if he was able to win.
The cheering started back up is when they see Pin come back towards the finish line, Harper clapped as loud as she could. He crossed the line with the fastest time yet that day. Her time was decreasing which she could stay down there, she really needed to head down to get Robin warmed up.
But she couldn't do that before she congratulated Pin. Pin saw her on the side-lines and dismounted off of Elvis quickly, Harper ducked under the line and ran towards him. He held his arms open for her to jump into, they giggled into each other's shoulder as they spun lightly. Pin pulled away and leant down to kiss her on the lips gently, they pulled away, completely flushed, when they heard the crowd cheering loudly for them. Inter-team relationships didn't usually happen as they knew it wouldn't last, but they would be different.
"Never kissed a boy in a helmet before." Harper parroted from a conversation that they had at the county show.
"Safety first." Pin played along as he grabbed her hand and led her out of the course area, "go and warm Robin up quickly, lucky number fifty-eight, you're running out of time."
Harper grinned and kissed him quickly again before she ran back over to Robin's stable to get him and begin to warm up. She slipped her helmet on, checked her girth and headed into the warmup area. She warmed him up quickly, partly because they didn't have much time and also partly because she didn't want to exhaust him before they started the course.
Just after they had cleared a practice jump, the announcer came out over the speakers, "Harper Reynolds to the starting area please. Harper Reynolds."
As she trotted along to the starting line, she took deep breaths to ensure that Robin wouldn't pick up too much on her nerves. As she was waiting for the go signal, she saw her dad and brother, Miles, in the crowd. She waved up at them and laughed when she saw that her dad was recording it, even though he wouldn't be able to see most of it. Harper's gaze fell down to where she saw Pin stood, she only had a chance to flash him a smile before she had to talk to Marcus before the course.
"Rely on your bond, you know Robin just as well as he knows you. Judge the stride together and don't let him make them too short in the bounces." Marcus explained as he stroked over Robin's neck.
Harper thanked him and gave him a quick smile before she slipped into her competition headspace and got ready for the starting bell. When the bell rang clear, she urged Robin into a quick canter and started down the slope.
They cleared the bush fence and the jump on the turn. Harper smiled when Robin raced through the water and threw his head around slightly in excitement, which made a few of the people stood at that jump laugh.
When they came to the bounce jumps, she didn't let him cram too many strides in between the fence. They raced through the wooded area where she knew Ted was stood, cleared the oxer and took a rather long stride over another bush jump.
They reached a plateau in the course, where they just had to run for a little while, the finishing line was almost in sight now. Harper had time to give Robin a quick pat on the neck, but when she brought her hand back up, she felt her right leg give way followed not too far behind by her left one. It was the exact same as during the friendlies, this wasn't a coincidence, these stirrups were completely brand new and there weren't any faults in them while Harper tacked Robin up.
Not having too long to dwell on the cause at that moment, Harper wove her fingers tighter in the reins and into the bit of Robin's mane that she had left loose. She brought her legs up to where they should have been situated with the stirrups and hoped for the best. The crowd could sense that something was wrong, they saw that her feet were dangling free. It was too dangerous to do that unless you absolutely had to.
Harper took a deep breath and urged Robin forwards towards the last three jumps, she let Robin judge the stride so that he stayed balanced after the jump. Harper felt herself fly forwards in the saddle slightly as her weight was in her seat, not in her feet, but she wrapped her legs around and held on.
Once she had rebalanced herself, she got ready for the short bounce that made up the last two jumps. It was fairly high, and Harper took a sharp breath through her teeth, when Robin took the first jump, Harper only flew forwards slightly. However, she didn't manage to balance herself enough to prepare for the next jump.
She was thrown forwards onto Robins' neck and she knew if she fell off, they would lose. If they lost, they couldn't rebuild Brightfields. The last jump was pretty close to the finish line and as soon as Harper knew she was over it, she let Robin slow down. The whole ordeal spooked him a fair amount, so it wasn't a surprise that Robin turned sharply, and Harper tumbled to the ground. She tried to hold onto the reins to prevent Robin from bolting away. But he was too strong, and they slipped out of her grip.
The wind rushed harshly out of her lungs and Harper coughed to try and regain her breath, she quickly stumbled to her feet to try and calm Robin down. She cooed at the spooked horse before he let her close enough to grab his reins, she rubbed over his neck and his face. Slowly, he calmed completely. The organisers had stayed away in order not to spook the horse.
Once they were given the go-ahead from Harper, they all came towards her. Pin arrived first, "are you alright?" He had a heavy look of concern on his face.
"Yeah," Harper breathed out, "I'm okay. My stirrups broke, again."
Pin's face turned from concern to thinly veiled anger, he moved around to check the stirrups and found that they were cut completely clean, "we could use these for foul play, they'll get some seconds taken off your time too."
Harper was quick to deny the offer, "I don't mind! I can keep those seconds, we still did well."
"Ah, ah, ah." Pin tutted, "I'm going to take these to them, I want to have a fair match for this competition."
Harper caved after a little bit more whining from Pin and let them go to the judges for it, they talked about it outside and the evidence was clear that they were intentionally cut by somebody. Harper got three seconds deducted from her score, which put her in second place behind Pin. It was only Zoe's round left to go and they had to be quick if they wanted to make it.
She left Pin at the course and walked back to the stable with Robin, she untacked him quickly, took off the tendon boots, threw the rug over his back and locked the door. She left her helmet behind and ran back to the course.
When she arrived back, she saw that Raven had thrown Zoe onto the floor and that Gabby was also on the course. Jade filled her in that Gabby had run onto the course and pushed Zoe's hand away from Raven's mouth, which had caused him to throw her as he had spooked. Luckily, got back onto Raven and rode her round. They were all hoping that they would be able to win first if Zoe rode a good round.
While they were waiting for Zoe to finish her round, Gabby walked over to where they were stood an explained that James had been the one to cut the leathers of her stirrups and he had disclosed the information to his sister just before Gabby had ran onto the course.
It also bugged Harper slightly that Watford weren't there, but it wasn't unusual that they didn't compete every year.
Gabby repeated that she had nothing to do with it several times, and Harper believed her. She knew Gabby well enough that she wouldn't put people or horses in danger.
When Zoe came back around to the course, they all cheered as loudly as they could, Zoe's round was clear. But sadly, it only put Zoe into fourth place.
They lost. They lost Brightfields. It was over.
Brightfields lost to Holloway and Zoe lost Raven, Meredith came right over and took him from Zoe.
The mood of the team was suffocating, their sadness was palpable between them. The rest of the day passed slowly as they settled the horses in for the night, they left tomorrow morning for the island. Which meant that they had another night in the very nice hotel, but with the mood they were in, it didn't really feel like too great of a feeling.
In the hotel, Harper was wrapped up in Pin's arms on his bed in his hotel room. Her eyes were rimmed with red and her cheeks were stained with tear tracks, Pin's shirt was slightly wet from where she had burrowed her face into his chest. The fear of what would come was what made her cry, the uncertainty of what would happen to her friends and where she would stable Robin.
Pin tried to reassure Harper that they all tried their best and they would have won if it were not for James and what he had done to her and Zoe. Harper tried to believe his words, but they would make no difference now, the competition was over, and they had lost.
The ride back to nationals with Holloway was awkward, Maggie let them sit where they wanted, and Harper sat with Pin a few rows away from the teams. Holloway kept to their own as did Brightfields, they were the only people from the two stables sat together. Pin's head was rested on Harper's shoulder and Harper's head rested upon Pin's head.
Their horses would be stables at Brightfields for two more days, that was all the time Callum had given them to find somewhere new. Worst case scenario, Harper would have to go to Holloway, which was not what she wanted. They were talking to people who owned their own small stables and asking if they could be housed there, but it wouldn't be the same as Brightfields.
As soon as the horses were properly settled, the Brightfields team had to head back to their stables and prep it for demolition. The wounds of losing the stables for good kept them silent, they were all greatly hurt by what would happen.
Harper was helping to throw the burnt tack in the tack room into the bin bags, there was a huge amount of it that kept amassing. She didn't dare to sit down as the roof looked like it would cave any minute, as the fire had started just outside of it and the room had gotten the worst of it.
The girl had just tied up one of the bin bags when Jade rushed into the room, grabbed her by the hand and took her towards the backfield. They just made it there in time to see Pin on Elvis followed closely by Raven.
Confusion quickly filled the group; they knew that Pin wouldn't have enough money to buy Raven from Meredith.
From atop Elvis, Pin started to explain, that he bought both Raven and Brightfields, "so it turns out that my mum's dad was the Duke."
"So, you're related to the Duke?" Jade asked.
"I kind of, am the Duke." Pin sounded slightly amazed with the information himself.
Mia started bossing people around again, right before Pin put her into her place. They all started to head back towards the stables, along with some people from Holloway that had come to help and had given them the Nationals cup.
Before Harper could head back with the others, Pin had dismounted, took off his hat and took her by the hand gently and tugged her back towards him. She giggled as he pressed soft kisses to her neck.
They leant against the fence idly before Pin spoke up, "are you mad I didn't tell you any sooner? I honestly didn't know until the day of Nationals."
Harper smiled at him lovingly, "you never have to tell me anything that you don't want to."
Pin hooked his arm around her waist, "I have something else to tell you as well."
Harper smiled sadly, "you're going to go and travel? Right?"
Pin's expression was sympathetic as he squeezed her waist, "yeah, I am."
"When do you leave?" Harper was happy that he was leaving the island to go and see what he had missed, but at the same time, she would miss him so incredibly much.
"This Friday," Pin said, that was only three days away from then, "heading to Vienna first, going to go and see the Lipizzaner's."
Harper giggled, trying to distance herself from her sadness, "you better take some damn good photographs for me, I need lots of them of your cute little face."
"Surely you have enough of them, you're always changing your background to one of them." Pin laughed as he took Harper's phone out of her pocket and turned it on to see the background. It was a picture of Harper on the course kissing Pin with his helmet on, it was taken by Miles who had a pretty good angle, Elvis was also in the background of the photo and his face was visible. Harper loved the photo, she had printed it off and framed it, corny she knew.
"Okay, I'm going to be honest." Pin sighed and handed Harper's phone back to her, "that's my background too."
Harper laughed, grabbed Pin's phone and saw that it was true. Her heart softened so much, "you dork, also, I've seen you take just as many photos of me."
"I can neither confirm nor deny."
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Although Harper and Pin had spent the last three days that Pin had on the island together, it didn't soften the blow of his leave any. The two of them were stood at the ferry port waiting for the next ferry to the mainland, it was the one that Pin was planning to take.
Pin was playing with Harper's fingers slightly, the nerves of leaving the island were getting to him slightly, but Harper reassured him that he was making a good choice. Travelling would be good for him.
While Pin was gone, Harper had agreed to take care of Elvis and to ride him every day. Which meant that she now had two horses to ride in one day, she'd definitely be a lot fitter by the time that Pin got back.
"Hey," Harper spoke softly to him and pulled a small bag out of her pocket, "I got you something." She held it out to him and put it in his spare hand.
Pin detached their hands and opened the bag gently, he pulled out a ring that was thicker than Harper's and had two straight lines engraved into it. It was clearly meant for Pin's pinkie finger too. He had a soft smile as he slipped it onto his finger.
"Just so you don't forget about me when you're gone, there's also a chain in there when you don't lose it." Harper let Pin put their hands into a big pile so that their rings were touching.
"I love it." Pin looked into Harper's eyes as he paused for a moment, "and I love you."
Harper's heart raced in her chest at the words and she felt colour rush to her cheeks. She started at the man in front of her and wondered how she got so lucky to have someone like him in her life. He was kind, talented, funny, selfless and never failed to make her smile and laugh.
She hoped that she was the same for him. (She was)
"I love you too."
FIN
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[UNEDITED]
So, that's it! We have reached the end of intangible! It has taken a very long time but I am so thankful to my readers and the people that comment, you are the reason I have motivation to continue this story. When writers say that comments really help, they do not lie.
Please let me know if you enjoyed this book and how I could improve it (constructive criticism please!)
Many changes were made during editing and I am quite happy with the result. There may be some extra's that I add to this book.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and book,
Much love,
Angelica