If Wishes Were Horses. Carolyn McSparren

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СКАЧАТЬ our clients have moved to stables with more famous trainers. We have to rebuild, recoup. In the meantime, we need a steady cash flow. The riding program at Edenvale would give it to us.”

      “And what do we get out of it?”

      “We’ll make your kids into horsemen—or should I say horsepersons,” Liz said. “Not a bunch of snobs who don’t know anything about horses except which end to get up on. And who never get any fun out of the horses they ride.”

      “Are you calling Edenvale’s students snobs?”

      “Not at all, but there are a great many kids who turn into real brats when they start showing horses. We won’t let that happen.”

      “How do you plan to prevent it?”

      “Kids ought to have fun messing with their horses,” Liz said, “hanging out around the barn, learning to clean tack and clean stalls, going on trail rides, just becoming, oh, hell—horsemen. I’ve seen parents put enormous pressure on kids to win—maybe live out the fantasies they never achieved when they were young. Riding is supposed to be fun. We try to keep it that way.”

      “On horses like that Trust Fund?” Mike waved a hand at the wall that separated them from the stalls.

      Liz laughed. “Of course not. He’s a grand prix jumper. He’s a handful even for me.”

      Her eyes crinkled, her mouth split into a broad grin, the freckles on her crooked nose stood out and Mike’s blood pressure rose twenty degrees. He was stunned. Women like this did not usually appeal to him. Even dirty, there was something disturbingly sexy about this one. Whoa. He’d have to watch himself. He didn’t need any further female complications in his life.

      “We’ve got large ponies and small horses that have been teaching kids to ride for years.”

      “That you intend to sell the Edenvale children?” He knew he sounded truculent. He had to get control of himself and the situation quickly.

      Mrs. Jamerson stepped in again. “Of course we’d love to sell every one of those children a horse or a pony to keep here in training—but we won’t cheat anyone, and we’re truly interested in bringing along the next generation of riders. Both Liz and I started in small riding programs at barns like this. Look where we wound up.”

      Hell of a selling point. Liz and Mrs. Jamerson were dirty and sweaty, fighting money troubles, and undoubtedly worked seven days a week. Just what every parent wanted for his child, a lifetime of drudgery in thrall to a bunch of animals who bit and kicked.

      Then he looked into their eyes and saw a pair of supremely content human beings. He shot his starched cuffs and felt the constriction of his power tie. Maybe what he felt was envy.

      “Do you give better care, better prices than the other stables?”

      “The best care and competitive prices,” Liz said. “Plus, we’ve got over a hundred acres here. Most training stables have a few paddocks and no place for the kids to trail ride.”

      Mike leaned forward and rested his forearms on his knees. “All right. As we discussed earlier, Edenvale is willing to give you a trial run. An eight-week camp for half a dozen or so kids from Edenvate—Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. They bring their own lunches. You provide drinks. Starting Monday week. I want a prospectus on my desk by Friday morning of this week detailing precisely what you plan to accomplish during that time.”

      “That’s crazy!” Liz yelped. “That’s two days from now.”

      “Come now, Miss Matthews, you keep saying you want to make horsepersons of these kids. You must have some idea of how to accomplish that.”

      “How much?” Mrs. Jamerson asked softly.

      Mike turned to her and smiled. He knew he looked like a crocodile that had just spotted a particularly succulent possum. He’d spent a great deal of time perfecting that smile. Let the negotiations begin.

      The door to the lounge flew open. “Daddy, Daddy! I’ve found him! Come and see him. He’s beautiful!” Pat flew across the room, grabbed her father’s arm and began to pull him to his feet. All four dogs tumbled into the room after her.

      “Who’s beautiful? What are we talking about here?” Mike asked.

      “My pony! My very own pony! I’ve even got a name for him. Come and see him, Daddy. Right now!” She flew out the door again.

      Mike gaped after her.

      “Terminal,” Mrs. Jamerson said softly. “I did warn you.” Smiling, she said, “We’ll give you our price on Friday.”

      Mike turned to Liz. “What pony?” He realized he’d been smartly outmaneuvered, but at the moment he was too worried about Pat’s reaction to care.

      “God only knows,” Liz said. “Hadn’t you better go see?”

      CHAPTER TWO

      “OH, DEAR,” Mrs. Jamerson whispered.

      “Uh-oh,” Liz said. “She would pick that pony.”

      Mike glanced at the women and then at his daughter, who danced first on one foot then on the other in the stable aisle, pointing at one of the stalls halfway down.

      “Come see, Daddy,” Pat said. “Come see my very own pony.”

      Mike walked slowly to her, Liz and Jamerson following. In the stall stood a sleek gray pony. Even to Mike’s untutored eye it was beautiful. Its coat glowed, its mane looked as though it had been beaten out of a single strip of silver.

      “I’m going to name him Traveller, just like Robert E. Lee’s horse, and he’s meant for me. I know he is. I just know it.”

      “Not a good idea,” Liz said quietly. “He’s going to be a great pony eventually, but at the moment he’s green as grass. Knows zilch.”

      Pat stopped dancing and her face took on that closed, mulish expression that Mike had learned to dread. In the hospital it meant that the doctors and nurses had a fight on their hands to get her to take her medication. He’d never blamed her. No kid likes throwing up a dozen times a day or going bald. There had been times when he’d chickened out, left the medical staff to handle her because he couldn’t bear to watch her suffer another minute. They hadn’t wanted him there most of the time anyway. Neither had Pat. Sometimes he thought she felt guilty about her illness, as though it were something she had inflicted upon him.

      Her nausea passed, and her hair grew back, but unfortunately by that time she’d perfected her technique to get precisely what she wanted from him.

      The look Pat gave to Liz Matthews would have curdled milk. “He is too my pony,” Pat said. “I love him. We’ll learn together.” Then she took the next step in her prescribed ritual. Her eyes filled with tears, her lip began to quiver, her shoulders tightened. She grew visibly smaller right in front of Mike’s eyes, as though she had taken one of Alice in Wonderland’s shrinking potions. Mike closed his eyes and saw her on that bed again. He couldn’t fight her and she knew it. “Daddy, you promised. If you love me, you’ll buy him.”

      Liz СКАЧАТЬ