A Leap For The Sky - Kc Wheeler (popular novels .TXT) 📗

Both offended and relieved at how quickly the subject of Gypsy’s death was dropped, I pulled a bag of chips out of my bag.

“What did you do over the holidays?” I asked Izzy.

“Not much,” she replied. Izzy appeared deep in thought, so I didn’t push for further conversation.

I sat eating, my mind contentedly blank. Admittedly it was nice to be outside under the sunshine.

“Do you want to come?” Danielle asked me suddenly.

“Huh?” I looked at her.

“Lucy and me are going on a trek at my auntie’s farm. She’s bringing Bugs, and you could ride my auntie’s other horse, Fudge. She’s bay with a blaze and…”

“Adele doesn’t ride anymore,” Lucy interrupted.

Danielle appeared lost for words. She unwrapped a muesli bar, and Lucy jumped into another conversation, saving Danielle from having to respond.

While school hadn’t been at horrible as I thought it’d be, I was still happy to get home. Mum was sitting on the couch talking on the phone when I walked in.

“Uh huh,” she murmured into the receiver. “Oh, I will be! Thank you very much for this information.” Mum turned to face me as she spoke. “I’ll be in touch. Bye.” She pushed the end button and stared at me thoughtfully, chewing her bottom lip.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked.

Mum sighed. “That was a lady who saw our incident at Showjumping Champs,” she told me. She stood up and hooked the landline to its charger. I waited patiently for her to continue. “She happens to know the people we bought Gypsy from.” Mum sat back down and stared hard at me. “I’m happy to inform you that it was not your fault that Gypsy broke her leg. I am unhappy to discover we were conned.”

I took a seat across from her and reached into my bag for my uneaten sandwich.

“It’s good to see you eating. You’ve lost weight; anymore and you’ll vanish completely,” Mum commented. “Anyway,” she began again. “Gypsy had a paddock accident with the previous owners which resulted in a large crack to her leg. They gave her time to recover, and she did faster than expected. They then put her in foal to give her further time to strengthen that leg. They were strictly informed by the vet that while she should be sound enough for dressage and hacking, they were to no longer jump her. Obviously they ignored the vet’s advice. They show-jumped her a couple more times then sold her to us without mentioning the injury.”

My mouth fell open. A sense of relief washed over me for I was no longer to blame; however, overwhelming that was the hatred I felt towards the previous owners.

“The lady on the phone, Beth, her name is, she said this is not the first time they’ve lied about a horse for sale.” Mum ran her hands through her hair. She appeared tired; defeated perhaps. Her facial features showed no sign of the anger I felt within. “I should have got her vet checked,” Mum added.

I stared at her, temporarily speechless. “Is… Is there anything we can do?”

“Well, Beth did say she has a few people to back us up. Beth and the old owners aren’t the only people who knew about Gypsy’s cracked leg; and I did one good thing when we bought her.” Mum smiled at me. “I took a screenshot image of Gypsy’s advert. In court that will come in very handy because nowhere in that advert does it mention her injury. It also outlines her as a showjumper.” She winked at me. “I think we have a good chance of winning this case. It’d be nice to have the money to help your father and me out with buying you a new horse.”

Court? Money? A new horse?

“They deserve to be caught out for their lies,” I said slowly. “And you should definitely try and get your money back. But I don’t want another horse.”

Mum looked surprised. Then she quickly straightened up. “I’m sick of you moping around in your bedroom. Horses have kept you out of trouble and given you something to be happy about for the majority of your life. And you were doing so well on Gypsy; you can’t just give up,” she insisted. “Now that you know Gypsy’s death was not your fault, you don’t need to feel guilty. There’s no reason for you not to get another horse.” Her blue eyes flashed. “Plus, you have a showjumping career to follow.”

I threw my arms, exasperated. It always seemed when you finally agreed with someone, they changed their views on the situation. Mum was the one who had spent the last few years doubting the possibility of a showjumping career. “Unless you can bring Gypsy back from the dead, I don’t want a horse!” I hissed. I spun on my heel and marched up the stairs.

“There’s an envelope on your bed for you by the way!” Mum called out from behind me.

The envelope was hand addressed to me in tidy, linked writing. I ripped it open and discovered a card. A palomino foal was pictured on the card, with the words, ‘Sorry for your loss’ printed in pink. Inside the card was a red first place ribbon. The inside of the card read in that same perfect, linked writing:

Dear Adele.

I’m truly sorry for the loss of your horse. She was one incredible jumper.

I promised I would pass your ribbon from Showjumping Championships onto you.

Larissa xx.

I closed the card, surprised. I wondered why Larissa had collected my ribbon, and I wondered what had changed in her to send me a card. I thought Larissa hated me.

I straightened out the ribbon; the very last ribbon Gypsy and I would ever win together. I lay down on the bed, stretching out my tired legs. I had a lot of new information to process.

Chapter Ten

It was Friday afternoon. The week had consisted of less tears over Gypsy, although the longing for her remained. I wasn’t getting over the loss of my beautiful horse; more so, I was reluctantly learning to live without her. What choice did I have?

Things were still awkward between Lucy and I. We spoke only if necessary, usually ignoring each other among our small group of friends. I missed her, but I still felt offended by her words.

I’d just gotten home from school. Mum and Dad sat side by side on the couch, talking quietly. “Where’s Natasha?” I wondered.

“She’s at a friend’s house,” Mum replied.

I stared hard at my parents. Usually Dad was still at work, and the way they sat on the couch with the television switched off was unusual. Mum smiled cheerfully at me. Dad looked nervous.

“What’s going on?” I asked suspiciously.

“We have a surprise for you,” Mum replied. “Let’s go now,” she said, glancing at Dad, who nodded. They got to their feet and headed towards the door, Dad’s car keys dangling from his closed fist.

I held back, nervous. “Where are we going?”

Mum grinned. “It’s a surprise.”

I considered refusing to follow until they explained where we were going. But curiosity got the better of me. And I’d already lost Gypsy; what was left to be afraid of?

I climbed into the back seat of Dad’s car.

We drove in silence. Within minutes we were pulling into the driveway of Ridgewood stables. I felt too stunned to utter a sound. I didn’t understand why we were here. I looked out the window, gazing across towards where Gypsy was buried. My heart leapt in my throat.

Dad bought the car to a stop.

That’s when I saw her.

Frozen in shock, I stared ahead, struggling and failing to understand what was going on. She’s dead, I told myself. I was there when they put her to sleep. I watched her body lower into the grave. Her lifeless body… I had convinced myself there was nothing to fear, but I was terrified, my body rigid. There in the distance stood Gypsy. Alive. She was alive. Alive… Alive…

Then I realized. I was an idiot; a fool. Gypsy couldn’t be alive. I knew very well that Gypsy was dead. I let my breath out in one big whoosh.

Mum and Dad exited the car, and silently I followed. As we neared Gypsy’s look-alike, I noticed this horse had only three stockings, unlike Gypsy who had four. His narrower blaze veered off to the left unlike Gypsy’s, and he was much slighter in build; a more athletic type. As we reached the gate, I realized this horse also stood nearly a hand taller than Gypsy. The horse held his head over the gate, poking his nose out towards us. He had a cheeky expression on his face that practically begged you to pet him. I ignored him and spun angrily to face my parents.

“Why are we here?” I demanded.

Dad didn’t reply. Instead he scratched the horses nose. The horse had an ‘in your face’ personality and appeared to lap up the attention. Mum appeared oblivious to my unhappiness. “Honey, this is Coby.”

“So?” I replied bluntly.

“He is yours.”

“I don’t want him,” I snarled at her. My face grew hot; I felt furious. “I told you I didn’t want a horse. How could you buy me a horse when I clearly told you I didn’t want one?! What’s worse, is that you chose a horse that looks like Gypsy as if that would make everything okay. This isn’t Gypsy! He will never replace Gypsy!” Mad and upset, I collapsed onto the grass and let out a sob. I couldn’t believe my parents would do this to me. Nobody understood how I felt, and I felt so alone in my grief.

“But Adele,” Mum kneeled down beside me. “You don’t understand.”

“No. You don’t understand! I don’t want this horse! I don’t want any horse!” I cried. I glanced up at Coby. He resembled Gypsy far too much. “I don’t want a horse that reminds me of Gypsy every time I look at him; and I don’t want to ride anymore!” I swallowed hard, trying to force away the overwhelming emotion that filled me within.

Dad left Coby leaning against the gate. “What your mother is trying to say is, this is Gypsy’s son.”

I furrowed my brow in confusion. “Huh?”

“We were planning to take Gypsy’s previous owners to court. I spoke to them on the phone. To say the least, they weren’t happy and tried to talk down her injury as though it was nothing. After much debate they offered us Coby on the condition we didn’t take them to court,” Mum explained. “Coby is Gypsy’s son. He is five-years-old. He is broken in but hasn’t done a lot, so you’ll need to produce him. They did say that he is by a big Thoroughbred stallion making him Three-parts-Thoroughbred, and apparently he has shown tremendous jumping talent.”

“They reckoned the stallion was a showjumper too,” Dad added.

Mum nodded in agreement with Dad. “He’s a better height for you too,” she commented.

“How can you even believe a thing these people have told you?” I scoffed. “For all we know, he has a hidden injury too.”

“Now, we did learn something Adele,” Dad said. “We had him vet checked.”

“Well you wasted your time,” I told them. “Because I’m not keeping him.”

“Think about it honey; he’s just perfect for you!” Mum gushed.

“He’s very friendly too,” Dad added, stroking Coby’s face once again.

I couldn’t meet the eyes of either of my parents. I turned towards the car. “I’d like to go home now.”

That evening, I headed down to the kitchen for a drink. Mum sat at the kitchen table reading. She glanced up from her magazine. “Lucy will be looking after Coby in the meantime,” she stated casually.

I opened my mouth but no words came out. I hadn’t told Mum that Lucy and I weren’t on speaking terms. Next week at school would be very awkward. I was not looking forward to seeing Lucy.

Not at all.

Chapter Eleven

Like a coward, I avoided Lucy entirely. I spent my lunch