Showjumpers

“Are you still here?”

Georgie frowned. “Yes! Still here. Why does everyone keep asking me that?” She looked behind Kennedy through the open doorway. “Where’s James? Is he with you?”

A look of dark delight appeared on Kennedy’s face. “You don’t know?” she said. “He didn’t tell you?”

“What are you talking about?” Georgie asked.

Kennedy purred with pleasure, “Oh, it’s too fabulous!”

Georgie suddenly felt awfully vulnerable. Kennedy clearly knew something that she didn’t.

“James has gone,” said Damien.

“Gone where?” Georgie was confused. Was he down at the kennels with his father? Out on the estate?

“He’s gone to New York with his dad,” Damien said. And then he added in a gentler tone. “I’m sorry, Georgie, I thought he’d taken you with him.”

“Well, when will he be back?” Georgie asked.

“He’s not coming back,” Kennedy said. “He’s gone with Dad and then he’s going straight to Blainford.” She gave Georgie a look of mock pity. “Looks like he’s left you behind.”

Georgie couldn’t believe it. “But there are still three more days until we’re due back at school. He can’t just leave me…”

“He just did,” Kennedy said. “This is so typical of James. Dumping you and making it our problem!”

Georgie would have burst into tears, but she didn’t want to give Kennedy the satisfaction. Instead, she put down her breakfast plate and left the room. She was halfway down the hall when she heard Damien calling after her.

“Are you OK?” he asked as he ran to catch her up.

“Not really.” Georgie shook her head, still struggling to hold back the tears. “Why did he go off like that without saying anything?”

Damien shrugged. “He was in a weird mood this morning. He said he had to get out of here and he’d tell me all about it when we got back to school. Then he left.”

Back in her room, Georgie sat down on the bed in despair. How could James abandon her at his house with Kennedy and her stuck-up friends? It was so unbelievably awful she couldn’t help but think there must be some mistake. She couldn’t believe that James would do this.

“That’s right, he’s gone to New York with his father,” Patricia Kirkwood confirmed. Georgie had looked everywhere and finally found James’ stepmother in the library. However, Mrs Kirkwood seemed to show scant interest in Georgie’s predicament.

“It’s just…” Georgie hesitated, “Well, he brought me here and now he’s gone and, umm, I’m still here.”

Patricia Kirkwood stood up and began to rearrange flowers in a vase on the mantelpiece. “So I see,” she said flatly. “You’re welcome to stay of course,” she added. “I’m sure you can get a lift back to Blainford on the weekend with Kennedy and the others when they go.”

“Thank you,” Georgie managed to stammer out, “only I wasn’t expecting to be, well, abandoned by James.”

Patricia Kirkwood froze, and suddenly her focus became quite resolutely fixed on the vase in front of her. “To be honest, Georgina, we weren’t really expecting James to bring home a girl… like you…”

She paused to withdraw a dead rose from the vase. “There’s a certain calibre of girl that is suitable for the Kirkwood household. I think perhaps James was forgetting his position when he asked you here in the first place.”

Looking back, Georgie would think of endless biting comebacks that she wished she had said to Patricia Kirkwood. But at the time, her jaw literally hung open in shock. No wonder the Kirkwoods had seemed aloof. They’d never wanted her here, because they didn’t think that she was good enough for James!

Patricia Kirkwood pulled out another dying rose and then turned on her heels and walked briskly out of the room. Georgie was reeling! What was she going to do now? She was stuck here without James, unwelcome and yet unable to leave for another three long unbearable days. Then she would be forced to get on that plane and fly back with Kennedy and her sidekicks, gloating and taunting her the whole way.

Back upstairs in her room she curled up in a ball on her bed, feeling utterly lost and alone. Why had she come here? She should have taken Alice up on her offer and gone to her house instead.

Alice! Of course. Georgie leapt off the bed and searched in her bag. With trembling fingers she dug through her things until she uncovered her mobile phone, and scrolled through to find Alice’s number. Alice lived in Maryland too, not far from the Kirkwoods.

Georgie listened to the dialling tone on her phone. Please pick up, Alice! she pleaded silently. She held her breath and waited and then, just as she was about to give up, there was a familiar voice at the other end of the line.

“Georgie!” Alice’s cheery voice almost made her burst into tears with relief. “Are you having a good time at the fabulous Kirkwood Mansion?”

“Not so much,” Georgie admitted. There were gasps of horror and disbelief from Alice as Georgie told her the ‘highlights’ so far.

“So where are you now?” Alice asked.

“I’m hiding in my bedroom,” Georgie said. “Which is probably where I’ll be staying for the next three days until I can leave.”

“No,” Alice said firmly. “You won’t be. I’m coming to get you right now. Get packed. I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

It didn’t take Georgie long to throw her things in a bag. Once she was ready, she went back downstairs and told Frances she was leaving. She couldn’t wait to get out of this place. But there was one final goodbye that she had to say before she went.

“Belvedere,” Georgie cooed as she unbolted the door of the gelding’s stall and stepped inside. “I’ve got something for you.”

At the sound of Georgie’s voice, Belvedere came closer. Georgie reached out her hand and the big brown hunter spied a carrot in the outstretched palm. He stepped forward and used his soft lips to nuzzle the treat from her, crunching the carrot with his enormous jaws.

“Thank you for being such a super horse,” Georgie told him, patting his broad muzzle before slipping back out the stable door. “Bye, Belvedere,” she said sadly. “You were the nicest of all of them.”

As she walked through the gardens towards the house, Georgie half hoped that she might see a car in the driveway, but no one was here to collect her yet. Instead, she saw Kennedy standing on the steps to the front door with Arden and Tori. They were holding racquets and waiting for Tori to do up the laces on her tennis shoes.

“We’re going down to the courts,” Kennedy told Georgie. “We’d have asked you to come – except we didn’t.”

“That’s OK, Kennedy,” Georgie replied. “I’m leaving in a minute anyway.”

Kennedy looked taken aback. “What do you mean?”

At that moment there was the low rumble of a lorry engine and heavy wheels crushing the pebbles on the driveway. Then the deep honk of a horn sounded as the Duprees’ horse transporter pulled into view.

“Georgie!” Alice was waving frantically out of the passenger window as her big sister Kendal swung the wheel of the massive lorry to turn it around the fountain.

“I’d love to stay and chat,” Georgie said, amused by the look of total shock on the showjumperettes’ faces, “but my ride is here.”

She looked over at Alice, who was beaming as she swung open the door. Georgie threw her bag in and climbed onboard. “See you back at Blainford,” Georgie said, slamming the door. She squeezed in next to Alice, doing up her seatbelt as Kendal put the lorry into gear.

“Go round the fountain once more!” Alice begged her sister. Kendal’s skinny arms swung the wheel hard as she did a 360-degree turn to circle the fountain for a second time while Georgie and Alice raised their hands to the window and pretended to wave like the Queen as they bid the stunned showjumperettes goodbye.

Chapter Four

Kendal Dupree was a senior at Blainford and the older sister by three years – which in her books meant she should be in charge. Alice Dupree, however, had other ideas.

“Hey! Don’t touch the CD player!” Kendal snapped. “I’m listening to that!”

“It’s old ladies’ music!” Alice pouted.

“It’s Joni Mitchell,” Kendal replied. “She’s one of the coolest female singers ever.”

“Boring old hippie,” Alice grumbled. “Put on the new Foals album!”

She reached out a hand towards the CD player, but Kendal grabbed her wrist to stop her.

“Ow! Let me go!”

“Alice! Stop it. I’m trying to drive.” Kendal flicked her long blonde hair back out of her eyes and focused on the road ahead. “I’m warning you. Touch it again and you’re dead.”

Alice scowled at her big sister, her dark eyes half hidden beneath her jet-black fringe. “You’re lucky you’re an only child!” she said pointedly to Georgie. “It’s awful having a big sister.”

“Hey!” Kendal shot a sideways look at Alice. “You dragged me out on this crazy rescue mission. How about a bit of gratitude?”

“Thank you, Kendal,” Georgie said with sincerity.

“As if you had anything better to do!” Alice mumbled.

The bickering between the sisters carried on pretty much like this all the way to the Dupree ranch. Georgie marvelled at how the sisters constantly taunted each other without actually meaning anything by it.

In between arguing, Alice quizzed Georgie, until she had heard the whole story of what had happened with James.

“I always knew he was toxic,” Alice said. “He’s so vain and arrogant.”

“He’s not,” Georgie insisted. “Not once you know him.”

She didn’t know why she was standing up for James or why, despite what he’d done, she still felt a desperate need to see him again. All she knew was that she wasn’t ready to hate James Kirkwood. Not just yet.

The Dupree house was two-storeyed and painted white with a massive kidney-shaped swimming pool set into the lawn. Kendal swung the wheel of the lorry and eased the vehicle down the tree-lined driveway towards the front of the house. Georgie expected Kendal to pull up and stop, but she kept on driving.

“Mom and Dad are down at the stables,” Alice explained.

As they arrived outside the stable block, two enormous American Staffordshire terriers bounded out, followed by a small but yappy Jack Russell.

“Hey, Spike!” Alice said, swinging open the lorry door and leaping down to pat the brindle-coloured Staffordshire terrier, while the black and white spotted one leapt up to get her attention. “That one is Lulu,” Alice said, “and the Jack Russell is Ralph.”

Even though Ralph was the smallest, he did all the barking. He’d obviously made enough noise to announce their arrival because the Duprees came out of the stables a moment later to greet them.

“You must be Georgie,” Mr Dupree said, reaching out his huge bear paw to clasp her hand, a broad smile on his face. “I’m Charlie. Lovely to have you here. Alice has told us so much about you. I hear both of you girls made the House Showjumping team this term!”

“Hi, hon!” Mrs Dupree had a Maryland accent that was much stronger than Alice and Kendal’s. She was tanned and lean like her husband and wore her black hair back in a ponytail. She had the same bubbly personality as Alice and she didn’t hesitate to give Georgie a vigorous hug.

“Where’s Cherry?” Alice asked.

“She’s working the horses out back,” Mrs Dupree said and smiled at Georgie. “Do you need anything to eat, hon? Maybe some lemonade?”

“No, thanks,” Georgie said, “I’m fine.”

“Well come out to the arena then,” Mrs Dupree said, “and see what you think of this five-year-old that Cherry convinced us to buy.”

The Duprees were the sort of family that Georgie’s old instructor Lucinda would have classified as “true-blood horsey". It was so clear that all of them adored horses, and more than that, they understood them too.

Cherry, the oldest of the Dupree sisters, was a Blainford graduate who was now riding the professional showjumping circuit. Like Alice and Kendal, she was lean and delicately built like a ballerina. The five-year-old in question was a Hanoverian called Doodlebug. He was sixteen-two and had the temperament of a volcano. When Georgie arrived, Cherry was having trouble settling him down and he kept doing little bucks as he went over the jumps. Cherry didn’t look at all perturbed by this, even though she was jumping him bareback!

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