Mystic Tide (Horse Guardian)

  MYSTIC TIDE

  by

  Angela Dorsey

  Kindle Edition

  Copyright Angela Dorsey 2011

  www.angeladorsey.com

  Kindle Edition: Licence Notes:

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  Published By:

  Enchanted Pony Books on Kindle

  www.ponybooks.com

  ####

  “Tallie, Tallie!” Erin called as she strode toward the fence. “Come here, Tallie!” The tall gelding shimmered orange-red in the sunlight as he raised his head on the far side of his large paddock. He started to amble toward her, his blaze bobbing up and down as he walked, then suddenly lifted his heels in a joyful kick and settled into a high, floating trot. Erin smiled as he pranced toward her. Talent always made her feel better, even when he wasn’t trying. He was so beautiful, so full of life, so jubilant in his movement that when she watched him everything else seemed unimportant.

  “There you are.” Siobhan’s irritated voice came from behind her, and a stiff mask automatically slipped over Erin’s face. “What’s taking you so long? We’re all waiting.”

  Erin ground her teeth together. She’d never met anyone more obnoxious than her stepsister, Siobhan. How did her stepmom, Sylvie, who was such a nice person, ever have such an annoying daughter?

  “So what are you doing anyway? Trying to make me late? Honestly, you’re so passive-aggressive sometimes.” Siobhan stopped beside Erin, her hands on her hips, and glared at her with narrowed blue eyes. “Well?”

  “You must take after your father,” said Erin sweetly and turned her gaze back to her magnificent chestnut horse.

  “Why do you say that?” Siobhan’s voice was suspicious.

  “No reason.” Erin ducked down to climb through the fence rails.

  “No, I want to know why you said that!” For someone who wanted to be a calm, professional psychiatrist someday, Siobhan certainly spent a lot of her time angry.

  “I’m sure with all your knowledge, you can figure it out,” Erin challenged her stepsister. She ignored Siobhan’s huff of indignation and greeted Talent with affectionate words. Unfortunately, she couldn’t stop Siobhan’s voice from invading her ears.

  “You are so infuriating, Erin. I just don’t know how to… you’re such a….” Erin heard her stepsister’s foot stamp the ground. “You’re just completely impossible.” Siobhan’s voice broke off and Erin leaned her cheek against Talent’s lowered head. The horse was her refuge, her escape, especially since Siobhan had come into her life. She glanced back. Siobhan was marching purposefully back to the house, probably planning to tell Sylvie all the horrible passive-aggressive things Erin was doing.

  Erin had known the moment she saw her new “sister” that it would be difficult to actually like her. Siobhan was only a year older than she, but because of the massive amounts of makeup she wore and her sophisticated clothes, she looked a lot older. When Erin’s dad and Siobhan’s mom had married, six months before, it wasn’t so bad because her stepsister was away at boarding school. Then Siobhan came home for the summer holidays.

  Very quickly, relations went from bearable to terrible. Erin could’ve overlooked their different ideas about clothing and makeup. She could’ve dealt with Siobhan’s snobbiness. Even Siobhan’s desire to be a psychiatrist someday would’ve been okay, except for one small thing. She practiced analyzing everyone, all the time! She called Betsy, the lady who worked in the bakery, narcissistic, whatever that was; Sean, the local blacksmith, had phobias; the postman was manic-depressive, and on and on and on it went. It was slightly – though only slightly – amusing at first. Then Siobhan the decided it was her duty to point out Erin’s psychological disorders as well. She used passive-aggressive the most, but there were more. Erin’s favourite was raving lunatic, something Siobhan had called her once when she’d been too angry to come up with one of her fancy labels.

  She walked to the gate with Talent beside her, took his halter from its hook, and slipped it onto his head. “I want you to come inside while I’m gone, Tallie. I know you’d rather be out here, but I’d just feel better if you were safe in your stall.” The gelding nickered and bumped her with his nose. “I know it’s boring inside the stable. But…” She stopped. The feeling she’d had occasionally over the last few days was hard to describe. There was nothing wrong – other than Siobhan’s presence that is – but lately, when she was outside with Talent, she got the creepiest feeling. It was almost as if someone was watching her. Someone with ill intentions.

  Talent’s shoes rang on the stone paved stable yard as Erin led him toward his stall. Even though she’d basically grown up in this stable, Erin still didn’t take it for granted. She knew how lucky she was to have the beautiful, old building for Talent’s stable. It was made of smoky gray Burren stone, the beautiful limestone found only in this area of County Clare, Ireland, and seemed almost alive with ancient grace and character. The ten stalls were roomy and well lit; the lofts were stuffed with sweet smelling hay. Erin even had her own “room” in the stall next to Talent’s, with a cot, a tiny bookshelf, and a writing desk and chair. The barn cat, Cinders, slept on the little cot every afternoon and Erin kept all her favourite horse books on the bookshelf.

  There was only one thing about the stable Erin would change if she could. She would add another horse or two or three. First of all, she’d buy Magic, the neighbouring farmer’s pony. Not to ride – she had Talent for that, and couldn’t ask for a better companion – but to rescue. Magic had hurt his leg the year before and his owner had given the gray pony a year to recover in one of his pastures. However, Magic wasn’t getting any better and Erin knew that his owner would be seeing that as well. Their neighbour was a nice man, but Erin knew he wasn’t rich. Could he afford to keep Magic indefinitely? If not, what would happen to the sweet natured pony? Erin had approached her father, told him that with their family’s riches, they could provide permanent homes for not just Magic, but for other horses who had fallen on unfortunate times. Her dad, however, was convinced it would be too much work for her and that her school grades would suffer. Both Sylvie and Siobhan had agreed with him, though in Erin’s mind, Siobhan had no right to say anything.

  She stopped at the door to the feed room. “Just a minute, Tallie. Let me get you a treat.” The gelding snorted in response, his ears pricked toward the door handle. Erin laughed. Talent was still trying to figure out the door latch. She blocked his view with her body and opened the door – and froze.

  There it was again: that horrible creepy feeling. The hairs on the back of her neck tingled as if someone was staring at the back of her head. Someone with ill intentions. She spun around.

  Talent was looking across the stable yard too now. Her eyes followed his gaze to the loft above the stall on the end and, subconsciously, she moved closer to him. With his powerful shoulder against her side, she felt better. And the creepy feeling was fading now. What was wrong with her? Why did she keep imagining these things? Maybe Siobhan was right. Maybe she was a raving lunatic.

  “Mum, there she is. See? Fooling around with her horse when we should have left already.” Siobhan’s dark hair flipped around her head as she walked into the stable yard, Sylvie behind her. The smug expression on Siobhan’s face made Erin feel instantly hot.

  “Now Erin, you know we’re in a hurry,” Sylvie said gently. “If we don’t leave soon, Siobhan will be late.”

  Erin turned away from the pair of them so they wo
uldn’t see her sudden tears, and pretended to fiddle with Talent’s halter. While Siobhan made her angry, Sylvie only made her feel sad. Not on purpose, Erin knew. Her stepmom only wanted her to be happy, and she was such a kind person that Erin couldn’t help but love her completely. Sylvie couldn’t help it if she made Erin miss her own mom, who’d died years ago. And that was another thing about Siobhan that bugged Erin. She didn’t appreciate how nice her mom was. Her tears stopped as soon as her thoughts turned to her stepsister. Erin was glad. She much preferred being angry to being sad.

  “I’m just putting Talent in his stall before we go. That’s all. Siobhan’s too sensitive.”

  Behind her, Sylvie sighed. “You know what, girls? One of these days, you two are going to realize you’re not that different after all. Then who are you going to fight against?”

  “No way! I’m not like her,” sputtered Siobhan, sounding outraged.

  “For once we agree,” Erin snapped back.

  Sylvie laughed. “And so it begins: the meeting of two minds. Now let’s get Tallie into his stall. We have to get going.”

  So they were going somewhere. Good! Nicole was getting tired of the incessant watching. If the girl and her family were going to be gone for a few hours, she could have a nap. In fact, that would be a smart thing to do, Nicole decided. Especially since today, after an entire day around her stepsister, the girl might go to the abandoned cottage to recover her spirits – and then there’d be no rest for any of them for a while.

  Nicole waited for the sound of their car to fade in the distance, then climbed down from the loft. She peered into the stall at the end of the row, but it was empty. Where had Robert gone? Surely, he wasn’t bumbling about in the open somewhere. The family was rich, so they might have servants who would see him, and that would ruin everything.

  The horse snorted, drawing her attention, and she noticed it seemed nervous. Could Robert be nearby? Slowly she moved toward its stall door. “You’re an ugly beast,” she said pleasantly to the creature. “I despise you, and all your stinky kind.”

  “Hey! Why are you mad at me?” asked Robert. He popped up like a bearded jack-in-the-box from the stall beside the horse.

  “I wasn’t talking about you,” said Nicole. “Don’t look so insulted. And what are you doing in there anyway?”

  Robert disappeared. “Nothing.”

  She moved to the door of the stall to see the man sprawl back on the cot and pick up one of the girl’s books. “Don’t tell me you were in here reading,” she said, aghast. “Even while the girl put her horse in its stall?”

  “I was quiet.” He flipped a page. “She didn’t see me.”

  Nicole didn’t know what to say. Was Robert really that stupid? Any one of the three, Erin, her stepmom, or stepsister, could have discovered him. And then all their surveillance and research and effort would be for nothing! Their entire plan would be useless.

  Nicole spun away and stalked back toward the loft. It would do no good to yell at Robert, she knew. He would just say he was sorry a few thousand times and it wouldn’t change a thing. And he was right – he didn’t get caught. So she would do the smart thing and save her arguments for a time when she might actually make a difference.

  But it was hard. So hard!

  The day dragged on. Siobhan was acting in a play and, first of all, they dropped her off early so she could get ready with the rest of the cast. Erin, her dad, and Sylvie went to a coffee shop to wait for the production to begin.

  Waiting in the coffee shop wasn’t too bad. In fact, it was like the way things used to be, before Siobhan came back from school. Erin enjoyed hearing Sylvie and her dad talk, but didn’t care about what they were discussing this time, so eventually her thoughts turned to Talent. She could hardly wait to get home and take him out for a ride. The day before had been rainy and cold and they’d stayed cooped up. It was just her luck that today was glorious – and it was being wasted on Siobhan’s play.

  Finally, they made their way to the theatre, but arrived too early and had to sit for ages as the audience slowly trickled in. To pass the time, Erin daydreamed about the horse show being held in two weeks. She just had to do well. It was her first time competing in the more advanced Hunter classes and she knew Talent was certainly capable. The one she wasn’t so sure about was herself, even though her riding instructor said she was ready. As long as she didn’t embarrass herself, Erin knew she’d be happy. She didn’t have to win or anything. However, in her imagination, she kept throwing Talent off his stride and making him knock down fences. Or worse, she’d fall off in front of everyone. Just as she was thinking of ways to pay Siobhan back for wasting her precious time while she should be practicing the brush jump, the play began.

  Erin expected it to be boring, even hoped it was in a way, but unfortunately, the play was funny. Siobhan was one of the main characters, and despite her best intentions, Erin was impressed with her stepsister’s talent. On the stage, Siobhan wasn’t snobby or irritating. She was hilarious, with a wicked sense of timing, and Erin found herself laughing despite her best intentions to remain disapproving and stone faced.

  Too soon, however, the play was over, and then came the long wait for Siobhan to be ready to go home. They waited and waited and waited. Even Erin’s dad became bored and stopped speaking for long stretches of time, and he was the second most talkative one in their family, after Siobhan. Most of the other actors and stage workers trickled out of the theatre, and still no Siobhan. Just when Erin became convinced that her stepsister had snuck out in the middle of one of the larger groups, Siobhan came walking up the aisle toward them, her face alight with happiness.

  “It’s about time,” mutter Erin. “Can we go now?”

  But no one was listening to her. Her dad and Sylvie rushed forward to congratulate Siobhan, telling her what a star she was, and praising and fawning over her. Erin clenched her teeth. So what if her stepsister was a good actor? It didn’t merit all this attention. A little voice in the back of her mind whispered that they would be just as happy for her at the horse show next weekend, but Erin shushed it before it became too loud.

  Suddenly, Siobhan was in front of her. “So did you like the play, Erin?”

  Erin shrugged. “It was okay,” she said, reluctantly.

  Siobhan smiled. “I knew you’d like it,” she said in her smug voice.

  “Yeah, all that waiting was pretty good. It was the part in the middle that was boring, when all those losers were running around on the stage,” said Erin.

  Immediately, she wished she could take back her words. She hadn’t meant to sound so cruel. Horrified, she saw tears spring into Siobhan’s eyes. But why did her stepsister have to take everything so seriously? Why couldn’t she see that Erin was just upset because she had to wait so long?

  “Erin, I can’t believe you just said that. What’s wrong with you?” said her father from behind her, displeasure thick in his voice. “Siobhan was wonderful, and I know you enjoyed the play.”

  “That’s… that’s okay,” stuttered Siobhan. “I’m sorry you had to wait. I tried to hurry. Really.”

  Erin felt even worse. Now her stepsister was apologizing to her! But she’s an actor, and she’s just acting now, Erin decided firmly. She really doesn’t feel hurt. She wants me to feel bad, that’s all.

  “Let’s go, everyone,” said Sylvie, tenderly. She put her arm around her daughter. “You were so good, honey. And we’re all so proud of you.”

  “We certainly are,” added Erin’s dad. Stiffly, he turned to walk after his wife and stepdaughter, leaving Erin to follow alone.

  “Whoa, Tallie.” Erin reined the chestnut gelding to a halt. The abandoned cottage stood before them, the gray stone walls strong and indestructible, with gaps where the windows and door had been. Her father had long ago forbidden her to come here, not because it was dangerous, but because it was private property and he didn’t want her to trespass. However, the fact that the place was deserted was part of the reason
Erin liked it and she came often, especially lately. She could be alone here. The owners lived in Dublin and hadn’t been back to visit for at least a year.

  She drew in a deep, trembling breath. Finally, she could cry if she wanted. No one would see her tears here. This place was worlds away from the suspense of the silent drive home, away from the disapproving, unhappy look on her father’s face. The expression on Sylvie’s face had been kinder, more compassionate, but that had been even harder to bear. And Siobhan, well, Erin hadn’t wanted to even look at her. Everything was her fault.

  She turned in the saddle. Beyond the stone fence that circled the cottage, past the single tree that stood to one side of the ungated opening, the naturally formed pavements of the Burren stretched away into the distance. The stones shone like huge glossy bricks edged in green. It was a perfect day, warm and still under the late afternoon sun. Too bad Siobhan had ruined it for her. Erin ran her fingers through her short, reddish brown hair, sighed, and dismounted.

  The gelding nickered, and nuzzled her sympathetically. Immediately, Erin felt her eyes sting with tears. Talent was the most understanding horse in the world. She swallowed noisily and reached up to straighten his forelock. “Today I made a mistake and now everyone’s mad at me, Tallie,” she whispered. “I don’t know how to make it right with Dad and Sylvie.”

  Talent moved to rest his head on Erin’s shoulder. His dark eyes stared into hers, and in their depths she could see her own tear streaked face. She dashed the droplets away, and when more ran down her cheeks she moved to Talent’s side to wipe her face on his silky neck. “I know it’s mean to say this, Tallie, but I just wish Siobhan would go back to her stupid boarding school. I like it when it’s just me and Dad and Mum.” She shook her head. “I mean, Sylvie.”

  A preoccupied look crept over Erin’s face as she unclipped one end of Talent’s looped reins and turned to sit against the stone cottage wall. Was that part of the reason Siobhan was nasty to her so often? Because Erin was taking a share of her mom’s attention? And was that why the mean words had sprung from her own mouth – because she was mad at the way Sylvie and her dad were flattering Siobhan? Were she and Siobhan competing for their parent’s affection? But that was something little kids did. Erin scowled. What a stupid idea.