You, Me: Us

3. Maid of the Island

Lainey was actually able to attend practice the next day and it felt amazing. Priscilla was having a lot of fun and it was great to just ride and not have to worry about anyone else.

When they were heading in, both Pin and Lainey went to stable Elvis and Priscilla themselves, but Callum stopped them. "Oh don't worry, the groomer will get them settled. Great ride today!"

Pin looked stunned and Gaby noticed, "What?"

He shrugged a little, "last week I was the groom, not getting paid nearly as much as her." Lainey grabbed his hand and smiled.

"People here don't care where you came from," Gaby promised him. "They just want to see what you can do." Pin took his hand back as he started to take off his helmet.

"I guess I can do anything, now that I'm out of Mia's debt," he laughed.

This made Gaby look towards Callum, "about that, Mia called this morning. Said you still haven't paid her back and we should ask you where the money went."

Pin looked like he was about to panic and Lainey grabbed his arm before rolling her eyes, "how would she know that you gave him any money if he didn't give it to her. God, my cousin really is stupid sometimes and mean."

Callum laughed, "I wasn't accusing you anyway. She clearly just wants us to kick you out, that's all. And we're not going to." He looked at the grey-eyed girl. "Though if you have any control, get that cousin of yours to back off, this is more than just riding at this point, she's trying to mess with his entire life." Lainey nodded. He then gestured for them to follow, "come on, let's go load up for maid of the island."

The two boys started to walk away and Gaby stood in front of the other two, "don't worry, we've got your back now and Mia... might want to watch hers."

Lainey raised an eyebrow, "careful, still my family."

Pin shook his head, "yeah, and revenge isn't exactly my style."

Gaby smiled, "well, lucky you know me then, and don't worry, nothing... too damaging," she promised the girl.

"Then by all means, have your fun."

"I think you mean us, lovely maid," she pretended to bow and pulled her arm towards the trailers.

Pin smiled at them a little as he caught up with the boys to get ready.

~

Lainey and Gaby unloaded the horses from the trailer once they got to the castle and tied them to one of the fence posts. Both were wearing costumes for the event.

Gaby was wearing fake chainmail armour on top of a silver corset along with her riding outfit and brought her homemade helmet and shield for the joust.

Lainey had on her riding outfit with a white long sleeve shirt, corset, and fake armour with a sword strapped to her side. It was the same outfit she wore every year to cheer on her cousin.

She took a second to look at the grounds. They had all types of stands set up for people to buy from, fortune tellers, face paint, and then there was the castle itself. The duke had recently passed this last year, but it wasn't a huge deal anymore.

They were still trying to find the heir so time was running out and things would turn chaotic, but the Duke didn't run too much. He protected the wild horses, owned the harvest fields, ran the town with the help of the mayor, held political power in the house of lords, okay maybe it was at least a little.

"Okay, time to get to the arena," Callum called out and grabbed his horse. They brought Elvis, Priscilla, and Marvin. They agreed to bring more horses to have people pay to ride them or take pictures with them.