Greenbriar Manor

Surprises and Sentiments

The next few days passed quickly at the Manor. 

Vivien woke up the morning of Ingrim's competition feverish and asked Martha to come to the house to supervise things. She wished that he would wait to go when Mack returned but she knew that they all had been working all month to get to this day. Sultan looked beautiful with his mane and tail braids. She saw him prance in the gate from her bedroom window. The fever seemed to get worse as she watched on as Brooklyn worked with him before they loaded Sultan into the trailer. Her vision shifted and she felt a strange dizziness come over her as she watched them get in the cab of the truck.  She laid down for a nap after Jake came to tell her that he would be observing the competition on her behalf. She kissed him and told him to be careful and make sure they all came home safely.  He smiled and left her to get better. While she was napping a strange music box sonata could be heard coming from Fran's room. But every third note there was a mechanical whirring like the key was stuck. Vivien noticed it while she slept and it seemed to propel her into strange dreams again. These however were of Chessie and the other tenants of the house. She wandered through a thicket at the edge of the yard to see a beautiful brick house. She heard laughter coming from the back door. She walked towards the sound but as she got up to the doorway itself a flash of lightning split the otherwise clear sky. A tiny dark haired girl about the same age as Mari ran through the yard followed by a large dog with shaggy fur. The girl turned to look at her and one side of her face became strangely opaque and her eyes grew wide as if surprised. There was a noise coming from the side yard. Something scraping the ground. She turned to see a horse with no rider heading straight for her his eyes bleared and his saddle scraping the ground. It lunged and barely missed her and the girl ran after it. Just before she woke up she realized that in her hand was a tiny porcelian horse with a broken left leg. She woke groggily from sleep. She thought she saw a girl standing in the hallway holding a book and looking sad. Maybe it was Mari who was always hanging around. She was soaked to the skin and cold. Her fever had broken. What a strange dream. 

She could hear the music stop abruptly in Fran's room. Maybe she had been imagining things. They would begin racing any time now. She looked down at the floor something shiny caught her eye. She reached down to pick it up. It was a leg with a hoof. A broken piece of a horse figurine like in her dream. She gasped and ran to the phone to call Jake. Something was wrong with Ingrim. 

Meanwhile:

Martha wandered into the stable just in time to see them load Sultan into the trailer. She realized that this would be the first of many times that the only man she had ever loved, and her son would leave this place without her.  She had stayed away for many weeks trying to see if he would recognize that she was still here. She thought of Mari and how she had always loved the horses Brooklyn raced. Would she be sad if the Greene's sold Sultan after this season? She had overheard Jake on the phone with a breeder in Vermont. He was concerned about Ingrim's obsession with his horse and how he had forgotten his friend. She thought of Brooklyn and Bridgette. Mari had already lost too many loved ones. She began to wonder if this manor ever brought people together. Ingrim and Mack. Mari and Fern. Brooklyn wandered up to her and hugged her. He was not going to the race. He walked his mother to the side of the barn Ingrim was holding the same saddle she had so lovingly oiled all his competitions. They would be with Ingrim today in spirit. But his father stood off to the side scratching his head. He had not expected the stablehand to back out of raceday. But he had a kid sister and some trouble at home so he let it slide. This time. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a long slender woman. She looked pleasant and warm and vaguely familiar but he was sure there had been no Grey's left here after they had gone. He set out long ago. His wife had been beautiful and he had left her in  that hospital alone to say goodbye to her only son. To their life together. He had been shunned. By her and everyone else. He was surprised that the lady of the house took a look at him to come back. Today he would make them proud.  He looked one last time at the thicket where his  son had been thrown from his horse. The tree that had bridged the river after that storm years later that supposedly robbed him of a love he did not know he even had. The manor took and it gave too. That stable boy and his family they had each other now and he had this black horse and a medal to win.