Chapter 1
January 5th
Isabella Roberts-Doyle looked out the window of her brother's car with a smile on her face as she brushed her black hair out of her face. Isabella was a horse lover and today she was glad that she would be able to spend time with some horses.
Today was an exciting day and Isabella couldn't wait until she got to her destination. Driving along this road brought back so many memories for Isabella, but she was glad that she was with her brother, Ian Wilson.
When Isabella was in year ten, she used to live in this area with her real parents and her farm animals. She had to move away, though, because her parents died and she was fostered by Tony and Elizabeth Doyle. Although it had been just over five years since her parents died, Isabella found that she still missed them, but she was getting better and her brother was helping her with that.
Isabella adored her foster brother, Ian Wilson, and she was over the moon when he told her that he considered her his real sister. Now she would love to spend as much time with him as she could, but that was a little hard now. Mr Wilson's wife, Amy Wilson, was due to give birth to her baby some time this month and Mr Wilson was frantic. He didn't like to leave his wife's side now and Isabella spent ages trying to persuade him to come out with her today. She was happy when she finally got him out of the house and she was also glad that she had a little help from Amy. Amy assured her husband that she would have been fine and an hour or two alone would not harm her or the baby.
Isabella then looked over to the back seat where her German shepherd cross was seated. Isabella had insisted that he come with her and Mr Wilson so he could visit his home town once again. He had grown up in this town since he was a puppy and Isabella could tell that he was excited to come back. He was sitting contentedly in the back, looking out the window.
"Would you calm down?" said Isabella as she was looking at Mr Wilson's finger that was impatiently tapping on the steering wheel, "we haven't been gone that long and Amy will be fine."
Mr Wilson glanced at his little sister, "hmm," he replied noncommittally.
"Why aren't you excited? Isn't looking at your potential son or daughter's pony exciting?"
Last year at Tasha Miller's family Christmas party, Isabella had announced to Mr Wilson that she was going to buy a pony. She was so excited to teach the baby how to ride and studying her degree at The University of RayBourne confirmed that she wanted to be a riding instructor. It was something that she wanted to do for the rest of her life.
"You know I don't like horses, Isabella," said Mr Wilson.
"But, this is going to be your child's first pony. Could you please be a little more enthusiastic?" replied Isabella.
"I will try, but I can't say that I will ever like horses."
"Well, you have to."
"And what about Bobby?" asked Mr Wilson, "why are you bringing him when we are going to look at horses?"
"Ponies," Isabella corrected Mr Wilson, "and Bobby is good with horses and ponies."
It then wasn't long before Isabella, Bobby and Mr Wilson arrived at Isabella's neighbour's house, where she was going to buy the pony. Mr Wilson parked the car and stepped out. Isabella then opened the back door, grabbed Bobby's lead and let him jump out. Isabella gave her dog a pat and then she unhooked his lead from his collar.
Mr Wilson raised an eyebrow and looked at his little sister, "should you be doing that?" he asked.
"Like I said before, Bobby is good with horses and he knows this farm. He has been here many times and I trust him," replied Isabella, smiling as she watched Bobby race around, smelling all the smells and greeting all the Shetland ponies that were in the paddock, "see?"
