Chills | l.h

Chapter 23 | The King's Jester

Sometimes we put up walls,

Not to keep people out,

But to see who cares

Enough to knock them down.

-Unknown

~~

Let's just say, after what happened between Luke and I that day, Brooke left and everything was better again.

Well, not exactly.

I still had to worry about the money we needed, to keep the horses after my parents just happened to be getting divorced.

I had been spending the most of my time with the horses. I was constantly training hard on Jester for show jumping and he started to show the work, his muscles were a dead give away, as well as his moods. He was starting to greet me at the gate each morning, which he never did before but now he knows I'm most likely going to take him for another ride.

But today was different.

Today was the competition that we had been training for, the prize was something valuable, I was hoping to sell it for a fair bit of money. Enough to keep us going for another few months.

The boys and Raine insisted on attending too, claiming that 'You need a cheering squad'.

So here I was, at six in the morning, loading up all Jester's tack and my equipment. The boys and Raine were coming later and I was being driven to the show grounds by one of the ladies from the riding school, I competing for myself but the centre insisted on sponsoring me today. Which probably meant that I would see some of my students today in the crowd.

"C'mon boy, up you go." I mumble as I lead Jester to the float. I had changed into my uniform earlier and I do a quick look at Jester's plaits, making sure none of them have undone. His multicoloured mane was tightly wrapped up and all done yesterday.

He knows the drill by now, walk up the ramp and stay put.

"Once he's up there honey, we should get going as soon as possible." Julie calls to me from the car window and I lead Jester closer to he ramp, he gets the message and as I chuck the lead rope to hang over his neck, he walks straight up without a fuss.

"Good boy," I tell him and give him a pat on his rump.

I lock all the heavy doors as fast as I could and I walk into the small door into the float itself where Jester seemed to be digging into his breakfast already. I pick up the loose rope from his patched neck and tie it on the iron loop connected to the wall. I exit once I'm happy he's settled and I give him a pat on his neck as a goodbye.

"Ready?" Julie asks me as I hop into the passenger seat beside her and I give her a nod, buckling my seat belt firmly.

"Expensive prize this year, huh?" She attempts conversation and I give her a shy smile.

I was never good at conversations with strangers.

"Yeah, if I win it I'm hoping to sell it." I try to send a friendly mood across.

It was an hour drive to the show grounds and I started getting on with Julie over that period of time, she told me she was French and that she was used to being around horses her whole life. Her parents were horse breeders, her father the breeder and the mother the one who rode the magnificent horses.

"We all have our once-in-a-lifetime horse, I had mine when I lived in France, I had loved the little mare to bits," she reminisces "A Percheron, she was, honest as myself and trusted her with my life."