His Second Chance

Chapter Nine

I would have slept in very late that day, if it had not been for Archie. He came up to the loft around nine-thirty, banging on the door and shouting my name.

"Go away," I moaned, covering my head with a pillow.

"What the hell happened to you last night?" he snapped.

"What are you taking about?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that you left us at the wedding, didn't tell us where you were going, and turn up back here at five in the morning!" he shouted.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry, just don't talk so loud, I've got a massive headache," I groaned as I tried to sit up.

"Just get up, the vet is downstairs with Chloe," he said.

"Wait, Chloe's back?" I cried in relief," Why aren't you having a go at her, she got in later than I did."

"What?"

"I got home and came to look for her, but she wasn't here," I said, as I rubbed my aching head.

"She told us she wouldn't come home with us last night," he snapped," Besides, you must have been seeing things, she was in the yard early this morning."

I tried to protest, but he was already gone. He, along with Elliot and Elizabeth, I suppose, had probably been oblivious that Chloe didn't come home last night. So what did she do? Where did she go? I tried to stop thinking about all of this, as it made my head hurt.

I wanted to stay in bed all day, as my head was throbbing, but I also needed some water. I sat up as slowly as possible and swung my legs over the side of the bed. I felt dizzy, and groaned as a beam of sun hit my eyes. With fuzzy vision, I could see a glass of clear liquid on the bedside table. It was water; whether it had just been put there or had been there for days, I didn't care. I grabbed it and downed the whole thing in one. It instantly made me feel better, but my headache didn't go away.

There were some old clothes sat on the side. They would be better to wear than my dress. I changed into them as quickly as my hungover body would let me. I struggled down the stairs into the barn. I couldn't hear or see anyone, but then I heard the shrieking of Guinness. I wandered over to his part of the barn where I saw Chloe standing with the vet, another woman and a young girl. They all looked at me as I came in, but then turned back to Guinness. The vet was trying to sedate him, but she couldn't get ahold of his neck because he had never been haltered before.

"Can you all go outside, and just let me try," Chloe snapped.

All three women looked at each other before exiting the barn, waiting quietly outside. I sat down in the corner to watch. Chloe threw down the new head collar that the vet had provided, and walked over to an old box that was next to his wooden stable. It certainly was an old stable, and I was surprised that he hadn't knocked it down yet. There was an old built-in wooden box next to his stable. I stood up slightly to try and see what she was doing, and Guinness walked over and bent his long neck over to investigate. She pulled an old, worn out halter with a tatty old blue (or what would have been blue) lead rope.

"Where did that come from?" I asked.

"It belonged to an old horse of mine, the first ever gelding I bought with my own money," she said," He was a massive hunter cob, called Del Boy."

"What happened to him?" I asked.

"Oh, he died a long time ago," she said," He was really old when I bought him in the first place, but this was his stable, and I never moved any of his old stuff out. That new headcollar just stinks of the vet clinic, horses don't like that smell. He might take to this one."