Devils And Unicorns

Chapter 15

Jersey Devil had sustained a displaced condylar fracture of the third metacarpal bone in her left forelimb – a slab of bone had separated from the side of her left cannon – but it was considered treatable. The fracture was repaired with four screws, which pinned the fragment in place and stabilised the bone. The mare would live, but she would never race again.

The cost of the surgery was just under six thousand, eating up all of Last Unicorn's earnings as well as the collective monetary scrapings of Florence and Charlie. Following the operation, she was to be rested in her box for several weeks. At first, in spite of her previous protestations that she could never sleep in a stable, Martha bedded down in the adjacent box so that she could act as the mare's live-in nursemaid. However, after a few days she acknowledged that Jersey Devil was fine by herself and, at Florence's insistence, she finally yielded and returned to the house. She made Zac and Charlie promise that they would listen out for any problems, and that if anything was wrong then she was to be informed immediately, regardless of the hour.

Charlie himself was not downhearted about Jersey Devil's premature retirement.

"As soon as she's sound, we can send her up to Concise Lexicon," he said one morning over breakfast.

"Charlie..." Florence shook her head disapprovingly. "The poor thing only had her leg pinned five days ago, and you're already packing her off to stud?"

"I'm not being funny," Zac said, with the distinct tone of being 'funny', "but surely you can't afford to use a stallion like Concise Lexicon?"

"You're right," Charlie said. "I can't. Luckily, I don't have to pay."

"Charlie managed Concise Lexicon, remember?" Martha said proudly.

"They said I can send a mare or two if I wanted." Charlie shrugged. "I've never had one to send, until now."

"Until next year, not 'now'." Florence raised her eyebrows.

"What are we going to do about the Gold Cup, anyway? Is that all off?" said Zac, leaning back in his chair and resting his mug of coffee against his chest.

"Probably." Florence let out an unhappy sigh. "No horse, no cash for the entry fee."

"Last Unicorn's still running in the Reek Marsh next week," Charlie reminded her, trying in vain to cut himself a fresh slice of bread using what was quite possibly the world's bluntest knife.

"Yeah, and even if he wins by twenty lengths we still can't afford to enter him at Perchborn," Florence replied. "We've spent everything on Jersey Devil."

"Floss, if he wins by twenty lengths, he will be running at Perchborn," Charlie joked. "Even if I have to sell myself to get the cash together."

"Do I get a workplace discount?" Martha said suggestively.

"Come on," Florence said, standing up from her chair. "These horses aren't going to work themselves."

Last Unicorn's work at home had improved marginally of late, and letting him pass Jersey Devil had started to pick him up a bit, but he was still a lazy worker. Florence was less concerned about it than she had been a few months ago. Now she had seen him race, and knew him a little better, she was confident that his attitude on the racecourse was something different altogether.

That said, when they arrived in Bailey's Point on the morning of the day before the Reek Marsh Stakes, she still felt uneasy.