Free No Going Back by Lyndon Stacey

responded. ‘Haven’t seen you for ages. I’m fine, thanks. No need to ask how you are – you always look in rude good health and I swear you never get any older.’
    Hilary McEwen-Smith did indeed have an ageless quality, though he guessed she was possibly sixtyish. Underneath her riding hat her light-brown hair was shoulder length, and a rosy complexion told of a life spent outdoors. A little on the plump side, she wore brown corduroy jodhpurs and her waxed cotton jacket was unzipped to reveal a sweatshirt, somewhat surprisingly decorated with a large smiling frog.
    Daniel flashed a brief friendly smile at her companion before turning back to Hilary, but it was enough to reinforce his previous impression of the powerful likeness between this girl and Elena. Way too great to be a coincidence, in the circumstances. She was wearing a sweatshirt and navy jodhpurs. Idly he wondered if they were the ones Tamzin had loaned her.
    â€˜Oh, by the way, this is Katy,’ Hilary told him. ‘All being well, she’s going to be working for me. Katy, Daniel is an old friend of mine.’
    â€˜Hi, Katy.’ Would she recognize him away from the lorry?
    The girl nodded, her eyes distinctly wary. Seen at closer quarters, she was strikingly attractive in a dark-eyed, gamine sort of way.
    â€˜When he was a boy, Daniel used to help me out at weekends and after school,’ Hilary told her, ruthlessly reinventing his past for him.
    â€˜You’ll love working for Hilary,’ Daniel put in. ‘Have you been riding long?’
    Now he had his chance, Daniel was struggling to find a way to gain her confidence. She was clearly suspicious and he felt that one false move would set her running again.
    â€˜I ride as a child,’ she said, returning her attention to him. ‘My uncle had a horse farm.’ Her pony sidled a little and tossed its head, perhaps picking up on her anxiety, and Daniel moved to stand between the two, rubbing the animal’s muzzle.
    â€˜Oh? Where was that?’ He tried to inject a note of casual interest into his voice, but even so he sensed the girl stiffen.
    â€˜Why do you ask me?’
    â€˜I was just curious. I have a friend from Romania and you sound a lot like her.’
    Daniel had hoped to provoke some sort of reaction, but he was totally unprepared for the violence of it. With no hesitation the girl dug her heels hard into the pony’s sides, driving it forward. Its shoulder caught Daniel a glancing blow, sending him spinning away to land sprawling under the nose of Hilary’s mount.
    â€˜Bugger!’
    He was on his feet in an instant, but Katya was already several lengths away and the pony was galloping hard. Without considering the futility of doing so, Daniel set off in pursuit, angry with himself for having handled the situation so badly.
    â€˜Daniel!’ Hilary shouted.
    He halted and turned. She had dismounted and was offering him her reins. ‘Take Dusty. You’ll never catch her on foot.’
    Daniel wavered, looking after the fleeing girl, and as he did so, Katya reached a fork in the track ahead and swung left, immediately dipping out of sight.
    â€˜No – second thoughts, leave Dusty,’ Hilary told him. ‘That track doubles back down the valley. If you go down the hill, you might just get there before her, but be careful, it’s horribly steep.’
    Daniel looked to where she was pointing and, closing his mind to the risk, set off down the one-in-three slope at breakneck speed, leaping and sliding in equal measure. Once he’d started his descent, having a change of heart wasn’t an option, for his momentum carried him downwards, faster and faster, until it was difficult to move his legs quickly enough to keep them underneath him.
    Eventually the inevitable happened. When he was perhaps three-quarters of the way to the valley bottom, Daniel’s foot skidded on a hidden tree root and he pitched