I reckon. Eh, Tessa?â
She would not admit it, even to Jimmy.
âGoing to keep up your lessons â the ones that matter?â
âOh yes! Yes please!â
âGood.â
Tessa could not remember feeling so happy as she did at that moment, not since Declan and Shiner. She loved Jimmy â like Buffoon⦠it was all too much for her. She had to go out. She could not cope.
âWhat did she do, to get thrown out again?â Jimmy asked the tack-room.
Gilly, who knew all the local gossip, said, âShe drew a knife on Jackie Barstow.â
Wisbeyâs eyes widened.
âA knife! Blimey! You didnât say she was dangerous! Only mad.â
âSheâs dangerous if she doesnât get what she wants,â Sarah said.
Jimmy said to Sarah, âGive her Buffoon. Sheâs got nothing else in this life.â
âBut to be so besotted â itâs dangerous â what will she do when he goes?â
âFor now. Sheâll grow up eventually.â
âYeah, go on,â said Gilly. âWisbey doesnât want him â remember what he said when he saw him? Bloody cab-horse, he said. He only likes him now because heâs so easy to do. Give him something worthy of his talents!â
Sarah said, âHe can have God Almighty.â
âYouâre joking?â Wisbey was uncertain.
âNo, I mean it. Heâll give you something to think about.â
Wisbeyâs eyes shone. âI thought he was yours?â
âIâm Head Lad, remember. I donât âdoâ horses.â
âYou could have fooled me,â Gilly said.
They all laughed.
So Tessa got her wish, Wisbey got his heartâs desire in God Almighty and Sarah took over a new horse called Catbells. There were now fifteen horses in the stable, a few new ones and the ones that had been having a summer holiday. The others did three each and Tessa was given Buffoon and a gelding everyone called the Littlun, because he was scarcely fifteen and a half hands high. He was ponyish in his ways, quick and agile, and quite different to ride from the ponderous Buffoon. In fact, as Tessaâs expertise grew, she enjoyed her exercise on the Littlun because he wasnât such hard work as Buffoon, he was so eager and keen to go. For all his hard food and new fitness, Buffoon was still like a double-decker bus, slowing down at every opportunity.
The others all ribbed Tessa over Buffoon, but she learned to take it. She did not answer back, but her silences were no longer what Gilly had described as âevilâ. Inside she smiled to herself. Nothing could budge her trust in him.
To her, he was a great horse.
Peter got worried because he was employing a twelve-year-old child and could get taken to court. Tessa refused to be paid, so said there was no problem.
âYou wonât be able to stay â itâs only temporary, until you get yourself an education,â Peter said, to allay his own fears.
But Tessa said, âI will stay.â
She knew now that there was no school that would take her, not after the knife. Jackieâs father tried to involve the police over the knife, but Mrs Alston refused to co-operate with them. It was an in-house situation, she said. If Mr Barstow didnât like it he could withdraw Jackie. She arranged for Tessa to have private tuition at home. As this was only a few hours a week, and in the afternoons, it did not interfere with Tessaâs stable life. The tutor was a hardened, retired battleaxe, of which sex Tessa found it hard to determine, but as Tessa was so happy with the way her plans had succeeded she worked with a will and made no trouble. So much so that the battleaxe told Mrs Alston that she ought to be reinstated, there was nothing wrong with her attitude.
âThere will be, if she comes back,â Mrs Alston said. âWhat does she do in her spare time, Iâd like to know?â
âI donât know, but she