Wild Dog Revenge by Victoria Tait

Author:Victoria Tait [Tait, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781838436155
Publisher: Kanga Press

Chapter Twenty-Seven

As the eight polo players rode onto the pitch, wearing either dark brown or bright yellow shirts, Rose entered the members’ tent. Poppy Chambers caught her eye and patted the seat beside her.

As Rose sat down, Poppy whispered, “Where’ve you been? I was worried you’d miss another exciting match. The first one was so close they had to play an extra ‘sudden death’ chukka.”

As the players lined up in front of the tent, Mr Gilbert ushered Violet inside and sat down beside Rose and Poppy.

As the chatter died down, he whispered, “Phew, we just made it. It’s important for Violet to attend church on Sunday mornings as it brings her peace and helps her forget …”

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” boomed Dickie through the microphone.

Rose glanced across at Violet, who did not look calm or peaceful. She was staring at the horses and whimpering.

“The next match,” Dickie informed the spectators, “is a rerun of yesterday’s thrilling contest between the Painted Dogs, in dark brown, and Only Fools on Horses in yellow.”

Dickie fell silent and gulped. He continued in a quieter voice, which was full of anguish, “But it is with great sadness that I have to inform you that Felix Kamau, a member of the Painted Dogs team, died last night as a result of a tragic accident.”

Rose raised her eyebrows, but supposed Dickie had to say something. And an accident was better than telling the crowd that the police were investigating his death. That would only spook them.

“As a mark of respect, these two teams are wearing black armbands, and I’d like us all to join them in a minute’s silence.”

Even the horses stilled their prancing and the only movement was a half-hearted head shake from Red.

After a minute, Dickie announced, in a matter-of-fact tone, “Felix Kamau’s place on the Painted Dogs team is filled today by Jasper Armitage.”

Mr Gilbert leaned closer to Rose and she noticed his red-rimmed eyes. He asked, “Isn’t Jasper riding Sophia’s new horse? And why is she on a dark-grey? I’m sure it’s not one of hers.”

“You’re right,” agreed Poppy.

“To enable the tournament to continue, the players came to an agreement this morning,” Rose explained. “Jasper is borrowing Red, to join the two uninjured ponies he has, and Sophia is riding Felix’s new horse, Excalibur, on which Felix gave her a lesson last week.”

She looked more closely at Mr Gilbert and asked, “Are you all right? You look exhausted.”

He smiled weakly. “It’s probably a combination of staying up late last night and sleeping on the sofa in the guest cottage. It’ll be a relief when the main house is completed. But it was worth it to attend the party.”

Dickie said into the microphone, “I’d like to introduce the match umpire, one of our former top players, Yaro Macharia.”

Yaro looked striking as he cantered over to the tent on a gleaming black horse. He sat deep in the saddle, bringing it to a halt, and then stood up in his stirrups. He smiled and raised his umpire stick in acknowledgement before galloping away.

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