Jonty: (Pony Jumpers: Special Edition #1) by Kate Lattey

Author:Kate Lattey [Lattey, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2016-09-21T00:00:00+00:00

“You haven’t been to see the old man lately, have you?” Bruce asked as we drove into Waipukurau a few minutes later.

We’d paused at the cottage to give me a chance to change back into my school uniform and retrieve my schoolbag, luckily before Mum had got home to discover how late I was going to be. We were on the outskirts of Waipuk, only a couple of kilometres from school, and I looked sadly out at the brilliant day. What a waste, to spend a day like this trapped inside a classroom.

I shook my head in answer to Bruce’s question, though I was pretty sure he knew that already. “I…no. Not for a while.”

“Why’s that?” Bruce looked at me sideways. “Thought you’d be riding that pony of yours down there every other weekend to bother him.”

I shook my head again as he pulled up at an intersection and checked the traffic. I tried to think of a good excuse.

“It’s just…well, I’m a bit tall for Tani now, and it’s a long way to ride bareback.”

Bruce stalled the ute, making us both lurch forward in our seats.

“Sorry. Damn truck.” He fiddled with the gear stick, wrenching it back into first, then turned towards me. The indicator ticked loudly in the cab as he asked the question I’d dreaded hearing. “Bareback? What happened to that saddle I gave you?”

I couldn’t lie to him, as much as I wanted to save face. “Dad sold it.”

“When?”

I shrugged. “Ages ago. It doesn’t matter. I hardly ride anymore.”

Bruce looked disappointed, but he returned his attention to the road, driving out carefully and accelerating as much as he could in the old truck.

“And you hardly ride at all, you say? Horse mad boy like you? I’d have thought that with all of John’s place to explore, you’d be like a pig in muck,” he commented.

So I told him what had happened – about the wasps, the hay paddock, and then about riding Misty. Bruce listened in silence, then sighed.

“Well, I won’t say those weren’t boneheaded things to do, though the wasps couldn’t be helped. But John’s not an unreasonable bloke.” He looked across at me as we turned down the road towards school. “I could have a word with him, if you want. Might make a difference, you never know.”

I felt a flutter of hope, but it died quickly. “No, you’re all right.”

“No?” Bruce pulled over to the side of the road and put the ute in neutral. “Why not?”

I tried to think of how to explain it. Because I’d asked and asked, but John still didn’t want me. I was tired of being rejected, of being looked at like I was something he’d scraped off the sole of his shoe. I wasn’t sure I could face it again.

“Just…don’t worry about it. I’ll go and see Murray sometime this week after school,” I said, opening the door. “And if you need any help bringing your hay in, you know where I live.”

I said that last part lightly, but I meant it from the bottom of my heart.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.