Spiral of Hooves by Roland Clarke

Author:Roland Clarke
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Duskweald Books
Published: 2017-08-06T22:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-FOUR

“We would like to invite you to join the Elite training squad, for those who we feel might be team prospects.”

The official’s words had left Carly stunned by the recognition. They favoured Wanda over the more experienced Torc, but maybe they were looking for future potential, so the results for both mares on their return to competition would now be under scrutiny.

Thinking back over the phone call, “team prospects” must mean next year or more likely later, but she was amazed the selectors would consider an unknown rider with no track record beyond a brief stint with the Young Riders team. Her health had to be a liability, and when they made the final choices next spring, or in the future, there would be others more suitable. This invitation was just to encourage her, and to ensure she stayed a British rider. However, competing with Wanda at an international one-day for the French Federation, as Captain Blavet had requested, might be misunderstood by British Eventing.

There was no urgency for now, but she should be doing something—there must be horses to exercise. She didn’t need the afternoon off, even if Gilles had insisted she relax in front of the TV with Guinness while he dealt with the horses. He had claimed all the paperwork was up to date, but she checked anyway.

Gilles had done everything from the accounts to the entries. He had even made the travel booking for the Spanish three-star international, even though Pin might be fit sooner and able to do the three-star at Bramham in Yorkshire.

Checking through the paperwork, it seemed Vecheech had unleashed the Business & Economics graduate in Gilles—at last. He had also entered Wanda into the international one-day at Bramham. Had he intentionally ignored her French application, or was the entry a logistical decision? Whatever his motive, a good result there might satisfy both British and French Federations, without forcing Carly to make a premature decision over her nationality. She did love the Yorkshire venue, so it was tempting to ride Wanda there.

Relaxation beckoned, and Guinness looked at her, wanting her to share the sofa or at least let him warm her toes; but a nagging concern kept her online.

Odette Fédon. Gilles had said so little about Odette after the funeral, but Carly still needed to know more. So she searched and found three online newspaper articles. The first was a report of the funeral, confirming what she knew, but the second story, from the Montreal Gazette, disturbed her.

PREGNANT GROOM KILLED

According to forensic sources, the autopsy of Odette Fédon, 26, of Les-Trois-Ponts, has revealed that she was pregnant when she died in December while exercising a horse for her employers, Du Noroît Stud near Bromont.

A spokeswoman for the Québec Provincial Police says, “Mademoiselle Fédon was three weeks pregnant, but we are still treating her death as misadventure. All our evidence indicates that Fédon was knocked off her horse by a tree branch during a blizzard.”

However, the police have interviewed several people, including her former employer Gilles Boissard, who now lives in England.

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.