Cole pulled up outside the stables. Mist hung around the back of the track. Tom Gaisford, his boss, stood with another man and watched Midnight Shadow gallop past them. Cole sat in the ute and watched the horse too. He could hear Midnight’s hooves pounding on the hard ground, see him stretched out as he galloped past the rider crouched on his back. A thing of beauty to watch and probably the best horse they had here.

Fred, the old trainer who Cole usually helped when he was working here, gave him a wave and carried on to the training track as if he already knew Cole was doing something else today.

Two other horses ridden by the trainee riders pranced past on their way to the track. A stable hand pushed a wheelbarrow filled with bales of hay over to the loose boxes. Just a normal Saturday morning.

Tom Gaisford must have seen him arrive. He left the man he’d been with, came over to the ute and leaned against the door.

“Hey, Cole, are you doing anything special tomorrow?” he asked.

“Not yet.” He didn’t usually work on Sundays, only after school during the week and Saturday mornings.

“Can you take Milly to Hamilton?”

“Yeah, if you want.”

“It’d be good if you could. I can’t make it. There’s a One Day Event she wants to take both her horses to. She’ll need someone to help her with them.” His boss stepped back so Cole could get out of the ute. “Have you driven a horse truck before?”

Cole shook his head. “No, and I’d need a heavy vehicle licence, wouldn’t I?” They walked over to the stables. The smell of hay and fresh horseshit mingled together.

“Don’t you have one?”

“No.”

“That’s a pity. We’ll have to change that, and Milly will just have to withdraw.”

They found Milly in the stall, in jodhpurs, riding boots and an old jersey, getting one of her horses ready to ride. He felt that familiar flicker of admiration. He really liked the way she looked and acted. Small compared to him and graceful with her hair long and dark and straight and shiny like a horse’s tail. The flawless creamy skin, just touched by the sun. Her eyes, a dark amber with dark brown flecks. All class.

Over the month since she’d come back from boarding school, he’d spent a lot of time with her, but only in a helping her with her horses and shifting jumps sort of way.

She smiled when she saw him. “Hi, Cole. Can you take me tomorrow?”

Her father went into the stall and ran his hand over the neck of the horse she had almost finished saddling.

“No, Princess. He doesn’t have his heavy vehicle licence.”

“Oh.” Milly flicked the girth off the top of the saddle and passed it under the horse to her father. “But I can’t go if someone can’t come with me.” Then she brightened up. “I know. We’ll take the old float.” She looked over at Cole. “You could drive our ute couldn’t you? It’ll tow the float.”

“I guess so.” Cole leaned on the stall door. “Once I’m used to the gears I’ll be right.”

“That would work.” Gaisford buckled the girth then tightened it. “What are you up to now, Princess? I thought we were going to look at some horses.”

“I wanted to take Wildfire out for a walk first. Cole, will you come with me on Hunter? It’ll save time.”

“Yeah, cool.” It beat cleaning out stables and tidying up. That’s what he usually did. Besides, her horses were nice to ride.

Milly gathered up the horse’s reins ready to go out of the stall.

“We’ll go as soon as you’ve saddled up.” She looked at his boots. “Can you ride in those?”

“If I have to.” His boots hadn’t worried anyone so far and he’d been riding the racehorses at the stables for a couple of years now. It’s not like his dad could afford the sort of boots Milly wore anyway. He opened the stall door.

Milly led the horse out. “Daddy, do you have a pair of boots that would fit Cole?”

Her father wandered out behind Milly. “Have a look in the tack shed, Cole. There should be something you can wear.”

He followed Milly out the gate to the main paddock. “Where are we riding to?” he asked.

“Down by the river. It’s a nice ride. I don’t want to do anything too strenuous. This isn’t a day to work them hard if I’m riding them tomorrow.”

That seemed reasonable. He caught up and rode beside her.

“What happens at a One Day Event?” he asked.

“Dressage, cross country and show jumping.”

“All in one day?” Milly rode like she was part of the horse. Her hands held the rein’s lightly, her back straight. She didn’t curl into a little ball the way the jockeys did. Being with her made him sit straighter too.

She nodded and dark mahogany hair fanned over her shoulders.

“Yes, Daddy says it’s what the cavalry did to test whether their riders and horses were good enough. The different disciplines test different things like control, fitness and stamina.”

They rode a bit further.

“Are you and your dad going to look at a racehorse?” he asked. Young racehorses seemed to come and go all the time at the pretraining stables her father owned.

Milly shook her head. “No, another horse for me to ride.”

“Why does your dad think you need a new horse?” The two they were riding seemed perfectly fine to him.

“Daddy says they’re getting old and I need to bring the next one on if I’m going to keep competing. He wants me to take three or four with me when I go to England.”

“England?”

Milly sighed. “Mummy wants me to join her after the summer holidays. She thinks if I stay with her I can train with her coach and become more competitive.”

“For how long?” It hadn’t occurred to him she wasn’t here for good.

“I don’t know. It depends on how good I get, I guess.”

The horses plodded on towards the river. He could see the willows in the distance.

“Don’t they have horses in England?”

Milly twisted around in the saddle, so she could see him better and laughed. He liked the shape of her lips when she laughed and the way she tipped her head when she was thinking.

“I’m sure they do, but apparently none are as good as the ones we have here.”

He laughed. He could hear her father saying that. They got to the river and rode along the path on the river bank.

Milly sighed again. “That’s what Mummy is hoping.”

“You’re that good?”

“Getting there.” She looked back at him and grinned. “Mummy keeps talking about how hard I’ll have to work, but really, I like riding. I don’t know if I want to turn it into hard work. We’ll see.”

Milly halted Wildfire. “It’s hot today.” She dropped the reins, crossed her arms and took off her jersey. She had this camisole thing underneath the jersey. She adjusted it, then tied the jersey around her waist. She clicked at Wildfire and they started walking again.

“You’ll get burned,” he said, for something to say.

“We won’t stay out for long. Do you want to ride the horses through the water? It’s good for their legs.”

“Yeah, why not?”

She turned Wildfire down a little track that led to the river. Her horse waded in and he followed. The water splashed up, cool and wet. They walked on until they reached another path that led up the bank.

He followed her up the bank and watched her dismount. One fluid movement. The jodhpurs, the boots and a top that left nothing to the imagination.

“We’ll let the horses rest for a while,” said Milly. She looked at him differently. Flirty.

“Yeah.” Wishful thinking. He had to have that wrong. But the horses were fit enough to keep going all day at this pace. He watched her drape Wildfire’s reins over a low branch and then sit under a tree.

She looked up at him. “Are you going to sit on that horse all day?”

Bet she could ride forever without needing a rest either, but if that’s what she wanted. He swung down using the stirrup iron. Not as graceful as she did it, but it worked.

“It’s nice here. Isn’t it?” she asked, smiling up at him.

Maybe he didn’t have it wrong. He wasn’t stupid. He knew girls liked him. Looking surly and not being all bouncy and outgoing like Luke, his mate, worked to his advantage when he wanted it to. And Luke might be all blond and blue-eyed, but dark eyes and brown hair seemed good too.

“Not bad.” He led his horse to hers, dropped the reins, then joined her under the tree.

He didn’t have Luke’s confidence with girls, but he knew they liked something about him.

She already had her helmet off. Her hair tumbled over her shoulders. She must spend a fair bit of time in that camisole because those shoulders were tanned and smooth right down to her breasts. She lifted her arms and ran her fingers through her hair. It moved then settled on her shoulders again.

He stretched out on the grass, fingers linked behind his head. Maybe the girl liked the tough bad boy thing.

She turned to him. Cute. Those lips, those eyes, that body, those slim legs in the black leather riding boots right up to her knees.

She bit the side of her lip “You do like me, don’t you?” She sounded anxious.

He sat up again and nodded.

“Yeah, heaps.” He really liked her.

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

“Don’t do girlfriends.”

“Why?”

He couldn’t afford one for a start. “Too much trouble from what I’ve seen.”

But, because girls liked him he could get laid any time he wanted, and that suited him just fine. He could hear the river and the horses in the background. He could move in for the kiss and see where things went.

She probably didn’t want that. And her father wouldn’t. He seemed like a protective dad. He had a really good job here. He needed the money. Time to stop this.

“We should get going. Your dad will be expecting you back soon.”

Milly nodded. “He’ll come looking for us if we’re too long.”

Yeah, and if he came looking for them, they’d both better be on the horses when he found them.

Back at the house, Milly’s father came out to meet them.

“Cole, could you get those horses away? Milly, we should leave now so we won’t be home too late.”

Milly flicked Cole a look from under her hair. “You could come too?”

He shook his head. “No, I can’t, sorry. I’ve got to go to Isaac’s place. We’re practicing this afternoon.” Create your own rock band by coercion, bribery and blackmail. That’s what Collins the music teacher had done. Then try to win a national competition. According to rumour, Collins did this pretty much every year. This time he had him on the drums, Adam on the keyboard, Noah with the guitar, Luke doing the vocals, Isaac seemed to be able to play and sing pretty much anything.

He didn’t know how much practicing they’d be doing. He was going to help Luke and the others clear out a shed so they could use it to practice in. It’d be bloody good. Something about practicing in the music room at lunchtimes felt intimidating. If you got it wrong, you couldn’t hide.

Hey, you lot sucked today.

Call that singing.

My grandma could do better.

He took Wildfire’s reins from Milly so he could take both horses back to their stalls.

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” said Milly.

“Yeah, what time?”

“Could you be here by six?”

“Yeah, fine. See you tomorrow.”