“Oh, God.” Milly had her hand over her mouth. “We have to get them out.”

“Yeah.” That’s if the horses were still able to walk after what had happened. No cars had passed them, so at least they didn’t have to worry about dealing with frightened animals in traffic.

The ute slid sideways, so the float would have been thrown around and the horses too.

They went to the back of the ute.

Milly squatted down to look. “The tow bar has come free of the tow ball. All that is holding it is the safety chain.”

Jesus. “If that didn’t hold the float could have ended up anywhere.” This could have been a thousand times worse.

A loud thump on the wall came from the float. Milly jumped back.

They ran down the side of the float in the almost dark. The screaming from the horses just kept on and on.

Nothing wrong with the side, the back looked all right, but on the other side of the float, there were no wheels, just the broken ends polished bright silver where they scraped along the road.

For a moment he felt relief. No one could blame him for this. Somehow the wheels had broken off the axles, so this couldn’t be his fault.

Milly had her hand over her mouth, horrified. “The wheels have come off, that’s what happened.” She studied the back. “Soon it will be so dark we won’t be able to see what we’re doing.”

Dreadful sounds still came from inside the float. Screaming and kicking.

They needed to get the horses out, or at least find out what they were dealing with. But would the back still open? And if it did, would it form a ramp the horses could walk down? The float sat at a real angle.

Maybe, he could use the jack to straighten it up.

No, the grass would be too soft, and the fence in the way. He wouldn’t be able to get to it.

Milly climbed up on the side of the float to undo the bolt on that side. “Don’t just stand there, Cole. We need to do something.”

The float hadn’t moved under her weight, so at least it was stable.

“I’ll get the other side.” He climbed up. His chest hurt. It felt like he’d have a bruise the shape of the steering wheel by the morning, and the welt on Milly’s neck was redder.

Milly didn’t even seem to notice it in her frantic efforts to get to the horses.

The float shook a bit with his weight, but it didn’t feel like it would fall over.

He undid the other bolt. “If we lower it carefully we’ll be able to see if we need to support it. Hop down and move back so you don’t get caught between the ramp and the fence.”

Milly nodded, jumped down and moved away. He carefully lowered the back of the float. In the gloom inside he could see a tangle of flailing legs and hear the nightmarish noise coming from the two horses.

Milly stayed still as if she couldn’t bear to find what might be in the float. “Are they hurt?” she asked.

“I can’t tell yet.” Even if he could get the horses to stand. They were not going to be able to walk on the sloping floor or down the ramp with it on a lean.

Finally, Milly came over and stood beside him. She peered in at the horses. The screaming had quietened. Now more a whimper.

“What are we going to do? How are we going to get them out?”

He shook his head. Beyond him. He looked over at the paddock. He could see a house with lights on. Maybe they could help. They might have a tractor that could straighten the float up.

“Ring your dad. Tell him what’s happened. I’ll go over there to see if someone can help us.” If they put something under the end of the axles, they might be able to walk the horses out.

Milly hauled her phone out of her pocket. While she waited for her dad to pick up she looked at the horses again, then at Cole.

“I’d rather not be here on my own. Wait and see what Dad has to say.”

He heard her father’s voice, and Milly explained what had happened. Then he heard her say, “I don’t know. I was asleep.” She handed the phone to Cole. “He wants to know where we are.”

He checked on her phone, and then gave the location. “We’re about half an hour out of Hamilton.”

Silence from the other end, then Milly’s father came back on.

“It will take at least an hour to get to you and it sounds like I should bring a vet. I’ve got a friend down the road. I’ll see if he can help until I get there. I’ll get back to you in a minute.”

Cole handed the phone back to Milly.

“What did he say?”

“He’s going to sort it. He’ll ring back.”

Milly climbed through the little door at the front of the float.

“What do they look like?” he asked.

“Wildfire’s halter has broken, she’s on her side. I think she is badly hurt. Hunter’s half laying and sitting up. I need to undo his rope. I can’t tell how he is.”

Inside the float, he saw her stand for a moment, then Hunter flop down. Then Milly sat by Wildfire and Hunter’s heads stroking them. The next half hour was a nightmare of waiting and darkness and trying to keep the horses calm.

He could hear her talking to them quietly. While she was there they seemed calmer. He got her jacket off the back of the ute and put it over her shoulders.

She looked up at him and in the flashing of hazard lights he could see the tears on her cheeks. “Can you hear the way Wildfire’s breathing?”

“Yeah.” He could hear the wheezing and even the way the mare stretched her neck back and moved her head, she looked in pain. “What about Hunter?”

“I can’t tell. He’s alive, but he’s not moving.”

He checked his phone. He’d got back in the cab of the ute earlier and found it. “I’m really sorry about this, Milly.”

She nodded and went back to stroking the horses.

He checked the time again. Twenty minutes. The friend should arrive any minute. Then he heard a tractor coming down the road.

Milly’s father’s friend, Stephen Farr, turned up.

Farr seemed just as practical as Milly’s father. He knew about horses and got on with the job of helping them.

“Cole, attach the float to the ute again, if you can. If the bar isn’t too damaged. It will make everything more stable.” He’d made Milly get out and stand back while they straightened the float up, but she went straight back inside with the horses as soon as he finished. Farr went up the ramp, inside the float with the horses, and spent a while checking them.

“How are they?” Cole asked when Farr came out.

He shook his head. “It doesn’t look good.”

Jesus, how would Milly cope if both horses had to be put down?

Farr stepped down off the back. “When the vet comes it’ll be your job to look after Milly, Cole. Her father’s going to have enough to do.”

The truck went past, and further up the road Cole could see the lights of the horse truck turning. They came back and pulled up behind the float, the lights shone inside.

By then, Farr and Cole had used the tractor to straighten up the float and slid the spare tyre under where the wheels should be.

Tom Gaisford got out of the truck and came over. “Where’s Milly.”

Cole nodded at the float. “In with the horses.”

“Are you all right?”

“Yeah.” His ribs hurt badly, and the rest of him. He guessed Milly would be feeling the welt from the seatbelt and the hit she took from the airbag, and she probably got thrown against the door like he did, but they both got off lightly compared to the horses.

Milly’s father went and spoke to her for a few minutes, then came back.

“Milly says she is all right too. What happened?”

Farr joined them. “The wheels are shorn right off the axles. The boy did well to get them off the road without crashing. The coupling got wrenched off the tow ball, but the safety chain held.”

Cole looked at the man surprised. Maybe Farr got in first to make sure he didn’t cop any blame for this mess.

The vet, carrying his bag, joined them. “Let’s go and see what the damage is.”

Milly’s father turned to Cole. “Go around the front. See if you can talk Milly into waiting outside the float, until this is over. She wouldn’t budge for me.”

Milly wouldn’t budge for him either. She stayed beside her horses until Wildfire had been put down and Hunter sedated. Then she stood out in the darkness with him, his arm around her, and waited for the three men.

The vet came out of the float, wiping his hand on a rag. “Sorry, Milly. Nothing we could do for her. A piece of timber had broken off the railing and punctured her lung.”

“And Hunter?”

“I’m not sure yet. It looks like his leg is broken but I won’t know how bad it is until I can x-ray it.”

Tom Gaisford swung down from the float. “Cole, it’s going to take a while to tidy up all this. We’ll uncouple the float. You take Milly home and stay with her until I get home. Square it with your father.”

“That doesn’t matter. He won’t worry.” Cole guided Milly to the ute.

“Ring him anyway.”

Once the ute was free of the float Cole drove her home.

Milly slept curled up in her seat, and every now and then a big shuddering sob escaped from her.

It was his fault she was crying in her sleep. He’d just killed one of her horses and injured the other. It might take him a while to make up for that. There must have been something he could have done to stop it happening.