Stacy Gregg - Liberty and the Dream Ride

The first time he returned, Issie didn’t know how it could possibly be happening, and yet she instinctively knew somehow that the grey pony standing before her was real. Mystic had returned to her – not a ghost, but flesh and blood, and here to help her.

Ever since then Mystic had been her protector and her guardian, turning up out of the blue whenever Issie and her ponies really needed him.

Issie knew it wasn’t just the jetlag that had brought on her dream. She’d had premonitions like this before. It was a sign that trouble was looming.

She didn’t dare to fall asleep again. Instead, she stared out the car window, listening to the country music pouring out of the car stereo as they drove up mountain ranges through the dense conifer forests, and into the heartland of New Mexico.

It was almost seven and the sun was turning blood-red on the horizon when they finally reached their destination for the evening – a motel called The Hacienda on the outskirts of the township of Rio Rancho.

The motel buildings were old Spanish Mission plasterwork painted pale pink and there was a pink neon sign on the roof above the office that read: Vacancy. Horses welcome.

Stella stared at the sign with wide eyes. “I’ve never stayed at a horse motel before,” she said. “Does Comet get his own bedroom or will he sleep with us?”

Avery looked at her. “Stella, they have loose boxes here for the horses.”

“I was only joking,” Stella grinned.

Avery backed the horse float up beside other floats parked in front of the stable block.

“I’ll unload Comet,” he told Issie. “You go in to the front desk and ask them for two rooms and a loose box for Comet. Oh, and get them to provide some hay too.”

As she trudged across the motel forecourt, Issie realised that despite her nap in the car she was still exhausted. All she wanted to do was get those room keys, get Comet bedded down in his stall for the night and get some sleep.

At the reception desk, Issie waited patiently while an elderly couple checked in, and then it was her turn. She was about to step up to speak to the manager, when out of nowhere a boy slipped in front of her, barging in and taking her place.

“I’d like to book a room for the night, please…” the boy began.

Jetlagged and exhausted, Issie lost her cool. “Uhh, sorry, but I think I was next.”

The boy turned around to look at her. He wasn’t much older than Issie, and had short-cropped, ginger-blonde hair and wore dark blue jeans and a white T-shirt.

“Actually,” he replied, in an English accent, “I was here first. You didn’t notice me because I was just sitting down over there waiting.”

“Sitting around isn’t the same as being in the queue,” Issie said. “I thought you English wrote the rule book on how to queue.”

The boy gave a faint laugh. “There was no queue when I got here because you weren’t here,” he pointed out. “I was just waiting for my turn.”

“Well it didn’t look like you were queuing, that’s all…”

“Ah, excuse me?” the motel manager spoke up. “Do either of you actually plan on checking in at any stage or is this going to go on forever?”

Issie sighed and gestured defeat with a tired wave of her hand. “You go ahead,” she said to the boy.

“Thank you,” he said and turned to the man at the desk. “Right! I’d like a room, please, and a loose box for my horse.”

The man behind the counter handed him a key and pointed out the directions. “Park your horse truck over there with the others and you can put your horse in the last stall at the end of the stables.”

The boy signed his name into the guest register and then gave Issie a grin. “ Now it’s your turn,” he said.

Exhausted and fed up, Issie finally stepped up for her turn at the desk. “I’d like two rooms, please, and a loose box for my horse and hay for the evening.”

The man shook his head. “Sorry, miss. No can do.”

“What?” Issie was stunned. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve got the two rooms,” the man continued, “but I haven’t got any more horse stalls available.”

The man behind the desk pointed out the doors to the boy in the white T-shirt outside in the forecourt.

“Your friend out there, he just took the last one.”

Chapter 3

This was a nightmare! It was dark, they were exhausted, they had been travelling for twelve hours straight and there was nowhere else for them to go.

“I’m sorry,” the motel manager said, “it’s been crazy-busy today and I’ve got five horses checked in already – we’ve got no vacancies.”

“Don’t you have anything else at all?” Issie pleaded.

“Well,” the man said, “that last stall I gave to the boy has a partition gate in it. You could always ask him if he’s willing to share the loose box and get both your horses in there for the night.”

Issie looked out of the doors of the motel reception. The boy was by his truck on the forecourt, making a call on his mobile phone.

“I’ll go and ask him,” she told the motel manager. “I’ll be right back.”

The boy had pocketed his phone and was just about to climb back in his truck when Issie rushed over to him.

“Hey!”

The boy looked up at her. She noticed at that moment that his hair was a really unusual colour, somewhere in between blond and copper, and that he had the coolest pale green eyes. “Yes?”

Issie took a deep breath and summoned up her last reserves of good humour and smiled at him. “I’m sorry about what happened in there.”

“That’s OK,” the boy said, “don’t worry about it.”

“My name is Isadora, by the way,” she said and stuck out her hand.

The boy took it and shook it. “I’m Marcus, Marcus Pearce.”

He was about to climb into his truck, but Issie blocked his path. Marcus frowned at her. “Is there something else?”

“Ummm, yes,” Issie said. “You see, the funny thing is, it turns out you got the last stall…”

“Is that so?” Marcus raised an eyebrow.

“… and I was just talking to the guy behind the desk and he suggested that your horse and my horse might, you know, share a stall for the night. There’s a partition gate we can put in so they’d be kept separate and they’d be quite safe.”

“Let me get this straight,” Marcus said. “You want to share my stall?”

“Well,” Issie couldn’t help pointing out, “strictly speaking, if you hadn’t pushed into the queue ahead of me then it would be my stall…”

Marcus shook his head in disbelief and began to get back in his truck again.

“Wait!” Issie said. “Please. My horse has nowhere else to sleep tonight and we’ve come all the way from Los Angeles and I’m jetlagged and I’m just really, really tired…”

Marcus raised a hand to stop her from continuing. “OK, OK. I guess I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I knew your horse was stuck on the street for the night.”

He smiled at her. “It looks like my mare has a new room-mate.”

Avery and Stella already had Comet unloaded and waiting when Issie turned up with a total stranger in a sleek black horse truck.

“This is Marcus Pearce.” Issie did the introductions. “They were short on stalls so he’s offered to let his mare share with Comet.”

Marcus grinned at the sight of the skewbald standing before him. “He’s a cute little guy, isn’t he?” he said. “Where are you taking him?”

“Lexington, Kentucky,” Issie said. “We’re competing in the Four-Star.”

“You’re kidding!”

“He’s only a pony,” Issie said, “but he’s more impressive on the cross-country than he looks.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Marcus said. “It’s a coincidence, that’s all. I’m riding at Kentucky too.”