Second Chance (9781743437278) Read online

  The Trickstars rescue a neglected gypsy cob mare from the saleyards. But things are tough on the farm and Chance won't be able to stay unless she can earn her keep. Can Kit nurse her back to health, then train the cantankerous Chance? Or is it too late?

  Also by Karen Wood

  The Diamond Spirit Series

  Diamond Spirit

  Moonstone Promise

  Opal Dreaming

  Golden Stranger

  Brumby Mountain

  Jumping Fences

  Rain Dance

  Under the Flame Tree

  First published in 2015

  Copyright © Text, Karen Wood 2015

  Copyright © Illustrations, Astred Hicks 2015

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or ten per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to the Copyright Agency (Australia) under the Act.

  Allen & Unwin

  83 Alexander Street

  Crows Nest NSW 2065

  Australia

  Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100

  Email: [email protected]

  Web: www.allenandunwin.com

  A Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available from the National Library of Australia

  www.trove.nla.gov.au

  ISBN 978 1 74331 907 9

  eISBN 978 1 74343 727 8

  Cover and text design by Astred Hicks, Design Cherry

  Cover and text illustration by Astred Hicks

  Typeset by Astred Hicks, Design Cherry

  www.diamondspirit.net

  Contents

  1 Mystery Mare

  2 The Silver Plains Horse Sales

  3 Another Mouth to Feed

  4 An Unwilling Student

  5 Too Smart by Half

  6 School Excursion

  7 Her Natural Behaviour

  8 The School Fete

  9 Missing!

  10 Grampy’s Destiny

  Morning sunlight streamed onto the front porch at Windara. Kit sat at the rickety table reading the Sunday paper over her mother’s shoulder. Shoddy, her golden labrador, lay sleeping on her feet, keeping her toes warm. Pop Chick, the black leghorn, perched on the nearby railing.

  Analita flipped the front page and groaned. ‘You’re in the newspaper again,’ she said.

  Kit leaned closer and read the headline on page three.

  TRICK RIDERS RECLAIM THEIR PRIZE

  Analita began reading the story. ‘Three young trick riders have used their daring skills to reclaim an old prize and settle a family feud at the Summer Festival. The prize, a golden belt buckle made by …’ Analita stopped and ran a hand over her forehead. ‘Grampy won’t be happy.’

  ‘Oh dear.’ Kit stared at a photo of the mayor handing the buckle to her sister Lexie, while she and Ruby grinned nearby. Kit grimaced. Grampy didn’t like any attention drawn to the amulets.

  Only a few weeks ago, the triplets’ lives had been ordinary. They went to school every day, came home and did their homework, then helped pick green beans and pack peaches on Windara Farm.

  That was before they had discovered Grampy’s secret past.

  After finding an old trunk full of costumes, the triplets had finally uncovered the story of Grampy’s glamorous trick-riding career, which had ended with the tragic death of their grandmother, Levinia. For the girls’ ninth birthday, Grampy had given each of them a gift that Levinia left for them: three very special pieces of jewellery. He said they were made by legendary goldsmiths, the Boswells, and that they had magical qualities.

  ‘My bracelet is going hot and cold,’ Kit said as she reached to turn the page. ‘I wonder why?’

  When Kit wore her amulet, a gold bracelet, it enhanced her natural empathy and allowed her to sense the wellbeing of people and animals. Horses and dogs, even chickens seemed to adore her. Shoddy was constantly at her feet and Pop Chick followed her everywhere. But the love was entirely mutual.

  Her mum turned another page of the newspaper to see a large advertisement for the Silver Plains Horse Sales. ‘Maybe this is why,’ Analita said. There were several photos of horses, but one in particular caught Kit’s eye.

  ‘That one looks a bit like Kismet,’ she said, pointing to a close-up photo of a horse. Its face was white and it had a shaggy forelock with a streak of black in it. Something about its eyes was very familiar. ‘Is it a gypsy cob?’

  ‘Looks like it,’ said Analita.

  Kit read the caption. ‘Twenty-year-old mare, lame, must sell today.’ She scanned the main text of the advertisement. ‘The auction starts at noon.’

  ‘She looks so unloved,’ Analita said. Kit nodded, her heart flooding with sadness. At her feet Shoddy looked up at her and whimpered. Indeed, the horse in the photo looked miserable. Her head hung low and her bottom lip drooped.

  Ruby came out onto the porch. ‘Who looks unloved?’

  ‘The horse in this photo,’ said Kit.

  Ruby peered over her shoulder and gasped. ‘It’s a gypsy cob! How did she end up in a horse auction?’

  ‘I don’t know, but whoever had her clearly doesn’t realise how special she is,’ Kit said.

  Ruby put one hand on the photo. She closed her eyes and fingered the necklace around her throat. Sometimes it let her see visions of people’s fortunes. This time her face went pale. When she opened her eyes, they met Kit’s.

  ‘You can feel it too,’ said Kit. ‘She’s doomed.’

  Lexie walked outside dressed in gym pants and an old T-shirt, with her golden belt buckle around her waist. ‘What’s going on?’ she asked. ‘I’m getting a weird feeling from you guys.’ The triplet sisters often sensed each other’s moods, especially when they wore their amulets.

  ‘Look at this horse,’ said Kit, pointing to the photo again. ‘She’s a gypsy cob and she is being sold through the horse auctions.’

  Lexie leaned over her sholder and read the ad. Then she looked to her mum. ‘Can we please go to the sale?’

  ‘And do what?’ asked Analita. ‘We can hardly afford to run the farm. We have no money to buy a horse. And Silver Plains is a three-hour drive from here.’

  ‘What about the money we earned at the Summer Festival?’ said Kit. People had thrown coins into Grampy’s busking hat. ‘Couldn’t we use that to rescue her?’

  ‘Yes! There was three hundred dollars,’ Lexie said. ‘I counted it.’

  ‘And Grampy must have some money from the peach harvest,’ said Ruby hopefully.

  Analita gave her a look of despair. ‘Grampy is saving to buy a tractor and he plans to use that three hundred dollars to buy more seeds to plant,’ she said. ‘The truth is, we can hardly afford to eat right now. If the mayor hadn’t given us that truckload of hay, we wouldn’t be able to feed the horses either.’

  Kit grasped her mother’s arm. ‘I have such a bad feeling about this. If we don’t help her, she could be sold for …’ She couldn’t bear to say it.

  ‘Pet food,’ Ruby finished. ‘There must be something we can do.’

  ‘Let’s ask Grampy what he thinks,’ said Lexie.

  Analita shrugged. ‘We can ask him,’ she said, ‘but I know what he’s going to say.’ She rolled up the newspaper and headed out to the fields where Grampy was working. The triplets hopped down the front steps and followed.

  Grampy was hunche
d over, pulling at the weeds that grew between the rows of cucumber seedlings.

  Everyone started talking before they reached him.

  ‘We found a gypsy cob,’ Kit blurted out.

  ‘She’s old and lame,’ said Lexie.

  ‘We’re going to save her!’ Ruby said.

  Grampy rose slowly from his weeding and stretched his back. His pants were covered in patches and he had holes in his boots. ‘What are you talking about?’

  Analita passed the newspaper to Grampy. ‘A gypsy cob mare is going through the Silver Plains Horse Sales at noon today.’

  Grampy pulled his spectacles from his top pocket and placed them on his nose. Kit, Ruby and Lexie crowded around him as he shook out the paper and began to read. For a while he said nothing.

  Eventually he shook his head. ‘We have no money for more horses,’ he said. ‘Look at this place. Every cent I get from the farm I have to spend on more seeds, or fertiliser. The plants are wilting because the water pump broke and I can’t afford to fix it. The fences are falling down. We need a new tractor so we can grow a larger crop. We should be selling the horses we have, not buying another one!’

  He stared up at the purple, swirling clouds overhead. ‘Now there is a storm coming. If we get hail, the crop will be ruined and then what will we do?’

  Kit felt a wave of despair. Maybe it came from Grampy. Maybe it came from her entire family as they stood there among the sad-looking cucumber plants. Windara was a disaster zone. Grampy was right. The last thing they needed was another horse.

  But the horse needed them.

  As she stood there, not quite ready to give up, Kit felt Lexie’s hand take hers and a shot of courage ran through her. Ruby took her other hand, and she felt a zing of hope. She could hear her sisters’ thoughts, clear as a sunny day.

  Hope, courage, compassion. Together we WILL save this mare. Somehow…

  Kit stared at her grumpy grandfather. He hadn’t always been a fruit and vegetable farmer. He had given up trick riding because his beloved wife and riding partner, their Grandma Levinia, had died. It seemed Grampy’s heart would never mend. And suddenly Kit realised: it wasn’t just that mare that needed rescuing. Grampy needed rescuing too. He would never be happy as a farmer. His true love was horses; he was just too stubborn to admit it.

  ‘You know, Grampy,’ she said, ‘you can just as easily fail doing something you hate. So why not take a chance and do something that you love?’

  Grampy folded up the paper and handed it back to Analita. ‘Doing what you love doesn’t always pay the bills.’

  ‘Doing what you hate doesn’t always pay the bills either,’ said Analita.

  Grampy’s face flashed with anger. He removed his glasses and placed them back in his pocket. He stared at them silently for a while. ‘Do whatever you want,’ he finally said. ‘But if you buy that horse, you will be responsible for feeding it.’ He turned away and returned to his weeding.

  ‘Thank you,’ Kit said quietly to Grampy.

  He didn’t answer.

  ‘Come on,’ said Lexie. ‘We have to hurry. The auction starts at noon.’

  Kit watched Grampy a moment longer. His hands stopped pulling at the weeds for a second and she felt a tiny change in him. A strange current ran through her bracelet. She held her breath, hoping he would join them. But then she felt him close over again. He stared up at the approaching storm, frowned and yanked an enormous weed out of the ground.

  Minutes before noon, they drove into the shadow of the great Silver Mountains. The livestock saleyards were in the Silver Plains industrial area, among rows of factories and warehouses. Analita followed a narrow street into the car park.

  Stock trucks drove in and out with bellowing cattle on the back. The triplets saw one with a sign painted on the side.

  JACK’S PET FOOD COMPANY

  A man with no teeth grinned at Kit through the driver’s-side window. She shuddered all over.

  Analita had barely parked the car before all three girls tumbled out and raced for the yards.

  ‘We still have ten minutes before the sale starts,’ Kit said, checking her watch. As she neared the yards and heard the nervous whinnying of horses, she felt queasy, as if her own future hung in the balance.

  The place was crowded with people. Horse stalls lined the cobblestone aisles. In the pens were horses of every colour, shape and size. Some nickered or snorted as the triplets walked past. Others hardly blinked. A leggy thoroughbred screwed up its nose. A portly red pony chewed at a fence post. Kit’s healing bracelet shifted from cold to warm and back as she walked among them.

  People poked and prodded the horses. They lifted their lips and looked at their teeth. They inspected their hooves and checked their legs. They peered into their eyes and lifted their tails.

  ‘All these horses deserve a forever home,’ said Kit.

  ‘Let’s find our gypsy girl and give her a forever home,’ said Ruby. ‘She must be here somewhere, because I just felt her future become brighter.’

  ‘Let’s split up,’ said Kit. ‘Lexie, you search rows one and two. Ruby, you search three and four, and I’ll take five and six.’

  Kit’s sisters quickly disappeared in the swarm of people. As she searched, heavy drops of rain began falling. She pulled her jacket tighter around her and lifted her hood over her head.

  She searched the fifth row of horses for the typical black-and-white patches of a gypsy cob, but there were none to be seen. She turned the corner and began looking down the sixth row. She peered over every gate. There was a pen full of miniature ponies. An Appaloosa stood in another. There were racehorses and Clydesdales, Shetlands and Walers, Arabians and crossbreeds. But no gypsy cob.

  As the clock ticked closer to midday, the rain fell steadily. At the last stall, Kit gave up. Maybe Lexie or Ruby had been luckier. But she could feel hope dwindling in her sisters, and knew that they had not found the gypsy mare.

  Kit stared into the last pen, where a dirty white horse lay on the hard concrete. Its forelock was long and thick and nearly touched its nose. Its legs were curled beneath its body and its ribs poked out. It shivered as the rain ran in tiny rivers over its back. Kit shoved her hands in her coat pockets and peered out from under her hood.

  ‘I don’t suppose you’ve seen a gypsy cob today,’ she said to the horse. It waggled an ear.

  As she turned to walk away, the bracelet on her wrist went as cold as death. Kit felt a rush of pure despair. She clutched the fence rail to steady herself, and then heard a soft nicker. As she turned back to the horse, the feeling eased.

  ‘You?’

  The horse in the pen tilted its head to one side. Through its shaggy wet forelock an amber eye stared at her. Kit’s jaw dropped. ‘You have amber eyes, like Kismet … like the great stallion, Magnifico!’

  When she looked closer, she realised that the horse was not completely white at all. It had a thin streak of black through its shaggy forelock and a ring of black around one eye. It was piebald, with minimal markings. It was a gypsy cob!

  Kit’s heart nearly burst from her chest. She slipped inside the rails and crouched in front of the horse. She reached out and slowly pulled the mare’s forelock away. Her muzzle was greyed and she had hollows over her eyes.

  ‘It is you,’ Kit whispered. ‘Poor darling mare. What has happened to you?’

  The mare closed her eyes and gave a long tired sigh. Kit rubbed at her forehead and looked into her amber eyes. ‘You must be by Magnifico,’ she said. ‘But who is your special person?’ All the Magnifico horses fell in love with one person, and their love for that person stayed with them until the day they died. ‘How did you end up here?’

  The mare gave such a sad whinny that somehow Kit knew her special person was gone from her life forever. Had they died?

  ‘Don’t worry,’ she said, gently lifting the mare’s muzzle and looking into her amber eyes. ‘My family and I are going to help you.’

  The mare gave a soft nicker.

&
nbsp; ‘Hey!’ a rough voice yelled. It made Kit jump. ‘Get out of that yard unless you want to buy the horse.’

  ‘I do want to buy her,’ Kit said, leaping to her feet.

  The man looked at her as though she was crazy. He yanked the gate of the pen open and tapped the old horse on the rump with a stick. ‘Up you get,’ he said.

  The mare lifted her head and groaned. The man gave her another couple of taps with the stick. ‘Up!’

  ‘Please, be gentle,’ said Kit, jumping out of the way. ‘She is a very precious horse.’

  ‘Yeah, I can see that,’ said the man. He gave her a firmer tap. ‘Hurry up, old girl, haven’t got all day.’

  The mare put one foot out at a time and slowly got to her feet. Kit could see why she didn’t want to get up. Her hooves were long and overgrown. They must have been very painful to stand on.

  Kit trembled watching the mare hobble into the aisle. She followed the other horses towards the sale ring.

  ‘I’ll be there,’ Kit called after her. ‘And I’ll be bidding for you!’

  The mare stopped. She turned her head and set her amber eyes on Kit.

  ‘I promise,’ Kit whispered.

  As the mare limped away, Kit saw a number sprayed onto her rump: 33. A very lucky number for a triplet! There was hope. It should have made Kit feel better. But her bracelet was still cold. Nothing would make her feel better until the mare was grazing in a paddock at Windara.

  Kit ran to find Analita and her sisters. ‘I found her!’ she yelled as soon as she could see them. ‘Lexie! Ruby! I found her. She’s number thirty-three!’

  ‘That’s lucky!’ said Ruby and Lexie together. They both clutched the handle of a large umbrella.

  ‘Can you see her fortune?’ asked Kit. ‘Anything from her future?’

  Ruby closed her eyes. ‘Just a horse being driven out of here in a truck.’ She opened them again. ‘I couldn’t see what kind of truck. Not very helpful.’

  ‘Everything depends on the next half hour,’ said Lexie.

  Analita squeezed in under the umbrella and pulled out her purse. ‘I brought the money and I had a spare twenty dollars.’