The Foretelling (Charlotte Bloom #1) (11 page)

I glanced at Alec, who was silent at the other end of the table. I hadn't spoken a word to him since he almost ran me over with his horse, but I’d seen him every morning in the stables. Sometimes I saw him leading a group of people down the driveway.

"I’ll try and make it," I said politely.

We finished our meal, which had consisted of another wonderful beef stew, and I got up to leave. I passed Alec on my way out.

"I hope to be joining you for the horseback riding tomorrow. 9:30, right?" He didn’t look up as he responded.

"Yeah. Sign up with Helen. Also, I will need to know how much you weigh. I’ll fit the horse in the morning."

Great. How lovely. The last thing I wanted was for him to know how much I weighed.

"One hundred and nineteen pounds, last I checked."

He looked me up and down, ascertaining my body like I was a meal that he was about to devour, and I felt myself get a little weak in the knees. It made me uncomfortable, yet a small part of me liked it. His dark eyes bore into mine, and then they wandered down my body yet again.

"You didn’t need to tell me. I meant you could tell Helen in the morning," he said, annoyed, dismissing me. He shook his head and then got up to leave, passing by me as he left. What a jerk. He didn’t have any manners, clearly. I walked out behind him, with my chin up and my cheeks red. He
did
work with horses everyday; maybe he’d forgotten how to deal with humans. He was clearly lacking certain social skills.

I walked by Helen at the front desk, and I quickly mentioned I would be horseback riding tomorrow. I told her my weight and she said she would help Alec get my horse fitted. I wandered by the common room, but even at 9 p.m. I was pretty tired. So, I bid everyone goodnight and went to my room. I had a dreamless sleep that night.

***

I awoke refreshed and renewed, even though I’d had multiple nightmares about Harry. I jumped in the shower, checking the clock. It was 8:30 a.m.; I had plenty of time to go down to breakfast before going riding. My appetite had been out of control all week. I wondered if it had something to do with jet lag, but I realized it was probably just because every single meal I’d eaten here had been rich, gourmet, and delicious. I dried my hair and changed into my jeans, a white button-down blouse, and my brown ankle boots. I grabbed my light military jacket on the way out, thinking I’d probably need to invest in a heavier coat if I was going to stay longer. I swiped on some lip gloss and mascara, and I was good to go.

I quickly hopped down the stairs. I was in a surprisingly good mood. I thought of Amara waking up in Portugal, not too far from where I was, relatively speaking. A week ago seemed like forever already. My brain was a little fuzzy from the lack of coffee, but all in all, I felt good.

I heard voices coming from the dining room, but first passed by Helen at the front desk. George was nowhere to be found, and I laughed at the thought that he had introduced himself to me as the head of the house. In reality, Helen did all of the heavy lifting around here. I’d gotten to know Helen and George better over the last week, and Helen was definitely the one who ran things, while George gallivanted around.

"Morning!" I chirped at Helen, who was bent over looking at some papers.

"Oh, Charlotte, hello! I’ll have Katie cook up some eggs and bacon for you right now." She picked up the telephone. "Katie, can you please cook up some eggs and bacon for Charlotte, and, well, you know the rest. Give her a proper breakfast, will you? Thanks, dear." She hung up. "You’re going on the horse trek today, correct?" She began to pull some papers out of her binder. "I just need you to fill these out really quickly."

I thanked her and took the papers and clipboard to the common room.

The Braine family was sitting around the fire, reading. I waved in their direction, but they were all too absorbed in their books. I looked through the papers. It was just a general medical release form in case of an emergency. How dangerous could riding horses be? I’d actually never been on a horse, but it couldn't be too hard. I filled everything out, including some basic information like height, weight, allergies (for what purpose, I wasn’t sure), and emergency contact. I thought about it, and ended up putting my mother, as Amara was on her honeymoon and probably unreachable, as she should be. I couldn’t put Harry as my emergency contact any more. That thought sent a wave of sadness through me. Pretty soon I started to get whiffs of bacon, so I quickly finished up and handed Helen the forms.

I walked into the dining room. I was the only one there. Either I was super early or super late. It didn’t surprise me. I’d eaten breakfast alone most mornings. I inhaled my breakfast of creamy scrambled eggs, four strips of thick, juicy bacon, tomato slices, two pieces of heavily buttered toast, and a Glamorgan sausage. Katie brought out a cup of scalding hot water and lemon, upon my request, and it was much more satisfying than a cup of coffee. Or so I told myself.

I checked the clock when I was finished. It was 9:25. I decided to head outside a few minutes early. I passed Helen on my way out and waved goodbye.

"Where are your boots? And you might need a thicker jacket to go riding, dear."

"Ah, well, I came unprepared." I could see the confusion on her face. "These are all I have," I said, gesturing to my thin jacket and ankle boots. "I have other clothes, but most of them are just as impractical."

"Why didn’t you tell me? Follow me."

She led me to a closet off of the common room. It was filled with parkas, rubber wellies of all sizes and colors, umbrellas, and even the odd men’s wool sweater. I stifled my laughter as I saw a pair of rubber overalls hung up next to the sweaters. I supposed some guests wanted the real Welsh experience. I picked up a pair of hunter green wellies that looked about my size, and grabbed the smallest parka they had. It was still huge on me, and not exactly something I would ever wear, but hey,
when in Wales.

I walked out front and over to the stables on the left. I saw Lucy and Ted getting onto their horses. Alec was helping Lucy on, and I realized us four were the only ones on the horse trek today.
Great.
Lucy and Ted would be canoodling the entire time, leaving me alone with Alec. I went over to the fourth horse, which I presumed was mine. It was the largest of the bunch, which didn’t make any sense because Alec and Ted were definitely bigger than me, but I didn’t question it. Alec was the expert here. My horse was grey and spotted, with a grey mane and very bushy, grey eyebrows.

"Did you get a helmet?" Alec had come up behind me, startling me so that I jumped and almost slipped in the mud.

He caught me, and gave me a tiny smile. It was actually a really nice smile, given that he didn’t seem to use it often. My heart started to race, and I wasn’t sure if it was because I almost ate shit in the mud or because Alec’s hand was on my lower back. He quickly fitted a helmet to my head, jerking me around a little too much for my liking. His hands were rough and calloused, and they brushed my face ever so slightly as he adjusted my helmet. My skin warmed at his every touch.

"Do you need help up?"

"Yes, please." I turned to the horse, holding on to the saddle. I felt him grip me firmly, hoisting me up with ease. I caught a whiff of his cologne or aftershave. He smelled musky. And soapy. I had to admit, it was nice.

"You’ll be riding Bo, because he’s the oldest and slowest."

My cheeks turned red, and I nodded. Of course I would be on the old horse. Alec gave me very brief instructions on how to use the reins and stirrups. I couldn’t help but notice that his horse didn’t have reins or a saddle, so I wondered how he was going to control his horse. He also wasn’t wearing a helmet. I probably should’ve been paying more attention, because pretty soon Alec hopped up on his horse and we were off. I almost fell off as Bo started forward, embarrassingly slow, but still – I wasn’t used to the motion.

"Just follow Bo’s rhythm with your hips, Charlotte," Alec called back, as I stiffly rocked back and forth.

I settled into the saddle, trying to find the rhythm, and it started to feel slightly more natural to me. I watched Alec, who was ahead of me, as he rode his horse with such ease that I found myself extremely jealous that such a hulking man was more graceful on a horse than me.

"How’s it going, Charlotte?" Ted called out to me from behind Lucy, who was behind me. "Ever ridden a horse before?"

I slowly shook my head.

"I haven’t, actually. Have you?"

"Oh, yeah. Luce and I have two horses on our farm in Tennessee. Buddy and Holly." He laughed. "Better than dogs."

"You’ll get the hang of it. Don’t worry. Humans have been riding horses for ages. Our bodies were built for it. It becomes instinct after a while," Lucy explained.

So there I was, the only person without a ton of horse riding experience, in a group full of professional riders. Also, if humans had been riding horses forever, then why did it feel so jerky? Was I doing it wrong? I tried to move with the rhythm, but all I felt was the sensation that I was about to slide off the saddle at any moment. It couldn’t have felt more unnatural to me.

Pretty soon, we were out on the main road. We turned left instead of right, so I had no idea what was in store for us, as I usually turned right on my morning walks. Alec had us go single file all the way, until we got to a trail.

I wished that I’d looked at the horse trekking brochure more closely. I’d signed up blindly, and I didn’t know if I could handle an entire day of this. I got slightly nauseous looking down; I hadn't realized I’d feel so high up on a horse, and I was scared of heights. For all I knew, we were about to go jump fences and gallop on the beach. I hoped the latter wouldn’t happen, because I was pretty sure I would actually die. Alec went down the trail slowly, as his horse was slipping and sliding in the mud. I gulped in mouthfuls of air watching him, but I knew that he knew what he was doing. He was the professional here. Bo was very steady, and I actually felt very comfortable going down the trail on top of him. I heard Lucy and Ted sliding behind me as well, and I was glad that I’d gotten the old, sturdy horse after all.

Alec rounded a corner and swatted his horse on the butt. Suddenly, he was off. The trail had opened up and I realized we were on a wild beach. There was sand under all of the wild grass, and it was very swampy. Alec was galloping with his horse along the shore. I wanted to join him, but I’d never galloped and I was scared of hurting myself. Before I could figure out what to do next, Ted and Lucy were riding past me, also at a gallop, off to join Alec. Ted whooped and high-fived Lucy as they sped off, leaving me behind.

I looked at Bo. Could he even gallop any more? Alec had explained how to get him to go, and what to do specifically, but I couldn’t remember. It felt instinctual to kick, so with my feet in the stirrups, I kicked as hard as I could. Bo didn’t nudge. He looked back at me, amused, as if to say "Yeah, right." How did you get horses to go? I should’ve paid more attention to Alec – I’d been too busy staring at his lips when he gave me instructions on how to do this.
Damn.

"Giddy up!" I yelled, kicking at the same time. He sat there, not knowing which way to go; not going at all. "Go, horse, go! Onwards! Forward! Faster!" I was throwing caution to the wind at this point. I really had no idea how to make Bo go faster. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to go faster. This was Alec’s fault, really. He was too distracting.

All of a sudden, a hawk swooped down, making a screechy ‘caw’ sound. I don’t know what it was about the hawk, but it spooked Bo. The next thing I knew, Bo was on his hind legs and I was holding on for dear life, wishing I had paid more attention to the medical release form. Horseback riding was not dangerous. It was
lethal.

I screamed as Bo ran forward, faster than I thought possible for an "old" horse. Old probably meant normal to Alec. I held on to the reins and squeezed my legs as tight as they would go around Bo’s torso, which I would later learn was the exact opposite of what I wanted to do when a spooked horse takes off. I felt my whole body shake with every movement, the jolting similar to the feeling I once had riding a mechanical bull in college. I was going to fall off at any moment, and possibly get trampled. What was it with Wales and almost being trampled?

I screamed even louder as Bo went faster, running haphazardly in no real direction, just
away
from the hawk. I felt my body jerk left, then right, and my screams grew uneven as I bounced up and down. I felt like my breasts were going to hit me in the face, and my jacket had been ripped from my body as we sped along the beach. When I had a split second to look up and not feel like I was going to fall, I looked around for Ted, Lucy, or Alec. They were nowhere to be found. When do horses stop running? How could I get Bo to stop running? I felt out of control and I started to panic, gurgling screams in between yelling "ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod", and clutching the reins for dear life.

I was going to die on this horse. Suddenly, Bo was dashing into the ocean. Oh, great. I had a suicidal horse. My legs got soaked as Bo ran around in the water, back and forth, in giant circles. I heard a voice in the distance and looked up. Alec was on his horse, galloping towards me. He was saying "whoa whoa whoa!" At first, I thought it was some weird Welsh expletive, but the minute he yelled it, Bo calmed down. He reared one last time, sending me into the frigid ocean water.