Trouble Me: A Rosewood Novel (11 page)

He frowned, annoyed at the realization that Jade had the same exotic eye color as the woman with whom he’d spent the night in Norfolk. His brow cleared as he recalled how very different the woman’s eyes had been, sparkling with intelligence, shining with pleasure.

Emma was still talking. “I guess Jade’s back working at Rosewood Farm.”

“Yeah, she’s teaching kids how to ride.”

“How’d you know that?” In the next breath, Emma used the I-don’t-take-anybody’s-crap tone she’d learned from growing up with three older brothers. “Katie. That side table is
not
a dance stage. Get down now.
Now
, Katie.”

And Katie Girard, who’d previously played deaf to all adult admonishment, dropped to the floor.

“Good job, Em. Thanks.” Had Katie broken that table, Rob would have been tempted to handcuff her. Becky had bought the table the first year of their marriage.

“You’re welcome. So when did you hear about Jade teaching riding?”

“I went to Steadman’s Saddle Shop to ask whether they knew of any good riding instructors. Adam Steadman told me she’s giving lessons.”

“Wow. So are you going to sign Hayley up?”

“With her? No.”

She raised her dark brow inquiringly. “No?”

“There are other riding teachers in Warburg.”

Emma shrugged. “Sure there are. But I bet Hayley would really like Jade. I always thought she was the coolest girl in high school.”

“Popular, you mean.”

“Hardly,” Emma scoffed. “Blair Hood, Courtney
Joseph, and Amanda Coles made it their personal mission to treat Jade like a pariah. And they tried to get everyone else in school to as well. The rumors they spread about her, the nasty tricks they pulled on her, were really shitty, Rob. And still Jade managed to be cooler than any of them. God, there was this period where she changed her hair color about every other week. It was wild.”

The admiration in Emma’s voice had him glancing at her in surprise. He supposed he’d been too absorbed in his life with Becky and their baby girl to pay attention to the goings-on in his kid sister’s high school—unless one of the students happened to cross his path while he was in uniform, as Jade Radcliffe had. He was about to question her further when an earsplitting shriek rent the air, followed by a crash that had them both glancing up at the ceiling.

“My turn.” He sighed, already moving toward the stairs.

It was going to be a long night. But Hayley had a huge grin on her face as she and Jenny Ferris did the bump while they warbled along with Miley, singing “Hoedown Throwdown.”

He’d do almost anything to see that smile on his daughter’s face, even allow his house to be wrecked by a band of female imps.

I
F A
person wanted to shop for a horse, the man to turn to was Ned Connelly. Not that Jade’s brother-in-law Travis or even Margot or Jordan weren’t excellent judges of horseflesh, but looking over a horse from teeth to tail, making sure the animal was 100 percent sound and would suit the job for which it was being bought, put a twinkle in Ned’s eyes like nothing else could. It didn’t even matter to him that they were shopping for ponies rather than broodmares or studs to improve Rosewood Farm’s bloodlines. Ned was as happy as the kids buckled in the backseat of the Rover.

Jade had drafted Kate, Max, and Olivia to come and help pick out the ponies. She’d been watching them ride since they could walk; seeing how they did on unknown ponies would give her a good sense of whether the ponies would be proper school ponies. A school pony had certain requirements. It had to be kind and patient, willing to let a novice learn on its back with good grace. While most ponies had their quirks, Jade intended to vet the four she was buying as carefully as possible to avoid bringing home any ponies from hell. She’d seen the like plenty of times: the ponies that intentionally brushed up against jump standards in order to knock a kid off the saddle, the ones that bolted into the middle of the riding ring for an impromptu roll in the dirt, never mind that a saddle and child were still attached to their backs, or the others that engaged in a constant tug-of-war with the
reins. She’d even once seen a kid literally slide down a pony’s neck, doing a slow-motion face dive into the dirt.

Of course, an argument could be made for learning how to ride the tough cases—both horses and ponies—but Jade believed that for young riders it was better to have them first develop the skills and coordination necessary to good riding. Then they could tackle the more temperamental mounts.

Dressed in jodhpurs and paddock boots, Kate and Max, with Olivia sandwiched between them, squirmed with excitement at the prospect of trying out the ponies Jade had made appointments to see.

Jade was feeling pretty excited too. She felt lucky to have three young riders of different abilities and size to test the ponies—though even six-year-old Olivia was no novice. Fearless and determined to ride as well as her older brother and sister, she’d begun cantering at age five.

Jade knew that by the end of this day the kids would have learned a ton about riding and ponies. What better way to keep the traditions her family embraced alive in the youngest generation? And how great that the three kids who’d shown her how much fun it was to teach were helping her pick out the school ponies! Having Ned Connelly join them today was the proverbial icing on the cake. Ned had been her and Jordan and Margot’s first teacher and would be sharing his decades of knowledge with all four of them today.

The very day Jade had returned to Rosewood, Ned started calling around to breeders and owners. They’d picked Windy Hill Ponies for their first visit; this was the farm where Jordan and he had found Archer, the pony the kids rode along with Doc Holliday, who at age twenty-four still won ribbons in children’s hunter classes.

Located about thirty minutes north of Warburg, Windy Hill bred its own ponies but also acted as selling
agents for owners who’d outgrown their mounts—a sad eventuality for most pony owners. The farm’s manager, Ralph Whittaker, had told Jade and Ned that he had a number of sound, seasoned campaigners that could be ridden as school ponies, taken out on the hunt field for a morning’s ride, and also do a competitive turn in the show ring—reasons enough for Ned to be nearly as excited as Kate, Max, Olivia, and Jade herself.

From the backseat, Max piped up. “Aunt Jade, are we bringing the ponies home today?”

“No, Max, today we’re going to try to find some we really like. If that happens, I’ll come back for another visit to see whether they’re just as nice the second time, because some ponies can be nice one day and then super-cranky another. We want ponies that are as fun to be around as Doc and Archer.” Noting the three disappointed faces reflected in the rearview mirror, she added, “Don’t worry, guys, Doc and Archer will have new barn mates very soon.”

“And as soon as they do, we get to start riding them, so they’ll be super-good for the kids who are going to be taking lessons with you.” At eight, Max liked to plan in a big way. He’d probably be ready to run a company by age twelve.

“That’s right. You all are going to be very busy.”

“I hope Carly Ferris and her sister, Jenny, sign up for lessons with you, Aunt Jade. Carly and Jenny are nice,” Kate said.

Jenny Ferris. She was one of Jade’s future second-grade students. What a relief to know that there was one kid in her class who was non-headache material; if Kate liked her, that was recommendation enough.

“We’ll have to see. Mr. and Mrs. Ferris may have other after-school activities lined up for them.”

“No, Jenny really wants to ride.” Olivia’s voice rang
with conviction. “She and Hayley are always asking me stuff about riding.”

And that would be Hayley Cooper. It occurred to Jade that she could get a full report from her nieces and nephew on a number of the kids in her class, a report that would reveal far more than anything she’d read in the first-grade teacher’s evaluations.

She flicked the indicator, taking the exit off Route 15 and heading west. “So what do you guys think of Hayley Cooper? You were in the winter pageant with her, right, Liv?”

Olivia nodded her bright blond head. “Hayley and I were snowflakes. She was really good. But I felt kinda bad for her, ’cause at the dress rehearsal lots of mommies were helping with the sets and costumes and makeup and stuff and Bobbi Neese asked Hayley where
her
mommy was and Hayley said she was dead and then she left quickly. Then I had to pee and, when I went into the girls’ bathroom, she was there. She was crying. It was so sad.”

Jade swallowed. She didn’t like to think of a little girl crying for her dead mother. It brought back too many memories. “I hope you did your best to make her feel better, Liv.”

“I asked her if she wanted to play jacks until it was our turn to snow. Hayley can go all the way up to fivesies. I can too now, but I could only do threesies back then. I don’t like Bobbi Neese. She’s mean. I think she knew Hayley’s mommy was up in heaven, but she asked Hayley anyway.”

“That’s crummy,” Max said. “Don’t you think so, Ned?”

“I sure do.”

Jade felt Ned give her a sidelong glance, and consciously she relaxed her fingers on the steering wheel.

“You’ll want to turn right at Overhill Road, Miss
Jade. Then it’s about a quarter of a mile farther on the left.”

“Thanks, Ned,” she said, pleased her voice was steady. Lots of kids lost their parents and had to deal with the hurt. There was no reason to get choked up over it, she told herself.

From the middle of the backseat, Olivia leaned forward and tapped Jade’s shoulder. “Hayley Cooper really likes horses. Maybe she’ll want to take lessons at our farm too. She and Jenny Ferris play together lots.”

It was unlikely that Rob Cooper’s daughter would ever take riding lessons with her, but there was no point in explaining the whys and wherefores to Olivia. “I guess we’ll have to see whether she signs up, won’t we?”

“How about we concentrate on finding some good ponies today so that there
are
lessons to give,” Ned suggested. “Because I’m pretty confident the rest will work itself out just fine after that.”

“Yeah, let’s do what Ned says.” Max bumped the back of his reddish-brown head against the leather upholstery in an enthusiastic nod. “Let’s find some good ponies for Aunt Jade.”

“And Rosewood,” Kate added.

“And me,” Olivia giggled.

“Why for you too, Liv?” Max asked.

“ ’Cause I need more ponies to love.”

No ponies had ever been as thoroughly inspected as the ones at Windy Hill, Jade decided. Ned and she had gone over them from the tips of their pointy ears to their swishy tails and then down to their tiny hooves. Legs were checked for swelling, heat, or stiffness; hooves for cracks, abscesses, or any sensitivity. Eyes and noses had to be clear. And, as it was high summer, the ponies’ coats needed to be gleaming with health.

Of course, this was only the beginning of the inspection. She and Ned closely watched the ponies Ralph Whittaker showed them, noting how their ears worked around the children—if they remained cocked forward or pinned back with their tails swishing in warning. Did any of the ponies shift restlessly as the kids moved around them, perhaps picking up a rear hoof? Did any appear head-shy, making it next to impossible for a child to learn how to slip on a bridle or attach a halter? Any pony that showed even the slightest annoyance around Kate, Max, and Olivia was immediately scratched from Jade’s list.

Once in the exercise ring, the ponies were scrutinized just as carefully. It was great that she had three different riders to watch, in addition to Ralph’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Jessica, who hopped on each pony as well. For today’s visit, Jade decided that she’d let the kids do the riding. If any were fine enough to warrant a second visit, then she’d get in the saddle herself, never mind that her booted feet would be hanging well below the barrels of the ponies’ bellies.

Luckily, the ponies Ned and she were most interested in were large, the biggest measuring 14.1 hands, for not only would that allow her to ride them should they require some fine-tuning, but as a financial investment they would offer a greater return. Larger ponies wouldn’t be outgrown too quickly by her young students.

“This lot looks very fine,” Ned said quietly.

Jade gave a little nod, watching the four young riders circle them on the rail of the exercise ring. Olivia was posting to the trot of an all-white pony named Dickens; Kate, astride a flashy bay named Maggie Mae, had just picked up the canter; and Max was circling in a two-point position on a chestnut named Hopscotch. Jessica was on another chestnut, this one a mare called Sweet Virginia, who had four matching socks and a stripe
down her face, and was taking a three-foot double-oxer jump like a dream.

Ralph had been in the horse-dealing business for years and had known Ned for almost as many, so he was pretty mellow about the somewhat unorthodox method of showing the ponies to them. Nor did he mind when Jade called the kids into the center of the ring to have them switch mounts so that she could see whether with the change of riders the ponies performed any differently.