Throw Your Heart Over

Chapter Three Part 4

Chapter Three

Christine had taken advantage of being in the place alone. She'd enjoyed watching TV - shows her mother would never watch, so she'd consumed junk television in the evenings. She'd stayed up late to watch the end of a disaster movie about sharks and slept in this particular morning. Feeling a little groggy, she came down to the kitchen and made coffee, trying hard to wake up fully between jaw cracking yawns. She took her coffee into the office, where she liked to check things out online first thing. Then she'd have a shower, make some breakfast, and get working. While the computer booted up she went to the window, looking to see if the horses were out. She was late for her morning walk today. The horses were out. There was the friendly brown one...there was the stuck up one, and, wait, was that a grey horse? Her brain, just starting to absorb caffeine, was trying to work that out when a voice greeted her from the doorway.

Christine jumped. The coffee spilled down the front of her ratty pink housecoat, and she looked up to find Nicholas standing there, one eyebrow raised, a smile he was trying to suppress quirking one corner of his mouth.

Christine put down the cup and tried to swipe at the front of her robe. "I - I didn't-"

"I apologize for startling you. You didn't hear us pulling in last night - or rather, early this morning?"

Christine closed her eyes. The one night she stayed up...

"No, I apparently didn't." Christine gave up on the swiping, and tried to casually pull her robe down to hide her bunny slippers. "So, a good trip? I've made a good start here - I have a couple of questions-"

Nicholas nodded at the clean office. "I can see you've made a vast improvement in here. Can we talk about the business later? I have to attend to the horses, and I wondered if you wanted to start those riding lessons."

Christine stared. Riding lessons? Was he serious? Sure, he'd made that offhand comment, but she'd never thought he was really going to do it. After all, his horses were expensive assets and she was just a beginner. She didn't have clothes, or know anything...

"If you can come out in about ten minutes - I want to lunge The Rocket, so I could start you out on him."

He turned to go, obviously expecting it to be settled. Christine stared at the empty doorway. Very few of those words made sense in the way he'd used them. She could define them individually but - wait, ten minutes? Then she ran to the hallway and said to his back "I don't have any clothes."

Nicholas turned and looked at her. Christine realized how wrong that had come out.

"I mean, I obviously have clothes clothes, but I don't know what you wear for riding."

"Do you have some khakis? Jeans? That'll do for today." Then he was gone. Christine took a moment to figure out if this was really happening. The damp robe convinced her. She gulped what was left of the coffee, and ran up the stairs to change.

Christine made her way to the stable. It was maybe a couple of minutes over the ten she'd been given, but she'd dressed, washed her face and pulled her hair back as quickly as she could. The horses were no longer in the fields, so she guessed they'd all be in the stables somewhere. When she'd been in there before the place had been quiet and still. Now there were two horses tied up in the aisle, and then Nicholas, coming out of a stall. There seemed to be horses in most of the stalls. It wasn't noisy, but the horses were moving around, there was a classical station playing softly in the background, and a general air of activity that had been missing.