Fiona Walker lives in Worcestershire with her partner and two children plus an assortment of horses and dogs. Visit Fiona’s website at www.fionawalker.com
Also by Fiona Walker
French Relations
Kiss Chase
Well Groomed
Snap Happy
Between Males
Lucy Talk
Lots of Love
Tongue in Cheek
Four Play
Love Hunt
Copyright
Published by Hachette Digital
ISBN: 978-0-748-12116-8
All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 Fiona Walker
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
Hachette Digital
Little, Brown Book Group
100 Victoria Embankment
London, EC4Y 0DY
www.hachette.co.uk
For the Horseman with whom I ride night and day;
with all my love.
Contents
Also by Fiona Walker
Copyright
Introduction
Cast List
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Epilogue
Introduction
Eventful Lives – and Dirty Weekends
You have to be an optimist to want to gallop half a ton of super-fit horse over fences shaped like saw-mills, shotgun cartridges, boats, animals and houses. Brave, tough and incredibly upbeat, the event rider is a breed apart and quite the sexiest of all horsemen and women which, in a very sexy pastime indeed, makes them irresistible …
Eventing is an equestrian sport originating from the cavalry Militaire, and is now hugely popular worldwide. Comprising three disciplines – dressage, cross-country and show-jumping – eventing is the definitive test of both horse and rider, requiring immense stamina, skill, versatility, finesse, dedication and, above all, guts. On a competitive level, riding across country is one of the greatest adrenalin fixes known to man, woman and horse; on a social level, it’s like attending a country house party every weekend with your closest chums all around you, gaining access to the most stunning estates in the country and partying in the park every night.
By day, combinations are set three tasks to show their supremacy, like knights and their steeds at a medieval tournament. First they must perform a courtly dance, gymnastic floor exercises set out in a precise pattern, leaping and twirling exactly on the allotted marks and lines while judges all around narrow their eyes and look for faults; this is dressage. Then they must run a gruelling assault course within a given time, leaping huge obstacles, crossing gullies and risking life and limb; that’s the cross-country phase. Finally, exhausted now, they enter a gladiatorial arena filled with flimsy jumps to vault over accurately while the clock ticks down – the show-jumping phase. The prize money in eventing may vary dramatically – at some competitions winning barely covering fuel costs, at others the victor gets many tens of thousands – but glory is always magnificent, and the perks are sublime.
Governed by British Eventing in the UK and the FEI (Fédération Equestre Internationale) internationally, affiliated horse trials are graded in difficulty from entry level (BE90 and BE100), through novice and intermediate to advanced. A CIC (Concours International Combiné) is a one- or two-day event ranging from one star (novice) to three star (advanced), and the stages are run as dressage, show-jumping and then finally cross-country. A CCI (Concours Complet International) is a three day event also of one, two and three stars, with the exclusive additional four-star level being the most difficult; the phases are run on successive days in the order of dressage, then cross-country, with show-jumping last. In actual fact, dressage often runs over two days, thus making it a four-day event, but that’s typical of eventers, who always give that little bit extra.
Despite a reputation for upper-class elitism, it’s a refreshingly egalitarian sport in which men and women of all ages compete equally on horses of unique bravery and talent, in which princes and paupers ride side by side, where intense rivalries are matched by lifelong friendships, camaraderie and old-fashioned sportsmanship that’s rare in the modern world. Set against idyllic backdrops of grand country houses, ancient parkland and rich farmland, sunshine and mud, tight breeches and loose morals, dogs and wellies, toffs, farmers and tradesmen, silver spoons and shoestrings, horsepower and four-wheel drives, it’s the ultimate countryside fix at home and abroad with competitions held all over Europe, the States, Canada, Australasia and beyond.
Here, it’s as British as a Range Rover full of black Labradors, a Pimm’s picnic on a checked blanket and sunshine and rain in June, with gung-ho galore and plenty of naughtiness behind the scenes …
The UK horse trials season runs from March until October, with some international trials and special events taking place year round. Many event riders and their grooms spend much of the competitive season on the road, with their horseboxes acting as second homes, some luxuriously complete with wet rooms, flat-screen televisions, king-sized beds in slide-out pods and even wine coolers. Others offer little more than a sleeping bag on
straw bales. Horses are often stalled at events in temporary stabling, much like a military encampment, harking back to the sport’s beginnings, although with up-to-date security and state-of-the-art care.
Despite its traditional roots, eventing is a thoroughly modern sport, employing a vast array of groundbreaking expertise, research and ever-more stringent rules. As in any high-risk sport, like skiing or motor racing, fatalities are regrettably inevitable, and much has been changed by the governing bodies to increase safety, from breakable cross-country fences to the introduction of inflatable body protectors for riders. Everything possible is done to make it safe, but nothing can take away from the sheer thrill of riding at speed across solid timber on a super-fit horse that can also perform a balletic dressage test and jump an obedient round over coloured poles.
Event riders have a reputation for living fast, partying hard and making merry, along with their owners, supporters and trials organisers. The horses can be pretty badly behaved too – but what else can one expect from a sport that demands that extra red-blooded sparkle of genius?
Cast List
Hugo and Tash Beauchamp – the eventing world’s premier couple, based at Haydown in West Berkshire with their young family
Alicia Beauchamp – Hugo’s mother, living on gin and Rothmans in the Dower House
Beccy Sergeant – Tash’s stepsister, an inveterate drifter, just back from finding herself
James and Henrietta French – Tash’s golf and gardening mad father and stepmother, enjoying retirement in Surrey
Em and Tim – Henrietta’s older daughter and her husband, living with many young children and much stress in South London
Faith Brakespear – a talented young dressage rider
Anke and Graham Brakespear – Faith’s mother, a former Olympic rider turned bookshop owner and her haulier husband, living in the pretty Cotswolds village of Oddlode
Magnus and Dilly – Faith’s brother and his girlfriend, rising musicians now living in Hackney
Chad – Faith’s little brother, going through a permanent difficult phase
Kurt and Graeme – Faith’s ‘gayfathers’, the dressage world’s premier couple, living in Essex
Fearghal Moore – Faith’s birth father, an Irish horse dealer based in County Mayo
Ingmar Olensen – Faith’s batty maternal grandfather
Rory Midwinter – pewter-eyed young event rider and hell-raiser, proprietor of Overlodes Equestrian Centre
Truffle Dacre-Hopkinson – his dilettante mother, currently between husbands
Diana and Amos Gates – Rory’s sister and her husband, custodians of the Gunning Estate
Spurs and Ellen Belling – Rory’s cousin and his wife, busy making babies
Nell Cottrell – scourge of the young Lodes set, mother to baby Gigi, now dating Dillon Rafferty
Milo – Nell’s long-term lover, impossibly married to his wife and career in Amsterdam
Pete and Indigo Rafferty – the music industry’s legendary Rockfather and his young model wife, who is addicted to adopting orphans
Dillon Rafferty – Pete’s son, a singer-songwriter turned Cotswolds organic farmer, currently enjoying a hugely successful comeback. Owns several event horses
Pom and Berry – Dillon’s daughters, who live with ex-wife Fawn Johnston in the States
Jules – a long-standing music industry friend, Sapphic muse and horse lover
Sylva Frost – self-publicising pop-singing WAG turned Britain’s favourite single mum, constantly reinventing her fame
Koloman and Hain – her two young sons
Mama Szubiak – Sylva’s super-ambitious Slovak mother
Hana and Zuzi – Sylva’s halfsister and her daughter
Rodney Dunnet – long-suffering producer of Sylva’s reality TV show
Lough Strachan – sexy New Zealand event rider, known as the Devil on Horseback
Lemon – his head groom, a jokey failed jockey
Alexandra and Pascal d’Eblouir, Polly – Tash’s mother, her French husband and their daughter, living in bohemian decrepitude between Paris and the Loire Valley
Sophia and Ben Meredith, Lottie, Josh and Henry – Tash’s ex-model sister and her husband, the Earl of Malvern, and their family
Matty and Sally French, Tom, Tor and Linus – Tash’s older brother, an earnest documentary maker, his bubbly wife and their children
The Vs – The Beauchamps’ uncommunicative Czech au pairs, Vasilly and Veruschka
Jenny – the Beauchamps’ cheerful head girl
Franny – Hugo’s irascible former groom
The Bells and the Carrolls – the Haydown tenant farmers
Alf Vanner – Haydown’s woodland manager
The Seatons and the Bucklands – owners of some of the Haydown event horses
Penny and Gus Moncrieff – old eventing cronies of the Beauchamps, based in nearby Lime Tree Farm, perennially bickering and broke
Angelo and Denise – landlords of The Olive Branch in Fosbourne Ducis
Niall and Zoe O’Shaughnessy – Penny’s sister and her actor husband, parents of young twins
India and Rufus Goldsmith – Zoe’s children from her first marriage
Marie-Clair ‘MC’ Tucson – France’s first lady of eventing, living part-time in the States with her wealthy husband
Stefan and Kirsty Johanssen – Swedish event rider and his Scottish wife, based in the States
Lucy Field – the UK’s top-ranking female event rider, a flirty blonde
Brian Sedgewick – Team GB’s three day event chef d’équipe
Julia Ditton – ex event rider turned BBC commentator
Venetia Gundry – Haydown’s most lascivious livery
Gin and Tony Seaton – keen event followers and erstwhile owners
The Bitches of Eastwick – the Beauchamps’ lazy Labradors
The Rat Pack – Hugo’s terriers
The Roadies – the Haydown guard dogs
Beetroot – Tash’s ancient, eccentric mongrel
Event horses Sir Galahad and gutsy Oil Tanker, plus home-bred siblings The Fox, Cub and Vixen, Tash’s kind-hearted mare Deep River, fearless Cœur d’Or, beautiful stallion Rio, faithful old White Lies, the brilliant Humpty, and far too many others to mention …
Prologue
Melbourne Three Day Event, five years earlier
The mare was not the easiest of rides. She pulled hard, skewed left over fences and spooked away from the crowds. It was like riding a small, charging rhinoceros.
In Melbourne as part of a whistle-stop tour to promote their training manual, Be Champions the Beauchamp Way, Tash and her husband Hugo had taken up Australian rider Sandy Hunter’s offer of rides at Victoria’s legendary three day event, the second oldest in the world. Sandy had been sidelined by injury at the last minute and her horses, fit and ready to run, were at the Beauchamps’ disposal. It was an irresistible offer; a top-ten result would be great for publicity. Hugo loved the challenge of chance rides, but Tash far preferred piloting her own horses, whom she knew and trusted after years working together.
Snort, snort, snort, thump, thumpety, thump – jump! The little mare was a rubber ball that bounced around before take-off and never landed the same way twice, but boy could she jump. She ballooned a fairly inconsequential ditch and wheeled left, leaving Tash dangling for a moment, all her weight off centre before those famously long, grippy lower legs and those iron-girder stomach muscles set her right and she kicked on towards the big crowds around the water.
Riding high on adrenalin and positive energy was familiar territory to Tash. She and Hugo had been on the crest of a wave all year, and today was no exception. As soon as she had finished riding across country they were booked for radio interviews, a lecture demonstration and then a sponsors’ dinner, at which they would speak. Tomorrow morning they would sign copies of their book before the final show-jumping stage of the competition. As soon as that was over they were flying out to Perth to continue thei
r book tour on the west coast. Garnering publicity was still an alien concept to Tash. This was what she knew best.
Snort, snort, snort. Snatch snatch snatch. Head flying up, duck, dart, crouch.
Utterly focused, contained between leg and hand, the mare prepared to take off at the big log in front of the water. Then, at the last minute, she spotted the wet expanse beyond and seemed to hang in the air, momentum dropping away from her, reluctant to get her feet wet.
With an almighty combination of willpower, voice and inner prayers, Tash propelled the black mare far enough forwards to tip her athletic body into the drink and through it in several sloshing strides until they were out the other side, skewing over a narrow log that would have unseated a lesser rider.
The spectators gave an appreciative roar and whooped applause at the sight of such good horsemanship.
Tash, who loved the Australian eventing crowd – so raucous yet knowledgeable – patted the mare on the neck and then held up her hand in gratitude to the banks of cheering faces just a few feet away, flying past as she galloped away.
A girl ran out of the crowd, the press later reported. A pretty girl: blonde, dressed in a vest, skirt and flip-flops, not the normal hardy spectator on a brisk June day. She ran straight in front of the mare.
All Tash could remember was a blur of blonde hair and pale skin in her path. She heard her own cries of warning, the crowd gasping and shouting, and felt the wrench of the rein in one hand as she pulled the mare sharply left and the contradictory twist of half a ton of muscle, momentum and power beneath her as the mare swerved right. The girl was almost underneath them, so close that she must have felt the heat of the horse’s skin and breath. The mare stumbled, flailed on her knees and struggled to stay upright.
A man in an All Blacks hoodie hurled himself from the crowd just in time to grapple the blonde girl to the ground and pull her away from the mare’s dancing legs, the two of them rolling across the muddy turf to safety.
Thrown off balance, Tash was only stopped from falling over the horse’s left shoulder by her solid black neck swinging suddenly upwards and smacking her firmly on the crown, knocking her back into the saddle as the mare scrambled to her feet. Disoriented, yet still moving forwards in a lurching canter, they carried on towards the next fence while the girl and her dark saviour disappeared into the throng as quickly as they had appeared. Soon another competitor was splashing through the water to distract the crowd.