jockey. At six foot two, he was too tall for a jump jockey and turned instead to show jumping, but there was no way he could make big money out of the sport in America. His brothers complained he always smelled of the stables and flew off to further the cause of the Ferranti empire whenever he came home.
Deciding to cut his losses, Dino enrolled at Massachusetts Institute of Technology to major in business economy. When he took his freshman exams, his papers were exemplary until the last exam, when, such was his despair, he staggered in dead drunk in a dinner jacket just as everyone was picking up their pens. Waving a half- empty gin bottle, he proceeded to offer it round to other shocked and frantically shushing candidates, before passing out at his desk.
Such was the brilliance of his other papers, all straight A’s, that the examiners overlooked such a lapse. Dino was elected president of the next year’s class. Paco was so delighted that the day Dino was due to come home for the vacation a plane landed on the campus airstrip — Paco’s reward for his son’s success.
Dino promptly flew home, kissed his mother and, having thanked his father, asked for a private word in the library.
“Dad, business isn’t for me.”
Paco was astounded. “But you’re doing so well.”
“I didn’t want to embarrass you by having a Ferranti fail, and I guess I hate losing, too, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in an office. You’ve got other sons to do that. I’m going to jump horses.”
Paco sighed. “Still, still. Why can’t you do both?”
“Because horses need you twenty-four hours a day, just as a successful business does. I’m a great rider, I know it. I want to be up there competing against the best in the world. It is the only life I want to lead.”
“Are you asking or telling me?”
“Telling,” said Dino gently. “If you’re prepared to help me, I’ll be eternally grateful. If not, I’ll make it on my own.”
“You can’t make a living out of it.”
“In Europe, I can.” He saw the sadness in his father’s eyes. “I’m not a loser. I won’t starve. I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t try.”
Paco looked at his favorite son reflectively. “All straight A’s — all but one, when you were loaded. I never guessed how much you were hating it. That takes guts. Maybe you’ll make a go of it. I’ll make a bargain with you. I’ll help you out for the first five years, so you can stay in the States.”
Five years later, almost to the day, Dino arrived in Les Rivaux.
* * *
The World Championships start with a Nations’ Cup. The twenty riders in this event who have the least faults go through to the next leg, which consists of three grueling individual competitions. The four riders who average out the least faults in these go through to the final. A compulsory rest day follows. Then the final takes place in which each of the four riders jump their own horse, and then in turn the horses of the other three riders.
Great Britain had patchy fortunes in the Nations’ Cup. Rupert produced two dazzling clears on Snakepit. Humpty, trying to impress a new sponsor, jumped disastrously with over twenty faults in both rounds. Driffield went clear, then went to pieces in the second round. Jake had eight faults in the first round, then went clear.
The Americans jumped brilliantly; so did the Germans, putting them first and second, with the British a poor third. This meant four American riders, four Germans, Rupert, Jake, Wishbone, Piero Fratinelli, the Italian Number One, a couple of Mexicans and, to the ecstasy of the French crowd, Guy de la Tour, went through to the semifinal.
By the third and final competition of the semifinal, Ludwig and Rupert were so far ahead on points that they virtually only had to stand up to get into the last four. The class consisted of ten enormous fences, with a jump-off against the clock. Rupert got eight faults, Ludwig twelve, which ensured them a place in the final. Dino went clear. Only Jake and Count Guy were left to jump.
“It’ll be you, me, Ludwig, and Guy,” Rupert said to Dino as he came out of the ring. “One from each country. Very suitable.”
Jake was so incensed by Rupert’s contemptuous assumption that there was no likelihood he would make the final, that he was prepared to carry Macaulay over the fences if necessary.
“You must win this class, even to qualify,” said Malise, giving Macaulay a pat as Jake rode off into the ring.
Macaulay was obviously determined to give all his supporters a heart attack. Fooling around, pretending to shy at the crowd, bucking and getting up to all sorts of antics between fences, he nevertheless went clear, kicking up his heels in a sort of equine V-sign.
Everyone got out their calculators, trying to work out whether he was in or not. In came Guy, who was ahead of both Dino and Jake on points. Laughing, handsome, he was turned on by a big crowd, particularly of his own people. He could feel the waves of love and admiration wafting over like a hot blow dryer.
Coming up to the penultimate fence, a huge upright which had unsettled everyone except Macaulay, Guy’s spectacular black gelding, Charlemagne, gave it a mighty clout. Everyone held their breath, but the pole stayed put. Alas, Guy made the mistake of looking round, like Orpheus, and the Eurydice he lost was his place in the championship. His concentration snapped and he put Charlemagne wrong at the combination. The horse hadn’t enough impulsion to get far enough over the first element and demolished the second and the third. The crowd groaned. All round the course, riders and their retinues were frantically tapping their calculators.
“It’s worse than A-level math,” grumbled Fen.
Next moment, Malise came up to Jake, with a barely suppressed expression of delight on his face.
“You’re in,” he said.
Americans were crowding around Dino, punching him on the arm.
“We’re in, we’re in.”
No one dared show any elation in the face of such bitter French despair. Financially and, from the point of view of national morale, it was essential that the host nation had at least one rider in the final. The crowd were too stunned to clap. The commentator was too stunned even to translate into English his announcement that Rupert, Dino, Ludwig, and Jake would go through.
Dino and Jake decided not to jump off. They wanted to rest their horses for the final. They rode into the ring together. Twenty thousand francs would be divided between them, but not the huge vase that went to the winner. It looked just like an urn.
“Oh, my God, we can’t exactly break it in half,” said Dino. “You better keep it, Jake. I’m sure it’s to put your ashes in.”
Hell, thought Rupert, I’m going to have to ride that black bugger after all.
34
It was one thing to get through to the final but quite another to have to think about it for the next two days. Ludwig was lucky. The German team liked each other, ate, drank, sightsaw, sunbathed, and worked their horses together. All were firmly rooting for Ludwig. A German victory was all that mattered. Dino received the same support from the American team.
Malise sighed and wished he could unite the British in the same way. But Rupert, Humpty, and Driffield were all individuals motivated by self-interest and ambition and frantic jealousy. Nor could you expect any solidarity from Jake Lovell, a loner who liked to keep to himself at shows. At earlier shows, Billy had kept everyone sweet, particularly Rupert. Now he was absent, tempers and hatreds flared up. Driffield’s persistent grumbling was getting on everyone’s nerves. Humpty was in despair, knowing his newly acquired sponsors would be far from happy he hadn’t made the final. Rupert and Jake made no secret of their mutual animosity. It was ironic, thought Malise, that each would get more of a kick from finishing in front of the other than winning the championship.
