Knowing she was trapped there had made me smile as I cruised down the motorway. I’d almost prayed for a crash. A nice big truck running into the back of my car, I would have walked away bruised but alive, she would have been nothing but pulp dripping onto the tarmac.
Instead, as I heard the thumps and muffled shouts as we neared my destination. She’d tried to fight as I dragged her out, but she was as weak as the other girl had been. Another one too lazy to work, more likely she thought she was above the menial tasks reserved just for her groom.
I knew there would be outbuildings. I’d found an empty cellar which was going to be perfect, it was part of the abandoned farmyard. I’d been told the new lady of the house didn’t want to put up with cows close to the big house so they had been moved. This silent farmyard would be a perfect place to dump the bitch.
She’d fought and struggled, but that was soon knocked out of her, a few days without food and water and she was soon begging me, pleading and crying, saying she would be a good girl.
I had looked down on her on that day, seeing her for who she really was. This wasn’t an Olympic hopeful or a rider who would fight for the win. Instead, she was a frightened little girl. She disgusted me. To think I’d put my heart and soul into looking after her, supporting her and there she was, snotty and weeping, I’d thought she’d been a fighter, nothing could have been further from the truth.
I sipped the cool liquid again, considering my next steps. Now, I had two of them and they needed to be dealt with. I’d had admired Kate before, but she was no better than the other one and she had Adam. I had wanted him but it was clear, while she was around, he would never be mine.
In the end, the only one I felt sorry for was Adam. I’d liked him, but it was clear he only had eyes for his wife, we could have had some good times together. However, he’d turned me down, so in the end, I had no regrets. He had been an unfortunate casualty of war. Things could have been so different, there were winners and losers and he had picked the losing side in the war.
And this was a war. I couldn’t have sat back and allowed this to happen. So, I’d stepped up and done what needed to be done, as with any war there were losses. Casualties. It was regrettable, but these things happen.
And now I have found it in my heart to move on. I’d found this new job, it was a rather charmed life. A Hollywood ‘A-lister’ who had married into the British aristocracy and wanted to live the country life a few days a month for hunting, shooting and dinner parties. Apart from that, I was just about the only person on the estate and only because the horses needed regular care and exercise, I was left pretty much alone, yes, I saw gardeners in the distance every so often and, on hunt days I saw herself. She would waft in, take the horse from me, canter around the field for a short time and then make her excuses. It was perfect for a new start and I was damned if I was going to let interlopers from my past ruin my new opportunity.
No, I was virtually alone, in hundreds of acres of land, with the farm abandoned and the house empty. I was sure I could find a way to make two inconvenient people disappear. Neither of them had anyone looking for them. Hilary had been an only child, her parents had died some years before so they wouldn’t see her disgrace or question her demise and as for Kate, well, I think I had done my work pretty well and it would be at least twenty-five years before he would be able to come looking for her. Her sister-in-law had been easy to put off the scent. I would have liked to have drugged her. She was a real fighter, I would have so savoured breaking her, but no. It wasn’t to be.
Yes, I would deal with the situation, then I could truly relax. Spend my days looking after just four horses. A couple of hours grooming and mucking out, a couple of relaxed hours hacking in the private parkland as if I was the lady of the Manor. This was the way to live, forget the early starts and stress of competition days. Plaiting two horses for a lunchtime meeting, driving the box for a few minutes before sitting in the warmth waiting to collect the horses and go home again an hour or so later. Bliss.
All I had to do was deal with the two problems currently locked under the main barn in what had once been the slurry pit. Fitting really. I supposed I could just ignore them and the problem would pretty much go away, but that would have its own complications. I had to be a bit more creative.
Oh, this would be a challenge. I wanted to see Hilary beg. I wanted her to understand how important I had been to her life. I wanted to hold her life in my hands, oh that would be amazing, the mere thought sent a shiver down my spine. That final moment of realisation for her when she realises how she would have been nothing without me. I want her to recognise that before I let her go.
As for the other one, I hardly knew her, she’d
