Jade and the Hunters Read online

  Jade nodded, staring at her muddy boots. ‘Am I allowed to ride him?’ she asked, as Briar packed up her belongings — a long lead rope and stick, a bit like those Mr White used for lunging.

  ‘Sure. But take it slow and keep doing plenty of ground work. Remember, Jade, in the past two hours you’ve got your harassed, nervous pony to a point where you can start afresh. Now your job is to make sure he doesn’t slip back into old habits. Keep building him up now. Slowly and surely.’

  Jade didn’t have to ask — she knew that attending the pony club hunt wouldn’t count as ‘slowly and surely’.

  ‘Were you going to say something?’ Briar asked, seeing Jade’s mouth open.

  ‘Um,’ Jade began without thinking, ‘what do you think of hunting?’

  Briar laughed. ‘Don’t even think about it yet, Jade.’

  ‘No, I wasn’t,’ Jade lied. ‘Of course we’re not ready. I was just asking generally: do you think it’s good for horses?’

  Briar raised her eyebrows. ‘Nothing wrong with a cross-country ride — gives your horse the chance to run as part of a herd. But jumping a full-wire is never going to be safe. You know a hunter by the scar tissue on its legs. I don’t much like that. And the basic idea of chasing a prey animal until it’s torn to pieces by hounds — well, what do you think of that?’

  Jade was caught off-guard. Of course she didn’t approve of killing animals, even pests like rabbits and hares (were hares a pest?). She had seen the movie of Watership Down the year before and had become quite fond of rabbits. But still, she didn’t want to seem soft. Hares, and foxes in England, were bad for farms — hunting was practical. ‘I …’ she started, ‘… I don’t think I like it.’

  ‘Well, I’m vegetarian. Almost vegan, except I keep my chickens for eggs. That explains my position.’

  ‘OK.’ Jade felt suddenly guilty about the pastrami sandwich that was sitting squashed in the bottom of her bag. She waited until Briar and her old Cortina had left the Whites’ driveway before eating her lunch.

  ‘Are you going to have a ride now?’ Mr White asked. Was it a coincidence that he had happened to finish his weed-spraying just as Briar had gone?

  ‘I think we’ve done enough for today,’ Jade said shyly.

  ‘A kind of lunging, was it?’ Mr White asked.

  ‘Kind of.’

  ‘Well, he does seem more amenable now, so that’s good,’ Mr White said, finishing the conversation. He must have known Jade didn’t want to talk about it.

  ‘Mr White?’ Jade called, as he disappeared inside the big dark shed.

  ‘Yes, Jade?’

  ‘What do you think of hunting?’

  ‘I think,’ he said slowly, returning the weed-sprayer to its safe corner, ‘that on the right horse and with the right hunt it can be an extremely enjoyable way to spend a day. But, on the wrong horse, it can be stressful and dangerous.’

  ‘But is it right?’ Jade asked. ‘I mean, do you think it is OK to hunt?’

  ‘In New Zealand I don’t see much wrong with hunting hares, but I dislike the idea of hunting foxes like they do overseas,’ Mr White said, measuring his words. ‘Possibly because it’s a toffee-nosed affair, though, more than the fact that it’s a blood sport.’

  Jade nodded. She might poll her dad about it that night over dinner. Dinner would probably involve meat, Jade thought sadly.

  ‘Frankfurters are ready!’ Jade heard her dad call from the kitchen. She paused the DVD at an unflattering frame of Mike Corretto winking towards the camera.

  As with Briar, Jade could predict her dad’s response to the hunting question, but wanted to ask him anyway. She waited until they had both assembled their hot dogs: her dad’s with mustard and onions; hers with grated cheese and tomato sauce.

  ‘Just like a bought one from the A & P show,’ her dad said happily, with his mouth full.

  This was a classic ‘Dad dinner’ — the sort of food Jade’s dad would cook when her mum had been away overnight for work or visiting elderly relatives. Despite the fact that it was only the two of them now, frankfurters were still a rare, lazy treat. Now that every dinner was a Dad dinner, he had been forced to expand his repertoire. It was, to Jade’s discomfort now, mainly meat-based.

  ‘What do you think of hunting?’ Jade asked, trying not to sound rehearsed.

  ‘Pig hunting? Duck hunting?’ her dad asked.

  ‘No — horse hunting.’

  ‘Horse hunting!’

  ‘You know what I mean: hunting foxes or hares while riding. With hounds.’

  Her dad squinted at the mustard jar, considering the question. ‘Posh, anachronistic, cruel, potentially dangerous and probably quite exciting. In that order.’

  Exactly as Jade had expected.

  ‘Oh, and most importantly, something I’d rather you didn’t do.’

  ‘But Zoe is a hunter, and you left me in her “care”,’ Jade argued, not because she particularly wanted to hunt, but for the sake of debate.

  ‘You may have forgotten that I didn’t have many options then,’ her dad said, helping himself to more salad. ‘And, even if she has a hobby I don’t really understand, that doesn’t mean she’s a bad baby-sitter.’

  ‘Everyone else is going to the pony club hunt next weekend,’ Jade said. ‘Should I go, too? It’ll be safe,’ she added uncertainly.

  ‘If you’re asking me,’ her dad said, ‘I suspect you don’t really want to go. After all, if you did, you would have waited until the night before to tell me and then kicked up a fuss when I said no. So,’ he said, looking pleased with himself, ‘I think you shouldn’t go. You want to, so that you don’t miss out on a fun day with Becca, but you know deep down that it’s not a good idea with a difficult new pony like Tani the Terrible.’

  ‘Something like that,’ Jade mumbled. He had understood the situation exactly.

  ‘What does Mr Corretto have to say about whipping horses into a frenzy and making them jump wire?’ her dad added, beginning to clear the table.

  ‘I don’t know. I haven’t got very far with the DVD yet,’ Jade said.

  ‘Well, do you mind waiting until tomorrow to watch the rest? Mad Men’s on tonight and I can’t miss it.’

  Jade sighed dramatically. ‘But it’s so, so boring.’

  ‘That’s how I find your natural horsemanship DVD, but I let you watch that while I cooked you a delicious dinner.’

  ‘We need two TVs.’

  Her dad laughed. ‘Read a book, Jade. It’ll do you good.’

  With a Milo, her electric blanket on, and National Velvet, Jade soon forgot about the television.

  Velvet would definitely go hunting, Jade thought. Velvet wouldn’t listen to Briar. But in the cold, hard light of the following week, Jade chickened out. After five days at school talking excitedly about galloping over rolling hills, she finally phoned Becca on Friday night and said she wouldn’t be needing a lift in the truck the next day.

  ‘I’d probably be too scared to ride Tani on a hunt, too,’ Becca said, condescendingly.

  ‘It’s not that I’m too scared!’ Jade snapped down the phone. ‘I just don’t want to upset Tani’s natural-horse-training programme. There’s no such thing as a quick fix, you know.’

  ‘My mum says that Briar Rose lady is a con artist and a brainwasher, who wants everyone to buy Corretto products,’ Becca snapped back. ‘It sounds to me like an equestrian pyramid scheme.’

  ‘A what?’

  ‘You know: a hoax where you lose all your money, then make other people lose their money. Except with horses, too.’

  ‘I really don’t think that’s what Briar Rose is doing.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘Because she came and gave me a lesson at Mr White’s — for free!’

  Becca was quiet. ‘Well, OK. I guess I’ll see you at school next week.’

  ‘OK,’ Jade said stiffly.

  ‘No, wait — remember we said we’d have a mocha at Laura’s café on Sunday? I’ll see you then.’


  Jade remembered — she had just worried that, since she had chickened out of hunting, she wouldn’t be invited. They had said hot chocolate, but Becca was being haughty.

  ‘Yep, see you on Sunday then.’

  It was nice to spend some time with Laura, their cheerful blonde friend who cared more about dogs than horses. Jade, who lived around the corner from the café, arrived early. She perched on a stool next to the coffee machine, enjoying its warmth and the smell of ground beans mingling with fresh baking. Laura’s mum had tried a new muffin recipe — pear and chocolate — and needed the girls to be taste-testers.

  ‘Were you riding this morning?’ Laura asked, raising her voice over the squeal of the milk-frothing machine.

  ‘Not really,’ Jade said.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I was with the ponies, but doing some ground training,’ Jade said, self-consciously.

  ‘What’s ground training?’

  ‘Well, it’s like teaching Tani to listen to my commands while I’m on the ground but without any bits or saddles or force.’

  ‘Like I do with Bubble and Squeak when I make them do obstacle courses?’ Bubble and Squeak were Laura’s fox terriers.

  ‘Sort of.’ Jade quickly changed the topic as Becca walked in; she didn’t want another argument about Briar Rose. ‘How was the hunt?’ she asked, trying to seem jolly.

  ‘Ah-mazing!’ Becca exclaimed. ‘Really, really fun. Dusty jumped everything beautifully. I wish you’d been there, too,’ Becca added, seeing Jade’s crestfallen face.

  ‘I’m glad it was fun — maybe next year, when Tani’s more ready,’ Jade said.

  There was a tinkle of bells as the café door opened. It was usually quiet on a Sunday afternoon. ‘Jade!’

  Jade spun round on her stool. ‘Zoe?’

  ‘Is this the companion?’ Laura whispered, too loudly.

  ‘What?’ Zoe asked.

  ‘Nothing!’ Jade replied quickly. ‘What have you been up to?’ Zoe had clearly been riding. She looked impressive, in a dishevelled way, in long black boots — spurs still on — dirty fawn jodhpurs and a grey woollen jersey. Under the jersey Jade could see a white stock held in place by a pin with what looked like the tiny gold head of a fox on it. Despite the smear of dirt on her forehead, and the strands of blonde hair coming loose from her pony tail, Zoe looked about eighteen.

  ‘Just finished a hunt. Mum wanted coffee.’

  ‘I went hunting yesterday,’ Becca said.

  ‘Oh, really? Which club?’

  ‘The pony club hunt.’

  ‘Pony club?’ Zoe repeated. ‘Did you have fun?’

  ‘It was incredibly fun!’

  ‘In that case you should try real hunting. You could be my guest at the next meet if you like. Actually — this is a great idea — there’s one on our farm next week. You should come to that. And you too, Jade — I’d love to see your cute little pony again.’

  Jade flinched slightly. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘C’mon, it’ll be fun. You two could even stay for a few nights. There’s heaps of room at our house.’

  ‘It is school holidays next week,’ Laura cut in. ‘You guys should definitely go; sounds like you’d have a great time. And I’ll be OK working in the shop. We can have our sleepover some other time.’ Laura’s sad sincerity was coming across as sarcasm.

  ‘What’s your name?’ Zoe asked.

  ‘Laura.’

  ‘Laura, you’re welcome to come, too. Like I said, there’s heaps of room, and if you wanted to ride as well there are horses spare. Mum would love having some new faces around. She keeps telling me to bring friends home, but no one from school wants to spend their holidays in crappy little Flaxton.’

  Jade looked from Laura’s beaming face to Becca’s flushed grin. ‘I guess it could be fun,’ she said. ‘If your mum doesn’t mind …’

  ‘She’ll love it!’ Zoe said, grabbing the two takeaway cups of flat white.

  ‘Would you like a muffin? It’s a new recipe Mum’s trying,’ Laura asked Zoe. Although Laura wouldn’t enjoy killing animals for sport, Jade could see that her impressionable friend was now entranced by the glamorous older girl.

  ‘Isn’t that cool?’ Becca said, grabbing Jade’s arm after Zoe had left. ‘A real riding holiday!’

  Holiday with the Deaths

  You don’t have to do this, you know,’ Jade’s dad said, watching his daughter reluctantly packing folded track pants into her pack.

  Jade gave him a look.

  ‘You don’t!’ He tried again. ‘You know what this is called? Peer pressure.’

  ‘It might be good for me and Tani,’ Jade said. It would definitely be good for her friendship with Laura and Becca. Having already chickened out of the pony club hunt, Jade felt like she’d run out of chances. No, a holiday with the Deaths was unavoidable.

  ‘It is kind of Zoe to invite you all to stay. And of her parents to look after three extra giggling girls for a week — I wouldn’t have the strength for it!’

  ‘So, you’re glad to get rid of me for a bit?’

  ‘Not at all,’ her dad said, giving Jade a quick kiss on the head before refolding a messy sweatshirt. ‘In fact, if you don’t come back in one piece, I’ll be furious. And it’s not necessarily the end of the world. One must make the best of such invitations. But just check with Mr White that he’s OK to look after Pip for a whole week. We don’t want to abuse his goodwill, you know.’

  Jade remembered her dad’s advice as Becca’s mum — who once again was ferrying Jade and Laura, as well as her own daughter, from A to B — indicated and turned into an imposing driveway.

  ‘Ugh, what are those creatures?’ Laura gasped, pointing at the ornaments on top of the stone gate posts.

  ‘Gargoyles — no, grotesques!’ Becca’s mum said.

  ‘Why on earth have ugly little monsters at your gate?’ Becca asked. ‘Why not lions or horse heads like other rich people?’

  ‘Rebecca, you are not to ask questions like that at all this week, OK?’

  ‘I know. I’m getting it out of my system now, while you’re here,’ Becca said, grinning appealingly. Becca’s mum shook her head.

  ‘Now, all of you, promise me you’ll be very careful — especially you, Laura,’ Becca’s mum started fussing once they had unloaded the skittish ponies onto a patch of grass behind the house.

  ‘Why me especially?’ Laura asked.

  ‘Because you’re less accustomed to being around horses.’

  ‘She’ll be fine — I’ll lend her slow old Sofia, my dud mare.’ A woman, who could only be Zoe’s mother, joined the conversation. ‘Prue Death,’ she said, extending her hand to Becca’s mum.

  ‘Christine, Becca’s mother,’ Becca’s mum said, taking Mrs Death’s hand. Prue Death was a good head taller than Becca’s petite mother and seemed to loom.

  ‘Zoe’s inside fighting with her brother, Bronson, but I’m sure she’ll be finished soon.’ Mrs Death beamed at the girls. ‘Let’s get your animals sorted.’

  Through the lead rope, Jade could feel Tani already bristling with excitement. Yet again she wished old Pip was still rideable. This outing would be no trouble at all with dependable Pip.

  ‘Who won?’ Prue said to Zoe, who had emerged from the back door of the house.

  ‘Don’t show off in front of my friends, Ma,’ Zoe said. She looked sullen but sounded jovial.

  It was all quite foreign to Jade, Zoe and her mother behaving as if they were friends rather than parent and child, but the dark, heavy smell of horses was comfortingly familiar as they led their ponies into the Deaths’ stable.

  ‘Dusty has a heavy rug; he’s been fine in the paddock so far this winter. And Taniwha’s exactly the same, if not hardier,’ Becca’s mum had tried to say, but Prue Death cut in.

  ‘No, that’s what the stables are for. We can turn them out into the home field this evening if it’s not too chilly.’

  It’s not even raining, thought Jade. />
  And after the surprise of the stables — which, to his credit, Tani took in his stride — came the cluttered activity of the house. The back door led straight into a large farm kitchen, in the centre of which was a wooden table designed to seat ten people. The clutter on top of the table looked like one of those party games where you have a moment to look at a tray of strange objects then, once removed, must remember them as best you can. Jade glanced at the table and looked away, playing the game briefly with herself. She could remember a pile of envelopes that looked like they might contain bills, a large bowl of slightly shrunken oranges, a jar of Nutella, half a baguette, a hoof-pick and some nail clippers.

  ‘Oh!’ Laura gasped from the next room — she had a habit of wandering curiously about a new house.

  ‘Don’t be alarmed, that’s just Grandfather’s collection,’ Zoe said, without turning around from where she was putting fresh water down for a cat or dog. ‘This is Grandfather,’ Zoe added to Jade and Becca, who were standing awkwardly by the table. She pointed to a black-and-white framed photo that hung very low on the wall, near the water bowl.

  ‘Oh,’ Jade said. She was curious about its position, but it seemed rude, or stupid, to ask.

  ‘It’s for the dog — Alan,’ Zoe said, predicting Jade’s question. ‘Alan, our German shepherd, was very fond of Grandfather, so we keep a photo of him here, near the water bowl.’

  ‘What’s your grandfather’s “collection”?’ Becca asked.

  ‘Loads of dead animals!’ Laura said, returning to the kitchen, excited.

  ‘Taxidermy,’ Zoe said. ‘They’re not just dead, they’re taxidermied; he did them himself.’

  This was immediately apparent to Jade as she followed Laura into the hallway where she’d already found the ‘collection’. There was a crazy-eyed stoat with a droopy tail, chasing an arrogant-looking rabbit. Above these was a stag, its antlers tilting dangerously sideways, giving it an undignified, quizzical look.

  ‘He was good,’ Jade lied.

  Zoe, who did not suffer fools, gave her a look.