couldn't make any of it out very well. So it seemed to her that there was nothing for it but to engage in one small act of burglary. It was in a good cause, after all.
WHEN GORDON JOSSIE arrived back at his holding, he found Gina in the last place he would ever have expected to see her: the west paddock. She was at the far side of it, and he might have missed her altogether had not one of the ponies whinnied, which directed his attention over to them. He saw the blond of Gina's hair against the dark green backdrop of the wood in the distance. At first he thought she was merely walking on the far side of the paddock and beyond the fence, perhaps returning from a ramble in the trees. But when he climbed out of the pickup with Tess at his heels, he ventured over to the fence and found that Gina was actually within the paddock itself.
This sent his hackles soaring. From the first, Gina had made a considerable topic out of her fear of the New Forest ponies. So to find her inside the paddock with them aroused the sleeping cobra of distrust within him.
She hadn't noticed his arrival. She was pacing along the line of the barbed-wire fencing, and she seemed intent upon ignoring the ponies as well as watching for their droppings or taking care with her footwork since she had her eyes on the ground.
He called to her. She started, one hand clutching at the collar of her shirt. In the other hand she appeared to be carrying a map.
She was wearing, he saw, her knee-high Wellingtons. This told him that whatever else she was doing, once again she was worried about adders. Briefly he thought about explaining to her that adders wouldn't likely be in the paddock, that the paddock was not the heath. But this wasn't a moment for explanations on his part. There was a question to be answered about what she was doing in the paddock in the first place and about the map she was holding. She smiled and waved and folded it. She said with a laugh, "You gave me quite a fright."
"What're you doing?" He couldn't help it: His voice was sharp. He made a concerted effort to soften it, but he didn't quite manage to make his tone normal. "I thought ponies scared you."
She cast a look at the animals. They were meandering across the paddock in the direction of the water trough. Gordon gave it a look as he went over to the fence with Tess on his heels.
The water was low, and he went for the hosepipe and unspooled it to the paddock. He entered, telling the dog to stay where she was - which she didn't much like, pacing back and forth to show her displeasure - and he began topping up the trough.
As he did this, Gina picked her way in his direction, but she didn't do it by crossing directly over to him as another person might. Rather she went by way of the fence, keeping within inches of it as she moved along. She didn't answer him till she'd reached the eastern part of the paddock in this diligent fashion.
"You've found me out," she said. "Pooh. I did so want to make it a surprise." She cast a wary eye on the ponies. As she got closer to him, so also did she get closer to them.
"What surprise?" he asked. "And is that a map? What're you doing with a map? How c'n a map be part of a surprise?"
She laughed. "Please. One thing at a time."
"Why're you inside the paddock, Gina?"
She observed him for a moment before she answered. Then she said with care, "Is something wrong? Should I not be in here?"
"You said the New Forest ponies ...You said that horses in general - "
"I know what I said about horses. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't try to get over it."
"What are you talking about?"
Gina reached his side before she replied again. She ran her hand through her sparkly hair.
Despite his agitation, he liked to see her do this. He liked the way it fell back into place so perfectly no matter how she - or he - disheveled it. "Getting over an irrational fear," she told him. "It's called desensitisation. Haven't you ever heard of people who get over their fears by being exposed to them?"