‘He can care for me any time,’ giggled Cindy. ‘Phwoar, he’s well fit, he looks very pashnit.’
‘For Christ’s sake smile, Rafiq,’ hissed Dora.
‘Why’s horsey called Furious?’ asked Cindy.
‘Because he’s furious he hasn’t had someone as pretty as you on his back before,’ said Dora.
Cindy’s shrieks of mirth made even Cheesecake bound forward. At that moment, Lester Bolton rolled up in a vast Range Rover, and in a nothing-is-too-good-for-my-Cindy mood.
‘If you want this ’orse, princess, he’s yours. He’s certainly a nice-looking animal. Blood will out of course.’
‘And bloody-mindedness in Furious’s case,’ murmured Dora.
‘I love him.’ Cindy hugged Cheesecake. ‘He and Rafiq are to come and stay at Primrose Mansions on their ’olidays.’
‘So glad you made it today, Mr Bolton,’ whispered Dora. ‘So many big hitters are after Furious, they’ll tear their hair out.’
As Marius was at the races, Miss Painswick and the Major accepted the cheque.
‘Better frame it,’ said Dora.
‘It’s Bolton that’s been framed,’ said Painswick. ‘Better get Cheesecake back to the riding school before Marius returns.’
‘Can’t we keep him?’ sighed Dora.
Marius was not amused when Painswick showed him the cheque.
‘So I’ve got to deal with that monster on the telephone twenty-four hours a day now.’
‘You ought to be very grateful to Dora,’ snapped Painswick. ‘She masterminded the whole thing.’
At that moment, Dora sidled in.
‘Can we have a word about Mrs Wilkinson, Mr Oakridge?’ she asked politely.
‘No, we may not,’ said Marius, pouring himself a large whisky.
‘She’s not at all happy, and she jumps when you approach her suddenly from the wrong side. She’s slumped in her box with her head down. She needs a good win to cheer her up.’
Marius glared at Dora’s sweet round face, the picture of innocence, as she continued.
‘Companion animals are allowed on most racecourses. Cheltenham’s had ducks, hens, sheep, cats and goats. Rupert Campbell-Black’s Love Rat wouldn’t leave his box without his pony friend. The pony went into the parade ring and down to the start of the Derby and Rupert had to put Love Rat in blinkers so he wouldn’t see the pony hadn’t started and wasn’t racing with him.’
‘I know all this,’ snapped Marius, looking at his post with slightly less alarm because of Bolton’s cheque.
‘Poor little Chisolm meanwhile,’ Dora stopped to remove a burr from Mistletoe’s tail, ‘is going into a decline. She’s losing weight, her coat’s dull. Being abandoned for hours in her box must remind her of being trapped in that terrible compression chamber. And when Wilkie goes out without her she always gets up to mischief, butting Bolton’s skip lorry back into Willowwood last week, and if she’s shut away, she drives the other horses and the lads crackers with her pathetic bleating. Wilkie, on the other hand, needs Chisolm’s reassuring presence. Look what a state she got herself into at Wetherby. And if Chisolm fades away, Wilkie will also go into a decline, and you don’t want to jeopardize the career of a world-beater.’
‘Shut up, Dora,’ howled Marius, curling his hand round the bronze horse Mrs Wilkinson had won at Ludlow. ‘Just shut up and get out, I don’t need idiot schoolgirls to tell me how to run my yard.’
Head hanging, shoulders heaving, giving pitiful little sobs, Dora had reached the door when an infuriated Marius called out, ‘Oh, for Christ’s sake, let the bloody goat go along then.’
Dora’s tears dried as instantly as a summer shower, and she beamed at Marius.
‘Oh, thank you so much, Chisolm will be absolutely delighted. She’ll be such a talking point at the races, I’m going to get her a new green collar and lead. Wilkie will have even more fans. Did you know that since Bonny, Seth and Corinna joined the syndicate, she’s been getting five hundred hits a day on her website?’
‘Website?’ thundered Marius.
‘Of course,’ said Dora sweetly, ‘and you’ll never guess, I’ve taught Wilkie to lie down – I know Count Romeo does it automatically – but think what a joke it would be if we could get Jude the Obese on her back at the fête and make Wilkie pretend to collapse. She might anyway. And if Bolton parks his Chelsea tractor on the pavement, poor Jude will never get up the high street. She’ll be traffic-jammed. What a problem for the Major!’
Seeing Marius was trying not to laugh, Dora said sternly, ‘You ought to thank Miss Painswick. She organized the whole thing and got Lester to pay up.’
70
Bolton joined the syndicate and was quite awful. At his first meeting