‘Oh, pull yourself together, Mother,’ chided Martin. ‘What does it matter? Think of the money you owe us on the bungalow, and you need a new car to take the kids to school,’ he whispered furiously.
‘What a thoroughly unpleasant man you are,’ drawled Alan. ‘I know exactly who’s trying to buy her,’ he added, glancing round the astounded room. ‘Shade Murchieson has wangled a box near the winning post at Cheltenham and plans to use it to entertain five hundred of his grubby clients during the festival. All his grubby clients want is to meet Mrs Wilkinson. Shade absolutely detests Marius and Valent and so does Harvey-Holden, so does my egregious brother-in-law,’ he nodded at Martin. ‘So they’ve hatched a vile plot to snatch Wilkie from under our noses on the eve of the Gold Cup. Shade has sold so many bombs and weapons he’s just paid himself a fifty million bonus and he wants to go shopping.’
There was an appalled silence, followed by an explosion from the Major. ‘How dare you. You couldn’t be more wrong.’
‘Oh, there’ll be a nice cut for you, Major, probably another villa in the Portuguese sun above a nudist beach,’ said Alan, now taking flashy shorthand notes.
‘That is offensive.’
‘And true,’ smiled Alan.
Overhead they could hear the droning rattle of an approaching helicopter.
‘As Bonny so rightly points out,’ said Martin, ‘it’s only a horse.’
‘She is not,’ sobbed Etta. Then, turning furiously on the Major, ‘You bloody little man, we can’t let her go back to Harvey-Holden, he’s a sadist, he tortures his horses. Look what he did to darling Bullydozer.’
‘Who would probably still be alive if H-H had him in training and that cack-handed Rafiq hadn’t been put up on him,’ said Shagger bitchily. ‘I say sell. Let’s have some more fizz, Major.’
‘No, no, we can’t betray Marius either.’ Etta leapt forward, hammering Shagger’s great chest with her fists.
‘Well done, Granny,’ shouted Trixie.
‘Pull yourself together, Mother,’ said a shaken Martin, wondering if he ought to slap Etta’s face.
Next moment, all the pub windows rattled as a red and grey helicopter landed on the village green, scattering daffodils.
‘It can’t park there,’ yelled the Major.
‘Hurrah,’ cried Dora, looking out of the window, ‘the US Cavalry have arrived,’ as sprinting up the high street came Valent. Alerted by Alan earlier, he’d been on holiday in Dubai with Ryan and the children and had just come off the beach. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, shorts and espadrilles. As he stormed into the room, Etta ran to him.
‘Thank God, thank God, Harvey-Holden and Shade have made a massive offer for Wilkie and everyone wants to accept it.’
Valent was so angry at first, he couldn’t speak, then he roared:
‘Bloody, bloody traitors, bloody turncoats. After all that little mare has done for you. Raced her heart out, put this pub back in business, saved you all, saved Willowwood, and you’ve just got bloody greedy. I know times are tough, but do you honestly want to go down in history as the traitors who sold the People’s Pony down the river to the most evil thugs in the world? And Alan will record every word if you do.’
As he scowled round at them, most of the syndicate decided they didn’t.
‘If Wilkie wins, she’ll be worth even more of a fortune as a brood mare. Wait until after the race and I’ll top Shade’s offer.’ He unpinned a photograph of Wilkie and Chisolm from the wall and put it in his pocket.
‘That’s over fifty thousand,’ hissed Phoebe.
‘Examine your consciences,’ Valent said sternly. ‘Can you honestly let her go?’
‘Where are you going?’ squawked Bonny as he went towards the door.
‘Back to Dubai.’
‘Thank you, thank you,’ gasped Etta, running after him into the street.
For a second they gazed at each other.
‘I’m so sorry about Bullydozer,’ she stammered, ‘such a lovely horse. It was so incredibly kind of you to come back.’
To her utter astonishment, he touched her cheek.
‘I’ve missed you,’ he said roughly. ‘You’ll find a present outside your bungalow,’ and he was gone.
A shell-shocked Etta went back into the pub, where reluctantly the syndicate were deciding to wait. If Valent was going to up the offer it was worth taking a gamble. But there were some very angry people and Shade and Harvey-Holden would obviously be even more determined to take Mrs Wilkinson out in the race.
Etta was too bemused to hang around. Bonny was looking daggers; Martin was clearly dying to lecture her, so she switched on her