Sellers - Trouble Rides a Fast Horse

Trouble Rides

a Fast Horse

by

Elizabeth Sellers

TROUBLE RIDES A FAST HORSE

Copyright 2012 by Elizabeth Sellers
Cover design 2012 by Fairytale Backgrounds

The right of Elizabeth Sellers to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This is a work of fiction and should in no way be construed to
represent any individual or place unless otherwise stated.

Any correlation with real people or events is coincidental.

All Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher and copyright owner, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

ISBN # 978-1-909278-16-5

First published in Great Britain in 2012 by Sunberry Books

(an imprint of the Sunpenny Publishing Group)

www.sunberrybooks.com

MORE BOOKS FROM SUNBERRY:

If Horses Were Wishes, by Elizabeth Sellers

The Skippers Child, by Valerie Poore

COMING SOON:

The Rose Flowered Cup, by Wendy Schonfeldt

Theres an Elephant in my Sink, by Stephen Nuttall

The Harry Stories, by Stephen Nuttall

Theres a Chicken in my Doek, by Jacqueline Dowling

Sending Narda, by Jo Holloway

God Goes to Scotland, by Stephanie Parker McKean

Dedication

For Bryony Alexandra Logan

and

For James Douglas Logan

I love you more.

Acknowledgements

As always, a big thank-you to the Sunpenny team for their ongoing support.

In this, the second book in the series, I would like to say thank you to all the people who purchased the first book in this series, If Horses Were Wishes. Thank you particularly to those of you, worldwide, who have taken the time to write such wonderfully positive reviews. I hope you enjoy book two as much as you all enjoyed book one. Please pass it on, tell your friends, and dont forget to write those reviews!

A very special thank you to Sheila Pennington and Karen Molson for their preview of the If Horses Were Wishes manuscript. Also, my eternal gratitude to Ann Pennington and James Sellers for driving hundreds of miles to support the book launch, and to Hatherop Castle School in Cirencester, England, and Elmwood School, in Ottawa, Canada, for hosting the launches.

Thank you to the Jaring family and to Karen Molson for all your hard work on photography, for being such great friends, and for helping me in ways too numerous to mention.

Last, but most certainly not least, a special mention to my dear friend, Kathy Ruston, who has supported me, helped me, made me laugh, and kept my accounts in order. I look forward to the next Thelma and Louise adventure.

Chapter 1

Katy was running. It was impossible to drag enough air into her lungs, and she could hear herself wheezing as she fought to keep going. She was on a cliff. No, she was swimming. No, she was in a forest. There were trees everywhere; nowhere left to run. She was scratched, bleeding, exhausted. There was something tickling her left ear.

Katy jerked upright and shook her head. The nightmare images continued to dance in front of her, then faded as she took in her familiar surroundings. She scrambled to her feet and shook her head again to dislodge the bit of straw that was still tickling her ear. Next door she could hear the comforting sound of Tommy moving about. She went over to her door and stuck her head out.

Tommy!

Hmm ? came the sleepy reply.

I just had a bad dream.

Hmm?

Do you want to know what it was about? Katy asked.

Hmmph! Not really, but I suppose youre going to tell me anyway.

I was being chased. I was running as fast as I could and getting exhausted, but I couldnt figure out where I was or who was chasing me.

Katy heard a shuffle from next door and then Tommys head appeared. He yawned widely. Be breakfast soon.

What? How can you tell? Its still dark. Katy looked up at the stars. There were three in a row amongst the varied constellations that had always seemed to her to point towards home. She picked them out before turning to listen to Tommys answer.

My stomach tells me. Definitely soon.

Anyway, about my dream. Its really strange, cause in my dream I wasnt a horse, I was a girl again.

Tommy yawned again. I mostly dream about food.

Well, that doesnt surprise me, Katy retorted with some asperity. But that means horses do dream, right?

Yeah, sure.

Do you ever dream about anything apart from food?

Sometimes, I guess. I dream about being ridden, or going to shows and stuff like that.

I used to have bad dreams a lot when I was a foster kid, Katy said . Its funny, though, I dont remember having any since that bright white light thingy turned me into a horse.

You havent had any dreams at all since you er well, since youve been here?

Ive had dreams, I think. Not bad dreams though.

Katy thought back. She remembered not sleeping well for a long time whilst she was a foster kid, and the nightmares she used to have. She never did find out why Social Services took her from her parents and her home, but still vividly remembered the night when they did. There had been a lot of screaming and crying, herself as well as her parents. After that, there were years being shunted from place to place and school to school, being bullied and having no friends and nobody to talk to.

The last move had been to Fallon, and at the school there she had met Sandra Magill, for whom she had swiftly developed a deep admiration. Sandra was everything that Katy was not; attractive, popular, and fun to be with. Katy had spent one wonderful day with Sandra and her friends at the Fallon Show, feeling as if she belonged.

Afterwards, walking home through the woods, she had been chased by Roger and his gang of bullies. Katy shuddered anew at the memory. She had ended up spending the night in a glade in the wood, and sometime in the dark hours she had awoken to a bright light and the hint of voices.

She had woken again in the morning to discover she was no longer a girl; she had somehow been turned into a horse.

She had run again then, she remembered. Run in panic, blindly through the woods, and ended up here, at Sandras house. Maybe it was the memory of those events that had brought on her nightmare.

Tommy?

Tommys eyes were half closed, his head drooping over his stable door and his bottom lip hanging slackly down.

Tommy! Katy thought the word loudly this time, remembering when she had first found out that horses can talk to each other through their thoughts.

Eh? What? No need to shout!

Do you have nightmares?

Whats a night mare? Is that a girl horse that only goes out at night?

Er, no. Its a bad dream.

Oh no, Tommy said.

It must be my human part thats having them, then. That must be why I was a girl and not a horse in the dream.

Still glad youre a horse, then?

Yeah, absolutely. Ive decided this is home. Ive got friends here theres you, of course, and Sandra and Babs. Then theres Toni and Rona and Mark. Ive never had so many friends. And Sandra loves having me as her horse, even though it did feel a little peculiar the first time after she found out I was really Katy-the-girl.

You havent told them all yet how it happened, have you?

No. Katy pondered for a moment. They kind of know its something to do with the glade, but as you know, the only way I can communicate with them is using my teeth to hold a magic marker, and writing blindly, so its difficult to say more than a word or two at a time. Im not even sure what happened that night, just that I was scared and crying and wishing I could be more horsey so that I would be accepted by Sandra and her friends. Then there was the light, and in the morning I was a horse.