four
Estel could walk, but Carme was right: it was better he rest overnight in a box than walk all the way back to the police stables.
David took the horse along to the end box, which was empty and where they’d just added fresh sawdust. Along the way he grabbed a halter and lead off a post. In the box, he fitted the halter and hitched Estel to the wall, before removing his bridle.
But this was where the horse began to play up.
The events of the morning had obviously been a little too much and now here he was in a strange box with a human he didn’t know.
He began to move around and stamp skittishly, tossing his head, even though David kept hold of the halter.
He crooned to the horse, trying to calm him, but the gelding was having none of it.
It was going to be tricky to unsaddle him in this mood without getting kicked.
For the moment David kept hold of his head and just kept crooning to him, trying to calm him down.
But the horse was getting panickier by the minute, trying to rear and pull away from his rope.
David kept his head down to keep him from rearing, and just hung on, hoping the fear would pass.
Then there was a whistle, and Ramon had slipped into the box. He was there beside David, calming and stroking the horse.
“Sorry, I forget, he has quite a character with people he does not know.”
As if to prove his point, Estel barged forward at that moment, pushing them both into the side of the box.
One of Ramon’s arms was around David, protecting him, while with his other hand, he had a stern hold of the halter, keeping Estel’s head down, while he scolded her in a deep growling voice in his language.
“OK, I’ll get out,” David said. “He’ll be calmer once I’m gone.”
And taking advantage of the fact that Ramon had backed Estel up a few steps, he slipped out of the box.
Once he had gone, Estel calmed somewhat, to the point where Ramon was able to unsaddle him.
Leaning on the door of the box, watching his quick, efficient movements, David was aware of missing the firm arm that had hugged his body for a few seconds as they’d struggled with Estel.
That was not where this was supposed to be going, and he forced his thoughts onto other things, like how Ramon’s black serge jodhpurs totally showed off his muscular thighs and gorgeous ass.
Definitely not what he should be thinking about.
Ramon got Estel unsaddled quickly once he’d calmed down. David took the saddle, saddle blanket and bridle off him.
“Anything he doesn’t eat?” he asked.
Ramon shook his head, his attention still on Estel.
So while Ramon was rubbing the horse down, he carried the gear along to the tack room and stored it.
There he measured out a ration of feed and took it back to the box, leaving it outside the door for when Ramon wanted it, and went in search of the water hose.
From outside the box, he filled up the water trough while Ramon was feeding Estel.
Then they both stood outside the box, watching the animal take his fill.
David was too conscious of Ramon’s athletic body resting a few inches away, lounging on the rail of the box.
His physicality, the awareness of that muscular body underneath his uniform’s rough serge, belts, and police-issue equipment.
And he liked the man’s love for his horse.
This was not the plan, not his plan at all.
David had grown up in the country. People worked with animals for lots of reasons: because they’d grown up in the lifestyle, and saw animals the way they might view a tractor or other piece of farm equipment—to be used, bought, or sold; for some, they were a way to make money, pure and simple, just part of the capitalist process, to be fattened, sold, and slaughtered for profit.
While most country folk would avoid the unnecessary suffering of animals for any reason, surprisingly few were in it because they loved animals, pure and simple.
But Ramon’s love for his horse shone through everything he did and said, the way he held himself and the way he moved, the decisions he made.
He knew he would never eat lunch or do anything for himself until his horse had been cared for.
“Don’t worry. We’ll look after him well here.”
Ramon turned his head and that penetrating stare swept over David’s features, locking onto his gaze. David felt like he was being read down into the depths of his soul, and judged.
“Thank you,” was all Ramon said.
They kept staring at each other a few moments longer, too long. David felt incapable of tearing his gaze away. Thankfully, right then there came a shout in heavily accented English:
“Hey, what are you two doing? Are you making the love back there or something?”
Ramon whirled and shouted something rapid fire back in his language. To David he sounded angry, but the other policeman just stood there with a smirk on his face, and yelled something back with a laugh. Then he turned away and went back into the yard.
“My partner, he has to go back to the station,” Ramon said. “Come on.”
That should have been David’s cue to make himself scarce, but he found himself following the policeman back out into the yard.
There followed a long back and forth conversation between Carme, Ramon, and the other policeman, who Ramon introduced as Jaume, Ramon’s patrol partner.
After what felt like a lot of back and forth, Jaume mounted and rode out of the yard with a wave of his hand, back the way they’d come. This was David’s chance:
“OK, you guys go off. I’ll stick around here. There’s work to be done.”
“Not a chance,” Carme replied. “I can’t afford to pay you much, but not every day does a tall dark stranger offer to buy you lunch. You’re coming with us.”
A tall dark copper, David thought. The last sort of guy I need to be buddying up to. But he was aware of Ramon’s eyes on him. The last thing he needed to do was arouse the guy’s suspicions.
“OK,” he shrugged. “Where to?”
“We can just go across the way,” Carme said. “The food’s good and decently priced.”
The other two shrugged, each in their own way suddenly tongue-tied. They set off together, Carme in the middle, the two men flanking her.
Ramon tried to follow the flow of Carme’s conversation while they walked, mainly staring ahead or occasionally turning to Carme when he replied, but all his peripheral attention was focussed on the young man slouching along on her other side, the blond English guy who had treated his horse.
The effect had been almost immediate. He didn’t believe in love at first sight, but…
What was this? Lust, he supposed. Though it didn’t feel like that.
He’d seen him when they’d first turned into the stable yard, which, being sited in the lee of the old La Foixarda Quarry, caught the shade for most of the morning.
This guy had been slouching out from the direction of the boxes, and the first thing Ramon had noticed about him was his walk.
He loped along fluidly, almost like a dog or fox, sliding along parallel to the ground.
There’d been a moment when he’d seen them and stopped dead.
And the way he’d stared at them for a long moment, like a fox caught in a car’s headlamps, it was as if some deep understanding had passed between them.
In that instant, the morning sunlight, filtering through the trees on the ridge behind, had struck him full on, turning his mop of fine blond hair into a blazing beacon of burnished gold. And Ramon had been entranced.
Aged about twenty-five, he was shortish, trim but muscular, and dressed just in rubber boots, dirty red track pants and a faded blue tee. To Ramon, though, he looked simply stunning. Angelic was the word that came to mind unbidden.
Then he’d turned and walked away, perhaps to go looking for Carme. And yet she had already seen them from the near exercise yard, where she was supervising a special-needs class with the stable’s ponies. After a quick word with the teacher, Carme had come strolling across a minute or so later.
When she called out for David and he didn’t reappear, Ramon had offered to go looking for him.
He knew his way around these stables, having been here many times.
He found the boy in the tack room, cleaning harness with his earphones in.
As they confronted each other, David reacting again like a startled wild animal, Ramon had experienced that same shocking jolt he had felt earlier, leaving him nearly speechless.
There had been a moment, as David stepped toward him, when he had thought they might be going to embrace…
or kiss even? Of course it couldn’t have happened: he was a uniformed police officer.
On duty. Whatever their fantasies, people who tried to kiss policemen usually got arrested.
But in that instant he’d forgotten all about where he was, or the fact that he was wearing a uniform.
The boy’s eyes were a deep blue flecked with amber.
They had stared at each other for a long moment before Ramon realized with another jolt that he was blocking the doorway, and stepped aside.
When Estel had rammed them in the box, his first instinct had been to protect the younger man, and it was with embarrassment that he found his arm had gone around him instinctively.
But some of that feeling had been mutual, hadn’t it?
For a second he’d felt almost like a chemical charge coursing from David’s body to his own.
Again, it was a thing he’d simply felt, for the boy was surly and seemed intent on not responding to him.
But that was an effect the uniform brought out in some people, even those who didn’t have anything to hide. Some folk were just wary of the law.