30. The Princess
The Princess
MARY
“She’s next up.” Pappa pointed.
“She is. Game face on,” I noted.
It was the first time I saw Betty on horseback.
Bubbly smile gone, she trotted a horse in a circle.
Her mount seemed convinced she was a rocket about to blast off.
The horse’s muscles twitched and her ears pricked straight forward.
I saw a person wave Betty over and a moment later, the announcement rang.
“Next up, Her Royal Highness Elisabeth riding Truly Adored, owned by Sybil Creighton of Robel Estates Farms.”
Betty posted up as I died inside.
“Princessa?” Pappa asked, confused.
I winced, “Let’s just watch her run.”
I relied on a convenient excuse while Betty circled her very excited horse.
A buzzer beeped and she flew past the line.
The horse flew forward with Betty looking like a toy atop a racehorse.
Then, after letting the mare have a moment, she slowed her, settling into the first fence.
Knowing it was about as tall as I was, I braced nervously.
They cleared it beautifully and the crowd erupted.
“Fuckin’ rights!” Dad erupted with banter only heard in a hockey arena. “Go Betty!”
She made the line down a bank into a bit of water, then back. All in all, Betty made it look easy. And that was when she disappeared, with only a roar of hooves on turf.
Dad elbowed me. “That’s your girl. Look at her go! She’s brave!”
I blushed. “She’s braver than me.”
“Brave or stupid? You decide,” Jaz said. “Two of her bothers are pilots. They all have a screw loose. But, hey, so do I.”
“We like brave women,” Pappa said.
I smiled. “We do.”
“If we loop back, we’ll see her come back up the next line,” Jaz pointed.
Before she could finish, Dad took off in his powerchair.
“Good lord!” Jaz laughed. “That guy is having the time of his life.”
“I think we have officially sold him on the idea of one,” I said. “I can thank Betty for all of that. If I’d gotten him one, he would have said no.”
“That’s parents for you. Stubborn.”
Dad knew to follow the crowd. They nicely parted for him as we waited for Betty to come into view. Ahead of her, another rider on a big brown male horse—that Jaz confirmed was a gelding—barreled into a fence. He had the same dedicated expression.
“Now, are you going to tell me about Betty?” Dad asked, disapprovingly.
“What about Betty, Dad?”
“The obvious. And how the hell did you meet her?”
“She’s King Olav’s niece. Her father is his brother. We met at a bar five years ago and then again when she came to a show. I didn’t know who she was. In fact, I didn’t react well when I found out who she was. I had to grovel a bit over that.”
He raised his eyebrows. “And her parents? They are… okay with all of this?”
“Her parents don’t have any say. She’s twenty-nine, dad.”
He crossed his arms. “Uh-huh.”
Betty came uphill, steaming towards the hedge to our right. Her horse cleared it valiantly, ears pointed like an antenna towards the next fence. Betty navigated the big timber fence before us and the crowd erupted again—Pappa even louder than before.
“Hell yes!”
I chuckled. He loved competition. This brought out the best in him. I knew it tickled him to cheer on someone—anyone. He loved sport most.
“Back to start and finish.” Jaz pointed off in the distance.
This time, Dad waited, going at a moderate pace.
“I worry about you. I have not heard any of them were with women,” Dad said. “I don’t want you hurt.”
“Look, we’re trying to keep it under wraps,” I said.
“But she’s already told a lot of her family.
They’ve been really cool about. And her mom was raised by two moms. The main concern is she is hosting UniVox and she’s also been interviewed and followed around.
It’s her official job right now. So, it doesn’t look good if we are dating.
That’s the only reason we’re behaving ourselves. ”
“Ah. And you believe that to be true?”
“She’s not a good liar,” I snickered. “So, yes. She’s effusive. I think that’s the American in her. I worried, too. I worried so much that she almost didn’t forgive me.”
“And now?”
“Now, I just want to be happy, Dad,” I said. “And I think she can make me happy.”
“Well, having an athlete in the family would make me happy.”
“Don’t put the cart before the horse,” I said as we settled at the finish.
With her camera, Jaz zoomed in on the final fence and Dad watched intently. We spotted the big grey horse coming back into view—up a slight hill.
“She’s hauling,” I noted. “Damn.”
“I don’t know how people do this,” Pappa said. “It looks very dangerous.”
“You have like three actual teeth, Pappa,” I teased.
“I didn’t involve a beast jumping up and down on toothpick legs in my exploits. These are whole trees, sweetheart!”
“She’s brave, like you said.”
Betty stayed up over the horse’s neck, reins loose, as she approached the final fence.
She was so confident and in-control. When she’d told me she was going to ride a horse she didn’t know, I hadn’t been totally surprised.
After all, she was a professional. It was her job.
However, now that I saw all that included, I was in awe of her ice-in-the-veins ability to take each obstacle.
The horse leapt into the air through a hoop of flowers. We collectively held a breath, waiting for all four hooves to land and for Betty to remain seated. When she did, a massive smile crossed her face. She continued towards the finish with a crowd whooping and whistling at her triumphant run.
On the other side, we didn’t get to do anything other than shout a congrats.
“Good job, ?lskling!” I called.
Breathless, as her horse’s nostrils flared, she gave me a dorky thumbs up and disappeared.
I realized as silly as all of this seemed on paper, my heart swelled with pride watching her live her dream.
I got what she said about watching me perform.
Watching her joy intoxicated me. Her joy was contagious.
Sharing it felt right. And that was the minute I realized I loved this woman.