Loving Spirit by Linda Chapman Read Free Book Online

looking like that.’
    Ellie quickly shut the door and pulled off the grey polo shirt and black trousers that were her school uniform. She changed back into her jodhpurs and puton a red top and her fleece. As she fixed her hair into a ponytail, her eyes fell on the jewellery box beside her bed. Maybe she should take her money. She might see some things in Barrowton that she could get for her room. She hadn’t got any further with her plans for doing it up. She took out the whole lot – three hundred pounds – stuffed it into her purse and ran downstairs.
    Ellie had never been to a horse sale before. There were people everywhere, men in flat caps, women with hard faces, a few children. There was the sound of neighing and shouting. Dogs were dashing about through people’s legs or being walked on leads. There were two barns and lots of metal pens, all filled with horses and ponies. No one remarked on the fact that Ellie and Joe should be at school.
    ‘That’s where they sell the tack,’ explained Joe, pointing to the barn on the left. ‘The horses and ponies are in the pens over here.’
    Ellie walked around, feeling more aware of everything than she had done for a long time. The air felt tense, and full of possibilities, as the horses and ponies were bought and sold.
    The pens nearest them held an assortment of shaggy ponies. There were three bay yearlings, an old grey pony, a pretty dark bay mare and a young piebald cob. They all had a card with their sale descriptions on tied to their pen gates. She could feelhow confused and anxious they were, the foals huddled together, the other ponies pacing, their eyes scared as people walked past looking at their catalogues and making comments about the horses.
    Ellie stopped to stroke the bay mare. In front of them were the pens with the horses in. Her eyes scanned over them – bay, black, skewbald. Then her gaze came to rest on a dirty white-grey horse of about fifteen hands in one of the outer pens. He was an Arab with a dished face, large eyes and delicate muzzle. His mane was long and part of it had rubbed out, his tail was straggling, his ribs prominent. He was in poor condition, but that wasn’t the only reason Ellie’s gaze fell on him – he was staring straight at her. Ellie had never seen the horse before, ever. But as their eyes met she somehow had the strangest feeling that they had always known each other.
    Feeling a bit stupid, she blinked and turned away.
    However, even facing the other way, she could still feel the grey horse’s eyes on her back, boring into her, insisting she look back at him. She glanced round again. She knew it was mad, but she felt as if he was willing her to go over, and somehow Ellie couldn’t refuse. She took a step towards him, but just then Joe touched her arm.
    ‘Let’s go to the ring where they are selling the horses.’
    Ellie shot one last reluctant look at the skinny grey horse and then followed Joe away.
    The sales ring was a large round pen and there was sawdust on the floor. People stood all around it. All Ellie could think about was the grey horse. An auctioneer in a green waistcoat and checked shirt sat on a platform, a small hammer in his hand. A young black gelding of about 16 hands was being trotted round the ring by a man dressed in a brown overall. There was a number stuck to the horse’s flank.
    ‘What’ll I be bid for lot 113? Three-year-old black gelding, thoroughbred sire. Irish draught mare …’ The auctioneer’s voice came over the loudspeaker.
    The people bidding were holding up their hands. Joe pushed through the crowd to find a space right by the bars of the pen, but Ellie hung back. ‘I’ll just be a moment,’ she told Joe. He nodded, absorbed now in the bidding.
    Ellie made her way back through the crowds and looked across at the pen where the grey horse was. His back was to her and his head was sagging down. She could almost feel the suffering in the air around him. Suddenly he looked round