Wild Fire (The Fairy Tale Match Series) (20 page)

“Jake, I want a little time before we
take our intimacy further. I hope you understand, but I just want some time to
really get to know each other. Without all the barriers and the past getting in
the way. I need to be sure that you can be with me without Victoria haunting
us.”

Jake very much wanted to hold her and
kiss her senseless, but he’d hurt her and he had to give her the time she
needed to see that he meant every word that he said to her. He nodded, pulling
her close to him, he held her in his arms as they gazed out at the pool.

“I think this has become my favourite
place too,” she told him shyly. “Can we come back here again?”

“We can come back as often as you
want,” he replied, smiling into her hair and bestowing a kiss on forehead.

She snuggled into his warmth,
struggling against a yawn. She failed miserably. As she relaxed in his arms, the
sound of the gentle waterfall swept through her, making her relax, tension
seeping out of her muscles. Her eyes dropped and within in seconds, she was
asleep. Jake heard her gentle even breathing, his heart turning over at her
sweet innocence, deeply grateful that his Laura was such a generous and
understanding person. He pulled her gently closer and let her sleep.

He felt a contentment sliding over
him at the feel of her in his arms. He’d been so blessed the day she’d entered
his life. He felt alive again for the first time in over two years. He had hope
and his dreams were stirring back to life. He could see nothing in his future
except bright blue cloudless skies and the feeling was euphoric.

*****

“We’ve done
it!” Lotta exclaimed happily. “It would seem both our charges are heading for
happily ever after. It really is time for us to leave now Flo.”

Flo sat
sobbing on a ledge jutting out halfway up the rock-face, splashing water around
with her tiny feet. Lotta wasn’t sure which was producing more water, the
waterfall or Flo.

“But we
can’t just go. What if something else goes wrong? We thought we’d finished
before and it all went horribly wrong.”

“Now, now.
You know we only stay until they realise they love each other. It is time to
let them get on with it.” Flo howled louder, her small hankie soaked through.

“We can pop
back in after a little while to see how they are getting on. How’s that?” Lotta
compromised, exasperated. Flo always did get over attached to her charges.
Anyone would think she was their actual mother, rather than their fairy
godmother.

Flo regarded
her with red tearful eyes. She sniffed, then nodded her head in agreement.
“Alright, Lotta. As long as we can come back and check on them in a few days.
I’ll leave.”

Lotta heaved
a sigh of relief. One or two more visits and her time with Flo would be at an
end. She hoped her next assignment would be a nice simple one, with no added
complications. With that happy thought in mind, she vanished in a shower of
sparkles.

Flo, not
quite as convinced their assignment was over, made her own plans.

Laura and Jake finally headed back to
the ranch as the late afternoon sun shone down from the sky, beginning its
downward dip towards the horizon. Laura had flushed a deep red in embarrassment
that she’d fallen asleep on Jake for such a long time, but he didn’t seem to
mind. He’d taken every opportunity to touch her and keep her close. Her heart
rate hammered at the remembered kiss he’d given her to wake her up. She smiled
softly, her expression turning dreamy.

“What are you thinking about
sweetheart?” he asked, his hand drifting over to touch hers where it rested on
her knee.

She gave a small giggle of
self-consciousness. “Just the wonderful way you woke me up back there,” she
confessed.

He grinned wickedly. “I hope to wake
you up that way every day of our lives.” Laura’s heart pounded at the promise
in his voice. She sighed, her head falling back against her seat. She closed
her eyes, a deep contentment stealing over her. Excitement flooded her veins at
the thought of a life together with Jake. She knew they would be taking things
slowly, at her request, but she couldn’t help let her dreams take flight.

The truck finally turned into the
ranch and Jake parked it up outside the front of the house. Kerry came
hesitantly to the door, peering out cautiously as she waited to see how things
stood between them. She gave a squeal as she saw Jake take Laura’s hand in his.
She swung the door wide, her eyes shining with unshed tears.

“Does this mean what I think it
does?” she called out to them.

“It sure does,” Jake called back.
Kerry gave a relieved laugh. She sped down the steps to hug them.

“I am so happy for you both,” she
told them. Then she looked at Laura wearily. “Can you possibly forgive me for
all the trouble I have inadvertently caused you? You must have been so mad at
me this morning.”

“No, I wasn’t,” Laura assured her. “I
was hurting, but it wasn’t your fault. I just didn’t want to talk about it. It
was too painful.” She smiled, clasping Kerry’s hand. “That’s all over now. We
can all begin to look forward to the future.”

“Well, sort of,” Kerry whispered in
Laura’s ear. “I’m not sure Jake is ever going to accept Dan. That is going to
still be an awkward problem for me.”

“But he isn’t stopping you seeing
him, so it’s a start,” Laura pointed out.

“What are you two whispering about?”
Jake asked, tugging Laura towards him and slipping his arm around her
shoulders.

“Nothing of consequence,” Kerry
replied evasively. Jake raised an eyebrow at her, but let the matter drop.

They headed into the house, with
Laura flowing straight to the kitchen to sort out something for dinner. She was
just gathering ingredients together when the door swung open and Bill charged
into the room.

“Where’s Jake?” he demanded without
any greeting.

“He’s in the other room. Why, what’s
wrong Bill?” Laura asked alarmed. She’d never seen Bill look so grim.

 “What’s going on, Bill?” Jake asked
as he came rapidly into the room, having heard the urgency in Bill’s voice.

“We need to get hold of Dr Willby
right now. Something’s wrong with Charger.” He didn’t wait for Jake to react,
he grabbed the phone and began to punch in the vet’s number.

Jake grabbed his hand. “It’s no good
ringing him. He’s not there. Don’t you remember, he had to leave town for the
week to visit his daughter.”

“Then what the hell are we to do?
Who’s covering for him? Charger is really sick. His breathing is laboured and
he seems to be having pain in his abdominals. If we don’t get help fast, we’re
going to lose him.”

“As far as I know, Dr Willby left a
young locum to cover. I’m not sure he’s up to dealing with anything really
serious. He’s only just qualified as a vet.” Jake ran his hand through his hair
in frustration, fear evident in every line of his face.

“Then call Dan!” Laura cried as she
rushed forward. “For crying out loud, he’s a vet. No matter what else has gone
on, he is trained to save animals. He’ll come. We can’t lose Charger, we just
can’t!” Tears ran down her face, her heart hammered in her chest with the shock
of Bill’s words. Charger had come to mean a great deal to her, the thought of
something happening to him was completely unthinkable.

“Call him,” Jake told Kerry as she
entered the kitchen, her face white with worry. She grabbed her phone from her
pocket and rang Dan’s number. He answered almost immediately.

“Hey Love, I wasn’t expecting you to
call tonight. How is everything going there with Jake?”

“We don’t have time for this,” Kerry
gasped out, trying not to break down. “Can you come over? Charger is sick and
he needs help. Dr Willby is out of town and I don’t think the guy covering for
him will be any help. He’s too inexperienced. He won’t survive without you,
Dan. Please come.” She broke down crying.

“I’m on my way.” Dan’s phone went
dead. 

“He’s coming,” Kerry told them.

“You wait here for him and bring him
out when he gets here,” Jake told Kerry, as he, Bill and Laura headed out to
the stable. Laura gasped in horror at the sight of the big black stallion. Sweat
coated his usually shiny black coat. His breathing was loud and ragged in the
silence of the stable. His whole body shook uncontrollably. She’d never seen a
more terrifying sight.

“Oh God, what the hell happened to
him? He was fine this morning!” Jake cried his face going ashen at the sight of
his beloved horse.

“I don’t know. I literally just fed
him about an hour ago, but he didn’t eat as much of his food as normal. I came
back to check on him and this is what I found.” Panic laced the edges of Bill’s
words.

“Can I go into him?” Laura asked, her
face drenched with her tears. “He sounds like he’s in pain.” She broke down,
holding on to Jake as he held her close, stroking her hair to comfort her.

“You can if you want to, sweetheart.”

She opened the stable door and moved
to the stallion’s side. Touching his soft nose, she talked to him gently,
placing her head near his, trying to comfort the ill horse. He nuzzled her
briefly before stamping back, giving a scream of pain. Laura couldn’t bear to
see him like it. It was breaking her heart in two.

“Where the hell is Dan,” she sobbed.
“What’s wrong with him Jake?” She turned fear filled eyes to him, only to see
her fear reflected back from his.

“I don’t know,” he replied, stepping
into the stall with her and trying to calm Charger down. “It’s possible it’s a
bout of colic.”

“Colic? That’s just wind right? It’s
not too serious?” Laura had only ever heard of colic referred to by parents
that had small babies suffering with it after meal times. They never seemed overly
worried about it.

“In a horse it can be very serious.
Left untreated it can be fatal.” Jake’s face looked white with strain.

Shocked, Laura began to try to stroke
Charger, but he was inconsolable. He began to look as if he wanted to lie down.
That terrified Jake, knowing that if Charger went down it could be a short time
before he gave up completely and died. He began to wonder if he should try
walking the horse around, just in case this was a severe case of colic. Some of
the symptoms seemed to fit, but some didn’t. He raked a hand through his hair,
despair hitting him at the possibility of losing Charger. He wasn’t just their
prize stallion, he was so much more.

Suddenly Kerry ran into the stable
with Dan behind her, carrying his bag. He looked grim as he took in Charger’s
condition.

“I’m going to have to ask you to step
out of the stall and let me have room to examine him,” he told them. Laura and
Jake stepped out, allowing Dan to move inside instead. They waited anxiously as
Dan examined the horse. Nobody could think of anything to say, the sounds of
Charger’s pain ripped through every one of them. Dan went methodically through
checking every aspect of the horse, listening to his heart carefully, checking
his abdominals and running through a thorough examination. Finally he stepped
back from the horse, running his hand through his hair.

“Is it colic?” Jake asked, panic and
irritation clear in his voice.

“There are some indications that
colic is present, but I don’t think it’s just that. I’ve seen something like
this once before.” He broke off as he rummaged quickly through his bag. “If I’m
right, he’s going to need treatment straight away.” He waved his hand
distractedly at them. “Please, I need to concentrate. I’ll explain later.”

He went back to sorting through his
medication, ignoring the anxious spectators outside the stall. Kerry began to
cry, turning away. Laura, tears pouring down her face, went to comfort her.

“It’s serious. I can tell by the look
on Dan’s face,” Kerry whispered to Laura, her voice cracking with her emotions.
“Oh Laura, what will we do if we lose Charger. He is irreplaceable. Jake will
be devastated. I honestly don’t know how we’d come back from it.”

“Don’t think like that. Dan is taking
care of him. He’s going to be fine.” Laura wished she felt as confidant as she
sounded. She hugged Kerry to her, looking over her shoulder at Jake. He looked
terrible. She was afraid he was ready to collapse himself. It seemed like an
eternity until Dan stepped back out of the stall, his face deadly serious.

 “It’s serious, isn’t it?” Kerry
demanded, stepping forward with a fearful look. “Are we going to lose him?
Please, just give it to us straight.”

Sighing deeply, Dan turned to address
them. “I don’t know. I hope I got here in time but we will have to watch him
carefully for a while. I’ve given him medication for his various symptoms. I’ve
also administered a laxative to clear his system of anything he may have eaten.
He is a very strong horse, but we’ll know more in the next few hours. If he can
make it past a day, I think he will be okay. The thing that’s worrying me is
the cause of his illness.”

“Which is?” Jake prompted, his face
set like stone.

Dan paused briefly before he
answered. “I am almost completely sure he’s been poisoned,” he stated in a
quiet voice. “Most likely he’s consumed a toxic plant of some kind.”

“What?” Bill yelled. “That is
impossible. We check every place our horses graze to make sure there are no
poisonous plants. We’ve never had a case where a horse has eaten something they
shouldn’t.”

“I’m not saying you haven’t been
thorough with the care of the horses Bill.” Dan ran a hand through his hair
again, reminding Laura of Jake. “But it would be worth checking the pastures
and any other places you may put the horses for grazing. Charger ate this plant
somewhere and we have to find out where before any other horse grazes on it
too. It’s not impossible that something went unnoticed. There may have been a
plant growing in one of the pastures you didn’t know to check for.”

Bill and Jake cursed, while Laura and
Kerry stared at each other in silent horror.

“Where was Charger today?” Jake asked
Bill. “Can you retrace his movements? We need to see if we can find what he
ate.” He turned to Dan. “What are we looking for?”

“It’s hard to say. I’ll print out a
list of poisonous plants that could be responsible for Charger’s symptoms along
with their pictures so you can see what you may be looking for. Has anyone got
a computer I can use?”

Kerry nodded. “I’ve a laptop you can
use. It’s in my office.”

“There is no point trying to find
anything tonight,” Laura pointed out. “It’s getting too dark outside to see
anything. We’d best check in the morning.”

“She’s right,” Bill said reluctantly.
“We could all too easily miss something in the dark.”

“But it’s the barn raising
preparation tomorrow. How are we supposed to get things ready and search for
this plant?” Kerry pointed out.

“We have no choice,” Jake sighed. “We
can’t leave the horses at risk. We’ll just have to manage.”

“I can get this list compiled, but
then I want to stay with Charger to keep an eye on him. I need to be here if
anything else develops or he takes a sudden turn for the worse.”

“I can get you something to sit on in
here, if that would help?” Bill offered Dan.

“That would be great.”

“I’ll stay with Charger while you’re
gone.” Jake moved over to the front of the stall, reaching his hand towards the
horse. Laura moved to his side, touching his lower back in comfort. They barely
noticed when the others left the stable.

“Shall I make some food for
everyone?” she asked quietly.

“You can ask if anyone wants
anything, but I doubt I can get anything down right now. Thanks anyway.” He
kissed the top of her head. They stood together in silence, watching the
stallion carefully for any signs of trouble. Bill snuck in and placed a chair
for Dan in the stable, before leaving quietly. Shortly before Dan arrived back,
Charger began to clear his system.

“Good, the laxative I gave him is
working,” Dan said as he came up beside them. “Hopefully he hasn’t eaten enough
to cause any permanent damage. Either way, this should get it out of his body
quickly.” He handed a paper to Jake. “Here is what you need to check for
tomorrow. Kerry is printing off more to hand out to everyone who’ll be searching.
It must be a really careful search. You can’t afford to leave anything to
chance.”