Chapter 23: Nicolette

I found Nicolette at six the next morning in the main barn.

She stood in front of an empty stall with a muck fork she didn't know how to hold.

Nobody had told her to come.

Abel was watching her from the end of the aisle with his arms crossed.

"I won't forgive you," I said.

She flinched, and nodded.

"I know."

"You tormented me when I was fifteen, and you did it again last week.

"You kicked my knee in front of four hundred people.

"You took my horse and put him in a quarry."

"I know."

"I'm not asking you to say sorry again.

"You said it once, and I heard it.

"What I want from you costs more."

She put the fork down against the wall.

She stood with her chin up and her hands loose.

"You'll work for Abel," I said.

"Dawn to noon, every day, mucking stalls and walking horses, for the groom's wage and not a cent more.

"You'll do it for a year before you sit on a racehorse on this farm.

"You'll go to every person in that yard and say it to their face, one at a time.

"You'll give the state police every word you know about your mother, and you will say it again in court.

"You'll pay the stable what she stole, from your own prize money, until it's gone."

"That will take years."

"Yes."

"And when I ride in the Cup..."

"You'll ride with no sponsor and no host's daughter on the card.

"Just Nicolette Redmond, whoever that turns out to be."

Her mouth trembled and held.

"Is that all?"

"Not all," I said.

"I'll be watching.

"I won't tell you when."

She looked at me for a long time.

Her eyes were red, and very much her mother's, and also, I saw now, a little like my own.

"Thank you," she said.

It surprised us both.

"I haven't done anything for you."

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