Page 36 of His Worst Crime

“No, don’t worry, it’s my fault,” he reassured her. “I sent the message late at night and then didn’t check that anyone had received it. Estel’s my responsibility, and I shouldn’t have left without getting confirmation that someone was looking after him.”

“I rushed back as soon as I heard.”

“Don’t worry, Maria,” he insisted. “Don’t ruin your weekend. Go back there. I’ll take care of it from here on.”

Throughout all this, Carme had been leaning against the wall of the box, watching Ernest work. She barely acknowledged Ramon’s entrance. Now she said:

“Yes, go, Maria. If you leave now you might get back before midnight and still get a decent day’s climbing in tomorrow. Take Monday morning off if you need it. I’ll muck out. Thanks for driving all the way back here for a horse that wasn’t your responsibility.”

As Maria said her goodbyes and left, Ramon felt the barb of Carme’s last comment. She still hadn’t looked at him.

“How’s Estel?” he asked Ernest.

“Well, I’ve given him another shot of antibiotic, cleaned and rebandaged the wound. But I told you, he needed to be walked twice a day to get his circulation going and reduce the edema. The walking is painful for him, but it needs to be done two times a day without fail, controlled and gentle. I wasn’t joking about that.”

“I’m sorry, that was my fault,” he said. “We had a miscommunication.”

“Well, you’re renting the box here,” Carme interjected, “but I don’t remember giving you the run of my employees. Maria had the weekend off. This wasn’t her responsibility. Why wasn’t this passed by me?”

Ramon turned to her:

“I’m sorry, that was my fault. It was late and I wanted to get down to the Delta. I’d been neglecting Ferro…”

“With David? One of my employees who’s just buggered off without giving me notice?”

“OK, I’m done here,” Ernest said quickly. “I’ll send the invoice through and be back tomorrow. Remember, keep walking him.” And, sensing a storm that was about to break, he exited at the speed of light.

Then it was just Carme and Ramon, facing each other on either side of Estel, who was starting to get scrappy at having so many humans in his stall.

“Let’s move this outside,” he suggested. “Estel’s getting worked up.”

Carme said nothing but walked out of the box.

“OK, I’m sorry, I made a bad call,” he said, once he’d closed the stall door behind them. “It was late. I thought Maria could walk him. It’s not the money. I’ll happily pay her wages for the time she puts in…”

“You’re damn right it’s not the money. It’s you treating my stables and my employees like your own personal playground, without bothering to say a thing to me, not even having the courtesy to tell me what’s going on. And we haven’t even got on to David, and believe me, you’re not getting off the hook on that one!”

Rarely had Ramon seen Carme so furious. Where to start? With his own agony? He knew she’d give him short shrift on that score.

“So you’ve been seeing David behind my back?” she went on. “After he absconded from my stables? Wasn’t it you who told me he wasn’t trustworthy?”

“He is!” But was he? Ramon had no idea anymore.

“Is he?”

Ramon shrugged.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t know. I thought so, but… he’s got secrets…”

“But how did this even happen?”

“We met… by chance.”

“By chance?”

“It wasn’t planned.”

“I know what ‘by chance’ means!”