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Post by Tiggs on Jul 3, 2010 6:34:03 GMT
He’d had time to stew on the ride back, and any guilt he had felt over the disappearance of the girl had been overrun with the complete idiocy of what she’d done. She’d put herself in danger, as well as a particularly flighty horse. What had been stopping him from taking off in the mud and breaking a leg? There was a reason racers did not make good stock horses, and Lottie had almost proven exactly why.
It was a good job they’d found her when they did. If she hadn’t of got out of the mud, she could have perished there. She hadn’t told anyone where she was going, and she had blatantly been lost. She hadn’t given her immature reaction a second thought and as a result, it could have cost more than her life. Just going after her could have endangered Marie. Thankfully Jason had the sense to keep Marie out of the mud, but he knew the mare would do anything he asked.
And that was what caused Jason to storm from the hut while the other men were having a good time drinking beer. He’d had one or two bottles, so the chill of the night air was chased away by the warmth in his gut. He went out to the paddocks, and met Marie at the fence. He tickled her nose and found something in his pocket to feed her. “Hey there, sweetheart.” He rested his forearms on top of the fence, and set his chin on them. Marie nibbled at his hair, and he gave a sigh. The day could have ended up much worse.
He wasn’t sure where Lottie had gotten to, but he didn’t much care right now so long as she was out of trouble and out of his way. Tomorrow he’d get some of the guys to escort her back to town. They had no need for a woman who not only didn’t make food, but put everyone around her in danger. “You’re a good girl, aren’t you?” He asked Marie. She huffed breath from her nostrils onto his face in reply. “Of course you are. You’d never run off into the bush on a stupid little mission.” He heard a slight sound to his right, and there was Lottie fussing with her horses. “Oops.” He didn’t sound sorry.
He petted Marie’s neck and walked down the short distance to stand the opposite side of the fence to Lottie. “You should be inside.” He jerked his head toward the building. “Not planning another little jaunt, are you? I’m not chasing after you next time.” He said bitterly.
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Post by Ehetere on Jul 5, 2010 7:30:46 GMT
Lottie had been rather elusive after returning to the hut. Ignoring the promised heat of the hut and the chatter of conversation, she’d opted to sit out in the cool evening with her horses. Really, it was to hide her embarrassment – she hated replying on others like that, and had no wish to hear the jokes she was sure the more experienced bushies were making about her inside.
There was a familiar deep whicker as Bones joined his black companion at the fence, nudging Lottie expectantly in search of treats. Scruffing his forelock affectionately, she dug around in the pockets of her shirt for a few of the sugar cubes she made sure she had on her person at all times. The sweet treats were Bones’ favorite, and Lottie didn’t have the heart to disappoint the huge gelding. He could get a bit insistent anyway, a horse that size was rather difficult to ignore if he had his heart set on something.
Sighing and looking up at the sky, where thousands of twinkling stars looked on, Lottie had to admit that her life up here was unlikely to be as easy as she’d hoped. Why did the people have to be so… she wasn’t even sure what the word was. Biased. Just because she was a woman didn’t mean she was useless. She’d like to prove this to them, she really would, but her last attempt at that hadn’t exactly gone all that well either.
She’d spent a good deal of time grooming both of her charges; Jasper because his legs had been plastered with mud and Bones as an apology for leaving him alone. Thankfully horses were forgiving creatures. She wished she could say the same for humans.
The constant golden glow coming from the hut wavered momentarily while one of its occupants stormed out the door, and even the fact Lottie couldn’t see his face didn’t change the fact she knew who it was. Only Jason seemed to be in this perpetually bad mood, the other blokes seemed to be in fair enough spirits as far as things went. She wondered whether he’d seen her, propped up on the fence like this. Perhaps that was why he’d come out here, to take his awful mood out on her some more. He seemed to like doing that.
Even moments after she’d thought such things she was already feeling bad for it. What had happened to her recently? Everything used to be so simple and easy. Still sitting in silence, she saw Jason cooing over his bay mare, his attitude the polar opposite to what she had known from him. No one who was so kind to their animals could be a horrible person, in her experience.
Her face grew heated when he started talking about missions – it was stupid, but hardly unprovoked! That was just a little unfair. And mean. Involuntarily it seemed, she’d made a quite noise of protest, but it was enough. The man had spotted her, and there was no where for her to hide her shame. She hadn’t wanted to be eaves dropping, even more so now she’d heard what he was saying.
“I never asked you to come and find me,” she replied quietly, her emotions a curious mix of annoyance, defiance and hurt. “Why didn’t you just leave me there? Would have been easier seeing as how you hate my being here so much.”
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Post by Tiggs on Jul 8, 2010 20:27:38 GMT
Jason made a derisive snort, leaning on the fence with one hand and waving the other accusingly. “So what, just because I’m a bloke I’m supposed to just let someone die for their own stupid fault?” He gestured over the fence at the horses, particularly the tall black gelding. “You didn’t think when you stormed off what danger you’d put him in, had you? Taken for granted, ain’t he? Oh, he’ll carry you wherever you want to go. He’ll take you into the middle of a damn swamp if you point him!”
Jason was a little louder than he intended, and he waved slightly with the wild gesticulating of his arm. “I know plenty of blokes like you. Ride a horse ‘til it’s dead from trying to please him, they will. I ain’t never let a stupid man hurt his horse, and I ain’t gunna start letting a Shelia do the same.” It was no secret that Jason took good care of his horses, and others men’s too, but usually the words were unspoken. Only with the tell-tale slur of drink on his words did they come to be said.
“You’re lucky you are a Sheila, else you’d be sleeping with the dogs for that. Do us all a favour; take your thoroughbreds home. Put them in their flat paddocks, ride them on your mown lawns and for pity’s sake, don’t ask for more than you need – ‘cause he’ll give it to you.”
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