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she and Comet were dripping with sweat and exhausted. Issie had handed the reins over to Stella to take Comet to the hose-down bay and she was walking back towards the rider’s village when she saw Marcus. He was heading towards Liberty’s stall and Issie could see instantly by the expression on his face that he still had a thundercloud hanging over his head after that morning’s episode with Valmont.
    â€œHey!” Issie called out and ran to catch him up.
    Marcus gave her a half-hearted smile. “Hi, Issie.”
    Issie smiled back. “I just wanted to say that I thought it was pretty harsh, you know, the way Valmont treated you.”
    â€œYeah, he’s not exactly the kind of guy who cheers you up when he visits,” Marcus said. They had been walking through the stable block as they were talking and had reached Liberty’s stall. Marcus pulled his passcard out of his pocket to access the mare’s loose box and Issie noticed that he had a different-coloured card to hers. Her card was blue, coded to match the colour of the ‘C’ stable block whereas Marcus had a green card to match stable block ‘D’.
    â€œI don’t think I could work for a man like Valmont,” Issie said.
    â€œYeah, he’s a total jerk,” Marcus agreed. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the conversation in my mind where I shout back and tell him that I quit.” He sighed. “But he’s the boss. And he has some amazing horses. It’s a huge opportunity to ride for Valmont Stables.”
    â€œIs he always like that?” Issie asked.
    â€œIt’s got worse lately,” Marcus admitted. “He’s under a lot of stress and I guess he’s been through a lot lately. Especially the whole tragedy with Valmont Promise.”
    Issie didn’t know what he was talking about.
    â€œYou never heard about it?” Marcus said. “It was in all the newspapers last year.”
    Issie shook her head. “Who is Valmont Promise?”
    â€œPromise was Valmont’s superstar,” Marcus explained. “He was the best horse in his stables. One of those special horses, you know? All the grooms and the riders loved him. He had an amazing temperament and he was so beautiful – a Thoroughbred, but really solidly built – almost seventeen hands. He was the dream eventer – so talented…” Marcus trailed off. “Anyway, Promise was competing at his first big three-day event in California. He was halfway round the cross-country when he fell…”
    â€œHe hit a jump?” Issie asked.
    Marcus shook his head. “No, it was so weird, he wasn’t anywhere near a jump. He was in the final stretch on the way home, and one minute he was galloping, totally fine, and the next he’d just collapsed on the track. The vet arrived a few moments later and said he must have had a massive heart attack.”
    â€œSo was he OK? Did he finish the competition?” Issie asked.
    â€œNo, Issie, you don’t understand. By the time the vet had reached him, there was nothing he could do,” Marcus said. “Valmont Promise was dead.”

Chapter 7
    The sudden death of Valmont Promise haunted Issie. She kept thinking about how awful it must have been for Promise’s poor rider to feel his horse suddenly collapse beneath him. To start out on the cross-country course so full of hope and excitement only to have it end in tragedy.
    Promise’s death was not the first time that a horse had died on a cross-country course. Eventing was a deadly sport, and Issie was reminded all too clearly of just how real the risks were on Wednesday morning as she stood with Tom at the start line of the cross-country course and prepared to walk it for the first time.
    When you watch a three-day event on the television the fences look big. But when you are actually walking the course they aren’t big – they’re humungous.