Loving Spirit

Luke’s set his mind to something nothing stops him … In the end they gave in, and he came to live and work here.’
    ‘So he lives in the house?’ Ellie’s heart sank intoher toes at the thought of seeing Luke every day for breakfast, lunch and supper.
    ‘Yep.’ Joe got to his feet. ‘Come on. We’d better go now. It’s almost feedtime, and if I’m not there to help with the stables Dad’ll wonder where I am.’
    Ellie went to her room and got changed. She watched from her window as Stuart, Luke, Joe and two girl grooms settled the horses for the night. The stables were tidied up, haynets put into each one, rugs were adjusted, water buckets filled up with clean water and, at five o’clock sharp, the feeds emptied into the mangers. Half an hour later, Stuart and the girls left and Len and the boys came inside. After a little while, Ellie heard the sound of laughing from the kitchen and smelt frying bacon, and she ventured downstairs.
    Her uncle was cooking. Luke was sitting at the table, talking to him and drinking a bottle of beer. The dog was on Luke’s knee, lying on her back and having her tummy tickled. Joe was sitting on his own in another chair, reading a copy of Horse and Hound .
    ‘Here she is then. Florence bleedin’ Nightingale,’ Len said as Ellie walked in.
    Luke laughed, which made the terrier jump up and lick his chin. ‘Get down, Pip!’ he said.
    Joe glanced up at Ellie and motioned with his eyes for her to sit in the chair beside him. She joined him gratefully.
    ‘Luke told me you tried to stop him from drowning those kittens,’ Len said.
    ‘It was cruel,’ Ellie said, meeting her uncle’s cold eyes. ‘It wasn’t fair.’
    ‘Life’s not fair.’ Len was curt. ‘They all drowned anyway, Joe said.’
    Ellie nodded, thankful for Joe’s lie. There was no way she was going to tell her uncle about Sweep after what Joe had told her earlier.
    ‘Good.’ Len pointed the spatula at her. ‘I’ll not have you interfering with my orders again. I won’t hold with it. This is my yard and my house and I make the decisions. While you’re under my roof, you’ll do as I say. Tomorrow you’ll start riding the ponies.’
    Listening to the arrogance in his voice, something seemed to click inside Ellie. She lifted her chin. ‘No, I won’t.’
    ‘What?’ Len looked as though he felt he hadn’t heard right.
    Ellie realized both Joe and Luke were staring at her. She knew she was going to get into massive trouble, but so what? With grief swirling around inside her, she just didn’t care. There was nothing her uncle could do to her that would make her feel worse than she did already, and much as she loved riding she hated being bossed around even more. ‘I’ll help out on the yard like everyone else, but I’m not going to ride the ponies for you.’
    Len’s body stiffened dangerously. ‘You’ll do as I say, missy.’ His voice was low and angry.
    Ellie looked stubbornly at him. ‘I won’t. You can’t make me.’
    She jumped as Len thundered. ‘Get to your room!’ He stepped towards her.
    Ellie ran to the doorway and up the stairs. By the time she had raced up the second flight, she was beginning to run out of breath and her heart was beating fast. She shut her door and leant against it, listening in case anyone was going to follow her. But no one did. Going to the window, she sat down on the stone window ledge. The panes of glass were freezing cold. The sky was pitch black apart from the twinkling of stars. It looked a very lonely, wide, dark night. On the other side of the world, back home, it would be mid-morning in summer time. A lump formed in her throat.
    Feel nothing , she reminded herself, holding on to the lessons she had learnt over the last six months. Just feel nothing .
    Pulling her numbness like a shield around her, she got under the covers with all her clothes still on and lay there shivering until she fell asleep.

Chapter Three
    When Ellie woke up, it was the middle of the night. Since her parents had died, waking up was always the worst moment for her. As she moved from sleep to wakefulness, there were always a few seconds when she felt as though everything that had happened was just a dream – a nightmare – but then reality would come rushing back and she would realize that it wasn’t. Waking now in the darkness, she felt the familiar tidal wave of misery engulf her. It had all really happened. Her parents were dead. She was here in her new life with