Sterling's Daughter

"We've got a visitor coming at 2 this afternoon," Mum said at breakfast the next morning.
"Who?" Laya asked curiously. She had been planning on sorting Juno out since yesterday after school hadn't quite gone as planned.
"Tempo's owner is coming to check up on him," Mum informed her. "I only just realised yesterday when we were talking that she actually has a son that's probably in the same class as you."
Laya's eyebrows shot up. No one had said anything to her about their mother having a horse at her place. And as far as she knew, none of the kids in any of her classes owned horses. She tended to know about those things.
"Really? Who?"
"I don't know his name, but Tempo's owner is called Maggie Hamilton," Mum shrugged. Laya actually choked on her juice. Zena slapped her on the back as she coughed violently before recovering.
"Hamilton?" she screeched. "Are you serious?"
"Um...yes," Mum gave her an odd look. "Do you know him?"
"Yes, he's a total freak," Laya heard herself say. She wasn't quite sure why she was telling her mother this, but who cared?
"His parents are perfectly nice people," Mum said with raised eyebrows.
"Well, he hasn't known them for very long then," Laya retorted. "He almost killed me the other day."
"Yeah, yeah," Mum rolled her eyebrows in exasperation. "I'm sure he did."
"Well..." Laya began.
"Look, instead of going on about the boy who seems to have occupied you quite a lot lately, why don't you exercise Juno to prove you are capable of riding Tempo?" Mum said suddenly.
Laya leapt up from the table sending her chair over with a crash, a grin on her face.
"Absolutely!" she breathed.
***
After 2 hours of wrestling with Juno, Laya only had her half sorted her grouchy attitude out. She groaned as she dismounted and put the mare away. When she reached the house at 2:10, she saw a ute parked in the driveway. She headed inside, and found Mum deep in discussion with another woman about her age in the kitchen. Mum spotted Laya, and beckoned her over.
"Maggie, this is my girl Laya," she said. "Laya, this is Mrs Hamilton, Tempo's owner."
"Hello," Laya gave her a tight smile.
"You'd know Will then, from some classes?" Mrs Hamilton gave her a smile.
"Yes," Laya said shortly, aware that Mum was giving her a cold stare. She forced on a big smile. "I didn't realise that you guys owned a horse. Do you have any more?"
"No, there's only Tempo, and he's actually a birthday surprise for Will," Mrs Hamilton said.
Now THAT was a surprise. Laya almost fell over.
"Wow, really?" she gulped. "So he's uh...into horses?"
"I guess you could say that," Mrs Hamilton smiled. "His last one was actually stolen, and a few days later it was hit by a car and killed. Will never saw it since the night before it was stolen, and when it was dead."
Laya opened her mouth and shut it again. What was there to say? She couldn't imagine owning a horse, or any other animal for that matter, only to have it killed. That would be awful. She had to admit to herself that she actually felt sorry for him.
Backing out of the room, she turned and fled up the stairs. Her heart was racing. She sat on her bed and pulled her knees up to her chin. Shaking her head to clear her jumbled thoughts, she focused on what she would wear to Melindy's that night.
But she couldn't completely focus. Her thoughts kept turning back to Will, and that fateful night that he realised that his horse was dead.
She hoped he wouldn't have to face that kind of feeling again. The feeling of loss and hopelessness of not being able to do anything to change what had happened.
She was out of luck.