Seduced by the Stranger (Billionaires & Babies, #2) Page 14

  She sighed and drew back away from him. ‘All this has to be faced sooner or later. I’m pleased I’m facing it with you and Dr Gerber by my side.’

  A little later, they’d walked through the main rooms of the house, and were on their way to the stables. People waved to Jenna and she’d waved back even though she didn’t recognise them. All the employees kept their distance as per Katherine Gerber’s instructions.

  ‘Whoa, big fellow!’

  As the trio rounded a corner they came to a yard. One of the female trainers spoke soothingly to a giant of a stallion as she approached it. She had a bridle and lead rope hidden behind her back, but the horse must’ve known she had them. The stallion wasn’t having a bar of it.

  He pawed the ground. Then, he reared up on his hind legs until the trainer was the one backing away.

  Max immediately recognised the horse as Goliath, Jenna’s favourite, and looked her way to see if there was any recognition.

  ‘What a magnificent horse!’ Jenna left the main path and gravitated towards the stallion.

  The second he heard Jenna’s voice, Goliath looked up from where he’d been resisting the trainer. He whinnied in excitement and raced across the yard to greet her. His dark tail streamed in the air behind him and his hooves kicked up some of the turf in his excitement to reach his favourite person.

  Jenna reacted with just as much eagerness. Ducking a little awkwardly between the railings of the fence because of her pregnancy, she went into the paddock. Clearly, she didn’t think twice about approaching the massive stallion that’d only moments before been rearing up menacingly at the trainer.

  ‘Hey, boy,’ she crooned as she reached into the pocket of her maternity jeans.

  ‘Whatever else Jenna’s lost, she hasn’t lost her love of horses nor her natural affinity with them,’ Dr Gerber commented in sotto voce. ‘No way would I get into a fenced off area with that giant—especially after the way he appeared to be trying to intimidate the trainer! Is she safe?’

  ‘Yes.’ Goliath was a Shire who weighed close to three thousand pounds and stood at nearly seven feet. ‘Jenna took Goliath in when he was a young foal,’ Max explained. ‘He’d been maltreated and was scared and very aggressive. If she hadn’t saved him, he would’ve been destroyed. I wasn’t around at the time but I was told none of the other workers could get near him because he’d literally rear up at them and try to strike at them with his hooves.’

  ‘It looked like he was trying that trick then with the young lady.’

  Max nodded. ‘Jenna worked her magic on him and he’d settled beautifully. I guess he’s been missing her, and he’s acting out. If you have a chance while you’re here, you’d probably be interested in reading through some of Jenna’s books on horse behaviour.’

  ‘Sounds fascinating. It’s incredible watching her interact with Goliath now.’

  ‘Sorry, boy.’ Jenna’s soft words carried to them on the breeze as she turned out the pockets of her jeans. ‘I don’t have any sugar with me.’ Goliath lowered his head and nuzzled at her shoulder. ‘I guess I usually bring you some, don’t I?’

  He knickered softly.

  ‘I swear to God the horse is talking to her,’ Dr Gerber said in awe as she and Max watched Jenna crooning and standing on her tiptoes to scratch as close as she could reach to the horse’s wither. ‘She’s calmed him down incredibly. I wish I had such a marked and instant success with all my patients.’

  ‘Hi, Miss Sinclair, it’s great to see you back,’ the trainer said. ‘He thinks so too.’

  ‘Hi.’

  ‘I have a sugar cube if you want to feed it to him. He always looked for it from you.’

  ‘Sure. Thanks.’ Jenna took the sweet and gave it to the horse who looked like he couldn’t get close enough to her. ‘Are you about to ride him?’

  ‘I will if he lets me. We’ve been trying to ride him but we’ve needed to lunge him most days because he won’t be caught. A couple of times we’ve managed to catch him and slip the bridle on, but then he won’t let anyone saddle him.’

  Jenna looked over the stallion. ‘He needs a good workout. He’s losing condition around the croup and the dock area. Pass me his bridle.’

  ‘Oh my goodness,’ Dr Gerber said under her breath to Max. ‘Look at this!’

  Jenna had Goliath in his bridle in no time flat while the trainer ran to the other side of the paddock to collect the saddle cloth and saddle she’d left on the railings.

  ‘Don’t say a word,’ the doctor warned Max quietly. ‘She’s forgotten we’re here.’

  Max could hardly believe it. ‘She’s totally absorbed in the here and now.’

  ‘Looks like it. Let’s see where this goes.’

  ‘Take him through his paces for me,’ Jenna told the trainer once they’d stood on a bench to get the saddle on him.

  Once in the saddle, the young woman began walking Goliath around in a large circle before she urged him into a trot.

  ‘Now, canter!’ Jenna commanded after a minute or two.

  But as the trainer tried to make the transition into a canter, Goliath’s nostrils flared and he started pigrooting, almost bucking the young woman out of the saddle.

  ‘Steady, Goliath,’ Jenna called out as she approached fearlessly.

  Adrenaline borne of fear spurted through Max’s veins as she walked towards the massive horse. He had to remind himself Jenna knew her way around horses instinctively. It looked as though that hadn’t changed. If he raced into the yard now to stand between the horse and Jenna, it would most likely only serve to spook the stallion.

  Katherine Gerber grabbed Max’s arm. ‘She remembered his name!’

  As Goliath steadied, Jenna reached for the reins and he became completely still. The transformation was a sight to behold.

  ‘Do you know why he pigrooted?’ she asked the young rider.

  ‘No.’

  ‘You tightened down on the reins as he tried to make the transition from trot to canter. Were you afraid of cantering him?’

  ‘A little. He’s often bucked people off when he’s gone into the canter and this is the first time I’ve ridden him.’

  ‘He’s a big horse and it can be a bit frightening to be sitting up on top of him when he starts to pick up pace. Imagine his discomfort when he’s trying to canter and you’re up there grabbing him in the mouth. If this keeps happening, he’s going to fear transition even with someone who isn’t so hard on the reins. Now, try again.’

  Jenna stepped into the middle of the circle and called out directions the way she’d been doing most of her life. ‘Stay loose. Relax your body. That’s it. Keep your legs relaxed. In a moment you’re going to urge him into the canter. Use your thighs. Don’t pull on those reins. If he rushes it, ride through it and just stay loose in the saddle until he slows down. Before long, he’ll realise you’re relaxed and he’s not uncomfortable. Ready? Go.’ The rider did as directed. ‘Yes. Good. That’s it. Much better!’

  Max turned to Dr Gerber. ‘Is she back?’

  The doctor raised her eyebrows. ‘At least part of her is.’

  ‘Now, back to a trot.’

  ‘She’s truly forgotten we’re here,’ the doctor repeated her earlier conclusion. ‘She’s not thinking about only having arrived. She’s forgotten she hasn’t remembered anything about horse training until this point. I’ve never seen a patient change from retrograde amnesia to be this focused to the exclusion of all else.’

  Max looked on with pride. ‘It’s been her passion since she was a child. She’s won over the most recalcitrant horses and turned them into champions.’

  Jenna continued training for another ten minutes, seeming completely oblivious to everything and everyone around her as she focused totally on the horse and rider.

  ‘Brilliant! Keep it up for a half hour and then the same again tomorrow. He’ll be back in shape in no time.’ She turned to walk towards the gate. Halfway across the paddock, she stopped dead in her tracks. Her whole body jolted
before she swivelled around to face Dr Gerber and Max.

  Shock widened her eyes. Her mouth opened as she registered what’d happened. Then, a smile stretched across her face and she hurried towards them, bursting with energy and excitement. ‘Did you see?’ she demanded. ‘My God! I remembered what I do!’

  ‘Fantastic, Jen!’ Max’s pulse beat a frenetic tattoo through his veins as she bent to climb through the railings of the paddock and then threw herself into his arms.

  ‘Yay!’ she cried. ‘I’m a horse trainer! I remember how to do it.’ Her eyes were wet with tears.

  He lifted her feet off the ground and swung her around as they laughed. Apart from the extra pounds of baby she carried, it was just like old times and the way they’d always shared the excitement of life together.

  A few moments later, Dr Gerber rained on their parade when she asked, ‘What else do you remember?’

  ‘I remember …’ The happiness faded from Jenna’s face. A furrow appeared between her brows.

  ‘Goliath was the horse,’ the psychologist said. ‘Who was the rider?’

  Max was aware of Jenna’s body sagging against his in defeat as he lowered her to the ground. ‘I don’t know. I didn’t even ask her name.’ She shook her head then closed her eyes and clung tighter to Max. ‘I didn’t even realise I didn’t know her name. It was like I knew her but I didn’t know her.’

  ‘Hey! It’s still good you trained the rider as if you’d never been away from it, right, Dr Gerber?’

  ‘Right,’ the psychologist agreed with slight reluctance.

  Jenna straightened and sent them a faint smile as she pointed. ‘I remember the stables are over there. Let’s go. If I remember Goliath, maybe I can remember the names of the other horses.’

  ‘You remembered Gypsy yesterday. It’ll come, Jen,’ he told her as he placed a kiss against her temple.

  ‘Training the rider was one of those automatic things you remember, Jenna,’ Dr Gerber explained. ‘It’s a little like making a cup of tea, or showering and dressing yourself. You haven’t lost any of those skills.’

  ‘In other words, it wasn’t such a big a deal?’ Jenna asked hesitantly.

  ‘Well, the training skills you exhibited and your knowledge of horses was a little more than your average daily self-help activity, and it’s fantastic you remembered Goliath’s name.’

  ‘But?’ Jenna pressed.

  ‘I’ll be more excited when you remember people and places.’

  Max admired the way Jenna rallied. Her chin rose slightly and there was a new strength in her spine that told him she wasn’t going to be deflated.

  ‘After the stables, let’s go to the stream I saw in my mind’s eye then,’ she suggested. ‘I described it to Max and he recognised it, but I want to see if it’s exactly the way I pictured it. I’m sure it was a vivid memory of a place.’

  ‘We can do that,’ Max agreed. He noted she hadn’t told the doctor about her recollection of the picture she’d drawn for him for his fourteenth birthday. Perhaps it was a memory between Max and Jenna that was too personal to be shared because it’d been a kind of turning point in their friendship.

  He’d wondered years ago—after she’d spent so long on the drawing she’d eventually thrown away—whether she’d started to have deeper feelings for him. He’d always hoped he was right. It’s probably why he’d never been able to throw the drawing away—why he’d had it framed after he’d moved to London and received his very first pay cheque from the construction job.

  The picture had hung over his bed in his digs in London. After he’d bought his home in St. John’s Wood, it’d taken pride of place in his home office. It’d kind of been a reminder of why he was working his butt off to achieve his fortune. Even after he thought she’d forgotten him, he’d still wanted to remember her and all they’d shared.

  Jenna grabbed Dr Gerber’s arm when they walked into the oldest of the stables. ‘Get excited, doctor!’ she exclaimed as she virtually danced around on the spot. ‘This is definitely the stable I pictured when I asked Max whether I followed him around as a kid. My memory is still there!’

  ‘Okay!’ The psychologist laughed. ‘I’m excited!’

  ‘Let’s look at the horses,’ Max urged.

  Dr Gerber took a step backwards. ‘I’m actually allergic to horse hair. I’ll wait right here.’

  Max and Jenna were walking across from one bay of stables to another when he heard a whirring sound from up above. A split second later Dr Gerber yelled, ‘Watch out!’

  Acting on pure instinct, Max crash tackled Jenna. He gave her such a mighty sideways shove, they both crashed into bales of hay stacked about four metres from where they’d stood, then rolled a little further. At the exact moment of their impact with the hay, wood splintered from behind them and a loud crash shook the ground.

  Max had rolled to try to take the brunt of the impact and Jenna lay sprawled on top of him, breathing hard.

  ‘What was that?’ she gasped as she looked back over her shoulder in the direction of the crash.

  He knew exactly what’d happened before he raised his head and shoulders off the ground to look towards the source of the loud bang.

  A large pallet of hay had been suspended from the roof on a pulley system in the middle of the stables. It’d been directly above the path they’d walked. Somehow, the cleat had come undone, sending the pallet crashing down. If Dr Gerber hadn’t alerted them—if Max hadn’t acted as quickly as he had …

  ‘Oh my God! Are you both okay?’ Allergy forgotten, Dr Gerber ran to where they were lying.

  ‘Jenna?’ Max asked.

  She nodded but he could feel the tremors running through her body as shock began to set in.

  Two men he recognised as being undercover members of the security team ran into the stables.

  ‘Both okay?’ The guard only spared Max and Jenna a quick glance before scanning the area.

  ‘We’re okay,’ Max responded. He signalled with his eyes and a slight movement of his head to instruct them to look outside.

  They both got the message. ‘Okay. We’ll get back to work then.’

  ‘You could’ve been killed!’ the doctor exclaimed. ‘What a dreadful accident.’

  But had it been an accident?

  Max looked up at the ceiling.

  Herlstone Park was well-staffed and had always been very well maintained. That something so dangerous had occurred was hard to believe. That it’d happened at the very second they were directly underneath the pallet was downright suspicious.

  The recurring questions circled in his brain. Who would want Jenna dead and why?

  Jenna’s well-being was his first priority, but he was also keen to get up to the loft and investigate how the ‘accident’ might’ve happened. The rope holding the pallet would’ve been secured by a cleat. If anyone had released the cleat to cause the accident they’d be long gone by now. There were two staircases which led out of the loft externally, in addition to the internal staircase.

  Jenna started shifting her weight off Max. ‘That was close.’

  When they were both standing, he looked her over for any outward signs of damage. Seeing none, a little of the strain across his shoulders eased. ‘We need to get you back to the main house and checked out by an obstetrician.’ He replayed the impact in his head and hoped the baby hadn’t been harmed. He’d thrown his weight into Jenna’s upper body to get her out of harm’s way. Then, there’d been the forceful impact when they’d hit the hay and rolled together.

  The urgency of the situation had left him no gentle option.

  Jenna moved closer to him. When she slipped her hand into his, he gave it a reassuring squeeze.

  ‘Would you mind taking Jenna back to the house, doctor? I’ll send for a specialist but I’d like to take a look at the winch and see if I can figure out how the pallet fell.’

  ‘Of course.’ Dr Gerber started to sneeze.

  At the same time Jenna’s tremors intensified. She starte
d shaking like a leaf and tightened her hold on Max’s hand.

  ‘On second thoughts, I’ll see you both settled at the house and then I’ll come back,’ he decided.

  A couple of the stable hands ran in. ‘Heard there was an accident. Is anybody hurt?’ one asked.

  ‘How in God’s name did that happen?’ the other put in as he stared at the smashed pallet then up to the winch.

  ‘Nobody’s hurt.’ Max took a good look at them, planning to question them later. ‘Don’t touch anything. Nobody, except Hans from maintenance, goes up into the loft until I return.’ As soon as he’d spoken, he realised his manner may have transmitted his suspicions. The last thing he wanted was for people to start feeling wary. ‘This pallet of hay fell. There may be other maintenance issues that need to be dealt with and I don’t want any other employee being put at risk,’ he adlibbed. ‘I’ll be back soon.’

  The men sent him puzzled looks. ‘Okay, Mr Bennett.’

  Oblivious to the suspicions running through his head, they probably found his tone very authoritarian and thought he was overreacting.

  Provided they followed his orders to the letter, it didn’t matter what they thought.

  Jenna swayed on her feet.

  ‘Come here, sweetheart.’ Max scooped her up, carried her out of the stables and to a farm buggy he’d noticed parked outside. It was an indication she was deeply in shock that she didn’t insist she could walk out by herself.

  ‘It’s been an eventful day.’ Dr Gerber took a seat behind Jenna in the farm buggy and started to blow her nose. ‘When we get you back, you should rest while you wait for the obstetrician, Jenna.’

  ‘I’m sure I’m okay but it was a shock,’ Jenna said through chattering teeth.

  ‘Do you have something for your allergy?’ Max asked the doctor.

  ‘Yes. I’ll take it as soon as we get back to the house and I’ll be fine.’

  ‘Wait a second, ladies.’ He ran back into the stables. Out of ear shot, he made a very quick phone call to the head of the security team here, briefing him on the incident. Equally short was the phone call to his assistant in his London office. He instructed her to put his helicopter pilot on standby and to arrange to have the best obstetrician in London flown to Herlstone Park as quickly as possible.