Rosanna kept striding back and forth, her head spinning nervously in search of items lying messily on the floor. Shrykos’ earnet, a couple of brushes, studs from Melrose’s shoes they had unattached the day prior to this one. She ran around collecting belongings in to her lap and dumping them to tack trunks, slamming the lids shut with a loud , careless thump before hurrying to another place.
Suddenly she felt hands on her shoulders, coming behind her and stopping her in her tracks. “Stop. Fretting.”
Rosanna tensed up but slumped her shoulders right after she realised who it was. Andreas removed his hands from her and stepped in front of the blonde woman, a curious but cocky expression on his face, his chin and one eyebrow lifted. He seemed to study Rosanna’s appearance.
“She’ll hate this place” Rosanna muttered.
“She won’t”, Andreas replied. “She’s been here before and didn’t hate it then. Besides, if anything, the whole stable’s only better now than back then.”
Rosanna still didn’t feel at ease.
This was the day Vredesholm, during Rosanna’s ownership, would take a bigger step forward. During the last six months, it’d been just her and Andreas and the three horses, while Margaux had joined them after the New Year. They’d had fun, training and riding together, Margaux working with Mette while Andreas had been training Rosanna and Shrykos, alongside working with Melrose himself. During the long winter they’d cleaned the barn from floor to ceiling, bought some new essentials like newer and safer show jumping utensils and that was pretty much all they'd done. Spent days and nights together, having dinners, wine nights, movie nights, becoming more than just a manager and her two employees.
Today was potentially the day another person would join them and another horse would join the barn. Ella Larson, as she was supposedly named, would hopefully be boarding her horse in Vredesholm. The horse, whose name Rosanna must have missed as she couldn’t recall it, was apparently a Welsh Cob stallion. Margaux had hinted that Ella would be eager to offer him to stud, if the mares just were a suitable match for the stallion, so this could be a good deal for the both of them.
“Rosanna?”
She woke up from her thoughts and stared up at Andreas’ eyes. “Huh?”
“They’re here”, Andreas smiled gently and nudged his head towards the front yard, where a screech of gravel could be heard as a car steered to the parking lot.
❖
Ella Larson turned out be a delightful person. She was gleeful and talkative, which usually would be perhaps even too much for Rosanna who wasn’t the best at having conversations, but now she felt solely glad about it. Ella talked a lot about her horse, who had the most beautiful name in Rosanna’s opinion: Mockingbird. Mockingbird was an apparent future star and Ella praised him as the easiest horse she’d ever met. What surprised Rosanna was that Mockingbird was actually purchased from her aunt, during the time when Vredesholm was still a glorious stud farm under Aunt Ester’s hands. Rosanna would have to dug around the archives to see if her aunt had saved any documents of Mockingbird, although the stallion must have been barely one year old around the time.
After taking a tour around the farm, they sat down around the table in the staff room, sipping tasty coffee Margaux had brewed for them before disappearing to take Mette out for a ride. Andreas sat next to Rosanna, Ella facing them, fiddling her brown, curly hair that was tied up for a massive ponytail on top of her head. They talked about Rosanna’s horses, Vredesholm and generally about Welsh Cobs.
“You were at the Waldemar show, right?” Ella asked suddenly. “I think we were at the same class, but Kingie and I didn’t make it to the jump-off, so we left early.”
“Oh, right, yeah. We came second, which was a surprise to all of us”, Rosanna laughed.
“How great! You did seem a bit riled up during the first round, though? I’m sorry if I’m mistaken”, Ella said.
Rosanna flushed. “Yeah, about that”, she smiled sheepishly. “I got enrolled as a surprise. Which I wasn’t very glad about, to be quite honest.”
Andreas cocked an eyebrow, glancing at Rosanna’s direction without turning his head, while Rosanna stared back at him, arms crossed.
“We’re over it now, though” Rosanna laughed after the daunting silence, Ella joining her laughter. Andreas huffed, mock-offended.
After a nice chat and two cups of coffee for each, Rosanna gave Ella a brief introduction to the staff room and the sleeping quarters above it.
“The sleeping quarters were originally built to house clinic attendees and staff members working overnight due to foaling mares or such. Right now we’re barely planning future clinics, so the sleeping quarters go unused. I’d rather have my staff sleeping at my house”, Rosanna explained.
Ella turned around from the bed cover she had been twiddling and feeling, looking at Rosanna before glancing at Andreas, standing stoically behind her. “Right”, she nodded.
Andreas snorted loudly behind Rosanna, who glanced at him before realising what Ella had falsely thought. “Oh, no, we- not like that! I meant all of staff, including Margaux!” Rosanna gabbled, before punching Andreas on the side for laughing. The man sniveled and took a step back, as Rosanna turned back to Ella. “I’m sorry for him, hopefully he didn’t embarrass you.”
“No offence taken”, Ella smiled. “Everyone gets confused once in a while”, she continued and winked, before heading back towards the stairs. “I love it here already, when can I bring Mockingbird in?”
Rosanna followed Ella, scowling at Andreas when she passed him. “Any day you want, really”, she replied to Ella.
“It’s the middle of the month,” Rosanna continued as they reached the first floor. “But I think we can calculate the fee for the rest of the days and by the start of May you can start paying the standard fee”, she said and glanced questioningly at Andreas who was wearing off his amusement. He nodded approvingly and they both turned back to Ella.
“Great!” the young woman chimed, clapping her hands together. “So, how’s today? Got any trailer for rent?”
