Blonde Fury II by Sean O'Kane

girl,” the Prince had said when he had listened to Wilbur’s protestations that he was a man of honour. The price had already been agreed and so the Prince recognised that Wilbur was genuinely troubled. Western consciences had always amused him. “Sell me the contract. You know that I also am a man of my word and she is safe with me.”
    Wilbur thought for a second and then smiled and sat back, looking across the table into the Prince ’s dark eyes. He had been assured that the terms of the contract would be honoured, what more could he want? Now he could get the girl off his ranch and whoever was looking for her could go look on the other side of the world.
    “I will of course take the precaution of chipping her before transit,” the Prince concluded. “She is a powerful creature and could make it difficult to get her out of the country if she struggled. It won’t take more than a day to have one delivered and inserted .”
    “A day or so will not be a problem, your Highness,” Wilbur agreed and the men stood up and shook hands on the deal just as Markham, Wilbur’s private secretary came in.
    “I have a party of three booked in for this afternoon and I’m sending the car to pick them up at the Excelsior , Sir,” he announced. “Is Lightning available?”
    Wilbur’s ears pricked up. The Excelsior was where Henry had said the P . I . had been spotted in a meeting.
    “What name did these people give?” he asked.
    Markham checked his tablet. “Er, Mister Holden and two female friends who – he assured me – are both accomplished in the handling of rare breed ponies.” ‘Rare breed’ was the accepted euphemism for when discussing ponies in mails and on phones.
    “Hol den? Jesus H. Christ! That guy runs CSL and he’s up to his neck in The Lodge , and the British Prime Minister’s a Goddam n member! One word from him and I’ll have the whole freaking White House down on me!”
    “Problems?” the Prince enquired. Wilbur explained reluctantly, aware that this could drastically reduce Lightning’s price.
    “You don’t know who this girl is but you don’t want any official curiosity into your affairs, am I right?”
    “That’s the size of it,” he admitted.
    “I could reduce my offer in these circumstances, in return for removing the girl as a matter of urgency. However that still leaves me with the very real risks involved in having an unwilling captive on my hands in a country where I am not a welcome guest. So let us think this through…”
    Eventually it was decided that three other ponies would be offered and that Lightning’s stall door would be left half open like all the others, so as not to attract any attention. A groom would keep her firmly tethered at the back and carry out some post-race checks – just anything to keep her attention away from the stableyard in case she knew any of the party.
    As the car had already been dispatched to pick the party up, and they didn’t want to alert the passengers to anything untoward over the hand’s free phone by asking too many questions, it was decided that only once they were safely out on the visitor’s track would Lightning be tacked up and driven out in a different direction to a remote part of the estate to await the all clear. It shouldn’t alarm her unduly , there was no reason the visitors should see anything of her and on the following afternoon she would be chi pped, shipped and safely dispatched .
     
    Brian was surprised to see the limo that swept out of the ranch gates just as theirs swept in. It was flying the flag of Bakhtar, one he knew well from arenas around the world.
    “Well, well. What’s the Prince of Bakhtar doing here?” he wondered aloud.
    “Oh, we get all kinds of folk at the ranch. You’d be amazed at who appreciates the ponies these days!” the driver said.
    His passengers exchanged smiles.
    “Maybe he was looking to buy something,” Brian suggested.
    “Oh, Mr Floyd , he don’t sell any ponies.