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“Having trouble?”
Gyro leaned forward in his saddle in a nonchalant way as he watched the redhead do a double-take over her shoulder at him. He flashed a grin, trying to appear friendly but she gave him a frown before redirecting her gaze towards the river, “No.”
Her blatant dismissal of him before he’d said much of anything sent a brief flash of irritation through Johnny, who remarked with a scoff, “Right. So you’re just staring at the river for fun in the middle of a race, huh?”
Her face twisted up into a sneer, but she seemed to catch herself in the moment, shifting her weight back in the saddle a bit to glance up at the sky and heave a sigh, “ No , I’m not.”
Gyro spoke again, calm and cool, “Considering there’s no crossing point for a few miles in each direction, I’d have to argue that you’re having trouble. Miss…?”
“None of your business.”
His brows raised as a smirk formed, “Ah, miss ‘none-of-your-business’ . A delightful name.”
She rolled her eyes, barely visible beneath the wide brim of her hat, before she gave him a caustic glare, “Don’t you have better things to do than patronize me? Like winning the race?” She added as an afterthought, “Hard to forget the way you just barreled in front of everyone else like a starving dog.”
“Well I’m glad I left a memorable impression on you. You know,” He shifted again, resting his hand against his cheek in a thoughtful manner than had Johnny wishing they’d just ignored this woman and kept going… but he knew Gyro better than that, “ You’ve caused quite a stir yourself. Strange to see a woman in the race.”
The woman took a moment to attempt to coax her horse forward once again, only to be met with a snort and some irritated shuffling. Her patience seemed to be whittling down rather quickly, and her tone grew snappy, “Look, I’m not the competition you might think I am. I’m not after first place. Or second. Or even third,” She gripped the reins and tried to straighten her mount’s heading to face the river when it seemed hellbent on turning away, “So I think the ‘stir’ is pure exaggeration and poppycock.”
She turned to give Gyro a critical stare when she heard his raucous laughter, but said nothing more, instead continuing to struggle to persuade her horse to move forwards off the shoreline. Johnny thought he caught the sight of her cheeks turning red, but from his distance, it was hard to tell whether that was true, or just an illusion caused by her hair. Gyro seemed to express no interest in vocalizing actual words, so Johnny decided to spare her another moment of his humility, “Why enter a race with no intention to win?”
Heaving another sharp sigh, she released the reins and leaned back in the saddle, folding her arms and tapping her fingers as a way to kill off some of the excess anger that was flaring up. She didn’t look at him when she responded simply, “Because you don’t need to win, to get a prize.”
He couldn’t hide the way his face twisted up in confusion, “The hell kind of a goal is that ? Just wanting a participation prize? Aim higher if you’re going to aim at all.”
“No,” She shook her head, “If I aim higher, I will cause a stir. I don’t want that.”
“But you already have-”
“ Look , I’m not here to win. I’m not here to make friends, or enemies. I just need to make it into the top ten places, because that’s all I need. I don’t want fame. I want to be forgettable in this race and still go back home with what I came here for. Simple as that.”
“...That doesn’t sound very simple.”
Her eyes narrowed, “When I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it.” She then turned her attention back to her horse once again.
Johnny, worked up at her words now because of how content she seemed to be to just settle for being sub-par, scoffed and prodded his own horse forward. Slow Dancer had no hesitation with stepping into the water, and he could feel the red-haired woman’s eyes burning into the side of his head from where she remained stranded on the opposite side. He only turned back to call to Gyro to follow, but his companion lingered behind a while longer.
When he’d crossed to the other side, he waited for him, but in the back of his mind already knew he’d leave without Gyro if he took too long. This was still a race after all, and not just against other jockeys now. Gyro mentioned this to the woman, “You know, sun’s going down. Johnny and I are planning to make camp on the other side of the river. You’re welcome to join us.”
She didn’t particularly like how it wasn’t phrased as a question. Grasping the reins again, she said, “I’ll be fine,” and turned away.
Gyro closed his eyes and shrugged exaggeratedly, “Ah well. Offer’s open nonetheless,” He coaxed Valkyrie forward with a gentle kick to her side and offered a wave to the woman as he passed her, “Good luck.”
He was about halfway across the river, which didn’t even reach past his horse’s belly, when Johnny caught his attention by looking past Gyro and the source of a thud of boots hitting the ground. He glanced behind him to see the woman having dismounted her horse, and was now gently tugging the reins towards the river. Her horse was digging its hooves and standing its ground, pulling backwards whenever she’d try to get it to move forwards, and no matter what she seemed to tell it, it refused to budge.
He turned fully when he’d met up with Johnny across the river and caught himself smiling as he watched, his companion commenting without caring how loud he was, “That horse is never going to cross with how she’s pulling at it.”
Gyro barely shrugged.
They watched the woman grumble to herself irritably before she suddenly turned away from her horse and waded into the river, releasing the reins for a moment to step out into waist-deep water. She then turned back around and clicked her tongue, holding her arms out to gesture around her as she raised her voice enough the bystanding men could hear, “Come on, Bernie. Look, it’s not that deep… You saw those other horses cross. Come here, Bernie.”
To their amusement, the horse seemed to show the slightest bit of interest, but only stepped as far as the very edge where the rocks turned wet when the current pushed the water up with the ebb and flow. As soon as its hooves got wet, it promptly shook its head and let out a snort. Johnny glanced up at the horizon (or what he could see of it from over the treeline) and frowned, speaking to Gyro, “We’re going to run out of daylight shortly, Gyro.” His companion waved him off, much to his annoyance. Why now of all times did he have to get fixated on a stupid woman and her stubborn horse?
She clapped her hands together now, not seeming to care about how her trousers were soaked through, “Bernadette, come here . We don’t have time for this.” Again, her horse took a tentative step forward, but halted immediately afterwards. She moved closer to grasp the reins again and give a gentle tug towards herself, “Come on, Bernie! We can’t sleep in the bloody river. Let’s go.”
Gyro finally spoke to her from his position on the side of the river she sought to get to, “That’s one stubborn steed you’ve got on your hands, miss ‘none-of-your-business’ .”
She tossed a glance over her shoulder at him and frowned, “That’s not my name.”
Before Gyro could press further, Johnny pitched in, “Have you considered actually crossing the river, and trying to call her? Might like that more than the water you’re luring her into.”
Still, she tugged on the reins - not too harshly to hurt the horse, but firmly enough to get a shake of the head in response. She huffed as she struggled, “Knowing Bernie … She’d… Try to go the long way around if I- I tried that,” She let out a groan of frustration, “Bernadette, for God’s sake you old nag… Come on .”
Johnny’s lips almost twisted into a crooked, mean-spirited smile, “Seems the rider’s more stubborn than the horse is.”
“I heard that .”
Gyro chuckled before offering, “Are you sure we can’t help? Not even a little bit?”
The woman took a moment to adjust her hat so it wasn’t sitting so low on her face, then looked towards him, “Bernie’s fussy. If you think she doesn’t listen to me , you’ll be surprised to know she’s like this with everyone . Hell, even Diego-bloody-Brando would have a hard time with her.” She spat the name out like she had something personal at stake with it, something which piqued both men’s curiosity. After all… they weren’t exactly fond of Diego Brando either.
Gyro raised a brow and quipped, laughing in his peculiar way, “Nyo-ho-ho~ You mean there’s a lady out there Dio can’t handle? That’s new.”
Her scoff in response said more than her words did, and she gave him a glare, “He’s a ripe bloody plum is what he is… Bah .” She shook her head and seemed like she wanted to add more, but settled instead for a dismissive, “Not that it matters,” before she turned her attention back to her still-stubborn horse.
Johnny watched Gyro seem to roll an idea around in his head before he abruptly slid out of the saddle with a thump, spurs jangling for a moment before he strode with great purpose in the direction of the river. Johnny called out to him to remind him, “Oi, Gyro - Get back here! We have to make camp and I can’t do it by myself.”
Another nonchalant wave of dismissal left Johnny gritting his teeth with irritation as all he could really do was watch. Gyro seemed to have no qualms about a lack of stealth, and openly sloshed towards the woman through the water - Waist-deep for her was only thigh-high for him. However, her horse seemed to take great offense to his approach and jerked backwards, causing her to stumble forwards before the mare decided to charge forwards with a bounding leap. Gyro side-stepped out of the way, but the woman was less fortunate, being bumped by the horse’s flanks as it landed next to her and rushed to the opposite bank of the river.
While he did a very poor job of covering up his amusement at her being sent tumbling backwards into the water, he was relieved when he saw her prop herself up on her hands and knees to attempt to stand, sputtering on water all the while. Before it could float away, he made sure to grab her hat in one hand as he offered his free one in assistance. She took it, and Johnny commented from some distance away, “Your horse finally made it… and it only took Gyro scaring the daylight out of her, first.”
Gyro gave his companion a look she couldn’t see, as she wiped her eyes to clear up her vision. She was quiet for a long moment, staring at her horse - Bernadette - as she trotted around to loop back and look towards her owner, shaking herself off in the meanwhile. The red-head muttered something under her breath, before starting to make her way towards the shore. Gyro followed, keeping an amused eye on her as she tried to wring out her hair. He offered her the hat when she glanced his way, seeming to eye him suspiciously before carefully taking it from him. As she took it, he said, “Where’d you find a horse like that, anyway?”
She gave it a shake before deciding against putting it back on her head, “Nowhere interesting.”
Realizing she was putting her walls back up, he figured he’d give it another shot, “You never did mention your name. What am I going to tell people when I need to recount a funny story about a stubborn mare I met on the Steel Ball Run?”
She narrowed her eyes at him - honey-coloured eyes, he noticed even in the waning light and now without the hat to hide her features - and huffed, “Keep me anonymous.”
“But that’s no fun!”
She walked away from him, “Make something up, then.” The red-head approached her horse, who lowered her head a little to meet her eye-level, only to recoil a touch when she got a stern finger pointed in her face, “Thanks for humiliating me, you old nag.”
As she grasped the saddle as if to mount her again, Johnny spoke again, “You’re not going to keep riding when you just crawled out of the river, are you? You’ll freeze.”
He got a glare in return, “Does that really matter to you?”
“ Well, no -”
Gyro cut-in, “It’d be rude to not offer help. We have to make camp anyway, and you’re not going to get very far trying to ride at night in the dark.”
“I think I can manage.”
Johnny laughed bitterly as Gyro frowned, “I insist . You’ll thank us later when you’ve got a camp fire to warm up in front of. Not to mention, safety in numbers. Near a river, you’re apt to attract bears. Or worse! You know they have a few folk tales about all sorts of nasty things lurking in the woods… Right, Johnny?”
She waved her hands, “Okay, okay . Fine… But pull something - Anything -” She put a hand on the holster strapped to her thigh, “And you’ll regret it.”
Gyro put a hand to his chest in mock offense, “Mi amica, please… I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Johnny felt a strange sense of… relief? Pride, maybe? Seeing her roll her eyes and not at all entertain his attempts at being ‘charming.
While she offered to help with setting up camp some distance from the river itself (though still within earshot of it), she still seemed to stick to herself, going out of her way to distance her belongings - even her horse - from Gyro and Johnny’s. Gyro caught her, while securing her horse to a nearby tree, being nipped and tugged by the hair, earning a hiss and a prompt flick on the nose in return. He found it almost peculiar in a way… Such an incompatible pair and yet, she’d made it this far and kept pace with the majority of the other jockeys.
Then again, Gyro didn’t know a thing about her except that she was a woman, and was English.
While sitting around the campfire to dry off (Johnny, to simply get warm), he attempted to pry a bit more through ‘casual’ conversation. She sat on a rock on the complete opposite side of the fire, despite that being the direction the breeze was going, and he tried to point this out, “You can sit next to Johnny and I you know. We don’t bite.”
Johnny scoffed and remarked under his breath, though still loud enough for everyone to hear, “Speak for yourself…”
She shook her head, “I’m fine over here.”
“The smoke is blowing straight at you.”
“It’s not bothering me.”
“You’ve had your head down for the past five minutes-”
She threw an exasperated look his way, “Why does it matter to you?”
Gyro frowned, getting a little irritated at her stubbornness now, and pretended to think about it for a moment, “Hmm… Maybe because your discomfort makes everyone uncomfortable? We invited you here. No point in you sitting here with a scowl the whole time.”
Johnny sided with Gyro, “If we wanted that , we would’ve asked Diego .”
All three of them mutually grumbled and scowled at the thought of the notorious jockey… But that only prompted Johnny to inquire, “ You seem to dislike him almost as much as we do. You’re English. You know the guy?”
She seemed to take offense at the suggestion, “Not personally, no . I count my blessings every day. Besides,” She narrowed her eyes, shifting to put more of her weight on her elbows resting on her thighs, “Do you know every American jockey involved in the race? Or are you just having a laugh?”
Johnny frowned but conceded, “...Fair point.”
Unprompted, she spoke again to elaborate, “He’s only plastered in every bloody paper in England. Hard to avoid his name. Even harder when everyone gossips about it too.”
“Yet you hate him without knowing him.”
She scoffed, “I don’t have to know the lad to know he’s an insufferable twit. I don’t care how many medals or trophies he’s got stashed away. At the end of the day, all that matters to him is his career and his reputation. It shows in everything he does. Seeing him get flocked at the starting line just proved that.”
Gyro quirked a brow, “I’m not sure… You almost sound jealous of him.”
“Jealous of a self-centered jockey who probably forgets every single person he meets unless they can do something for him?” She barely disguised her snort of bitter laughter, “ Hardly . I guarantee you, not one of those women around him cared about anything other than his fame. I mean… He married a woman who was over double his age. Why would a man who looks like that , do such a thing? Money. Plain and simple.”
Johnny’s brows furrowed, “Didn’t you say you were in this race for the money yourself?”
“Would you say I’m anything at all like Diego? In any way whatsoever?”
The two men gave each other vastly different looks - Johnny seeming to seek Gyro’s mutual approval, while Gyro himself gave Johnny a stern ‘ don’t say anything ’ glare. She groaned with disapproval, pointedly crossing her arms over her chest, “And this is why I’m content sitting over here. Away from everyone else.”
Gyro seemed torn on something before ultimately deciding to attempt to mend the conversation with a change of subject, “Okay, forget Diego then. We don’t like him, you don’t like him… All’s fair. But what about you? ”
“What about me?”
Gyro offered a shrug, “We don’t even have a name for you. Aside from miss ‘none-of-your-business’ , anyway.”
“Why does it matter?”
“You ask that a lot.”
“Because it’s never mattered to anyone before,” Her brow creased, though not substantially, “So forgive me for being skeptical.” After an empty pause, she seemed to take the hint and relented after several more moments, “...It’s Miriam. If it’ll stop you from calling me that .”
Gyro chuckled to himself, and when Miriam gave him a look, Johnny spoke in his stead, “Compared to some of the others we’ve encountered along the way… That’s pretty… Boring.”
Instead of taking offense like he expected, he got a shrug in response, “I like it that way.”