September 18th 1892: Raoul
There was no time to lose. Quickly I marched over to the door and pulled it open.
"Gabriel must be in trouble," I stated. "I have to go and see whether I can help him. Who will come with me?"
Antoinette was the first to reach the door, looking up at me expectantly.
"No," I said flatly, trying to ignore her by now pleading gaze. I had fallen for it many times, but today I'd be strong. I wouldn't expose a child to such dangers. "You stay here with your mother."
Christine opened her mouth, as if to argue, and closed it again, nodding.
"Come here, Antoinette," she called. "We can go to the horses another time." The girl walked over to her and Philippe obediently, though rather reluctantly. They all sat down on the sofa, next to Mme. de Gableaux. Marielle and Larisse followed them, settling down on chairs. They didn't seem to have any intention to accompany me.
Pierre and Jean, on the other hand, stepped forwards.
"Horses like me," Pierre declared. "That's why I always was the coachman for Mast- for Marielle's father," he corrected himself, looking rather sheepish.
"I'll come with you, too," Jean said. "If there is an emergency, you'll need all the help you can get, and I'm the only one who hasn't done anything so far."
"You can bring the horses into our stable if it's not safe for them to stay in yours," Mme de Gableaux offered. "There should be enough space. I'll send the stablemaster to prepare everything. But do make sure the horses are calm before you take them inside. I don't want mine to become nervous as well."
We nodded hastily and went out of the door. Servants looked after us as we ran down the corridor towards the entrance door. I pulled it open, panting slightly. I didn't feel like running anymore, but I didn't have another choice. If Gabriel had really gone into the stable and had been injured by the horses, we had to get him out quickly.
As we made our way back to the place I had left not even an hour ago, I wondered whether this day would ever be over. Just when I had hoped things would calm down a little, something else had happened. Where had our quiet, peaceful life gone? Would things ever be normal again?
The men of the firebrigade didn't see us as we slid through the open gate and hurried towards the stable. They were too busy extinguishing the flames that were still licking up the walls. There seemed to be less fire, but even more smoke than before. Fortunately for us, the wind was blowing into a different direction at the moment, away from the stable, so that it didn't obscure our vision.
We didn't have to go all the way to the stable. A few yards away from it, we stopped, gaping at the scene we met. A person and a horse were struggling on the threshold, illiuminated by the light coming from inside the small building.
The horse, a slender mare whose name I believed was Etoile, couldn't seem to make up her mind where to go. The stable apparently was just as dangerous as the lawn outside. She held her head high in the air, ears moving nervously from side to side, nostrils wide.
The person, a muscular young man whose name I was sure was Gabriel, clung to the rope he had fastened to her halter.
"Good girl," he said soothingly. "Good girl… Now come with me… You don't want to stay in there, do you?" It was a miracle to me that he managed to remain calm while dealing with a terrified and possibly dangerous horse.
At last, Etoile seemed to become aware of the fact that the person at her side wsn't just an annoying someone who had to be shaken off, but her friend Gabriel. She lowered her head, her tense muscles relaxing visibly.
"Good girl…" Gabriel cooed. "Come…"
He tugged at the rope, and Etoile walked next to him… only to stop dead two steps later, when she spotted us.
Gabriel was far more pleased to see us.
"Have you come to help me?" he called. "Excellent. I could do with a little support. When I first came here, the horses were beside themselves with fear. They didn't see the fire, of course, but they smelled the smoke and heard all the unfamiliar voices. I put halters on all of them, in case they broke through the door and ran away. Fortunately the wind turned before something serious could happen, and they grew calmer because the smells and sounds grew fainter. I thought I'd take Etoile for a walk, since she's the most nervous one, but as you could see, she didn't like the idea too much."
"We heard you screaming," I told him.
"Oh, that must have been when Etoile stepped onto my foot," he explained casually. "She's still a little nervous, but it has already become much better, hasn't it, girl?"
Personally, I couldn't see that much of a change, but I didn't say so. I merely made sure that I stayed well out of reach of the mare's hooves. She was no longer standing still, but had started prancing restlessly, looking over at us with her big, round eyes.
"It was dangerous to go into the stable on your own," I said seriously. "You could have been trampled by the horses."
"But no!" Gabriel gave back, looking at me as if my worries were completely unfounded. "The horses trust me. They'd never attack me. Etoile only stepped onto my foot because we couldn't agree on who should leave her box first. She didn't do it on purpose. The only ones who were in danger of being hurt were the horses. If there had been a panic, they could have hurt themselves. That's why I had to go in there. I had to save them. At least I was not too late this time…"
He turned his head away from us and continued talking to the horse in a low voice. I knew instantly that he was thinking of Jacqueline. Again, I remained silent. This wasn't the right time for comments such as ´You did all you could´ or ´If it hadn't been for you, she wouldn't be alive at all´. Gabriel knew all that, and still he felt guilty. The feeling wasn't unfamiliar to me either.
For a while, we all stood there in silence. With Gabriel's soft voice filling her ears, Etoile grew calmer again. I even dared step forwards and pat her neck. Her ears turned into my direction, and she snorted uneasily.
"We all smell of smoke," Gabriel explained. "On another day, she might have recognised your smell, but now the smoke covers everything. She hardly recognised me at first. Well, they'll all have to get used to the smoke sooner or later, for their stable will smell like it for a long time."
"Would it be better for the horses if they left their stable for a while?" I asked. "Mme. de Gableaux, the neighbour we're staying with at the moment, told me that we can bring the horses into her stable."
"Very good," he said, smiling. "The smell will be much better in a few days' time, especially if we change the straw in the boxes and wash all the horse blankets. Let us take the other horses out then. Will you all help me?"
"That is what we came here for," I said. "Pierre told us he has a lot of experience with horses, and M.Tavoire should get by as well."
Gabriel nodded, thinking.
"All right," he muttered. "This is how we'll do it: I'll go first, with Etoile. You can take Charles, M. le Comte, M.Tavoire can take Fantienne, and since Pierre says he knows how to deal with horses, he can take Esmeralde and Hugo."
He walked a few steps away from the door, so that we could go inside. I waved at Jean and Pierre to come closer, making the mare look at me in shock and earning a disapproving glance from Gabriel, and told them what he had said.
Five minutes later, we were on our way. I was walking behind Gabriel. Next to me was Charles, a sturdy black gelding who was very good-natured. No matter how often Etoile threw her head into the air, he remained perfectly calm. This composure was the reason why I chose him whenever I felt like going for a ride.
We reached the stable quickly, and I saw that Mme. de Gableaux hadn't promised too much when she had said that there would be enough space for our horses. The stablemaster, who waited for us at the door, seemed to have worked wonders. I thanked him and gave him the rope tied to Charles' halter. Jean and Pierre handed their ropes to his assistants, and we turned to leave. Only Gabriel stayed with his Etoile.
"By the way, we'll all leave for the Tavoire estate shortly," I informed him, walking over the mare's box. "We'll stay there till we'll have found a new house or can move back into the old one. Do you want to come with us?"
"If there's a bed for me, I'd rather stay here, if you don't mind, Monsieur," he replied. "I belong to the horses, and you don't need me anyway, with the coach being broken. Besides… it's closer to the hospital. I'd like to see Jacqueline as soon as possible." He stroked Etoile's mane gently.
I smiled at him.
"I understand," I said softly.
Author's note: Just in case you were wondering: I do not recommend walking into a stable full of nervous horses. It's not a good idea, no matter how well you know them. Even if they don't want to hurt you, they could end up doing so, simply because they don't realise what they're doing. Talking to them in a low voice can help, but stay away from the boxes till you're sure that they've calmed down.