False Gods: The Show Jumper's Challenge

“Oh, my God!” She snatched up the magazine and brought it close to her face. “I can’t believe it!”

Cory ran around behind Vee to look over her shoulder. “What? What is it?” Then she saw it, too.

The Equestrian Journal. And she and Epiphany were on the cover.

It was a photo from that awful show, the one she did so badly at, but the picture was great—a head-on shot of her and Epiphany sailing over a huge roll top, her head turned, scanning for the next fence. Cory rubbed her sweating palms down the sides of her jeans. She remembered that journalist chasing after her with a photographer and the smug glances from the crowd gathered around Angela. She also remembered signing something at the registration desk about a release, right before they left. She hadn’t read it.

“What do they say? Read the article,” Cory said. She wanted to tear the magazine out of Vee’s hands to study the picture and devour every word inside.

Vee thumbed through the pages to find it, then plunked down on the couch next to Jack. Cory sat on her other side.

“Have you read this?” Vee turned to Jack, who had finally picked up Vee’s show schedule list and was acting interested in it.

“I wouldn’t read your mail,” he said with feigned offense.

Vee’s eyes scanned the page. She smiled and made a smug-sounding “hmmph.”

“Read it out loud!” Cory wailed. Leaning over Vee’s shoulder, she saw a small file-photo of Vee taken ages ago on Pressman but couldn’t make out the words underneath.

Vee made some comments about how The Journal was nothing but a gossip rag and cleared her throat. “It says, Silk Purse from Sow’s Ear, or Modern-day Miracle Worker—gosh, I love that title. Vee Stewart has been gone from the horse show scene for several years, but surely she has not been sitting around watching soaps and eating bon-bons. Judging by the quality of the horse she trained which has burst upon the show scene with a sensation . . . Blah, blah, blah, stuff about my past show record, you know all that . . . Oh, I love this part, Vee’s former partner, Angela Hamilton, let it be known that this horse, which is burning up the jumper scene, was discovered by Vee at a local livestock auction. Sales prices of Grand Prix-level horses have long been rising through the roof, so this horsewoman is mighty impressed that Vee Stewart has the eye to spot talent and make a jumper out of a rescue horse down on her luck in the sales pens. A true Cinderella story.”