The Lady On Top

Max's Midnight

            The car pulled to a stop in front of the double door garage before Emilia stepped out and stretched. Taking a deep breath, she looked around her property. Situated in front of a picturesque mountain view stood a modern ranch style house. The bungalow featured huge bottom to ceiling windows, allowing for the natural light to penetrate and brighten the house up. Whereas most of the ranch houses used timber as exterior siding, Emilia had remodeled hers using shades of brown concrete fiberboards, giving it a more city-like look. The landscaping consisted of a mix between rock gardens and flower gardens as well as a few shrubs. 

Before she could take a step towards the front door, it burst open, and out came a middle-aged woman with an apron. Behind her were excited barks from two dogs.

“Mia!” the woman exclaimed as she took Emilia into a tight hug. “Boy, have we missed you! Let me look at you,” she said as she moved back a little and gave her a quick appraisal.

Emilia laughed, “I am well, Teddy. And you saw me two weeks ago!”

“Oh, hush!” the woman said as she placed a soft kiss on her cheek. “Welcome home, sweetheart.” She turned to the man who was standing next to Emilia, a gentle blush tainting her cheeks. “Hello, husband.”

Emilia shook her head and walked towards the barking dogs, leaving the couple alone so that they could greet each other properly. “Hey, boys! Have you been good to Teddy?” she asked as the dogs rubbed against her. After the greeting which involved a few licks and barks, Emilia made her way to her room for a quick freshening up. 

She always loved this room. It reminded her so much of her mother and her room at the house her stepfather decided to steal from her. Her mother was a girly girl. She loved the pinks, the frills, the pillows, and all the trimmings. Using an old photograph that she was able to keep from the little that her stepfather allowed her to take, she recreated everything. Starting with the huge bed with a white headboard. There were a few pink accents all over the room. From the pink throw pillows and throw to the pink bordered picture frames. The only difference from this room to the one she had when she was younger was that the white-dominated, and the pink was very faint.

Sighing, she removed her shoes and walked to the adjoining bathroom. After a quick face wash, she made her way out of the room, walking barefooted to the kitchen where she found Theodora by the oven.

“There you are!” Theodora smiled as she straightened up, rubbing her hands on the apron that hid her hips. “The cookies will be ready in the next 20 minutes. In the meantime, you can have a look at the record book as usual.” Theodora opened one of the cupboards on the central workspace and handed over a black diary to Emilia.

Emilia laughed. “Teddy, I always tell you to use the computer in the study to record all this,” she shook her head as she opened the diary and quickly scanned the content. All the information could have been added to the spreadsheet that she had created specifically for Theodora.

“Oh please! I tried opening the bloody thing a week ago and it just wouldn’t cooperate with me! All the numbers I entered were wrong for some reason as it kept giving me a value whatever message apart from the number I had fed into it!” Theodora huffed, seeming upset about the computer. “All that technology is for you young people. I am a paper and pen kinda girl,”

Emilia smiled and continued to peruse over the notes that Theodora had jotted down. Theodora was amazing. She was thorough with the information she jotted down, which made it easier for Emilia to plan a course of action in regards to the different horses. After checking on the progress of the horses she already knew, she moved to the new ones. 

Her ranch offered three main services: boarding for those who stay and work in the city or have had to travel, training for the horse shows, including the rodeo as well as breeding services. The latter came about when a young girl could not part with her horse when her family was moving to the city. Emilia knew the love for an animal as she remembered the first-ever pet that her mother had gotten her. Seeing the tears in the young girl’s eyes propelled her to start boarding services. The girl made sure she was always at the farm every summer holiday. 

“So we have five newbies,” Emilia stated as she read Theodora’s tidy handwriting. “Anything interesting about them? Apart from what you have already written in here?”

“Oh yes!” Theodora nodded as she moved to stand next to Emilia. “Midnight has a bit of a temper actually, just like his owner.”

“Oh?” Emilia raised an eyebrow. “What makes you say that?”

Theodora shrugged before taking a seat, “just the vibe I got from him. I am sure he had recently bought the horse and he is definitely not a rider. He did not even know what breed his own animal was! And, what person comes to a ranch wearing a designer suit and a tie?”

Emilia smiled, “city folks. I am curious about Midnight. I see here he wants him trained for a rodeo. Maye he has bought it for someone?”

“I doubt it,” Theodora shook her head. “There was something about that man I just did not trust.”

Emilia frowned. Theodora was always great and welcoming to people. Having her say that about a person made her even more curious about it. “Ok, I will check him out this evening. Right now, I want to go and check in with Timmy and Alec.'' She stood up and walked to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of water. she reached for her stetson and walked out. “Don’t forget to leave me some cookies!”

The walk down to the other side of the ranch wasn’t a long one and soon enough she came across the two men that she was searching for. Timothy and Alec Clarks were two brothers who started working for her after she had bought the ranch. They used to help the former owners with renovations and general upkeep of the property. Well over six feet and packing a whole lot of muscles, they doubled up as trainers and breakers to some of the horses that were brought to the farm. And even though they did their fair share of training horses, but their main focus was on the cattle.

“Hey boys!” Emilia called as she approached them. They both stopped in the middle of pulling a barbed wire tighter to turn towards her. 

“How you doin’, Miss. Em?” Timothy greeted. He pulled the barbed wire tightly before securing it around a wooden pole.

"Hi, Mia," Alec gave her a lopsided smile.

Emilia nodded her answer and looked around. Seemed the boys had been busy. "How is everything going?" She was really not as interested in cattle as the way she was in horses. The only reason she kept them was so that the ranch hands who worded solely cattle did not lose their jobs.

"It's good," Timothy nodded as he removed his stetson and used it to fan himself. "We've got 50 new babies up in the barn. The other boys are reading about 100 good ones for the auction in 2 days’ time."

"Excellent," Emilia smiled. "No major problems?" She eyed the barbed wire they were working on.

"No, ma'am," Alec shook his head. "We are just taking precautions. Our nearest neighbor had a few of his cows escaping. We don't want them mixing with ours. This is the second time they do so.

Emilia nodded. "Great. Well, I am off to Jacob and the newbies. I will check on the calves later, see if I can name one or two." She turned around and started walking in the opposite direction, leaving the two men laughing.

Emilia always felt more at home here at the ranch. And even though she grew up in the city and only got the place a few years back, she felt most comfortable around the animals and the people here. Apart from Theodora and Shaw, the rest did not know she was a billionaire and treated her no differently from each other.

Walking into the barn on the other side of the ranch, Emilia took a deep breath. She took in the smell of leather and horse. Walking into the cleaned and well-lit area, she could not help herself from patting some of the horses there. This was the boarding barn so most of the horses here were not new. She slowly made her way to the end before turning to the right, heading to the new horses that were brought in. This section was more opened, giving the horses a chance to interact.

"Hey, Toby!" She called the man who was talking two more ranch hands, probably giving them tasks to do.

He looked up, his blond hair in a ponytail. "Mia! When did you get here? I saw Shaw, thought maybe he came to say hi to the missus." He walked towards her, his hands in his pockets.

"I tagged along. How is everything? Heard we got new friends?"

"We sure do," he nodded towards the barns. "Most are settled already. We do have a wildcard though. Midnight doesn't like sharing."

Emilia turned and together they fell into step, heading to the open area where the new horses were kept. True to his words, Midnight seemed agitated as he tossed his head and paced the length of the keep.

“How long has he been doing that?”

“Since he got here,” Toby replied as he leaned on the fence. “The only time he seems to calm down is when he is placed into his stall. We are thinking he isn’t used to a lot of people and animals.”

Emilia nodded and turned back to the stallion. “Well, we will figure it out tomorrow. I will be going for my morning ride at 6 AM, and be back before we start with the morning training. You can leave him to me.”

Toby laughed, “You don’t have to ask twice about that!”

“Coward,” Emilia teased as she started back to the main house. As she walked her mobile phone started ringing. “Hello, Mom Gladys. I was about to call you.”

“Of course you were. I know how you are when you get to that farm of yours, Emmy, you forget about the rest of us,” Glayds teased her. “I justed wanted to know how you were feeling?”

“I am good, no hangover whatsoever,” Emilia replied as she pushed the door to the kitchen open and walked right to the cookies that were cooling on the rack by the kitchen counter. “I am actually enjoying some choc chip cookies by Theodora.”

Gladys laughed, “glad to hear that. Take it easy and have a good weekend!”

“You too, Mama Gladys. Love you,” she said as she hung up. 

“Try to hold on to him!” Emilia warned as she felt the black beast start to stiffen its legs before it crow hopped and smashed into the fence. Emilia felt the impact of the fence's pole as she was smashed into it by Midnight. Losing her grip she rolled away from the dangerous hooves the moment her body made contact with the ground before she stood up and dusted herself. Sighing she rolled her shoulders to check if everything was still working. “Just hold him for a minute as I catch my breath, Toby.” 

“Sure thing, Mia,” Toby nodded as he gripped the rope tighter. Midnight, even though still agitated, he kept on glancing at Emilia as if sizing her. 

“How many times as that animal dropped me today?” Emilia asked as she reached up and untied her hair before securing it even tighter. 

“That would be number 5,” Shaw supplied from the other side of the fence. 

Emilia placed her hands on her hips and shook her head, “We should charge the owner twice as much. Where the hell did he find this beast?” Emilia turned to Midnight who was busy snorting and jerking his head. 

“You will be able to ask him when he gets here,” Theodora replied. She and the rest of the ranch hands were on the other side of the fence as they watched Emilia and Toby work with the new horse. They are always in awe of how meticulous Emilia was when it came to gaining the trust of new horses and have them eating out of her hand in a few hours.

Midnight, however, was proving to be a bit more stubborn than usual though he had already started showing signs of trust. 

Toby and Emilia always worked together, making sure that the animal trusted them both, because Emilia was never really around, and training had to continue when she was in the city. Toby was also great with the horses, though he usually left the more stubborn ones to Emilia. 

“Ok, Toby, let’s try this one more time!” Emilia said as she approached Midnight with purpose. Midnight as if sensing what was about to happen started to sidestep, moving away from Emilia. 

“Oh no, you don’t,” Emilia mumbled under her breath before she took the reins and swung up before the horse became too agitated. “Ready for round 6?” She smiled at Toby who nodded. 

Ten minutes later Emilia found herself on the ground once again as Midnight decided he did not want to play anymore and once again smashed her into the fence.  She quickly rolled to the edge of the fence and stood up next to Shaw. 

“Don’t even say it,” She warned him as she saw that he was about to reprimand her. Reaching out, she took her drinking bottle from Shaw and took a quick sip before handing it back. “He is getting tired. There is something wrong with this horse, Shaw. He is not wild, he has been ridden before.”

“Then what is it?”

Emilia shrugged as her gaze went to Theodora who was walking towards them with a stranger that looked familiar. “Not sure.” She turned to Toby. “Again!” she shouted as she walked to where Toby was. Giving Midnight a small pet, she took the reins and swung up once more. 

For the first few minutes, the horse bucked and whirled and tried with his might to get Emilia down. There were a few times he nearly succeeded but Emilia would just not let go. Once the horse started to calm down and get used to Emilia, she gave Toby a sharp nod and he let go of the rope he had held on before moving to where Shaw and the visitor were. 

“She trains the horses herself?” the visitor asked incredulously as he watched the woman and the horse slowly move around the enclosure. 

“Yep!” Toby replied. “Hi, Mr. Stone, nice of you to join us.”

“Toby!” Emilia called from the other end as she stopped and just sat on the horse who still seemed a bit nervous. “I did the easy part now it’s your turn,” Emilia teased. She waited until Toby was by her side before getting off the horse and walked towards Shaw, Theodora, and the visitor. 

“I must say I did not expect this,” the visitor stated as Emilia drew closer to them. 

“This?” Emilia raised an eyebrow as she stopped on the other side.

The man nodded, “you on a horse. Doing this kind of work?”

Emilia frowned, “it is my ranch, Mr?” she corked her head to the side, trying to remember where she saw his face. 

“That it is,” he said as he placed his hands into his tailored pants. “Max, just call me Max.”

Emilia nodded, “Max. I could have offered my hand but it’s pretty dirty. I will just go have a shower and then we'll talk about where you really got this horse.” Emilia walked away after giving Theodora a quick nod to tell her to take him to her office.

Maximilian looked around the simply styled home office as he waited for Emilia to come. The room was very functional, with a huge window allowing sunlight to light it up. There was a table with a desktop and some books on one side and on the other a workstation. Maximilian wandered to the workstation and looked at the design that she must have been working on. He ran his fingers on the wooden bench before returning to the desk. He touched some of the objects there before he took hold of one of the framed pictures. In it were Jean and her parents and her. It must have been taken a while back because they looked so young. Emilia’s eyes looked haunted. He placed it down before he reached for another of a blonde woman smiling as she held a much younger Emilia. From the resemblance, Maximilian deduced that she was the mother. The last one was of the same woman standing with a man, looking at each other. It was in black and white and probably way before even Emilia was born. 

“So, what can I do for you, Max?” Emilia’s voice sounded from behind him.

Gently placing the photo back on the desk, Maximilian turned towards the voice. Instead of a sweaty and dusty woman with smudges of dirt across her forehead and cheek, in front of him stood a cleaned woman in a floral dress. Her blonde hair was let loose laying in a damp curtain over her shoulders. She had on very simple flipflops. Anyone looking at her would not think that she as a multi-millionaire.

“I wanted to talk about Midnight,” Maximilian replied as he watched her walk to the other side of the desk and sit down. 

“Yes, where did you get him?” Emilia motioned for him to sit as she fired up her computer. “Because he has been ridden before. His behavior is typical to an abused or neglected animal.”

Maximilian narrowed his eyes at her, “are you accusing me of something, Emilia?”

Emilia looked at him. Everyone at the ranch called her by Mia or Emmy, no one addressed her as Emilia, even when talking to clients. Emilia was reserved for people in the city. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

“What do you mean?” Maximilian frowned at the cold tone.

“No one ever calls me Emilia when I am here, even the clients that come to my ranch. Have we met somewhere?”

Maximilian laughed. “You have got to be kidding me!” This was the first time that he was meeting with someone who did not know who he was. He was not sure if he liked the way that felt, especially when that someone was a woman. “We danced together the night before last at the new club before you disappeared.”

Maximilian watched as her eyes widened with recognition. “I am so sorry! I think I had more than I could handle to drink that night. Some of the things are just a blur.”

“I will take that excuse,” Maximilian replied as he folded his foot over his left knee. “About Midnight…”

“Yes, Midnight. He is definitely not yours that is a given. You are not a rider,” Emilia commented as she turned to her computer. “Whoever you had bought him off was not taking care of him as it should. Usually, it takes us about a month to get the animals settled in before starting with the training. However, we had to be a bit tough on Midnight because he was influencing the other horses with his nervousness. It is something I do not recommend or like to do unless it’s a real must. Now that we have established a tentative hierarchy with him, it will make training him a bit easier. But it would help us if we knew his history so we can know what triggers he might have.”

Maximilian looked at her over his stapled fingers that were resting on his perused lips. “I bought him at an auction a few days ago. I did notice his demeanor but I thought it was just because of the new environment.”

Emilia gave him a short nod. “We will see what we can do for him, but I must be honest it will take a bit longer than what was stated before.”

Maximilian hid a smile, exactly what he wanted to hear. “Take all the time you need. I am in a hurry now. And will you be training him yourself?”

Emilia shook her head, “Toby will be seeing to most of his training. I will only step in where need be.”

“Oh?”

Emilia leaned back on her seat, “I am a full-time employee. Mr. Stone.”

“Please call me Max,” he said. “Landscaping. I saw your sketches. They are pretty awesome. Maybe I will hire you to redo my yard.”

Emilia smiled, though it never reached her eyes. Maximilian could see that she was closing upon him.

“You are more than welcome. Was there anything else you needed to know?”

Maximilian knew when he was being dismissed. Unfolding his frame and stood up. " That was all. I will check in with you on the progress of Midnight. Might even invite you out for a coffee back in the city." With a nod, Maximilian walked out, a smile playing on his lips. He was going to win that bet.