Love & Misunderstanding

Chapter Three - Jonathan's POV

The world flashed before my eyes as I raced my liver chestnut thoroughbred along the long, winding forest trail. It was at moments like these that I could forget about everything else in the world and simply be myself. When I was riding, all formalities and protocol disappeared. The only thing that mattered in those moments was me and my horse. It felt as if I were on top of the world without a single soul there to bother me. Unfortunately, I then remembered that I happened to be racing against my occasionally annoying friend on his dark bay mustang.

He was an excellent rider to be sure; however, I could clearly tell that he was trying too hard. As always, it was only an attempt to impress his father. You see, in addition to being a reverend, Mr. Caldwell was an avid horseman who had won many derbies. Matthew had always looked up to his father a sort of role model figure, achieving to be just like him. The bond that the two of them had was relatively close, but Mr. Caldwell was very strict when it came to riding, and hard to please.

As I glanced over at him, I recalled all the times he had gotten me into trouble because of his pitiful obsession with Miss Hoffman. "Meet you at the finish line!" I called, grabbing hold of a tree branch and flinging it back at him.

"Jonathan!" I heard him yell at me. He said something after that as well, but I failed to hear it as I picked up my pace and galloped off, leaving him in a cloud of dust.

I suppose you could say that I was a bit competitive. Okay, maybe a little more than just a bit, but I could not help it. And Besides, I was only competitive with Matthew. He had once made the mistake of proudly declaring that he was the best rider in Portsmouth, and it ended up getting to his head. So, in order to teach him a lesson, I decided that I was going to prove him wrong. Of course, he was not too happy with me after that and spent an entire week ignoring me, but he eventually got over it.

Galloping out of the forest, the crowd cheered as I charged towards the finish line. Matthew had managed to catch up with me, and was about pull up beside me when I rode through. The trumpet sounded, announcing my triumphant victory as I came to a halt. Had it been Matthew who won, he probably would have made show out of it, bowing and waving, but I had no desire to draw such attention to myself. The adrenaline rush had wore off, and I had returned to my senses.

"You are such a show off!" Matthew exclaimed angrily, still coughing from all the dust I had left him.

I grinned slightly, "Perhaps if you got your head out of the clouds, you could beat me for once." Of course he knew exactly what I was talking about.

Thankfully the crowd soon dissipated and went to the starting position for the next set of races, which was for the younger riders. Confident that their attention was averted else where, I dismounted and handed the reigns over to one of the stable boys to return my horse to the stable. Unfortunately, that was when I noticed both of our fathers strolling towards us, chatting with one another like the old friends that they were.

"Well done, Jonathan," my father praised. "Although perhaps you should let Matthew win once in a while.

"I would have won, had Jonathan not thrown a tree branch at me and nearly poked my eye out!" Mathew raged.

Did he have to always be so dramatic and make mountains out of mole hills? It was no more than a twig, and it was nowhere near his eyes. He was just trying to make me look bad in front of our fathers. Unfortunately for him, I knew that it would not work in his favour. He always tried that strategy whenever he lost, and it never worked.

Father shook his head disapprovingly. "Jonathan, you know that is considered cheating."

"Indeed it is," Mr. Caldwell added. "You would have both been disqualified for that, had this been a professional competition."