English Horse (2 page)

“I’ve seen a couple of steeplechase races on TV,” Lisa said, “like that famous one in England.… What’s it called again?”

“The Grand National?” Stevie offered. Lisa nodded, and Stevie smiled. “I’ve seen that one on TV, too. It’s pretty exciting, isn’t it?”

Lisa shifted her water balloon back to her other hand. “It’s definitely exciting,” she agreed. “But maybe a little scary, too. All those horses and jockeys racing full speed over those big jumps …”

“I know what you mean,” Carole said. “That’s why I’m glad Max is involved with the country club event. He’ll make sure everybody follows the rules and keeps things as safe as possible.”

Stevie giggled. “I still can’t picture Max sitting through a committee meeting with all those country club members.”

The others laughed, too. It
was
hard to imagine their down-to-earth, no-nonsense riding instructor sipping tea
and making small talk with Mrs. Atwood, Mrs. diAngelo, and the other ladies of the club. But they were all glad that the fund-raising committee had invited Max to be one of their expert advisers.

At that moment, somewhere below the three girls, a horse let out a loud snort. Lisa glanced down and saw a handsome chestnut gelding tossing his head restlessly. “It looks like Derby is a little restless,” she commented. “I guess he’s still getting used to his new home.”

Carole followed her gaze. “Isn’t he amazing?” she said, her voice filling with admiration as she watched the spirited, reddish gold horse. “He’s half Holsteiner and half Thoroughbred, so he’ll be a really good all-around horse for the more advanced riders here. I think Max is really pleased with him. The other new horses, too.”

Lisa rested her chin on her hand and watched the big gelding for a moment. Derby was one of three horses Max had bought recently from a dealer in England. “I wonder if anyone will be riding him in the point-to-point,” she said idly. Then she smiled. “Can you believe the point-to-point is only a couple of weeks away? I wouldn’t believe it myself if I hadn’t been helping Mom with the planning for ages already.”

Carole grinned. “It’s going to be incredible. Not even Veronica’s opening remarks will be able to spoil it.” Because her mother was the head of the fund-raising committee and a longtime member of the country club, Veronica had managed to get herself invited to give a
speech at the beginning of the big day’s events. She hadn’t stopped bragging about it since it was settled.

“I have to hand it to your mother, Lisa. The point-to-point is probably the most exciting news to hit this place in ages,” Stevie said happily.

“The
second
most exciting news,” Lisa corrected. “The
most
exciting news is Tessa’s visit.”

Stevie nodded. “I stand—I mean, sit—corrected,” she said.

Lisa had first met Lady Theresa, known to her friends as Tessa, during a family trip to England. The two girls had hit it off immediately, and Lisa had discovered that Tessa was just as horse-crazy as she was. Later, when Lisa, Carole, and Stevie had traveled to England to participate in a Pony Club event, the foursome got along royally, and at the end of the visit they had made her an official out-of-town member of The Saddle Club. Now Tessa was finally coming to visit her American friends. She was arriving that night and staying with Lisa’s family for about two weeks.

“I just thought of something.” Stevie held up the balloons in her hand. “Maybe we should have waited one more day to make Veronica pay for her crimes against humanity. I bet Tessa would have loved to help out. Remember how much fun we all had in England when we tricked Veronica into thinking she’d found those long lost royal jewels?”

Lisa remembered. She also remembered how angry Veronica
had been about their prank. “You know, I think we might want to keep Tessa and Veronica away from each other as much as possible,” she said. “Veronica was pretty mad at us about that whole incident, but I think she was even madder at Tessa. You know, because Tessa’s distantly related to the queen of England and Veronica thinks that’s terribly important.”

Carole nodded. “You’re probably right. Veronica has some weird ideas about how different people are supposed to act, and she can be—”

“Shhh!” Stevie hissed. “I hear footsteps. Prepare to attack!”

Lisa sighed, then hunched down beside Stevie, her water balloon at the ready. The footsteps were coming from the section of the aisle directly below the loft, so the girls couldn’t see who was coming. “Are you sure it’s Veronica?” she whispered.

Stevie nodded. “Hardly anyone else is around,” she whispered back. “Besides, I saw Veronica in the locker room before we came up here. She said she was going for a trail ride.” She leaned forward a few more inches. “Get ready,” she whispered. “She’s almost here.”

Lisa caught one glimpse of a tweed jacket. That was all she had time to take in before Stevie exploded into action beside her.

“Fire!” Stevie howled, hurling her water balloons downward.

Lisa dropped her first balloon and reached for another,
her hand bumping into Carole’s in the bucket. Stevie’s arms were a whirl of motion as she fired balloon after balloon into the aisle below. Angry and bewildered voices rose up toward the three girls.

Lisa dropped her second balloon, then paused with a frown.
Voices? Wait a minute
 … Two more figures stepped into sight, dripping wet. Lisa gasped as the woman in the tweed jacket looked up, her deeply lined face looking startled.

They had attacked the wrong target!

“U
H-OH
,” S
TEVIE MURMURED
as she, too, realized their mistake.

The three people standing in the aisle below were staring up at the girls in the loft with a variety of expressions on their faces. The aristocratic-looking elderly woman in the tweed jacket still looked startled. The handsome, dark-haired teenage boy beside her looked confused and annoyed. Max Regnery looked downright furious. But despite their different reactions, the three victims of the misdirected prank did have one thing in common: They were all sopping wet.

“Stephanie Lake!” Max bellowed, pointing a finger at Stevie, who was still leaning over the edge of the loft. “Get down here this instant.”

“ ‘Uh-oh’ is right,” Lisa whispered to Carole. “We’d better get down there, too.”

The three girls climbed down from the loft and faced the glowering Max. “Um, s-sorry about that,” Stevie stammered. “We thought you were someone else.”

Max didn’t answer her. He turned to face his two companions, “I don’t even know how to begin to apologize for this, Mrs. Pennington.” His voice, while carefully controlled, was shaking slightly with anger. “And to you, Miles, of course. I assure you both, this sort of thing doesn’t normally happen here at Pine Hollow.” He shot The Saddle Club a stern glance. “And I can assure you that I will be looking into it immediately.”

Carole gulped. Max looked just about as furious as she had ever seen him.

“It’s quite all right, Mr. Regnery,” the old woman said politely. She brushed a few drops of water off of her jacket and ran one hand through her damp, wavy gray hair. “A little water never hurt anyone. Isn’t that right, Miles?”

The teenager managed a weak grin. “Right, Grandmother,” he agreed. He tried to shake some of the water out of his cotton polo shirt but only succeeded in getting his grandmother even wetter. He turned toward Max. “Um, is there somewhere we could mop up?” Lisa noticed that the boy had a somewhat stiff and formal way of speaking. She wondered if that was natural or if it had something to do with the cold water dripping down his back.

“Certainly,” Max said through clenched teeth. “Let me show you to the washroom.” He started down the aisle after the Penningtons, then paused for a moment beside The Saddle Club. “Don’t move,” he ordered quietly. Then he hurried away without a backward glance.

The three girls were silent for a moment. Finally Stevie spoke up. “Wow. Max looked pretty mad.”

Lisa shook her head grimly. “I think ‘mad’ is an understatement.”

They didn’t have time to discuss it any further. Max came hurrying back down the aisle toward them. Stevie opened her mouth to start apologizing again, but Max didn’t give her a chance. “What in the name of all that is decent in this world did you girls think you were doing?” he shouted. His face was rapidly turning a bright shade of magenta, and a vein in his forehead was starting to throb.

“Um, sorry?” Stevie said meekly. “We were just … um …” She searched for the best way to explain. Somehow, now that she thought about it, she didn’t think that an explanation like “We wanted to get revenge on Veronica for making me look stupid in school” would get them very far.

“Sorry!” Max barked. “Is that all you have to say?” He roughly ran a hand through his hair, making it stand straight up in tufts.

Carole bit her lip to keep from laughing at the sight. “But we really are sorry, Max,” she said. “And you don’t have to worry—we were already planning to pick up all
the balloon pieces so that none of the horses would swallow them.”

“Gee,” Max said, sounding very sarcastic. “That was thoughtful of you.”

Carole blushed, and the other two girls exchanged desperate glances. Stevie was still trying to figure out how to talk their way out of this one. She wasn’t used to The Saddle Club being the target of Max’s genuine wrath. Usually that honor was reserved for Veronica, who was always making Max angry with her carelessness and laziness.

“What’s all the noise out here?” a familiar voice came from behind them. “You’re going to scare Danny.”

Stevie turned and saw Veronica coming down the aisle, Danny’s saddle in her arms. Max glanced over his shoulder at her.

“Never mind, Veronica,” he said sternly. “This doesn’t concern you.”

Veronica’s eyes narrowed. She glanced from Max to Stevie and back again. Her curious gaze took in Carole’s and Lisa’s downcast faces, too. “Fine,” she said, a little too casually. “I’m no busybody.” She took a few more steps down the aisle. “Well, I’ll be in Danny’s stall if anybody needs me. I want to give him a good grooming before I tack him up.”

Stevie scowled. Veronica was famous for never doing her stable chores herself. She liked to think of Red O’Malley, Pine Hollow’s head stable hand, as her personal
servant. Stevie was positive that Veronica had been on her way to find Red so that she could dump the task of tacking up onto the hardworking young man. And she was equally sure that Veronica had absolutely no intention of leaving the immediate area before she spent some quality time eavesdropping on Max and The Saddle Club.

Max didn’t seem to realize what Veronica was up to, though—or if he did, he didn’t care. “Mrs. Pennington will never board her horses here now,” he muttered. He seemed to be talking more to himself than to the girls.

“She’s boarding some horses here?” Carole asked eagerly. Despite the trouble they were in, she couldn’t help feeling excited that there would be more newcomers to Pine Hollow. “What kind of horses? How many?”

Max didn’t answer. He just glared. “She
was
thinking of boarding here,” he said icily. “But that was before she encountered our own version of monsoon season.” He shook his head in despair. “I don’t mind telling you, I really could have used the extra money those boarders would have brought in right about now. Those horses I just bought weren’t exactly cheap, you know. Come to think of it, running a stable isn’t exactly cheap, either.”

Carole felt terrible. She knew as well as anyone how expensive it was to take care of horses. Her own horse, Starlight, used up practically all of her own allowance, as well as a healthy chunk of her father’s paycheck. She couldn’t even imagine how expensive it was to feed and
care for more than thirty horses, as Max did. “Maybe we can talk to Mrs. Pennington,” she spoke up tentatively. “If we apologize again—you know, explain that it will never happen again—”

“Forget it,” Max said brusquely. “I’ll deal with Mrs. Pennington myself. I don’t want you three going near her. I only hope I can convince her that all my riders aren’t total maniacs. She just bought a lot of the land adjoining Pine Hollow, you know. If she decides not to let my riders on her property, it will be a major inconvenience for everyone. And furthermore …”

“I
DIDN
’
T THINK
he would ever finish chewing us out,” Carole said ruefully a few minutes later.

“I don’t think he is finished,” Lisa corrected. “He just had to leave to go check on the Penningtons. I’m sure he’ll be back soon to yell at us some more.”

Suddenly Veronica popped out of Danny’s stall. She glanced around to make sure that Max was gone, then hurried toward The Saddle Club. “So, what happened?” she demanded eagerly.

“None of your beeswax,” Stevie snapped. “Don’t you have some important shopping or something to do? Somewhere far, far away?”

Veronica shrugged. “Fine, don’t tell me. It’s not like I can’t guess.” She prodded a limp piece of blue balloon with the toe of her expensive leather riding boots, then bent to pick it up. “You three were trying to pull some
sort of pathetic little prank, and it backfired.” She grinned. “And just your luck—it backfired all over Mrs. Pennington and her grandson.”