English Horse (7 page)

The four girls went back inside. The crowd had thinned out a bit, so it wasn’t hard to make their way to the spot where Topside’s bridle usually hung. The hook was empty.

Carole frowned. “Do you think someone grabbed Topside’s bridle by mistake?”

“If they did, they took his saddle, too,” Stevie reported. “It’s not on its usual rack.”

“Maybe Max or Red moved it,” Lisa suggested uncertainly. “You know, the way they moved the horses around when the new ones came …”

“Or maybe somebody else is behind this,” Stevie said grimly. She was staring across the room at Veronica, who was standing in front of an empty saddle rack with her hands on her hips and her back to The Saddle Club. “I bet Veronica moved Topside’s stuff just to spite us.”

Stevie started across the room, but Lisa grabbed her arm. “Stop!” she commanded. “You can’t go start yelling at Veronica.” Just in time, she remembered that Tessa still didn’t know their secret. “Um—it’s not nice,” she finished lamely.

“Are you
daft
?” Tessa said. “Lisa, if Veronica took my tack, there’s just one thing to—”

Before she could finish her sentence, a loud wail came from across the room. “Hey!” Veronica cried. “Who took Danny’s saddle?”

Carole’s jaw dropped. “Huh?” she said to her friends.

Stevie hoisted her own saddle to her other arm and shook her head. “Huh,” she grunted.

At that moment Red O’Malley entered. “Five minutes, everyone,” he called. “Max is almost ready to get started in the outdoor ring.”

“Red!” Veronica called. “I have a problem. My tack is missing. Someone stole it!” She spun around and surveyed the few people left in the tack room. Seeing The Saddle Club, she frowned and pointed at them. “I bet they took it to make me look bad! That’s just the kind of stupid little joke they’re always playing around here.”

Beside her, Carole heard Stevie gasp. “Why, that rotten, stinking …,” Stevie muttered.

Before Carole could say anything, Tessa stepped forward. “I’m afraid you’re wrong about that, Veronica,” she said calmly. “You see, my tack seems to be missing as well.”

Red looked confused. After shooing the other remaining members of the jump class out the door, he turned back to Veronica and The Saddle Club. “Okay, let me get this straight. We have two missing saddles?”

“And bridles,” Tessa supplied helpfully. “At least mine is missing.”

“Mine too,” Veronica put in quickly. She tossed her head. “And if it doesn’t turn up soon, there’s going to be trouble.”

Carole thought there was trouble brewing already, but she didn’t say so. “Come on,” she said. “Someone may have moved the stuff by accident. Let’s take a look around.”

“Good idea, Carole,” Red said, still looking a little confused. “Let’s split up and search.”

Just then, Britt came back into the tack room. “Oh,
there you are, Red,” she said softly. “Um, I was just giving Magoo’s stall a quick cleaning, and when I went out to the muck heap I saw something weird. There are a couple of saddles lying out there.”

“D
O YOU THINK
Red believes we didn’t do it?” Lisa whispered to Stevie a short while later. The jump class was in full swing. At the moment, Max was watching as Carole, Tessa, Veronica, and a couple of other students jumped all together over a series of wide obstacles. Most of the horses were used to jumping solo, and Max wanted them to be comfortable jumping in a group before the point-to-point. Stevie and Lisa were waiting for their turns.

Stevie didn’t answer for a second. She was watching Veronica, who was doggedly urging Danny forward as Topside pulled ahead a few strides. Even though this wasn’t meant to be a race, it was clear that Veronica didn’t want to let Tessa get ahead of her even for one second.

Stevie glanced at Lisa and frowned. “The real question is, do you think he believes Veronica
did
do it?” she whispered back.

Thanks to Britt, Veronica and Tessa had found their saddles and bridles in the muck heap. They were a bit dirty and smelly but otherwise all right. Veronica had once again accused The Saddle Club of playing a prank. The Saddle Club had pleaded innocent, but a spark of doubt had remained in Red’s eyes. He hadn’t mentioned
their probation, but it was obvious—to the American members, anyway—that he knew about it.

Lisa sighed. “I guess we’re just lucky Red agreed not to tell Max.”

“True,” Stevie said ruefully. “And we’re lucky we were all so busy getting Tessa’s tack cleaned up that she didn’t have time to ask any awkward questions.”

“I know.” Lisa nodded. “Do you think we’re doing the right thing by keeping all this a secret?”

Stevie hesitated. She had thought they were doing the right thing in the beginning, but lately she had started to wonder. Maybe it would be better to tell Tessa about their probation. Then she would understand why they couldn’t get into any fights with Veronica.

She opened her mouth to say so. But at that moment, Max turned and glared at her. “No talking in class!” he barked. “Lisa, you and Prancer are up in the next group. Move it!”

A
S THE JUMP
class ended, Max called to Lisa. “Could you wait a moment?” he said. “I need to talk to you.”

Lisa nodded and led Prancer toward him, feeling nervous. What did Max want to talk to her about? Had Veronica told him about the tack incident? Even though Red had promised to keep quiet, Lisa wouldn’t put it past Veronica to tattle to Max herself.

But it turned out to have nothing to do with Veronica.
“I wanted to speak to you about the point-to-point,” Max said. He reached out and patted Prancer on the neck. “I should have brought it up earlier, but I must admit I’ve been so busy lately that it didn’t occur to me until now. You’ll need to choose another horse to ride in the junior hurdle race, and you really ought to start practicing on that horse from now until the event.”

“Another horse?” Lisa repeated blankly. Then she gasped. “Oh no!” she exclaimed. “You mean you don’t think Prancer should run in that kind of race, either?”

Prancer had been a racehorse before coming to Pine Hollow. Her career at the track had ended because of an inherited weakness in her leg that showed up when she ran at top speed. Now Lisa realized that Prancer’s weak leg was likely to cause problems in a jumping race as well.

Max noticed her consternation and gave her a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry, Lisa,” he said gently. “I know you and Prancer are a fine pair. But this sort of thing just isn’t safe for her.”

“I know,” Lisa said, swallowing hard. “You’re right. I should have thought of that myself.”
Normally I would have
, she told herself. But between planning for Tessa’s visit, helping her mother plan for the event, and fighting with Veronica, she hadn’t had time to think about much else.

Her mind was still spinning with the bad news as she
finished grooming Prancer and headed for the tack room to meet her friends. All three of them were already there, cleaning their saddles and bridles.

Carole looked up as she came in. “Hi, Lisa,” she said. Her forehead crinkled. “Hey, what’s wrong? What did Max want?”

Lisa dropped Prancer’s saddle onto a rack and collapsed on a handy trunk. “Bad news,” she reported. She quickly filled them in on the problem. “So now I’ve got to figure out which horse I want to ride in the race,” she finished heavily. “Max said the choice is up to me.”

“Oh dear,” Tessa said sympathetically. “That’s too bad.” She grinned weakly. “But I suppose it’s good news for me. Now, with the real racehorse out, Topside and I are certain to win!”

Veronica walked in just in time to hear Tessa’s comment. She stared at the girl with a frown. “You’re awfully confident for someone who’s never even seen a real American point-to-point,” she snapped. She dropped Danny’s sweaty tack on a rack. “But your title and accent aren’t going to help you out on the course. I can promise you that!” She turned and stomped out of the room without another glance at her dirty tack.

Lisa frowned. It was just like Veronica to leave her work for someone else to do—and equally like her to jump to the worst possible conclusion about a member of The Saddle Club. Lisa knew that Tessa’s remark had been
a joke intended to cheer her up. But Veronica had obviously taken it as a serious boast.

“What a piece of work she is!” Tessa exclaimed, staring after Veronica.

Stevie nodded grimly. “That’s the understatement of the year.”

“T
HIS IS LOVELY
,” Tessa said quietly, signaling for Topside to stop beside Starlight. She gazed around in awe. Dappled sunlight poured through the leafy tree branches rising overhead and bounced off the surface of the creek as it gurgled between mossy, rock-studded banks.

Lisa smiled as she watched Tessa’s reaction to The Saddle Club’s favorite spot. It was the following afternoon, and the four friends were taking a leisurely trail ride. “Do you like it?” she asked.

“I don’t just like it,” Tessa declared. She smiled. “I
love
it!”

“That proves it, then,” Stevie said. “You really were meant to be a member of The Saddle Club!”

“Was there any doubt?” Tessa asked, pretending to look hurt.

“Not for a moment,” Carole assured her, swinging down out of the saddle.

When the girls had tied their horses in the shade of some nearby trees, they walked down to the bank and removed their boots. Soon all four of them were dangling their toes in the cool, rushing water.

“That feels good,” Tessa said. “My legs are still aching from that jump class yesterday.”

Carole grinned. “Are you sure that’s what did it?” she teased. “You were doing a lot of jumping up and down and cheering at that baseball game last night.”

“Hey,” Tessa joked back. “I was just trying to fit in and enjoy the American national pastime!”

The evening before, the four girls had decided to show Tessa a bit of Americana by taking her to Stevie’s older brother Chad’s intramural baseball game. Tessa and her hosts had had a wonderful time eating popcorn, shouting encouragement at the players, and even lifting Chad onto their shoulders at the end of the game to celebrate his winning run.

“That was fun,” Lisa said happily. “But I’m with Tessa. Max really worked us hard yesterday—even my toes are sore.” She wiggled them in the creek to emphasize her point.

“He did work us hard,” Carole agreed. “But I’m glad he
did. I want to be ready for the junior hurdle race. It’s not like anything we’ve ever done before.”

“I can’t believe the point-to-point is less than two weeks away,” Stevie said.

“Speaking of which,” Lisa said, brushing a stray twig off her leg, “we still haven’t talked much about my problem. I don’t have a horse to ride in the junior hurdle.”

“Well, it’s not as if Max said
you
couldn’t enter the race,” Stevie pointed out. “You just can’t ride Prancer. You’ll have to pick another school horse.”

“I know.” Lisa hated the thought of riding a different horse in the exciting event, but the logical side of her knew it was for the best. She didn’t want Prancer to reinjure her leg any more than Max did. “The trouble is finding a good one that isn’t already being ridden by somebody else.”

“Well, let’s think about this,” Carole said, sounding almost as logical as Lisa. “Who do we have entered in the junior hurdle so far? Stevie and I are riding our own horses, of course. So are Veronica and Polly and Britt and Andrea.”

Stevie nodded and ticked off more names on her fingers. “Betsy Cavanaugh will be riding Barq, as usual. Joe Novick will be on Rusty. Meg Durham, Diablo. Meg Roberts, Comanche.”

Lisa continued the list. “Lorraine Olsen, Coconut,” she said. “Helen Sanderson, Eve. Simon Atherton, Patch. Anna McWhirter, Bluegrass. Adam Levine, Tecumseh.”

“Even the younger riders are using up some of the good horses,” Carole pointed out. “They don’t all ride ponies. Melanie has been riding Chip lately in Horse Wise, and Peter Allman is crazy about Harry.”

“Oh dear,” Tessa said. “Now I’m feeling awful about using up Topside. Who normally rides him?”

“Adam does sometimes,” Carole explained. “But Max usually rides him during our lessons and stuff.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Lisa told Tessa. “I’m happy you’ll be riding Topside.” She forced herself to smile. “He’s an almost English horse for our English rider, remember? I only wish there was another horse for me.” She sighed ruefully. “Just about the only ones left are Calypso and Nero.” Calypso, a beautiful Thoroughbred mare, had recently foaled and was in no shape for competition. But she still could have beaten Nero, the oldest horse at Pine Hollow, who rarely moved faster than a stately walk.

Carole shook her head. “Wow. I guess now we know why Max bought those new horses. Pine Hollow is getting so popular that—”

“That’s it!” Stevie cried.

“Huh?” Carole asked.

“Don’t you see?” Stevie explained impatiently. “It’s so obvious. Lisa will have to ride one of the new horses! Isn’t that exciting?”

Lisa looked a little uncertain. “I don’t know,” she said. “They just got here. Nobody in our class has even tried any of them out yet.”

Stevie shrugged. “So what?” she said. “Max and Red have been riding them a lot to make sure they’re ready. They look great. Especially Derby—he’s got some fantastic moves. I saw Red schooling him over some jumps just the other day.”