Horse-Sitters (10 page)

T
HE NEXT AFTERNOON
after school, Carole and Lisa hurried straight to Pine Hollow and got to work, beginning with the polo ponies. After half an hour, when Stevie still hadn’t shown up, they started to get worried.

“It isn’t like Stevie to be late on a day like today,” Lisa said. “Where do you think she could be?”

“I have no idea,” Carole said, hoisting two fresh buckets of water she had just filled. “But we don’t have time to stand around wondering about it. She’ll get here when she gets here.”

“And then we’ll kill her?” Lisa guessed.

“No,” Carole replied with a grin. “Then we’ll make her take care of Mr. Munch.”

Another half hour passed before Stevie rushed into the stable,
red-faced and breathless. “Sorry,” she panted when she found Carole and Lisa in the tack room. “Ran … all the way … here. Detention. Fell asleep … science class. Ms. Cartwright … no sense of humor.” She collapsed on a trunk and gasped for air. After a moment she regained control of her voice. “Anyway, I really am sorry,” she told her friends. “I tried to talk her into giving me a suspended sentence, but no go.”

“I was exhausted today, too,” Lisa admitted. “I yawned so much during the first two periods that I thought my head was going to crack open.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t get to sleep until pretty late,” Stevie admitted. “I was up half the night finishing my homework. It’s ridiculous. I mean, summer is right around the corner, but my teachers just aren’t taking the hint.”

“Well, we already decided we might forgive you,” Carole said, “if you take care of Mr. Munch today.”

“Hey, no problem,” Stevie said. “He’s the easiest client we have. So where are we on all the others?”

“We’re almost done with the polo ponies,” Lisa said. “We decided to exercise them on the longe line to save some time, so we only have two more to go. We haven’t touched the other three horses yet. We’ll do them next.”

Stevie nodded. “All right, then,” she said. “If you guys can finish up with the polo ponies, I’ll take Romeo out and …” Her voice trailed off and she grimaced. “Uh-oh,” she said quietly. “Don’t look now, but I think I hear Aunt Eugenia.”

Sure enough, the old woman strode into the tack room a moment later with Max on her heels. “Don’t be ridiculous,
Max,” she was saying huffily. “I think I know how to tack up my own horse.”

“Are you sure you really want to go riding right now, Aunt Eugenia?” Max wheedled. “It’s pretty warm out.”

“Don’t insult me,” she replied sharply. “I’m not so old yet that I can’t tolerate a little heat.”

Meanwhile, the girls were trading panicked looks. If Eugenia went riding now, she would surely notice that The Saddle Club hadn’t groomed Honeybee since the night before. And they could just imagine how she would react to that!

“Aunt—er, Ms. Eugenia,” Stevie put in, trying to imitate Lisa’s tactful talking-to-adults voice. “Maybe you didn’t realize it, but Max has some pretty strict rules about trail rides here. One of the most important ones is that riders can never go out on the trail alone. It could be dangerous.”

Max nodded vigorously. “Stevie is right, Aunt Eugenia,” he said. “If you wait just an hour or two, Deborah will be back from her office. I’m sure she’d love to take you on a lovely trail ride. And it will be much more pleasant then, once the sun has gone down.”

Eugenia was silent for a moment, thinking. Then she shook her head. “No, thank you just the same, but I’d rather go now,” she said firmly. “And if I’m not to go alone, then one of these girls will have to come with me.”

Lisa gulped. She had a feeling she knew which girl it would be.

But Carole stepped forward. “I’d love to go with you, Ms. Eugenia,” she volunteered. She had seen the look on Lisa’s face.
Since Lisa was the one who had to deal with Eugenia the most, Carole decided the least she could do was spare her friend a trail ride with the crotchety old woman.

Eugenia peered at her. “Very well, then,” she said. “Let’s be off.”

“Um, well, the thing is,” Carole stammered, trying to think of an excuse to put off the ride long enough to give Honeybee a quick grooming.

“The thing is,” Stevie said quickly, taking over, “I don’t think you’ve had a proper tour of the stable since you arrived.”

Eugenia looked suspicious. “I’ve seen the stable, young lady. I’ve been here for four and a half days.”

Stevie thought fast. “But you haven’t seen the polo ponies,” she said. “They’re really something. Very special.”

“Polo ponies?” Eugenia looked interested. “What’s so special about them?”

“Oh, all sorts of things,” Stevie said, ignoring Max’s raised eyebrow. “Just come along with me and I’ll tell you all about it.” She put a hand on Eugenia’s arm and gently led her out of the tack room and around the corner to Tempest’s stall. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Carole and Lisa dash in the opposite direction toward Honeybee’s stall.

“I really would like to get out on the trail,” Eugenia protested. “Couldn’t this little tour wait?”

“Oh, it will just take a minute,” Stevie assured her. She stopped in front of Tempest’s stall, and the curious gray poked his head out over the half door. “See this handsome fellow here? Well, he used to be owned by royalty.”

“Really!” Eugenia stared at the horse. “English?”

“No,” Stevie said. “Um, Mexican.”

“Really,” Eugenia said again. “I didn’t even know Mexico had a royal family.”

“Oh, yes,” Stevie assured her. “They’re very rich. They have hundreds of polo ponies. They’re all gray. Tempest didn’t quite match the others, so they had to sell him.”

“Very nice,” Eugenia said. She turned away. “Now where did that other girl go? I’m ready to ride.”

“Not yet!” Stevie said. “Uh, I haven’t even shown you the most interesting polo pony. He—um, he was a gift to the president of the United States from a fabulously wealthy Arabian sheikh.”

“And he ended up here?” Eugenia said, looking doubtful. But there was a spark of interest in her eyes.

Stevie smiled. “Come with me,” she said, taking the old woman’s arm again and leading her toward another stall. “I’ll tell you all about it.”

F
IFTEEN MINUTES LATER
, when Stevie and Eugenia finally reached Honeybee’s stall, Lisa was just slipping on the old mare’s bridle. “Here she is, Ms. Eugenia,” she said brightly. “All saddled up and ready to go.” She carefully checked the girth, then led the horse outside, where Carole was waiting with Memphis.

“I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone,” she explained at her friends’ glance. She mounted and touched the lucky horseshoe hanging over the door. It was a Pine Hollow tradition. No rider had ever been seriously hurt after touching that horseshoe.
Carole tried to explain the custom to Eugenia. She was pretty sure the old woman was completely confused, but Eugenia reached up and touched the horseshoe without comment.

“That was a close one,” Lisa said, as she and Stevie watched the pair ride off across the fields.

Stevie shrugged. “Hey, we pulled it off, didn’t we?” she said. “She didn’t suspect a thing. And now she can go home and tell all her friends she touched a horse whose sire was once ridden by Elvis!”

S
TEVIE WAS MUCKING OUT
Memphis’s stall a few minutes later when she saw Veronica enter Danny’s stall across the aisle. Veronica stared icily at Stevie as she walked by, but Stevie ignored her.

“Mucking out stalls again, Stevie?” Veronica said. “Funny, that’s all you seem to do these days. Too bad you don’t have more of a life.”

“Get lost, Veronica,” Stevie snapped, shoveling one last forkful of soiled straw into the wheelbarrow standing in the aisle. “I don’t have time for your whining today. I have work to do. Or maybe you forgot. Max hired me to help fix
your
stupid mistake, remember?”

“Oh, please,” Veronica hissed. “You think you’re so great. But you’re really just pathetic.” She smirked. “I spent
my
Sunday afternoon reading a magazine by the pool. What did
you
do yesterday, Stevie?”

Stevie ignored her. She picked up the wheelbarrow and
steered it down the aisle, narrowly missing Veronica’s foot. “Oops, sorry, Veronica,” she said sweetly.

When Stevie returned a few minutes later with fresh straw, Veronica was lounging against the wall outside Danny’s stall. “Seeing you do all this work gave me a great idea, Stevie,” she said. “I don’t think Danny likes sleeping on straw. It’s too coarse for him. I think wood chips would be much better. They’re probably more expensive, but that’s okay. I love to buy my horse nice things … like that gorgeous new bridle, for instance.”

Stevie gritted her teeth and tried to ignore her, but Veronica kept talking. “In fact, I think I’ll call Red right now and see if he’ll get me some wood chips to try. I’m sure he can clean out this nasty old straw for me right away.” She cleared her throat, then sang out, “Oh, Red!”

A few minutes later a harried-looking Red O’Malley appeared. “What do you want, Veronica?” he asked.

“I need you to do something for me,” Veronica said. “Danny’s bedding needs to be replaced. I want him to try wood chips for a while instead of straw.”

Red glanced at his watch. “Look, I really don’t have time for this right now, okay? Max disappeared somewhere, and one of his private students just turned up for her lesson. If you’re serious about trying wood chips, be my guest. I think there are a couple of bags of cedar shavings in the garden shed. Max was going to use them to lay down a new path, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you used some.” He hurried away without waiting for a reply.

Veronica scowled. “Why, that lazy, no-good excuse for a groom,” she huffed. “I can’t believe he just flat-out refused to help me.”

“Yeah, hard to believe,” Stevie said sarcastically. “After all, he was just sitting around doing nothing while you’re here working your fingers to the bone.” She snorted. “I can see how concerned you are about Danny. Concerned enough to make someone else take care of him, but not enough to do it yourself. If you even know how.”

“Oh yeah?” Veronica shot back. “I know you and your goody-two-shoes friends think I don’t know what I’m doing around the stable. I’ve heard your snotty little comments. But the fact is, I do know what I’m doing just as much as you all do. Just because I’m not always running around trying to prove it doesn’t mean I don’t. So I think I
will
change Danny’s bedding myself. Not because I have to—just because I feel like it.” She stomped off down the aisle.

Stevie raised one eyebrow in surprise. She could hardly believe it. Veronica was going to do some actual work? Okay, it wasn’t strictly necessary work, since as far as Stevie could tell Danny had no problem with straw at all, but it was work nonetheless.

As Stevie lifted her pitchfork to start shoveling in the clean straw, she heard a loud shriek from somewhere behind the building. She dropped the pitchfork. “Uh-oh,” she said aloud. “Mr. Munch!” She grinned and raced off in the direction Veronica had gone. Sure enough, when she arrived at the garden shed, Mr. Munch was perched on the hood of the riding mower, staring
at Veronica, who was cowering outside. Seconds later Lisa and Max also arrived on the scene.

“Exactly what is that—thing?” Veronica shrieked. “And what’s it doing in the shed?”

“Don’t worry,” Stevie said, grabbing Mr. Munch and carrying him back to his cage. “He’s supposed to be here.”

Veronica put her hands on her hips. “I should have known you were behind this, Stevie. It’s typical.” With that, she stormed away.

Stevie and Lisa tried hard not to laugh. They weren’t sure how Max would react. But when they saw him smile, then start to chuckle, they knew they were safe. They burst into laughter.

“Did you see the look on her face?” Lisa exclaimed. “I wish I had my camera with me.”

“Me too,” Stevie agreed. “That would be one for the photo album. Or maybe the front page of
The Washington Post
. Oh, hey, Max, did you see Red? He was looking for you a few minutes ago.”

“No, I just got here,” Max said. “I had some, um, errands to do.”

Stevie and Lisa traded glances. It sounded as if Max was still trying to avoid Eugenia.

As if on cue, the old woman’s distinctive voice floated toward them. Stevie turned and saw Honeybee and Memphis walking in their direction across the back fields.

“I’d better go look for Red,” Max said, hurrying away.

Lisa tested the door to Mr. Munch’s cage. “He’s just going to break out of here again as soon as we leave him,” she said.

“Not if I can help it,” Stevie said. She glanced around the shed, looking for ideas. “A lock, a lock, my kingdom for a lock,” she muttered. Then suddenly she had a brainstorm. She spit out the gum she was chewing and welded it around the latch on his cage. “There! That should hold him,” she said. “My mother is always saying that stuff is like concrete when it hardens.”

“How are we going to get the door open again ourselves, then?” Lisa asked sensibly.

“We’ll worry about that when the time comes,” Stevie said casually.

Lisa laughed. “The Stevie Lake philosophy of life.”

L
ISA WAS WAITING
at Honeybee’s stall to take over when the trail riders returned. She decided Carole had done her part. Lisa could handle the old mare’s cool-down and grooming. Luckily Eugenia didn’t hang around to watch. She walked up to the house to wait for Deborah to get home.

When Lisa carried Honeybee’s tack to the tack room, she found Carole there cleaning Memphis’s saddle. Lisa sat down and got to work.

“So how was it?” she asked Carole.

Carole rolled her eyes. “I guess it could have been worse. She hardly insulted Max at all, and she only called me a little girl once or twice. Mostly she just talked about the tea party. From the way she talks you’d think it was the social event of the season.”

Stevie walked in. “So this is where the party is,” she said when she saw her friends.

“No, the real party is going to be on Wednesday,” Carole told her, “when some extremely lovely ladies will be enjoying the lovely warm breezes and nibbling some lovely little sandwiches under the lovely apple tree.”