Moonlight: Star of the Show (10 page)

“Come on now, hand him over, be a sport, he
is
my daughter’s pony, after all,” the Major said through gritted teeth.

“Dad, forget it, they’ve worked it out.”

The Major whipped round to see Daisy standing behind him, looking at the ground, her black jacket dusty but otherwise apparently none the worse for her fall.

“Stop talking nonsense, Daisy,” the Major bluffed, edging towards Moonlight. “You must have had a knock to the head! We’d better take the pony and get you home
quickly
so you can have a lie down.”

“I spend most of my life lying down after
falling off Shadow, in case you hadn’t noticed,” Daisy pointed out crossly, finally squaring her shoulders and standing up to him. “I don’t need to lie down again now! And I won’t go along with your plan any more. Do you realise what you’ve done? You wanted me to win so badly, just so I could be more like you, that you stole – yes
stole
– the one pony you thought would guarantee me victory around the Cup course. I couldn’t believe it when I discovered Moonlight hidden in one of our stables. But it wouldn’t have mattered which pony you’d put me on. I still wouldn’t give a stuff about competing or winning.”

The Major tried to speak but Daisy silenced him. Mia nodded her approval.

“Face it, Dad, I’m just not like you,” Daisy said, jutting out her chin defiantly. “I’m me.”

The Major glanced uneasily at the girls, then turned to Daisy. “Really? You’re
sure
you don’t like competing,” he said urgently, in a hushed voice. “Not just a little bit? Because I’m convinced that
with more drilling over fences you’ll turn into a fine show jumper yet!”

“Dad!” Daisy exclaimed, going slightly pink. “I never want to jump another fence again! Ever!”

The Major looked seriously disgruntled and his moustache twitched irritably. He hummed and hawed awkwardly for a few seconds, then puffed out his cheeks and thwacked his shiny boots with his stick.

“I see,” he finally tutted, clearing his throat and adjusting his tie. “In that case, I suppose I have some apologising to do.”

At that moment one of the judges bustled over to them, looking slightly cross.

“Come on, dear,” she said to Alice, pulling her arm. “It’s very good of you to go gallivanting off after the loose pony, but we have to make the presentation for the Cup. We’ve been calling your for ages. Chop chop.”

Alice hurried along behind her, leading Moonlight. The others followed, trotting their
ponies in hand. Daisy was behind them, smiling triumphantly as she walked alongside the red-faced, grumbling Major. As they reached the main ring, Alice looked over and could see the Fratton Cup set out on a trestle table nearby. It was so nearly hers. She caught the others all looking at her, wondering what she would do. But Alice knew there was only one thing she could do. She quickly dodged to the judges’ cabin, the others following. She held on to the end of Moonlight’s reins as she ducked inside. After she’d had a quick word with the judge, the tannoy crackled into action. Alice cleared her throat and the sound system whined.

“The class isn’t finished yet,” she announced, desperately searching for Poppy in the sea of people as she spoke. A murmur rippled through the spectators, sending a buzz through the crowd as they wondered what the hold-up was. “There’s still one more rider to jump in the first round!”

Alice whispered something to the judge,
whose eyebrows shot up in surprise. As Alice ducked back out to join the others standing by the cabin, the judge leaned forward towards the microphone.

“And that rider is…” the judge hesitated for a moment, then took a deep breath and continued. “That rider is Poppy Brookes.”

Poppy started as her name echoed round the ring. She stared at the girls, who were waving wildly at her to come down, then pointing towards the black pony. She shaded her eyes from the late afternoon sun, leaning forward to get a better look. Suddenly her face lit up and she gasped, her hand coming up to her mouth. Quick as a flash, she dodged her way through the excited, confused crowd then raced as fast as she could, skidding to a breathless stop in front of the black pony. Alice held the reins out to her. Poppy started to laugh, but it turned into a cry as she stepped forward, hardly daring to believe what was happening.

“You’ve still got to jump your pony,” Alice said, trying to keep her voice steady. “You’ve still got to jump Moonlight.”

Chapter Eleven

P
OPPY
saw the black dye on Mia’s tie and Alice’s face. Moonlight nickered excitedly, his nostrils fluttering as he stepped forwards and rubbed his head against her. She threw her arms around his neck, burying her head in his mane. The crowd stood in stunned silence as they watched the pony turn his head and encircle Poppy, as if he were hugging her back, then a collective ‘ahh’ rang out through the stands.

With a sniff, Poppy took a step back, shaking her head and laughing as if she still couldn’t believe it. She was covered now with the black sticky dye, but she didn’t care. She set the saddle straight, tightened the girths and jumped up. She was wearing jodhpurs already, and Mia
quickly took off her riding hat and passed it to her. Reunited, Moonlight and Poppy cantered into the ring as if in a dream.

“Well, it’s a bit unconventional, I must say!” the judge announced over the blaring tannoy. “But we now have the last competitor in the ring for the Fratton Cup. Please give a very big hand for Poppy Brookes, riding her
very own
Moonlight.”

The crowd gave the pair a roar of approval. Poppy and Moonlight, both looking as excited as each other, flew over each fence, one by one, until they’d cleared the last with inches to spare.

Alice was clapping wildly until Charlie looked at her ruefully and shouted over the din, “You know what that means, don’t you?”

“Jump off!” the judge declared over the crackling loud speaker. “Alice Hathaway and Scout to jump first.”

In all the excitement, Alice had forgotten about the fact that there was still a competition going on. Despite all Charlie’s motivating advice,
Alice was all over the place as she tried to memorise the new, shortened course, which was going to be against the clock. Once the fences were rearranged and she’d warmed up Scout again, they rode back into the ring.

But as the bell rang, her mind went blank and Alice cantered a whole lap of the ring before she heard Charlie shouting out “Gate!” and the course flooded back. Alice turned Scout on a sixpence and he obligingly took off neatly, then raced on to the double, clearing it easily before turning back to the parallel and twisting to the wall, then charging on to the triple bar. Scout flew it, and this time Alice managed a more dignified landing.

She rode out to loud cheers, patting Scout over and over, pulling his ears gently. He bounced underneath the saddle, his ears pricked, full of beans and pleased with himself.

Alice knew but didn’t really care that she’d dithered about at the start while the stopwatch was ticking. When Poppy came in and whizzed
round in half the time, she received a burst of foot-stomping applause from everyone, none more so than the four girls standing by the entrance. As she lined up afterwards in the centre of the ring to collect her rosette, Alice turned and beamed at Poppy, who walked Moonlight over to her, leaned over and gave her a tight hug. Even though Alice had dreamed of winning the Fratton Cup, she couldn’t have wished for anything more special at that moment than coming second.

“Congratulations!” Alice shouted above the standing ovation as Poppy was presented with the big silver cup. She wasn’t sure whether she meant it for Moonlight or for winning the Cup, but she meant it nonetheless.

They set off at a fast canter around the ring, with Scout’s blue second-placed rosette streaming from his bridle. Normally the winner leads the victory parade, but Poppy dropped back so that Moonlight and Scout were racing stride for stride alongside each other, the two girls laughing as
the ponies galloped with their ears pricked, clearly enjoying themselves.

After two circuits of the ring they both charged out, and Alice finally managed to pull Scout up by Charlie, Rosie and Mia. Alice quickly jumped down from the saddle and loosened Scout’s girth. As Rosie held out a bucket of water for Scout, the other two patted Alice on the back. After Scout had made them all squeal by dribbling over everyone, they heard hoof beats and looked up.

Poppy was leading Moonlight over, holding the cup. She lifted it towards them.

“I want you to have it,” she said, looking from Alice to the others. “I couldn’t have won it without all of you. It belongs to you. I can’t begin to put into words how I feel about having Moonlight back here safe again when I thought I’d lost him for ever. I just can’t thank you enough for finding him.”

Alice looked at the cup. It was her biggest
ambition to win it, but she wanted to do it properly. Besides, she was over the moon with her second place – her jumping round had gone better than she could ever have dared to dream of when she’d woken up that morning. And seeing Poppy standing there beaming, she knew that restoring Moonlight to her was more important than any cup ever could be. Even the Fratton Cup.

“No, it’s okay. It’s yours, you keep it. Moonlight was the star of the show. You both won it fair and square,” Alice said.

Poppy beamed.

“Okay, but on one condition,” she replied. “You tell me all about how you found Moonlight and how he got into
this
sticky mess!”

The girls hastily filled Poppy in. Just as they finished, they heard someone clearing his throat behind them. They turned to see Daisy standing next to the Major, who was looking rather red and awkward. He blustered for a second, suitably shamefaced, before Daisy elbowed him.

“Poppy,” she said determinedly, “Dad has got something to say to you, and your parents.”

“We’ll leave you to it,” Mia said, smiling at Daisy just as Poppy’s parents walked over to join Poppy, Daisy and the Major.

As they walked away, Alice glanced over her shoulder and saw Poppy standing with her arm over Moonlight’s neck, her pony relaxed and contentedly cropping some grass. Her blue, second-placed rosette ribbons fluttered in her face. She wanted this day, this show, to last for ever, but it was time to get the ponies back. The girls tightened their ponies’ girths, mounted and headed for the show exit. They rode back to Blackberry Farm feeling exhausted but happy.

“How amazing was that? We well and truly solved that mystery!” Alice said, feeling quite professional and important as they turned off the lane into the woods. “We were like proper detectives!”

“Pony detectives, more like,” Rosie replied.

“
That’s
what we should call ourselves!” Charlie exclaimed. “The Pony Detectives!”

The four girls looked round at each other, suddenly excited.

“It’s perfect!” Mia said. She couldn’t help smiling, even though she wished she’d been the one to have come up with the name.

“I wonder what our next case will involve?” Alice sighed happily as they walked their ponies through the wooded path on long reins, their feet dangling out of the stirrups.

“Kidnapping and ransom notes?” Charlie said hopefully, leaning down to give Pirate a hug.

“Or a world-famous dressage horse who’s vanished without a trace?” Mia added, closing her eyes as they wandered along.

“Oh, hang on! We forgot something!” Rosie suddenly exclaimed.

“What?” Alice asked lazily, feeling the warmth of the sun coming through the trees.

“We forgot to ask Poppy about a reward!”

“Rosie!” they all groaned.

At that exact same moment Dancer caught sight of a tempting leafy bush at the side of the path. She lunged, pulling Rosie so far out of the saddle that she slid head first down Dancer’s neck, over her ears, and landed with a thud, startling the other ponies. They dived in different directions, and before they knew what had happened the girls were all sitting in a messy heap on the mossy earth.

The ponies stopped a couple of strides away and stood looking down at them quizzically. Pirate stomped his hoof.

“I was only saying!” Rosie explained as she stood up and pulled Dancer out of the offending shrub, trailing great long leaves.

As Rosie turned round she was grinning from ear to ear, just like the rest of her friends.

The Pony Detectives had a feeling that this summer holiday was going to be the best one ever. And it had only just begun.