Moonlight: Star of the Show (9 page)

“What happened here?” he asked, gobsmacked, as the little crowd dispersed.

“Isn’t that obvious?!” Mark snapped, flinging the reins at his dad and stomping off towards the cab, dripping and squelching with every step.

Poppy turned to Alice. She’d been so transfixed by the unexpected turn of events that she’d almost forgotten Poppy was standing next to her.

“Is this what you wanted me to see? A water fight?” Poppy said. Alice opened her mouth to say something but she couldn’t think what and closed
it again. Poppy must have thought they were a bunch of halfwits.

But Poppy’s pale face suddenly broke into a cheerful smile. “You’ve just made a very difficult day a teeny bit more cheerful,” she beamed. “You know, last year Mark Tickle wouldn’t even congratulate me on winning as we were lined up, he was so furious. I reckon he’s got his just deserts for being so competitive! Thanks!”

With that, Poppy walked back to the tea tent to find her mum and wait for the Cup to start. As Alice joined the others, she was relieved that she hadn’t told Poppy about them finding Moonlight. It would have been agonising for her to think he’d been found, only to have her hopes dashed the moment they’d been raised. After their burst of laughter, the others were now all looking as glum as Alice felt.

“Back to square one,” Charlie said despondently.

“And not a single clue to help us,” Mia said, studying her notebook.

“It’s not as easy finding stolen ponies as we thought,” Alice said, twiddling her pony tail absently. “I haven’t the foggiest where we go from here – has anyone else?”

Mia sighed. “I’m not sure there is anywhere to go from here.”

“Good shot of mine with the water, though,” Rosie said proudly.

“Anyway, you better get warmed up,” Charlie suddenly said, handing Mia Wish’s reins. “You’re running late – you’ll be called into the ring soon.”

Mia flipped shut her notebook and handed it to Charlie with a sigh before tightening Wish’s girth and jumping into the saddle. The girls wished her luck as she trotted her pony over to the warm-up area. They knew Mia had left herself short of time to prepare, something she’d never done before, but for once winning was not Mia’s top priority.

The other three headed over to a large ring near the far side of the field. There was a huge
horse chestnut tree just beside it, and they gratefully slumped down in the shade waiting for Mia and her fellow competitors to be called in together. Their ponies grazed contentedly, raising their heads every once in a while to look out over the showground.

They didn’t have to wait long before Mia rode into the ring with another nine ponies following her. They started off by walking, trotting and cantering in a group, then all lined up in the centre of the ring. The judge walked up to each of them in turn and inspected them, then sent them out for their individual shows. The girls watched silently as Wish moved effortlessly and gracefully around the ring, her neck rounded and her toes flicking out with each step. She captivated the scattered crowd in her electric pink velvet browband, which matched Mia’s tie. It didn’t matter that Mia had been a bit rushed in her preparation – she still looked perfect and rode supremely, with Wish looking as stunning as ever.

They held their breath as Mark began his individual show on his newly purchased, top-level show pony, Cloud Nine. As the pony moved, it was as if his hooves floated above the ground. But Mark had a face like thunder. He sullenly kicked and pulled Cloud Nine about during his individual show and the pony, used to more delicate handling, showed his resentment with a few well-timed bucks and shakes of his head. Not only that, but Mark was still drying out from the soaking Rosie had given him earlier; his leather boots looked dull and unpolished and his red tie had drooped. He was not amused. Nor was the judge as she got the ponies lined back up again.

She stopped in front of Mia and had a few words. Then the judge moved on and halted in front of Mark. Even from where the girls were standing they could hear the judge’s high-pitched voice floating across on the warm air.

“Absolute disgrace. What have you been doing? Apple bobbing? This is supposed to be a serious
show, you know. You’ve let this wonderful pony, which looks awfully familiar to me, down thoroughly, and for absolutely no reason that I can fathom.”

The judge walked to the next pony, a pretty bright bay, and spent some time praising pony and rider highly. Then the judge called Mia out first ahead of the pretty bay, with a furious Mark unplaced.

As Mia received her red rosette, Mark stomped out and the girls jumped up, cheering loudly. They rushed forward to congratulate Mia, who leaned down to hug Wish warmly.

“At least one thing’s gone according to plan today,” Charlie said as the tannoy crackled into life.

“Can all the riders for our final class of the day, the Fratton Cup, please make their way to the main ring to walk the course.”

Alice remembered the Cup again with a jolt, and went from being filled with happiness for
Mia to being filled with a gazillion butterflies. Her stomach flipped as she and Rosie handed their reins to Charlie and Mia. With knocking knees, she made her way to the ring on foot.

Rosie kept looking out for plants by the fences that Dancer might take a fancy to, distracting Alice so much that she forgot whether it was a right or a left turn after the planks and whether the triple bar followed the double or the oxer, making her more nervous than ever. As other riders walked purposefully past her – including Tallulah Starr, loudly counting out her strides – Alice panicked, thinking she’d never remember the course.

She strode out the distances between fences, imagining Scout’s canter stride in her mind. As she walked the path she’d soon be riding, her heart raced faster and faster. Up close, the fences looked solid, tall and wide. Most of them were three feet high, and the triple bar, the last fence, was over three feet wide. She felt as if she must be turning green as they headed back out to the
others, and was sure she’d forget which course to take and let Scout down.

Rosie was the first to go. Charlie gave her a leg-up into the saddle and Dancer’s ears flopped out sideways, her eyes goggling.

“Good luck!” Charlie called out as Rosie flapped around, trying to get Dancer towards the warmup ring. “See you when you get back.”

“I doubt I’ll be gone long,” Rosie reasoned. “Dancer doesn’t feel in a going mood today, so I don’t think we’ll get far round the course.”

Alice was one of the last in, and much as she wanted to put off the moment as long as possible, she secretly envied the fact that Rosie would soon have her round over and done with.

The others gave the ponies a drink of water each from Rosie’s bucket, which had been thoroughly rinsed out, then went over to the ring to watch Rosie jump.

“Rosie Honeycott, riding Dancer,” the judge announced as Rosie entered.

Dancer’s plaits had started to come undone, and the strawberry roan mare cantered towards the first fence, a brush, very suspiciously, and ground to a halt in front of it. The others all groaned. Rosie turned Dancer, shook her up and, shouting encouragement, trotted back to the fence, and this time the mare heaved herself over. After that, Dancer seemed to take heart and jumped the next three fences almost on the move, but she ground to a halt at the gate before cat-leaping over and refusing to have anything to do with the double that followed. The claxon sounded.

“Rosie Honeycott and Dancer are eliminated,” the judge announced.

Rosie rode out beaming.

“What are you looking so happy for? You only made it to fence six!” Mia pointed out, wondering how anyone could be so delighted with such a performance.

“But that’s five more than last year! At this rate
we might have a hope of reaching the last fence next time! That’s serious progression!” Rosie exclaimed, showering Dancer with pats and kisses as Tallulah Starr cantered past into the ring on one of her many grey ponies, Diamond Starr. As Rosie slid out of the saddle, the puffing mare gobbled up the mints Rosie had brought with her.

Rosie, Charlie and Mia looked towards Alice.

“You better start getting ready,” Mia said. “It’ll be your turn soon.”

Alice gulped, loudly.

Chapter Ten

A
LICE
felt herself go pale and weak as she mounted. She patted Scout and rode off by herself. Quietly, she warmed Scout up in trot and canter. His ears kept flickering back, as if he could tell that she was nervous and wanted to check she was okay. When they were both ready to go over a practice fence, Alice heard a loud voice barking orders.

She looked up after checking her girth and saw Daisy ride past, closely followed by a glowering Major Thurlow. Alice frowned. Daisy was the last to go in the class, but she’d left herself hardly any time to warm Shadow up. Alice was about to call out hello when the Major glared at her.

“No distractions today, young lady. I don’t want my daughter falling off because of you again,”
he growled, before turning his attention back to Daisy. “Now, don’t fuss that pony about, bring him over a fence, let him know you mean business!”

Daisy looked thoroughly miserable, cantering away lopsidedly around the practice ring. She turned Shadow towards the warm-up fence, but her reins were so baggy that the pony ran past the poles without even attempting to jump. Daisy just about managed to cling on, but the Major roared at her to try again.

Turning her concentration back to Scout, Alice trotted over the cross pole a couple of times. She completely failed to see a stride first time but Scout popped over, waiting for her to catch up with him. After the fence had been put up to a decent upright, Alice rode over a couple more times. With her hands still shaking and her legs as useless as jelly, she rode towards the exit of the warm-up area. Daisy looked over as Alice headed out.

“Good luck!” Alice called, giving her an encouraging smile. Daisy looked as if she was
about to say something, but the Major was by her side in a shot and she looked away again.

As Alice, her teeth chattering, waited just outside the ring to be called, Rosie announced that there had been no clear rounds so far, not even by Tallulah Starr. “That means if you can go clear, Alice, you’ll win. You’ve only got Daisy behind you, and there’s no way she’ll leave everything up. She probably won’t even remember the course. You can do it!”

“Break a leg!” Mia said.

Alice groaned.

“I can’t do it,” she whispered faintly. “I can’t go in! If there are no clears yet the course must be awful!”

Charlie stepped up, her face stern as she pushed her hat back on her head to look at Alice properly.

“Alice, you have faced the wrath of Harry Franklin, you went back to his yard, alone and unaided. If you can do that, if you can hide in the
back of a stable in the line of duty, not knowing whether you’re going to escape with your life, you can jump a course of piddly show jumps.”

“Quick, the judge has called your name three times!” Rosie cried. “You better get going if you’re still going to jump!”

As the judge called out their names a final time, and with Charlie’s rallying cry rattling in her ears, Alice pressed Scout forward into canter and they entered the ring. Alice saw Poppy look up at her and smile as she rode past. It hit Alice then that at least she had a pony to jump. She had to do this, for Poppy, for Moonlight and for Scout.

Alice took a huge, deep breath and waited for the bell to ring. As soon as it sounded, Alice cantered an arc and headed towards the brush fence. Charlie was right, Alice thought, facing Harry
was
more frightening than this.

She pushed on strongly, suddenly filled with an extraordinary zest and as a result over-jumped
the brush fence and nearly shot straight past the second, the gate. But Scout saw it just in time and twisted over it, tucking his hooves up, desperate not to touch it.

With her newfound confidence they were gaining speed with every stride, and they jumped over the first part of the double too big, landing close to the second part, but Scout was clever and took a half stride before flying out over the parallel.

After that Alice started to calm down. Scout’s ears were pricked, looking for each new fence but flickering back as she asked him to turn left and right through the twisty course. He soared over each fence, bunching up and popping over the tricky planks and stretching his neck low over the wider spreads. As they flew over the wall only the huge, wide triple bar stood between them and a clear round, between Alice and the Fratton Cup.

Scout thundered up to it. Everything in the ring fell silent except the beat of his hooves on the dry grass. Alice kept her legs on her pony’s sides
and her hands soft; Scout met it perfectly and launched into the air. He snapped his hooves up and dropped his neck, arcing beautifully. Alice crouched low over Scout, just out of the saddle, and it felt as if they were suspended in the air for hours, reaching for the distant back pole that seemed impossibly far away.

Alice heard a clout and the crowd gasped. Then they were plunging down to earth again. Scout pitched slightly on landing and Alice shot up his neck, seeing the grass coming up towards her for a moment before getting her balance and sitting back in the saddle as the crowd burst into wild cheers and applause. Alice twisted round – the back pole was rocking slightly, but it stayed up! They’d gone clear!

Alice patted Scout wildly, praising him aloud as they shot out of the ring at a rapid trot. She felt herself going bright pink as the relief hit her, along with Charlie and Rosie as they congratulated her heartily. Mia’s face broke into a broad smile.
Suddenly Alice felt that she had conquered the world, and it was the best feeling she’d ever had.

As Daisy waited alongside them to ride into the ring, looking pale green with worried eyes, Charlie said, “Of course, what I said before you went in about you being a hero and all that, well it was only partly true. I mean, you may have performed heroics while trying to locate a stolen pony, but you still failed. Like the rest of us. But if it helped get you round…”

Alice threw her stick at Charlie. She was only joking, but Alice looked across and saw Poppy watching Scout and felt the failure of the case even more, despite the elation that was flooding through her. Suddenly it felt like the lead weight was sitting in her stomach again. Imagine losing Scout after he put in that round, after winning a class like the Fratton Cup.

Alice racked her brains as she jumped down and loosened Scout’s girth, pulling off her black jacket and tie while Mia fed Scout almost a whole
packet of mints. There
must
be something more that they could do, something that they had overlooked in their evidence! Alice went over it in her head one more time, but her mind drew a blank. Rosie offered Scout some water from her replenished bucket, which he sloshed around before drinking deeply, slurping and dripping it all over Alice’s white shirt, not that she cared.

“That cup’s as good as yours,” Charlie said as the bell rang for Daisy’s round.

They watched as Shadow cantered towards the first fence and jumped it so big that Daisy landed up his neck. She managed to cling on, pulled the reins and aimed him at the gate. Again, Shadow over-jumped, alive now that he was in the ring. This time Daisy got left behind, almost being bumped out of the saddle onto the pony’s black rump.

But it was at the third fence that the drama really began. Daisy leaned to the left to help turn the charging Shadow. As she did so, her whole body began to lean and it became obvious that
her saddle was slipping. Typical! She hadn’t remembered to tighten her girth, even for the Fratton Cup! The crowd let out loud oohs and ahhs as Daisy miraculously stayed on for another three fences until, as she approached the double, she turned Shadow and gravity took over. She slipped further and further as Shadow cantered eagerly around the edge of the ring, unchecked, before he finally deposited Daisy on the grass with a heavy thud. Daisy let out an audible sigh, then lay there watching the sky, leaving Shadow to thunder out of the ring, scattering the crowd in his path.

Alice couldn’t help noticing as Shadow shot past, stirrups flying, that there was something unusual in the way that Daisy had parted company with her pony. Normally Shadow was crafty, and he bucked, dropped a shoulder or ducked out of a fence in a deliberate attempt to dislodge his rider. The loose girth merely added to Daisy’s problems. But today Daisy had
only 
fallen because the saddle had slipped. Shadow was still going straight as a die and had almost looked surprised when he saw Daisy disappear beneath him.

While Alice tried to work out why that bothered her, there was still the matter of Shadow running riot around the showground. A crowd had gathered around Daisy, thinking she might have drawn her last breath. But Alice had seen her fall like that a hundred times and knew that she’d be fine. She’d be lying there contemplating the cloud formation before getting up with a sigh and carrying on as if nothing had happened, so Alice decided to go and catch Shadow.

She threw Scout’s reins to Rosie and sprinted off in pursuit of the black pony. Alice wasn’t quite sure why she was so determined to be the one to catch him, but she was determined nonetheless. And she wasn’t the only one. Alice looked to her left and noticed the Major, red-faced and puffing, racing her. Alice accelerated and noticed the
Major try to do the same. She frowned and sprinted ahead. She was sure the Major would be less than happy with Shadow when he caught up with the black pony, and she wanted to make sure she got there first. She glanced over her shoulder and saw the Major come to a puffing halt, bending double with his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.

Alice raced over to the far corner of the field where Shadow had pulled himself up. She prepared herself for the pony being a weasel, remembering him crunching her finger between his lightning-quick teeth last time she’d tried to grab him. But instead he let her catch up his reins without even attempting the smallest of nips or flattening of ears. In fact, he nuzzled her. Maybe it was the heat, but this pony wasn’t acting like Shadow at all, Alice thought as she started to lead him back to the others. His first few steps were reluctant, and then she remembered the saddle hanging under his belly. Alice undid the
girth and caught it before it fell to the ground.

She wiped her hand across her face, boiling hot after running in the heat, then put the saddle back on. She took the reins again and jogged Shadow over to Charlie, Rosie and Mia, who had run to meet her halfway across the showground.

Alice was about to tell them about Shadow’s transformed nature when she noticed Mia looking disgusted.

“What on earth have you been doing?” Mia asked. “What’s all that black gunk smeared over your face, and your shirt come to that?!”

“What gunk? What are you going on about?! All I’ve done is get Shadow!” Alice retorted, wiping her face and inspecting a darkly smudged hand.

It suddenly dawned on her. Alice turned slowly to the pony she was still holding and gave him another pat. Alice looked at her hand. It was as black as her boots, and her heart started to race.

“Yuk!” Rosie squealed. “What is it?”

“I don’t believe it!” Mia added, taking off her
brown gloves and sliding a finger down the pony’s neck before inspecting it. “It’s
dye
!”

“What, you mean…?” Rosie stuttered.

Alice and Mia nodded wildly, as Charlie whooped. But after their last mistake, they had to be truly sure that it was dye and not some mad mix-up with shampoo and boot polish that Daisy had made while grooming. Mia flipped open her notebook with shaking fingers and studied the photo from the missing ad.

“Right. We know that Shadow’s all black, he hasn’t got a hair of white anywhere on him. Moonlight, on the other hand, has a black head but there’s a white star on his forehead.”

With that Mia stepped forward and amazed the other three when she pulled out the end of her precious pink tie and began to wipe between the pony’s eyes. The pony dropped his head and blinked softly, leaning into her and enjoying the fuss as the other three danced on the spot impatiently.

After a few minutes, Mia stopped rubbing and held the pony’s forelock out of the way. They all gasped. There, in the middle of his forehead – it was unmistakable! It might have been murky, but it was
definitely
a white star.

“Moonlight!” Rosie gasped.

“We’ve found him!” Charlie laughed, hugging Alice.

“They must have been seriously desperate to win,” Alice said, laughing in disbelief.

“I
thought
Shadow’s coat looked patchy when we bumped into Daisy on that ride the other day,” Mia said. “It wasn’t because her grooming skills were shoddy after all – she must have been riding Moonlight, with this gunky dye over all his white bits!”

“And Daisy’s house is close enough to Hawthorn Farm, Moonlight’s yard, for her and the Major to walk him back there in the middle of the night,” Charlie added.

They heard a cough and turned to see the
Major, puce and still out of breath, stalking towards them.

“Ah, now, I’ll take Shadow from you if you don’t mind,” he said, trying to sound friendly.

He made a lunge for the reins. Alice moved them quickly out of his reach. The Major forced a smile.