Stable Hearts

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Please,” Lisa added faintly.

  Mr. Stowe looked tickled. “Well, certainly, ladies, thank you. I’d love to ride out with you—that is, Elizabeth, if you will join us.” He swept off his hat and smiled at Mrs. Reg.

  “But she has work to do!” Lisa blurted out. She thought Stevie was going a little overboard imagining Mrs. Reg’s zeal for the dance decorations, but she knew how busy Mrs. Reg always was, and she didn’t think it could be pleasant for her to have Mr. Stowe hanging around. It reminded her of the way Simon Atherton had trailed after them in his geek days.

  Mr. Stowe and Mrs. Reg looked at each other. Both seemed a little uncomfortable.

  “I certainly hope I haven’t been disturbing you,” Mr. Stowe said.

  “Oh, no, not at all,” Mrs. Reg said quickly.

  “It is a lovely day for a trail ride,” Mr. Stowe said. “If you’d care to …”

  Mrs. Reg actually blushed a little. Carole was embarrassed for her. How dreadful of Mr. Stowe to make her feel so uneasy! “Ordinarily I would love to,” Mrs. Reg said. “Any other day … but today, unfortunately, I do have to get this feed order finished. The feed store rep is coming at four o’clock—”

  “And I’ve been distracting you.” Mr. Stowe looked stricken.

  “No, I’ve enjoyed it,” Mrs. Reg protested, with what seemed to Lisa excessive but admirable politeness. “And it is a lovely day. Why don’t you go out with the girls and enjoy yourself?”

  Stevie had hoped that Mr. Stowe would just take the hint and leave Mrs. Reg alone. Unfortunately, both Mrs. Reg and Mr. Stowe seemed to take the trail ride offer seriously. Really! As if they would want to ride with Mr. Stowe! Still, Stevie knew the invitation was mostly her own fault. And at least if Mr. Stowe was with them, he wouldn’t be annoying Mrs. Reg. It would be a noble sacrifice.

  “Well, thank you, girls. It’s a nice offer to make to an old man. I’m sure I’ll have fun.” Mr. Stowe smiled. “I haven’t been out on the trails here yet, but Elizabeth assures me that they’re lovely.”

  “They are,” Carole said. “Uh—Mrs. Reg, what horse should he ride?”

  Mrs. Reg thought for a moment. “You rode Nero on Wednesday, didn’t you, Howard? I think Delilah would be a good mount for you on the trail. She’s a lovely palomino.”

  Carole nodded. The names of both horses confirmed Carole’s suspicions about Mr. Stowe’s limited riding ability. Nero was a very old, gentle lesson horse who was about to be retired, but he was sometimes a little nervous out in the woods. Delilah was both gentle and ladylike, no matter where she was. She would take good care of a beginning rider.

  “We’ll be careful with him, Mrs. Reg,” Carole said, giving up her plans for galloping Starlight through the stubbled fields. “We won’t jump or anything like that.”

  “Good,” Mrs. Reg said briskly.

  Mr. Stowe looked confused. “Just what would you be jumping?” he asked.

  Carole was astounded. “The jumps,” she said. “The jumps out on the trails.” Surely Mr. Stowe couldn’t be that ignorant!

  “Oh, you mean the horses will be jumping,” Mr. Stowe said. “I thought maybe you girls had some sort of preride ritual. I was hoping you wouldn’t make me a part of it. My vertical leap, I’m sorry to say, has diminished considerably with age.”

  Mrs. Reg laughed again and none of the girls knew what to think. Stevie couldn’t tell if Mr. Stowe was joking or serious. If he was joking, it was a pretty stupid joke, but if he was serious, they were in for an awful ride. Anyone who knew anything about English riding knew that the horses were taught to jump obstacles.

  Lisa took a deep breath. “We’d better go,” she said. “Our horses are waiting on the cross-ties.” Lisa knew Prancer would get impatient if she had to wait much longer.

  “Have fun, all of you,” Mrs. Reg said. “Have fun, Howard.”

  Stevie thought that she had never once in her life met a person named Howard. She tried to imagine Mr. Stowe as a baby named Howard, but couldn’t. “We’ll show you where Delilah is,” she offered.

  “We’ll help you groom her and tack up,” Carole continued. She doubted Mr. Stowe would know how to do any of this.

  “Oh, I can manage that,” Mr. Stowe said cheerfully. “Point me to my horse and point me to my gear, and I’ll do the rest. You girls tend to your own horses. Christy, is it?”

  “Carole,” Carole corrected him.

  “Carole, sorry,” Mr. Stowe said. “And I’m riding Jemima.”

  “Delilah,” Carole said. She felt a faint twinge of irritation. She sometimes struggled with people’s names, but really, Jemima! She loved Delilah second only to Starlight, her own horse. She decided that she would have to keep a close eye on Mr. Stowe. Despite what he said, he might not know what he was doing. Carole didn’t want Delilah to suffer from Mr. Stowe’s ignorance. What if he twisted the girth, or didn’t clean out Delilah’s hooves? “I’ll just go along with you,” Carole offered.

  Lisa and Stevie knew what Carole intended. They would all have to keep close watch on this man. Lisa took Carole’s saddle from her and Stevie took her bridle, and they tacked up Starlight as well as their own horses. When they met at the mounting block outside the stable, however, Carole looked more cheerful.

  “See,” Mr. Stowe said, “I told you I knew how to do it. You didn’t need to watch me after all.”

  “Yes, but I didn’t know that,” Carole replied.

  Mr. Stowe grinned. “I know, and I don’t blame you. Disreputable-looking character like me, you want to make sure I treat your horses right.”

  “You don’t look disreputable!” Lisa protested. Mr. Stowe had exchanged his cowboy hat for the protective helmet Max insisted all riders wear. He still looked more Western than English with his cowboy boots, jeans, and bolo tie, but he didn’t look disreputable—and besides, Stevie often rode in cowboy boots.

  Mr. Stowe checked Delilah’s girth, lowered his stirrups, and swung into the saddle with practiced grace. Carole breathed a sigh of relief, just as she had when she saw him curry Delilah in counter-clockwise circles and expertly untangle the straps of her bridle. He wasn’t a total beginner, at least. She mounted Starlight. Stevie and Lisa mounted Belle and Prancer.

  “Oh, I look disreputable enough next to you pretty girls,” Mr. Stowe said. “Still, it’s nice of you to have pity on an old man. I consider it a treat to be riding out with you.”

  Lisa thought it was no wonder Mrs. Reg had been laughing so much, if this was how Mr. Stowe usually talked.

  “We weren’t taking pity on you,” Stevie told him. Carole coughed to keep from laughing. No, they weren’t taking pity on Mr. Stowe. They were taking pity on Mrs. Reg.

  Still, it was hard to dislike the old man. He actually seemed rather charming, in a pesky sort of way.

  They started out on the easiest, flattest section of trail, and it was clear to all the girls that while Mr. Stowe was not an advanced rider, he was not a beginner, either. He rode more as if he were sitting in a chair than on a horse, and he let his shoulders slump and his heels come up, but he was relaxed and handled the reins competently and gently. After they’d walked a little while, he gave Delilah a pat. “Nice girl. She’s got good gaits, doesn’t she?” he said. “Like settin’ in a rocking chair. Not as much of a looker as the three you all are riding, though. Carole, is yours a Thoroughbred?”

  Carole warmed to Mr. Stowe. “No, Starlight’s part Thoroughbred, but he’s not a registered horse,” she said. “He does look like a Thoroughbred, though. Prancer, the horse Lisa is riding, she’s a Thoroughbred.”

  “I guessed that,” Mr. Stowe said. “The tucked-up way she carries herself, and those long, elegant legs. I’ve always liked Thoroughbreds. They look kind of like ballerinas to me.

  “Stevie, I can’t place your mare,” he continued. “She’s got a nice shape and a pretty way of going, but I just don’t know what breed she looks like. Nice little head, good ears.”

  Stevie smiled. “Belle’s a c
ombination—part Saddlebred and part Arabian.”

  Mr. Stowe smiled. “Oh, I should have known. That’s a good blend.”

  All three girls were beginning to find Mr. Stowe a remarkably pleasant man. “Which breed do you like best?” Lisa asked him.

  He chuckled. “As I said, I like to look at Thoroughbreds. Every now and again I go to a racetrack and look at them all day long. But for me, riding, I want a nice horse with a nice comfortable trot and a good attitude. I don’t care about breeds when I’m riding.”

  “That’s great,” Carole said enthusiastically. “That’s the way I think everyone should feel. I’ve seen too many people get hung up on who a horse is or who his parents were. What’s important is what a horse does.”

  They had ridden into the thick of the woods and now crossed a wide stream. Prancer picked her way delicately through the water, and Belle snorted at a dead leaf waving at the end of a branch. Starlight gave a playful jog. Delilah pricked her ears.

  “When did you start riding?” Stevie asked Mr. Stowe.

  “I never took it up seriously, the way I can see you kids do,” he replied. “What happened was, I had an uncle who had horses. They were decent animals, kind, not fancy, and I used to go out and ride them all the time when I was a kid. I never had lessons, I just ran the horses around the fields. But I did enjoy it.

  “After I grew up I didn’t ride for years and years. Then I met Elizabeth—your Mrs. Reg—a few weeks ago, and my interest was rekindled.”

  “That’s nice,” Carole said. “Where did you meet Mrs. Reg? Was she advertising for new riding students? I know Pine Hollow had a few openings.”

  “No, she didn’t say anything about the barn at first. I ran into her in that bookstore in Willow Creek, and we just sort of fell into a conversation. I go there pretty often. Turns out Mrs. Reg—Elizabeth—does, too. Pretty soon she was telling me about the horses, and so here I am.”

  Carole felt pleased for Mr. Stowe. She could never imagine herself not riding. How wonderful it must feel to him to be back on a horse after so long! And now, here at Pine Hollow, he could have all the opportunities for instruction that he’d been denied as a child. He could learn everything!

  “You might try pushing your heels down a little,” she suggested to him. “It would give you a better base of support.”

  “Yes, I see the way you three do it,” he replied. “It looks mighty uncomfortable.”

  “It’s much more comfortable when you get used to it,” Lisa assured him. Like Carole, she was beginning to feel an interest in Mr. Stowe’s education. “You know, I haven’t been riding for very long. The instruction here at Pine Hollow is really good.”

  “Well, fine,” Mr. Stowe said amiably. He stuck his heels down, and even if they did come up again a few strides later, Carole gave him points for trying.

  “There’s one of the jumps,” Stevie said, pointing to a pile of logs leading into an open field. “You asked before what we jumped. That’s a jump.”

  Mr. Stowe asked Delilah to halt and looked at it closely. “So that’s a jump, eh? And the horses jump it, not the riders?”

  Once again Stevie wasn’t sure whether Mr. Stowe was kidding. “We both jump it,” she said uncertainly, “together.”

  “Or not together, depending,” Lisa said with a snort, remembering the times she’d come off Prancer in midair.

  “I’ll tell you what,” Mr. Stowe said. “I’d sure love to watch you ladies take that jump. I’d know more what you were talking about then. Maybe you could all jump it a couple of times, just for me? As a favor?”

  “Sure!” Stevie couldn’t see why Mr. Stowe would want to stand still while they jumped—and from his grin she almost believed that he really was teasing them—but she had been dying to jump Belle. She led the way, and Carole and Lisa followed.

  When they had jumped the fence several times in both directions, Mr. Stowe thanked them gravely. They rode back to Pine Hollow. On the way home they passed several more jumps, and at Mr. Stowe’s request The Saddle Club jumped them all.

  When they got back Mrs. Reg was waiting for them. “The girls’ horses look considerably more winded than yours,” she observed to Mr. Stowe. “I hope they didn’t abandon you.”

  Mr. Stowe dismounted and explained about the jumping demonstrations. Mrs. Reg smiled. “I’ll help you put Delilah away,” she offered. She took the reins from his hands.

  “You don’t need to, Mrs. Reg!” Carole assured her. “He really does a fine job.”

  Mrs. Reg smiled—not at Carole, but at Mr. Stowe. “I’ll help him anyway,” she said.

  Once the three Saddle Club members were alone, Carole shook her head. “Mrs. Reg just doesn’t trust him,” she said.

  “You can’t blame her, can you?” Lisa asked. “After all, we didn’t trust him, either, until you watched him tack up. You know, he really is a nice old man, even if he is a little strange.”

  “We’ll have to teach him things,” Carole said. “I just think it’s so great that he’s able to ride again. It must be like a dream come true.”

  “I don’t mind teaching him around the stable,” Stevie said. “And I agree, Lisa, that he is a really nice old man. But let’s not take him on trail rides again, okay?”

  “Why not? It wasn’t that bad. We still got to jump.”

  Stevie grinned. “I couldn’t talk about Phil!”

  Lisa looked at Carole and laughed. “Remember that,” she said. “If Stevie’s Valentine’s Day attitude gets too oppressive to those of us without boyfriends, we’ll just make sure to take Mr. Stowe with us.”

  Carole agreed. “He’ll be our Valentine’s Day antidote,” she said. “Our anti-valentine.”

  THE NEXT MORNING Horse Wise met at Pine Hollow and then traveled to Cross County for the mounted games practice. The Pony Clubs held several different competitions each year, including games, which were relay races on horseback. This meeting with Cross County was only a practice, but of course everyone from Horse Wise wanted to do well. “Well,” Stevie explained, “as in ‘better than Cross County.’ ”

  Lisa and Carole rolled their eyes. Colonel Hanson, Carole’s father, was driving them, along with Meg Durham and Betsy Cavanaugh, to Cross County. Meg and Betsy were sitting in the very back of the Hansons’ station wagon, whispering. Finally Betsy said, “Okay, great,” and Meg turned around.

  “Is it okay if I’m on your team today?” Meg asked The Saddle Club. Teams were made of four riders.

  “If Max lets us pick teams, sure,” Lisa answered. “But don’t you want to be on Veronica’s team?” Meg and Betsy were both Veronica’s friends more than they were The Saddle Club’s friends.

  Meg made a face. “See, Veronica asked Simon Atherton to be on her team.”

  “And she kicked you off?” Stevie said. “That’s despicable!”

  “No,” Meg said, “but we know both Betsy and I can’t be on her team—I mean, Adam’s on it, too, and Betsy—well …” Meg paused; Betsy blushed.

  “Betsy likes Adam,” Carole supplied. She’d guessed that already.

  “I’m hoping he’ll ask me to the Valentine’s Day dance,” Betsy confided.

  “Besides,” Meg said confidently, “I think any team with you three on it is more likely to win than any team full of lovebirds.”

  “Thanks,” Carole said. “But Stevie here, she’s a lovebird herself.”

  Stevie smiled and fingered the red heart-shaped invitation she was bringing for Phil. “It’s different with us,” she said. “I mean, we’re an established couple. I know Phil will want to go to the dance with me.”

  AS SOON AS they arrived on the Cross County grounds, Stevie jumped out of the car. Lisa and Carole followed more slowly, heading for the horse van Max had brought from Pine Hollow. They could see Phil detach himself from a group of Cross County riders and hurry toward Stevie with a big smile on his face.

  “Uh-oh,” Lisa said. “Is that an invitation in Phil’s hand?”

  Carole looke
d and nodded. “Trouble,” she said.

  A moment later they could hear Stevie’s shriek carried back to them on the wind: “What do you mean you don’t want to go to my dance?”

  Stevie stomped back to the rest of The Saddle Club. “I’ve never been so disgusted in my entire life,” she said. She threw a piece of red paper on the ground.

  Lisa automatically bent down and retrieved it. “Is this your invitation?” she asked.

  “No,” said Stevie. “I mean, yes. I mean, it’s Phil’s invitation to me. His school is having a Valentine’s Day dance, and he actually wants me to go to that instead of him coming to Pine Hollow.”

  “Go to both,” Carole suggested.

  “I can’t!” wailed Stevie. “They’re on the same night, at the same time. I told Phil I thought we’d have a much better time at Pine Hollow, especially since Max is inviting Cross County, but Phil is on the committee for his school dance. He says he’s been working really hard to make his dance nice, so he wants to go to that one.”

  “That sounds reasonable,” Lisa said. “We’ll miss you, but I bet you’ll still have fun.”

  “But I don’t want to go to his dance! At some school where I don’t know anyone! Plus, I won’t be around you guys. Plus, I want Phil to come to our dance. I was really planning on a special night for us. His school dance just wouldn’t be the same.”

  “Girls,” Max called, “I could use your help here.” He was beginning to unload the Pine Hollow horses from the trailer.

  Actually, Carole corrected herself, Max was beginning to unload the Pine Hollow ponies from the trailer: Quarter, Nickel, Dime, and Penny. The games were relays, so they only needed one mount per team, and the ponies were much easier for the little kids to ride than the horses, especially since relay games involved so much mounting and dismounting.

  They divided into ten teams, four from Pine Hollow and six from Cross County. “We’ve got to beat Phil’s team,” Stevie said urgently as they saddled Dime, their team’s mount.

  “I don’t think that will make him more likely to come to our dance,” Lisa pointed out. She tightened Dime’s girth another notch. Dime turned his head as if to nip her. Lisa pulled firmly on his far rein to straighten his head. It wasn’t like Dime to be naughty.