English Rider

by Bonnie Bryant

  Lisa was starting to confuse herself. She pushed her muddled thoughts aside and decided to concentrate on the best way to tell her mother. After all, it was done now, no matter what she thought of it. All she could do was deal with it.

  Mrs. Atwood took the news better than Lisa would have expected. In fact, she hardly seemed fazed at all by the idea of adding another event to the day’s schedule—especially when she heard that Mrs. Pennington was involved.

  “Don’t worry about a thing, dear,” Mrs. Atwood trilled. “I’m sure we can manage to pull it all together somehow.” “Okay, Mom. Bye.” Lisa shrugged as she hung up. Sometimes people were hard to figure out, even when you thought you knew them.

  Lisa wanted to visit Prancer and Derby, but first she set out in search of her friends. She thought she might suggest a sleepover at her house that evening. Despite her mother’s calm response, Lisa was still sure that this turn of events would mean there was suddenly a lot more work to be done.

  She found Carole, Stevie, and Phil still perched on the fence around the outdoor ring. Most of the other students had dispersed, and the Penningtons and their team were nowhere in sight. Only the phaeton remained, parked just outside the gate.

  “What are you guys still doing out here?” Lisa asked as she approached. “And where’s Tessa?”

  “Take a guess.” Stevie’s voice was grumpy.

  Phil rolled his eyes. “She just went off with Veronica,” he told Lisa. “And these two won’t explain why. They’re being very mysterious.”

  “She went with Veronica?” Lisa’s heart sank. “What do you mean?”

  Carole shrugged. She looked almost as disgruntled as Stevie did. “Remember how Mrs. Pennington said she’d help out with the scurry race?” she said. “Well, Veronica rushed right over after class and volunteered herself and Tessa to help out. They’re inside making plans with the Penningtons right now.”

  “I don’t get it.” Phil looked completely confused. “Why would Veronica want Tessa to come with her? Isn’t Tessa your friend? Last I heard, that would definitely make her not Veronica’s friend.”

  Stevie sighed impatiently. “We’ll explain it all later,” she said. “Right now, we have to—”

  Stevie bit back her words as Tessa and Veronica emerged from the stable and came hurrying toward the group. Both of them were smiling, looking flushed and excited.

  “Super! You’re still here,” Tessa said. “You don’t mind if I go over to the Penningtons’ house with Veronica a little later, do you?”

  Lisa shrugged and did her best not to frown. “Why would we mind?”

  “Brilliant,” Tessa declared happily. She glanced over her shoulder. “Come on, Veronica. We’d better get back inside.”

  “Right,” Veronica agreed. She smirked at Stevie, Carole, and Lisa. “Mrs. Pennington asked the two of us specifically to take care of her gorgeous harnesses,” she bragged.

  Stevie raised one eyebrow skeptically. “You mean clean them?” she said. “Are you sure you know how?”

  Veronica gave Stevie an irritated look. Then she turned to Phil. “Phil, could you come and help us?” she wheedled, smiling at him brightly. “We need some help carrying all that heavy harness to the tack room, and you’re the strongest one around here.”

  Phil looked a little suspicious. Lisa didn’t blame him one bit. Usually Veronica acted just as obnoxious toward him as she did toward any other member of The Saddle Club. But he shrugged agreeably. “Sure,” he said, sliding down from the fence.

  “Great,” Veronica said smugly. “While you’re at it, maybe you can tell us a little more about that Cross County driving team you mentioned. That way we can fill in the Penningtons when we go over there later.”

  Phil shrugged again. “Okay.” He cast an apologetic glance at the other girls. “I’ll be back soon. Then we can head over to TD’s.”

  Tessa gasped. “Oh no!” she cried. “I forgot all about that when I told Mrs. Pennington I could make it this afternoon.” She bit her lip, looking anxious as she glanced from Veronica to the other girls and back.

  Lisa waited for Tessa to make her excuses to Veronica. After all, the trip to TD’s wasn’t just an ice cream break. It was supposed to be a Saddle Club meeting. That was important.

  But Tessa wasn’t looking at Veronica now. She was looking at Lisa and the other girls. “Um,” she began hesitantly.

  Stevie didn’t let her finish. “Don’t worry about it,” she said shortly. “We can all go to TD’s another time.”

  “Right,” Carole added. “It’s no problem.”

  “Really?” Tessa looked relieved. “Thanks, guys.” She turned to face Veronica and Phil, looking excited again. “Right then—let’s go get that harness!”

  The three of them hurried off. Lisa watched them go, feeling slightly queasy. “So, what do you think now?” she asked. “What’s going on with Tessa and Veronica?”

  Carole shook her head, looking grim. “I was really trying to look on the bright side,” she said. “You know—that Tessa was just being nice.”

  “Missing a Saddle Club meeting to hang out and swap shopping stories with Veronica goes way beyond just being nice,” Stevie snapped.

  Lisa nodded sadly. “It’s totally weird. Kind of like one of those nightmares you have sometimes that don’t make any sense, but you still know they’re scary.”

  Her friends nodded. “What do we do now?” Carole asked.

  “What can we do?” Stevie shrugged. “Let’s go check on our horses. Then we’ll rescue Phil and head over to TD’s. If anything calls for a Saddle Club meeting, it’s this.”

  “READY?” STEVIE ASKED a short while later, poking her head into Starlight’s stall.

  “Just about.” Carole didn’t look up. She was busy trying to pry a small stone out of her horse’s rear left foot with a hoof pick. Lisa was in the stall, too, standing near Starlight’s head and talking to him soothingly.

  “Having trouble?” Stevie asked, immediately taking in the problem. She could see that Starlight had managed to get the stone stuck deep in the point of his frog. “Want some help?”

  “Thanks.” Carole looked relieved as she handed over the hoof pick. “I just can’t get under it.”

  Stevie nodded and got to work. She was known around Pine Hollow to be especially handy with a hoof pick. Within seconds, she had worked the tip of the pick beneath the stone and popped it out. “There,” she said, lowering Starlight’s hoof to the floor. “Good as new.”

  Starlight snorted and turned to roll his eyes at Stevie over his shoulder. He shifted his weight onto the foot she had just let go and tossed his head.

  Stevie grinned and patted him on the hindquarters. “You’re welcome, boy,” she said. “Always happy to help.”

  Carole was looking around the stall, checking to make sure everything was done. “Fresh water—check. Hay—check. Feet cleaned—check,” she murmured.

  Meanwhile, Lisa had moved closer to the front of the stall and cocked her head to one side. “Uh-oh,” she whispered. “Snob alert.” She had just heard the loud, familiar sound of Veronica’s voice coming from her horse’s stall, which was a short distance down the stable row.

  Stevie groaned. “Just what I need,” she said. “Are Tessa and Phil there, too? Maybe we can lure them to safety.”

  “I don’t hear them,” Lisa reported. She crept to the front of the stall, still listening. She frowned. “Actually, they must not be there. I think Veronica’s talking about them.”

  “Who’s she talking to?” Carole asked.

  Stevie hurried forward to join Lisa at the front of Star light’s stall. “Never mind that,” she muttered. “What’s she saying?”

  The three girls listened in silence for a moment. Veronica’s voice sounded a bit hoarse, as though she were trying to whisper but was too excited to remember to keep quiet. Her words floated toward them clearly over the other sounds of the stable.

  “… so I think she likes him,” she said. “As
in likes him likes him.”

  “Really?” someone else asked with a giggle.

  “Betsy Cavanaugh,” Lisa whispered, identifying the second voice.

  Stevie didn’t reply. She leaned forward, still trying to hear.

  “Definitely,” Veronica went on. “I mean, I totally felt like a third wheel in the tack room just now. I finally decided to take her not-so-subtle hints and leave the two of them alone.” She snorted. “I was glad to do it, though, believe me. If you ask me, this is the best thing that could happen to either of them.”

  “How come?” Betsy asked breathlessly. “Do you think he likes her back?”

  “Oh, I’m sure of it,” Veronica replied, sounding pleased. “I’d swear I saw him wink at Tessa a couple of times.” She laughed. “I think it’s adorable. Maybe Phil is finally waking up and getting some taste!”

  STEVIE FELT AS though her head were going to explode. “How dare she!” she cried, rushing toward the aisle. “I’m going to—mmmpf.” The last part came out as a muffled but indignant squawk as Lisa grabbed her by the arm and Carole clapped a hand over her mouth to silence her.

  “Hush!” Carole hissed. “You don’t want Veronica to know you heard her, do you?”

  Stevie shoved her hand away. “Hey!” she said, spitting a small piece of hay into the corner of the stall. “You could at least wash your hands before you do that.” She glanced at the aisle with a frown, though Lisa was still holding her back. “Anyway, who says I don’t want her to hear me? I think she has a right to know why I’m going to throttle her.”

  “Get real, Stevie,” Lisa said. “Since when do you believe Veronica’s silly gossip? She made the whole thing up. I mean, come on. This is Phil we’re talking about.” She hesitated for a split second before adding, “And Tessa. Neither one of them would ever do anything like that.”

  Stevie thought about that. “Well, Tessa has been acting awfully weird lately,” she muttered. She sighed. “But I guess you’re right. I trust Phil.” She clenched her fists. “Still, why would Veronica make up something like that?”

  Carole shrugged. “Why does Veronica do anything?” she asked philosophically. “She’s probably just trying to start gossip and make trouble. As usual.”

  “Or maybe she’s just trying to get out of cleaning all that sweaty tack,” Lisa suggested. “This way she can make Tessa and Phil do all the work and still take credit for it with Mrs. Pennington—and Miles, of course.” In the past few days it had been obvious that Veronica’s crush on Miles hadn’t faded one bit.

  “Hmmm.” Stevie was silent for a moment. She knew her friends were right. So why did she still have the urge to rush straight to the tack room and find out for herself what was going on? “All right,” she said casually. “Well, since Veronica abandoned them with all that tack to clean, maybe we should go help them out.”

  Lisa rolled her eyes. “All right,” she said. “I guess we could do that.”

  The girls left Starlight’s stall and headed down the aisle. Stevie gritted her teeth as she realized that Veronica was still whispering about Tessa and Phil.

  “… so I bet they’re smooching in there right now,” Veronica was saying gleefully. “I could see it in their eyes …”

  Stevie forced herself to stop listening. “Come on,” she said, hurrying around the corner at the end of the stable aisle.

  She almost barreled into Max, who had just come out of the locker room. “Whoa,” he said. “What do I always tell you about running in the stable?”

  “I wasn’t running,” Stevie protested immediately. “Just walking fast.”

  Lisa elbowed her in the ribs. “Um, what Stevie meant to say is ‘Sorry, Max. It won’t happen again,’ ” she said.

  Max frowned. “All right, then,” he said. “Since you girls seem to have so much energy, why don’t you go help with Hodge and Podge? Red and Miles cooled them out, but they still need grooming. And their stalls could probably use cleaning.”

  Stevie glanced at the tack room door, which was shut. She opened her mouth to protest. Then she noticed the look in Max’s eye and remembered that The Saddle Club was still on probation. “Sure, Max,” she said meekly. “We’d be glad to help out.”

  IT SEEMED TO take hours to make the Cleveland Bays comfortable, though with all three girls and Miles working together, it actually took less than half an hour. Finally The Saddle Club was free to return to the previous order of business.

  “Do you think they’re still in there?” Carole asked as she and her friends approached the tack room door, which was still closed. “What could be taking them so long?” Realizing what she had said and what it could mean, she glanced at Stevie and gulped. “Oops,” she said quickly. “I mean, they had a lot of tack to clean.”

  Lisa shot her a dirty look. Then she smiled tentatively at Stevie. “Okay,” she said, her voice a little too cheerful. “Well, let’s see if Phil is ready to head over to TD’s.”

  Before the three girls could step closer, the door suddenly flew open. Tessa and Phil rushed into the aisle, looking at each other and giggling. As soon as they noticed the three girls standing there, they immediately stopped laughing.

  “Oh, um, hi,” Phil stammered, his face turning red.

  Stevie glared at him. “Hello,” she said evenly. “Is the tack all clean and shiny?”

  “Oh, yes.” Tessa’s cheeks were pink, too, but she was still smiling. “Everything’s under control. Completely under control.”

  Carole stared at her. Then she glanced at Phil. He was staring at his feet. He glanced over at Tessa, then turned away and started whistling. Carole wasn’t sure what to think. What was going on? She glanced at Stevie and Lisa. She could tell that both of them were just as perplexed as she was. Could it actually be possible …

  “Okay, I’m ready,” Veronica announced, hurrying up just in time to break up the awkward moment. “Should we go, Tessa? Mrs. Pennington will be waiting for us.” She smiled and patted her hair. “I just ran into Miles, and he’s going to give us a ride over to his house. He has his own sports car, you know.”

  “Ready when you are,” Tessa said quickly. “I want to look in on Topside before we go, but that won’t take a second.” She glanced at The Saddle Club. “Right, then,” she added brightly. “I’m off. See you later.” Within seconds, she and Veronica had disappeared around the corner in the direction of Topside’s stall.

  Phil had returned to examining the floor. “Uh, listen,” he said at last. “Would you guys mind if we did the TD’s thing another time? Um, I just remembered some stuff I’m supposed to do at home.”

  Stevie crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him. “Fine,” she replied, her voice icy. “Suddenly I’m not in the mood for ice cream anyway.”

  Phil looked a bit surprised at her tone. He seemed about to speak, then shrugged instead. “Okay,” he said. “See you.” He scurried down the aisle toward the exit.

  When he was gone, Lisa gave Stevie a worried look. “Are you all right?” she asked uncertainly. “I mean, we don’t really know—”

  “I’m fine,” Stevie snapped. “I mean, anger is a healthy emotion, right? So I’m probably the healthiest person in the state of Virginia right about now.”

  Carole gulped. “Um, okay,” she said. “Does this mean none of us are going to TD’s today?”

  “I told you,” Stevie said. “I’m not in the mood.”

  “To be honest, I’m not either,” Lisa confessed. “I really ought to get home and see if my mom’s gone completely mental yet because of the new event.”

  Carole nodded, feeling slightly relieved. As much as she would have liked to have a Saddle Club meeting and get to the bottom of this whole mess, she had the funniest feeling it wasn’t going to happen that day. She had rarely seen Stevie look so angry. And Lisa was already glancing distractedly at her watch.

  “Okay,” she said. “Let’s check on the horses one last time. Then we can all walk out together. We’ll meet back here in ten minu
tes, okay?”

  “Got it,” Lisa said. Stevie just nodded and let out something that sounded suspiciously like a growl.

  Carole was the first one to arrive back at the meeting spot. She leaned against the wall and stared at the tack room door, now standing half open. Could Veronica have been right? Could something be going on between Tessa and Phil? It just didn’t seem possible. No matter how Carole looked at it, she simply couldn’t believe that either one of them would ever do something like that.

  Then she remembered the expressions on their faces when they had emerged from the tack room. Both of them had seemed almost giddy. Not to mention secretive …

  “Ready to go?” Lisa asked, hurrying over. “Where’s Stevie?”

  Carole snapped out of her unsettling thoughts. “Not here yet.”

  “Yes I am,” Stevie replied, rounding the corner from the stable aisle at that moment. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Hold on,” Lisa said. “Prancer slobbered all over me when I was giving her some carrots. Just let me stop in the tack room and wash my hands.”

  Carole and Stevie nodded and followed Lisa into the tack room. Once they all got a look at the scene inside, they gasped.

  “What on earth happened in here?” Carole cried, staring in dismay.

  The place was a mess. Normally Max and his riders kept the tack room in a sort of chaotic orderliness. Saddles, bridles, and other tack and equipment were everywhere, but like all the riders at Pine Hollow, Carole knew that once you learned the system, you realized that each item, no matter how small, had its own place. You also learned that you had better make sure each item was returned to its proper spot after use. Max didn’t appreciate sloppiness, and he didn’t hesitate to let you know it.

  Carole could hardly imagine what Max would say if he saw his tack room right then. Half a dozen saddles had been pushed off their racks onto the floor. One was even stuffed into the large concrete sink in the corner of the room. Bridles had been flung in a pile against one wall and looked hopelessly tangled together. A bucket full of spare bits had been tipped over and its contents scattered across the floor. And a couple of turnout rugs that had been neatly folded on a shelf the last time Carole saw them were draped carelessly over a trunk, their ends dragging on the dusty floor.