The minute Lisa made the joke, she was sorry. John’s face changed from content to frustrated in a matter of seconds. “The way they treat that horse is ridiculous!” he said. “Not to mention flying him in to the ranch in the first place.”
“I know. We think so, too,” Lisa said, relieved that the two of them could agree on something to do with the movie. “And he’s barely even trained. Carole was riding him this afternoon and she couldn’t get him to do anything.”
“Why was Carole riding him?” John asked.
Lisa bit her lip. She’d come this far, though—she couldn’t stop now. “She’s helping get him ready for Skye to ride in the movie. We’re all helping Skye get ready. That’s why Stevie and I were giving him a lesson on Stewball this afternoon.”
“I had noticed that you’ve been spending all your time with him,” John said pointedly, pressing his lips into a tight line.
Lisa clenched her hands in annoyance. “Why shouldn’t we? We’re his technical advisers for the movie. Not to mention his friends,” she said. She tried to keep her voice calm, but she could hear it quavering.
“His best friends, from what I can tell,” John shot back.
“Skye has a lot of friends,” Lisa said hotly. “He’s a friendly person—which you would have noticed this afternoon if you hadn’t been so bent on insulting him.”
“That Hollywood pretty boy could use a couple of insults to take him down a peg or two!” John retorted.
“He’s not stuck-up!” Lisa said. “You just think he is because the other Hollywood people are.”
“Well, I can tell you one way he’s like the others: He’s an idiot! He asked me if I knew how to ride! What does he think I am, some kind of servant who’s not allowed to go near the horses?”
Lisa stared at John, astonished by his outburst. She knew that if he could have heard himself, he would have understood how ridiculous he sounded. But he was so upset that he was saying whatever came into his mind. “Skye was just being polite this afternoon,” she said finally.
John didn’t respond. Instead he began to rerake the aisle. Lisa watched him attack the dirt for a minute or two. Reasoning with him was clearly not going to work tonight. But if it didn’t work tonight, she wondered, when would it?
BACK IN THE BUNKHOUSE, Lisa hardly had to say anything to Carole and Stevie. One look at her deflated expression and they guessed how the conversation had gone. “The plan backfired?” Stevie asked, gesturing for Lisa to climb up and join them in Carole’s bunk.
Lisa nodded. “Instead of telling John that Skye is only a friend, I ended up defending Skye again.” She swung up into the bunk.
“It’s too bad that John doesn’t know Skye. If he could get to know him, he’d realize that Skye is a good guy,” Carole mused.
“But they’re both too busy. Skye’s trying to get ready for the final shoot, John has tons of extra work—how are we supposed to find the time for them to hang out?” Lisa asked. After the movie crew left, things could go back to normal. But by then, The Saddle Club would be back in Willow Creek, and Lisa’s friendship with John might be beyond repairing.
“I know!” Stevie exclaimed.
“Let me guess. You have just one word to say,” said Carole.
“Nope, sorry: two,” Stevie said. “Technical advisers.”
“Huh?” said Carole and Lisa in unison.
“Why don’t we ask John to join the team?” said Stevie.
“But he hates Hollywood and he thinks Skye is an idiot. Why would he want to help out?” Lisa asked.
“Maybe he hates Hollywood because he’s not involved. He’s stuck doing all the hard work while everyone else has a glamorous job. And we know the reason he doesn’t like Skye is that he doesn’t know him. If he worked with us, it might solve both problems,” Stevie reasoned.
“If we could convince him somehow,” Lisa said.
“Oh, convincing him will be easy,” said Stevie. “We’ll just make it boss’s orders. I’ll bet if we speak to Frank Devine and explain the situation, he can order John to be part of the team.”
Carole raised her eyebrows doubtfully. “You mean Lisa is supposed to tell Frank Devine that John Brightstar thinks she has a crush on Skye Ransom, so we need him on the technical advisory team?”
“Not exactly,” said Stevie. “We’ll have to edit the story somehow—rearrange it, change a few details, recast the leading lady—”
“—cut to the chase, change the makeup—Stevie, I think you’ve been hanging out with Blake Pratt too long!” Carole kidded.
Stevie grinned. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” she said.
“So, when on a movie set, do as the Los Angelenos do?” Carole said suspiciously.
Lisa sighed. “All I can say is that I’m glad Stevie’s directing this scene.”
THE NEXT MORNING Stevie got up earlier than usual. Before breakfast, she went to the Devines’, where she found Frank Devine glancing at the morning paper. “Any good news this morning?” she inquired.
Frank held out the front section for her to see. “Yes, there is: the weather. The rain’s supposed to hold off for another day. I was hoping it would hold off until these people pack out of here, but that’s probably wishful thinking. If everyone and everything gets drenched, it’s going to be even more work for the staff.”
Stevie saw her opportunity and seized it. “Speaking of more work …”
“Yes, Stevie?” Frank asked.
“We all think there’s one person on your staff who’s working harder than anybody else,” Stevie said.
Frank didn’t look surprised by the comment. “I don’t have to ask who that is,” he said. “I can’t get John to leave the stables at night, and he’s out there at dawn. Then he spends the whole day doing Hollywood chores … well, we all do that, but somehow he’ll never quit. It’s as if he’s trying to prove something to someone.”
Frank’s words gave Stevie a sudden insight. Of course! Part of the reason John was working so hard was probably to impress Lisa. He wouldn’t have admitted it, but it was true. But instead of being impressed, Lisa felt bad that the movie was taking up so much of his time.
“So, what do you suggest I do to give the boy a break?” Frank asked.
“We’ve got the perfect solution. We really need him on the technical advisory team. There are more problems with the horses than we expected, and John would be a huge help,” said Stevie.
“He sure would. If he can’t solve a horse problem, I don’t know who can,” Frank responded.
“So, can we have him?” Stevie asked eagerly.
“You’ll get no objection from me,” Frank answered. “I’m more than happy to let him go for a couple of hours a day. It will be good for him to be with you girls and enjoy himself. He’s been working much too hard. Tell him I said it’s an order, all right? Now, what do you say we get some oatmeal while it’s hot?”
“You’ll get no objection from me,” Stevie said.
AFTER BREAKFAST AND Stevie’s thumbs-up report, Lisa approached John. She found him in the feed room dumping sacks of grain into the trash cans where it was stored. She was a little nervous about how he would react after what had happened the night before, but John was apologetic and seemed embarrassed about their argument. “You mean we help out whoever needs it?” he asked, when she had finished describing their job.
Lisa nodded. “Right. Anyone who needs horse-related help, that is.” She specifically didn’t bring up Skye. John could find out later who needed their help most.
“Okay, count me in,” John said.
“Great, then come on. We’re all going to watch the morning shoot,” Lisa said.
John hesitated a minute, looking around the room. Then he gathered up the empty grain sacks and stacked them neatly by the door. “All right. Why not? One of the other hands can take over from here.”
“Even Frank Devine thinks you’re working too hard,” Lisa told him shyly, as they left the barn. “He said to order you to come have fun wi
th us.” Lisa hadn’t been surprised to hear that John had been putting in more hours than any other employee. He had such a strong sense of responsibility that he would do whatever jobs needed doing instead of finding someone else to share the work. Lisa had been more like that herself before meeting Stevie and Carole. Through them, she had learned that it was pointless to tackle huge projects alone. Now she willingly enlisted their help in almost everything she did.
John and Lisa met Stevie and Carole on the viewing platform where they had sat before. This time none of them had trouble getting past the security guards. “I think they’ve noticed that we have friends in high places,” Stevie remarked, with a nod in Skye’s direction.
“Yeah, you can’t get much higher than the Skye, can you?” John teased.
Lisa did a double take. Had she heard correctly? John? Making a joke about Skye? Maybe some of what she’d said the night before had sunk in. Maybe John realized how badly he’d been behaving. Before she could wonder about it more, someone on the set screamed, “Quiet!” The filming had begun.
At first it was exciting. Blake Pratt, Director, was truly in his element: barking orders left and right; doing retakes; screaming “Makeup!” when Skye needed a touch-up; and generally keeping things rolling. But even in this new scene, without the horse and cattle, it was next to impossible to get a perfect take. Skye was having a lot of trouble following the director’s orders. And as interesting as the whole process was, after watching Skye get out of a pickup truck, slam the door, whistle for his dog, and push his cowboy hat back on his head seventeen times, even his biggest fans, The Saddle Club, were getting a little fidgety.
The dog was evidently bored, too. On the eighteenth take, instead of coming when Skye whistled, he began to yap and run in circles. Then he ran pell-mell for the director, growling and snapping. Blake Pratt was not a man to take the dog’s antics in stride. As John and The Saddle Club watched, he exploded into a rage. “Get that thing outta here!” he screamed. “Get it away from me! You shut your trap, you stupid cur! Scram! I said now!”
Stevie leaned in toward her friends. “This guy isn’t exactly the world’s biggest animal lover, is he?” she whispered.
By this point the dog had the director backed up against the viewing platform. The crew, stifling laughter, had made no move to rescue their boss.
“I guess everyone wishes they could be the dog,” Lisa said, “and finally give him a piece of their mind.”
Finally, when it was clear that nobody was going to do anything, John stood up. He walked to the edge of the platform and spoke to the dog in a low, firm voice. The dog cocked his ears and sat back on his haunches, listening. John told him to lie down, which he did, his tail wagging.
Now that he was safe, Blake Pratt started sputtering with anger. He turned on John, who had come down and was holding the dog. “You idiot! Why didn’t you come get him sooner? I could have been killed by that rabid hellhound! One bite from him and I’d be dead! You hear me? Dead! What were you thinking? Why, I oughta—!” Shaking his fists at John, the little man stomped off.
A member of the crew yelled, “Fifteen-minute break for coffee!” and The Saddle Club scrambled down to join John.
“What a jerk!” Stevie cried. “Here you were, trying to help!”
“Listen,” John said quickly, “I’d better get back to the stables. I’ve already been away for over an hour. Make sure you get this dog to the animal trainer, okay?” Before the girls could think of a way to urge him not to go, John had slipped into the crowd.
“Hey! Wait a minute!” Skye called, running up to join them.
Seeing him approach, Lisa understood why John had run off. Even if Skye wanted to thank him, it would have made John feel awkward after he had been so rude the day before.
“Where did John go?” Skye asked. “I wanted to tell him how much we appreciated his stepping in like that.”
Carole began, “We don’t know, but we—”
“He had some important errands to run for the Devines,” Lisa said firmly.
“Oh. Well, if you see him, tell him thanks for me, okay? As you could see, everybody on the crew was paralyzed. I think we all secretly hoped Rex would take a chunk out of Blake’s leg,” Skye admitted.
Silently Lisa was thankful that Skye still seemed willing to be friendly with John. Being in the movie business, Skye was probably used to dealing with rudeness. Evidently it didn’t ruffle his feathers.
“So, Skye, exactly how many more times are you going to have to shoot this scene?” Stevie asked.
Skye chuckled. “Sorry about that. It’s not usually quite this boring,” he said. “You see, this is a close-up shot, so we have to get everything perfect. If I twitch or squint too much or get hair in my face or anything, it shows. Other scenes—like, say, the scenes on horseback—are more distant: You’ll see a horse and a rider, but the camera won’t pick up every last blink.” With a sigh, he added, “That’s why they can use a double for my riding scenes.”
“So the director’s still talking about calling in a stuntman?” Lisa inquired.
Skye nodded gloomily. “Yes. He told me he wanted to make a few phone calls and fly somebody in today or tomorrow. He says we have to get one of the riding scenes done tomorrow afternoon, at three P.M. sharp. I told him that I think Sir Prize will be ready, and I also told him not to call anyone—not yet, anyway. But you can’t trust Blake. He’ll do anything when my back is turned,” said Skye.
Although she had winced at Skye’s mention of Sir Prize, Stevie said confidently, “Don’t worry, Skye. The next time Blake sees you, you will be ready.”
There was a longish pause before Carole and Lisa jumped in to second Stevie’s prediction. “Sure, Skye,” said Carole. “Stevie’s right.”
“We wouldn’t let you down,” Lisa added.
Nearby, a voice barked over a bullhorn. “Skye Ransom. You’re wanted in makeup. Ransom to makeup.”
Skye seemed glad for the interruption. It obviously made him nervous to talk about the problem. “As they say in Hollywood, there’s my cue,” he said. “I’ll see you this afternoon for the lesson.”
When he had gone, The Saddle Club turned and fled the premises.
“Why the heck did I have to go and say that?” Stevie wailed.
“Why the heck did I have to agree with you?” Lisa groaned.
“Who cares? What I want to know is how the heck we’re going to solve this one!” Carole said.
There was no question about it: The Saddle Club was panicked. Stevie called an emergency meeting in the tack room of the barn. On the way there, they met Kate coming from the trailers. They waved her over.
“Wait till you hear the latest!” Kate said, falling into step with them. “The spouses of the actors and film crew have decided that they’re bored. So they asked my mother if we could arrange group trail rides for them, the way we do for our usual guests! Isn’t that too much? Mom and I have been working around the clock to keep them happy, we’ve hired extra help to provide maid service in the trailers, and now they want trail rides, too! I know they’re paying a lot to use the place, but honestly, sometimes I’m not sure it’s worth it.”
Murmuring their sympathy, the girls insisted that Kate at least take time out to come to The Saddle Club meeting. She was eager to comply.
A few minutes later, after they had negotiated the maze of roped-off sections that lay between the set and the barn, the four of them were seated on the floor of the tack room. They filled Kate in on the grim outlook.
THE GIRLS TALKED about the problem for almost an hour, but they finally realized that all they could hope for was that Skye would somehow get lucky and pull off a couple of decent scenes with Sir Prize. “The most frustrating thing is that Skye isn’t the real problem—the horse is. Skye might not be perfect, but with a good horse, he could do fine. And yet he’s going to be the one who suffers if they call in a stuntman,” Lisa pointed out.
“You’re right. Sir Prize wouldn’t
care if his Hollywood career went down the tubes, would he?” Kate said.
Stevie giggled. “Maybe we should expose him to the press! We could leak a story to the Beverly Hills gossip magazines that the great Sir Prize isn’t much of a prize after all.”
Everyone laughed, but Lisa remarked, “It’s not as crazy as it sounds. Bad publicity can ruin a career. And in Hollywood, even animals have careers!”
The four girls wandered into the aisle of the barn. It was time to go get lunch so that they could be back to tack up Stewball for Skye’s afternoon lesson. Carole cast an eye down the row of stalls, as she always did. What she saw at the end of the aisle made her start. The others followed her glance. There was a strange man nosing around the stalls. He was tall and blond. He looked a lot like Skye—same build, same hairstyle.
“Boy,” Lisa murmured, “he could almost be Skye’s”—she caught her breath—“Skye’s double!”
BEFORE SKYE’S LESSON, Stevie, Lisa, and Carole made a pact not to mention the double. Knowing that the man was actually on the premises would only worry Skye and make it hard for him to perform. With heavy hearts, they took Stewball to the corral to meet Skye. What chance did they have now that the stuntman had arrived? The director had clearly made up his mind that he didn’t want Skye to ride. Still, they couldn’t give up until the decision had been made. With Stevie setting the example, Carole and Lisa put on optimistic faces and went forward to greet Skye.
As it turned out, they needn’t have bothered. The bad news was written all over Skye’s face. “Blake came clean to me after the shoot,” he said. “He called the double last night. He said it makes him feel better knowing we have a sub. The guy is here right now, ready to take over whenever I give the word.”
Stevie, Lisa, and Carole didn’t know what to say. The situation had gone from bad to worse, and none of them could see how to change it. Now there was no reason to hide the fact that they had seen the stuntman on the property.
Skye barely reacted when they told him. “I figured we’d run into him soon,” he said. “With the shoot scheduled for tomorrow, he’s got nothing to do today but hang around and wait.”
Cutting Horse Page 5
