Shadow Horse

by Alison Hart

  Jas stopped in mid-chew.

  Chase snapped his head around. “Uh, um, did I promise you something?” he croaked.

  Lucy burst out laughing. “You are so gullible. Face it, you’re too young for me. You’re more some cute JV cheerleader’s type. Right, Jas?”

  “Right, Lucy,” Jas replied dryly. If Lucy hadn’t been driving, Jas would have stuck her gum all over her hair.

  “Hey, is this the place?” Lucy hollered. “High Meadows Farm?”

  “Yeah, this is it.”

  Lucy whistled. “Woo-wee. How rich is this guy? His sign is bigger than my living room.”

  Jas was too nervous to answer. Frantically, she chewed her gum, and when she felt the car slow into the driveway, chills raced up her arms.

  Chase cracked his knuckles. “Oh, boy. Here we go. And if we get caught, we don’t even have weapons to defend ourselves.”

  Lucy made a scoffing noise. “Like you’d know how to shoot a gun. Ha!” She whistled again. “So how rich did you say this guy was?”

  Jas figured they must be driving past Hugh’s mansion. “Will you just get us to the barn, Lucy!” Jas hissed.

  “All right. All right,” Lucy grumbled. A minute later, the car stopped.

  Chase peered at Jas over the seat. “It doesn’t look like anybody’s around.”

  Jas sat up. “Good. Come with me and be the lookout.”

  Lucy opened her door. “I’ll mosey around, pretending I have enough money to buy one of Mr. Moneybags’ horses.”

  “Mr. Robicheaux,” Jas told her for the tenth time. “If somebody should come up, tell them you met Hugh at the Lexington Horse Center. And don’t forget to keep whoever it is out of the barn.”

  “Right. I’m interested in one of his fifty-thousand-dollar show horses.” Lucy slammed the door, and Jas heard the crunch of her sandals on the gravel as she walked away.

  “All clear?” she asked Chase.

  “Yeah.” Chase got out and quickly opened the back door. Jas crawled out the side toward the barn. Then she stood, and the two made a run for it as Jas led the way.

  From behind the barn came the shrill barking of the Jack Russells penned in their kennels. Jas had no idea who was caring for the horses while Hugh and Phil were gone. And since the terriers were making so much noise now, her fingers were crossed that the person wasn’t staying on the farm.

  She entered the barn through the open double doors, stopping in the wide aisleway. The horses were in for the day. Over the whir of the fans, she could hear their familiar snuffles and snorts. One horse whinnied, and for a second, Jas couldn’t move. She hadn’t realized how hard it would be to come back.

  She wanted to rush from stall to stall, patting every horse—Pete and Romeo and the weanlings and …

  “Hey,” Chase whispered hoarsely. “What are we standing here for?”

  Come on Jas, pull yourself together.

  “Right, let’s get going.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him down the aisle to the tack room. The door was closed but not locked. They darted inside.

  “Wow,” Chase said as he stopped in the middle of the room. The tack room was paneled with dark mahogany plywood and smelled of leather and saddle soap. A dozen saddles and bridles hung from the walls above several tack trunks with HIGH MEADOWS FARM inscribed on their fronts. “This place is awesome.”

  Jas knew he had to be impressed. Not only was the barn gorgeous, but Hugh only bought the best. “How rich is this guy?” he echoed Lucy.

  “Rich.” Jas gestured to a door on the right. “There’s the office. It’s always locked.”

  “So how are you planning to break in?”

  “The key.”

  Crouching by an antique hitching post, she tipped it up and felt underneath. She was out of luck if Hugh had moved the key.

  Her fingers closed over the jagged metal. “It’s here!”

  “Good. I’ll keep watch.” Pulling his cap brim low, Chase slunk to the tack-room door and peered dramatically around the door frame. If Jas hadn’t been so nervous, she would have burst out laughing.

  She unlocked the office door, then carefully replaced the key under the hitching post. After opening the door, she stood in the doorway, unable to move. She’d been in the office a thousand times, and now it felt as if she’d never left.

  Ribbons and photos covered the wall behind the polished walnut desk. Silver trophies gleamed from the shelf on the right. A file cabinet and bookshelves sat against the third wall.

  Walking around the desk, Jas stared up at a framed photo of her and Whirlwind at the Columbia Horse Show last spring. She was mounted on Whirlwind, grinning at the camera, her hand caressing the mare’s glossy neck. They’d been so triumphant that day. Now, three months later, it was nothing more than a forgotten dream.

  A lump filled Jas’s throat. Glancing away, she blinked back the tears. She had to hurry and find that album.

  Grandfather had told her where it would probably be. She hoped Hugh hadn’t moved it.

  Jas kneeled next to the shelf by the file cabinet. The album was on top of a stack of books. Pulling it out, she tucked it under her arm and hurried from the office, pressing in the lock button on the doorknob before shutting the door.

  “Jas! Someone’s coming!” Wheeling away from the open door, Chase bounded toward her. From the horrified expression on his face, she knew he wasn’t kidding.

  “Who?”

  “I don’t know. I just heard a noise that sounded like someone was coming down the barn aisle. I ducked back so whoever it was wouldn’t see me.”

  Jas clapped a hand over her mouth, suppressing a cry of panic. Her mind raced.

  We’ve got to hide.

  Jas grabbed Chase’s wrist and dragged him to the office door. Bending, she set the album on the floor and snatched up the key from under the hitching post. She sprang to her feet, but a noise outside the tack-room door made her freeze.

  “Too late,” Chase whispered from behind her.

  Slowly, Jas looked toward the doorway, the key clutched tightly in her hand.

  Clink, clink. The person was almost at the door, jingling as if he had keys in his pocket. Puff, huff, aaah. The person sounded old and wheezy.

  The new caretaker, Jas thought.

  What could she tell him? What would she say that would keep him from telling Hugh or Phil?

  Terrified, Jas stepped backward, bumping into Chase’s chest. He put his hands on her shoulders and squeezed reassuringly.

  “I’ll tell whoever it is that it’s all my fault,” he said into her ear. “That I kidnapped you and brought you here.”

  Jas twisted her head to look at him. “You’d do that for—” she started to whisper, but his look of surprise cut her off.

  “Oh, my!” Chase gasped. “An attack dog!”

  Jas swung her head around. In the doorway stood a huge German shepherd.

  “Sam!” she screeched as she tore across the tack room. Falling to the floor, she threw her arms around the old dog’s neck. Tears poured down her cheeks. “Oh, Sam! It’s you! Danvers said they were going to put you to sleep.”

  Whining and wiggling deliriously, Sam licked her face. Jas couldn’t stop crying. She buried her head in the ruff of his neck. Fur stuck to her cheeks and lips, but she didn’t care.

  “That’s your dog?” Chase asked as he came closer, the album in his hands.

  “Yes. That barbarian Hugh told Danvers he was going to put him down. I can’t believe he’s all right.” Standing, she slid her hand under his collar. “I’m taking him with me.”

  Chase opened his mouth to protest.

  “He’s Grandfather’s dog, so it’s not really stealing, and if I leave him, Hugh will have him put to sleep.”

  “You’re right. Now let’s get out of here before somebody does come.”

  Jas replaced the key. Then sticking her head out the doorway, she looked up and down the aisle. Part of her longed to stay and see all the horses, but she knew there was no wa
y. Besides, she had to face it. Never again would High Meadows Farm be a part of her life.

  “Come, Sam,” she called as she sprinted out the door and down the barn aisle. But she didn’t need to call him. Tail wagging, he trotted stiffly after her.

  Lucy met them at the car. “What happened to you?” she asked, staring at Jas. “You look like a dog sat on your face.”

  “I was kissing one.” Before Lucy could say anything else, Jas opened the back car door. Sam hopped in, dragging his arthritic back legs after him.

  “The dog was the personal thing you had to get from the farm?” Lucy asked as she climbed into the driver’s seat.

  Jas draped her arm over Sam. “One of the things.” Sliding in beside her, Chase shut the door.

  “We made it!” Chase said, exhaling a huge sigh of relief.

  When she started the motor, Lucy looked at the three of them crammed in the backseat. “While you two are back there grinning like fools, you better figure out what to tell Miss Hahn about the dog.”

  “Right,” said Jas, but her mind was on the photo. Taking the album from Chase, she set it on her legs. Slowly, without breathing, she opened the heavy book. Beside her, Chase watched as Jas flipped through the pages of photos and newspaper and magazine articles. Hugh and his horses had appeared in countless newspapers and equine publications.

  Halfway through the album, Jas found Aladdin’s name underlined in a list of show results dated five years ago. He’d won the Columbia Open Jumper Cup.

  “There’s got to be a picture of him somewhere,” Jas whispered, her pulse quickening.

  Then she found it. A professional shot of Hugh jumping the big horse over a wall at the National Horse Show in New York.

  Like Shadow, Aladdin was a handsome chestnut. His ears were pricked, his legs tucked to his chest as he cleared the wall with a foot to spare. Jas recognized the same sassy expression, the same devilish gleam in his eyes.

  And the same exclamation point of white on his face.

  Stunned, she glanced up at Chase. He was staring back at her, his lips forming a silent “wow.” She knew that he knew, too.

  Aladdin and Shadow were the same horse.

  Nineteen

  “WHAT ARE YOU GUYS LOOKING AT?” LUCY asked.

  Startled, Jas shut the album. “Uh, just my old baby pictures.”

  “O-o-kay,” Lucy said, though she didn’t sound convinced.

  Opening the album back up, Jas stared at the picture of Aladdin. The two horses were identical. But how could they be the same? Aladdin was dead! And yet if they weren’t the same, who could explain the similar behavior and looks?

  “What do you think?” Chase whispered.

  Jas shook her head. “I don’t know what to think.”

  Lucy glanced at them over her shoulder, swerving onto the grass. “What are you guys whispering about?”

  Jas shut the album. “Nothing.”

  Tonight, she’d have to study the album carefully. On Wednesday, she’d take it in to show her grandfather. Only he would know what to do.

  “I was just telling Chase how I wish I could’ve stayed to see all the horses,” Jas fibbed.

  “That Hugh guy does have some gorgeous animals,” Lucy said as she stopped at the end of the drive, then turned left. “Do you think he needs someone to work for him? Since you were ‘kindly asked to stay off the property,’ he must need another rider.”

  Jas bit back a grin. She could picture Lucy bouncing wildly on one of Hugh’s elegant Thoroughbreds. “Sure, go see him, Lucy. He’ll love you.”

  “To death,” Chase added in a mysterious voice, and Lucy shot him a funny look in the rearview mirror.

  Jas held back a giggle. Chase reached for her hand, twining his fingers with hers. On Jas’s other side, Sam flopped down, squashing his huge furry butt against the door handle and resting his head on her legs. His big eyes, cloudy with cataracts, gazed contentedly up at her as she stroked his graying muzzle.

  “We’ll tell Miss Hahn we found Sam hanging around garbage cans at the tack shop, looking very old and hungry,” Jas said.

  “Good idea,” Lucy said. “She’s a sucker for lost dogs.”

  “Only you better get rid of his collar.” Reaching across Jas’s lap, Chase unbuckled Sam’s collar. When they turned down a narrow road, he rolled down the car window.

  “Wait, I want to do it.” Jas took the collar from him and, leaning forward, threw it out.

  The collar sailed through the air, the tags jingling. Turning in the seat, Jas watched until it landed and disappeared in the weeds.

  “Are you sure you’re ready to jump him?” Chase asked Jas the next day as he set up a crossbar in the middle of the paddock. “You’ve only ridden him three times.”

  Jas nodded as she steered Shadow past the bales of hay and two poles they were calling a jump. “He’s been perfect. Besides, we need to see if he was professionally trained—by a jerk named Hugh Robicheaux.”

  Chase stood back to inspect the crossbar. It was only about two feet high in the middle. “I guess even old Sam could jump over this.”

  As Jas gathered the reins, her heart began to pound excitedly. It was the first time she’d jumped a horse in over six weeks.

  But that wasn’t the only reason she was excited.

  She wanted to find out if Shadow’s clearing the paddock fence was just a fluke. If the big horse couldn’t jump worth a hoot, she knew there was no way he could be Aladdin.

  “Say cheese!” Chase called when she rode by. He’d lifted up the camera that was hanging around his neck and was holding it to one eye. Sam was sprawled by his feet.

  When they brought Sam back to the farm, Miss Hahn hadn’t even questioned their story about finding him at the tack shop. She happily fed the shepherd a dog cookie, then told Jas and Chase to give him a flea bath.

  This morning, Miss Hahn had left early for a meeting. As soon as she’d left, Jas had tacked up Shadow, figuring she could ride him before her lockdown time and Miss Hahn returned.

  “Don’t forget to take a shot of Shadow jumping so we can compare it to the photo in the album,” Jas said, circling the big horse around the hay bales.

  Even though Shadow was huge, his trot was light and springy, and he responded to Jas like a dream.

  “I love this horse,” she exclaimed as she thundered past Chase.

  Jas trotted Shadow, keeping him slow and steady, and when the beat of his gait became as rhythmic as a song, she steered him down the middle. His ears tilted forward. His nose went up just enough so Jas knew he was focused and ready.

  Without breaking stride, he jumped the crossbar, landed softly, then continued trotting. Grinning happily, Jas scratched his withers. He shook his head as if to say, “Was that all?”

  “He just stepped over the thing,” Chase said in amazement. “Keep trotting while I put it up to three feet.”

  When Chase had adjusted the poles, Jas again turned Shadow toward the jump. He trotted over it, his back rounding in a perfect bascule.

  Chase hooted. “Four feet!”

  “No way!” Jas shot back, but already he was adjusting the fence, dragging another hay bale to make it higher. “Three feet six,” she said. “I’ll pretend it’s a fence in one of my junior hunter classes.”

  Even though Jas had jumped the height a hundred times, her mouth went dry. This time, she cantered Shadow down the center, keeping light contact on the reins. He didn’t tug or rush. When he leaped the bales as if they weren’t even there, her heart leaped with him.

  He landed on the other side, ducked his head, and bucked playfully. Jas was too excited to scold him. Halting at the end of the paddock, she dropped her reins and threw her arms around his sweaty neck. “You were terrific!”

  “He cleared it by two feet!” Chase whooped as he jogged over, Sam trailing behind him. “Just like the other day when he jumped out—”

  Jas straightened just as Miss Hahn came walking over, the burros ambling alongside. She shot Chase
a horrified look. He clamped his mouth shut, but it was too late.

  “When he did what?” Miss Hahn demanded as she opened the gate and came into the paddock. “And why are you jumping that horse without asking me first?”

  “Uh-h-h,” Chase sputtered.

  Crossing her arms, Miss Hahn waited for an answer.

  “We wanted to surprise you?” Chase guessed.

  Jas was too afraid to speak. Miss Hahn had obviously seen Shadow jump. If Shadow was Aladdin, there was a good chance she would recognize him.

  Quickly, Jas searched for an explanation that would keep Miss Hahn from getting too suspicious. “Uh, last Saturday, Shadow jumped out of the paddock,” she said, which was the truth.

  Miss Hahn’s jaw dropped. “Over the paddock fence? But that’s five feet high.”

  “I know. Chase and I decided that he was probably trained as a jumper. So we wanted to try him out.” She dropped her gaze. “I’m sorry we didn’t tell you first,” she added contritely, hoping Miss Hahn would buy it.

  For a minute, Miss Hahn frowned at the two of them, as if disappointed they hadn’t told her. Then she shrugged. “Well, I guess nothing was hurt. You better cool Shadow off. Though, judging by that last buck, he’s not hot or tired. When he gets in shape, we’ll take him over to my friend Lydia’s and let him see some real fences.”

  As if he knew she was talking about him, Shadow rubbed his face against Miss Hahn’s arm. She patted him on the head. “You know, when I saw him jump, it occurred to me that I’ve seen him before. I wonder if he was originally from around here?”

  Jas inhaled sharply. With a horrified expression, she looked at Chase. Don’t say anything, she mouthed.

  This morning, Shadow proved that he was a jumper, just like Aladdin. It could still be a coincidence, so Jas had lots more sleuthing to do. Having Chase know what she was up to had been risky. But if Miss Hahn guessed something was going on, it would blow everything.

  “Grandfather, I want you to meet Chase,” Jas said on Sunday’s visit. She stood behind his wheelchair ready to take him out to the patio.

  “Ase?” Craning his neck like an old turtle, Grandfather inspected Chase from head to toe. Chase stood by the bed, his baseball cap in one hand, looking awkward. “Kind of ittle and kinny, ain’t he?”