“You’ll be fine!” said Lottie impatiently. “Come on!”
“I’ll try.” Amina put one foot on the log. Then she skimmed lightly across it and back again.
“Fantastic!” cried Lottie, making Amina blush.
“All right!” said Isabella. “I’ll try, too.” But as soon as she began to walk, the log wobbled alarmingly. “Whoa!” she yelled, flapping her arms to try and keep her balance.
Amina pulled her back onto the bank again.
“Don’t worry!” said Lottie, hiding her disappointment. “It was only your first time! At least you tried.”
They all looked at Rosalind.
“I’m not sure I want to try out for your club yet,” said Rosalind, folding her arms. “How do I know it will be fun?”
Lottie looked at her and frowned.
“We’ll make it fun,” said Isabella. “And we’ll get to help animals.”
“And training together will be really cool. It’s not all about balancing. I know someone who can teach us ninja moves!” said Lottie, crossing back over the log to join the other princesses.
The others stared at her, wide-eyed.
“Ninja moves!” Rosalind’s blue eyes glinted. “I would definitely like to learn some of those!”
“And we each get a Rescue Princess ring.” Lottie pulled the rings out of her dress pocket. “My sister, Emily, and her friends used them. If you press the jewel in the center, it lights up and then we can send messages to each other.” She held the rings out to show them.
“I want this one!” Rosalind grabbed the sapphire ring and pressed the jewel hard. “But it’s not doing anything! Maybe your sister was making it up.”
Lottie glared at her. “She wouldn’t do that! I don’t know why they’re not turning on yet. But maybe we all have to be wearing them at the same time. Maybe that’s how they work.”
“I’d like this one, please.” Isabella picked up the yellow topaz.
“Thank you, this is beautiful,” said Amina, taking the emerald ring.
“And I’ve got the ruby one,” said Lottie, showing them hers.
The princesses slid the rings onto their fingers and gazed at the sparkling jewels.
Rosalind pressed the sapphire again. “It still isn’t working.”
Lottie pressed her ruby, but nothing happened.
“Mine’s not working, either.” Isabella stared at her yellow topaz, and Amina also shook her head.
Lottie frowned. “I don’t understand. They should be lighting up by now.” She shook her head. What could be going wrong?
“Maybe you broke them on the way here,” said Rosalind.
Lottie flushed angrily. But before she could reply, a thundering noise swept down the lane. The princesses looked around, unsure which way it was coming from. It grew louder. The ground began to shake.
“What’s that?” called Isabella.
Amina turned pale.
“Come this way!” yelled Lottie, trying to get them to hide.
But before they had time to move, a huge dark shape burst around the corner and rushed toward them.
Rosalind let out a shriek, which made the dark shape rear up, and two massive hooves flailed in the air above them.
Lottie caught a glimpse of a figure with tall riding boots and cream riding pants, sitting on top of the giant animal.
“Don’t worry!” she called to the others. “It’s only a horse. It’ll be all right.” But her words were drowned out by a loud neighing and the cracking of a whip.
Isabella, Rosalind, and Amina started running up the lane toward the palace garden.
“Wait!” shouted Lottie, but the other princesses didn’t even look back.
The black horse calmed down and shook his bridle restlessly.
“Silly girls!” snapped the rider in a haughty voice. “You shouldn’t be sneaking around outside the palace. You nearly caused an accident.”
Lottie jumped, recognizing the voice of Lady Slyden, the woman she’d seen at the stable yesterday.
“Don’t stand there staring at me!” ordered Lady Slyden. “Go back to the palace like your silly friends.” She glared at Lottie, cracked her whip, and sped away without waiting for a reply.
Lottie watched her go. Then she turned slowly and walked back toward the palace.
As she went past the paddock, Twinkle trotted along and put her head over the fence again. Lottie stroked the little foal’s nose. But her heart felt heavy. Not because of Lady Slyden’s rudeness, she didn’t care about that. She was disappointed that the other princesses had rushed off so quickly. As soon as they had seen danger, they had all run away.
When Lottie reached the palace, lunch was being served in the dining room. The large glass doors of the room opened out into the garden. Waiters brought around platters of delicious pizza, followed by apple pie and ice cream.
Lottie ate hers silently.
“Are you all right, Lottie?” Her mom looked surprised to see her so quiet.
Lottie nodded. “Can I have some more chocolate ice cream?”
“I suppose so!” Her mom laughed, passing some to her. “Oh, you’re wearing Emily’s ruby ring. It was nice of her to give it to you.”
Lottie nodded again. The ruby ring just reminded her of everything that had gone wrong this morning. The jewels weren’t working and the other girls didn’t seem to understand what being a Rescue Princess was really about. But she was still determined to help animals in trouble, even if she had to do it on her own.
After lunch, Queen Sofia divided all the kings, queens, princes, and princesses into groups to learn new dances. She gathered Lottie, Isabella, Amina, and Rosalind together.
“It would be wonderful if you four princesses would do a dance on the final day of the festival,” she boomed. “Would you like to do that?”
The princesses nodded.
Queen Sofia glanced at a group of princes who were slouching in a corner. “Perhaps you could make up something that involves those princes, too. You could all hold hands as you dance. That would be nice!”
“No!” cried Lottie and Rosalind together.
“I mean, I don’t think that’s a very good idea, Your Majesty,” Lottie added. She could see that Rosalind was just as horrified as she was at the queen’s suggestion. The two girls exchanged a grin. Maybe Rosalind wasn’t so bad after all, Lottie thought.
“I think the princes might want to dance by themselves,” said Amina quietly.
“Very well, then!” Queen Sofia handed them a CD player. “If you go along the hallway, you’ll find a room that is suitable for practicing your dance. There’s some music to choose from on the windowsill.”
The girls curtsied and hurried away. At the end of the hallway, they found a large sitting room full of sofas and armchairs. Lottie set the CD player down on the windowsill and turned to face the other princesses. They were all still wearing their rings, she noticed.
“We’re sorry we ran away before,” Isabella told her. “Once we stopped running, we realized that it must have been a horse that suddenly came around the corner. But it was so huge and it galloped so fast!”
“That’s all right,” said Lottie, forgiving them instantly.
“We still want to join the Rescue Princesses,” added Amina.
“Especially if you can get these rings to actually work,” said Rosalind.
Lottie pressed the ruby in her ring again. “They are supposed to work. You’ll just have to believe me.”
“I believe you,” said Isabella.
Lottie smiled back at her. “I suppose we’d better get started on this dance for Queen Sofia. What kind of dance should we do?”
“A tap dance!” cried Isabella.
“Hip-hop!” said Rosalind firmly.
“I like ballet,” said Amina.
“Let’s play some of this music and decide what we like the most.” Lottie turned on the CD player and fiddled with the buttons.
The girls pushed the sofas and armchairs
“Actually, I really like this pop song!” Isabella wobbled around, nearly crashing into a bookcase.
“I do, too!” Lottie clapped her hands to the rhythm. “I listen to this at home.”
Amina nodded. “Let’s do our dance to this one, then.”
“We could start with our arms together and then move them like this.” Lottie showed them her dance move.
“Then we go: step together, step and turn.” Isabella’s face lit up as she danced.
The door opened, and Ally came in. “Hello, princesses! Queen Sofia sent me to see how you’re doing. Do you need help with anything?”
“We’re fine, thanks, Ally,” said Lottie. “We’re almost finished figuring out the dance routine.”
“But we haven’t decided what costumes or dance shoes to wear,” said Rosalind. “I think we should wear dresses that match.”
“I don’t think it matters that much if we wear different costumes,” said Lottie.
“Well, I think it does!” Rosalind put her hands on her hips.
“It would be nice if our dresses were the same,” said Amina, pushing back her long hair. “And we need our jazz shoes. We can’t perform barefoot.”
“Queen Sofia has a whole closetful of costumes upstairs,” said Ally. “Why don’t I go and see if there’s anything in the right sizes? Then I’ll collect your jazz shoes on the way back.”
“Great idea!” said Isabella.
“Thanks, Ally,” said Lottie.
Ally smiled and hurried away to look for the costumes.
“All right! Let’s go back to the beginning and see how the dance looks so far.” Lottie went over to the CD player and pressed the button to start the music. “I’ll just open the window. It’s getting really hot in here.” She pulled up the window to let in the breeze.
“And one, two, three, and spin!” Isabella counted to herself as she practiced the dance moves.
Lottie leaned over the CD player, wondering why the music hadn’t come back on. Had she pressed the wrong button? Just as she was about to try again, a high-pitched voice floated up through the open window.
“You shouldn’t have come here! I told you — we meet at midnight!”
Lottie’s ears pricked up. That was a very strange thing to say. Why would someone be meeting at midnight? She leaned forward, trying to see who was talking below.
“What are you doing?” asked Rosalind.
Lottie swung around and put a finger on her lips to signal the others to whisper.
Someone else spoke below them. It was a man’s voice this time. “But, My Lady! I couldn’t remember where I was supposed to park the van. So I had to come and see you.”
“We’ve been through this over and over again! Park it by the stream on the corner of the lane, then walk up to the stable to help me,” said the high-pitched voice.
With a sudden shiver, Lottie realized that she knew who it was. That voice belonged to Lady Slyden, the woman who’d been so rude to her that morning.
Leaning out a little farther, she could see that it was definitely Lady Slyden, still wearing her cream riding pants and with her hair twisted into a bun.
“What are we looking at?” whispered Isabella as she and Amina joined the other two girls at the window.
Lottie pointed at Lady Slyden and her servant standing in the garden below.
“How many horses are we taking?” said the man. “It’s not a very big van, you know.”
“Hush, fool! Are you trying to tell my plans to the whole palace?” snapped Lady Slyden. “You’ll fit in as many horses as I tell you to. Now, go away! I don’t want to see you again till midnight.”
Lottie’s head was buzzing. Why were they talking about putting horses into a van? And why were they doing it at midnight?
The princesses held their breaths as they watched Lady Slyden disappear along the garden path.
“What was that all about?” said Rosalind at last. “Why are they meeting at midnight?”
“That was Lady Slyden, the woman riding the black horse this morning,” said Lottie grimly. “And if she’s moving horses around in the middle of the night, I think it sounds very suspicious.”
Isabella’s dark eyes widened. “You don’t think she’s trying to steal Queen Sofia’s horses, do you?”
“The queen did say that she has some very valuable racehorses,” said Amina. “They’re probably worth a lot of money.”
“Poor horses!” said Lottie. “Peter, the boy from the stables, says that Lady Slyden is mean to them. She whips them too hard when she gets angry.”
The other girls looked shocked.
Lottie gazed through the open window at the horses’ paddock just beyond the garden. There were lots of horses out in the field, including Twinkle, who was frolicking around and around in circles. Even from far away, Lottie could see how much the foal was enjoying the fresh air. Twinkle skipped around, only stopping to shake her mane and flick her tail.
Lottie lifted her chin and marched over to the door. “I’m going to tell Queen Sofia about this right now!”
“You can’t!” gasped Amina. “What if she thinks you made it all up?”
“She has to know what Lady Slyden’s up to,” said Lottie. “The horses are in danger.”
“Good! I’ll come, too!” said Rosalind.
Lottie and Rosalind dashed down the hallway, with Isabella and Amina close behind them. They ran into the hall where the opening ceremony had taken place the day before. Queen Sofia was sitting on a large wooden throne, talking to a group of young princes.
“No one expects you to do a dance that’s too difficult,” she was saying to them. “Try practicing the hornpipe! All you have to do is fold your arms and hop on one leg.”
Lottie felt a little less sure of herself now that she was right in front of the queen. She took a deep breath. “Your Majesty!” she called out. “We’ve got something really important to tell you!”
“It’s about your horses,” added Rosalind.
“Horses?” Queen Sofia looked at the princesses and shook her head, making her lime-green hat wobble. One of the young princes giggled, but she took no notice. Instead, she rose from her throne and towered over the girls.
“Princesses!” she said sternly. “Just look at yourselves! You should be walking and curtsying like proper young ladies. But instead you RAN in like PUPPIES. Your hair is a MESS and you have BARE FEET!”
There was silence. The princesses stared at their bare feet.
“But, Queen Sofia,” began Lottie. “We were just waiting for Ally to come back with our dance shoes and we heard —”
“Enough!” cried the queen. “I will not listen to anyone who comes in with bare feet.”
The princesses slunk back out, not daring to speak until they reached the hallway.
“That was terrible!” cried Isabella. “What are we going to do?”
“What’s the matter, princesses?” Ally hurried up to them, carrying lots of dance shoes and an armful of dresses.
“We think that Lady Slyden is planning to steal some of Queen Sofia’s horses. We tried to tell the queen, but she wouldn’t listen to us,” said Lottie. She explained what they had overheard through the open window.
Ally’s forehead creased with worry. “I don’t trust Lady Slyden,” she said at last. “And I know she doesn’t treat horses very well.”
“Then we’ll have to go to the stable at midnight and stop her,” said Lottie.
The princesses looked at one another.
“But what if the kings and queens catch us sneaking out?” said Amina, her brown eyes wide. “Maybe we should try talking to Queen Sofia again.”
“There’s no point,” said Rosalind. “She won’t listen.”
“Leaving the palace at midnight will be scary.” Isabella looked solemn. “But we have to try for the sake of the horses.”
“I can help you get away from here without anyone seeing you,” said Ally. “But for now you’d better go and get changed. It’s almost time for the banquet.”
The princesses rushed back to their rooms to get changed. Lottie took a long red dress dotted with sequins out of her wardrobe. She put it on and added a golden crown decorated with rubies to match her ruby ring. Her green eyes sparkled back at her from the mirror.
Just then, the cuckoo clock on the wall chirped six o’clock. Lottie hurried out of her room and caught up with the others at the top of the stairs. Isabella turned and smiled as she saw Lottie coming. Her yellow dress floated out at the hem and a swirly gold tiara gleamed on top of her dark curls.
Rosalind and Amina had put on their best clothes, too. Rosalind wore a dark-blue dress, and her tiara was studded with the biggest emeralds that Lottie had ever seen. Amina’s turquoise dress was tied in an elegant knot at one shoulder, and her tiara was made from arching loops of silver.
“We saw Lady Slyden,” hissed Rosalind, pointing at the hallway below.
“She’s talking to Queen Sofia,” whispered Amina. “How can she act so friendly when she’s planning to steal the queen’s horses?” She leaned in for a closer look, her long black hair hanging over the banister.
“She’s just pretending to be nice,” said Lottie darkly. “I think we should keep an eye on her.”
The princesses watched Lady Slyden throughout the first course of the banquet, which was soup with buttered rolls, and they watched her during the main course that followed. Lady Slyden rose from her seat and disappeared just as the sticky toffee pudding was served.
Lottie cast a worried look at the other princesses. Lady Slyden must be going to get ready for tonight.
“Mom? Can I go back to my room? I’m tired now,” said Lottie.
The queen of Middingland raised her eyebrows. “And miss the sticky toffee pudding? Are you sure you’re feeling all right, Lottie? You need to stay here and sit up straight. It’s important for you to practice behaving nicely at banquets.”
Lottie sighed and tapped her spoon on the table. How could sitting still at banquets be important when there were ninja moves to learn and horses to save?
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