Holiday Horse (7 page)

Nobody did. Stevie tried again. Still no answer.

Phil had also given Stevie the number at the front desk. Stevie tried that next. The receptionist was very sympathetic, but she didn’t get an answer when she tried the Marstens’ room, either.

“Should I try again?” the receptionist asked.

Stevie sighed. “No, that’s okay,” she said. “Thanks anyway. I guess he’s still at dinner.” Phil had mentioned during the previous call that the family was getting ready to head for one of the resort’s restaurants. He had thought he could be back in the room for Stevie’s next call, but he must have gotten held up. Maybe they had had to wait for a table, or the service had been slow, or Phil had missed the monorail.

In any case, Stevie decided, she would just have to wait for eight o’clock to talk to him. It was no big deal. It was only an hour.

T
HE DOORBELL RANG
at seven-thirty.

“Who could that be?” Lisa asked. She was struggling to fit one of Maxi’s plump arms through the sleeves of her tiny nightgown. The baby was in a fresh diaper and almost ready for bed.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Stevie said, for once sounding almost as logical as Lisa. She walked out to the hall and peeked out one of the narrow windows that flanked the front door. Ms. Lynn was standing on the porch, looking very cold in a short wool coat and no hat.

“Brrr!” she exclaimed when Stevie opened the door and invited her in. “Thanks, Stevie. Isn’t this supposed to be the American South? Back in Ohio we thought of
Virginia as practically tropical. Who would have known?”

Stevie laughed. “It’s a little colder than usual this week,” she admitted. “Did you see my note? Uh, I mean, Max’s note?”

Ms. Lynn stuck her hand into her coat pocket and came up with a folded piece of paper. “Got it,” she said. She paused and stared at Stevie. “By the way, what are you doing here? Are you Max’s daughter or something? I didn’t realize.”

“Nothing like that,” Stevie said. She led the way down the hall toward the living room. “In fact, if Max heard you he’d probably say something like ‘God forbid.’ ” She grinned. “I’m just the baby-sitter for Max’s real daughter, Maxi. You met her the other day.”

As they entered the living room, Ms. Lynn looked around. “Well, hello,” she greeted Carole and Lisa. “I see the whole gang’s here. Are you the backup baby-sitters?”

“You could say that,” Lisa replied, laughing. She held up Maxi, who finally had both arms in her nightgown sleeves. “Look, Maxi. It’s your old pal, Ms. Lynn.”

“Pleased to see you,” the woman said to the baby with a grin, shaking her chubby fist playfully. Ms. Lynn smoothed down Maxi’s hair, which was standing on end from Lisa’s recent efforts to dress her. “I guess this means Max isn’t here, right?”

Stevie confirmed that with a nod. “But he said you could just leave the check with us,” she said. She grinned
wickedly. “We promise not to spend it—at least not until after you leave.”

Ms. Lynn laughed. “Funny,” she said. She dug into her purse, located an envelope with Max’s name on it, and handed it to Stevie, who propped it on the fireplace mantel where Max would be sure to see it. “But seriously, please let Max know how sorry I am that I was so late. My job can sometimes be unpredictable.”

“Even on New Year’s Eve?” Carole asked.

“Even on New Year’s Eve,” Ms. Lynn said. “I’m just glad Max wasn’t waiting around for me. I was picturing him pacing up and down in the stable, staring at his watch, while his wife danced the night away at some fancy party.”

The girls giggled. Ms. Lynn’s description sounded awfully close to the truth. “He tried to wait for you,” Lisa admitted with a grin. “Stevie wouldn’t let him.” The girls filled her in on The Saddle Club’s holiday gift to Max and Deborah.

“What a fantastic idea,” Ms. Lynn said when they were finished. She had taken Maxi from Lisa and was sitting on the couch, rocking the baby in her arms. Maxi was yawning, looking sleepy. “I remember when Britt was a baby. I didn’t get much sleep, and I didn’t have much time to do grown-up things. Babies are wonderful, but they can be draining if you don’t get a break once in a while. I’m sure Max and Deborah appreciate this a lot.”

“Speaking of Britt, we already have a few ideas about where to find a horse for her,” Stevie said eagerly.

“That’s great,” Ms. Lynn said, sounding just as eager. “Tell me all about it.” She moved Maxi’s arm a little to get a look at her watch. “But you’d better make it the short version. I’m supposed to meet Britt at a party in a few minutes. She only knows a couple of people there, and I don’t want her to be uncomfortable.”

With a daughter as shy as Britt, Stevie supposed that Ms. Lynn had to think about that sort of thing a lot. She wondered what it would be like to be so shy that you couldn’t have a good time at a party unless your mother was there. Then she decided she’d rather not know. It didn’t sound like a very fun way to live.

“First of all,” Stevie began, “almost all of Max’s horses are for sale if the right buyer comes along. And he’s got some great horses. Maybe Britt will hit it off with one of them.” She shrugged. “But if not, don’t despair. There are lots of other places to look.” She glanced at the others, who nodded.

Carole then quickly described a few other local stables, including Cross County. “And there’s one place that’s even closer than those,” she finished. “Hedgerow Farms.”

“I think you mentioned that one before,” Ms. Lynn said.

“It’s a really great place,” Carole said. “Even though they have had some bad luck lately.”

Ms. Lynn looked interested. “What sort of bad luck?”

“First and worst of all, they had an outbreak of swamp fever a couple of months ago,” Lisa said. Seeing Ms. Lynn’s perplexed look, she explained. “That’s a really bad disease for horses. The real name is equine infectious anemia. Hedgerow’s breeding stallion died from it. And one of Pine Hollow’s mares who was there to mate with him got it and died, too.” She gulped and glanced at her friends. All three girls were remembering those terrible days, when Delilah, the beautiful palomino mare that had been a favorite Pine Hollow stable horse, had become sick after her return from Hedgerow.

Ms. Lynn didn’t say anything for a moment. When Stevie looked at her, she saw that the woman had tears in her eyes. It made her like Ms. Lynn even more.

“Anyway,” Carole said after a few more seconds of silence, “it could have been much worse, considering. Hedgerow only lost a few horses besides the stallion. And Delilah—the Pine Hollow mare—didn’t pass it on to any other horses here.”

“Still, it must have been terrible,” Ms. Lynn said. “For all of you.”

“It was,” Carole said. “But that wasn’t the end of Hedgerow’s unlucky streak. Elaine, the manager, fell off the roof and broke her leg a week before Christmas.”

“Oh no!” Ms. Lynn exclaimed. She shifted Maxi, who looked drowsier than ever, to her other arm and continued
to rock her. “What on earth was she doing on the roof? Chasing a stray horse?”

Stevie giggled. “Not exactly,” she said. “But that would make a good story, wouldn’t it?”

Lisa rolled her eyes and smiled. “Actually, she was checking on a patch some workmen had made,” she said. All three of the girls had heard the whole story from Max. Hedgerow’s horses were housed in a large, old building that was starting to show its age. Not only was it old-fashioned, with unreliable wiring and dingy windows, but the structure itself was starting to get a little ramshackle. For that reason, Elaine had recently hired a construction company to build Hedgerow a new, more modern stable. Carole had seen the men laying the foundation the last time she had visited the farm with Judy, and she had told the others all about it. They couldn’t wait to see it when it was finished.

“Max says Elaine is hobbling around in a cast these days, getting into as much trouble as ever,” Stevie said with a grin.

Carole nodded. “And I know she has some young horses she and her staff have been training,” she said. “Maybe one of them will be right for Britt.”

“It sounds promising,” Ms. Lynn said. She checked her watch. This time she had to move Maxi’s foot to do it. “Oops, it’s ten to eight already,” she said. She stood up and gently handed the baby to Stevie. “I’d better go. But it’s been great talking to you all.”

“Same here,” Lisa said. She glanced at Maxi worriedly. The baby was staring up at Stevie’s face, blinking heavily. “I guess we lost track of the time. It’s twenty minutes past Maxi’s bedtime already.”

Ms. Lynn chuckled as she buttoned her coat. “I wouldn’t worry too much about that if I were you,” she advised. She winked at the girls. “At that age, bedtimes are usually more of a hopeful guideline than a strict schedule.”

Stevie looked down at Maxi. “Well, I don’t think we have to worry about that,” she said. “She looks pretty tired. We must have worn her out.”

“I hope so … for your sake,” the woman replied with a grin. Then she said good-bye and left, quickly closing the front door behind her to keep out the cold.

“I like her,” Carole declared.

“Me too,” Stevie said. “It’s just too bad some of her personality didn’t rub off on her daughter.”

“Come on, Stevie. Be fair,” Lisa said. “We hardly know Britt yet. I bet we’ll love her once we all get used to each other.” She headed toward the stairs. “Now, come on. Let’s get this baby to bed.”

All three girls went upstairs. They were on their way into the nursery when the phone rang.

Maxi jumped in Stevie’s arms, startled at the sudden, loud sound. “Uh-oh,” Stevie said. She was the closest to the phone, so she grabbed it, tucking it between her chin and her shoulder so that she could keep a good grip on
the baby, who had started to wiggle. “Hello? Um, Regnery residence.”

“Stevie?” came a familiar voice over the line.

“Deborah?” Stevie said. She gulped and looked down at Maxi, who was at this point definitely wide awake again. She quickly passed the baby to Carole, putting a shushing finger to her lips.

Fortunately, Maxi didn’t make a peep. She just continued to pump her arms and legs and wiggle her body, forcing Carole to concentrate hard to keep her from squirming out of her grasp. Finally Carole gave up and sat down on the floor, forming a circle with her legs to keep Maxi corralled.

“Everything’s fine here, Deborah,” Stevie said into the phone. “We told you there was no reason to worry. Maxi? Oh, yes, she’s in bed. She’s sleeping like a … well, like a baby, I guess.” She laughed.

“Really?” Deborah said. She sounded a little surprised.

Stevie smiled. She guessed that Deborah was impressed with The Saddle Club’s baby-sitting skills. “Really,” she fibbed, glancing at the baby, who was trying to make her escape by crawling over Carole’s left knee. “We’re all fine here. You should just forget about us and have a good time.”

“Okay,” Deborah said, still sounding uncertain. “Well, Max and I just ordered, and I thought I’d check in. Happy New Year.” She said good-bye and hung up.

Stevie let out a sigh of relief as she hung up the receiver.
“There,” she said. “She never needs to know that we kept Maxi up past her bedtime. But we’d better get her settled.” She glanced at her watch. “Phil is due to call in a few minutes.”

The girls carried the baby into the nursery. Carole carefully lowered her into the crib and checked the sides to be sure they were locked in their upright position.

“Good night, little Maxi,” Lisa said softly, leaning over to tickle the baby’s plump belly. “Sleep tight. When you wake up, it will be a whole new year.”

The other two girls said their good-nights as well. Maxi stuck her fingers in her mouth and watched them with wide eyes.

“She’s so adorable,” Carole whispered. “Come on. We’d better shut the door so that the phone won’t startle her again when Phil calls. We can come up and check on her in a few minutes to make sure she got to sleep.”

The others nodded and tiptoed out of the room. They left the door ajar just a couple of inches to let in some light from the hall.

“I’ll turn down the ringer so that it won’t bother her,” Stevie whispered.

She quickly made the adjustment. Since the girls would be downstairs most of the time, she would be picking up Phil’s next call on the kitchen phone, anyway. Then The Saddle Club headed for the stairs.

“Time for the rest of the party to start,” Stevie whispered
with a grin. “What should we do first? I vote for prank phone calls.”

“Well, I guess we could—” Carole began.

She never got to finish the sentence. There was a loud, piercing scream from the direction of the nursery. It was Maxi, wailing at the top of her lungs, sounding as if her heart would break.