Horse-Sitters (2 page)

“No,” Lisa said, pausing for a second to glance in the window of the bookstore. “They were talking about driving to get her in one of Max’s horse trailers. I guess she lives a couple of hours away, and she’s bringing her own horse with her.”

“Really?” Carole said, suddenly looking more interested. Someone who would bring a horse along on a family visit sounded like someone she’d like to meet. “What kind of horse?”

“I don’t know, Carole,” Lisa said with a laugh. “I told you, I just overheard part of the conversation.”

“Well, I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” Carole said. “I can’t wait to meet her.”

“Max doesn’t seem to be looking forward to her visit, though, does he?” Stevie commented. “Every time Deborah mentions her great-aunt, he starts stammering and looking nervous in that weird way he has. Did you notice?”

“You’re right,” Lisa said thoughtfully. “I hadn’t really thought about it, but I did notice it. I wonder what that’s all about.”

Carole shrugged. “I have no idea,” she said. “It’s not as if he’s meeting her for the first time—he and Deborah went to visit her right after their wedding. And after all, how bad could a fellow horseperson be?”

“I have two words for you in answer to that,” Stevie said, raising her voice to be heard above a gaggle of small children who were rushing by toward the toy store. “Veronica diAngelo.”

Carole rolled her eyes. “She certainly has been annoying lately, hasn’t she?” she said. “After Danny’s great performance in class today you’d think Veronica would at least give him a pat or something. But instead she just tossed the reins to Red the second she dismounted.” Red O’Malley was Pine Hollow’s head stable hand. Even though riders were supposed to do their share of the stable chores, including taking care of the horses they rode, Veronica usually treated Red as her personal servant.

The girls had reached The Saddlery. As soon as they entered, Stevie headed for the section of the store that held bins and baskets of small tack pieces. Carole and Lisa stood by the entrance for a moment, looking around and breathing in the rich leathery smell.

“I’m going to check out the clothing rack,” Lisa decided. “I want to see if they still have those schooling chaps I tried on last month.”

Carole nodded. She remembered the beautiful soft leather chaps. They had fit Lisa perfectly. They were expensive, though—if Lisa saved her allowance for months she still couldn’t afford them. But Carole knew her friend couldn’t resist looking at them every time she was in the store.

“I guess I’ll just browse,” Carole said, wandering toward a shelf full of books and videos near the cash register. She flipped through several of the books. She liked reading anything she could get her hands on about horses and riding, and her room at home held a small library of books and magazines she had bought or received as gifts. But more often she just borrowed books from the Willow Creek Public Library. It was usually cheaper that way—unless, of course, she happened to misplace one of the books under her bed.

A large red box caught her eye. It was a set of videos called
The Complete Horse
. Carole picked it up and read the back of the box.

“What are you looking at?” Lisa asked from behind her.

Carole jumped, startled. “Oh! It’s this,” she said, handing the box to Lisa.

Lisa scanned the description of the contents. “Wow,” she said, and read aloud: “ ‘This nine-video set is the answer to every serious horseman’s prayers. Volume one, the breeds …’ It sounds like they cover every breed of horse known to man.” She read a little more, then said, “The rest of the tapes sound just as interesting. Here’s one on show training and dressage, one on equine medicine, another on the history of the horse, another on everything you need to know to run your own sta—”

“I have to have it,” Carole interrupted excitedly. “It sounds great.”

Lisa flipped over the box and glanced at the price tag. “Wow,” she said again. “All this knowledge doesn’t come cheap.”

Carole looked at the tag, too. Her face fell. “Oh well,” she said quietly. She didn’t even bother to calculate how long it would take her to save the necessary amount. “Maybe my dad will buy it for me for Christmas.”

“I was just thinking the same thing about those chaps,” Lisa said sadly. “The worst part is, they’re actually on sale right now. But they’re still more than I can afford.”

“Come on,” Carole said, carefully sliding
The Complete Horse
back onto the shelf. “Let’s go see how Stevie’s doing.”

They found her at the other end of the store in front of a rack full of brand-new bridles. “Any luck, Stevie?” Carole asked.

Stevie nodded and held up a new cheek strap. But her eyes were trained on one of the bridles in front of her. “Would you look at that?” she said, gesturing at it. “Wouldn’t that look perfect on Belle?”

Her friends had to agree that it would. The bridle was made of buttery-soft leather. The noseband was stitched and the reins were braided.

“It’s beautiful,” Lisa said sincerely.

Stevie reached up and carefully took down the bridle. She read the price tag and frowned. “It’s not fair,” she complained. “Why does it have to cost so much?”

Before her friends could answer, they all heard the tinkling of the bell above the door, and then a familiar commanding voice.

“Excuse me. You there. Do you have any brown bootlaces?” Veronica demanded of the salesclerk.

The woman stepped forward. “Of course, miss,” she said. “They’re right over here. What length do you need?”

Veronica ignored the clerk’s question. She had just noticed The Saddle Club. “Well, well, well,” she said, strolling over to them. “If it isn’t show-off Stevie and her little fan club. You thought you were pretty clever in class today, didn’t you? But I know the truth. I saw you practicing that trotting half-pass last week.”

“So what?” Stevie asked, annoyed.

“So I’m going to tell Max,” Veronica replied. “I know you’re just trying to show up the rest of us, and he should know it, too.”

Carole and Lisa tried to stifle their giggles. Veronica was really stretching to pick a fight this time. First of all, Max already knew that Stevie and Belle had been practicing. It was obvious. No horse could do a trotting half-pass that well on the first try. Second, there was no reason at all Max would mind a
student practicing her skills outside of class. Obviously that idea was foreign to Veronica.

“If you spent less time shopping and more time riding, maybe you and Danny could be
almost
as good as Belle and I are,” Stevie retorted. “Then again, probably not.” She turned her back on Veronica and hung the bridle back on its hook.

“What’s that?” Veronica asked. She snatched the bridle down again and turned it over in her hands. “Hmm, this is nice. I’m surprised you would even bother to look at it, Stevie. It’s much too expensive for you.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Stevie said. “You’re not the only one who can buy nice things, you know. And this bridle will look great on Belle.”

“You may be right,” Veronica said sweetly. “Does that mean you’re buying it for her? After all, you saw it first.” She waited a moment. Stevie was silent. “Oh, good. I’ll take that as a no. Because the truth is, this bridle will look fabulous on Danny.” She marched over to the counter, where the salesclerk was waiting with the bootlaces. “I’ll take this, too,” she said loudly, laying the bridle on the counter.

Stevie watched, dumbfounded, as Veronica pulled out a credit card and paid. “I can’t believe it,” she whispered to her friends. “She’s buying
my
bridle! It’s just not fair.”

“She’s just doing it to make you mad,” Carole whispered back soothingly.

“Well, it’s working,” Stevie snapped. She glowered at Veronica, but the other girl didn’t even glance at The Saddle Club as she took the bag from the clerk and sauntered out of the store.

“What a jerk,” Lisa said when Veronica had gone. “Maybe we should be glad we’re not rich like her, if that’s what money does to your personality.”

The salesclerk walked over to them. “Hello, girls,” she said pleasantly. “I noticed you were looking at the bridle that young lady just bought. Are you interested in it? I have another one just like it in the back.”

“No, thank you,” Stevie said. “I’ll just take this.” She held up the cheek strap. “I don’t have enough money for a whole new bridle.”

But as the woman turned to lead her back to the cash register, Carole and Lisa heard Stevie mutter under her breath, “Not yet, anyway.”

C
AROLE RELUCTANTLY PULLED
her feet out of the cool water of Willow Creek. “I guess we should head back now,” she said. It was the warmest day of spring so far, and the girls had headed for Pine Hollow right after school for a trail ride. They had ended up at their favorite spot, a secluded area along the banks of the creek that had given their town its name. Their horses were dozing in the shade nearby as the girls dunked their feet in the running water.

“Do we have to?” Stevie moaned. She was lying on her back, eyes closed, legs dangling off the bank. “It’s so nice here.”

Lisa stood up and stretched, then reached for her socks and boots. “Don’t worry, Stevie. We’ll have all summer to do this,” she reminded her.

“If I survive that long,” Stevie said, opening her eyes but not sitting up. “I can’t believe how much work my teachers have been giving out lately. Haven’t they ever heard of winding down the school year?”

Carole laughed. “If you had your way, the school year would start winding down around the second week in September.”

“No, the first week,” Stevie corrected with a grin. She sat up and reached for her socks. “Anyway, I guess we should be getting back. I just remembered—Aunt Eugenia will be here soon.”

“How could you forget?” Lisa asked, rolling her eyes. “Max has been running around frantically for the last day and a half.”

“I don’t understand it,” Carole said, perching on a rock while she waited for her friends to finish putting on their boots. “Max is usually so levelheaded about everything. The last time I saw him this distracted was when he had just met Deborah.”

“Maybe he’s in love with Aunt Eugenia,” Stevie joked.

Lisa shook her head thoughtfully. “I doubt it,” she said, “but there is something going on. I wonder what?”

“Max is probably just in a weird mood or something,” Stevie said with a shrug. “Anyway, we have more important things to think about, remember?”

Carole groaned. “Please, Stevie. Don’t start up about your moneymaking schemes again. That’s all you’ve been able to talk about since Veronica bought that stupid bridle the other day.”

Stevie looked hurt. “What do you mean?” she protested. “This isn’t just about the bridle—although Belle does deserve it. I’m also trying to think of ways to raise money for your stuff.” Carole and Lisa had pointed out how much they wanted the
videos and the chaps. They’d been trying to make her feel better about not being able to afford a new bridle, but the plan had backfired. Stevie was determined that The Saddle Club should have all the things they wanted, and she had been coming up with all sorts of wild schemes to earn money.

“Come on, Stevie,” Lisa said. “Most of your plans have been pretty, well,
impractical
.”

“No they haven’t,” Stevie said. “I still think we could raise a lot of money by holding a bake sale outside the supermarket. My brother’s scout troop did it, and they made a nice profit.”

“Your brother’s scout troop had two dozen parents baking for them,” Carole reminded her. “Besides, I’m not sure most people would think donating money for Lisa’s new riding chaps is quite as worthy a cause.”

“Well, how about my party-planning service?” Stevie said. “The Saddle Club knows how to plan a great party. We’ve done it plenty of times for free. Why shouldn’t we get paid for it?”

“Nobody wants to spend a lot of money to hire someone to plan their party unless it’s a wedding or something,” Lisa said. “And nobody’s going to hire people our age to plan their wedding.”

“My personal favorite was your plan to get Max to pay us to repave the driveway and parking area at Pine Hollow,” Carole said with a laugh as she walked over to her bay gelding, Starlight, and got ready to mount.

“How about the one where she had the three of us mowing every field and lawn in the county with Max’s little riding mower?” Lisa added.

“Of course, he’d probably demand a share of our profits for the use of the mower,” Carole pointed out. “That’s why I prefer the one where she has
you
giving ballet lessons to little kids in
my
basement. No overhead, you know.”

By this time Carole and Lisa were both laughing, but Stevie didn’t look nearly as amused. “Very funny,” she said huffily, swinging up onto Belle’s back. “Here I am trying to help you out, and you’re treating it like a big joke.” She urged Belle into a trot and headed off down the trail.

Carole glanced at Lisa and shrugged. Stevie had a quick temper, but she usually didn’t stay angry for long. Besides, her friends knew it was really Veronica that Stevie was mad at, not them.

“I guess this isn’t the best time to mention my other favorite Stevie plan,” Carole said.