Stable Groom (9 page)

“The poor guy is trying to make plans for marrying the woman he loves, and instead he has to worry about Veronica’s stupid accusations,” Lisa said.

“Yeah, it’s no wonder he’s not himself,” Stevie agreed. “Any sign of the Equestrian Center examiner?” she asked hopefully. She and Carole and Lisa had gotten into the habit of scanning the driveway for strange cars.

“Nope. The only cars in the driveway are Max’s, Red’s, and Mrs. Reg’s. And I guess that means you haven’t heard anything by mail?” Lisa asked.

Stevie shook her head. “I check the mailbox every day, though,” she said glumly. Stevie left to get Belle ready. She didn’t want to risk another run-in with Max, this time about being late. She stopped by the tack room on her way to the mare’s stall. Startled, she saw Max standing inside. He was staring blankly at the row of saddles.

Stevie entered the room quietly and grabbed her tack. Max looked at her and smiled vaguely. Stevie
didn’t feel like waiting around for him to snap out of whatever daze he was in. He had said he had lots of things to take care of before the lesson. Evidently, one of them was gazing at saddles.

W
HEN THE LESSON
started, Max called the group into the center of the ring. Veronica straggled up, the last to arrive. She grabbed her reins from Red, who had been holding Garnet at ringside, waiting to give Veronica a leg up. Without a word of greeting, the girl put her foot into Red’s hands and sprang into the saddle. Max looked at her disapprovingly but said nothing. “Uh, today we’ll be working on relaxation of the horse and rider,” he announced.

The Saddle Club exchanged glances.

“We’re working on it again, you mean?” Lisa asked timidly. Normally she wouldn’t have questioned Max, but today he looked plain out of it.

Max frowned. “How silly of me. Of course, we did that last week. What I meant to say is, ah … is … why doesn’t everyone warm up using the exercises we learned last week. I know you’ve been practicing them on your own, and I want to see your progress.”

That sounded better. The riders filed out to the rail and began to go through the stretches they had
learned. Max watched for a few minutes without saying anything. Then Mrs. Reg appeared at the rail of the ring and summoned him over. “Your suit has come back from the cleaners,” Lisa overheard the older woman tell Max.

The rest of the warm-up went haphazardly. Max seemed to be looking at his watch more than at his students. Carole noticed that a couple of times Veronica snatched at Garnet’s reins without provoking so much as a mild reprimand from Max. He stared right at her, then glanced away. It made Carole worry to see Max this way. She had seen him distracted, but now he seemed almost nervous.

“Mrs. diAngelo must have really gotten to him,” she whispered to Lisa, who had trotted up beside her.

“I know! I was waiting for him to yell at Veronica, and he ignored her completely,” Lisa responded. “If this goes on every day until his wedding, I don’t think I’ll be able to take it.”

By reflex, they glanced anxiously at Max to see if he had noticed them talking, but he seemed lost in thought.

N
EAR THE END
of the lesson, Deborah came out to the ring. She waved to The Saddle Club, who waved back. Max seemed delighted to see her. He interrupted
the lesson, gave her a big kiss, and spoke with her for several minutes.

“She sure gets his mind off his worries, doesn’t she? That’s the most relaxed he’s seemed during the entire lesson,” Lisa said.

“You call this a lesson?” Stevie asked. “I call it the ‘everyone come talk to Max’ hour.”

“You can’t blame him for wanting to talk to his fiancée. Half the time she comes, she sneaks in and out without even saying hi,” Lisa said.

It was nice to see Max as half of a happy couple. The two of them talked and joked until Deborah left. Then Max seemed to remember himself. He shouted out a few commands to wake everyone up. But right as they got going, Mrs. Reg reappeared at the ring. Max seemed to realize that it was hopeless to try to continue the class for the remaining five minutes. He told everyone to pack it in for the day, and joined his mother at the rail. The two of them began to speak in hushed tones.

Meanwhile, Veronica, who had dismounted, began to holler for Red. Red showed up in a couple of minutes, walking hurriedly.

“I haven’t got all day,” Veronica said loudly. “And Garnet’s ears and muzzle need to be trimmed. They’re getting all gross and hairy.”

Red started to explain. “We trim the whiskers on all the horses at the same—”

“I don’t care when
all
the horses get done,” Veronica cut him off. “I care only about Garnet, and I’m telling you to trim her whiskers today. Got it?”

Watching her rebuke Red for something that was beyond his control was too much for Carole. She felt anger at Veronica boiling over inside her. It wasn’t fair that one person should have so much control over another person. Without thinking about what she was doing, she opened her mouth and yelled at Veronica. “Just quit it! Stop telling Red what to do!”

Veronica gaped at Carole. Her face flushed an angry red. “How dare you interfere in something that’s not your business?” she demanded, her voice trembling.

Red motioned for Carole to keep out of it, but she was too wound up. It seemed as if she had been watching Veronica attack Red forever. Suddenly she couldn’t tolerate it. She stood her ground. “This happens to
be
my business—and everyone else’s at Pine Hollow. You’ve been unfairly criticizing Red for too long, and we’re sick of it.”

Lisa and Stevie, impressed with Carole’s courage, immediately backed her up. Stevie stood beside Carole while Lisa went to the rail to get Max’s attention. The three of them were so bent on telling Veronica
off that none of them noticed the irritated expression on Red’s face.

“Max,” Lisa began, tugging on his sleeve, “we all think Red is great with the horses—I can’t believe you wouldn’t—I mean, he’s one of the best employees anyone could have,” she blurted out. She knew she wasn’t making sense, but she was too worked up to slow down and speak calmly.

Mrs. Reg and Max looked at her curiously. “I’m fully aware of all of Red’s capabilities,” Max said sternly, turning back to his mother.

Lisa didn’t know what to say to that. Max had taken all the wind out of her argument. She glanced anxiously back at Carole and Stevie. Carole seemed to have won round one, for Veronica had stormed off toward her mother’s waiting car.

“What happened?” Lisa asked breathlessly, joining the others. Carole and Stevie looked at her, embarrassed.

Red spoke up. “Listen, I know you’re trying to help, but I don’t need you to stand up for me or to tell Max that I’m doing my job, okay?” he said gruffly.

“But, Red, that’s what
you
think. Just when someone becomes the most confident, that’s when they won’t notice what’s
really
going on,” Stevie said urgently. She didn’t want to annoy Red more, but the
situation was getting desperate. The Equestrian Center seemed to be ignoring their letter, and Veronica, backed by her parents, was getting worse every day, while Max was turning into a wimp.

“Yes, well, I’ll deal with anything that comes up,” Red replied. Leading Garnet, he headed toward the barn.

Carole waited until he was gone a few minutes. Then she cried, “How could I have been so dumb? We made Red look stupid in front of Veronica.”

“Hey, I’m the one who went to Max,” Lisa said. She let her breath out in a long sigh. “A lot of good that did.”

“All right—no getting upset about this. We’re just trying to help Red. If he can’t appreciate that …” Stevie’s voice trailed off.

Carole looked at her quizzically. “If he can’t appreciate that, then what?”

“Well, too bad. Because our help is far from over,” Stevie said. “And when he passes the Equestrian Center test, he’ll change his tune fast.”

“I hope so,” Carole said. “I think Veronica and I were on the brink of a fistfight!”

As they walked the horses back, Deborah emerged from the stable. “I was hoping you’d be coming in about now,” she said. “I’ve got a favor to ask. Could
you think of something to distract Max while I have another riding lesson?”

“That’s easy,” Stevie said. “He’s been totally distracted all afternoon.”

Deborah laughed. “It doesn’t surprise me.”

After a quick Saddle Club conference, they decided that Carole and Lisa would put Belle away while Stevie found a way to occupy Max. Deborah thanked them and hurried off to change from her city reporter’s clothes into riding attire.

Stevie racked her brains for the perfect foil. She gazed out at the driveway. A grain delivery truck had just pulled out and was waiting to let a flower delivery truck pull in. Stevie remembered hearing Mrs. Reg say something about needing to spruce up the jump course with some shrubbery. That didn’t help her think of anything. Then the grain delivery truck sparked her memory. She remembered a point Denise had made in her nutrition lecture. She clapped her hands together. She had it—the perfect distraction. She made a few preparations and went to find Max. Once again he was sitting in his office.

“I’m sorry to bother you, Max, but there’s something I think you should look at. You know how Denise was telling us that it’s very important to look at
the quality of each new grain shipment that comes in?” Stevie asked.

“Of course. That was a very important point she made,” Max said.

“Well, for practice I went and looked at the shipment we just got, and I don’t think the sweet feed is the same quality as the stuff we usually feed.”

Max raised his eyebrows. “Really? That’s serious. I’ll go check it out.” Instead of seeming annoyed by the interruption, Max almost looked eager to have something to do. Stevie watched happily as he set off for the grain room. There she had set out eight buckets of grain for him to examine. To keep him busy, she had mixed in the remains of her lunch—a few crumbled-up cookies, a lettuce leaf or two, and a couple of sandwich crusts. When she peeked around the grain room door, she saw Max crouching beside the buckets, wearing a puzzled expression. She had to clamp her hand over her mouth to keep from cracking up. Max normally would have dispensed with her trickery in about two minutes. But today Max was being so flaky that she knew the hoax would keep him busy for at least the length of the riding lesson. Grinning impishly, she went to help Lisa and Carole.

When she got to Belle’s stall, the mare was inside, cool and groomed. There was a note stuck to her
nameplate:
Gone to watch. Come join us when finished. L and C
. She tore the note off, gave Belle a good pat, and headed out to the schooling ring.

Lisa and Carole were perched on the rail. “She’s doing really well,” Carole whispered to Stevie as she climbed up. Stevie quickly filled them in on the grain hoax and then settled in to watch.

In the ring, Deborah was cantering Delilah. It was clear that she had learned a lot. She looked fairly confident in the saddle. The wind had picked up, and her red ponytail bounced on her back. When Red told her to trot, she sat up and steadied the mare with her seat, legs, and hands. Delilah broke evenly into a trot. Deborah sat quietly for a few seconds and then began to post. She started off on the wrong diagonal but quickly corrected herself. Red praised her for noticing the mistake.

“She looks a hundred times better,” Stevie murmured.

“Thanks to Red’s being such a great teacher,” said Lisa. They all knew that Deborah’s own motivation was a big part of her success, but that was a given. Red had taken her from a total beginner to someone who had the basics down pat. She could walk, trot, and canter, change leads, and post correctly. That was
more than enough to be able to join Max on a trail ride or school with him in the ring.

The sound of a car pulling into the driveway interrupted The Saddle Club’s thoughts. They had gotten so used to noting every single car that drove onto the property that they turned automatically. “Hey, I’ve never seen that car before,” Lisa said. It was a dark blue sedan.

As they watched, the car stopped and a well-dressed woman got out, carrying some papers and a notebook. She looked around vaguely. Stevie squinted in the sun, trying to see if she recognized the woman. Then she did a double take. The car had an Indiana license plate!

B
ECAUSE HER SIGNATURE
was first on the letter, Stevie figured she should be the first to introduce herself. As she trotted over she could barely catch her breath, she was so excited. It was perfect! Red was already in the middle of giving a lesson, so the test could start right away.

“You’re the judge, aren’t you?” she asked excitedly.

“Yes—yes, I am,” the woman said. She seemed a bit taken aback by Stevie’s enthusiasm.

“We’re so happy you could make it!” Stevie exclaimed.

“Naturally I could make it. It’s my job, after all,” the woman replied.

“It’s just that Pine Hollow is so far away. We were worried you might not come,” Stevie explained.

“It’s not
that
far,” the woman said. “Believe me, I’ve gone much farther.” She looked Stevie up and down. “And, ah, who might you be?” she asked.