English Horse (16 page)

When they reached the woods again after jumping an X-shaped gate on the far side of the meadow, the girls slowed their horses. Once Starlight had settled into a smooth extended trot, Carole turned to her friends. “I was just trying to figure something out,” she said, a little breathless from the fast-paced ride. “Do you think that very first steeplechase was anything like this?”

Lisa and Stevie laughed, glancing down at their costumes, but Tessa looked thoughtful. “I was wondering the same thing,” she said. “I mean, I’ve ridden in my share of jumping races back home. But somehow, even though I’m way off in America where they hardly even know the meaning of steeplechasing”—she paused to grin teasingly at her friends—“somehow, this feels a lot more … I don’t know, authentic maybe. It has the spirit of what a
true, old-fashioned cross-country run must have been like, whether it was that race in County Cork or the original version of the Midnight Steeplechase.”

The others couldn’t argue with that, so they didn’t try. They just went back to enjoying the ride.

After a couple of miles over hill and dale, Lisa could tell that they had almost reached their goal. “Let’s speed up,” she called to her friends.

They had been cantering to give their horses a break, but now they urged them into a gallop as they crossed another open meadow. Danny had just reentered a patch of woods at the far side, and they saw Veronica glance back at them over one shoulder. Even at this distance, they recognized the smug look on her face.

“She thinks she’s got this race in the bag,” Stevie reported with a grin. “Come on, let’s go! We’ve got to make her think she’s really earned it.”

They managed to come within half a dozen yards of Danny’s heels, but no closer. The big Thoroughbred gelding was too fast for the other horses. On the other side of the wooded patch, the landscape turned grassy and park-like, perfectly smooth and flat aside from a few shrubs and a line of tall, stately evergreens a quarter mile away.

Carole spied a pair of stone chimneys peeking out over the tops of the evergreen windbreak. She crossed her fingers on the reins, hoping that Veronica wouldn’t notice the building and figure things out too soon. The Saddle
Club had no idea if she had actually managed to get herself invited to this particular house before …

The girls urged their horses forward even faster, jumping them over a narrow, meandering stream and then bursting through the windbreak into the Penningtons’ front yard. Veronica had arrived seconds before them and had pulled Danny up, looking confused.

“Hey,” she called, twisting around in her saddle to talk to the other girls, who had also pulled their horses to a stop. Veronica’s sheep nightcap started to wobble as she turned, and she had to grab it to keep it on her hard hat. “What’s the deal here?” she demanded irritably. “I thought someone said the finish line was some old wall in a field.” She reached into her pocket for her map.

“Hang back here,” Carole told her friends in a low voice. “We want to make sure she’s the center of attention.”

Her friends nodded and kept their horses in the long, late-day shadow of the evergreen windbreak.

A second later the front door of the old stone house banged open. “Hey!” Miles Pennington yelled, stepping out onto the porch. “Veronica? Is that you?”

“Cool,” Stevie whispered to her friends. “I guess Miles believed me when I called and told him he and his friends might have an interesting visitor tonight during their party.”

Veronica froze. Then she slowly looked up from her
map, a look of horror on her face. “M-Miles?” she stammered, grabbing for her nightcap. But at that moment several other teenage boys poured out of the house behind Miles, whooping and hollering. Even the usually unflappable Danny was startled by the sudden noise. He shied a few steps to one side, and Veronica had to grab for his mane to stay in the saddle. The sheep hat swayed woozily from side to side on her head. Her pink bunny top flapped in the breeze.

“Hey, guys!” Miles cried. “This is one of the girls who rides at the stable where Mother is keeping the team.”

“Wow!” exclaimed a tall boy with a shock of blond hair and a mischievous grin. “People really know how to dress here in Virginia!”

Veronica’s face was bright red. The other girls were feeling a little flushed, too, but only because they were laughing so hard. As the boys continued to laugh and point at Veronica and joke about her outfit—which she was in the process of ripping off and throwing angrily onto the ground—Tessa turned to her friends.

“I must say,” she said between giggles, “it may not be very nice of me, but this really does make me feel a lot better.”

Lisa grinned. “You know what the best part is?” She pointed.

The other girls looked and saw that the boys had surrounded Veronica. One of them was holding Danny by the bridle and looking him over admiringly. The tall
blond boy had grabbed the discarded sheep hat and jammed it on his own head, laughing hysterically. Miles and a couple of the other boys had grabbed Veronica’s map and were playing keep away with it while she shouted insults at them.

“What’s the best part?” Carole asked Lisa curiously. “I honestly can’t decide.”

“They’re destroying the evidence,” Lisa replied simply. “Don’t you see? That bogus map is the only thing she could use to prove we set this up.” She shrugged and watched as the map fell into a patch of dirt. A second later, Danny shifted his weight and stepped on it, grinding it into the ground. “Now all we have to do is play dumb. She can’t prove a thing. And when Max gets wind of that bet between her and Tessa …”

“Ah,” Tessa said wisely. “Yes. We’ll have to make sure that gets back to him somehow. Then he’ll assume that Veronica is just being a sore loser.”

Carole glanced over at Stevie. She was shaking her head.

“What is it?” Carole asked. “Don’t you think that will work?”

“Oh, sure.” Stevie waved her hand airily. “I wasn’t disagreeing with that. I was disagreeing with what you said about the messed-up map being the best part. That’s not the best part. The whole thing is the best part!” She grinned. “Revenge is sweet!”

Her friends couldn’t help agreeing with that. They
turned to watch as Veronica tried to convince Miles’s friends to let Danny go. She seemed very upset. Danny, however, didn’t share her consternation. After his exhausting run through the countryside, he seemed perfectly willing to stand with the nice boy who was patting his neck as he held the bridle.

“Come on,” Tessa said at last. She gathered Topside’s reins. “We ought to get moving. Technically, we’ve still got to get to that stone wall before Veronica does, just in case she ever figures out where it really is.”

The others nodded. “I know a shortcut,” Stevie said. “We won’t even have to canter. The horses could probably use a rest anyway.”

“Definitely.” Lisa patted Derby. It still didn’t feel quite right being out there without Prancer, but the big chestnut gelding was fun to ride, too. Whatever Stevie said, Lisa had her own opinion about the best part of this wacky midnight steeplechase. It had reassured her that she and Derby really could work well together. That made her think that the next week’s point-to-point could be a lot of fun.

Carole had her own ideas about the best part of the evening, too. She loved the fact that they had been able to combine their revenge plan with an exhilarating evening ride through the countryside. She was sure that was why their plan had been so successful—because anything just seemed to work out better when there were horses
around. Although water balloons occasionally had their place too, of course …

There was no doubt in Stevie’s mind about the best part of the evening. As the four friends rode through the windbreak, she couldn’t resist taking one last peek at Veronica. Her grin stretched even wider when she saw that Miles had managed to jump up and jam the now muddy sheep hat back onto Veronica’s head just as Mrs. Pennington emerged onto the front porch. The expression of surprise on the regal old woman’s face and the look of dismay on Veronica’s were the icing on the cake as far as Stevie was concerned.

No, there was no doubt in her mind at all. “Revenge is sweet,” she whispered again as she urged Belle forward after her friends.

“I
T
’
S HARD TO BELIEVE
that such big horses can turn so smoothly,” Carole commented the next afternoon. “Especially when they’re dragging that pony cart around behind them.”

The four members of The Saddle Club were leaning on the fence of the outdoor ring, watching as Mrs. Pennington exercised her team of Cleveland Bays. Her own carriages still hadn’t arrived from Pennsylvania, so she was borrowing Max’s pony cart. Hodge and Podge were pulling it easily around the large ring. following their driver’s every command.

Stevie was impressed with the team’s actions, too. But she was more interested in rehashing the events of the evening before. “So Veronica must have spent an
hour trying to convince Max that we tricked her,” she exulted.

“You could tell he was pretty suspicious, though,” Lisa reminded Stevie, shading her eyes from the sun as she turned to look at her. “We’re just lucky he overheard Britt and Polly talking about that bet Tessa and Veronica made.”

“It was a close call,” Tessa agreed. “I’m just glad we got away with it—for your sakes.” She grinned. “And for mine. I’d be awfully bored riding here at Pine Hollow for the next week without the lot of you.”

“Ha-ha,” Stevie said sarcastically. She glanced over her shoulder at the stable building and sighed. “Still, I wish this probation would end. It’s kind of stressful to have to be so good all the time.” She looked surprised when her friends all burst out laughing. Then she realized that what she had said actually was kind of funny, all things considered, so she laughed, too.

Tessa was the first one to get serious again. “It’s good that we can joke about it,” she said. “But I still feel rather guilty. If it weren’t for me, Veronica wouldn’t have as easy a time torturing you. I’m like a walking target.”

Lisa shrugged. “That’s not your fault. Veronica is the one with the problem, not you. I’m just sorry you let her off the hook for your bet.”

“Me too,” Stevie put in. “I was looking forward to seeing her as a rodeo clown at the parade. I was going to call the mayor and everything.” She heaved a disappointed sigh.

“Sorry, Stevie.” Tessa chuckled. “I thought canceling the bet was the gracious thing to do. After all, we already got our reward.” She shrugged. “And call me mad, but Veronica seemed a little friendlier after I did it.”

“You’re mad,” Stevie said promptly. “At least, if by
mad
you mean ‘crazy.’ If Veronica seemed friendly, you can be sure it was because she thought someone important was watching.”

“Let me have my dreams,” Tessa joked. “I’m hoping that if I can get Veronica feeling less hostile to me, I won’t feel like my very presence puts you in constant danger of losing your riding privileges.”

Stevie shrugged. “Give up that dream right now. Veronica will never change. She’s the one who got you kicked out of the junior hurdle, remember?”

Tessa rolled her eyes. “Don’t remind me,” she said. “I still wish I could ride in it, especially after last night. Topside could leave you all in the dust!” She shrugged. “But I’ll survive.”

Lisa grinned and slung an arm around Tessa’s shoulders. “Would it make you feel better if we took you on an extra-special Saddle Club trail ride?”

Tessa stuck out her tongue. “Silly. We were planning to do that anyway.”

“I know,” Lisa replied. “But that was just an ordinary trail ride. This is an extra-special one.”

Carole nodded. “And that makes all the difference.”

B
ONNIE
B
RYANT
is the author of more than a hundred books about horses, including The Saddle Club series, Saddle Club Super Editions, the Pony Tails series, and Pine Hollow, which follows the Saddle Club girls into their teens. She has also written novels and movie novelizations under her married name, B. B. Hiller.

Ms. Bryant began writing The Saddle Club in 1986. Although she had done some riding before that, she intensified her studies then and found herself learning right along with her characters Stevie, Carole, and Lisa. She claims that they are all much better riders than she is.

Ms. Bryant was born and raised in New York City. She still lives there, in Greenwich Village, with her two sons.