Gold Medal Rider (2 page)

“He’s a dork-head,” Stevie persisted.

“Speaking of dork-heads,” Carole cut in, “Stevie’s got something that should really cheer you up.” She sat down on the edge of Lisa’s bed.

“That’s right!” Stevie dug into her backpack and pulled out a large envelope, which she tossed onto Lisa’s lap. “It only took me five months to remember to get them developed. Pictures!”

“Of our trip to North Carolina?” Lisa ripped open the envelope. Stevie and Carole exchanged grins. It was the first time they’d seen Lisa act enthusiastic all week.

“Oh, look! Here’s one of Dorothy and Nigel!” Lisa held up a snapshot of an attractive couple sitting on a hay bale.

Carole took the photo from Lisa and studied it closely.
Dorothy was Carole’s hero. She had started riding at Pine Hollow, just like The Saddle Club. She had grown up to be a famous rider, and had been at the top of her professional career when a freak accident left her unable to show. Now she was married to a British event rider, Nigel Hawthorne. The couple trained horses and riders at their farm on Long Island in the summer and in Southern Pines, North Carolina, in the winter. The Saddle Club had visited them in Southern Pines several months earlier.

“Here’s grumpy Beatrice,” said Stevie, pointing to a picture of one of Dorothy and Nigel’s students. “She’s not smiling in any of them.”

“Typical,” Lisa remarked. “I’m really sorry about what happened to her, but it wouldn’t have hurt her to smile once in a while.”

“Here’s Drew with that dopey look on his face. Looks like he’s admiring you,” Carole said, pulling a photo off the pile and handing it to Lisa.

“He’s not admiring me,” Lisa protested, looking at the picture. “He’s admiring Southwood. And you shouldn’t call him dopey—”

“Dorky,” murmured Stevie.

“He’s nice and I like him,” Lisa said firmly. “He’s a friend.”

Stevie grinned wryly. “I know. He is nice. He’s just such an easy target!”

“Look,” Carole cut in. “It’s Kate and Southwood!” Kate
Devine was the fourth member of The Saddle Club. She lived out West on a ranch with her parents, but she had gone with the other girls to North Carolina. Southwood was a championship horse, and Kate had been lucky enough to ride him in a competition there.

The three bent over the photograph. “Wow!” Lisa said. “It’s amazing!” She turned her bedside lamp on and held the photo under it. “Kate’s position is perfect, and you can tell what a huge effort Southwood made over the fence.”

“Look at Kate’s expression,” Carole added. “Look how determined she looks.”

“I sure hope Southwood makes it to the Olympics some day,” Stevie said. “We’ll be able to say we knew him before he was famous.”

Lisa brushed her hair from her face and smiled. “Boy,” she said, “that was a great trip.” The girls sat back with contented sighs. They could remember everything as clearly as if it had just happened.…

A
COLD
WIND
blew the last autumn leaves off the trees that lined the road. “It’s not fair!” Stevie’s twin brother, Alex, repeated. Stevie ignored him. Her mother’s car bounced along the gravel road toward Willow Creek’s small airport and pulled up next to the tiny terminal. Lisa and Carole and their parents were standing outside.

“At last!” Stevie got out of the car and waved to the others. She had thought she would be late for sure. Her mother had had a meeting after work, Stevie couldn’t find
her second-best breeches, and at the last minute Alex had insisted on coming with them. Stevie was convinced that he only wanted to come so that he could whine all the way there. Sometimes she really liked having Alex for a twin. This was not one of those times.

Stevie pulled her duffel bag out of the trunk. Alex grabbed her backpack. “Careful with that,” Stevie told him. “It’s got my camera in it.”

“I can’t believe you get to miss school,” Alex grumbled. “It’s not fair!”

“Your sister did very well on her report card this quarter,” Mrs. Lake said, closing the trunk and putting her arm around Stevie’s shoulders, “and she hasn’t been sick once this year. Missing one day of school isn’t going to hurt her.”

Stevie grinned at Alex. She had no idea why her report card was so good—her teachers did seem to have a sense of humor this year, which helped—but she was pretty relieved about it. Usually her report card skirted right on the edge of disaster—disaster being any grade below a C, because if she got one of those she wasn’t allowed to ride. This term—wonder of wonders—Stevie had gotten nothing below a B. Two teachers had even seen fit to give her As!

It was a Thursday evening in late November, and the next day there was a countywide teacher’s convention, so
all the schools would be closed. By missing school on Monday, The Saddle Club would get to spend four days with Dorothy and Nigel in Southern Pines.

Stevie hurried to join her friends, who stood near the end of the runway. Colonel Hanson, Carole’s father, checked his watch. “Any minute now,” he murmured.

“Lisa, dear,” said Lisa’s mother, “did you remember to pack a nice dress for evenings?”

Lisa didn’t answer. Stevie could tell from the look on Lisa’s face that she had not packed a nice dress. Neither had Stevie. No way would they need dresses, nice or otherwise, around Dorothy and Nigel.

“I hope you brought your blue one,” Mrs. Atwood said. “It’s so nice for fall. It might be chilly in the evenings, you know, even in North Carolina.”

“I know, Mom.” Lisa sighed. She was trying hard to ignore her mother’s questions without seeming rude. Clothes were important to Mrs. Atwood, and horses were something she did not understand. Sometimes Lisa and her mother seemed exactly opposite.

She thought for a moment. Her blue dress was with her other dresses, hanging in her closet at home, but where were her muck boots? Suddenly she was afraid she’d forgotten them, and she would need them when she helped Dorothy and Nigel clean stalls.

Lisa dropped to her knees and unzipped her duffel bag. She searched through it quickly—riding boots, hard hat,
crop. All her gear took up so much space. Aha! Here were her muck boots—only they were still mucky. Lisa looked at the dried dirt crumbing onto her sweaters and smiled to herself. Where she was going, no one would notice a little dirt—or even a lot of it. She zipped her duffel.

“All set, dear?” asked her mother.

“All set, Mom,” Lisa assured her. It was true, too, even though Lisa and her mother had different definitions of “all set.”

Carole squeezed Lisa’s arm. “I just remembered something,” she whispered. “I forgot my toothbrush!”

Lisa laughed. “Again?” Carole always left something behind. One summer she’d gone by herself to visit Dorothy and Nigel on Long Island. She’d forgotten her toothbrush then, too. It was like old times.

“I’m sure you can buy a toothbrush in Southern Pines,” Stevie said, moving to Carole’s side. “Look! Isn’t that the plane?” The three friends stood shoulder to shoulder, watching a small light in the evening dusk grow bigger as it approached them.

“That’s it!” Colonel Hanson said. “You girls be nice to Kate’s father now, and stay out of his way on that plane. Don’t drive the businessmen crazy.”

“I wonder if any of them ride?” Carole asked mischievously. “If not, we could tell them what they’re missing.”

“I wonder if any of them know any good jokes?” Stevie added, grinning at Colonel Hanson. “If not, I could tell
them the one about the green-eyed hermit and the three-toed frog.”

Carole’s father laughed. He and Stevie shared the same weird sense of humor.

“I’m sure the girls will behave,” Mrs. Atwood said sweetly, with a warning look at Lisa.

“I think we’ll be pretty busy catching up with Kate,” Lisa replied sensibly. “We probably won’t even notice the businessmen.”

A small yellow plane touched down on the far end of the runway and came screeching to a halt not far from where they stood. After a moment the door opened, stairs descended, and a tall girl, slightly older than the rest of The Saddle Club, tumbled out.

“Carole, Stevie!” she cried. “Lisa!”

“Kate!” they screeched and ran to greet her. The four girls hugged on the runway, whooping with joy.

“It’s been so long since we saw you,” Carole said, giving Kate another hug. Kate’s father had been in the Marines with Colonel Hanson before he retired and bought a dude ranch out West. The Saddle Club had been there several times. Colonel Devine was also a private pilot for a man who often flew to the Washington, D.C., area, so he was sometimes able to fly The Saddle Club to his ranch or bring Kate to them in Virginia.

“Hey, Mitch! Good to see you, buddy.” Colonel Devine came out of the plane and shook hands with Carole’s father.
He shook hands with Stevie’s and Lisa’s parents, too. “Been riding any horses lately?” he asked Mrs. Atwood affectionately.

“I’m saving myself for a return trip to the Bar None,” Lisa’s mother replied with dignity. They all laughed. The last time The Saddle Club had visited Kate, all their parents had come with them to the ranch.

“I can’t believe your dad could arrange to fly us this weekend,” Stevie said as the girls stowed their baggage in the plane’s hold. They turned and said good-bye to their parents and to Alex, who was still complaining, and followed Kate and her father into the plane. Three men in golf sweaters sat inside.

“It was easy,” Kate said. She led them to the back four seats, and they all fastened their seat belts. “We’re ready, Dad!” She introduced her friends to the three men and explained where they were going. “These gentlemen are friends of Dad’s, and they hired him to take them golfing for the weekend. There’s some place right near Southern Pines that’s good for golf, and Dad’s going to stay with them and play, too. He said he could stop here and drop me off to visit you, but I knew your friends Dorothy and Nigel might be in North Carolina, so I checked it out, and they were! Dorothy was really nice on the phone, even though she doesn’t know me. She said they’d love to see us all. So it was easy, even if it was at the last minute.”

Lisa was puzzled. “How did you know Dorothy and Nigel
might be in North Carolina? Usually they’re on Long Island.”

Kate laughed. “Half the eventers on the East Coast spend the winter in the South, and most of those go to Southern Pines,” she said. “They don’t want to try to keep their horses fit in the snow. You can’t gallop in indoor arenas—there isn’t room.”

Lisa wrinkled her nose. “But how would you know that?” she asked.

“Don’t forget Kate’s history,” Carole reminded her.

“That’s right,” Kate said, laughing. “Long ago, I even spent a few winters in Southern Pines, North Carolina. That was before I learned not to take myself so seriously.”

“Oh, right.” Lisa felt embarrassed. She always had such a great time hanging out with Kate that she forgot Kate had been one of the best junior event riders in the country. Carole had told them all how famous Kate had been, but Lisa had never seen her that way, and Kate rarely talked about her riding past.

“Don’t feel silly,” Kate said. “That’s been behind me for a long time. I prefer just riding for fun. But you guys will love North Carolina. It’s a gorgeous state to ride in.”

While Kate described the pine forests and sandy hills of southern North Carolina, the little plane chugged forward into the fading light. It was dark when they arrived and saw Dorothy and Nigel waiting on the tarmac.

“Dorothy! Nigel!” Carole called to them from the doorway of the plane. Dorothy and Nigel waved back. Nigel was wearing a Norwegian sweater and a baseball cap along with breeches and riding boots. He was even wearing spurs. Dorothy wore jeans and a jacket. She still rode occasionally, despite her injured back, but she did most of her horse training from the ground.

“This is our friend Kate Devine,” Carole said.

“We feel like we know you already,” Dorothy said pleasantly, a smile lighting her face.

“I say,” said Nigel, shaking Kate’s hand, “you look familiar. Don’t I know you from somewhere?”

“You should,” Dorothy chided him. “Kate’s one of the best junior eventers around.” She smiled at Kate. “Nigel wasn’t in the United States back when you were competing, but I remember seeing you at several competitions. And, of course, Carole, Stevie, and Lisa have told us all about you.”

“I
used
to be an event rider,” Kate said to Nigel, a small but firm smile on her face. “I don’t compete anymore. I just ride for fun.”

“Well, we’re glad to meet you,” Nigel said. “Any friend of The Saddle Club is a friend of ours.”

The girls chattered enthusiastically while they gathered up their belongings. Kate said a quick good-bye to her father, and they all piled into Dorothy’s car. It was a tight fit. Lisa sat on Kate’s lap, and Carole sat on Stevie’s.

“It isn’t a long drive,” Nigel assured them. He hit a pothole and Lisa’s head bumped the roof. “Bouncy, though.” They all laughed.

“Maybe you should have brought horses to the airport,” Stevie suggested. “We could have ridden back instead.”

“I’d have had to bring my best jumpers,” Nigel said, shaking his head as he hit another bump. “These roads are horrendous.”