Nightmare (19 page)

“That was a great Horse Wise meeting,” Carole said.

“I’ll like it better when we can have mounted meetings again,” said Lisa.

Since nobody was allowed to bring any horses or ponies to Pine Hollow until the quarantine was lifted, they were only having unmounted meetings, because a lot of the members brought their own ponies to mounted meetings. It meant they were learning an awful lot, but it also meant that they couldn’t ride as a group or play games or practice skills on their own horses. It wasn’t surprising, then, that the girls had taken the time, after the meeting, to do some work together in the schooling ring.

“I would have preferred to go on a trail ride,” Stevie said.

“Well, we’ll be able to do that pretty soon,” Lisa said. “Like as soon as all the horses pass their next blood test, right?”

“There’s a little matter of getting Max’s permission, too,” Carole reminded her. “Although he was slightly glad we were all with Delilah, he was not exactly thrilled about the police and the hundreds of people who went
to look for all of us, and I definitely heard him mumble something about how we’d used up ten years’ worth of trail rides in those two days.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Stevie said. “We’ll talk him out of it.”

“How?” Lisa asked, genuinely curious.

“Somehow,” Stevie said. That was a word that tended to frighten her friends. If she didn’t have anything in mind, she was likely to jump on the first wild scheme that popped into her head, and those were always trouble—even when they were fun.

Behind them Starlight gave a gentle whinny.

“He thinks we’re ignoring him,” Carole said, looking over her shoulder at her beloved horse.

“Well, he’s right,” Lisa said. “It’s time to pay attention to our horses and take care of them the way they want to be taken care of.”

“You mean spoil them rotten?” Stevie asked.

“That’s what they have in mind,” Lisa said.

“Sounds good to me,” Carole added.

The girls climbed down from the fence and set to work. It was a wonderfully ordinary set of tasks they had to do, and the girls knew they would enjoy every bit of it. Caring for horses was so necessary and so compelling that it was impossible to fret or worry about anything else—especially now that there seemed to be so little to fret about anyway.

Carole was almost as certain as her friends that all the
Pine Hollow horses would be found free of the EIA virus. She now knew where her father was, that he wasn’t in any danger at all (except for eating too much French food!), and she had a good idea that he’d be home soon, based on what she’d read about the conference in the papers. Freed of worry about horses and her father, Carole had settled in to a pleasant visit with the Atwoods. She was always on time for dinner and she was as happy to help out at the Atwoods’ as she was at home. Their house almost felt like home now, too.

Carole picked up her grooming bucket and went to work on Starlight. Next to her, her two best friends were doing the same for their horses. What a trio they were, happy as could be as long as they were together and as long as that “together” included horses.

Now, an even happier piece of news was that Lisa was back to within normal range on her schoolwork. She wasn’t going to kill herself, literally or figuratively, about getting straight A-pluses. Straight As would be good enough for her. And Stevie? Well, Carole and Lisa never had figured out what her problem was. Ever since their trip through the woods, Stevie had been relaxed and cheerful—so cheerful that Carole suspected she was keeping a secret, but Carole didn’t have a hint as to what it might be.

Secret-keeping wasn’t Stevie’s strong point. In fact, Lisa and Carole talked about it once, and the longest either of them could remember Stevie keeping a secret
to herself was fourteen hours—and she’d slept for eight of them!

The only sour note these days was their sad memories of Delilah. After he had returned from the woods, Max had arranged to have her body picked up. The girls wanted to have Delilah buried on Pine Hollow property, but that was impossible because of the disease that had killed her. The last they saw of her was when a large van took her away. They had their memories, though, and those were precious indeed.

Carole tugged at a knot in Starlight’s mane, only vaguely aware that someone else was walking up to them. The person stopped next to the three girls. It was Mrs. Johnson, the woman who had been taking lessons from Max.

“Stephanie?” Mrs. Johnson said.

Stevie looked up at her in surprise. “Uh, yeah?” she responded. That was Stevie’s name all right, but not one she used much.

“I didn’t know that was your real name,” said Mrs. Johnson.

“I don’t hear it much,” Stevie said. “Unless my mother is really angry with me—or sometimes a new teacher will call me that on the first day of school.”

“But you signed your letter that way,” said Mrs. Johnson. “Well, I certainly know how that is. It’s really no different from my situation.”

Stevie was a little confused, but Mrs. Johnson had always seemed like a nice woman, so it would only be polite to wait and see what she wanted. Carole and Lisa listened, as rapt and as confused as Stevie.

“When I was born, my parents named me Elizabeth. It’s a lovely name, just as Stephanie is a lovely name, but it’s sort of a mouthful, if you know what I mean.”

“Sure,” Stevie said.

“Especially with my maiden name—Wallingford. It’s just not fair to make somebody go through seven syllables to get one person’s name. So my parents called me Betty, saving me two syllables every time I introduced myself!”

Stevie smiled. Then a bell started ringing.
Wallingford
sounded very familiar. But she couldn’t place it yet.

“Of course, none of that mattered much when I married Mickey Johnson. That’s a simple last name and can take a fancy first name, but by then I was so used to being called Betty that I stuck with it most of the time. Except when I started writing.”

“Elizabeth Wallingford Johnson?” Stevie said incredulously.

“That’s me,” Mrs. Johnson said, offering her hand to shake.

Stevie shook it. “I had no idea,” she said.

“Well, I could tell that,” said Mrs. Johnson. “And there’s no reason why you should. You know me as a
rider, and that’s the way I know you, too. You didn’t know I was a writer as well, nor did I know that you were one of my readers—until I got your wonderful letter.”

Stevie gulped. She’d expected an answer—but not in person! She had about fourteen questions she wanted to ask, but at the moment she was so stunned that she couldn’t speak. It was a very unusual circumstance for Stevie Lake to be speechless!

“Anyway, I did love your letter. I was so excited that you’d found that rock. That rock was my whole inspiration for the book.”

“It was Hallie’s?” Stevie asked.

Mrs. Johnson shook her head. “No, it was mine. I’ve been walking and riding through these woods for years and I’ve always known that rock. The cave is so cozy—”

Lisa and Carole looked at one another. They’d been totally lost, but now they realized that they knew the rock, too, and they knew exactly what Stevie and Mrs. Johnson were talking about.

“—and that mark looks just like an arrow. Well, Stevie, it just suggested the whole story to me.”

“But what about Hallie’s diary?” Stevie asked. “Isn’t that real?”

“Oh, sure,” said Mrs. Johnson. “There is a diary by an escaped slave named Hallie, but it doesn’t say anything about the rock. It’s very sketchy, in fact. She only mentions in passing that she’d escaped to Canada on the Underground Railroad. Everything in the book, except
the name of the woman and the fact of her escape, was made up by me.”

“Everything?”

“It’s a novel, Stevie,” Mrs. Johnson explained. “The whole thing is fiction, a made-up story.”

“But it seemed so
real
,” said Stevie. “Like I was there.”

Mrs. Johnson smiled. “That’s what I loved about your letter to me, when you said that. If I make a story feel real to you, then I’ve done my job.”

“You did,” said Stevie.

“Really well,” Carole added.

“Absolutely,” said Lisa.

“You girls read the book, too?” asked Mrs. Johnson.

“Well, Stevie kept talking about it,” said Carole. “We just had to. Oh, and incidentally, if you get another letter suggesting that the rock is real and is in Willow Creek, Virginia, you don’t have to answer it,” she added shyly. “I mean, I think you’ve already answered it.”

“Um, make that three,” Lisa said. Carole and Stevie both looked at her, and then the three of them burst into laughter. Mrs. Johnson joined them.

“This feels like the beginning of a fan club!” said Mrs. Johnson. “I guess I’d better write another book now!”

“Please do!” Stevie said.

“And we promise to write you about it!” Lisa added. Mrs. Johnson thanked them all and then left the stable.

They were still laughing together when they finished
their grooming. Carole dropped her polishing rag into her bucket.

“This boy’s going back to his stall for a snack, and then I think it’s time for the three of us to go over to TD’s for a treat. Anybody here want to have a Saddle Club meeting?”

“Last one there is a rotten egg!” Stevie declared.

The race was on.

Bonnie Bryant is the author of nearly a hundred books about horses, including The Saddle Club series, Saddle Club Super Editions, and the Pony Tails series. 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.

Don’t miss Bonnis Bryant’s next exciting Saddle Club Adventure …

HORSE TALK

The Saddle Club #71

When Willow Creek Junior High School gets its own radio station, The Saddle Club goes on the air! Hosting a call-in show, however, is a lot more difficult than the three friends ever imagined. At first nobody calls. Then Stevie’s brother Chad gets his friends to phone in with silly questions. The Saddle Club tries to fight back by flooding the phone lines with their own calls, but Chad seems to be winning.

Then a caller tells them about a horse in trouble, and The Saddle Club has to decide whether the call is for real. A horse may be in danger, or Chad may be playing his tricks again. It’s up to The Saddle Club to find out and try to save a horse before it’s too late!