Secret of the Stallion (5 page)

“Delightful,” Veronica said. “Such a cute old couple!
Daddy was absolutely right. I found them totally charming. Too bad you three had to be dragged way out into the country. I’m sure you would have loved the Chubbles.”

“Wasn’t their name Chumley?” Stevie asked. She considered Veronica’s enthusiasm highly suspicious.

“Chumley—whatever. Anyway I’m sorry you couldn’t be there with me.” With that, she tossed a half-eaten roll onto her breakfast plate and stood up.

“I’m going to change to go shopping this morning. Anyone else interested in going to Knightsbridge?”

The girls had learned enough about London to know that Knightsbridge was a major shopping area. That’s where Harrods was, as well as a number of London’s other fine stores and exclusive shops—the kind of place that Veronica liked best.

“We’re going to the Science Museum,” said Stevie. “At least that’s what Carole and I were talking about with a couple of the Italian boys. Are you coming, too?” she asked Lisa.

Lisa finished the last bite of her porridge. “I don’t think so,” she said. “Enrico said he thought it would be fun just to walk around. I think that’s what we’re going to do. Max said we could do whatever we wanted as long as we had maps and promised to be back here for the bus at one, right?”

“Right,” Carole said.

“Well, I’ll see you a little later,” said Veronica, finally leaving the girls alone in the breakfast room.

“She
hated
the Chumleys!” Stevie hissed victoriously to her friends.

“She is
so
transparent!” said Lisa.

“Like glass,” Carole agreed. “But the best part about that is that she has to keep on pretending we really missed something, when we know that she knows that
she’s
the one who missed something great by not riding at Dickens with Tessa.”

“When I learned that Veronica was coming on this trip with us, I thought it was all bad news,” Stevie said. “Now it turns out that it’s almost the most fun of all. Here she is in England, a place that people think is sort of snobbish, but as far as I’m concerned isn’t at all that way, and we’ve got the biggest American snob of all with us and she’s having a miserable time. Isn’t life grand?”

“Totally,” Lisa agreed.

“Naturally you’d say that,” said Carole. “Because you’ve got this incredibly rich Italian boy positively drooling over you. Personally, I think it’s, it’s …” She searched for a word. “
Wonderful!
”

“Me too,” Lisa agreed.

Stevie clapped Lisa on the back enthusiastically. “Have fun,” she said.

“I will—that is if I can keep Veronica out of our hair. She seems to want to follow me wherever I go,” Lisa said.

“You mean wherever Enrico goes?” Stevie asked.

“Oh, of course! How could I have missed that?” Lisa said, realizing that Veronica found something very attractive
about Enrico—his father’s bank account. “She’s really pathetic, isn’t she?”

“Don’t worry about this morning,” Stevie said. “We’ll see that she stays far away from you and Enrico. It’s a promise.”

Lisa knew that a promise from Stevie was like money in the bank, but she was curious to see what her friend had in mind.

Half an hour later, the girls had put on their walking shoes and packed everything else. They checked their bags at the hotel desk and waited for the Italian boys to pick them up for their morning jaunt. Mrs. Reg and Max were there, handing out street maps and checking watches.

“I don’t know about this, Max. London is a big city,” said Mrs. Reg. “Do you really think it’s safe to let these youngsters out on their own?”

“Mother, let me remind you that we regularly allow them free rein with some of the most valuable things we own: our horses. If we can trust them with the likes of Topside and Prancer, don’t you think we should trust them to go to a museum in broad daylight, just a couple of blocks from our hotel?”

Mrs. Reg frowned a little bit.

Max continued. “And if we don’t let them go by themselves, we’ll have to go with them …”

“I suppose you’re right,” said Mrs. Reg.

The Italian boys arrived then, along with their coach,
who seemed to be looking forward to some peaceful time with Max and Mrs. Reg. They were ready to go.

“Is
everyone
going to the museum?” Veronica asked. Although it was a general question, Veronica’s eyes were on Enrico. That irritated Lisa. And it irritated her all the more because she knew Veronica knew the answer. She was about to say as much when Stevie came to her rescue.

“Oh, look, Lisa. Here, on the map. It’s the place you wanted to get to—the London Dungeon. It’s just cram-filled with really disgusting and gory stuff. They show people who are being tortured and even somebody who’s been beheaded. There’s a whole special room just about the London fire. And then there’s an exhibit on the plague—all those bodies … Anyway, it’s right here. You two should get going right away. We’ll see you at one.”

Lisa took Enrico by the hand and they headed out the door before he could protest. As soon as they had rounded the corner, Lisa felt free to laugh. Enrico looked at her suspiciously.

“Torture? Plague? The London fire? Do we have to?” he asked. “I mean, if that’s what
you
want …”

“Not at all, Enrico. I want to walk around, just as we planned. Stevie just saved us from having Veronica along.”

Then Enrico understood. “You do have very good friends, don’t you?”

“The best,” she assured him.

They set out toward the nearest park, Kensington, by
themselves and free of Veronica. They passed Kensington Palace, where some of the royals lived. Lisa mused that it was hard to imagine living in a palace.

“Drafty, actually, I think,” Enrico said. She realized with a start that Enrico’s house was a lot like that!

Together they walked through the park and then out into the streets. They paid little attention to their route, only vaguely aware of the buildings they passed. They were lost in conversation.

“I wonder what Cummington Castle is going to be like,” Lisa said. “Do you know anything about it?”

“I’ve seen pictures, if that’s what you mean. It’s large—really looks like a castle. There are high walls. There may even be a lake around it—”

“A moat?” Lisa supplied.

“Is that the word, ‘moat’?” Enrico asked. Lisa nodded. “Well, yes, I think so. The last person to live in it was the Duke of Cummington, but I think he died in the Civil War.”

“Like between the North and the South?” Lisa said.

Enrico looked at her for a second, and then he laughed. “Don’t you Americans ever learn
any
history besides your own?” he asked.

“Oh,
that
Civil War,” Lisa said. “The one with Oliver Cromwell?”

“That’s the one,” said Enrico. “If I remember correctly, the Parliamentarians, mostly Puritans like the ones who first settled in Plymouth, wanted to get rid of the king,
Charles the First, I think. But I don’t remember much more than that.”

Lisa was a good student and a curious one. When somebody said “Civil War,” the first thing she thought about was the American Civil War, but she also knew something about English and European history.

“I remember now. The Puritans who opposed Charles were called Roundheads—something about the way they wore their hair. And the Royalists were called Cavaliers. Didn’t you learn that in
your
history class?”

“I did, I’m sure,” Enrico said. “You remembered better than I did.”

“Well, I’d like to learn more about the duke before we get to Cummington Castle. I wish there were a library or something—”

She stopped. So did Enrico. There, right in front of them, stood a large building with a sign out front proclaiming it to be a library.

“Shall we?” she asked.

“Why not?” he answered. “It seems like fate!”

A few minutes later, they were seated at a long table with a small selection of books that a librarian had provided for them.

“You look up ‘Cummington, Duke of,’ ” Lisa said. “I’ll read about the Civil War.”

In the next hour they learned a lot. They learned that the war had taken place some 350 years earlier, from 1642 to 1651. They focused on the early part when the Roundheads
took over most of the land of Britain. The Royalists were terrified of them. Many wealthy ones, like Cummington, had tried to elude the invading forces with trickery, such as hiding their wealth. For the most part, they were not successful.

“Here’s something about Cummington,” Enrico said. “There’s a whole chapter on the construction of the castle. Then it says that Cummington was a Cavalier, though he didn’t fight personally. He sent many of his servants to do that for him. Apparently he was extremely wealthy and there’s something here in a—what do you call this?”

“A footnote?”

“Yes, a footnote, something about how after he died, nobody ever found his wealth.”

“Then I wonder how they knew he was wealthy?”

“The big castle, I guess. Anyway, there’s a lot more information here—”

“Oh, but no time!” Lisa said, looking at her watch. It was 12:45.

“We’ll learn more when we get there, I’m sure.”

“Right,” Lisa said, closing the book she’d been reading. She and Enrico took the volumes back to the librarian and thanked her. She smiled politely at them.

Then they
ran
. They had no time to walk back to the hotel. They were behind schedule, and Max would be furious if they kept him waiting.

Just when Lisa thought she couldn’t run anymore, she
spotted a taxi. The driver took them back to the hotel. They arrived at 12:59.

“Where have you been?” Veronica asked as she dropped a booklet marked “London Dungeon” in a trash bin. Lisa looked at her with disbelief. Veronica had actually gone to the London Dungeon, expecting to find Enrico there!

“We went to a library,” Enrico said.

Veronica looked at Lisa in disbelief.

“Ah, the bus is here,” said Max. “Everybody bring your bags out. It’s time to be on our way. The
real
trip is just beginning.”

“L
OOK, THERE IT
is!” Lisa cried excitedly, looking out the window at Cummington Castle.

“Turrets!” Stevie declared.

“Banners!” said Carole.

“Tents for the show horse stalls!” said Max.

“A moat!” said Enrico. His friends looked at him in surprise. He translated the word into Italian for them. They nodded.

Cummington Castle looked like a fairy-tale castle. It stood on a rise, silhouetted against the blue sky of the English countryside. It had a huge wall surrounding the castle, with crenellations on the battlements.

“Can you imagine villagers and soldiers pouring boiling oil on attacking hordes?” Stevie asked.

They could.

“And the best part about it is that the castle has been modernized,” Max said. “It’s got heat, electricity, and plumbing. Parts of it are used as a hotel, sort of a very posh bed-and-breakfast.”

“Is that where we’re staying?” Veronica asked.

“Not exactly,” Max explained. “We’re at the Steede Inn. I thought that sounded like a good place for us and my travel agent recommended it.”

Veronica smiled tolerantly. “How quaint,” she said.

The bus pulled up to the Steede. As far as The Saddle Club was concerned, it was great. For one thing, it
was
quaint. It had small rooms filled with comfortable furniture, curtains and pillows were carefully matched. It was both warm and homey. They entered the hotel lobby and peered into the pub that shared the ground floor with the dining room.

The Italian boys were staying in the inn’s annex, across a courtyard. The Horse Wise team was in the main building. A bellman picked up Mrs. Reg’s suitcase and led the group to their rooms. As they followed, they could tell that the Steede was a very old hotel and had been added onto many times. They made endless turns, then went up one step, around a corner, through a public room, down two steps, up a staircase.

“We’ll never find our way out,” Veronica complained.

“That’s fine by me,” said Stevie, looking at the comfortable
furniture and pretty windows. “I’d be glad to move in.”

“Just a few steps more, miss,” said the bellman. And it was. He produced a key and opened a door into a large, airy room that had two twin beds and a fold-out cot.

“That’s us,” declared Carole, leading the way in. She, Stevie, and Lisa were sharing a room. It was bright and welcoming. The three girls piled in and closed the door. They heard the bellman deliver Mrs. Reg to the room next to theirs. Max’s room was across the hall. Next to his was Veronica’s room. The Saddle Club heard a brief silence after the bellman opened the door to her room.

“There’s been some mistake,” said Veronica. “This isn’t a room. This is a closet.”

“No mistake, miss,” the bellman said politely. “It’s the last single room available in the hotel.”

The door shut firmly. The Saddle Club giggled to themselves. Nothing seemed to be working out for Veronica and while they weren’t exactly worried about hurting her feelings, there didn’t seem to be much point in rubbing it in by having her hear them laugh too loudly.