Stable Farewell (2 page)

Lisa bristled when they repeated Red’s comments to her. “Veronica is about as much help to Red as an early frost is to a farmer,” she said. “But it’s too early in the New Year to let her bother us. Let’s just go for a long trail ride and forget all about it.”

“Great idea,” Stevie replied. “I’ll bet Belle can’t wait to get outside and stretch her legs. What do you say, Carole?”

“Um. Actually, I have other plans,” said Carole, a blush spreading up her cheeks.

“Other plans? What other plans?” Stevie demanded.

Carole explained that when she had arrived home from the Bar None, there had been several phone messages from Cam Nelson. Cam was a boy she had met at last year’s Briarwood Horse Show and whom she had seen every so often since then. The two of them shared a true, deep, and very serious commitment to horses, and even though Carole hadn’t spent that much time with Cam, she certainly found him interesting. He was the closest thing to a boyfriend she had ever had.

“So what did he say?” prompted Stevie, who wasn’t known for holding back when she wanted to find out something about someone’s life.

“He called the first time a few days before Christmas to see if we could do something together over break. And then he called again when he expected me to be home, but we were stranded out West. He sent me a Christmas card, too,” Carole added.

“Wow. You’ve sure been on his mind,” Lisa said appreciatively.

Carole looked a little sheepish. “I guess I should admit that he’s been on my mind, too. I sent him a postcard from the Bar None.”

“You were thinking about Cam
and
Gary?” Stevie teased. Gary was a country-and-western singer Carole had met on their trip to the Bar None. She’d had a big crush on him until she realized that he was in love with someone else—himself.

“Let’s just say I sent the card to Cam on the last day of our trip,” Carole said, smiling. She had been thrilled when she got home and found Cam’s card. It meant that he had been thinking about her when she had been thinking about him.

Lisa told Stevie to be quiet so that they could hear the rest, and Carole continued. “The end of the story is that when I called him back, we talked for nearly an hour, and today he’s bringing Duffy to Pine Hollow to join me and Starlight on a trail ride.” After a pause, she added, “I hope
you don’t mind going without me, but …” Instead of finishing her sentence, she ended up grinning from ear to ear. For the first time, she had begun to think of Cam as a possible real boyfriend, and she couldn’t hide how excited she felt.

“Mind going without you? Are you kidding? We’re happy to go without you if it’s because you’re going with Cam,” Stevie said.

Lisa gave Carole’s arm a squeeze. “I hope you guys have a great ride,” she said.

In a semidaze, Carole went back to Starlight to finish grooming him. She still had some time before Cam was due and she wanted to make her horse shine.

While Carole fussed over Starlight, Stevie and Lisa tacked up and cheerfully headed out together. They weren’t the least bit offended that Carole wanted to ride with Cam alone. They even decided to change their normal route a little so that Cam and Carole could have a nice, private ride.

T
HE RIDE
, C
AROLE
thought, was almost magical. From the moment she mounted Starlight and walked up beside Cam and Duffy, she felt as if she were in a dream. She found herself completely relaxed around Cam, and they immediately began to talk about horses. As they had before, the
two of them shared training techniques and bounced ideas off each other. Just when Carole was thinking how well Cam had Duffy going. Cam said he thought Carole and Starlight made a great pair.

“He’s a little fresh today. He’s only been ridden once since I got back,” Carole said modestly. She had told Cam about the adventure at the Bar None that had kept her away.

“Maybe he just needs a good canter,” Cam suggested.

That was all the invitation Carole needed. She urged Starlight into the faster gait. In a minute Cam did the same and the two horses, the bay and the chestnut, cantered along beside each other. “Hey! I think they like each other!” Cam called, pointing to the two sets of pricked ears.

Carole nodded, smiling back at him. She noted, not for the first time, what an excellent horseman Cam was. He sat tall and straight in the saddle, and he easily kept Duffy collected. What was even more impressive was that Cam had trained Duffy largely by himself in the years he had owned the gelding.

When they got to the woods, they slowed to a walk and went single file with Carole leading. Walking was as much fun as cantering for Carole because she and Cam could resume their conversation. Eventually they moved from
talking about horses to other subjects, and Carole was excited to find out that the two of them had other things in common. Some of them were silly, unimportant things—they both liked peanut butter cookies better than chocolate chip, and they both had gone to Disney World when they were eight—but they made Carole feel closer to Cam anyway. Every little fact that she learned about him made her like him more.

The woods were gray and brown, drab winter colors, but to Carole everything looked beautiful. When they finally turned for home, she found herself wondering when she would see Cam again. She wished the ride could continue forever, but all too soon they reached the Pine Hollow driveway. Cam dropped neatly to the ground, giving Duffy a good pat. Carole jumped off Starlight, too.

“I thought I’d give Duffy a drink before heading home,” said Cam.

“Sounds good,” Carole replied. After the two of them had rolled up their horses’ stirrups and loosened their girths, she showed Cam to the outside watering trough, which Max kept heated in the winter.

“Boy, we were out a long time—nearly an hour and a half,” Cam said, glancing at his watch.

“Really? It didn’t seem long at all,” Carole said.

“It sure didn’t. I guess because we talked the whole way,” Cam said.

“Yeah.” For some reason, Carole felt suddenly shy. She couldn’t think of what to say next. She started fiddling with her reins and patting Starlight. Then she noticed that Cam looked kind of awkward, too. He was tapping his crop against his boot.

“Well, I—”

“We could—”

The two of them looked at each other and laughed: Both of them had tried to break the silence at the same time.

“You go first,” Carole said.

“Oh, no—ladies first,” Cam insisted, smiling.

“Well, I was just going to say that I had a really good time,” Carole said.

“Me too,” said Cam. “And if it’s okay with you, I’d like to call you again. Maybe we could do something else together soon.”

Carole nodded, her eyes shining. “That would be great,” she said.

Now that the air had been cleared, both of them relaxed and started talking again. They chatted easily while Cam walked Duffy back to the driveway and remounted. After a
couple of minutes, Duffy began to fuss, tired of standing still with his rider on his back.

“I’ve got to teach him better manners,” Cam said, shaking his head ruefully. “But for now, I guess we’d better get going, since it’s a good four miles home. So I’ll call you soon.”

Carole watched as Cam turned Duffy and set off at a brisk walk. About halfway down the driveway he glanced back and waved. “Bye, Carole!” he called.

Carole put up a hand. “Bye, Cam!” She turned to Starlight. “Did you have a good time, too, boy?” she asked. In response Starlight, who was staring after his new friend, let out a long, shrill whinny.

Carole gave him a hug. “I’ll take that as a yes,” she said, laughing.

F
OR THE SECOND
time that day, Carole burst into the tack room, dying to see Stevie and Lisa. To her relief, they were inside soaping saddles. “Phew! I thought maybe you guys would have left already, and I wanted company while I cleaned my tack.”

“Leave Pine Hollow before dinnertime on our second day back? Please!” Stevie said with mock disapproval. She paused, eyeing Carole curiously. “So, let’s hear the details.”

Carole was about to begin, but Lisa stopped her. “Stevie, is there anything you need to know that you can’t tell from the look on Carole’s face?” Lisa asked.

Stevie looked at Carole again, this time taking in her huge smile, her extrabright eyes, and her glowing cheeks. Then she smiled, too. “I’m glad you had a great date, Carole,” Stevie said.

Although Carole admitted that Lisa was right—she was sure her happiness was written all over her face—she couldn’t resist filling her friends in on a couple of details. “And you know what the best thing was?” she asked when she had finished.

“No, tell us,” Lisa said.

“I really think Starlight and Duffy liked each other, too,” Carole said.

Lisa and Stevie looked at each other and groaned good-naturedly. “Only you, Carole Hanson, would care if your horse got along with the guy’s horse!” Stevie cried.

“Anyway, we’re glad Starlight didn’t try to bite Duffy or anything,” Lisa said. “Now grab a sponge and we’ll help you because we’re almost done.”

Carole obediently did as she was told, and before long she had placed her saddle and bridle alongside her friends’ clean ones. For good measure, the girls soaped a couple of school saddles and tidied up the room a bit. When they were almost done, Meg Durham came in to put her tack away. Although Meg was about the same age as The Saddle Club girls, they didn’t spend a lot of time with her. She
was perfectly nice except for one thing: She was one of Veronica diAngelo’s admirers. For some reason, a few of the girls who rode at Pine Hollow just couldn’t seem to figure out that Veronica was about the worst person in the world to be friends with.

As soon as she saw them, Meg began chattering animatedly. “Hey, guys! Welcome back,” she said. “Have you met Danny? What do you think of him? Isn’t he gorgeous? Aren’t we lucky to have such a beautiful boy come to Pine Hollow?”

Stevie, who had been trying to get a word in edgewise, piped up at once. “
What
beautiful boy? We didn’t see any beautiful boys.”

“Anyway, he couldn’t top Cam,” Carole whispered to Lisa.

“You haven’t seen him yet?” Meg asked. “Boy, are you three ever in a fog.”

“I’m not sure I’m so interested in seeing a beautiful
boy
,” Stevie said. “ ‘Beautiful’ isn’t a very boyish adjective. How about ‘cute’? I’d be more interested if he were cute.”

“I’ll remember to tell Phil that, Stevie,” Lisa joked. Phil Marsten was Stevie’s boyfriend. He lived in a neighboring town and belonged to Cross County Pony Club. Phil and one of his friends, A.J., were honorary members of The
Saddle Club. “I’ll tell Phil you’re interested in seeing cute boys, okay?” she added.

Before Stevie could respond, Meg continued. “Cute? He’d never be just cute with his breeding. And I doubt Veronica’s family would want to pay that much money for a horse that sounded like a backyard pony. Honestly, ‘cute’!”

The Saddle Club thought for a minute. Suddenly a few things were becoming clear. One of them was that Danny was not a boy—at least, not a human boy. “Are you saying that Danny is a horse?” Carole asked.

Meg gave her a funny look. “What did you think I was saying?”

“Never mind that,” Stevie said. “The more important thing is that I thought I heard the name ‘Veronica’ a second ago.”

“Of course you heard the name ‘Veronica.’ Danny is Veronica’s Christmas present,” Meg explained. “There was a picture of him under the tree for her Christmas morning. They trailered him over to Pine Hollow today.”

“Christmas present? You mean she got a
horse
for Christmas?” Stevie demanded, incredulous. “What happened to argyle socks and leather gloves?”

“Obviously Veronica didn’t need socks or gloves,” Meg said, missing Stevie’s joke entirely. “She has all that stuff.”

“But she didn’t need a horse, either,” Lisa pointed out sensibly. “She has Garnet.”

“Oh, this isn’t just any horse,” Meg said. “Danny is …” She paused to search for the perfect word. “Perfect, I guess you could say.”

“Perfect?” The Saddle Club said in unison.

“Yeah, practically. He’s an incredibly gorgeous Thoroughbred gelding, he has perfect manners, he’s been schooled by some of the best trainers on the East Coast, he’s hunted and evented and done dressage,
and
his show record is amazing. I’ve never seen such a wonderful horse. I mean—”

Before Meg could rave any more about Danny, Stevie cut her off. “All right. Let’s go see this wonder horse,” she said, her voice suspicious. For some reason, Stevie couldn’t believe that the diAngelos could have found a horse as great as Meg was describing.

Meg, Stevie, Lisa, and Carole all piled out of the tack room to go and meet the new arrival. They didn’t have to go far. A few people were gathered outside one of the stalls, oohing and aahing.

“But that’s the mare-and-foal stall,” Carole protested.

“Right. Since none of Max’s mares is expecting this season, the diAngelos have rented out that stall for Danny.
They don’t mind paying extra because they want him to be completely comfortable,” Meg said.

Carole nodded but didn’t say anything. She knew she wouldn’t be able to reason with Meg, who was obviously quoting Veronica. But, as a good horsewoman, she thought it was stupid for people to lavish unneeded luxury on their horses. Danny would have been just as comfortable in a normal stall. It was clear that the diAngelos just wanted to make sure that everyone would notice their new purchase, and putting him in the double-sized mare-and-foal stall would draw more attention.