Stable Farewell (8 page)

“I dress up like a Southern belle, you know antebellum, like. I wear a big hoopskirt and a hat with plumes and flowers—big plumes and flowers—and I decorate the horse to match my outfit. I’ve got lots of horse-rider combos that are just beautiful. There’s my yellow Belle of the Bali outfit and of course my Scarlett O’Hara …”

As Rose Marie chatted, the girls groomed. Whenever two of them were on Garnet’s off side, partially hidden from view, they would exchange horrified looks. The whole thing sounded frightening.

“… anyway, my last horse, poor thing, I had to sell
him at auction because he developed chronic back problems.”

“At auction?” Carole mouthed to the others. Only people who didn’t care at all about where their horses ended up sold them at auctions.

“How big a horse was he?” Stevie asked, fearing the worst.

“Oh, he was about the size of this here little ole dainty Arab. I always do like nice, dainty Arabs,” Rose Marie said, smiling.

“Right, right,” Stevie said. “Umm … listen, why don’t you get better acquainted with Garnet while we get her tack, okay?”

Leaving Rose Marie cooing over Garnet, the three girls practically sprinted to the the tack room to conference.

“Chronic back problems?” Carole whispered. “No wonder—with Two-Ton Tessie on his back. The woman needs a much bigger horse—a warmblood, maybe, or a nice stocky quarter horse.”

“Yeah, or a team of Clydesdales,” Stevie added dryly.

“What should we do?” Lisa asked.

“You’re doing the demo ride, right?” Steve asked.

Lisa nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t think I should mess it up. She’s probably a good enough rider to tell if I fake anything.”

“True.” Stevie paused. “All right, just go ahead with it, and I’ll think up something.”

When they rejoined the woman, Stevie mentioned what a flighty, nervous horse Garnet could be. “You can see by the way the wood on her stall is all chewed.”

Rose Marie beamed. “Flighty? Nervous? That just about describes me! Sounds like Garnet and I are really going to hit it off.”

Watching Lisa lead Garnet toward the ring, followed by Carole and Rose Marie, Stevie sighed. “It sure does,” she muttered, “until poor Garnet collapses.”

As luck would have it, Lisa’s ride went better than ever. With all the buyers coming, Garnet was finally getting regular exercise. She had settled down a lot and behaved well. Lisa made sure not to show her off too much, but still, she knew the horse looked good. After fifteen minutes or so, she rode into the middle of the ring, dismounted, and reluctantly handed the reins over to Rose Marie. And after about another fifteen minutes, Rose Marie managed to get on. She had hopped around on the ground trying to get her foot in the stirrup until she finally heaved, panted, and groped her way up, aided at the last minute with a shove from behind by Carole.

“I do declare, it’s marvelous up here. Nice little mare,
isn’t she?” Still grinning from ear to ear, Rose Marie picked up the reins and asked Garnet for a walk.

If the situation hadn’t been so desperate, The Saddle Club would have burst out laughing. Garnet’s expression at having to carry Rose Marie Ambrosia Lee was pure indignance. “I thought you were going to do something,” Lisa whispered to Stevie.

“Worried?” Stevie asked nonchalantly.

“Yeah. Worried that Rose Marie might want to try a trot,” Lisa returned.

“Wait, she’s getting off. Look,” Carole said. The three of them looked. Having made one trip around the ring at a slow walk, Rose Marie seemed to have made up her mind. She slithered to the ground and came over to the girls.

“I’ve just about made up my mind, so unless there’s any problem with the vet check, I’ll—” Rose Marie started to say.

“Oh, we’re so happy that you like Garnet!” Stevie gushed. “You know, I don’t know if we mentioned this, but she even has parade experience.”

“You’re joshing me,” Rose Marie said.

Stevie shook her head. “Nope. It’s the truth. Last summer, at the—the—”

“The Founder’s Day Parade!” Lisa blurted out.

“Right, it was the Founder’s Day Parade,” Stevie continued,
shooting a look of gratitude at Lisa. “Anyway, Veronica, Garnet’s owner, was riding her and they just looked great. Of course, when Garnet took off, Veronica’s hair got a little mussed, but—”

“Took off? Why did she take off?” Rose Marie demanded.

Carole jumped in to back up Stevie. “She kept spooking at the people on the sidelines and finally she just went crazy, I guess, and she took off and—”

“—and ended up trampling a float of senior citizens and war veterans, but it wasn’t that bad because only a few of them were injured, and Veronica only got a minor concussion, so you know what they say, all’s well that ends well,” Stevie finished triumphantly. “So, as I was saying, we’re so happy that—”

Rose Marie held up a green-nailed hand. “Listen, kids, I think I’m going to have to think this one over. Sorry about that. It’s just that I don’t want to do anything hasty, you know what I mean? But look, thanks a lot, and I’ll be in touch.”

Stevie, Lisa, and Carole shook Rose Marie’s hand and forced themselves to be silent while the woman made her way from the ring. When she was safely gone, they each breathed a sigh of relief.

“I don’t know whether I should cheer that we averted
another disaster or cry that we’re back to square one,” Carole said.

“I’d cheer if I were you,” Stevie said, her eyes lighting up.

“You would?” Carole asked.

“Naturally. You wouldn’t want to get all puffy-eyed before your date with Cam,” Stevie teased, ducking as Carole brandished a crop at her.

E
VEN THOUGH
S
TEVIE
had been kidding, Carole quickly checked her appearance in the ladies’ room mirror at TD’s while she waited for Cam. She pulled a little piece of straw from her hair and tucked in her shirt. She didn’t look half bad for having come right from Pine Hollow.

In her eagerness to be on time, Carole had arrived ten minutes early. A few seconds after she sat down at a booth, Cam walked in. Carole waved him over. “Guess we’re both running early today, huh?” she asked.

“Hi, Carole; yeah, I guess we are,” Cam said, sitting down with her.

Although he greeted her warmly, Carole noticed that Cam looked distracted, even solemn. For a few minutes the conversation was awkward. To have something to say, Carole began to tell him about all the people who had come to Pine Hollow to look at Garnet. She described Rose Marie,
Jimmy Jones, and then Katie Miller, whom they had liked so much.

“But she sounds perfect,” Cam said, perking up.

“She is perfect. The problem is that Garnet was anything but. Katie was the first person who saw her and Garnet looked terrible and acted worse. Katie still liked her, but her parents didn’t want to buy their daughter a neglected-looking horse who acted up,” Carole concluded.

“So what you have to do now is find another Katie, right?” Cam asked.

Carole nodded. “Yes, but there’s a catch.” Briefly she filled him in on Henrietta Kingsley. “The worst thing is that the Kingsleys said they would definitely buy Garnet unless she failed the vet check, which, of course, she won’t.” Carole stopped talking as the realization hit her again: It was just a matter of time before Henrietta got Garnet, unless The Saddle Club could intervene. She told Cam what she was thinking.

“A matter of time?” Cam repeated.

Carole nodded glumly.

“Listen, Carole.… ” Cam paused awkwardly and looked at Carole. “I—I hate to say this, but I have to tell you about something else that’s kind of a matter of time, too.”

Carole frowned. Cam was not making much sense. “What do you mean?” she asked.

All in a rush, Cam blurted out, “My dad got a promotion and we’re moving!”

Carole didn’t know what to say. “You are? Where? When?” she asked, hoping her voice didn’t sound as shocked as she felt.

“Yeah, Dad got transferred to California, and we’re leaving for Los Angeles as soon as the sale on our house goes through,” Cam said quietly.

“But what about Duffy?” Carole asked.

Cam half smiled. “I’m glad you asked. That’s the only good part. Duffy’s coming with us, and I’ll be able to keep him at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center. It’s a fantastic place to train, and I’ll be able to ride in great weather all year round. So I’m glad about that.”

“That’s super,” Carole said enthusiastically. Then she stopped and looked down at her hands, not knowing what to add.

“That part is super,” Cam agreed. “But the thing is, I’ll really miss Virginia, and especially you, Carole. I feel like I was just getting to know you. I wanted to see you in person today because I didn’t want to tell you over the phone, but—but we’re leaving next week. I’m not sure I’ll be able to see you again.”

Carole was stunned. Her head seemed to be reeling. She knew that she and Cam had never really been girlfriend and boyfriend, so why did his news hurt her so much? The simple truth was that she really liked Cam—she liked being around him. Now she would never get a chance to get to know him better. Looking up at him, Carole kept a brave face. There was nothing else she could do.

C
AROLE WAS STILL
brooding over Cam’s news when she arrived at Pine Hollow the next day for the Tuesday-afternoon lesson. She couldn’t believe she wasn’t going to be meeting him for trail rides or running into him at shows and Pony Club events in the spring. While she groomed Starlight, she kept going over the conversation at TD’s. It had been great to hear Cam say he was going to miss her, but terrible that he would have to miss her in the first place!

As Carole put down her currycomb and picked up a body brush, Stevie and Lisa descended upon her and Starlight.
“Carole, guess what! Somebody else is coming to look at Garnet after the lesson!” Lisa announced.

“And this time she sounds normal. I talked to her myself over the phone,” said Stevie.

“Yeah, she’s supposed to be very experienced,” Lisa added.

“That’s great,” Carole said, trying to sound enthusiastic. It wasn’t fair to Lisa and Stevie for her to lose interest in The Saddle Club project. And anyway, she needed some good news. “But, wait, what about …?” Carole paused, raising her eyebrows at Veronica, who was talking to a man down the aisle.

“Oh, that’s all taken care of,” Lisa explained. “She said if we wanted to do her dirty work, we were welcome to it.”

“She calls selling her old horse ‘dirty work’?” Carole asked, shaking her head disapprovingly. Even though they all knew how bad Veronica could be, sometimes she still said things they could hardly believe.

Lisa nodded. “Her words exactly. And she said it was probably a waste of time because she was sure the Kingsleys would be sending a vet to check Garnet any moment.”

“Who’s she talking to, anyway?” Stevie asked.

Lisa shrugged. “Search me. But I think we’re about to find out.”

As Veronica brushed by them on her way to Danny’s
stall, she shot them all a look of pity. “I would ask if any of you wanted to talk to the special farrier I’ve hired, but his rates are probably too high for you. It’s lucky nothing’s too good for Danny, because special horses have very specific shoeing requirements, you know.” She paused and smiled sweetly. “Or, actually, maybe you don’t: You three ride such ordinary horses.”

At Veronica’s words, Stevie nearly flew into a fury. The worst thing was that there was nothing they could say. In the past, when Veronica had bragged about Garnet, they could remind her that their ordinary horses had beaten her purebred Arabian on countless occasions. But if Danny went over as well at shows as he did in lessons, it might be a very different story. How could they compete with the perfect horse? “I’d love to see Danny do one little thing wrong. Veronica would probably fall off!” Stevie muttered. “ ‘Ordinary horses’! If Belle heard that, she’d go on strike for a month.”

“So would Prancer—either that or she’d take a chunk out of Danny’s perfect coat,” Lisa said. “And I can’t say I’d blame her.” She and Stevie looked at Carole to see how she would defend Starlight, but Carole was quietly brushing the gelding’s bay coat. She hardly seemed to have heard what Veronica had said. Lisa and Stevie exchanged
concerned glances. It wasn’t like Carole to space out, at least not around the stables.

“Carole, is anything wrong?” Lisa asked gently.

“Yeah, you seem like you’re in another world,” Stevie added.

Carole stopped grooming and looked up at them. To her surprise, she felt her eyes well up with tears. When she had choked them back, she explained, haltingly, about Cam. It took a while because she kept having to bite her lip. Lisa and Stevie were full of sympathy.

“I can’t imagine how miserable I would be if Phil moved away,” Stevie said glumly, referring to her longtime boyfriend.

Sniffing hard, Carole thanked them for listening. “You’d better hurry and get Belle and Prancer ready. The lesson starts in five minutes.”

“But what about you?” Lisa asked.

“Yeah,” Stevie said, “are you sure you’re going to be all right?”

When Carole nodded, they each gave her a quick hug and went to tack up. “If anything will cheer Carole up, it’s riding,” Stevie predicted.