Gift Horse (3 page)

“What’s wrong, Stevie?” Phil immediately stepped to her side and peered over the stall’s half door. The blond girl from the crowd was standing in the stall, staring at No-Name. No-Name was staring back calmly. “Who are you?” Phil asked, puzzled.

Stevie crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the stranger. “What are you doing in there?” she snapped before the girl could answer Phil’s question. “That’s my horse, you know.” Stevie didn’t like the look on the other girl’s face. She looked happy to see No-Name. No, more than happy—she looked
relieved.
Stevie couldn’t imagine why, and she didn’t really want to know.

“Where did you get this horse?” the blond girl demanded.
She held out her hand and No-Name reached forward to nuzzle it, obviously hoping for a treat.

“If you must know, my parents bought her for me,” Stevie replied curtly. “As I said, she’s my horse, and I’ll thank you to leave her alone. You’d better get out of her stall before she hurts you.”

“She won’t hurt me,” the girl replied confidently. “She knows me. Because she’s
my
horse.” To Stevie’s astonishment, the stranger stepped forward and gave No-Name a big hug. No-Name lowered her head to snuffle at the girl’s hair, as if the mare were returning the hug as best she could.

Stevie watched, speechless, as the girl quietly let herself out of the stall, closing the door carefully behind her. She hurried away down the aisle without another word.

As soon as the stranger disappeared around a corner, Stevie opened the door and entered the stall. The vision of her horse nuzzling the strange girl was stamped on her mind. “Sorry about that, No-Name,” Stevie murmured. She reached out to hug the horse, and felt No-Name’s soft nose on her hair. It was obvious that the mare was happy to see her. But she’d seemed happy to see the other girl, too, and that bothered Stevie.

Maybe she just mistook that girl for me, Stevie thought. She nodded a little to herself, sure that that had to be the explanation.

“What’s going on?” Phil asked. “Why does that girl think No-Name is her horse?”

“What’s taking you guys so long?” Carole interrupted. “We’re almost ready to go. Where’s Stevie?”

“Something weird just happened,” Phil replied.

Stevie stuck her head out over the half door. “I’m in here,” she called to her friend. “And Phil’s right. Something very weird just happened.”

Carole picked up No-Name’s grooming bucket and let herself into the stall with Stevie. “Well, tell me about it while we get her ready to go,” she suggested. “Max is itching to get back.”

“I’d better take off,” Phil said. “My teammates might think I’m some kind of traitor if they catch me here helping the competition.” He took a few steps, then paused and looked back. “Even if you guys weren’t much competition for us today,” he added teasingly. He hurried away.

Ordinarily that would have brought a strong and immediate reaction from Stevie. But today she didn’t even seem to hear Phil’s remark.

Carole watched her friend with concern.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

Stevie described the encounter with the strange girl. “And then she said No-Name was her horse, and she hugged her,” Stevie finished. “And No-Name let her do it.”

Carole picked up a brush to give No-Name a quick
once-over. “Is that all?” she said. “I’m sure that girl was mistaken. A lot of bays look alike.”

Stevie raised her eyebrows. “Like this?” she said, pointing at No-Name. A white marking shaped like an upside-down exclamation point ran down the mare’s face to her nose. Her two left legs were white to the knee, while the socks on her right legs extended only to her fetlocks.

Carole shrugged. “Why not?” she replied.

It wasn’t much of an answer, but it made Stevie feel better. “I guess you’re right,” she said. “That girl must be imagining things.”

Carole nodded. “Well, I don’t want to try to imagine what Max will say to us if we don’t get
this
girl loaded up pretty soon,” she cautioned. Max was not famous for his patience.

But having decided to forget about the mysterious blond girl, Stevie had just remembered something else. “Can you believe that Phil?” she demanded as she opened the stall door and led No-Name out.

“What?” Carole asked, a little surprised as always by the speed with which Stevie’s mind could switch topics. She grabbed No-Name’s grooming bucket and joined Stevie by the mare’s head. “What did Phil do?”

“Didn’t you hear that crack he made about Horse Wise not being much competition?” Stevie reminded her. She shook her head angrily. “After all, the scores were pretty
darn close. And didn’t the younger team come in first place? I suppose that means nothing, hmm?”

Carole held back a smile. This sounded more like her friend. “I think he was just kidding, Stevie,” she said, trying to sound tactful.

Stevie smiled grimly. “Well, we’ll see who has the last laugh next weekend,” she said. “With another whole week of practice, No-Name and I will be unbeatable.”

The mare suddenly shook her head and snorted, as if in response to Stevie’s comment. Carole shook her head, too. She had a feeling it was going to be an interesting week.

A
BUSY HOUR
and a half later, things were almost back to normal at Pine Hollow Stable. The Saddle Club had settled their horses in for the night and helped the younger riders to do the same.

Lisa poked her head into Starlight’s stall, where Carole was feeding the gelding carrot slices. “Have you cleaned your saddle yet?” she asked. She was carrying Prancer’s saddle.

“Not yet,” Carole replied as Starlight carefully lifted the last of the carrots from her open hand with his soft lips. “I haven’t had a spare moment until right now.”

“I know what you mean,” Lisa said. She held the door for Carole and then the girls headed for the tack room with their dirty saddles. As they passed No-Name’s stall, which
was right next to Starlight’s, they looked in to see if Stevie was there. She wasn’t. Lisa gave No-Name’s nose a quick pat. During the ride back to Pine Hollow Stevie had filled Lisa in on what had happened with the girl from the other Pony Club. It was so strange to think someone actually believed No-Name belonged to her.

Stevie’s friends found her a moment later when they entered the tack room. Stevie was already hard at work cleaning No-Name’s saddle. She looked up as Carole and Lisa entered. “Hi there,” she greeted them. “How about a Saddle Club meeting at TD’s when we finish here?”

“Sound’s good to me,” Carole replied, and Lisa nodded. TD’s, also known as Tastee Delight, was the ice cream parlor at the local shopping center. Although Saddle Club meetings could happen just about anyplace, TD’s was one of the best places to have them.

As Lisa set down her saddle, she noticed that the saddle on the next rack hadn’t been cleaned. “Hey, you guys, check this out,” she commented. “Garnet’s saddle sure could use a good workout with some saddle soap.”

Stevie raised her eyebrows. “You’re not suggesting
we
do something about it, are you?” she asked.

“No way,” Lisa replied. “But this just proves that Veronica hasn’t had a total personality transplant or anything. Even if she’s improved enough to bring her own saddle to the tack room, she’s still too much herself to actually
clean
it.”

Carole laughed. “That’s right,” she said. “I hadn’t really thought about it until now, but she
did
disappear about five seconds after the vans got back here—before any of the serious work started. It’s almost a relief somehow.”

“True,” Stevie agreed, stopping her scrubbing and leaning back to give her arm a rest. “At least we know Veronica hasn’t been taken over by aliens, like in that movie
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
.”

The others started laughing. At that moment, Mrs. Reg came out of her office, which opened onto the tack room. She eyed the giggling girls, then surveyed their tack. “You missed a spot, Lisa,” she said at last, pointing to Lisa’s saddle.

“Oops,” said Lisa, her cheeks reddening a little. “Thanks, Mrs. Reg.” The girls knew that Mrs. Reg didn’t mind hearing them talking and joking when they worked—as long as they really were working. All three of them buckled down to prove that they were.

Mrs. Reg stood watching them for a few more seconds. Then she said, “I just had a rather curious phone call about you, Stevie.”

“Really?” Stevie said, looking a little worried. “It wasn’t my school, was it?” One of Max’s strictest rules was that grades came before horses. Stevie sometimes came dangerously close to getting in trouble on that account.

“No, nothing like that,” Mrs. Reg replied. “It was the father of one of the girls on the Mendenhall Pony Club
team. He was asking about the girl from Pine Hollow who has a bay mare, part Arabian, with uneven socks and an upside down exclamation point on her face.”

“Hey, maybe he’s some kind of talent scout or something,” Lisa said excitedly. “Stevie, you and No-Name were really in top form today. Maybe he wants to sign you up and make you rich and famous.”

But Carole was frowning. “I doubt it, Lisa,” she said. “It’s more likely it was the father of that girl who kept saying No-Name was her horse.”

Lisa’s face fell. “Oh, that’s right,” she said.

Stevie gulped, and the memory of the blond girl hugging No-Name popped back into her mind. “Why would her father be calling?” she asked. “After all, no matter what that girl claims, my parents paid good money for No-Name. She belongs to me, fair and square.”

“It’s probably nothing,” Mrs. Reg said. “If the girl has lost her horse, she’s probably so worried she can’t see straight. A lot of horses look alike. She’s just mistaken, that’s all.”

“I hope so,” Stevie said, relieved at Mrs. Reg’s reassuring words. Still, she couldn’t completely chase away a slightly anxious feeling. She decided to do her best to ignore it. Today had been too much fun for some crazy stranger’s wild ideas to ruin it. Stevie gave the saddle a last once-over with a rag and then stood up. “Come on, slowpokes. I’m starving.”

“Me too,” Lisa said. “It’s time for TD’s. Right, Mrs. Reg?”

Mrs. Reg peered at Lisa’s saddle, then at Carole’s, then Stevie’s. All three were spotless, and the woman smiled. “Right,” she told them. “Class dismissed. Have fun, girls.”

A
FEW MINUTES
later The Saddle Club slid into their favorite booth at TD’s. In honor of the fun they’d had at the rally, Stevie suggested they each order a sundae that matched the color of their horse. The waitress, who had walked up just in time to overhear, rolled her eyes but remained silent. She was used to Stevie’s unusual ice-cream ideas.

Carole shrugged and grinned. “All right. In that case I’ll have, um, chocolate ice cream with dark-chocolate sauce.” Starlight was a bay—mahogany brown with a black mane and tail.

“What about his white star?” Stevie prodded.

Carole grinned. “Add a little whipped cream on top, please,” she told the waitress.

“My turn,” Lisa said. She thought for a second. “Okay, I think I’ll have black cherry with chocolate sauce. That should match Prancer pretty well.” She shrugged. “It would be more challenging if we didn’t all ride bays,” she remarked.

“You know, she’s a bad influence on you girls,” the waitress told Carole and Lisa, nodding at Stevie.

Stevie ignored the comment. “Okay, my turn,” she said eagerly. “I’ll have maple walnut ice cream—for No-Name’s beautiful brown coat. Blackberry topping, for her mane and tail. And coconut sprinkles—lots of them—for her socks and exclamation point.” She smiled proudly at the waitress. Carole and Lisa had the funniest feeling Stevie had been planning that particular order for some time.

The waitress just wrote it all down and walked away, shaking her head grimly. A few minutes later she returned with the sundaes. She dropped them on the table and hurried away without saying a word.

The girls dug into their sundaes with relish. “This is a perfect way to celebrate a perfect day,” Carole declared through a mouthful of ice cream.

“Definitely,” Lisa replied. “The rally was a lot of fun. I can’t wait for the rematch next week.”

“Me, too,” Stevie said. She paused. “Do you think that girl will be there?”

The others immediately knew exactly who she meant. “Don’t worry, Stevie,” Carole said. “You heard Mrs. Reg. That girl is just mixed up.”

“Mixed up, or crazy,” Stevie corrected. “Or a horse thief who wants to get her hands on my horse.”

“There’s one other possibility,” Lisa said slowly. “This girl at school once told me about a friend of hers who had a horse. She went on vacation once, and when she got back,
she found out that her father had sold her horse while she was away.”

Carole and Stevie gasped.

“How awful!” Carole exclaimed. She knew that her own father would never do such a thing. In fact, he was the one who had bought Starlight for her as a surprise Christmas present. Colonel Hanson knew very well how much Carole loved Starlight. He would never in a million years do something as rotten as selling the gelding behind her back. Still, it was scary even to think about it. “What happened?”

“She was so furious that she kicked and screamed until her father agreed to try to buy the horse back,” Lisa explained. “But when he went back to the guy he’d sold it to, the guy told him he’d already resold the horse. And he didn’t know where it had gone.”