Bridle Path (6 page)

“Just the thing,” she declared. With that, she lifted the netting up over Carole’s formally clad head, and as it settled on her, all three girls were overwhelmed with the image, for there, standing in front of a dingy mirror in a dusty attic, wearing an old-fashioned riding outfit, was a bride. Carole looked as if she were completely ready to ride down the aisle to meet up with the man of her dreams.

“Look at that!” said Lisa.

“What inspiration!” said Stevie.

Carole immediately sensed something in Stevie’s tone of voice. “Inspiration?” she asked.

“Sure,” said Stevie. “We can have a wedding!”

“We’re missing only two things,” Lisa commented. “The bride and the groom.”

“No, we’ve got them already. The new stallion is the groom and Delilah is the bride! It’s going to be great. We can do it on Saturday,
after
the horse show. You can ride Delilah, wearing that outfit—you might want to consider adding a string of pearls somewhere, though—and then one of us can wear the outfit I had on before—you know, the Southern-gentleman thing
—and that person can lead the stallion, and then the other one can be the justice of the peace.”

“Just where is this going to take place?” Carole asked.

“In the paddock,” Stevie said quickly. Then she had another idea. “Or maybe we’ll think of someplace more romantic. Anyway, we can ask all the members of Horse Wise to bring food. We can make it a surprise for them, too. You know, just the three of us will be in on it, so everybody will be bowled over. It is, after all, The Day—I mean April Fools’—and it’s the kind of joke that’s fun and nobody gets hurt, and that’s the kind you’re always wanting me to think up.”

Carole had a couple of questions she wanted to ask Stevie right then, like if she was totally out of her mind and how they could possibly plan a whole party, to say nothing of a wedding, in four days when they had a whole lot of other things that had to be done—but there was no stopping Stevie. Her mind was totally engaged and her mouth was just as active.

“… then there’s the music. I guess we’ll just have to use a battery-powered tape deck. I can probably borrow my brother’s, though he may kill me if anything happens to it, but he won’t even notice, since I think he’s going away this weekend. I’d better borrow it Thursday so he won’t even think of taking it with
him on Friday. What music? I mean, we’re going to have to have classical stuff for the ceremony—oh, the ceremony, I guess I’m going to have to write that. Or better still, Lisa, you write it. You’re good at writing.…”

Lisa and Carole began sorting some of the clothes they’d taken out of boxes, listening to Stevie’s chatter as they worked. When Stevie was this enthusiastic about a plan, it usually turned out pretty well. Usually.

B
Y THE TIME
riding class started on Tuesday, Stevie had everyone thoroughly confused. She’d decided that the “wedding” for Delilah and the stallion should be a surprise not only for Max, but for everyone. However, in order to get everyone to work on it, she had to give them a reason.

“It’s Max’s birthday, and we need somebody to bring punch,” she said to Meg Durham. “Can you do that?”

Meg agreed.

She asked Veronica diAngelo to bake the cake, not because she thought Veronica would actually bake it,
but because she suspected that Veronica’s cook would do a better job than most of the students.

“White, it has to be white,” Stevie said.

“Why? I thought Max liked chocolate cake the best.”

“Maybe,” said Stevie, thinking fast. “But all I have is white candles—oh, and by the way, don’t write anything on the cake.”

As usual, Veronica was being contrary. “White candles go just fine on a chocolate cake, and what’s wrong with writing ‘Happy Birthday Max’?”

“My white candles won’t go on a chocolate cake, and don’t write anything on it because I told you so.”

Stevie could be contrary, too.

With only ten minutes to spare before class started, she’d gotten one girl to offer to bring streamers (light blue, not white, but that would be good enough, Stevie figured), another to make a festive white satin bow, and one of the boys agreed to bring his entire collection of opera music tapes because Stevie thought that would mean that somewhere in there they’d find the wedding march from
Lohengrin.

“Why do you want opera?” he’d asked. “I think Max likes rhythm and blues.”

“He’ll change his mind soon enough,” Stevie had answered.

April agreed to bring glasses; Polly offered napkins and paper plates. Betsy Cavanaugh said she could bring ginger ale, but preferred to bring cola. Stevie wanted ginger ale because it looked like champagne. She stuck to her guns. Betsy had definitely met her match in Stevie and agreed. Ginger ale it was. Adam Levine said his parents had lots of folding chairs, and Joe Novick agreed to help set them up, but neither of them thought it was a very good idea to have them all in rows.

“How can we have a party that way?” Joe asked.

“Trust me, we can,” Stevie said. “Besides, we may move them again. But to start, I want them here.” She pointed to the place where she intended to have the audience for the wedding. “With an aisle.”

“Aye, aye, ma’am,” Joe said. Almost everybody, except Veronica, had learned that it was usually easier to agree with Stevie than to argue with her.

“Stevie!” That was Max. “Class starts in five minutes, and I just saw that Topside isn’t even tacked up!”

That was bad news. It took from ten to fifteen minutes to tack up a horse properly. Max was never happy when his students were late for class, especially when the reason appeared to be because they were just chatting with the other students.

“I’ll be ready, Max. I promise!”

She flew. Stevie didn’t have a second to waste. There was no point in planning a wonderful party for Max when he would be too angry at her to enjoy it—even a nice April Fools’ horses’ wedding party. She was going to have to work fast, and she was going to need help.

Lisa and Carole saw that and pitched in, as usual. Lisa brought the saddle and Carole carried the bridle. Stevie gave Topside a quick brushing, and then all three of them put on his tack. He’d never had so much attention from so many people all at once in his whole life. He loved every second of it. At the very moment the PA system crackled out the announcement that class was beginning, Stevie was ready to mount up and enter the ring.

“Stevie, you are amazing,” Max remarked as she and Topside walked into the class—on time.

“It’s a miracle,” she joked.

“It’s a miracle that you can get your friends to help you with your work all the time,” he said. Giggles and smirks emerged from almost everybody in the class because Max didn’t have half an idea of how true his statement was. He looked around curiously and shrugged.

“Line up in the middle of the ring,” he announced. Class began.

Stevie soon realized that Max may have shrugged off her near lateness, but he was clearly irritated with her, because he watched her like a hawk through the class.

“Heels down!” he ordered. She put them down. “And keep your knees in.”

“They are in.”

“Not enough,” he barked. “And sit up straight. Stop wiggling your hands around!”

Stevie tried very hard to do everything he told her. Certainly everything he said was designed to improve her riding form, but she’d thought she already had these basics down pat.

“Now keep your lower legs perpendicular to the ground!”

“Yes, Max,” she said. There was a part of her that wanted to growl at him. She didn’t think he was really being fair. After all, Anna McWhirter wasn’t riding nearly as well as she was, and Max wasn’t saying anything to Anna, but she decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to get into an argument with him. It might make her change her mind about having the mock wedding on Saturday if she got too angry with him, and she didn’t want anything to interfere with that.

“And eyes straight ahead!”

“Yes, Max,” she managed to say through clenched teeth.

As class drew to a close and the riders were walking their horses around the ring to cool them down, Max talked about the visitors they were going to have on Saturday.

That was when he told the rest of the students about the new stallion and what it would mean to Pine Hollow. The riders were all as excited as The Saddle Club was. They agreed that there was nothing nicer than the idea that there would be the patter of little hooves around Pine Hollow.

Max asked for some help after class setting up the paddock where the stallion, Geronimo, would spend most of his time. Some of the ground had become very uneven, and he wanted to smooth it out.

The Saddle Club had other chores to do from Max’s list, but he seemed to expect them to pitch in on this one as well. Stevie told Max she couldn’t stay. She had to get to a dentist appointment.

Lisa and Carole looked at one another. They knew that wasn’t true.

“I’ve got to get to the shopping center and pick up some things for Saturday,” Stevie whispered to Carole. And before Carole could point out that they all could go to the shopping center together
after
helping
Max and after doing some more work in the attic, Stevie was gone.

“She’s so busy,” Lisa said.

“And so are we,” Carole commented. She took the shovel Max handed her and followed the wheelbarrow full of dirt to the paddock. Lisa carried a rake.

“Our goals are all the same,” Lisa reminded Carole. “We need to get all this work done
and
have a special treat for Max.”

“Why does it seem unfair that she does the fun stuff like shopping, and you and I end up spreading dirt around a lumpy paddock?”

Lisa thought about this for a minute. Much as she wanted to defend Stevie, Carole did have a point. On the other hand, there were things to be done at the shopping center, and the whole Saddle Club couldn’t duck out of the chore Max had given all the riders, or it would look suspicious. At Pine Hollow, everybody pitched in.

“Stevie’s really good at finding great stuff to buy at the shopping center,” Lisa said. “And remember the thrift shop that’s just opened up there? I bet there’s a ton of really wonderful things.”

Carole thought about it, too. “You’re right,” she said finally. “It took Stevie to think of mosquito netting
as a bridal veil. She’ll see all kinds of possibilities there where you and I would only see junk.”

“Yeah,” Lisa said, hefting her rake with renewed vigor.

“I just wish we were there to see those possibilities with her,” Carole said.

“Yeah,” Lisa agreed.

Red O’Malley dumped the first load of earth into the paddock then, and the girls began the task of spreading it out evenly. It required some attention and some strength. They stopped thinking about Stevie for a while.

“A
LL RIGHT NOW
, smile for the photographer,” Stevie instructed Lisa and Carole.

Lisa groaned and Carole grimaced.

“That’s not right at all,” Stevie said. “Remember, the pictures that will be taken at the actual wedding are going to be a permanent reminder of this wonderful day. Geronimo and Delilah will be able to look at them for years—show them to their grandchildren!”

“This is supposed to be a
rehearsal
!” Lisa said, exasperated.

“For the real thing,” Stevie persisted. It was Wednesday afternoon, after school. The three girls had met at Pine Hollow as soon as they
could excuse themselves from their classes—and that was pretty fast. Although there were a lot of chores listed on Lisa’s printout for today, Stevie had convinced the girls that the best way to prepare for some hard work was to have a relaxing trail ride. She’d then managed to turn it into a wedding rehearsal, and it wasn’t going very well, except in Stevie’s eyes.

Carole was riding Starlight and Lisa was riding Delilah. She’d always wanted to try the beautiful mare and found her to be as lovely a horse as she’d dreamed. She wasn’t surprised by how much Judge Gavin enjoyed riding her.

“I used to ride her before she foaled,” Carole said. “I would have been glad to ride her again, except that Dad gave me Starlight.”

“Enough talk about horses,” Stevie interrupted. “Let’s get back to the wedding. All right, now, Lisa and Carole, you two will ride down the aisle.…”