Christmas Treasure (19 page)

B
Y THE TIME
they returned to Pine Hollow, Christmas had come to the indoor riding ring. Evergreen garlands were fastened to the walls, dotted with colorful bunches of orange carrots and bright red apples. At one end of the ring stood a huge table covered with all sorts of Christmas treats, and at another table, Mrs. Reg smiled behind a bowl of hot apple cider. In the middle of the ring stood a Christmas tree decorated with a small treat for every horse in the stable and a small gift for every rider. Christmas music rang out from a stereo system Red O’Malley had set up. Maxi squealed with delight from Deborah’s arms as Eliot and Prancer led the carolers back into the room.

“All right, all you Horse Wise Christmas carolers,”
Max announced as the group blinked at the wonderful decorations. “I hereby proclaim that this year’s Christmas party has begun. You can now help yourselves to all these Christmas goodies and reveal your Secret Santas. Have a good time!”

Max grinned as everyone took off their jackets and headed toward the refreshment table. Then he turned to Lisa and Carole.

“How did the fund-raising go?” he asked excitedly.

“Wonderful!” replied Carole. “Everybody loved us, and everybody gave us lots of money!”

“Did Prancer do a good job?” Max asked, giving Prancer a rub between her ears.

“She was fabulous!” said Lisa. “She even walked through the creek in Mary Sanford’s backyard!”

“Oh, so all that secret retraining worked, huh?” Max looked at Carole, his blue eyes twinkling.

“It sure did.” Lisa grinned at Carole. “Now I can compete in the trail ride next month!”

“Well, since Prancer’s had such a busy schedule lately, why don’t you guys take her back to her stall and put her to bed? I’m sure she’s exhausted from lugging around all that money.” Max pulled the pretty red blanket off Prancer’s back and handed the lead rope to Lisa.

“Come on, Prancer,” said Lisa. “You’ve had a busy night.”

“Can we come, too?” asked Douglas. “Eliot and I have never watched anyone put a horse to bed.”

“Sure,” giggled Lisa. “But Prancer’s not nearly as hard to put to bed as Caitlin and Fiona are.”

Carole watched as Lisa and her cousins led Prancer back to her stall. She turned to Stevie. “Why don’t we go count our contributions and see how much money we made?”

“Good idea,” said Stevie. “I bet we got at least fifty dollars at Mrs. Llewellyn’s house.”

“Why don’t you use my office?” offered Max. “It’s quiet in there, and you can spread everything out on my desk.”

“Thanks, Max,” said Carole. “That would be great.”

Stevie and Carole grabbed a handful of cookies from the refreshment table and carried the heavy saddlebag to the office. Stevie turned on the lights, and Carole cleared some papers off Max’s desk.

“Why don’t you count one side of the bag and I’ll count the other?” said Carole. “That way we won’t get confused and we’ll get done in half the time.”

“Okay,” Stevie agreed through a mouthful of chocolate chip cookie.

They sat down and began to count. Piles of five- and ten-dollar bills, along with a few checks, began to grow at both ends of the desk. Carole counted faster than Stevie, and in a few minutes she announced her total.

“Wow!” she cried. “I’ve got two hundred seventy-five dollars over here!”

“Wait a minute,” said Stevie, frowning as she counted her last pile of tens. “I’ve got three hundred and ten. That
makes five hundred and eighty-five altogether. That’s great!”

“It sure is better than the nineteen dollars we got at the shopping center,” Carole said. Then she gave a little sigh. “Of course, it’ll never replace all those toys, but it’ll help a little.”

Stevie nodded. “Wait,” she said, peering into her saddlebag. “There’s something else in here.” She reached in and pulled out a folded piece of blue paper. “Hey, here’s a check I forgot to count.”

She unfolded the check. Suddenly her eyes grew big as saucers. “Good golly!” she cried. She held the check out to Carole. “Am I reading this right?”

Carole examined the check closely. It was made out to the Marines and signed by Mrs. Llewellyn. On the amount line, the number one had been written, followed by four zeros. “Stevie!” Carole said barely above a whisper. “Mrs. Llewellyn just gave us ten thousand dollars!”

“That’s what I thought it said,” Stevie said in a trembly voice. “But you know how I am at math.”

Carole blinked. “This is ten thousand dollars!” she cried, the figure finally sinking in. “Stevie, the lady we thought was a bag lady just gave us ten thousand dollars!” She looked at Stevie. “Now we can replace all the toys that were stolen!”

“This is the most incredible thing that’s ever happened!” Stevie jumped up and threw her arms around
Carole. They hugged and danced a jig right in the middle of the office. “Let’s go tell everybody,” cried Carole. “They won’t believe it!”

“Okay,” Stevie agreed. “Let’s go!”

They stuffed the check and the money back inside the saddlebag and ran to the indoor ring. The party was going strong. Tress Montgomery was wrapping up her news story, while the Horse Wise carolers were filling up on Christmas goodies and hot cider. Stevie and Carole raced to the center of the ring, just in front of the Christmas tree.

“Hey, everybody!” Stevie yelled. “Listen up! Carole has something to tell you!”

Everyone stopped talking and turned toward Carole. She threw the saddlebag over her shoulder and was just about to speak when she heard a loud
“Ten-hut”
at the door. She turned. Her father stood there at attention in his full dress uniform, with four other Marines lined up behind him. At a signal from him, they all marched forward. Carole felt the bright TV lights turn directly on her.

Her father stopped his troops in front of her and saluted, his brass buttons gleaming in the bright lights. “I understand that a contingent of Pine Hollow riders has tonight undertaken a mission of aid to the U.S. Marine Corps.” Colonel Hanson smiled, but he spoke with great dignity.

“We have, sir,” Carole said, saluting him smartly in
return. “The Pine Hollow riders are pleased to report that we are contributing a grand total of ten thousand, five hundred eighty-five dollars to the Christmas toy campaign!”

A gasp went up from the crowd. The TV cameraman zoomed in on Carole for a close-up.

“You’re kidding!” Colonel Hanson said in amazement.

“No, Dad.” Carole held up the saddlebag. “It’s all right here! A lady we thought was poor turned out to be rich. She wrote us a check for ten thousand dollars!”

“Honey, that’s fantastic!” Colonel Hanson stepped forward and gave Carole a big hug while the room erupted in cheers. The cameraman panned around the room, shooting the laughing and cheering carolers while Tress Montgomery spoke excitedly into the microphone in her hand.

Colonel Hanson turned to the four Marines and released them from attention. “Go enjoy the party for a few minutes, guys,” he said with a smile. “I want to talk to these girls.”

The Marines headed over to the refreshment table. Colonel Hanson smiled down at Stevie, Lisa, and Carole. “I just want to tell all three of you how proud I am of the Saddle Club,” he said. “Ten thousand dollars is a wonderful gift, but even if you’d only raised ten dollars I’d have been just as pleased. You worked very hard and very unselfishly for people who are less fortunate than you. I couldn’t be any prouder!”

He hugged them all, then gave Carole an extra-long hug and kissed the top of her head. “This is just the best Christmas ever, for me,” he said, holding her close. “I wish we could stay longer, but we’ve got to get this money over to headquarters. We’ve got some toys to buy!” He kissed her again. “How about I pick you up later at Stevie’s house?”

“That would be great, Dad,” Carole said, holding her father close.

The Marines emptied all the money from the saddlebag into a large sack and set off for the base. The party in the indoor ring continued, with the TV crew taping Eliot as he piped “Jingle Bells” to an admiring group of fans.

Lisa noticed that Max, Maxi, and Deborah were all standing by the punch bowl. Deborah had a cell phone to her ear, and Max was trying to juggle Maxi and a cup of cider. Lisa walked over to them.

“Hi,” she said, taking Maxi, who held out her arms and went to Lisa happily. “Looks like you’ve got one too many things to handle.”

“Thanks,” Max replied with a tired smile. “Sometimes it gets pretty hard to take care of everything at once.”

Lisa smiled back. As Deborah stashed her cell phone in her pocket, Lisa handed Max a small, handmade card.

“What’s that?” Deborah asked. “A Christmas card?”

“Well, kind of,” said Lisa. “Both of you read it together.”

Max unfolded the card and read aloud to Deborah. “ ‘This card entitles the bearer to one entire day and night of free baby-sitting, courtesy of your Secret Santa.’ ” He looked at Lisa and grinned.

“Is it you?”

Lisa nodded as Maxi planted a slurpy kiss on her cheek.

“Are you sure you want to volunteer for a whole day and night of Maxi?” Deborah asked.

“Oh, yes,” said Lisa. “Max has been so nice to us all year, and if it hadn’t been for you calling Tress Montgomery, Carole’s toy drive wouldn’t have been nearly the success that it was.” Lisa gave a tired chuckle. “And anyway, after a few days of entertaining my six Scottish relatives, one little baby will seem like a vacation!”

“Gosh, Lisa, that’s awfully nice,” Max said. He winked at Deborah. “Shall we take her up on it tomorrow?”

Deborah laughed. “Let’s give her a chance to catch her breath,” she said. “We’ll set up a time after the first of the year.”

Lisa gave Maxi back to Deborah and went to join Douglas, who was giving Phil and A.J. lessons in the Scottish sword dance. Carole was passing a plateful of gingerbread around while Stevie talked to Eliot about his bagpipe.

“What do you call those big pipes that stick up over your shoulder?” Stevie asked, standing on tiptoe to touch the top one.

“Drones,” replied Eliot. “They’re all pitched to A.”

“And you play the melody on this—” Before Stevie could finish her question, she felt a sharp tap on her shoulder. She turned around. Veronica diAngelo stood there, her green eyes blazing as never before.

“There you are, you little sneak!” she hissed. “You planned all this behind my back, didn’t you?”

Stevie blinked. “Of course I planned it, Veronica. Along with Lisa and Carole. We called and told you about it. Only about thirty different people knew what was going on.”

“Yes, but you left out one teeny tiny little detail, didn’t you?” Veronica huffed.

“What was that?” Stevie asked, astonished.

“You just forgot to mention that small fact that a TV crew would be taping the whole thing. And I just heard Tress Montgomery tell her cameraman that the national network was going to show this on their special Christmas Eve broadcast! Everybody in America is going to be watching this!”

“Really?” Stevie’s eyes lit up.

“Yes!” said Veronica. “You just forgot to mention that, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t know,” replied Stevie. “None of us knew they were going to be here until they walked in the door. Deborah called them.”

“Oh, sure, Stevie.” Veronica rolled her eyes. “You knew I would be tied up doing that stupid play at school while all this was going on. You knew I was going to have
to sing my solo in a dumb donkey costume, and you planned this just to get even!”

“No,” said Stevie. “Really, Veronica, I didn’t know!”

“Oh, please!” Veronica turned on her heel and stormed away.

“Well, Merry Christmas to you, too, Veronica!” Stevie called as the furious girl disappeared into the crowd. “By the way, I’m your Secret Santa! Hope you like how I cleaned all your tack!”

“Wow,” said Eliot, who’d overheard the whole conversation. “She’s really corked off at you!”

Stevie smiled. “Oh, well,” she said with a shrug. “That’s just Veronica. To know her is definitely
not
to love her!”

The party lasted for another hour. Then, in ones, twos, and threes, the carolers began to put on their coats and leave. Some were walking home, while others were being picked up by their parents.

“Let’s say good-night to the horses before we go,” said Stevie. “I feel like I haven’t seen Belle in ages.”

Lisa, Douglas, and Eliot walked down to bid Prancer another good-night while Stevie and Carole stopped by Belle’s and Starlight’s stalls. Both girls had pulled carrots off the wreaths in the indoor ring to give the horses. Belle was wide awake and ate hers in two gulps. Starlight, who’d been curled up asleep, gave Carole a soft whinny when he saw her and took the carrot gently from her hand.

“We’re really lucky to have these guys,” said Carole softly.

“We sure are,” Stevie agreed. “We’re lucky to have lots of things.”

“Like horses and clothes and warm houses?” Carole asked.

“Yes,” said Stevie. “But I was really thinking of friends.” She looked over Carole’s shoulder as Lisa and her cousins returned from Prancer’s stall. “Friends both old and new.”

Carole smiled. “You’re absolutely right. We may not have ten thousand dollars like Mrs. Llewellyn, but we’re just as rich as she is, friend-wise.”

“Well,” said Eliot as he came up and gave Starlight a pat on the nose. “Everyone ready to be piped home?”

“I think so,” said Stevie. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m exhausted!”

Eliot and Douglas led them through the darkened stable. A few horses stirred in their sleep, but otherwise everything was silent. Just as they were about to step out into the cold night, Eliot and Douglas stopped.

“Oh, no,” they said at once. “Hide your eyes! It’s just too horrible to see!”

“What is it?” the girls cried, trying to see around Eliot and his cumbersome set of pipes. Stevie stepped around him and peered into the darkness.

“Oh, Carole!” she cried. “You got your wish!”

Carole and Lisa rushed out behind Stevie. It was true.
Carole had gotten her wish. Huge, lacy flakes of snow were falling thickly from the sky. The ground was already a powdery white, and the snow showed no sign of stopping.

“Oh, how wonderful!” Carole cried, looking up and letting the big wet flakes fall on her face. “This makes everything absolutely perfect!”