Autumn Trail (6 page)

“Well, you see, Max has this problem. He has a very special friend he wants to visit this weekend, but he can’t go unless he can find someone to help Red at the stable.”

“And?” Mr. Lake said expectantly. Although Stevie’s parents claimed to disapprove of most of Stevie’s schemes, she suspected that they often rather enjoyed hearing them. However, she also knew that just because they listened to them didn’t guarantee that they would be willing to go along with them.

She took a deep breath. “I was thinking, Max hardly ever gets time off, and he deserves a vacation for a change. And Carole and Lisa and I were just talking about the meaning of Thanksgiving the other day—”

She was interrupted by a snort from Chad. “I bet you were. The meaning of Thanksgiving according to you guys must have something to do with horses. Let me guess, you decided that the real reason the Pilgrims came to America was because we have better riding trails.”

“Chad,” Mr. Lake said warningly.

Normally Stevie would have come back with an insult of her own, but right now she didn’t want anything to
distract her. So she just gave her brother a withering look, then turned back to her parents.

“Anyway, we decided that the best way to celebrate Thanksgiving was by doing something to help someone else, you know, without thinking of yourself at all,” she said earnestly. “Something generous and totally selfless.”

Mr. and Mrs. Lake looked at each other in surprise. “What a lovely thought, Stevie,” Mrs. Lake said. “But what exactly did you have in mind?”

“I want to stay here this weekend and help out so Max can go on his trip,” Stevie said. “After all, practically no one knows the stable and the horses better than I do. And I’m pretty sure I can stay at Lisa’s house while you guys are gone. They’re just having Thanksgiving dinner at home this year.” No matter how selfless she was being, Stevie didn’t consider staying with Carole for a single moment. There was no way she was staying in the same house as Veronica!

Mr. Lake looked thoughtful. “But what about the Fall Festival? I thought you loved that.”

“Oh, I do,” Stevie said. “But that’s what Thanksgiving is about, isn’t it? Helping other people, even if you have to give up some things to do it.”

“Well, Stevie, I’m proud of you,” Mrs. Lake said.

“For wanting to help Max, you mean?” Stevie said.

Mrs. Lake chuckled. “Well, that too. But mostly I’m proud of you for just coming out and asking us about
this, instead of concocting some sort of devious plan to trick us into agreeing to it.”

Stevie didn’t know quite how to answer that, so she just smiled. She also crossed her fingers under the table. Her parents hadn’t actually said yes yet, and now that she’d come up with this idea, Stevie knew it was an absolutely perfect Thanksgiving project.

“Well, I think she’s crazy to want to pass up this trip,” Alex announced.

“Me, too,” Michael piped up.

Chad didn’t say anything. Stevie glanced at him and saw that he was gazing down into his mashed potatoes with a goofy smile on his face. He was slowly stirring the potatoes and humming softly. Stevie was sure he was thinking about Ellen, but she resisted the strong urge to tease him and looked back at her parents. They were both still looking thoughtful.

“Please, Mom and Dad,” Stevie said. “This means a lot to me.”

Her parents exchanged another glance. “We’ll think about it, Stevie,” Mr. Lake said. “And we will take your sincerity into account.”

“Thanks,” Stevie said, with what she hoped was an encouraging smile. This was the first time she could remember trying the straightforward approach with anything this important. She couldn’t believe it, but it seemed to be working.

A
FTER DINNER
S
TEVIE
called Lisa and told her about her plan. Lisa checked with her parents, who said they’d be happy to have Stevie stay there. Lisa also promised to help pitch in at the stable herself.

Stevie found her parents relaxing in the den and told them what the Atwoods had said. “So what do you say?” she asked, holding her breath while she waited for their answer.

Mr. Atwood set down the magazine he was reading. “Well, Stevie, we’ve discussed it. We know that you must really want to help Max if you’re willing to give up the trip to Maryland for him.”

“That’s right,” Stevie agreed eagerly. “Max does so much for me all year long, I just thought he needed his trip more than I need mine.”

“All right, Stevie,” Mrs. Atwood said. “If it means that much to you, you have our permission.”

“Oh, great!” Stevie exclaimed, giving both her parents giant bear hugs. “Thanks a million! I’ve got to go call Max and tell him the good news right away.”

She rushed into the kitchen to call Max and volunteer her services as an assistant stable hand. At first she had a hard time convincing him that, first of all, she was serious about it, and second of all, she had already cleared it with her parents. But after she put Mrs. Lake on the phone to confirm it, Max was full of gratitude.

“I really appreciate this, Stevie,” he said. “This trip is very important to me, and for a while there it was looking
as though my mother and I weren’t going to be able to go.”

Stevie was surprised to hear that Mrs. Reg was going along with Max on his romantic visit. That seemed to disprove Carole’s theory about an elopement. Maybe Lisa was right and this was a first date, and maybe Mrs. Reg had arranged it. Stevie decided that this was just one more mysterious detail they would have to investigate.

“It’s all set,” Stevie told her parents after she finished talking to Max and hung up the phone. “Max leaves tomorrow morning.”

“I hope you realize, Stevie, you’ve taken on a big responsibility,” Mr. Lake said. “Max is really counting on you.”

“I know,” Stevie said. “It’ll be even more work than that time Carole and Lisa and I took over for Mrs. Reg when she had to go see her sick friend.” She smiled at the memory. That time The Saddle Club had misinterpreted some of Mrs. Reg’s instructions and had ended up doing more work than they really had to because of it. But everything had turned out all right in the end, and Stevie was sure she’d learned a lot from the experience. That knowledge would come in handy now, especially with both Max
and
Mrs. Reg away. “But it’ll be fun. I can’t wait.”

“Well, we’ll miss you,” Mrs. Lake said. She paused. “Most of us, anyway.”

Stevie rolled her eyes. “If you’re referring to my dear brothers, let me assure you I won’t miss them either.”

“That’s not who I meant,” Mrs. Lake said with a mischievous smile. “I was just thinking that your aunt Louise will probably be relieved not to have a replay of last year’s parsnip incident.”

“Oh, that,” Stevie said, giggling. It had been one of her finest moments. At Thanksgiving dinner the year before, Stevie had put a parsnip on her linen napkin and jerked the napkin tight to make the parsnip jump up. It had jumped a little higher than she had been expecting and had ended up mashed on the ceiling. It had remained there, much to her aunt’s dismay, until dessert, when it had dislodged itself and plopped back down—right into Chad’s pumpkin pie.

R
IGHT AFTER SCHOOL
the next day, Stevie’s parents dropped her off at Lisa’s house on their way out of town. Stevie took her suitcase up to Lisa’s room, then the two girls set off for Pine Hollow. Stevie couldn’t wait to get started in her role of assistant stable hand. For her part, Lisa was glad she’d be able to help Stevie with her Thanksgiving project, although she hadn’t had any luck so far figuring out what to do for her own. She was beginning to worry that she’d never find a project in time, since Thanksgiving was the next day.

When they arrived at the stable, one of the first things they noticed was how quiet it was. There were no other people around, as there usually were at almost any time of the day, any day of the week. Everyone seemed to have deserted Pine Hollow for the holiday. But Stevie
and Lisa knew that there had to be at least one other person there: Carole. They knew their friend well enough to know that she would be there, taking care of Starlight as usual, holiday or no holiday.

And they were right. They found Carole in Starlight’s stall, hoof pick in hand, cleaning out his feet.

“Hi, you two. Are you ready for your new jobs?” Carole asked. Stevie had called her the night before to tell her about her plan.

“You bet,” Stevie said, sliding open the door to Starlight’s stall and stepping inside. Lisa was right behind her. One of the things that made taking care of horses so much fun was that there was so much of them to take care of. That meant that all three girls could groom Starlight at once—and talk while they were doing it, of course. They had held plenty of impromptu Saddle Club meetings this way in the past, and today’s grooming seemed to be turning into another one.

Stevie picked up a wide-toothed comb and set to work on the gelding’s dark, silky mane, carefully loosening tangles and picking out pieces of hay. “I’m really looking forward to it,” she said in response to Carole’s question.

“We’ll probably learn a lot,” Lisa agreed, grabbing a body brush.

Stevie grinned. “Right. But the best part is, we’ll know we’re doing it all for Max and his love life.”

“You know I’ll pitch in as much as I can,” Carole said, setting aside the hoof pick and picking up a rub rag. “But
I don’t know how easy it will be to convince Veronica to help.” Since Veronica was so famous for getting out of doing her own chores, Carole certainly couldn’t imagine her volunteering to take on anybody else’s.

“Oh, yeah,” Stevie said, wrinkling her nose in distaste. “Well, I still think you’ve taken on the toughest job of all by volunteering to baby-sit Veronica for the whole weekend. I bet she’ll be more work than this whole stable full of horses. I mean, she’ll probably expect you and your father to bring her breakfast in bed every day, polish her boots for her, that kind of thing.”

“Shh,” Carole whispered, glancing out at the corridor. “She’s here someplace. She came to take care of Garnet.”

“You mean she’s actually doing some work?” Stevie said in disbelief.

Lisa smiled. “I guess Carole’s being a good influence already. Maybe there’s hope for Veronica yet.”

“I think there might be,” Carole said. “I’ve never seen her be as pleasant as she’s been for the past few days.” She gave Starlight’s coat a last once-over with the cloth in her hand. She double-checked his food and water and then gave him a pat before leaving the stall. Her friends followed. “I guess I’ll find out soon enough,” Carole added quietly as she spotted Veronica heading toward them from the other end of the corridor. “My father is picking us up in a few minutes.”

“Lucky you,” Stevie muttered. She gave Veronica
what she hoped was a sincere-looking smile as the girl approached. Stevie noticed that Veronica had a small but expensive-looking leather suitcase slung casually over her shoulder by a long strap. In one hand she was carrying a matching square case that Stevie would have been willing to bet contained her makeup. In the other hand she was holding a suspiciously pie-shaped object wrapped in aluminum foil. “Hi, Veronica.”

“Hi, Stevie. Hi, Lisa,” Veronica responded. Stevie could tell that she, too, was doing her best to be pleasant and not show that she didn’t like Stevie any more than Stevie liked her. “Ready to go, Carole?” she asked sweetly.

“Sure,” Carole replied. “My dad should be here by now. Let’s go out and check.”

“Okay,” Veronica said agreeably. “I hope you and your dad like pumpkin pie,” she added, holding up the foil-wrapped package. “Our cook baked this especially for you.”

“That was awfully nice of you, Veronica,” Carole said sincerely. She giggled. “My dad is a great cook, but he’s not much of a baker. You’ve probably just saved us all from a repeat of the great Apple Pie Horror from last year.”

Stevie and Lisa watched in silence as Carole and Veronica walked off together, chatting easily. When they were out of sight, Stevie let out a long sigh that ended in
a whistle. “I hope Carole survives this holiday,” she commented.

“I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Lisa replied with a smile. She didn’t like Veronica much better than Stevie did, but she had to admit that Veronica seemed to be trying to be nice. And she admired Carole for giving her the benefit of the doubt.