Gift Horse (13 page)

The phone rang, and her mother called up to her. “Stevie! It’s Lisa!”

Stevie dragged herself into a sitting position and reached for the phone extension on her bedside table. She talked to Lisa for a few minutes, but her heart wasn’t really in the conversation. Lisa told her all about what had happened at Pine Hollow that day, but Stevie couldn’t seem to find it in herself to care about Prancer’s antics or the new litter of stable kittens. Finally she excused herself, saying she had homework to do.

A few minutes later Carole called. Stevie suspected she must have been talking to Lisa, because she seemed even more determined than Lisa had been to cheer up Stevie. She told a funny story about Simon Atherton tripping over the bridle he was carrying and falling into the grain bin. Ordinarily this would have had Stevie in stitches. But today she couldn’t even crack a smile.

Finally Carole seemed to realize it was hopeless. “Stevie,” she said seriously. “I know you’re still sad about No-Name, and you probably will be for a long time, but you can’t let it ruin your life.”

Stevie just sighed into the phone in response.

“Promise me you’ll come to Pine Hollow on Saturday,” Carole said.

“I don’t know.…” Stevie began.

“Come on,” Carole urged. “Topside misses you. Max has been letting Meg ride him, and the poor horse is tired of listening to her giggle through the whole lesson.”

Stevie
almost
smiled at that. She could practically picture
dignified Topside rolling his big brown eyes at Meg Durham’s high-pitched laughter. “Well, maybe,” she said.

“Promise me,” Carole said firmly.

“All right, all right,” Stevie gave in reluctantly. “I’ll be there.”

She said good-bye and hung up, then flopped back down on her bed. Her cat, Madonna, wandered in and saw her there. She jumped up onto the bed, lay down next to Stevie, and started to purr. Stevie stroked the cat’s fur absently and went back to thinking about No-Name.

A few minutes later her father knocked on the door and came in. “Hi, sweetheart,” he said. “How are you holding up?”

“Not so well,” Stevie replied honestly. “I just miss her so much.”

Mr. Lake nodded. “I’m sorry, honey,” he said sympathetically. “I just came to tell you that the paperwork is complete. Your mother and I got our money back from Mr. Baker—and even better, the police think they know who stole Punk from the Webbers in the first place.”

Stevie just shrugged. She didn’t really care who had stolen No-Name. The only thing she cared about was that she didn’t own her anymore.

“You know, Stevie, your mother and I were talking,” Mr. Lake continued. “We intend to buy you another horse as soon as you’re ready. Only this time we’re going to find one
with a clear line of ownership right back to the day of its birth!”

Stevie sighed. “Thanks, Dad,” she said. “But I’m not sure I’ll be ready for that anytime soon. It’s not like replacing a broken toy or a worn-out pair of shoes or something. It won’t be easy to find a horse to replace her.”

“I understand,” her father said. “No-Name was a special horse. We all know that. But moping around the house like you have been isn’t going to do anybody any good—least of all you. It might be better to start looking at other horses right away. Maybe that will take your mind off No-Name a little.”

Stevie shrugged again. “I doubt it.”

“Come on,” her father said. “When you fall off a horse, aren’t you supposed to get right back on again? This is sort of the same thing, right?”

“Not really,” Stevie said. “Thanks again, Dad. But I think I’ll just stick to riding Topside for a while.”

Her father nodded. “Well, if that’s the way you want it.”

“It is,” Stevie replied. But as her father left the room, she thought to herself that it really wasn’t what she wanted at all. What she wanted was to have No-Name back again. And that wasn’t ever going to happen.

“I
S
S
TEVIE HERE YET
?” Carole asked Lisa on Saturday morning.

“I haven’t seen her,” Lisa replied. “She did promise she’d come, didn’t she?”

Carole nodded. “I called her again last night to make sure. She said she’d be here.”

Suddenly Lisa nudged her. “Here she comes,” she whispered. The two girls turned and watched as Stevie came down the stable aisle toward them.

“Hi, Stevie,” Carole and Lisa said in one voice.

“Hi,” Stevie replied glumly.

Carole searched her mind desperately for something cheery to say to her friend. She was saved by the arrival of
Meg Durham and Betsy Cavanaugh, who were coming from the tack room.

“Hi, Stevie,” Betsy said, hoisting her saddle onto her other arm. “We heard about your horse. I’m really sorry.”

“Me, too,” Meg added. Both girls stared at Stevie with sympathy in their eyes.

“Thanks,” Stevie said. “I appreciate it.”

“Well, we better get going,” Betsy said after a moment of silence. “We only have a few minutes before the Horse Wise meeting starts.”

The two girls hurried away.

“Come on, Stevie,” Lisa said. “We’d better get tacked up.” The meeting that week was an unmounted one, but the guest speaker was the manager of the local tack shop. He wanted the riders to have their horses tacked up so he could show each of them how to check over every piece of metal and leather on his or her horse.

Stevie nodded and trailed along behind her friends as they headed for the tack room. When they arrived, Polly Giacomin was there.

“Oh, hi, you guys,” she said when she saw them. “Stevie, I’ve been meaning to tell you how sorry I am that you lost No-Name.” She grabbed her horse’s bridle from its hook. “I don’t know what I’d do if someone tried to take Romeo away from me.” Romeo was Polly’s horse, a spirited brown gelding.

“Well, I hope you never have to find out,” Stevie told her. “It’s not fun, I can tell you that.”

Polly nodded sympathetically. “Well, try to hang in there, Stevie.” She picked up Romeo’s saddle and left.

“What else can I do?” Stevie muttered.

Carole and Lisa exchanged glances. They had hoped that coming to Pine Hollow would help Stevie’s mood, at least a little. But apparently it hadn’t.

The door opened again and Veronica strolled in. “Oh, there you are, Stevie,” she said. “I’ve been looking for you. I wanted to give you my condolences about No-Name. The whole thing really stinks.”

“Tell me about it,” Stevie said forcefully.

“It’s all that Chelsea Webber’s fault,” Veronica went on, bending over to rub a spot off her shiny brown boots. “She’s so selfish it’s incredible.”

“Are those new boots, Veronica?” Lisa asked quickly. The last thing she wanted was to see Veronica set Stevie off on a conversation about Chelsea.

Veronica stood up quickly. “Yes,” she said. “My mother took me to the mall last night and bought them for me.”

“They’re really nice,” Lisa said, taking a closer look. “They must have been expensive.” The minute the words left her mouth she remembered the diAngelo’s financial situation and bit her lip.

But Veronica just said, “They were,” and then changed
the subject. “Stevie, could I talk to you privately for a minute?” she asked.

Stevie shrugged. “Sure.” She followed Veronica out of the tack room.

Veronica led her over to the stall that had been No-Name’s. “Listen, Stevie,” she began haltingly, looking down at her hands. “Things aren’t going so well for my dad—you know, at work.”

“He hasn’t found those papers yet?” Stevie asked, once again feeling a little ashamed of herself for getting so caught up in her own problems that she forgot about other people’s.

Veronica shook her head. “It’s looking more and more like I might have to sell Garnet,” she said, her voice breaking on the last two words. She took a deep breath. “And, well, I was just wondering whether—whether you would be interested in buying her.”

Stevie was taken aback. “Me? Buy Garnet from you?”

Veronica nodded. “That way you’ll have a wonderful new horse to replace No-Name, and I’ll still be able to see Garnet—maybe even ride her once in a while if you’ll let me. It makes perfect sense, don’t you think?”

“Well …” Stevie paused to think about it. The thought had never crossed her mind, but now that it had, it
did
make a surprising amount of sense.

Stevie closed her eyes and tried to picture it. Garnet was a beautiful, sweet-tempered, purebred Arabian. She had a
lot of potential as a show horse, though most of that potential had gone to waste so far, since Veronica wasn’t interested in the hard work of training her. But Stevie knew that if
she
owned Garnet, she could train her to be a champion. She could almost picture herself in the saddle of the sturdy, wonderful mare, accepting blue ribbon after blue ribbon. It was certainly a tempting thought.

Stevie opened her eyes. “I wish I could, Veronica,” she said. “But I don’t know—Garnet is pretty valuable. My parents are planning to get me another horse, but I don’t think they were planning to spend as much as your parents will ask for her. I don’t think they can afford it.”

Veronica smiled. “You know, Stevie, it’s amazing the way parents can come up with extra money when they have to,” she said. “They’re probably feeling pretty guilty right now about this whole No-Name fiasco. I bet they’d be willing to spend a little more to make sure they know exactly what they’re getting this time—especially if you convince them that Garnet is the only horse that can replace No-Name.”

Stevie shrugged. The argument was vintage Veronica, but it did make some sense. Maybe her parents
could
manage the extra money—especially if they could strike a deal with the diAngelos.

“I’ll think about it,” she told Veronica at last.

Veronica nodded. “You really should,” she said.

*   *   *

A
FTER THE
H
ORSE
Wise meeting, the students had a few free minutes before they started their flat class. Stevie loosened Topside’s girth and stowed him in his stall. Then she went to find her friends.

“Hey, can you guys come here for a minute?” Stevie asked Carole and Lisa when she found them at Prancer’s stall. “I want to talk to you about something.” She’d been thinking about Veronica’s offer all through the meeting, and she’d reached a decision.

“What is it?” Lisa asked.

“Just come on,” Stevie urged, heading toward the feed room.

Once all three girls were inside, settled comfortably on some sweet-smelling bags of grain, Stevie told them about her conversation with Veronica.

“It was a tempting thought,” she finished. “I mean, Garnet is a great horse.…”

“And she does deserve a better rider than Veronica,” Carole interrupted.

“Agreed,” Stevie said. “But I don’t think I’m that rider.” She shrugged. “I may be capable of tricking my parents into a lot of things, but spending five times more than they can afford on a horse isn’t one of them. Purebred or no purebred.”

“It figures that Veronica would try to convince you to go along with her plan,” Carole remarked.

“That’s true,” Lisa agreed. “Having an expensive purebred
horse is so important to her she probably thought that alone would be enough to convince you.”

“It’s not,” Stevie said. “Garnet is beautiful, that’s for sure. But No-Name showed me that a horse’s breeding isn’t the most important thing. It’s what’s in her heart that’s even more important.”

“True,” Carole said. “If only Veronica could figure that out, she might actually turn into a normal person all the time instead of just once in a while.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Stevie said thoughtfully. “I never thought I’d say this, but I think she really does care about Garnet for her own sake. Otherwise she never would have come up with this plan to convince me to buy her.”

“That’s true,” said Lisa logically. “After all, if she cared about Garnet only because of how valuable she was, she’d probably rather sell her to a stranger than to someone she knows.”

“Right,” Stevie said.

“I don’t know,” Carole said skeptically. “I’m still not sure I really trust her yet. A leopard can’t totally change its spots.”

“That’s what I always thought, but I’m not so sure now,” Stevie said. “Veronica has really been sympathetic about No-Name—just like a real friend.” She thought back to the way Veronica had stuck up for her when Chelsea had showed up at Pine Hollow.

That reminded her of another time she’d seen the two
girls together—at the second Pony Club rally. “Wait a minute,” she said, frowning slightly. “I might have to take that back.” She described the conversation she’d witnessed, when Chelsea had handed Veronica a piece of paper.

“I wonder what that was all about?” Lisa said. “What could they possibly have to talk about after what Veronica told us she said to her?”

“I have no idea,” Carole said. “But I know one thing. If Veronica put a piece of paper in Garnet’s grooming bucket, I’ll bet you an ice-cream sundae it’s still there.”

“No bet. I’m sure you’re right,” Stevie said. “Veronica probably never even put away the bucket after the rally. If it’s not still in the van, it’s probably sitting in Garnet’s stall waiting to be kicked over or stepped in.”