Autumn Trail Page 2

  Carole shook her head. “I guess that’s a good idea, but I still don’t know exactly what I’m supposed to do.”

  “Me, neither,” agreed Lisa.

  “Well, I know I’m going to find something,” Stevie said stubbornly. “And it’s going to reflect the real meaning of Thanksgiving, like the kind and generous way the Native Americans acted when they helped the first Pilgrims stay alive. I don’t know what it will be yet, but I’ll figure something out before I leave for my relatives’ house next week. You’ll see.” Like Carole and Lisa, Stevie and her three brothers had the following Thursday and Friday off from school for Thanksgiving, and their parents were taking them to visit Mrs. Lake’s sister’s family for the holiday.

  “I’ll try to find something to do, too,” Lisa said. She didn’t know what had brought about this philosophical streak in Stevie, but she had to admit that Stevie had a point when she said that people didn’t do as much as they probably should to commemorate the first Thanksgiving.

  “Me, too,” Carole added. “It’ll be a different kind of Saddle Club project.”

  Stevie’s face lit up. “Great!” she exclaimed. “Even if everybody else thinks all they have to do to celebrate Thanksgiving is watch a play and eat some turkey, we’ll show that that’s not enough. We’ll single-handedly—no, better make that triple-handedly—keep the meaning of Thanksgiving alive!”

  “It’s a deal,” Carole said, and Lisa nodded. The Saddle Club clinked their mugs together and then settled back to finish their cocoa.

  THE FOLLOWING MONDAY afternoon Carole hurried over to Pine Hollow right after school. The farrier was coming to put new shoes on some of the horses, including Starlight, and she didn’t want to miss a thing.

  Carole never passed up an opportunity to learn about anything having to do with horses. She already knew that she wanted to work with horses when she grew up, although she hadn’t yet decided whether she would train them, own them, heal them, ride them, or all of the above.

  In the meantime she wanted to learn everything she could about every aspect of horse care. It was easy for her to find a lot of opportunities to do so, mostly because there was a lot to learn. There were the everyday tasks that every rider at Pine Hollow was supposed to help out with, such as feeding and grooming and cleaning tack. There were the unexpected situations when a horse was injured or became sick. Carole had spent some time acting as an assistant to the local veterinarian, Judy Barker, and she had learned a lot that way about what a vet does. Finally, there were things like shoeing, which might seem a little boring to some people, but which Carole knew were important to keeping a horse healthy and happy. A horse’s feet were more complicated than they looked, and it was vital to keep them in good shape.

  Carole’s thoughts on the subject were interrupted as she turned the corner into the stable entrance and almost ran into Veronica diAngelo.

  “Oops! Sorry,” Carole exclaimed. She had forgotten that Veronica’s horse, Garnet, was also being shod that day. None of the other young riders from their class was at the stable, since it wasn’t a regular lesson day. “I guess I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

  Rather than the expected rude retort, Veronica merely nodded. “That’s all right,” she said.

  Carole was surprised. Veronica was not known for her patience, and normally she didn’t like it when anyone got in her way, literally or otherwise. “Are you here for Garnet’s shoeing?” Carole asked. Now she remembered Lisa’s saying that Max had insisted on Veronica’s presence, but she was still a little surprised that Veronica had bothered to show up.

  “Yes,” Veronica replied. “Max is with the farrier now in Geronimo’s stall. I think they’re going to do Starlight next, then Garnet.”

  “Oh.” Carole didn’t quite know what to say to this new, polite Veronica. “Do you want to come and watch him do Starlight, then?”

  The other girl shrugged. “Sure, why not.”

  The two of them walked off together in the direction of Starlight’s stall. “Have you ever watched a horse being shod before?” Carole asked. Thinking about the reason they were both there almost made Carole forget that she was talking to Veronica. Her natural enthusiasm won out over her dislike of the snobbish girl.

  Veronica shook her head. “I’m only here today because Max made me come,” she said. But instead of sounding annoyed, her words came out as almost wistful.

  Carole looked at her closely. “Are you all right?”

  “Sure,” Veronica said with another shrug. “Look, here we are.”

  Carole suspected that the other girl was trying to change the subject. She decided to let her, since they had reached Starlight’s stall and Max was waiting for them there with the farrier.

  “Hello, Carole, Veronica,” Max greeted them. Carole thought she detected a quick look of surprise cross his face at seeing them together. But he recovered quickly and introduced Veronica to the farrier, a man named Alec McAllister. He had flaming red hair and a broad smile. Carole had met him a few times before, since he came to give Starlight new shoes about once every four to six weeks, and Carole liked to be there to watch whenever she could.

  “Good to meet you, Veronica. Howdy again, Carole,” Alec said, briskly shaking first Veronica’s hand, then Carole’s. He looked over the stall door at Starlight, who was watching them all curiously. “And hello to you, too, Starlight. Remember me?”

  “Of course he does,” Carole told the farrier with a smile.

  “All right, then, let’s get to work,” Alec exclaimed.

  Carole brought Starlight out of his stall and cross-tied him in the wide passageway so that Alec would have plenty of room in which to work. When she had finished, Carole gave Starlight a pat on the neck and then stepped back so that Alec could get started.

  As he worked, Alec chatted with Max about the other horses in the stable he would see that day. Since Alec was a traveling farrier who visited many stables and farms across a wide area, he could come to Pine Hollow only a couple of times per month. That meant he reshod some of Max’s horses at each visit.

  Carole noticed that Veronica was leaning back against the wall, arms crossed, looking a bit bored. She decided to explain some of what the farrier was doing, on the off chance that Veronica would be interested. “Watch this,” Carole told her, nodding at Alec, who was bent over one of Starlight’s front hooves. “See, he already removed Starlight’s old shoes, and now he’s checking his feet to make sure they’re healthy.”

  Veronica shrugged noncommittally in response, and Carole took that as an invitation to keep talking.

  “Okay, now he’s going to trim off the dead material from the frogs of the feet,” she said. “That’s the rubbery part that juts into the back of the sole,” she added. It was a fairly elementary anatomical term that Veronica certainly should know, but Carole knew that in Veronica’s case it wasn’t a good idea to take any knowledge for granted. Even though Veronica was a pretty good rider, she was just as lazy about things like learning horse anatomy as she was about mucking out Garnet’s stall.

  “I know what the frog is,” Veronica replied a bit testily.

  “Sorry,” Carole said, trying not to smile. “Anyway, all he has to do is trim off the ragged edges around the frog to keep dirt from collecting there. But he has to be careful so he doesn’t cut the healthy tissue underneath. Next he’ll use a rasp to even out the edges of the hoof walls.”

  She paused for a moment to allow Alec’s actions to catch up with her words. When he picked up the rasp, the farrier interrupted his conversation with Max about Topside’s shoes and turned to Carole. “Carry on, instructor,” he told her with a wink as Max grinned.

  Carole blushed. The two men had been so involved in their conversation that she hadn’t thought they’d even heard her. She was a little embarrassed that they had caught her lecturing Veronica on the shoeing process. But she also knew that she knew what she was talking about, so she continued.

  “It’s important that the
force of the horse’s weight and motion be distributed evenly on the foot,” she explained as Alec started rasping. “After this, all that’s left to do is attach the shoes, which have been specially fitted to Starlight’s foot—”

  “You mean horses have different-sized feet, just like people?” Veronica asked, showing the first glimmer of interest.

  Carole wondered if that was because this was the first part of the process to which the fashion-conscious girl could really relate. She cast around for a way to explain that Veronica would understand. “Well, sure,” she said. “It’s like when you’re at the mall trying on shoes, and they have all different sizes, you know?”

  Veronica nodded eagerly. “I know,” she said. “But it’s so annoying when they don’t have my size in the style I want. My mother says it happens so often because I have such small, delicate feet—”

  “Uh-huh,” Carole interrupted. She didn’t want to get Veronica started on shopping—she was sure she could talk about that subject for just as long as Carole could talk about horses! “And the reason you want the shoes in your own size is because otherwise they’ll be uncomfortable. They might give you blisters, make your feet really sore, and maybe even keep you from walking.”

  “I guess so,” Veronica said dubiously. “But I usually just make someone drive me around to different stores until I find them in my size. Although once I wanted these great suede loafers, and no store in town had them in the right size, so Daddy had one of his friends mail them to me from New York.” She smiled triumphantly at the memory.

  Carole stifled a sigh. “Okay, but to get back to the subject at hand, it’s even more important for a horse’s shoe to fit properly than it is for yours. After all, a horse’s shoe carries a lot more weight, and we all know how serious a leg injury can be.” As soon as the last words left her mouth, Carole bit her lip, wishing she could take them back. Cobalt’s death had been caused by a bad leg injury. Carole hoped Veronica didn’t think she had been referring to that—even though Carole had to admit that it had been in the back of her mind.

  Luckily, Veronica’s mind seemed to be on something else entirely. “Right, right, so the shoe has to fit. I get it,” she said impatiently.

  “Well, then, to attach the shoe to the hoof, Alec will use nails and clips. The clips come already built into the shoes, and get hammered onto the walls of the foot. The nails go through the holes in the shoe into the horn.” Just in time she stopped herself from explaining that the horn was the hard, insensitive outer part of the hoof. “The horse can’t feel it, any more than you feel it when you clip your fingernails. And that’s it—the horse has new shoes.”

  “Hmmm,” Veronica said. “I never realized how complicated the whole thing is.”

  Carole thought that there were probably a lot of complicated things Veronica didn’t know about horse care—mostly because she never did any of them. But she knew that if she kept thinking about that, she’d just get angry and disgusted, and she didn’t want that to happen now, when Veronica was being almost nice. So she decided to change the subject. “So, Veronica, what are you and your parents doing for Thanksgiving?” Carole asked.

  Veronica frowned. “My parents are going to the Bahamas for the holiday weekend.”

  “Wow!” Carole said. Sometimes it was hard not to be impressed with Veronica’s wealth. Carole’s father made a comfortable enough living as a colonel in the Marine Corps, and he had recently taken her for a five-day vacation in Florida, but she couldn’t imagine him ever whisking her off to the Bahamas for the weekend. “That’s great. It’s been so freezing lately; it’s the perfect time to go. Have you ever been there before?”

  “Yes, of course I have. But unfortunately I’m not going this time,” Veronica said, sounding rather bitter. She gave Carole a sidelong glance. “I’m not invited.”

  “What?” Carole exclaimed. “But it’s Thanksgiving! How can your parents just take off and leave you behind?”

  Carole realized almost immediately that it hadn’t been the most tactful thing to say. She could tell by the look on Veronica’s face that this was upsetting her more than her casual words let on. “You tell me,” Veronica snapped.

  “I’m sorry,” Carole said quickly.

  “That’s all right,” Veronica said. “It’s not your fault that some stupid golfing trip is more important to my father than staying home for Thanksgiving.”

  “Why aren’t they taking you with them?” Carole asked. “Then at least you’d be together for Thanksgiving.” Carole knew that the diAngelos had more than enough money to be able to afford to bring Veronica with them. In fact, they had enough money to bring all of the riders at Pine Hollow with them to the Bahamas if they felt like it—and the horses, too!

  “It’s sort of a business trip,” Veronica explained. “Some superimportant client of my father’s has a vacation home down there, right next to some famous golf course. So he invited my father and his partner down. Their wives are invited, but not kids.”

  “That’s terrible,” Carole declared. “How could anyone separate families at this time of year?”

  Veronica sighed. “Well, my father told me that this guy isn’t American, he’s British. So he probably didn’t even realize when he planned this trip that it took place on Thanksgiving weekend.”

  “Oh, that explains it,” Carole said, trying to make a joke. “He probably still carries a grudge about the Revolutionary War.” She giggled at the thought that a modern Englishman would still be angry about America’s victory over England more than two hundred years earlier.

  But Veronica didn’t even smile. Instead, she sighed again, more deeply this time. “Whatever the explanation, the result is that I get to spend Thanksgiving this year with the maid and the chauffeur.”

  Carole tried to look on the bright side of the situation. “I thought you liked them both a lot.” Miles, the diAngelos’ chauffeur, had picked Veronica up at Pine Hollow many times. He had always seemed very kind to Carole. After all, he was always nice to Veronica even when she was being impossibly difficult, which was most of the time.

  “Oh, I do,” Veronica said. “But they both have families, and I’m sure they’d much rather be with them for Thanksgiving than with me. They’re only doing it because my father is paying them triple their ordinary salary for the weekend.” She attempted a feeble smile. “It was an offer they couldn’t refuse.”

  “Oh.” Carole didn’t know what to say next. She wished Lisa were there. She always seemed to know what to say to make people feel better. And Carole realized that she really did want to make Veronica feel better, despite all of The Saddle Club’s efforts in the past to make her feel bad. Still, Carole remembered that every single one of those times there had been a reason for their scheming. Usually it was either because Veronica had been mistreating a horse, or because she’d been mistreating The Saddle Club.

  This time was different. Carole had never before thought of Veronica diAngelo as vulnerable. After all, she seemed to have everything anyone could want, at least in terms of material things. She lived in a huge, elegant house, wore expensive designer riding clothes—including gorgeous leather boots that probably cost as much as Carole’s entire wardrobe—and never had to worry about having enough spending money. Most important as far as Carole was concerned, she was the owner of Garnet, who in addition to being a beautiful, sweet-tempered horse, was also a purebred Arabian.

  But the more Carole thought about it, the more she realized that she wouldn’t want to trade places with Veronica for even one second. She had often noticed that the diAngelos seemed to try to solve every problem with money, even when it didn’t really help at all. Whenever Veronica threw one of her frequent temper tantrums, her parents offered to buy her something to make her feel better. Carole suspected that this was because it was quicker than listening and trying to solve the real problem. She knew that Mr. diAngelo had an important job that took up a lot of his time.

  Carole thought about her own father. Carole
and her father had always been close, but since Mrs. Hanson’s death a couple of years earlier, they had become closer than ever. Carole knew she could tell her father about anything that was bothering her, and that he would listen. In fact, her friends could count on Colonel Hanson to listen to their problems, too, and to help if he could.

  That gave her an idea. If her father could help Stevie and Lisa with their problems, why not Veronica, too? And if Carole could get him to help Veronica to feel better, even though Carole didn’t even like Veronica, it would be a true demonstration of selflessness—the perfect Thanksgiving project!

  “Hey, Veronica,” Carole blurted out, before she was really aware of what she was about to say. “Why don’t you come spend the weekend with me and my father? I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”

  Veronica looked at her in surprise. For a second she looked suspicious, then thoughtful. She wrinkled her nose and opened her mouth as if to turn down the invitation, then stopped. Finally, she shrugged. “Well,” she said, “I guess that might be better than nothing.” She paused again. “In fact, it might even be fun or something.” She smiled at Carole. “I’ll call right now and ask my parents. I’m sure they’ll say yes—I think they’ve been feeling guilty about the whole thing, anyway. Thanks a lot, Carole. I’m glad you asked.”

  “My pleasure. It’ll be fun,” Carole said weakly, wondering what she was letting herself in for. But there was no time to back out now.

  “Max, can I use the phone in your office?” Veronica wheedled. “Pretty please?”

  “Sure, go ahead,” Max said. Normally, the phone in Max’s office was reserved for emergencies. The riders were supposed to use the pay phone. But Carole suspected that Max was too surprised at hearing Veronica say “please” to insist on her following that rule. Either that, Carole thought ruefully, or he had overheard her own offer and was still in shock.