Autumn Trail Page 3

  Carole bit her lip and tried to pay attention to what Alec was doing while she waited for Veronica to return. But her mind was racing, and for once she couldn’t concentrate on the horse in front of her. She and her father had planned a quiet Thanksgiving dinner for just the two of them. After her mother’s death Thanksgiving had become a quiet but very special time for Carole and her father. They used the day to remember her and be thankful for the time they’d had with her, and also to be thankful for having each other. This year they had been planning on spending the day cooking and eating together, then watching Miracle on 34th Street on television.

  Even though Veronica was being much more human today than usual, Carole had a difficult time imagining her fitting in with their modest plans. And what was more, she wasn’t sure she wanted to imagine it.

  Just then Veronica returned, breathless from running. “It’s all set,” she told Carole excitedly. “My parents said it’s okay for me to stay with you. They’ll drop me off here Wednesday on their way to the airport, and I can just go home with you when you come to take care of Starlight.”

  “Great,” Carole said. “I can’t wait.” Suddenly she had another thought. What were Stevie and Lisa going to say? Carole almost groaned out loud. She had a feeling she was in for a whole lot of teasing from her friends. Still, she reminded herself, she was supposed to find something generous and selfless to do to celebrate Thanksgiving. And watching Veronica’s happy expression, Carole knew that her invitation had made the other girl feel much better.

  And that’s what the spirit of Thanksgiving is all about, Carole thought. Isn’t it?

  THE NEXT DAY, Tuesday, Carole arrived at Pine Hollow about forty minutes before class. She hadn’t told either Stevie or Lisa yet about her new Thanksgiving project. She was wishing by this point that she could somehow go back in time and take back her offer to Veronica. But there was no way she could back out of it now—especially when she remembered the grateful look on the other girl’s face when she’d accepted.

  When Carole had told her father about her invitation to Veronica, he had immediately okayed the idea. In fact, he had seemed excited about it. That’s only because he doesn’t know Veronica very well, Carole thought wryly. Colonel Hanson was a parent sponsor of Pine Hollow’s Pony Club, Horse Wise, so he had met Veronica plenty of times. But he didn’t know her well enough to know how rotten she could be when things didn’t go her way.

  Carole hadn’t called Stevie or Lisa the night before to tell them her news. And even though Carole and Lisa went to the same school, they were in different grades and hadn’t seen each other all day.

  Usually when Carole had a problem, she told her friends about it right away. They all took very seriously the Saddle Club rule about helping each other, and Carole knew she could count on Stevie and Lisa for anything, large or small. But Carole really didn’t think there was much either she or her friends could do about this particular problem. Unless she—or Veronica—came down with a major disease in the next few days, they would be spending Thanksgiving weekend together, for better or for worse. Besides, Carole couldn’t help thinking that Stevie was at least a little bit to blame for the whole situation. After all, if it wasn’t for Stevie’s Thanksgiving-project idea, Carole probably wouldn’t even have considered trying to help Veronica.

  Carole grinned for a second, wondering if she could make Stevie feel guilty enough to offer to take Veronica along on the Lakes’ vacation. Then she sighed. Stevie and Lisa would be arriving at the stable soon, and she was just going to have to bite the bullet and tell them what she’d done, even though she knew she was going to get some teasing. No, make that a lot of teasing.

  But first, she had a good excuse to put it off a little bit longer. The last time she’d untacked Starlight, she had noticed that one of the stirrup leathers on his saddle was starting to look worn. She had made sure to arrive a little early today so she’d have time to replace it, and the other one as well. If one leather was wearing out, she knew it wouldn’t be long before the other one would, too. The leather holding the left-hand stirrup always got more wear and tended to stretch out more since riders always mounted and dismounted from the left side, but Carole, like most conscientious riders, made sure to switch the leathers from side to side so they would get the same amount of wear—and remain the same length. But now it was time to change them both, and Carole didn’t want to put it off. Having a stirrup leather break while in the saddle was always a nuisance, and sometimes a danger.

  She headed toward the tack room. When she arrived, she was so intent on her task that she almost didn’t notice that the door to Mrs. Reg’s office, which adjoined the tack room on one side, was slightly ajar. Even if she had noticed, she wouldn’t have thought anything of it. But as Carole was digging around in the trunk full of extra stirrup leathers, she heard a male voice coming from behind the door. She paused and listened long enough to determine that the voice belonged to Max, who seemed to be talking animatedly to someone on the phone. Then she turned her attention back to the leathers. It was a little unusual for Max to use the phone in his mother’s office rather than his own, but it was certainly nothing to worry about.

  Then Carole heard something that made her forget all about stirrup leathers. Was she going crazy, or had Max just said something about a “lovely lady”—and then giggled?

  Max was a good friend to the riders he taught, including The Saddle Club. But Carole had to admit that they didn’t know much about his personal life. In fact, now that she stopped to think about it, she had always sort of assumed that he didn’t really have one outside Pine Hollow. Now she realized that that might not be a fair assumption. After all, at the moment it sounded as though Max was talking to someone about a woman!

  Carole dropped the handful of leathers she was holding and scooted as close to the office door as she dared. For a moment she felt guilty about eavesdropping, but Max’s next words made her forget those feelings entirely.

  “Great, then everything’s settled,” Max was saying. “Provided I can get someone to take care of things here for a few days, tell Lillian I hope I’ll be seeing her soon.” He chuckled. “And tell that special lady that I really hope she’ll be coming home with me after the visit!”

  Carole gasped, then belatedly clapped her hand over her mouth, hoping Max hadn’t heard her. A special lady, whom Max wanted to bring home with him? It could mean only one thing—Max was in love! She couldn’t believe he hadn’t let on a thing about it before this. It was so romantic!

  But she didn’t have much of a chance to think about it. She could hear Max saying good-bye and hanging up the phone. The legs of Mrs. Reg’s old wooden chair were scraping against the floor. In a second Carole knew that Max would come out and see her there, and he would surely realize that she must have heard his conversation. If he had just been discussing grain prices or something, it wouldn’t have mattered, but Carole was afraid he’d be embarrassed, or even angry, if he knew she’d overheard him making plans to see his girlfriend. And if he was planning to bring this woman back to Pine Hollow with him and nobody had heard about it, he must have wanted to keep it a secret. Maybe Mrs. Reg didn’t even know about it! Maybe Max and his special lady were planning to elope! Maybe—

  But Carole didn’t have time for any more maybe’s just then. She glanced frantically at the tack-room door, wondering if she should make a run for it. The trouble was, if she shut the heavy, squeaky lid of the old metal trunk containing the stirrup leathers, Max would hear it and know she’d been there. And if she left it open, she was certain he’d be so annoyed at this bit of carelessness that he’d be sure to track down who had done it. She was trapped!

  Just then her gaze fell on something lying on a low shelf near the door. It was Red’s portable radio and headphones. Carole knew that the stable hand sometimes liked to listen to music while he cleaned tack to make the tedious job go faster. Luckily, he must have forgotten and left it behind after his last cleaning session. Moving quic
kly, Carole tiptoed across the floor, grabbed the tiny radio, and jammed the headphones on her ears. She just had time to turn it on, twist the volume knob to “loud,” and sit down again in front of the trunk full of stirrup leathers before Max stepped out of Mrs. Reg’s office with a big smile on his face.

  He seemed startled to see her there. “Oh—hello, Carole,” he said pleasantly. He didn’t seem too concerned that she might have overheard him, and Carole silently congratulated herself for the radio idea.

  She pretended to be surprised to see him, too. “Oh, hi, Max. I didn’t know you were in there.” She gave a little wave and then continued to sort through the leathers, swaying and nodding her head in time to the music.

  “Uh, yes, I was just making a phone call,” Max replied. He looked a little puzzled as he stared at the headphones. “Is that Red’s radio?”

  “What did you say? I can’t hear you with these headphones on,” Carole said loudly. Actually she could hear him perfectly well, even over the loud country-and-western music that was blaring out of the headphones. She figured it was better to be on the safe side, though, and make him think she couldn’t hear a thing. She was sure that Stevie, who was famous for her schemes, would be proud of her for adding this extra detail.

  Max stepped over to her and lifted the headphones off her head. The sound of a woman with a strong southern accent crooning something about standing by her man came out of them, sounding a bit tinny because of the small size of the headphones. Max was starting to look a bit suspicious. “Since when are you a fan of country music, Carole?” he asked, switching the radio off.

  She shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said nervously. “I guess I just have varied tastes.”

  Max said something that sounded like “hmmph,” but he seemed satisfied with her answer. “Well, don’t get so caught up in your tunes that you’re late for class.” With that he left the room, and Carole breathed a sigh of relief.

  Then she grinned. She couldn’t wait to tell Stevie and Lisa what she’d heard. Max had a girlfriend! This was really big news.

  Suddenly she remembered that she still had one other piece of news to tell them about: Project Veronica. Carole groaned. Teasing or no teasing, there was no point in keeping it from them any longer. Trying to be optimistic, she thought that Stevie might even be proud of her for taking on such a task.

  As if reading her thoughts, Stevie’s first words when she saw Carole were, “Hi, Carole. Have you come up with a Thanksgiving project yet?”

  Carole gulped. She’d planned on easing her friends into the news slowly. “Um, as a matter of fact, I have,” she said.

  “Really?” Stevie looked excited. “Lisa and I were just talking about ideas, but we haven’t come up with anything good. So what’s yours?”

  Carole decided that the best thing to do was just to blurt it out. So she did. “I invited Veronica to spend Thanksgiving weekend at my house,” she said all in one breath.

  Stevie and Lisa stared at her for a moment as if she’d lost her mind. Then they both started laughing. “Good one, Carole,” Stevie chortled. “I almost believed you for a minute!”

  It took some doing, but Carole finally convinced them that she was serious. She explained the situation with Veronica’s parents. “I just felt sorry for her, having to spend the holiday practically alone,” she said.

  “Well, you’re the one I feel sorry for,” Stevie declared.

  “Stevie’s right,” Lisa agreed. “I think you may be taking this selflessness thing too far. Spending that much time with Veronica has got to be the ultimate sacrifice!”

  “Yeah, the meaning of Thanksgiving is one thing. This could get you qualified for sainthood or something,” Stevie added, only half joking.

  Carole sighed. “I know, I know. But you should have seen Veronica yesterday. She was actually being—well—nice.”

  “I don’t believe it,” Stevie said flatly. “All I can say is, I’m glad it’s not me who has to deal with her. In fact, I’m glad I’ll be far away at my relatives’ house during the whole thing. I don’t even want to have to watch you deal with her.”

  Carole decided it was time to distract her friends from the subject of Veronica. Luckily, she had the perfect way to do it. “Never mind Veronica,” she said. “I’ll put up with her somehow. But have I got news for you!” Quickly, she filled them in on what she’d overheard.

  “I can’t believe it!” Lisa exclaimed when Carole had finished. “Our Max has a girlfriend?”

  Stevie thought Lisa sounded a little like a proud parent, and she told her so. “Not that I blame you,” she added. “It is pretty exciting to think of Max being in love—maybe even getting married! From what you heard, Carole, it sounds like he wants to bring this Lillian woman back here with him, maybe permanently. Just think, we could be having another wedding at Pine Hollow before too long!” The past April Fool’s Day, Stevie had planned a mock wedding between two of the horses at Pine Hollow, a stallion named Geronimo and a mare named Delilah. At the last minute the fake wedding had been turned into a real wedding to save the day for a human couple.

  “Or eloping,” Carole said. “That’s my guess. I bet Mrs. Reg doesn’t even know.” She sighed wistfully. “Lillian is such a pretty name.”

  Lisa, always the practical one of the group, brought them back down to earth. “We shouldn’t blow this out of proportion,” she cautioned them. “After all, from what you heard, we don’t know how serious things are. This could even be Max’s first date with this woman.”

  “Well, maybe,” Carole said doubtfully. “But Max sounded pretty serious about her on the phone. I mean, he said he wanted to bring her back here with him. I wonder exactly when he’s going to visit her.… He didn’t really say; he just said he’d see her soon.”

  “It was smart of you not to let on that you’d heard,” Stevie told Carole. “If he knew we knew about it, we’d never be able to find out anything from him. This way he won’t be suspicious, so if we ask him the right questions, maybe …” She let her voice trail off mysteriously, but her friends knew what she meant. Maybe they could find out more about Max’s mystery woman, Lillian.

  “I think finding out all we can about Max’s new romance should be our next Saddle Club project,” Carole declared.

  “I definitely agree,” Stevie said. “I just wish I had an idea of what to do for my part of our other project. I’m leaving for my aunt’s house tomorrow, and I still haven’t come up with anything good at all. I just can’t think of anything to do.”

  “Me, neither,” Lisa said. “But I do have a pretty good idea of what we should be doing right now, and that’s tacking up our horses. We only have fifteen minutes until class starts.”

  Carole glanced at her watch. “Uh-oh, you’re right. Let’s go!” The girls hurried off in separate directions to get their horses ready for riding class. Fifteen minutes was plenty of time to tack up a horse, but they didn’t want to take a chance of being late. They all knew how annoyed Max got when someone was late for class, and they also knew that they liked him a lot better when he wasn’t annoyed.

  AT THE END of class that day, Max announced that he had a favor to ask. “As you all know,” he began, “Thanksgiving is this week. I know most of you have some time off from school, and a lot of you probably have special plans with your families. I was hoping to make a pretty special trip myself to visit a good friend, but I’m having some problems arranging it.”

  Stevie glanced furtively at Lisa and Carole. They both knew what she was thinking, because they were both thinking the same thing: This must be the special trip to visit Lillian that Carole had just overheard Max planning on the phone!

  “In any case,” Max was saying, “Red won’t be able to do all the work himself, and I’m having trouble finding anyone who wants to work. I know it’s short notice, but if any of you knows anyone with stable experience who would be willing to work then, please let me know as soon as possible. Thanks, and that’s all for today. Class di
smissed.”

  Stevie untacked and groomed her horse, Topside, as quickly as possible. She checked to make sure his stall was clean and everything was in order. No matter how rushed Stevie might be, or how careless she was about some things, she knew how important it was to make sure her horse was properly taken care of. But that didn’t necessarily mean that she always had to spend a lot of time on it—especially when she had such important things to discuss with her friends!

  Finally, she finished and hurried to Starlight’s stall. Lisa had already joined Carole there. “Did you guys hear that?” Stevie asked breathlessly. She joined Lisa in leaning over the bottom half of Starlight’s stall door so she could talk to Carole, who was inside grooming him.

  Lisa nodded. “He had to be talking about his visit to Lillian. Isn’t it romantic?”

  “Totally,” Carole agreed. “The problem is, it doesn’t sound as if Max is going to be able to visit her after all. It’ll be practically impossible for him to find someone to help out on such short notice, especially over a holiday weekend.”

  “You’re right,” Stevie said, her eyes sparkling. “That’s why Max is so lucky he has us to help him!”

  Carole shrugged as she ran a soft brush down Starlight’s neck. “You know we’ll do whatever we can to help him, but I can’t think of a single person to ask.”

  “Well, I can’t either, not right now,” Stevie admitted. “But we have to think of someone. We just have to.” She bit her lip anxiously, hoping she’d be able to come up with a solution to Max’s problem before she left for her aunt’s house the following afternoon.

  “You know, I never thought much about it before, but Max really has a twenty-four-hours-per-day, seven-days-a-week job, doesn’t he?” Lisa mused.

  “He really does,” Carole agreed. “Owning a stable is a big responsibility. All the horses here depend on him. I guess it’s pretty hard to get time off.”