Stable Groom Page 4

  “Too bad her temper tantrums usually occur around horses. Otherwise, I’d agree,” Carole said.

  Lisa nodded. “You’re right—it would spook the horses. But we could kind of hide out around the stable and at least make a list of all the times she gets out of hand. Then we could report back to Max.”

  Stevie gave her a pained look. “And have The Saddle Club become a bunch of tattletales like Veronica? No way. Besides, Max knows she’s horrible to Red, and unless he kicks her out of Pine Hollow, he can’t do anything either.”

  “And that’ll never happen,” Lisa said matter-of-factly.

  It was well known that whenever Veronica had done something outrageous, Mr. and Mrs. diAngelo would come to Pine Hollow and plead with Max to forgive her. They were important people in Willow Creek, and they donated lots of money to good causes. Offending them would be bad for business, and it wasn’t something Max was eager to do.

  “I wish Veronica would wake up one morning and decide to be nice to Red,” Carole said wistfully.

  “That would happen if Red woke up one morning with credentials like Max’s or Denise’s. That’s the only way Veronica would respect him,” Stevie said.

  Lisa’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s a brilliant idea!” she exclaimed.

  “What’s a brilliant idea?” Stevie asked. She was used to stumbling upon solutions that she didn’t notice until Lisa pointed them out.

  “What you said. Red needs credentials to make Veronica respect him. So what’s to stop us from getting him some credentials?”

  “How can we do that?” Carole asked. “Unless he changes his mind about competing, he’s never going to win trophies. I doubt he’d want to study at the university—when would he find the time? And he’s too old to be a Pony Clubber, even though I’m sure he’d be an ‘A.’ ”

  “True. But he’s not too old for that other certification thing that Denise has,” Lisa said excitedly. “What was it again?”

  “Certified Riding Counselor,” Stevie replied promptly. “Equestrian Center, 101 Danvers Drive, Munroe, Indiana, 00335.”

  Lisa and Carole stared at her as if she were an alien from outer space.

  “Is there a problem? That’s the name and address of the place where Denise got her certification,” Stevie said innocently. Then she cracked a smile. “I may have trouble memorizing algebra formulas and irregular French verbs, but when I’m looking at something that isn’t any of my business, I never forget a comma.”

  Lisa and Carole congratulated her: Sometimes it helped to have a friend with a criminal mind. “So all we have to do,” Lisa continued, “is write a letter to the organization and tell them to send someone out here to give Red an examination. No doubt Red will pass with flying colors.”

  The more the girls thought about it, the more they liked the sound of Lisa’s plan. Even if the certificate was just a piece of paper, it was a piece of paper that would give Red the respect he deserved from Veronica. “The whole thing is perfect,” Carole said. “It will give Red the credentials he should have—”

  “—and put Veronica in her place for good!” Stevie shouted gleefully.

  “Girls! Dinner!” Mrs. Lake called from downstairs.

  The girls promised to carry out the plan that evening. “Say, Lisa?” Stevie began as they went to wash up. “Would you mind thinking of a plan that would put my brothers in their places, too?”

  AFTER GOBBLING UP their macaroni and cheese and their salads, the girls headed for Stevie’s bedroom to draft a letter to the Equestrian Center. Sweeping by them, Stevie cast a haughty look at Chad, Alex, and Michael, whom Mrs. Lake had stationed at the dishwasher.

  “Little did I know that their attacking us with water guns would come in so handy,” she confided to Lisa and Carole once they were upstairs. “But now we have extra time to get this letter done.”

  “It shouldn’t take too long if we can just think up the right thing to say,” Lisa said. She stuck a pen in her mouth and began chewing on it for inspiration.

  “How about starting with ‘To Whom It May Concern’?” Carole suggested. “I know a lot of Dad’s official-type letters begin that way.”

  “Excellent. If it’s good enough for the United States Marine Corps, it’s good enough for us,” Lisa said, jotting down the phrase. A colonel, Carole’s father held one of the highest ranks in the Marines.

  “What do you think, Stevie?” Carole asked.

  Stevie looked up from the movie magazine she had pulled out from underneath her bed. “Huh? Oh, yeah, sounds great.”

  Lisa shot her a withering glance. “I’m sure you’ll find a lot of stuff about the certification process in that article on Hollywood hunks,” she said dryly.

  “I’m just not good at this!” Stevie wailed. “I practically failed the business letter part of our English class. But, listen, I trust you two completely. Write whatever you want, and I’ll sign it.”

  “Thanks a lot,” Carole said sarcastically.

  Stevie closed the magazine. “Okay, okay—I’ll listen.”

  Lisa and Carole looked doubtful. “And then, when we’re done,” Stevie added hastily, “I’ll type the letter onto my mom’s computer.”

  “I forgot you had a computer,” Lisa said. “That’ll be even better. It will look very serious.”

  After several tries, the draft was finished. Stevie had gotten directions to Pine Hollow from an old horse-show flyer so that the examiner would be able to find it. Lisa had thrown in a lot of big words to make it sound good. She read it aloud to Stevie and Carole. “ ‘To Whom It May Concern: We believe that there is a person at Pine Hollow Stables of Willow Creek, Virginia, who is worthy to receive your certification as a Riding Counselor. He is skilled in all aspects of horsemanship, including riding, training, grooming, and instructing. Please consider this a formal request for you to send an official examiner to Pine Hollow to give Red O’Malley the required test so that he may gain certification as soon as possible. We enclose directions to the stables and look forward to seeing you. Sincerely yours, Stephanie Lake, Carole Hanson, and Lisa Atwood.’ ”

  Stevie and Carole clapped enthusiastically. “The only problem is that we don’t know Red’s real name,” Lisa pointed out.

  “You mean Red isn’t it?” Carole asked.

  “I doubt it,” Lisa replied. “It sounds like a nickname to me.”

  “We’d better put something else, then,” Stevie said.

  “Like what? How do we know what it’s short for?” said Lisa.

  Stevie thought for a minute. “I don’t know—how about … Redford?”

  The three of them looked at one another and burst out laughing. Somehow, Redford was as different from Red as a name could be. The idea of Red secretly having a stuffy, stuck-up name like Redford was hysterical.

  “I’ll bet Veronica would treat him better just for having that name!” Carole cried between snorts of giggles.

  Stevie stood up to do her Veronica imitation. “Excuse me, Redford? Could you kindly prepare my mount for me? I shall be going hunting this afternoon.” Carole and Lisa threw pillows at her.

  When they had gotten control of their giggles, they went down to Mrs. Lake’s study to type the letter. In the final draft Red became Redford O’Malley.

  “You know, it’s beginning to grow on me,” Stevie said as they waited for the letter to print out. “Maybe we should see if Red answers to it.”

  Lisa whisked the piece of paper out of the printer. Each of them signed her name, using Mrs. Lake’s fountain pen. Then they stood back to admire their handiwork.

  “If I were the Equestrian Center and I got this letter, I’d send somebody out to Pine Hollow,” Carole said.

  Stevie folded the letter, stuffed it into an envelope, and sealed it with a flourish. “I’ll ask Mom to mail this tomorrow. So I guess now all we can do is wait for the person to show up.”

  “Do you think we ought to warn Red?” Carole inquired.

  Lisa shook her head. “No, I don�
��t think we should say anything. He might not love the idea. It’ll be better if we wait until the examiner arrives at Pine Hollow. Then he won’t be able to say no.”

  Although it was still early, the girls decided to change into their nightgowns and pajamas. That way they could get into their sleeping bags and talk. Stevie had discovered that her parents tended to be more lenient about her and her friends’ talking until all hours of the night if they got into bed early. “I think Mom and Dad figure that we’re getting rest just by being in bed,” she said.

  Now, with the problem of Red and Veronica at least temporarily taken care of, The Saddle Club had other things to discuss. Since it looked as if camp had a chance of working out, the three of them could hardly wait for it to start. It was always a great opportunity to work on individual riding problems, and the end-of-camp exhibition had never failed to delight both the parents and the students. Besides riding in drill teams, the camp group had performed dressage rides to music, played Pony Club games, and jumped over fences in hunt teams. Max believed it was good for his students to try all different kinds of riding. It kept them interested while sharpening their skills and giving them an appreciation for other riders’ abilities.

  “I wonder if Max will decide what the exhibition is going to be before he leaves, of if he’ll let Red choose,” Carole mused aloud. She and Lisa were spread out on Stevie’s floor amid sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals.

  Logical as ever, Lisa guessed, “Probably they’ll decide together, since they’ll each be running camp for one week.”

  “I hope the exhibition is a re-creation of a Wild West stampede,” Stevie said, not very realistically.

  “Yeah, I’m sure the parents would just love to see their kids galloping madly around Pine Hollow, wouldn’t they?” Carole responded dryly.

  In the midst of talking about horses and the fun they were going to have at camp, the girls drifted off to sleep. “Just remember,” Lisa reminded them as her head dropped to her pillow, “we have the Groom’s Bath to organize before anything else.”

  THE FOLLOWING TUESDAY, The Saddle Club reported for their regular afternoon lesson at Pine Hollow. The class was working on relaxation for the horse and rider. Denise was back, helping Max with the instructing. While he ran the lesson, she took students down to the far end of the outdoor ring to work with them individually. Max and Denise seemed to enjoy teaching together, and all the students got attention.

  Veronica showed up fifteen minutes after class started. Max spoke to her sharply. He seemed to have decided that since Denise was going to be a regular member of Pine Hollow, he could go ahead and reprimand his students in front of her. “Everyone is on summer vacation, so I don’t want to hear any excuses,” he said.

  “But it’s not my fault!” Veronica wailed. “Red didn’t have Garnet ready when I got here. How can I help that?”

  The Saddle Club exchanged glances. About a half hour before, all three of them had seen the chestnut Arabian waiting in her stall, fully tacked up. Veronica, however, had been nowhere in sight.

  “It’s not my fault that the employees at this stable can’t be trusted. It’s not my fault—” In the middle of her whining complaint, Veronica stopped short.

  Stevie, Lisa, and Carole whipped around in their saddles to see what had stopped her. They followed her glance to the other end of the ring, where Denise stood, giving Veronica a big grin. “Hello, Veronica!” she called, waving.

  Veronica smiled wanly and waved back. She looked uneasily at the rest of the group. Then, without another word of complaint against Red, she turned and began pulling down her stirrups to mount. It was clear that she had somehow put two and two together and realized that blaming the stable hand wouldn’t endear her to the new instructor. By now everyone knew that Denise herself had been a stable hand and groom.

  When Veronica had mounted, class resumed. Carole had just gone to work Starlight with Denise. Max had everyone else walking in a large circle on a loose rein while they did stretching exercises. First they rolled their shoulders back several times; then they took their feet out of the stirrups and rotated them slowly. They did a number of other stretches for relaxation, like toe-touching and touching their ears to their shoulders. At first some of the riders, including Lisa, were afraid to do the exercises fully.

  “I don’t think Prancer likes me leaning down like this,” she told Max as the bay mare started to fuss. Prancer was a young Thoroughbred off the track. Lisa had been riding her in lessons and Pony Club for some time now, but she was still green, and new things tended to upset her.

  “That’s because she’s not used to it,” Max responded. “But don’t worry, she will be soon: I want you all to practice warming up with these new exercises every time you ride to see how your being relaxed affects your horses.”

  When Carole rejoined the group, Max sent Veronica down to Denise. “Oh, Denise, I’m so happy to be working with you!” Veronica called as she trotted off.

  Carole was absolutely glowing. She fell into place behind Lisa and Stevie, whispering to them that Denise was even better at teaching riding than she was at unmounted lessons.

  AFTER CLASS LISA and Stevie echoed Carole’s praise of Denise. “She has a way of explaining things that really makes sense,” Lisa said reflectively as she hopped off Prancer.

  Stevie agreed. “And no matter how great Max is, it’s always good to get a fresh opinion, isn’t it, Belle?” Stevie gave the sweaty chestnut’s neck a good pat. “By the way, before class I spread the word about the Groom’s Bath. Everyone wants to help. We’re going to meet in the grain room after untacking to plan it. No one should be there at this time of day, and if Max comes in, we’ll just say Denise is making us review Saturday’s Horse Wise topic, okay?”

  Before Lisa and Carole could respond, Veronica strode by, complaining loudly. Since Denise and Max had both gone in right after the class ended, Veronica obviously thought she now had full license to attack Red.

  “You could step on it for a change, you know,” she called to the stable hand. “I’ve been waiting for five minutes, and in case you don’t realize it, I’ve got better things to do with my time than stand here all day.”

  Red, who had appeared at the rail, said nothing as usual, but calmly and with a hint of a smile took Garnet’s reins from Veronica. After lodging a few more complaints about Garnet’s care, Veronica left the ring. Red scratched the horse between her ears for a minute. Then he rolled up the stirrups, loosened the girth, and, with a wave of greeting at The Saddle Club, headed back to the stable.

  Lisa, Carole, and Stevie had watched the scene with a mixture of bemusement and annoyance. It was funny, in a way, that Veronica harped on everything that Red did wrong, yet never failed to expect him to do her work. Red’s half-smile seemed to indicate that he felt the same way. The only consolation was that a cure was on the way. The Equestrian Center would receive the letter this week. In fact, they probably had it already.

  “Stevie, you did say that you spoke to everyone about the Groom’s Bath before the lesson, right?” Lisa asked.

  Stevie smiled, understanding Lisa’s point perfectly. “That’s what I said, Lisa. So everyone who was there on time, tacking up for the lesson, knows about it.”

  “And the people who were late?” Carole asked, joining in.

  Stevie grinned. “It’s not my fault!” she wailed.

  “ALL RIGHT! PIPE down, everybody!” Stevie announced a half hour later. Instead of just the people in their lesson, everyone who was at Pine Hollow that afternoon seemed to have shown up for the Bath meeting. “In case I didn’t tell you, this is supposed to be a secret. You know? S-e-c-r-e-t, secret?” Stevie said in a stage whisper.

  As soon as the din in the grain room had subsided, Stevie turned the floor over to Lisa. Lisa explained that the Groom’s Bath was a party to celebrate Max’s upcoming wedding to Deborah Hale and that they had decided the name “bridal shower” wouldn’t do. Then she asked for volunteer
s to cook things, bring things, and decorate things on the twentieth.

  Polly Giacomin waved her hand. “But why are you having it then? Max may not get married for another year—or ten years, for all we know.”

  Stevie spoke up. “Actually, Max is just about definitely getting married on the twenty-seventh of the month.”

  A buzz went through the crowd. Even though he had been engaged for several months, it was a different thing entirely to imagine Max married—and even stranger to think about a Mrs. Max living at Pine Hollow.

  “How do you know he’s getting married on the twenty-seventh?” Polly persisted.

  “We have it on, ah”—Stevie paused to clear her throat—“on very good authority that this is exactly what’s going to happen,” she said. There was no need to explain that this “very good authority” was her snooping on Max’s desk.

  Coming to Stevie’s rescue, Carole said firmly, “Lisa, tell us what food we need to bring.”

  “Right. Okay: cookies, chips, soda …”

  In a matter of minutes Lisa had everyone signed up to bring something or to help with the preparations. Compared to some of the events that The Saddle Club had planned, the Bath was a fairly simple party. Still, it would be a nice gesture that Max and Deborah would appreciate. At the same time, it would remind them of certain people whom they had—no doubt mistakenly—left off their wedding invitation list.

  After signing up to help with the Bath, the riders wandered off to tend to their horses or meet their rides home. The Saddle Club stayed behind in the grain room to go over the party plans.

  “Looks to me like this ‘bath’ is going to be a big splash,” Stevie said, attempting to keep a straight face.

  Lisa and Carole groaned at her bad pun. “As long as it’s a surprise,” Lisa said. “Because if it’s not, it could be a complete washout.”

  “If you don’t watch out, I’ll wash you both out!” Carole threatened. The girls doubled over, holding their sides from laughing too much.