“No, no I don’t think there’s any need for that just yet. I wouldn’t want to get the boy in trouble you understand,” Mr. O’Grady explained, looking round at the sea of faces. “I’m sure he’ll come to his senses and bring her back. She’s a very special horse,” he added sadly. “We’ve had her since she was a yearling.”
Rosie felt very sorry for the man. He was obviously pretty distressed about the missing horse and there wasn’t a lot they could do to help. Rosie tried to imagine how she’d feel if one of the Sandy Lane ponies went missing, but she simply couldn’t. Why on earth would a stable boy steal a racehorse? What could he possibly want with it? Maybe he’d hold it to ransom? Rosie shook her head in disgust.
“Anyway, the lad’s name’s Jake Goodman. This is what he looks like,” Mr. O’Grady started again, handing Nick a photo. Rosie snapped to her senses as the riders all crowded around Nick, angling to take a look. It was a small black and white snapshot, taken in a photobooth. The boy’s face was hollow and drawn, his hair cropped short to his head.
“He’s not a very nice piece of work. He’s...” Mr. O’Grady looked about to say more, but seemed to check himself and stopped. It was Nick who broke the awkward silence that followed.
“If any of you should notice him or the horse, be sure to come straight to me or, failing that, phone Mr. O’Grady. He’s going to leave his number for us. I’ll put it on the tack room notice-board.”
“Of course we will,” Tom answered for the group.
“Thank you.” Mr. O’Grady smiled and tipping his hat, hurried over to his parked Land Rover.
“How awful,” said Rosie.
“Yes, nasty business,” Nick said. “You see, Mr. O’Grady holds himself entirely responsible for what’s happened. The boy’s only been with them six months and Mr. O’Grady gave him the job in the first place. What with Josh away and everything, it doesn’t look too good. Now, take a good look at this photo.” Nick passed the picture around for the riders to take a closer look.
“Well, I certainly wouldn’t like to run into him on a dark night,” Rosie said finally, handing the photo on.
“Oh I don’t know,” Jess said, leaning over Tom’s shoulder.
“Like the look of him, do you?” Rosie teased.
“No,” Jess answered shirtily. “But remember what you looked like when you last had one of these done.”
“You’re right,” Rosie laughed, remembering the photo she’d had taken for her passport. She looked like something out of a horror movie.
“Well, that’s enough of all that,” Nick interrupted. “We need to get those ponies untacked and stabled before they tear down the yard.” He turned and pointed to where Pepper and Skylark were stamping their feet in their impatience to get to their haynets.
3
HORSE IN HIDING
It was past midnight as the lone horse and rider made their way through the woods...not much of a chance they’d be spotted. And that was what the boy had hoped for...that was why he had chosen this time to move on. As the horse came to an abrupt halt at a fork in the path, the swift movement snapped the boy to his senses. Tentatively he looked this way and that, his eyes narrowing as he tried to decide which way to turn.
Letting the reins slip through his fingers, the boy swung the horse left and they continued on their way, winding a path through the trees. The smell of pine was strong that night, especially so as it had rained in the day, and the aroma of wet needles on the forest floor filled the air. The boy froze suddenly. He could hear a car. They must be nearing a road.
Sure enough, as they trotted into a clearing, a road appeared ahead of them. The boy hesitated and looked from left to right. Quickly, he took a deep breath and trotted across the tarmac, managing to get to the gate on the other side without being seen. Calmly, he walked the horse on, all the time looking from right to left for somewhere to hide for the night, but he couldn’t see anywhere. The countryside was pretty isolated around here. They walked on a bit further, the boy feeling relieved that their path was lit by the light of the moon. Suddenly, the horse stopped still in its tracks. The boy lurched forward in the saddle.
“What’s wrong? What’s up?” he asked. “Oh I see,” he muttered, noticing the tumble-down gate in front of them. “We can’t go any further.”
Swiftly, he jumped to the ground, pulling the reins up over the black thoroughbred’s head. He tied the horse to a fence and pulled back the gate. As he did so, he saw an old piece of board fallen to one side. There was writing on it, but he couldn’t make it out very clearly. The boy picked it up and walked back over to the black horse, straining his eyes to read the sign in the light of the moon. “South Grange.” He spoke the words aloud. “Hmm, I wonder what’s at South Grange,” he said, chucking the board back down on the ground. “Let’s take a look.”
He got back on the horse and they walked up the drive. It was long and winding with rhododendron bushes that sprang up on either side of them. As they made their way forward, the way divided into two and the boy decided to take the right-hand fork. As they walked on, a house appeared ahead of them.
It was clearly empty judging by the state of disrepair. Grand, rectangular windows sat neatly on an impressive facade, but a number of them had been broken and were now boarded up. It looked as though it could have been pink once upon a time, but so much of it was covered with sprawling green creeper that you couldn’t really tell.
The boy stood quite still. Then, tying the horse to some iron railings, he jumped to the ground and made his way round to the back of the house. Furtively he took it all in – overgrown lawns stretched out in front of him and to the left there were two grassy paddocks. Quickly, he made his way around the side of the house to take a further look. There was an old yard there with what looked like a few stables.
He took a look in the first one. It was empty, but the unmistakeable smell of hay still hung in the air. Slowly, he felt his way around to look in the next one. That was filled with piles of wooden crates. Then, he looked in a stable in the far corner and he started to feel a little better. It was filled with bales of hay. He took a closer look at them. They were a bit musty, but they couldn’t be that old. He’d been worrying about how he would replenish the meagre supplies he’d managed to bring with him. This hay would do for the moment.
He closed the door and, as he looked to his right, he saw the water pump in the corner of the yard. The whole set-up was perfect. He couldn’t have asked for anything better. He rubbed his hands together and, for the first time since he’d left the stables, he felt a spark of hope ignite in him. Quickly, he made his way back to where the horse was impatiently pawing at the ground.
“All right, all right Dancer,” he said, untying the reins. “Just hold on a minute. It seems like we might have found ourselves somewhere to stay – at least for tonight.”
4
TREASURE HUNT
The day of the Sandy Lane treasure hunt dawned grey and cloudy, but it wasn’t raining. As Rosie cycled up the drive to the stables, a group of riders moved away from the middle of the yard. Rosie was pleased to see Izzy in the centre.
“Hi Izzy, how are you?” she called across to her friend.
“Glad to be back.” Izzy grinned and laughed. Before Rosie knew it, Tom and Alex had rushed in to say their hellos. The yard was busy that morning – treasure hunts were popular events, and riders and ponies from stables all around the area had turned up alongside the usual Sandy Lane regulars.
“I’ll catch you later,” Rosie called across to Izzy, who smiled and waved. Rosie made her way to get Pepper ready.
Soon she was leading the little pony out of his stable to join the rest of her friends who had gathered with their mounts. Izzy was riding Midnight, and Tom and Alex were riding Chancey and Hector. Kate was on Feather and of course Jess was riding Skylark.
Rosie grinned across to her friend, pleased that they were paired together. It would give them the chance to make a new start. Butterflies zoomed around Rosie’s st
omach. What could be better than a treasure hunt? And to top it all, Nick had really pulled out the stops and there were some great prizes to be won. As Rosie waited for the signal to start, she turned to Jess.
“Let’s hope we do better than last year,” she laughed, remembering the mess they’d made of the clues.
“We can’t do much worse,” Jess answered. “But remember, no helping anyone else.”
“All right,” Rosie agreed readily.
“OK gather round everyone.” Nick brought their conversation to an end. “I’ll just go through the rules for the newcomers. It’s a bit different from a normal treasure hunt. There are ten clues which will give you the name of ten secret locations. When you’ve sussed out these places you’ve got to ride there. You’ll know if it’s the right place because you’ll find a coloured marker – either a ribbon or a big piece of paper pinned up. Note the colour down and go on to the next one. It’s 11 o’clock now. The winners are the ones who’ve got the names of the most places and colours by three. It’s a big area – anywhere within a 15 minute ride of here – but don’t waste time going over to Ash Hill.”
Rosie saw Kate blush furiously. She and her partner had ridden miles out of their way on a wild-goose chase in a treasure hunt last year and she didn’t like to be reminded of it.
“Anyway,” Nick was quick to go on, “I hope that the weather holds out for you.” He looked uncertainly at the sky. “The forecast predicts rain, so you’d better get cracking. You’ll need to collect a sheet of questions from Sarah,” he said as his wife appeared at the steps to their cottage, clutching their two month old baby, Zoe.
There was a mad clamour as all the riders took their papers and studied them carefully. Rosie flicked through the questions.
“Oh no, they’re impossible!” she cried, looking up to see Alex and Tom give each other conspiratorial looks and turn their mounts out of the yard and down the lane.
“Come on,” Jess said, nodding after the boys. “Why don’t we follow them – just to start. Once we get going we’ll be all right.”
“OK,” Rosie said doubtfully. And keeping a safe distance behind Alex and Tom, Rosie and Jess made their way down the lane.
“They’re heading for Sandy Lane Cove,” Jess said. “They must know what they’re looking for.”
“Well, they’ve gone out of sight already,” Rosie said, straining her eyes to see ahead of her as they rounded a corner and approached the cliff tops.
Jess drew Skylark to a halt at the top of the bay and looked down on to the sand. “Hmm, now where can they have gone to?”
“Looking for us?” A grinning Tom appeared from a clump of trees, madly waving his sheet of questions in the air.
“Thought you could follow us and spy, did you?” Alex added, cantering past. “Well, we’ve got the colour. Shame you haven’t found it too.”
“You rotters,” Jess cried. “Well, we’ll soon see about that. I’m sure we can come up with the answer.”
“Of course we can. Tom and Alex came from this path,” Rosie said, heading into the trees.
But, try as they might, twenty minutes later they still hadn’t worked out the solution.
“I was so sure they came in here,” Rosie said.
“You’ve already said that,” Jess answered, in a crotchety voice. “We’re wasting time. The answer must be staring us in the face, only we can’t see it. Let’s come back to this one. We’ve been here so long, the others are sure to have got twice as many colours as us by now.”
“You’re right,” Rosie answered, kind enough not to point out that it had been Jess’s idea to follow the boys in the first place.
“What we really ought to do is look at all of the questions and see which ones we can get the answers to, before we set off on our way,” Jess went on.
It was starting to drizzle with rain now and the two girls huddled together under some trees, reading the questions. Skylark and Pepper snapped at each other as they stood waiting.
“Stop it you two,” Rosie said. “I don’t know, they’re getting as tetchy as us, aren’t they?” she said, trying to make light of the situation.
“You could say that,” Jess laughed. “OK, let’s head for this one – a watery reserve in the centre of the woods. That’s got to be the pond in Bucknell Woods.”
“OK,” Rosie answered.
Quickly the two girls headed off back down Sandy Lane. Cantering along the grass verge, they passed the stables and rode into the woods. Winding their way through the trees, it wasn’t long before they reached the pond. The two girls circled their ponies around the left bank, but there wasn’t a colour in sight.
“Let’s try the other side,” Jess said.
“But it’ll take some time to ride over there if we take the bridleways, won’t it? I suppose it’s worth a look though.”
Rosie and Jess rode in an uncomfortable silence, and when finally they got to the other side, the answer didn’t appear to be there either.
“Perhaps it wasn’t Bucknell Woods after all,” Jess said uneasily. “Now that I come to think of it, it could easily be the reservoir over beyond Mr. Wells’s pig farm. There are woods there.”
“Look, it’s twelve thirty,” Rosie said crossly. “I think we should go on to clue three and come back to this one. ‘A place to practice your jumping skills. Look for the wood nearest me.’ That’s got to be the outdoor school. What about the old oaks at the bottom of Sandy Lane? Shall we try there?”
“Sure,” Jess answered. “Let’s go.”
And quickly they cantered off to the end of the lane and looked around the trees for the answer.
“I was so sure we had this one in the bag,” Rosie said when ten minutes later they still hadn’t found anything.
“How are you doing?” It was Izzy and Kate riding past. “We’ve got three.”
“Three!” Jess wailed despondently. “We haven’t got a single one. Tom and Alex led us off to Sandy Cove, and we were hanging around there for half an hour.”
“Never mind,” said Izzy. “They’ll come a cropper, you’ll see.”
“Here, we’ve got this one,” Kate added kindly. “You’re sort of warmish – only the wood isn’t the wood of the tree you’re looking at.”
“Thanks,” Rosie answered and, as she turned to the lines of fir trees at the top of the outdoor school, she caught sight of a piece of paper stuck to the end one.
Quickly she ran over. “Yellow,” she shouted in Jess’s direction.
“It’s quarter to one,” Jess said impatiently. “We’ll be so far behind the others. Why don’t we split up and meet by those trees there in say an hour?”
“Well, I don’t know.” Rosie looked uncertain. “We’re not really supposed to split up.”
“Nick will never know,” Jess wheedled. “And besides, if we carry on at this rate, we’ll be so far behind the others we’ll never hear the end of it.”
“All right,” Rosie agreed. “I’ll take these three.”
Jess nodded and waved as she set off.
Muttering to herself, Rosie read a question aloud. “Take the left-hand path at Sandy Lane Cove, then look for a four-legged home.” What on earth could that be? Well, it wasn’t too far away. She’d set off in that direction and hope something came up. Quickly she turned Pepper and cantered off across the scrubland.
“What on earth can it be?” Rosie muttered to herself, straining her eyes, squinting into the distance. The countryside was pretty deserted around here and she hadn’t seen any of the other riders for ages. She hadn’t ever ridden this way before, but one thing was for sure – she was getting further and further from Sandy Lane. She would be at Walbrook soon. Slowly, she rode deeper and deeper into the countryside. And then she stopped still. There was a rusty, old gate stretched halfway across the track in front of her. Maybe that led somewhere.
“What’s this, eh Pepper?” she muttered, jumping down and picking up a piece of board lying on the ground. “South Grange...I’ve
never heard of it, but I guess it’s worth taking a look. I suppose it could have a four-legged home,” she said to the little pony, guiding him up the driveway. She wasn’t sure how far she’d ridden, but a little niggling voice in her head told her it was a good deal further than the 15 minutes Nick had suggested. As she looked down in the mud she noticed hoofprints and that gave her confidence. Perhaps she wasn’t the first of the treasure hunters to come here after all.
“Which way now?” she said, talking to herself as she came to a fork in the drive. It was eerie around here and the sound of her own voice echoed hollowly around her.
“Let’s try this way,” she said. As they rounded the corner of the path, a large house came into view ahead of them.
“Wow!” She let out a low whistle. “It looks pretty derelict, but I hope we’re not trespassing, Pepper,” she said, a worried expression crossing her face. “Come on, let’s get searching for this clue. A four-legged home – they must have some stables around here,” she said brightly, sounding more confident than she actually felt. She didn’t much like the feel of this place. She looked at her watch. She only had half an hour to get back to Jess. Slowly, she nudged Pepper forward, the water from the branches falling down on her.
Jumping to the ground, she tied Pepper to a tree and turned the corner of the house. Quickly she walked past what looked like a garage and then she saw a yard ahead of her. She walked over and took a look in a stable. She couldn’t see anything at first, but then, as her eyes grew accustomed to the gloom, she saw that it was filled with a whole pile of crates.
Then, Rosie stopped still in her tracks. She could have sworn she could hear a noise behind her – a snuffling, snickering noise, like the sound a horse makes. But there wasn’t anyone there, was there?
Rosie turned around. She couldn’t see anything, yet she could definitely hear something. The stable in the far corner of the yard was shut, both sections of the door bolted tightly to a close. The sound could be coming from inside. Rosie didn’t know why, but suddenly she felt very nervous.
Horse in Danger Page 2