Phantom: One Last Chance

by Belinda Rapley

  “I don’t get it,” Alice said, confused. “Everything looks the same as usual.”

  “There, on the ground,” Mia whispered.

  Charlie and Alice lowered their gaze. They both gasped, suddenly feeling goosebumps. There, clear in the light layer of snow, were hoof prints. They edged closer to get a better view. There were some more, little indistinct prints too, which looked as if they could have been made by Pumpkin, the yard cat.

  “Those hoof prints lead from Pirate’s stable,” Charlie gasped, “to the gate, then back again!”

  There was a scrape in the snow where it looked as if the gate had been pulled open.

  “Are they definitely Pirate’s hoof prints?” Alice asked.

  Charlie nodded, feeling queasy. They were tiny – they could only belong to the smallest pony on the yard. “But both his bolts are still done up,” she said.

  “And there isn’t a human footprint in sight.” Alice shivered. There was a tiny strip untouched by snow around the edge of the stables, under the eaves, but it was too far away from the hoof prints for someone to have led Pirate out while walking beside him.

  Charlie opened her little bay pony’s door and he nudged her hard with his muzzle, his eyes bright, wanting his breakfast. Charlie ran her hands over his legs and turned back his rug; there wasn’t a mark on him. She lifted one of his front hooves.

  “I picked these out last night before we left,” she said quietly, showing the others, her heart thudding, “but now they’re full of mud and fern. The ground’s frozen everywhere… apart from in the wood.”

  “He’s been out of the yard,” Rosie said, her eyes widening as Dancer nearly bashed her door off its hinges.

  “Quick, we’d better feed the ponies first,” Mia said, taking a deep breath. “Then we can think about this.”

  They mixed together the chaff, pony nuts, garlic, chopped carrots and apples in silence, then walked back to hand out the buckets. Dancer nearly knocked her bucket out of Rosie’s hand in her desperation to get to it. Charlie dropped one bucket into Pirate’s stable, and he launched himself at it, lifting his near fore hoof as he tucked in greedily. As Charlie moved on and opened Phantom’s door, she gasped, nearly dropping the bucket. Phantom always waited uneasily at the back of his stable until she’d left, and only then would he cautiously approach his feed. But this time he was standing quietly, his ears pricked and his eyes full of curiosity as he bent his head to the shape beneath him.

  The others, hearing Charlie’s gasp, rushed over and stood behind her, peering into the stable.

  “Hettie!” Rosie exclaimed, then she slapped her hand over her mouth as Phantom jumped. She lowered her voice and he dropped his nose once more to the woolly ball standing triumphantly at his hooves. “Those smaller prints weren’t Pumpkin’s, they were hers! But how did she get in there?!”

  “Do you reckon that Megan sneaked in overnight?” Alice asked. “I mean, I don’t get how she could, if there weren’t any footprints…”

  “But Hettie being in is evidence that she was here,” Mia puzzled. “Only – why put her in Phantom’s box?”

  “If Megan crept onto the yard after we’d all left,” Charlie said, talking slowly while she thought things through, “and Hettie sneaked in with her, maybe it was easier for her to shove Hettie into one of the stables than try to get her back into the field.”

  “But how can it be her, or anyone else, in fact,” Rosie asked, frightening herself, “if there wasn’t a single footprint in the snow?”

  The others stood stumped, and seriously spooked.

  “I don’t know,” Mia eventually said, “but I think we might need to do a night-time watch if we’re going to find out.”

  “There’s no way I’m keeping a lookout on my own in the dark!” Rosie cried. “You’re all going to have to stay with me – I’ll ask Mum about a sleepover.”

  “Yes!” Alice said. “Then we can take it in turns to stay up and keep an eye on the yard.”

  “We have to work out what’s going on here,” Mia said. “But in the meantime, I vote we stay put. And I think Pirate should stay in his box under close guard all day.”

  “What about Hettie?” Rosie asked. “I’d take her out, but I’d rather not tackle her while she’s being protected by Phantom the beast.”

  “You know what?” Charlie said, smiling for the first time that morning as she recalled the diary entry about Fable gaining confidence from her woolly companion, Molly. “I think it might just be the other way round. I don’t suppose there’s any chance your dad might let Hettie stay put, is there?”

  Pirate stood miserably, watching Scout, Wish and Dancer being led to the field with their thick winter turnout rugs on. He whickered every time Charlie came near, his ears pricked hopefully, but he turned grumpy when she walked past telling him that he had to stay where they could keep an eye on him. She let herself into Phantom’s stable, next door, and opened Fable’s diary at the point where she’d finished reading the day before. Charlie settled herself quietly on the thick deep straw around the edge of the stable. Phantom stood in the far corner, but with Hettie planted firmly between them he looked less distrustful of Charlie. His back leg was relaxed and his ears had drooped slightly outwards. Charlie didn’t feel she needed to tie him up.

  At first she was aware of Pirate’s restlessness in the next stable, and her reading was punctuated by his shrill whinnies to his stable mates. But before long, she became lost to her surroundings, totally immersed in the other world created by Caitlin in the pages of the diary.

  Charlie quickly lost track of time, reading silently for ages before she finally yawned and looked up. She felt her heart skip a beat. Phantom was half-dozing, his eyes soft. He shifted, but didn’t start when she got up. She wanted to stroke him, but she kept her hand on the diary, gripping it firmly. Little steps, she told herself. She scraped back the bolt and let herself out of the stable. Pirate immediately whickered to her and paced his box, so Charlie went over and hugged his sturdy little upright neck, scratching his withers under the thick rug.

  She walked to Wish’s empty stable, where Rosie, Alice and Mia had spent the day with Beanie and Pumpkin, wrapped up in blankets reading old copies of Pony Mad, drinking hot chocolate from flasks and scoffing sandwiches and chocolate mini logs. That way they’d kept a close eye on the yard without making their presence visible, hoping Megan would sneak in. So far, though, the only creeping about had been done by the chickens clucking to and fro and the odd smoky-grey pigeon looking for loose feed in the yard.

  Charlie sighed as she sat down with the others. She knew how much Pirate hated being cooped up, especially when his friends were out.

  “It’s only for one day,” Mia reminded her as Rosie picked up the Christmas Pony Mad and started to flick through it. Alice was snuggled up next to Rosie, looking at the pages with her until they got to the classifieds.

  Rosie was about to turn the page when Alice put out her hand to stop her, frowning. Part of the page was missing – just a tiny square from the bottom, and it was barely noticeable, but there was still a bit of pink highlighter on the page around the tear. Her mouth dropped open and she looked up at the others.

  “You know that advert for the dressage pony we thought would suit Megan,” she said quickly. “It’s missing…”

  The others looked over and gasped.

  “Well none of us would’ve taken it,” Charlie said, looking round at her friends, “which means…”

  “It has to be Megan,” Mia concluded with a frown. “When her dad said she was spending time with her bay loan pony, we just assumed he meant Pirate!”

  “When he might have meant a different pony altogether.” Rosie shivered. “But how do we know if that dressage pony is bay or not?”

  “We call Rockland Riding School,” Mia said quickly. “The pony was from there – has anyone got their number?”

  Rosie ran to the cottage and came back with it. She rang it, but when the manager answered she s
uddenly went blank. She threw the phone like it was a hot potato to Mia, who caught it, put it on speakerphone and, rolling her eyes at Rosie, took over the conversation.

  “Hi, I was wondering if the dressage pony advertised in Pony Mad’s still up for loan?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, no. A young girl took him on a few days ago,” the voice at the other end told them.

  “I know it’s an odd question,” Mia continued, as the others held their breath, “but could you let me know what colour the pony is?”

  “Of course!” the man laughed. “Mistral’s a very handsome bright bay. Megan, his new rider, is over the moon with him.”

  Mia thanked the manager for the information, then ended the call and took a deep breath.

  “It looks like this has just turned into a proper case, after all,” she said to the others. A sudden chill gripped her and she pulled the blanket close.

  The girls sat in stunned silence for a moment as the sky outside started to darken, until Charlie’s phone buzzed, frightening them all half to death.

  “It’s Mrs Millar,” she whispered before pressing the speakerphone button and answering, her heart still racing. Mia flipped to a new page in her notebook, ready to take notes for Charlie.

  “Ah, Charlie, Mrs Millar here,” Mrs Millar began, after Charlie had said hello. “I’ve done a bit of digging around and this is what I’ve found. You know some of it, but I’ll go through it all anyway. So, Pixie’s father bought Phantom in March this year. Before that, I had him on the yard for about eighteen months. He was a tricky horse but he settled after a while, helped by the friendship he got when Wish Me Luck arrived. Only, she was sold to your friend Mia pretty quickly, and he got fretful again after that.

  “Now, I bought him off a woman called Liz, who was desperate to sell at any price. She’d got him as a four-year-old from a dealer, who promised that he was an amazing jumper. He was that all right, but he was a handful too, even by that age. Liz only had him a few months before deciding that she couldn’t cope. The dealer refused to have him back, saying that he’d had Phantom since he was two and a half and he’d been backwards and forwards on trials the whole time. He’d been glad to get rid of him. While he was with me we took him right back to the start and he was going really nicely by the time he left. Spirited and quirky, always living on his nerves and fretting all the while, but so much talent. Not the friendliest, but then not every horse is, and I put that down to his chequered past.”

  Charlie glanced at Mia to check she was getting all of it down in her notebook. Mia nodded encouragingly.

  Mrs Millar sighed. “Hmm, what next? Oh yes, that’s it. Last night I managed to speak to the dealer that Liz bought him from. He picked Phantom up cheap from a woman called Ellie, who’d bought Phantom direct from his breeder. She was still fuming about it, apparently, convinced that the breeder had pulled a fast one, pretending the foal was older than he actually was. Ellie kept Phantom in a field for a couple of years but could never really get near him, he was too wild. So she sent him to the dealer, who then sold him on to Liz. I haven’t managed to speak to the breeder yet, but I hear he’s a bit of a slippery, unpleasant character. I’ve got his name here somewhere… now, where did I put it? Ah, yes, here it is, the breeder’s name is Tim Leech.”

  Charlie gasped. She remembered the photo of Fable – she’d almost mistaken the black mare for Phantom. But Phantom couldn’t be Fable’s foal – her little colt had died! At least, that’s what Tim Leech had told Caitlin all those years ago. Unless he’d lied to her.

  Charlie sat stock still, stunned by Phantom’s possible connection to Fable and Caitlin and the diary she held in her shaking hands. She cleared her throat and thanked Mrs Millar, then ended the call. Mia had written everything down in her notebook, but the words swam before Charlie’s eyes and for a moment she couldn’t move. Then she got up and walked to the stable next door. Phantom raised his head, and it was as if Charlie was seeing him for the first time: a gangly legged foal, wrenched from his mother too early, running scared ever since.

  She heard the others emerge from Wish’s stable, carrying out their blankets and mugs.

  “Come on,” Alice said. “Time to get the ponies in.”

  THEY brought in the other ponies and changed their rugs before dishing out their feeds.

  “Right, we’d better start preparing for tonight,” Mia announced after they’d had a quick sweep round and switched off the yard light. They’d debated whether to leave it on, but decided that they didn’t want the routine to be different from normal, so they’d turned it off.

  They went into the cottage and, over platefuls of piping-hot shepherd’s pie, began to plan the evening ahead, deciding who was going to take which stints sitting at the big window seat in Rosie’s bedroom that overlooked the stables. They discussed what reading material to take for when they were on lookout duty (Fable’s diary and the Christmas edition of Pony Mad), whether they should change into pyjamas and wear their clothes on top, and finally, what to do if someone did turn up.

  As soon as they’d finished eating the girls raced upstairs, flying into Rosie’s yellow bedroom, with its walls covered in pictures of Dancer, pony posters pulled from Pony Mad and wall charts about breeds, colours and markings. Her book shelves were stuffed with well-thumbed copies of every horse and pony book going. Mrs Honeycott had arranged a couple of blow-up beds and pulled in a spare mattress, all of which were piled with pillows, duvets and sleeping bags.

  After they’d got settled on the beds, plumping for jeans and jumpers worn over pyjamas, Mia switched off the light, turned on her torch and pulled out her notebook. Rosie curled up under her duvet, and Alice sat next to Mia, while Charlie took up position on the window seat. With one hand she scooped up the curtain and looked out over the pitch-black yard; the only light was the soft glow coming from the downstairs windows of the cottage. In her other hand she held Fable’s diary, now determined to finish it that night.

  “Let’s go through everything we’ve got so far,” Mia said, flipping past the pages with ‘Moonlight’, ‘Scout’ and ‘Runaway Pony’ written at the top, until she came to the latest page, titled ‘Pirate’.

  Pumpkin jumped onto Charlie’s lap as she nestled into her sleeping bag. She let the curtain fall, shutting out the cold, dark night, as Mia held the notebook under the beam of torchlight. Rosie and Alice shuffled closer to Mia as she began to read:

  1 – Black hairs found in my pink body brush, several times – possibly one of the riders who came up to try Pirate out.

  2 – Megan is the keenest of the lot and wants to turn Pirate into a dressage star. She pins up a training plan in the tack room.

  3 – We try to put Megan off Pirate by showing her an ad for a dressage pony for loan at Rockland Riding School.

  4 – Megan gets scared by Pirate’s full-speed gallop through the woods on her first hack with him.

  5 – Charlie tells Megan that she doesn’t think she should take Pirate on loan, but Megan’s already taken down her plan from the tack-room wall – has her decision been made?

  6 – There are more black hairs in my grooming kit the following weekend, and Pirate has been groomed and has minty breath – is Megan sneaking back in to continue with her plan?

  7 – We leave a tail hair across the tack-room door to see if anyone is coming onto the yard while we’re out – we come back and it’s broken!

  8 – Hettie’s loose on the yard and Pirate’s had his mane neatened, too.

  9 – Next day, Beanie alerts us to the presence of a stranger (although it sounds like he knows AND LIKES the stranger – can’t be Megan?).

  10 – As we sneak up on the intruder Rosie trips over the gate, LOUDLY, and gives us away.

  11 – My body brush is lying outside the tack room – someone’s been in…

  12 – Charlie calls Megan at home but she’s out. Her Dad says she’s spending time with her bay loan pony! Pirate???

  13 – The next morning, there are hoof
prints on the yard, but no footprints. Pirate’s clean hooves have mud from the wood in them! AND, Hettie is in Phantom’s box…?

  14 – We discover that Megan has taken the dressage pony from Rockland Riding School on loan.

  15 – So, if Megan isn’t coming in here and messing about with Pirate and Hettie… who is???!!!

  “Someone who doesn’t leave footprints,” Alice said, spooking herself in the torch-lit bedroom as Mia finished reading out the last point. They talked over everything again and again, going round in circles without a single clue to follow, until they heard lights being turned off below them, footsteps on the stairs and lowered voices as Rosie’s parents went to bed.

  Charlie rested her head back against the wall, and played with Pumpkin’s ears. She listened while the others whispered about what might be going on for what felt like ages, until the house fell silent. Suddenly, Charlie remembered that she was meant to be keeping an eye on the yard. She pulled back the curtain to peep behind it. A bright white moon lit up the sky, fading in and out as silver-edged clouds drifted slowly over its surface. An instant chill gripped her.

  “Pirate’s stable door!” she squeaked. “It’s open!”

  Suddenly the room burst into life as everyone unzipped their sleeping bags and rushed to the window.

  “I can’t see him anywhere!” Charlie panicked, pressed up against the window and searching desperately as a larger cloud drifted across the moon.

  “I can’t see my socks, either,” Rosie muttered, wishing now that she’d kept them on. She hopped over to the light just as Mia pointed out of the window.

  “There, heading down between the paddocks!”

  Charlie peered. She could only just see Pirate’s outline in the shadows thrown by the moon.

  At that very second Rosie reached the light. Alice turned and squealed at her to stop, but it was too late. The room was flooded with light, suddenly reflecting Charlie and Mia’s faces back at them in the glass until Alice raced over and flicked it off again.