Stevie, sitting in the middle, looked out the window over Carole. “Sure does,” she said. “Do you suppose …?”
“Take a left, driver,” Lisa said authoritatively.
Before Max or Mrs. Reg could object, the driver swung to the left and drove along a side street, approaching the vans.
“It sure looks like it,” Lisa said, excitement rising in her voice.
“Could it be?” Carole said.
“Of course it is!” Lisa said. “Look at all the girls the police are holding behind the lines there. It’s got to be! Only Skye Ransom could get a crowd like that!”
The car pulled up to the curb.
“Can we see?” Stevie asked. Max looked at his watch and shrugged his shoulders. “Ten minutes can’t hurt,” he said. That was all the girls needed. They were out of the car in a flash.
“This way,” Stevie said, leading them to where she could see the lights set up.
They got within about fifty yards of the location set when a policeman tried to shoo them behind the barricade.
“But Officer,” Stevie explained, using her most convincing voice. “Skye Ransom’s a friend of ours. We just want to say hello.”
“And the mayor’s a friend of mine,” the officer said calmly, “and he just wants me to keep all you teenage girls behind these lines, see?”
Before they knew what was happening, they were in the midst of a very large, excited crowd of girls their own age. Every single one of them just wanted a look at Skye Ransom.
“We met him, you know,” Stevie said to the girl standing next to her.
“Yeah, sure,” the girl said. She didn’t sound as if she believed Stevie.
“And we went riding with him,” Lisa told her, trying to be convincing.
“Riding? That’s all? I went dancing with him last night, and the night before. Miriam,” she said, turning to her friend, “what was your dream?”
“A cruise,” the girl said. “We took a cruise together. And when a wave rocked the ship, he kept me from being swept overboard!”
“Well, when he fell off his horse, I helped him,” Lisa told the girls.
They looked at her with distaste. “Skye would never fall off a horse,” Miriam said. “He’s a very good rider. I read all about it in Teen Month.”
Lisa, Stevie, and Carole looked at one another and laughed. They’d been absolutely right in the first place. Nobody was going to believe them.
“I think we’d better go,” Lisa said sensibly. “Standing behind this barrier isn’t going to get us anyplace.”
The girls ducked under the barrier and returned to the car.
They climbed into the rear seat and the driver took them to Pennsylvania Station.
It wasn’t until they were on the train and Max had stowed all of their bags that they realized Max didn’t have his luggage.
“Do you have time to go get your suitcase before the train goes?” Carole asked with concern.
“Nope,” Max said lightly. “So I guess I’ll just have to stay in New York another couple of days.”
“Another couple of days!” Stevie said. “How long will it take you to get the suitcase?”
“Oh, that’ll only take me a few minutes. What’s going to take me a little longer is filing all the papers and hiring a van and car to bring Topside home to Willow Creek.”
“Well, sure, of course,” Stevie said. “That kind of thing does take time. I mean, everybody knows about filing papers. And vans can be—” She stopped in mid-sentence because Max’s words had just registered.
“You mean?”
Max nodded.
“Really?” Carole asked.
Max nodded again.
“For us?” Lisa asked.
“Who else?” he said. “I couldn’t let Dorothy sell a wonderful horse like that to just anybody. And, knowing how good Topside is—both with new riders like Skye Ransom and experienced ones like Dorothy—well, I thought he’d be the best horse I could get to train my next few championship riders.”
Stevie couldn’t help herself. She leapt up out of her seat on the train to give Max a bear hug.
Carole and Lisa shrieked with joy and excitement.
“I’m glad I’ve got your approval,” Max said. “Now settle down and take care of my mother on the trip home. I’ll be along by the middle of the week. You girls have class on Wednesday, right? Well, you can spend the entire trip home arguing about who gets to ride Topside first. Mother, I recommend you take that seat across the aisle and let these three sit together. They’re going to get rowdy and you won’t want people to think you’re with them,” he teased.
The train’s whistle blew. Max dashed for the exit and made it back onto the platform right before the train started moving. The girls and Mrs. Reg waved out the window to him.
Mrs. Reg settled into the seat across the aisle and pulled a magazine out of her handbag.
“Alphabetical, that’s the fair way,” Carole said. “So, since Carole comes before Lisa and Stevie—”
“Yeah, but Atwood comes before Hanson and Lake,” Lisa reminded her.
“By height,” Stevie said. “The tallest should go first!”
“No, the oldest!” Lisa countered.
“No, the best rider!” Carole said.
“I’ve got it,” Stevie announced, smiling sweetly. “The nicest goes first.”
“Hmm,” Carole said thoughtfully, breaking off the friendly argument temporarily. “I’ve been thinking about leaving all the fun and excitement of New York and how nice it will be to get back to dull old Willow Creek where nothing exciting ever happens.”
“How can you say that?” Lisa asked, truly astonished.
Carole smiled wryly. “But then I thought about it some more, and I realized that it doesn’t much matter where we are, because wherever there’s The Saddle Club, there’s always something exciting going on!”
Lisa and Stevie nodded. It was true. It was great to be at the horse show and meet Skye Ransom, but The Saddle Club was what really mattered.
“I’ve got it!” Lisa announced, returning to their earlier subject. “Highest grades rides him first!”
“Highest military rank achieved by a father!”
“Most brothers!”
“Fewest brothers!”
“Most sisters!”
“We don’t have any sisters!” they yelled in unison.
By the time they’d reached Philadelphia, the girls were laughing too hard to care who rode Topside first—as long as they all got turns.
About the Author
Bonnie Bryant is the author of nearly a hundred books about horses, including the Saddle Club series, the Saddle Club Super Editions, and the Pony Tales series.
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