Starlight Christmas

by Bonnie Bryant

  Read all the Saddle Club books!

  Horse Crazy

  Horse Shy

  Horse Sense

  Horse Power

  Trail Mates

  Dude Ranch

  Horse Play

  Horse Show

  Hoof Beat

  Riding Camp

  Horse Wise

  Rodeo Rider

  Starlight Christmas

  Sea Horse

  Team Play

  Horse Games

  Horsenapped

  Pack Trip

  Star Rider

  Snow Ride

  Racehorse

  Fox Hunt

  Horse Trouble

  Ghost Rider

  I would like to express my special thanks and appreciation to Bruce H. Koenig, D.V.M., and to Arline Harms.

  Copyright © 1990 by Bonnie Bryant Hiller

  Cover art copyright © 1990 by George Tsui

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  “The Saddle Club” is a registered trademark of Bonnie Bryant Hiller.

  “USPC” and “Pony Club” are registered trademarks of the United States Pony Clubs, Inc., at The Kentucky Horse Park, 4071 Iron Works Pike, Lexington, KY 40511-8462.

  Visit us on the Web! randomhouse.com/kids

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com

  eISBN: 978-0-307-82494-3

  Originally published by Bantam Skylark in November 1990

  First Delacorte Ebook Edition 2012

  v3.1_r1

  IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS …

  “So this is the errand Carole mentioned her dad had to run,” Stevie said. “I smell a rat, don’t you?”

  “Sure, but it’s a Christmas rat,” Lisa reminded her. “They are white and they tell white lies.”

  “We’re shopping for Carole. How about you?” Stevie asked when Colonel Hanson came up to them.

  “Me too,” he said. “I have something in mind for her big present, but I want some little things to put in her stocking and under the tree.”

  “Her big present is so big it doesn’t fit under the tree?” Lisa asked, impressed.

  “Nope,” the colonel said. “And that reminds me that I’ve been meaning to call you girls. I can use your help. Why don’t we step over to Pizza Man across the way there and have a little talk?”

  “I’m never too full of junk food to say no to pizza,” Stevie said, leading the way.

  In a few minutes, Colonel Hanson and the girls were settled into a booth, a pepperoni, sausage, and mushroom pizza cooking especially for them.

  “So, how can we help?” Stevie asked, getting down to business.…

  For Emmons and Andy

  Contents

  Cover

  Other Books by This Author

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  About the Author

  THE SCHOOL HALLS echoed with cheerful wishes for a merry Christmas and happy holidays. Lockers banged shut, not to be opened again for two and a half weeks, when school resumed after the new year. Three students skipped down the hallway, holding hands and singing loudly, “Hark the herald angels sho-out! Now’s the day that we get out!”

  Carole Hanson was oblivious to all the cheer. She felt distant from the activity around her. Christmases had been hard for her and her father since her mother’s death almost two years earlier. Most of the time, Carole could accept that her mother was gone. But it was difficult to do that at Christmas. More than anything, Carole wanted this Christmas to be better. Merry was too much to ask for.

  She thought about her father. She had been working on his main present for over a month. She was knitting him a pair of argyle socks. Colonel Hanson was crazy about certain things, and that included argyle socks. Carole knew he’d love the set she was making for him. If she could make him happy, then her Christmas would be a good one.

  “See you next year, Carole!” one of her classmates said, and giggled at the weak joke. Carole smiled thinly. She closed her own locker and turned to leave school for vacation.

  The vacation loomed ahead of her as a long, empty period. The only good thing about it was that she would have more time to spend with the horses at Pine Hollow Stables, where she rode. Horses were everything to Carole. When she grew up, she planned to work with them. She wasn’t sure if she would raise them, train them, heal them, or ride them. Maybe she’d do all of those things.

  Carole tucked a few loose strands of her curly black hair into her wool hat. She was just reaching for the door when a familiar voice stopped her.

  “Wait up, Carole!” Lisa Atwood called, hurrying down the hallway.

  “Can you believe it?” she asked when she had caught up with her friend. “Two weeks without school. Nothing but Christmas and horses!” She smiled excitedly, and Carole couldn’t help smiling as well. Lisa put her arm across Carole’s shoulders and gave her a squeeze. Carole was glad Lisa was there.

  Lisa Atwood was one of Carole’s two best friends, but she was very different from Carole. She was a year older, although she didn’t seem it. She was an excellent student, and she usually got straight A’s. Like Carole, Lisa loved horses and riding, but her lessons had to be squeezed in between ballet and piano and whatever else Mrs. Atwood thought was an appropriate kind of lesson for a proper young lady. Lisa didn’t mind doing the other things as long as it meant that she could ride. She’d do anything to ride!

  Their other best friend was Stevie—short for Stephanie—Lake. Stevie was as horse crazy as her two best friends, and she also rode at Pine Hollow, but that was where their similarities ended. Stevie was as mischievous around horses as Carole was dedicated, as easygoing a student as Lisa was serious. Her strongest point was fun. Whenever something wasn’t going the way the girls wanted it to, Stevie could always think up some kind of wild scheme that would make it right. Her schemes usually worked, too, though sometimes not the way the girls expected!

  It didn’t matter to any of the three of them that they were different from one another. They were friends because of what they had in common: They were horse crazy. In fact, they were so horse crazy that they’d started The Saddle Club. It only had two rules: Members had to be horse crazy, and they had to be willing to help one another, no matter what. Sometimes that meant sharing riding tips. Sometimes it meant working together on things like science projects. But it always meant fun.

  “Did Stevie call you last night?” Lisa asked.

  Carole shook her head.

  “We’ve got a ride to the mall this afternoon. We’re going Christmas shopping. Want to come?”

  “I can’t,” Carole said regretfully. “My main gift is Dad’s socks, and I’ve still got one whole foot to go. He’s got some errand he has to run today, so I’ll have time at home to work on it.”

  “Oh.” Lisa looked disappointed. “Well, we’re meeting at TD’s. Do you have time for a Saddle Club meeting?”

  “I always have time for a Saddle Club meeting,” Carole said. She would have liked to have been with her friends at the mall, but the trip to TD’s was the next best thing. Tastee Delight was a local ice cream place and the girls’ favorite—and most fattening—hangout. It was within walking distance of Stevie�
�s and Lisa’s houses, and of Pine Hollow. It was also near the bus stop Carole used to get home. The girls called it TD’s for short and often had their Saddle Club meetings there.

  Together, Lisa and Carole walked to the shopping center where TD’s was located. A few stray snowflakes drifted down out of the sky. Lisa saw them as a sign that Christmas was coming. Carole didn’t seem to see them at all.

  Stevie was already ensconced in a booth at TD’s when the girls joined her. “Christmas vacation,” she said as they sat down. She sounded as if she were savoring the words. “No school, lots of free time, lots of riding time, no school, and then …” She paused for effect. “New Year’s Eve.”

  “What’s so special about that?” Lisa asked, teasing her friend. She and Carole both knew that Stevie was beyond teasing when it came to this New Year’s Eve.

  “Did you forget?” Stevie asked. “It’s the big dance. I’m going with Phil. I can’t wait.”

  “I was joking,” Lisa informed her drily. “So what’s the highlight of your vacation going to be, Carole?”

  Carole pursed her lips. If Christmas wasn’t going to be all that great for her, it was hard to think what was going to be. Then she remembered. “Easy,” she said. “Christmas Eve—the Starlight Ride.”

  “Oh, right!” Stevie agreed. “I almost forgot. So my vacation will have two highlights—not counting no school, which would make it three.”

  “This will be my first time, you know,” Lisa reminded her friends.

  “You’re going to love the starlight ride,” Carole promised. “It’s just wonderful. I think it’s one of my favorite Pine Hollow traditions.”

  “Tell me about it,” Lisa said.

  Carole was about to begin when their waitress arrived. As soon as the waitress spotted Stevie, she grimaced. Stevie was famous for ordering outrageous sundaes. She’d even been accused of ordering them that way so nobody would be tempted to take little tastes from her dish. Stevie always flatly denied it, and continued to order new and generally unappetizing combinations of flavors. The waitress never liked to take orders when Stevie was around. This time, as usual, Carole and Lisa each ordered normal sundaes. The waitress turned to Stevie, expectantly braced for the worst.

  “I’ll just have a diet cola,” Stevie said.

  The waitress looked astonished. “That’s it? No bubble-gum ice-cream float? No marshmallow sauce on top?”

  Stevie made a face. “Ugh,” she said. “No way. Just a soda, please.”

  Relieved, the waitress left.

  “Why didn’t you get ice cream?” Lisa asked.

  “Well, I have to fit into my dress for the New Year’s Eve dance, don’t I?”

  Lisa and Carole looked at their slender friend in surprise.

  “So what are you wearing that you’re having trouble fitting into?” Carole asked.

  “I don’t know,” Stevie said. “I haven’t bought it yet, but I want to be sure it fits when I do.”

  Lisa and Carole couldn’t help themselves. They started laughing. Stevie laughed, too.

  “So, back to the Starlight Ride,” Lisa said. “Tell me about it.”

  “Right,” Carole said. Carole and Stevie had been riding at Pine Hollow for a long time, while Lisa had only started six months earlier. She was an apt pupil and had learned a lot in that short period, but there were still certain traditions she didn’t know about. Pine Hollow was owned and run by Max Regnery—the third-generation Regnery to do so. Max’s mother, Mrs. Reg, was his business manager and a friend to all the kids who rode there. Since the stable had been in the Regnery family for so long, many Pine Hollow traditions had developed over the years. The Starlight Ride was one of everybody’s favorites.

  “On Christmas Eve, at about seven o’clock, all the young riders at Pine Hollow come to the stable and saddle up. We leave about seven-thirty. We follow a trail marked with lanterns that Max and the stablehands have laid out in the fields and through the woods. The trail leader carries a huge torch. Sometimes we sing Christmas carols and Hanukkah songs as we go. Anyway, we end up at the town center where there’s a crèche and a menorah and we have a party.”

  “It sounds like a lot of fun,” Lisa said.

  “It’s more than that,” Stevie said. “It’s magic. It’s hard to explain, though. It’s just really wonderful. But Carole left out one of the most important things about it. Since she was the one who got the best-overall-rider award last summer, she’s the one who will lead us all and carry the torch!”

  “Wow!” Lisa said. “That’s great! You won’t get us lost, though, will you?”

  “I think I can follow a path laid out by bright lanterns,” Carole said. “And I’m sure that Barq won’t let anything bad happen to me in between lanterns.”

  “How’s that?” Lisa asked.

  “Didn’t you know that horses can see in the dark?” Stevie asked.

  “No, I didn’t know that,” Lisa said. “But I do now. So how come we don’t do a lot more riding at night?”

  “Well, for the horses, it wouldn’t be a problem. The problem is the people,” Carole explained. “See, the horse doesn’t know that his rider can’t see, so he’ll go wherever the rider tells him, even when his own eyes tell him better. He’ll duck right under a low-slung branch that’ll knock the rider right off his back.”

  Lisa didn’t like the sound of that. “Could that happen on the Starlight Ride?”

  “Oh, no,” Carole assured her. “That’s why Max lays out the trail first with the lanterns. We’ll be fine. And it will be wonderful!”

  “One dish of banana yogurt, one fudge sundae, and one diet cola,” the waitress announced, putting the orders in front of them. Then she turned to Stevie. “Oh, and when I told the counterman what you’d ordered, he wanted me to check to see if you have a fever. I told him it wouldn’t do any good. It’s the other times you might be sick. For once, you’re normal!”

  Stevie nodded. Then, as the woman went away, she turned to her friends. “Whatever was that poor lady talking about?” she asked, tamping her straw down on the table to remove the wrapper. “Must be a very stressful job here, I guess.”

  The girls chatted as they finished their orders, alternating from horse talk to discussions of what kind of dress Stevie should get for the New Year’s Eve dance. Soon, they were ready to leave and paid their bill. Mrs. Durham, the mother of one of their friends who rode at Pine Hollow, had offered to take Stevie and Lisa to the mall. The girls saw her car pull up to the curb. Mrs. Durham honked and Lisa and Stevie ran, leaving Carole to collect their change and leave a tip while she waited for her bus. She saw them wave gaily from the rear seat of the Durhams’ station wagon as they left. Carole waved back.

  She knew they’d have fun at the mall and she didn’t mind. She wasn’t really in a Christmas mood anyway. Being by herself, working on the sock, was a better idea for her for that afternoon.

  The waitress brought their change. Carole figured out the tip, left it on the table, and stepped out into the cool December afternoon. She noticed the snowflakes this time as they drifted down through the streams of light from the parking-lot lamps. The flakes, so pretty and so delicate in the air, melted as they reached the ground, merging with all the other dampness that penetrated Carole’s shoes. She quickly became cold and uncomfortable.

  Carole’s bus turned into the parking lot and honked. She waved and climbed aboard when it stopped. She paid her fare and took a seat. Soon she’d be home, working on making this Christmas better—the best ever. She was sure she could do it.

  Yes, she told herself, this Christmas will be good. Maybe.

  THE MALL, ALWAYS a fun place to be, was even more inviting in the holiday season. It seemed to Stevie and Lisa that every single store was bursting with beautiful, tempting things.

  “Did you see those earrings?” Stevie asked, nudging Lisa. “Do you think Carole would like them?”

  Lisa looked where Stevie pointed. The earrings in question were made of feathers an
d designed to dangle to the wearer’s shoulders. The feathers were electric orange, with peacock-blue tips. Carole was a casual but conservative dresser. She usually wore little gold hoops or pearl-dot earrings. “I don’t think those are really right for Carole,” Lisa said as tactfully as she could. Then she saw the look on Stevie’s face and continued, “But I really think the look is you, so I’ll probably sneak back here and buy them for you later. Is that what you want?”

  “For New Year’s Eve,” Stevie agreed. The girls giggled together.

  They wandered through a lot of shops and department stores. What they both wanted, more than anything, was to get Carole something that would make her Christmas better.

  “It’s so hard, you know,” Stevie said, sifting through a box of scarves that were on sale. “I mean, I know Carole will like whatever we give her, but we don’t want to give her something that’s just nice; we want to give her something that’s perfect.”

  The girls abandoned scarves and wended their way to another counter.

  “Fuzzy slippers?” Lisa said. Stevie shook her head. Lisa knew she was right. Carole wasn’t the fuzzy slipper type.

  “How about some funky socks?” Stevie suggested. It was worth a try. But all the socks seemed either too funky or not funky enough.

  “Do you think she’d like a belt?” Stevie asked. They tried, but they had no better luck there.

  It seemed that everywhere they turned in the mall, there were wonderful stores with marvelous things in the windows and on the racks and shelves, but there was nothing that was just right for Carole—nothing that could change another Christmas without her mother from okay to wonderful.

  Stevie found a bright red nightshirt for her twin brother, Alex, and a book about horror movies for her older brother, Chad. Lisa found an elegant kitchen clock for her parents and a sweater for her brother.

  “Maybe a book about horses?” Stevie offered. They spent a long time in the book department, but that only served to underline the basic problem: The only perfect present for Carole was a horse!

  CAROLE LET HERSELF into the house and locked the door behind her. She had gotten used to coming home to an empty house, but that didn’t make her like it. She turned on the lights, hung up her coat, and headed for her room. The unfinished socks were in a bag tucked under her bed. She took off her shoes, turned on her radio, and began to work on the foot. It wasn’t hard. The tricky pattern work was finished. This section needed to be shaped, but the instructions were easy to follow. Besides, she’d already done the other foot. This was exactly the same.