“I’m just about finished.” Tessa stood to return Topside’s bridle to its spot on the tack room wall. “Give me that bridle, Stevie, and we’ll be out of here twice as fast.”
Soon after that, all the girls’ tack was sparkling clean. They put it away, then headed toward the large box stalls where Hodge and Podge were staying.
When they arrived, they found that the big bays already had a visitor. Veronica was leaning into Podge’s stall. From where they were standing, the Saddle Club girls could see a hand holding a brush and grooming the gelding’s body, but they couldn’t see the rest of the groomer. “He’s such an adorable horse,” Veronica was crooning, stroking Podge’s broad head.
Stevie rolled her eyes. “Guess who’s still sucking up to the new rich boy in town?” she whispered to her friends sarcastically.
“Are you sure it’s Miles?” Carole whispered back with a giggle. “Maybe Veronica’s secretly in love with Mrs. Pennington.”
“Shhh!” Lisa cautioned her friends, shooting a worried look forward. Veronica knew all about The Saddle Club’s probation, and she had been doing her best to provoke them into violating it. Lisa knew that the snobby girl would love nothing more than to see The Saddle Club barred from riding for a couple of weeks.
Hodge, who was stabled across the aisle from his brother, had come to the front of his stall to watch The Saddle Club’s approach. Luckily, Veronica didn’t seem to have heard them coming. She was leaning even farther into Podge’s stall to talk to Miles. “You’re so good with these horses, Miles,” she said admiringly. “You must work with them a lot.”
“Actually, Hodge and Podge are Grandmother’s babies,” Miles said. “Grandmother only lets me groom them when her arthritis is really acting up. Besides, she thinks I don’t have enough to do since our second team is still in Pennsylvania. Most of the time I work with them.”
“Well, you really know what you’re doing,” Veronica cooed. “And you have such strong hands!”
Stevie pretended to gag. Carole elbowed her in the ribs.
“Maybe we should come back later,” Tessa murmured.
This time Veronica heard them. She turned around and saw The Saddle Club standing in the aisle.
Carole braced herself for Veronica’s usual obnoxious comments. After the events of the previous evening, she was sure Veronica would be positively furious at all of them—especially Tessa. But something very surprising happened. Veronica smiled!
“Oh, hello,” she said.
Carole gulped, not sure how to respond. She glanced at Lisa. Lisa was looking over at Stevie. Stevie was just staring at Veronica in astonishment.
Veronica wasn’t looking at any of them. She was directing her smile straight at Tessa. “Hold on a second, okay?” she said. “I need to talk to you.”
“Uh-oh,” Carole muttered. But she still felt confused. Veronica’s voice didn’t sound threatening at all. In fact, it sounded—could it be?—friendly!
Veronica leaned into Podge’s stall again. “I’ll see you later, Miles,” she called. “Thanks so much for telling me more about Cleveland Bays. I really learned a lot.”
“Sure, anytime,” Miles called back from inside the stall.
Veronica turned, and Carole caught a glimpse of her self-satisfied smile. She could guess what was going on—Veronica was trying to make Miles forget what had happened at the midnight steeplechase. And she obviously thought she was succeeding.
Veronica hurried toward The Saddle Club. “Listen, Tessa,” she said. “I was thinking about something this morning.”
“Uh, yes?” Tessa said uncertainly.
“I really think we got off on the wrong foot last week.” Veronica still wasn’t looking at the other members of The Saddle Club. “I’m afraid I wasn’t quite as welcoming as I should have been. I feel kind of bad about it—especially since you’re a visitor to my country and everything.”
Stevie let out a strangled snort. Carole elbowed her in the ribs again.
Veronica ignored them. “Anyway, I was thinking we should try to start over and forget about the past. I mean, it would be a shame to let a few little misunderstandings keep us from being friends.” She shrugged and smiled. “You know, since we probably have a lot in common and everything.”
Tessa looked slightly stunned. But her good manners took over. “Why, certainly, Veronica,” she said politely. “That’s very nice of you.”
As she watched the whole scene, Stevie had to bite her lip to keep from saying something sarcastic. She had no idea what was going on, but she was definitely suspicious. Since when was Veronica so forgiving and friendly? Was she still hoping to wheedle her way into an invitation to a royal garden party? Or was she up to something even sneakier?
“Oh, good.” Veronica took a step closer to Tessa. “I’m so glad you feel that way. And I have a great idea. I was just about to head home—why don’t you join me for a spot of tea?”
“Oh!” This time Tessa looked pleased. “Thank you so much. That would be lovely.” She turned to her friends. “Do you mind? I’m sure I’ll be back in plenty of time for our sleepover.” The four girls were planning to stay at Lisa’s house that night.
For the first time, Veronica glanced at Stevie, Carole, and Lisa. “Oh,” she said flatly. “Um, I would invite you all, but I really think Tessa and I need a chance to get to know each other. You know, one on one.”
Stevie didn’t bother to respond. “Hey, Tessa?” she said instead, grabbing her friend’s arm. “Can we see you for a second? Alone?”
“Certainly.” Tessa smiled apologetically at Veronica. “Would you excuse us?”
“Sure,” Veronica replied generously. She started down the hall. “I’ll meet you in the locker room in a few minutes, okay?”
Moments later The Saddle Club was huddled in a corner of Starlight’s stall. “Are you crazy?” Stevie whispered. “You can’t go to Veronica’s house! It’s got to be a trick!”
Lisa glanced over the stall door to make sure Veronica wasn’t eavesdropping. “For once, Stevie’s not just being paranoid,” she agreed. “Veronica is up to something. You can count on it.”
“I don’t know …,” Tessa said uncertainly. “She looked so sincere.” She shrugged. “And if she is being sincere, maybe there’s some hope for peace for the rest of my visit. That would be a relief, wouldn’t it?”
“I guess so,” Carole said. “But only if she’s sincere. Which she isn’t. Veronica is never nice for no reason.”
Tessa still looked confused, but before she could say anything else, the girls heard Veronica calling her name.
“I’d better go,” Tessa whispered to her friends. “Don’t worry—it will be all right. If she’s up to something, I’ll figure it out soon enough. And if she’s not …” She shrugged again, looking hopeful. Then she led the way out of the stall.
“Oh, there you are,” Veronica said when she spotted them. “Sorry to interrupt your little meeting or whatever. But I just thought of something, Tessa—I’d love for you to meet our daytime maid, Julie.” She smiled. “She’s from England, too. I’m sure she’d love to chat with you about all the news from back home. But we have to hurry. Her shift ends in half an hour, and we don’t want to miss her.”
“All right,” Tessa said. “I’m ready.” She paused just long enough to give her friends one last hopeful look. “Don’t worry,” she whispered. “It will be fine.” Then she turned and hurried off after Veronica.
Stevie watched her go. “Well, that proves it,” she told her friends.
“What do you mean?” Lisa leaned against the stable wall.
“Veronica is definitely up to something,” Stevie said grimly. “And it must be something big. Why else would Princess Veronica even think about talking to a lowly maid?”
STEVIE LOOKED AT her watch. “How long does it take to drink a lousy cup of tea, anyway?” she grumbled.
Carole smiled weakly. “Don’t you mean a ‘spot’ of tea?”
Stevie m
erely rolled her eyes in response. It was later that afternoon, and she, Carole, and Lisa were sitting around the Atwoods’ kitchen table waiting for Tessa to return from her tea date with Veronica.
“Do you think we should really be worried?” Lisa glanced at the digital clock on the microwave. “She’s been gone for hours. Maybe Veronica drugged her tea and shipped her back to England.”
Carole laughed. “Now you’re starting to sound like Stevie,” she teased.
Stevie snorted. “Not hardly,” she said haughtily. “I would have wondered if maybe Veronica knocked her out with a poison dart and shipped her to Zimbabwe. Or possibly Iceland.”
At that moment the sound of the front door slamming rang through the house. “Maybe that’s her,” Carole said hopefully.
The three friends hopped up and hurried into the front hall. But instead of Tessa, they found a very harried-looking Mrs. Atwood standing there.
“Hi, Mom,” Lisa said. “How was your committee meeting?”
“Frantic,” Mrs. Atwood replied breathlessly. “I can’t believe the point-to-point is in less than a week. There’s still so much to do! I just don’t know how it’s all going to get done. When we agreed to do all the work ourselves rather than contracting it out, I just never realized—”
Lisa glanced at her friends and bit back a sigh. “It’s okay, Mom,” she said. “We’ll help. What do you need us to do?”
AN HOUR LATER Lisa stopped typing and stretched her fingers to get rid of a cramp. “Ugh,” she said, leaning back in her chair. She, Carole, and Stevie were scattered through the living room, working hard on the various projects Mrs. Atwood had assigned them. “You know, I’ll be glad when the point-to-point gets here. And not just because I’m looking forward to it.”
Carole grinned. “I know,” she said. “Your mom has turned us into real workhorses lately, hasn’t she?” This wasn’t the first time The Saddle Club had stepped in to help with the fund-raiser. Mrs. Atwood had had them making phone calls, drawing up signs, and doing other work all week.
Stevie, sprawled on the floor, looked up from coloring in a picture of a hot dog on her handmade refreshments sign. “Still, it will all be worth it,” she reminded the others. “The point-to-point is going to be awesome.”
Carole nodded. “I know. I can’t wait. Although I am a little nervous about the junior hurdle race.”
“Oh, come on.” Lisa grinned. “You know you’ll do great. You always do.” Carole was generally considered the best young rider at Pine Hollow.
“I’ve never ridden in anything like it before,” Carole reminded her friends. “Neither has Starlight. This isn’t just a jumping contest. And it isn’t just a race. It’s both.”
“I know,” Stevie said eagerly. “Isn’t it great?”
“I wonder how many riders will be in our race?” Carole went on thoughtfully. In a way, the junior hurdle sounded very exciting. But it also sounded a tiny bit scary. “I hope there aren’t too many. I heard Max say something about limiting the number in each race to make things safer.” The country club committee had asked Max to be one of their expert advisers for the point-to-point, and The Saddle Club knew he was taking the responsibility seriously.
Lisa scanned one of the scribbled lists she’d been typing into the computer. “The entry list is right here,” she reported. “As of right now there are ten people entered in the junior hurdle, including us. That shouldn’t be too bad.”
Carole nodded. “It should be just enough to make things exciting without making the field too crowded.”
“Of course, it would be even better if there were eleven people entered,” Stevie muttered.
Lisa knew that Stevie was thinking about Tessa. That reminded her to check her watch again. It was almost dinnertime. “I wonder what’s keeping Tessa?”
“Who knows?” Stevie said, grabbing a purple pen to start coloring in her sketch of a can of grape soda. “I can’t imagine anyone spending this much time with Veronica and living to tell the tale.”
“Well, I’m beginning to think your theory was right, Stevie,” Carole said. “Or was it your theory, Lisa? Whoever thought Veronica was going to drug Tessa’s tea and send her back to England.”
“I don’t know,” Stevie mused. “That sounds like an awful lot of work, and you know how Veronica hates to work. I think she’d be more likely to order her chauffeur to drop Tessa off in the middle of the woods, miles from civilization. With no shoes.”
Lisa laughed, but despite all the jokes she was starting to feel a twinge of real concern. It was getting late, and it wasn’t like Tessa to keep them waiting so long without even a phone call. “Maybe we should call Veronica’s house,” she suggested. “You know, just to check …”
Just then they heard a car outside, and Stevie jumped to her feet. “That must be her,” she said. She grinned wickedly. “Unless it’s Veronica with the ransom note.”
The three girls hurried into the front hall just in time to see Tessa letting herself in. “Oh, hello,” she greeted them brightly. “What are you lot up to?”
“Waiting for you,” Stevie replied bluntly. “We were beginning to think that Veronica must have fed you to her dogs. Or maybe tossed you into the dungeon.”
Tessa laughed. “Nothing like that,” she assured Stevie with a playful wink. “Quite the contrary, actually. Veronica couldn’t have been lovelier. I had a marvelous time at her home.”
Carole noticed something shiny glinting on the collar of Tessa’s shirt. “What’s that?” She leaned forward for a better look. “I don’t remember you wearing a pin earlier.”
Tessa glanced down and smiled. “I was just about to tell you,” she said. “On our way here, Veronica and I stopped off at that lovely tack shop at the mall and bought matching stock pins. That’s why I was a bit late getting home.”
Carole, Stevie, and Lisa were still peering at the slender gold pin when Mrs. Atwood came bustling into the room. Tessa greeted her and repeated her explanation. “I hope I haven’t held up your supper,” she finished politely. “I lost all track of the time.”
“Oh, no, not at all,” Mrs. Atwood assured her. She examined the stock pin. “My, but this is beautiful,” she said. “Veronica diAngelo has such wonderful taste, doesn’t she?”
“Her taste in people certainly is improving,” Carole muttered to Stevie and Lisa. “Or she’s getting better at pretending.”
The telephone rang. “Oh dear. That will be Agnes calling about the catering …” With that, Mrs. Atwood rushed off toward the kitchen.
Lisa turned to Tessa as the four girls wandered into the living room. “Um, listen, Tessa,” she said hesitantly. Tessa seemed so happy and cheerful that she hated to say anything negative. Still, she knew she had to do it. “I realize you don’t know Veronica very well.”
“I feel I know her quite a bit better after this afternoon,” Tessa said with a smile. “Though not as well as you all know her, naturally.”
“Naturally,” Stevie agreed, flopping down onto the couch. “So I think what Lisa’s trying to say is, you’ve got to be careful. Veronica is a rotten sneak.”
Tessa raised an eyebrow in surprise. “I know Veronica can be … well, difficult at times,” she said. “And she’s certainly been unpleasant to me in the past. But she really seems to be making a sincere effort to be nice now.”
“But that’s just the point,” Stevie insisted. She leaned forward and stared at Tessa earnestly. “She’s never nice. I mean, she’s only nice if she wants something. Or if she’s trying to pull something over on someone. Or—”
“All right, Stevie.” Tessa sounded a tiny bit annoyed. “I hear what you’re saying. But what I’m saying is that I don’t want to cause trouble for no apparent reason. If Veronica wants to be friendly to me, I’m perfectly willing to be friendly to her. After all, it’s not as if she’s trying to turn me against you or anything like that. She didn’t so much as mention any of you all afternoon.”
Carole was more than a lit
tle surprised to hear that. Making fun of The Saddle Club was one of Veronica’s favorite activities.
It was obvious that Tessa was ready to drop the subject, but Carole could tell that Stevie and Lisa weren’t. And she understood why, because she felt exactly the same way. Tessa needed to be warned, and they all needed to work together to figure out what Veronica was up to.
“Tessa, listen to me for a second—” she began.
At that moment Mrs. Atwood bustled back into the room. “It was Agnes from the refreshments committee, just as I thought,” she chirped. “The arrangements for the catering are running smoothly.”
“That’s good,” Carole said politely. She hoped Mrs. Atwood would leave them alone so that they could talk to Tessa. They had to make her understand how devious Veronica could be. They had to make her see that there was no point in being polite to her. It would only backfire.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Atwood seemed to have no intention of leaving. She sat down on the couch beside Stevie and smiled at Tessa. “Tessa, dear, I was about to ask you when the phone rang—where did you say you and Veronica got those lovely little pins?”
“They’re called stock pins, Mom,” Lisa said, sounding impatient. “You wear them on a stock—that’s one of those collar things I wear in horse shows sometimes.”
Mrs. Atwood shrugged. “Yes, all right, dear,” she said, not even bothering to glance at Lisa. She was still staring expectantly at Tessa.
“We got them at the tack shop at the mall,” Tessa said. “Veronica and I stopped by there because she wanted my advice about her wardrobe for the point-to-point.”
“Oh, my!” Mrs. Atwood turned to stare worriedly at Lisa. “I hadn’t even thought about that. I do hope you have something appropriate to wear, Lisa.”
“Don’t worry, Mom,” Lisa said quickly. “I’ve got plenty of stuff to wear.”
Carole stifled a laugh. She recognized the look of panic on Lisa’s face. It appeared any time Mrs. Atwood seemed about to suggest a shopping trip. Mrs. Atwood loved to shop—especially when she could make Lisa try on lots of outfits while she was at it.
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