“We should definitely use the welcome hack to help with the search,” Melissa said. “One of the teams should cover the grounds here, while the rest of us head out and search the local area.”
Freddie grabbed a set of keys from the table.
“I can cover the grounds,” he offered quickly. “I’ll take the Land Rover and do it in no time.”
“Okay, see you back here at four thirty, then,” Melissa agreed, “ready to help everyone settle their ponies back into the stables.”
They followed Freddie outside. As he roared off in his Land Rover, Melissa arranged for everyone to meet in the lorry park, then disappeared to get her own horse tacked up.
When the ponies were ready, everyone began to mount. Phantom pawed the ground, impatient to be off and Charlie had to keep him walking round slightly away from the ponies. Amber brought Copper out last and quietly jumped into the saddle. Alice noticed everyone craning their necks to get their first glimpse of the partnership in action.
As Melissa called for everyone to divide into their groups, Alice asked Amber for a description of Foxy.
“On the phone earlier,” Mia added, “Lily mentioned that Foxy was easy to find among the rest of your ponies and horses at Chestnut Grove. Is he really distinctive?”
“No, not really,” Amber said, as everyone fell silent to listen. “It’s just that he’s the only pony at the yard that Lily doesn’t bother keeping neat, because he doesn’t do much. She doesn’t pull his mane or trim his tail any more, so they’re quite bushy and his ears are a bit fluffy. He looks a bit roughed off . Um, apart from that, he’s a fourteen-hand chestnut gelding.”
Equipped with the description, the green team set off with Lara, closely followed by the blues, with Beth. Everyone could hear Watty giggling and shrieking on her way out of the drive.
“I bet she doesn’t take this seriously at all,” Mia tutted.
“Right, red team, you’re with me,” Melissa called out to the remaining riders. “And purple team, you’re doubling up with us because Freddie doesn’t ride.”
As the red and purple teams started to move, Phantom snaked his head, his ears flattening. The next second Copper appeared at his shoulder and marched alongside him, tugging at the bit. Charlie glanced across at his anxious rider.
“Sorry,” Amber said, shortening her reins, “he hates not being at the front.”
They headed through the dappled shade of Dovecote Hall’s tree-lined drive, and Melissa explained to those who knew the village which area they’d be covering.
“We’ve got Chestnut Grove on our patch,” Charlie said, looking over at Amber. “Do you think we should start our search there?”
Amber shook her head. “There’s no point. If he was near there, Aunt Becca would have found him by now. I think we should check out some of the less obvious places. The only trouble is I haven’t lived around here long, and I don’t know the area that well yet.”
“I do,” Holly called out gingerly from the back. She flushed pink as everyone turned to look at her. “I know pretty much every path around Chestnut Grove, and where they come out in the village.”
It turned out that Holly knew even more hidden tracks than Melissa, who then directed the big group alongside the estate wall, onto a tangle of bridleways and lanes. They rode past plenty of ponies grazing in fields but none of them matched Foxy’s description, and there wasn’t a lost-looking pony, wandering riderless, anywhere to be seen. They managed to fit in a few trots along some shaded wooded paths, and a canter up a long grassy slope. Phantom easily led, but Copper got competitive, matching him stride for stride and fighting against Amber for his head. Charlie noticed that Amber’s face was stony and her knuckles were white as she gripped the reins. It seemed like Copper had picked up on Amber’s anxious mood.
After an hour and a half of searching they’d drawn a blank and Melissa decided to call it a day. With hope failing, they began to head back to camp. They bumped into the green team as they turned onto a wide, rutted track, which ran through a sea of shimmering barley heads, swaying gently in the summer breeze.
“Did you see anything?” Mia asked the green team.
They shook their heads. “Nothing,” one of them said. “You?”
“Not a single, roughed-off chestnut pony in sight,” Rosie sighed.
“Well, at least we tried,” Destiny from the red team said, leaning forward to pat her bay pony, Topaz.
At the end of the barley field they turned back onto a lane, and in another minute the estate walls came back into view.
As everyone gathered in the lorry park, Melissa thanked them all for looking, and asked them to get their ponies untacked, groomed and settled.
“Then it’ll be time for their evening feed,” she called out. “And while your dinner’s cooking, feel free to have a dip in the pool.”
The stables were bustling with everyone heading out to the tack room, grabbing skips to pick up droppings, grooming their ponies and refilling water buckets. Alice worked slowly, constantly distracted by Scout’s little nudges or his big eyes following her round the stable. Scout lowered his head, blinking softly, and she kissed his eyebrow. By the time she’d sorted him out, the noise level from the stables had dropped in the stables and risen from the pool, and she could hear distant shrieks and splashes.
“Sounds like everyone’s forgotten about Foxy already,” Rosie said quietly, as she joined Alice, Mia and Charlie in Scout’s stable.
“Not quite everyone,” Mia pointed out, nodding further up the stables. Amber was leaning against Copper’s half door, looking dejected as she fiddled with her phone. Suddenly a text message came through with a loud neigh, making the others jump. Amber quickly checked it and let out a long breath, as if she was relieved.
“Any news on Foxy?” Mia asked.
“No, but that was Lily,” Amber explained. “She says she’s really touched by everyone going out to look today. She’s decided to stay and compete after all, rather than come back. She said that she’s doing everything she can from where she is to find Foxy. She told me to at least try to relax and enjoy camp.”
“Maybe a dip in the pool would help,” Rosie suggested. Her hair was damp and stuck to her head after being squished into her hot hat. She couldn’t wait to dive into the cool water.
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt,” Amber smiled.
“Are you coming, too?” Alice called over to Holly, who was fiddling about with Skylark’s haynet.
“I’ve just got to get this up,” Holly said, looking pink and frustrated as Skylark kept yanking great mouthfuls as she tried to tie the knot. As the others got to the stable, Holly finally managed it.
“Does that look okay?” she asked, avoiding Amber’s eye.
Charlie popped in and checked it. “It just needs to be pulled up a bit higher, that’s all,” she explained, showing Holly how to adjust it.
“Thanks.” She smiled sheepishly. “The ponies at Hilltop have their hay tipped into a hay rack, rather than tied up in a net. I’ve only seen it done in my pony care book.”
Rosie heard another shriek from the pool and felt even hotter and stickier. She hurried everyone back to the tent, then peeled off her jods and wriggled into her swimming costume under her sleeping bag. Finally she emerged, her towel wrapped round her. Amber started to sort through the stuff on her bed, and pulled her costume out of her bag. When they’d all changed, Holly grabbed her pony book, then they walked to the pool in the warm glow of the early evening sunshine.
“So, have you got any ideas what might have happened to Foxy?” Mia asked Amber.
Amber thought for a second. “Well, the only thing I can think is that one of the other top-ranked event riders is jealous,” she suggested. “Lily’s been getting so much attention recently. Maybe they took Foxy to ruin her chances of winning.”
Rosie looked puzzled. “But Lily’s riding Firestorm, not Foxy.”
“I know, but even though Foxy’s retired, everyone on the eventi
ng circuit knows how much he means to Lily,” Amber explained. “She won’t be able to perform anywhere near her best if she’s worried that he’s gone missing—”
Without warning, Amber’s words choked in her throat.
“We don’t have to give up yet,” Mia said, trying to sound confident. “We’ll still help you find Foxy.”
Amber sighed. “What can any of us do while we’re stuck here at camp? We’ve ridden around, and we didn’t find him. Don’t get me wrong – I’d love to keep looking, but if Foxy’s been hidden somewhere outside this village, we don’t stand a chance of finding him.”
“Ah, but we’re the Pony Detectives and we’ve helped find ponies before, even when their owners thought all hope was gone,” Rosie continued proudly. “We’re like a dog with a bone. We don’t let go when a pony goes missing. Ever. Even if someone shakes that bone. Hard.”
Alice nudged Rosie in the ribs, noticing Amber’s confused expression.
“Is there anything else you can tell us about Foxy that might be helpful?” Alice asked.
“Is there a photo we could see?” Charlie chipped in.
“I don’t just carry one round with me all the time, it’s my sister’s pony!” Amber said testily. The Pony Detectives glanced at each other. Amber caught their surprised looks, then she sighed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. There might be a photo in Pony Mad. But listen, going on about Foxy all the time isn’t going to help find him; it’s just going to make me more upset, not less.”
With that Amber put her towel down on one of the loungers around the sparkling pool and slipped into the water. Within seconds, Watty and rest of the blue team had swarmed round her. Holly quietly sat with her pony care book, glancing up occasionally.
“So, it sounds like this case is officially closed,” Charlie said.
“Officially, maybe,” Mia mused. “But unofficially, I say we carry on trying to figure out what happened to Foxy. I know it’s a long shot, but I don’t think we should give up. After all, we haven’t failed to solve a mystery yet. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” Charlie, Rosie and Alice said in unison, grinning at each other.
“Maybe we should we get Pony Mad from the tent now,” Mia suggested.
“If I have to walk all the way back to our tent or, for that matter, just stand here in this sun for another second I’m likely to spontaneously combust,” Rosie said firmly. ‘There’s no way I can do any more investigating before I jump into this pool to cool down, and that’s official.”
“I guess we can leave it till later,” Mia smiled.
Once that was settled, Rosie finally bombed into the water with a mega splash. Mia leaned away, squeaking as water flew towards her. Rosie bobbed back up, pushing her drenched haystack of blonde hair out of her eyes, her mind filled with thoughts of heroic detective work.
After they’d fed their ponies, and eaten a dinner of chicken and corn-on-the-cob, cooked on a barbecue, everyone made up their ponies’ breakfasts for the next day. They left them covered in the feed room, then headed to one of the sprawling reception rooms in the Hall. They sank into threadbare, squishy sofas and fat armchairs to watch some horsey DVDs.
When the last DVD had ended, Melissa popped her head round the door. “Right, time to get ready for bed,” she said.
Everyone groaned good-naturedly. Destiny jumped up to turn off the television and the campers started to spill out into the sticky evening.
“Oooh, let’s check on the ponies on the way to our tent!” Rosie grinned, rushing ahead. Dancer gave a soft whicker as Rosie reached the stables. A second later everyone piled in after her. Hettie was nibbling at the hay, and Phantom raised his head as Charlie appeared at his stable door. He snorted with a relaxed flutter of his nostrils. Scout rustled Alice for some treats and Dancer scraped her hoof, leaning against her door, worried she was missing out. Mia rubbed Wish’s neck under her mane, making her stretch out her head blissfully.
After ten minutes, Melissa and Freddie came out, rounding everyone up and asking them to get washed and then go to their tents.
Rosie gave Dancer a final hug goodnight. The girls grabbed their wash bags and fought for space at the washroom sinks, before everyone finally raced to their tents. Mia brushed her thick, glossy hair while Holly quickly got changed into her pony print pyjamas and wriggled into her sleeping bag. Holly glanced around the tent before picking up her pony book to read. Then she pulled out a purple notebook and started to make notes.
“You’re dedicated,” Alice said, craning her neck to see properly.
Holly smiled. “I just want to make sure I do everything right for Skylark,” she confessed.
Mia looked round. “We’ll all help you,” she said, “won’t we?”
The others, including Amber, nodded.
Holly blushed furiously as Amber smiled back at her.
“I hope I do well and learn loads this week,” Holly added, quietly. “My parents aren’t horsey at all, and they’re hoping that my obsession with ponies is just a passing phase. But I really want to show them it’s more than that. They keep telling my Grammy to stop filling my head with horsey dreams. She used to work with horses, years ago. I think I must get my love of them from her.”
Holly looked over at Amber and was about to say something more, when Amber started rummaging through her wash bag. Then Amber got up from her creaking camp bed.
“I must have left my toothbrush in the washroom,” she explained. “I’d better pop out and get it.”
She unzipped the door and headed into the fading light. Rosie glanced around her little patch in the tent. She shifted her sleeping bag and tipped up her pillow. With a frown, she started to delve into her stuffed bag.
“What’s up?” Alice asked through a yawn, climbing onto her own bed.
“I can’t find my copy of Pony Mad,” Rosie said. She sifted through her clothes, throwing jods and T-shirts in every direction. Mia caught them and began sorting them into piles. “Has anyone seen it?”
Holly shook her head.
“Are you sure you brought it back into the tent after you fell over earlier?” Mia asked, using her torch to check the corners and under the camp beds in the increasing gloom.
“It was here,” Rosie said, tipping out her bag over the green groundsheet.
“Well, it isn’t now,” Charlie said, helping her look.
“First Foxy, now this,” Rosie frowned. “This is crime central!”
Mia was already in her matching pink shorts and T-shirt ready for bed. While Alice and Charlie quickly changed too, Mia climbed on top of her sleeping bag. “Well, nearly every Lily Simpson fan saw it earlier, and loads of them wanted a copy signed by Amber,” she sighed. “So, half the camp knew which tent to find it in.”
“But I can’t believe anyone would be mean enough to take it,” Rosie huffed. “I’d have let anyone borrow it, if they’d just asked.”
Alice noticed Holly studying her book extra hard, although she hadn’t turned a page for ages. Then she watched as Holly put it down and turned off her torch.
“Oh well,” Rosie sighed, starting to bundle her stuff together and shove it near the foot of her sleeping bag in a haphazard pile. She found her cupcake-patterned pyjamas and wriggled into them. “I guess one article about Lily, Firestorm and Foxy was hardly going to help us solve the mystery of Foxy’s disappearance, was it?”
The Pony Detectives lay in their pyjamas on top of their sleeping bags. Any lingering hope of tackling their first celebrity case was fading fast. They turned their torches off , but it still wasn’t quite dark in the stuffy tent. After a few minutes of silence they heard footsteps running past their tent followed by squeals and giggles.
“I can recognise Watty’s laugh already,” Rosie smiled. The next second, Watty’s head bobbed in. Her face dropped.
“Where’s Amber?” she frowned, waving a bit of paper. “We’ve found something for her to sign!”
Behind Watty, Rosie could hear the rest of the blue team
giggling.
“She nipped to the washroom,” Charlie said, sitting up. “Although she’s been ages. I hope she hasn’t got lost.”
At that moment Freddie’s voice rang out. “That’s enough talking,” he said. “Time for sleep. And I want everyone back in their own tents, please!”
Watty giggled again and her face disappeared. The Pony Detectives settled back down onto their sleeping bags, just as Amber rushed in. She quickly got changed and slid into her sleeping bag.
“Did you find it?” Mia asked.
“What?” Amber frowned.
“Your toothbrush,” Mia said.
“Oh, yes, thanks.” Amber smiled, patting her wash bag.
The tent was silent for a few moments, and then there was a rustle.
“Does anyone fancy a midnight feast?” Rosie whispered.
Alice and Charlie began to giggle.
“Go to sleep, Rosie!” Mia said.
“Is that a no?” Rosie asked, as they all heard a sweet wrapper wrinkle. Alice glanced across, and could just about make out Holly smiling into the darkness. There was a small thud, as a sweet landed on Alice’s sleeping bag. She saw another land on Holly’s.
Alice lay in the heat, unwrapping the sweet. She had a feeling that camp was going to be packed full of fun.
ROSIE woke in the green-tinted glow of the canvas after Mia prodded her for the fourth time. The early Sunday-morning sun was already starting to warm the tent.
“What time is it?” Rosie asked croakily, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.
“Time to get up,” Charlie replied, pulling on her jodhpurs. “We’ve got inspections, remember?”
Rosie groaned. “Just five more minutes, please?”
“No, come on, we’ve got to feed the ponies,” Alice said, nudging Rosie with her foot.
Rosie sat up and looked round. “Where are Holly and Amber?”
“Holly was out before we even woke up.” Charlie shrugged. “Amber left a few minutes ago.”
Mia had already brushed and pulled back her long hair. She was dressed in a fresh pair of crease-free pink jods and a clean T-shirt. The others just grabbed what they’d had on the day before.
Foxy: Rivalry at Summer Camp Page 3