Riding Star
Page 17
“Your mother would be so proud,” Lucinda said to Georgie. And then she added, “Well, I suppose I shall need to turn one of the grazing paddocks into a polo field now so that you’ll have somewhere to train the next time you come home for hols!”
The groundbreaking win at the Bluegrass Cup by the Badminton team had sparked even more enthusiasm amongst the Blainford girls’ boarding houses and now that Badminton had secured the polo string on a permanent basis Stars of Pau and Adelaide were also barracking to start teams of their own.
“We are trailblazers!” Alice announced as they walked back up the driveway to dinner that evening. “I feel like Germaine Greer!”
“Is she a famous polo player?” Emily asked.
Alice sighed. “Look her up on Wikipedia, Emily!”
“I’m giving JP my dessert at dinner tonight,” Daisy announced, “as a thank-you for being my stick chick.”
“You owe Cameron more than a dessert,” Georgie said to Alice. “Did you see the way he raced over to you when you fell off?”
“Well, I didn’t actually see it because I was out cold.”
“He totally wigged out when he thought that you were hurt,” Emily said. “It was very romantic the way he held you in his arms.”
Alice didn’t look impressed. “Most of my romantic dreams about Cam don’t involve the whole school watching.”
“But it showed how much he cares about you!” Emily said. “Maybe he’s going to realise at last that you’re more than just good friends.”
“I’m not holding my breath,” Alice said. “And I’m not giving him my dessert – not tonight at least. It’s chocolate pudding night!”
*
The excitement had settled down two days later by the time Georgie received the summons from the headmistress. As she climbed the stairs to Mrs Dickins-Thomson’s office, Georgie was hoping she wasn’t in some kind of trouble.
Her suspicions grew worse when she rounded the landing of the stairs and came face to face with a furious Heath Brompton.
“Parker!” he snapped. “This is all your fault!”
“I’m sorry, sir?”
“You should be sorry, Parker!” the polo master continued. “It appears that your stellar win has caused quite a stir. There’s a queue of girls wanting to join the polo classes.”
Georgie tried to suppress a grin.
“It’s not funny, Parker!” Mr Brompton said. “Because of you Mrs Dickins-Thomson has just informed me that she has plans to expand the polo faculty. She’s appointing a head of department.”
Georgie was confused. “Uhh, congratulations, sir?”
“Don’t be facetious, Parker!” Heath Brompton fumed.
“I’m sorry, sir?”
“She has appointed a new head,” Heath Brompton said. “And her name is Arabella Chandler.”
Georgie had to fight to suppress the grin that was spreading on her face. “I’ll see you in class next week, sir?”
“Don’t count on it!” Heath Brompton shot back as he pushed past her and disappeared down the stairs.
“Come in, Miss Parker!” Mrs Dickins-Thomson said brightly when she heard Georgie’s tentative knock at her door. “We were just talking about you!”
Georgie had assumed that the ‘we’ the headmistress was referring to was herself and Mr Brompton. She was surprised when she entered the room and found that there was someone else in there sitting with the headmistress.
“Miss Kelly and I have just been having a very interesting conversation about your future,” Mrs Dickins-Thomson said. “Haven’t we, Tara?”
Tara Kelly turned to Georgie. “I was just saying that considering your excellent performance on the polo field this term, I would be very keen to have you back in my class next term,” Tara said. “That is, if you’re willing to give up the polo option and take up cross-country again?”
Georgie looked dumbstruck.
“I understand that your success as a polo rider means that you may want some time to think about it,” Tara continued.
“No!” Georgie said.
Tara looked taken aback. “You mean you don’t want to rejoin the cross-country class?”
“No!” Georgie said. “I mean, no, I don’t need time to think! I would love to come back. Yes, please!”
Tara laughed. “I’ll see you in my first class next term, Georgie. It’s good to have you with us again.”
*
As she walked to the stables that evening, the weather was freezing cold, but Georgie didn’t care. She dug her hands deep into the pockets of her non-regulation Barbour as she turned past the gateway of Burghley House and headed for the stable block.
The polo ponies had already been given their feed for the evening, but she wanted to look in on Princess. Tara had been right – the grey mare had been a total star in the rundown. She was so impressive that the gruff Winchester captain had asked Georgie if she would consider selling the mare to him, but Georgie had politely refused.
The truth was, she had been considering giving the mare back to Riley. She had felt awful about the trade they had made. Riley had clearly sacrificed one of his best horses in exchange for the total untrainable nightmare Marco. It was a sweet and noble thing for him to do, but Georgie couldn’t possibly keep Princess.
“I want to swap back,” she had told Riley in the truck on the way home from the Frankfort polo grounds.
“No way!” Riley grinned at her.
“But it’s not fair,” Georgie said. “I really appreciate what you did for me, but I can’t leave you lumbered with Marco.”
“Well I’m not trading back,” Riley said. “Marco won his first stakes race last weekend. I’m training him up for the Oaks.”
Georgie couldn’t believe it. “Are you serious?”
“Totally,” Riley said. “That horse is going to pay my way through college.”
It turned out that wilful Marco had come in three lengths ahead of the field and Riley was now fielding offers from major stables who all wanted to buy him.
So Princess remained Georgie’s favourite pony in the string and she had sat proudly astride her when the Blainford Girls’ Polo Team photo was taken. Georgie couldn’t believe it when Mrs Dubois informed them that Mrs Dickins-Thomson was planning to include the picture in the wall of fame in the school dining hall. Georgie had to admit that she loved the idea of a portrait of her team staring down on Kennedy Kirkwood and Conrad Miller as they ate their dinner.
After she looked in on Princess, Georgie left the polo stalls and headed down to the main stable block at the back of the school. She had moved Belle back in with the eventers now. The mare’s hogged mane was beginning to grow back and although it was currently in a difficult in-between stage with the hairs sticking up like the ruff of a Roman centurion’s helmet it wouldn’t be long until the mare looked like her old self again.
“Another month or two and I’ll be able to plait it,” Georgie murmured to Belle as she leaned across the stable door and stroked the mare’s broad, bay neck. “And by the time we’re back in cross-country class, you’ll look just like you did before.”
Belle nickered appreciatively, as if she too was pleased at the news that they were going back to Tara Kelly’s class. In a way, Georgie suspected that the mare had missed jumping as much as she did. She was too well-bred and too brave over fences to live life as a polo pony. As for Georgie, she would keep playing polo. But cross-country had always been the dream, and now she was back in Tara’s class where she belonged.
Riley had turned out to be right – hadn’t he always said that she would find a way back into Tara’s class?
It was ironic that Riley had been so determined not to get involved with a Blainford girl – yet if it wasn’t for him, Georgie would never have survived her last term at the academy.
OK, maybe it wouldn’t be easy trying to date a boy who didn’t belong to Blainford, but Georgie didn’t care. She had spent the past term so confused about her feelings, but now she k
new. It was him. It had always been him. After all they had been through, she just hoped that Riley felt the same way.
It was getting dark as she left the stables and walked back down the driveway. She could see the lights of Badminton House, and there on the road, right outside the front door, she could see the front headlights of a red pick-up truck. Her heart raced as the door of the truck opened and Riley got out. He’d been waiting for her.
About the Author
STACY GREGG grew up training her bewildered dog to showjump in the backyard until her parents gave in to her desperate pleas and finally let her have a pony. Stacy’s ponies and her experiences at her local pony club were the inspiration for the Pony Club Secrets books, and her later years at boarding school became the catalyst for the Pony Club Rivals series.
Pictured here with her beloved Dutch Warmblood gelding, Ash, Stacy is a board member of the Horse Welfare Auxiliary.
Find out more at: www.stacygregg.co.uk
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
The Pony Club Rivals series:
1. The Auditions
2. Showjumpers
3. Riding Star
Coming soon…
4. The Prize
Copyright
Text copyright © Stacy Gregg 2011
Stacy Gregg asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ISBN 978-0-00-733345-5
EPub Edition © 2011 ISBN: 9780007432462
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