Changing Leads

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Uh-oh,” Phil muttered. He patted his back pockets, then dug into his front ones again, looking slightly perturbed.

  Stevie stepped over to pick up Belle’s saddle. “What’s the matter?” she asked, pausing at the stall door.

  “My wallet. I think I left it in the locker room while we were changing shoes.”

  Stevie wrinkled her nose. “You needed to take out your wallet to change into your boots?”

  “Ha ha,” Phil tossed over his shoulder. He was already heading down the aisle in the direction of the locker room. “I took it out to give you that article I saved for you about the dressage entries for the Colesford Horse Show, remember? So if someone steals my whole wallet, it’ll be all your fault.”

  Stevie just grinned as her boyfriend disappeared around the corner at the end of the aisle. She knew there was little chance of Phil’s wallet being stolen—not at Pine Hollow. The worst that would happen would be that Max’s daughters’ puppy might find it and chew on it a little.

  She returned her attention to Belle, settling the saddle on her back and going through the familiar motions of securing it. A few minutes later Belle’s bridle was on, too. And Phil still hadn’t returned.

  “What’s taking him so long?” Stevie asked her horse.

  Belle stared at her owner blankly, then reached forward to nibble at a loose strand of Stevie’s dark blond hair. Stevie giggled.

  “Quit it, you monster.” She pushed the horse away. Then she let herself out of the stall and glanced down the aisle. There was still no sign of Phil. “Oh well,” Stevie told Belle. “He’s probably taking his time because he’s hoping I’ll be so impatient to get started that I’ll decide to tack up Barq for him while he’s gone.” She shrugged and sighed, giving Belle one last pat.” And I guess he’s right.”

  Stevie was just fastening the noseband on Barq’s bridle when Phil finally hurried down the aisle, flushed and breathless.

  “There you are,” she said sardonically. “Did you get lost? Or were you just hoping I’d get so bored I’d tack up your horse for you?”

  Phil shot her a sheepish grin as he opened the stall door and stepped forward to take Barq’s lead. “Sorry about that,” he said. “It only took me a second to find my wallet—it was lying right there on the bench where I left it. But Scott Forester was in the locker room, and we got to talking.”

  “Scott? You were talking to Scott all this time?” Stevie frowned. She knew that Phil had met Scott several times over the summer. He had even attended a party at the Foresters’ house a few weeks ago. But as far as she had noticed, the two boys had never exchanged more than a polite hello and small talk.

  “Sure. He was here dropping Callie off.” Phil clucked to Barq and led him down the aisle to Belle’s stall, where Stevie ducked in to retrieve her horse. “I tried to convince him to come along with us today—I mean, he’s got to be at least as good a rider as your brother, right?—but he has some kind of debate society meeting this afternoon, so he begged off.”

  “No kidding,” Stevie said, leading Belle into the aisle and latching the stall door behind her. “He wouldn’t be caught dead at any gathering I was a part of. He might actually be forced to talk to me or something.”

  Phil shot her a sympathetic look. “I don’t know, Stevie,” he said as the two of them led their horses down the aisle at a leisurely walk. “I know you two have had some tough times this summer. But Scott seems like a pretty cool guy. His head’s in the right place, you know? And didn’t you say you thought he might be warming up to you a little?”

  “I thought so,” Stevie muttered. “But now I think I was wrong.”

  She didn’t bother to go into details, but she was thinking of chemistry class. She and Scott didn’t sit anywhere near each other, so there was no real reason he would talk to her before class. Still, she couldn’t help noticing that, like the future politician he undoubtedly was, Scott had already sought out the acquaintance of just about every other person in the class. Except me, she thought sourly. He already made my acquaintance. And now he doesn’t want it anymore.

  She wondered what Scott and Phil had found to talk about for so long, but she shied away from asking Phil. It was too weird to think about the two of them hanging out in the locker room, chatting away together without her there to hear what they were saying. Had her name come up? If so, what had they said? How had Scott reacted? Was Phil telling the truth about Scott’s response to his invitation, or had Scott actually said something else? Something about not wanting to spend time with Stevie? Phil might have changed the story to spare her feelings.

  At heart, Stevie was an optimist. Maybe this will turn out to be a good thing, she told herself. If Scott warms up to Phil, maybe he’ll warm up to me again, too. After all, something has to give between us sooner or later, right? We go to the same school, we both spend a lot of time at Pine Hollow—we can’t spend the entire year not talking to each other.

  Can we?

  FOUR

  Carole was feeling good as their group rode away from Pine Hollow a short while later. It was a perfect September day—warm and sunny, but without the oppressive heat and humidity that frequently came along with late summer in northern Virginia. Starlight was feeling frisky, his mouth exploring the bit and his tail swishing energetically at the occasional fly. The grass in the pasture they were approaching was lush and green, thanks to recent rains, and even the stable yard seemed less hot and dusty than usual as they crossed it. School felt a million miles away.

  If only it were a million years away, too, Carole thought. Then everything really would be perfect!

  She smiled ruefully at the thought. She brought Starlight to a halt as Stevie, who was in the lead with Phil, reached the pasture fence.

  “I’ll get the gate,” Stevie called, steering Belle closer so that she could reach the latch.

  As she waited, Carole turned to check on Lisa, who was a short distance behind her. It was Lisa’s turn to lead Patch, who was serving as a packhorse on this trip, carrying the supplies for the barbecue in the packsaddle.

  Lisa and Patch were fine. The gelding, standing lazily beside Calypso, looked small and a bit stumpy next to the long-legged, elegant Thoroughbred. Lisa didn’t seem to be having any trouble with Calypso, the high-spirited but obliging chestnut mare, but Carole still felt a little bit guilty when she glanced at Lisa’s face. Lisa had clearly been annoyed when she had arrived at Prancer’s stall and found that the mare wasn’t there. Carole hadn’t been sure what to say. Luckily, Red O’Malley had come to the rescue. The head stable hand had muttered something about a rabies booster shot and a reshoeing, which would keep Prancer tied up for the next hour or so. Lisa had seemed disappointed but not suspicious, which wasn’t surprising, considering that she had been far away in California a month earlier when Carole had helped the vet administer Prancer’s real rabies shot. Come to think of it, that should have tipped me off to what was going on, Carole told herself ruefully. Lisa probably can’t even guess the truth.

  At the moment, Lisa was chatting easily with A.J., who was riding beside her on Comanche, another Pine Hollow stable horse. A.J. and Phil both had their own horses, but they hadn’t bothered to van them over to Pine Hollow for this outing. Instead they had hired horses from Max for the day. Carole couldn’t help smiling as she took in the sight of A.J. and Comanche together. The chestnut gelding’s deep, reddish brown coat matched A.J.’s dark auburn hair almost perfectly. Carole also noticed that A.J. was keeping an eye on his girlfriend, a pretty, petite redhead named Julianna, even as he talked to Lisa. Carole knew that Julianna had only been riding as long as she’d been dating A.J.—in other words, less than four months. But she looked quite comfortable aboard Chip, the even-tempered Appaloosa Carole had selected for her that day. That wasn’t surprising. Julianna had the uncanny talent of seeming comfortable in almost any situation. Carole envied her that ability.

  Carole was about to turn her attention back to the gate ahead of them when
a slight movement caught her eye. It was coming from the stable entrance some fifty yards back.

  Carole squinted, trying to make out the figure that was partially hidden in the shadows cast over the doorway by the strong late-morning sunshine. That looks like Ben, she thought. But what’s he doing? It definitely wasn’t like the hardworking stable hand to stand around when there were chores to be done. And Carole had been riding long enough to know that there were always stable chores to be done.

  A second later, the figure melted away into the stable interior, and Carole shook her head, uncertain that Ben had ever been there, watching them ride off. Before she could think about it any further, she became aware that another horse and rider were moving toward her.

  Turning to face forward again, she saw that Callie was approaching on a palomino named PC. The well-trained gelding belonged to a girl named Emily Williams who also rode at Pine Hollow. Carole, Stevie, and Lisa had known Emily for years, and she had become such a good friend that they hardly even remembered that Emily had cerebral palsy and couldn’t walk without crutches. That may have been because when Emily was in the saddle, she rode every bit as well as any of them—partly thanks to PC. The good-natured palomino had received training that allowed Emily to control him by special aids that didn’t require much use of her legs.

  Emily was accomplished enough as a rider these days that she occasionally rode horses other than PC. The girls had invited her along on today’s excursion, but she had made plans with other friends and had to decline. Carole wondered if that was making Callie nervous at all—Emily had been Callie’s constant riding coach and adviser since the accident, and her insight had helped Callie a lot. Then again, Carole decided, Callie wasn’t the type of person to let nerves stop her from doing anything she wanted. That was one reason she had been a successful endurance rider before her accident—and also why she was making such strong and steady progress in her recovery.

  “Hi.” Callie steered PC around until he was standing beside Starlight. “I’m really glad you guys came up with this idea. I’ve been dying to get back out on a trail for ages. But I doubt my parents would have approved of any trail ride short of one that involved a whole cavalry, like this.” She waved a hand to indicate the six other riders surrounding them.

  Stevie had the gate open by now, and Carole nudged Starlight toward it at a walk. “Glad we could help.” She turned and smiled at Callie, who was riding beside her. “I know it’s not exactly a hundred-mile endurance competition, but hey, you have to start somewhere, right?”

  “You got it.” Callie paused, holding PC back so that Carole could pass through the gate ahead of her. Once they were through, she caught up again to continue their conversation. “Sometimes I think the hardest thing about being injured is being out of training for so long.”

  Carole nodded sympathetically. “That must be really frustrating,” she said. “But with your determination, you’ll make up for lost ground quickly. I’m sure of it.”

  “Thanks.” Callie smiled, looking pleased.

  Carole smiled back, thinking how quickly Callie had become a part of life at Pine Hollow. Carole and Callie hadn’t hit it off right away, thanks to a few silly little misunderstandings, but once they had come to know each other, they had gotten along fine. Both were serious about horses and riding, and that had helped them overcome the initial awkwardness between them. These days Carole could no more imagine life at the stable without Callie than—well, than she could imagine it without Stevie or Lisa. Or Max. Or Starlight.

  She leaned forward to pat her horse as the group started across the wide pasture and toward the woods on the far side. “So how was your first week at Fenton Hall?” she asked Callie.

  Callie shrugged. “You know how it is. Going to a new school is hard.”

  Carole could relate to that. Before moving to Willow Creek, her family had moved around a lot because of her father’s military job. “I know,” she told Callie. “At least Stevie was there, though. And your brother.”

  Callie knew that Carole was trying to help, but the last thing she felt like talking about was school. She knew she would settle in at Fenton Hall eventually, maybe even make some new friends. But she also knew it would take time. She could blame it on her crutches and her slow and awkward walk if she wanted to, but the truth was, she simply didn’t have Scott’s almost magical talent for instantly connecting with people. There had always been that difference between them. Scott could walk into a room full of a dozen strangers and walk out ten minutes later with a dozen lifelong pals, while Callie had trouble finding anything to say to any new acquaintance, no matter how friendly. That was why she cherished the new friends she had made at Pine Hollow. Just being at the stable made getting to know people a lot easier for her, since horses were the one topic Callie never had any trouble discussing. Once she had gotten to know Stevie and Carole and some of the other riders at Pine Hollow, their horse chat had slid naturally into friendship, even in the midst of all the hard work and heartache that had followed the accident early in the summer.

  As for school—well, Callie would have to be a little more patient there, and she wasn’t particularly good at being patient. So for now she was doing her best not to think too much about it when she didn’t have to.

  She wasn’t sure Carole would understand that, though—friendly, down-to-earth Carole, who even managed somehow to coax conversation and friendship out of taciturn Ben Marlow—so she decided to change the subject instead of trying to explain.

  “I heard you finally had your big job talk with Max the other day,” Callie said, letting PC fall into an even walk beside Starlight. “Stevie said he talked to you about changing your duties now that you’re coming in part-time. What did he have to say?”

  “He wants me to have the chance to learn everything,” Carole said. “He even said something about wanting me to take on more responsibility for training some of the younger horses at Pine Hollow.”

  “You mean like Firefly?” Callie said, thinking of the flashy young mare Max had recently bought.

  Carole nodded. “Ben and I have already been working with her. I guess Max thinks we’ve been doing okay at that, because he said he wants me to take on another project or two. He seems to be taking the start of our new school year as an opportunity to restructure some of his training schedules or something.” She smiled and shrugged. “He said he had a couple of specific horses in mind for me to take over, but he wasn’t ready to tell me which ones yet.”

  Callie chuckled. Max Regnery had his quirks, but he really knew what he was doing with his horses. She said as much to Carole, adding, “I’m sure he’ll let you in on the secret soon enough.”

  “I’m sure he will.” Carole forced herself to keep smiling. But Callie’s words had just reminded her of another secret—a secret Carole still wasn’t sure she would be able to keep. It would be nice to talk about it with Callie—capable, coolheaded Callie, who might actually have some ideas about …

  But no. Carole had made a promise to Max, and she intended to honor it and keep his secret. No matter how difficult that was turning out to be.

  “Are you okay over there?” Lisa asked Alex, who was riding beside her on a big warmblood gelding named Congo. “Or do you want to ride in front of me on my saddle, where you’ll be less likely to fall off?”

  “Very funny,” Alex retorted with a grin. “I’d be happy to ride in front of you. But it would have nothing to do with falling off.”

  Lisa giggled. She glanced away from Alex long enough to check on Patch, who was moving along obediently beside her horse. Then she looked over at her boyfriend again. “We’d better save that kind of stuff for our own private trail ride,” she said. “But seriously, I was just kidding. You must have had time for a few more lessons in between all those lawn jobs you had this summer. It shows.” It still gave her a warm glow when she thought of the day, less than a month into their relationship, when Alex had told her he wanted to learn to ride. Lisa had be
en surprised, to say the least. When she had first become friends with Stevie, Alex had delighted in taking every opportunity to tease his twin about her obsession with horses. But once he fell in love with Lisa, Alex had wanted to explore everything that mattered to her, and that included riding. Lisa understood perfectly—she felt the same way about his interests. She knew that Alex would never be quite as enthusiastic as she was about riding, just as she would never get quite as excited as he did about inline skating or soccer. But spending more time learning about each other’s favorite activities really didn’t seem like a sacrifice to either of them. It just gave them more ways to be together.

  “I may have stopped by Pine Hollow a few times on my days off,” Alex admitted. “Mostly because it reminded me of you, of course. But you know Max—if I was going to hang around, I either had to ride or spend all my time shoveling manure. Naturally, I chose to ride.” He grinned. “Actually, I’m probably as good as you are by now. It just doesn’t show because you’re on that fancy Thoroughbred.”

  Lisa smiled weakly at his joke. That’s right, she thought. I’m riding a Thoroughbred. Just not the Thoroughbred I wanted to ride. She still couldn’t believe her bad luck. She also couldn’t help feeling a little annoyed at Max. Since when does he schedule immunizations on Saturdays, anyway? she thought grumpily. Then she reminded herself that Red had also said something about Prancer throwing a shoe. That was something even Max couldn’t have prevented, and Lisa knew it, so she was riding Calypso after all. She was disappointed, but Calypso was a perfectly nice horse. And Lisa would have plenty of other opportunities to get reacquainted with Prancer.

  “I don’t know about that,” she countered as she and Alex left the sunny pasture for the cool, dappled shade of a wooded trail. There was just enough room for the two of them to ride beside each other, with Patch tagging along at Calypso’s flank. “Congo’s kind of bashful, so he may not have told you, but one of Max’s younger riders took a blue ribbon with him at a show just last spring. So I’m afraid you’ve got no excuse.”