And then there was the thought of going home. What if Sophie and Mark did send her back? Poppy closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the headrest. Going home was something she really did not want to face, not yet.
Poppy looked across at Aunt Sophie, who was riding Cody along the track next to her. Sophie dwarfed the palamino as she rode him, with her long legs touching down to his knees. Poppy was riding Joe, and it had been over ten minutes now since they’d left Old Smithy’s, and still her aunt hadn’t spoken to her. They weren’t even halfway home yet. For once, Poppy almost wished she wasn’t in the saddle, but there had been no other way to get the ponies home, so she’d volunteered to ride with Sophie. She wasn’t even able to enjoy the fact she was riding such a fun pony, who somehow hadn’t picked up on the mood around him and was dancing along, wanting to trot.
Poppy couldn’t take it any more. ‘Aunt Sophie, I’m so sorry we let you down,’ she said, breaking the silence. She kept her head low, her mind churning over all the things she could say to stop her aunt from sending her home. She realised she was going to have to tell her the truth about her mum.
‘I know,’ said Aunt Sophie, but she wouldn’t look at Poppy.
Then there was silence again. Poppy hated it.
‘I just, well, I want you to know that I didn’t want to do it behind your back, but we were just certain he had the horses in there. At least we saved them, right?’
Sophie dodged the fallen log by going around it, and Poppy followed her lead. She would have loved to see what it was like to jump Joe, but she didn’t dare leave Sophie’s side.
‘I can accept you made a mistake, Poppy, and I can probably understand why you did it, but you’ve put me in a very awkward position. Not to mention disappointed me. I have no other choice but to inform your mum, and the other girls’ parents, too. I trusted you, and you’ve broken that trust.’
Poppy’s eyes welled up with tears. This was it. She was going to lose her first and only pony, her holiday here was over for good, and she was going to lose her two new friends.
‘I have to go home?’ She hoped with all her heart that it wasn’t true. Poppy watched Sophie rein Cody in before giving her a long hard look.
‘Poppy, I’m not going to send you home. Don’t be ridiculous.’
Poppy couldn’t believe her ears. The tears stopped pretty quick, and her heart began to thump. She was still scared, though. Worried about what her mum would do when she found out. She felt her eyes well up again.
‘But, you’re going to tell my mum?’ she whispered.
‘Yes.’ Aunt Sophie didn’t hesitate. ‘You’ve left me with no other option.’
Poppy nodded, but it didn’t stop the tears from streaming down her cheeks. She didn’t want to cry in front of her aunt, but she couldn’t help it.
‘Poppy?’ Aunt Sophie asked. ‘Poppy, it’s okay. I’m sure she . . .’
‘You can’t,’ Poppy blurted.
Sophie made Cody halt, so Poppy did the same. ‘Look at me, Poppy. What’s really going on here?’
Poppy bit down on her lip, but it was still quivering.
‘You’ve really let me down, but it doesn’t mean I don’t want you here, Pop, if that’s what you’re worried about?’
She shook her head. She had to tell her aunt. ‘I don’t want you to tell my mum because she isn’t, um,’ Poppy didn’t know how to say it.
Aunt Sophie dropped the reins and put her hands on her thighs. ‘Are things not going so well at home? I know it must be so hard since your dad passed, but when I spoke to your mum last week, she said everything was going okay.’
Poppy leaned forward and slung her arms around Joe’s neck, stroking him, needing to touch him. ‘Mum hasn’t been okay for ages,’ she admitted. ‘Not since Dad died.’
Aunt Sophie frowned. She looked upset.
‘Tell me, Poppy. Tell me what’s happening. She’s my sister, and that means it’s okay to confide in me. I can help. You’re not betraying her by being honest.’
Poppy sighed, and the words rushed out of her. ‘She doesn’t get out of bed until we’re home from school sometimes, and I have to keep pretending with everyone that things are normal. But they’re not.’ Poppy looked up and tried to smile at her aunt, but she wasn’t able to stop talking now she’d started. ‘I try to get her to eat, and to keep the house tidy in case someone comes around. Because I know she’ll be fine soon. It’s just that she misses Dad so much. And I have to look after Tom.’
Poppy kept Joe still as Aunt Sophie nudged Cody closer to her, and reached out to touch Poppy’s leg. Sophie’s hand felt warm and strong, even through Poppy’s jodhpurs.
‘I wish you’d told me sooner, Poppy. You could have phoned me and asked for help. I’m always, always here for you, no matter what.’
Poppy couldn’t help it, the tears just kept coming. ‘But I don’t want Mum to get into trouble,’ she managed to say between sobs.
‘She won’t, honey, she won’t. I’ll make sure of it. You need to trust me.’
She did trust her aunt Sophie, more than anyone else. She was the one person in the world who probably could help.
‘I’m not saying that what you did here today was excusable, but I am pleased the horses were found, and I’m glad you finally trusted me enough to tell me what’s going on at home.’
Poppy waited for the ‘but’. She knew it was coming. Poppy hoped she’d done the right thing in telling her aunt.
‘Don’t worry about your mum, Pop. I want you to be a kid while you’re here, and let me be the adult, okay? You’re still in trouble, but I don’t want you to have any responsibilities other than your pony while you’re staying with us.’ She sighed. ‘I’ll get on the phone as soon as we’re back and organise some help for your mum, and I’ll take you back to Melbourne myself when it’s time. We’ll go together, and I can talk to her then about you staying longer. Your brother can come here, too, if he can’t stay longer with his friend.’
Poppy didn’t say a word because she didn’t know what to say. She wanted to say ‘thank you’, but that didn’t even touch on everything that she was feeling. Relief, hope . . .
Any punishment, slavery even, so long as she could stay at the farm and her mum didn’t find out. She didn’t want to cause her any more worry.
She only hoped the other girls wouldn’t be sent home either.
Poppy tried not to wriggle in her spot between Milly and Katie on the sofa. Uncle Mark looked very uncomfortable, facing them on the chair. Aunt Sophie, on the other hand, was walking back and forward in front of them.
‘I know you girls were doing your best to help, but doing things behind our backs is unacceptable,’ said Aunt Sophie.
‘But Mrs D . . .’ Milly interrupted.
Sophie raised her hand and pointed to her lips. ‘Quiet.’
Poppy gulped. She had never seen her aunt angry, and she had never heard her speak like that.
‘According to the police, the horses you found were the ones reported stolen. Smithy had more disguised in another field with other cattle, and he has been arrested.’ She paused and smiled at them. Poppy had never been so relieved to see her aunt smile before. ‘You’ll also be pleased to know that you have solved another mystery,’ Sophie told them.
Poppy looked at Milly and Katie. They looked as surprised as she was.
‘Apparently, the bull in with those cows in the barn was also stolen. He was worth a small fortune, and he’d been taken from out of town. That man was a horse and cattle rustler.’
Poppy couldn’t believe it. Their hunch that there was something fishy about the barn had been true!
‘Anyway, I’ve made my mind up, and Mark agrees, about what your punishment will be.’
All three girls looked at Mark, who was clearly embarrassed about having to dish out punishment. Poppy was sure her aunt had decided how to reprimand them and was making Uncle Mark tell them.
‘Please, please don’t tell my parents,’ pleade
d Katie. Poppy felt for her friend, who looked so distressed.
‘I have a right mind to send you all home,’ said Aunt Sophie, sitting on the arm of the chair next to Uncle Mark.
Poppy felt her eyes widen and drew in a sharp breath. She hoped Aunt Sophie hadn’t really changed her mind about sending her home.
‘But we’re not going to send any of you home,’ Uncle Mark quickly added.
Poppy let out a deep sigh of relief.
‘We have tried to understand the reasons behind what you did,’ Mark continued. ‘And since the police are so pleased that the horse thief has been apprehended, we see no reason to be too hard.’
Aunt Sophie nodded. ‘We’d seen firsthand the temper Smithy had, and we knew he didn’t care about his animals like we do, but we had no idea he was a criminal. No one out here did.’
‘So while we know that it was a good thing you caught him red-handed, it was still dangerous, and you betrayed our trust,’ continued Uncle Mark.
‘It was very irresponsible, girls, and so we are going to take away all your riding privileges for the next five days,’ said Aunt Sophie. ‘We are both prepared to give you a second chance, but make no mistake that if you do anything like this again, your ponies will be returned and your holiday here will be over.’
Poppy gulped. They were lucky her aunt and uncle were so understanding. But five days? That was almost a week! Their holiday was only four weeks long, so it sounded like forever. But still, Poppy knew she was lucky to be here, and the punishment could have been a lot worse – her holiday could have been over.
‘In addition to your riding privileges being taken away, you will have to complete theory every day. I also want you to clean all the water troughs, and scrub down the walls of the stables.’ Sophie looked at each of them in turn, and they all three stayed silent.
Poppy wondered what the other girls’ faces looked like, but didn’t dare turn away from her aunt. Aunt Sophie fixed her with a stare, which Poppy knew meant that she wanted to talk to her alone later.
‘I want an apology from each of you, and a promise that you will tell me before you head off on any other adventures. If you have been good, you will be permitted to trail ride again after the five days are up. Otherwise it will be arena-only riding. Permanently.’
‘Oh, we’ll be good,’ said Poppy, prepared to agree to anything so long as she could stay here.
‘Yeah, sooo good,’ agreed Milly.
Katie just nodded and smiled.
‘With no riding practice, you’ll all be very unprepared for the practice gymkhana, not to mention behind on learning for your first Pony Club rally, but it’ll have to do.’
‘Will we still make it to Pony Club though?’ asked Poppy.
She’d been wanting to join the local Pony Club for ages. It would be awful to miss out when she’d looked forward to it for so long.
‘Yes, you’ll still make it. Pony Club day is on Sunday, after our gymkhana here.’
Aunt Sophie sighed and shook her head, but she had a faint smile playing over her lips. Poppy relaxed, smiling back at her aunt.
‘Just don’t let me down again, girls, okay? We don’t need the extra worry.’
Poppy was drenched, her legs saturated from cleaning the water trough. Milly was also up to her elbows on the other side of the fence, cleaning the adjoining trough.
‘It could have been a lot worse,’ said Katie.
Poppy noticed that she was loitering around the edge of the muddy area, trying not to get wet and dirty. She’s not going to get away with that for long with the chores Sophie had planned for us, Poppy thought.
Milly glared at Katie, her disagreement obvious. ‘Like how?’ she asked.
Poppy agreed with Katie, and answered Milly for her. ‘Like, we could have all been sent home, had our horses taken away and never seen each other again.’
‘Oh, yeah, there’s always that,’ said Milly with a laugh.
Katie continued to play around the mud’s edge. She didn’t even have her boots dirty yet.
‘You going to help anytime soon?’ asked Milly, who had obviously noticed Katie’s clean clothes, too.
Katie squirmed on the spot, and Poppy laughed at her friend.
‘I’ll give you ten seconds,’ said Poppy, grinning over at Milly.
‘Ten seconds before what?’ Katie whimpered back.
‘Eight . . . nine . . . TEN,’ giggled Poppy before flinging a bucket-load of grimy water all over Katie’s ‘Horse Mad’ T-shirt.
‘Argghhh!’ Katie squealed and looked shocked as she stood there, dripping with muddy water.
Poppy bent double, she was laughing so hard. And Milly was in fits of laughter, too. Poppy’s cheeks were aching, but she couldn’t stop laughing. Within seconds, she was joining Milly in bombarding Katie with more water.
‘I’ll get you for that!’ Katie screamed.
‘Like how?’ Milly was still roaring with laughter. ‘We’re already drenched.’
Poppy threw the bucket down and marched through the pools of water and mud. Katie looked at her sceptically but didn’t move away.
‘Come here,’ ordered Poppy, putting her arm out to Katie to help her across the slippy mud.
Katie did as she was told, probably hoping to avoid another soaking, Poppy chuckled to herself, and Milly sprang over the gate to join them.
‘We’re in this together, right?’ Poppy asked.
The other two nodded, both smiling.
‘No more adventures, okay? Riding only,’ she said to Milly.
‘And no trying to get out of punishment jobs?’ Milly added, her eyes trained on Katie.
‘No more hare-brained ideas,’ Katie snapped back.
Poppy placed one hand out in the middle, and watched as Milly’s and then Katie’s hands thumped on top.
‘These next five days aren’t going to be so bad,’ Katie said. ‘At least we’re all still here, living the punishment together. We’ll make it fun.’
‘I guess,’ agreed Milly.
‘You guess?’ said Katie.
‘Yeah, it will be fun until we get to Sophie’s practice gymkhana and the riding school kids beat us because we’ve had no practice,’ Milly pointed out.
‘But we’re here and we’ll all be in the same boat,’ Katie said, echoing Poppy’s thoughts. ‘We didn’t lose our ponies, so it’s not the end of the world.’
‘Yeah, Katie’s right,’ insisted Poppy. ‘We’ve still got each other, I’ve still got Crystal and you two still have Cody and Joe.’ She sighed. ‘And Milly, the riding school kids are not crappy riders. They help to pay the bills around here.’
Poppy looked over to where Crystal and the other two ponies were grazing in the next paddock. You know, Aunt Sophie never said anything about not being able to ride our ponies bareback,’ suggested Poppy with a mischievous grin on her face. She didn’t want to get into trouble again, no way, but she was itching to ride, and her aunt and uncle were both up at the stables, so they’d never know.
Milly’s face lit up at that, but Katie wasn’t convinced.
‘No, no, no!’ Katie insisted. ‘No more trouble, I thought we’d just agreed.’
‘Come on, no one will ever know,’ Milly said.
‘Yeah, I’ve heard that before.’
Poppy jumped up, jods plastered to her legs, hair wet from the water fight. ‘Come on, race you to the gate!’
Milly sprinted fast ahead of her, and Katie – although reluctantly – ran, too.
‘Last one on a pony has to finish off the water troughs!’ yelled Poppy.
‘That was the longest five days ever,’ Milly declared.
Poppy had to agree. It had been tough not being allowed to ride their ponies, but they were making up for it now. She nudged Crystal in the side, urging her to go faster. She burst into a canter, and Poppy slipped one hand off the reins and down to pat her neck, biting her bottom lip to stop from laughing as they shot past a shocked Milly and Joe. Milly’s shout only spurred her
on, and Crystal cleared the fallen log in the track before Milly and Joe had a chance to catch them.
Katie called out from behind. ‘Wait up!’
Poppy slowed Crystal down and giggled as Milly poked her tongue out at her. She looked at Joe, knowing how he liked to ride upfront at all times, and thought he seemed equally unimpressed about not jumping first.
‘It seems like forever ago that we jumped that log for the first time,’ Poppy said.
Katie had caught up now and stopped beside them as Poppy halted Crystal. ‘Or that we rode over there.’ Katie pointed, and Poppy’s gaze followed her finger. She gulped as she stared over the tops of the bushes and toward the old gate they’d jumped to get onto Old Smithy’s land.
‘I still can’t believe we actually found those horses,’ Poppy said.
‘Or that we didn’t get sent home,’ Milly added.
Poppy leaned forward and slung her arms around Crystal’s neck, stroking her soft hair. ‘I’m gonna miss you guys, even if it is only for a few days.’ She was looking forward to getting home, to seeing her mum and giving her brother a big hug. But she was going to miss Crystal and her friends big time.
‘Me too,’ Katie said.
Milly just smiled, and Poppy smiled back.
‘Are your parents coming to the practice gymkhana tomorrow?’ Katie asked Milly.
‘Yeah. Although I don’t think they’ll come ’til later in the afternoon, and then I’ll just go home with them,’ Milly said.
Poppy stroked Crystal’s mane absently, feeling sad that her mum and dad wouldn’t be there to watch her in the gymkhana. But she was happy for her friends, that their parents were coming, and forced herself to smile.
‘Aunt Sophie’s taking me home on Monday morning,’ she added.
They were all silent. Poppy wondered if the other two were thinking about how much they’d miss their ponies.
‘Ready to ride back?’ Katie asked.
Poppy nodded and sat up straight in the saddle again, realising that both Katie and Milly were looking at her. ‘Yeah, let’s go,’ she said, groaning when a smile spread across Milly’s face. She knew that grin, and it always came before trouble.
Pony Detectives Page 10