Free Rocking Horse by Bonnie Bryant

and quickly convinced Stevie’s parents to take them to Pine Hollow instead of the dance.
    “If we take you there, we can’t come get you and take you to the dance,” Mrs. Lake warned. “We’ve got plans tonight, for once, and we’re not interrupting them to taxi you around.”
    “That’s fine,” Stevie said distractedly. She’d been looking forward to the dance for weeks, but at this moment it hardly seemed to matter at all. “I don’t think we’re going to the dance. Max seemed really upset. We’ll just get him to drive us home whenever we’re done at the stable.”
    “I wonder what it could be,” Lisa said.
    “The horses,” Carole said again. “Starlight.” She shivered, thinking of all that could have happened to her beloved horse. He could have colicked or foundered or cast himself in his stall …
    “He said it wasn’t the horses,” Stevie said. “He wouldn’t lie to us.”
    “What did he say exactly?” Lisa asked.
    “That there was a problem at the stable, and he wanted the three of us there immediately. Then he said not to panic, it wasn’t our horses, and then he hung up.”
    “Okay,” Lisa said. She patted Carole’s arm. “It’ll be okay.” But she didn’t have the first clue what the problem could be.
    When Stevie’s parents pulled up at Pine Hollow, most of the stables and even Max’s house were dark. Only the windows of the office and the first section of stalls were lit. In the driveway, a car sat with its engine running. The Saddle Club could see Deborah, Max’s wife, and Maxi, their baby daughter, waiting inside. They waved, and Deborah waved back. The girls tumbled out of the car, and Stevie’s parents left.
    The girls hurried into the stable. Max was pacing up and down in his office. “Gosh,” Stevie blurted, “you look really nice.” Max was dressed for an evening out. He wore clean khaki pants and a nice sweater, and his hair was still damp from a shower. His expression, however, was anything but nice.
    “I don’t feel nice,” he said. He snapped the office lights off and pointed the girls down the stable aisle. “I feel annoyed, delayed, and most of all, disappointed. Also, I admit, rather furious.” He pointed toward Danny’s stall.
    Carole felt her mouth drop open so fast she wassurprised that it didn’t hit her knees. Danny’s stall was a wreck—absolutely and completely trashed. Slick, dark, half-dried mud was slathered all over the bedding, halfway up the walls, and all over poor Danny himself. His lovely gray coat was covered from nose to hoof to tail.
    Stevie and Lisa were likewise stricken dumb, but Max seemed more than capable of speech. “It’s just a good thing I decided to check on the horses one last time before we left,” he said. “As I’m sure you know, we’ve had a very quiet afternoon here. In fact, you three were the only kids around. The mud’s getting fairly dry, so I guess this happened around an hour ago—plenty of time for you to go home and get yourselves cleaned up.”
    “But Max!” Lisa protested. “We never—”
    “I said I wanted these pranks stopped,” he said. Lisa had never seen Max so angry. “They don’t have a place in my barn. Veronica’s tack looks exactly the same way. It could be ruined, for all I know. I asked my mother, and the only people she saw down here all afternoon—the
only
people—were the three of you.”
    The Saddle Club had taken a short trail ride that afternoon, and Stevie remembered how quiet the stables had been. But she also knew that when they left, Danny and his stall had been sparkling clean. “Veronica—” she began.
    “—would have been very noticeable, pulling up in her chauffeur-driven Mercedes,” Max said dryly. “I don’t want to hear any theories, Stevie. I don’t want to hear a word. I don’t care what kind of explanations you three have. I want horse, stall, and tack
spotless
by the time I get back here. I don’t care if you have to work until