Free Rocking Horse by Bonnie Bryant Page A

dawn.”
    He turned on his heel and started walking toward the door. The girls looked at each other in stunned silence. “But we’re going to a dance,” Stevie said quietly.
    “No,” Max said, without turning around, “you
thought
you were going to a dance. I’m afraid you have work to do.” The stable door shut behind him with a click, and the girls could hear the car pulling away. They looked at each other hopelessly.
    “He can’t really think—” Carole said.
    “He does,” Stevie said. “Wow. He really thinks we did it.”
    “He’s just so angry right now,” Lisa guessed. “He might listen to us later—like, in about a week or three.”
    “Right. But what about tonight?”
    They surveyed Danny in silent gloom. He looked truly horrible. Mud made his mane stand up in tufts like a punk rocker’s hair. “Poor boy,” Carole murmured, patting the one non-muddy spot on his nose. “Who would do something like this to you?”
    “I guess we have to clean him up,” Lisa said with some reluctance. She felt sorry for Danny, but she didn’t like being blamed, even temporarily, for something she didn’t and wouldn’t do.
    “You guess?” Stevie said. “Do you want to have Max come back and see this horse like this again? He’d kick us out of the stable forever, if he didn’t kill us first.”
    “Plus, it’s not fair to Danny,” Carole said. “I don’t think we have a choice.”
    Lisa blew out her breath. She looked at her new white sweater. “Let me go see what else I can wear,” she said. Unfortunately, she’d cleaned her cubby out that afternoon, and, like her two friends, had taken most of her grubby old clothes to Stevie’s house. They were in the Lakes’ washing machine at this very minute.
    “Oh, no,” Stevie said, realizing what Lisa was thinking. “That was lousy timing, wasn’t it? And I felt so virtuous, putting all that laundry into the machine.”
    It was true. Even combining all that they had in their three cubbies, plus everything they could drag out of the lost-and-found box, they couldn’t do much to protect their party clothes. Stevie found some crusty socks and exchanged her sandals for cowboy boots, but she was still stuck in a skirt. Lisa put on a pair of Carole’s old paddock boots instead ofher sandals, and Carole managed to exchange her leggings for a pair of breeches, but that was all.
    They had just gone back to Danny’s stall when they heard the main door open. Carole’s first thought was that it was Max, back already, and he was going to be furious. But it was worse than Max. It was Veronica. She was wearing an ivory satin ensemble, dance shoes, and tons of jewelry, and she flipped her lustrous hair in The Saddle Club’s direction as she walked to Danny’s stall.
    “My,” she murmured, raising an eyebrow at them, “he is a mess, isn’t he? When Max phoned, I was so … surprised. But then, I’d been getting ready for the dance all afternoon. I took a mud bath—so good for my complexion.” She grinned.
    Lisa heard a strangled noise that she guessed was Stevie trying to hold her temper.
    “It’s such a shame that you girls won’t get to come to the dance,” Veronica purred. She held a carrot out to Danny, and he took it. “But then,” she continued, giving The Saddle Club another glance, “I can see by the way you look that you weren’t really planning on going. Stevie, those boots are adorable—and that skirt is just right for cleaning stalls.”
    Stevie lunged toward Veronica, but the other girl was already tripping back toward the door. “Mustn’t keep the chauffeur waiting,” she said. “Toodleoo.And don’t forget, I like all my tack oiled except for my saddle.”
    “I’ll kill her,” Stevie spit. They heard Veronica’s car pull away. “Did you see her face? And that comment about mud baths? She set this whole thing up! She did it! I hate her!”
    “We don’t have a choice,” Lisa said grimly. “We have to clean Danny up. Max