Free English Rider by Bonnie Bryant Page B

they all got a look at the scene inside, they gasped.
    “What on earth happened in here?” Carole cried, staring in dismay.
    The place was a mess. Normally Max and his riders kept the tack room in a sort of chaotic orderliness. Saddles, bridles, and other tack and equipment were everywhere, but like all the riders at Pine Hollow, Carole knew that once you learned the system, you realized that each item, no matter how small, had its own place. You also learned that you had better make sure each item was returned to its proper spot after use. Max didn’t appreciate sloppiness, and he didn’t hesitate to let you know it.
    Carole could hardly imagine what Max would say if he saw his tack room right then. Half a dozen saddles hadbeen pushed off their racks onto the floor. One was even stuffed into the large concrete sink in the corner of the room. Bridles had been flung in a pile against one wall and looked hopelessly tangled together. A bucket full of spare bits had been tipped over and its contents scattered across the floor. And a couple of turnout rugs that had been neatly folded on a shelf the last time Carole saw them were draped carelessly over a trunk, their ends dragging on the dusty floor.
    “Wow,” Lisa said, gazing around wide-eyed. “This is—I mean—Wow.”
    Carole knew what she meant. In all her years at Pine Hollow, she had never seen such a mess. “What happened here?” she asked. “Could someone have done this by accident? A new rider, maybe, or a guest who didn’t know any better? Someone’s dog?”
    Stevie shook her head grimly. “It would have to be some accident,” she said. “It looks like a tornado hit this place. Even a Great Dane couldn’t do this much damage in the time we’ve been gone.”
    “That’s right,” Lisa remembered. “We were just here ten minutes ago, and this place was fine.” Suddenly she frowned. “Or was it?” she added. “Actually, we didn’t come in when we were here before.”
    Carole shrugged. “Yeah, but Tessa and Phil did,” she said. “And no matter how weird they were acting, they definitely would have noticed if—” She let out a horrifiedgasp. “Oh no!” she cried. “You—You don’t think
they
did this, do you?”
    “No way,” Lisa said immediately. “They’re not that irresponsible.” She gulped. “Of course, they were kind of distracted. And neither one of them has spent all that much time in our tack room. If it was already a little messy when they got there … and they bumped into a few things while they were moving around …”
    “They may have been too busy gazing into each other’s eyes to notice,” Stevie finished for her, her own eyes flashing fire. She ran both hands through her hair, glaring at the messy room. “This stinks,” she said fiercely. “It really stinks.”
    “No kidding,” Lisa agreed. She glanced at her watch. “We don’t have time to deal with this right now. But if Max finds it, someone is going to be in big trouble.”
    Stevie nodded grimly. “And if he finds out we were here and didn’t do anything about it, even if it wasn’t our fault—”
    “We’re history,” Carole finished, drawing one finger across her throat. “We can kiss our horses good-bye for the rest of the summer.”
    Stevie bent down and grabbed a handful of the scattered bits. “I can’t believe this,” she muttered, flinging them across the room in the general direction of the overturned bucket. “This is so unfair!”
    Carole gulped. She could tell that Stevie was in nomood for cleaning right then. She was too angry, and that was making her just as careless as Tessa and Phil must have been. In fact, although a few of the bits she had thrown had actually landed in or near the bucket, several others had missed completely and slid under the sink, where they would be even harder to retrieve.
    “Wait,” Carole said, putting a hand on Stevie’s arm as she bent to grab another handful of bits. “There’s no sense in