Chocolate Box Girls: Coco Caramel (9 page)

I think I hear a movement somewhere near the
stables, but although I listen hard for more sounds and stare into the darkness for any
sign of movement, there is nothing. Probably just Caramel shifting around in her
stall.

I open the gate carefully, leave it ajar and
walk slowly, quietly, across the yard. The dog, a thin, bedraggled mongrel, watches my
progress keenly. It yaps once, but quietens when I begin talking to it in a low whisper,
gently. Dogs are quite like people. If you come across an angry one, you can sometimes
calm it down by acting cool and confident yourself – although this dog doesn’t
seem angry, just thin and lonely and perhaps a little scared.

I cross the yard and peep into the first
stable, but it’s empty, as is the second. Approaching the third, I inhale the
sweet hay-and-treacle smell of pony.

‘Caramel?’ I whisper, pushing open
the stable door.

A tall shadow looms at me in the dark and I
am so shocked and scared I lose the plot completely, jumping back against the stable
door.

‘Whaaat the – urgghhh!’ I yelp,
and a hand clamps down across my mouth so that the last word dies a muffled death.

‘Shut up!’ a gruff voice tells
me. ‘You’ll wake the whole place up!’

‘Mnnnhh?’ I grunt, wriggling
free and turning on my captor. My eyes open wide.

‘Lawrie Marshall?’

‘You again!’ he mutters.
‘Unreal. Are you stalking me or something?’

Indignation just about chokes me.

‘Stalk
you
?’ I hiss.
‘Get a life, Lawrie – are you crazy? I’m here for Caramel, obviously. What
are
you
doing here?’

Lawrie sighs, and I look past him into the
darkness to where Caramel is eating from a bucket of grain. I’m pretty sure Seddon
didn’t give her that … I guess Lawrie cares about the pony too.

‘You were right about Seddon,’ I
admit. ‘I was watching him earlier, running Caramel in the paddock. He’s
horrible! Do you think we should ring the RSPCA?’

‘That would only make things
worse,’ Lawrie says. ‘You have no idea how powerful Seddon is. He owns a lot
of land around here, knows all the right people. He’s clever too, and he gets away
with murder. He hasn’t left a mark on Caramel, so it would be our word against
his. Who do you think they’d believe? There’s not much we can actually do
except make sure she’s fed properly … she was really hungry.’

Caramel lifts her head and mooches over to
greet me, nuzzling her head against my cheek. I put my arms round her and hold her
close, hoping she knows just how sorry I am. I think of her earlier, eyes wide with
fear, and I know I cannot walk away and leave her here.

‘Not much we can do?’ I
challenge Lawrie. ‘I think there’s plenty, actually. We can get Caramel out
– ride her out of here, rescue her. Are you going to help?’

‘Rescue?’ he repeats.
‘Steal, you mean! Are you serious?’

‘Why not? Seddon may have paid for
her, but he bought
Caramel under false pretences – Jean and Roy would
never have let her go if they’d known what a creep he is. We can’t leave her
here, Lawrie!’

He frowns. ‘Seddon really is bad news,
y’know,’ he tells me. ‘He runs pheasant shoots for groups of toffs
from the city, so he has a gun. Stealing something of his is not a good idea.’

‘Do you have a better one?’

Lawrie laughs, and for a moment, in the
shadowy stable, I catch a glimpse of the boy he could be if he wasn’t always cross
and scowling. His whole face lights up – it’s kind of surprising.

‘So … we’re doing
this?’ he checks.

‘I’m doing it,’ I shrug.
‘You can please yourself.’

I saddle Caramel quickly, then take her head
collar and lead her forward, out into the yard. The dog stares at us, forlorn, but
Lawrie talks to it in a low whisper and it makes no attempt to bark as we latch the
stable-yard gate behind us and make for the woods.

‘What now?’ Lawrie asks as we
step into the safety of the trees. ‘Do you have a plan?’

‘I’m going to hide Caramel in
the stables at home,’ I
reply. ‘Our pet sheep Humbug lives
there at the moment, but I am pretty sure she won’t mind sharing.’

‘What will you tell your
parents?’

‘I’m not sure yet,’ I
admit. ‘This is a spur of the moment thing, I haven’t had a chance to plan
out the details …’

‘Not going to work,’ he says.
‘Trust me, Seddon will go crazy once he discovers Caramel is gone. He’ll get
the police involved, the newspapers, you name it. Your parents would know exactly what
had happened, and I bet they’d hand Caramel straight back. Even if they
didn’t want to, the police would probably make them. No, if we’re going to
help Caramel, we need to hide her – somewhere nobody will find her.’

‘Where, though?’ I ask. ‘A
pony is pretty hard to hide!’

Lawrie frowns, thoughtful.

‘I know a place. But if we’re
really doing this … well, there’s something else you should
see.’

‘What do you mean?’

Lawrie ties Caramel’s reins to a
branch and grabs my hand in the darkness. Shock and annoyance flood through me, but
before I can argue or swat him away he pulls me out of the trees and into the farmyard,
dropping my
hand again and pushing open the door of the fourth stable.
In the darkness, I breathe in the warm, slightly treacly smell of horse mixed with the
sour ammoniac reek of wet straw.

‘Another horse?’ I whisper.

Lawrie flicks on a torch, lighting up a
bedraggled dapple-grey pony cowering in the far corner of the stall. Her belly is round
as a barrel, and her eyes flare with fear as she begins skittering, jostling, trying to
back away.

‘She’s terrified!’ I
say.

‘And she’s in foal,’
Lawrie points out. ‘Seddon bought her cheap, and he’s totally neglected
her.’

I look at the startled pony and bite my lip.
Rescuing one pony or rescuing two … what’s the difference?

‘Lawrie,’ I say,
‘we’ll have to take her too. We can’t leave her here!’

‘Thought you’d say that,’
he huffs, and I can’t tell whether he is pleased or irritated by my decision.
‘Suppose we might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb …’

He moves forward slowly, talking softly to
the pony, offering her grain, clipping a leading rein on to her head collar. Jumpy and
afraid, she still allows Lawrie to lead
her out of the stable and into
the woods. I wonder just how this boy can be so good with horses and yet so awkward with
people?

Half an hour later Lawrie is riding Caramel
uphill through moonlit fields while I trudge along behind with the dapple-grey mare.
Lawrie Marshall has not only hijacked my plan but taken charge of it – he really is the
most annoying boy I know.

‘You’re good,’ I tell him
grudgingly, as I guide the frightened grey forward. ‘Have you worked with horses
before?’

‘Loads,’ he shrugs. ‘Up
until I came to Somerset, anyhow.’

‘Where are we going?’

‘You’ll see …’

We go on, cross-country in the moonlight for
a mile or so, until we are high up on the moors, scrunching through heather and bracken,
listening to the drumming cry of grouse and the soft huffing of the ponies’ breath
as they climb. Just when I am losing the will to live, the dark shape of a house appears
in the distance, and Lawrie swings down from the saddle.

‘They should be OK here,’ he says.
‘This place was a smallholding once, but it’s been derelict for years –
there’s no proper road to it, you see. The ponies can go in the walled garden –
it’s all closed in and overgrown. Nobody would think of looking there – it’s
miles from the roads and there aren’t any paths or tracks nearby, so hikers and
tourists don’t really bother with it. I’ll bring them some grain and stuff
tomorrow.’

‘We will,’ I correct him.
‘This rescue was my idea, remember?’

‘How could I forget?’ Lawrie
sighs. ‘OK. Can you be here for half two-ish, d’you think?’

‘I suppose,’ I say, shivering a
little in the moonlight. ‘This place is spooky.’

‘It’s safe,’ Lawrie
shrugs. ‘That’s what matters, isn’t it?’

For once in his life, I guess Lawrie is
right.

I wake late, shivering under the quilt in the
gypsy caravan with Fred the dog burrowed underneath the duvet. When the door opens and
Cherry comes in with French toast and hot chocolate I think I’ve died and gone to
heaven.

‘You’re awake,’ she grins.
‘I peeped in earlier, and you were still out for the count.’

I have no idea what time I finally made it
home last night. By the time I’d trekked back over the moors to retrieve my bike
from Blue Downs House and pedalled home in the moonlight, I was exhausted. I crept into
the gypsy caravan, crawled under the covers and slept. I dreamt of Caramel and the
dapple-grey mare galloping free across the moors, and then the dream turned into a
nightmare and I was running through the darkness, lost,
alone, being
chased by horrible Mr Seddon and his shotgun.

Not good. I push the thought away.

‘You are officially the best
stepsister I have ever had,’ I say to Cherry, reaching for the hot chocolate.
‘Thank you!’

‘I’m the
only
stepsister you’ve ever had,’ she laughs. ‘And I’m glad you slept
well because I didn’t – I was worried sick! Tell me what you were doing, Coco,
please?’

‘Promise you won’t say anything
to anyone?’ I check. ‘Seriously – you have to keep it secret. Sisters
don’t tell, right?’

Cherry frowns. ‘I guess,’ she
shrugs. ‘But … it’s nothing awful, is it? Illegal?’

I tell Cherry the story of Caramel’s
rescue and her eyes open wide.

‘It is illegal,’ she whispers,
horrified. ‘But I can see exactly why you did it. Poor Caramel!’

I sip my hot chocolate. ‘Actually, it
wasn’t just Caramel. There was another pony too – a pregnant mare. We
couldn’t leave her behind!’

Cherry frowns. ‘Two ponies? Be
careful, Coco. That Seddon bloke sounds like a total creep. I think you should tell Dad
and Charlotte!’

‘But Seddon will report the theft and
get the police involved,’ I argue. ‘And Mum and Paddy would make me give the
ponies back. Adults always stick together!’

‘Dad and Charlotte would understand,
if you explained it properly,’ Cherry says. ‘They’d know what to
do.’

I bite my lip. ‘I can’t,’
I say. ‘I promised Lawrie.’

Cherry frowns. ‘So who is this Lawrie
person?’ she asks. ‘Do I know him?’

‘I don’t think so,’ I
frown. ‘He joined the middle school last year – moved from up north, I think,
judging by his accent. He’s a bit of a mystery boy.’

‘They’re the ones to watch out
for,’ Cherry says darkly. ‘Tread carefully, Coco. This stunt with the horses
is serious stuff – I bet you anything it will make the papers, cause a big fuss with the
police. You could get into a whole heap of trouble. I mean, it’s OK to like a boy,
have a crush even, but don’t let him lead you astray.’

I just about choke on my hot chocolate.

‘Er,
no way
do I fancy Lawrie
Marshall,’ I snort. ‘He is
the most obnoxious, irritating
boy in the world. Horrible and arrogant and rude.’

Cherry looks unconvinced.

‘I mean it,’ I argue.
‘Not. Interested. End of story. Besides, Lawrie is
not
leading me astray
– the rescue was all my idea. I agree with him about keeping it quiet, though. We
can’t let Seddon get his hands on Caramel again. As for the other pony, she was
terrified – I can’t let them go back there. We have to keep them hidden, for now
at least – I’ll make sure they’re fed and groomed. I’ll think of a
better plan soon, but right now this has to stay secret. You won’t give me away,
will you?’

My stepsister bites her lip. ‘I
suppose not,’ she promises. ‘But I don’t like this, Coco. Technically,
it’s stealing, and if anyone finds out you were involved …’

‘They won’t.’

Cherry sighs. ‘You’ve rescued
the ponies, and that’s great, but … I think you should tell the
authorities now. Caramel isn’t your responsibility, and the other one definitely
isn’t – you shouldn’t get in too deep!’