Snow Ride (13 page)

Stevie turned. There was Jodi Hale. She was at the dance, but she wasn’t dressed up for it. She stood in front of Dinah defiantly. A young man, Stevie thought she recognized him as Mark, Jodi’s “student,” was with her.

“Proud of yourself?” Jodi demanded.

“It was to help your parents,” Dinah said. She was clearly uncomfortable with a confrontation. Up until a few hours earlier, Jodi had been somebody she’d admired enough to get into real trouble for. “Your parents could have gotten badly hurt—just like I was.”

“They are better riders than you are, or than you’ll ever be. They could have been just fine,” Jodi told her. “The rocks fall on that trail sometimes, but not all the time. What was the big deal?”

The big deal?
Stevie could hardly believe her ears. She kept quiet, though. This was between Dinah and Jodi.

Dinah stood up from her stool without showing the pain she felt throughout her body. “Jodi, I used to think that all I wanted in the world was to be just like you,” she began. “I admired you more than anybody else I knew. I
tried to be like you, but I have found in the last few days that I just can’t do it. I also don’t
want
to do it. There are differences between us. For one thing, I know the difference between right and wrong. I also know the difference between safe and sorry. For a while I forgot those things, but now I remember, and I’m not going to forget them again.”

Jodi put her hands on her hips defiantly. “There are other differences between us,” she said. “The biggest one is that you’ll never be a good rider if you can’t stay on a skittish horse. I’ll always be better than you are.” She spun on her heel, then looked back at her boyfriend. “Come on, Mark, let’s get out of here.” They left without saying another word.

Dinah’s face reddened in anger and resentment. Stevie wanted to reach out and comfort her. She was very proud of her friend and what she’d said to Jodi. She also knew that, in spite of her assurances earlier, Jodi’s words stung.

It was Mr. Daviet who came to Dinah’s rescue then. Stevie and Dinah hadn’t realized that he’d seen the confrontation. He hadn’t missed a word. “If it’s any comfort to you, Dinah, you should know that Jodi’s future riding will not take place at Sugarbush. You did something you shouldn’t have done, but Jodi did something inexcusable, and that was to put some of my riders at risk. Even worse, she asked you to cover up for her. She won’t be on any of my horses again. Ever. You, however, will have many opportunities
to continue riding there. I’m glad of it. You’re a good student. I wish I had more like you. For one thing, you keep your head in an emergency. Now, the trick is to avoid emergencies in the future!”

Dinah stammered. She didn’t know what to say. She was spared having to say anything by the return of the band. The moment the music started, Mr. Slattery asked Stevie to dance. She was pleased to accept.

The dancing continued nonstop for another half hour, and then Mr. Daviet stood up on the bandstand.

“Your attention, please,” he said. “We have a few little ceremonial items to go through, and then we can return to dancing. First of all, as many of you know, Mrs. Daviet has been over at the Sugar Hut finishing the evaporation process on the final batch of sap. She’s also been cooking down some of the first batch of sap to make our first batch of sugar. It’s our tradition here to have our first sugar sampled by our newest worker. I have the sugar here, so will our newest worker come to the bandstand?”

Stevie looked around the room. What she saw was that everybody was looking at her.

“Me?” she said, looking quizzically at Mr. Daviet.

“Of course,” he said. “Besides, you’ve got to have something sweet to replenish all the energy you used so you can go on dancing for the rest of the night. Come on up here!”

Stevie walked slowly through the crowd, receiving
good wishes and pats on the back as she went. She hadn’t expected this, and she wished Dinah had warned her.

Soon she was standing next to Mr. Daviet. Mrs. Daviet arrived with a platter filled with little chunks of maple sugar, sweet smelling and hot.

“Be our guest,” he said.

Stevie took a piece. It was hot, piping hot.

“Ouch!” she said.

There was laughter. “You thought this was an honor,” Mr. Daviet teased. “The truth is, we just want to let a stranger burn her fingers. We’re too smart for that!”

Stevie held the morsel on the palm of her hand and blew on it. There was silence in the barn. She held the morsel out to the crowd. “Blow,” she instructed. They did.

When she judged that it just might be cool enough, she tested it with the tip of her tongue. It wasn’t quite cool enough, but it was so sweet and inviting, she couldn’t resist. She took a nibble. It did burn her tongue, but she didn’t care. It was the sweetest, most wonderful thing she’d ever tasted. She’d had maple sugar before, but she’d never had it piping hot and fresh. It was wonderful, and she told everybody so.

The crowd applauded, and then Mrs. Daviet and her assistants began walking through the crowd, passing out morsels to everybody who wanted it—and that was everybody there.

Then, while the guests were still testing the sugar, Mr. Daviet pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket.

“Oh, there’s one more thing here,” he said. “All of the sap was gathered by my junior riders, and in order to get them to do a lot of work for free, I make it a sort of contest.”

The adults laughed. So did the kids.

“Anyway, Mrs. Daviet has finished tallying up the amount of sap that was brought in by each of the teams of three students, and the team that brought in the most sap is guaranteed to have first pick of horses for classes all summer.”

He glanced at the piece of paper and then put it back into his pocket.

“All my horses are great animals,” he said. “And they’re all different. Some are fast, some have good canters, some have smooth trots, and some are pretty. Some are even gentle.”

There was laughter. He looked at the paper again and then tucked it back into his pocket.

“The kids gathered a lot of sap this year, and as you can tell from tonight’s sampling, it’s making high-quality maple products. We couldn’t do it without the help of our young riders.…”

Stevie thought this talk would never end. Mr. Daviet went on for what seemed like hours, but was really probably just a few minutes. The suspense was just about unbearable
“… and so it’s always hard to recognize just
one
team when all of them work so hard …”

He went on to describe exactly what the teams did. He checked the paper again. Then he put it into his pocket again. Stevie thought it was getting frayed.

“… but the fact is, one team did do better than the others …”

This led to a discussion of the benefits of having a contest. It did not lead directly to the announcement of the winner.

“… and the winner is … a team who worked hard, in spite of difficulties …”

Just when Stevie thought she couldn’t stand the tension and the buildup for one more second, Mr. Daviet did it.

“… the winning team is Dinah Slattery, Betsy Hale, and our newcomer Stevie Lake!”

They’d done it! They’d won! Stevie felt her self bursting with a feeling of total joy.

Nearby Betsy was jumping up and down excitedly. Behind the refreshment table, Dinah was stunned. Soundlessly she said the one thing that was on her mind. Stevie couldn’t hear it, but she saw the word forming on her friend’s lips.

“Goldie!”

S
TEVIE HAD LOVED
almost every minute of her trip to Vermont. The one thing that had been missing—two things, actually—were Carole and Lisa. She got home too late Sunday night to call, and she couldn’t see them all day Monday because she was at school. When the final bell sounded, she couldn’t get to Pine Hollow fast enough. She knew she’d find them there. They were in the paddock, where Carole was working Starlight on a lunge line. The minute they saw Stevie, Carole secured Starlight, and the three of them had an impromptu Saddle Club meeting—their first in over a week.

“Oh, Stevie! We’re so glad you’re back! We have the most wonderful news!” Lisa greeted her.

Carole gave her a hug. “It’s a big secret, see, but you’re going to love it!” she said.

Stevie groaned. “I don’t want to hear about secrets. They can get you into real trouble, so whatever it is, you’re just better off telling other people and letting them help. You just never know about secrets. They’re no good and that’s that.”

Carole and Lisa exchanged glances. “Is this Stevie Lake in front of us, or was there some kind of extraterrestrial bodily exchange while she was in Vermont?” Lisa asked.

“Maybe just a Vulcan mind-swap,” Carole said. “After all, the Stevie we know loves secrets more than anything in the world—especially when she can tell them!”

“And we can tell this one,” Lisa said.

“You can?” Stevie was very wary of secrets, but if something could be told, then it wouldn’t be a secret anymore, and that would be okay.

“Sure.”

“Then tell,” she said.

“When we called Phil and told him you couldn’t come to the pony club meeting, like you asked us to, he told us
we
should come instead,” Carole said.

“We weren’t sure whether you would think it was okay,” Lisa said uncertainly. “But Mrs. Reg told us this story—”

“Oh, come on, Lisa,” Carole said. “Stevie doesn’t care about that old mare. She’s going to be much more interested in the meeting.”

“If you’ll ever tell me what it was about,” Stevie said pointedly. In her opinion, when it was time to share secrets, they should be shared, not just hinted at.

“Oh, right,” Lisa said. “Well, it turns out that Phil was really glad we called because it was sort of an organizational meeting … and only people who were there, or represented there, can be involved.…”

“In what?” Stevie shrieked. “Tell me!”

“Does the word ‘tallyho’ mean anything to you?” Carole asked.

Stevie could hardly believe it. “A hunt?” she asked. “There’s going to be a fox hunt?”

“And we can be there!” Lisa said.

“It’s going to be at Cross County. I guess it’s an annual hunt for all the young riders and this time they can invite friends, too!” Carole said.

“And that means us?” Stevie asked.

Her friends nodded.

“Now I understand why Phil was so insistent that I be at the meeting. Boy, am I glad you guys called him and went. Wouldn’t it have been
awful
if we couldn’t have gone just because I was away? Oh, fabulous!”

Lisa and Carole filled her in on some of the specifics and told her there would be another organizational meeting
the following week. They all agreed they would be there—with bells on.

“No, in pink jackets,” Stevie said excitedly, recalling pictures of hunters wearing red jackets that were somehow called pink.

“Did you know that’s not actually pink?” Carole asked.

“Sure, they’re red,” Stevie said. “I still don’t know why they’re called pink, though.”

“It’s P-i-n-q-u-e,” Carole said, spelling it out. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the color. Pinque was the tailor who designed it.”

“There’s so much to learn!” Lisa said.

“And we’re going to have so much fun learning it,” Stevie said.

“Speaking of learning new things,” Lisa said. “Tell us all about making maple syrup.”

Stevie grinned. “I thought you’d
never
ask,” she said. “Now I’ll begin at the beginning.…”

And she did.

Bonnie Bryant is the author of nearly a hundred books about horses, including the Saddle Club series, the Saddle Club Super Editions, and the Pony Tales series.