Brightheart the Knight's Pony by Poppy Shire

Author:Poppy Shire
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2007-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

“Are you sure I need to wear all this?” said Amy, looking down at the heap of armor.

“Oh yes,” said Henry. “Otherwise you’d be in big trouble if someone stuck a sword into you!”

Amy gulped. She was really excited about the joust, but it was a bit scary thinking about swords.

“Go and take off your dress and put the leggings and this doublet on,” Henry said, a bit less bossily this time. He handed her a pair of scratchy-looking leggings and a weird padded jacket with bits of chain mail sewn on to it. “Then I’ll help you into the armor. You’ll never get it on by yourself. Even knights need their squires to help.” He looked at her to see if she knew what he was talking about. “You know, like knights in training? They help the knights put armor on, look after weapons, and things like that.”

Amy nodded. She had learned about that at school. She never imagined she’d need a squire of her own!

She went behind a different bush to take her dress off—which was more difficult than she’d expected. It didn’t have anything helpful like a zipper, just lots of laces! She could hear Henry muttering impatiently on the other side of the bush as she wriggled out of the dress and the underdress and the funny sleeves that tied on. It took a long time to get out of the clothes.

Amy took a deep breath, then pulled on the leggings and heaved the chain mail jacket over her head. It was very heavy and scratchy, but if it was going to stop people poking holes in her, Amy didn’t mind. She went to the other side of the bush so that Henry could help her with the rest of the armor.

“Right. We start at the feet and work up.” Henry held up his long-toed metal shoes. “Sabbatons first.”

Putting on the armor was hard work. Amy could see that Henry was more used to having a servant help him than helping someone else. He got very muddled up with some bits, and for a while Amy had the breastplate on upside down, which felt very uncomfortable, but in the end she was dressed in a full suit of armor, just like a real knight!

“There you go!” said Henry, straightening her helmet and stepping back. “How does it feel?”

Amy tried to lift her arms. “Heavy. You really have to fight in all this?” Amy wasn’t sure she could even walk, let alone carry a lance. It felt as if she had most of her mom’s kitchen cupboard tied to her legs.

Henry grinned. “Yup. Come on, I’ll give you a leg up. I’ve put Snowdrop’s saddle onto Brightheart.”

Amy slowly clanked over to Brightheart.

“You look just like Prince Henry!” he said, tossing his mane.

“Good,” Amy puffed. She didn’t have enough breath to say anything else. Moving around in armor was seriously hard work!

She stood on the tree stump, and Henry heaved her into the saddle with a lot of panting and complaining.

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