Pony Detectives by Soraya Nicholas

Author:Soraya Nicholas
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781760143015
Publisher: Penguin Group Australia
Published: 2016-02-26T05:00:00+00:00

That night, the girls sat around the table, exhausted. They had hardly said a word since sitting down. Poppy was used to Sophie pushing her hard, but even she was feeling the pain this evening. At least having Milly and Katie here meant she had help with chores. Her muscles ached so much, she didn’t think she’d have got through them without their help.

Poppy suddenly felt a kick under the table.

‘Ouch!’ She glowered at Milly, who was sat next to her. But Milly was holding her head funny.

Aunt Sophie and Uncle Mark looked their way.

‘Sorry,’ Poppy muttered. ‘My legs are just sore from riding.’

But they hardly gave the girls a second look, going back to their conversation.

Poppy had no idea what was going on, or why Milly had felt the need to kick her. She was rubbing her leg when Katie bent in close.

‘I think she wants you to listen to Mr and Mrs D,’ she whispered.

Poppy quickly tuned in to her uncle’s and aunt’s voices. It wasn’t like it was hard to hear them, she just hadn’t bothered to listen.

‘We’re going to have to padlock the paddock gates, too,’ Mark said. ‘The fact that it’s happened again means we could easily be next.’

That got her attention. More horses had been stolen?

‘The worse thing is not knowing what happened to those horses. They could have ended up anywhere! How many went this time?’ Aunt Sophie asked, her voice getting quieter.

Poppy kicked Milly back. This was interesting.

‘Only two, from a roadside paddock. But still no clues for the police.’

‘Ah, Mrs D, can I ask you something?’ asked Milly.

‘Sure.’ Aunt Sophie wasn’t even looking their way.

‘It’s just that Poppy said we can’t ride on the farmland adjoining the trail. What did you say his name was, Pop?’

Poppy felt her eyes bulge. Why would Milly ask them that? Why would she even want to bring up the subject? Did she want them to know what they’d been doing?

Aunt Sophie looked down, and Poppy found herself wondering again what Old Smithy could have done to upset her aunt that much.

‘I don’t want to discuss him, Milly,’ Uncle Mark said. ‘But he’s a horrible and dangerous man, and I don’t want you girls going near him or his land, understood? He does a lot of hunting on his land, too – shoots rabbits, that sort of thing – and so it’s not safe to be riding there in case of stray bullets, or the loud shots could spook the horses. And . . . I just don’t trust him.’

‘It’s just that there were hoof prints near the boundary, so I thought maybe Poppy had got it wrong.’ Milly’s voice was sweet as pie, but it still made a cool shiver go down Poppy’s back. ‘Poppy sounded scared of him and I wondered why.’

Poppy watched as her aunt and uncle exchanged looks.

‘Poppy was right,’ Aunt Sophie said. ‘No one from Starlight goes riding there, so don’t even think about it.’

Uncle Mark cleared his throat and shook his head when her aunt touched his arm.

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