The Fox Hunt by Bonnie Bryant

Author:Bonnie Bryant [Bryant, Bonnie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-82503-2
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2012-12-19T05:00:00+00:00

LISA WAS BUSY grooming Diablo inside his stall when the door slid open. The horse had gotten his coat very dirty in the course of the mock hunt, and there was a lot of work to do. She didn’t want to be distracted from her work, but when she saw it was Carole, she relaxed. Carole entered and closed the door quietly behind her.

“We’ve got to do something,” Carole said.

When the subject was horses, Carole was always as sharp as could be. When the subject was anything else, she had a tendency to be a bit flaky, and she didn’t always make herself clear. Right then, Lisa didn’t have any idea what she was talking about. She said so.

“It’s Stevie,” Carole said. “Not only is she in trouble with her brothers, but she’s gotten Veronica even madder at her. The girl’s in trouble, big trouble, and she can’t even admit it!”

Automatically Carole picked up a brush and began working on Diablo’s coat. There was always so much work to be done around horses that all of Max’s riders learned that if they wanted to talk, they’d have to do so as they worked.

“I was thinking,” Carole went on, “that we should find a way to make up to the Lake boys so that they’ll think it’s Stevie apologizing to them.”

“They’d never buy it,” Lisa said, gently tugging the mane comb through Diablo’s thick black mane. “Anybody who knows Stevie knows that the one thing she can’t ever do is admit that she was wrong. They’ll think it’s some sort of hoax. No way.”

“Then what?”

Lisa crinkled her brow. The person who was the best at figuring this sort of thing out was Stevie, and she was the one person they couldn’t turn to. That meant they’d have to use their own strengths.

“Why don’t we just talk to them?” Lisa suggested.

“Talk?” That wasn’t what Carole had in mind at all.

“Yeah, talk. Maybe we can get them to agree to meet us somewhere and we can talk, you know, like lay our cards on the table.”

“Won’t that just let them know how worried we are and make them even more interested in getting back at Stevie?”

“Maybe,” Lisa conceded. “However, it might also give us an idea of how serious they are at revenge—if we can read them right. The real question is, can it hurt? I don’t think so.”

“I don’t know,” Carole said. She exchanged the brush for a cloth and began rubbing Diablo’s coat, bringing out a deep sheen. Lisa switched to his tail. The horse didn’t flinch. He obviously loved the attention.

“I’ll call them now,” Lisa said. “Mrs. Reg isn’t in her office. I’ll use that phone.”

“What about Stevie? Won’t she overhear?” Carole asked.

“I don’t think so. The last time I saw her, she was helping Phil load his horse onto a van, and he was talking about asking her to walk him over the path she’d taken this morning as the fox.”

“Why would he want to walk all that distance in the woods?” Carole asked.

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