Autumn with Horses (White Cloud Station, #6) by Trudy Nicholson

Author:Trudy Nicholson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: horse riding, wild horses, equestrian, horse series, horse shows, showing, champion horses, pony club, trekking
Publisher: Horsecrest Press
Published: 2015-03-27T00:00:00+00:00

11. A Wrong Turn

Alexa couldn’t believe her eyes when she reached the end of the road. ‘Weird. It only turns to the right.’

‘No way!’ Suzy sighed heavily and slumped in the saddle. ‘Great, that will take us back into the hills behind White Cloud Station. That’s the opposite direction to where we should be heading.’ She frowned at Alexa.

‘Hmm, this kind of confuses things,’ Alexa sighed. ‘Stand, Liqui, we need to check out this map again.’

‘Well?’ Suzy queried. ‘What now?’

Alexa threw the reins onto Liquorice’s wither and reached into her pocket for the map. ‘Um, well, we should now be turning left along Winding River Road according to this, but as there is no left here . . . Hang on, I’ll ride up and see what the sign says that points to the right.’ She rode Liqui ahead to the sign. ‘It says Winding River Road North,’ she called back. She trotted back and pulled Liquorice up beside Ripple.

Lucy shook her head, confusion on her face.

Suzy grabbed the map from Alexa’s hand. ‘Alexa! Duh!’ she said. ‘We should be on Winding River Road South, not North!’

‘Oh my gosh!’ shrieked Alexa. ‘Now this really confuses things.’

Lucy sighed. ‘So, what do we do now? Do we go north or backtrack to where we came from?’ There was silence. Lucy continued, ‘How embarrassing . . . we’re lost and it’s not even supposed to be that difficult.’

Alexa frowned. ‘Well, we followed the dumb map!’

‘No, Alexa, we didn’t. Look here, it says shades of amber and a windmill and an old settlers’ hut. You didn’t say anything about a windmill or a hut. It also says Carruthers Road will be clearly signposted. We’ve gone down the wrong road. You should have read the rest of the information.’ Suzy was clearly annoyed.

‘Should we just turn back?’ Lucy asked. ‘It’s obvious we turned up a road too early.’

Suzy turned and looked back in the direction they had come from. ‘Doesn’t look like we’ve got much choice. There’s no way we’re going up Winding River Road North!’

‘Well, that’s ruined our chances of getting first place,’ Lucy grumbled. ‘Each day’s points add up. I had a feeling we shouldn’t have gone up that road with no name. I just hope we don’t get lost again.’

Alexa turned her horse, ‘We won’t! Suzy, you can do the map-reading from now on,’ she pouted. ‘Seeing that I’m so useless at it.’

Suzy and Lucy rolled their eyes at each other. They didn’t have the time or the energy for Alexa’s moodiness right now.

***

The last of the sun’s rays were disappearing behind the mountains and, as if a shade had been pulled, an instant nip was in the air. The breeze now turned to a strong southerly. The horses’ ears pinned back, their manes and tails blowing as they walked into the drizzle.

‘Well, all I can say is it’s getting blimmin’ cold,’ Suzy stated, zipping up her jacket. ‘I’m worried that we’ve mucked this up. How embarrassing if we’re lost.’ She continued, ‘Oh look, I can see some gold and red trees up ahead.

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