Gift Horse Read Free Page B

watched, speechless, as the girl quietly let herself out of the stall, closing the door carefully behind her. She hurried away down the aisle without another word.
    As soon as the stranger disappeared around a corner, Stevie opened the door and entered the stall. The vision of her horse nuzzling the strange girl was stamped on her mind. “Sorry about that, No-Name,” Stevie murmured. She reached out to hug the horse, and felt No-Name’s soft nose on her hair. It was obvious that the mare was happy to see her. But she’d seemed happy to see the other girl, too, and that bothered Stevie.
    Maybe she just mistook that girl for me, Stevie thought. She nodded a little to herself, sure that that had to be the explanation.
    “What’s going on?” Phil asked. “Why does that girl think No-Name is her horse?”
    “What’s taking you guys so long?” Carole interrupted. “We’re almost ready to go. Where’s Stevie?”
    “Something weird just happened,” Phil replied.
    Stevie stuck her head out over the half door. “I’m in here,” she called to her friend. “And Phil’s right. Something very weird just happened.”
    Carole picked up No-Name’s grooming bucket and let herself into the stall with Stevie. “Well, tell me about it while we get her ready to go,” she suggested. “Max is itching to get back.”
    “I’d better take off,” Phil said. “My teammates might think I’m some kind of traitor if they catch me here helping the competition.” He took a few steps, then paused and looked back. “Even if you guys weren’t much competition for us today,” he added teasingly. He hurried away.
    Ordinarily that would have brought a strong and immediate reaction from Stevie. But today she didn’t even seem to hear Phil’s remark.
    Carole watched her friend with concern.
    “What’s wrong?” she asked.
    Stevie described the encounter with the strange girl. “And then she said No-Name was her horse, and she hugged her,” Stevie finished. “And No-Name let her do it.”
    Carole picked up a brush to give No-Name a quickonce-over. “Is that all?” she said. “I’m sure that girl was mistaken. A lot of bays look alike.”
    Stevie raised her eyebrows. “Like this?” she said, pointing at No-Name. A white marking shaped like an upside-down exclamation point ran down the mare’s face to her nose. Her two left legs were white to the knee, while the socks on her right legs extended only to her fetlocks.
    Carole shrugged. “Why not?” she replied.
    It wasn’t much of an answer, but it made Stevie feel better. “I guess you’re right,” she said. “That girl must be imagining things.”
    Carole nodded. “Well, I don’t want to try to imagine what Max will say to us if we don’t get
this
girl loaded up pretty soon,” she cautioned. Max was not famous for his patience.
    But having decided to forget about the mysterious blond girl, Stevie had just remembered something else. “Can you believe that Phil?” she demanded as she opened the stall door and led No-Name out.
    “What?” Carole asked, a little surprised as always by the speed with which Stevie’s mind could switch topics. She grabbed No-Name’s grooming bucket and joined Stevie by the mare’s head. “What did Phil do?”
    “Didn’t you hear that crack he made about Horse Wise not being much competition?” Stevie reminded her. She shook her head angrily. “After all, the scores were prettydarn close. And didn’t the younger team come in first place? I suppose that means nothing, hmm?”
    Carole held back a smile. This sounded more like her friend. “I think he was just kidding, Stevie,” she said, trying to sound tactful.
    Stevie smiled grimly. “Well, we’ll see who has the last laugh next weekend,” she said. “With another whole week of practice, No-Name and I will be unbeatable.”
    The mare suddenly shook her head and snorted, as if in response to Stevie’s comment. Carole shook her head, too. She had a feeling it was going