Hot Potato Read Free Page B

luck with
your new pony, Lindsey Lu. She's a little ripper, that's
for sure!'
    Lindsey looked at Shelby with panic in her eyes.
Once he backed the truck down the driveway, the
chestnut mare would be in plain view of the window.
Shelby looked around. There was nothing in the
driveway to disguise the horse, not even a tree, and
the stables were at least thirty metres away.
    'You could run,' Shelby whispered.
    Lindsey shook her head. The mare was worked up
already. She might go silly and draw more attention to
herself.
    'I'll go and see what I can do,' Shelby said. It was
possible that she could distract Lindsey's mother's
attention away from the window.
    She sprinted across the driveway and bounded up
the steps into the office. 'Hi, Mrs E.'
    'So, did you girls buy any horses?' Lindsey's mum
asked, shuffling through papers on her desk.
    Shelby felt her face redden and her pulse race. Was
she joking? Had she seen out the window already?
What was the right answer?
    'Yep. Sure did,' Shelby improvised. 'Seven truckloads.
They should be here any minute.'
    'Good-o,' Mrs Edel said, and she looked back
down at her paperwork.
    Shelby waited for some further comment, but
when Mrs Edel didn't say anything more Shelby
assumed that it had been a joke.
    Through the window Shelby could see Lindsey
hauling at the lead rope and Erin waving her hands
behind the little pony trying to make her move
forward, but she was reluctant, taking dolly steps and
shying at each rock and fencepost.
    'Is there something else?' Lindsey's mum asked.
    'Nope. I'm . . .' She searched for an excuse. 'Just
enjoying the vibes.' She knew it was cheeky, but at
least she was being distracting.
    Against the wall there was a bookshelf full of
folders with handwritten spines – Accounts payable, Insurance forms, Agisters 001–049, Agisters 050–099. Shelby inspected them with her hands neatly crossed
behind her back.
    There were more folders on the desk. Shelby
wondered exactly how many horses lived on the
property. If there were more than one hundred
agisters, and some people, like Hayley Crook, had
more than one horse, then surely Ms Edel couldn't
remember them all? What was one little chestnut pony
amongst the rest?
    Mrs Edel put down her pen and raised an eyebrow.
'Are you girls up to something?'
    'No! I'd better go now.' Shelby walked out and
stood on the veranda. She saw a swish of tail as her
friends led the chestnut behind the feed shed.
    'I'll figure it out, you know,' came Mrs Edel's voice
from inside the office.
    Shelby ran through some possible responses in her
head. Good for you? Too cheeky. There's nothing to figure out? A lie. I know you will? Too close to the
truth. Instead Shelby said nothing at all.

4 Arabetha Bella or Bess
    The three girls perched on the top rail of the fence and
watched the pony. The wind had picked up, making
the tree boughs creak and lifting Shelby's hair from
her forehead.
    They had decided that the back spelling paddock
was the best place to keep the pony for now, even
though most of the horses were racehorses, or broodmares
– big thoroughbreds or standardbreds – so the
tiny mare with her fancy white legs stood out.
    It had taken them a while to coax her along the
laneway between the paddocks. She shied at everything,
but Shelby accepted that this was a new place
and she'd had a very scary day so far. Who knew
where she had been before, or what had happened
to her?
    At the sales, with all of those people crowded
around, she must have felt like a pack of wolves were
surrounding her, ready for the kill. She had no way of
understanding that they weren't going to hurt her.
    Now the mare was cantering up and down the
fence line and whinnying. The girls weren't so worried
about her making a fuss and drawing attention to
herself way out here. This paddock was seventy-five
acres with lots of trees and two huge dams. It was
criss-crossed with paths where Lindsey or Shelby led
the beginners on trail rides on the weekends.
    There was a