Phantom: One Last Chance Read Free Page B

another couple of weeks yet and school breaks up this Thursday, so if you changeyour mind,” Rosie said, “the offer’s there.”
    Neve smiled up at her fleetingly, before looking down again. Together they walked along the bridleway until it joined a lane, which curved around the outskirts of the village. They turned off onto a smaller lane which led to the duck pond and post office, then saw an elderly couple looking up anxiously from a garden gate. The girls recognised the man at once as Mr McCuthers, the local large-animal vet. He’d come to Blackberry Farm to look after Mr Honeycott’s sheep in the past and had checked out Scout when Alice had first taken him on loan. Mr McCuthers recognised the girls too and nodded to them.
    “Thanks for bringing me back,” Neve said quickly. “There are my grandparents.”
    She walked to the gate without looking back. The girls thought they had better leave her to it, but just as they were about to ride on, Dancer took Rosie by surprise, diving suddenly towards an evergreen bush in front of the house. Rosie tuggedon the reins, but Dancer stubbornly refused to move, and the Pony Detectives couldn’t help but overhear the conversation that had started between Neve and her grandparents.
    “You’ve been gone ages, and you forgot your phone,” the old woman, who they guessed was Neve’s nan, said. Her soft Irish accent was the same as Neve’s, and her face was etched with worry.
    “I got lost,” Neve explained. “Then I heard hoof beats and luckily I bumped into those guys and they brought me home.”
    “Well, it’s nice that you’ve made some friends,” Mr McCuthers said, looking uneasily at his wife. “They might even go to the same school you’re joining in the new year.”
    “I don’t need new friends – I’ve got lots back in Ireland, at my old school,” Neve said, her voice wobbling. “And I’ve told you already, I’m not staying here, I want to go home!” With that she turned and ran up the path into the cottage.Neve’s grandparents looked at each other and shook their heads.
    “Thanks for bringing Neve home,” Mr McCuthers said, forcing a smile as he and Mrs McCuthers said goodbye to the girls.
    “No problem,” Mia smiled. Dancer finally backed out of the hedge and the Pony Detectives turned along the lane to head out of the village. Charlie felt a weight upon her. She looked over her shoulder and saw Neve’s pale face pressed up against the bedroom window, her haunted eyes fixed on Phantom.

    “Aren’t you going to ride now we’ve dropped Neve off?” Alice asked.
    “My leg’s a bit too stiff,” Charlie said, not before catching the questioning look on Mia’s face.
    “It’d be easier to ride then, wouldn’t it?” Rosie asked. She’d been watching Charlie hobble fast tokeep up with the black horse, who she noticed was fretting again, now that they’d left the village.
    They turned off the lane back into the woods. Charlie felt as if her arms were being pulled out of their sockets each time Phantom shied and spooked along the path, and her fingers ached as he jerked and snatched at the reins.
    “Is there anything he’s not scared of?” Rosie asked, leaning down to hug Dancer. She felt grateful that her pony was too lazy to flap about most things, unlike Phantom, who had just leaped across the path ahead of them, again.
    Charlie didn’t answer. As she struggled to hold Phantom, she knew that right now, out of the two of them, it wasn’t the black horse who was the most scared.

Chapter Four
    BY the time they’d walked the ponies back, the afternoon light was fading fast. The air was feeling icier, and the darkening sky was completely free of cloud. Pirate rushed to the front of his stable and whickered, his ears pricked as he watched the other ponies spill into the yard. Charlie’s scratched cheek stung as she untacked and settled Phantom for the night in his warm rugs. She filled his haynet and cracked the thin layer of ice in