Read Online Horse Sense by Bonnie Bryant - Free Book Online

seven or eight other students, watching Judy examine Delilah.
    “Lisa, can I talk to you?” Stevie asked. Lisa turned in surprise. “I can’t believe I forgot the meeting yesterday,” Stevie rushed on. “I mean, I was busy with the gymkhana stuff, but that didn’t mean I had to forget the Club meeting. I’m awfully sorry, especially since Carole told me she forgot, too. It was a terrible mistake, and I hope you can forget about it.”
    “It’s okay, Stevie,” Lisa said. “I just saw Carole, and she already told me how sorry you both were. It turned out all right anyway. Estelle was with me, so I wasn’t hanging around there by myself, you know?”
    Stevie felt an unbelievable rush of relief. From the second she’d realized what they’d done, she’d known how she would have felt if two friends had done that to her—and she knew that she wouldn’t have been at all nice about it the way Lisa was being. Sighing happily, she slung her arm across Lisa’s shoulder. “Thanks forunderstanding. How about a Club meeting at my house this afternoon after drill?”
    “That’d be great,” Lisa said.
    “Now, what’s going on here?” Stevie asked.
    “Judy’s examining Delilah. Carole’s helping her.”
    Stevie stood on tiptoe to see. Carole was holding Delilah’s halter while Judy felt around the horse’s large belly. It was hard to believe, Stevie thought, that there really was another whole life growing inside the mare. And it wouldn’t be long now before they’d all see it.
    “Everything looks fine here,” Judy said. Everybody seemed relieved, though there had never been any indication that anything was wrong. “And I still think we’re on schedule for a delivery in a couple of weeks. This gal’s not rushing into anything!” The girls all laughed. “But I’d better go now. I got a call on the way over here—”
    “Judy!” Estelle called from the fringe of the group. “Before you go, could you take a look at Nero? He has been misbehaving terribly.”
    Judy glanced up at Estelle. “Old Nero? What’s his trouble? Max didn’t say anything to me—”
    “Well, I didn’t have time to tell him yet,” Estelle explained.
    “Sure, I’ll look at him now,” Judy agreed. “Describe his symptoms to me, will you?” While Judy packed her medical bag, Estelle explained the problems the horse had given her.
    “Sounds like he’s just cranky,” Judy said.
    “
Le mot juste!
” Estelle declared. Then she blushed, realizing nobody had understood her. “Excuse my French,” she said. “It means that that is just exactly the right word.”
    Judy picked up her bag and followed Estelle to Nero’s stall.
    Stevie and a couple of the other girls tried to stifle giggles. They’d seen Estelle riding, and they knew it wasn’t Nero who had the problem.
Le mot juste
was
phony
, Stevie thought.
    Living near Washington meant that there were a lot of diplomats’ children of all nationalities around. Stevie usually found them interesting and fun. Estelle was definitely an exception to that, though. Stevie didn’t believe a word of her fantastic stories, and the idea that she’d been riding for a long time was just laughable.
    Stevie looked for Lisa to continue their talk, but, much to her surprise, Lisa was following Estelle and Judy to Nero’s stall.
    Now, what’s that about?
Stevie asked herself. Shrugging for lack of an answer, Stevie headed for Nickel’s stall. Carole was still busy with Delilah, and besides, she had a full hour at lunch to work on a game with a baton. A baton couldn’t frighten a pony, could it?
    “Hi, boy!” Stevie greeted Nickel cheerfully. Slowly, she pulled the baton out of her bag and showed it to the horse. Without hesitating, he reached for the white rubber tip of the baton and bit. Hard.
    T WENTY MINUTES LATER , Lisa and Estelle sat together near the paddocks, eating their lunches.
    “Gee, I’m glad to know Nero’s okay,” Lisa said. “When a horse gets sick, it can be