Blaze and the Dark Rider. Stacy Gregg
“I was three. Mum took me out hunting before I had even turned six.” Morgan rolled her eyes dramatically. “Mum thinks I should be the youngest ever rider to win Badminton. She says she expects me to do it by the time I am eighteen years and 246 days old—since Richard Walker was eighteen years and 247 days old when he won it on Pasha in 1969!”
Issie sighed. “Oh, I wish Araminta Chatswood-Smith was my mother! My mum thinks Badminton is a game you play with a shuttlecock and a racket.”
Morgan laughed at this.
“Do you want to come and meet Kate and Stella?” Issie offered.
Morgan nodded and the two girls were about to leave when another voice called Morgan’s name. “There you are! What are you doing? Why aren’t you warming up?” Araminta Chatswood-Smith demanded as she strode purposefully towards them.
“There are only three more riders before it’s your turn,” Araminta said. “You should be at the practice fence giving Black Jack a bit of last-minute schooling.”
“Sorry, Mum,” Morgan sighed.
“Well, let’s go then,” Araminta said, turning on her heels and marching off towards the jumps. She looked back over her shoulder. “I mean now, Morgan!”
Morgan shrugged, waved goodbye to Issie and gave her a smile as she trotted off after her mother.
Issie watched as Araminta schooled her daughter over the two low practice fences, back and forth again and again. She looked very serious as she called Morgan to her, making gestures and gripping Morgan’s hands in her own to adjust their position on Black Jack’s reins. Issie could hear her saying, “Half-halt…then leg on…try to keep your head in the game this time, Morgan!”
By the time it was Morgan’s turn to ride the showjumping course she looked tense in the saddle. Her face looked even paler than usual as she entered the ring.
At the first jump, Morgan rode hard at the fence. “Get up!” she shouted in a frightened voice at Jack as they approached for the final stride. But the little black gelding stopped dead in his tracks, and Morgan flew forward out of the saddle and on to his neck. She scrabbled back down and got her seat back, turning Black Jack and riding at the first fence again. This time she shouted more firmly, and he leapt with a snort and cleared it easily. She finished the round with four jumping faults and a very slow time.
It was enough to put her well out of the running. By the time the riders had all been through the course, there would be eleven clear rounds in total that day. With so many clear rounds, only the riders with the best times on the clock stood a chance of receiving points.
“Well, that rules me out!” Kate said grumpily. She was still grouchy with Toby, who had got a bee in his bonnet about something at the third fence and refused twice.
It was no surprise to anyone when Dan, Ben and Stella managed to come out on top as the three fastest riders on the day.
“I told you we’d been having extra practice.” Ben grinned as he and Max scooped up two more points.
“It’s all right for you,” Stella groaned at him, “you came second. Now you’re bound to have made the team.”
“Oh, Stella! You’ll get in. You got third and you did brilliantly at the games,” Kate tried to reassure her.
But Stella shook her head. “Don’t! I don’t want to jinx it. Avery said he would be posting the final team lineup at the end of the day. Let’s not talk about it until then!”
“Stellas right. There’s nothing we can do now so let’s go and have afternoon tea,” Issie suggested. “Meet you back at the picnic blanket?”
The girls all agreed that this was a good idea and they decided to ask Morgan too—after Issie told them the story of what happened with Natasha.
But when Issie rode over to ask Morgan to come and join them, Araminta couldn’t have been less enthusiastic. “I hope you don’t mind, Isadora, but I’d prefer to give Morgan a bit of extra schooling after Black Jack’s performance in the ring today,” she replied coolly.
“Oh, Mum, we’re all done for the day! Can’t I just go and unsaddle and get a drink and hang out with Issie and her friends?” Morgan pleaded.
Araminta fixed her with a steely glare. “I think you need to work on your position, Morgan. There was no excuse for that refusal.” She turned to look at Issie and her frown unfurrowed a little. “I’m sorry, Isadora,” she said, “Morgan is busy for the rest of the day. That is final.”
“Wow. It sounds like Araminta is pretty tough on Morgan,” Stella said as Issie told her what had happened. They were lying on the tartan rug and munching the bacon and egg pie and some more sponge cake that clever Mrs Brown had kept back from lunch.
“Araminta is super-competitive. I guess she really wants Morgan to win.” Issie shrugged.
Still, Issie knew what Stella meant. Poor Morgan had looked so desperate to go and hang out with Issie and her friends instead of training for a change.
While Issie and Stella had been lying on the picnic blanket finishing off the bacon and egg pie, Kate had been in the clubroom. She emerged, running towards them with a piece of paper gripped tightly in her right hand.
“Ohmygod!” she said. “You are not going to believe it.” Her face was stiff and miserable.
“What?” Issie and Stella cried out together.
“I’ve got the team list results,” Kate said. She looked deadly serious now. “And, well…they’re terrible. None of us have made the team.”
Stella’s horror at being left out of the team quickly turned to anger. “What? I can’t believe it!” she squawked. “I have ridden better today than I ever did in my life! I won all the games! I have loads of points!” Her cheeks flushed hot pink against her red curls. “Issie? I can’t believe it! Issie?”
She looked at Issie, who had a smirk on her face, and then back at Kate, who, incredibly, was also smiling.
“I can’t believe you fell for it!” Kate laughed. “Of course you made the team, Stella! We all made it!”
Stella gaped open-mouthed like a goldfish at her friends and her eyes grew wide with disbelief as it dawned on her that the whole thing had been a trick.
Then she sputtered and gasped and finally broke out into a huge grin too, and the girls all hugged and squealed, falling down finally on to the picnic blanket with a case of hysterical giggles. Kate opened up the team list and they all sat there and looked at it for ages just to make sure that it was really true. There it was in black and white. They had made the team.
There were eight names on the list. It read in alphabetical order, which meant, Issie noted proudly, that her name came first.
Chevalier Point Interclub Gold Shield Team:
Isadora Brown
Dan Halliday
Kate Knight
Ben MacIntosh
Stella Tarrant
Annabel Willets
Reserves:
Morgan Chatswood-Smith
Natasha Tucker
“Do Dan and Ben know that they’ve made the team too?” Stella said.
She