Fiona Cummings - Sleepover Girls on Horseback

“Yes, Lyndz, the horses were in the fields when it happened. And they’re all perfectly safe.”

“What about Mrs McAllister, is she all right?” asked Frankie.

“Yes, everyone is fine, thank goodness,” sighed Mrs Cartwright. “It could have been much worse. Just imagine what would have happened if the horses had been in the stables when the fire started.”

I didn’t want to imagine that. All I could think of was Marvel and Alfie and Bramble and all the other beautiful horses. What was going to happen to them now? It felt like the worst day of my life.

When Rosie’s mum had taken Adam upstairs for his bath, we went back into the kitchen. It was as though a huge grey blanket of sadness had been dropped on top of us. Nobody spoke for ages.

“There must be something we can do to help,” I said suddenly. I couldn’t bear the silence any longer and just thinking that we could be useful in some way made me feel a bit better. “Let’s go to the stables and see what we can do.”

“Shouldn’t we call Mrs McAllister first?” asked Fliss. “Maybe she won’t want anyone there.”

“Fliss is right,” agreed Frankie. “Why don’t you ring Mrs McAllister when you get home, Lyndz, and if she wants us to help, we’ll all come to the stables with you later in the week, won’t we?”

Everyone nodded. Everyone except Fliss.

“You’ll come and help too, won’t you, Fliss?” Frankie dug her hard in the ribs.

“Ouch! I suppose so. But I don’t want to go anywhere near the horses,” said Fliss, rubbing her side.

“OK, that’s agreed. You check things with Mrs McAllister, Lyndz. Then it’s the Sleepover Club to the rescue!” laughed Kenny and pretended to play a fanfare.

We all laughed too. It sounded like one of our silly jokes. Only this time it was real.

“Well, what did she say?” The others crowded round me when I got to school the next day.

“Who?” I pretended to look blank, but I couldn’t fool them.

“Mrs McAllister of course! Come on, Lyndz. Spill!” commanded Frankie.

“Mum rang her for me,” I admitted. “She thought that Mrs McAllister might be in a state of shock.”

Kenny’s eyes lit up at the thought of some medical-type complaint to deal with.

“And was she?” she asked eagerly.

“Nope, it sounded like she was very calm actually,” I said.

Kenny looked disappointed.

“When did the fire start?” asked Frankie, getting down to serious matters.

“Quite early in the morning. The horses were in the fields and Mrs McAllister had gone to check on them,” I explained. “She said that something caught her eye. She looked up and saw smoke coming from the stable block. She ran back to see what was happening, but when she got there, three of the stables had burnt completely and the roofs on the others were still burning. She called the fire brigade, grabbed the fire extinguishers, and put out what she could.”

“But what caused the fire to start in the first place?” asked Fliss.

“Mrs McAllister doesn’t know for sure. She thinks a delivery man must have dropped a cigarette,” I told them. “There are huge ‘No Smoking’ signs all around the stables – how could anyone be so careless?” I looked round and realised that for once I had everyone’s attention. And knowing the Sleepover Club you realise what a miracle that is. We usually all chatter at once.

“Do you think someone did it on purpose?” asked Kenny suddenly. “Someone might want to get rid of the riding school! Maybe the owner of a rival stables is trying to close down all the competition so everyone will have to go to them for riding lessons.”

Uh-oh! Kenny was on one of her fantasy trips again.

“Get real!” laughed Frankie. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we live in Cuddington, not Hollywood. Things like that don’t happen around here.”

The others started to laugh and tease Kenny.

“Hey, Lyndz, are you all right?” asked Rosie. “You’ve gone very quiet.”

I’d tried to be bright and happy and everything. But I kept thinking of something else that mum had said last night. She’d asked Mrs McAllister where the horses were being kept.

“On Mr Brocklehurst’s farm – for the moment,” she’d told her.

That was great news for me, because my brother, Stuart, helps out there. And the horses have always grazed in some of Mr Brocklehurst’s fields anyway.

“Aw, we could have had some of the horses to stay here in our garden!” I’d said. Wouldn’t that have been great? We’ve got a huge garden and I’d have looked after them ever so well.

“They might have to live in someone’s garden if what Mrs McAllister says is true,” Mum had told me. “She says that rebuilding the stables is going to cost thousands of pounds – she just doesn’t have that kind of money and only some of it is covered by insurance. She needs the horses settled before winter, so it looks like she might have to close down the riding school and sell the horses.”

I had been so upset that I’d hardly slept. And I nearly started crying when I told the others.

“But what about Adam?” Rosie blurted out. “He was upset enough about the fire. I don’t know how he’ll cope if he can’t ride any more.”

“Mrs McAllister’s going to carry on with her lessons for the moment,” I told her. “The practice ring wasn’t damaged and it’s right next to the farm so the horses can get there easily.”

“Are there any other stables nearby?” Fliss asked.

“None that do Riding for the Disabled,” Rosie said. “Mum’s already asked.”

“I don’t want to go to another stables. I want to go to that one!” I shouted. The others looked shocked. They’re not used to seeing me get upset. But then, nothing has ever threatened the horses before.

“OK, OK, calm down.” Frankie took control, as usual. “I’m sure there’s something we can do.”

But before we could come up with a plan, the bell went for the start of school.

“Right you lot, this is Operation Horseback!” shouted Frankie in her Sergeant-Major voice. “ Rendez-vous here at 10.30 hours (that means first break, dummies). And get your brains into gear for a plan of action. Right you ‘orrible lot. Quick march – left, right, left, right…” and we all marched into the classroom.

We would have marched right to our chairs, but Mrs Weaver gave us one of her looks. Sometimes she has no sense of humour. I think she must have had one of her headaches.

I tried to concentrate on my work but I couldn’t. I just had to think of a way to save Mrs McAllister’s riding school. Every time I looked across at Rosie she seemed to be deep in thought, too. Fliss was staring into space a lot, but I think that was just because she couldn’t understand the maths we were doing.

At first break we all met up in the playground.

“Any ideas?” asked Frankie.

We all shook our heads.

“If we were on one of those dumb TV programmes, we’d rebuild the stables ourselves!” she sighed. “But I can’t see us being much good at that.”

“It’s a pity they don’t have a Stable Building badge in Brownies. We could have done it for that!” laughed Kenny. She jumped on Frankie’s back and pretended to ride her round the playground.

“No horseplay, girls! Someone will get hurt!” shouted out Mrs Daniels.

Frankie had a fit of the giggles. “Horseplay!” she screamed. “Horseplay!”

She was laughing so much that Kenny couldn’t hold on and fell to the ground. But she was laughing too, so it didn’t matter.