For Sale or Swap - Alyssa Brugman [31]
'I want to place an ad in the magazine – like the Mulligans did. I suppose that's all I can do.'
Her father glanced over. 'I think you're taking it rather well.'
Shelby shook her head. 'At first it was really hard. I made myself feel better by thinking that I would see him again in two weeks. That's how I got through the first little bit. When I realised Brat was stolen, I kept having these visions that Blue was hurt somewhere. It made me want to throw up. I hope someone will see the ad.' Shelby shrugged. 'They might not know that he's stolen.'
She bit her lip and tried to swallow around the lump in her throat. 'I guess I'm just trying to make myself believe that he's gone to a good home. I hope they will be kind to him because he's such a hard little worker.'
Her father turned off the main road and they started to drive through horse country on the other side of the gully. There were so many horses here – most with their noses down in the grass, swishing their tails. She would never find Blue. There must be thousands of horses in this valley alone. Where could she even begin to look?
'I'm going to tell you something, Shel,' her father said. 'I've always found that things generally turn out for the best. It mightn't seem like it now, and it might take a little while, but it'll be OK.'
He reached over and squeezed her hand. 'I'm really proud of you. You've made some mistakes – so does everybody – but you're handling them. You're becoming quite independent.'
Shelby smiled. 'Thanks, Dad.'
Her father pulled up outside the stables, promising to come back in half an hour. Shelby walked along the gravel driveway listening to the skittling of loose pebbles under her feet.
Some of the girls were clustered around Miss Anita. A group of younger kids were jumping in the practice arena. Some people were grooming their horses in the yards. Other horses were unattended – dozing and stamping at flies.
Nobody paid much attention to Shelby as she walked in. She was surprised. She expected that everybody would point and whisper to each other, There's that girl with the stolen horse.
She saw Lindsey marching along the laneway between the stables with a wheelbarrow. Lindsey's mouth twitched in a smile.
'How are you today?' asked Shelby.
'You know how it is,' Lindsey replied. 'So much poo, so little time.'
Shelby climbed between the rails of the Crooks' yard and towards Scamp's stable. The bottom half of the door was closed. She leaned on her elbows, peering in and blinking against the gloom. Brat was standing in the back corner eating from a hay net. She stood on her three good legs and leaned the toe of the hurt one on the stable floor. She pricked her ears when she saw Shelby.
It was worse than she had thought. The whole of the side of Brat was a dusty white. Mrs Crook must have washed her for hours to get the dye out. Her mane was still mostly brown but Shelby could see little curlicues of wood shavings from the stable floor in it. Shelby rubbed her forehead.
She heard a voice behind her. 'Have you been here long?' It was Mrs Crook. She stood in the yard in her gumboots, with her hands on her hips. Shelby searched her face for signs of anger or mistrust.
'I just got here.'
'How are you feeling this morning?' she asked.
'I'm OK.'
'I can't tell you how pleased we all were to see you running along that road yesterday afternoon. I was sure you had come off and cracked your head. We came pretty close to calling in the rescue helicopter.'
'Really?' asked Shelby, her eyes widening.
Mrs Crook nodded. 'What happened? Did you come off?'
'No, I was leading her and she got spooked and slipped away from me,' Shelby explained.
'Were you hurt?'
'Just a few blisters.'
Mrs Crook stepped forward and joined her at the gate. 'She looks a fright, doesn't she?'
Shelby looked down at her feet, embarrassed.
'I meant to give her a bit of a rub-down last night, but I needed to feed Echo and Ditto, and then the vet