Bridle Path by Bonnie Bryant Page A

problem before with her horse,” Carole said to Dorothy. “She even asked Nigel to look at it. They couldn’t find anything wrong with him.”
    “Maybe he’s just in a bad mood,” Dorothy said. “That happens. Every horse has good days and bad days. This is clearly a bad one for Elementary.”
    “Is she going to be okay?” Stevie asked.
    “Oh, sure,” Dorothy said. “Looks like she dislocated her arm. She’ll be better soon. It hurts like crazy, especially when they get a couple of strong guys to hold you and put the joint back where it belongs, but she’ll be as good as new and back in the saddle in a couple of weeks or a …”
    Dorothy’s voice trailed off.
    “Oh, no! I’ve got to see Nigel!” she said. Without another word, she stood up and left the seats.
    The Pine Hollow riders looked at one another.
    “I guess that’s what it’s like when you’re engaged,” Stevie said philosophically. “When you’ve got to see the man you love, there’s just no stopping you.”
    The girls smiled. It did seem so romantic—if a little bit odd.
    A few minutes later, the public-address system announced that Camilla Wentworth had, in fact, dislocatedher shoulder and been taken to the hospital, where she was expected to recover completely. That sounded like good news.
    When the last of the competitors had finished the course, it turned out that Nigel had taken third place. That meant that he’d won a nice prize that would no doubt help to pay for the couple’s honeymoon.
    The Saddle Club was disappointed that they didn’t get to see Nigel and Dorothy again, but it was late, there was a lot of work to do for tomorrow, and Max was ready to take them all back to Stevie’s.
    “You’ll see Dorothy and Nigel tomorrow,” Max reminded them.
    That also reminded them about their wonderful surprise for Max. It was going to be quite an April Fools’ Day!

T HREE VERY SLEEPY riders arrived at Pine Hollow the following morning at six-thirty. Stevie had kept the girls up until very late the night (morning!) before, and it had been quite a struggle to get out of bed in the morning. Lisa wasn’t sure she could remember having gone to bed at all. Carole could remember it. She remembered it so well that she wasn’t sure she’d actually ever gotten up!
    They each carried a bag of flowers, which they took into the tack room where they were going to work. They’d finished making crowns for the bridal party and a bouquet for the “bride’s” rider. All they had left to do was to make the grape arbor into a bower. Steviecalled it the “bridal path,” and the girls liked the pun. It was one of the few things that they liked that early in the morning.
    “Come on, let’s get this stuff inside. Max and Mrs. Reg won’t be here for another half an hour, so we’ve got time to assemble the floral bower. Then they’ll be too busy with the weekend riders to notice what we’re up to until Horse Wise starts at ten, right?”
    “Of course you’re right,” Lisa said drowsily. It seemed easier than trying to think about how anything might go wrong.
    They worked in rare silence for half an hour, chaining the flowers together. Then, as each chain got long enough, two of the girls carried it out to the arbor and put it across the top. Tired as they all were, the girls had to admit that it looked fabulous. It was hard to keep from smiling when something was going to look so pretty—especially when it was finished. There was still plenty of work to do.
    The tack room was around the corner from Mrs. Reg’s office—out of her sight, but close enough so that the girls would know when Mrs. Reg got there. That was an important thing to know, because Mrs. Reg was amazing in several respects, one of which was that she always knew everything that was going on in her stable. No matter how secretive the girls tried to be, ifthey were still weaving flowers when Mrs. Reg arrived, they were convinced that she’d know it.
    An hour and a half