Snow Ride by Bonnie Bryant Page A

the job at Sugarbush. She knows her stuff, but it’s like she almost doesn’t care.”
    Stevie thought about the Jodi that Dinah admired so much. It seemed hard to think that Dinah’s Jodi was the same person Betsy was describing. How could somebody who didn’t care about horses be so worried about Dinah and about keeping her job?
    “Aren’t you being a little hard on your sister?” Stevie asked.
    Betsy shrugged.
    Stevie picked up a handful of snow and automatically began shaping it into a snowball. She didn’t intend to throw it, however. That wouldn’t have felt right in this magical place. She merely tossed it from hand to hand. “What about your parents?” she asked. “Do they ride?”
    “They’re trying to become riders,” Betsy answered. “One night at dinner last fall Dad announced that because Jodi and I were spending so much time at Sugarbush, he and Mom had figured that the only way they’d get to see us was if they started spending time there as well. They signed up for a bunch of classes and they ride regularly. Dad says he’s going to take a jump class this summer. Isn’t that neat?”
    “Definitely,” Stevie agreed. Stevie’s feeling about horseback riding was that it was so much fun that nobody should miss out on it. She wouldn’t have minded at all if her parents had decided to take it up—as long as they weren’t in her class and didn’t try to tag along on her fun with Carole and Lisa.
    “Is your mother good, too?” Stevie asked.
    “She mostly likes to go on trail rides. Fortunately there are zillions of trails through the woods here, so she doesn’t get bored.”
    “Oh, I know there are,” Stevie said.
    “You do? How?” Betsy asked.
    “Well, Dinah and I—” Stevie stopped short. Betsy didn’t know about Dinah’s accident. She also didn’tknow that Stevie and Dinah had been on a trail at the time. Nobody knew that. Nobody
could
know that. “—Dinah and I were talking about them last night. She told me there were zillions. I wish I could go on some of them, too.”
    “Too bad you can’t,” Betsy said. “That’s the one drawback of the sugaring off. Mr Daviet won’t let anybody ride on the trails. By the end of the week, he’ll relent a little. He usually takes a couple of riders out on a trail ride or two, but don’t count on it. For now, he’s too busy at the Sugar Hut anyway.”
    Stevie sighed silently to herself. She’d come close to giving away the secret, but she hadn’t. She didn’t think Betsy even suspected.
    Betsy told her they should be getting back. If they worked quickly, they’d have time for one more run on the mountain before they had to go home. Very carefully Stevie took the ball of snow she’d been shaping, formed it back into a flat piece of snow, and put it back approximately where she’d found it. It didn’t look exactly undisturbed, but it was the best way Stevie had of leaving the magical cathedral close to the way she’d found it. She wanted to find it that way when she returned, and she promised herself she would, someday.
    *
    “S KIING IS WONDERFUL !” Stevie announced to Dinah when she returned to the Slatterys later that day. “Oh, I wish you could have been there. It was such fun!”
    “Did Betsy show you the castle?”
    Stevie grinned and nodded. “Is that what you call it? I couldn’t decide between a castle and a cathedral.”
    “Well, the throne …”
    They took some time to decide which it was. In the end they concluded that it was a cathedral in a castle that had thrones for the reigning royals. Even more important, they decided they would go together someday soon.
    “Your mother told me you wouldn’t eat anything. She’s getting worried about your stomachache. But how
are
you doing?” Stevie asked, noting with some disappointment that Dinah was still in bed.
    “More or less okay,” she said. “Fortunately, I’ve managed to keep my mother from noticing my face, but everything really