Alice-Miranda to the Rescue by Jacqueline Harvey Read Free Book Online Page A

around as if he were on ice skates, charging at the stall door and almost knocking his owner for six.
    Alice-Miranda jumped back. ‘Hey, watch out! I haven’t got it yet. And please stop biting old ladies, you naughty boy. Mrs Howard is very upset with you. She told me what you did yesterday, almost taking her fingers off when she was just trying to give you a treat.’
    Bonaparte stamped his foot and whinnied loudly, shaking his head up and down.
    Alice-Miranda walked to the feed room, where Millie had already mixed up two small buckets of oats and bran. The child pulled the lid off the molasses container and drizzled a small amount on top of each.
    â€˜Sounds like someone’s hungry,’ Millie said. She smiled and picked up Chops’s breakfast.
    Alice-Miranda followed her with Bony’s. She put it on the ground and opened the stable door. Bonaparte pushed and shoved, trying to get his head into the container. ‘Stop that!’ Alice-Miranda commanded. ‘Go and stand back there or I’ll walk straight out of here and give your breakfast to Buttercup.’
    Susannah’s pony was in the stall next door and whinnied when she heard her name.
    â€˜You’d think he hadn’t been fed for a week,’ Millie said as she filled Chops’s feed bin. Her pony stood quietly in the stall on the other side, watching her like a perfect gentleman.
    Bonaparte turned around and walked to the back of the stable, sticking his nose in the corner.
    Alice-Miranda chuckled. ‘You are such a sook.’
    Millie closed Chops’s stall door and poked her head around to see what the little black beast was up to. ‘He’s sulking.’
    â€˜You can’t stand being told off, can you, Bony?’ Alice-Miranda said.
    The pony promptly lifted his tail, trumpeted loudly and filled the air with the most noxious smell.
    â€˜Oh, pooh!’ Millie sputtered. ‘You stink!’
    Alice-Miranda chortled and gave him a playful smack on the bottom. ‘When are you ever going to learn to behave yourself?’
    Bonaparte turned his head around and bared his teeth.
    â€˜Did you see that?’ Alice-Miranda exclaimed. She finished pouring the contents of the bucket into the feed bin. ‘You can come and get it now.’
    Bonaparte turned his head and eyed her warily.
    â€˜Come on,’ she said. ‘Stop that nonsense. You know it doesn’t work on me, mister.’
    Bonaparte whinnied and wheeled around. He rubbed his chin on the top of Alice-Miranda’s curls and then licked her cheek.
    â€˜Oh, just what I love first thing in the morning – horse slobber.’ She kissed the tip of his nose and walked out of the stall, taking care to lock it behind her. She and Millie walked back to the feed room to return the buckets. Suddenly, they heard a loud thump.
    â€˜Whoever’s kicking their stall had better stop that right now or Mr Charles will be very cross,’ Alice-Miranda called out.
    Millie handed Alice-Miranda her bucket and headed into the main part of the stable, her eyes darting from stall to stall. As far as she could tell, all of the horses were standing quietly. ‘I don’t think it was any of them,’ she called back to Alice-Miranda, who finished tidying the feed room and walked out to join her friend.
    There was another loud whump , followed by the rush of running water.
    Millie glanced up. ‘It sounds like it’s coming from the flat.’
    â€˜It’s probably one of the stable cats, chasing mice,’ Alice-Miranda said.
    â€˜What? Then drowning them?’ Millie giggled.
    Alice-Miranda spotted the stable clock and gasped. ‘Gosh, look at the time.’
    â€˜I’m in enough trouble this week without being late for breakfast,’ Millie said as they charged outside into the sunshine.
    The girls hurried down the roadway to the boarding house. As they reached the garden gate, Alice-Miranda was surprised to