Flying Horse by Bonnie Bryant Read Free Book Online Page A

butterflies in their stomachs before any kind of exhibition or show.
    Stevie’s line of thought was different. Immediately she tried to apply what Nigel had said to her situation with Belle. Did that mean it was okay that she was upset, because it meant she cared about Belle’s doing well? At first Stevie felt better about herself. But then she realized that Nigel probably didn’t get nervous when he was schooling his horses. He only gets nervous for shows—for big classes, she told herself, soshould I be this upset with Belle, when Belle is just learning? But Belle wouldn’t behave! She ought to be doing a flying change!
    “Stevie,” Carole said. “Come back. You’re miles away.”
    Stevie blinked and smiled at her friend. “Sorry.” She didn’t explain what she was thinking about, and Carole didn’t ask. From the anxious look on Stevie’s face, Carole was pretty sure that Stevie had been worrying about Belle.
    “Well,” said Mrs. DeSoto, “judging by the way you all polished off those scones, I’d say the first tea at the DeSoto Inn has been a success. What you think, girls? Ready to see the rest of the inn?”
    “We’ll help you clean this up first,” Lisa said quickly. She hadn’t forgotten that the reason they were all there was to work. She picked up the teapot; Stevie stacked the empty dishes on the tray, and they all followed Mrs. DeSoto into the kitchen.
    The big sunny room was their first surprise. The dining room still needed paint, wallpaper, and furniture, but the kitchen was completely done. It was wallpapered in a pale flowered print with a border of roses along the ceiling that complemented the roses on the fence outdoors. The white wooden floor shone. White chairs surrounded a big wooden table, and the institutional-size stove and refrigerator gleamed. The fenceand a tangled garden were visible through a side window, and in the back a large plate glass window looked directly out onto the bay.
    “Oh!” said Carole. “How beautiful!” She went to the window. A handful of fishing boats bobbed on the water, and birds skittered across the short strip of sand at the water’s edge.
    “Yes, we’re directly on the bay,” Mrs. DeSoto told her. “Only twenty inches above sea level. A little later you girls can go exploring. There’s a more substantial beach in several places around the island—you can walk to lots of it. Chincoteague’s only seven miles long, and a little over one mile wide at its widest.”
    Carole, Lisa, and Stevie stacked the dishes in the dishwasher and put away the butter and jam. Dorothy came in, followed by Denise and Mrs. Reg.
    “Why don’t I take you on the grand tour,” Dorothy suggested. “I asked Nigel to take your suitcases up to your rooms. Fortunately, as Mom said, we do have three finished rooms. Eventually there will be seven—you can see how much work we still have to do.”
    Dorothy walked them back through the dining room, then showed them the sunroom and side porch. On the other side of the big staircase in the entryway was a room with a glass-fronted fireplace and rows of windows across the back. “This will be the parlor,” Dorothy explained. “Mom’s bought some real antiquesand some new furniture that looks antique, and it will all be shipped just as soon as the rooms are ready.”
    Stevie scuffed at a pile of sawdust on the floor. “Looks like that might be a while. This room needs wallpaper, paint, and a good sweeping.”
    “You’d be surprised what a little hard work will do,” Dorothy said. “Last week this room still had cobwebs, awful old wallpaper, a broken windowpane, and about seventeen coats of ugly varnish on that wood floor. There’s still a lot of work to do, but it’s coming along fast.”
    Dorothy led the girls to the small downstairs suite where Mrs. DeSoto would live. It was already clean and comfortable.
    “It’s pretty small compared to her town house in New York,” Lisa said, looking around the two rooms.