Nightmare by Bonnie Bryant Read Free Book Online Page B

crosses a state line is tested. For example, Pine Hollow horses are tested yearly—more often if they’regoing to shows. As soon as there is any sign of the disease, the stable is quarantined. That means no horses can come or go or be anywhere with any other horse from other stables until the quarantine is lifted.”
    “How long does that take? Until we get the results of the blood tests?” asked Carole.
    “No, we’ll have the results of the first set of tests in a couple of days. But since the incubation period of the disease can be as long as forty-five days, Pine Hollow will be quarantined for the full forty-five days.”
    Carole was horrified. Was she going to be separated from Starlight? “You mean nobody can be here for a month and a half?”
    “No, that’s not what it means. You can come here and you can ride. You can take lessons, go on short trail rides, whatever you want, as long as you stay on Pine Hollow property. What you can’t do is take the horses off the property or have any other horses visit. The only protection quarantine gives is for horses outside the infected area. It’s intended to contain the disease within a single horse population—in this case all the horses and ponies at Pine Hollow and Hedgerow Farms. And the quarantine is really very conservative. Most horses that have been infected will test positive and begin to show symptoms within about two weeks.”
    Carole looked back at Delilah. She looked fine. She still seemed a bit aloof, and she was definitely curious about why she was being taken to the feed shed, but sheseemed healthy enough. She even paused to take a nibble of fresh grass.
    “These flies, are they everywhere?” Carole asked.
    “They’re not uncommon,” said Judy. “They tend to live in swampy areas, which is why stables in swampy areas and near wetlands are particularly susceptible. They are a summer insect, and this warm fall must have kept them around.”
    “Pine Hollow isn’t near any swamps,” Carole said.
    “Right, but Hedgerow Farms is,” Judy said. “It could also be that King Perry was infected during the summer and nobody knew or suspected it until he began to show symptoms. In rare cases, a horse can be infected long before any symptoms show up. In some cases, symptoms never show up. There are horses who are just carriers of the disease, like Typhoid Mary.”
    “Who?” Carole asked.
    “She was a woman who never got sick but managed to infect a lot of other people with a terrible disease. There was an epidemic all around her, and finally all the victims were traced to this one common source. They tested her and found she was a carrier but had no active symptoms.”
    Carole led Delilah into the feed shed. It had been the original stable at Pine Hollow when Max’s grandfather had bought the place. There was room for three horses in it. Two of the stalls were filled with bags of grains, and the loft had a supply of hay and wood shavings. Becausethe feed was kept there, it was especially important to keep the place free of insects and rodents. That made it a particularly good place for Delilah to wait out her quarantine. She’d be isolated. Unlike those on the stable, the doors on the feed shed were screened and generally shut. She’d be protected, and so would the other horses.
    Carole cross-tied Delilah in the shed’s small open area so that Judy could give her a physical exam and draw the blood sample. While Judy began checking the mare, Carole put fresh wood shavings in the single open stall. She wanted Delilah’s temporary home to be extra nice. Delilah might enjoy peace and quiet, but it could be hard on her to be so isolated from her stablemates for forty-five days.
    As she worked, Carole found her mind wandering to the larger possible consequences of King Perry’s death. She’d read about this disease. It was bad. Judy wasn’t telling the worst of it. Swamp fever had been known to sweep through entire stables. The thought took