Storm and the Silver Bridle by Stacy Gregg Read Free Book Online Page A

just like her Aunty Hester. Mrs Brown was always amazed by the ferocity of the passion that her daughter possessed. Her love for her horses was beyond anything she had ever seen before. At that moment Mrs Brown realised that if she prevented Issie from doing this, she would be destroying that passion, crushing the spirit out of her daughter. No matter how painful, how terrifying it was, she had to make a choice.
    “Issie,” she said softly. “I hope I’m not going to regret this…”
    “Mum! Please—” Issie began to argue, but her mother raised a hand.
    “Don’t,” she said, shaking her head. “Don’t fight me, Isadora. Just listen…because I’m telling you that I’m going to let you go.”

Chapter 5
    The man behind the glass wall gave Issie a stern look as she approached him, dragging her suitcase. “Documents!” he snapped as she fumbled in her pockets and pulled out her airline ticket and her papers. His expression softened when he opened her passport.
    “You are from New Zealand?” He raised an eyebrow. “It is a long way to come to Madrid—halfway around the world!” His strict face broke into a kindly smile.
    It had been a long way. Twenty-four hours in the plane without a proper stop. Over that time Issie had watched five movies and eaten three dinners—the plane never seemed to serve lunch or breakfast, it was nothing but never-ending dinnertime.
    Issie’s inner body clock felt completely mixed up by thetime they landed in Madrid. It was midday in Spain, which meant that right now, back home in New Zealand, it was midnight. Even weirder, she suddenly found herself baking hot. It was summer! Issie couldn’t believe it. Yesterday she had been freezing in the cold and rain of winter, and now here she was on the other side of the world and it was a glorious, sunny day.
    Francoise had warned Issie to pack for the summer heat with T-shirts and shorts, but she had still boarded the plane in her winter clothes. As she emerged from the air-conditioned airport on to the street outside she began to swelter instantly in her sweatshirt and jeans. The long flight had left her feeling sticky and exhausted. Her brain was swimming, and she was finding it hard to think straight.
    “You’ve got jetlag,” Avery told her. “Did you sleep at all on the plane?”
    Issie had tried to sleep, but every time she closed her eyes all she could think about was Storm. Where was the colt now? Was he already here in Spain? Did horses get jetlag too? Did Storm feel just like she did? She wished she could be there with him, to let him know it was going to be OK, that she was coming for him and that she was going to bring him home again.
    “We’d better get moving,” Francoise said as they wheeled their suitcases through customs. “The next train from Madrid to Seville leaves in less than an hour.”
    The train station in Madrid turned out to be a giant tropical glasshouse. In the centre of it, enormous palm trees sprouted out of the ground, their thick, green leaves creating a jungle canopy. It wasn’t like any train station Issie had ever seen. And the train wasn’t like anything she had ever seen either. It was shaped like a space rocket.
    “It goes like a rocket too!” Francoise laughed when Issie told her this. “Three hundred kilometres an hour. We’ll be in Seville in a couple of hours from now and from there we drive on to El Caballo Danza Magnifico.”
    Tiredness finally overwhelmed Issie as they settled into their seats and she curled up, using her bag as a pillow, to be rocked asleep by the steady rhythm of the train.
    It felt like she had only just drifted off when she was being woken up again, Avery’s hand on her shoulder shaking her gently. “Issie, we’re here.”
    Groggy from her nap, Issie followed Francoise out to the street.
    “Alfie is supposed to be meeting us with the car,” Francoise said as she scanned the parking lot. Her face broke into a broad smile as she spied a beaten-up