Lauren hurried downstairs. She’d better ask her mum to ring up Grace and say they didn’t need Magpie.

But to her surprise her mum said no. ‘Hannah’s only just arrived. Maybe when she’s settled in she’ll decide she wants to ride after all. We’ve arranged to borrow Magpie now so we might as well have him here.’

‘But she said she doesn’t like ponies any more,’ Lauren said.

Mrs Foster looked thoughtful. ‘I can’t imagine Hannah has really changed that much. She might seem to have changed but I’ll be very surprised if the old pony-loving Hannah isn’t somewhere underneath there still.’

Lauren hesitated. Was the old pony-mad Hannah really still there? Thinking of the grown-up fourteen-year-old upstairs it

was hard to imagine it, but maybe her mum was right and Hannah just needed to be reminded of how much she liked ponies.

Perhaps if I can get her riding Twilight then she’ll start to remember. We can groom him together afterwards and clean his tack. That’ll be fun, Lauren thought. And then Grace will arrive with Magpie and we can settle him into his stable together.

Determination filled her. I bet I can do this, she decided. By the end of today I’m going to have reminded Hannah of just how much fun ponies can be!

CHAPTER

Five

Mrs Foster had cooked jacket potatoes for lunch and there were also big bowls of baked beans, cheese, ham and salad.

‘This is delicious,’ Hannah said.

‘I love jacket potatoes,’ Max said, helping himself to a big spoonful of cheese.

‘Woof!’ said Buddy as a few pieces of grated cheese escaped from Max’s spoon and fell on to the floor. He gobbled them up.

Lauren grinned. ‘I think Buddy likes this lunch too!’

‘He’s gorgeous,’ Hannah said, patting him.

‘So what are your plans this afternoon?’ Mrs Foster asked Lauren and Hannah.

‘I thought we could ride Twilight in the field,’ Lauren suggested. ‘He’s really brilliant to ride. We could put up some jumps.’ She looked hopefully at her cousin. Hannah had always loved jumping.

Hannah didn’t look too keen. ‘Well, I don’t mind watching you, Lauren.’ She smoothed her dark hair. ‘But I don’t really want to ride myself. If I put a riding hat on it’ll make my hair go frizzy and it takes forever to get it straight.’

Lauren stared. Hannah was turning down a chance to ride just because it would mess up her hair! For a moment she felt a flicker of doubt about her plan. Maybe Hannah really had changed completely.

‘Well, why don’t you watch and see how you feel?’ Mrs Foster said.

Lauren nodded. She wasn’t going to give up on her plan. Not yet, anyway. ‘I bet you’ll want to ride when you see him jumping,’ she told Hannah.

Hannah looked awkward. ‘Lauren, I…’

But Lauren wouldn’t let her finish. ‘We’re going to have so much fun!’ she interrupted.

I hope, she added silently to herself.