time.
It was enough to put her well out of the running. By the time the riders had all been through the course, there would be eleven clear rounds in total that day. With so many clear rounds, only the riders with the best times on the clock stood a chance of receiving points.
“Well, that rules me out!” Kate said grumpily. She was still grouchy with Toby, who had got a bee in his bonnet about something at the third fence and refused twice.
It was no surprise to anyone when Dan, Ben and Stella managed to come out on top as the three fastest riders on the day.
“I told you we’d been having extra practice.” Ben grinned as he and Max scooped up two more points.
“It’s all right for you,” Stella groaned at him, “you came second. Now you’re bound to have made the team.”
“Oh, Stella! You’ll get in. You got third and you did brilliantly at the games,” Kate tried to reassure her.
But Stella shook her head. “Don’t! I don’t want to jinx it. Avery said he would be posting the final team lineup at the end of the day. Let’s not talk about it until then!”
“Stellas right. There’s nothing we can do now so let’s go and have afternoon tea,” Issie suggested. “Meet you back at the picnic blanket?”
The girls all agreed that this was a good idea and they decided to ask Morgan too—after Issie told them the story of what happened with Natasha.
But when Issie rode over to ask Morgan to come and join them, Araminta couldn’t have been less enthusiastic. “I hope you don’t mind, Isadora, but I’d prefer to give Morgan a bit of extra schooling after Black Jack’s performance in the ring today,” she replied coolly.
“Oh, Mum, we’re all done for the day! Can’t I just go and unsaddle and get a drink and hang out with Issie and her friends?” Morgan pleaded.
Araminta fixed her with a steely glare. “I think you need to work on your position, Morgan. There was no excuse for that refusal.” She turned to look at Issie and her frown unfurrowed a little. “I’m sorry, Isadora,” she said, “Morgan is busy for the rest of the day. That is final.”
“Wow. It sounds like Araminta is pretty tough on Morgan,” Stella said as Issie told her what had happened. They were lying on the tartan rug and munching the bacon and egg pie and some more sponge cake that clever Mrs Brown had kept back from lunch.
“Araminta is super-competitive. I guess she really wants Morgan to win.” Issie shrugged.
Still, Issie knew what Stella meant. Poor Morgan had looked so desperate to go and hang out with Issie and her friends instead of training for a change.
While Issie and Stella had been lying on the picnic blanket finishing off the bacon and egg pie, Kate had been in the clubroom. She emerged, running towards them with a piece of paper gripped tightly in her right hand.
“Ohmygod!” she said. “You are not going to believe it.” Her face was stiff and miserable.
“What?” Issie and Stella cried out together.
“I’ve got the team list results,” Kate said. She looked deadly serious now. “And, well…they’re terrible. None of us have made the team.”
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