Chocolate Box Girls: Coco Caramel by Cathy Cassidy Page B

murder. He hasn’t left a mark on Caramel, so it would be our word against
his. Who do you think they’d believe? There’s not much we can actually do
except make sure she’s fed properly … she was really hungry.’
    Caramel lifts her head and mooches over to
greet me, nuzzling her head against my cheek. I put my arms round her and hold her
close, hoping she knows just how sorry I am. I think of her earlier, eyes wide with
fear, and I know I cannot walk away and leave her here.
    ‘Not much we can do?’ I
challenge Lawrie. ‘I think there’s plenty, actually. We can get Caramel out
– ride her out of here, rescue her. Are you going to help?’
    ‘Rescue?’ he repeats.
‘Steal, you mean! Are you serious?’
    ‘Why not? Seddon may have paid for
her, but he boughtCaramel under false pretences – Jean and Roy would
never have let her go if they’d known what a creep he is. We can’t leave her
here, Lawrie!’
    He frowns. ‘Seddon really is bad news,
y’know,’ he tells me. ‘He runs pheasant shoots for groups of toffs
from the city, so he has a gun. Stealing something of his is not a good idea.’
    ‘Do you have a better one?’
    Lawrie laughs, and for a moment, in the
shadowy stable, I catch a glimpse of the boy he could be if he wasn’t always cross
and scowling. His whole face lights up – it’s kind of surprising.
    ‘So … we’re doing
this?’ he checks.
    ‘I’m doing it,’ I shrug.
‘You can please yourself.’
    I saddle Caramel quickly, then take her head
collar and lead her forward, out into the yard. The dog stares at us, forlorn, but
Lawrie talks to it in a low whisper and it makes no attempt to bark as we latch the
stable-yard gate behind us and make for the woods.
    ‘What now?’ Lawrie asks as we
step into the safety of the trees. ‘Do you have a plan?’
    ‘I’m going to hide Caramel in
the stables at home,’ Ireply. ‘Our pet sheep Humbug lives
there at the moment, but I am pretty sure she won’t mind sharing.’
    ‘What will you tell your
parents?’
    ‘I’m not sure yet,’ I
admit. ‘This is a spur of the moment thing, I haven’t had a chance to plan
out the details …’
    ‘Not going to work,’ he says.
‘Trust me, Seddon will go crazy once he discovers Caramel is gone. He’ll get
the police involved, the newspapers, you name it. Your parents would know exactly what
had happened, and I bet they’d hand Caramel straight back. Even if they
didn’t want to, the police would probably make them. No, if we’re going to
help Caramel, we need to hide her – somewhere nobody will find her.’
    ‘Where, though?’ I ask. ‘A
pony is pretty hard to hide!’
    Lawrie frowns, thoughtful.
    ‘I know a place. But if we’re
really doing this … well, there’s something else you should
see.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    Lawrie ties Caramel’s reins to a
branch and grabs my hand in the darkness. Shock and annoyance flood through me, but
before I can argue or swat him away he pulls me out of the trees and into the farmyard,
dropping myhand again and pushing open the door of the fourth stable.
In the darkness, I breathe in the warm, slightly treacly smell of horse mixed with the
sour ammoniac reek of wet straw.
    ‘Another horse?’ I whisper.
    Lawrie flicks on a torch, lighting up a
bedraggled dapple-grey pony cowering in the far corner of the stall. Her belly is round
as a barrel, and her eyes flare with fear as she begins skittering, jostling, trying to
back away.
    ‘She’s terrified!’ I
say.
    ‘And she’s in foal,’
Lawrie points out. ‘Seddon bought her cheap, and he’s totally neglected
her.’
    I look at the startled pony and bite my lip.
Rescuing one pony or rescuing two … what’s the difference?
    ‘Lawrie,’ I say,
‘we’ll have to take her too. We can’t leave her here!’
    ‘Thought you’d say that,’
he huffs, and I can’t tell whether he is pleased or irritated by my decision.
‘Suppose we might as well be hung for a sheep as a