Moonlight: Star of the Show by Belinda Rapley Page B

advancing in one direction, the skinny lad in the other! There was no way they’d make it out of the yard without being seen now! Without thinking, Mia quickly scraped back the bolt on the nearest stable door and bundled the others inside. She swung the door shut and scraped the top bolt across, ducking down behind the door just as footsteps stepped out across the yard from the office. Mia stayed stock still for a second. Then, still bent double, she turned to make her way to the back of the stable where the others were hiding. She came nose to nose with a huge white horse – Harry’s huge white horse. The horse snorted. Even his nostrils were vast. He stomped his hoof, and as Mia glanced down she noticed that his hoofs were also seriously huge. With a gulp, she edged roundhim and joined the others who had shoved themselves as tightly as possible into the furthest, gloomiest corner.
    The massive horse shifted his back legs round, turning so that he was facing them. He lowered his head and snuffled them. Rosie tried to squeeze further behind Charlie, who was trying to inch behind Alice. Alice, cramped in the corner on her heels, felt herself tipping forward and pushed back on them both. As Rosie opened her mouth to protest Mia shot her a warning glance, holding a finger to her lips with one hand and trying to push the huge, inquisitive, whiskery white muzzle away with the other.
    There was a light patter of feet outside. Alice tried to breathe so silently that she started to feel faint. A dog’s nose snuffled outside, his shadow just visible as it broke up the crack of sunshine under the stable door.
    Then the metallic ring of steel-toecapped boots clopped closer.
    “All right, boss?” The girls hadn’t heard the skinny worker talk before, but they figured it must be him. Harry grunted in reply then stopped outside the big white horse’s stable.
    “What’s wrong, Colossus?” Harry asked. The horse, unsettled, stepped forward to the front of the stable and nodded his massive head up and down. Alice was convinced that her heart was beating so loudly Harry would be able to hear it from where he was standing. The four girls were cramped in the corner, squished into the straw. Alice’s legs were starting to burn but she didn’t dare move an inch.
    Suddenly Rosie’s stomach let out an almighty rumble, echoing round the stable. The girls’ mouths dropped open as they stared at Rosie, whose eyes nearly popped out of her head.
    “What’s that?” Harry boomed. The girls leaned back into the shadows even further, starting to shake as they glared at Rosie, certain she’d just given them away. “Are you hungry, Colossus, is that it?”
    As the footsteps disappeared for a second the others let out a collective, shaky sigh.
    “What? I warned you I was hungry!” Rosie mouthed, as Charlie nudged her.
    Suddenly, a slice of hay was lumped over the door. Harry loitered outside.
    “Who forgot to put the bottom bolt on your stable, eh, Colossus? Better go in and check that nothing’s amiss. Isn’t that right, Growler? Yes, isn’t that right?” Harry said in a surprisingly high, soppy voice, patting the dog loudly.
    A bolt was slowly scraped back and the lower stable door opened an inch. A crack of sunshine appeared, along with a long, furry snout.
    At the same second a mobile phone rang out, shattering the silence. Rosie went pale – it was her ring tone! It was her phone! She must have forgotten to turn it off, she thought, scrabbling for it in her pocket and elbowing Alice in the nose. This was it – she’d led the others into the shaggy grey jaws of doom!
    “Where are you? On your way?” Harry barked, at the same moment that Rosie’s hand closed round her own phone. The screen was blank. With her heart galloping she let out a long, silent sigh and sank back into the straw, squashing the others even more as they silently protested with shoves and glares. Rosie was about to slide her mobile back into her pocket when