Madison v.s The Horse Thief

Chapter Twelve: Thieves At The Door

"Girls, lights out in five, ok? Everyone else is asleep... hopefully," she says.

"Ok," I reply.

"I only let you two stay up later so Lily could get her school work done, naughty child," Mrs. Ramirez sighs.

"Hey!" Lily shouts.

Mrs. Ramirez just rolls her eyes at me before walking away. When I can't hear her footsteps anymore I look at Lily. "Sometimes I think her Spanish accent is thicker than Antonio's Italian accent."

Lily scoffs, getting off her desk chair and walking to her bed. "That's impossible."

I pick my phone up from my bed and look at the picture of Virgo and I swimming together back home set as my wallpaper.

"Has your mum called you yet?" asks Lily.

I groan and roll onto my side. "No. Not a word of well-done daughter or I'm so proud."

Lily laughs smally.

"It's not like I expect it anyway. I would be more surprised if she said congratulations to me at all," I continue.

Lily rolls her eyes and starts to pull her covers off her bed. I gaze out the window that usually lets me see the front of SEC and its long driveway but now it is just the inky black night sky and the shadowy wisps of trees. My eyelids start to close but through the window, a bright light hits my eyes. Through the window, two lights are prowling down the driveway, and as my eyes focus I can see the faint outline of a car with a float hooked onto the back.

I sit up, this uncertain feeling swimming in my stomach. 

"Does Antonio have a new horse coming today?" I ask.

"No, why?"

"A float and car coming down the driveway right now."

I hear the rustle of Lily getting up, and she runs to the window to have a look. "No definitely not, Antonio would never let a horse come this late."

Then who let them in? I find myself asking but I don't. SEC's front gates lock automatically at eight-thirty every night to keep all the horses safe and can only be opened by someone with a key.

The car disappears from our eyesight and Lily lets out a worried grunt. "Who are they?"

I nervously pull at my bedsheets. "Not sure."

Lily's face pulls into a frown. "They're going down to the stables."

"The horses aren't in trouble, right?" I squeak.

Lily turns in a rush and heads to our pile of shoes at the front of the door to start pulling on her boots.

"Where are you going?" I ask, springing up from my bed.

"If they are the thieves and Majesty gets taken, I'll never forgive myself, especially if I saw them knocking at the door," Lily cries.

I think of Virgo, being taken away by mean thieves then being sold on to who knows. I have to breathe and calm myself. Those people can't be the thieves, right? Before I can reason with Lily a boot flies at my face.

"Are you coming or what?"

I nod my head, my hands starting to shake as I pull the boot on. Lily and I scurry to pull on jackets before we rush out the door. We creep quietly and decide it would not be good if we raised the alarm and the people just turned out to be Justin or another groom.

We rush out the red front door and past the rose garden to fly down the hill on the path towards the stables. It's dark and my heart is racing at the thought that Lily and I might be attacked from behind.