Star Dancer by Morgan Llywelyn

left instructions to ring him if the horse’s condition changed. ‘I think we should ring him now and tell him Dancer’s better,’ Brendan decided. ‘Suzanne, would you like to do that?’
    The girl shook her head. ‘I want to stay with him. You ring, Mr Walsh.’
    Brendan came back with instructions from the vet. ‘He says you can let him rest in his loose box now. He’ll be sore and tired, but he should be all right. I’ll stay here in the stables tonight and keep an eye on him, I can sleep in the tackroom.’
    ‘I want to stay too!’ Suzanne insisted.
    Anne told her, ‘That’s not necessary, I’m sure. Brendan will look after Dancer all right.’
    ‘I know, but
I
want to stay.’ Suzanne set her jaw. There were sparks in her eyes.
    ‘What is it, Suzanne? Do you feel guilty about having givenhim all that ice cream when he was hot?’
    Suzanne stiffened. ‘But I didn’t …’ Then she caught herself. Should she tell Anne it was Ger’s fault? She was angry with Ger, but he had saved Dancer at great risk to himself. And he hadn’t meant to hurt the horse in the first place, Suzanne was sure of that.
    She hadn’t thought about Ger in a while. Now she looked around for him, but he wasn’t there. ‘I just want to be with Dancer,’ she said in a low voice to Anne.
    The instructor smiled. ‘I understand. Ring home and get your mother’s permission. Or better still, walk on home, have some dinner and get your sleeping bag and come back. I’m sure Brendan will let you have his mattress in the tackroom, and he can sleep in one of the empty boxes near Dancer’s. Okay?’
    Suzanne smiled with relief. ‘Okay,’ she agreed.
    Then she went looking for Ger. But she couldn’t find him anywhere. He wasn’t in the indoor school, where several people were riding their horses under the lights as night at last drew in. Nor was he in the hay barn or any of the other places he might usually be. When she asked Brendan, the stable manager did not know where Ger was either.
    ‘Maybe he went home,’ Brendan said. ‘But that’s not like him, to leave without telling me. And without finishing his work either,’ he added, beginning to sound annoyed. ‘There are still things to be done around here and I was counting on him.’
    Suzanne thought she knew why Ger had left. He felt bad about what had happened. She wished he were here so she could tell him she wasn’t angry and that Dancer was going to be all right.
    I’ll tell him tomorrow, she promised herself.
    She spent a restless night on the narrow bed in the tackroom.Several times she got up and, taking a torch, went to Dancer’s loose box. Each time the light woke the horse, who was sleeping standing up as many horses do. He would blink sleepily at the light and come over to the door to have his nose rubbed. After this happened several times, Brendan came out of the loose box he was sleeping in and told Suzanne gently, ‘You’re being more bother to him than help, Suzanne. Stay in your bed now and let him rest. I’ll hear if he so much as takes a breath wrong and I’ll call you.’
    In the morning, Suzanne’s parents came to the stables to see how Dancer was. Mr O’Gorman was dressed for work, and was soon back in his car and driving in to the city. But Suzanne’s mother lingered in the stables awhile, looking into the boxes at the various horses and ponies. There was a wistful expression on her face.
    ‘You should come down and ride with your daughter sometimes,’ Anne Fitzpatrick suggested. ‘I’m sure we could find a horse you’d enjoy.’
    Suzanne’s mother shook her head. ‘I don’t ride any more,’ she said sharply. She turned and left the stables. Over her shoulder she called back, ‘Come up to the house now, Suzanne, and eat something and change your clothes.’
    Suzanne went home for a while to please her mother, but she was soon back at the stables. She could not ride Dancer for several days, until the vet examined him again and