A royal visit 2

Chapter 2

Everybody stared at K.C. and wondered if they had hear Raul right had he just addressed that girl stable hand as your highness. Fortunately this had taken place in the more secluded of the two rings that Pine Hollow had and only Max, Silas, Raul and the Saddle club were close enough to hear what was going on. K.C. was speaking again.

"Yes," snapped K.C., "It's me Raul. And when my mother gets here, she is going to be mad as hell when she finds out that you tried to ride her horse into the ground!"

"The Queen p-pays me to train her horse," stammered Raul

"She doesn't pay you to founder her horse or Kill it!" raged K.C., "Now get up!" Raul scrambled to his feet.

"Raul," she snapped once he was on his feet, "You are relieved of your duties. You will go to Max Regnery's office and stay there until my mother arrives!" she turned to the other man.

"Silas." She said, "You will walk Blaze until she's bone dry and then take her back to her stall!"

Silas nodded and hurried to do as he was told. K.C. turned and walked back toward her horse. She paused in front of Lisa as she went.

"Thanks, Lisa," she said, "That was very brave of you."

"You're welcome, your highness." Said Lisa

"It's K.C.," she replied, "I'm still the same girl you met five minutes ago in Echo's stall." K.C. Mounted up and she and the Saddle Club girls rode over to the Dressage ring. Just after they got there, Veronica showed up. "

She turned up her nose as she rode past K.C. to her place in the line.

"Some Princess," she muttered, " first she's over two hours late and now she's Letting a stable hand ride her horse, and after 45 minutes on the phone, the Aragonian Consulate still won't tell me anything"

Stevie stifled a giggle and leaned over to the other Saddle club members.

"Veronica Doesn't know," she whispered, "She was in Max's office on the phone when K.C. clobbered Raul, she doesn't know that K.C. is the princess!"

Max was about to say something to Veronica when he saw K.C. put a finger to her lips and shake her head subtly. Until the Princess said differently only Max, Silas, Raul and the Saddle club would know who K.C. really was. A smile teased at the corner of Max's mouth as he realized what was going on. The princess was going to let Veronica dig herself in a deeper first.

He turned to the rest of the students.

"I have an announcement to make." He said, "Before I came out here I got a phone call. The Queen's secretary informed me that the queen has been unavoidably detained. Apparently somebody back in Aragon blabbed to the UN that her majesty was coming and now she has to go and make an appearance at some conference.

"Can't the King do it?" Melanie asked

"The king died eleven years ago." Said K.C. quietly, "So It's just the Queen and the Princess now."

"I'm Sorry," said Melanie embarrassed.

"It's Okay," said K.C., "You didn't know."

The rest of the riding lesson went fine. Even Veronica was impressed by how well K.C. handled Echo. Not that she would admit that a stable hand had impressed her. After the Lesson, K.C. and the Saddle went on a short hack. As they rode the Saddle Club appraised their new friend. She was actually quite pretty her hair was thick and dark brown like Lisa's and she had gray eyes and she was also the same height as Lisa. The thing that intrigued them the most about her was that she didn't act that much like they thought a princess would. She was down to earth and friendly and it was amazingly easy to feel comfortable talking to her.

Finally Lisa asked a question that had been bugging her.

"K.C.," What does K.C. stand for?" K.C. smiled.

"My first and Middle names," she replied, "Katherine Clarisse, and just in case you're interested, my surname is Lenoir. It was actually my mother who started calling me K.C. I liked the nickname and it just stuck."

"Now, there is something that I would like to ask you," said K.C.

"Shoot," said Stevie

"Ever since I got here I have heard several of the other girls talking about something called the Saddle Club, do you know what it is?" Lisa Carole and Stevie exchanged smiles before Carole replied.

"You're looking at it," she said

"Huh?" K.C. said confused.

"We're the Saddle Club," said Lisa, "Carole Stevie and me, Those girls were talking about us."

"We'll fill you in on the way back to the stables," said Stevie looking at her watch, "we don't want to miss supper."

Two hours later the girls were back and Pine Hollow and their horses were out the Paddock getting acquainted. It was also the weekend of the annual overnight at Pine Hollow so the girls were spending the night. It was suppertime. Max had built a fire in the campfire ring and had placed a large iron cooking kettle over it. Inside simmering in a thick savory brown broth were vegetables potatoes and beef in a concoction that Max and the Saddle club had christened Trailblazer stew.

Once Max was convinced that the stew was properly cooked and seasoned. He rang the dinner bell, and was almost run over by a stampede. He was saved in the nick of time by a sharp whistle from his mother. The kids stopped in their tracks.

"Line up," she barked. The kids lined up and walked past Max as he dished the stew out into the bowls that each of them carried.

"Max is hopeless," griped Veronica, as and Kristy found themselves at the end of the line, "Here he's got two royal visitors on their way and he makes Trailblazer Stew. A gourmet like the Princess of Aragon wouldn't eat one bowl of this junk!"

"You know, she's right," said K.C., "The Princess wouldn't eat one bowl of this stuff! Two or Three bowls maybe but not one." The girls all fell into a fit of giggles that earned them a funny look from Veronica.

Stevie leaned over to the others with an almost gleeful expression on her face.

"I can't wait to see the look on Veronica's face when she finally finds out who K.C. really is!"

To Be Continued….

In the next Chapter the queen arrives and Max is in for a shock.

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