The mail came in the afternoon at Ocean Bay. When the riders had made their horses comfortable, and said goodbye to Ngaire and Mata, who lived down the south end of the beach, they found Nellie in the kitchen staring at another official-looking envelope. Her long, dirty fingernails were beginning to tear at the opening.

‘Is that addressed to you?’ Flora asked sharply.

‘You can’t keep ignoring this. It won’t just go away.’

‘No news is good news,’ Flora said huffily. ‘If I don’t read it, it isn’t news. It certainly isn’t bad news.’

Andy and Jade understood Nellie’s frustration at Flora, who had started flicking through a Two Fat Ladies cookbook as if it had the answer to the problem of the letter.

‘Fine! Give it here then,’ Flora demanded.

The three girls sat gravely, watching Flora read.

‘Is it as bad as we thought?’ Nellie asked eventually.

Flora’s frown-line was deep. She held on to the kitchen bench with one white-knuckled hand, which made Jade nervous.

‘They can’t do that. They can’t,’ Flora muttered to herself.

‘Can’t do what? Shut down the riding school? Let me see.’ Nellie snatched the letter out of Flora’s fingers and read silently.

‘“Requisitioning the land for infrastructure purposes” — again! What does that even mean? And who is this Kim Bandt?’

‘Kim Bandt, I gather from the letterhead, is a property developer. And what it means is that by 4 January they want us off the land so that they can start subdividing and building holiday homes.’

‘Can they do that?’ Jade asked. ‘Evict you just like that?’

‘It hasn’t been sudden,’ Nellie said, glaring at Flora. ‘If we’d opened the letters months ago, we’d have had more time to prepare.’

Flora snapped at Nellie, arguing that there was still a couple of weeks and that none of them — not Nellie, not Casey, not a single one of the horses — was going to give up their home. It would be over Flora’s dead body.

‘What’s your plan?’ Andy asked her aunt gently.

‘I don’t know yet.’

Nellie rolled her eyes. ‘We have to be practical! Let’s sit down now and think of something to do.’

Flora looked exhausted, as if the letter’s contents had only now become real to her. ‘Horses’ feeds first, then we’ll talk.’

The routine of allocating the correct bucket of feed to each animal was, for Jade at least, soothing at the end of a long, hard day’s work. Flora, who usually made a fuss of each and every one of her horses as she fed them their evening meal, seemed distant and quiet.

When the horses had eaten and the girls had lugged all the empty feed buckets back to the shed, Flora gave Jade and Andy a plain white bucket each. Instead of a sweet-smelling horse-feed residue in the bottom, there was sand.

‘I want both of these full of pipis for tonight’s dinner. Okay?’

Jade wasn’t sure what Flora meant, but didn’t want to seem stupid. Andy had nodded, so Jade would just copy Andy.

‘What are pipis?’ Jade asked Andy, following her friend down the beach track, towards Casey’s container.

‘Shellfish. There are heaps in the sand at this time of day when the tide is out. You know they’re there if you can see a little breathing hole.’

Andy was right. The smooth, wet sand was dotted with so many tiny breathing holes that it resembled freshly whipped instant pudding. Jade watched her friend stick a finger into the hole, burrow it right down in the sand and pull out a white oval shell.

‘Put some seawater in your bucket first, to keep them fresh and alive,’ Andy instructed.

It was fun foraging for dinner on the nearly deserted beach, and they filled up their buckets quickly, especially when Casey came to help the girls.

‘Cause a ruckus,’ he said, when Andy asked if he knew what to do about the letter Flora had received.

‘What do you mean?’ Jade asked.

‘Y’know, make some noise. Tomorrow, holidays start proper for most of the bach-owners. The beach will be chock-full. Usually I’d say that was a bad thing, but this time it could work out for us. People like the riding school. They’ll certainly like it more than an ugly subdivision. Stir them up, get them involved.’

‘With, like, a petition?’ Andy asked.

‘A march. Use the horses. Protest.’ Casey’s eyes were gleaming. Jade had the impression that Casey was often looking for an excuse to protest.

‘That’s a good idea.’ Andy’s eyes were shining now, too. ‘It’s a really good idea.’

While Flora cooked corn cobs, potatoes, pipis and more kahawai on the home-made barbecue next to the vegetable garden, Jade, Andy and Casey plotted an Ocean Bay uprising.

‘What if we’re not as popular as you think?’ Nellie asked, opening a bottle of cheap cider and pouring it into cups for herself, Casey and Flora.

‘It’s still worth a try, isn’t it?’ Andy said. ‘We could make banners and give pony rides, and take a petition around all the baches.’

‘What would we make the banners out of?’ Flora asked irritably.

‘Anything! You’re not even trying, Aunt Flora.’

Flora spun around, accidentally knocking a corn cob off the barbecue with her tongs. ‘This is my home, Andrea. Don’t pretend I don’t care about my home and livelihood being taken away from me.’

Andy frowned.

‘She’s right, though, isn’t she?’ Casey said after a long pause. ‘Where’s your backbone gone, Flo?’ He had a mischievous expression.

‘All right. Do what you like — just don’t embarrass the riding school.’

‘There won’t be a riding school to embarrass soon, if we just sit here pretending the problem will go away,’ Nellie said, swallowing a large mouthful of cider. ‘What harm can a little demonstration do, anyway?’

As they ate, outside, the pile of empty pipi shells grew and the sea gradually darkened. Yet Flora still hadn’t quite come around to the idea of riding door-to-door, explaining the fate of the riding school to other Ocean Bay residents. She didn’t like drawing attention to herself — and that was the point of the exercise.

‘Let’s sleep on it. I’ll decide what to do tomorrow,’ Flora said. ‘I promise I will have an idea by morning.’

It was nearly nine, and Jade and Andy were yawning. Bed didn’t seem like a bad idea after such a hard day’s work.

Casey was right: by mid-morning the following day the beach was filling up with holidaymakers. The dirt road down to the little settlement of baches passed the ponies’ paddock. The ponies were standing at the fence line, watching the dusty cars roll past, when Jade and Andy came to catch them. All of the ponies needed to be in the yards, groomed and tacked-up for a busy day of lessons.

Because the paddocks were already mucked out, the morning had begun relatively easily, with tack-cleaning and fence-fixing. Flora, who was yet to share the idea she had promised to have by the morning, was never without a task for Jade, Andy and Nellie. When the tack was done, the chickens needed feeding; when the fence had been fixed, the yard needed sweeping; and, when that was finished, the ponies had to be readied for the riding school.

As Jade groomed Pikelet and Andy combed Dumpling’s mane, Nellie, who’d been picking out Secrets’ tiny hooves, saw a black Lexus park outside the gate to the riding school.

‘It’s completely blocking the driveway,’ Nellie complained.

‘Who is it?’ Andy asked, shielding her eyes from the sun.

‘No idea, but I’m going to tell her to park somewhere more sensible,’ Nellie said, sticking the hoof-pick in her pocket and climbing over the yard fence.

Andy and Jade stopped working and watched Nellie approach the tall platinum-blonde woman who had emerged from the car. Nellie normally had a way of silencing people with a stare, but now she seemed to have met her match. The woman was wearing circular black sunglasses, high heels (at the beach!), and shiny green shorts. To Jade, the whole outfit looked peculiar but expensive.

To Jade’s and Andy’s surprise, instead of succeeding in getting the woman to move her car, Nellie, after some gesturing, shrugged and led her to the vegetable garden, where Flora was staking her cherry tomatoes.

‘Let’s go and see who she is,’ Andy said.

Jade looked at Secrets and Marama; both fat little ponies still needed to be groomed and saddled for the morning’s lesson.

‘Shouldn’t we keep working on the ponies? It’s nearly ten. The clients will be here soon.’ Jade enjoyed the way Flora called riders ‘clients’ — it sounded professional.

‘I guess.’

‘Nellie will tell us what’s going on.’

Jade was right. Nellie was soon storming back to the yards. As she walked, she kicked a stone and sent it flying at a fence post, off which it bounced and nearly hit an unsuspecting chicken.

‘Who is she?’ Andy asked.

‘Kim Bandt,’ Nellie snapped. She went back to picking out Secrets’ hoof. She picked so vigorously that the packed dirt flicked up and hit the pony’s belly, making her skin shudder.

‘I knew it!’ Andy said. ‘Didn’t I say, Jade?’

Andy hadn’t said anything, but Jade nodded anyway.

‘What does she want?’ Jade asked.

‘To put boundary markers around the property. To make sure that Flora has read the eviction notices. She’s horrible — really scary.’

If Nellie said someone was scary, they were likely to be an actual witch. Jade frowned.

‘Poor Flora.’

‘Poor all of us. Poor ponies!’ Nellie said, suddenly realizing how roughly she had been picking out Secrets’ hooves. ‘But, on the bright side, I reckon Kim Bandt’s visit has been a wake-up call for Flora. She’s keen for us to let the rest of the beach know about the eviction. We’re to tell all the pupils, and anyone we meet on the beach during this afternoon’s trek.’

That was more like it — action at last. When Jade and Andy had finished preparing Marama and Secrets for the morning lesson, they went inside to find Flora in her little office, the printer whirring away at her side.

‘These,’ she said, black-framed specs perched on her nose, ‘are to be handed out to anyone you see on the beach from now on.’

Jade picked up a piece of printed paper and read:

S.O.S.

Save Our Samudra!

Do you want a beachside riding school

or

a huge property development

that ruins the charm of our beautiful bay?

If you think we’re good neighbours,

come to Samudra ASAP

and sign a petition to let us keep our land.

‘Where’s the petition?’ Andy asked.

‘Right here.’ Flora pointed at the computer screen. ‘You’re right, girls: a petition is a good idea. I can’t think of anything better right now anyway, and time is of the essence.’ Flora was staring past the faded gingham curtains of the office window, out to the youngsters’ paddock. What would happen to all the horses and ponies if, in two weeks, they were no longer welcome on this land?

Jade wondered whether that would be a good enough excuse for Mr White to accept Pip back. Perhaps he would even take a couple of extra ponies? Although he would grumble, he wouldn’t want to see them homeless.

‘What a waste of time!’ Flora sighed, thumping ineffectually on the space bar, clearly struggling with the spreadsheet of the petition. ‘I should be preparing for the Boxing Day Race, not fussing in the office.’

‘Shouldn’t you be helping Nellie with the morning lesson?’ Andy said suddenly. ‘There seem to be lots of kids in the yard now.’

Flora swore. ‘You’re right. There’s never enough time! You two come and help me get the kiddies mounted.’

Jade knew that she could be the shy one in her family. Her dad had no trouble bossing the other journalists around at work; her granddad, though quiet, enjoyed telling a story; and her mum had been a university lecturer who loved teaching. It didn’t seem fair that now, faced with a slightly older girl who had never ridden a horse before, Jade was blushing and tongue-tied as she tried to explain the simple process of mounting and holding the reins.

‘Just stand up here on the block,’ Jade said quietly. ‘No, face away from Secrets’ head. Turn towards her tail.’

‘What?’

‘Um. Just put your left foot in the stirrup.’

The older girl didn’t know left from right. She didn’t seem to have any natural inclination for the pony, the saddle or the mounting block. Her co-ordination seemed to leave her entirely as soon as she touched the leather or the mane. She did this gingerly, too gently, so that Secrets’ ticklish wither shivered. That was it! She was nervous. This older girl with brown hair, and a name Jade had forgotten as soon as it was said, was nervous.

‘Maybe it’d be easier if I showed you,’ Jade said, still shy, but remembering her experience with the Hodge children.

‘Okay.’ The girl jumped eagerly off the mounting block. ‘I didn’t even really want to come. I’m just here with my sister,’ the girl confessed. ‘Horses freak me out.’

‘Secrets is lovely,’ Jade said. She wasn’t at all sure of this, having had nothing to do with the 13.2-hand brown pony other than grooming her that morning, but she thought it best to be optimistic. ‘See, you just stand like this, then put your foot in the stirrup like so, then hold the pommel with your left hand and the cantle, here, with your right, and you can just …’ Jade swung easily into the saddle. ‘Find the other stirrup with your right foot, hold the reins really loosely, like this, and you’ll be all set.’ Patting Secrets’ patient neck, Jade dismounted. ‘Your turn.’

The demonstration had been far more useful than Jade’s mumbled explanation. The older girl copied Jade perfectly, and actually smiled when she found herself in the saddle.

‘Are your stirrup leathers the right length?’ Jade asked, in what she hoped was a professional tone.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Do your legs feel too bunched up? Too cramped?’

The girl looked blank. She’d never been on a horse before and didn’t have a clue what it was supposed to feel like. ‘I guess they’re fine.’

They looked okay, so, forcefully shifting the girl’s leg out of the way, Jade took Secrets’ girth up one more notch before leading the pony and her nervous rider over to the rest of the group.

‘Don’t stop leading me!’ the girl begged as Jade went to unclip the lead rope.

‘It’s okay,’ Jade tried to soothe her. ‘Secrets is very quiet, and she’s surrounded by her friends. She won’t try to run away with you, if that’s what you’re worried about.’ They were in the small, flat paddock next to the yards. The gate was closed and there was nowhere for Secrets to go anyway, even if she wanted to. Seeing that the girl was still nervous, Jade tried again: ‘She’ll just follow the other ponies in a circle around Nellie. See, your sister’s on Marama; she’s Secrets’ best friend. Just follow your sister.’

The girl took a deep breath. ‘Okay.’

‘Good!’ Jade unclipped the lead rope and, as predicted, patient Secrets obediently and automatically began walking in the circle with the others.

‘Isn’t this great, Tania?’ the sister said, turning around and grinning at the nervous girl.

‘Yeah, it is quite fun.’ That was the first real smile Jade had seen from the girl. Nellie was telling her group of beginners to keep their heels down and to hold the reins more loosely. She could look after the girl now; Jade’s work was done.

She found Flora and Andy each carrying three halters. The next job would be preparing the horses for the afternoon ride.

‘Jade, you can come with me and catch Basil. Andy, you fetch Poppet and Precious. Afterwards, you can bring Piper in, too.’

There wasn’t enough room in the yards for all the horses, so some were tied along the fence line. Hearing Taniwha whinnying as Andy led Piper away from the paddock, Jade asked Flora if she should bring Tani in, too.

‘I thought you could ride Basil today,’ Flora said, surprising Jade. The lean Appaloosa wasn’t the most handsome horse Jade had ever seen, but she had taken a shine to him nonetheless — there was something appealing about the way he had rested his cheek against her shoulder as she had led him to the yard.

‘Thanks!’ Jade said. ‘I’d love to.’

‘See how you go this afternoon; if you two get along, maybe you could ride him in the Boxing Day Race for me?’

Jade’s eyes widened. ‘Yes, please!’

‘A week isn’t long enough to get Taniwha endurance-fit. But I’d like to teach you a bit about racing, so that when your pony is ready you’ll know what to do. Basil, here, can be your schoolmaster. So give him a good groom, and, when he’s done, get Blackadder and Jeeves spruced up. We have a German couple riding with us this afternoon.’

Grooming three 15.2-hand horses in a row on a hot late morning is no easy feat, but the pleasure at having been asked to ride one of Flora’s own horses kept Jade going. By the time she had polished the last of Jeeves’s white hooves, Nellie had finished the beginners’ lesson and needed help untacking the ponies and returning them to their paddock. It was a relief to sit down at the kitchen table, albeit for only ten minutes, and gobble down a piece of delicious cold quiche before greeting the afternoon riders.

‘Guten tag, Willkommen auf Samudra,’ Nellie said to the young couple. It wasn’t her German so much as her polite tone that surprised Jade.

‘Danke! Sprechen sie Deutsch?’ The young man was tall, with thick, dark hair and blue eyes. Seeing Nellie’s uncertainty and assuming, correctly, that she had exhausted nearly all of her German vocabulary, he continued, ‘My name is Daniel, and my girlfriend is Caroline. She is the rider. I am the English-speaker.’

Caroline, a striking brunette with very long legs clad in plaid jodhpurs, was looking at the horses in the yard, sizing them up. None of the horses was quite big enough for the tall couple.

‘Would you like a cold drink before the trek, or are you ready to meet the horses?’

Daniel patted the small pack on his back. ‘We have prepared a bottle of water. Which horse will be for Caroline? She wants to know.’

‘Blackadder, Blackie for short. Come and meet him.’

The Germans followed Nellie over to the handsome black gelding with a white stripe down his nose. ‘Ein sehr gutes Pferd,’ Nellie said slowly to Caroline, who burst out laughing.

‘Sank you,’ she replied unsurely.

When Blackadder was saddled, Caroline mounted elegantly and walked him in a circle around the yard. Daniel was helped onto the back of Jeeves, a reliable bay. Caroline turned to her boyfriend and spoke to him in German. She seemed to be instructing Daniel, because, as she spoke, his position in the saddle improved.

‘Use longer reins,’ Nellie tried to tell Caroline. It was an instruction that nearly all new riders at Samudra had to be told; Flora trained her horses to have very sensitive mouths.

‘Show her, Jade,’ Nellie said. Jade, who was now on Basil’s back (noticeably higher up than Taniwha’s), called out Caroline’s name. She felt embarrassed, correcting this German woman who was clearly a very good rider. Shortening her reins so that they resembled Caroline’s, Jade shook her head and frowned. Now lengthening them to the point at which she was almost holding the buckle, she nodded and smiled.

Caroline’s eyebrows rose, but she followed the instruction. Instantly, Blackadder’s ears relaxed and he stopped flicking his nose in the air.

When everyone was mounted — Nellie on Precious, Andy on Piper, and Flora on Poppet — the horses took the track down to the beach in single file.

Flora had given Andy a saddlebag of flyers to hand out to anyone who smiled as the horses went by. As soon as they passed Casey’s container, it became apparent that the girls wouldn’t be able to hand out the flyers and keep up with the others: the beach that had been empty only days before was now dotted with sun umbrellas, towels, cricket games and sandcastles. Jade stroked Basil’s spotty neck and was grateful for his calmness. Taniwha would probably have been a nuisance, faced with so many frightening new obstacles.

‘We’ll take the rock pool route, Andy. Catch up once the flyers are gone, or, if you feel like you’re too far behind, just go on your own ride. I want Jade to get used to Basil, which might be a challenge if you’re spending most of the time halted on the beach talking to strangers.’ Waving goodbye, they negotiated a pathway through the holidaymakers, Flora in the lead, Nellie at the back and the Germans in the middle.

‘Can I have a ride?’ A little girl in pink and black togs, carrying a plastic spade, ran up to Andy. Piper, nervy at the best of times, sidestepped. Jade moved Basil next to the nervous pony to provide moral support.

‘Not today. These horses are a bit big for you,’ Andy said. ‘But we’ll be giving pony rides here tomorrow.’

‘Mum!’ the child hollered. ‘Look at the horses!’

A woman lying on a towel removed an open book which was resting on her face and blinked as if she had just woken.

‘Don’t scare the horses, Audrey.’

‘I’m not!’

‘Speak in a quieter voice.’

‘But we’re outside.’ The child had a point. ‘Mum, can I have a pony ride tomorrow?’

‘Okay.’

‘They’re free,’ Andy said, fumbling for a flyer in her saddlebag. As she opened the buckle and pulled out one sheet of paper, a gust of sea breeze snatched the other sheets and threw them across the beach. Both horses shied at the surprise.

‘Careful, Audrey!’ The mother grabbed her child’s arm and pulled her back to the safety of the towel.

‘I’m sorry,’ Andy said — Piper had kicked over Audrey’s sandcastle.

‘I don’t think you should be offering pony rides to children on dangerous horses like these,’ the mother said.

‘They’re not dangerous. They were just scared of the paper,’ Jade tried to reason.

‘And besides, we’ll be using smaller, older ponies for the rides,’ Andy explained.

‘What’s this anyway?’ Audrey’s mother asked, picking up one of the pieces of paper — the rest were still blowing along the beach.

‘It’s a flyer to raise awareness,’ Andy said. Jade thought she sounded quite grown up. ‘Samudra Riding School, an Ocean Bay institution, is under threat.’ Again, Jade was impressed by Andy’s spiel.

Basil ruined the effect of the speech, however, by choosing this inopportune moment to raise his tail and deposit a pile of droppings right next to the ruined sandcastle.

‘Yuck!’ Little Audrey squealed with delight and horror.

‘Girls, it’s a shame about the land being sold, but I don’t know if this is the way to — how did you put it? — “raise awareness”.’ Audrey’s mother was right: so far, the horses were gaining more hostile looks than smiles.

‘You two!’ An icy voice shouted behind the horses. Jade turned and saw a bronzed figure in sunglasses, a black bikini and leopard-print sarong striding towards them. The woman’s platinum-blonde hair was perfectly arranged — it had clearly not been in the sea that day.

‘Kim Bandt,’ Andy whispered, mortified.

‘What’s with littering the beach?’ Now standing only a safe distance from Basil’s manure, Jade could see Kim Bandt’s angry, lipsticked mouth and implausibly white teeth.

‘Well? Are you trying to wreck everyone’s relaxing holidays? Is the idea to pollute the habitat of seventeen species of sea bird by scattering paper down the beach?’

‘We just wanted to tell everyone about the riding school,’ Andy said, as firmly as she could. ‘About how you’ve evicted my Aunt Flora.’

‘This isn’t the way to win friends and influence people.’ Kim Bandt picked up one of the flyers and tore it in half. ‘You’re only little kids, but your Aunt Flora ought to know better.’

‘My Aunt Flora knows far more than you about Ocean Bay!’ Andy yelled. ‘She actually cares about the beach, not about making money. If you get your way, you’ll ruin this for everyone. It will become over-populated and pollution will really be a problem. I accidentally dropped some paper — that’s nothing compared with what a huge subdivision will do to the ecosystem.’ Although her voice was creeping steadily higher and becoming shrill, Andy’s words were impressive — to Jade at least.

‘You don’t know what you’re talking about, little girl,’ Kim replied. ‘Take your ponies home, while they still have one, and let everyone else enjoy the beach.’ Turning on her espadrille, Kim Bandt adjusted her sarong and stalked off.

Audrey’s mother, who had been watching quietly from under her sun umbrella, folded her flyer in half and used it as a bookmark.

‘What time are the pony rides starting tomorrow?’ she asked. ‘Audrey and I will be here with bells on.’

Andy grinned at Jade. Their efforts hadn’t been in vain.