The morning flew by. Alice-Miranda had PE followed by Science with Mr Plumpton.

At morning tea time she ran to the dining room where she was greeted by the school secretary, Mrs Derby, holding a beautifully wrapped parcel.

‘Hello there. Happy birthday, sweetheart,’ the young woman said.

‘Thank you, Mrs Derby.’ Alice-Miranda gave her a quick hug.

‘This arrived for you a little while ago.’ Louella Derby handed Alice-Miranda the gift. It was wrapped in the prettiest striped cerise paper with a huge polka dot bow. Alice-Miranda wondered what was inside.

‘There’s a card, too,’ Mrs Derby pointed out.

Alice-Miranda slid her finger under the flap and opened the envelope. Inside was a gorgeous card with a pony on the front that looked just like Bonaparte. He was baring his teeth and had a speech bubble that said, ‘I hear it’s your birthday, so I’ll try to be on my best behaviour, just this once . . .’ On closer inspection Alice-Miranda realised that it was Bonaparte. Her mother must have had it specially made.

To our darling daughter,

Wishing you the happiest of birthdays. We can hardly believe that you’re as grown up as eight. Have a wonderful day with all your friends and we will see you very soon.

All our love and hugs and kisses,

Mummy and Daddy and everyone at home xoxox

Millie and Jacinta rushed into the dining room and stood beside their friend.

‘Did you think we’d forgotten?’ Millie gasped as she tried to catch her breath.

‘No. Well, not really,’ Alice-Miranda replied. ‘I thought you might have been playing a trick on me when I saw Jacinta wink at you at breakfast.’

‘Hurry up,’ Millie ordered, nodding at the parcel. ‘Aren’t you going to open it?’

Alice-Miranda tore open the paper and pulled out a beautiful silver photo frame.

‘Look!’ she exclaimed. ‘This picture was taken on the Octavia at Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Lawrence’s wedding – everyone’s there.’

‘Let me see.’ Sloane had arrived and joined the group. ‘Look! That’s me.’ She pointed at herself standing beside Millie.

‘Der.’ Millie rolled her eyes.

Sloane wrinkled her nose.

‘What else is in there?’ Jacinta asked.

Alice-Miranda peered into the package and pulled out a beautiful pair of leather riding gloves, several pretty hairclips and a lovely blue dress.

‘I’ve had some other parcels delivered to the house, too,’ Mrs Derby said.

Alice-Miranda beamed. ‘It sounds like my whole day is going to be full of surprises.’

‘Come on,’ Millie urged. ‘I’m starving and that cake of yours looks really good.’ She eyed off the large wedges of chocolate cake set out along the servery.

As the girls ate their delicious morning tea, Millie and Alice-Miranda agreed to meet at the stables at lunchtime and see how Chops and Bony were getting on.

Jacinta said that she was heading off to the gym during the lunch break and Sloane mentioned that she needed to go to the library and make a start on some research for an assignment.

Jacinta stared at her room mate and frowned. ‘Who are you and what have you done with the real Sloane Sykes?’

‘Jacinta! I think it’s wonderful that Sloane wants to get her work done,’ Alice-Miranda said.

‘Well, I’d rather go to the library than to the stables any day. I’m never riding again – horses are horrible.’ Sloane curled her top lip, recalling her last outing on Stumps, which saw her galloping through the woods, completely out of control.

‘You know, maybe you’re not so bad after all,’ Jacinta said and raised her hand to high-five Sloane across the table. ‘We might have more in common that I first thought.’

The girls went off to their lessons, and on the way Alice-Miranda ducked into the kitchen to see if she could organise some sandwiches for her and Millie to take with them at lunch.

‘Hello, Mrs Smith, are you here?’ the child called as she entered the cavernous space. It was filled with rows of stainless steel benches and pots of all shapes and sizes hung overhead like a colony of metal bats.

Doreen Smith was in the coolroom, checking on supplies.

‘Wait there a tick, darling girl. I’ll be out in a moment,’ she called back.

Alice-Miranda stood beside the area of bench that Mrs Smith liked to call her ‘office’. There was a corkboard with recipes and a couple of her favourite photographs, including one of Mrs Smith and her good friend Dolly Oliver at Highton Hall, and another of her grandchildren standing in front of the entrance to Disneyland.

‘Well, hello there,’ the cook said as she emerged from the coolroom.

‘Thank you for my scrumptious cake – and that delicious breakfast. I was a bit surprised to find the crispy bacon with the pancakes,’ said Alice-Miranda.

‘It was my pleasure,’ Mrs Smith replied. ‘You know I developed quite a taste for that myself when I last visited the grandchildren.’

They were interrupted by the telephone ringing.

‘Hang on a tick, dear. I’ll just get that,’ said the cook as she picked it up. ‘Hello Dick, how are you? Really? Oh heavens.’ Mrs Smith inhaled sharply. ‘Is she going to be all right? What a terrible shock. Just let me know what I can do.’ There was a short pause. ‘Oh, that’s easy, no trouble at all.’

‘Is something the matter?’ Alice-Miranda asked as Mrs Smith placed the phone back in its cradle and sat down on the stool. Her shoulders slumped as if someone had just pricked her with a pin and all the air was leaking out.

‘That was Dick Wigglesworth, the stable foreman at Chesterfield Downs. Evelyn Pepper was found unconscious in the tack room this morning with a broken hip and a nasty bump on the head,’ Mrs Smith began.

‘Poor Miss Pepper. That’s terrible. What happened to her?’ Alice-Miranda asked.

‘It seems she’d gone to get some gear but the light was broken. She must have tripped in the dark. Mr Wigglesworth found her. She’s been taken off to hospital in Downsfordvale and will likely be there a couple of weeks. If I know Evelyn, she’ll be beside herself. Chesterfield Downs won’t be the same without her. She rides track work, trains all those horses and feeds everyone who works there too,’ Mrs Smith explained.

‘Is there anything we can do to help?’ Alice-Miranda asked.

‘That’s what Mr Wigglesworth phoned about. He wondered if I might be able to organise some meals for them, just lunch and some afternoon tea. Which of course I can do in a heartbeat.’

‘Well, I’m going to write Miss Pepper a card this afternoon. I’ve only met her a couple of times but Bonaparte took a real shine to her when we were riding through the village last term. And you know Bony doesn’t like many people straight away. Come to think of it, Bony doesn’t like many people, full stop.’

‘I’m sure Evelyn would love a cheery card.’ Mrs Smith stood up and glanced at the kitchen clock. ‘But I think you should be on your way to class, even if it is your birthday.’

‘Oh, I almost forgot. I came to ask if Millie and I could have some sandwiches to take to the stables at lunchtime, please. We want to check on Bony and Chops and spend some time with Mr Walt before he leaves at the end of the week,’ said Alice-Miranda. ‘And I’ve got hockey practice this afternoon and a drama lesson tomorrow after school so we can’t ride until at least Wednesday.’

‘How does ham and a little dash of mustard, some tomato, Swiss cheese and lettuce sound?’ Doreen Smith asked.

‘Perfect, thank you,’ Alice-Miranda replied. ‘I’ll see you soon.’

The child exited the kitchen through the back door and walked across the cobblestoned courtyard to her class.