Charlotte and the Starlet Read Online Free PDF

No
way would they be able to endure a two-week
muster. They did wear pretty dresses, though.
    She stared at the shiny sail again and the anxiety
she felt about leaving started to blow up like a willy-willy.
    'It's lovely.' She knew this untruth fell into the
category of lies you were allowed to tell. 'But I won't
need it, Dad.'
    'Actually, you will.' Her father handed over the
dress. It had a lot of lace tacked around the bottom so
that the overall effect was of a costume for a giant
kewpie doll. 'The letter said you'd need clothes for
social occasions.'
    Her anxiety became panic.
    'What social occasions?' She hadn't bothered to
read that part of the letter.
    'I think they have a party to welcome all you girls.'
    Charlotte's panic subsided. That wasn't too bad.
    Her father continued. 'And I think there might be a
dance or something with the boys' academy.'
    Boys! Oh, no. Charlotte didn't mind working with
boys, she didn't mind playing football or cricket or
softball with boys but dancing with them? This was
ridiculous. Wasn't this Thornton Downs place for
learning how to jump and do dressage? What did
dancing have to do with that? Charlotte's history
with boys was patchy to say the least. When Brian
Buchanon thought he'd scare her by putting a snake
in her schoolbag, she reacted in the only way a real
girl could. She belted him in the nose. For the rest of
the day she had to stand staring at the classroom wall.
Not that she minded. Everybody laughed when Brian
walked into the classroom from sick-bay with a big,
stupid bandage around his nose. She would have
stared at a wall a whole week for that moment. Maybe
this dress was karmic payback.
    Her father said, 'I'm glad you like your dress. You
better brush your teeth and get to bed. We've got a
long, long drive. Nearly sixteen-hundred k.'
    She offered to help with the dishes but her dad
wouldn't hear of it. She reached up and kissed him
goodnight, fighting the urge to cry.
    'See you in the morning.'
    It was dark when Charlotte woke and checked the
old clock radio by her bed. Two a.m. Three hours
before they left. There was something she needed to
do one last time. She got quietly out of bed and
tiptoed into the lounge room. Making sure the sound
was low, she clicked on the TV and the video player
and then inserted the tape which had inspired her to
want to be a JOE. It showed a beautiful young woman
competing in an equestrian event. The young
woman's face shone with excitement as she moved her
mount effortlessly around the ring. The young
woman was her mum. She'd been competing at the
Royal Show in the city, aged twenty. It was when her
mum and dad had first met. He had been down there
looking after cattle. When her mum's horse escaped,
he recaptured it, riding bareback. They fell in love
instantly. Her mum had told her that story a hundred
times and, even after she became ill, whenever she
told it she always laughed and looked twenty again.
    Something inside Charlotte had come alive at
seeing that video of her mother. Everybody always
said what a great rider Charlotte was and she knew
she was fast and could jump as far as any boy, but she
wished she could be as graceful as her mother had
been. Her dad had told her that her mum might have
ridden in the Olympics if she hadn't married him and
moved to the middle of nowhere. This was really why
Charlotte wanted to try out for the JOES – to be like
her mum, to make her proud and pay her back in
some way for what she had given up.

Chapter 5
    It is often said that people resemble their pets. A man
walking a Pekinese is likely to be rotund and waddle.
Siamese cats are favoured by sleek young women who
enjoy soaking up the warmth from the sunniest
window of their apartments. Miss Caroline Strud-worth
of Thornton Downs Equestrian Academy had
spent her entire life around horses and, to be frank, it
showed. Over six feet tall in her riding boots, which
she wore the entire day except when in bed, her face
was long, her nostrils slightly