Jessica and Jewel Read Online Free Page B

living room.
    Well, I suppose I should say what happened after I went to find Tegan, although I feel a bit ashamed about writing it down in here.

    First I looked in her tent, and the other younger ones were there, but she wasn’t. Lola said they hadn’t seen her for a while, but I didn’t worry – I thought she must be by the Land Rover with the older girls, sorting things out with Jody for our supper, or maybecollecting wood for the fire with Johnny and James. But I checked the Land Rover and she wasn’t there, and when Johnny and James came back out of the bushes with armfuls of brushwood she wasn’t with them. I could only think that she must have slipped back up to the pony field to visit Twinkle, so I walked over to have a look. “Come on, T!” I called. “We’re going to make the fire now.”
    But she wasn’t there either.
    My heart started pounding then and I felt a bit sick. Where on earth was she?
    Then I noticed that Twinkle was gone, too.
    I raced back to the Land Rover, feeling like I could hardly breathe. “Tegan’s gone!” I said, but no one heard above the chatter and laughing. “Tegan’s gone!” I shouted. They all stopped talking then. I started sobbing hysterically and Sally hugged me and told me to take deep breaths and tell her what had happened.
    â€œTegan’s missing, and so’s Twinkle,” I finally managed to stutter. Sally and Jody gave each other a worried look. “I upset her, and—” I began, but then I broke into sobs again.

    â€œOK, don’t panic,” said Johnny firmly. “I can take the Land Rover back down the lane to look for her and—”
    â€œBut we’d have seen her go by that way,” said Sally. “She must have taken the bridle path next to the field. And if she’s on horseback, the best way to find her will be on horseback too.”
    â€œYou’re right,” said Johnny. “I’ll go.”
    But Sally insisted that she would. “And I’ll ring as soon as I find her,” she added.
    The way she said that, as if she would definitely find her, made me feel a bit better.Thank goodness an adult was in control. But I knew I had to go with her, I just had to. I was about to try explaining that when she saw the look on my face and instantly understood. “Come on, Jess,” she said, as she set off for the pony field. Bailey, Claudia, Dannii and Johnny came too, to help catch and tack up Jewel and Blue. “There’s one saddle without a bridle here,” said Sally, frowning. “Tegan must have gone bareback.”

    I started crying again then. It would be even harder for her to balance without a saddle and stirrups. What if Twinkle got spooked by something and bolted? What if Tegan got thrown off? I hadn’t even checked whether she’d taken her hat or not. She could already be lying in a ditch somewhere, maybe unconscious. I burst into hysterical sobs, wailing, “This is my fault! It’s all my fault!”
    Sally got quite strict with me then. She took me by the shoulders and held me tight. “Jess, if you want to come, you have to calm down,” she said firmly. “Getting hysterical won’t help Tegan. You need to be positive and focus on finding her. You can make it up to her then, OK?”
    I nodded and sniffled, and even though my legs were still shaking I managed to mount up. Jewel definitely knew something was wrong. She sprang from hoof to hoof, alert and ready, as if she couldn’t wait to get going. Sally and I set off in trot and headed down the bridle path. New worries filled my head as we rode on, things like what if it got dark and we still hadn’t found her? What would we do then? I pushed them away and tried to think positive, as Sally had told me to, but it was difficult. I tried to look for clues, but I couldn’t see any – there were lots of different hoof prints in the