A Secret Rage Read Online Free PDF

have to ram me down the college’s throat?’ I had known Mimi could get me admitted in time, but I had worried that scrambling in under her wing might make my presence resented.
    ‘No, ninny. You had good grades, very good grades. Don’t worry so much! There’s been a slump in enrollment, so there was room for you. Even with the slump, there’s no extra dorm room or parking spaces – those have been at a premium for years. Since you don’t want either, they were practically panting. You’ll like Barbara. I do. She’s been here several years, and she’s really fitted in well. She just got tenure. By the way,’ Mimi added delicately when I was halfway to my room, ‘you have to pay your fees this week. How’s the money situation?’
    ‘I’m a well-to-do woman,’ I told her firmly. ‘Don’t even think of filthy lucre. I’m chipping in on the house expenses, of course. We’ll have to sit down and work that out tomorrow.’
    ‘I think you have a fan,’ she remarked dryly.
    I looked down to see Attila sitting before me, great green eyes fixed on my face in an unnerving stare. When the big cat was sure I was watching, he flopped over to expose a wide creamy belly and said, ‘Rowr.’
    ‘Don’t be surprised if you have company tonight,’ Mimi warned me. ‘He’s been sleeping on your bed ever since I set it up.’
    I observed Mao as she slept curled on Mimi’s lap. Mao was a fancier’s cat, fine-boned and graceful and purebred. I looked back at huge tawny Attila, who had the glow of mockery in his eyes and a generally self-satisfied expression. Since I didn’t bend to scratch the proferred expanse of stomach, he rolled to his feet and began rubbing himself against my legs. I hoped there wasn’t any unflattering significance in the cat’s preference.
    But I told the bathroom mirror that birds of a feather flocked together, before I crawled into bed with the cat.
    I lay awake for a while, mulling over my good fortune. Just as I was drifting off to sleep, I thought about poor little Heidi Edmonds. I couldn’t even recall the face of the dead woman on the sidewalk in New York. I could lose her in the city. But in little Knolls, I couldn’t forget the tragedy of a girl I’d never seen.
    I sent a wish for her recovery and well-being out into the ether, drowsily tickled Attila behind the ears, and blanked out with my hand still resting on the cat’s broad back.

3
    I’D ALWAYS REGRETTED that Celeste’s house didn’t actually face the campus, whose landscaped gardens made a beautiful view; but the house stood only half a block away from the college’s southwestern corner.
    I borrowed Mimi’s car for this first trip to the campus, since I didn’t want to arrive for my appointment dripping with sweat. I should’ve realized the unfamiliar strain of driving would make me even more anxious than I already was. I bit my lip until I turned safely into the college’s main drive. The campus was fully as impressive as I’d remembered – green and welcoming, if slightly frazzled near the end of the fierce summer.
    With a glance I checked the campus map spread on the seat beside me, to verify the location of the English department. The college grounds were empty and quiet – in a dreamy calm before the storm of freshman students soon due for orientation. I saw the occasional parked car, so a few staff members had to be tucked away somewhere. But workers on the grounds crew were the only living souls I glimpsed.
    I slid the Chevrolet awkwardly into the first parking lot I saw. I’d walked about ten feet when I realized, from a further study of the map, that I could have parked much closer to the English building. I hesitated for a moment, but it didn’t seem worth the extra strain of maneuvering the car again. The gardens were always worth a visit, anyway. I shrugged to myself and set off down the concrete path.
    Houghton’s gardens were quite famous. When Mimi’s great-grandfather had founded the college,