Castle Rock Read Online Free PDF

It had never before, Serena thought, been hard.
    â€œI’m sorry you feel that way,” Serena said, still pleasantly. “We would like for you to enjoy your stay here.”
    â€œYeah. Well, thanks. Look, why don’t you come over and have a drink.”
    So far this week, Lou Minter had treated Serena on a par with a hotel maid. This request must mean that the woman was dreadfully lonely—or bored. But Serena felt there was a limit to what Uncle Dan would expect.
    â€œI wish I could, but I have to help put the box lunches together, and then I’m taking the Rhodes on a ride to Missionary Lake.”
    â€œOh.”
    Serena glimpsed Julie walking down the hall. “I’ll tell you what, Mrs. Minter, why don’t I see if Julie could come. I imagine . . .”
    â€œOh no, that’s all right. I’ll take a bath,” and the phone clicked into the cradle.
    Serena shrugged. Now that was odd. She would have supposed that Mrs. Minter would feel an instinctive bond with Julie, who wore gorgeous, expensive, and absolutely non-ranch wear clothes, and who was, so obviously to everyone but Uncle Dan, bored out of her mind. Instead Mrs. Minter had jumped back as if Serena had suggested a tete à tete with a nun.
    â€œDamned if I understand anybody,” Serena muttered.
    She slapped the receiver down and hurried to the kitchen. She did have box lunches to fix and it seemed there was never enough time to get everything done now that the season had started.
    The afternoon, spent with the congenial and appreciative Rhodes, restored her usual good humor. They rode up to the lake, which was deep and still and cold, ate lunch on a huge slab of red rock, and watched the children toss rocks down into the water. Serena especially enjoyed seeing Danny have such a good time with the Rhodes children. It reminded her of those long-ago days when she and Will and Julie had raced up and down mountain trails and never worried about tomorrow.
    She was rather quiet on the ride back down the mountain. Why had she thought of it like that? Remembered with pleasure those days because they hadn’t worried about tomorrow. Was she worried now?
    A whitetail deer flashed by among the pines to their left. Serena reined up and called to the others. But underneath, the thought kept pulling and tugging. Was she worried?
    Not, she thought, worried. It was more that she felt uneasy, fearful. She knew suddenly with cold certainty that something was wrong, something at Castle Rock. Not the weather. Not even the irritation of the uncongenial Minters. Not Julie’s spoiled restlessness. Something more . . . Why couldn’t she pinpoint the problem? The fact that she had no idea what was wrong frightened her.
    Back at the corral, Serena supervised as the Rhodes and their children unsaddled the horses, rubbed them down, and fed them.
    After the others had gone, Serena lingered in the tack room. She took her time putting away the saddle blankets and hanging the bridles and bits. Then, with a thrill of excitement, she heard the sound of Jed’s voice as he called to someone. When he came into the tack room, carrying his gear, she was at work mending a bridle.
    â€œStill at it, Serena?”
    â€œJust finishing up. I led the Rhodes up to Missionary Lake today. What did you do?”
    â€œWe rounded up some stragglers in Glen Valley and took them back to the main herd.”
    â€œI believe I’d take that over the tourists.”
    He looked at her in surprise. “I thought the Rhodes seemed like nice people.”
    â€œOh, they are,” Serena said quickly. “It’s some of the others.”
    â€œThe Minters?”
    She nodded. “Not hard to guess, is it?”
    â€œWhere are they from?” he asked casually.
    â€œL.A. Wouldn’t you know it?”
    â€œYeah. You’d think Vegas would be more to their taste.”
    â€œIt is. I’ve heard all about the Sands and Frankie