Riding the Storm Read Online Free PDF

reasonable to believe that one horseman could be knocked out and accidentally drown – but two? He squinted up the beach where he could just make her out, still riding away although the rocks were coming up fast; she wouldn’t be able to travel much further without turning back. When he was satisfied that no life remained in Peter Lanigan’s body, he tried to push it out into deeper water but it was no use: the tide was moving in and it kept coming back. The sun had risen properly now, lighting up the whole scene, and Harry needed to get out of there fast. He waded ashore and loped away from the beach, trying not to make too much haste and congratulating himself on a job well done. Riderless and unsure what to do, the big grey stood on the shore watching him leave, the only witness to his latest crime.
    Less than half an hour later, leaving the other rider to make the horrifying discovery of Lanigan’s body lying face down in the shallows, Harry had packed up his camp, leaving no trace of his presence, and was already on his way south.
     
    ‘I don’t know what happened, Mum, but it was an accident. You can’t blame Tommy for this.’ Feeling close to falling apart himself, Ryan tried to reason with his mother, who was sobbing and shaking with hysteria. ‘If you want to blame anyone, blame me. If I’d been there myself, I might have saved him. Melia wasn’t strong enough to pull him out of the sea. She turned him over and did the best she could, ringing emergency services right away, then she managed to get hold of both horses.’
    ‘Damn the horses! I never want to see either of them again.’Joanne was seated in a basket chair on the veranda, rocking herself in her grief, almost suffocating the little Italian greyhound she held in her lap. ‘And don’t talk to me about Melia. I told her she’s not welcome here any more and not to come back.’
    ‘You shouldn’t have done that, Mum. I’ll need all the help I can get.’
    ‘Not if you get rid of the horses.’
    ‘Well,’ Ryan muttered. ’We’ll have to see about that.’ He had no intention of selling Tommy and Sprite, or managing the stables without Melia’s help. His father might no longer be here, but he was determined to continue and enlarge the venture Peter had started, rather than part with their horses.
    ‘What did you say?’
    ‘Nothing. And don’t hold Tinka so hard, you’re strangling the poor dog.’
    ‘Oh.’ Joanne released the little dog, which ran away to hide under the table.
     
    ‘I’m so sorry, Ryan,’ Melia said when he finally tracked her down at her sister’s place where she was babysitting the children. ‘But I can’t work where I’m not wanted. Your mother blames me for what happened to Pete—’
    ‘But I don’t and I’m the one you’ll be working for. You’re our track rider too. I’d rather muck out the stables myself and let the lads go.’
    ‘But your mother said there won’t be any work as she’s selling the horses.’
    ‘Take no notice of Mum. She’s half mad with grief, besides being—’ He hesitated, feeling it would be disloyal to mention his mother’s illness.
    ‘Being what?’
    ‘Never mind. She was upset and if you stay out of her way, she won’t even remember you’re there. She’s very forgetful these days.’
    ‘Well, OK. I’ll help out for the sake of the horses. But if she shouts at me like that again and says awful things, I shall leave and I won’t be back.’
    ‘OK. If you come in the early hours of the morning and leave before nine, she won’t see you. She takes pills to help her sleep and never gets up before ten.’
    ‘All right.’ Melia still sounded doubtful. ‘But I’m gone at the first sign of trouble.’

CHAPTER THREE
    ‘I DON’T GET it.’ Valerie stared at her husband, surprised by the suggestion he had just made. ‘You’ve shut Peter out of your life for years. Why is it now so important to go to his funeral?’
    Robert sighed, his expression pained.