The Arrow Keeper’s Song Read Online Free PDF Page A

stern warnings to the Spanish forces suggesting we might become officially involved. Celestial invited any of us to come to Cuba and put our skills to good use. And it ought to be very exciting, to actually be part of such a gallant struggle.” Joanna’s eyes lit up as she spoke.
    â€œExcitement could get you killed,” Eleanor soberly replied.
    But her admonishment had no effect. Doctor Joanna Cooper held a firm belief in her own invulnerability. As far as she was concerned, her course was set. No turning back.
    They descended the stairs together. Reaching the front room, Joanna left her leather bag by the door and walked out onto the veranda. White wooden chairs looked out on the circular drive. It was a damp, hazy night. The New Orleans Road beyond the cobblestone path was completely obscured by fog.
    â€œI’m going back inside. It’s too gloomy out here,” Eleanor remarked.
    â€œI’ll join you in the dining room,” said Joanna. “But if father starts in on me again, I shall have to await my carriage out here on the veranda.”
    â€œYou two are something,” Eleanor muttered with a wag of her head.
    Joanna chuckled and stepped down onto the path that rounded the house and led down to the mist-shrouded lake. Great weeping willows and stalwart cypresses rose out of the mist as she drew closer to the shoreline. She stood there facing the silent gray expanse, lost in a world of her own thoughts. Images of her vanished childhood filled her mind, like characters in some play, each happy, innocent moment coming forward to take its bow, to say “good-bye.”
    The strains of “O How a Rose Ere Blooming” drifted through the mist. Joanna smiled. It was her favorite Christmas hymn, one that Roxanne always made a point of playing at this time of year. Catfish darted beneath the surface of the lake and sent wavelets lapping at the shore. Beyond the shrouded night, wild geese called across the black expanse.
    Music and hearth and home touched the woman’s heart. Steeling herself against her father’s last-ditch effort to change her mind, Joanna turned and started back toward the house. But she’d gone only a step or two when a strange cold wind sent the mist churning around her like lost souls in a mad dance. It increased in intensity. The cape that had almost been too warm for the night became a boon. Joanna found herself clutching at the folds and wrapping herself in its woolen embrace. The strange wind howled, and for a moment she thought she heard keening voices and the deeper resonant cadence of beating drums. Joanna remained awestruck, unable to move while the eerie gust buffeted her and clawed at her with its icy talons.
    What was that? That sound?
    â€œIs someone there?” she called out.
    The wind died as quickly as it sprang into being. The chill left her. The mist drifted apart like torn silk to reveal the stone path that stretched on to the house. Joanna brushed the debris from her dress, breathed deeply, and steadied her reeling senses.
    â€œWell …,” she muttered, and continued on her way. “Well …” She searched the darkness. “I know what I heard.” She paused and listened again. Nothing.
    But for a moment, trapped in the center of the whirlwind, Joanna was certain she had heard neighing horses and pounding hooves as if the animals were being ridden at a gallop, close at hand. But she had seen no one. And the ground around her was devoid of tracks.
    â€œI know what I heard,” Joanna repeated, then wondered whom she was trying to convince. A ghost wind, the plaintive voices, spectral riders, drumbeats …
    Up ahead Robert Cooper appeared at the corner of the veranda. He waited, hands tucked in the pockets of his frock coat, his features etched with concern.
    â€œI thought I heard you call out,” he explained as his daughter approached.
    â€œIt was nothing,” she said, trying to convince