The Girl in the Window Read Online Free PDF

rang…
    Josh’s gut churned.
    They couldn’t lose this moment because Russ’s conscientiousness wouldn’t let him answer the phone while driving.
    “Hello?” Russ’s voice was rough, impatient, tinged as always with an odd high note, like chalk on a blackboard, yet it wasn’t unpleasant.
    “Whatever you do, I don’t care if you’re late, wherever you are, stop,” Josh said, his eyes locked on the slender figure by the paddock and the horse that paced within it. “We might have a breakthrough with the horse.”
    It was always ‘the horse’, not the name. None of them dared become tied to it emotionally. If Josh couldn’t train it, then he’d have to sell it.
    Russ started to speak, but Josh knew the other man would say something harsh and sensible, something that would break the magic of the moment outside with cold logic.
    Sometimes you just had to have the magic.
    He shut his phone and watched.
    Outside, the horse paced around the paddock, mane and tail blowing as his movements and the breeze picked up.
    The girl stood immobile, her arm braced on the rail. Josh had the sense she would wait forever if necessary.
    A strange sense of tranquility settled over Beth, a feeling of peace. Everything seemed to move in slow motion, the horse trotted effortlessly, each leg, each hoof, reaching out in a steady syncopated rhythm. The sound of those hooves was everything and yet she could still hear the birdsong. It seemed she’d suddenly become patience.
    She waited as the horse danced, first one way then the other.
    A moment, a shift, she sensed something change and the balance tipped.
    In almost mid-stride, the horse turned, stopped, and walked toward her almost wearily to lower his head to the offering in her palm.
    He chuffed, blew and lipped at the grass.
    By not so much as a hair did she move as he chewed, contentedly, at the small sheaf.
    She allowed herself a smile.
    Moving ever so slowly, she reached into the pocket of her sweater and drew out the apple.
    The horse eyed her. His ears flicked, one then the other. Muscles jumped beneath his hide nervously.
    The apple sat in the palm of her hand.
    He hesitated, and then he took the apple, too, crunched it between his big teeth.
    Very carefully, Beth reached out to stroke the silken soft muzzle, and then scrubbed lightly between his eyes.
    For a moment, he accepted the caress. He blew out a breath.
    Then he tossed his head.
    It was enough for today, she’d pushed him as far to the boundaries of his trust as he would allow. She understood that, too.
    “All right,” she said, softly.
    His ears twitched forward at the sound of her voice.
    “We’ll take it slow,” she said, and stepped carefully off the rail.
    On her way back to the house, she glanced back once.
    The horse stood, watching her.
    Beth stepped through the back door, catching the screen door automatically so it wouldn’t slam.
    She stood in the kitchen, irresolute.
    If the horse could take that great a leap, could she?
    Taking a breath, she walked up the stairs, looked at the doors at each end of the hall. All the others but those two stood open.
    The one at the far end was closed.
    One step at a time.
    She walked down a hall that suddenly seemed much longer, as it once had, and laid a hand on that forbidden knob.
    As a child this room had been off limits, except for certain occasions.
    Remembering the courage of the horse, and holding onto that odd serenity she’d felt standing with him at the paddock, she turned the knob. Slowly, she opened the door.
    Her heart hammered even so, she discovered.
    The first thing that struck her was the smell.
    It smelled like him.
    It smelled like her father, like his skin, his body, the aftershave he’d used a faded undercurrent.
    Everything in the room was unchanged from when she’d been a child.
    The bed with its headboard of some dark wood, dull with age, scrollwork curling its edges, dominated the room. To one side her mother’s dresser was still scattered