The Wolf Tree Read Online Free PDF

the shadows at the far end past the stacked tables, her hands clutching her bare elbows against the cold.
    “You’re right,” Ray said. “I don’t understand. Tell me what’s going on, Marisol.”
    She turned, her lovely face more calm, but her almond eyes black and rimmed with tears. “It’s my life here. Don’t getme wrong. I love Shuckstack. But you, Ray … you get to wander off into the wild for months on end. You’re learning all these things. You’re becoming a Rambler. What am I doing?”
    “Is it the show?” Ray asked. “Do you miss performing?”
    “Sometimes.” She shrugged. “But it’s not just that. Look at Si. Even she gets to travel off with Buck.”
    “And what happened to her?”
    “I know. That was horrible. But this …” She gestured to the lodge, to Shuckstack, to her life and what it had become. “This is not all I want. I need to get away.”
    Ray looked at his feet. “Are you going to leave? Is that what you’re saying?”
    “No!” Marisol put her hand to her temple. “No, that’s not what I mean. I knew you wouldn’t understand.” She turned away, gripping the railing with clenched knuckles.
    Ray saw goose pimples prickling across her arms in the cold. He was cold, too. He wanted to go back in, join the laughter and fun of Nel’s celebration. But he knew whatever had boiled up in Marisol was something that had been coming for a long time. He had never fully appreciated all the responsibility that rested on her shoulders.
    “What if you went with me sometime?” Ray asked.
    Marisol lifted her head, thinking for a moment before turning. “Do you really mean that?”
    “Sure. Why couldn’t you come with me next time?”
    “You don’t think Nel would mind? You wouldn’t mind?”
    Ray smiled with a shrug. “I didn’t know you wanted to. Icould take you over to the gorge. The laurels will be coming in soon and—”
    Marisol’s attention caught on something over Ray’s shoulder. A man with a dark beard mounted the last step up to the porch. He shook the snow from his wide-brimmed hat.
    “This Joe Nelson’s place?”
    Ray looked out in the dark and saw a horse tied up to a sapling in the yard. He had been so intent on his conversation with Marisol that he had not heard the horse’s footsteps in the snow.
    “Can we help you?” Ray asked.
    “I sure hope so. Name’s Herman Bradshaw. I come all the way from Kansas to find a Mister Joe Nelson. If he’s the Rambler that Water Spider says, he’s the only one who can help me.”
    Bradshaw broke into a fit of coughing such that he doubled over. Marisol went inside and soon Nel stepped out onto the porch after Buck and Si.
    “Mister Bradshaw,” Nel said, talking over the music and laughter flooding from the lodge. “Won’t you come inside? You’ve traversed a fair distance, and we’ve got food and a warm fire.”
    Bradshaw twisted his hat in his hands and said, “I appreciate it, but I didn’t come here to interrupt your party.”
    “We realize that it’s not your intent, but you’re here and it’s late, so why don’t you come in?”
    “Frankly, what I’ve got to speak of ain’t fit for the joy of that room yonder.”
    Nel turned to Si. “Will you get Mister Bradshaw a plate and some warm cider to drink? Bring it down to my room.” Nel turned back to the man. “Let’s go downstairs. There’s a stove you can warm yourself by, and we can talk.”
    Nel led them down the stairs to an outside door to his room in the cellar. Ray followed with Buck and Marisol. Nel lit the stove and offered Bradshaw a chair. In the yellow glow of the room, Ray noticed how strangely discolored Bradshaw was. Ray had never seen anyone the unnatural shade of Mister Bradshaw. His white skin had an odd gray tint like paper turned to ash.
    Nel asked, “Why have you come so far to find me, Mister Bradshaw?”
    “If I were to tell it proper, it would take us all night, Mister Nelson. And I feel sore that I’ve taken you from