Water Lily Read Online Free PDF Page A

armful of books and her pockets stuffed with pills and inhalers.
    Now she rarely needed her inhaler, and she felt stronger. She spent every minute she wasn’t at schoolworking with animals, exploring the island on horseback, or caring for Hoku, her mustang filly.
    Both girls had paused to inspect the sky for rain clouds, so they’d only gone a few steps when two of the five ranch dogs trotted over to meet them. Peach licked their hands while Bart bounded around them.
    The rising wind ruffled the dogs’ fur, and even when they were petted, the dogs’ ears stayed upright and alert. They knew a storm was coming.
    â€œMeg?” Aunty Cathy called from the kitchen window, but her face was hidden by flapping curtains. “If you see Cade, tell him I’ve got to go into town tomorrow for my final doctor’s appointment and I’ll check for word about Dee.”
    â€œOkay,” Megan called back, but a boom of thunder, followed by thudding hooves, stopped her from saying more.
    Darby and Megan exchanged wide-eyed glances.
    â€œThe cremellos,” Darby said. “There’s no water trough in the round pen, is there?”
    â€œNo. Horses almost never stay loose in there. Usually, it’s just for training.”
    They watched the pale horses move together like a flight of gulls in the round pen.
    The cremello horses had been a gift with strings from Darby’s great-aunt, Babe Borden. She owned Sugar Sands Cove, a luxury resort, and had worked out an arrangement with Jonah to allow her guests to come ride at ‘Iolani Ranch. But the cremellos’ five-acrepasture, which would include a picturesque hill just to the right of the gravel driveway, was still being fenced by Kit, Kimo, and Cade.
    Eventually, the pasture would have a trough of its own, but now the horses had to be led to water.
    â€œIs that why he said we had to fill the trough by the tack shed?” Darby asked.
    Leading each of the cremellos to water several times a day was a small chore when the trough had an automatic flow valve that kept it full. But if the trough had to be filled by bucket, the job would be a big one.
    â€œHorses drink five to twelve gallons each day,” Darby said. “Multiply that by six cremellos, plus any horses that have a drink after they’ve been out working, and that’s—”
    â€œâ€”a whole lotta haulin’,” Megan complained. “Jonah should pretend that we’re not here. If school wasn’t closed that’s where we’d be: not here .”
    Darby laughed. “I don’t think Jonah pretends much.”
    â€œI’d say not even when he was a little kid, if it weren’t for that wooden horse in his library,” Megan agreed.
    A raindrop plopped on Darby’s nose. “Here it comes,” she said.
    â€œAnd the barrels are under cover down by the pigpen, and we haven’t even started,” Megan said. “I guess we should grab a couple slickers out of the tack room.”
    â€œIt’s too hot,” Darby said, “and it’ll scare Hoku.”
    â€œDo what you want, but I’m going to be modeling banana yellow for the next half hour,” Megan said.
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    While Megan searched for a slicker, Darby ran on ahead and stopped next to Hoku’s corral fence. Since that first raindrop, the sky seemed to be holding its breath. Tension charged every molecule of air, as if they were just waiting for lightning to set loose the rain.
    Hoku trotted back and forth, agitated by the weather. At least Darby thought that was what was wrong. Hoku had eaten every wisp of her dinnertime hay, but even in the dim light, her sorrel coat glistened with sweat as her brown eyes watched her human.
    Darby loved Hoku completely. They had bonded when the wild filly had been hit by a bus back on War Drum Flats in Nevada. She’d lain beside the injured horse in the snow for a long time until help finally arrived. During that