The Horse Whisperer

'I don't know if they'll take him back,' Grace went on. 'But I don't want anyone around here to have him.'

Robert nodded slowly, showing he understood even if he didn't yet agree. Grace latched on to this.

'I want to say goodbye to him, Daddy. Could we go see him this morning? Before I go back to the hospital?'

A

The wounds were healing well, she said. The skin grafts over the ca

Mrs Dyer came out of the stable and crossed the yard toward them, wiping her hands on the sides of the old blue quilt jacket she always wore. The wind whipped strands of gray hair across her face and she smiled as she tidied them away. The smile was so odd and out of character that A

'Hello Grace,' Mrs Dyer said. 'How are you dear?'

'She's doing just great, aren't you baby?' Robert said. Why can't he let her answer for herself? thought A

'Yes, I'm fine.'

'Did you have a good Christmas? Lots of presents?'

'Zillions,' said Grace. 'We had a fabulous time, didn't we?' She looked at A

'Fabulous,' A

No one seemed to know what to say next and for a moment they all stood there in the cold wind, embarrassed. Clouds barreled furiously overhead and the red walls of the barn were suddenly set ablaze by a burst of sun.

'Grace wants to see Pilgrim,' said Robert. 'Is he in the barn?'

Mrs Dyer's face flickered.

'No. He's out back.'

A

'Great,' said Robert. 'Can we go see him?'

Mrs Dyer hesitated but only for an instant.

'Of course.'

She turned and walked off. They followed her out of the yard and around to the old row of stalls at the back of the barn.

'Mind how you go. It's pretty muddy back here.'

She looked over her shoulder at Grace on her crutches then darted a look at A

'She's pretty darn good on these things, don't you think Joan?' Robert said. 'I can't keep up.'

'Yes, I can see.' Mrs Dyer smiled, briefly.

'Why isn't he in the barn?' Grace asked. Mrs Dyer didn't answer. They were at the stalls now and she stopped by the only door that was closed and turned to face them. She swallowed hard and looked at A

'I don't know how much Harry and Liz have told you.' A

'Well, we know he's lucky to be alive,' Robert said. There was a pause. They were all waiting for Mrs Dyer to go on. She seemed to be searching for the right words.

'Grace,' she said. 'Pilgrim isn't how he used to be. He's been very disturbed by what happened.' Grace looked very worried suddenly and Mrs Dyer looked at A

'Why? What—?' Robert started to say, but Grace cut him off.

'I want to see him. Open the door.'

Mrs Dyer looked at A

It took a while for the girl's eyes to grow accustomed to the darkness. Then she saw him. Her voice when she spoke was so small and frail that the others could barely hear it.

'Pilgrim? Pilgrim?'

Then she gave a cry and turned away and Robert had to reach out quickly to stop her from falling.

'No! Daddy, no!'

He put his arms around her and led her back to the yard. The sound of her sobbing faded and was lost on the wind.

'A

A

His grotesquely scarred muzzle was tilted up at her, as if daring her to move and he was panting in short, nervy snorts. A

A

Chapter Five

The meeting had been dragging on for almost an hour and A

'I just don't think our readers are Day-Glo kind of people,' somebody was saying. The art director, who clearly did think so, was getting more and more defensive.

'It isn't Day-Glo,' he said. 'It's electric candy.'

'Well I don't think they're electric candy people either. It's too eighties.'

'Eighties? That's absurd!'

A

It had been the same all morning. First there had been a breakfast meeting to make peace with the Hollywood agent whose 'black hole' client had gone berserk at having his profile canceled. Then she'd had the production people in her office for two hours spreading doom about the soaring cost of paper. One of them had been wearing a cologne of such dizzying awfulness that A

In recent weeks she had come to rely more than ever on her friend and deputy, Lucy Friedman, the magazine's resident style guru. The cover they were now discussing was tied to a piece Lucy had commissioned on lounge lizards and featured a gri

Sensing, no doubt, that A

As the argument raged, A

Something caught her eye and she saw through the glass panel by the door that Anthony, her assistant, was mouthing and pointing at his watch. It was nearly noon and she was supposed to be meeting Robert and Grace at the orthopedic clinic.