The Horse Whisperer

'She can't go on avoiding the issue,' she said. 'It's her horse for Godsake. She can't just wash her hands of it.'

'A

'But walking away from it isn't helping her, it's making it worse. You know how much she loved him. You saw how she was that day at the stables. Can't you imagine how the sight of him must haunt her?'

He didn't reply, just looked down and shook his head. A

'We can do something about this, Robert,' she said, gentle now. 'I know we can. Pilgrim can be alright again. This man can make him alright. And then Grace can be too.'

Robert looked at her. 'Does he really think he can do it?' A

'Yes,' she said. It was the first time she had actually lied about it. Robert naturally assumed Tom Booker had been consulted about Pilgrim's trip to Montana.

It was an illusion she'd also maintained with Grace.

Finding no ally in her father, Grace gave in, as A

Robert had helped them pack, driven them to Chatham and gone with them to Harry Logan's on the morning they set off. In Grace's eyes this made him an accomplice. While they loaded Pilgrim into the trailer, she sat like stone in the Lariat with her earphones on, pretending to read a magazine. The horse's cries and the sound of his hooves smashing against the sides of the trailer reverberated around the yard but never once did Grace look up.

Harry gave Pilgrim a hefty shot of sedative and handed A

'You better talk to Mom,' she said.

When it was time to go, her response to Robert's farewell kiss was little more than perfunctory.

That first night they had stayed with some friends of Harry Logan who lived on the edge of a small town just south of Cleveland. The husband, Elliott, had been to veterinary school with Harry and was now a partner in a large local practice. It was dark when they arrived and Elliott insisted A

'Harry said to leave him in the trailer,' A

'What, for the entire trip?'

That's what he said.'

He cocked an eyebrow and gave her a patronizing, professional kind of smile.

'You go on in. I'll take a look.'

It was starting to rain and A

Grace was put in their daughter's old room and A

Co

'Okay?'

Grace shrugged and still didn't look up. A

'God, I'm so stiff.'

'What are we doing here?'

The voice was cold and hostile and A

'What do you mean?'

Grace took in the whole room with a contemptuous sweep of her arm.

'All this. I mean, what are we doing here!'

A

'Grace, please.'

'I said forget it, okay?' And she was gone.

A

'I left him in the trailer,' he said.

At supper Grace toyed with her food and spoke only when spoken to. The three adults did their best to keep the conversation going but there were long spells when the only sound was the chink of cutlery. They talked about Harry Logan and Chatham and a new outbreak of Lyme disease that everyone was worrying about. Elliott said they knew a young girl about Grace's age who'd caught it and her life had been completely wrecked. Co

As soon as the meal was over, Grace said she was tired and would they mind if she went to bed. A

The next day, yesterday, they'd made an early start and driven with just a few short stops all the way across Indiana and Illinois and on into Iowa. And all day long, as the vast continent opened up around them, Grace kept her silence.

Last night they'd stayed with a distant cousin of Liz Hammond who'd married a farmer and lived near Des Moines. The farm stood alone at the end of five straight miles of driveway, as if on its own brown planet, plowed in faultless furrows to every horizon.

They were quiet, religious folk - Baptists, A

They ate supper at a long wooden table with the couple's six children. They all had their father's blond hair and wide blue eyes and watched A

This morning, the wife had cooked them a breakfast of eggs, hash browns, and home-cured ham and just as they were leaving, with Grace already in the car, the farmer had handed something to A

'We'd like you to have this,' he said.

It was an old book with a faded cloth cover. The man's wife was standing beside him and they watched as A

'It seemed appropriate,' the farmer said.

A

'We'll be praying for you all,' the woman said.

The book still lay on the front passenger seat. And every time A

Even though A