Read Crow Mountain for Free Online Page B

brace yourselves as best you can, and hang on tight. Driver’s going to try and whip us out of this.’
    There was another enormous bang and the coach slid sideways again. The horses were still screaming and their voices mixed with my own as the coach, with deafening creaking and cracking, began to fall towards the river bed. Reaching up, I grabbed on to the other door, wanting to put as much space between myself and the ground as possible. I heard an inhuman howl, and saw Miss Adams clawing at her face as, through the opposite window, the river bed rushed up to meet us. Filling my compressed lungs as best I could, I screamed at the injustice of the world.

H ope took a long shower. When she came out, wrapped in a towel, hair hanging in damp straps over her shoulders, the puppy was on her bed, tongue lolling in its sharp face. She halted. From somewhere in the house, Cal’s voice bellowed, ‘Buddy! Where are you, you loser? Get down here.’
    The dog scrambled over Hope’s pile of dirty clothes and shot out of the door, a scrap of white cotton in his mouth.
    Hope hurtled after him, out to the landing.
    He was already down the stairs, crossing the huge room to where Cal stood, staring up at Hope as she clutched the towel to her chest. The dog sat obediently, and presented his gift.
    â€˜Whatcha got there, hey, pal?’ Cal tore his gaze from Hope, reached down and took the offering. Before realizing what it was. He looked at his hand, brows drawing together as hetried to think of something to say. He opened his mouth to speak, just as Meredith’s door opened. Cal snatched his hand behind his back. ‘Hey, Dr West! How you doing up there?’
    Meredith looked between them. ‘Perfectly well, thank you. Hope, is there something you need?’
    â€˜No, I, er, just. Nothing.’ She went back into her room, kicked the door shut and leant against it, closing her eyes and biting back a groan of despair.
    Fifteen minutes later, she was getting dressed in another pair of shorts, another vest and a Gap hoodie.
    â€˜Hope?’ her mother said through the door.
    â€˜Yes?’
    â€˜I thought I’d take a look around. Would you like to come with me?’
    Hope bit her lips together. Not really, no. I’d like a convenient hole to crawl into . But she knew from Meredith’s tone she was telling, not asking. ‘OK. Just a second, I need shoes.’ She ducked back into the room and shoved her feet into some canvas espadrilles. Coming back to the landing, she tugged the door shut.
    They went through the house and outside to the front. There was no one to be seen but there was a sense of constant, low-level activity in the air. From a large, plain building behind the barn, voices drifted. Meredith and Hope went to investigate. Caleb Crow was standing, hands on his hips and hat pulled over his eyes, watching as his son rode a glossy black horse in a tight figure of eight on the sawdust floor ofthe building. Cal wore a pair of suede coverings over his jeans, tight around his lower legs and fastening just beneath the knee, and a pair of battered leather gloves with gaping cuffs, showing off his tanned wrists. Concentrating on the horse, he didn’t even seem aware of their arrival.
    â€˜Hey, ladies,’ Caleb Crow said. ‘Settling in?’
    Meredith nodded. ‘Thank you.’
    He watched the horse, distracted. ‘That’s great. We’re not used to paying guests here. You’ll have to cut us some slack.’
    â€˜Everything is perfect, so far. Thank you. It’s very kind of you to put us up at all.’
    â€˜Couldn’t hardly refuse when you said we had all these things you need to study, could we?’ He put his head on one side. ‘Cal, he looks tight in the hocks to me. Could just be the time he spent in the trailer. Back him up, feel him out a little?’
    Cal brought the horse to an instant halt and bumped his heels gently as he