Read The Horse Thief for Free Online Page B

dark gaze. ‘Were you out riding?’
    Her mother nodded. Her neck was so thin India feared she might damage herself with the movement.
    â€˜Don’t go alone. It’s dangerous, you might fall again.’ As the words left her lips India realised her mistake.
    Mama’s frail body crumpled, her hands cradling her head, and her loud heart-rending sob filled the room.
    Anya’s eyes blazed, the she-cat protecting her ward. ‘See what you have done? Go, Miss India. Go now.’
    Slamming her hands against her ears to block the sound of her mother’s keening, India backed to the door. Goosebumps flecked her skin and threw her back to the past. To the time when these same cries rent the night and she burrowed under a pillow, unable to assuage her conscience and her heartache. Fumbling, she found the door handle and turned it. As she left the room Anya held the small glass of laudanum to her mother’s lips. The drug offered its release almost before she closed the door.

    After a bath and a change of clothes, India made her way into the dining room hoping Violet’s company might erase the sound of Mama’s cries still ringing in her ears. Violet stood at the tall sash window, arms clasped around her waist, staring out into the fading light.
    â€˜Hello. Have you had a good day?’
    â€˜Not particularly.’ Violet grunted and turned. ‘As I’ve told you I find it insufferably boring here.’ She rolled her eyes. When she was happy they were the colour of the tiny violets that grew between the sandstone pavers in the walled garden. Tonight they resembled the purple Paterson’s Curse that overtook the paddocks in autumn. ‘What have you been doing? I haven’t seen you since yesterday.’
    â€˜Well, I have excellent news.’ India forced a cheerful tone into her voice. Since her visit to her mother she’d been trying to devise ways of keeping her in the house. The thought she might have another riding accident made India’s stomach turn. Anya did her very best to keep her safe, but the belief someone had stolen her child while she lay insensible was her sole reality. Her twilight sojourns had become difficult to monitor. In the time it took Anya to rush downstairs to the kitchen her mother could be out of the house and astride a horse. Her ability to ride without a saddle made it easy for her to slip away. Perhaps Jim’s presence would curtail her jaunts.
    â€˜I have employed a new overseer.’
    Now she had Violet’s attention.
    â€˜Oh! Is that who I saw you talking to? He looks charming—in a pastoral sort of way, of course.’
    â€˜I didn’t employ him for his looks.’ However, she didn’t find them offensive; his wide grin and straight white teeth were charming. And he appeared very capable and assured. Her mind flashed to the way he’d swept her down from the fence and the lovely scent of saddle-soap and leather. ‘You know how much I want to restore Helligen’s reputation as a stud. Jim is the first step along that road.’
    â€˜Oh! Jim .’ Violet batted her eyelashes then cocked an eyebrow.
    â€˜Don’t be so ridiculous. Of course it’s Jim. We’re employing him. What do you expect me to call him? Mr Mawgan?’
    â€˜It would seem a little more appropriate. Have you forgotten all the manners we learned at Miss Wetherington’s?’
    For a moment India wondered if she had. The man had walked onto the property last night and already it was as if he belonged. ‘No, I haven’t forgotten my manners. He is simply the perfect candidate for the job and I was lucky enough to find him with the first advertisement.’
    â€˜I can’t understand why you feel the need to employ the man in the first place. What’s the use? We don’t need to be here. We’d be far better off in Sydney. If you’d take Cecil Bryce’s offer more seriously you