Read Online Hidden by Marianne Curley - Free Book Online Page A

have a chance to stretch your long Arabian legs and we will fly together as if you have wings.’
    Usually I enjoy the ride down the Langs’ long driveway. In autumn it’s especially lovely, with the changing colours of the liquidambar and golden ash trees lining both sides, but today I’m keen to start on our trip. It’s a substantial distance, but with Amber for company the journey won’t seem half as long.
    We meet outside her front gates and put Shadow and her horse, Pandora, into a steady canter along Gunalda Road.
    ‘It’s pretty sad what happened to those best friends,’ Amber says as she tries to get at an itch under her helmet. ‘Their story has been the hot topic in chat rooms ever since.’
    ‘They were best friends?’
    ‘Years ago,’ she confirms. ‘Way before you started.’
    ‘There must be more to it. Adam Skinner stabbing anybody is beyond me. He has everything going for him.’
    ‘I know! He topped our grade two years running and he’s planning to study law and become a solicitor like his mother and stepfather.’
    I nod because I know this too, from Careers Day last year when Mrs Skinner-Holmes gave a talk.
    Turning west on to North-West Highway One, the traffic increases, so we ride single file. We pull in at an off-road amenities park later in the morning. Truck drivers often stop to catch a nap here, but now it’s quiet.
    ‘How much further?’ Amber asks as she rummages around in her backpack for something to eat.
    ‘According to these directions –’ I bring out my map and point to a small lane near the Windhaven National Park – ‘we should arrive around noon.’
    ‘Just giving us enough time to do our business and make it home before being missed.’
    It’s amazing how similarly we think. Last night I told Mum I’d be out riding all day with Amber, letting her assume we would be sticking to the trails in the local forests where we usually go.
    The last thing I want is to hurt my parents. If this man turns out to be a criminal, I don’t want him anywhere near Mum and Dad, so if I’m going to do this, it has to be discreet.
    Amber bites into a juicy red apple. ‘So, what’s so fascinating about this lane?’
    ‘A house.’
    ‘A house, huh?’ She frowns, lowering her apple, then gasps suddenly, ‘It’s not the one in your dreams, is it?’
    She should know me better than to ask such a ridiculous question. This is one area of our friendship where we agree to disagree. ‘You know dreams are simply brainwaves that become active while you rest.’
    ‘Yeah, yeah.’
    ‘They’re the body’s natural way to release stress. And they’re not real events or predictors of your own or someone else’s future.’
    She shrugs. ‘Psychics and mediums would disagree with you, girlfriend.’
    ‘Well, I disagree with psychics and mediums.’
    I am dying to tell Amber everything; it would help relieve the knot in my stomach that’s been tightening since we started out this morning. I’m just not sure what her reaction would be. Will she still think I’m the same person? Will she be uncomfortable around me as she wonders, as I can’t seem to stop doing now, who my birth parents are, and if they’re out there somewhere grieving for their missing child?
    It would be great, though, to have someone to talk to and share my concerns about all this.
    She notices my hesitation. ‘Best friends don’t keep secrets, and I can tell when you’re scared, and when you’re lying, hon.’
    ‘I’m nervous, I’ll grant you that, but I’m not lying. I don’t lie.’
    ‘Ah, but you’re clever at omitting pertinent information when you want to keep a secret. Come on, spill. What areyou worried about and why are you worried about telling me?’
    This is all the encouragement I need, and I tell her about my conversation with Mum and Dad on Saturday night and how I’m not their biological daughter.
    ‘Oh, my God!’ she cries out.
    ‘So there I was, two days old and wrapped in a black