Read Online The Carson Springs Trilogy: Stranger in Paradise, Taste of Honey, and Wish Come True by Eileen Goudge - Free Book Online

well enough to be ridden.
    “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” Hector said. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do.”
    She noted he’d said we , and was thankful that he saw this as a joint enterprise. “Thanks, I will.”
    Laura gave Punch a little nudge with her heels, and they started back down the trail. The sky was an ashy rose and a ghost moon sailed on a flimsy raft of cloud. A condor circled overhead in search of its evening meal. All quiet on the western front, she thought. For the moment, at least…
    It was nearly dark by the time they got back. Laura dismounted and led her horse into the barn. As she flicked on the overhead light, its concrete floor was thrown into glaring relief. “I didn’t realize it had gotten to be so late,” she said, thinking of Maude all alone with the girl.
    “You go on in,” Hector said. “I’ll take care of the horses.”
    She hesitated. “Don’t you have class tonight?”
    “I have time.”
    He plucked his hat from his head, tossing it onto a nail. In the stark light his face was sharply defined: his angular jaw and the lines bracketing his flared nose, his coffee-colored eyes narrowed in a more or less permanent squint. A band of sweat glistened faintly on his forehead, and his thick, black hair was pushed into damp little spikes. She looked away, not wanting him to catch her staring. Like when she was sixteen and had followed him around like a lovesick puppy. He must have known, though typically he’d pretended not to notice.
    “Why do I always feel I’m taking advantage of you?” she asked.
    He grinned, showing a chipped front tooth. “Don’t flatter yourself.” A reference, no doubt, to the women who’d tried, and failed, to get a handle on him.
    “Okay then. Have it your way.” She was halfway out the door when she turned and said softly, “Thanks, Hec. I really don’t pay you enough, and you know it.”
    “Why don’t you let me worry about that?” While Judy waited her turn, he replaced Punch’s bridle with a halter and clipped it to the crossties. They both knew she couldn’t afford more than a pittance, plus room and board. No use belaboring the point.
    “I guess I have enough to worry about as it is,” she conceded.
    Hector grabbed a towel and began rubbing Punch down. “Just one thing: Don’t get too attached.” It was as if he’d read her mind. “Sooner or later you’re going to have to turn her loose.”
    His words echoed in her mind as she made her way across the yard. Hector was right. Finch wasn’t a horse or a dog she could take under her wing. Whatever her problems it isn’t my job to fix them. She might even be biting off far more than she could chew. And yet there was something so vulnerable about the girl under that layer of callused toughness. A tiny spark of hope in those bruised eyes that had touched a chord. I might not be able to fix what’s wrong, she thought, but maybe I can keep that spark from going out.
    She found Maude at the kitchen table, sipping a mug of tea. She’d changed into her chenille robe and slippers. Her hair hung down her back in a loosely plaited braid the color of old piano keys. She glanced up at Laura. “Not a peep. Still out like a light.”
    Laura tugged her boots off, and tossed them onto the porch. “I’m not surprised,” she said. “She looked as though she hadn’t slept in days.”
    “Not to mention all that food on an empty stomach.” Maude wore a distracted look as she brought her steaming mug to her lips. Her hand was trembling, sending hot tea sloshing over the rim.
    Laura grabbed a napkin to mop the table, then sank down in the chair opposite her. “Maude, is everything all right?”
    She was reminded of the state in which she’d first found Maude, around this time last year, stranded by the side of the road with her broken-down Impala. In the trunk was a suitcase and a Mason jar filled with old buttons collected over the years—the sum of her earthly