Read Online The Self-Enchanted by David Stacton - Free Book Online

his shirt.
    “You brought him here deliberately.”
    Carson did not look up. He sighed with contentment and wriggled his toes. Sally moved about the kitchen, taking off the stove lid and automatically putting in a chunk of wood.
    “A man like that”, said Carson, “wouldn’t want the likes of you.” Chuckling, he poured himself another drink. “Besides, I’m not so bad, now, am I?” He sat there, not looking at her, until she went out of the kitchen and slammed the door behind her.

VI
    T hings went on like that, but there was a smell of change in the air that worried all of them. Curt felt it as did the others, and it disturbed him. Yet the valley was lovely. The deer, a little apprehensive, still showed themselves as they crept down to the meadows to drink, either at dawn, or late in the evening. They were beautiful and foolish. And all evening long flocks of geese flew quacking south. Nature was stretching out its claws.
    Christopher was agitated and restless. Curt saw little of him. He came and went in that small plane of his, for no apparent reason. They were all waiting, Curt realized, for winter. It made them like frightened animals. His own concern was for the house. It was not yet finished, and even he could feel the change in the air, a hard, sharp change of climate. The winds had teeth. And one day, while he was in his office, he heard a roar, and rushing outside saw across the valley a cliff tumble down into an avalanche. It lasted only a moment or two, it was only a small avalanche, but it made him fear for the house. And Christopher was no help. He was like a dog that sees something we cannot, and so makes us all the more afraid.
    Sally also felt the change, but even though she dreadedwinter, she was excited by it for she loved it too. Then the world was different and strange and overwhelmed with snow which swept it clean.
    One afternoon she caught sight of Christopher standing on a boulder. She could not figure out how he had climbed up on it. He was totally unaware of her, and was looking out over the valley.
    She had not seen him for two weeks, and had given up hope of doing so. She had felt futile. But this morning she had felt differently, the cold air had slapped her awake, and a walk in the afternoon had given her courage. So she called out to him. He looked down, and seen from below he towered up like a statue.
    “Hello,” he said. She had seldom seen him in so good a mood. She looked up at him, twisting to see him more clearly, and they both laughed.
    “I haven’t laughed for ages,” she said. “What are you doing up there?”
    “I was thinking.” He jumped down like a boy, dusted off his hands on his trousers, and walked beside her. She had never found him so easy and companionable before. “Where are we going?” he asked.
    “I don’t know,” she said. But she did. She had not realized before how handsome he could be. “You could be nice if you chose,” she said.
    “Aren’t I always nice?”
    She did not answer that, but began to thread her way through the wood, among the confused trees, and he followed . It was like a game of hide and seek. The woods were aromatic with rotting pine needles and decaying ferns. She led him on and came out behind the obelisk. She climbed breathlessly and came to the V-shaped ledgethat was her secret hiding-place. She climbed on to the ledge and stood there waiting.
    The view surprised him. “I didn’t know this was here,” he said.
    “No one does,” she told him. She sat on the grass, silent, while he looked out across the valley. “This is my hideaway,” she said. “I’ve never brought anybody here before.”
    “I’m flattered.”
    She pretended not to hear him. “When I was a girl I thought there was a nest of hawks here. They would come and eat up my enemies and carry me off to the mountains. Have you ever been up there?”
    “I’ve flown over them.”
    “They’re so big and quiet. I like that.” She looked across the valley,