Read Online Veiled Rose by Anne Elisabeth Stengl - Free Book Online Page A

Beana. Leo followed behind, crashing through the underbrush like an avalanche and talking all the while.
    “Because I was thinking, if we could figure out a system of pulleys and levers—and, seriously, how hard can that be?—we could pile up a bunch of boulders. But I wasn’t sure how we’d move the boulders, unless we stole one of Leanbear’s carriage horses, and they have a lot of teeth, so I thought maybe we’d have to steal some carrots to tempt them, or maybe some sugar, but that means raiding Mistress Redbird’s larder, and she’s got a lot of teeth too. But we won’t need horses at all if you’re as strong as all that! I bet you could move a boulder, at least a small one, and a bunch of small boulders would work just as well as a big one, don’t you think?”
    They came to the creek, and Beana raised her nose from her browsing and flapped her ears at them, giving Rose Red a look that said, “What is he going on about?” Once more, Rose Red shrugged.
    “We could tie them up in a net—can’t be that hard to make a net. We could weave it with grasses or something. It doesn’t have to be strong since it’s got to break when the trigger is pulled, and— I didn’t know this stream was here!”
    Leo stopped prattling long enough to look up and down the creek. Then he stepped onto a rock in its middle, planting his beanpole for balance. Running water suggested all kinds of possibilities to his active mind, possibilities of a nautical nature that would inevitably lead to muddy stockings. His eyes sparkled as he gazed about. He turned to Rose Red and said eagerly, “As soon as we’ve caught the monster, we should come back here and build a dam!”
    Rose Red stared at him for a moment. Then she folded her arms across her chest and turned away. “We ain’t goin’ to hunt the monster.”
    “We’re not?” Leo stared at her hunched back. It was uncanny, but somehow she almost vanished even as she stood there in plain sight. If he focused, he could still see her standing there, but if he let his attention wander at all, she simply disappeared. “Why not?”
    She didn’t answer as she continued to vanish from his vision more and more. Afraid he’d lose her altogether, Leo stepped back onto the bank and hurried over to the spot where he was fairly certain she still stood. Even standing right beside her, he had to force his mind to believe that she remained present. “Why aren’t we going to hunt the monster?” he asked, putting out a hand to grab her shoulder.
    He never touched her. Instead, he found himself lying flat on his back, the wind knocked out of him.
    By the time Leo was able to sit upright and look about, Rose Red was gone. The goat was standing in the same place, however, roundly chewing leaves and blinking complacent eyes at him.
    “Rose Red?” Leo called, putting a hand to his chest as he labored to breathe again. “Rose Red? Where’d you go?”
    She was standing right next to him and perhaps had been there the whole time. Her head was bowed between her shoulders. “You oughtn’t to have nabbed at me,” she said.
    He shook his head and puffed, “Now you tell me!” The world still spun a little, but he closed his eyes and shook his head, and things began to reorient themselves. “Why aren’t we going to hunt the monster?” he asked again as he got carefully back to his feet.
    “Beana don’t want us to.”
    “Beana?”
    “Yup.”
    “Who’s Beana again?”
    “My nanny, like I tells you!”
    “Your—” Leo broke off and turned with a laugh to look at the old nanny goat. “Oh! Your nanny! That explains a lot.” Then he made a face. “Why does your nanny care?”
    “She just does.”
    “Oh.” Leo licked his lips. The fact was, after all that tramping through the woods, the idea of climbing up to the cave lacked its former appeal. Besides, most of his ideas for monster hunting were not the stuff of legends. And the creek really was too full of possibilities to pass