Castleview by Gene Wolfe Read Free Book Online

girls would tease him to death, so I’d better not. He’s really a wonderful guy, and he’s worked his head off for this place.”
    Ann said, “He pointed a gun at me.”
    “Sissy, go make the tea—I can hear the kettle whistling from out here. Mrs. Schindler, I’m awfully sorry about that. Where were you?”
    “When he pointed the gun? At the gate. I’d turned off Old Penton Road.”
    Lisa nodded. “We’ve had problems down that way, and it’s not our main entrance. The main gate is on Sixty-eight, about two miles after it leaves the interstate.”
    Sancha murmured, “There have been much, much bad troubles. Twice they start fires, when it was more dry.”
    “That’s right,” Lisa said. “And Wrangler’s scared to death they’re going to burn the barn. He’s got smoke alarms all over it, and when he sleeps, he sleeps in there with a gun and a fire extinguisher.”
    Sissy came in with a teapot, teacups, a sugar bowl, a milk jug, and a thick slice of cheesecake on a big tray. Sancha and the other young woman—Ann had already forgotten her name—found a small table and set it in front of the fire.
    “I’ll pour,” Sissy announced. “Mrs. Schindler, one lump or two? Do you like milk? We don’t have any lemons.”
    “No sugar, please,” Ann told her. “Just milk. Lisa—Ms. Solomon—can’t whoever owns this place help you? Hire guards or something?”
    “We’re the owners,” Lisa said. “And no, we can’t. We’re doing all we can already.”
    “You and Wrangler?” Ann accepted a blue willow-pattern cup from Sissy.
    “It belonged to an elderly lady named Sylvia Baxter,” Lisa explained. “She was an old dear and quite a sharp businesswoman, but it never made much money for her. I was head counselor, and Wrangler saw to the horses; he’s related to the Baxters somehow. At the time that Miss Baxter passed away, the camp owed us both a good deal in back wages, so she willed it to us in lieu of all debts. We were delighted—the land alone’s worth at least forty thousand. But we’ve lost those horses, as I told you, and had a lot of damage. I had to sell my Cherokee—” She broke off to take a cup from Sissy.
    Ann drank from her own. The tea was fragrant and flowery, enormously warming and comforting.
    “But you don’t want to hear our problems. And if you were ever going to send your daughter here, you’re not going to now. I sincerely apologize for Wrangler, and no doubt he’s apologized for himself already. But it was late and dark, and we’ve had a great deal of trouble, and you were on our land. Now what can I do for you to make up for it?”
    “I’m not certain. How many horses do you have?”
    “Right now? Twenty-one. There are stalls for thirty.”
    Sissy said, “Can I show them to her? I want to make sure Lady’s okay.”
    “If she wants to see them,” Lisa said. “Do you? Wrangler mentioned it, I think. What for?”
    “Because I—we, my husband, our daughter, and I—saw a man on horseback tonight. I thought it had been Wrangler at
first, but it wasn’t. It was a much bigger man, on a bigger horse.”
    Lisa nodded. “I see.”
    “Besides, Wrangler wouldn’t walk a horse out into the road in front of a car. I really can’t explain it, but I talked to him a bit, and he isn’t that sort of man—he doesn’t have that kind of arrogance.”
    Sissy nodded. “You’re right. He wouldn’t do anything that might get a horse hurt unless there was a good reason for it.”
    “It frightened me,” Ann continued, “more than I would admit at the time, even to myself; and things that frighten me make me angry. Besides, I was told that it was some kind of spook, and I refuse to believe in spooks.”

6
    THE CASTLE CHASERS
    “ARE WE really going to see the castle?” Mercedes asked.
    “Maybe,” Seth said. “You never can tell. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes you never see it at all. The best time’s when there’s lots of stars and no moon. Rain like this is the