The Mill River Recluse by Darcie Chan Read Free Book Online Page A

at him for the first time, and smiled. He noticed the look and returned the smile.
    Mine , Patrick thought.
    “Well, seeing as how you’re so impressed by my riding prowess, perhaps you would go riding with me again next Saturday, to allow me to give you a few pointers? Assuming, that is, that my trusty steed is, well, a little more trusty?” he asked her.
    Mary smiled again. She felt a hint of something rise up inside her, but it wasn’t unpleasant. It was more like a triumphant “yes!” from the little voice that had wanted to see Patrick again.
    “All right,” she said, and turned Ebony onto a riding trail that led into the sugar maples.
    Patrick stood for a moment, watching the black mare disappear into the woods. Maybe falling off the damned horse hadn’t been such a bad thing after all. He smiled to himself in cold satisfaction and walked back toward the training paddock.
    ~~~
    Patrick and Mary went riding the next time he came out to the farm, and the next, and the next. At first, they stayed inside the pasture. As Mr. Hayes worked his magic on the bay colt, however, they began riding around the farm, in the forest, and along the country roads outside Mill River.
    Patrick learned that, despite being exceptionally shy, Mary was well-spoken and had a keen mind. Because of her bouts of anxiety and shortened school years for all students during the Depression, Mary’s formal education consisted of sporadic attendance at school. Still, Mary loved to read. She had read every book in the school library. Books were her primary link to the world that she found so difficult to enter.
    To Patrick, Mary was the supreme challenge. He knew that the trust he elicited from her each week was fragile. He built it gradually, showering her with attention and repressing any impatience or irritation he felt in prying her from her shell. Several times, he came close to abandoning his attempts to win her over. As a young man of high standing, he was expected to complete his education and marry. He didn’t know how much more of his parents’ incessant urging to “find a nice young lady” he could take, and Mary would require some time. True, he could choose a wife from among a good two dozen twittering socialites who regularly fawned over him. But those women, and the many who had already succumbed to him, were easy. And none was as beautiful or difficult as Mary.
    Mary had never been happier in her life. She so looked forward to Patrick’s visits. To her surprise, she felt more and more comfortable with him. He listened with interest to what little she said and always knew exactly what to say in return. She finally had a friend, and human interaction with someone other than her father. Mary didn’t understand why a gentleman like Patrick would want to spend time with a shy farm girl like her, but she did not dwell on the issue.
    She swore to herself that she would never reveal to him her darkest secret—the horrific event she still struggled to overcome.
    The summer passed quickly. On the first Saturday in September, the bay colt was ready to go. Patrick, his father, and two hired men drove up to the farm in a horse van. A veterinarian from Rutland pulled up behind them in another car. Mary wanted to go down to the barn to say goodbye to Patrick and the colt, but the sight of the other men who had also arrived sent her into a state of panic. It had been months since her fear of strangers had surfaced, and the intensity of it took her breath away. She stayed inside the farmhouse, watching her father and the other men inspect the bay colt and load him into the van.
    Patrick’s father wrote a check to Mr. Hayes for the remainder of the purchase price for the horse and got in the van to leave. Patrick looked around for Mary, but she was nowhere in sight.
    “Mr. Hayes, you wouldn’t know where Mary is, would you? I’d hate to leave without saying goodbye to her,” Patrick said.
    “Last I saw, she was up at the house,” he