The Runes of the Earth: The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - Book One by Stephen R. Donaldson Read Free Book Online Page B

in his hands? she asked herself. Did she need to do more?
    Yes, she did. Joan was not Roger’s only potential victim. If something happened to Linden herself, Jeremiah would be lost. He was entirely dependent on her.
    The simple thought of him made her glance out the window at her car. She felt a sudden yearning to forget Joan and go to him; make sure that he was all right—
    Sandy would have called if he were not.
    Roger did not know he existed.
    Her hands trembled slightly as she dialed Megan Roman’s number.
    Megan had been Thomas Covenant’s lawyer, and then his estate’s, for more than twenty years. During much of that time, her diligence—as she freely admitted—had been inspired by shame. His leprosy had disturbed her deeply. She had felt toward him a plain, primitive, almost cellular terror; an innominate conviction that his disease was a contagion which would spread through the county as it would through her own flesh, like wildfire.
    But she was a lawyer, a thinking woman, dismayed by her own irrationality. While he had lived, she had waged a running battle with her alarm, continuing to work for him because she was ashamed of herself. And after his death she had become a staunch and vocal advocate for the kind of tolerance and social responsibility which had eluded her during his life. The bloody events that had brought about his murder should not have been allowed to happen. Like Julius Berenford, she had made a personal crusade out of trying to ensure that they never happened again.
    Linden considered Megan Roman one of her few friends. Certainly Megan had always given Linden her assistance unstintingly. After Jeremiah’s maiming by his stricken mother, and his troubled history in the county’s various foster facilities, his adoption had posed a legal tangle that Linden could not have unsnarled for herself.
    While she waited for Megan’s receptionist to put her call through, Linden had time to wonder why Megan had not already contacted her about Roger Covenant. As his father’s executor, she must have been dealing with him for years.
    â€œLinden.” Megan had a professionally hearty phone manner that Linden disliked. It sounded false to her. “This is an unexpected pleasure. What can I do you out of?”
    Vexed in spite of herself, Linden responded bluntly, “Why didn’t you warn me about Roger Covenant?”
    At once, Megan changed her tone. “Oh, God. What has he done?”
    â€œYou first,” Linden insisted. She needed a moment to absorb Megan’s immediate assumption that Roger had done something. “Why didn’t you warn me?”
    â€œWell, shit, Linden,” Megan muttered uncomfortably. “Will you believe that it wasn’t any of your business? He’s a client. I’m not supposed to talk about him.”
    â€œSure,” Linden conceded. “But that’s not the only reason you didn’t tell me.”
    Clearly Megan distrusted him—
    The lawyer hesitated, then asked, “Will you believe that I just didn’t think of it?”
    â€œNo. That I won’t believe. I’ve known you too long.”
    â€œWell, shit,” Megan repeated. “What good is having friends if they know you too well to believe you?
    â€œAll right, all right,” she went on as if Linden had objected. “I didn’t tell you because”—she faltered momentarily—“well, because I was trying to spare you. I know, you’re a big girl, you can take care of yourself. But he’s Thomas Covenant’s son, for God’s sake. That means something to you, something I don’t understand.”
    Deliberately Linden bit at her sore lip. That smaller pain steadied her.
    â€œYou don’t talk about it,” Megan said more harshly. “You hardly knew him. You’ve always said you just wanted to help him with Joan. But whenever I ask you about it, you don’t really answer my