When Danger Follows Read Free

into her tea. “You are both so clever to be able to ride. I wish I could.”
    “Can’t you ride at all?” Elizabeth’s eyes were scornful.
    “Now, Missy, don’t you be so rude. Eat your breakfast.” Angela muttered, “She doesn’t eat enough to keep a bird alive.”
    Elizabeth pushed her plate away, barely touched.
    Caitlin rose to take her plate to the sink. “I’m planning to learn to ride and then I might ride with you.”
    “I could teach you how to jump,” William said, jumping up and down on his chair.
    “How nice of you to offer,” Caitlin said. “Of course you can ride, every day after afternoon lessons. But you shall not jump your pony, William, until your father returns and gives his permission.”
    Both children looked at her as they took this in, and the moment passed without argument.
    She felt it went well until she saw the expression on Elizabeth’s face. One you’d find on an ailing eighty-year-old. It sent a cold shaft of unease straight to Caitlin’s heart.
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    Chapter Two
    Five days passed and still no a sign of the children’s father. Caitlin introduced her routine: breakfast, lessons, lunch, and lessons again until afternoon tea, then fresh air and exercise, which meant a walk for her while the children gamboled about on their ponies, dinner, listening to the radio or reading for an hour, bath, supper, followed by prayers, then bed. There was television that a satellite disk on the roof supplied, but she thought she’d wait for their father before she allowed it. For the first few days, the children grumbled at spending so much time indoors at lessons, but they didn’t rebel, although Elizabeth remained uncommunicative and suspicious of her. Only once when Caitlin asked her to write a sentence on the blackboard, did she show any real emotion. “You’re not the boss of me,” she said, her lip trembling. “You’re not my mother.”
    Caitlin pulled her gently down on the seat beside her. “Did your mother teach you your lessons?”
    She nodded.
    “And did she paint some of those lovely pictures hanging on the walls?” She’d seen Caroline’s name on some of the flower paintings.
    “Yes, I think so,” Elizabeth said, rubbing her eyes.
    “She was very clever, wasn’t she? Now I’m here to help take care of you and William and to teach you your school work. But I’m not here to take your mother’s place. She was special.”
    Caitlin didn’t sleep well. She lay with an arm thrown over her head watching the moon climb high in a star-lit sky through the break in the curtains. She couldn’t yet lay her grim past to rest. She was still flinching at shadows. It made her anxious that she couldn’t identify the foreign noises beyond the window. She was dozing when she heard a child cry out. Elizabeth’s room was next to hers. She pulled on her gown and went to the girl’s door, wondering if she was just having a nightmare. She peeped in and could just make out the small form in the bed. It was light enough to see Elizabeth’s shoulders shaking. Caitlin came to the bed and turned on the lamp.
    Sitting on the side of the bed, she stroked the little girl’s hair. “What’s the matter, Elizabeth? Did you have a bad dream?”
    “I want my Daddy,” she said in a small voice.
    “He’s coming home soon, sweetheart.”
    “I want him now !”
    Caitlin sat with Elizabeth, continuing to stroke her hair, until she cried herself to sleep. Then she tiptoed out, fuming. She would have plenty to say to Jake Monterey when he finally decided to come home.
    * * * *
    They’d just finished lessons on the Friday afternoon when a roar sounded overhead. The children ran outside with Caitlin close behind them, as a small single-engine plane disappeared over the house, flying low.
    “It’s Daddy,” Elizabeth and William cried, dancing about.
    Caitlin suddenly felt nervous. She had never met her employer—not even spoken to him on the phone. Everything had