A Hundred Horses Read Online Free Page B

to help me up.
    A clever pig then.
    I didn’t want my mucky fingers to touch one another, so I stood with my hands spread and my arms away from my clothes until Aunt Liv said to swill my hands in the trough. Then she wiped them on her apron, and I didn’t want to say anything about that. I stared at the dirt stuck in the lines of my hands, like somebody had drawn them with a dark brown pencil.
    We cleaned and filled the food and water bowls for the geese and chickens, and after lunch Aunt Liv told us to go play in the garden. I didn’t mind my cousins too much, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to dig a tunnel to China with them. So I asked Aunt Liv if I could stay with her.
    She nodded to Gem and Alfie, told them to get digging if they wanted to reach China before dinnertime.
    “I’ve got some weeding to do,” Aunt Liv said. “You could help me, if you like.”
    I think she could tell I hadn’t done any weeding before.
    “Otherwise there’s a fence to repair and some herbs to plant.”
    I was definitely staying in the house today. I pulled at my muddy clothes. Mom would have said to get changed, immediately, but Aunt Liv didn’t seem to notice dirt.
    “Can I call Mom?” I said.
    “You could, only I think she’s going to be busy preparing for the conference right now. Wait until this evening; then you can have a proper chat.”
    She tilted her head and tucked her hair behind her ear.
    “How about you take some things over to Rita at Keldacombe Farm? Rita’s not been herself since Mr. Hemsworth passed away last June. She’s felt rather down.”
    She pushed the hair away from my face and smiled. “But I’m sure a visitor would cheer her up.”
    My brain woke up. Rita might know something about the horse and also, even more important, the girl who had stolen the carousel suitcase!
    “You mean go on my own?” I said.
    Aunt Liv looked at me for a long time before she answered. It was the most normal thing for me to say, but obviously not the most normal thing for her to hear.
    “Of course. You’ll be fine.”
    Aunt Liv gave me a box of eggs and a thermos of tea. She explained how to get to the farm next door, which didn’t really mean next door like at our house. You had to go down the track a bit, then cut across a field and through a yard.
    “Should I ask Rita about that horse?”
    “Good idea, Nell. And later we’ll see about finding you some more suitable clothes.”

Eleven
    K eldacombe Farm looked like a giant quiet grave; the windows had that way of looking at you as though they dared you to find out what was behind the walls. Not creepy, sort of unknown. Like when you read someone’s name on a gravestone and you know someone’s under there, but also that he’s not.
    Nothing moved or made a sound except the black crows croaking as they swept away from the roof.
    I walked toward the house. Grass and weeds grew through cracks in the yard between the stables, except near one door, where the grass was flattened, as if somebody had walked over it.
    The porch door was open. I thought I heard voices.
    I know you’re not supposed to listen to other people talking when they’re in another room. I wasn’t sure if I should go inside if Rita had someone else with her.
    I called, “Hello?”
    It went quiet for a moment. I stepped inside the hallway. There was a coat with dusty shoulders hanging there, two pairs of old boots. A grandfather clock looked down at me. Its silent ivory face had stopped at six o’clock.
    “Anybody there?” I said.
    A lady’s voice. “Come on in, whoever you are.”
    Rita was sitting up against some pillows on top of a bed in her sitting room. Another house where everything seemed to have tumbled into one room. It was gloomy and smelled old, filled with dark wooden furniture and tarnished brass handles. There were cardboard boxes along one wall, half filled with things wrapped in newspaper. The green velvet curtains were partly open, but the rest of the room was dim, and I