Horse With No Name Read Online Free

afraid she'd
been the night of the dance. As she walked down the wooden
sidewalk, her heels tapping, she thought about what Mr. Hunter had
done for her. She was grateful. About that there was no doubt. But
she was not attracted to the man. Was she?
    Julia came to a stop on the sidewalk. Now she
was second-guessing herself. Mr. Hunter was an attractive man in an
unshowy kind of way. Did she have feelings for him?
    She shook her head and scoffed at herself.
The townsfolk had gotten inside her head. Especially that
passive-aggressive Millie Jones who would like nothing more than to
have Julia married off to the first man who had laid eyes on her.
She resumed her steps and hopped down off the end of the sidewalk
when she reached Third Avenue.
    Mr. Hunter's shop was three doors past the
corner. In the front window sat a display on an old pine dresser
with several pocket watches and a mantel clock.
    The door creaked as it opened, and Julia
closed it firmly behind her. She was determined to be as
professional and courteous as possible, but she was not going to
let others' ideas about her and Mr. Hunter cloud her mind.
    The shop rustled with the ticking of many
clocks. There were several small wall clocks in the front of the
shop, their pendulums swinging. Julia feigned interest in them for
a moment, while she waited for Mr. Hunter to attend to her. A small
counter stretched across the middle of the store, dividing the shop
into front and back. Behind the counter was a wall and a doorway,
and beyond that Mr. Hunter's workspace. Julia could see a
workbench, crowded with tools and also the innards of what she
assumed was a watch, laid out on what looked like a piece of dark
velvet. She listened for a moment, trying to detect sounds coming
from the workshop, but there were none. Perhaps Mr. Hunter was out
back at the privy.
    She waited.
    After a few more moments with no sign of the
proprietor, Julia went to the counter and called through the
doorway behind it, "Hello? Mr. Hunter?"
    She waited, ears perked.
    Perhaps he had been called away. It seemed
strange that he'd leave the door open in that case, but perhaps it
was an emergency.
    Julia shrugged, relieved in a way not to have
to face Mr. Hunter while she was still riled up. She turned and
walked to the front door and yanked it open, perhaps slightly more
aggressively than entirely necessary.
    Just as she raised her foot to step across
the threshold she heard something. Turning, she waited. There it
was again. At first she thought it was one of the clocks making an
odd noise. But then it came again and she recognized it for what it
was. A groan.
    She let go of the door and turned back. "Mr.
Hunter?" she asked again, this time with fear touching her
voice.
    At the far left of the counter was a gap with
a small, knee-to-waist-height swinging door. Julia, still
listening, walked to it and pushed through, aiming to go to the
workspace in the back of the shop. But she was brought up short.
There, on the floor behind the counter, lay Mr. Hunter. One of his
arms was crumpled under him at an odd angle. He was lying on his
stomach. There was a tear in one sleeve of his white shirt and his
dark suit trousers looked splattered with some kind of dark liquid.
His head was turned and rested on one cheek and the side facing
Julia was covered in blood. The right eye was swollen almost
completely shut; it bulged out from Hunter's face like a small
balloon.
    Julia dropped to her knees and fumbled in her
handbag for a handkerchief. "Oh dear, oh dear. Mr. Hunter, can you
hear me?"
    She flung her purse to one side when she
realized her handkerchief was not there. She must have left it at
the school after using it to minister to Elise. Julia leaned
forward and touched the man's arm gently. "Mr. Hunter? Are you
awake? Can you hear me?"
    Something was digging into her left knee. She
shifted slightly, and reached down with one gloved hand to brush
away whatever it was. As her hand touched the offending object