The Other Child Read Online Free Page A

the windowed cupola. Strange that there was only silence overhead.
    Karen excused herself reluctantly. “I’d better go up and check on Leslie.” A prickle of anxiety invaded her mind as she started up the narrow staircase into the dusty silence.
    Karen was convinced there was something wrong when she reached the landing and pushed open the door to the cupola. Leslie was standing at one of the twelve narrow windows, staring out blankly. She looked preoccupied and started as Karen spoke her name.
    “Kitten? What’s the matter?” The still, stiff way Leslie was standing made Karen terribly nervous. She rushed to put her arms around her daughter.
    “Huh? Oh . . . nothing, Mom.” Leslie gave her a funny, lopsided smile. She looked miserable. “I’m afraid Mike won’t buy it!” There was a quaver in her voice. “This house is perfect for us, Mom. We just have to live here!”
    “Now, don’t be silly, darling.” Karen gave her a quick squeeze. “This is the first house we’ve seen and it really is awfully large for us. We’ll probably see other houses you like just as much.”
    “No! We have to live here in this house!” Leslie’s voice was stronger now and pleading. “You know it’s the right house, Mom. We can’t live anywhere else. This house was built just for us!”
    “I think you should have Mr. Comstock’s job,” Karen said, smiling down indulgently. “You’re an even better salesman than he is. But really, kitten, we have to be sensible. I know you love this old house and I do, too, but the final decision is Mike’s.”
    Karen was firm as she turned Leslie around and guided her toward the stairs. “Come on now, honey. We have to get back downstairs before it gets dark. The power’s not turned on, you know.”
    “But you’ll help me convince Mike to buy it, won’t you, Mom?” Leslie asked insistently, stopping at the top step. “You know it would be perfect for us.”
    “Yes, I’ll help you, silly,” Karen promised, brushing a wisp of silvery-blond hair out of Leslie’s eyes. She breathed a sigh of relief as her daughter smiled fully and hurried down the stairs in front of her. Leslie would be persistent and she might just manage to convince Mike. Leslie was right. It was almost as if the house had been waiting all this time just for them.

TWO
    Karen bit her lips nervously as they took the turnoff into Cold Spring. Mike was humming a tune, keeping time by tapping his fingers against the steering wheel and Leslie was chattering away a mile a minute. The rental trailer rumbled and squeaked with every bump and Karen felt a headache coming on. Worry and lack of sleep always gave her headaches and this time she had no one to blame but herself.
    She had assumed that the moving would be easy. They had sold their large furniture and Karen had been sure the packing would take only a few hours. Mike took care of his photographic equipment and Leslie boxed and labeled everything in her room, but Karen was dismayed to find how many odds and ends had accumulated over the past three years. She had been up until midnight packing the kitchen things and this morning she was exhausted.
    “Never again!” Karen muttered under her breath. “We’re going to stay right here in Cold Spring until we die!”
    Just then the house came into view and Karen stifled a morose sigh. Why hadn’t she noticed before how huge this house was? It stared at her, imposing and sedate, filling her with a sense of dread. What on earth had possessed her to agree with this move? Getting the house in livable shape would take months, perhaps years. She might never be finished. All those rooms to clean and wallpaper and paint; the measurements to be taken for drapes and curtains; the floors to be resurfaced or carpeted. It was a gigantic project and now Karen was sure that she simply couldn’t do it. It was too much for an army of decorators and she was only one woman, one pregnant woman at that. What colossal lapse of reason