The Tender Winds of Spring Read Online Free

no clock in the room, so there was no tick, but if there had been a clock Jo knew in that moment she would not have heard it. She knew that if the banana trees outside the door had rustled their palms she would not have known. All she was aware of was quiet. A stifling kind of quiet. You could not know a quiet, yet at once, clearly ... terribly ... Jo did.
    ‘Mr. Passant,’ she almost whimpered.
    ‘My name is Abel.’
    ‘Mr. Passant ... Abel...’
    ‘Yes?’ he asked.
    She looked at him. She wet her lips. She looked at him again. ‘I—I don’t know,’ she blurted.
    ‘Know?’ he asked.
    ‘There is something, isn’t there, that I don’t know.’
    ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘unhappily there is something, and unhappily I do know.’ He spoke very quietly.
    ‘You know what?’ she managed.
    ‘Know what I believe you’re starting to think.’
    ‘But you can’t know because I’m not thinking ... I mean ... that is ...’
    ‘I think,’ he said, still quiet, ‘you heard a crash some time ago, didn’t you?’
    ‘Yes,’ she agreed, ‘a loud one. In the forest. It would be one of the mahoganies. There’s a lot of those big fellows in there. They would be clearing. Mountains have to be cleared for plantations. Life has to go on.’ Oh heavens, why was she rambling on like this?
    ‘Only it wasn’t,’ he said calmly, gently. ‘It wasn’t a tree, it was a small plane. A Cherokee. In it was the pilot—and a girl.’
    ‘It was a tree.’
    ‘A plane,’ he repeated. ‘Two people—a man, a girl.’
    ‘Then it was two others.’
    ‘The report that came through said there was nothing to be done, the mountain had seen to that, but there were some papers intact. His—the pilot’s—name was Grant. A Mark Grant. Could he be—?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Jo. She got up and she stood very still. ‘You came down here to tell me?’ she asked.
    ‘No. I hadn’t connected you with them then. But I am telling you now.’
    ‘It’s not true,’ she insisted.
    ‘It is.’
    ‘There could still be a mistake.’
    ‘There isn’t.’
    She whispered, ‘I’m dreaming this.’
    ‘Then wake up,’ he said, and he crossed over and shook her. It was a quiet shake, but it did what he intended it to do. It brought her out of her unreality.
    ‘Her name was Geraldine,’ Jo told him tonelessly, ‘Gee for short. I am Josephine and Jo. Gee was always the leader. You see, we are—I mean—’
    ‘You mean you were—’
    ‘Were—twins. She was prettier, brighter and she did wonderful things, thought of wonderful things. Always before I did.’
    ‘And now,’ he said softly, ‘she has done the biggest thing of all.’
    With the two hands that had gently shaken her he now gently drew her in. Enclosed her in big strong arms. ‘Cry,’ he said.
    ‘I can’t.’
    ‘Still try.’
    ‘It needn’t be true,’ she persisted.
    ‘It is. There’s no mistake. This isn’t a dream. Cry.’
    For a long while Jo stood there, unbelieving, rebelling. Not Gee. Never Gee. Never gold and sapphire Geraldine. Not. Never.
    ‘Cry,’ he said again.
    At last she did. She cried like a child into a blue denim shirt and he held and rocked her there until there were no tears left.

 
    CHAPTER TWO
    Just before the tears dried up Jo was conscious of a gentle disengaging of the big encircling arms. The man called Abel, the new banana boss, steadied her for a moment, then went quickly out of the room and out of the house.
    He must have come down from the camp in his jeep, and he must have taken something from the jeep, for he returned almost at once. She heard him taking a glass from the old-fashioned sideboard, she heard him pouring something. Then he crossed back to her.
    ‘Drink, little one,’ he said.
    ‘What is it?’
    ‘Just drink it. It will do you good.’
    ‘What is it?’ Jo started to ask again, but she never finished the question. Abel Passant had lifted the glass to her lips and ostensibly he was encouraging but actually he was forcing