Page 15 (1/2)

"Good, you knoho I am That saves us some trouble

Noouldn’t presume to tell you your business, but it’s cold out there and an open door makes a very poor windbreak"

I shut it I shut my mouth as well I start to make sos you this way?" I ask I’m unhappy about how polite I sound

His eyes were on my saddle but he shifts them to me when I speak I’m intimidated by them, a little The rest of him looks like a moneyed old man, but his eyes are clever

"Unpleasant business" But he says it pleasantly

"I would have thought that you have people to do your unpleasant business for you," I say, and feel cheeky "Sugar or milk?"

"Butter, milk, and salt, please"

I turn to Malvern, sure I’ll see humor on his face But there isn’t any I’m not sure, now that I think of it, that it’s a face I could iine on a pound note I hand him his cup of tea, a saltshaker, and our little butter bowl Sitting doith theopposite, I watch him slice a small piece of butter into his tea, add a healthy dose of salt, and top it all up with hly The liquid has a froth on it It looks like so I saw come out from under a cow once I don’t think that he’ll drink it, but he does

Malvern braces his fingers on the edge of his teacup "Is that your pony outside?"

"Horse," I say "She’s fifteen hands"

"You’d get better performance out of her with better food," Malvern tells y Less of a hay belly"

Of course she’d have y if I were eating sooing without better for the sa ho Malvern at our kitchen table I sweep some crumbs into a pyramid behind the butter bowl

"So your parents are dead," Benjamin Malvern says

I set my teacup down

"Mr Malvern"

"I know the story already," he interrupts me "I don’t want to talk about that I want to knohat comes after the story What are you three -- it is three, isn’t it? -- doing with yourselves?"

I try to iine how ly polite and private I aetting along Gabe works at the hotel Finn and I do odd jobs Paint things for tourists"

"Making enough for tea," Malvern says, but his eyes are on the pantry door I know he saw its lack of contents when I took out the butter bowl

"We’re getting along," I repeat

Malvern ss the last of his tea -- how he’shis nose is beyond me -- and rests his crossed arne

"I a, and then I scramble to my feet My head pounds like the surf where the water horse struck it I keep replaying that sentence

He continues, "No one has made payments on this house for a year, and I wanted to see who lived here I wanted to see your faces when I told you"

I think, just then, that in an island populated bytiht the house was paid for I didn’t know"

"Gabriel Connolly knew better, and has for quite a while," Malvern says His voice is cal my reaction carefully I cannot believe that I’ve served hiether I want to be sure I don’t say so, by the sense of betrayal: that Gabe knew that ere living in a ticking tie, "And what is it that you see in ht now? Is it what you cae, but Malvern seems unflustered He just nods a little "Yes Yes, I think so Now tellto do to save this house?"

There was a proble on the island a few years back Bored, drunk fishers to tear each other’s faces off I feel like one of those dogs now Malvern has thrownover the side to see what I will do He wants to see if I will retreat or if there’s fight in ive up My future crystallizes suddenly

"Give me three weeks," I say

Malvern doesn’t dance around the point "After the races"

I wonder if he’s thinking that it’s crazy that a girl likeuntil the end of the month because there will be no money because I will be dead last or just plain dead

Keep your pony off this beach

I just nod

"You don’t stand a chance," Malvern says, but without malice "On that pony Why her?"

Horse, I think "The capaill uisce killedone of the water horses"