Wreck of the Gossamer by Shawn McCarthy

Author:Shawn McCarthy [McCarthy, Shawn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction, Historical Romance, Historical, victorian, Historical Fiction
ISBN: 9780996896702
Amazon: B01ACP32JI
Publisher: Dark Spark Press
Published: 2016-02-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Away

A road leads to the east. As she sits atop Duncan, Amanda’s eye is drawn to its vanishing point. She knows where the road goes. She’s traveled its length before. But now it calls to her in a different way. Her last trip in that direction was a good one. It’s in the general direction of where she reached the wreckage from the Gossamer, though this road will curve away, toward a different place.

If she were to ride up this road a couple of miles, she might be able to find that nice old couple who gave her a ride in their strange steam wagon.

When she had finished walking the shore and sculching the wreckage, the couple had offered her a ride back to the road. They were a delightful pair. They told her where they lived and to come visit anytime. They seemed to be good people. Perhaps they’d understand.

Hesitantly she tugs on the reins. The horse is unconvinced that Amanda really wants to go, so he circles quickly. She hangs on tightly as Duncan returns to the tasty grass, lowering his head so quickly that she’s suddenly pulled forward, hanging onto his neck. The unexpected transfer of weight makes the horse stumble, and he snorts in pain.

As he regains his stance, Amanda pulls herself back to the center of the saddle. The horse walks toward a patch of shady clover, and she can feel him favoring his front right hoof. He lifts it, then sets it down tentatively, slowly trying to transfer some weight onto it.

A lame horse could greatly complicate her escape. She leans forward, to whisper in its ear.

“Come on, Duncan. I need your help, boy. Can you do it? Can you help me?”

She strokes his thick neck. Urges him onward.

As with most of the animals on the farm, Amanda is the one who feeds Duncan. He gets extra apples and sugar from her, and they have a solid bond. He gives her a bit of a grunt, then starts walking, a slight limp in his gait. As they head up the road, she doesn’t dare push him to a trot. Instead she looks nervously over her shoulder.

Eventually she nears a farmhouse. Based on their description, she believes it’s theirs. “Quincy, that was their last name,” she mumbles to herself. Wayne knows nothing of these people, just as he knows nothing of her visit to the shore. She never got around to telling him where she had been nor showing him the compass.

As she approaches the fields near their house, she takes the measure of Duncan again and decides his foot is surviving the trip. She spies a figure in a light yellow dress in the side yard, heading for the house. That must be Agnes.

Her nervousness about what may lurk behind finally gets the better of her. “Ha-ya!” she cries, yanking the reins. “Up! Get ’er up!” And Duncan does, heading down the road at a trot, rising to a full gallop as she flicks the reins side to side, steering them into the pasture.

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