Free Abandoned by Angela Dorsey Page A

wait.
    Automatically, Lauren pulled back on the
lead rope. But then she leaned forward and her heels dug into
Trooper’s side.
    I can’t talk to her! I can’t talk to
anyone about this. Not now. I need to think. How could my mom
betray me like this? And does Dad just think I’ll accept her back,
after she walked out? Is that what he really meant by ‘us’? That
not just him and Sweetie are coming to Misty Lake? Is he bringing
her here to try to make up with me?
    Lauren’s hands shook with disbelief and
anger as she gripped Trooper’s mane. When they reached the road,
she urged him into a gallop. She had to get away. Far, far away.
When Trooper reached the hidden road they had explored that day, he
turned into the forest. Lauren didn’t even try to stop him. It was
the perfect place to go. Charity and Kjerstina would find her if
she went to the spring or down any of the other trails they had
ridden together.
    After they were on the old road, Lauren
pulled Trooper to a walk. No one would find her now. The gelding
wove easily through the bushes and saplings on the road and Lauren
became lost in her thoughts. Why would a mother leave her daughter?
Her family? Lauren thought of the last time she had seen her,
laughing and telling them not to fuss over her so much in the
hospital. Then her mind turned to the time her dad told Lauren her
mother was dead.
    He must have known she wasn’t. He was
lying to me, she realized and for the first time, tears prickled
her eyes. Why did he tell me she was dead? Did he do something to
make her leave? But he only ever took care of her, just like he
does with me. They were always laughing. They were happy. Weren’t
they? He should have told me the truth about her!
    When Trooper came to an abrupt stop,
Lauren jerked out of her thoughts. She watched, dazed, as he bumped
an old wooden gate on the road with his nose. The gate fell with a
crash and Trooper picked his way over it. Lauren was just about to
pull him to a stop, when they rounded a corner.
    A dilapidated house stood in front of
them. It looked like an old farmhouse. A run-down barn leaned
precariously on the other side of the overgrown yard. Abandoned,
just like her. There was no sound in the stable yard, no movement.
Not even the flutter of leaves or a breath of wind. Not the
smallest peep of a bird.
    “Where are we, Trooper?” Lauren
whispered as if afraid to stir something inside the old house or
barn. “Where on earth have you brought me?”
     

 

     
    Trooper tossed his head and
tried to step forward into the weed choked yard. “Whoa,” said
Lauren and held him back. She shivered in spite of the warmth of
the early evening.
    The sides of the house were so weathered
they were almost black and the windows were dark with grime. Some
of the glass was broken. Lauren couldn’t have imagined a place more
spooky and decrepit if she tried. Her eyes explored the barn across
the yard. There was something even creepier about the barn,
something indefinable. It was dark like the house, but it seemed
scarier, especially in the unnatural stillness. Lauren listened
again for a noise – any noise, but there was nothing. When Trooper
took another step forward, she pulled him back again. He whinnied
softly to her and turned his head.
    “What is it, Trooper?” she asked. “Why
did you want to come here so much?”
    Trooper whinnied again and stepped
forward. This time Lauren let him walk toward the barn. He wove
through the saplings and brush to stand in front of the double
doors. Lauren reined him to a stop and looked up at the huge
building. A black opening yawned above her. “That must be a hay
loft,” she said in a voice still shaking with emotion. “It’s an old
farm. I wonder what happened to the people who lived here. Why they
left?”
    She looked behind her at the house. She
could use the porch to stand on when she wanted to jump onto
Trooper’s back. She slipped off the horse, then reached to touch
his warm side,