Free The Jeweled Spur by Gilbert Morris Page A

placed the book on the desk in front of him and motioned to a horsehide chair on the left of his desk. When she had perched on the very edge of it, as nervous as she’d ever been in her life, he said abruptly, “Tell me about yourself.”
    “Sir?”
    “What kind of a young woman are you?”
    Laurie could only stare in bewilderment at the small rumpled figure. Her simple request had been transformed into something quite different, and she stood there trying tocollect her thoughts. She had always been a quiet girl, formed by the emptiness of the land she’d grown up in, and in no small measure, by the father she greatly admired. Faced with the blunt, unexpected question of President Huddleston, she was embarrassed and said so. “I—don’t know how to answer that.” But then she straightened her back and the inner core of independence that was part of her rose to the surface. “I’m a girl who wears funny clothes,” she said evenly, thinking of his remarks of the previous day. She was afraid of the man and half expected that he might rebuke her for her impertinence—perhaps even send her back to Arizona.
    But unexpectedly the president’s thin lips curved slightly in what passed for a smile. Lowering his head, he peered at her over his glasses, and she saw that the brown eyes that appeared so formidable behind the thick lenses contained a surprising warmth. “So you do,” he remarked, “but we’re more than the clothes we wear. What do you want to do with your life? What have you done with your life up until now? Do you expect to go through the rest of your life riding a black horse?”
    Laurie sat there as he peppered her with questions delivered in a shotgun fashion. When he finally paused, she was not quite as nervous and began to speak of her history. He sat there listening, his face impassive, but she had the impression that he was storing all she said in some sort of filing cabinet he kept in his small head. Finally she stopped, realizing that she’d talked for half an hour, more than she’d ever talked about herself in her entire life!
    “I want to be a writer,” she said finally.
    “No, you want to write, perhaps,” President Huddleston nodded abruptly, his voice crisp as dry leaves. “That’s what you want to do. ” Leaning back in his chair, he clasped his hands and mused, “I ask people what they are, and they always tell me what it is they do. ‘I’m a doctor—I’m a cleaning woman.’ ” Shaking his head, he stated firmly, “What do you want to be, Miss Winslow?”

    Instantly Laurie shot back, “I want to be as good a woman as my father is a man!”
    Her answer pleased the scholar, for he nodded sharply, “Now that’s the sort of thing I like to hear! Tell me about your father. . . .”
    An hour later, after Laurie had told President Asa Huddleston far more than she’d intended to, she was dismissed. “You’re going to be an asset to our school,” he’d said. “Now, you may leave and go to work.”
    Laurie blinked at such an abrupt dismissal, but didn’t hesitate to obey his order. Crossing the room to the door, she realized that she’d discovered a man who was far more than just a college president. I could tell him anything, she thought, and then reaching at the door, she suddenly remembered her errand.
    “Oh, President Huddleston,” she said, turning to face him. “I can’t find a place for my horse . . .”
    He listened carefully, then waved his hand. “Tell McGonigal I said to take care of him. We’ll find some way for you to work it out.”
    Laurie was stunned at the simplicity of the matter! Running back to the stable, she captured McGonigal and gave him the news with her eyes sparkling. “ . . . and so he said to tell you to take care of Star right here in the stable!”
    Mac looked at her, pleased with the whole thing. He’d liked this girl from the moment she’d ridden in, and now he’d had a hand in helping her. But he frowned, saying sternly,