There was that noise again, the hefty sputter.
She spun around, coming face-to-face with a huge gray horse. His nose hovered above her head, which was mighty intimidating. She stood still, and he moved slowly, sniffing and blowing.
She raised her hand. “It’s okay. I’m just here to check on Paul.” Standing perfectly still, she tried to believe it would be okay, because she’d never stood so close to an animal as big as this one.
The horse dropped his head, his soft nose nuzzling her arm.
“Oh? You’re nice. Thank goodness.” She placed her hand flat on his nose, then scratched between his ears. “You’re very handsome.”
He lifted his head and then lowered it again.
“Where is he? And what is all of this about?”
The horse moved away and then clopped across the stone floor toward the other side of the space, stopping only briefly to slurp from the running waters that seemed to continue on past the edge of the building.
In the middle of the right wall, another set of double doors and windows looked like perhaps they were part of an original structure. Like the outside of a house, here on the inside. Very strange.
Okay, so maybe Paul Grandstaff is alittlecrazy.
As if reading her mind, the horse meandered across the way, then pushed his nose against the door and walked right inside like he’d done it a hundred times.
“Where are you going? Good Lord, is that horse some kind of Lassie in disguise? Paul better not be in a well.” She walked briskly where the horse had gone. “Paul? Mr. Grandstaff? Are you in—”
She stopped in her tracks.
The horse neighed and stood there over him.
The old man lay stretched out on an ornate leather daybed like something you’d see in one of those old movies where someone would tell their shrink all of their woes.Do people really do that? Or is that all just for the movies?
It was an elaborate office, fancier than anything she’d ever seen. Bookcases lined the entire room, even built around the windows. Colorful hardbound books lined up like soldiers of knowledge—too many to count—towering to the ceiling, which had to be fourteen feet. An old library ladder on a rail ran the whole circumference of the room, even over the double doors where she’d just come in.
A desk that had to be nearly five feet by ten took up one end of the room.
She raced to his side. “Paul? Can you hear me?” Lifting his wrist, she felt for a pulse, and then his eyes popped open.
She screamed.
Then, he screamed.
“I’m sorry. You scared me,” she said.
“What are you doing?” His eyebrows danced above his eyes—startled. “Where? How did you—”
“I’m sorry. You were late. I was worried. Unlocked. I—The horse led me here.”
Paul sat there looking bewildered. His silvery hair was mussed, and even his eyebrows looked out of control.
She could barely breathe. “I’m sorry. I?” She was definitely going to get fired for this.
Suddenly he started to laugh. “Oh, dear Natalie, I’m so sorry.You must’ve thought I was a goner lying here.” He laughed and seemed quite tickled by the situation.
She nodded. “Yes! Dead as a doornail!” Her heart still raced over the shock of him coming to life right in front of her. “You scared me to death.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me this afternoon. I suddenly got so tired. I thought to call and reschedule, but then I lay down, and I guess I’ve been asleep for quite a while.” His laughter slowed.
“I’m so sorry I trespassed.”I’m getting fired for sure.
He waved his hand and shrugged. “You can’t turn back time. What is done is done.” He stood and walked over and hooked his arm up around the horse’s neck. “I see you’ve met my best friend.”
