The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans Page A

looked lovely. She spent some time alone in her room, playing Nirvana loudly to reassure them she was alright. She was good on the crutches and could even handle the stairs, falling only once when she tried to bring down a bag of little presents she’d had the nurses go out and buy for her to give her parents.
    “I’m okay,” she said when Robert ran to her. She had banged her head sharply on the wall and Annie, emerging from the kitchen, could see she was in pain.
    “Are you sure?” Robert tried to offer help but she accepted as little as she could.
    “Yes. Dad, really I’m fine.”
    Annie saw Robert’s
eyes
fill as Grace went over and put the presents under the tree and the sight made her so angry she had to turn and go quickly back into the kitchen.
    They always gave each other Christmas stockings. Annie and Robert did Grace’s together and then one for each other. In the morning, Grace would bring hers into their room and sit on the bed and they would take turns unwrapping presents, making jokes about how clever Santa Claus had been or how he’d forgotten to remove a price tag. Now, as with the tree, the ritual seemed to Annie almost unbearable.
    Grace went to bed early and when they were sure she was asleep, Robert tiptoed to her room with the stocking. Annie undressed and listened to the hall clock ticking away the silence. She was in the bathroom when Robert came back and she heard a rustling and knew he was pushing her stocking under her side of the bed. She had just done the same with his. What a farce it was.
    He came in as she was brushing her teeth.
He
was wearing his striped English pajamas and smiled at her in the mirror. Annie spat out and rinsed her mouth.
    “You’ve got to stop this crying,” she said without looking at him.
    “What?”
    “I saw you, when she fell. You’ve got to stop feeling sorry for her. Pity won’t help her at all.”
    He stood looking at her and as she turned to go back into the bedroom their eyes met. He was frowning at her, shaking his head.
    “You’re unbelievable, Annie.”
    “Thanks.”
    “What’s happening to you?”
    She didn’t reply, just walked past him back into the bedroom. She got into bed and switched off her light and after he’d finished in the bathroom he did the same. They lay with their backs to each other and Annie stared at the sharp quadrant of yellow light that jutted in from the landing onto the bedroom floor. It wasn’t anger that had stopped her answering him, she simply had no idea what the answer was. How could she have said such a thing to him? Perhaps his tears enraged her because she was jealous of them. She hadn’t wept once since the accident.
    She turned and slipped her arms guiltily around him, putting her body to his back.
    “I’m sorry,” she murmured and kissed the side of hisneck. For a moment Robert didn’t move. Then slowly he rolled onto his back and put an arm around her and she nestled in with her head on his chest. She felt him give a deep sigh and for a long time they lay still. Then she slid her hand slowly down his belly and gently took hold of him and felt him stir. Then she rose up and knelt above him, pulling her nightgown over her head and letting it fall to the floor. And he reached up, as he always did, and put his hands on her breasts as she worked herself on him. He was hard now and she guided him into her and felt him shudder. Neither of them uttered a sound. And she looked down through the darkness at this good man who had known her for so long and saw in his eyes, unobscured by desire, an awful, irretrievable sadness.
       The weather turned colder on Christmas Day. Metallic clouds whipped over the woods like a film in fast-forward and the wind shifted to the north and brought arctic air spiraling down the valley. Inside, they listened to it howling in the chimney as they sat playing Scrabble by the big log fire.
    That morning, opening presents around the tree, they had all tried hard. Never in her