The River King by Alice Hoffman

for company or a hand to hold.
    â€œFine, if you insist,” Helen Davis said. “Send the girl.”
    * * *
    HARRY McKENNA DECIDED HE WANTED CARLIN lin as soon as he spied her in the doorway to the library one rainy afternoon. In the low branches of a weeping beech, there sat a pair of phoebes, birds who mate for life and sing an uncommonly tender song. Most birds hide in the rain, but not these phoebes, and the girl with the green eyes was pointing them out to Gus Pierce, who had somehow managed to be lucky enough to be there beside her at the moment when Harry first saw her.
    Carlin was laughing, unaware of the rain; her hair was damp and silvery. Harry knew right then that he had to have her, never doubting for a moment that like everything else he had ever wanted, she’d be his before long. He began to attend swim meets, watching from the bleachers, applauding her efforts with such vigor that before long everyone on the team was whispering about Carlin’s not-so-secret admirer. In the dining hall, he watched from a nearby table, his interest so apparent and scorching that girls all around him wilted from the heat.
    â€œYou’d better watch out,” Gus Pierce said to Carlin when he observed Harry McKenna. “He’s a monster.”
    But of course, as soon as she heard that remark, Carlin did what any sensible girl might have done and looked for herself. She expected to find some leering creature, but instead she caught sight of the most beautiful boy she’d ever seen. Yes, she’d been aware that someone had been rooting for her at swim meets, and she’d known that someone had been following her, and she’d surely heard Amy and Pie gossiping about her Harry, how gorgeous he was, how unattainable. But Carlin had had her share of admirers and she hadn’t paid the slightest bit of attention to this one, until now. She smiled at Harry McKenna for an instant, but that one look was enough to assure him that with the right amount of patience and fortitude he would get what he wanted.
    Harry had always been well versed in seduction; he had a gift for such things, as though he’d been born with compliments tumbling from his mouth. Already, he’d been through the prettiest of the senior and junior girls. There were girls whose lives he had ruined, and those who persisted in calling him long after his disinterest was evident, and still others who waited steadfastly for him to return and be true. He was bored by such girls and primed for a challenge, and it amused him to wait for Carlin outside the gym. When she came out with her teammates, there he’d be, so obvious in his intentions that the other girls would elbow one another and trade jealous remarks. Before long, Carlin had begun to walk back to St. Anne’s with him. They held hands before they looked into each other’s eyes; they kissed before they spoke. It should not have brought Carlin pleasure to know how the other girls at St. Anne’s envied her, and yet it did exactly that. Her skin flushed prettily whenever she felt their resentful eyes upon her. If anything, she had become even more beautiful. In the dark she was luminous, as though she’d been ignited by the other girls’ spite and lust.
    Of course, she told Harry nothing of her real background; he had no idea that she hadn’t the money for a cup of coffee at Selena’s, had barely enough for books, and that her wardrobe was sorely lacking. She had no decent socks, no winter clothes, no boots. She’d been forced to take Miss Chase’s suggestion and had begun to work for Miss Helen Davis, twenty hours a week of shopping, cleaning, and running errands. As for Miss Davis, she found that having Carlin around was not as dreadful as she’d imagined it might be. This particular girl was quiet and quick. Unlike most of the spoiled students at Haddan, she knew how to use a mop and a broom. Carlin had begun to fix Miss Davis’s