[...]... herself Two small rivers ran through the Booker brothers' land They came down from the mountains together, side by side Then the northern river ran in a straight line through the hills The southern one moved here and there across flatter land The house that they called the river house stood on a hill above the north river Tom and Rachel lived here after their 20 21 marriage, then later Frank and Diane Now... to the centre of the arena For almost a minute they stood there The horse looked at the man, and the man looked at him It was Pilgrim who moved first He lowered his head and took some small steps back Tom stayed in the same place, not moving The end of the flagstick was resting on the sand Then he took a step towards Pilgrim and at the same time lifted the flag in his right hand The horse ran to the. .. worked with the horse for about an hour, letting him run on the end of the rope He played with him, talking softly to him By the end of the Many years ago Tom's father, Daniel Booker, worked the land in Montana like his father and grandfather before him From the day that he was born, Tom was around horses His parents often found the small boy asleep in the stables with them His father and grandfather had... took them into the stables Bronty was a big ten-year-old horse with a red-brown coat She pushed her head towards Joe, who had an easy, confident way with horses 'He looks so funny,' said Scott, watching the young horse behind Bronty Tom and Joe let the horses out into the fields, and then turned to walk back to the house 'Is your mother having visitors?' asked Tom, seeing a silver car coming over the. .. in front of the stables, Mrs Dyer's two boys were beating a horse with sticks They were trying to get it into a trailer Tom ran up to one of the boys, took him by the neck and threw him to the ground Then he reached out for the other boy, took the stick from his hand and held his arm behind his back 'Don't ever do that to a horse again!' he shouted He walked angrily towards the taxi Just then an expensive... feet long He tied the ends together and made a loop 'OK,' he said 'This one's for Annie.' He came towards her and fell on his knees in front of her 'Hold up the first finger of your right hand,' he told her He put the loop over it Holding the other end of the loop tight with his left hand, he put one side of the rope over the other with the middle finger of his right hand Then he turned the hand over;... of jobs to fill the day and the coming week usefully But it wasn't so easy The day was long, and she felt lonely She watched the sun going down behind the mountains Then she drove down to feed the dogs They happily led her to the place where their food was kept At that moment a car drove in and stopped in front of the ranch house Annie was surprised that the dogs did not even turn their heads She saw... Booker about the day of the accident • Tom could see that Annie was a rider; her body moved with the horse They rode up a long hill to a place where you could look down on the two rivers They stopped and sat for a while 'That's a beautiful view,' Annie said They could just see the top of the river house 'Who's R B.?' she asked 'I found the letters T B — I guess that's you — and R B on a tree near the house... read the piece again If a horse was afraid, it ran away But when it felt pain, the animal turned to defend itself That was interesting, but what did it mean? There were no answers, he decided It was always just you and the horse You tried to understand its mind, and it tried to understand yours Tom pushed the magazine away And then he suddenly understood the meaning of the fear in Pilgrim's eyes The horse. .. Perhaps it was about herself She pulled the bedcovers up over Grace's shoulders and walked back to the kitchen There was a message on the table from Harry Logan He had the name of a man who could, possibly, help hour the horse was following all his instructions When he returned the horse to the owner, the woman was almost in tears She walked slowly and nervously to the animal and touched its • 'He doesn't . how the three of them — the mother, the daughter and the horse — were all joined in suffering. If he could help the horse, perhaps he could help them. through the Booker brothers' land. They came down from the mountains together, side by side. Then the northern river ran in a straight line through the