Girl in the Shadows (Shadows 2)

"Yes," Mrs. Westington told him. "That's true. although Trevor might be back by then." She thought a moment. "But I guess we should bring the child."

After I helped clear the table and cleaned the dishes and silverware to be placed in the dishwasher. I put the leftovers away and then went out to the winery because I saw the truck parked in front and realized Trevor had finally returned. He was busy replacing a small electric pump on one of his machines when I found him.

"Mrs. Westington fainted," I blurted. "'She's all right now. but I'm taking her to her doctor in about an hour. She's still dizzy and I know she's having some pain."

He put his tools down and stood. "'Something happened with Rhona?"

"She demanded money. There was a big argument," I said. "Mrs. Westington gave them five thousand dollars and they left, but they'll be back."

"I knew it. A bird flew in here this morning. Not a good sign, not good," he said, shaking his head.

"Tyler thinks she might have had a slight stroke."

"Very likely, very likely. She needs to do less, have less to worry about. too."

"She's agreed to place Echo in the special school. I'm going to help her with that and with the things she wants to do with her lawyer,

"That's good. I guess it was a lucky thing, your showing up here,' he said, nodding at me.

"I'm not so sure of that, Trevor. The jury's still out on that one."

He smiled. "I'll clean up and come along."

"I'm sure that will make her angry. She'll say we're making too much of it and she might not go."

"Yeah, that's her, all right. You picked up on stuff fast. Okay, so if she wants me along, I'm going. You let me know."

"I will," I said.

He nodded and returned to his pump.

When I mentioned he was back and maybe we should bring him along. Mrs. Westington had the reaction I expected.

"You make a big thing of this and it becomes a big thing," she said. "The child's terrified enough. We're just taking a ride to my doctor's office."

"Okay," I agreed quickly.

Tyler poked his head in the living room doorway and wished her good luck with the doctor.

"I'll call later about tomorrow," he said, which sounded ominous to me.

Mrs. Westington thanked him. He avoided my eyes and left without saying good-bye to me. Mrs. Westington noticed, but she said nothing about it. A short while later, the three of us tot into her station wagon and I drove us to Healdsburg, where her doctor's office was located.

Despite how often we reassured Echo, she still sat in the car like someone frozen, her eyes revealing the panic in her heart. Mrs. Westington had been a spine of strength for her family. She had always been independent and dependable. Living so closely with her and being so dependent upon her had created a lifeline between Echo and her grandmother. I had come here feeling so sorry for myself and in a short time found myself feeling sorrier for them. It wasn't that discovering someone worse off than you made you feel any better: it just kept you from bemoaning your own troubles and fate.

We were fortunate in that we didn't have to wait long for Mrs. Westington to be seen by the doctor, despite his crowded patient schedule. She introduced me as her houseguest. He was Echo's doctor, too. and I could see she liked him very much. He had a good bedside manner about him. Mrs, Westington wouldn't permit me to go into the examination room with her. but I managed to tell the doctor about her fainting spell and how pale she had been. I was sure he would ask her if anything had disturbed her recently, but I was just as confident she wouldn't tell him anything. She was too proud a woman to reveal her personal problems to anyone, even her own doctor.

I was surprised when he asked the nurse to have me step into the examination room a little while later. I told Echo to wait in the lobby and continue reading magazines.

"Mrs. Westington speaks very highly of you," Doctor Battie began. "She says you're quite the mature and responsible younglady."

I looked at her. surprised. I had thought her opinion of me had gone dawn since my secret rendezvous with Tyler in the motor home,

"Never mind all that," she said.

"I called you in here to help me convince her that she should follow my orders."

"What are they?" I asked.