Elsa Winckler - The Whisperer

A division of HarperCollins Publishers

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Harper Impulse an imprint of

HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by Harper Impulse 2017

Copyright © Elsa Winckler 2017

Cover design by Books Covered 2017

Elsa Winckler asserts the moral right to

be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book

is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International

and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

By payment of the required fees, you have been granted

the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access

and read the text of this e-book on screen.

No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted,

downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or

stored in or introduced into any information storage and

retrieval system, in any form or by any means,

whether electronic or mechanical, now known or

hereinafter invented, without the express

written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © March 2017 ISBN: 9780008226558

Version: 2017-02-09

To our son, Johan, who showed me there is life outside the box

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page The Whisperer ELSA WINCKLER A division of HarperCollins Publishers www.harpercollins.co.uk

Copyright Harper Impulse an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published in Great Britain by Harper Impulse 2017 Copyright © Elsa Winckler 2017 Cover design by Books Covered 2017 Elsa Winckler asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Ebook Edition © March 2017 ISBN: 9780008226558 Version: 2017-02-09

Dedication To our son, Johan, who showed me there is life outside the box

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

About the Author

About HarperImpulse

About the Publisher

“A what!” A loud voice thundered. “Are you f …”

Something fell, drowning out the rest of the word but it wasn’t difficult to figure out what the man was saying.

“… ing insane?”

Wow. A lot of aggression here. Cilla squared her shoulders and walked around the corner of the building. Two men were standing in front of the stables, glaring at each other. She knew Ken, the one who was facing her. His son was in the grade twelve class she taught. Ken was the reason she was here. Apparently the owner had a difficult stallion. But from where she was standing, the horse didn’t seem to be the one with the problem.

The other man’s back was towards her; his hands were on his hips and he was leaning forward menacingly.

“I want to use the damn horse, we need help to calm him down, to make him less aggressive, not cast a blasted spell on him. The last thing I need is a bloody woman whispering to my horses!”

Ken put a placating hand on the other man’s shoulder. “She is going to communicate with the horse so that we can find out what the problem is. No one is casting a spell! And it is not so strange – there are thousands of people all over the world who use animal communicators. Try and think outside the box for a change!”

A loud noise from within the stables again drowned out most of what the other man was saying.

“… uck the box!” were the only words she heard, but it was clear he had cussed again. Apparently his vocabulary consisted mainly of swear words that began with an f.

Ken laughed and patted the man on the shoulder. He noticed Cilla and motioned her to come closer.

“Here she is now. Stop throwing such a tantrum before this beautiful lady decides to turn around and flee. Miss Stevens, let me introduce you to this grumpy young man.”

The man turned around quickly and Cilla blinked. Everything around them became quiet. She had known exactly what he was going to look like even before he’d moved. She’d known his eyes were the colour of the deep blue sea, she’d known his hair was brown and curly, combed backwards, and she’d known about the one unruly curl on his forehead that just didn’t want to toe the line.

Slowly everything returned to normal. Kind of. Cilla inhaled and tried to focus on what Ken was saying. The man looked so familiar … she shook her head. Probably only her imagination.

“Cameron, this is Cilla Stevens, teacher and animal communicator, horse whisperer if you wish. And this skeptic, Miss Stevens, is the owner of the farm, Cameron Rahl. As I’m sure you’ve concluded by now, he is not very happy about your visit,” he teased, his eyes full of merriment.

Warily, Cilla put out her hand. Cameron had not taken his eyes off of her, neither had he said anything. His eyes were cold. That he didn’t want her here was crystal clear. Defiantly, she lifted her chin. She hadn’t asked to be here, she was invited. What a rude man. It’s no wonder his horse had a problem.