Chapter 4

Lucy Barrett was certain that her mother had perpetrated some kind of sick joke--a full-grown German shepherd in their house and neither of them knew the first tiny thing about dogs! That was almost a week ago now, and though she had argued with Kate that this notion was her silliest yet, Lucy was delighted now, sitting alone in the empty house doing her homework, that her mother had sternly insisted that Matthew--or Matt as they both called him now--would stay at least until they had time to see if he would work out. Matt was irrevocably a member of the Barrett's formerly all-female household now; he was curled contentedly at her feet even as she finished her assignments, half-asleep but keenly alert to any sudden noises or suspicious sounds.

They had kept him outside at first, and he slept in his good- sized doghouse the security man from Barrett's delivered, running about happily during the day inside the fenced perimeters of the long back yard. But Matt had a certain charm about him that brought about his hurried introduction into the inner confines of the Barrett home; now he was as much a part of the family as Clara, going outside only to sleep or when no one was at home, and Lucy had a strong hunch that even that single last remnant of a dog's life would soon fall by the wayside.

Lucy peered around the edge of the table at where the huge animal lay dozing; his tail swished as she looked down at him and Lucy giggled under her breath--the sly devil was watching her and pretending to be asleep!

"Come on, you tricky fella, open those big brown eyes and let me see you!" Lucy leaned precariously from her chair and stroked the soft clean fur of his neck; the big German shepherd made a noise in his husky throat that was almost like a purr, but much deeper. His whole expansive chest seemed to vibrate with the sound and his voice was rich and full of bass.

Matt shook his head violently to clear away the grogginess and pushed himself up with his powerful haunches; he rose to his feet and scratched the back of his head against the leg of the table where Lucy sat. "Stop being cute, Matt," she said with mock severity. "I know you want your ears rubbed. Come a little closer and I'll do it for you."

He gazed longingly up at his beautiful blonde mistress and instantly obeyed; he loved it when she put her delicate loving hands on his furry body. If only she were around more instead of off with that young male human! Matt had not liked him from the very beginning; perhaps it was only instinct, but he had growled the moment Lucy's boyfriend came near him and, so far, he had not relented in his distrust of that human. Lucy was by far his favorite; Kate was kind enough to him and, after all, she was the one who took him out of that dreary basement. But Kate Barrett seemed somehow artificial to him, and his keen powers of perception were not to be ignored; he was always friendly and obedient with her, but not like he was with Lucy.

"Does that feel nice, handsome?" Lucy Barrett asked softly as she scratched the sensitive flesh behind his ears and on the back of his thick furry neck. Matt purred his canine reply and Lucy scratched beneath his neck as he nodded his huge head in eager submission. "You like it when I do that, don't you?" she asked as if she expected an answer, and then felt very silly for talking this way to an animal. After all, he was only a dog--German shepherd's could hardly be expected to carry on conversations, even an unusually smart and sensitive one like Matt!

"Matt, I think I'm losing my marbles," she confessed with a tender smile. The German shepherd turned his head upward and gazed comprehendingly into her soft blue eyes; his own brown eyes mirrored the intense feeling he had developed rapidly for his new human. "I know it's pretty silly talking to a dog, I mean, talking like I would to another person. But you just don't seem like an animal to me, Matt. Since you've come into this house, well, you're more like a friend. Or maybe it's because I never had any brothers or sisters and now I've got a chance to make you a sort of substitute big brother. Oh, Matt, you sweet dog you, I wish you could talk! How I wish I had somebody to talk to I could really trust!"