Crossed Hearts (Matchmaker Trilogy) Read Free Page B

only to grab for her jacket before heading for the restaurant. The sun was lost behind cloud cover that had gathered since she’d reached the Massachusetts border, and the air had grown chilly. Knowing that she had another three hours of driving before her, and desperately wanting to reach the cabin before dark, she gulped down a burger and a Coke, used the rest rooms, then was quickly on her way again.
    The sky darkened progressively. With the New Hampshire border came a light drizzle. So much for good omens, she mused silently as she turned one switch after another until at last she hit paydirt with the windshield wipers. Within half an hour she set them to swishing double time.
    It was pouring. Dark, gloomy, cold and wet. Leah thanked her lucky stars that she’d read the directions so many times before she’d left, because she loathed the idea of pulling over to the side of the road even for the briefest of moments. With the typed words neatly etched in her brain, she was able to devote her full concentration to driving.
    And driving demanded it. She eased up on the gas, but even then had to struggle to see the road through the torrent. Lane markers were sadly blurred. The back spray from passing cars made the already poor visibility worse. She breathed a sigh of relief when she found her turnoff, then tensed up again when the sudden sparcity of other cars meant the absence of taillights as guides.
    But she drove on. She passed a restaurant and briefly considered taking shelter until the storm was spent, but decided that it would be far worse to have to negotiate strange roads—and a lonesome cabin—in the dark later. She passed a dingy motel and toyed with the idea of taking a room for the night, but decided that she really did want to be in the cabin. Having left behind the life she’d always known, she was feeling unsettled; spending the night in a fleabag motel wouldn’t help.
    What would help, she decided grimly, would be an end to the rain. And a little sun peaking through the clouds. And several extra hours of daylight.
    None of those happened. The rain did lessen to a steady downpour, but the sky grew darker and darker as daylight began to wane. The fiddling she’d done earlier in search of the wipers paid off; she knew just what to press to turn on the headlights.
    When she passed through the small town Victoria had mentioned, she was elated. Elation faded in an instant, though, when she took the prescribed turn past the post office and saw what lay ahead.
    A narrow, twisting road, barely wide enough for two cars. No streetlamps. No center line. No directional signs.
    Leah sat ramrod straight at the wheel. Her knuckles were white, her eyes straining to delineate the rain-spattered landscape ahead. Too late she realized that she hadn’t checked the odometer when she’d passed the post office. One-point-nine miles to the turnoff, her instructions said. How far had she gone? All but creeping along the uphill grade, she searched for the triangular boulder backed by a stand of twisted birch that would mark the start of Victoria’s road.
    It was just another puzzle, Leah told herself. She loved puzzles.
    She hated this one. If she missed the road … But she didn’t want to miss the road. One-point-nine miles at fifteen miles an hour … eight minutes … How long had she been driving since she’d left the town?
    Just when she was about to stop and return to the post office to take an odometer reading, she saw a triangular boulder backed by a stand of twisted birch. And a road. Vaguely.
    It was with mixed feelings that she made the turn, for not only was she suddenly on rutted dirt, but forested growth closed in on her, slapping the sides of the car. In her anxious state it sounded clearly hostile.
    She began to speak to herself, albeit silently. This is God’s land, Leah. The wild and woolly outdoors. Picture it in the bright sunshine. You’ll love it.
    The car bumped and jerked along, jolting her up