Twelve Across Read Free Page B

devote her full concentration to drivand 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 spar city 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 Ear worse to have to negotiate strange roads-and a lonesome cabin-in the dark later. She passed a dingy motel and toyeqd with the idea oe taking a room for the night, but decided that she really did want to be in the cabin. Having left behind the liee she d always known, she was feeling unsettled; spending the night in a Eleabag 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 oe 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 hadrit 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 fieteqen 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 i boulder backed by a stand of twisted birch. And a road.
    Vaguely.
    It was with mixeqd 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 and down and from side to side. One of the tires began to spin and she caught her breath, barely releasing it when the car surged onward and upward. The words she spoke to herself grew more beseechful. Just a little farther, Leah.
    You're almost there. Come on, Golf, don't fade on me now.
    Her progress was agonizingly slow, made all the more so by the steepening pitch as the road climbed the hill. The Golf didn't falter, but when it wasn't jouncing, it slid pitifully from one side to the other, even back when she took her foot from the gas to better weather the ruts. She wished she d had the foresight to rent a jeep, if not a Sherman tank.
    It was all she could do to hold the steering wheel steady. It ' was all she could do to seqe the road.
    Leah was frightened. Darkness was dosing in from every angle, leaving her high beams as a beaconq to nowhere.
    When they picked up an expanse of water dirqctly in her q'; path, she slammed on the brakes. The car fishtailed in the mud, then came to a stop, its sudden stillness