Twelve Across (3 page)

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 compensated for by the racing of her pulse.

A little voice inside her screamed, turn back! Turn back! But she could ri t turn. She was hemmed in on both sides by the woods.

She stared at the water before her. Beneath the pelting rain, it undulated as a living thing. But it was only a puddle , she told herself. Victoria would have mentioned a stream, and there was no sign of a bridge, washed out or otherwise.

Cautiously she stepped on the gas. Yard by yard, the car stole forward.

She tried not to think about how high the water might be on the hubcaps.

She tried not to think about the prospect of brake damage or stalling.

She tried not to think about what creatures of the wild might be lurking be~ neath the rain-swollen depths. She kept as steady a foot on the gas pedal as possible and released a short sigh of relief when she reached high ground once again.

There were other puddles and ruts and thick beds of mud, but then the road widened. Heart pounding, she squinted through the windshield as she pushed on the accelerator. The cabin had to be ahead. Please, God, let it be ahead.

All at once, with terrieying abruptness, the road seemed to disappear.

She d barely had time to jerk her foot to the brake, when the car careened over a rise and began a downward slide. After a harrowing aeon, it came to rest in a deep pocket of sludge.

Shaking all over, Leah closed her eyes for a minute. She took one tremulous breath, then another, then opened her eyes and looked ahead.

What she saw took her breath away completely.

For three weeks shed been picturing a compact and charming log cabin. A chimney would rise from one side;

windows would flank the front door. Nestled in the woods, the cabin would be the epitome of a snug country haven.

Instead it was the epitome of ruin. She blinked, convinceqd that she was hallucinating. Before her lay the charred remains of what might indeed have once been a snug and charming cabin. Now only the chimney was standing.

"Oh, Lord, " she wailed, her cry nearly drowned out by the thunder of rain on the. roof of the car, "what happened t"

Unfortunately what had happened was obvious. There had been a fire. But when? And why hadn't Victoria been notified?

The moan that followed bore equal parts disappointment , fatigue and anxiety.

In the confines of the car it had such an eerie edge that Leah knew she had to get back to civilization and fast. At that moment even the thought of spending the night in a fleabag motel held appeal.

She stepped on the gas and the front wheels spun. She shifted into reverse and hit the gas again, but the car didn't budge. Into drive..

into reverse.. she repeated the cycle a dozen times, uselessly. Not only was she not getting back to civilization she wasn't getting anywhere, at least, not in the Golf.

Dropping her head to the steering wheel, she took several shuddering breaths.

Leah Gates didn't panic. She ha ddt done so when her parents had died.

She hadn't done so when hqer babies had died. She hadn't done so when her husband had pronounced her unfit' as a wife and left her.

What she had done in each of those situations was cry until her grief was spent, then pick herself up and restructure her dreams. In essence, that was what she had to do now. There wasn't time to give vent to tears, but a definite restructuring of plans was in order.

She couldn't spend the night in the car. She could ri t get back to town.

Help wasn't about to come to her, so.

Fishing the paper with the typed directions from her purse, she turned on the overhead light and read at the bottom of the page the lines that she d merely skimmed before. True, she d promised Victoria that she d deliver the letter to the trapper, Garrick Rodenhiser, but she d assumed she d do it at her leisure. Certainly not in the dark of niglit-or in the midst of a storm. "

But seeking out the trapper seemed her only hope of rescue It was pouring and very dark. She had neither flashlight , umbrella nor rain poncho handy. She d just have to make a dash for it. Hadn't she done the same often enough in New York when a sudden downpour soaked the streets?

Diligently she reread the directions to the trapper s cabin. Peering through the windshield, she located the break in the woods behind and to the left of the chimney. Without dwelling on the darkness ahead, she tucked the paper back in her purse, dropped the purse to the floor, turned off the lights, then the engine. After pocketing the keys, she took a deep breath, swung open the door and stepped out into the rain.

Her feet promptly sank six inches into mud. Dumbly she stared down at where her ankles should have been. Equally as dumbly she tugged at one foot, which emerged minus its shoe. She stuck her foot back into the muck, rooted around until she d located the shoe and squished her foot inside, then drew the whole thing up toe first.

After tottering for a second, she lunged onto what she hoped was firmer ground. It was, though this time her other foot came up shoeless. Legs wide apart, she repeated the procedure of retrieving her shoe, then scrambled ahead.

She didn't think about the fact that the comfortable leather Elats she d loved were no doubt ruined. She didn't think about her stockings or her pants or, for that matter, the rest of her clothes, which were already drenched. And assuming that it would be a quick trip to the trapper s cabin, then a quick one back with help, she didn't think once about locking the car. As quickly as she could she ran around the ruins of Victoria s cabin and plunged on into the woods.

An old logging trail, Victoria had called it. Leah could believe that.

No car could have fit through, Eor subsequent years of woodland growth had narrowed it greatly. But it was visible, and for that she was grateful.

It was also wet, and in places nearly as muddy as what she d so precipitously stepped into from her car. As hastily as she could, she slogged through, only to find her feet mired again a few steps later.

As the minutes passed, she found it harder to will away the discomfort she felt. It occurred to her on a slightly hysterical note that dashing across Manhattan in the rain had never been like this. She was cold and wet. Her clothes clung to her body providing little if any protection.

Her hair was soaked; her bangs dripped into her eyes behind glasses whose lenses were streaked. Tension and the effort of wading through mud made her entire body ache.

Worse, there was no sign of a cabin ahead, or of anything else remotely human. For the first time since her car had become stuck she realized exactly how alone and vulnerable she was. Garrick Rodenhiser was a trapper, which meant that there were animals about. The thought that they might hunt humans in the rain sent shivers through her limbs, over and above those caused by the cold night air. Then she slipped in the mud and lost her balance, falling to the ground with a sharp cry. Sheer terror had her on her feet in an instant, and she whimpered as she struggled on.

Several more times Leah lost a shoe and would have left it if the thought of walking in her sheer stockinged feet hadn't been far worse than the sliminess of the once fine leather. Twice more she fell, crying out in pain the second time when her thigh connected with something sharp. Not caring to consider what it might have been, she limped on.

Hopping, sliding, scrambling for a foothold at times, she grew colder, wetter and muddier.

At one point pure exhaustion brought her to a standstill. Her arms and legs were stiff; her insides trqmbled; her breath came in short, sharp gasps. She had to go on, she told herself , but it was another minute before her limbs would listen And then it was only because the pain of movement was preferable to the psychological agony of inaction.

When she heard sounds beyond the rain, her panic grew. Glancing blindly behind her, she ricocheted off a trqe and spun around, barely saving herself from yet another fall. She was sure she was crying, because she d never been so frightened in her life, but she could ddt distinguish tears from raindrops.

A world of doubts crowded in on her. How much farther could she push her protesting limbs? How could she be sure that the trapper s cabin still existed? What if Garrick Rodenhiser simpl;q wasrt t there7 What would she do then ?

Nearing the point of despair, Leah didn't see the cabin until she was practically on top of it. She stumbled and fell, but on a path of flat stones this time. Shoving up her glasses with the back of one cold, stiff hand, she peered through the rain at the dark structure before her. After a frantic few seconds search, she spotted the sliver of light that escaped through the shutters. It wasqthe sweetest sight shed ever seen.

Pushing herself upright, she staggered the final distance and all but crawled up the few short steps to the cabiri s door. Beneath the overhang of the porch she was out of the rain, but her teeth were chattering, and her legs abruptly refused to hold her any longer.

Sliding down on her bottom close by the door, she mustered the last of her strength to bang her elbow against the wood. Then she wrapped her arms around her middle and tried to hold herself together.

When a minute passed and nothing happened, her misery grew. The cold air of night gusted past her, chilling her wet clothing even more. She tapped more feebly on the wood, but it must have done the trick, for within seconds the door opened. Weakly she raised her eyes. Through wet glasses she could make out a huge form silhouetted in the doorway.

Behind it was sanctuary "I.. : she began, " I."

The mighty figure didn't move.

"I am... I need.. : Her voice was thready, severely impeded by the chill that had reduced her to a shivering mass.

Slowly cautiously, the giant lowered itself to its haunches. Leah knew it was human. It moved like a human It had hands like a human. She could only pray that it had the heart of a human.

"Victoria sent me, " she whispered. "I'm so cold: '

Gqxxqcx Rodenhisea would have laughed had the huddled figure before him been less pathetir. Victoria wouldn't have sent him a woman; she knew that he valued his privacy too much. And she respected that, which was one of the reasons they d become friends.

But the figure on his doorstep was indeed pathetic. She was soaking wet, covered with mud and, from the way she was quaking, looked to be chilled to the bone. Of course, the qu . ing could be from fear, he mused, and if she was handing him a line, she had due cause for fear.

Still; he wasn't an ogre. Regardless of what had brought her here, he couldn't close his door and leave her to the storm.

"Come inside, " he said as he closed a hand around her upper arm and started to help her up.

She tried to pull away, whispering a frantic, "I'm filthyl"

The tightening of his fingers was his only response. Leah didn't protest further. Her legs were stiff and sore; she wasn't sure she d have made it up on her own. His hand fell away, though, the ilistant she was standing, and he stood back for her to precede him into the cabin.

She took three steps into the warmth, then stopped. Behind her the door closed. Before her the fire blazed. Beneath her was a rapidly spreading puddle of mud.

Removing her glasses, she started to wipe them on her jacket, only to realize after several swipes that it would ri t help. Glasses dangling, she looked helplessly around.

"Not exactly dressed for the weather, are you? " the trapper asked His voice was deep, faintly gravelly. Leah's eyes shot to his face. Though his features were fuzzy, his immense size was not. It had been one thing Eor him to tower over her when shed been collapsed on the porch; now she was standing, all five-seven of her. He had to be close to six-four, and was strapping to boot. She wondered if she should fear him.

"Are you Garrick Rodenhiser? " Her voice sounded odd. It was hoarse and as shaky as the rest of her.

He nodded.

She noted that he was dressed darkly and that he was bearded, but if he was who he said, then he was a friend of Victoria s, and she was safe.

"I need help, " she croaked forcing the words out with great effort. "My car got stuck in the mud " You need a shower, " Garrick interrupted. He strode to the far side of the room-the large and only room of the cabin-where he opened a closet and drew out several clean towels. Though he didn't know who his guest was, she was not only trembling like a leaf, she was also making a mess on his floor. Theqsooneq she was clean and warm, the sooner she could explain her presence. qflipping on the bathroom light, he tossed the towels onto the counter by the sink, then gestured for Leah to come. When she didn't move, he gestured again. '"