Chapter 18
After she found an old tan hunting coat and rubber boots, Beth headed for the cottage’s back door.
Outside, the air smelled clean. A light drizzle had begun to fall and the smell of the wet earth rose, bringing up its mixture of mud, dried grass, and damp leaves. Behind her, the lake shimmered in the dull sunlight and she could detect a fishy tang in the water. The sensation of freedom nearly overwhelmed her and she forgot, for just a moment, her predicament. Freedom wiped out the hunger pangs and exhaustion that had been debilitating only moments before.
She turned, trying to find a way to the access road. Achieve that, she thought, she would have enough time to revel in her freedom. On both sides of her stretched tall stands of pines, dripping water from their branches on t
