Born Innocent Read Online Free PDF Page B

night. And enjoy your holiday tomorrow.” Though Verna usually worked Saturdays, Claire had given her a holiday with pay in exchange for Verna’s promise to supervise the final touches on the Snow’s Inn float for the parade tomorrow at noon.
    “ Well, okay, then,” Verna allowed. “Good night.”
    When she was finally alone, Claire sagged back against the door for a moment and let out a long sigh. “At last,” she murmured wearily.
    * * *
    Half an hour later, having taken off her ruined blouse and stained slacks and put on her summer pajamas, she stood in her bathroom and stared at the result window of the pregnancy test. She saw what the pamphlet had told her she’d see if she was pregnant: two pink lines.
    Claire blinked, but the parallel pink lines were still there when she opened her eyes again. Her missed period and the new, subtle changes she’d felt lately in her body meant exactly what she’d feared they’d meant.
    She was going to have Joe Tally’s baby.
    It was too much. Too much for one woman to take in one day. The confrontation with Joe, the harsh words with her mother, near-rape by a man she’d thought utterly harmless—and now this.
    Claire looked around at her bright, spotless bathroom and truly understood what people meant when they said the walls were closing in on them. Her darting gaze found her own strained face in her bathroom mirror, and she knew I hat she had to get out of the cottage before she screamed those walls down.
    She spared one brief thought for her duties as night clerk. Her business would survive an hour or two of her absence. Her machine would take calls. Anyone ringing the night bell outside the lobby in hopes of finding a room would be disappointed—but that would happen anyway. Every room was occupied. Yes, her motel would be fine.
    But she wouldn’t, unless she got out of there now.
    Yanking off the pajamas as she went, Claire stalked into her bedroom and put on an old sweatshirt and some worn-out jeans. She shoved her feet into a pair of sneakers. Finally, after a little frantic fumbling in her purse for her keys, she fled to the kitchen and grabbed a flashlight. She slid out the back door, engaging the lock as she went.
    Once out in the night, she circled around to the front of the motel, quickly moving to the far side of the street, where the cedar trees reached out their branches and wild blackberry vines grew in tangled profusion, and anyone wandering around on the motel grounds would be less likely to see her. At the end of the street, she took a path that ran roughly parallel with the river, under a thick cover of tall trees. She stumbled along for nearly an hour in the darkness, with only the thin beam of her flashlight to show the way. At last, by watching the terrain closely, she found the place she sought.
    She started down a ridge to her right. The way was steep and rocky and she had to climb backward, carefully feeling with her toes for stable boulders, until she made it to the river’s edge.
    She paused, then, on the rocky promontory that she’d been seeking. She turned off her flashlight, and waited until her eyes adjusted to the night. As. she waited, she listened.
    Now and then she could hear a car whoosh past on the highway that curled around the mountain high above the opposite bank. And there were night birds calling, and frogs croaking—animal sounds. And the river, which ran deep here, lapped very gently at the rock where she stood. But that was all. No people, no bright lights, no firecrackers. She was alone under the stars.
    She quickly stripped off every stitch she was wearing, and dived cleanly from the rock, tuning out completely her mother’s chiding voice as it played in her head.
    Swimming alone? Foolish, foolish girl. And naked, well, I never...
    The water was cold and slick, liquid silk on her bare skin. She swam around the pool in circles, cleansing herself, clearing herself. Finally she pulled herself, shivering, back onto the