Season of Desire: Complete Edition Read Online Free PDF

ground, to find that I’ve walked over the edge. I can understand now that the bodyguard was right – we’ve been amazingly lucky. This small plateau broke the car’s fall down the mountain. The protection of the vehicle’s heavy reinforced frame meant that while its outer body crumpled around us, we were kept relatively safe as it bounced from outcrop to outcrop and landed here briefly before sliding on to land in the valley below.
    As the slenderness of our escape comes home to me, I’m shaking even harder, and not just from the cold.
    Oh my God. I should be dead.
    But I’m not. Not yet, at least. And until I am, I’m damn well going to keep trying.
    I take the scarlet shawl off my shoulders and lie it down on the snow. It takes a long time to get around it, pulling it out to its full extent. It’s about a metre square, the bright red and black vivid against the white. I’ve nothing to anchor it with, and even though the cashmere seems to stick to the snow, I worry that it will be blown away by the strong wind that comes in freezing buffeting gusts, so I gather up scoops of snow and make small mountains at each corner that I hope will hold it down. My hands are so frozen that I can hardly feel the cold, let alone force my fingers to do what I want, but somehow I manage. When the scarf is weighted down as much as possible, I stumble back to the small snow cave and collapse down, exhausted by the effort and in agony from my chest.
    How long has he been gone?
    It must be at least twenty minutes, maybe longer. I blink out into the fog, looking hopefully for a dark shape emerging from it, but there’s nothing. I wrap my arms tightly around myself, tucking my icy hands back into the sleeves of my jacket. For the first time, I begin to imagine the reality of freezing to death. The heat will leach gradually from my body until there will be no warmth to be had from my skin. My body will begin to close down, cutting off the blood supply to my hands and feet, and my heart will slow. Then, perhaps, delirium will come as my brain begins to lose oxygen, or perhaps I’ll simply fall into a blessed sleep that will end in nothingness.
    But I don’t want to die! I’m too young!
    My existence might seem futile to many people but, like everyone, I want to live. I want love, to have a relationship, to have children, to grow old.
    Is that not going to happen?
    I yearn to be home – even in that awful mountain retreat – with all my heart. I close my eyes and think of my mother.
    ‘Hey! There you are!’
    My eyes flick open. I’ve never been so happy to hear another voice in my life. ‘You’re back!’
    He’s there, right in front me, his face grey with cold but his blue eyes bright. He reaches out and puts an arm round me. ‘Of course I am,’ he says with a laugh. ‘Didn’t I say I’d come back? And I’ve got some good news!’
    ‘They’ve found us!’ I cry, relief drenching me like a wonderful warm shower.
    ‘Not quite,’ he says quickly, but he’s still cheerful. ‘I’ve got us the next best thing. If we have to stay out here, then I’ve discovered exactly what we need. And I’ve got to be honest with you – they’re not going to find us for a little while yet.’
    ‘They’re not?’ My spirits swoop downwards and I feel bleaker than I can ever remember.
    ‘Not till this is over.’ He gestures behind him into the white air, and I can see that a swirl of snowflakes is falling from the low sky. ‘The storm is here. That’s why we have to get moving. Right now. Do you hear me, Freya? We’ve got to go. Now.’

Chapter Three
    The journey seems to last forever, but I can only register it as icy stumbling through the cutting, blinding snow. I’m feeling cold now – properly cold, right into my bones – in a way I’ve never experienced before. It’s as though I can never be warm again. The whirling snow is flung into our faces by the searing wind and all I can be sure of is the hand holding mine and