CHAPTER ONE
SHE’D MADE SUCH A MESS of her life.
Sodden with misery, Miranda sat on the rock, staring at the frozen lake, oblivious to the fact that she was slowly losing the feeling in her fingers and toes.
Around her the mountains rose, wrapped in their lethal covering of snow and ice, but she was as indifferent to their beauty as she was eager for their sanctuary. They offered refuge from glittering tinsel and other symbols of festive cheer.
It was Christmas Day, but up here in the icy wilderness of the Lake District, Christmas Day was just another span of daylight hours without meaning or significance.
And she really shouldn’t be crying.
It had been six months. Six long months. Time enough to accept the situation and move on. Time enough to forgive herself for being unforgivably stupid and naive.
She was supposed to be streetwise. Independent. She was supposed to know everything there was to know about the dark side of human nature. Well, apparently she didn’t. She gave a cynical laugh. Apparently even she could be duped.
She’d been stupid and gullible and she just hated herself for having been taken in so completely.
With a sniff, she rubbed her numb cheeks with equally frozen fingers. Crying was pointless and was something she rarely indulged in. Struggling to hold back the tears, Miranda searched inside herself for the fierce strength that she knew she possessed, but all that happened was that more tears welled up in her eyes and spilled down her frozen cheeks. Oh, for goodness’ sake! She brushed them away with an impatient hand and wondered what was happening to her. She was never usually this pathetic! It was just because it was Christmas. Christmas made everything feel different. At Christmas, everything was focused on the image of the perfect family, but for her to be seduced by that image was completely laughable because she knew better than anyone that families were entirely imperfect.
She didn’t want one!
She was better off on her own.
But she’d managed to forget that fact. Briefly, she’d lost all sense of judgment. She, of all people, who had learned long ago that the only person you could truly depend on was yourself. She never leaned on people. Never. And yet she’d—
Gritting her teeth, she pushed the thought away. That was in the past now. Whether she liked it or not, it was over and the past didn’t matter. All that mattered was the future. And remembering not to make the same mistake again.
She straightened her spine and lifted her chin.
It was time to grow up. That was going to be her New Year’s resolution. She was going to stop being such a romantic dreamer and get to grips with the realities of life. Princes didn’t ride up on white chargers or horses of any other colour, come to that. Ordinary people didn’t win the lottery and families were entirely dysfunctional and not to be envied in the slightest. And Christmas was just one day out of three hundred and sixty-five and it would pass soon enough.
There was absolutely no point in sitting on a rock in the middle of nowhere, feeling sorry for herself for not having something that just didn’t exist.
She needed to pick herself up and make the best of the situation.
Feeling something cold brush her hand, she glanced up and realised with a flash of surprise that it was snowing. Suddenly aware of just how cold she was, she turned her head and noticed with a stab of alarm that she could no longer see the top of the mountains.
The weather had been perfect when she’d left her miserable, cramped, rented flat.
What had happened to the blue sky and the sunshine?
With a flash of panic, she realised that she actually had absolutely no idea where she was. She’d been so desperate to get away from the rows of houses with Christmas trees and fairy-lights—so desperate to escape from the glaring taunt of happy family gatherings—that she’d just climbed onto her rusty, secondhand bike and ridden out of town until the houses had been far behind her and all that had lain ahead had been the mountains. She didn’t even know the area because she’d only moved here a week ago.
She’d abandoned the bike in a deserted car park and started to walk, lured by the promise of fresh air, blue sky and the absence of festivities.
Up here on the fells it hadn’t seemed like Christmas. Up here, she hadn’t felt like the only person on the planet who was surviving Christmas Day on her own. Up here it had just seemed like any other normal day.
Except that her life had reached crisis point.
But the time for reflection had passed and more immediate problems were now pressing in on her. Like finding the car park again. If she were to stand any chance of finding her way down the mountain, she was going to have to leave immediately.
She stood up and stamped the snow off her trainers, realising how totally inadequate they were.
How could she have been so irresponsible?
The answer, of course, was that she hadn’t been thinking about anything except her problems, but problems had a way of shifting around and she knew that her immediate problem was one of basic survival.
Trying to identify the way she’d come, she walked for a few minutes and then realised that she could no longer see the ground directly in front of her. She couldn’t work out which way was up and which was down. The path had vanished and beneath her feet lay a lethal, snowy carpet. A treacherous covering that concealed the way home.
The temperature was dropping, she was lost and she had no means of contacting anyone. No one knew where she was.
Suddenly understanding the seriousness of her situation, her heart lurched with fear and her mouth dried. Panic gripped her with tight, merciless fingers and for a moment she found it hard to think.
The weather was deteriorating by the minute and she knew absolutely nothing about surviving in freezing, wilderness conditions.
If she walked without knowing where she was going, there was every chance she could walk over a precipice, to her death.
But staying still wasn’t an option either. She had no equipment, nothing with which to create warmth or shelter.
Part of her just wanted to sit down and give up. But something stirred inside her. Something that reminded her that giving up wasn’t an option. Dying wasn’t an option. She had to live.
She’d just have to find a way down. Somehow.
She was going to survive.
And once she’d done that, she was going to totally rethink her life.
* * *
Jake Blackwell trudged steadily up the path, noting the change in the weather with a faint smile of amusement. Mountains. A bit like women, he thought to himself as he shifted the pack on his back—unpredictable of mood and always to be treated with respect.
In many ways he preferred unpredictable, wild weather to sunshine and blue skies. Walki
ng and climbing became more of a challenge, a guessing game, a battle of wits between him and the mountain.
The deep snow crunched under his boots, the air was cold enough to numb the face and in the distance he could hear the peal of bells from the village church.
It was Christmas Day.