Free Stolen in the Night by Patricia MacDonald

practical girl and a source of strength.
    “Is there anything I can do for you?” Julie asked Tess.
    “You can tell her,” said Jake, “how often those hospital lab tests get screwed up.
     You’ve told me stories like that. Remember when they gave Sal the wrong results? You
     were telling me some story about a woman who had a tumor and they told her she was
     pregnant…”
    Julie, who was shrugging off her jacket, hesitated for a second and then she nodded.
     “Oh yes.” She looked encouragingly at Tess. “It definitely does happen. I mean, they
     try to be accurate, but there are mistakes sometimes.”
    “Thanks,” said Tess. She knew they were trying to help.
    Julie hung her jacket up on a coatrack by the door and walked over to the sofa. “Scoot
     over,” she said to her husband, wedging herself between Tess and Jake.
    Tess suddenly felt as if she couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t so much the physical proximity
     of the other three in Dawn’s tiny sitting room. It was more their sympathetic gazes
     and their well-meant reassurances that suddenly felt crushing. This affected all of
     them, but only Tess was truly…responsible. Only she had pointed to Lazarus Abbott
     in the courtroom and insisted that he was the guilty one.
    Tess jumped up. “I’m going to go out and get some air,” she said.
    “See? You’re squashing her,” Jake complained to his wife.
    “Nobody’s squashing me,” Tess snapped. “I just need to clear my head.”
    “Are you sure, honey?” Dawn asked. “Those reporters will see you. They’re everywhere.”
    “I’ll go out through the kitchen,” said Tess. She could hear the note of panic in
     her own voice. Before they could think of any more reasons why she shouldn’t go, Tess
     fled from her family.

CHAPTER 6
    T ess made her way through the inn’s kitchen to the mudroom door, which led to the back
     steps. In the mudroom, she lifted a knit cap off a hook and put it on, tucking her
     hair into it. She still had on her wool hacking jacket, but she was shivering all
     over. She pulled a parka off one of the hooks and slipped it on over her jacket. Then
     she opened the back door and stood for a moment on the step, inhaling the smell of
     autumn and wood smoke and looking out at the perimeter of the national park in the
     distance. Under gray skies, the brown fields behind the inn were ringed by evergreens
     and ancient trees still bejeweled with stubborn, unshed leaves of gold and garnet
     at the foot of the mountain. Her gaze, so accustomed to the camera’s lens, automatically
     framed the beauty of the scene in front of her, even as her heart welled with the
     painful memories summoned by the sight. Her head was aching, but the damp air felt
     as soothing as a cool hand on her pounding forehead.
    Tess looked warily down the deserted bridle path that wended through the field and
     to the mountain, and the campground. Even though she knew rationally that no danger
     awaited her there, she never ventured in the direction of the park when she took a
     walk. But today she felt it tugging her, insisting that she face up to the past.
    For a minute she felt trapped, both compelled and afraid to go, and then she had an
     inspiration. She went back into the mudroom, picked up Leo’s leash, and whistled.
     The yellow Lab, who was snoozing on his rug near the woodstove in the kitchen, looked
     up, tongue hanging out.
    “Leo, come on,” said Tess. “Want to go for a walk?”
    Panting eagerly, the dog got up and padded out to where Tess was waiting. “Thata boy,”
     she murmured as she hooked the leash on Leo and closed the door behind them. She let
     Leo pick his way across the back terrace and down to the bridle path where Dawn often
     took him for a walk.
    Together they started down the path, crunching over ice-covered ruts of horses’ hooves
     and brown, broken grass. Leo led Tess along, stopping to sniff every bush and tree
     trunk he passed. Normally, Tess would have been