J T Watson

The unfaithful wife

CHAPTER ONE

Alan Wilson was on his way home after a dull and exhausting business trip. Sometimes Alan wondered if the money he made from such trips was worth it. Sure, he had the best things that money could buy. A big house with a swimming pool. A wife who knew the right things to say and how to wear her clothes. He had everything a man could ask for.

Except that his life wasn't exciting.

Alan was the advertising man for a hamburger chain. It was his job to think of little jingles that would sell the hamburgers. His wife thought that his jingles were works of art. He thought that most of them were disgusting, and a waste of the natural talent he had.

It was thinking of his wife and home that made Alan turn off the highway he regularly used. He'd decided that he would drive through the mountains instead. It would mean that he would be two days late getting back to his dull life. Alan wondered why he should feel so turned-off by the life he led. Perhaps it was his wife. She'd been an exciting woman when he married her, but lately he had found himself looking at other women – although he had never really considered being unfaithful.

Not that he didn't have plenty of opportunities.

There were beautiful, willing girls around the office and business trips. He just never seemed to have the time for them.

Alan didn't see the tree blocking the road until he was nearly on top of it. In his sudden panic he nearly forgot everything he had ever been told about mountain driving. He hit his brakes too soon and too hard. The car went into a skid and he heard a sickening crunch as it hit the ditch.

His car was a total wreck.

He got out to look at it and saw that one side was completely crumpled. There was no way he was going to get it out of the ditch by himself. And it was getting cold. Alan had forgotten how cold and desolate the mountain roads could get at dark on a winter night.

He was wondering what he was going to do when he heard someone coming through the woods. He wasn't prepared for the girl who appeared. For one thing she looked so much like a mountain girl was supposed to look. Her hair was a rich red color and it hung down her back in a tangled mass. Her eyes were a pretty green and looked at him in an amused way.