On Blackstone Mountain: Prologue
In that moment, Josie hated her life. She hated her past, present, and her potential future. She hated how she'd come to be there in a situation which left her no choice in her own destiny....
“I─have to get married?”
Mr. Thompson nodded, “Yes, within twelve months, or the estate passes to your Uncle Gregor.”
Panic flooded hotly through her veins and she felt her throat constrict, choking her. She was unable to draw breath even as her lungs screamed for air. Heart pounding in her ears, 33 year-old Josie Greene felt the world spin around her. Her field of vision narrowed and for a moment she thought she might faint. All brain functions seemed to have come screeching to a halt and she could not seem to comprehend what it was that her grandfather’s lawyer, old Rick Thompson, was trying to tell her.
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“Josie?” Aunt Rosemary’s voice came to her as though she were under water. “Are you okay, dear?”
Blinking, Josie turned stricken eyes toward her grandfather’s sister. “Why would he do this?”
The older woman looked pained, searching for the right words, “He was worried about you, Josie! Joseph’s dying wish was that you would be happily settled down with a family of your own─”
“I am happy! I love my life on the farm!” Josie protested, tears threatening as fear and frustration welled within her. “You know that─and so did he.”
“You’re a recluse, Josie!” Aunt Rosemary said sharply. “You never leave that mountain! Never go out on any dates─”
“I don’t need a man!” Josie bit out, becoming angry now. “Either they can’t keep up with me, or they want to control me. I don’t need that in my life.”
A memory from her childhood flashed before her eyes and she unconsciously rubbed an old cigarette burn on her arm. Any man worth his salt deserved better than what Josie had to offer. She was broken and damaged beyond repair. While she couldn’t deny that a part of her yearned for love and a family, she’d accepted long ago that she could never have those things.
“Like it or not, I’m afraid those are the conditions of your grandfather’s Will.” Interjected Mr. Thompson. He passed a manila envelope to her, “Copies of Joseph’s Last Will and Testament for your review, along with the full details of the estate.
Lurching abruptly to her feet, Josie took the envelope and strode swiftly from the room. She made it to the parking lot before she doubled over a bush behind Gramp’s beat-up old Bronco 4x4, losing the contents of her stomach. Gramp couldn’t have known, she reminded herself. Josie had never told him that she’d already given her heart away. She’d never told anyone. Not even her best friend, Amelie.
Especially, not Amelie.
The wind whipped at her face, tearing tendrils of her hair from her pony tail as Josie climbed up into the cab of the truck. She sat there for a long minute, trembling and struggling to breathe. It was all too much. Losing Gramp last week, and then the Celebration of Life yesterday with the crowd of family, friends, and local acquaintances wanting to pay their respects. And now this.
While, it was an immense relief to know that she would not have to vacate the farm and find somewhere else to live─how could she ever give herself to any man when she was her heart belonged to another?
Spying her aunt as she emerged from the law offices, Josie started the Bronco and hastily vacated the parking lot. She did not want to talk to her grandfather’s sister. In that moment, Josie did not want to talk to anybody. She made a beeline for Blackstone Mountain and the farm, where she could hide away from the rest of the world and not be disturbed. She needed time to think. Time to process. And most importantly, time to grieve.
The sky was gray and oppressive that November day, as Josie sped along the winding road leading out of town. As she crested a high hill, her tortured gaze took in the mountain range splayed out across the horizon and her heart was in her throat again. How she loved this rugged landscape!
A tumult of emotion, she clutched the wheel, noting the snow spitting from the sky as she turned off the main route onto the East Ridge Road. The first snow of the season was forecasted to be a doozie. Something instinctual inside her told her for once the weatherman might be correct.
Josie welcomed the storm, for it matched the mood she was in: angry and sorrowful, the pain of her grief mingled with the pain of the betrayal she felt at her grandfather’s last request, ebbing through her body to the very core of her. She wanted to cry and scream all at the same time, suddenly hating the path laid out before her for the first time since she’d come to Maine, some twenty years before.
In that moment, Josie hated her life. She hated her past, present, and her potential future. She hated how she had come to be there in a situation which seemingly left her no choice in her own destiny. She hated her mother for the childhood that had been imposed upon her. Her father for abandoning Josie to the fate a callous, harsh world had inflicted on the child she had once been. And she hated her beloved grandfather for ever bringing her to this place.
For the first time ever, Josie found herself hating the farm for the pressure of responsibility and obligation that came with the blessing of such a sanctuary.
It was easier to be angry, than to allow herself to feel the pain of loss that threatened to consume her.
Mountain Farm Road was little more than a pair of twin rutts winding up the steep mountainside. Because of the narrow track, the exposed ledge, and the dense encroaching wilderness, it was a challenge to plow a path for cars and trucks. As a result, they were often snowed in at the farm for months at a time.
Historically, Josie’s grandfather would park his truck at the base of the mountain just prior to the first big snow storm of the season. They would use a snowmobile to get up and down the mountain, then take the Bronco to town once a week for supplies and visiting friends and family.
Yet, when Josie came to the spot where they would normally park the truck─she stopped only to close the gate─something she’d never seen Gramp do. In her rage, however, she wanted to block out the whole world, and she turned the key in the padlock to secure the hefty chain in place.
Knowing full well what it would mean to take the truck to the top, allowing it to be snowed in at the farm, Josie clutched the steering wheel and drove onward. Up the mountainside she went, lips firmed, jaw set stubbornly. Her heart throbbed in her ears and the blood in her veins ran hot with anxiety. The pressures of the world were too much. They were asking too much of her. It was all so overwhelming and she wanted nothing more than to hide away from it all. Life had not been kind to Josephine Greene, and the truth of the matter was that she was scared─downright terrified─of the implications of her grandfather’s last wish.