“Shall I read or you?” he asked.
She liked his voice and liked that he’d said shall. “You read.” She put her hands behind her head and prepared to listen.
19
ENGLAND
1944
WITH THE RAIN coming down so hard, it was difficult to even see the bridge. When they did, they both drew in their breaths. The river was high and already running over a bridge that didn’t look like it could hold a bicycle, much less a heavy car.
“That thing is pre-Columbian art,” David said as he slowed down, wiped the windshield, and stared ahead.
“Late medieval,” Edi said. “Look at the stone pillars on the side. They—”
“So help me, if you start giving me a history lecture, I’ll throw you out.”
She thought he was lying for effect, but she wasn’t absolutely sure, so she said nothing more.
David put his hand over the back of the seat and reversed the old car. “I’m going to hit that bridge at a run. We’ll either get across it or we’ll skid and go over the side, probably upside down. Are you ready?”
Edi braced herself and nodded.
“On second thought, why don’t you get out and wait for me?”
“If another man impugns my courage I’ll take one of the rifles out of the back and shoot him.”
David blinked at her. “Rifles in the back,” he said under his breath. “I’m driving an antique tank. I bet this thing was used in Sarajevo.”
In spite of the situation, Edi gave a bit of a smile. In 1914, World War I was started when Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo. It looked like that, in contrast to his seeming crassness, Sergeant Clare knew a bit about history.
She held her breath as he got to the top of a little hill and gunned the motor, then he moved the shift down to low, let up on the clutch while his foot was on the brake, and in the next minute they went toward the old bridge in a dense flurry of mud and water. Edi could see nothing. The windshield was covered in seconds and the wiper blades refused to even try to cut into the mud.
The only way she knew they’d reached the bridge was when she heard the bottom of the car hit the wood. There was a hollow sound that incongruously made her think of The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
When they hit the road again and the bridge was behind them, they both yelled in triumph.
And that was when they saw the cow. The rain had washed enough of the mud off the windshield that they could see, and lazily walking across the road, as though she had all the time in the world, was a huge black and white cow.
“Hold on!” David yelled as he tried to move the heavy car to the side and not hit the cow. At the moment, he wouldn’t have cared if he smashed the thing, but a cow that big would make them crash.
But they crashed anyway. The car hit the hedgerow at the side of the road, went into a spin, then turned around twice before heading back toward the bridge. David fought the big steering wheel with all his might, but then the leg brace tightened up on him and he couldn’t move his knee. While turning the wheel, he had to lean toward Edi as he fought to get the clutch all the way to the floor so he could downshift and try to slow the car. But the clutch, the brake, and the mud were all too much for him and the old car.
The car flipped over, Edi tumbled upside down, and the big car slipped on its top down into the river, beside the bridge that they’d just successfully crossed.
For a few seconds both of them were stunned, not able to realize what had just happened. There was blood on the side of David’s head and Edi’s right arm hurt.
“You have to get out,” David said, reaching for her.
She’d been thrown, so she was on the roof of the overturned car, but David was still behind the wheel and hanging with his head down. She followed his eyes and saw that the water was rising around them. The only thing keeping the water out was the closed windows of the car—but that wouldn’t last long.
“Yes,” she managed to say. She was dazed, not sure what was happening. “I’ll open the window and we’ll swim out.” She was pleased that she’d been able to see what needed to be done.
“Can you swim?” he asked.
“Yes, quite well,” she answered. Her head was clearing with each second. “What about you?”
“High school swim team,” he said and gave her his little grin that she’d seen several times.