Riding alone made George extremely anxious. It didn’t help that his horse was also nervous and jumpy, spooking at every shadow. Several times the gelding tried to turn them around by force and return to the city. The horse’s reluctance to strike out alone made the trip slower, despite George’s attempts to keep a steady pace. Add to that the fact that the earthquake had damaged the roads and collapsed several of the overpasses. Several times George had to dismount and lead the horse through hazardous embankments of twisted steel and concrete before they could continue on the way.
He was only halfway there when the first big, fat raindrops started to spatter on the broken and heaved sections of the blacktop. Laura’s words were echoing in his mind. The dam on Lake Bonnie was going t
