Joshua's Grace

Chapter 13 (1)

On Monday evening, when they were half way into their journey to the house in the Bay of Islands, the sun disappeared and the clouds opened up. It poured with rain, great big droplets in a never ending stream. The windscreen wipers worked overtime, double rate, but it was still difficult to see into the greyness. The deluge of rain was unexpected. Neither Joshua nor Grace had coats with them. The rain was unrelenting. The road was washed out, the track dissolving to nothing more than a quagmire of mud. Joshua slowed down. It was also getting dark. Greyness washed into inky black. They hadn't passed a town in over an hour having taken a rough unsealed track that Joshua assured her led to Steven's house.

"Not far now." He told her. Joshua peered into the darkness, vaguely making out the road. The downpour continued. He could barely seen through the screen even though the wipers were doing double time.

"You've been here before?"

"No," He shook his head, "But Riah drew the map, says we can't miss it. There should be a turn off that takes us straight to the house. Can't miss it."

Grace wasn't too sure about that, they could barely see anything as it was now. From where she was sitting, the screen barely cleared before it blurred again. The rain hammered on the car roof, against the windows and onto the wind screen. It showed no signs of letting up. Not a good way to start a holiday. They rounded a bend slowly and saw the last 'off track' track that they were supposed to take.

"They didn't forecast this did they?" Grace asked as they bumped their way along the unsealed road. 

"Not as far as I know." He braked, to avoid a large water filled ditch in the road. Then he swerved to avoid the branches dragging along the ground. "Shit." He veered away from the edge of the road as the car lost traction. Grace braced her hand against the dash. Her shoulder bumped against his. Just as well they were only just mobile, he couldn't have been doing more than 10 miles an hour.

"Sorry." They muttered in unison.

"You ok?" He threw a brief glance at her, but not for long, his eyes refocused on the road. His speed dropped to less than ten miles an hour as the rain continued to drum down.

Grace nodded. "Yes."

They bumped and jostled their way down the muddy track for another kilometre.

The house finally came into view. "Great." It was heartfelt and an accompanying sigh of relief followed as he switched off the motor. "Finally."

Grace could see how tired he was. "That was quite a ride." She rubbed his arm, gave his hand a gentle squeeze, "Are you ok?"

Joshua nodded. "You think this is going to stop?" They both knew the answer to that. There appeared to be no let up in sight. He grinned at her, "You ever made out in the back of a car?"

Grace giggled. "Depends on what you mean by made out?" She inched closer. "If you mean, cuddled," she burrowed into his arms, "or kissed," she brushed her lips against his jaw line and then against his lips before she pulled back and looked him straight in the eyes, hers twinkling, "then, yes, I made out." She inched closer, her hand dropped lower, to the zip of his jeans, "but if you mean did I ever..." 

Joshua did not let her finish the statement, his hand held her hand against his groin as his lips captured hers. They kissed deeply. "As my bones are ancient, the car isn't big enough, and there's a perfectly good bed in there," he nodded toward the house, " Let's go in."

Grace smiled. "Spoilsport."

He grinned as he reached past her. "I'll open up." He retrieved the keys from the dash board, "No point us both getting wet, Steve must have a mac or brolly or something in the house. I'll be back for you."