reading windows paths in properties file

I am reading windows file paths from a properties file in Java. I do really need my program to handle unscaped paths, but so far I cannot see how to do it.

The properties key-value:

file.path = C:\directory

The code:

Properties properties = new Properties();
properties.load("filename.properties");
properties.getProperty("file.path");

The undesired result:

C:directory

Thanks!