Love After Snowfall by Suzanne D. Williams Page B

distance he’d said he’d walked. He lacked some knowledge then. It was just as well she’d shot him before the cold got him.
    Clementine faced forward and navigated the snow machine through the pre-pressed tracks. He was probably uncomfortable lying upside all that moose meat. But she had to tote as much as she could.
    H is presence sure had made the trip harder.
    Timmy, the dumb beast, had taken to the guy. Her round fuzzy head pillowed on his abdomen, she added her canine warmth to the covering tucked around him.
    The cabin appeared on the horizon , a dot in the fading sunlight. Driving up to the door, she shooed the dog out of the sled and shook the man’s shoulder. He groaned through ice dusted lips.
    “Mr. Knapp,” she said, speaking short to him. “You’ll have to assist me, or I’ll be forced to leave you outside.”
    One of his eyes popped open, a clear, blue pupil reflecting the last of the sun’s rays. He was a handsome man. Not as handsome as Nathan. But good enough to look at that she wouldn’t be repelled for whatever time he was here.
    Of course, she only had one bed, which presented quite a problem, but she’d work that out somehow.
    She stooped and lifted him to a sitting position. He was worse now than he’d been immediately after the gunshot, the cold having stiffened his sedentary limbs. His color wasn’t good either. Best thing for him would’ve been for her to come back right away. But there again, she would have lost the moose and both of them would’ve starved.
    She heaved him upright, and he cried out. She made no apology. After all, it was his fault for being there.
    His weight bearing hard on her shoulders , she hobbled in the cabin door. Timmy ran in ahead and leaped on the bed.
    “No, you get down,” Clementine puffed between breaths.
    S he released him at the side of the bed, and he fell back on the mattress, his feet dangling. She plucked his shoes off and swung his legs out in front of him.
    He lay there, still, lifeless almost, and a tiny twinge of fear crept around her heart. He couldn’t die. Nathan had d ied and left her alone here. The death of anyone else just wasn’t acceptable.
    But there again, she had the moose meat to consider. She must store it first and trust Ezekiel to hang in there a bit longer. She wrapped him in several blankets, tucking them around his silent form and headed for the door.
    “I’ll be back, Mr. Knapp,” she muttered. It was some fifteen minutes before she’d finished stringing it all, the meat being frozen solid and heavy with ice. If not for the pulleys she’d rigged, it’d be impossible for a woman to do. But she wasn’t sharing it with bears or any other wild beast after all this trouble.
    She reentered the cabin, locking the door behind her, and crossed back over to Mr. Knapp. Pulling a stool over beside the bed, she peeled back the covers and peered into his wound. Good thing he was out cold because this would hurt. No helping that. But, first, she had to clean the wound and that meant removing his pants.
    She eyed him. Having seen a man before, this would be no surprise to her. She and Nathan had been wed, after all. But seeing Nathan was vastly different from Mr. Knapp. Chances were Ezekiel wouldn’t like it.
    She reconsidered. She could remove the pants leg its elf. That’d ruin his clothing, but, better decency than death. She’d remind him of that if he asked.
    Pulling a knife from her pocket, she made a slice through the fabric, then cut in a circular fashion around his leg. She laid the cloth open and proceeded to slice into his long johns. The wound stared up at her from his naked thigh. It was a clean shot, embedded not too deep for her to get to it, but deep enough it’d take a while to heal. Dried blood had sealed much of it off.
    She rose and moved over to a wood stove in the corner. Stoking the fire, she filled a kettle from a barrel inside the door and set it to boil. She’d need to boil her knife and some rags