suddenly, then, he knew that the snow was too deep, as the plane's wheels plowed deeper and the aircraft began to nose over sharply.
With a profane curse, Jim slammed the throttle forward and turned off the ignition switch, just before the nose of the plane dug into the snow and mud. Then, his plane was somersaulting to land upside down and slew crazily across the snow-covered ground. Jim was unconscious before the wreckage came to a halt at the far end of the field.
'Oh, God, Frank! Gene! Anybody! Help!' Nancy stood in the door of the lodge screaming. 'Jim crashed! His plane crashed!'
Then, she was running across the snow toward the now silent wreckage, her breath pumping in and out of her lungs painfully, and she was sobbing. 'Oh, no! God! Please, no!'
Gene burst from the door and loped after his young wife. He was joined by Jonothan, who came around from the stables.
Frantically, Charlotte was dressing, as was Frank Paynter. 'God, Frank, Jim could be hurt very bad! Hurry! Hurry!'
Then, together, moments later, they trailed across the field toward the wreckage, where Jim was already freed of it by Gene and Jonothan. Nancy was kneeling over him, sobbing softly but using her training as a nurse to determine the extent of his hurts.
Charlotte arrived, out of breath, and flung herself down beside her husband, 'Oh, God… is he…?'
'Hurt… pretty badly, I think!' Nancy murmured, then looking up at the three men standing there uncertainly, she said, 'We've got to get him back to the lodge where it's warm!'
Belatedly, Cheryl became aware of the accident only after Jim Harding was carried, still unconscious, into the lodge. She heard the commotion on the stairs and came out of her room. Charlotte was leading the way and Cheryl asked with some alarm what had happened.
'Jim's plane crashed!' Charlotte told her.
'Oh, no!' Then, she pitched in to help, forgetting for the moment that it was Charlotte who had been lying with her husband only a few minutes before. Later! she told herself. I'll pick that bone with her later!
And, quite awhile later, it was Gene Barber, who walked out to the wrecked plane, examined it carefully and found that the radio had been demolished. He told the others, 'That plane was our only way in and out of here… and now with no radio, either, we're stuck here! Indefinitely!'
CHAPTER THREE
Charlotte Harding, although she was very much concerned and worried about her husband's injuries and wanted very much to take care of him, as a matter of wifely duty, found herself giving way to Nancy Barber, whose extensive medical knowledge and a Registered Nurse's certificate qualified her better to attend him. She withdrew graciously leaving Nancy in charge of Jim, for now there were other things, to worry about, too.
After Gene Barber's discovery that the radio in the airplane was useless, it was necessary to prepare for an indefinite stay at the lodge. She talked to Jonothan.
'Can you get through to the town and get help for us?'
'It is a three day, maybe four day, ride Mrs. Harding, but before I go, I will kill some fresh meat.'
True to his word, they heard the booming report of his rifle come to them over the snow-covered stillness, and within the hour he had hung the skinned and eviscerated deer on a tree near the back door of the lodge. Then, leading a second horse, he was gone, his dark figure against the snow disappearing over the rise to the east.
Then, Charlotte organized them for the siege. She sent Frank and Gene for more firewood, and with Cheryl's help made an inventory of the foodstuffs in the kitchen, finding that they were really in pretty good shape, since, Jim had provisioned the lodge well. With the addition of the venison, Jonothan had provided there was no immediate danger that anyone would suffer from hunger, and they were snug in the warm shelter of the lodge.
Still, Cheryl worried. 'Charlotte, even if Jonothan gets help in three or four days… how are they going to get us out of here?'
'Well, a plane equipped with skis could land and take off, or they might come in four-wheel drive vehicles. There's a trail… a real rough one, but a good driver could make it. I don't think we have to worry too much!' Charlotte was trying to be reassuring.
But, Cheryl was worried about something else: her husband and the availability of Jim Harding's wife to him. To say that she was heartbroken and jealous would be an understatement; she had persuaded Frank to come to the lodge in an attempt to save their souring marriage, and this was certainly not the way she had envisioned their second honeymoon. At that point in her thinking, she considered the marriage vows inviolable, and she hadn't even considered the reasons why her husband might want to break them. Worse, she was blind to her own culpability.
'I hate this place!' Cheryl burst out. 'I was hoping we could get away from here right away!'
They were inside the large walk-in pantry finishing up the inventory. Charlotte saw that she was agitated and distressed and said, soothingly, 'It'll only be a few days. Meanwhile we're in no danger…'
'I know that, but that's not what I'm worried about!' Cheryl snapped and turned toward the door of the pantry to leave. She had been toying with the idea of confronting her dark-haired hostess with the knowledge of her having been alone with Frank in her bedroom… naked, but now that the opportunity seemed to be at hand she wanted to back away from it, thinking perhaps that with Jim's injury, Charlotte had quite enough to handle. Maybe with Jim hurt, she'll be so busy there won't be any chance for her to… to get Frank alone, again.
Charlotte stopped her with a gentle hand on her arm and a soft query, 'What's really bothering you, Cheryl?'
'I just want Frank and me to leave… and be alone!'
Suddenly, Charlotte guessed that the lovely and petite wife of Frank Paynter knew about them… knew that they had been alone in her bedroom, and had put it all together. With a smile, she asked, 'Then you're really worried about Frank aren't you?'
'No! I'm not!' Her vehement denial was as good as an admission of her real thoughts.
'You are, aren't you? Are you afraid he might begin to enjoy himself?'
'What do you mean?'
'Frank told me a little bit about you.'
'What about?' Cheryl faced her squarely, demandingly.
'He told me enough so that I could guess how it is with you and him!'
'Oh, and how is that?' Cheryl spat sarcastically.
'Well, you know,' the older woman smiled placatingly, 'not enough activity in the sex department.'
'Is that what he told you… to get you to…?' She stopped, still unwilling to get everything out in the open.
'To go to bed with him? Is that what you were going to say?' Charlotte asked.
'… Yes…'
'That wasn't the reason I fucked with him!'
Cheryl was shocked at the other woman's use of that word. She'd never heard a woman use it before. She gasped.
Going on, Charlotte added, 'No, that wasn't the reason at all! It's because I like it… and that's more than he says for you!'
Frank's wife felt as though she had to leave now. Things were getting too personal. She wrenched her arm free and fled toward the door. Charlotte moved more quickly. Slamming the door shut and blocking the way, she pressed on, 'So, why don't you give both of you a break, and really learn to get turned on, Cheryl?'
At the same time, Charlotte's hands went out to the other woman to rest on her hips momentarily, before they began, to slide caressingly upward. Again Cheryl was shocked. She turned, twisting free and gasping, 'Don't!'
'Don't what…?' Charlotte hissed into the back of her neck as she came in behind her, her arms going boldly
