cornbread and a bowl of chili.
«How hard?» Caleb asked.
«It’s going to be a real Hell-bringer.» Wolfe’s voice was very soft, but very certain.
«Then nobody rides but me. It’s too easy to get lost in a blizzard.»
«I’ll start bringing in the cows and calves,» Rafe said, ingoring Caleb. «My bullwhip makes the horses too skittish, but it works like a charm on those cattle.»
«I’ll ride shotgun for you,» Reno said. «Thank God not too many calves have been born yet. They’ll be a lot safer in their mother’s bellies. Have the mares started foaling yet?»
«No,» Wolfe said. «Mysteeldust will probably be the first. Once she foals, the rest won’t be far behind. When they start dropping their foals in a blizzard…»
Caleb narrowed his eyes but said nothing. There was nothing he could say that would turn back the cold northern wind.
«Once we get a rope on my mustang,» Wolfe continued, «Ishmael will make sure the rest of the herd follows.»
«Hell,» Caleb said in disgust. «The last time I tried roping thatsteeldust of yours, she ran rings around me.»
«Quick little thing, isn’t she? Smart, too.» Wolfe’s smile faded. «If I can’t talk to her —»
«Talk?» interrupted Jessica.
Caleb smiled oddly. «In Cheyenne. It’s the damnedest thing I ever saw. Wolfe can go up to a mustang and ‘talk’ to it and half the time it will follow him like a big dog.»
«That’s what the Cheyenne call them, Big Dogs,» Wolfe said dryly. His voice changed. «If thesteeldust won’t listen to reason, and we can’t get close enough to rope her, I’ll have to try creasing her with a bullet.»
Jessica looked unhappily at Wolfe. She knew thesteeldust was the core of the horse herd he hoped to build.
«I’ll do what I have to,» Wolfe said.
BY thethe third day of the blizzard, the men were exhausted from lack of sleep and long hours spent riding under the most miserable conditions imaginable. Jessica made gallons of stew, rafts of cornbread, and lakes of coffee. She kept all of it hot in the kitchen no matter what the hour, for she never knew when one of the men would walk in the back door shivering with cold and hungry as a spring bear.
«Go back to bed,» Jessica said to Willow.
«You’ve been up cooking since dawn. It’s late afternoon now. You must be exhausted.»
«I’m fine. I’m stronger than I look. I always have been.»
Willow looked at Jessica’s drawn face and understood what was bothering her.
«The men will be all right, Jessi. They’re used to riding wild country.»
A tight nod was Jessica’s only answer. She didn’t know how much Caleb had told his wife about the problems they were having with so many wolves prowling in the storm, with the contrary cattle, and with cows calving at the worst possible time. Not to mention the wind itself, edged with thousands of icy teeth that ripped into flesh and stole the very warmth of life from livestock and man alike.
But Jessica knew all of those problems, for Wolfe had told her more than he knew with his terse answers and eloquent silences.
«If only the bloody wind would stop,» Jessica said suddenly.
«Yes. If only. At least it’s not snowing any more,» Willow said, walking to the window. She picked up the spyglass she had put there. In the magnified circle of its view, she looked across the pasture, counting horses under her breath. It was impossible to be certain through thewaisthigh curtains of snow, but she thought the count came up short.
«What is it?» Jessica asked, coming to stand by Willow.
«At least four of the mares are missing.»
«Ishmael will bring them back.»
«Not if they’re foaling,» Willow whispered. «No stallion will disturb a mare when she quits the herd to give birth.» There was a tense silence before Willow added, «I saw at least one wolf. The packs are moving again.»
For an instant, Jessica closed her eyes. She had seen Willow’s Arabians when they were brought to the home pasture. Even heavy with their unborn foals and thick with winter coats, the mares had an elegance of form and movement that enchanted Jessica. The thought of those mares lying down in the cruel wind to give birth while wolves circled hungrily around made her feel ill. The mares would be all but helpless, captive of the need to give birth. For a time, they would be almost as vulnerable as the foals being pushed from warm wombs onto frozen ground.
«The foals…» Jessica whispered.
Willow looked through the spyglass, saying nothing.
«Can you see any of the men?» Jessica asked.
«No. They’re probably combing the forest for cows. When the wind started coming from the northeast before dawn, the herd drifted out of Eagle Creek Basin.»
With growing tension Jessica waited while Willow searched as much as she could see of the pasture through the swirling snow. When she collapsed the spyglass with barely restrained violence, Jessica knew that the mares were still missing.
«I don’t see thesteeldust anywhere,» Willow said finally. «I think the foaling has begun.»
«Dear God, no,» Jessica whispered. «We can’t lose thesteeldust now. Wolfe was so relieved when she came to him as though she understood he would keep her safe.»
Willow set aside the spyglass. «I nursed Ethan a few minutes ago. If he cries before I come back, just —»
«No.»
The curt refusal startled Willow.
«Stay with your baby,» Jessica said tightly. «I’ll check on the mares.»
«I can’t let you do that. The cold is too dangerous.»
«That’s why you’re staying with Ethan. If anything happens to you, the baby will die. If anything happens to me…» Jessica paused and then spoke the bitter truth with no bitterness in her voice. «No one else will die of it.»
Willow clasped her hands together until the knuckles gleamed whitely. «Jessi, you mustn’t go out. You don’t know what this mountain wind is like, how quickly it can take the living warmth from you.»
«I know about cold and wind. I’ve seen sheep freeze standing up in the fields and wells frozen from top to bottom like stone.»
Willow’s eyes widened into startled hazel pools. «I didn’t know England was so cold.»
«It isn’t. Scotland is. Do you have winter clothing that would fit me?»
«Jessi —»
«Do you or not?»
«In the bedroom. I’ll show you.» Willow smiled oddly. «Some of the clothes will be familiar. Caleb got them from Wolfe. They were yours. There’s a shotgun over the front door. Take it. I’ll bring you extra shells.»
Very quickly, Jessica was on the way out of the house, wrapped in layers of wool and buckskin that were familiar, and a hooded fur jacket that was not. She wore pants instead of a skirt and carried a borrowed shotgun. The pockets of her jacket were heavy with extra shells.
The only horse in the corral that didn’t look half dead on its feet from work was a tall black gelding. He didn’t want to be bridled, saddled, or ridden. Jessica managed the first two, but was very nearly thrown before the horse gave up and left the corral with ears laid back. As she rode out into the storm, she was grateful that Wolfe had insisted that she learn to ride difficult horses and do the work ofstablehands.
Before Jessica reached the pasture, she saw the first of the wolves. They were sniffing the wind eagerly and moving as though they had a destination in mind. Acting on instinct, she followed. She lost the trail partway into the sparse forest. The wind was less brutal in the trees, but not by much.
Just as Jessica was going to give up and go back to the pasture, she heard the unmistakable sound of a horse screaming in anger and fear. She spun the black gelding around and headed toward the sounds at a dead
