“Just a little while. First, let me help you to the restroom again,” Lance said, interrupting her thoughts.
“I don’t need to go,” Brook argued.
“Well, you’re going to go,” Lance stated firmly. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be out so you better take advantage of me while you can.” He smiled to show he was only partly joking. She wondered if he was hinting at something dark.
After Brook had been returned to the bed, Lance stoked the stove and fireplace, put on his coat, and left the cabin.
Chapter 27
Brook waited a good twenty minutes before slipping out of bed. She moved ponderously towards the door, gaining speed even though it hurt to walk.
Snow! She had just plowed through a drift at least a foot-and-a-half deep. And so cold! Frigid air pierced the clothes in which the man had dressed her. She stared wildly around, noting a few small white-topped outbuildings huddling incongruously among the trees. Where was that man? What was his name? Lance? Could he see her? Was he watching her from behind a tree or building?
Brook fell to her knees and crawled back inside the cabin. She slammed the door and brushed the snow from her feet. Pulling off the wet socks, she threw them in the corner. Crying hysterically, she crawled to the bathroom and grabbed a towel. She dried her feet and brushed the snow away from her clothing.
After a while, Brook pulled herself to her sore feet and looked into the mirror.
In a cupboard on the other wall, Brook found an unopened package of toothbrushes. She helped herself to one, spread some paste from the tube near the sink, and brushed her teeth thoroughly several times. The fresh mint flavor tasted so clean she almost wanted to swallow it. She put the toothbrush into the holder beside the one that was already there.
Exhausted, Brook took the comb back to the bed and sat heavily. She spent some time working through the tangles before falling back onto the pillow, clutching her purse like a child with a favorite stuffed animal, and succumbing to sleep once more.
Chapter 28
Lance was glad to find Brooklyn sleeping peacefully when he entered the cabin. She had one arm flung over her eyes and the other clutched her purse. He felt a small tug on his heart at the sight. It did not escape his attention that she had done something with her hair, which he took for a good sign.
He had gone out to take care of the animals. Gilbert had wanted out in the worst way, but Lance was unwilling to chance it, even though he had killed the cat. “Sorry, girl,” he had told her as she gave him one of her Gilbert hugs. “Just hang loose a little longer and things will get back to normal.” Then, he had ranged further from home, checking his traps before returning.
Brook stirred from her slumber and he turned to meet her gaze. She said nothing, but watched him from one good eye and one that was starting to open. She covered her purse with the blanket, tucked it around the edges, and then reached up and touched her hair self-consciously.
Shrugging out of his coat and hanging it on a peg, Lance noticed the socks in the corner. He picked them up and felt their wet condition. Shaking his head, he laid them on the hearth in front of the fire to dry out.
“Decided to go for a little stroll, did we?” he asked Brook while suppressing a grin.
Brook froze.
“I’m starting to get the idea you don’t enjoy my company.” He glanced over at Brook and his smile fell when she burst into unexpected tears.
“I have to get out of here,” she wailed. “And I can’t. I don’t know where I am and I don’t know what to do. I need to let everyone know I’m alive. I tried to leave, but I couldn’t. And you were gone so long! And I didn’t know where you went.”
In three long steps, Lance was at her side, wanting only to comfort her.
“Don’t touch me.” She inched back in the bed, still crying softly. He stepped back.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he walked over to the table, putting some distance between them. “I was only teasing about you not enjoying my company. It was a stupid thing to say. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Brook grew calmer and her tears subsided.
In a steady voice, Lance explained, “I know it might seem like I’m keeping you here against your will. And, I know I’ve left you alone some. But, as you probably saw when you went outside, you can’t leave. And, I have chores to do, eggs to gather, animals to feed.” He paused, letting some of this sink in. “But mainly, I had to get the cougar that killed Belinda.”
“Belinda?”
“One of my goats. Do you remember when you saw me in the clearing that first day?” He waited while Brook sorted out the memory. “Well, I had just found her remains. That's one of reasons I had to be gone. I had to find that lion before it got Gilbert, or even the wild goats, as far as that goes.”
“It was a goat you were holding?” Brook asked, stunned. “A goat?”
“Right,” Lance replied. “Why? What did you think it was?”
“Oh, lord,” Brook pressed her hands to her cheeks and stared at Lance as relief washed over her. “I thought it was a person. I thought you had just killed someone. I've been so afraid of you!”
“A person?” Lance absorbed this information and thought back over their short time together. “Well, that explains a lot. I just figured you were scared because of, well, you know…all you’ve been through. I know you’ve been…” He paused to find an innocuous word, a word that wouldn’t, in itself, carry too harsh a blow. He finally settled on one. “Mistreated.”
“I don’t want to talk about that.” Brook’s throat tightened as tears threatened once more.
“If you ever do, I’m a good listener,” he said. She ducked her head, looking down at her hands fidgeting nervously in her lap.
“I feel dirty.” Brook finally mumbled.
“Dirty?” Lance was surprised at first, and then simply nodded. “That’s probably a normal reaction. I don’t know; I’ve never been through what you have, or for that matter, known anyone who has. But I know it must’ve been awful for you.”
“Please.” Brook looked up at him, eyes full of misery. “Can we change the subject?”
“Sure.” He took a deep breath, walked to the window, and opened the shutters wide, brightening the room.