Battle of Wills

by Victoria Gordon

  'Right,' he said. 'Now I want you to stay right behind me, and I mean close. And be ready to switch it on the instant I tell you. Have you got that?'

  He didn't wait for a reply, but began immediately stalking cautiously towards the sound. Seana reached out and grabbed at the back of his shirt, unable to see where they were going as she stumbled along with him, trying her best to move quietly. She still trembled with fear; or was it excitement? she wondered. Either way, she felt amazingly safe as she clung like a leech to his shadowy shape, treading almost on his heels as he padded down off the porch and eased his way around the edge of the cabin.

  Ahead and slightly to the left, the grunting and growling took on a more immediate, more ominous note, and Ryan paused as if ready for action. Then he reached back and firmed Seana's grip on his shirt-tail before moving forward once more. As her eyes adjusted more to the indifferent light, Seana could now see how warily he held the shotgun, how carefully placed was each individual step that he took. And although she, too, was walking carefully, she often stumbled or stepped on a brittle, crackling twig.

  Each time she did so, the sounds ahead would cease, and they would stand shock-still until the animal noises resumed. Then Ryan would move forward again, still with that intense caution.

  They moved closer… closer… and finally she sensed his awareness of what lay before them. Halting, almost an animal himself with his head cast high and his nostrils sniffing at the faint breeze, he seemed to be looking upward, though Seana could see nothing and the snuffling, grotesque gruntings seemed to be all around them.

  He reached back, took the hand holding the flashlight, and silently guided her until it was pointing where he wanted it. Then he lifted the shotgun to the ready and quietly said, 'Now!'

  Seana snapped on the light, then stared, stricken, at the two tiny red eyes that peered myopically at them from head-high in a young jackpine not three feet away. One hand still clutching Ryan's shirt-tail, she could feel him holding back gulps of laughter as his body convulsed. The gun hung useless at his side, useless and unneeded.

  The grunting, snuffling horror they had been tracking for what seemed like hours, the terror of the night which had driven Seana almost to hysterics, was only a porcupine!

  As harmless an animal as could be, despite its porcine vocabulary—and Ryan knew it. Ryan had known all along, she suddenly realised as the laughter finally exploded from him.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Seana was stunned. Then, as the realisation of his deliberate trickery grew, her anger grew with it, fomented by embarrassment and stricken pride.

  And as if to add insult to injury, the porcupine took that instant to snuffle at her, quite clearly saying, 'Put out the light, lady.'

  Turning from the poor harmless creature, she aimed the flashlight to where she could clearly see her way back to the cabin door, then she flashed it straight into Ryan's laughing eyes. Her own eyes were so blurred by tears and anger she could hardly see.

  'You… you utter, contemptible swine!'

  She spat out the words, then turned and stumbled away from him, oblivious of the lashing of unseen branches, of the still possible threat of the real bear, of everything but her own humiliation. When she reached the cabin, she paused only long enough to slam and bar the door and close every single curtain, then she blew out the candle again and flung herself on to her bed, the tears flowing in a sudden torrent.

  She heard Ryan, a few minutes later, give one soft knock on the door, but she ignored him, her face buried in her pillow as she cried out every tension, every frustration of her entire summer. A moment later she heard his truck engine, but he didn't go far before it was switched off again.

  Curious, she pulled back a corner of the curtain and peered out to find the truck parked at the far side of the clearing, a light now visible in the camper window. She deliberated momentarily whether to go and apologise, then let her stricken pride take charge and went back to bed instead.

  'To hell with him,' she mumbled into the pillow. 'I hope the wretched bear comes back, Ryan Stranger, and eats your tyres for breakfast! And you with them… that'd take the smug grin off your stupid face!'

  Then she wallowed into a fitful, restless slumber that ended seemingly minutes later with two loud brings from the shotgun and the even louder, angry squeal of a very surprised bear. Seana came out of the bed in a rush, but in the ominous silence that followed she couldn't be sure if she dared go out to see what had happened. The light filtering in through the curtains belied the apparent brevity of her sleep, and she realised she was still wearing the clothes she had lain down in.

  'Hey, ladybug… got the coffee on yet? Or are you still mad at me?' Ryan's voice held the normal traces of pure mockery, bringing back every vestige of Seana's anger from the evening before.

  She flung open the door and stood there, staring angrily into eyes so green they seemed to sparkle at her. Green… and alive with hidden laughter. Devil!

  'Of course I'm still angry,' she charged. 'What's the idea of shooting that stupid gun? Couldn't you get your friendly porcupine to squeal any other way?'

  He stood there, silently regarding her with eyes that toured her slender figure from head to toe in a look that could have been a caress, but wasn't going to be allowed to be.

  'I'd have thought you'd have him better trained than that,' she scorned, then slammed the door in his face and walked away. Ryan didn't take the hint, but opened the door and walked into the cabin with her.

  'Porcupine, hell! That was a fat young grizzly bear, and tough enough to have caused you no end of problems. But he won't be back, I don't think, not after the surprise I just gave him. I found out why he likes you so much, too, but I don't suppose you're interested, so I'll go make my own coffee and won't bother showing you.'

  Curiosity had defeated her before he was off the porch, and Seana trotted meekly after him, hating herself for being so easily manipulated. 'I'm probably not going to believe you, but show me anyway,' she said sulkily, and followed him as he walked around to the far back corner of the cabin, where a series of gouges had been slashed in the white clay surrounding the foundations.

  'See there… that's where the rabbits have been at it, and our porcupine friend as well. It's a salt-lick, or at least a mineral deposit with something in it the animals need or like the taste of. See the bear claw marks? I sure hope he got enough, because I don't think he'll be back for a long time to come.'

  'But what did you do?' Then she stopped, wide-eyed. 'You… you didn't…'

  'I just gave him something else to think about,' Ryan said with a grin, then showed her the remaining shotgun shell and its load of coarse, chunky rock salt. 'I just let him get nicely into his digging, and when he turned his tail the right way I put some salt on it,' he laughed. 'By now he'll be five miles away and still running, looking for a puddle to sit in. But he'll remember where he got it, mark my words.'

  Seana couldn't help but laugh at the mental picture of what must have happened, and at the identical advice she had been given over the radio the day before. Ryan waited patiently until she had finished, then said, 'Well, do I get my coffee now?'

  She offered him breakfast as well, but only as a bribe to get him to shift the propane bottles for her. He managed that with maddening ease, then sat down to clean the shotgun and drink cup after cup of coffee while Seana managed to create the worst cooking performance of her life.

  She was shamed almost beyond speech as she placed before him a plate of half-burned home-fried potatoes, soggy bacon and toast that was either too brown or not brown enough.

  'I don't know what's the matter with me,' she said as he looked sceptically at the offering and then began to eat it as if it were perfect. 'I'm as nervous as a…'

  '… new bride?' And he laughed out loud at the blush she couldn't prevent. 'Now, don't go getting mad all over again… it isn't your cooking that'll stop you snaring some poor, unsuspecting bachelor. What you're going to have to watch is that even
disposition of yours.'

  'Even? That's about the last thing I'd have expected anyone to say about my disposition,' she retorted.

  'I think it's remarkably even,' he grinned. 'You're just mean all the time.' And he ducked as she made as if to throw the coffee pot at him. 'No, no more coffee, thanks. I've got a long walk ahead of me, and I don't want to be sloshing all the way,' he said. 'But I'll tell you what… there's a chunk of nice venison in the cooler in my truck. Why don't I bring you in half to practise on, and we'll have the rest for dinner when I get back. Unless of course you'd rather just leave the cooking to somebody who knows how.'

  Seana bit her lip. Ryan couldn't keep on baiting her if she refused to play the game, didn't rise to the bait like a starving trout every time he offered it to her.

  'I think that's a wonderful idea,' she replied with exaggerated sweetness. 'I've always believed in sexual equality, especially in the kitchen.'

  'So do I,' he said, rising to his feet. 'In the kitchen.' And he halted long enough to plant an unexpected kiss on the tip of her nose before striding out on to the porch.

  'Where are you going, anyway?' she asked, walking behind him as he strolled towards his truck. It was a reasonable enough question, but the look he suddenly gave her made it sound horribly wifely. She regretted asking it as soon as the words were out.

  'Oh, back over west there a bit,' he replied casually. 'I want to take a little check on that white moose of mine before some city hunter beats me to it.'

  'The moose? You can't shoot that moose. You just can't!' Seana's protest kicked her voice up to almost an hysterical pitch, but Ryan either didn't notice or didn't care.

  'Ladybug, I can do just about anything that I want to do, except maybe spend five whole minutes with you that doesn't end up in a slanging match,' he replied, the smile replaced by what might almost have been a sort of grim sadness.

  'Now I'm going to spend the rest of this day walking through alder thickets and mud and brush and God knows what else. And when I find that moose—and I will—if I decide to shoot it there is not one thing that you or anybody else can do about it. Now is that clear enough for you?'

  He turned away and stepped' lightly up into his camper, emerging a moment later with a huge, paper-wrapped parcel which he handed over as if expecting her to refuse. 'Here's our dinner, which will be a lot easier to cook if it's thawed first,' he said. 'Do you suppose you can manage that?'

  'I'm sure there'll be something in one of my many cook books that will explain in simple terms how to thaw out a piece of meat,' she retorted angrily, her own temper flaring to match his own.

  'Good,' he replied hotly, and turned away to collect his rifle and pack, then stride away down the trail towards the spring without another word.

  'But you let me tell you something, Ryan Stranger,' she shouted after him. 'If you shoot my moose, you'll get your venison with arsenic in it! Do you hear me?'

  If he did hear, he gave no indication, and within a minute he was out of sight. Seana slammed back into the cabin, did the breakfast dishes just in time to catch the morning schedule, then climbed up the tower to resume her duties. For once there wasn't a trace of smoke to be seen, which left her free to use her vantage point and powerful binoculars to monitor Ryan's progress far below.

  It was fascinating to watch; he moved through the dense undergrowth with deceptive speed, but the most surprising thing was how directly he aimed for the very area where she would have expected to find the moose herself, though she couldn't find the animal in the glasses.

  He knows. He knows exactly where he's going, she thought. But he couldn't. He hasn't been on the tower all summer. He hasn't been up here for weeks. How can he be that sure?

  Just how sure Ryan was became evident within half an hour when the ghostly shape of the moose suddenly reared up from behind a deadfall where he had been lying in the shade. Seana's viewpoint revealed that Ryan was within a quarter of a mile of the beast, although she couldn't tell if he could see it or not. The way he was going, however, he would practically stumble over the animal, and as she watched, Seana began talking to herself—and to the distant pair— without being totally aware she was doing it.

  'Oh, get away from there, you stupid beast!' she cried. 'How can you be so vulnerable? Oh, Ryan Stranger, I hate you! I really do. If you shoot that moose I think I really will poison your food, and it would serve you right!'

  She was so angry that she contemplated going down for the shotgun in hopes that she might be able to startle the animal, but then reason prevailed as she lowered the glasses and realised just how far from her the moose and Ryan really were.

  All she could do was watch helplessly as the man slowly made his way closer and closer to where the unsuspecting animal stood calmly browsing. She was concentrating so hard on that, she didn't even notice the arrival of the truck in the clearing below or the first time Ralph Beatty shouted up to her.

  When she did hear him, however, she leaned half out the open window and called frantically to him to come and join her. But by the time Ralph had reached the cupola, which suddenly shrank in size as his bulk filled it, both Ryan and the moose had moved out of sight.

  'Oh… damn!' Seana exclaimed.

  'That's not much of a welcome,' Ralph grinned. 'What's the matter, Seana, are you righting with Ryan again? I see his truck's here, so I suppose he's off chasing his moose.'

  'He is, and I think it's just rotten,' she exclaimed angrily. 'Isn't there anything you can do to stop him, Ralph? If he shoots that moose, I… I don't know what I'll do, but he'll regret it, you can be sure of that!'

  'What are you talking about? Ryan's not going to shoot that moose,' he said, only to be interrupted as Seana attempted to shout him down.

  'He is! He told me so, for goodness' sake!'

  Ralph looked at her, a surprised, confused look that made him shake his head wonderingly.

  'I think you've been out here alone too long, dear girl. The absolute last thing Ryan would do is shoot that moose. I tell you that, and it's true. Although,' he mused, 'I wouldn't put it past him to shoot at it.'

  'I… I don't understand,' Seana replied, her eyes still hot with anger. 'You're not making any sense at all. I tell you he's going to shoot it. My moose… my white moose. He is! He told me so.'

  Ralph ignored her then, and stepped over to pick up the binoculars so that he could scan the area. 'Where is he?' he asked wearily, and carefully followed Seana's directions. 'Ah, there they are,' he mused at something Seana couldn't see. 'God, what a beautiful beast, and what a magnificent set of antlers!'

  'Will you stop talking about it and do something?' she screamed, grabbing the binoculars away from him so that she, too, could see what was happening.

  Ralph relinquished them without an argument, then settled himself in Seana's chair at the chart table and waited patiently as she muttered and scowled and heaped curses on the head of the unheeding Ryan.

  'Now listen,' he said then, 'did Ryan actually tell you he was going out to shoot that moose?'

  'Well, of course he did,' she raged. 'And when I tried to talk him out of it he got really mad… said it was his moose and he'd shoot it if he damned well pleased. The rotten devil!'

  Ralph's booming laughter rumbled through the confined space like thunder as he doubled up and howled with uncontrolled mirth. Seana didn't think it one bit funny, but her protests were useless until the laughter had run its course.

  'Oh, dear,' Ralph sighed. 'You and Ryan really do work at not getting along, don't you? I mean, really work at it. Don't you ever see when he's leading you down the garden path, Seana? Hell, all Ryan has to do is look at you and you get so riled up you believe any damned thing he says and put the worst possible interpretation on it to boot.'

  'That's ridiculous!' But it was true and she knew it; her comment was only a futile attempt to cover up her own confusion. Had Ryan done it to her again?

  'I'd have thought he'd have told you about that moose by now,' said Ralph, bl
ithely ignoring her comment. 'But you were probably too busy fighting with him to give him a chance. It really is his moose, in a way. He rescued it when a poacher shot its mother about five years ago, and he hand-raised it until it was old enough to look after itself—not the best of naturalist practices, but understandable because of the rare colour. Anyway, he ended up bringing it out here and releasing it in the wildest, least accessible country he could find.

  'I think he once told me it took him two days just to get there by horse, with the moose calf following him. And four days to get out again, because the damned thing kept trying to stay with him, of course.

  'At least twice a year, ever since then, he's taken time near the start of hunting season to locate the animal and try to steer it back into the rough country, where nobody's likely to find it. Up until this year it's been pretty easy, but now that it's been sighted I don't much like the poor moose's chances. Unless, of course, he can spook it into some really bad country where even skidoos can't get once the snow comes. I personally think he's dreaming, but knowing Ryan I also know he has to try.'

  The explanation was simple, so simple. But Seana's reaction was a complicated and contradictory muddle of irate, hurt feelings and injured pride.

  'That rotten, dirty so-and-so!' she cried. 'He did that deliberately, that's what. Deliberately! He as much as told me he was going to shoot that moose. Well, I'll show Mr Ryan Stranger a trick or two before I'm done, you just wait and see! I'll make him wish he'd never so much as mentioned moose to me!'

  Ralph laughed, then got up and opened the hatch. 'Have fun,' he said. 'And I'm sure you will, knowing the way the two of you carry on. But some of us, unfortunately, have to work for a living. And since I'm one of them, I'd best be on my way.'

  'Why don't you try and get back for supper?' Seana asked, blurting out the invitation as quickly as it occurred to her. 'I've got some really lovely venison and I'd love to have you share it.'