North to Alaska

by Olivia Gaines

  She sat down on the couch and kicked off her shoes, tucking her feet under her. “I know.” The words were said with a sad realization. “You and I are going to be snowed in here together.”

  Riley stood in front of the fireplace trying to piece together what he was feeling. He was sad he had lost a very efficient and skilled hunting buddy, but he was confused at the joy he was feeling that Cullen had not touched Amanda in that way. He added another log to the fire. It also bothered him that there was no way to break down that amount of meat, smoke it and get down the mountain before the snow. They could do one or the other. He didn’t want to waste the meat. In his heart, he didn’t want to waste the chance to woo and win the woman for his own.

  Amanda watched Riley. She knew why he came back. If she didn’t want Cullen, this man was hoping she would accept him as a replacement. There was definitely a pull between them; she had felt it in the truck. She had been saved from one man who was going to violate her body. She wasn’t sure what this one was planning for it. Her guard was up and would remain there until she could find her way out of this mess.

  Somewhere in her subconscious, she could almost hear Taps being played as if she were standing next to a grave of a fallen soldier. Hope was now officially dead. She was going to be snowed in with a man she did not know who looked at her like she was a pork chop smothered in gravy. A surreal reality came into view of Riley standing in front of the fireplace. He was an attractive man that made her feel many things. In her heart she knew that in the next few months, he was going to make her feel a lot more.

  Chapter 5. Breaking Bear...

  To her surprise, Cullen had running water in the cabin. It was even more of a shock when Riley told her that a few years back, a commode and sink had been installed. What she had assumed was a clothes closet was indeed a water closet. It, too, was covered in grime and the toilet was so dirty she was afraid she would catch something if she continued to look at it. The bed she was certain would have her itching and infected by bugs. She pulled back the bed coverings and dark brown sheets to find the ticking actually ticking. The material seemed to move on its own with little creatures that were inhabiting it and feeding off the dead skin cells from its former guest.

  “Good God!” She yelled. It was probably to her benefit that she only had full vision in one eye.

  There was also something brown hanging in the bathroom that was supposed to be a towel, but like the sheets, it was obvious that they too were once white. The bathroom floor was wood, which provided a perfect conduit for the wonderful scent of urine that soaked the floors. If she weren’t a God fearing Christian, she would leave Cullen’s rotting carcass under that bear to waste away in nature and she would come back in the spring to throw dirt over his bones. She wanted off this mountain and out of this miserable life. Most of all, she didn’t think she nor her lady parts were going to survive four months in the cold snowy weather with a very virile, masculine, and muscle-bound Riley Bishop.

  Instead of being negative, start counting your blessings. The one thing that was very clear, which stood out like her swollen eye, was Cullen was ready for the snow. There were piles of wood, outside of the front door and back door which reached up to the roof, as well as full canisters of flower, sugar, large bags of salt, cured pork, and sausages. There was a large wood-burning stove on which she placed the skillet that she had used to try and split open the man’s chest. She used a large stew pot to heat water to make dishwater to scrub the two pans she used to make pancakes with sausages for breakfast. She found two plates in the cabinet and scrubbed them to serve the meager meal, along with the two mugs, which held coffee. It was darker than her spirits outside, but they still had to eat.

  They ate in silence as he looked at her eye. It didn’t appear that there would be any long-term damage to her face once the swelling went down. From her hope chest, she handed him a fresh towel, a face cloth, and a hand towel. Unwilling to risk the use of the bear fat soap, she handed him a bar from one of the boxes she shipped ahead, along with the kettle of hot water. “You clean up first, then I’ll go. By then, the sun should be up and we can get started.”

  “Thank you for this and for breakfast, Ms. Perkins,” he said in a tone that was entirely too sexy for whatever dark thirty it was in the morning.

  “You and I are going to be stuck in her for nearly four months. Please call me Amanda,” she told him.

  “And I am Riley,” he said to the back of her head.

  “Well Riley, we are burning daylight. Time to get this side show on the move,” she said to him.

  Riley liked her spunk. Thinking of everything that had happened, she wasn’t crying or feeling sorry for herself. Ms. Perkins had a can do attitude and was ready to get some things done. So was he. Together they started one of the most physically exhausting and grueling workdays of their lives. Right now there were many thoughts weighing heavily on both of their minds. The bear was the least of their concerns.

  The bear easily weighed 800 pounds. There was no getting the huge animal off of Cullen without cutting it up. “Amanda, we need to get the fire going in the smokehouse. Second, we need another fire going in that pit.” To his amazement, she did not argue, but hunkered down, hauling as much wood in her arms as she could carry. The fires were started and she disappeared into the house, returning with the brown sheets and bedding she had removed. Amanda poured gas on the sheets before throwing them into the pit.

  Riley worked quickly, severing the head from the bear and tossing it into the pit. She added more wood and gas to it and watched the shattered head burn. “I’m sorry old girl,” she told the bear. The sound of Riley’s knife slicing through the back of the bear’s fur was a noise that she would never forget.

  Grateful for the cold, most of the meat would still be usable. The skills she had picked up in Luke’s Taxidermy shop were put into play as she grabbed a knife from the kitchen to skin the fur from the meat. It was with clean even cuts that she detached the skin and leaving the paws attached. She didn’t flinch when he made clean cuts of the legs, cutting out chunks of roasts and carrying those pieces to the smokehouse. The smokehouse was a lot larger than it looked, with shelves on the inside and hooks to hang the meats from the ceiling. As they worked, she could hear the cries from in the barn from their two hungry guests. Riley cut off two large chunks of meat, diced the pieces up, and headed towards the barn.

  Amanda’s eyes were wide in astonishment when she asked, “Are you going to feed that baby its’ mother?”

  “Do you see any cub chow around here? They have to eat something, and we can’t let all of this go to waste.”

  It took nearly four hours to break down the bear and cut up the meat. Under it was Cullen. Riley looked at her as she eyed the remains. He told her, “There is plastic in the back of my truck; I will go and get it.”

  “Bring all that you have; we are going to need it,” she told him. In the corner of the bedroom was more dirty bedding that she used to swaddle the body before wrapping it in plastic. Amanda helped Riley carry the body to the unused outhouse and secured the door. Nothing was said as they walked back to the cabin. Riley’s mind was fluctuating between being angry at his long time hunting buddy for what he’d done to Amanda while the other side of him was grieving. No one deserved to die that way. It was even worse that he would be stuck in the shitter until spring. Cullen had lost his father last year and there were no other relatives he knew of to notify. It was a sad end to a lonely life. Something moved in Riley’s heart as he stood in front of the outhouse. If not for the Grace of God, there go I. He had lived in the cabin for nearly two years after he came back from Iraq. He sold it to Cullen a year or so ago.

  Amanda walked quietly, her feet crunching in the fresh powdery snow which had started falling steadily about an hour ago, “We can use the rest of the plastic to cover the mattress. We can carry it to the smokehouse and let it stay in there for a day or so until it kills all the lice and ticks living in it,” she told him.<
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  “Yeah, but then it is going to smell like smoke,” he told her.

  “I can live with the smell of smoked meats more easily than I can being eaten alive by lice or smelling his stench,” she told him. “Besides, I shipped some fabric deodorizer.”

  Riley used kerosene to pour over the blood trails left from the bear to mask the scent and by 3 pm, the light flakes of snow that had started in the morning were now big flakes and coming down fast. Even the walk path was now icy and very slippery. “I need your help,” he told her as he headed to the barn.

  He set the wolf cub free. Or at least he tried but the animal kept running back into the barn. Finally, he removed his belt and struck the animal a few times. It cried and scampered off into the wood line.

  Amanda asked, “Do you think it will come back?”

  Riley watched the woods, “Yes, but he will not be alone. He ate well, so he will go and tell his family.” He noticed Amanda eyeing the bear cub, he told her, “Today was its last meal. We will let it hibernate in here until spring.” He loaded her arms with canned goods, a smoked ham, jams, and other items they would need in the next few days. He knew his way around the barn, but it was obvious he was looking for something. In the far back corner, he located a bottle of wine and a bottle of bourbon along with a canister of cocoa. He winked at her.

  “The temperature is dropping. We need to prepare to hibernate ourselves,” he told her.

  Making a quick trip to his truck, he disconnected the battery and brought it inside of the cabin. He made another trip back to bring in some sizeable pieces of wood, shellacs, and his toolbox. He slid the wood under the couch. On the last trip, he brought in an overnight bag.

  This did not escape her attention. “You just happen to travel with an overnight bag full of clothing?” She started to look for the gun again.

  “I hunt a lot, so I have to keep a fresh pair of clothes if what I am wearing gets wet. I only have two days’ worth, so this is going to be interesting to say the least,” he said with a wry grin as he sat his items down.

  “Amanda, I hope you understand that the pass up the mountain is covered in ice and is very treacherous to try and drive,” he told her while his eyes met hers with an intensity that made her toes tingle. “Just as we slipped walking, trying to drive a two ton vehicle down an icy mountainside is a recipe for death. We are locked in here, but we will find a way to make it work. Okay?”

  “I understand. There isn’t much I can’t handle,” she told him as she looked about for something to make for supper.

  He removed his wet overcoat to dry it by the fire he was stoking. His back was to her when he mumbled, “Yeah that I can see. It’s going to be a very long four months.”

  In her mind, it was the understatement of the century.

  Chapter 6. Making it livable...

  It was another restless night with her on the couch and him in the chair. Each time Riley moved or shifted his weight in the chair, Amanda would jump up. When he rose in the middle of the night to relieve himself, he returned to the living room to find Amanda standing in the kitchen holding a knife. She was traumatized and scared for her safety. Riley liked that even less.

  In the soft light from the embers of the fire, she could only see a shadow of his face as he told her, “Amanda, you are safe. I will not harm you nor let any harm come to you, okay?”

  Her voice was low as she hugged her knees, “you knew what kind of man he was and you didn’t tell me. You just dropped me off up here and left me...”

  Riley wanted to hold her, cradle her in his arms, “I came back for you. I will take care of you.” It was more of a promise to her than anything else, as he watched her punch the pillow and then lay down. Her feet pointed at him, her eyes watching him in the dim light.

  Neither could find any comfort as the wind howled, then whipped itself into a frenzy and encircled the house like a hungry snake wrapping around its prey. The howling monster found every open crack and crevice in the cabin and pushed in puffs of cold air. As hard as she tried to look out the window, the layer of soot on the panes was too dense. The windows seemed as if they had never been cleaned. Neither had the glass covers on the kerosene lamps used to light the cabin.

  Riley sat in the chair watching her with more than a mild interest. She was pretty. I don’t think she even knows how attractive she is. Silently, he kept watch over her as she slept and by the morning, the lady seemed to have a new resolve.

  “This is too much. We are not going to live like this,” she said with some finality. She loaded up the fireplace and the wood-burning stove and set every pot and pan she could find on the stove top and filled each with water. “Can we make a path to the smokehouse to relight it or check to see if all the critters are dead in the mattress?” I need a door between me and you and night.

  He stood slowly, keeping his hat in hand as it covered his lap. His body was telling what he’d been thinking about. He answered her, “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Good. I’ll get coffee going, slice off some ham, and see what I can do to make some sandwiches. When I get that kitchen cleaned, I’ll get started making us some decent food,” she told him while her perfect backside was pointed in his direction.

  How many months am I going to be locked in here with her? Riley made his way to the bathroom; disgusted by the stench, he made quick work of his business. He had to agree with Amanda; this was too much. There was no way in the world he was spending four months dealing with the smell in that small space.

  On the positive side, the coffee and ham pieces sizzling on the stovetop in the kitchen smelled heavenly. Amanda found chunks of cheddar and she sliced off a piece to accompany a can of spiced apples that she served up to him on the same dishes they had used last night. It was a tasty meal and he could not help but smile at her as he made his way, bundled up from head to toe, out the door. He started with the big shovel by the door and made a path to the barn to check on their guest, who was sleeping peacefully. He continued moving aside piles of snow until he reached the smokehouse.

  Ronnie, his cousin, had helped design the smokehouse building, so there was storage for the wood to keep it dry even when the snow was up to their necks. Today, the snow was only knee deep. In the morning, it would be up to their thighs and by the end of the week, getting out would be nearly impossible. With a bit of kindling, he got the smokehouse fire started again. The mattress still had some guests, so he added as much wood as the hopper would hold and he made his way back to the cabin. He was cold. His nose was red. The ends of his fingers were numb. He entered the back door to the smell of hot chocolate, toasted cheesy bread, and lavender.

  The woodstove was raging and the embers in the fireplace made everything seem toasty, but damned the place was nasty. He held up his hand to refuse the hot chocolate as he went out the front door with the shovel to make his way to his truck. He removed several larger pieces of wood, his saw, and a few cans of paint along with brushes of different sizes. He entered the front door, shaking snow from his scarf while he stood by the fireplace.

  “If you don’t warm up soon, you’re going to get sick,” she cautioned him.

  “I grew up here. I know the weather and I know how to survive,” he told her. He was smiling as removed his coat and hat. “It’s sweet that you’re worried about me. This is progress.”

  Amanda handed him a hot cup of cocoa. “Progress?” she asked with her brow arched.

  “Yes, yesterday you thought I was a hungry, creepy, potential rapist. Today, you don’t want me to catch cold,” he winked at her.

  Her facial expression did not change, “You still are hungry. Your eyes tell what you’re thinking, and taking care of a sick person is no fun.” She said it matter-of-factly and then added, “And if the bear hadn’t gotten your friend I was going to—so careful on that rapist thing.”

  “Duly noted,” he told her as he accepted her peace offering of hot chocolate. “The snow is knee high today, tonight it will thigh high, and
by the end of the week, we’ll be locked in.”

  “Okay. When you go back out later to get the mattress and the smoked meats, I will head to the barn and bring in more food stores,” she said, waving her hands about the dingy living space. “I’m going to get started cleaning the kitchen and making this more habitable.”

  Riley watched her with inquisitiveness. Today, the swelling was gone, but she had a really ugly black eye. Cullen, what were you thinking? She was willing to marry you. His eyes wandered to her lips then back to her eyes. She was a really an attractive woman. He only hoped she wouldn't get cabin fever and go nuts. The only thing that could be worse than her going crazy would be if she was boring as hell and wanted to spend every night talking about her methods for making perfect peach preserves.

  During his last tour in Iraq, he and another soldier, Sgt. Alice Kittredge had gotten cut off from the battalion, and had to find somewhere to hide. They were hiding in an underground cavern for three days while waiting for an extraction or for the fighting to die down. It was the longest three days of his life. He didn’t know whether he wanted to kill her or himself. He did learn a great deal about making preserves and even to this day he uses Alice’s recipe. He just couldn’t imagine spending four months like that.

  He had a question or her. “Out of curiosity Amanda, what were you planning to do during all the time you would be locked in here in the winter months?”

  For the first time, he saw her smile. A warm smile that transformed her face, even with the ugly bruising. A spark was in her eye when she looked at him. “I shipped ahead my typewriter. I am planning to write a novel.”

  He hadn’t expected that. “About what, if I may ask?”

  “A woman who changes her life with a big adventure,” she said, looking at him with arched eyebrows. “So far, it starts off with her intended husband getting eaten by a bear.” Her face was blank, but those eyes were sparkling.