Snowbound

by Christine Sterling

  “I know,” his blue eye twinkled.

  “I’m just concerned on how I’m going to get home. It looks pretty bad out there.”

  Brawny looked at the snow flying at a furious pace. “I don’t think you are, Doc.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “What I mean is that you aren’t going anywhere with the snow coming down like that. Looks like a blizzard, so it might not end for a day or two.”

  “I have to get home. I have patients this afternoon. They need me.” Chelsea tried to keep the panic out of her voice, but the end came out as a little squeak.

  Brawny looked at her. “Ma is a patient too, she needs you.”

  “I can’t stay here.”

  “Why not? It isn’t ideal, but you are safe and not wandering out in that stuff.”

  “The only person who knows I came here is Lacey Lou. What if she doesn’t tell Robert or Hattie?”

  “I’m sure she will. You’ll be fine.” He lifted her chin up to look at him. “We can talk as soon as I get back in.” He opened the door and disappeared into the snowy air.

  Chelsea watched the wind slam the door open. It blew in snow and ice onto the floor in the kitchen. Chelsea used all her might to close the door against the vicious wind after Brawny had gone out. She watched him lean against the wind and trudge out to the barn by holding onto a rope that extended from the porch to the barn door.

  She felt terrible that she had insulted his hat. Of course, everything she said around Brawny didn’t come out right. She tried to joke with him and hit one of his more vulnerable spots – losing his brothers and father.

  Chelsea watched his back until she couldn’t see him through the falling snow. She looked at the floor, where the snow was melting and creating puddles on the wood. If Brawny didn’t milk the cow before coming to town, he probably hadn’t eaten either. Her own stomach growled to remind her that she needed to eat too.

  She’d have to find something to make them for dinner, but that could wait. She found a dish towel and mopped the water up from the floor. She didn’t want to risk slipping on the floor.

  Doing a quick check on Mary, she found the woman sleeping soundly. The drops had done the trick. She would have to be careful to closely monitor the dosage and frequency. She didn’t want her patient to become addicted to the drops.

  Chelsea was currently helping another patient navigate the withdrawal symptoms from a laudanum addiction. It was touch and go and she could see firsthand how an addiction could tear a family apart. She didn’t want that for Brawny after he had been through so much.

  She returned to the kitchen and looked around for something to fix. She wasn’t much of a cook, but she could throw together something. At college she ate in the student kitchen, as her meals were included in her tuition. She worked long hours at the hospital, so grabbing something in the doctors’ cafeteria was not unusual. And since being in Silverpines, she ate most of her meals at Lily Jo’s.

  She found a smoked ham in a sack, along with flour, coffee and a can of lard. She remembered her roommate in college talking about gravy that her grandmother would make using brewed coffee, flour and the grease from the ham. She could probably figure it out.

  Taking a quick look outside she couldn’t see the barn. Might as well make the best of it, she thought and went about preparing a meal, so they had something to eat.

  Chapter 6

  Brawny lifted the scissors and trimmed his moustache so it was over his top lip. He had grown his facial hair after he lost his eye. Partially because he didn’t care what he looked like, and partially because it did keep his face warm in the winter.

  He only had a shard of a mirror, as he had destroyed all of them after the accident. It was good enough for his purposes.

  He heard the sound of hissing behind him. He hadn’t shut the door to his room as the morning was chilly and he wanted to allow the warm air from the living area to reach him.

  He put the mirror and scissors down, turning around to look at Chelsea. She stood there staring like a startled deer, her eyes big, round and non-blinking. Her red hair was braided to one side and she was wearing a set of Pete’s clothes he found in a trunk. He was the smallest of the brothers, but the clothes were still too big for her.

  He walked over to her and picked up the braid. “You look like a school-girl with your hair like this.” She didn’t respond. She just looked at him, swallowing deeply. “I’ve missed you,” he said in a low voice. “Did you miss me?” He released the braid and lifted her chin, brushing his lips softly against hers. He heard the quick intake of breath and he lingered just a second more than appropriate before she pushed him away.

  “Brawny, stop. I’m here to take care of your mother, not to play house.” She crossed her arms and stamped her foot once.

  Brawny gave a little chuckle and reached for the shirt he laid on the bed. Putting his arms in the sleeves he started to button it up and returned to the washbasin.

  “You shouldn’t have the door open,” she chastised him.

  “Why not? It’s my home. I have it open to heat the room.” He looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you sleep with your door open?”

  Her mouth pinched up and she wrinkled her nose. “I most certainly did not. What would people say? That is most inappropriate.”

  “What people, Chelsea? No one is out here. You said yourself you are stuck here takin’ care of a patient, no one is going to fault you for that. What did you do? Sleep in your clothes? It gets awful cold here at night.”

  “I needed to talk to you.”

  “About what?” He picked up the mirror again and continued to trim his beard.

  “I noticed there wasn’t much meat here.”

  “Haven’t been hunting. I’ve had other things on my mind.”

  “Put it on your mind. Your ma needs protein. We used the last of the ham for dinner, she really needs red meat. The iron will help her keep her strength.”

  He nodded. “Anything else?”

  “Does she have any herbs stored here? I only brought a few items with me from the clinic.”

  “I’ll check the root cellar. I know she had some things hanging. When I go out, I’ll check.”

  “Thank you,” she turned to go, but then returned to the door. “And Brawny?” He looked at her, lifting his eyebrow again. “Keep the door closed if you are in here. You aren’t my patient.”

  Without a word, he put the mirror back down and walked over to the door, closing it in Chelsea’s face. He could hear her footsteps eventually move down the hall.

  He leaned his head against the door for a moment going back to his toiletry. As he lifted the mirror, he caught the reflection of his face in the broken glass. He hadn’t put the eye patch back in place. No wonder she recoiled from him. He looked like a monster.

  Brawny looked through the scope of his rifle. He didn’t see anything along the ridgeline. The snow had lessened significantly. Right now, it was almost up to his knees in the low areas, and nearly to his chest in areas where it drifted. Brawny looked at the sky.

  The clouds rolling in from the east were still dark and low. This was just a break in the storm. It was going to start snowing again.

  He knew it would keep piling up. Any chance of them leaving the valley or making the steep climb to the ridge would be gone until the snow melted.

  With the weather such as it was, logging operations ceased, so it wouldn’t matter if his family was snowed in at the cabin. But things weren’t normal anymore.

  He didn’t want to tell Chelsea that she might be stuck in the cabin for longer than just the time the snow was falling.

  But she was family too. Ma said so. When he checked on Ma, she whispered to him in German about how much she liked the lady doctor and reiterated that he needed to settle down. He liked her too, but unfortunately, he couldn’t marry her.

  Swinging the rifle over his shoulder he started the long trek to the root cellar to see what was left. He managed to clea
r around the door to the root cellar and went inside. It was cool, but not as frigid as the outside.

  He saw Ma’s basket of herbs, and not knowing what Chelsea might need, he just grabbed the entire basket. There was some dried beef on the shelf, but not much else. He threw those on top of the herbs.

  If he didn’t find something soon, he would be forced to butcher one of the chickens, but that wouldn’t feed them for very long.

  As he shut the door, he caught a movement out of his good eye. He placed the basket on the ground and closed the door silently before peering around the structure. A white hare sat there in the snow. He lifted the rifle up to his shoulder and looked through the scope.

  He automatically lifted the gun to his eye and realized he couldn’t see anything. The patch was covering his shooting eye. He switched it over to the other side.

  He brought the hare into his sights and tried to focus on it. The hare stared back through the cross hairs, twitching its nose.

  Promise me.

  He watched the white creature hop towards a small undergrowth of brush and tracked the movement with his rifle.

  Promise me.

  Brawny lowered the rifle and silently cursed. He watched as the hare took its time before disappearing under the brush. I just let dinner hop away. Picking the basket back up, he decided he’d drop the contents off in the kitchen and then go butcher one of the older hens.

  Brawny watched as Chelsea listened to Ma’s lungs. She removed the stethoscope from her ears and looked at him.

  “She’s filling up with fluid.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Her breathing is getting very raspy and she is having more difficulty filling her lungs.”

  Brawny was scared. “What can we do?”

  “I’m going to continue to monitor it. She has been drinking the rosemary tea, but it isn’t working as quickly as I’d like.” Chelsea thought for a moment. “Mrs. Winters, I’ll be right back. Don’t you worry.” She patted the woman’s hand and directed him out of the room.

  “Chelsea,” he said once they entered the hallway and closed the door. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  Chelsea took a deep breath. “She’s drowning. Her lungs are filling with fluid and she will suffocate if I can’t get the fluid out of there.”

  “She’s going to die?”

  “Not if I can help it. Rosemary helps thin the congestion and she is coughing up some of the infection. But it isn’t enough.”

  “What would be enough?” When Chelsea didn’t answer he grabbed both of her arms. “Tell me.”

  “I may have to find a way to drain her lung.” Brawny felt ill. He let Chelsea go and bent over, placing his hand on his knees. “It is a last resort. I will only do it if she continues to get worse.”

  He felt her hand on his back, moving in soothing circles. He had often dreamed of her touching him, but it wasn’t consoling him he had dreamed about.

  Chapter 7

  Chelsea placed the chicken carcass in a pot and covered it with water. She added an onion, a shriveled carrot and potatoes to the pot before setting it over the burner.

  Brawny roasted chicken the night before and Chelsea thought it was the best meal she had ever tasted. It was simple, just the chicken along with bread and butter and canned peaches that Chelsea had purchased at the store. She forgot she had them in the basket until she went looking for the sugar sack.

  She had only seen a doctor drain a lung once when she was still in school. Her notes and medical books were back at the clinic, which didn’t help her any right now.

  Brawny found some herbs in the root cellar, which she found out was simply a hole dug in the side of a hill with a door on it. She was thrilled to find ginseng root in the basket.

  Chelsea made Mrs. Winters a cup of tea from the grated root and the leftover rosemary leaves. She added a drop of the heroin-hydrochloride. Hopefully the heat would kick the mucous out of her, and the drop would take the edge off the pain.

  Mrs. Winters drank the tea and was finally able to rest for a bit.

  This was her third day at the cabin and the snow was finally slowing down. Brawny told her that the snow was almost as high as his hip. Nearly four feet of snow and that was in the lowest spots.

  She knew she couldn’t leave Mrs. Winters, but she really hoped that she would be able to make it back to town soon.

  She added a few pieces of wood to the oven box and then wiped her hand down her pants. She had been wearing one of Brawny’s brothers’ clothes and sleeping in one of their beds. She was grateful because her skirt and blouse were no match against the bitter cold, but she was ready to get back to her own bed.

  When she got up in the morning, she was disappointed to find Brawny’s door closed. She shouldn’t have been because she had asked him to close it, but still, she was slightly disappointed. It took her a while to compose herself the previous morning.

  She remembered thinking he was muscular when she first saw him at the apothecary. But to actually see him without a shirt, she couldn’t even put into words what that did.

  She liked his beard, it gave him a rugged look and made him look more lumber-jacky. Was that even a word?

  The back door flew open and Brawny came in, snow and ice coating his pants. His face was contorted, and he removed his coat with jerky movements.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” he said, his tone clipped.

  Chelsea looked at the floor and saw the ice starting to melt from the oven’s heat. “I just wiped everything up, thank you, and here you are bringing more snow into the house.”

  Brawny growled, “So it begins.”

  “What? So, what begins?”

  “You are acting like you belong here.”

  Chelsea put her hands on her hips. “As much as I must say you have a charming little valley here, I am looking forward to getting back to my own bed, wearing my own clothes, taking a bath, and talking to the people of Silverpines again.”

  Brawny hung up his overcoat, allowing the ice to melt to the floor and create a puddle under the pegs. He scratched his head, “We ain’t goin’ nowhere for a bit.”

  “What do you mean?” Was he saying she couldn’t go home?

  “I went and surveyed the property today and there is no way we are leavin’ here.”

  “I need to get home.” Her voice was starting to squeak again.

  “I need you here; to take care of Ma.”

  “I’ll make sure she is well enough before I leave. Then I can come back in a few days and check again.”

  Brawny shook his head. “No. The snow is too high to get up to the ridge. The steps are covered, and the incline is too steep to climb up. We are staying here.”

  “Can’t your horse make it? He made it down.”

  “I’m not going to risk my stallion just so you can go home and talk to the people of Silverpines again.”

  Chelsea felt her cheeks turn hot. She placed her hands on them trying to cool them down. “How long do you think we will need to stay?”

  “Until part of the snow melts. If we can get up over the ridge, the paths through the woods should be easier to navigate.”

  Chelsea thought for a moment. “How long do you think that will be?”

  Brawny slammed his hand down on the table, causing her to jump. “Don’t you listen, woman? I said I didn’t know. Asking the same question, a hundred times, isn’t going to change the answer.”

  “Well I’m not going to stay here with you.” Chelsea turned and walked back towards her room.

  “And where to you think you are going to stay? You can’t go out there. It is still freezing.”

  “I’ll try to make my own way to town.

  “You go ahead. You won’t make it a thousand yards before I find you frozen in the snow.”

  “Oh….!” Chelsea gave a little jump. “I don’t know what is wrong with you. I’m going to retire for a bit.”

  “Fine.”

 
“Fine. I’ll be in my room.” Chelsea stomped from the kitchen out into the hallway. Brawny followed her, leaving puddles in his path.

  “It’s Pete’s room.”

  Chelsea paused and looked at him. “I’m not surprised. I’m wearing his clothes after all.”

  “At least there was something here for you to wear. Believe me, I wouldn’t have brought you up here if you weren’t the last doc in Silverpines. Unfortunately for me, you were, and Ma is sick. I can think of a thousand places I’d rather be right now than here with you.”

  Chelsea felt her eyes start to well up with tears. There was a deep burning in her chest, and she pressed her hand against it, willing her heart to slow down. She didn’t know why he was being so mean. She hadn’t done anything intentionally to upset him.

  And now he said he only brought her here because she was the only doctor available. He would probably rather have Robert here, snowed in with him. They could sit around the fire and do whatever it is that men do.

  Her feet felt frozen to the floor. She couldn’t move at all. She stood there looking at him, watching anger, hurt and then something else flash across his features.

  She felt a single tear roll down her face. She reached up to wipe it away. Brawny looked away as if the sight of her was too much to bear.

  “I’ll stay. I’m staying for that woman who is fighting for her life right now.” She pointed down the hall. “I’m not staying for you. Just stay out of my way and we’ll be fine.”

  “Fine,” he responded.

  “Fine,” she countered again.

  Brawny let out a curse and stomped back in the kitchen. He placed his coat back on, shrugging into it and causing more icy snow to fall on the floor. “I’ll be in the barn. At least the animals have nicer tempers than what I’m receiving in here.”

  Chelsea watched him head back into the snow. She wanted to call him back. To tell him she was sorry for being short with him. She was just tired. She had been cooped up without anywhere to go. Claustrophobia was setting in. But most of all she wanted to tell him that she missed him, too.