“I’m afraid not,” he says, attempting to dial out on the sat phone. “Even the sat phone isn’t working. We’re on our own.”
“I don’t know what to do in a situation like this,” I whisper into the wind. It’s whipping at my face with such force it’s surprising Gavin is able to catch any of what I say.
“We have to walk. We’ll find the road, and maybe we’ll happen upon a car. Or possibly we’ll find a place to get out of the weather and hunker down until the storm passes.” He shrugs as if providence will intercede and all will be well, but I can tell he is trying to play this off like it is all no big deal, but it is. We are quite possibly screwed.
He grabs his duffle bag and hoists it over his head and one arm so it rests at his back.
“Hold up,” I grumble when Gavin reaches for the bag of snacks and my overstuffed handbag. “I can carry stuff, you know.”
Gavin nods, one side of his mouth twitching as he disregards what I say, and takes the bags from me anyway.
“I know you can, Princess, but I want to make sure you aren’t overburdened in this weather. It could be a really long walk, and you’re going to need to preserve all your energy for that alone.”
“Are you sure we should go up?” I ask.
He nods. “Our destination is up there. And we already know there’s nothing for miles down there.”
I can’t argue with his reasoning. There is a resort that is expecting us. Maybe they’ll come looking once we fail to arrive. They will probably be aware of the avalanche and come searching for me. Well, maybe not them themselves, I’m not convoluted enough to think that, but I am sure they will notice when a Princess doesn’t arrive on time and notify someone who’d send out a search party. I’m not sure I can handle this. I’m already tired.
My eyes narrow as Gavin hands me two pairs of socks. I look at them stupidly before I look up and see Gavin doing as he instructed; putting socks on his hand.
“They are all we have to keep our hands warm.”
Fair point. I put on my two pairs of socks, first putting one set inside the other; otherwise I'd never get the second pair on. I may have seen Gavin doing it first…
Socked up, with no place to go, we are ready to begin the slow and painful trudge through endless amounts of snow, up and up a mountainside. To say it is hard would be an understatement. I haven’t exercised this fiercely or intensely in months. Every muscle is stiff, achy, and frozen solid. It feels like we’ve been walking forever, and still we’ve not long been walking along the snow-hidden road maybe for an hour or so out of our three or four-hour trek.
I’m about to cry and think we are lost forever when Gavin puts a firm hand on my arm, stopping me in my tracks.
“Do you see that, off in the distance? I think it’s a cabin.”
My eyes widen with shock and relief as I try to follow Gavin’s line of sight, until finally, way off the road surrounded by trees a tiny wooden hut comes into focus.
With no sign of signal becoming available any time soon, this is possibly our only sensible option. Finally, we have a destination in sight. And just maybe there is someone there who could help us.
“Let’s go.”
Gavin nods his agreement and leads the way through some tricky terrain, but when I make a move to follow, my dodgy ankle won’t comply; it must have seized up while I was stationary, and it now refuses any and all attempts I make to walk on it. Making me fumble and almost face plant in the snow.
“Easy,” Gavin says, rushing to my side to steady me.
“Sorry, I’m fine. My muscles just stiffened up with stopping. Give me a minute to get them going, and I’ll be right behind you.”
He stops to check all of me out, and his eyes narrow in concern when they land on my ankle, which happens to be three times its normal size. I didn’t realize just how swollen it had become.
“Princess, why didn’t you tell me your ankle was so badly hurt.”
“It was fine; it is fine. It doesn’t hurt that much. The snow has numbed it.”
That’s a bald-faced lie. It hurts like a bitch, but I want to be tough. There is no way I’m going to just lay down in the snow. What other choice is there? To be left behind while Gavin goes to get help? No.
“You’re not going anywhere. Stay here, and I’ll go check out the cabin and be back in less than twenty minutes.”
“No, nope. No way. You’re not leaving me here. I can walk, Gavin.”
“No, you can’t. You shouldn’t have been walking at all. You could do some real damage, Princess.”
I groan loudly, and I’m about to protest even further when Gavin steps in front of me, ducks down, and scoops me off my feet. Like I weigh nothing at all. With me in his arms and the supplies strapped to his back and shoulders, he heads toward the wooden shack-like cabin as if he isn’t carrying over a hundred extra pounds. Holy shit.
“You are ridiculously strong, do you know that?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Sure, carrying me like I weigh nothing while sludging through the snow is no big deal.”
“I’ve had to carry way more when I was in the service.”
“I bet, but am I not allowed to be impressed?” And crazily turned on.
“No,” is Gavin’s only reply.
We remain silent while Gavin carries me through the snow. The closer we get, the more the wooden shack begins to look like a cabin, albeit a small one.
When we finally make it to the cabin, Gavin is full alert. If he was a cat, his tail would be twitching and his ears would be pinned back, eyes flicking around the place in a craze. If anything even so much as breathes, Gavin is going to know about it. He tentatively puts me down against the railing, mindful of my swollen ankle, and heads for the door. One knock, two knocks, three. He waits two beats before knocking quickly again and then steps back from the door. After a full minute with no response, he tries again. Still nothing.
“Well, that sucks mightily.”
Gavin says nothing, but his eyes narrow and his lips purse as he scans the surrounding area.
“This wood here has been freshly chopped, but there are no signs of anyone being even close to the property in the last hour, though the snowfall has been heavy… Perhaps it's covered any tracks.”
He seems to be mumbling more to himself than to me, so I remain silent and watch as he pulls his socks off one hand and runs his fingers along the edge of the door frame.
“Bingo!” he proclaims, pulling out a small key that had been hidden in a crack at the top of the door.
“How?”
“It's one of the most common hiding places for spare keys,” he says with a grin. “By royal decree, we’re commandeering this house.”
And with that, he unlocks the door and steps inside.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Gavin
“Gavin?” Raina whisper-shouts after me as I step into the cabin, but I don't respond.
Instead, I wait until my eyes adjust to the darkness, and then step further inside. It smells empty and stuffy. No lingering food smells, no warmth, or recent fire odors about the place. From what I can tell, there hasn't been anyone home for at least a day, possibly even longer.
I frown, remembering the wood outside the front door, still dry and smelling freshly cut, and the lack of excess dust. Either someone has left to avoid being snowed in, or they've been snowed out and can't get back. Either way, it's safe to say it's ours for the night at least.
“Gavin?” The Princess’ exasperated tone reaches me inside.
“It's fine,” I yell, and then turn around to head back to collect her, only to find her hobbling in to view just on the other side of the open doorway. “Princess,” I groan. She couldn't even give me five minutes to case the place.
“You left me all alone outside in the cold. Not to mention invaded someone's private property. Both accounts are not cool, Gavin.”
“Firstly, you've only been out there in the cold for less than two minutes alone. Second
ly, this is still part of your domain, and as such, being in a life or death situation that we are, allows us certain liberties that common folk are without. Like breaking and entering without going to prison.”
“It's still not okay, Gavin.”
“I know, Your Highness, but we will only stay as long as we have to, and disturb as little as possible. Okay?”
She nods reluctantly. “Okay.”
“Now, first priority is to get us warm and deal with your ankle.”
“Gavin, it's—”
I put a single hand up, cutting Raina off mid-sentence. “I don't want to hear it's fine. If it was fine, Princess, it wouldn't be twice it's normal size right now. So no, it isn’t fine, and you will do as I say.”
She frowns, annoyed, crossing her arms in front of her chest, and juts out her bottom lip in a pout. She really hates being told what to do or babied. Not that I'm babying her, just that she may see it that way.
I close the distance between us and stop in front of her, then scoop her into my arms like she weighs nothing at all.
“I can walk a few steps, you know,” she squeaks out in surprise.
I chuckle at that. “I know. But there is no margin for risks where you are concerned, Princess.”
“Heaven forbid the royal goods become damaged or defective,” she teases, though there's a note of disdain behind the mocking facade.
“Exactly, Your Highness. I must return you in the condition I found you.”
I place her down on an ottoman near the hearth and catch a mumbled, “Not if I can help it”. Unsure of what that means, I ignore it.
“I'm going to get a fire blazing and warm this place, and us, up. It's freaking freezing in here.”
“Almost worse than outside,” she says with a shiver.
“Probably because now we’re stationary.”
“Not by choice.”
I chuckle. “Necessity. Now please stay put. I'll be right back.”
She dismisses me with a wave of her hand, and I fight a grin at the gesture. Future queen indeed.
I head to the front porch and collect enough of the freshly cut wood to get the fire going. On returning, I secure the front door locked behind me, not wanting any sudden surprises sneaking up on us. Not that I'm really expecting anyone to be walking about in this snowstorm.
It doesn't take long to get a fire started, my old training having no trouble kicking into gear. I’m acutely aware of the princess watching me intently the whole time, though. She can't take her eyes off me or the slight awe look off her face while I put the kindling in and around the bigger logs. Stoking the small flames with a poker and blowing on them to eventually get them to engulf the logs.
“Have you always known how to build a fire?” she finally asks.
“Mostly. My father taught me, but I've had wilderness training as well that taught me how to make a fire out of almost anything.”
“Like what?”
“Like using rocks to make sparks, or a blade.”
“I can't imagine what it would be like to be stuck out in the middle of nowhere and need to fight for survival… I guess, I'm starting to, though. I'm sure this is still pretty lush in comparison.”
“It is, though, still not what you're accustomed to. We got lucky, thankfully.”
“I think it's thankfully I got stuck with you. I doubt anyone else would have gotten me out of that situation.”
A small smile tugs at my mouth with her remark. “No one else would have been in this position with you, Your Highness.”
“Well, this is true.” She giggles lightly, flashing me a wide, turn your insides into butter grin.
“Well, we are going to need to get out of these wet clothes, but there wasn't the space to pack extras, and they'd have gotten wet on the journey. Are the blankets in the bag by your feet dry enough?”
Raina shifts on her backside as to better access the duffle bag, unzips it hastily, and shoves her hand in.
“God, they're freezing. It's hard to tell if they're just cold or damp and cold.”
“Okay. Here's what we’re going to do. I'm going to take those two chairs over there and put the blankets on them in front of the fire for about ten minutes while I go through the rest of the place and try to find a phone or radio. Something useful. And hopefully some medical supplies for your ankle, so we can get that fixed up.
“We’ll then strip out of our wet things, hang them by the fire to let them dry once we can wrap ourselves in the blankets, and then I’ll see what I can do about feeding us.”
“Okay, but what can I do?”
“Keep checking our cell phones for a signal?”
She frowns at the lack of a real task but nods all the same.
The place is tiny, like six paces tiny. It barely consists of a small sitting area with one two-seater couch around the log burner fireplace on the left side of the cabin and kitchenette in the right corner with a small table and two chairs. Then a bedroom with nothing but a double size bed in the opposite corner to the living space, with a small bathroom next to the bed, behind the fireplace wall. It's all completely open plan, or really just a big square box, so it takes no time at all to realize there is no phone or radio. Nothing electrical at all.
Great.
“Any signal yet?” I ask, stepping out of the bathroom.
Raina shakes her head. “Nope. You find a landline?”
“Nope. But I did find some medical supplies in the bathroom.”
“Oh, great…”
“Don't worry. The storm will pass soon, and then it's likely someone will see the smoke and come investigate. Or the owner will come back. Someone will find us sooner or later. ”
“I’m more concerned about what you're going to do to my foot,” she teases.
“Oh. Well, I did consider chopping it off at one point. There's an ax over by the front door.”
“Let me guess, the pesky ‘don't damage the royal goods’ rule stopped you?”
“That, and you screaming bloody murder could cause another avalanche.”
“Funny…”
I shrug. Walking over to the Princess, I crouch in front of her, but frown when I take in her attire.
“God, what's wrong? Is it really that bad? Please don't cut it off. ”
I laugh at that. “I'm not going to cut it off, Princess, but I can't wrap it while you still have your jeans and leggings on. You won't be able to get it off over your foot.”
“Oh.”
“I'll be right back.”
I stand and walk the two steps to the blankets and fireplace. Thankfully I find them dry and even slightly warm.
“Okay, we’re good to go,” I announce, pulling off the blankets, and walking back to Raina. “I’ll take you to the bathroom to get undressed.”
“No. I can manage myself.”
“Princess.”
“No. I'll let you play doctor, but I can hop a few steps, Gavin. Don't baby me.”
“Fine. Have it your way,” I grit out, tossing one of the blankets to her.
She huffs in triumph and then hobbles toward the bathroom, but only makes it to the bed.
“This is silly. We’re all adults,” she begins, clearly rethinking her attempt to make it to the bathroom, even with the short distance; it’s clear it’s taken a toll on her. “I don't need to strip in the bathroom.”
Before I can process what she said and counter her, she's removed both her sweaters at once. I hastily avert my gaze, but not before I catch sight of her smooth, toned stomach and the lacy black bra she's wearing.
Oh God.
I find myself rendered speechless and befuddled, unsure what exactly I'm meant to be doing at this moment. Oh, right. I hedge around, keeping my eyes straight ahead toward my destination, the kitchen, but halfway there I halt in my tracks at Raina’s shriek of pain.
“What happ—” Damnit.
Smooth, lightly tanned legs greet me when I swivel around, finding Raina with her pants down around her ankles, one sid
e stuck on her bung foot, sitting on the bed practically naked.
“Jesus, you are going to catch your death of a cold sitting around like that!”
I rush to her side, and in the blink of an eye, I have her completely covered by the blanket that was sitting idle beside her.
“Sorry,” she mumbles out, choked up by unshed tears.
I instantly soften my tone. “Let me help?”
She nods weakly.
I crouch down in front of her and examine the scene. Her ankle is completely encompassed by her pants. I suppress a small chuckle, as I’m sure Raina wouldn't appreciate me finding this situation and her complete blunder amusing.
Gathering up the pants, I push some of it up around her calf as to find her foot. It's really not looking great. Swollen and red, with a slight purple tinge coming up around her ankle bone, a bruise no doubt beginning to form.
“This might sting a bit,” I whisper with a wince.
I slide my fingers as gently as I can over her ankle and wedge them up into the bottom of her jeans and leggings. With all my might, yet still being conscious of her sore foot and also not to wreck her clothing, I push outward. Having created a wider gap, I look up to Raina’s pale face and give her a sad smile.
“You are going to need to slowly tilt your foot down and pull your knee up toward you, while I hold the edge of your jeans and pull them toward me.”
She nods, her eyes wide and her bottom lip wedged between her teeth.
“Count of three? One. Two. Three!”
“Ahhhhh!” she yells out between her teeth before collapsing back on the bed. “God, that was awful. We should have cut it off.”
“Your foot?”
“No! The jeans!”
“Oh.” I chuckle. “You did great by the way, but I'm going to pick you up and carry you to the couch so I can fix your foot up, and I don't want to hear any arguments about it. Got it?”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Good.”
I scoop her up and carry her back to the couch, keeping the blanket securely around her, but it doesn't stop the images playing in my mind with having her this close and this … bare.
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