“How did your husband take the divorce?” Kirk asked as he drove off the paved road at the end of the town and onto the start of their track. They lumbered up an icy rise and down the other side.
The wheels dug into the snow and held, despite the weight of the sleds trailing them. Stig let out his breath as the sleds traveled easily over the ice and snow. Now that the town filled the horizon behind them, a vast flatness spread before them. Snow covered the ground, a few hardy tuffs of grass peeking from the icy crystals. Over to the left, three spindly bushes thrust from the land, their skeleton branches pointing toward the prevailing wind.
“How did Robert take the divorce?” Fiona laughed and twisted her lips. “Not well. He threatened. He wheedled. He begged, and he threatened again. Then he set his friends and family on me. I had to get a restraining order to get them to stop harassing me.”
“Did the restraining order work?”
“Not really. After a week of being trapped in my home, I went to Boston to visit my mother’s old haunts. The places she told me about before she died. On the way there I met the woman who visited Churchill last year. After spending a week in Boston, I decided I’d come here since I had nothing better to do.”
“Our gain. His loss,” Kirk murmured in an undertone.
Fiona didn’t hear but Stig had no problem with his acute hearing.
“What do you intend to do after your visit to Churchill?” he asked.
Fiona wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. “I’m not sure yet. Did you say it will snow soon? It’s freezing.”
Stig grabbed the coat he’d tossed in the back. “Here, you can use this.”
“Don’t you feel the cold?”
Stig shrugged. “I guess we’re used to it.”
Kirk peered through the windshield. “That storm might hit sooner than they forecast. I don’t like the murky gray of the sky.”
Stig wound down the window and stuck his head out to drag in a huge lungful of air. He resettled on his seat and closed the window. “Two hours. We need to push as far as we can.”
“Shouldn’t we turn back?” Fiona asked.
“No, my brothers will drive from the other direction to give us a hand if we need it. We’re best to travel as far as we can and wait out the worst of the storm.” Stig settled his arm around Fiona’s shoulders and tugged her closer. He cast her an innocent smile. “I’ll share my body heat with you. Blue lips aren’t a good look even if they match your pretty eyes.”
Her eyes twinkled before she cuddled against him like a sleepy kitten. “I am cold. I slept poorly in Winnipeg.”
“Grab some sleep now. You might as well,” Stig said.
Quiet fell in the cabin, and Stig sensed the moment Fiona fell asleep.
“What are we going to do about Leif? If he decides he wants Fiona…” Kirk took his gaze off the track for an instant and let Bess lurch into a pothole. Icy water splashed before Kirk guided Bess to more stable ground.
“Watch it,” Stig warned. “We play it by ear. That’s all we can do.”
“She smells good.”
“She does. It’s subtle but enticing. Tell me when you want to trade places.”
Kirk glanced at the woman cuddled up to Stig. “Now?”
Stig barked out a laugh. “You’ve been driving for half an hour.”
“I want her,” Kirk said in a muffled voice.
Stig’s gut jolted because he understood the urges that drove his brother. An indefinable something about Fiona made him want to claim her, to make her his. A quality in this woman pushed him to try to take care of her. Judging by Kirk’s expression, the same emotions drove him.
“Do you want to risk driving over the lake or should we take the longer route around?” Kirk asked, peering through the windshield.
Flakes of snow struck the vehicle, swirling on the track in front of them and reducing visibility. The wiper blades battled the flakes.
“Take the longer way,” Stig said without hesitation. “It might be a greater distance, but we’d waste time drilling a hole in the ice to make sure it’s deep enough to take Bess’s weight.”
