Mikhail turned back toward the group. “This will do.”
They all headed his direction, but Bryony reached him first. Her shivering had worsened, and her hands trembled slightly as she adjusted the strap of her pack.
Without a word, he shrugged out of his own pack and pulled the spare parka free. “Here.” He draped it over her shoulders before she could protest.
“But—”
“No arguments. You’re already soaked beneath your parka. Sit under the overhang while I start a fire.”
She hesitated, her lips parting as if to protest, but then their eyes met, and something passed between them. Was she remembering the story he’d told her about Livy? Whatever she saw in his gaze must have convinced her to listen, because she gave a small nod and moved toward the dry ground.
“Could’ve picked somewhere with a view.” Richard swung his pack off his shoulders, shooting Mikhail a glare.
“Could’ve left you to sleep in the rain.” Mikhail dug his flint and steel out of the side pocket of his pack. “We’ll make camp here. Give me a minute to make a fire, and then I want everyone out of these wet clothes. We can let them dry by the fire.”
Mikhail set to work gathering moss and the driest bits of kindling he could find under the canopy of trees, then bent and started the moss and a few twigs on fire.
Bryony was the first person to sit beside the small flame and peel off her soaked boots and stockings. The sight of her red, chaffed toes was enough to make him wish he’d brought five extra sets of mukluks with him. Had he known they’d end up caught in snow, he would have. But when he left Petersburg in early October, he thought he’d be able to track down the team of botanists and get them back to Sitka before the snow came.
And he would have been able to find them quickly if Dr. Wetherby had kept his team in the Stikine River valley and hadn’t headed south to the Iskut River, then left the river for the mountains.
Heath and Dr. Ottingford were the next ones to strip off their boots and coats and settle by the fire, followed by Richard and Dr. Wetherby.
Mikhail waited until everyone was settled before hefting his rifle over his shoulder and heading for the trees.
“Where are you going?” Bryony jumped up and followed him.
He looked down at her bare feet. Her toes were red and could only be growing colder against the soggy earth. “To find food. Now go back to the fire. I don’t need you getting frostbite.”
“Do you need someone to go with you?”
Someone to... He blinked. In all his years as a wilderness guide, he’d been asked many things, but never once had someone insinuated he wouldn’t be safe on his own in the woods.
Bryony seemed to realize what she’d just said, because she opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again before saying, “To keep you company. Not because you need help.”
He wasn’t quite sure what to do with the strange sensation filling his chest.
“Forgive me.” Her cheeks turned red, and she dropped her gaze. “It’s just that the last time our guide left us to go hunting, he didn’t come back.”
“That’s not true. I’ve left you to hunt the past two nights and returned each time.”
“But what if you don’t come back this time?” Her eyes came up to meet his, large and luminous.
“The bears are hibernating at this time of year. I’ll be perfectly safe, I promise. Now please go back and sit by the fire before your toes turn numb.”
He could see the thoughts swirling in her eyes, but rather than voice any of them, she simply turned and left.
He forced himself to turn in the opposite direction, heading toward the open mountain and the pounding rain.
But even though the world around him was cold, he couldn’t shake the warmth swelling in his chest.
15
It took Mikhail only a quarter hour to find rabbit tracks. They led under a bush, and he was able to kick up two rabbits, shoot them, and field-dress them in a handful of minutes. He scared a third rabbit out of some brush on his trip back to camp and quickly shot and field-dressed that too.
He wasn’t gone long, maybe forty-five minutes, but the entire time, he couldn’t help missing the feeling of Bryony trotting along beside him, whispering an occasional question so as not to scare away the animals or silently watching the forest, her eyes soaking in their surroundings. If only she had proper boots and a hat that would force the rain to drip down the outside of her parka, then he could have let her come with him and shown her how to shoot a rabbit rather than snare one.
And she could help him think through how best to proceed in the morning. He glanced through the trees toward the top of the mountain looming over them. It was the last one standing between them and the river. He’d traversed it when he followed Heath and Richard back to the camp near the glacier, but now the mountain’s top was shrouded in dark clouds, indicating a blizzard started about halfway to the top.
