Dropping his pack back to the ground, he turned and trudged around the edge of the lake. He might have to share his cave with a companion through the storm, but he could manage that if he had to.
As he neared the stranger, he made no effort to quiet his steps, though the falling snow might muffle his approach. When he was a half dozen steps away from the man, the fellow still hadn’t lifted his head. Had he fallen asleep out here? He was clad in furs, so he shouldn’t be cold enoughto freeze to death, not since he’d been moving only minutes before.
Damien stepped around to the man’s front so the fellow could catch a glimpse of him. He was about to call out when the stranger jerked upright. Wide eyes stared at him from the fur hood framing his face. Impossibly wide blue eyes.
This was no native, not fully Dinee anyway. He might be Métis, one of the children from white and native unions. The face belonged to a youth, with pale skin unlined by years.
The stranger jumped upright, stepped backward, then stumbled over the pack he’d been sitting on. Balance askew, he flailed his arms, even as he tumbled backward to the snow. The fellow tried to scramble up, but his movements were slow from exhaustion and maybe pain. He rolled onto his hands and knees, then used the pack to push himself up to standing.
Once he was back on his feet, the fellow’s coat rose and fell as he took in breaths. He was winded from a tumble in the snow?
The stranger stared at him with a trace of fear illuminated in his blue eyes. Whoever this was must not be accustomed to traveling alone in this wilderness. Maybe becoming separated from his party was part of the reason for the despair he’d shown before.
Damien lifted a hand in greeting. “Name’s Damien Levette.” He paused to let the lad introduce himself.
The boy hesitated, then moved his gaze away as he spoke. “Bonsoir.”
The hesitation and the shifting eyes betrayed a lie, but asthe voice registered, Damien’s mind spun a different direction. Sure, a lad’s tone could range high at times, but that ... that voice had sounded for all the world like a girl’s.
He peered closer at the face. The porcelain skin, the refined features—how could he not have realized this was a woman from his very first glance?
And why was she out in this storm?
4
Damien took a step back from the woman in front of him, more on impulse than conscious intention. “Who are you, and what are you doing here?” He motioned through the falling flakes. “Where are your people?” He’d have to get her back to them, no matter how cold the temperature dropped as evening came on. Her family must be frantic.
Her chin notched up, the fear in her eyes masked by something else. Determination, maybe? That expression looked a bit too much like Michelle’s form of stubbornness. “I’m Charlotte Durand. I’m on my way to Fort Versailles. Trying to cover as much ground as I can before dark.”
“Alone?” The question slipped out before he had a chance to check his tone, but the idea was absurd.
Her back stiffened. “Have you come from the fort? Do you know how much farther it is?”
Yes, that was clearly stubbornness in her eyes. Stubbornness that would easily get her killed in a mountain snowstorm.
Yet a woman—any woman, but especially a young thing like her—wouldn’t trust him without a little softening. Hestarted by answering her question. “The fort is nearly two days on foot.” He pointed back across the lake. “West and a little south. There’s not a marked trail to it, though. I left there a couple months ago with a group of trappers, Arsenault’s group. I parted ways with them only a few days ago to gather furs on my own.”
He glanced at her face but didn’t hold the focus long enough to make her uneasy. “This snowfall is only going to get deeper, and temperatures will drop quite a bit when darkness sets in. I found a cave across the lake with a large cavern where it shouldn’t be hard to stay warm and dry. There’s plenty of room for us both. You can have your own campfire, if you’d like.” He’d not spoken so much at a time in weeks, but he’d likely only have one chance to set her at ease.
For a second, the determination slipped from her eyes to reveal only startled fear. She had every right to worry about taking cover with a strange man. At least that worry meant she had a shred of sense, though she couldn’t possess much more than that if she was trekking to the fort on her own. The journey itself was no easy thing, but in a place like that with men of all types, she’d be wolf bait within minutes.
He could worry about that later. Right now, he had to find a way to convince her that taking shelter with him was better than staying in the elements on her own. “Tell you what. I’ll take you to the cave, and if you decide you’d rather not have me there with you, I’ll camp with my mule. I have him set up with cover all around, and it might be nice to stay close where I can check on him.” There, that was the best he could do to set her at ease. Michelle would approve of his sacrifice, he had no doubt.
Miss Durand still hesitated, but the fear in her gaze hadturned to indecision. He waited. If he pressed any further, she might think he was trying to talk her into it for a dishonorable reason.
She glanced upward, taking in the snow that had begun to swirl instead of fall straight down. Then she eyed him again. “How far away is this cave?”
He turned and pointed across the lake again. “Just on the far bank.”
When he looked back at her, she gave a single nod. “I’d like to see it.”
Good. He reached for her pack, but she scooped it up before he could manage and murmured a quiet “I have it.”
So he started back around the lake. By the time he got her settled, he’d have to push hard to build his own fire beside Gulliver before full dark.
After he took a few steps, a glance back showed she moved much slower than he did, so he eased his stride. Then slackened it more. She finally caught up with him, and he slowed still more so she would come alongside. At this casual pace, perhaps he could learn a bit more about her. A fresh gust of wind numbed his cheeks. “It’s getting colder already. This is more snow than I expected for the first storm of the year.”
She nodded and sniffed. “I had hoped it was just snowing on the mountain, that it would stop once I came down to the valley.”
