Things would be better soon. She had to believe that. Jonah would realize he didn't love her in the way a husband should love a wife. He'd see this was the best choice for them all.
When she reached the door, she paused to straighten and catch her breath. She scanned the clearing around the house. With the exception of the track to the barn and bunkhouse, and another to the outhouse behind the cabin, the snow was still unbroken. Beautiful, clean, and white.
The trees wore lacy finery, and the sky above was a pale blue. Nearly cloudless, which meant no more snow for today, at least.
A thin stream of brown rose from the trees. Was that...smoke?
Her throat tightened. No one lived anywhere around, and that smoke came from the direction of Jonah’s cabin. Had a stranger camped there during the storm? Surely not. There was no roof on the structure, so they'd have been exposed to the cold. No human could have survived without severe damage to their limbs.
And they must have seen the smoke from this cabin. Surely they would have come here for shelter.
She pulled open the door and scanned the room for Jericho. He was at the table, his back to her, talking to Mary Ellen as she ate.
"Jericho?"
He turned to her, a smile on his face. His grin slipped when he saw her expression. "What is it?" He'd already risen and moved toward her.
She motioned toward the distance. "I think that's smoke out there. Do you think someone's out in the cold?"
Jericho stood and pulled on his coat as he took the two steps from the cabin to the stoop, then to the ground. He studied where she pointed, his brows drawn together. "We'd best go see." Without shifting his attention, he called into the cabin. "Jude, Gil, grab your coats and snowshoes."
Dinah appeared in the doorway, leaning out to look where Jericho focused. "What is it?"
"Smoke." He finally shifted his gaze, meeting his wife's worried eyes. His voice gentled. "We'll go see what's happening."
Naomi never tired of the gentle way this strong man softened around her sister. He had a way of melting Dinah sometimes, too, but not in this moment. She straightened her shoulders. "I'm coming too. If there's a person out there, they likely need a doctor."
Naomi nearly smiled at the sigh that leaked out of Jericho. "All right."
Naomi followed him inside and joined her daughter at the table while her sister and the others prepared blankets, snowshoes, and a few medical supplies. This had surely turned into more than the scouting party Jericho had planned.
The sun had risen high over the mountains the next morning by the time Eric entered the clearing where the barn and ranch house stood. He was curled up against the cold, but at least it wasn't very windy today. How could he be numb and aching all over at the same time? Smoke curled from the chimney on both the bunkhouse and the cabin, and he nudged his gelding a little faster, his body craving that warmth.
When he eased to the ground, the barndoor opened and Miles stepped out. He reached for Eric's reins. "Get up to the house and I'll rub him down."
Gil stepped from the barn before Eric could answer. "I'll walk up with you. It's too cold out here for my bones."
"Old man." Miles sent the parting shot as he pulled the shivering gelding into the barn.
He fell into step beside Gil, following the rope that had been tied from the house to the barn. He could vaguely remember one of the younger brothers talking about the need for it—something to guide them if they needed to reach the barn or bunkhouse during a blinding storm.
Eric was shivering too violently to speak as they trudged uphill. Yet his mind wasn’t numb enough to keep from wondering whether Gil wanted him alone to question him. Had Naomi told them about what passed between the two of them the other night?
If Gil knew, she would have told Jonah first.
He’d wondered if there was anything he could do to make that conversation easier for... But speaking to Jonah himself, or even approaching the man with her, would likely only make the situation worse for Naomi.
Perhaps she hadn’t needed his help.
Yet Gil’s first words weren’t what Eric expected. "You missed some excitement yesterday." His comment came out in a thick fog of white. "We found a dying campfire out at Jonah's cabin."
Eric shot him a look. Was he serious?
Gil scanned the trees beside the house. "Whoever it was had already left with their things, but we could see where blankets had been laid out. It looked like maybe they spent the night there."
Just the thought of it sent a fresh shiver. Someone had slept in that blizzard. How did they survive?
Gil glanced at him. "You didn't see signs of anyone on your way in, did ya?"
