Chapter 8
Amanda’s watch stopped an hour later. After that she lost track of the time they spent trying to get back to the ranch. Her toes were on fire inside those thick socks and expensive boots, and her clothes were soaked through. Her fingers had hurt for a long time, but she couldn’t quite feel them anymore. She was shivering and scared and desperately trying to stay warm.
Jake never faltered. He cupped her body right into his, shielding her from the worst of the wind with his back and sharing his hat by bending right alongside her head. His arms were wrapped so tightly around her that she couldn’t move, much less fall, and he kept talking to her.
But he couldn’t quite take away her terror. It had been a very long time since Amanda had been completely in another person’s care, and she wasn’t sure how to surrender to that. She wasn’t sure how to trust Buck as much as Jake did, even though the horse never so much as stumbled in the snow. She wasn’t sure she could keep the tears down. She was tired and frozen and frightened, and only Jake was keeping her together.
“So how come you didn’t know this was going to happen?” he asked in her ear, his voice as calm and deliberate as it had been when they’d set out.
“I don’t have a radio. Did you know?” Amanda had to clench her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering, because if they did Jake would try to sacrifice more articles of clothing.
She could barely feel the pressure of his jaw against hers as he shook his head. “Surprised everybody. It was supposed to be flurries.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You’re the folklore expert. Don’t you predict weather with chicken entrails or something?”
“Actually there isn’t much lore on snow. Except that there are going to be as many snows in a winter as the moon is days old when the first snow comes.”
“Not much help to us now.”
“There’s also the one about the north wind bringing the worst blizzards. I don’t suppose this one’s out of the east.”
“Sorry.”
“Jake?”
“Uh-huh?”
“Thanks for coming for me.”
She thought he might have smiled then. She couldn’t lift her head enough to look anymore. “That’s okay. Thanks for staying with me after I got kicked.”
“You already thanked me for that.”
“Yeah, but this time I mean it.”
His words almost did her in. Squeezing her eyes shut again, Amanda fought the swell of tears, the nudge of panic that kept tickling at the back of her throat. Finally, all she could do was let out a shivering sigh.
“I hate being scared,” she admitted miserably.
Jake tightened his grip on her until it felt like an embrace. “I know,” he said. It should have helped. It brought the tears even closer.
“I wish,” she said, “that I could understand why you think so little of me.”
His reaction was abrupt. “Why I what?”
Amanda shook her head. “Nothing. I’m sorry.” She shouldn’t have said it. She didn’t know why she did.
But Jake had heard her. He turned his head just a little so that she could feel those fierce eyes on her. Amanda squeezed hers even more tightly shut against the invasion, against his words.
“You think that I—”
But she never found out what he was going to say. Just then Buck came to a shuddering halt. Jake’s head whipped around and he stiffened.
“Hey, boy,” he crooned, his voice hesitant, his attention on the swirling snow before them as he stroked the horse's neck.
But Buck wasn’t listening to him. His head was up, his ears flicking forward. Suddenly the big horse let out a long, shrill whinny. Beyond the howling white there must have been a reply, because he repeated the call and abruptly broke into a trot. If Jake hadn’t been holding on, Amanda would have fallen right off. As it was, she barely avoided hurting herself on her dulcimer.
