“Okay, you rest up. I am going to heat up some more tea and make you something to eat for later when you get up.” Betty’s eyes closed, and Nora left the room. The dog jumped down from the bed and followed her out into the kitchen.
“You hungry, little guy?”
The dog wagged his tail and came to sit at her feet. Nora rummaged through the cupboard and found a can of soup for Betty, along with a box of cornflakes and a tin of canned chicken for the dog. She grabbed a bowl from the counter, mixed the cornflakes and chicken together, then set it down for the dog before starting to heat up the soup for Betty.
Lochland dove into the bowl of food, devouring it quickly. She had never seen a dog eat so fast. Within a minute the bowl had been licked clean.
“I guess you were hungry,” she said, reaching down and scratching behind his soft ears.
Just as she was tossing the empty tin into the trash can, Alistair returned, bringing in a cold gust of air, along with a worried look on his face.
Chapter Forty-Five
Snowed In
Shutting the door behind him, Alistair kicked off his boots, worry creasing his brow.
“What did they say?” Nora asked anxiously.
“Bad news. Because of the heavy winds and the cold temperatures, a ten-foot snowdrift is blocking the road to the loch. Medical services can’t get here, and neither can the lettings agency to deliver more wood. They said it might be two days before they can get a machine up here to move it all.”
“What do we do?” Nora asked, panic rising in her throat.
“First off, we need to get this place heated and move Betty onto the sofa. I am going to get this fire really cranking, and you search for some paracetamol. We need to try to get her fever down.”
Nora went to look for the medicine. She figured that allthe rentals had the same medical kit. Theirs had aspirin, which Alistair had taken for his hangover.
After a brief search, she found the medic kit in the mirrored cabinet in the bathroom. Inside, she found aspirin but no other medicine. The aspirin would work for now, but it wouldn’t last long, and soon they would need more if her fever persisted.
“Found some aspirin,” Nora said, coming back to see that Alistair had gotten the fire blazing. “There are only two pills left, and they won’t last more than a few hours. I wonder if the people in the other three cottages might have more?”
“Well, we won’t get a chance to ask them because the letting agency mentioned that everyone else left early because of the storm. Didn’t want to get stuck here. Smart.”
“Well, at least we can take their wood.”
He lifted a log with the iron poker, setting its edge on another and then looked at Nora.
“I already checked. This is all I found,” he said, pointing to five logs resting in the round ring next to the fireplace. “There was a wood delivery scheduled for today but because of the roads, they can’t get here, and without power, the oil furnaces in the cabins won’t work.”
“What are we going to do? If the roads are blocked, the power won’t be back on, either. We’re going to freeze to death,” Nora said in a panic.
“No, we aren’t. We’ll give Betty the medicine and make sure this fire stays going, and then we’ll go find some wood. There is a small wooded area behind the cottage.”
“You’re kidding, right? There’s two feet of snow out there. It’s going to be impossible.”
“I thought you were from Vermont?” he said with a raise of his eyebrow. “You are way more used to this kind of snow thanme. We don’t normally get battered like this.”
Nora rolled her eyes at him as she poured the soup into a bowl and then walked into the bedroom with the food and medicine. She sat on Betty’s bedside and touched her shoulder gently.
“Betty, I have something for that fever and some soup to warm you up. I need you to sit up to take it,” Nora said softly.
Betty opened her eyes slowly and propped herself up, taking the two tiny white pills and washing them down with the cold tea. Nora pulled the small nightstand closer to the bed and placed the bowl of soup on it.
“Try to eat a bit of soup. I’m going to make you a bed on the sofa next to the fire.”
“No, with all these blankets and a fire going, I’ll be fine,” Betty said, sitting up and sipping on soup.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea. This room will take a while to warm up, and Alistair and I need to go out and search for some firewood.”
