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Knowing Elliot was nearby calmed Ellen, and she soon stopped crying. But she didn’t move from her place on the floor. She couldn’t induce her legs to function. Getting up would mean the danger had passed, and she still couldn’t convince herself of that.
She sat still, she didn’t know for how long. Still, she kept her ears trained on the sounds outside, but didn’t hear anything. She waited and waited. She just started to worry something might have happened to Elliot when she heard his footsteps coming back.
She stared at him with wild eyes. “What is it?”
Elliot didn’t answer. He hung up the rifle in its place above the door. When he came back over to her, he took her hand and stood her up. Then he conducted her to the table and seated her in a chair. He pulled another chair over and sat down next to her.
He enclosed her hand in both of his and patted it. “Now then. You’ve had a bad time of it. Just try to calm down a little bit, and we’ll get the fire going, and have some supper, and then we’ll go to bed. When we wake up in the morning, everything will be the way it was before I left.”
“But Laird....” she began.
He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Never mind about that. Don’t think anything else about it.”
“But the cows....” she began again.
Elliot answered her again with a simple shake of his head. “They’re just fine. They were very full, but I milked them out, and they’ll be fine. We’ll milk them again in the morning, and then they’ll be just fine. You don’t have to worry about them.”
“But they were crying so terribly!” she exclaimed. “They sounded like they were dying.”
Elliot chuckled. “They can sure put on an act when they want to. No, they’re just fine. They might have a little fall in production for a couple of days on account of not being milked, but they’ll come around with no problem. You wait and see.”
“But Laird,” Ellen repeated. “What made him go mad like that? He tried to kill me.”
Elliot sighed and peered into her eyes. “I didn’t want to tell you this, because it will just make you upset. But you won’t let it go until you know, so here goes. Laird didn’t try to kill you. He only tried to keep you in the house. He scared you to make you get into the house quickly, and he kept you scared to keep you in the house.”
“But why?” Ellen asked.
Elliot sighed again. “Darling, there are a lot of things out here in the wilderness that you don’t understand. Laird did understand them. He knew I wanted him to protect you, and he did. There are the tracks of wolves all through those trees out there. A pack of wolves surrounded the house. They would have attacked you and torn you to pieces if Laird hadn’t protected you.”
“What?” Ellen cried. “Wolves?”
“A whole pack,” Elliot repeated. “They ranged all around the house. They were probably just waiting for Laird to lower his guard for an instant before they rushed in and killed you. Laird saved your life.”
Ellen stared toward the window, and the tears started down her cheeks. “But...but....he bit me. He attacked me. He tried to kill me.” She broke down in sobs again.
Elliot slid off his chair onto his knees. “Don’t cry, darling.” He took her in his arms. “Don’t cry. You did what you had to do. You did what anyone would have done in the same situation. If I didn’t know Laird, I would have done exactly the same thing. You have the cut on your leg to prove it.”
Ellen tried to respond, but only more choking sobs came out. How could she ever explain?
Elliot petted the side of her head, and she buried her face in his neck. “Don’t cry, love. It’s all right. You did just fine. You stood up to him, and when you couldn’t do anything else, you shot him. You did good, darling. You did good.”
But how can I ever make it up to you? she thought.
But she didn’t have to say anything, because he already knew. He patted her on the back and held her while she cried. The pain in her leg, the pain in her hands from firing the gun, and the pain of thinking she’d let Elliot down descended on her in one devastating blow.
She sobbed and wailed and wept, and he held her, stroking the back of her head and down her spine, patting her and telling her it was all right now, that she’d done the right thing. But she couldn’t believe it herself. She only grieved for Laird, and for herself for not knowing him better before she had to depend on him for her life.
Outside, the sun crept low toward the horizon, and still Elliot held her, making no effort to rush her back to work. When Ellen sat up, her face remained a mask of wretched pain that would never heal. The world was a brutal, intolerable place, where things like this could happen. She never wanted to recover from this. She would mourn for the rest of her life for herself and for Elliot and for Laird and for all the things they had lost.
Elliot leaned back and examined her face. He brushed the stray hair back from her face.
“I’m sorry.” Ellen couldn’t think of anything else to say. “Your dog is dead.”
Elliot stood up and raised her to her feet. “It doesn’t matter. You’re here now.”
The End
