Excruciating pain shattered the bliss of unconsciousness.
His whole body screamed in agony, begging to fall into the void of death again. But he didn’t. Against all his prayers and wishes, he surfaced into life. His eyes refused to close again. They opened, and he stared up at the iron-grey surface above him.
A light flickered somewhere off to his right. His eyes slid to one side and then the other. The same smooth, iron-grey surface surrounded him wherever he looked. If he hadn’t been so fuzzy in the head, he would think he was in a round chamber of brushed metal. He couldn’t see any door or windows, either.
At last, he turned his head toward the light and saw Melody sitting at his elbow. A tiny candle flame danced between them.
She smiled at him in that inscrutable, unperturbed way she always smiled. “Ah, you’re awake.”
He groaned. “Is that what I am? I wasn’t quite sure. I thought I was dead.”
Melody’s smile spread across her face, and he saw her tiny white teeth. “I thought you might die. But you didn’t. I’m glad.”
“I’m not,” he grumbled. “I feel like I’ve been hit by a train.”
“You almost died,” she told him. “You fell into the river, and you almost froze to death.”
He closed his eyes to pull his thoughts together. Something about this situation didn’t make sense to him. “How did I get out of the river?”
“I pulled you out,” Melody told him.
His eyes popped open and he stared at her. “How did you do that?”
“When the horse fell in the river,” she told him, “I fell off. I landed in the snow on the ground. You and the horse went head first into the water.”
“I still don’t understand how you pulled me out,” he replied. “I must outweigh you by a hundred pounds.”
“It wasn’t easy,” she admitted. “You were soaking wet, so you weighed much more. But you were lucky. You landed on top of the horse. He stopped you from sinking.”
“I don’t remember anything about it,” he muttered.
“You must have been almost unconscious from the cold when it happened,” she continued. “You made no effort at all to save yourself. I wondered, as you were riding around in the snow, whether the cold had affected your thoughts, because you wouldn’t answer me when I called to you.”
“I thought I heard you call,” he told her. “but I wasn’t sure.”
“I called and called to you,” Melody said. “I asked you if you knew where you were going. Then I asked if you saw the river. You never answered. The next thing I knew, you were in the water. The horse struggled and kicked, and you just floated there on the horse’s back.”
“I think I must have been half-asleep,” he remarked. “I guess you’re telling me the horse is dead.”
“I wanted to save the horse, too,” she told him. “But I had to save you. I pulled you out onto the river band. You were lying there in the snow, soaking wet. You would have died if I went back for the horse. And anyway, we didn’t have anywhere to shelter it. I had to work to save you instead.”
Paul looked around him again. “So where are we?”
She followed his gaze to the rounded walls one either side. “We’re in a snow cave.”
His mouth dropped open. “A what?”
“A snow cave,” she repeated. “I dug into a snow bank to make this little room. I stripped off all your clothes and I dragged you into it. Then I wrapped you up in my shawls to warm you.”
Paul cast his mind down the length of his body. For the first time, he realized that, as Melody mentioned, he was naked.
He opened his mouth, but she interrupted him. “I’m sorry if you’re angry with me for taking the liberty of undressing you. It was a life and death situation. And you must remember that we’re husband and wife now. No one saw you besides me.”
“I’m not angry about it,” he replied.
“I have your clothes here.” She held up a neatly folded pile of clothes. “I dried them out. You can put them on when you’re ready. I’ll go outside to give you privacy.”
“Just give me few minutes to finish waking up,” he told her. “I still can’t get my head around all this.” He prodded his brain to think again. “What’s that smell?”
“It’s the wool,” she told him.
Paul hauled his head up and looked down at the thick layer covering him. “The what?”
“Look.” She lifted up the coverlet draped over him.
His eyes registered, but his mind did not comprehend. He put his head back down and tried again to fit the pieces together.
“It’s a sheepskin,” he concluded.
“Yes,” she answered.
Another long pause followed. “Where did it come from?” He hated to ask.
“I killed a sheep,” she declared. “I covered you with the skin to get you warm.”
He stared up at the ceiling over his head. That was snow up there. He was lying in a hole in the snow. And here she was telling him she’d killed a sheep and covered him with the skin to keep him warm.
He sensed her eyes watching him think about it. “The shawls weren’t enough. You were shivering, and I had no other way to get you warm. I put tree branches underneath you to make a bed so you weren’t lying on the bare snow, and I covered them with my shawls. But you needed something over the top of you.”
“So you killed a sheep?” he asked. “Where did you find it?”
“I found it wandering along the river,” she told him. “It must have gotten lost in the blizzard, because it was bleating its little heart out.”
“And you killed it,” he repeated.
“Yes,” she answered.
“How did you do that?” he asked.
“I wanted to shoot it,” she told him, “but your guns all got wet in the river. So I took the knife from your belt. The sheep came right up to me. It must have known people, and it must have hoped I would take it home. I cut its throat with the knife.”
“You little livestock rustler, you,” he murmured.
“As I said,” she replied. “it was a life and death situation. And I didn’t rustle it. It was wandering around by the river with no fences or shepherd to tend it.”
Melody picked up a tiny wooden vessel from the floor next to her. “Here. Drink this.”
She held it up to his face.
“What is it?” he asked.
“It’s mutton broth,” she replied. “When I saw you tossing around, I thought you might be ready to regain consciousness, so I made you something to eat. Drink it. It will warm you on the inside.”
“Don’t tell me you cooked the sheep, too?” he asked.
She cocked her head to the side. “Of course! You don’t think I wasted the whole sheep, do you? We needed food as much as warmth. We hadn’t eaten since yesterday.”
“So what did you do with the rest of the sheep?” he asked.
“It’s outside,” she told him. “The carcass is frozen in the snow. I’ve been cooking small pieces of it while you’ve been unconscious.”
“How long have I been lying here?” he asked.
“Four days,” she replied.
“I better get up then.” He lifted his head and torso and tried to prop himself up on his elbow. But a crushing pain slammed him in the head and he tumbled back. His vision swam before his eyes.
Melody shook her head. “I think you won’t be going anywhere for a while. In the first place, you’ve had nothing to eat or drink in four days. Your body’s very weak. You’ll have to build up your strength before you can move around.”
Paul groaned. “I hate being cooped up in here.”
Melody picked up the cup and slid closer to him. “Drink this. You’ll feel better.”
He let her support his head as he sipped the piping hot liquid from the cup. It burned his tongue and throat, but she was right. He felt better after he drank it. He laid back and closed his eyes. “Where did you learn to do all this? I don’t think you learned to dig a snow cave on a farm in Holland.”
Melody chuckled. “No. I read about it in a book.”
He opened his eyes and frowned at her. “Don’t tell me you’ve never done this before.”
“No, I haven’t,” she admitted. “I wasn’t sure if I could do it, but when you were lying in the snow with water coming out of your nose and your hair freezing to the side of your head, I knew I had to do something. I couldn’t think of anything else to do. It was the same with the sheep. After I got you into the cave and wrapped in the shawls, I knew I had to do something more, but I didn’t know what. I had the idea of putting branches underneath you, so I went outside and there was the sheep waiting for me.”
Paul shook his head in disbelief. Then he thought of something else about this situation that didn’t make sense. “And how did you cook the soup?”
“I have a fire going outside,” she told him. “I built a lean-to of branches under the trees where I keep the fire going. I cooked it there, and I dried your clothing there also.”
“But how did you cook it?” he insisted. “You didn’t find a pot out there by the river, did you?”
“No,” she replied. “I made a pot out of the sheep’s stomach. I stretched it out over a loop made out of a branch. Then I heated stones on the fire and put them in the water to make it boil.”
His eyes widened. “Did you read that in a book, too? What kind of book told you how to do all that?”
“It was a book about the native people of this country,” she told him. “It described how they did everything before people from Europe came here. I never thought I’d need to do things that way, but it all came back to me when I needed it.”
“And the cup?” he asked.
“I carved it with your knife,” she told him. “You forget I’ve been sitting here with nothing to do for four days. I had lots of time while I watched over you.”
“And the candle?” he asked. “Did you have that in your carpet bag?”
Her eyelids slid down over her eyes. “It’s a bit of wool and mutton fat.”
“Unbelievable,” Paul muttered. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself.”
Melody ignored his comments. She stuck strictly to business. “You should put your clothes back on. They will help to keep you warm.” She noticed him staring at her. “I’ll go outside. I need to dry out the sheep skin, anyway. Once you are dressed, wrap yourself up in the shawl again and lie down. You probably need to sleep some more. I will bring you some more broth.”
He didn’t argue. After everything she’d done, he could believe she knew more than he did about what was best for him. What a thing it was to have a wife!
Melody didn’t wait to discuss it with him. She took the cup and ducked through an opening in the chamber. After she left, Paul rolled over and pulled the pile of clothes toward him. He threw back the sheep skin and crawled into them as best he could.
By the time he finished, Melody came back with another larger steaming bowl. This time, the broth contained chunks of meat and greens he couldn’t identify. She put it down by his head and took the sheep skin outside. Paul covered himself with the thickest of the shawls and after drinking the soup, he closed his eyes and fell instantly asleep.