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After Damon left, giving her a quick hug and telling her to call if she should need anything, Valerie spoke to Martha on the phone, assuring her that everything was alright with the house and the animals, and encouraging her to listen to the doctors. The woman was starting to get cranky, being bedridden as she was.
What she didn’t tell Martha was that there was a bear prowling about. She wanted that issue dealt with before Martha came home, so her aunt wouldn’t worry. After they hung up, Valerie looked around and decided to dive into the Christmas boxes she had yet to take back up to storage. She had done Christmas decorating in a frenzy the night her aunt had been injured, but now she put up more thoughtful touches. Red bows on the cabinet doors, garland above the fireplace—well above, so the heat it gave off didn’t light the garland on fire—and little figurines on the windowsills, much like Martha had in her room.
Having forgotten to ask Damon to help her get a tree, and feeling restless and not hungry for the breakfast she’d made in the least, Valerie donned her gear and headed out again. Light had come and, as she stepped outside, her breath caught, and she stopped to stare in amazement. The landscape before her was like that out of a dream. White undulated along the ground in untouched perfection and the trees held their loads of snow with pride, the sparkling of pure white in the rays of the sun nearly blinding in their intensity. The red barn looked like something out of a Christmas catalog with its snowcapped roof. Gus had come out with her and he dived nose first, rolling around and kicking his legs up into the air.
Inspiration struck, and Valerie went back inside and went to her room. Digging in her backpack, she pulled out a pencil and thick sketchbook.
For the next couple of hours, she sat just outside the entryway door, pencil to paper. At some point, Gus had come over and lounged near her. She had pushed the door open so he could go inside if he was cold, but he’d run around enough that he must be warm and hadn’t wanted to go inside.
“What do you think?” She finished one of her sketches and showed Gus. He rolled onto his back so she’d pet his tummy.
“Shameless mooch.” She obliged him, of course.
When she finally felt like her creative juices were ebbing, she put the sketchpad inside and continued her original mission. There was a chainsaw in the main barn that, presumably, Martha used to cut up dead trees for the woodstove. Hopefully, it had fuel and would start in this cold. Actually...Valerie pulled a glove off and felt the air. It was probably at or slightly above freezing. That was quite the improvement.
First things first, before her mission. She went to the goat barn. Slipping in headfirst through the dug-out in the snow, she nearly fell on her face, but caught herself and turned it into a roll. Sort of. She ended up flat on her back, the force of the tumble pushing the air from her lungs.
With a groan, she pushed herself up to a sitting position and gazed over the animals. Two goats came over and pushed on her face and head with their noses.
“I appreciate the attention, ladies, but my head is no more damaged now than it was when I decided to come here.” She paused and muttered, “Or maybe it was the smoke inhalation at that time that brought all this on.”
The pregnant goat was laying down and seemed to be heaving. Valerie got to her feet and walked as close as she dared before dropping to her knees. She didn’t want to bother the mother goat during this uncomfortable time, but she wanted to check...what? She had no clue as to what she was looking for. At least, the goat didn’t seem to be bleeding profusely or lying flat out or anything. Not that Valerie knew if that meant anything. Still, the goat gazed back at her, looking tired.
“I’m sorry, sweetie. The doctor will be out to check on you today, in case there’s anything I’m not seeing.”
She rubbed the backs of the other goats and then crawled back out and pulled the door shut as much as possible, given the angle of the door and her spot on the high snowbank.
After trekking to the main barn, she unbolted the regular door and slipped inside. Without nearly the entire side of the barn open to the pen, the barn was dark, with only a few streams of light coming in from the tall windows. Gus raced in with her, and Valerie shut the door, letting her eyes adjust to the gloomy interior before venturing on to find the chainsaw. A soft whicker beckoned her from the stalls, and she grabbed a scoop of alfalfa pellets from a bin to treat each of the donkeys, ponies, gelding, and mule with.
Once they’d all gotten a handful of the food, she went back to her search until she found the chainsaw and checked it over. She tried to check it over anyway. “It would help if I knew what I was doing,” she muttered to Gus. Figuring that trying to start it in the barn would startle the inhabitants, she went back outside. A couple of pulls of the cord and the chainsaw started whirring. Carefully, she killed the motor and, with a satisfied smile on her face, marched out through the snow toward a copse of trees nearby.
Since there was no trail out toward the trees, she had to push her way through heavy snow and keep the chainsaw held high. When she reached the line of trees, she was breathing heavily and sweating beneath her heavy jacket and snow pants.
“Why is everything so hard here?” She grumbled, then glanced around. Gus wasn’t in sight. “And now I’m talking to myself.”
It took several more minutes of walking around to decide on a petite fir with luxurious full boughs.
She blew out a long breath before positioning herself and bracing to start the saw. “Okay, I can do this.”
It was much easier than she’d anticipated, especially given that the tree was fairly small at only four- or five feet tall. What was surprising was the weight of the tree, she determined, after struggling to drag the tree even a foot over the snow.
With a new plan, she made her way back and put the chainsaw away, then found a rope.
Gus trotted alongside her this time as she went out to the downed tree.
“This is way more work than I had anticipated,” she told him. And yet, she found herself smiling. She’d never disliked work and had often thrown herself into working long hours. Now she was doing work for herself and Martha, and it felt good. Except that she wasn’t making money and would soon need to come back to reality and find another job. Christmas was only a week and a half away.
The thoughts were sobering and the energy she’d had seeped from her until she had to stop pulling and sit down in the snow for a break. She wrapped her arms around her knees, pulling them up to her chest. Gus bounced through the snow until he was to her and then pushed her arm with his nose until he could crawl onto her knees and start licking her face. It was then that she realized tears were seeping down her cheeks as she stared blearily at the tree.
“Thanks, buddy,” she whispered. She placed a kiss on his little brown forehead and rubbed his back. He pressed against her, tail and head stretching out as he enjoyed the scratch.
Several minutes later, she had the tree to the front door. Once she’d dragged it inside, she peeled off her layers and got to work, standing it up in the living room using the tree stand from one of the boxes Martha had brought down, conveniently labeled tree stand and tree skirt in thick red marker, though Valerie hadn’t seen it until it was the last box to look through.
Gus stretched out in front of the woodstove that Valerie had stoked and promptly fell asleep. Apparently, rolling around in the snow was exhausting.
Three boxes full of ornaments, strings of red berries, and some garland later, and a knock on the door made Valerie jump. She’d been so involved in creating a masterpiece for Martha to enjoy when she brought her back the day after tomorrow that she’d lost track of time. She glanced out of the big bay living room window and saw that the sweet light that was so short and treasured in Alaska during the winter was starting to fade.
Gus was barking at the door when Valerie got there.
“Your ferocity is minimized by that rapidly wagging tail,” she informed the dog before pulling the door open.
A tall man with chiseled features and dark hair stood there, a light smile on his face. His eyes brightened when he saw Gus, and he leaned down to give the dog attention.
“You look so good, oh yes, you do. You’ve gotten a lot of love, haven’t you? Nothing beats being home,” he cooed to the dog. Valerie bit her lip to keep from smiling at the big man baby-talking a little dog.
“Come on in, Jason.” She didn’t want to leave the door open. Even though the arctic entryway kept the wind and snow from blustering in the door, cold still seeped in.
“Actually, do you want to just meet me at the goat pen?”
She’d forgotten the reason for his visit. “Oh, yes! Go on ahead.” She stepped out into the entryway with him, and he left while she pulled on her snow gear.
When she got close to the goat barn, she found Jason with a shovel, getting snow away from the door. “That last dump of snow was a doozy,” he commented. “And there’s no way I want to wiggle myself and my equipment through that little opening.”
“Damon made it through.”
His eyes lit up at her comment, and she nearly groaned, realizing he would use it to josh with Damon at some point.
A few scoops later—right when Valerie was about to head for the barn for another shovel to aid in the effort—Jason stopped and jammed his shovel into the snow to keep it upright.
“Ladies first.” He gestured for her to lead.
It was much easier to get into the barn without having to wiggle through at the top of the doorframe and drop, and Valerie’s landing was much softer than it had been the first time.
Jason came in behind her, big bag in hand, and took a minute to watch the laboring goat before going over to her. It was only a couple of minutes, but Valerie shifted nervously. Fear that something was wrong kept her clenching her fists and shifting from foot to foot.
“Hey,” Jason’s voice was a whisper, “come here and sit by me.” He had positioned himself a few feet away from the goat.
She crunched over the straw to him and lowered herself. What did he want her to do? She raised her gaze to his expectantly, and he smiled and nodded at the goat. “Just watch.”
The goat seemed to be really struggling to Valerie’s untrained eyes, but only several seconds passed before a pair of teensy hooves appeared. She gaped at the site as a nose appeared. The mama goat hefted herself to her feet and the baby dropped all the way out.
“Oh!” Valerie was about to thrust herself forward to make sure the drop hadn’t hurt the brand new baby goat, but Jason put a gentle hand on her arm.
“The kid is okay. It happens all the time.” His smile was infectious. “Haven’t you ever seen a giraffe give birth? That’s quite a drop.”
Valerie couldn’t help but return the smile, thankful that he was here and that the baby goat—the kid—was okay.
Mama goat was attentive, and two other goats trotted over to greet the new member of the family. It was a beautiful moment—the gentleness of the goats, and the struggle of the baby to stand.
They watched in silence as the kid got to its feet and started exploring his world. When he finally decided it was time for food, and had what Jason dubbed “a good latch,” they got up to leave.
When they were outside the barn and she’d pulled the door shut, she offered a grateful smile. “Thank you for coming and making sure everything was okay.”
“It’s what I do. I’m happy to see that the kid looks healthy, and so does the nanny.”
“Is there anything special I’ll need to do for them?”
“No, just keep an eye out for anything that seems unusual and let me know if you have questions.”
Snow shifted under her boots as she shifted. “Does Martha have a tab with you, or should I go get a card?” Yes, it was time to start hunting for a job again. She’d ordered a couple of Christmas presents for Martha earlier this week, and she would be filling up the kitchen with food supplies before Martha came back. Unfortunately, her limited supply of money was starting to dwindle.
“Don’t worry about it.” He waved toward his truck. “I have that tranq gun and have spoken to the wildlife guys. They’re not keen on the idea you suggested, since it would be so dangerous, but if you see any signs of the bear, let me know right away.”
“Will do. Do you at least want to go in for a hot drink?” It had gotten colder with the beginning darkness, and she wanted to at least offer him something.
“No thanks. I have a couple more stops to make in the neighborhood. Take care.”
“Bye, thanks again.” She strode to the house, a bounce in her step as she thought about the new life in the barn.