Chapter 8

It was nice and warm with Lisa parked up against me, and I must a fallen back to sleep. Next thing I know, I’m woken up by Lisa pounding me on the chest. I managed to get a holt of her hands and push her to the other side of the sleepin’ bags.

“What the hell you doin’ woman!” I shouted.

She was wild like a cat, but she managed to answer, “What am I doing, it’s what you are up to. You’re nothing but a bastard who takes advantage of a woman.”

Somehow, I managed to get myself out of the sleepin’ bag and still keep a holt of her hands. Once out, I let go of my grip on her wrists.

“You are one crazy bitch, take a look at where I was sleepin’ and then where you were at, and then tell me the same story again.”

I crawled over to where my boots and socks were at and put ‘em on. She was still spittin’ and huffin’ when I crawled out of the tent.

When I got out of the tent, there were a good foot of snow on the ground. The snow had almost stopped, but the wind was still blowin’ pretty hard. It were a dry snow, which were usual for this part of the country. With this wind, I knew we’d have drifts to contend with. I pro’lly should wait another day afore tryin’ to make it back to town, but with Lisa acting like a wildcat I didn’t wanna spend any more time with her than need be.

The sun was up enough that it was lighting up the top of the ridge to the west. I figure it must a been ‘bout eight or so in the mornin’. I could see a faint bright spot and patches of clear sky to the west, so the storm was more ‘en likely over and it would pro’lly warm up some too.

I walked back to the tent and opened the flap. “Get yourself together in there, we’re gonna break camp and get out of here.”

I walked over and checked the horses. They looked fine. These were mountain horses, a little snow wouldn’t bother ‘em much if’n they could get out of the wind.

When I got back to the tent, Lisa was outside. We broke camp and saddled up, all without sayin’ a word to one another.

By the time we worked our way out of the draw where we’d camped it had warmed up some. It was above freezin’, as I could see the snow meltin’ on the pine trees. This weren’t really a good thing. If’n we had to spend another night out here, the wet snow would refreeze and there would be a hard layer of ice on top. This would be murder on the horses’ legs. I was determined to get out of here today.

It was a bitch makin’ our way across the valley. The snow had drifted so high that we had to work our way around the drifts. It took us most of the mornin’ to make it to the west side of the valley.

Mid mornin’, we stopped to give the horses a break. When I looked over at Lisa, she had a funny expression on her face. She seen me a lookin’ and then asked, “How come we don’t just follow the road. It seems it would be a lot easier.”

I chuckled and then answered as I remounted, “Mostly ‘cause we’d never get through the drifts up on the ridges. It’ll be hard ‘nough bustin’ through the snow going down the valley.”

I guess it were a bit before noon when I called a halt and dug some dried meat and berries from out of the pack. I handed a handful to Lisa, who promptly took them without sayin’ a word. We each ate a couple of handfuls and I was gettin’ back up on Dumb Ass when I seen a flash from the side of the mountain in front of us.

I grabbed Lisa and hauled her off her horse and had just hit the snow when a shot rang out. Dumb Ass jumped and took off for the woods in front of us and Legs screamed and fell to her knees, and then collapsed on her side.