Across A Thousand Miles. Nadia Nichols

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СКАЧАТЬ it heated. “I should drive you into Dawson today for X rays.”

      “No need. I feel fine.”

      “You look flushed. My guess is you’re running a fever.”

      “Can’t be. I’m freezing to death. Where are my clothes, by the way?”

      “Ellin took them. They needed a bath. Sam and Ellin have loads of hot water and a washer and dryer, thanks to a big propane water heater and a huge diesel generator. They have a shower, too, which Ellin forces me to use from time to time.”

      “That must be hard to take.”

      “Sheer torture. I can only stand it for about thirty minutes at a time.” He noticed that she almost smiled. “I have a sauna here and it’s great, my clients love it, but it’s just not the same.” She rose to her feet. “When I’m done feeding and watering, I’m going to run some dogs. I’ll bring you breakfast before getting started and I should be back by two. Will you be all right by yourself?”

      “I’ll be fine. I’m sorry to be such trouble.” Rebecca nodded and began to leave, taking her coffee mug with her. “Rebecca,” he said. She paused and turned. “You have to believe me when I tell you I’m not usually like this.”

      Her eyebrows raised slightly. “Like what? Half-naked and freezing to death?”

      Mac drew the wool blanket more tightly around his waist, and felt his color deepen. “I’m not usually such a nuisance. I’m actually a fairly intelligent, capable, self-reliant man, and I have good common sense.”

      “You do?” she said.

      “Yes, ma’am. I’m loaded with it.”

      This time the smile made it to her lips, and they curved in a most delicious way. “Well,” she said, “you certainly couldn’t prove it by me.”

      And then she was gone, taking her smile and its sunshine with her.

      CHAPTER THREE

      REBECCA WAS STILL SMILING three hours later, twenty miles down the trail. The dogs were trotting smoothly, moving through the fresh snow as if it wasn’t there. She had put Cookie and Raven up in lead, two young females with loads of drive and intelligence, and they were doing a great job. The sky was a deep vault of blue, the sunlight bright, the air very still and very cold. Her eight-dog team was covering ten miles an hour, not bad at all on an unbroken trail and pulling about a hundred pounds of weight in the toboggan sled.

      “Raven! Gee!” The main trail intersected with a cutoff that would loop around and take them home. Raven pulled to the right as ordered, taking Cookie and the rest of the dogs with her. “Good girl, Raven! Good girl.”

      Common sense? Hah! The man was hopeless. He would most certainly die out there in that trapper’s shack on the Flat this winter. He would starve to death trying to feed his dogs. He would freeze to death trying to keep a fire in the woodstove. Common sense, indeed! What on earth possessed him to think he could come into this wild land and survive?

      And now she was stuck with taking care of him and his dog team, all of which made her wonder just how much common sense she, herself, had. She laughed aloud, the noise startling her dogs and causing them to break their gait and glance back at her. “It’s okay, gang. Good dogs. All right.” They faced front again and their tug lines tightened as they forged ahead. She could still picture Mac sitting on the bunk with that old wool army blanket pulled around him, his broad shoulders bared to the chill of the room. She hated to admit it, but Sadie Hedda had been right. William MacKenzie was one long, tall, handsome man—even if he didn’t have one shred of common sense. He had something else, though, something she couldn’t quite fathom….

      Rebecca shifted her weight on the sled runners, bent her knees and bobbed up and down to warm up the backs of her calves. Her toes were cold even in her heavy boots. This was nothing new. Her toes and fingers were always cold from October until May. It came with the Territory.

      “Okay, you huskies, pick it up!” Cookie and Raven broke into a lope at her words, and moments later they were heading home. The trip back would be quicker on the broken trail, and she’d have time to run one more team before she had to start evening chores. The other dogs in the yard heralded her arrival, and Rebecca was surprised to see her red plow truck parked in front of the main cabin. As she looped her snub line around the hitching post, securing the team, Sam stepped out onto the porch. At the same moment, Ellin emerged from the guest cabin. Ellin’s face was radiant as she strode across the dog yard.

      “Rebecca,” she said as she approached. “We’re taking Mac over to our place. Sam’s rigged a sled behind the Bombardier for Mac to lie in so it’ll be an easy trip for him. He can stay in the boys’ room for now and move into the cabin when he’s ready.”

      Rebecca unsnapped the dogs’ tug lines and began stripping the polar fleece booties from their feet. “Ellin, you and Sam have enough to do without taking care of an invalid.” She reached for the stack of galvanized feed pans and dropped one into the snow in front of each dog, then opened the prepacked cooler to give each some broth thick with chunks of liver.

      “He won’t be an invalid for long, Becca. Sam could use some help around the place, and the way I see it, God has provided it in the form of this nice young man.”

      Rebecca straightened, one mittened hand pressing into the small of her back. She looked at Ellin and sighed. “You do have a way of looking at things.”

      “He’s going to be a big help to Sam. If he can do all the things Sam thinks he can, Bill MacKenzie will be worth his weight in gold. After all, he did fix the Bombardier, and that thing hasn’t run since the turn of the last century.”

      “He’s a big man, Ellin,” Rebecca cautioned. “Probably eats a lot.”

      “I cook a lot. Can’t get out of the habit after raising four boys. There’ll be plenty to eat. And Sam has fixed up one whole end of the hangar for the dogs.”

      “You’re taking his dogs, too?”

      “Of course! It’ll be fun having a dog team around the place again. I miss them.”

      “Take some of mine!”

      “Becky, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This is too much for you. You can’t go it alone.”

      Rebecca bent to pick up the empty feed pans. “I have another team to run, Ellin.”

      “Yes, I know,” Ellin said curtly. “And another team after that, and then there are the chores to do. The wood to split, the water to lug, the dogs to feed.” She sighed. “Well, my dear, I’ve had my say and as always, it’s fallen on deaf ears. I really think all mushers have dog biscuits for brains!”

      “I love you, Ellin Dodge, and I always will,” Rebecca said, arms full of feed pans. “But I have to do things my way.”

      Thirty minutes later she was out on the trail again with another eight-dog team and Ellin’s words echoing in her ears. Her neighbor was right. It was too much. There were days when Rebecca felt like giving up, days when everything piled up in front of her like an unscalable mountain, days when she was so lonely and exhausted that she would drop her head into her hands and weep like a baby. Those were the bad days, and while not all of her days were СКАЧАТЬ