Across A Thousand Miles. Nadia Nichols

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СКАЧАТЬ have a headlamp in my truck,” Mac said. “Hell, I could work blind if I had to. I’m a fair enough mechanic. How far away do these folks live?”

      “Sam and Ellin? Not far. Five miles down the trail, east of here.”

      “Which trail?”

      “That one.” Rebecca raised her free hand and pointed. “If you hurry you could get there and back in my four-wheeler before the snow gets too deep, but we’d better call ahead first.”

      “I appreciate this,” Mac said, following her into the warmth of the cabin. He stopped inside the door and looked around while she hooked the radio phone to the twelve-volt battery. She noticed him staring at Bruce’s clothing on the wall pegs near the door and the pair of man-size Bunny boots behind the wood cookstove. “You have a real nice place here,” he offered. She said nothing, dialing Sam and Ellin’s number by heart and hoping that they had their phone turned on.

      They did. Ellin answered on the second ring. Her voice was always warm and welcome to Rebecca’s ears. “’Becca! Sweetheart, how are you? I hope you’re all ready for winter, my dear, because its here!”

      Rebecca quickly filled Ellin in, and within moments Sam was speaking directly to Mac about parts and pieces and tools and time. Finally, Mac handed her the phone and grinned. “All set!” he said. “They have the part I need. All I have to do is pull it, bring it back here, and fix my truck. Callie should be all right in the meantime.”

      “I could drive you over,” she offered, albeit grudgingly. She had chores to finish, a column to write and a deadline to meet.

      “No need, if I can borrow your four-wheeler.”

      Relieved, she led him back out into the brumal blast, zipping her parka against the cold. It was rapidly growing dark. The four-wheeler was parked inside the barn, and she swung the door wide and held it open against the force of the wind while he started up the vehicle and drove it out. Once again she pointed at the mouth of the trail that led directly from her yard into the thick spruce forest. “Just follow that trail. You can’t possibly get lost. It takes you right into Sam and Ellin’s yard. Don’t worry about Callie. I’ll bring her into the cabin and keep an eye on her.”

      “Thanks,” he said, visibly relieved. He shifted into first gear, and was swallowed up instantly by the darkness and the storm.

      CHAPTER TWO

      THE WIND MADE a noise in the eaves that sounded like a dying man’s moan, and Rebecca fed more sticks into the stove to thwart the deepening cold that worked its way through tiny cracks between the cabin logs and radiated up from the floorboards. It was nearing midnight, and still no sign of Bill MacKenzie. The storm had intensified, and more than eighteen inches already covered the frozen ground in some areas. Rebecca poured herself another cup of tea, her fifth of the night. Maybe it was time to get out of the dog-food business. The markup was so small, just fifty cents a bag. For the privilege of selling Bill MacKenzie forty bags, she had earned the tidy sum of twenty dollars, not even enough for one bag of food for her own huskies. And that was assuming he ever paid her.

      It simply wasn’t worth the aggravation.

      And where was he, anyway? He had her four-wheeler, a Honda that Bruce had spent a small fortune on four years ago. If he hurt that machine… “Okay,” she said to Tuffy. “He left here around four o’clock. It’s five miles to Sam and Ellin’s. He has to go out back and remove the parts he needs from the junkers Sam collects and that’s going to take some time. One, two, three hours? Even if Ellin feeds him—and she surely will— he should have been back at least three hours ago. The snow is too deep now for the four-wheeler, which means he’s stuck out there somewhere and freezing to death.”

      Rebecca paced the small confines of the kitchen with mug of tea in hand. Tuffy raised her head and watched intently. “I can’t call Ellin,” Rebecca told the dog. “I thought he’d be back by nine so I didn’t phone before and now it’s too late, Sam goes to bed early and if I bother them now…” She took a sip of tea. “I have to! If he’s lost out there we’ll have to find him. It’s ten degrees standing temperature, but way below zero with the wind chill.”

      She set her mug down with a thump on the kitchen table and plugged the radio phone into the battery. “Ellin? Ellin, it’s Rebecca! Where on earth is Bill MacKenzie!”

      Ellin’s voice was drowsy with sleep. “Why, he’s right here! He’s spending the night. It was late and the weather was far too nasty for him to head back after he and Sam had gotten the parts, so we made him bed down in the boys’ bedroom.” Ellin’s voice lowered to a naughty whisper. “My dear girl, wherever did you find him! He’s a treasure!”

      “Ellin, for your information I did not find him! He bought a load of dog food from me, and his truck just happened to break down on my road! Do you mean to say that all this time he’s been sleeping?”

      “Like a baby. We tried to call, but as usual your phone was unplugged. Don’t be mad, my dear. I must tell you that we’ve enjoyed his company immensely. He even helped Sam fix that old Bombardier of ours, he’s that good a mechanic! I must say, you’ve got yourself quite a man there, Rebecca.”

      “Ellin, he’s not my man! I’m sorry to have woken you but I thought… I just didn’t know…” She glanced at Callie, who was curled on a blanket behind the stove, sound asleep. “I mean, it’s a bad storm and he—”

      “You were worried. I understand completely.” Ellin’s grandmotherly voice soothed and reassured. “But worry no more, my dear. We’re taking good care of him and we’ll get him back to you safely first thing in the morning. Now go to bed and get some sleep.”

      Rebecca couldn’t be angry with Ellin, and as she climbed the steep stairs to the cabin’s sleeping loft, she surprised herself by laughing for the second time that day.

      BY MORNING the storm had blown itself out, and at 8 a.m. Sam and Ellin arrived, riding double on the wide-track Bombardier snowmobile and towing a sled. Bill MacKenzie was driving Rebecca’s Honda behind them. Rebecca had finished watering and feeding the dogs, and she invited the elderly couple into the cabin for a cup of coffee. Mac came inside briefly to check on Callie and then went out to rummage in the sled behind the Bombardier. She could see several mysterious tools protruding from the canvas wrappings he pulled out.

      “Mac’s a darn good mechanic,” Sam said, as he settled himself into a chair at the kitchen table. Sam was in his seventies, lean and trim and bursting with the health and vitality of a man who had lived most of his life in the outdoors. Ellin’s hair was as white as her husband’s, and she was also in shape. They had lived in the Yukon all of their lives, had raised four boys in their cabin, home-schooling them with such success that all four had gone on to successful careers.

      “He’s Brian’s older brother, and I remember Brian telling us he was in the military. I don’t recall which branch,” Rebecca said, pouring the coffee. “He’s taking care of Brian’s team for the winter.”

      “Well, he certainly knows his stuff. He knows airplanes, too,” Sam said. “You should’ve seen his eyes light up when he saw my old Stearman! Said he’d help me get her back in the air this spring if I wanted. I guess I wouldn’t mind having some help.”

      “I’ve never known you to refuse help,” Ellin said to her husband. “Now,” she turned to Rebecca. “Let me give you a bit of advice—”

      “Ellin, СКАЧАТЬ