The sun shone warm on the snow and made it sparkle. T’was hard to imagine any danger on a day like this, but I was still wary. I walked Oscar back inside then Clarence and I went to tend to the animals.
When we’d finished and left the barn, the front door to the house opened and Oscar peered out with a frown. “Irene needs the privy bad. I was thinkin’ about takin’ her myself, but I knew you wouldn’t like it,” he said, “even though I’ve got the revolver.”
“No, you did the right thing, Oscar,” I said.
Clarence moved toward the porch. “She can come now. I’ll take her.”
“Okay.” Oscar disappeared and, in a moment, Irene hastened out. She must have been wearing her coat and boots already, poor thing.
She tried to laugh it off but was in some distress.
“Goddamn wolves,” Clarence said. “I hope to fuck they stay away.”
He stuck close to Irene while I went inside.
“I’m proud of you, Oscar,” I said. “You did the right thing by waiting for us.”
He shrugged. “I ain’t never seen a woman needed to piss so bad. I told her to use the chamber pot, but she said she expected you’d be done soon.”
“Yeah, we need to empty those. Let’s do that, then they won’t have to.”
We dumped the two china pots out back—we were lucky they had more than one, although I suppose we could have used a regular pot—and cleaned them before setting them back in their places.
By the time we’d finished, Clarence and Irene had come back.
Now Irene really was laughing. “My goodness. I thought I was gonna explode—or let go and flood the house if you didn’t get back in time.”
Oscar laughed. “Yeah, you looked a fair bit uncomfortable.”
“I went twice in the pot since yesterday. Not sure why I was so desperate.” She flipped her loose hair off her face and grinned, looking like a schoolgirl with her dimple. “Anyhow, I feel much better! I’ll start making breakfast.”
We ate flapjacks, eggs, ham and an orange each. Oscar peeled his orange like t’was a treasure—and it sort of was. I felt the same when the tender flesh exploded between my teeth.
“This tastes like summer,” Oscar moaned. “Sogood.”
Irene and Clarence exchanged a look and a smile. They were charmed by Oscar, almost as much as I was.
“Yes, it does. Makes me feel better after a restless night,” I said.
“Well, it looks like those wolves have found some other place to go. But you boys can wait a bit before you head home if it makes you feel better,” Clarence said.
“I ain’t in no rush,” I said, helping myself to another flapjack.
Oscar gave me a look to say that he was eager to get me alone, but he’d just have to wait. I wasn’t risking those wolves coming back just so we could get up to some of his sexy mischief.
Chapter Eighteen
Domestic Quarrels
A few hours passed with no sign or sound of the wolves. I didn’t want to wait too long, in case they did come back and we were trapped there again. We had to get home to feed and water the poor mule.
The sun was high in the sky when we saddled up the horses. Clarence had accompanied us to the barn, his rifle at the ready. He’d promised to cover us as we rode away, but I kept my rifle on the saddle in front of me, nevertheless.
The sun was high and bright in the blue sky, and the beauty of our surroundings didn’t go unnoticed. But I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to. My gaze switched between Oscar and Onyx in front of me and scanning the trees on either side of us, while I listened for any sign of the wolves. But for most of the short journey, all I heard was the crunch of hooves in snow and the call of forest birds mixed with the chatter of angry squirrels.
The abrupt caw of a crow to my left startled me so badly that I reached for my gun then cursed when I realized t’was nothing to worry about. Those goddamned wolves had ruined my peace of mind, and I was all kinds of annoyed. I needed to get Oscar home and tumbled good and proper, which would make the both of us feel better.
We made it to the stables without incident and found Poke to be happy and content, with Sprite keeping him company in the stable and lots of warm hay to eat and sleep in. We wouldn’t have left him if the cold had been severe, since he’d miss the warmth from the two other horses in the small space. But the temperature was mild, and he was nice and warm. The cat could come and go through a small hole in one of the stalls that was too small for a wolf or any other predator. Both the mule and the cat seemed in good spirits—not acting spooked or as if they’d feared for their lives, and we hadn’t seen any wolf tracks beyond the immediate surroundings of Clarence and Irene’s homestead.
