Winter's Torment Read Online Free Page B

clenching her fists around the horse’s mane had she managed to stay astride.
    After realizing that she was lost, she had slid off the horse’s back and dismounted, thinking to examine the mare’s leg. She had gently run her hand over her pastern and joint, her fetlock, and then lifted her hoof to make sure she hadn’t thrown a shoe. Everything looked okay, but she was no veterinarian.
    Then, quite to Winter’s surprise, something had spooked the horse and she had reared, nearly pulling Winter off the ground. Reflexively, Winter had let go of the reins to prevent being dragged. She’d then watched in horror as the horse had trotted off into the distance before disappearing into a nearby gully. Winter had tried to chase after her, but had taken a fall herself at the top of the gully, rolling to the bottom before she stopped, covered with dirt, snow, and praying to God that she hadn’t broken something.
    So it was that she was now holed up against the side of the gully, surrounded by bushes and hoping that they would provide adequate shelter from the snow, which seemed to fall heavier and faster as the minutes ticked by.
    “ Oh Lord ,” she prayed. “ Please let someone find me. I want to live! I don’t want to die out here in the middle of nowhere, with no one to find or bury my bones. I really do want to try to have a chance to begin my life again with Henry. If it is Your will, Lord, help him find me .”
    ***
    Henry’s heart began to pound with dread. He should’ve taken the time to go inside and speak to Winter this morning, tried to assure her that things would be okay. The truth was though that he wasn’t quite sure what he could say to her that would help her overcome her qualms. He knew that she wondered if she had made the right decision about getting married, because he had felt the same way.
    The truth of the matter was, Winter was a little more docile than he had expected. Then again, with what she had admitted about her husband’s behavior following her child’s death, he supposed he could understand her reasons for gradually retreating into herself.
    Still, he was heartened by the fact that she had attempted to overcome the newness of her situation by bringing him lunch. It was a small matter, really, but the fact that she had thought of it and then carried it through gave him hope that they could make a connection. Gradually, she would learn to trust him.
    He had left town on his mare about thirty minutes ago, wearing his heaviest coat. He had also wrapped a buffalo robe around him, one that had been traded to him in lieu of cash when he’d forged new shoes for a trapper’s horse the past summer. The robe had laid forgotten in his supply shed, but he’d brought it out before he’d left, thank goodness. The robe was huge, wrapping around him and covering half of his horse as well.
    His friend William had also bundled up, and Sarah had placed a warmed brick on the footboard between his feet to keep them warm as he told Henry that he would head for the ranch. He knew the way like the back of his hand, regardless of the weather. So did the horses.
    “Chances are, she’s gotten off the trail somewhere along the way,” Henry shouted, having to lift his voice over the sound of the rising wind. It wailed occasionally, driving cold bits of sleet into their faces.
    This storm was turning out to be not just a snowstorm, but had the makings of a blizzard. In the past half hour, another inch or two of snow had fallen. They had to find Winter, and soon or she would freeze to death out there.
    “I’ll make my way up the gully, you take the road,” Henry suggested. The gully paralleled the dirt track most of the way from Henry’s ranch to Dodge City. With any luck, and smarts, Winter, if she was not terribly off the trail, had taken shelter there.
    William nodded. “I told Sarah that if we weren’t back within a couple of hours to send a search party out to the north of the trail since we’re