Crow Mountain by Lucy Inglis

Author:Lucy Inglis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicken House

Hope read aloud as Cal worked to make the cabin more comfortable.

‘I’ll find something to eat in the morning.’ He shook out the blankets and started to make up a bed in front of the fire he’d lit in the hearth. The little house, despite the cool night air coming in through the broken window, was tolerably warm, with the stove and a log fire burning. Hope came and sat on the bedding, cross-legged. Buddy sat with her.

‘He’s not taking her back.’

Cal sat next to them, rubbing Buddy’s ears. ‘Well, it is a long way, and he’s just done the journey.’

‘That’s not the point and you know it,’ Hope said.

He sighed. ‘I’m trying to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. Like he says, he could have done anything he wanted to her by now, but he hasn’t.’

Hope smothered a yawn. ‘Hmm.’

‘Tired?’

‘Yes. I wish I had a toothbrush.’

He got up and went to the kitchen cupboard, looking inside and opening things. When he found what he wanted, he returned with one of the cups.

‘Old backwoods trick. Salt and a wet cloth. Scrub your teeth and rinse your mouth.’

They spat the salty water off the porch, looking up at the moon.

‘Gross.’ Hope winced.

‘Gross but effective,’ Cal corrected, wiping his mouth.

Back inside, they huddled down in their clothes beneath the quilt and the blankets. After their night in the open, sleeping next to each other didn’t seem a big deal. Their empty stomachs growled and Hope shivered, tugging the rolled-up smock beneath her head.

‘You’re cold?’

‘Freezing.’

He put his arm around her, her back to his chest, and pulled the coverlet tighter. ‘Better?’

‘Much, thank you.’

It wasn’t warmer, because Cal was almost as cold as she was, but it was definitely much better than him not having his arm around her, so Hope reasoned with herself that it wasn’t really a lie. Buddy lay down at their feet as she fell asleep, exhausted, one hand on the cover of the diary, the other slipping inside Cal’s on the quilt.

Soon after dawn, Cal nudged her. ‘Cooper? You’re on me. And I need to get up.’

‘Sorry,’ she mumbled, sleepy, and realizing she was sprawled across him. Pulling away, she curled in on herself into the covers.

Cal and Buddy went out immediately. Hope rubbed her eyes and sat up; it was another beautiful day. Going outside, she took a pee in the woods behind the house and washed her hands and face in the stream. When Cal returned, he brought more foraged duck potatoes, as well as water. His hair was wet and his shirt stuck to the definition of his chest.

Cal broke the silence as they finished eating, setting some aside for later. ‘I was thinking that they must have been in Fort Shaw pretty much the first year it existed officially. It was just a military outpost called Camp Reynolds before then.’ He checked on the water, which was finally coming to the boil. ‘Wish I could have seen it. Read some more to me?’

By the time the coffee was made, Hope was breathless with excitement.

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