A Rose Blooms Twice by Vikki Kestell

Author:Vikki Kestell [Vikki Kestell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Goodreads: 15845879
Published: 2012-02-27T13:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Saturday night or rather Sunday morning in the dark, still hours before dawn. Rose awakened from deep sleep. She lay entirely alert, listening. Something had penetrated her slumbering consciousness and triggered an alarm. She heard nothing, however. Even the crickets were silent. But they shouldn’t be, should they? Unless somebody or something . . .

Rose threw back the covers and stealthily found her slippers. Opening the back door just a crack she peered out. Minutes went by, but she still didn’t see anything amiss. Then Prince snorted angrily and kicked at his stall. Whatever it was, was by the stable.

“What do I do?” Rose was frantic for her animals. She glanced in agitation around the cabin. The largest skillet hanging behind the stove caught her eye. Softly she removed it and a long metal ladle from their hooks. Fear for Snowfoot and Prince made her bold as she crept out the door.

Desperate bleating broke out from Snowfoot and Prince was thrashing inside his stall: Rose threw caution aside and sprinted for the stable. There she saw three shadowy figures leaping at the stable doors and trying to pry them open. Shouting, she rushed at them banging the ladle and spoon together angrily. The dark forms melted away into the tall grass and she charged after them, pounding her “weapons” and yelling crazily.

Finally Rose came to her senses and rushed back to the stable calling reassurances to Prince and Snowfoot. Inside, the two animals both expressed their relief at seeing their mistress. Rose patted and stroked Prince, speaking gently to him while he calmed down. Snowfoot trembled and bleated plaintively until Rose opened the stall door. The little goat came to Rose’s arms like a frightened child so she sat in the straw and cuddled her. Afraid of another attack that night, Rose decided to stay in the stable. She went back to the house and pulled a blanket from her bed. Back out in Snowfoot’s stall with the stable door tightly closed, she made herself as comfortable as possible wrapped in her blanket and sitting against the wall. Prince was quiet and Snowfoot lay beside her, her knobby little head resting on her thigh.

She finally drifted off fitfully until just before dawn when a chorus of yapping and howling in the distance stirred her again. Coyotes? She was sure they were her visitors—would they be back?

When she departed for church, bleary-eyed and fearful, Rose left Snowfoot in her stall and securely tied the doors of the stable closed. Only human hands could undo those knots! But the tracks of several four-footed animals were all over the yard. They had been through the garden, on the porch, and even at her pantry door! They seemed to have no fear at all, and Rose was outraged by the intrusion.

After service Rose couldn’t wait to pour out her indignation to Brian and Fiona.

“Sure an’ them coyotes be terrible thick this year,” Brian commiserated. “Folks wi’ large flocks o’ sheep be takin’ the

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