Rocky Mountain Hideaway (To Love Again Book 2) (9 page)

Tray and Isabel crested the mountain at the same moment and Isabel’s brow furrowed with concern as she saw the dark clouds moving quickly through the valley. The wind whipped her hair about her face and she clutched at the jacket to shield herself. “Tray?”

“There’s a storm approaching, no question. Looks nasty, Isabel.”

Isabel looked around at the bare rock. “What do we do?”

“We get ourselves down.”

“We’ll have time to get home?”

“No. We’ll be lucky if we can get back to the tree line.” Tray was digging through the pack and handed Isabel a pair of mitts and an orange hat. She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Put it on, you need to keep your body heat in.”

“Tray,” she protested. “Do you think it will be that bad?”

“It doesn’t look good. The temperature has already dropped.” There was no mistaking the glimmer of fear in her pretty blue eyes. He wished he could instantly make it better, but all he could do was get them to safety. “It’s moving pretty fast and the wind is getting stronger. Those are snow clouds. We could find ourselves in a whiteout.”

“A whiteout?”

“What we need to do is start back down. Now, Isabel.” He grabbed her hand and dragged her along behind him, moving quickly, the loose shale sliding beneath their feet. He didn’t want to put her in danger by moving too quickly but he needed to get them back to the tree line. Several years ago, he and Jesse had found a cave just off this trail. He had to find it again. If not the cave, at least the trees would give them more cover.

“Isabel, can you move faster?” She strained forward to hear him over the rising wind.

“I keep sliding on the rock.”

“Watch me. You have to jump and land sideways – the rock will slide, but you’ll get a rhythm. Just keep jumping.” He jumped away to demonstrate, sliding a couple of feet as his boots dug into the loose rock. He jumped again.

Isabel stood on the mountainside, the sky an ominous dark purple behind her, hat covering her forehead. In the borrowed jacket hanging past her wrists, the black work mitts and borrowed hat she looked like a waif. She seemed frozen to the spot and Tray thought he’d have to go back to get her. And then she jumped, and jumped again, getting her rhythm and passing him. As she passed, he could hear her laughter just before it was whipped away by the wind.

They made good time down the mountain but Tray worried that it wasn’t fast enough. The snow had already started to swirl around them and he paced himself to keep Isabel close enough so that he could see her. The tree line still seemed a long way off.

There was nothing to do but keep going. Tray jumped and slid and Isabel kept pace beside him. He caught the lines around her eyes, her face taut with worry but at the same time, strangely alive and excited with the adventure. His heart pounded, not from exertion but from fear. Fear that he’d done something to put this beautiful woman in danger. Fear that she might never want to speak to him again if he got her out of this.

Tray knew it was useless to beat himself up over this. There was no way to know when the weather would turn in the mountains. That’s why he loved them – wild, exiting, and totally unpredictable. He was finding Isabel to be much the same way. She looked like a conservative, middle-aged woman but underneath that persona he was discovering someone else; an exciting, unpredictable, adventuresome woman that could make his blood boil in less time than it would take to pour a coffee.

He had to keep her safe, he’d never forgive himself if something went wrong. He breathed a sigh of relief as the trees loomed through the snow. They’d soon have some shelter, and he thought he remembered where the cave was.

That summer, both he and Jesse had worked at the hotel in Banff. Their father hadn’t wanted to spare them for the season, but their mother had insisted. Working at one of the mountain hotels was a rite of passage. It had certainly been that. Kids their age from all over the country, from the United States too and even Europe, came to work in the hotel, mostly as wait staff and laundry workers and housekeeping, but the work wasn’t important. The after-work was. The large staff quarters behind the hotel had a party going on at all times. The staff accommodation had rooms smaller than most college dormitories, and when their friend Wes had come from Red Deer to hang out, they’d cleaned out the closet, thrown a mattress on the floor and he ended up having more privacy than Tray and Jesse.

Tray had laughed at the typical coming of age antics – drinking all night, everyone sleeping with everyone else. Jesse always had some girl in the room. Even then Tray had kept to himself. There was something unsatisfying about the constant turn over in women, girls, whatever. It wasn’t for him.

Tray breathed a sigh of relief as they reached the trees, and he stopped a few feet inside, once it felt more sheltered, to check on Isabel. “Are you all right?”

Isabel nodded, jamming her hands deeper into the over-sized pockets of the jacket, her face raw from the wind. “Are we going to make it down?”

“I think we better stay here.”

“Here?” Isabel looked around at the trees and fallen bush and shivered again at the wind whipping around her shoulders. “We can’t just stay here.”

“We won’t make it down. I think I can find the trail right now, but we’ll lose it before we get to the bottom. We need to find shelter and try to stay warm.”

Isabel shook her head. “No, oh no, we can’t just stay here.”

“Listen. Jesse and I found a cave here a few years ago. I think I can find it again. We’ll be out of the wind and snow, at least. If not, I’ll build a lean-to.”

“A lean-to? This isn’t Grizzly Adams, Tray. I’m not staying on this mountain in the middle of this storm.” Isabel set her lip in a determined line and Tray took another approach.

“We won’t make it down, Isabel. Our best chance is to find a place to stay warm and dry. We have to stay on the side of the mountain.” He spoke slowly and clearly, hoping to calm her with the straight facts of the situation.

“I’m not staying up here in this storm.” Isabel turned abruptly and started through the trees.

Tray lunged for her and grabbed her arm. “Don’t be a fool - there’s nowhere to go. I’m not going to risk going in circles in these woods and wearing ourselves down. We need to conserve our energy and we need to get to shelter. Right now.”

Without waiting for a response, he kept a tight grip on Isabel’s forearm, and started deeper into the woods away from the trail. “I think I can find the cave again, but we need to find it before the snow gets heavier.”

Tray struggled on through the woods, dragging Isabel along with him. He loosened his death grip on her arm and clasped her hand. They dodged through trees and stumbled over dead fall. Visibility was getting worse and Tray calculated that they should have hit the rock face by now. He was keeping his eye on the ground for anything that would make good cover for a lean-to. They couldn’t lose much more time looking for the cave.

He stumbled into a tree that had fallen and rested on the ground at about waist height. “This will be a good spot for a lean-to,” he announced, releasing Isabel’s hand and dropping the pack to the ground.

Isabel looked around. “Why here?”

Tray slapped his hand on the fallen tree. “We can lean other dead fall on this log – create a bit of a shelter for ourselves.” He picked up a long piece of wood laying on the ground and propped it up against the tree. “Like this. Look for pieces like this. Don’t go more than a few feet away, okay? There’s lots to work with right here. Don’t lose sight of this spot.”

Isabel’s eyes widened in alarm. “You … you’re not leaving me!” Her voice quivered. “Where are you going?”

“Just a little farther away. We’ll need some bigger pieces. You gather here, and I’ll gather just over there,” he pointed deeper into the trees. “Promise me you won’t leave this spot,” he said over his shoulder. “Promise - it’s easy to get dis-oriented with so much snow - promise me Isabel.”

“I promise,” she said, but Isabel’s words were whipped away by the wind before they reached his ears.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Isabel had gathered everything within a wide circle of their spot, careful to always keep the fallen tree in sight. She surveyed a good pile of dead trees in front of her. They were going to have to stay in the woods overnight - she was petrified at the thought. She longed for a hot cup of tea, some supper, and her bed.

But right now, her biggest worry was Tray. What if he didn’t come back? She’d had time to find and pile all of this wood and still he wasn’t back. Panic rose in her throat and she grabbed a length of wood and placed it on the lean-to. She wasn’t sure if she was doing it right, but she couldn’t stand here and do nothing. Piece after piece, she slowly covered one side of the tree, and then started on the other side.

Her mind was playing tricks on her. She was sliding into a dark place. What if this had been Tray’s plan all along? What if he was some twisted psychopath who would just get some kind of sick kick out of leaving her alone on the side of this mountain?

She shook her head. She knew that didn’t fit with who she thought he was. He was the one who had saved her in the bar, after all. He was out there somewhere, and he wouldn’t put her in harm’s way on purpose.

But what about by chance? She reminded herself that she had entrusted her well-being to him. And, that he was, after all, only a boy. He said he knew a lot about the mountains and about the woods - and clearly, he knew a lot more than she did - but maybe he was just talking a good game. Most men she knew never wanted to admit when they were wrong or in over their heads.

Was Tray in over his head? He hadn’t known about the storm. Shouldn’t he have checked the forecast before taking her up the mountain? If he had so much experience in the outdoors, why had he put her in this situation?

Isabel’s heart pounded and she knew she needed to somehow calm down. She simply had to remain calm in order to deal with whatever was coming next.

Suddenly, she heard branches snapping behind her. Turning, she peered through the snow. There was definitely someone moving toward her.

“Tray?” she called. “Tray?”

Just as she called again, the wind shifted and through the snow she could make out a large dark figure looming towards her - much larger than Tray. Coming out of the snow was an enormous elk. She took several steps backward, stumbling in her haste, and fighting to keep her balance. The animal saw her and stood stock still, staring right at her. Isabel’s heart threatened to pound its way out through her mouth. She stayed as still as possible - she didn’t dare move a muscle.

She knew elk would charge if they needed to protect their young, but by the antlers, she could see this was a bull. Bulls could be extremely dangerous during rutting season, but Tray had mentioned that rutting season was over, and this was a lone bull.

And then, as quickly as he’d appeared, the elk snorted into the air, slowly turned his large head, and ambled off in the opposite direction, favoring his left hind leg. In no time, he’d disappeared into the swirling snow.

Isabel started sobbing, gulping in big mouthfuls of air, and realized she’d been holding her breath. Her legs gave out beneath her and she sank to the ground, tears running freely.

Clearly, she had no choice but to stay right where she was. She’d wanted to start down the hill, but aside from getting lost and possibly freezing to death on the mountain side, the thought of running into more wild animals terrified her. She knew there were also bighorned sheep, mountain goats, cougars and even bears - both black and grizzly bears.

“Lions and tigers and bears … oh my!” she whispered, trying to lighten her mood. She must, she thought, she absolutely must calm down, otherwise she’d dissolve into hysterics and that would make things even worse. She was strong, she’d raised two children, she had her own practice, she’d survived a horrible marriage and an even worse divorce. She could do this. She would keep her head and she would do this.

What if Tray was hurt and needed help? She couldn’t deny her growing feelings for him, and the thought of losing him so soon after finding him - well, it was too much.

She couldn’t even go looking for him. He’d made her promise to not leave this spot, and with the snow driving in sheets around her, she knew her only choice was to stay put. All she could do was hope and pray that he was okay and would find his way back to her.

Kneeling at the opening of the lean-to, she dug some snow out with her hands to make a space for herself. She pushed the backpack in through the opening and crawled in beside it. Huddled in a small ball, arms around her knees, she peered into the driving snow, swearing that if she managed to make it through the night, that she would never, ever, again take her warm house and bed for granted.

She’d been through worse than this - at the moment she couldn’t remember what, or when - but she was strong and she would make it. She
needed
to believe that she would make it. One way or another she
would
survive this night, find Tray, and make it home again to her girls.

~ ~ ~

The fun continues for Isabel and Tray in

Rocky Mountain Hero

Available mid-June at Amazon