Witness Protection Part Three
And now for the end of the story. I hope 2015 has kicked off to a fabulous start for everyone=)
Witness Protection Part Three
The wind died down and the silence woke her. It was that time of morning just before the sun rose when the air was brittle with cold and eerily quiet.
Crunch.
Gwen sucked in a breath and held it.
Crunch.
The sound of a slow step in the crusted snow. The thief was up and moving.
Crunch.
He wouldn’t know she stayed by the cabin, would he? Perhaps he thought the night and cold killed her. It should have. Her, a noblewoman, with no knowledge of the frozen mountains.
Crunch.
The sound was way too close. Gwen couldn’t move.
Her cave crumbled as he pulled on her cloak. The thief had the edge of the garment in his hand. He yanked again and Gwen cried out as he reached for her.
Her arms and legs ached, screamed at her as she flailed after being curled in a ball for hours.
He yanked a third time and the cloak slid from her shoulders.
Gwen stood and spun away but had to brace a hand on the wall when her legs protested. Bloody hand prints trailed the wall, leading right to her spot.
She shoved away and tried to run toward the river but her steps sunk her up to her knees until she was crawling and scrambling instead of running.
The thief yelled but she couldn’t, and didn’t really want to, hear his words. He was chasing her. With his longer legs, he was gaining fast.
Seeing the river ahead, Gwen stopped and crouched, turning as the thief reached for her.
She grabbed his extended hand and pulled. Caught off guard, he stumbled. He stepped once, then twice to regain his balance. Gwen braced her legs and shoved him past her.
He stepped onto the ice berm over the river. It held for a second before crumbling and then he disappeared into the river, windmilling his arms on the way down. He bobbed to the surface farther down with his mouth open in a silent shriek.
Gwen could relate to that feeling.
The thief caught on a rock down mid-stream.
“Now I’ve got to fish him out.”
Gwen shrieked and spun.
Brant stood there eyeing her.
“He’s your problem,” she said and then clamped her teeth together. Her body was still shivering. She couldn’t feel her feet and her hands felt like she’d grated them on a wash board. She flexed her fingers and finally figured out why she’d left bloody hand prints. She tore several nails in her struggle with the thief. Probably left grooves in the cabin floor.
“That he is. I’m glad he finally took the bait.”
“Bait? I was bait!” Gwen wanted to scream and yell and maybe hit him but all that came out was a lot of half words. “yo–cruel–why-” She gave up. She was railing at him in her underwear and shivering so hard she couldn’t keep her teeth quiet.
Spinning, she trudged back to the cabin for her clothes. She didn’t offer to help him retrieve the thief.
***
By the time Brant came in, he and the thief were both drenched and shivering with ice forming in their hair.
Gwen had built up the fire to thaw her frozen limbs and the cabin was toasty warm. She found the sled Brant must have hauled in. Half of it was covered with wood. The other half more food stuffs. He would have left her here as long as it took to lure the thief in apparently.
But he brought firewood, for which Gwen could almost forgive him his plans. Almost.
Seeing both men come back crusted with ice cooled her ire even more. They deserved the experience, both of them, and it was satisfying to see, but she didn’t begrudge them the warmth in the cabin either. It wasn’t like she wanted them dead.
The thief now had a crooked nose to add to his elongated ears. He sat in the corner of the cabin with his shoulders slumped and head down.
After a silent breakfast of oatmeal, Gwen helped Brant clean the cabin.
“Time to go,” he announced and then frowned at her. “Where’s the cloak I gave you?”
“Out under the snow,” Gwen announced, “where I spent the night while this man enjoyed the cabin.”
Brant finally had the decency to look sorry. “He was here all night?”
“Duh genius. Your master plan had a few glitches. Although I could kiss you for the cloak. It saved my life.”
He looked flabbergasted. Gwen’s day was looking up. She turned away to go find the cloak. She planned to enjoy one last morning of the sun sparkling off the snow before she returned home.
The End.
Blessings,
Jennifer
