Across a Thousand Miles (9 page)

I
N THE
Y
UKON
T
ERRITORY
on December 24 there were three-point-eight hours of daylight, the temperature was minus thirty degrees Fahrenheit, and it was snowing. Rebecca was running her team and had been out since 8 a.m. It was noon now, and in another hour she would be home. The dogs were moving well, trotting steadily, eating up the miles. She was pleased with their progress, pleased with Raven and Cookie's strengthening leadership abilities, pleased with the number of dogs that could still make her A-team. December was the hardest training month. The days were short and the miles were long. The instinct was to hibernate next to a woodstove with a good book, but she knew she had to run the dogs farther and longer in spite of the bitter cold and the endless dark.

She hadn't seen Mac since that last awkward encounter at her cabin, though no doubt he'd be at the Dodges' tonight for their traditional Christmas Eve supper. Rebecca had wrapped all her presents the night before. She was also taking a Christmas stollen she had baked, a vegetable casserole and three bottles of reasonably good wine. Unexciting fare but not bad for the bush. Ellin was baking a big ham and some Yukon Gold potatoes, and Sam, the man with the sweet tooth, would probably contribute his delicious homemade fudge to the feast. Rebecca was looking forward to it, even though Sadie
Hedda would be there. Ellin had invited her on a sympathetic impulse when Sadie had shown up bearing glad tidings of great joy—and the giant ham Ellin was baking for their supper.

Rebecca hopped up and down on the runners to keep her toes warm. It wasn't that she didn't like Sadie, because she did. She just didn't feel like watching Sadie fuss over Mac, though she couldn't for the life of her explain why. Sadie and Mac would make a perfect couple. Mac was seriously accident-prone and could do with a qualified emergency medical technician in attendance at all times. Sadie just plain needed to be needed, and she enjoyed playing doctor—especially with Mac.

Suddenly Cookie and Raven's pace quickened, and an accelerating surge swept through the team. The lead dogs' ears were pricked and their heads were both pointing to the right. For a moment Rebecca couldn't see what they were looking at through the swirling snow. When she did, she immediately stepped on the sled brake with both feet, grabbed the snow hook and, crouching down, rammed it into the snow beside the sled runner. Ahead, barely visible through the veil of snow and grouped near the inside curve of the next bend in the river, stood three wolves. They were upwind with their backs to the team, standing like statues and watching something Rebecca couldn't see. She'd seen wolves before, but never quite as close as this, and she'd never spotted a wolf before it spotted her. One of the wolves was black, two were gray.

“Wow,” she breathed, thrilled by the sight and hoping that her dogs didn't give full voice to the low growls they were emitting. Hackles raised, her sled dogs watched the wolves and sniffed the snow-laden air. Cookie whined and looked back. Raven shivered. Thor
and Seal, in point, lowered their heads and peered around the leaders. Her team dogs could surely smell the wolves but not see them very well, which was fine with her. The black wolf moved suddenly, trotting to one side of the gray pair, its entire body focusing on whatever was coming up the river. The gray wolves half-circled around the black, and the three stood abreast a few moments more before wheeling as a single entity and loping up the riverbank and into the forest.

Gone in the space of a few heartbeats, vanishing into the wilderness from which they came. Rebecca let her breath out slowly. “Wow,” she said again, smiling. Unbelievable! Cookie let out a yelp as she spied movement up at the river bend, an oncoming team of sled dogs. No wonder the wolves had fled! The approaching dog team was moving briskly. Rebecca reached down and pulled her snow hook out of the snow. If they were going to pass head-on, it was better if both were moving. “All right!” she said, and her dog team dug in and pulled. The two teams began to pass flawlessly, but Rebecca stood on her brake when she saw the other driver gesturing to stop. It didn't surprise her that the driver was Mac.

“Did you see them?” Mac said. “The wolves! Did you see them?”

The teams had stopped so that the sleds were standing side by side but facing in opposite directions.

“Yes, I did,” Rebecca said. “They were magnificent, weren't they?”

Mac was grinning, clearly exhilarated. “They were out on the ice in front of my dogs when we came around a corner about a mile back. They ran ahead of us but didn't seem to be afraid. They kept stopping and looking
back. I wish I'd had a camera. What a picture that would have made!”

Rebecca felt a tender surge toward him as he related his experience. “Most men around these parts wish they had a high-powered rifle when they sight a wolf.”

“I guess I'm not like most men,” Mac said. “I hope that doesn't weigh too heavily against me.”

Rebecca fiddled with the cuff of her parka sleeve, cinching it tighter against the cold. “No,” she said, dropping her eyes to the task.

“Good.” Mac leaned toward her, resting one hand on her driver's bow. “Can I ask you a question?”

She fiddled with the other cuff. “Go ahead,” she said.

“Would your husband have been one of those men who wished he had a high-powered rifle?”

The question startled her, and she lifted her eyes to his. “Yes,” she said quietly.

“Can I ask you another question?” he said.

“As long as it's not personal.”

“What would you do if I kissed you right now?”

“Why, I'd slap your—” She never had time to finish the sentence before he leaned over and kissed her on the mouth. It was not a long kiss, just a tender, tentative touch of his lips to hers. She drew her head back, too shocked to speak, and stared into his eyes. She struggled to catch her breath. Her lips tingled as if from an electric shock.

“You didn't slap me,” he said.

Oh, God! He was too close! Too close! Panic surged through her. She eased her foot off the sled's brake and called up her dogs. “All right, Cookie! Raven! Get up!”

Her team exploded forward, and Rebecca didn't dare look back as they rounded the curve in the river.

 

E
LLIN
D
ODGE WAS
in a terrible state. Rebecca was as dear to her as her own daughter might have been, and she desperately wanted to see her happy. In Ellin's opinion, Bill MacKenzie was as good a man as Rebecca would ever stumble across in this wild and lonely land, or anywhere else on earth, for that matter. If only Rebecca would come to her senses and fall in love with him, but instead, Sadie Hedda had decided to set her cap for the rookie musher.

Sadie wasn't beautiful the way Rebecca was, but she was a woman, a very warm and willing woman in a land where warm and willing women were few and far between. And Bill MacKenzie was a red-blooded man, no doubt about it.

Ellin had invited Sadie to share their traditional Christmas Eve supper. If she hadn't invited her, it would have been just the four of them. Mac and Rebecca, she and Sam. It would have been a perfect Christmas Eve! But Ellin had had no choice. Sadie had as much as invited herself by going on and on about how lonely Christmas Eve was for her…and then to cap it all off she had produced this gigantic Virginia cured ham!

How could Ellin not have invited her?

Moot point, now. Sadie would be here in another hour, as well as Rebecca and Mac. She'd heard Mac return from his training run a while ago. He had snuck cat-footed into the kitchen where Ellin was putting together a simple salad and asked humbly if he might shower, to which she had replied matter-of-factly, without looking up from the vegetables she was slicing, “William MacKenzie, if you don't take a shower and shave, and if you don't put those doggy-smelling clothes of yours into the laundry hamper, you won't be the least little bit welcome here for supper!”

He had emerged from the shower all spruced up and freshly shaved, smartly dressed in a black-watch flannel shirt and his best blue jeans, and to her surprise had taken over her kitchen, finishing the salad, pinning bright yellow rounds of pineapple to the ham with whole cloves, and sprinkling brown sugar over the ham before sliding it into the oven. While she'd watched from the sidelines, he'd cleaned the pots, pans and dishes in the sink, wiped down the counters, scrubbed the potatoes, set the table for supper and then he'd turned to her and said, “I kissed her today, Ellin. I shouldn't have done it but I did, and I guess she's mad enough at me now that she might not even come over tonight.”

He looked so dejected standing there that for a moment Ellin didn't know whether to laugh or cry. In the end she just patted his arm. “She'll come, Mac. Rebecca will come.”

It never even occurred to her that Mac might have been talking about Sadie, because Ellin knew full well who Mac was in love with.

 

R
EBECCA LOOKED
at her reflection in the tiny mirror above her sink and made a face. No doubt about it, she was homely. The fact that Mac had actually kissed her was an unexpected, unexplainable, and unnatural phenomenon. It would probably never happen again, and that was just as well. Kissing was a pointless pursuit, when it couldn't possibly lead to anything but pain and misery. She lifted her hair up and heaved a discouraged sigh. She would like to sneak over to Ellin and Sam's and take a shower, but that was probably what Mac was doing at this very moment, and after what had happened this afternoon, she didn't see how she could possibly look him in the eye ever again.

With another heavy sigh, Rebecca let her hair drop back onto her shoulders. Maybe she should call Ellin and tell her she just didn't feel up to a night out. Ellin would understand. Ellin understood all things. She was the wisest woman Rebecca had ever known. She was so lucky to have Ellin and Sam. Without them, she never would have survived after Bruce's death.

Yes, Ellin would sympathize.

Rebecca connected her radio phone to the battery and dialed their number. Ellin answered on the second ring, and before Rebecca could utter a word, the older woman spoke. “My dear girl, if you're going to tell me you can't come over tonight, please don't bother. If you can't come over here, then we'll all just have to come over there. I certainly hope your cabin is spotlessly clean and ready for lots of company!”

“Ellin,” Rebecca said, “I just called to tell you I'm on my way.”

“Well, hurry up then! There's still time for you to take a nice hot shower before supper.”

 

C
HRISTMAS
E
VE
was a rather interesting affair. Rebecca managed to take her shower before Sadie arrived, the ham came out of the oven about the time Mac made his appearance, and the seating arrangements at the table, not prearranged by Ellin, placed Sam between Mac and Sadie, and Rebecca next to Mac. Ellin suspected that Mac and Sam were in cahoots, but that was fine with her. Nonetheless, Sadie was not to be put off.

“I sure hope you like the Christmas present I got you, Mac,” she said as soon as she was seated.

Mac, carrying the ham to the table, froze in midstride. He opened his mouth to respond, but no words came forth.

“Boy, am I hungry!” Sam burst out, slamming his fists onto the table and making the silverware dance. “Who's going to carve the beast?”

“Mac will,” Ellin said.

“Uh-oh. Better get your medical kit ready, Sadie,” Rebecca advised, lifting her wineglass for a sip.

Mac set the giant ham in front of his chair and picked up the carving knife. “Don't worry,” he said. “I may be dangerous with a dog team, but I'm pretty good with a knife.”

“Not as good as I hope to become,” Sadie interjected, twirling the stem of her wineglass. “I've been thinking about going back to school. Medical school.”

“You don't say!” Ellin smiled. “I think that's a wonderful idea.”

“Well, the Territory needs more doctors, and the way I see it, two or three more years of study will give it a darn good one.”

“Here, here!” Sam said, lifting his wineglass in salute.

Mac waved the carving knife and grinned his brash, handsome grin. “That's great, Sadie. Medical school! You were born to be a doctor.”

Rebecca took a sip of her wine and suddenly found herself resenting Sadie. Sadie was smart, pretty, accomplished. Sadie already had a good career and now she was going to make it better. Sadie was motivated. Sadie… Sadie wanted Mac and she was in a perfect position to grab him.

Not that Rebecca cared.

She took another sip of her wine and watched Mac carve the ham. His shirtsleeves were rolled back, and she glanced covertly at the play of muscle and tendon in his powerful hands and arms. Raised her eyes briefly
to his face and was startled to see that he was looking at her. She felt the heat come into her cheeks.

He kissed me!
she thought, her cheeks burning.
What a nerve that man has!

“Thank you, Mac,” Ellin said as he handed her the platter of sliced ham. “A masterful job!”

The meal was delicious, the wine and conversation flowed freely, and over dessert—a chocolate cream pie Sadie had made that surpassed Sam's fudge—Rebecca found herself listening with one ear to a somewhat strange and one-sided dialogue between Mac and Sadie, while keeping the other ear tuned to an argument between Ellin and Sam. The conversation between Mac and Sadie involved reincarnation.

“Oh, yes, I am quite sure,” Sadie was saying as she leaned back in her chair and gazed across the table at Mac, “that I've been reincarnated several times, the latest as a horse in the Civil War. In fact, I'm absolutely certain that I was killed on a battlefield there!”

“A horse?” Mac said, elbows on the table and wineglass in hand. Rebecca found his nearness unsettling, and she jerked her leg away involuntarily when his knee nudged hers beneath the table. She felt her cheeks warm again.