“She doesn’t know she’s dead or something,” Kat said, nibbling one of her chapped lips.

“Kat. ’Tis cold and time is wearing on,” he said gently.

“I know. I’m sorry. I just want to try one more thing. Where are we going?”

“For now? Walmart,” he said dryly.

“Right. Okay. That’s too long. It’s going to take us forever. I was thinking if the plows come through by the time we get to town then we could get a car somehow and drive the rest of the way there. The main roads might be better than the side roads … plowed sooner anyway. So let’s see if she can make it off the property.”

She looked around. “Aha!” Then she wrote, “Meet me at the willow tree.”

The willow was about fifty yards away on the other side of the road. Then she immediately began to hurry away, her companion tagging along behind her. As she ran she could see a second set of footprints running along beside her, though at a careful distance. After all, they didn’t want to run into each other again. The first time had hurt bad enough.

Sure enough the ghost made it off the property just fine. They began to write back and forth again furiously.

“Are you a ghost?”

“Are you a ghost?” she responded in reply.

“Hmm. Odd.”

“Kat, I’m freezing my bollocks off.”

“Right! Sorry. Let’s have them meet us at Walmart. It’ll take us another couple of hours to get into town and if the roads are better … I’d say tomorrow night? Maybe around nine p.m.?”

“Yes, but where? And what if we’re late?”

“Do you have any paper? Let’s see if she can read from a note.”

He looked at himself and his nearly nude state and then back at her as if she’d lost her ever-lovin’ mind.

“Oh! Right. Okay, so no paper. But they’ll have paper there if we can get there.”

Will leave a note at River Ridge Walmart entrance. Right-hand side.

“Those entrances are huge. Inside or outside?” Ahnvil asked.

“Oh right!”

All the way inside immediate right. 9 p.m. tomorrow night.

Okay! The ghost replied.

“Wow! Let’s go! I want to see if she can make it and if she can find the note. This is so cool!”

Suddenly the woman who had been dragging her feet the whole way was delighted and eager to be going. She whooped out, the sound echoing in the night, as she hurried her way down the mountain. Good thing, too, because Ahnvil couldn’t feel a damn thing from the waist down.

It was nearly dawn by the time they got into town. There wasn’t a plow in sight. Her disappointment was legendary.

“Doona worry, Kat. We’ll make it there come time for her to get the note. Let’s find a place to warm up.”

“There’s a motel.” She eyed him up and down. “I’ll get the key. You can wait and I’ll let you in the room.”

By the time he got into the room with her he thought he’d rather be dead. He was so cold he could hardly move and his feet were torn up and bloody, a fact he was going to have a hard time hiding from her once they were in close quarters again. He could only hope that lack of electricity would work in his favor.

“Jesus Christ,” he said under his breath once he had excused himself to go into the bathroom. He was hunched over into himself, leaning back against the door. There was nothing for it. There was only one way he could think of to get warm the way he needed to get warm fast. And since sex wasn’t likely to be the best idea in her opinion, he would have to settle for less. He took the time to wash his feet in cold water—cold water, which felt a damn sight warmer than his feet right then. He changed his flimsy towel for a clean, dry one then hurried out of the restroom.

“Oh good!” She went to hurry past him. “I snuck Karma in. Took me a few minutes to pull the hunks of snow out of her fur, but she’s good now. I’m going to use some towels to dry her. And I have to pee fiercely bad. Needed to for hours but, you know, baring my ass in the cold was so not in the cards. I was—Hey! What is this?”

She came out of the bathroom holding up the bloody towel he’d used for his feet. “Is your wound bleeding again?” she demanded, running over to him, but he grabbed her hands and kept her from raising it.

“ ’Tis nothing. Now hurry up and get into bed wi’ me. We need tae conserve what li’le warmth we have left.”

“In bed with … oh.” Clearly she hadn’t thought that far ahead. “Maybe we should get separate—”

“No,” he said, hard and short. “ ’Tis no time for you to be quailing about. You’ll sleep wi’ me.”

And that apparently was the end to it. And, gratefully enough, worrying about getting into bed with him was enough to keep her from remembering the blood on the towels. Not willing to press his luck he made sure all the drapes were as tightly closed as possible and then shivered his way into the cold bed. When she was done drying the dog off as best she could she shucked off her snow pants, and climbed gingerly beneath the covers as well. Then before he could reach for her and drag her up against him she whistled for Karma and the big dog lumbered up into the bed and, bless her heart, crawled right up between them.

“Och, lass, a Newfoundland chaperone?”

“Yup,” she said grinning at him through the dark. “Plus, she’ll keep us warm.”

He couldn’t argue with that. It was probably for the best, he thought. He really needed to keep his distance from her. He was no good for her. Despite his cravings otherwise, she would be better off the sooner she got him out of her life.

But hours later as he lay there in excruciating pain listening to her snore, he couldn’t keep track of that fact.

He whistled and snapped his fingers beside the bed. Karma obediently perked up and after a minute lumbered down off the bed. Clearly she was used to the big animal moving in and out of the bed because Kat didn’t so much as flicker an eyelash at the departure. Once he had gathered her up against himself, rolling her to the center of the bed, he patted the bed on the other side of her and called up Karma. Karma came back eagerly. Now she would be swaddled in warmth from back to front and he would have the feel of her to add even more pain to his already agonizing existence. Despite having warmed up a modicum, he was still feeling cold and his side and feet were on fire. The idea of putting on those snowshoes again was unbearable. As it was he would need to get boots when they finally made it to Walmart and he had no idea just how swollen he was going to end up being by then. It didn’t matter. As long as he got through to the next leg of their trip.