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Matt bristled on the inside, but he didn't show his anger. Instead, he tried to explain it.
"I didn't plan it, exactly." He glanced at her and smiled. "But if you knew her, you'd know she's quite a woman. I fell in love with her. She has gentle ways about her, and she is a dandy cook too." Matt admitted. "She doesn't complain, she cleans and cooks without me asking her to. She seeks to understand things. I just simply fell in love with her. She has the sweetest nature and a forgiving heart."
"But an Indian?" The man frowned, as though his explanation wasn't enough.
"Somehow that just didn't seem to matter." Matt told him. "I see her as a woman, not an Indian."
Ferg added, " A lot of trappers marry Indians. Don’t see many whites up this way. There may be more before the winter is over, so you better learn to accept it."
"I suppose that's true enough. It's best you keep her away from my bunch then. They won't cotton to her." Tal warned. "And I can't be responsible for them, you understand? I brought them here, and that's as far as I can go with it."
Matt frowned, "Alright, I will."
Tal walked off, his eyes centering on Snow Bird as he did. It was easy to see now, Tal didn't like her either.
Matt bristled but kept quiet and kept a heavy eye on Snow Bird.
Chapter Twelve
The big snow they'd been expecting hit a few days later. Luckily, they had sent a hunting party out the day before so there was meat to last a few days.
The wind was so cold it could freeze a man in an hour or so. The snow drift on the porch was six inches at least. It snowed all day.
But the snow wasn't all that brought problems. Margaret lined the few windows with material to keep the wind from seeping through. Snow Bird helped her.
"Don't be opening that door, boys. It's way too cold and takes too long to warm the place back up again.
"We got pots for your private business, so the only time I want to see that door open is when they need to be emptied, and we'll do it at one time, so we don't keep opening it. It's the only way to keep this place warm. We'll bury the waste in the snow to the back of the cabin," she instructed. The pots are on the back porch.
Murmurings went up.
When it stopped snowing, the wind continued to keep it frozen. The temperature dropped drastically. It was like living in some snow tent. If no one opened the door it stayed warm inside. The women kept the cook stove going all day, and the men kept the two fireplaces burning. The fireplaces were put on in the front part of the room and one in the back, allowing the entire cabin to remain warm in normal winter weather.
Realizing that the meat stored in the smokehouse would be difficult to get to, several of the men decided to make the trip to the smokehouse, bring to the cabin and bury it in the snow around the porch until the women needed it. It would prevent a walk to the smokehouse every day and they'd all be able to eat during this blizzard.
But the third day wolves came calling and they sniffed out the meat.
Everyone gathered on the back porch to watch as the wolves dug the meat up and devoured it.
One man stepped outside and threw a stick at them, they howled, but they took the meat with them as they left.
"Maybe we should stick to bens for a few days, Margaret told the girls."
Everyone nodded.
The last hunt had been a good one and there was plenty of it to go around but getting to it could be a problem.
They had five dear, seven turkeys and two wild boars. Not to mention the quail, the pheasants, and the smaller rabbits and squirrels. There was a large assortment of rabbits too, but they wouldn't last too long. Margaret and Snow Bird made large pots of venison chili and, then to change the menu up, they would make stews, although they were running low on vegetables to put in the stew, they made do. Margaret made homemade dumplings one day, in a huge pot. Everyone enjoyed them too.
Kat cooked beans almost every day, and thanks to the boar they had plenty of bones from the wild boar to flavor it with.
There was no fruit, but Margaret had gathered a barrel full of nuts before winter set in hard. Her and Snow Bird had spent many nights cracking the nuts to cook with and to offer everyone. Jerky was plentiful too.
For a treat Margaret would make popcorn and pass it around. She had collected a lot of corn in her day and had cultivated it into hard kernels of corn. Then she popped it on top of the stove. Folks would gather around her stove to listen to it pop and everyone enjoyed it. She'd dribble butter on top of it, when she had it. Butter was a luxury here though and in the hard of winter wasn't available to her much. Sometimes she'd dribble bacon grease on top. Didn't matter it was such a treat everyone loved it.
The wind blew up a lot, and in the cold of winter some men sat around telling tales of their adventures. Boredom set in too though. Most of the men were hunters and trappers and longed to be outside moving around. Some smoked a pipe and merely listened to the stories. The women huddled around the stoves, cooking was a major job for this bunch. It took all day to keep enough food going. The last hunt the men had managed a lot of meat but unfortunately most of it was stored in the smokehouse.
Ferg grunted, "We should have built a covered walkway to the smokehouse."
