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“Thank Ole Frost,” I mumbled, choking up with hot emotion. I squeezed her hand so she knew I was here. She squeezed back.
Gods, she was alive. She was fine. I hadn’t gotten her killed.
I uncovered her enough to pull her out of the hole, and then she was in my arms, cold and shaking, gulping the freezing mountain air.
“You’re safe,” I repeated time after time, hands roaming over her shaking form. “I’ve got you. You’re safe.”
“Y-you f-found me,” she said, her teeth chattering.
Around us, the cats yowled, but they seemed more subdued, watching with yellow eyes that shone in the dark like eerie lanterns. I stood up, my legs still shaking, and looked around. We weren’t far from the hunting cabin.
“Let’s get you warm,” I said, picking her up without effort, like I did when we first arrived in my family home. Scarlett protested but without her usual fire, and I just clenched my jaw and kept walking.
In the cabin, I quickly built a fire, locking the stupid cats outside. Soon, the room was warm, and Scarlett stripped off her wet winter clothes, burrowing under the furs while I went out to get some snow to boil for water. We had enough packed food to have a small supper and leftovers for breakfast, and I sat by her side, watching her eat until she gave me a weak glare.
“I won’t disappear if you look away,” she said, her voice still hoarse after the ordeal.
“We should have stayed here,” I said instantly, my biggest regret bursting through. “We should have been more careful.”
She put her food away and sighed, watching me. Whatever she saw in my face tightened her brows with worry, and she took my hand.
“So you’re saying if we walked that way tomorrow, that wouldn’t have happened,” she said with a frown.
I shook my head. “No, it could have happened. But we would have both been rested and I might have caught you. I might have been fast enough. Because a little avalanche is no threat to a Frost. Only to you.”
She watched me for a moment before nodding, her eyes gleaming in her face, pink and alive now that she’d warmed up. “You’re blaming yourself,” she said. “But from where I stand, you did everything right. You acted fast enough, Jack. You saved me.”
“I should have prevented it!” I snapped, wishing she’d just scold me. Then, at least, I would be able to process the guilt.
Instead of getting offended by my tone, as I hoped she would, Scarlett’s eyes creased with amusement. “Are you a god? Because that’s something you should have told me before we got married, you know.”
“What?” I stared at her, nonplussed. “No, I’m not a god. What does that have to do with anything?”
“Well, you certainly have high expectations of yourself, so I thought you might have godlike powers to match those expectations,” she said, her mouth quirking. When I said nothing, she shook her head.
“Jack, no one can prevent every misfortune and stroke of bad luck. Sure, we could have been more careful. I should have listened to you. I get so caught up in what I want to achieve sometimes, I take stupid risks to get there faster. So yes, you were right, and you should have pushed me to be more careful. We both made mistakes, and now we’re here. Alive, together, our lesson learned. Isn’t this a good outcome?”
My shoulders unclenched as I thought about her words. When put like that, I couldn’t deny she was right. And yet, my father’s lectures scratched at the back of my head, too deeply ingrained to ignore.
“My father says a good husband always knows what’s best for his family,” I muttered, looking away.
“Men,” Scarlett scoffed, her voice dripping with scorn. When I gave her a startled look, she patted my hand. “Not you, puppy. You’re good. Just… Talk to your mom sometime. Ask her to tell you about how your father once wanted to make goat-keeping the family business.”
I reared back, blinking in surprise. “We’ve never kept goats.”
She grinned wickedly, her eyes sparkling. “No, you didn’t. Not after the disaster, anyway. Ask your mom about it and all the other mistakes your dad made, hm? She doesn’t talk about them when he’s around, because she knows his pride is fragile, but she told me plenty. Apparently, she has her hands full making sure the family stays on the right track. And your dad takes all the credit.”
I tried to digest this, staring at Scarlett in disbelief. “But why did my mom never tell me any of that?”
“I don’t know,” she said, shrugging. “Ask her. Maybe she had good reasons, or maybe she had stupid reasons. No one is infallible, is what I’m trying to say. That means you don’t have to be, either. Just… I’ll try to listen to you in the future when you tell me to be more careful, all right? We’ll figure it out. We’ve already learned so much.”
“I don’t want to be like my father,” I said suddenly, visceral revulsion piercing my gut. “He makes it sound like… Like he’s up there, all alone with the responsibility, deciding for everyone. Like a puppeteer.”
Scarlett laughed, the firelight dancing in her golden curls. “I guarantee to you he’s not alone. Your mom is right there with him, prodding him in the right direction all the time. I don’t envy her, but it seems to work for them. I prefer this.”
“What?” I asked, looking around to see what she meant.
She grinned and climbed in my lap, burying her hand in the fur on my chest. “This. Talking to you. You telling me what you think, me telling you what I think. If we could just do this and make decisions together, maybe it would be best. I am bossy, though. You’ll have to fight me sometimes.”
