Free Trusting Them by Marla Monroe

cold were they, though? They were outside in the blowing snow looking for cows. Surely they were about frozen in their saddles. They would need her to warm them up when they got back. Maybe what she should do is go downstairs and build the fire up so it would be warm when they got home.
    The idea soon became a good one when she began to get chilly and shiver again. The fire would be a better idea than staying in a cold bed, she decided. With a new resolve, Jeni climbed back out of the bed and wrapped a blanket around her as she took the flashlight from the bedside table to guide her out of the room and safely down the stairs. She let the blanket trail behind her on the floor like a train on a wedding gown.
    The fire was still going, but barely, when she managed to shiver her way back to the living room and the couch. She dropped the blanket to the floor and began hefting logs to put on the fire. She knew very little about fireplaces and building fires, but she did know they had to have wood to burn. Before long, she had a roaring fire that was actually too hot to stand next to. She pushed the couch close enough she could feel the heat, but not burn. There were four logs left in the box next to the fireplace. If she ran out of wood, she would have to figure out where they kept it outside.
    Outside in the snow and ice, she reminded herself. The light from the fire illuminated the room around her but didn’t reach into the next room that had to be the kitchen, or even into the corners of the living room. The flickering shadows looked sinister on the walls, even as the popping noises sent shivers down her back.
    Jeni threw the last log on the fire and worried her lower lip concerning how to find more. She needed to look while there was still a hot fire available to warm herself back up. She took the flashlight and followed its cheery beam to the other room. She was right. It was the kitchen. Next to the back door, several hooks were mounted on the wall. A coat that looked old and worn-out, along with a pair of boots, remained as if in waiting for her to use them. She stepped into the boots that were much too large and slipped on the massive coat that hung almost to the floor. She wrapped the coattails around her and buttoned them the best she could. She needed gloves. When she stuck her hands into the pockets, there they were, two thick, holey gloves that swallowed her hands whole.
    Once she was as covered up as she could make herself, Jeni opened the back door and pushed her way through the snow to step onto the back porch. She pulled the door shut behind her with a great deal of trouble. Then she used the flashlight to shine a light along the porch in hopes of finding more wood.
    There were two problems with that. One, the snow was a good four feet deep, having been blown up the walls of the porch, and two, the only light she had to go by was the thin beam of the little flashlight she’d taken with her. It was pitch-black without stars to light up the night. She shuffled forward until her feet hit something hard. She reached down and began pulling snow off of whatever it was to get to it. Finally, the rough bark of wood could be seen in the waning light of the flashlight. Wood for the fire, she sighed.
    She managed four trips with two pieces of wood each before she gave out and collapsed in front of the fire with her boots, gloves, and coat still on. She’d built the fire back up with two of the logs and stacked the other six sticks next to the fireplace in the box on the hearth. Then she sat on the floor with her back propped against the couch and fell asleep.

    * * * *

    “Hell!” Brock yelled out as they drove the last of the lost cows back into the corral. They closed and bolted the gate against the wind.
    “We’ve been gone too long. The damn generator is down,” he said as they led the horses back to the stable.
    “We got the horses, boss. You go check on the woman.” Their foreman grabbed the reins from their