Free Anna From Away by D. R. Macdonald

be.”
    “We had fun on that ice. Skating parties, young and old. A man’d come up to a woman and ask her to skate, like at a dance. A strong fella would lead the whip, we called it, we’d link hands in a line and he’d start us twirling faster and faster until the last one had to let go, fly off. Oh, we chased around, us kids, played hockey with a stone for a puck. Nights like this, hard as glass. A fire on the bank, glowing up to the branches overhead, and the snow red up there and around us.”
    “I wanted to skate when I was little,” she said. “My dad was from Ohio and he would tell me how he missed it, the old pond. We didn’t have ice, we lived in California, up north. I went to a college in Ohio, Dad’s alma mater, but I guess I was too busy then for skating. I don’t think I’ll try it now. Not anymore.”
    “You mustn’t fear the pond,” he said, “or the ice. I’ll show you how to read it. Now I was about to say I will lend you skates, I have a pair, but I really don’t, mine are scuffed as an old harness and those feet of yours would swim in them.”
    Anna’s eyes closed, she couldn’t stop them. “Sorry,” she said.
    “Look,” he said, “I’ve got the stove going good, why don’t you sleep on the lounge there? I’ll fetch more blankets. Warmer here than up there.” He pointed to the ceiling.
    “I’ll vouch for that.” Her face felt hot now, her head swimmy, she wanted to lie down, but she’d wait until he left. She didn’t want to be tucked in, like a sick child. She heard him upstairs finding blankets, then he was spreading them over the daybed.
    “Now,” he said, “I’ve done like my granny did, I found a few splits of hardwood, I put them in the oven and roasted them good and hot. Took a blanket, and rolled them up, put them in the bed there. Keep your feet warm a good while.”
    “Sounds wonderful.”
    Red Murdock pulled on his worn peacoat, working its big buttons up. “Greatest wool there is,” he said, patting his chest. “Even when it’s wet, it’s warm. Now, then. I stowed my number on your phone pad there. Call me if you feel worse.”
    “Murdock, you sound like a doctor.”
    “Well, I’m the nearest thing you’ve got to one. Watch you don’t take sick, that’s the thing. A long drive to the hospital. Damn phones sometimes go out, but … anyway. You’re okay enough then …?”
    She was remembering a story of D.H. Lawrence’s where a despairing young woman tried to drown herself in a coal mine pond, the currents of feeling that passed between the woman and the young doctor who pulled her from the dark water and revived her, the almost mystical bond that arose between them, and Anna for a moment wanted to amuse herself by blurting, like the woman had when she woke and saw that the doctor had undressed her and wrapped her nakedness in a blanket, “Do you love me then?” It cheered Anna to think of that, but the joke would be lost on him, flippant and pointless. She’d felt a little giddy, that’s all.
    But how could she have guessed this man would work in his hands her naked feet?
    “I’ll be fine,” she said. “Thank you.”
    “Have you met Breagh, the young red woman up the road? I’ll ask her to look in on you in the morning.”
    “Please, no. Don’t bother her. So foolish of me, blundering out on that ice.”
    “How could you know? Who put that damn trap there I can’t say. It’s legal, you see. They have a right to set traps around water, they don’t need permission. Nobody here trapping now. Some fellas must’ve come by boat, they come ashore. But
that
trap, I’ll rip it out. I’m sorry, miss, I forgot your name.…”
    “Anna. Anna Starling. The dog. Don’t forget the dog.”
    “We’ll get him, Anna. Good night then. Give me a shout if …”
    W ould
SHE be fine? She didn’t know. He’d laid out on the daybed neatly the quilt and blanket. Oh, hell, it was somehow worse that he’d tended to her this way and then left, her