When the last wagon had crossed the point halfway to the pass, a light snow began to fall. Caitlin sneezed and readjusted her blankets. A little snow couldn’t hurt them, surely.
But soon even she wasn’t able to pretend that all was well. The drizzle of snowflakes transformed into dense clumps that settled on every surface not warm enough to melt it. Soon the snow fell so thickly that Caitlin could not see any farther back than the next two wagons in line, and the trees beside the meadow became unidentifiable shadows. The mountains had entirely vanished.
“Oh, dear,” Harry murmured, his gloved hands very tight on the ribbons. “This does not look good. Not good at all.” He clucked to the horses, but they were already struggling to break a trail through the ever-deepening snow. Their ears lay flat against their heads in eloquent protest.
Caitlin closed her eyes and whispered an almost-forgotten prayer. “Ulysses was right,” she said. “We must go back.”
“I agree. The road has disappeared. I cannot see how to find the pass, even if we could cross it. But there is a small difficulty. I am not sure how to get back to the ranch.”
“But surely we can retrace our steps—”
“We can but try.” Only his worried eyes were visible between hat and scarf as he turned the ponderous wagon about. The horses heaved and plunged sideways through the unbroken snow. The wagon’s wheels caught on some buried obstruction, but with many pleas and promises, Harry got the horses to pull them free.
Gradually the other wagons followed Harry’s example, each driver taking his cue from the one ahead of him. Visibility had declined to the length of a single wagon. Harry drove back the way they had come, using the caravan itself as his guide. Disembodied voices cried out questions and instructions. Caitlin caught a glimpse of Ulysses, but he was soon lost in the blizzard.
It seemed hours before Harry reached the end of the line of wagons. Then there was nothing ahead but a wall of white, blending earth and sky together in a featureless void. Even the tracks left by the caravan were rapidly filling, as if Nature resented the blemish the intruders had made on her chaste perfection.
“I do not know where to go,” Harry said, his voice sunk to a whisper. “Every direction looks the same.”
“The boss hostler has a compass,” Caitlin said. “Go find him, Harry, and I’ll wait here.”
He signed and passed the ribbons to her. With a grunt he eased himself down from the high, narrow driver’s seat, landing awkwardly in the knee-deep snow. He trudged back toward the nearest wagon, no more than a smudge in the distance. His breath trailed skyward in steam-train puffs with every step.
As long as he keeps close to the wagons, he can’t lose his way, Caitlin reminded herself as the minutes passed. The wagon behind was invisible now, and no others had come nearer. It was difficult to believe anyone else existed in this bizarre world of nothingness. Even sound had become muffled, and she doubted that she could have heard a shout from a few feet away.
After an hour, she began to be afraid. If Harry had gotten himself lost, she would have to find him. The crutches were useless in snow. Unhitching one of the horses and riding it bareback was hardly a better option. But if she did not try, some roving cowhand looking for stray cattle after the storm would find them frozen to death only a few miles from safety.
Niall, she thought, grasping at the name as if it were a magical incantation. If you ever cared for me, even a little, come and find us. Help us.
But it was not Niall who answered her silent call. At first she thought the dark shape emerging from the haze was Harry, safe and sound, and she laughed in relief. But the figure was too low to the ground to be human.
Morgan. She sat up, ignoring the gale that tore at her clothing, and squinted against the snow. “Morgan!”
He glided toward her like a dark angel borne on imperceptible wings, his coat repelling the snow as if it were the gentlest of spring showers. He stopped well distant from the nervous horses and made a low, questioning sound between a bark and a growl.