Chapter 20

And, indeed, when the two strapping sons had disappeared through the log arch leading out towards the road down into Slater, Fernand Wolf lowered the barrel of the shotgun and slowly sank to the floor of the porch. Abegail barely had the strength to drag the massive man back into the ranch house and onto his bed.

She nursed him for two weeks before he was clear of whatever fever had attacked him. She had seen right away that it wasn't anything like the Spanish flu that had taken most of her family, and she reasoned that the ranch's well must have gone bad. She melted snow for drinking water, stripped him, sponged him off several times a day, wrapped him well in blankets, and applied all of the herbs she had learned to employ that might help make him well.

Then on Christmas day, marked that year by Abegail only as a date on the calendar, Fernand Wolf showed that he was strong enough to rejoin the world by pulling Abegail down on his bed, rolling on top of her, and kissing and stroking