She got dressed in the dark. She could hear movement below her already Bramwell and August's voice and the lower sound of several of the other hands. She went down downstairs and found the kitchen occupied by men in various states of coat buttoning. And Bramwell looked up when she came in. The north barn, he said, something's wrong with the latch on the main door.
It's going to blow open if we don't get it secured before the temperature drops another 5°. How are the cattle? South herd is fine. North herd is closer to the tree line and that's what I'm worried about. He was already moving.
Denny and Calhoun are going for the north herd. August and Ferris are on the barn. I need someone to I'll keep the house. Miriam said fire, food, warm water. You bring them back in.
He looked at her for one moment. The children. The children will stay inside and help me. Wade. She stopped.
Wade was standing in the kitchen doorway in his coat. He was 11 now and he'd been sleeping lightly the way ranch children learned to sleep. Ready for the sounds that meant something needed doing. "Go back to bed," she said. "I can help with the mines," Wade, her voice was final.
"You are 11 years old and there is a serious storm. Go back upstairs and check on the little ones." "That is the help I need from you right now." He looked at Bramwell. Bramwell said, "Your mother."
Wade went back upstairs with the particular expression of some someone who understood they'd been outranked and was filing a formal objection that he knew wouldn't change anything. The men went out. The storm was not brief. It ran through the night and into the morning, and by the time the sky began to lighten, it had covered the previous week's mudwork under 8 in of new snow and taken down a section of the east fence and buried the wood pile under a drift that added an hour to every trip to get fuel. Miriam kept the kitchen running.
She kept the fire at the right level and the water warm. And when Bramwell came in at 3:00 in the morning with Denny and Ferris, their faces gray with cold, she had food on the table before they'd finished pulling off their outer layers. When August came in an hour later, she had more. When Calhoun appeared at the door at sunrise, she had coffee and biscuits and the particular expression of a woman who had decided that keeping people alive was the thing she was doing tonight and was doing it without complaint or commentary. Calhoun stood in the kitchen and looked at the table and said, "Mrs.