4T in the drifts by the looks of the fence post," she said. Less in the open, Pa went out before light. "I know." He turned from the window. His face had that particular expression she had come to read in him, not worry. Exactly.
Because he had decided at some point in his 11 years, that worry was something to be managed rather than shown. Controlled concern. Too old a face for a boy his age. He does this every winter, Emmett said. Goes out before anyone's awake.
The cattle need managing in weather like this, she said. I know he sat down. I just He doesn't take anyone with him. Not at first. She put his porridge in front of him.
Matteo will be out there. Matteo goes when Pa tells him to go. First hour, P goes alone. She noted this. She did not comment on it, but she noted it.
Gideon came back midm morning with ice in his beard and a look on his face that told her something had already gone wrong before 8:00. He came into the kitchen, which was unusual. Normally, he'd go to the bunk house and stood at the basin that washing his hands with an urgency that was purely mechanical. The way men wash their hands when they're thinking about something else. How bad?
She asked. He looked at her. Lost three head overnight. North fence has a weak section ice got under the post base. We've got cattle pushing against it.
How many men do you have out there? All of them. Plus Matteo. He dried his hands. His knuckles were cracked from the cold red along the joints.
We need to move the herd south before the temperature drops further tonight. If it goes below what they're saying, it might. What are they saying? 20 below. Maybe worse by midnight.
20 below. She ran the numbers automatically. How long an animal could stand that without shelter. How long a man could work in it before his hands stopped being useful. She turned back to the stove.