Then find Matteo and stay with him. You don't ride away from Matteo for any reason. Clear? He was already moving for the door. EMTT.
He stopped. If it gets worse out there and Matteo tells you to come back, you come back. Not because you can't handle it. Because this house needs someone in it with sense. And right now that's you.
Something happened in his face. Not quite what she expected. Something younger. Something that hadn't had time to harden yet. All right, he said.
He went out. She went back to her ledger. She had the ration plan mostly worked out by midafter afternoon when she heard horses in the yard. Not one or two but several that and moving fast enough that she put down her pen and went to the wind. Through the snow she could make out the shapes of riders coming in through the gate more than had left in the morning.
She counted. Something was wrong with the number. She went to the back door and opened it. Matteo was in the yard dismounting. Behind him were four ranch hands.
Behind them, on a horse that wasn't moving with its usual pace, was EMTT, no Gideon. She stepped out onto the porch in her house shoes, and the cold hit her like a flat hand. Where is he? Matteo's face was snowcaked and very still. Miss Hartwell, where is Gideon?
One of the ranch hands, she thought his name was Puit, was already talking fast, words running together. North fence gave all the way. Cattle started running for the ravine. Gideon went after the lead group. His horse slipped on the ice, went down.
We couldn't get to him, for there was too much. Where is he now? She said. Still up there, Matteo said. The horse came back without him.