FifteenRather than travel back to Bovey, Simms decided it best to take Annabelle to his ranch house. As he buried Lamont and the others, she stood, face blank, lips moving in silent prayers. Several hours later, with the bodies in the ground, he took an assortment of blankets from the wagon and, wrapping the woman in them, set off across the plain. They shared his horse. The sun was already low in the sky and he was mindful of how cold it would become. A snowstorm loomed in the solid, white canvas overhead.
With Annabelle pressed into his back, they managed to keep one another warm. By the time the first flakes drifted from above, they were in the valley which led to his ranch.
The cabin appeared as he'd left it, empty and lonely; its coldness, far more pronounced than even the surroundi
