Behind the Seams, page 15
Beatrice put the plates and cups on a tray Meadow had found in the pantry and hurried off toward the lodge.
Piper, Georgia, Nicole, and Starr arrived at the same time Beatrice did. Starr’s face was pale as the snow they were treading on, and she was biting her lips so hard it was a wonder she wasn’t making them bleed.
“You’re going to be just fine,” said Georgia in a comforting voice as she and Piper balanced Starr’s weight between them with their arms around her. “One little hop at a time.”
“We’ll get you settled by the fire,” said Piper to Starr. She gave Beatrice a weary smile.
“I’ve got scrambled eggs for Nicole and Starr. And hot chocolate, too. Meadow plans to see if we can all get some,” said Beatrice.
Starr’s eyes filled with tears, which she hastily blinked away. She nodded, and then took the remaining hops into the lodge.
Someone had pushed a recliner that had been along the wall in front of the fire, and Starr sank gratefully into it.
“Does anybody have a medical background?” asked Piper.
They looked around at each other, but no one did.
“Who has the most medical experience?” asked Beatrice.
Unfortunately, it appeared that two women were tied with lifeguard experience decades ago.
“What do you think might be wrong, Starr?” asked Beatrice instead.
“My legs. I slipped on a patch of ice and fell really oddly. It feels as if both legs are broken,” grated Starr. Her face was still pale with pain, despite being in front of the warmth of the fire.
Not knowing what else to do, Beatrice shoved a cup of hot chocolate and a plate of food at her and then served Nicole, too. Nicole also seemed to be trying to defrost.
Piper said, “We should probably try to take a look at your injuries, shouldn’t we? Make sure there isn’t any bleeding we can stop?”
Beatrice nodded. “That’s a good idea. And splints . . . shouldn’t we make splints to try to keep her legs immobilized?”
Savannah said, “What can we use to make splints? Are there any planks or wood buried in snow right now?”
“Maybe a rolled-up blanket?” suggested Posy.
“We need to use all of those blankets for warmth,” said Maggie.
Starr was still shivering. “There might be some extra bed slats in storage.” She put her coffee cup down and pulled up her yoga pants as far as she could so they could take a look at her legs.
Beatrice winced. She was far from an expert, but both legs certainly seemed broken. And hugely swollen.
Beatrice stood up. “I’ll see if I can find the bed slats.”
“I’ll help you,” said Posy and Piper at once.
Posy said to Piper, “You just went out to help—you need to warm back up. I’ll go along with Beatrice.”
Maggie said, “Well, for my part, I’m going to see if I can reach somebody, anybody, who can get on the road and help us. Have we even reported a second death?”
“No one has been able to get through to anyone. Plus, our phones are going to be dead if we keep trying,” said Ivy. “I don’t want to use up any of my battery to try to call out when it’s clearly pointless.”
“My phone was almost fully charged when the power went off, so I’ll try,” said Maggie.
Posy and Beatrice headed back outside. Posy added, “I guess we need to find something to tie the slats to Starr’s legs.” She gave an anxious sigh.
“We’ll find something,” said Beatrice, wanting to reassure her. “This place is big, and I know they have all kinds of equipment to manage it. We’ll be okay.”
They got to the storage building and were momentarily overwhelmed. It was a big metal facility and was packed full of things. Perhaps the stuff in there was organized in a particular way to make it easier to find, but for the life of her, Beatrice couldn’t figure out what that method was.
It was also very dark. There was a light switch on the wall which Beatrice had automatically reached for. Naturally, nothing happened.
Posy said, “I wish it at least had windows. Natural light would help a lot.”
“Right now, I just feel lucky that we could open the door at all. The snow really isn’t helping.”
“Look—there’s a shovel. Maybe we can clear around the door a little and let more light in,” said Posy.
They took turns because the shoveling, even the little they needed to do, was exhausting. The icy snow was heavy, and both women were puffing with exertion as they went. But finally, they were able to clear enough of an opening for the door to open to its fullest extent.
“Need any help?” asked a voice behind them.
Beatrice gave Piper a rueful look. “You were supposed to be warming up inside.”
Piper grinned at her mother. “I’m all warmed up. I got so warm that I decided I’d cool down again.” She looked inside the storage building and made a face. “Kind of dark in there.” She held out a couple of flashlights.
It was almost as if Piper were handing out diamonds and rubies. Beatrice and Posy couldn’t have been more pleased. “Where did you find these?” asked Beatrice.
“Starr directed me to the dining hall. There were flashlights in the pantry there. Let’s find ourselves some bed slats.”
So they split up and peered through the dimness of the storage building. Posy called out, “Found them!” a few minutes later.
Beatrice looked at them. “Those are going to have to be trimmed down. They’re far too long.”
Piper said, “I spotted an axe somewhere in here.”
She found it again, and they cut the slats to a more manageable length.
“Now let’s get out of here,” said Piper as another icy gale blew through the building. “We need to get warmed up.”
“First, we should find some ties to lace the slats onto Starr,” said Beatrice.
They poked around in the darkness a while longer until they found some rope of various lengths.
“Well, it won’t be the most comfortable thing in the world, but hopefully it will work,” said Beatrice.
They returned to the lodge where Starr was looking slightly better. At least, her color was better than it had been before. She brightened a little when she saw the slats and rope.
“Success, then,” said Starr, breathing a sigh of relief.
“With the help of the flashlights,” said Posy with a smile.
“Any luck calling out?” asked Beatrice.
Maggie shook her head. “Nope. It acted as if it wanted to connect once, but it didn’t go through. I’ll try again later.”
They attached the slats to Starr’s legs to form splints, then made her as comfortable as possible. Meadow, who’d finished up at the grill, had saved plates and hot drinks for Beatrice, Posy, and Piper. They ate and drank them contentedly. Or, as contentedly as it was possible to be.
“The cooking didn’t take you as long as I thought it would,” said Beatrice to Meadow.
“Oh, I had a sous-chef.”
Meadow smiled at Savannah who looked pleased at the recognition. Beatrice was glad it was Savannah. She’d been worried for a second it might have been Miss Sissy, who would surely have eaten most of the foods she’d have been preparing.
“How are we doing with firewood?” asked Beatrice.
Cora said, “We’ve pulled some out from the woodpile and put it under a covering to dry a little. We do have some dry wood still available for later.”
“Okay, good. I’ll grab some when the fire in here starts getting low,” said Beatrice.
“Or I will,” interjected Piper. “Why don’t you go put your feet up for a while? You’ve been doing a lot.”
Beatrice’s first instinct was to turn her down. Then, suddenly, she felt very, very tired. It must suddenly be hitting her—all the stress and the worry. Trying to figure out how to make the best of a bad situation. “Actually, I think I’ll take you up on that.”
“The bedding is all piled up on the side,” said Maggie, nodding to the stacks of rolled up blankets and pillows.
Although she knew they were making a point of staying together, the thought of lying down in the middle of all the activity in the lodge was not very appealing. To fully recharge, as she felt she needed to recharge, it meant withdrawing for a little while.
“I think I’ll head to the cabin. I could really do with stretching out and having some space.”
Meadow said, “But it’s freezing there!”
“I can bring blankets with me. And I’ll stay in my coat and hat.” Everyone still looked worried, so Beatrice added, “I won’t be there for long. Just long enough to take a little nap.”
“How about if I come, too?” asked Piper.
Beatrice quickly shook her head. “No point in you getting cold. It’ll be fine. And I’ll pick up some wood on my way back in. By then the fire will probably need some more.”
With that, Beatrice pulled her coat, gloves, and hat back on and headed for the cabin.
The cabin definitely didn’t feel as cozy as it had when it had heat. At least it kept out the wind—mostly. Beatrice realized that there were a lot more drafts inside than she’d realized when the heat was running. The drafts weren’t as bad as the wind that was howling against the windows, but they weren’t fun. She rolled some towels and put them on the window sill nearest the bed. Then she locked the door to the cabin. If Piper needed her, she was sure she’d knock, and would continue knocking if for some reason Beatrice was in a deep sleep. She pulled her bed further away from the window and then climbed under the covers, throwing the blankets she’d taken from the lodge on top of herself.
Beatrice fell almost immediately into a hard, deep sleep. When she woke up, she was a bit disoriented, not sure exactly where she was. Had there been a noise outside? She listened hard, wondering if the noise she’d thought she’d heard was what had finally roused her from sleeping. She didn’t hear it again, although she strained to listen.
But she swore it had sounded like someone trying the doorknob.
Chapter Eighteen
Listening some more, she heard nothing. Maybe it had simply been the wind pushing against the creaky door to the cabin. It wasn’t as if there weren’t sounds all around her—the wind coursing through the trees, gusting against the small cabin. It was still pretty miserable weather.
Beatrice lay in the bed a few more minutes to see if she could fall back asleep again. She didn’t seem to be able to, though. She pushed away her coat sleeve and glove to see what time it was. She raised her eyebrows. An entire hour had passed. She’d clearly really needed that sleep.
Beatrice got up and collected her blankets to take back with her to the lodge. Then she opened the cabin door and stared.
There were footprints outside. Footprints leading not only to the cabin, but footprints away, too.
Beatrice took a deep breath and tried to calm her pounding heart. The ice had changed back over to snow and was coming down pretty hard. She’d told herself that some of the footprints were just her own. She looked at the tread on her boots and then at the prints in the snow. Her prints were very faint and quickly becoming covered up by snow. No, these others were someone else’s.
Maybe Piper’s? But Piper would have knocked on the door, wouldn’t she? Beatrice told herself that Piper might not have wanted to wake her up. Maybe she just looked through the window to make sure her mother was all right before moving back to the warmth of the lodge. One thing she knew—if it had been Piper, she’d say something to her when she went back inside.
And Beatrice did move quickly toward the lodge to get inside. She suddenly felt very exposed out here at the cabin, despite the needed sleep she’d been able to get.
She arrived back at the lodge a few minutes later. Everyone was quilting now, and it was very quiet inside the building. Lucy, the golden retriever, was happily lying on Georgia’s feet near the fireplace. The quilters appeared to have compiled a stack of different fabrics and notions and looked as if they all could work on crazy quilts. The women glanced up when she came in, but no one mentioned having come over to the cabin. Piper, who looked tired herself, gave Beatrice a smile as she came in.
She noticed that Piper had indeed refreshed the wood on the fire, so she headed over to sit down instead of worrying about more wood. It looked as if it would last awhile. Piper gestured for her to sit down next to her, and Beatrice did.
“Everything okay?” asked Piper, giving her mother a searching look.
Beatrice must have still looked unsettled from what had happened at the cabin. She hesitated. If she told Piper the truth, she’d worry. Unfortunately, it was the kind of worry when you couldn’t actually do anything to fix the problem unless Piper surgically attached herself to Beatrice.
“Everything is good,” she finally said.
“Did you get some sleep?” asked Piper.
“I sure did.” Beatrice paused. “Actually, I locked the cabin door, just to be on the safe side. I was thinking maybe I shouldn’t have done that—you might have needed something inside.”
Piper shook her head. “No, I’ve got everything I need right here. I didn’t bring any extra fabric with me, so I didn’t need to go to the cabin to collect it. The others made quick trips out to grab whatever extra fabric and tools they had. Glad you were able to rest for a bit. You deserve it.”
Piper showed her the lively animal pattern on the project she was working on for Will. It was good that someone had brought a pattern that would work for children. She was hand basting the batting and the top layer so pins wouldn’t get in the way of the hoop. Beatrice smiled and as she listened to Piper talking about Will, she felt herself start to relax. Maybe, she told herself, it was just someone from the group trying to check on her. Making sure she was all right. It might not have been anyone meaning to do her harm at all. After all, women were coming and going from the group regularly—headed to the dining hall for a snack or some water, or to get forgotten quilting supplies or books from their cabins. The person at her cabin door could have been completely innocuous.
Then her gaze moved over to the pile of boots. There was one pair that had snow melting off of them. Cora’s red pair. All the other boots had puddles under them but no actual snow still attached.
Beatrice froze. Then she glanced at Cora. Could she have been the one who came to the cabin while Beatrice was sleeping?
Cora met her gaze and then looked away without concern.
Maybe Cora had just been checking on her, as she’d thought.
There wasn’t much for the women to do except stay warm, quilt, and check on Starr. Time passed slowly, but all their quilting was making great strides. Beatrice spent the time thinking.
After a couple of hours had gone by, Beatrice stood up. “I’d better add more wood to the fire,” she said to Piper.
Piper immediately stood up. “I’ll do it.”
“Let’s do it together. I’d like to stretch my legs.”
“Perfect,” said Piper. “We’ll get it done in record time. Maybe we can bring in an extra log or two to lay on the hearth so we don’t have to brave the temperatures next time.”
It was a short distance outside to the small shed where the wood was kept. However, the short distance meant for a frigid walk. The wind had no inclination to stop blowing as it moaned around them.
Beatrice slid open the door to the shed, and they stepped inside. They were removing the tarp from the wood pile when Piper suddenly stopped.
“What is it?” asked Beatrice with a frown.
“Do you hear that?” asked Piper quietly.
Beatrice did. It sounded like a very faint rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star that was breaking up in parts.
“My phone,” gasped Piper.
“Go inside! Maybe you can get better reception in there.”
Piper darted off.
Beatrice grinned. If a phone call could make it through, perhaps everything else would start looking up, as well. Maybe the police and EMS could get to the retreat soon and take over investigating and providing help for Starr. She picked up a log.
She was about to set back after Piper when she found her path was blocked.
Chapter Nineteen
Cora stood in her way. At first, this just annoyed Beatrice. After all, she was holding a heavy log. “Excuse me,” said Beatrice brusquely.
But Cora didn’t move. Beatrice shifted the log and looked more carefully at the woman. She was very still, pale, and her expression was unreadable.
She couldn’t know, could she? She couldn’t realize that Beatrice suspected. She’d only glanced at her that one time after seeing the snow-covered boots.
“I need you to move,” said Beatrice, keeping her voice from shaking with some effort.
Cora gave a short laugh. “Not going to happen. I can see you’ve figured it all out. Your friend was right—you apparently are a pretty good detective. Too bad you’re not good at poker faces.”
Cora was, though. There was no hint of her intent.
Beatrice opened her mouth to scream, but just then the whole lodge exploded with happy shrieks and screams. Apparently, they must have heard that help was on the way. Or perhaps the power had come back on with particularly bad timing.
So Beatrice did the only thing she could. She twisted around and drove the log straight into Cora’s midsection. Cora left out an “oof” as her breath whooshed out. Beatrice dropped the log and ran.
She slipped and slid through the icy snow, desperation keeping her moving forward. Cora gave a furious grunt and headed silently toward her from the storage shed to the lodge.
Beatrice yelled out, “Help! Help!”
But the sound was still drowned out by the happy sounds inside. What was more, the wind was gusting so hard that it picked up her cries and carried them away.
Cora was a younger, stronger woman. She caught up with Beatrice. Then one of her feet shot out from under her and she fell, hard, on the icy surface of the ground.
Beatrice continued for the lodge, propelling herself inside.
