Marriage is Murder

"Just one moment," Lee said. He turned to Angus. "Are you good with this?"

"On one condition. And I'm only going to say this once. If any of you ever decide to bail in any other way besides just resigning, or if you are negligent in your duties in any way that causes harm to those kids or their parents or grandparents, and I will kill you. Whichever one of you messes up. That's not a threat. That's just fact."

"Alright then," Lee said, "And since they're not going to do that, it sounds fair to me. Kate?"

"They need to earn it," Kate said.

"They will. Now. Moving on. In answer to your question. Kate, did you find the pond?"

"Yes, but not the hotsprings. It was too cold."

"It should be a bit warmer tomorrow. Its calling for some sun."

"The pond is over the rise, about 15 minutes walk southwest, past the grove of Aspen trees. If you get to the second patch of Aspen trees, you've gone too far," Kate said.

"If you get to the second patch of Aspen trees and you've missed the pond, you need your eyes examined," Lee laughed. "The pond is huge. You run a greater risk of falling in than missing it."

Jim sat and listened " I'll add to that as Jack already knows " he said and ate some rabbit meat and looked at them " so you want us to go fishing tomorrow " Jess asked cassidy looked up reaching into her bag she puled out a length of twine and a small hook.

"Hay we could use these , tie the hook on the end and a worm then throw it out , jack could pull it back in he's strong enough " she said Steven stood up and looked at Jess.

" there are wild herbs out there, Jess and I could go hunting for them to add to the pot " he said hoping it was all good enough for Lee and Angus.

"You'lll only find herbs in what forest undergrowth was kept warm enough by the growth on top if it. There won't be much on the surface," Angus said. "You might find some edible roots as well. Who knows? Fishing is a goo idea, though. Any of you do any ice fishing? If the pond is frozen over, you mght have to hack a hole in the ice. "

"Fishing is good," Lee said. "That will provide you some variety." Then he looked at Angus "What are you going to use for glue, Angus?" Lee asked him, still watching him carving.

"I'm not. This is flexible enough for what I need."

"And sinew? Where are you getting that?"

"Right here." He took his knife and cut off the leather cuff of his deerskin boot to reveal stitching around the top done in sinew. He took off each boot, one at a time, and carefully unthreaded the sinew without breaking it. He stood up. "Excuse me." He leaned into the fire where the rabbit fat was dripping off the cooking rabbits and used the fat to lubricate the sinew. Lee smiled.

"Genius," he laughed., just watching. Angus tied the sinew to the long curved sapling he had carved. It was now an impressive and effective 6 foot tall longbow. It wasn't fancy, but it would certainly work.

"You do realize you will need arrows for that thing," Lee said.

"Yep," Angus said. He got six straight, long sticks and began shaping them into rough, primative arrows.

"And what are you hoping to catch with it?"

"I dunno. Something bigger than a fish," he shrugged. That made Lee laugh.

Jim chuckled " might be some rouge deer around or a snow rabbit " he said taking some rabbit gut and making it soft he strung it between the two ends " once id drys it will become tough like wire " he said and placed it beside the fire to dry off " maybe we both could go hunting and see who catches something first " he smiled at Angus as he whittled the arrows taking some feathers he found he thinned them down and pushed them threw one end as flights. Jess looked at Kate she wondered what she was feeling right now with out her magic she felt like she was empty and it was all to quiet. Jess shivered as she felt the cold drop.

"There are deer on this property. We just need to find them," Angus said, still working on his longbow arrows.

"Don't kill everything in Brian's woods, Guys," Lee laughed.

Kate decided the firewood would get low soon if the temperatures continued to drop. She got up and went alone into the woods and began gathering more firewood. She took off her winter coat and used it to lay the firewood in to drag it back to camp. It took her quite awhile. Once she got it almost too full to pull, she dragged it slowly by herself back to camp.

"Good lord!" Lee leaped to his feet to go help her. "Kate, you're going to catch your death of cold. Its entirely too cold to be without a coat. Not even for a few minutes. You've been gone almost an hour." He unceremoniously dumped the firewood on the ground and picked up her coat and shook it hard to shake the bark and dirt and snow off of it. "Put this on at once." Her skin felt like ice to him, and not only that but she'd worked up a sweat. Without a coat, sweating could be deadly in these temperatures.

"Angus!" he said. "Think. What do you need to do here?"

"Authorize my pot of coffee. Straight away," Angus said.

"Exactly. Jim, get her sleeping bag. Lets wrap it around her until I get that coffee going," Lee ordered. "The rest of you--put that great pile of firewood with the rest of it. That might well get us to bedtime, but we're going to need more." He took Kate over by the fire where Angus gathered her shivering form tight against him for warmth. Lee went to his backpack and drew out a shrunken coffeepot and the makings for coffee and soon had a huge pot of coffee brewing over the fire.

"You need to go home, Kate," Angus told her softly.

"Not a chance," she said. "I'm fine."

"And I want to keep it that way," Angus said.

Jim grabbed the sleeping bag and wrapped it around Kate while jack carried a large log from the pile and placed it on as Cassidy did the same, Jess looked into her bag and took out a small flask of what she knew was whiskey " here drink some of this, it will warm you inside" she said poring some into a small metal cup an handed it to Angus, both Jack and cassidy built up the fire till it was warming the air.

" hows that Angus should be big enough" Cassidy asked as she moved to sit next to Kate leaning on her also to keep her warm with her body heat.

"Good," Angus said. "Much better." He fed Kate the whiskey. "What do you honestly think Robert would say to you?" he scowled at Kate.

"Probably nothing. He'd have been too busy bringing back his own load of firewood," she said. "You're a little overprotective, Angus."

"Not about that he isnt," Lee said. pouring her the first cup of coffee from the pot. "Coffee's ready, All. It should feel good to you, even if you don't drink coffee. Cups are on top of my bag. Help yourselves. Sorry theres no cream or sugar, but thats how it goes." Kate sipped at her coffee.

"You make a mean cup of coffee, Lee," she managed a smile.

"Thank you," he grinned. "No point in making sissy coffee out here. Might as well make it count for something." He filled a cup and handed it to Angus. "You drink coffee, Cassidy?" he asked, unsure.

Jim took his cup and handed one to each person pausing at Cassidy who looked a it and sighed " I do tonight " she said taking it and taking a sip though it tasted bitter to her she knew it would keep her warm even for a small while , Steven moved to sit next to her his arm around her to keep her warm also, " we'll get on it first light I have ice fished before so I'll show jack how its done " he said Jess sat close to the fire and poked it to keep it warm for them all.

" One of us should stay awake to make sure nothing comes into camp and the fire stays lit " she said looking at jack " I'll stay up with jack tonight "

"Not entirely wise," Lee said. "Keeping an eye on the camp, yes. Good. Very good. But you're going to have about 11 hours of darkness. You can't sit out in this wind all night, even if you are near the fire. And you will need sleep time. There are eight of us. I suggest that if we work in pairs and each take a shift for about 3 hours, that will get us till morning and we'll all have some rest. Sunrise will happen about 7. So I would suggest that our breakfast hunters and cookers take the last shift. That way they can work on food while the rest are sleeping. Unless you fishermen can't clean and cook it too. That puts the morning crew up about 4 am. We'll want to be mostly bedded down in our sleeping bags shortly after dark because it will be too cold. It doesn't mean we have to sleep right away, but we will need the warmth. Nightowls, I suggest you take the second shift--the 10 pm to 1 am shift. Then we'll need a middle of the night crew from 1 til 4 and an early shift from 7 til 10.

"Each shift will have to keep the fire going. You'll need it in night time cold. Anyone have any preference?"

Jim looked at Lee " yeah any one but Jackie boy , I might ring his neck" he said looking over at Jack as he spoke but Cassidy spoke up and moved to Jim.

" I'll take the shift with Jim, leaving Steven with Jack and Jess well she can decide. " she said and sat back down Jess looked at Lee as Jack spoke.

" We're fine at gutting the fish, we'll do it as we get them so we don't attract animals to the camp" he said ignoring Jim's words and distaste in his voice now was not the place for disagreements