Chapter 27

Brook waited a good twenty minutes before slipping out of bed. She moved ponderously towards the door, gaining speed even though it hurt to walk. I have to get out of here. I have to get help. She threw open the door and took six or seven steps off the small porch before the cold penetrated the soft clean socks, sending waves of pain through her damaged feet.

Snow! She had just plowed through a drift at least a foot-and-a-half deep. And so cold! Frigid air pierced the clothes in which the man had dressed her. She stared wildly around, noting a few small white-topped outbuildings huddling incongruously among the trees. Where was that man? What was his name? Lance? Could he see her? Was he watching her from behind a tree or building?

Brook fell to her knees and crawled back inside the cabin. She slammed the door and brushed the snow from her feet. Pulling off the wet socks, she threw them in the corner. Crying hysterically, she crawled to the bathroom and grabbed a towel. She dried her feet and brushed the snow away from her clothing. Oh my god! He’s right. I can’t leave. She was stuck here. And God help her, she had no idea what his intentions were.

After a while, Brook pulled herself to her sore feet and looked into the mirror. Lord! What a sight. Her face was bruised and cut, she had a knot on her forehead, one eye was swollen nearly shut, her lip was split, and her hair was a disaster. She opened the hand-carved wooden cabinet and found a bottle of shampoo and a comb. She filled the basin with water. Bending over the sink she laboriously managed to wash and rinse her hair in the icy water from the hand pump. It wasn’t completely clean but it was much better. She washed her face, working carefully over the scraped area, around the lump, and gingerly along the slit of her eye. She carefully dabbed her lip, trying not to open up the wound.

In a cupboard on the other wall, Brook found an unopened package of toothbrushes. She helped herself to one, spread some paste from the tube near the sink, and brushed her teeth thoroughly several times. The fresh mint flavor tasted so clean she almost wanted to swallow it. She put the toothbrush into the holder beside the one that was already there.

Exhausted, Brook took the comb back to the bed and sat heavily. She spent some time working through the tangles before falling back onto the pillow, clutching her purse like a child with a favorite stuffed animal, and succumbing to sleep once more.