Later, Brance was in the stable, brushing down the horses before the last of the sun dipped below the tree line. In the cabin, Caleb tamped down the fire in the hearth so it’d burn low during the night but not wink out. Their dinner dishes had been cleaned earlier at the pump behind the cabin and now lined the hearth to dry. Standing before the fireplace, Caleb took a moment to stretch and felt the first discomfort knot his bowels. Almost time.
With one last look at the fire, already beginning to flicker lower amid the logs, Caleb made his way from the cabin. Stubborn patches of snow glistened darkly in the shadows along the side of the homestead, in the crevices and nooks where the wind had blown it earlier in the season. But fresh blades of grass stabbed up through the snow in triumph,
