Snow Angel by Jamie Carie

insisted to herself that everything would be fine.
    Will and Cara were everything Noah had said—kind and concerned for her and more than willing to give her a job. Cara had been eager to have another woman around, especially during her pregnancy. Will was slow, methodical, thoughtful … he might prove more difficult to handle, but he had not hesitated to trust Noah and take her on, only asking a few questions about her past work experience. There was no reason to fear they would find out about Ross, she reminded herself, pushing away from the window and the darkening view as night fell.
    Turning from the twilight, Elizabeth slipped into her nightgown, borrowed at the insistence of Cara. She would have to go back to the saloon where she’d first heard about Noah and retrieve her trunk. The barkeep had allowed her to leave it in a storeroom so that she wouldn’t have to lug it up the mountain. Inside was all she owned in the world—a work dress for mining, an everyday dress similar to what she’d been wearing when Noah had found her, and a good dress for Sunday. Aside from dresses and underclothes, she had a brush, some hair pins, stockings, a little wrist bag with some precious coins in it—all that was left from Ross’s money—and a tiny chain necklace given to her by one of her friends from the orphanage when she’d left that place.
    Elizabeth climbed into the bed, relishing the clean, crisp sheets, and drifted off into an exhausted sleep.
    It was pitch dark a few hours later when the howling wind woke her. She sat up, seeing nothing but the cloud of her breath. The room was cold, much too cold for a nursery, which was what Cara Collins had told her the room wouldeventually be. She turned to her side and curled tighter into a ball with the coverlet over her head, shivering, trying to go back to sleep. Something would have to be done before a baby slept in here. She wouldn’t recommend that anyone sleep in this room, including herself.
    The minutes ticked by without success of anything save intense shivering. She drifted to sleep, only to be startled awake moments later feeling like she was in the blizzard again. Afraid of the nightmare, she decided she had to get out of the room. She braced herself for the cold and sat up, swinging her legs carefully over the edge to dangle to the frosty floor. Quickly she wrapped the lone blanket around her shoulders and grabbed the pillow, thinking to sleep downstairs by the fire. She winced as her bare feet touched the floor and hurried to the chair where her clothes were neatly stacked, scooped them up, and fled the room.
    Quietly she crept down the stairs so as not to awaken anyone. If she could just get downstairs to the chair by the fireplace, she could get warm. She swerved toward it, her eyes on the promise of the glowing blaze, taking one step, then two … tiptoeing across the bare, wooden planks, a much warmer floor than her bedroom.
    Suddenly she found herself face-first on the floor, a large object moving beneath her. She opened her mouth with a squeal, but the sound was muffled as a big hand clamped down over her mouth.
    â€œElizabeth?”
    She sagged with relief at the sound of Noah’s familiar voice and nodded in answer.
    Noah quickly dropped his hand. “Elizabeth? What are you doing?”
    Struggling to sit up amidst the tangled cloth of the nightgown, she finally faced him, just able to make out the sleepy features of his face.
    â€œIt was cold in the bedroom. I couldn’t sleep,” she whispered. “I thought I would come down here by the fire.” Still sitting only inches away she scooted around to gather her strewn clothes and clutched them to her chest, her back to the low flames. “I didn’t know you were sleeping here.”
    Now that her eyes had adjusted to the light, Elizabeth could see that Noah was still trying to wake up. He ran his hands through his hair and yawned, then stood,