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"Why," Calamity said, once she'd put away her gun, "it's just snow. Mind you, there's a mighty lot of it."
"Yes," Katie managed a bit weakly. "Rather." She'd pushed aside the curtains and seen nothing but white. The door hadn't even budged when she'd tried to open it. She'd felt a bit panicked at that.
"Oh." Calamity's expression shifted from puzzlement to enlightenment. "Guess you don't get that sort of thing in Chicago, eh? Well, it's nothing to worry about. Snow's - well, it's nothing to worry about. Is there tea?"
"We did get snow in Chicago, as a matter of fact," Katie said. "Only - "
Calamity helped herself to some tea. The fire in the hearth was low already. "What?"
Katie took a deep breath. True, Calamity was very brave and courageous and afraid of nothing at all, but she was also sensible and honest and she'd been living here her whole life. "I was surprised, that's all."
Calamity grinned, appearing to think being surprised was only ever a good thing. "Want some tea? It'll put some warmth in your belly, make you feel better."
"There's no cause for concern, then?" Katie asked, sipping her tea.
"Concern? Nah." Calamity shook her head. "Why, I know of a feller spent three months stuck in his cabin. Found him in the spring, frozen solid. Took us three days to thaw him out, but then there he was, right as rain."
Katie shivered.
"And here's me nattering on, never noticing you're plumb close to freezing yourself." Calamity shot up. "Some chaperone I am. Here now, let me find you a nice, thick blanket. Oops, looks like the moths have been at it for a bit. There you go."
"Thank you." Katie swallowed. Part of her wanted to ask if it was really true that people could freeze and then be thawed out, as easy as that.
Part of her really, really didn't. It can wait, she told herself. It's only for a couple of hours, anyway. You'll see, they'll have us out by midday, if the snow hasn't already melted by then.
The snow hadn't melted by midday, nor had anyone shown up to check on them.
"Check on us? Ha!" Calamity said. "Like to see the feller with the nerve to suggest I'd be needing any help dealing with a bit of snow. Shoot his hat right off, I would, see if I wouldn't."
Katie wondered why the image of Calamity, firing bullets at their would-be rescuers made her smile. It really wasn't funny at all.
"There now, that's much better," Calamity said. "You know, you've got a mighty pretty smile. Makes the whole cabin seem brighter somehow."
"But what if we run out of food? Or wood for the fire?"
"Oh, I've laid in aplenty of stores. Won't be much variety, but it'll fill our bellies just fine, don't you worry about that. S'pose we might get bored, though, on account of not being able to get out and all."
"What do you usually do, when you get stuck here?" Katie asked. She thought that she might have wanted to ask how often this sort of thing happened, but right now, she wasn't sure what she'd do if Calamity told her that it happened all the time.
Of course, with Calamity right there, Katie wasn't scared or anything. And it wasn't as if she minded spending all this time with Calamity for company.
It was just cold, that was all. That, and she didn't much care for the idea of being trapped, with no way to get out and get help, should there be any need. Female silliness, she imagined Danny might have called it, and this once, he might have been right, even if Calamity appeared to handle it just fine.
"Do?" Calamity echoed. "Why, nothing much. Bit of sleeping, bit of thinking, that's all. Not much else to do when you're by your lonesome, is there. 'course, now that you're here, I guess I should be coming up with something." Calamity's expression turned thoughtful and a tiny bit guilty.
"Oh," Katie said. "We can just talk. Talking's fine. I love talking to you, hearing all about your adventures."
Calamity relaxed a bit. "Well, I've had some good'uns. But hey, bet you got some fine stories of your own, travelling all over with that Miss Adams and all. Why don't you tell me one of those, eh? Only if you want to. I don't mean to pry. It's just I'd love to know more about you, is all. Where you've been, what you've seen, way you learned to talk and walk and dress and sing all pretty like that."
"Really, there's not much to tell." Katie felt herself blush, which was unfair. Any gentleman soliciting such personal information might have been rebuffed with a gentle reminder about his manners and taken the hint. With Calamity - well, Katie didn't think hints would work.
And let's be honest here, nor would you want them to, she thought. "Well," she said.
Calamity smiled and nodded, bright-eyed and eager, and Katie started talking.
By the third day, Katie was almost beginning to believe that they might spend the rest of the winter in this cabin - and that she wouldn't even mind all that much.
" 'spect you're missing the theater," Calamity said, as if misreading her mind.
"A little," Katie said. It had seemed very fine and important, some time, to be looked at and adored and cheered. She did enjoy the singing and the dancing, true enough, and teasing the gentlemen who'd come to see her just a bit, the way she'd never do off the stage.
"Well, you'll be back there soon enough." Calamity nodded determinedly, as if she might be able to melt the snow through sheer force of will. "Hey now, why don't you do a bit of rehearsing? Won't be much of an audience, but I'll try and cheer loud enough to make it as if there's ten of us, how's that?"
"Oh, I - I suppose I should practice that new song."
"Some singing and dancing'll warm you right up," Calamity said. "Gets the blood pumping, what? All this sitting around, no wonder you're all ashivering."
Katie'd been trying not to let it show. Only a very little wood remained, and she didn't want Calamity to feel like she needed to use it all up for Katie's sake, not when Calamity herself clearly wasn't bothered by the cold at all. Katie Brown, what a weakling you are, she told herself. Sure, you can't ride a horse or shoot a gun like Calamity, but you could at least learn to be a little tougher.
"It's not so bad, really," Katie said.
Calamity chuckled and shook her head. "Mighty pretty and tough, too, eh? Oh, you belong in Deadwood, all right."
"I don't feel all that tough right now," Katie admitted. "Not like you, Calam. Only look at me. Twice as many blankets as you I have, and I'm still sitting here, huddled and feeling as if I'm about to freeze, while you're as warm and happy as if you're sitting outside in the sun on a warm Summer's day."
Calamity stared at her.
"Oh," Katie said.
Calamity started laughing.
"But you said," Katie started, her mind filling in the rest. "I see. You were talking about yourself." 'Gets the blood pumping', Calamity had said, and it had been about her, Katie, singing and dancing.
"Well, and a right silly pair we make, don't we?" Calamity shook her head.
"A mighty cold pair, too," Katie said. "Although, with us being both ladies, I suppose that it would be perfectly proper for us to share. I mean, if that's all right with you."
"What wouldn't that be proper for? Why, I got caught out in a blizzard once, spent a whole week stuck with Bill. Snug as two fleas in a bear's pelt, I'm telling you."
If there's one thing sillier than pretending to be something you aren't, it's almost certainly being jealous of a gentleman for keeping your favorite person in the whole wide world from freezing to death, Katie thought. Besides, I'm sure Mr Hickock was a gentleman.
"Plumb nice, ain't it?" Calamity said, wriggling a little.
Katie might have used a fair number of adjectives to describe the current situation and her feelings about said situation. 'Nice' wasn't one of them, although 'comfortable' might come to mind, more or less. Calamity's body was quite warm - and soft, too, for all that her hands were the kind of calloused that came from handling a gun with some regularity.
"Not cold anymore, are you?" Calamity asked, her face far too close to Katie's.
Katie imagined that if she were to close her eyes and lean forwards just a little, she might find herself in a position at once very comfortable and very uncomfortable, depending on Calamity's reaction.
"Not at all," she said. "Although I suppose we can't stay like this forever."
Calamity chuckled. "Mighty boring that'd be, eh? Mind, if there's anyone wouldn't mind getting stuck with, it'd be a pretty girl like you. Nah. Snow'll probably be gone tomorrow. Maybe even later today."
"It is rather cozy," Katie said.
"Oh, quite. Cozy. The very word." Calamity nodded. Her hands were nowhere near any of the areas a gentleman wouldn't let them wander. Katie felt oddly (and sillily, she told herself) disappointed.
"Calam." Katie licked her lips. Her stomach felt fluttery. "I - might I ask you a personal question?"
"Fire away," Calamity said. "Only I might return the favor, such as it is, but that's fair, ain't it?"
"Oh, very fair," Katie said. "And I would never - your friendship means very much to me. I wouldn't want to risk losing it for the world."
Calamity scoffed. "Like that'd ever happen. Ha! Well, maybe if you shot a very good friend of mine and it wasn't no accident. And even then, I reckon I might let it go if they gave you good reason. I mean, Danny's all right, but that Bill Hickock - well, he sure gets on my nerves somewhat awful sometimes. Why, it's been plenty of times I've been wanting to shoot him myself."
Katie didn't believe that was true at all. "I don't think that I could shoot a man, even if my life depended on it."
"Ain't nothing to it," Calamity said, snuggling a bit closer. "Hey, want me to teach you? I can show you how to ride a horse, too. It'll be grand."
"I would love that, Calam, truly I would." Katie pictured it: her and Calamity, side by side, defending the settlers against bandits. Heroically defending the stage coach - and maybe saving each other's lives every once in a while, or spending the night out in the open, by a campfire.
"That's settled then. Only listen to me blathering on when you were wanting to ask me something. What was it?"
"I - " Katie bit her lip. She'd gone and turned herself into an actress, she reminded herself. She's also gone and turned herself into a laughing stock before that happened, of course, and if Calam hadn't supported and helped her, convinced people to give her another chance, well. "I like you very much, Calam. I think you're quite the most wonderful person I've ever had the pleasure of meeting."
"Oh, get out," Calamity said. "Pretty girl like you, flattering someone like me. Why, I might blush, which I'm sure I would if you were a feller paying me all these compliments." Calamity paused. "Well, no, in that case, I'd probably figger you for a drunk and tell you to shove of. You're not drunk, are you?"
"Calam!" Katie groaned. It was refreshing, to talk to someone so different from anyone else she'd ever known, but sometimes, also, it was frustrating. "No, I'm not drunk."
"Go on, then. What's the question?" Calamity asked.
"Can I - have you ever kissed someone? A friend. Someone close to you. A female friend. Would you ever look at someone like that and think - well."
"Well, now, I reckon it don't get much more personal than that, does it?" Calamity said. "But yes. Sure. Provided them's you, which I mightily much hope is what you were asking, 'cause else I'm gonna need to get out there and stick my head in a bucket of snow or something."
"Oh," Katie said. One of Calamity's hands was moving now. "No. I don't think you need to do that."
"Good," Calamity said. "I mean, would hate to get all cold all over again, just when I'd gotten nice and cozy. You want to try it, then? Now, I'm warning you, I'm sure I can't kiss as well as one of them Chicago ladies, but I'm sure willing to learn."
Katie had kissed a grand total of zero ladies in Chicago. On the plus side, she'd also met a grand total of zero ladies she'd have even wanted to kiss in Chicago, so she supposed that it was just as well.
"I guess that means we will have to learn together," she said. "Or you could teach me," she added. "Like the shooting and the horse-riding."
"Well, now, let's not be getting ahead of ourselves here," Calamity said. "How's about we try it first, and then we can see and determine if anything wants improving or rehearsing or something the like?"
"Yes." Katie swallowed. Her mouth felt dry. "I'm certain that is a very sound plan."
On the morning of the third day, the snow had begun to melt and help arrived.
"Ahoy, the cabin! Calam! Miss Brown! Everything all right in there?"
Calam got up. Katie missed her almost immediately.
"Right as rain, and if it weren't, I'm sure I wouldn't be wanting none of your help, Bill Hickock!" Calam yelled. "How's about you take yourself off to check on people what might need a hand, eh? The nerve of that guy," she muttered, crawling back under the blankets with Katie. "Can you credit it?"
"Mm-hm," Katie said. "You want to go out there and help people, don't you?"
Calamity kissed her. "Maybe in a bit, how's that? I mean, can't trust Bill to do it all by his lonesome."
"Uh-huh," Katie replied. "In a bit, then."