"The first week of January," Kate said. "They want to wait until the males shed their racks, so we don't get a bunch of trophy hunters looking for something to put over the fireplace."

Ruthe groaned. "Forget about it. I'm not up to hunting this year." She fluttered her eyelashes. "Let's find some nice young hunk to bring home the bacon for us." They all laughed, but Kate was aware that Ruthe's recent disinclination to hunt had more to do with the sudden onset of Dina's old age than it did with lack of interest. Over the past year, Dina had gone from being a vital woman in glowing health to an old woman with shaking hands and a shakier step. She walked only with the aid of her cane, and had to be helped from her chair, as if her back had lost all its strength. Her hands, once so strong and so capable, hands that had hauled Kate over the edge of a cliff by the scruff of her neck on more than one occasion, had deteriorated into shrunken claws. It hurt Kate to look at them, and so she didn't.

Billy and Annie Mike had adopted a Korean baby and named him Alexei, for Annie's grandfather. "My god," Dina said in disgust, "the woman had seven children of her own. Wasn't that enough?"

"Evidently not," Ruthe said.

Dina had the grace to look slightly ashamed. "Sorry," she said gruffly. "Never been a kid person."

"Yeah, you never could stand having me around," Kate said, and Ruthe laughed out loud.

Mandy and Chick were in training for the Yukon Quest. "Every day at noon, like clockwork," Kate said, "I hear dog howls coming down the trail. I open the door and to what to my wondering eyes should appear but Chick, stopping by for cocoa and fry bread."

Ruthe and Dina laughed. "Thinks with his stomach," Dina said. "What I call a proper man."

Ruthe refilled their mugs. "I saw John Letourneau putting the moves on Auntie Edna," Kate said, stirring in evaporated milk. The quality of the silence that followed her remark made her raise her head.

At her curious look, Dina said, "Yeah, I saw that, too," and added with a sneer, "He's probably after her for that property she owns on Alaguaq Creek."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Ruthe said immediately. "I think Auntie Edna has more than enough charm to explain John's interest."

"Charm, schmarm," Dina said. "That man never does anything without an ulterior motive."

"That's not true, Dina, and you know it," Ruthe said, this time with an edge to her voice.

Kate stepped in to defuse the tension a little, although she was intensely curious as to why it had sprouted up in the first place. "He got a little tangled up in your cane, Dina, there on the dance floor."

"He sure did, didn't he? Can't think how that happened." She looked sharply at Kate. "Didn't see you out there."