She felt around his face and top and sides of his head for a wound and ran her hand over his chest again. There were no signs of blood. His heart must have stopped as her mum would say when someone suddenly died without any apparent reason.

Tears threatened her eyes and she brushed them away. It would do no good to mourn Finn now or spend time senselessly crying when a snowstorm raged around her. But what did she do? Without her sight, how did she determine the direction that would take her home? Thaw would be of no help, since he had yet to learn the path between Macardle keep and Willow and Slatter’s keep, though Slatter had promised he’d teach the pup soon.

“The horses,” she whispered and slipped her glove back on.

She needed to make sure she stayed with the horses. She would turn and backtrack her steps the best she could. She was bound to bump into them.

“The horses, Thaw. We need to get to the horses,” she said, hoping he understood her.

He barked and raced around her and she turned and began to walk, Thaw running ahead of her. She counted her steps and when she reached the spot where the horses should be, she reached out but nothing was there. She took a few steps in one direction, then another, still nothing.

Now what did she do?

Thaw’s bark drew her attention and she wondered if he had found the horses.

“Where are you, Thaw?” she called out and he continued to bark.

She followed the sound of his barks, and she realized with every step she took that the snow had reached her ankles. The snow was accumulating fast. Thaw’s barks stopped and so did she and she was relieved when she felt him at the hem of her tunic, tugging at it once again.

She followed and Thaw barked a warning too late. She bumped into something. She let her hands explore and found it was a tree trunk. Thaw had brought her to shelter under a tree.

The pup slipped under her cloak to rest against her leg as he always did when he felt she was in need of protection.

Snow reached down and scooped him up, tucking him in the crook of her arm beneath her fur-lined cloak to keep him warm.

“We have a problem, Thaw,” she said, turning and lowering her head to keep the wind from hitting her face.

They couldn’t find the horses and with no idea where she was in relationship to home, and the snowstorm growing worse, and with no sufficient shelter, their fate was sealed. They would freeze to death.