A Little Learning (12 page)

He listened quietly.

“I hope this isn’t stupid to suggest, but maybe you could do that with Janine. And then you’d have something positive to tell the kids about her. I know you want them to love her memory. Otherwise, you wouldn’t worry about losing your temper around them.”

“You’re wise beyond your years, Rory Gorenzi.” He stroked her hair.

She said, “You can stay here.”

CHAPTER NINE

“R
ORY
! S
EAMUS
!”

A sweeping light flashed outside and a deep voice penetrated the darkness.

Rory awoke, immediately felt her throbbing arm, remembered where she was, knew Seamus was beside her and identified his scent, his closeness.

Seamus quickly rose from the lower bunk and grabbed his ski pants to pull on over his long johns.

Although they’d done nothing more than kiss, cuddle and sleep, Rory grabbed the emergency blankets from the lower bunk and dragged them onto the top bunk. She didn’t want her dad speculating.

Watching her, Seamus bit back a smile. He opened the cabin door. “We’re here.”

Two figures skied closer in the dark. Kurt Gorenzi and an SMS instructor, Carrie Wayne. “
He
was going to come up here alone looking for you,” Carrie said, as they released their skis. She was forty-five or so and had lived in Sultan only a year. Rory liked her and envied the way in which she always seemed to be organized and ready for anything.

“What happened?” Kurt asked, never looking at Seamus, only at his daughter.

Seamus lit his headlamp and set it on the top bunk to provide light.

“A slide. I got buried. Seamus dug me out. I think I broke my wrist.”

While Seamus asked where his children were and Carrie explained that one of the instructors was staying at the house with them, Kurt went into mountain-man first-aid mode, concentrating entirely on Rory’s injury. He removed the bandaging and produced a splint from his pack, while Carrie set to work melting snow.

“You didn’t have to come,” Rory said.

Her father made no reply.

She winced, not at the pain in her wrist but at the blisters she’d gotten from snowshoeing in her telemark boots.

Carrie said, “Oh, right, like he’s not going to go looking for his own daughter.”

I never didn’t want you,
Kurt had said.

“Tell me about this slide,” he requested now.

And Rory realized that he expected an avalanche report. He wanted her to describe the type of avalanche and the elevation of the start zone, estimated width and running length, aspect of the path, size of the avalanche relative to its path, triggering mechanism, weather conditions and so on. She said, “Slab.”

Seamus interrupted, “She was in it. She didn’t see it.” And he described when and how it happened and what he’d seen from the top. “It was about fifty feet across. She skied for the side and then swam to the top. Or I imagine that’s what you did, Rory.” He described digging her out, searching for her skis and poles and the long trek back to the hut.

Rory gratefully took the cup of instant chai that Carrie handed her.

Kurt said, “Well, we have a toboggan outside, and we’re prepared to take you out of here.”

At night?
Rory thought. “What time is it?”

Carrie consulted her watch. “Three-fifteen.”

“I’d prefer to make it down on my own power,” Rory said.
I just wish I had a different pair of boots...or some skis.

“It’s steep. I don’t think you should do it with a broken wrist. If you were a client, I wouldn’t allow it.” Her father sounded both matter-of-fact and angry.

“I’m sorry,” Rory said. “It was my fault. I should have suggested digging a pit before we got up that far.”

“Conditions might have changed before you reached the top.” Her father shrugged. “It sounds as though Seamus did well.”

“
Phenomenally,
” Rory said. He had saved her life.

“Well, I think
I’ll
head back down,” her father said. “You do as you want. We’ll see you by...say, noon?”

Rory hesitated, then nodded.

“Why did it take you so long to get down to this hut?” Kurt asked.

“Well, I’m snowshoeing in my tele boots,” Rory explained.

Kurt considered this. “I’ll leave you my skis and poles and snowshoe down.”

“Do you have decent boots?” Rory asked. Then she saw that he was wearing his reliable old leather telemark boots, not high-tech plastic ones like hers.

“Yes,” he answered emphatically.

* * *

H
E
AND
C
ARRIE
STAYED
for another twenty minutes, then left.

Rory watched them go and said, “This is bad.”

“What?” Seamus asked.

“That I had to be rescued. I hate that—I really hate it. And I got injured. It’s bad.”

Seamus’s thoughts were elsewhere. What did Kurt think of Seamus and his daughter spending the night here together? Well, he’d accepted it, just as he’d accepted Rory’s decision to remain in the hut rather than leave by toboggan.

He said, “You know something?”

“What?”

“Janine would have taken that toboggan ride.”

Rory barely heard him.

* * *

T
HEY
REACHED
HER
CAR
at ten the next morning, and Seamus drove them back to Sultan while Rory checked her cell phone messages. There was one from Desert, saying that things were still going well in Florida, that she was actually enjoying her father’s company but wanted to complain to someone about the environment of her parents’ home. Then, a message from Rory’s father.

“Rory, you’ve got an appointment at the clinic as soon as you return. Dr. Hennessey will be waiting for you. He thinks he can take care of your wrist here in Sultan.”

The Sultan clinic was spartan, the doctor a semiretired general practitioner who’d moved to Sultan from Aspen. Rory realized her father must have contacted him earlier that morning.

When Seamus dropped her at the clinic, she found her grandmother waiting. Sondra Nichols was turned out in high fashion, as usual, in black wool pants, high-heeled boots and white fur. As Rory walked through the door, she said, “There you are. I
hope
this teaches you that backcountry skiing is
dangerous.
”

Rory kissed her and then greeted Dr. Hennessey, who examined and X-rayed her wrist and found the crack at the distal end of her ulna. Seamus had gone on with her car to the Empire Street house to see how his children were. Rory’s mind was on them, too. She was enormously glad that after finding Seamus and Rory, her father had been able to return to Sultan and reassure the kids.

As the doctor fit a splint to her wrist, Samantha burst through the door. “I cannot
believe
you,” she exclaimed. “An
avalanche?
I’m kind of jealous, in a way. That you survived an avalanche.”

“It was hideous,” Rory said. Skiing down from the hut, she’d remembered the sensation of being buried, of knowing that her life was in the hands of her companion. Before Seamus had reached her, she’d tried to dig herself out, but she’d had only one arm to use, and it had been wedged above her.

Her grandmother left to collect her mail at the post office, but Samantha remained with Rory, and then the two friends walked home together, Rory in three pairs of socks, having left the torturing tele boots in her car. Right now, she preferred socks as footwear, even in the cold.

Samantha said, “Is something going on between you and Seamus?”

“Yes, and I don’t know if my father figured that out last night. He warned me against getting involved.” She told Samantha the things her father had said and acknowledged the dilemma of Seamus being a client.

“Well, guess what.”

Rory looked at her. “What?”

“Our house is already under contract.”

“To who?”

“One of the Telluride investors your father brought to the open house. I don’t think he plans to live in it, and he doesn’t want renters. I think he wants to turn it into a saloon, with rooms upstairs.”

Rory groaned.

“We have thirty days,” Samantha said. “Until closing. We can stay at the hot springs after that.”

“The hot springs is just a temporary solution. We need to look for another house to rent.” And the rent, Rory knew, would be substantially more than she’d paid all the years she’d lived in the house that Desert owned.

“Your dad said to come by the school ‘at your leisure.’”

Rory’s vague uneasiness intensified. Her broken wrist would restrict her usefulness to the Sultan Mountain School. Plus, now she was involved with a client. She felt almost as if she’d become part of Seamus during the night they’d spent together kissing, talking and feeling.

So, must she walk away from her job? The Lees would soon be finished with their time at the Sultan Mountain School. Just a few more weeks.

How did I let something like this happen?

Well, they’d just have to be discreet and a bit reserved for the next few weeks.

“Worried about your dad?” Samantha seemed to read her mind.

“Funny. You’ve called him that twice. Other people call him that and I never think of him that way. He’s my father, but Dad sounds as if he’s actually part of my life.”

Samantha nodded sympathetically.

Rory said, “He did come out last night, though. But that’s who he is. He would have done it for any of the instructors, for any of the clients—for anyone.”

Samantha glanced at her. They had almost reached the house when Rory spotted Beau walking toward her with Seuss. “Rory!” he shouted.

The story Seamus had told her the night before of Janine’s death came to the front of her mind. “I’m glad to see you,” she exclaimed. “But I have to get inside before the cold gets through these socks.”

He followed the women up the path to the massive pink Victorian and came inside. The puppy began sniffing the floor, the furniture, skidding on the wood and wagging his tail.

Rory said, “I’m so sorry that happened, Beau. All of you must have been terrified when your dad didn’t get back.”

Beau shrugged. “I didn’t think anything bad had happened. I mean, nothing that bad’s going to happen to us
again.
”

Rory hoped that was true. In any case, she wasn’t going to discourage his optimistic attitude.

“I thought he might have gotten you lost or something, but I knew you’d figure it out.”

His blind faith in her abilities both humbled and alarmed her. “It’s a dangerous world out there, Beau.”

“I want to hear about the avalanche.”

They sat in the kitchen drinking milk and eating some cookies left over from a party at the hot springs. Rory told Samantha and Beau about the avalanche. “I was lucky,” she concluded. “Very lucky. We should have been more careful. That’s how accidents happen.” She realized, as she spoke it, that the word
accident
might make Beau think of his mother’s death. That hadn’t been her intention.

He said, “Yeah,” and then said nothing more.

* * *

H
ER
FATHER
STOOD
UP
from his desk when she entered his office.

She grabbed one of the old wooden chairs with a leather seat and back, and sat down.

Kurt walked behind her, closed the door and returned to his desk.

Rory tensed.

“So,” he said, “in light of your injury, I’m going to put you on some clerical work. We’ve got paperwork to file, other tasks, some letters to write. Think you can do that? I realize you have only your dominant hand to work with.”

Rory said, “Thank you. I’m
sorry,
” she repeated. “I’m sorry I let this happen.”

He cracked a smile and shook his head. “When you’re in the backcountry, accidents can happen. Fortunately, this one had a happy ending.”

Rory hesitated. “So...someone else will finish up as the Lee family’s program coordinator and head instructor?”

“In consultation with you. But it’s not realistic for you to take the kids on their field exams. They’ve done the course work. I’d say your job is pretty well done. You did it well. Let’s move you into some other functions here at the school, so that you can get a better idea of the whole picture.”

Rory could hardly believe her ears. It sounded almost as if he was grooming her for a position of greater responsibility. If he wanted her to “get a better idea of the whole picture.” “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you.”

“I’m going to set you up in Carrie’s office, and she’s going to show you some of the things she’s been responsible for.” He rose from his chair again. “I want to give you another day to rest from your accident. Tomorrow, 8:00 a.m.?”

“Yes,” Rory said.

* * *

B
ELLE
GAZED
DISTRUSTFULLY
at
Jay Norris, the instructor who’d looked after them the night before and who would now be taking each of them into the field. Watching his daughter, Seamus reminded himself that Belle would be demonstrating her skiing technique along with the other children from her ski class. Rory had been by to formally hand the reins to Jay and to discuss the change with the whole family. Then, she’d left, to give Jay a chance to organize their activities.

He was a decent young man, and Seamus picked up the fact that he’d briefly been Desert’s boyfriend.

Belle said, “I want Rory to test me.”

Jay crouched beside her. “I know. But Rory got hurt in the avalanche, so she has to take a break from being out in the field. I’m sorry, Belle. You’ve got to put up with me.”

She turned to Seamus and wrapped her arms around his legs.

Lauren, lying on the couch, abruptly sat up. “Well, I’m free for right now. Correct, Jay?”

“You are. This afternoon at about two, I want you to fill out an evaluation of the school, but your field exam isn’t until tomorrow.”

Lauren picked up her pale blue ski jacket and pulled it on.

“Where are you off to?” Seamus asked. Ever since the open house, he’d tried to keep closer tabs on Lauren and what she was doing. But they always seemed to walk a fine line. He did not want to restrict her too much and risk another argument about her mother. Yet he knew she was spending time with people he believed were too old for her. He resisted saying,
No, you can’t go.

“The coffeehouse,” she said.