The Winter Wolf by Holly Webb Read Free Book Online

herself and Frost, she held it up against the opening, tucking the edge into a useful crack that went higher up the tree trunk. She wedged it with a couple of slivers of bark, too, so that the blanket hung down across the hole, shielding them from the worst of the snow. Then she edged back next to Frost and ran her hand gently over his twitchy ears.
    “You don’t like it, do you? Maybe you’ve never seen a big snowstorm. Or if you have, you were huddled up in a nice cosy cave with your mum and you didn’t mind.”
    Amelia unwound the green and red checked muffler that Noah had given her. He’d had to show her how to wind it crosswise over her chest and tie it at the back – Amelia had never worn anything like it before. She laid it out on her lap, and patted it hopefully. With the blanket hung up as a curtain, Frost was sitting on a cushion of dried leaves and pine needles. She was sure that snuggling up with the muffler wrapped round them would be more comfortable. And they needed to keep each other warm.
    Frost lifted his nose from his paws and looked up at her worriedly. She could seehis eyes shining in the shadowy dimness of the hollow tree. The whirling madness of the snowstorm had clearly upset him. But at last he wriggled forward a little bit, and very gradually, he climbed half into Amelia’s lap. There was too much of him to curl up like a cat, but he slumped across her knees, and sighed contentedly.

    “We’ll just have to stay here till it stops,” Amelia whispered. “I wish I hadn’t given you all the food, but I didn’t know this was going to happen…” She wrapped her arms round Frost’s neck, and he made a happy grumbling noise. “The snow’s too heavy for Noah to come and find us,” she murmured into his fur. “I hope he doesn’t try. We’ll be all right till morning. He’ll come and find us then.” She was trying to sound determined and hopeful, but her voice wavered a bit, and Frost nosed gently at her cheek.
    It was eerie, in the dark. She could see the odd flake of snow settling on the edge of the blanket here and there, but that was all. The snow was silent, but that only seemed to make it more frightening. Amelia sat in their hollow, peering out atthe little smudge of snowy darkness, and stroking Frost’s silvery fur over and over again.

21st October, 1873
     
    She’s not back. The snowstorm came down so suddenly while Amelia was still out in the woods with Frost. I tried to go and fetch her, but I had to stop before I got halfway. I couldn’t see. My eyelashes had ice on them, and it was all round my nose and mouth, too, even with a muffler wrapped round.
    I got back to the cabin and Pa was furious – he grabbed me and hugged me first, and then he took me by the shoulders and shook me and told me to promise him I’d never go out in a storm like that again.
    I guess I nodded, and he let me be. I couldn’t say it out loud, but I want to beout there now, finding them! Instead I’m sat inside in the warmth of the stove, full of Ma’s stew and pancakes. But I’ve got a stash of pancakes wrapped in a cloth in my coat pocket.
    As soon as it’s light, I’ll go. Whatever Pa thinks, I don’t care. If he won’t let me, I’ll tell him and Ma about Amelia, and Frost. I don’t care who finds them, as long as someone does.

 
    “ A melia! Amelia! Are you there?”
    Amelia felt Frost wriggle on her lap and she sat up, groaning. She was stiff all over and so cold that she could hardly feel her fingers. But they were safe! They had slept through the snowstorm together, and there was sparkling snow-white light glowing round the edges of the blanket now.
    “Amelia! Frost!”
    “Oh, Noah!” Amelia leaned forward, and tried to pull back the blanket. Perhaps he couldn’t see where they were.
    It was stuck, and she had to shift the sleepy, grumpy wolf mostly off her knees to yank at it. And then the blanket came away, all at once, and quite a lot of snow came with it, crumpling down