Just a few hours left before Doris became a maid again, wasn’t it? It all became a giant blur as they mounted their horses again and took off into the growing winds. An unsettling feeling shifted in her stomach, more than it had before. Perhaps it was due to the fact that they were closer than before, another half day or so and they’d be there.

The ride was silent and not as urgent, as if all of the energy had dissolved long ago and they were left with the anticipation. They rode the horses in a normal gallop through the snow rather than push them as they had been...