Montana Daddy

Leaning back against the radio table, Doc Justine still had one crutch propped under her arm, and she looked worried. None of her flippant, complaining airs now. She was all professional.

Rory was impressed, as he always was, with how committed to her patients and up-to-date Justine was for a small-town doctor. Given the number of medical journals he’d seen around her office, she worked at it.

“How do you think Jane is holding up?” Eric, who had followed them into the house, shrugged out of his heavy jacket and hung it on a peg near the door.

“The Durfees are both proud and hard as nails, which is why they’ve survived this long living like a pair of hermits. But Jane doesn’t have enough arm strength to haul her husband out to their Caterpillar tractor if he’s nothing but deadweight.” She shoved away from the table, and Rory helped her to a nearby chair.

“I’d hate for her to try to drive that thing in this kind of weather,” he said. “Even assuming she could get Everett onboard.”

“I agree,” Eric said.

“How far away do they live?” Kristi lifted her grandmother’s leg and shoved a stool under her injured ankle.

“About twenty-five or thirty miles east as the crow flies,” Rory said. “There’s a dirt road that winds around for closer to sixty than thirty miles.”

“Jane also said they had three feet of snow on the ground before this storm hit, another foot’s fallen since.”

The Durfee cabin was about as isolated as you could get, located near the headwaters of the Willow River. Not exactly a tourist destination.

Kristi looked puzzled. “If they are so remote, how do they have electricity to run the radio?”

“A gas-driven generator,” Rory explain. “It’s powerful enough to run the radio or a few lights but that’s about all. They heat with a wood stove and use kerosene lamps.”

“This is one city girl who can’t imagine living that far removed from civilization,” Kristi said with a dubious shake of her head.

Eric brought them back to the crisis at hand. “Would it help if we could get some medicine to him?”

“I told Jane to give him an aspirin if he regained consciousness. But that isn’t going to help much.”

“Sounds like he needs to be in a hospital,” Kristi said. “Preferably in Great Falls. He needs an IV and ought to have resuscitation equipment on hand, electric paddles to restart his heart if he goes into cardiac arrest.”

Justine snorted. “Their cabin doesn’t come equipped with that kind of gear. If someone doesn’t get to Everett pretty darn soon, we could lose him.”

“You have portable equipment here, don’t you, Grandma?”

Rory eyed Kristi, wondering what she was thinking. Getting to the Durfee cabin on a sunny, summer day wasn’t easy. The current conditions would make it a serious challenge.

Leveling her granddaughter a stern look, Justine said, “Don’t even think about it, child. Your mother would kill me if something happened to you.”

“But he may die if he doesn’t get help. Surely there’s some way—”

“There isn’t,” Rory said. “Not for a greenhorn.”

“How about a helicopter?” she persisted.

“Not in this weather. You’d need a tank or a bulldozer to get there, and then it would take hours to go that far.”

Eric held up his hand. “Not so fast. A snowmobile could make it.”

Kristi brightened. “There, you see?”

“You can’t mean to send Kristi out there on her own.” Rory was appalled his brother would even consider the possibility. “For one thing, she’d probably freeze to death before she got a mile from town.

And if she made it that far, she’d probably get lost.”

“Not if you went with her as a guide.”

The room went very still. Only the low hum of the shortwave radio broke the silence. And everyone was looking at Rory.

“I’d go myself, bro,” Eric continued, “but I’ve got to stay in town to organize the disaster plan. Besides, you know the area better than anyone else.”

Rory looked for an escape route. Granted, he could probably find the Durfee cabin in a blizzard, but he didn’t want to put Kristi at risk. He wasn’t worried about himself. He’d gone out in rougher weather than this to rescue or doctor animals. Kristi hadn’t. She didn’t know what she was up against. The threat of frostbite. Getting lost and disoriented in a howling storm. Freezing to death. No way would he let her go on her own.

“How ’bout I take the gear to the Durfees,” he said. “I can do an IV as well as Kristi, and your heart monitor can’t be all that different from the one I use during surgeries.”

“I told you they were proud folks, young man. I can’t see Jane letting a veterinarian treat her husband no matter how bad off he is. If we’re gonna do this, Kristi has to go, too.”

“I’m willing,” Kristi said. “It’s not like I haven’t been on a snowmobile before. I’ll be fine.”

Rory glared at her, but she wasn’t going to back down. What the hell!

“You think Everett will last till morning?” Rory asked.

Justine considered her answer. “His health has otherwise been good, and he’s as strong as a horse. He’s got a better-than-average chance to last out the night.”

“That’s good, because trying to make it to that cabin in the dark and in this storm would be asking for more trouble than anyone could handle. Myself included.”

“I agree,” Eric said.

Rory figured the fat was in the fire, so to speak. No way could he back out. “Okay, we’ll take two snowmobiles, one of them pulling a sled. We can bring Everett back here, then we can figure out how to get him to Great Falls. And Jane can ride double on the second snowmobile. She’ll want to come along with Everett.”

Justine nodded her agreement. “That seems like a reasonable plan to me. I can trust you to take care of Kristi. And with her there, Everett could hold on till the weather clears a bit if necessary. We can be in touch by radio.”

His brother shot Rory a smug look. “Looks like you’ll have your big chance to impress Kristi, bro. Good strategy!”

Both Rory and Kristi argued that wasn’t the situation at all. But they really had no choice. A man was in trouble. He could die. Both of them needed to do what they could to save Everett Durfee.

It was simply their nature, and Rory mentally cursed Kristi’s unselfishness, which would put her at risk as well.

By radio, Doc Justine let Jane know of their plan. There had been no change in Everett’s condition, which brought a renewed frown to the doctor’s forehead.

“The longer he goes without treatment, the greater the damage to his heart could be,” she reminded the rescue team.

“I’ll pack up the medical equipment we’ll need.” Kristi’s gaze slid to Rory. A slight frown tugged her brows together, her expression more determined than worried. Courageous and unselfish.

“I’ll get our cold-weather gear and supplies together,” Rory said. “And I promise I’ll get you there and bring you back safely. You can count on me.”

“I hope so. This time.”