Walk on Earth a Stranger

Chapter One

I hear the deer before I see him, though he makes less noise than a squirrel—the gentle crunch of snow, a snapping twig, the soft whuff as he roots around for dead grass. I can hardly believe my luck.

As quietly as falling snow, I raise the butt of my daddy’s Hawken rifle to my shoulder and peer down the muzzle. A crisscross of branches narrows my view. The deer must be allowed to wander into my sights, but that’s all right. I am patient. I am a ghost.

I’ve tucked myself into a deadfall, the result of an ancient, dying oak looming above me. Snow fills the cracks between branches, creating a barrier to the wind. I can barely see out, but I’m almost warm. The snow around me clinks and tinkles like bells, melting in the early morning warm snap. The hem of my skirt and the petticoats underneath are ragged and soaked. If the girls at school saw me now, I’d hear no end of it, but it doesn’t matter. We have to eat.

Which means I have to make this shot. If only I could conjure up fresh game whenever we needed. Now that would be a useful magic.

Finally, a deep, tawny chest and a white throat slide into view. He bends a black nose to the ground, and I glimpse tall, curving antlers—at least three points on each side. His neck is long and elegant, feathered with winter fur. He’s so close I can almost see the pulse at his neck. A beautiful animal.

I pull on the rear trigger—soft, steady pressure, just like Daddy taught me. The click as it sets is barely audible, but the buck’s head shoots up. I refuse to breathe.

I am patient. I am a ghost.

He takes a single dancing step, nose twitching. But I’m downwind, and after a moment he returns to grazing. I shift my finger to the hair trigger. The deadfall blocks my view of his skull, so I aim for the lungs.

It will only take the slightest pressure now, the effort of an exhale.

Church bells clang. The buck startles a split second before my gun cracks the air. He crumples, flails in the snow, scrambles to his feet, and darts away, tail sprung high.

“Blast!”

I rip off the ramrod from the barrel as I plunge through the windfall. In good conditions, I can load and shoot again in less than half a minute. Though my fingers are chilled, I might still bag him if I’m quick.

Of course, I wouldn’t need to reload if someone was hunting with me, ready with a second shot. Everything’s harder when you do it alone.

I’m reaching into my satchel for my powder horn when crimson catches my eye. Bright red, sinking wet and warm into the snow. He left a puddle where he fell, and a trail of lighter drops to show me the way. I flanked him good.

I follow at a brisk walk, loading as I go—first gunpowder, then a ball nestled in paper wadding, all shoved down the barrel with my ramrod. I won’t waste another shot on the deer, but there’s a big catamount been prowling these hills. In a winter this mild, the scent of fresh blood might even draw a bear. It’s not quite the hungering time—when a critter that’s naught but fur and fangs and ribs will attack a near-grown girl—but I’ll take no chances.

The trail veers sharply to the right. I pass a bloody depression in the snow where the deer’s legs must have buckled again. I stop to load the cap and rotate the hammer carefully into place, then I lift my skirt and petticoats with my free hand and run—smooth as I can so as not to jostle my gun. I have to reach that deer before anything else does. Never bring home meat that’s already been et on, Daddy always says.

The blood trail plunges down a steep bank thick with young birches. Crimson smears darken their white trunks. My wounded deer is heading toward the McCauley claim, where Jefferson lives with his good-for-nothing da. No sense paying a visit after my hunt, because they’re certainly not home. Jeff’s da attends church every single Sunday, no matter what, on the misguided notion that regular bench sitting makes him decent.

The slope ends at a shallow but swift creek. The water’s edge glitters with ice, but the creek’s center runs clear and clean. My boots are well oiled. If I’m quick, I can cross before the water seeps into my stockings. I hitch my skirt and petticoats higher and plunge in.

Midway across, I freeze.

The gold sense sparks in the back of my throat, sharp and hard. It creeps down my throat and into my chest, where it diffuses into a steady buzz, like dancing locusts. My stomach heaves once, but I swallow against the nausea. We don’t have enough food in the cellar for me to go wasting a meal.

I force my belly to relax, to embrace the sensation. Best to let it wash over me, through me. Allow it to settle in like an old friend come to stay.

It’s only bad like this the first time I’m near something big. A nugget, usually, but sometimes a large vein. From habit, I close my eyes and focus hard, turning in place to find where the sensation is strongest. If I hit it just right, it will be like a string tugging my chest, like something sucking . . . There. I open my eyes. Just across the creek, behind a young, winter-stripped maple. The blood trail leads in the same direction.

All at once I’m shivering, my feet icy with cold. I splash through the creek and scramble up the opposite bank, which is slick with snowmelt. How long was I standing in the water? It seemed like only moments. I wriggle my toes inside my soaked stockings, hoping I haven’t ruined my boots. We can’t afford another pair right now. Good thing I wore my old hunting skirt. The hem is already a disaster and won’t suffer much from being dragged through the stream.

At the top of the bank, I check my rifle, and it seems dry. At least I had sense enough to not let it dangle in the water. As I step around the maple’s trunk, the gold sense grows stronger, but I ignore it because the deer lies in a small depression banked with bloody snow.

He pushes up with his forelegs, antlered head straining in the opposite direction. I whip up my rifle just in case, but he collapses back into the snow, his sides heaving.

I prop my gun against the tree and pull the knife from the belt at my waist. “I’m so sorry,” I whisper, approaching cautiously. Neck or kidney? He’ll fight death until the very last moment. They always do. I know I would.

His antlers still pose too great a threat for me to slice his jugular. He squirms uselessly as I near, head tossing. It needs to be a quick thrust, aimed just right. I raise the knife.

My hand wavers. The gold sense is so strong now, its buzzing so merciless that I feel it down to my toes. It’s almost good, like being filled with sunshine. It means gold is somewhere within reach.