“What were you doing in Galena?” she asked.
“Deliveries.” He didn’t explain beyond that, and anyway, she was taken with a wire cage set up in front of the feed shop. Dawna Summers was sitting behind it reading a newspaper, but inside were three little balls of fur.
“Puppies,” Elyse said on a breath as she picked up their pace double-time. “I just want to pet one. Just one, and then we can get what we need. I’ll just be thirty seconds. A minute, tops.”
Ian was chuckling that warm sound behind her. His voice was easy and relaxed when he said, “Woman, pet those dogs as long as you want. I like that you go mushy for animals.”
“I am not mushy,” she argued half-heartedly. Elyse turned her attention to the woman sitting behind the puppies. “Hi, Dawna.”
“Elyse!” The older woman stood and gave her a spine-cracking hug. “I haven’t seen you in town in forever. Heaven’s girl, you are skinny as a stick. Are you ill?”
“No, I’m fine. It was just a hard winter.”
“Well, land’s child, winter has been over for a while.” Dawna pushed her glasses farther up her nose and cast a quick glance over Elyse’s shoulder, then leaned forward and lowered her voice. “Do you need help? I don’t have much, but I can spare a couple of rabbits Robby snared.”
And this—this right here—was why Elyse loved this place. She’d been too proud to ask for help, but that didn’t mean people weren’t willing. Dawna and her husband, Robby, struggled too, but she hadn’t even thought twice about offering Elyse some of her hard trapped food. “No, Dawna, you keep your rabbits. I got me a husband now. Or a fiancé, rather.”
Dawna’s gray, bushy eyebrows nearly lifted to her hairline. “The advertisement landed you this strapping fellow behind you?”
The strapping man in question stepped forward and offered his hand for a shake. “Name’s Ian.”
Dawna shook his hand slowly, her eyes bulging round from behind her thick glasses. “You’re the new man of the Abram’s homestead?”
“I am,” he said in that rich tone of his. “I’ll get her healthy again.” There was steely promise in his voice that brought a grin to Elyse’s face. Oh, she believed a man who gave oaths with conviction like Ian did.
“Can I pet one of your puppies?”
“Oh, sure, hon. Business is so slow today. Serves me right for trying to sell them on a Tuesday. My Sheba had five of them, but lost two.”
“Oh, poor momma and poor babies,” Elyse crooned as she picked up a little gray and white one, cradling it on its back like an infant. The sleepy pup whined and wiggled, but eventually gave into Elyse’s affection and went limp in her arms.
“Malamute or husky?” Ian asked, picking up one by the scruff of the neck and lifting its lips to study its teeth.
“Husky. My husband and I breed sled dogs. Some of our pups have gone on to place in the top five in the Iditarod.”
Ian grunted thoughtfully and replaced the pup, only to pick the last one up and check its teeth, too. This one, the runt from what Elyse could tell, growled at Ian.
A low laugh came from deep within Ian’s chest, and if Elyse didn’t know any better, he sounded impressed. “Snuggle this one, woman, and see if you like him.”
“He won’t be any good for pulling a sled,” Dawna warned. “Too runty, and we had to hand-feed him when he wouldn’t eat. Weak composition. He’s a fighter, sure, but he won’t ever have the endurance for a team dog.”
Elyse put the gray, softly snoring pup down and took the little black and white ball of fluff from Ian. One of his eyes was blue, and one was a soft brown, and when she made kissy sounds, he barked a tiny ferocious sound. “Oh, he is a handsome little scrapper,” she crooned as the pup licked all over her face and wiggled his little curled tail.
Dawna grinned. “If you take that runt off my hands today, I’ll only charge you half for him.”
Elyse shook her head sadly and said, “Oh, we can’t buy—”
“How much?” Ian asked.
“A hundred-sixty bucks, and he’s yours. I’ll even throw in a bag of puppy food I brought with me.”
“Ian, that’s too much, and he’s another mouth to feed.”
“I’ll make sure you both have enough to eat. I think we should have a dog, especially in the winter when the wolves get bad.” The gritty way he said wolves blasted chills across her forearms.
“Wolves?” She frowned. She heard their howling plenty, sure, but they’d never approached the cabin.
A flash of emotion washed over Ian’s face like a wave, there and gone before she could decipher what it meant.
“You have tracks all over your land, and a good dog will come in handy in the cold months when the predators get hungry and too brave. A couple warning barks could save you from a bad situation.”