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He handed the glass to Ailie and she held it to her eye. The setters were approaching Will, who was bending over the deer’s carcass gutting the animal for the drag back to the horses. “Aye, first kill of the day.” She gave the glass to Nash and they set off toward her brother.

Many things had prevented them from taking a deer in the preceding hours. The hinds had been wily, to be sure, but the one time Nash had spied one, he could not get a clear shot. Martin had been tracking another, but as he went to shoot, a hind stepped behind the one he had looked to cull. Ailie herself had spotted a deer on a crag, but it was a healthy specimen, worth keeping to spawn future generations.

Such was the beauty of the snow-covered moors that she had not minded. She considered them fortunate to have encountered any hinds at all. One could stalk deer for days and see none. Besides, they had witnessed the sun rise over the vast winter landscape, the pale light glistening on the snow, a sight so dramatic, so magnificent, their guests from London had stared open-mouthed at the wonder of it.

Martin went to help Kit off the rock as Ailie and Nash proceeded ahead, walking side by side.

“Deer stalking is not for the impatient, is it?” he asked.

She laughed. “Nay. But it provides much time to contemplate.”

“So it does.” He gave her an intense look that made her blush. Was she the object of his contemplation? She hoped so, but still she worried. She had fallen for the Englishman, but had he fallen for her?

They caught up to their companions and Goodness and Mercy came at her call. Will and Nick were dragging the hind’s carcass from the other side of the small burn where it had fallen to where Ailie and Nash waited with Tara.

The setters, scenting the deer, strained toward the kill but remained by her side. “Your shot, Will?”

“Tara’s,” he answered, looking chagrined. “I’m just helping retrieve it.”

Ailie turned to see a broad smile on Tara’s face beneath the slouch hat Will had given her. The breeze blew her dark golden hair. With her brown woolen jacket, breeches and boots, she appeared every bit the deer-stalker she was. Ailie had grown to like Nick’s wife. Perhaps it was as Nash had told her. They were kindred spirits.

“Congratulations,” she said to Tara.

Nick smirked. “There’ll be no living with her now.”

“Nick,” Tara gleefully replied, “just think how jealous my brothers will be.”

“A lucky shot,” Nick teased.

“Of course, it was,” admitted Tara, “but don’t be telling them that.”

Martin and Kit, trailing behind, now joined them. “At least one of us has taken a deer,” said Martin.

Goodness and Mercy lifted their noses into the air, then froze, their tails up. Following their line of sight, Ailie spotted two hinds setting off on a slant up the steepest part of the hill on the other side of the burn. “Will!” she said just loud enough for him to hear.

He acknowledged her words by slowly raising his shotgun to his shoulder and taking aim. Nash, standing between Ailie and Will, poised his gun for the second shot.

As they watched, the deer climbed ever higher, displacing snow. Suddenly, the snow higher up gave way, tumbling down in a great rush, overwhelming the two hinds.

With a thunderous roar, mounds of snow cascaded down the hill in an avalanche, carrying the hinds with it. Great clouds of snow, like the white foam on waves, billowed up to blot out the sky.

Will and Nash dropped their shotguns from their shoulders.

“Everyone back!” shouted Will, his steps receding from the burn as he handed his shotgun to Nick and dragged the hind carcass with him.

Nick and Tara moved with Will. Martin, his arm around Kit, ushered his wife to safety.

Ailie had been so fascinated by the sight she had failed to move. Goodness and Mercy barked a warning. She was just about to follow her companions when Nash grabbed hold of her arms and drew her away from the tumbling snow, spraying them with a white mist as it came closer.

“You can gawk from a safe distance but not here!”

His words were harsh but the concern she detected in his voice warmed her heart. Admittedly, she had been slow to move. She allowed him to pull her from danger back to the base of the hill behind them. Then he took a stance in front of her as if to guard her from any assault. Not even Will would be so daring in his move to protect her. He might shout at her, compelling her to act, but escort her to safety and guard her person? Only Nash had done that.

Will assured them they would be safe standing on the lee side of the burn up against the hill.

Ailie watched as the avalanche of snow thundered to the bottom of the hill, dumping the last of its frozen cargo into the burn and just beyond it. Her companions stared in wonder.

When the avalanche ended, the glen turned eerily silent, the absence of sound no less dramatic than the thundering Ailie had felt in her bones a moment before.