Page 137 of The Highlander's Princess Bride
Her question was answered when a loudcrackand then awhompthundered through the air.
“Heckie, get to the head,” Nicholas snapped as he held fast to the reins. “Victoria, get down.”
The groom tumbled off his perch and raced to secure the bridle of the lead animal. By the time Victoria managed to gather her appalled wits, the horses were already shifting uneasily.
“All right, just hold on,” the earl said grimly.
She grabbed the side rail and watched the ridgeline in horror as cracks splintered the snowpack. A large slab detached and rumbled down the hillside with a roar, a growing cloud of icy mist and debris rising before it. The horses bridled and bucked, but the strong hands of Nicholas and the groom kept them from bolting.
Victoria could do nothing but pray as tons of snow headed straight for the valley floor.
It seemed like forever, but the entire event transpired in only a few minutes. Snow billowed up in a cloud a couple of hundred feet ahead of them, shrouding the pass in mist. Eventually, it subsided, and a strange quiet settled over the glen, broken only by the stamping of hooves and the jangling of bridles. Even the birds were silent.
Victoria peered ahead. “Is the road entirely blocked?”
Heckie glanced back. “Do ye have ’em, sir?”
“Yes, go,” Nicholas barked.
The groom jogged up the road, while she and the earl waited in tense silence.
Soon enough, Heckie trudged back. “It was a small one, but it did the trick. The road’s fair blocked, it is.”
If that was a small one, Victoria had no desire to ever see a large one.
“Any chance of digging through?” Nicholas asked.
“Aye, if we can get enough men and shovels. But it’ll take better part of a day.” Heckie glanced up at the sky. “If this thaw holds, it should melt through in three or four days.”
“Does this happen often?” Victoria asked.
“Usually once or twice a winter,” Nicholas said.
She sighed. “Then it would appear your grandfather really did plan for this. And now no one can get to them in time.” If she wasn’t so furious, she might even admire the old codger’s creative ploy.
Anger poured off Nicholas in waves. “I could throttle him for putting you and Heckie in danger.”
“And you,” she said. “But I suspect he knew exactly where we were when he set it off.”
“She’s right, sir,” Heckie said. “I saw the old fellow up on the path on the other side of the valley. He kenned we were safe back here.”
Suddenly, she wanted to laugh. “You have to give him full marks. It was quite a plan, if entirely mad.”
Nicholas reluctantly smiled. “I would have preferred not to be dragged all the way up here only to be stuck at the end of a valley. He should have left us in blissful ignorance.”
“I suppose that letter was to give us fair warning before the families of the young ladies descended on us.”
“I have no idea what Angus really wants, and at this point I don’t care.” His brief flash of humor was gone. “Heckie, do you think the path is in decent enough shape to walk in?”
“Aye, m’lord. Might be a bit snowy, but the villagers use it when they’re afeared of the snowpack comin’ down. The moonshiners, too.”
“Moonshiners are still on my lands?” Nicholas asked in disbelief.
Heckie shuffled his booted feet. “Sorry, m’lord.”
“If I find out that my blasted brothers are involved—”
Victoria grabbed his arm. “One problem at a time, sir.”
