“Well, now that you are awake, would you like to hear?”
Her voice was weak. “Hear what?”
“What I have been itching to tell you.” He eased himself down on the bed beside her. “How the walk to your parents’ house with Thomas went.”
“I am not sure.” She hiccupped. “Do I?”
Joseph took off his hat and tossed it across the room with an expert flip of his wrist. It landed in the chair. “May I lie down with you?”
“Mmhmm.”
Joseph situated himself beside his fraa. “Thomas was the star of the night. As we started for your parents’ house, the bear was there. It seemed as though she was waiting.”
Rebekah tried to clear her throat. “Did you take the buggy?”
“No.” Joseph shook his head. “If the bear had spooked Smiley, we might have found ourselves back in Canada before we got her calmed down.”
Rebekah nodded. “That makes sense.”
“So, Thomas and I began our trek down the path and I instructed him to just ignore her. He did as he was asked, however, the bear came with us.”
Rebekah cocked an eyebrow. “She did?”
Joseph nodded. “And you were right, there was nothing at all threatening about her presence. She acted more like a big farm dog.”
Rebekah placed her hand on his. “Then what?”
“Well as we walked on, she moved from behind us to ahead of us on the trail. We just kept going and she never looked our way, not once. Not even sideways. She just trudged on. Then, about halfway to your folks’ house, she turned off the trail and disappeared into the woods.”
Joseph’s hand was warm beneath hers. “How strange.”
“That is exactly what Thomas said.” He stroked her hand with his thumb. “Well, when she disappeared, we looked at each other and kept walking. But when we did not follow her, she came back and sat down in front of us. Some people may have taken that to be threatening I suppose, but I did not think she was threatening us. She did not whoof, she did not growl. She did not even make eye contact with us.”
“Was Thomas afraid?”
Joseph smiled at her. “What do you think?”
Rebekah returned it. “That is true. Silly question on my part. Of course, he was not afraid. Carry on.”
“Well, as we stood there with this giant mater black bear in our path, obviously blocking our way, I thought about you.”
Rebekah sucked in a breath, suddenly sheepish. “For making such a fuss?”
“Yes.” Joseph stopped stroking and gave her fingers a squeeze. “I remembered what you said. You know, about the look on her face. It was even more obvious close up.”
She exhaled the breath she did not realize she had been holding. “So, what did you do?”
Joseph shrugged. “We followed her.”
“Followed her?”
“Yes.”
Rebekah eased up. “Into the woods? With Thomas?”
“I was shocked, too.” He shook his head. “I did not sense we were in any danger, or I would not have gone, much less taken Thomas. Believe me.”
Rebekah relaxed a bit, but not much.
“If that shocks you, that is nothing compared to what happened next.” Joseph no longer seemed nervous. “I wish you had been there with me to experience it.”
Tingles of exhilaration flitted about in her stomach. “What happened?”
His eyes were bright and wide in the darkness. “Well, I heard a squeak, and then Thomas spotted it.” He stared at her for her reaction.
“Spotted what, Joseph?”
“The cub!” His voice rose with excitement. “And you will not believe it. But its leg…it was caught in a snare.”
Rebekah turned her hand over inside Joseph’s and, with a squeeze, and snuggled up against him.
“Thomas walked right over and freed that squeaking bopplin.”
Rebekah shifted, uneasy. She was not at all sure how she felt about Thomas approaching a trapped cub with the mother nearby. Before she could voice her fears, Joseph continued.
“And the mater bear? She stood right beside me the whole time. Not looking at Thomas. Not looking at me. Just…waiting.”
Tears pricked Rebekah’s eyes and her lower lip quivered.
