Montana Sky

evening she made use of the indoor pool with its curved-glass wall and southern exposure. And she’d decided there was something to be said for looking at snow while she lounged in her personal lake with steam rising around her.
    Yet every morning she rose, crossed her eyes at the view of snow out her window, and dreamed of palm trees and lunching at Morton’s.
    She kept up her horseback riding out of sheer stubbornness. It was true that she didn’t climb whimpering out of the saddle with muscles screaming now. And she’d developed a certain wary affection for Mazie, the mare Adam had assigned her. Still, riding out into the wind and the cold wasn’t her idea of high entertainment.
    “Jesus. Jesus Christ.” Tess stepped outside, hunched inside the thick wool jacket, and wished she’d pulled on two pairs of long underwear. “It’s like breathing broken glass. How does anyone stand this?”
    “Adam says it makes you appreciate spring more.”
    To ward off the wind, Lily wrapped her scarf more securely around her neck. Yet she appreciated the winter—the majestic, powerful sweep of it, the way the snow seemed to freeze the peaks into sharp relief against the sheer wall of sky. The dark belt of trees that clung to the rising foothills was so prettily draped with snow, and the silver of rock andridge formed shadows and contrasts, like folds in a stunning blanket.
    “It’s so beautiful. Miles and miles of white. And the pines. The sky’s so blue it almost hurts your eyes.” She smiled at Tess. “It’s nothing like a city snow.”
    “I don’t have much experience with snow, but I’d say this is nothing like anything.” She flexed her fingers in her gloves as they walked toward the horse barn.
    At least the ranch yard was negotiable, Tess thought. Paths to and from paddocks and corrals had been plowed. And the roads had been scraped off as well with a blade attached to one of the four-wheelers. Young Billy had done that, she remembered. He’d appeared to be having the time of his life.
    She watched her breath plume out in front of her and was tempted to complain again. But it was beautiful, coldly beautiful. The sky was such a hard, brittle blue she expected it to crack at any moment, and the mountains that speared into it were so well defined in the clear air that they seemed to have been painted. Sunlight danced off the fields of snow in glittering sparks, and when the wind rushed, it lifted that snow and those dancing lights into the air in thin drifts.
    Palm trees, warm beaches, and mai tais seemed light-years away.
    “What’s she up to today?” Tess pulled out sunglasses and put them on.
    “Willa? She went out early in one of the pickups.”
    Tess’s mouth thinned. “Alone?”
    “She almost always goes alone.”
    “Asking for trouble,” Tess muttered, and stuck her hands in her pockets. “She must think she’s invincible. If whoever killed that man is still around . . .”
    “You don’t think that, do you?” Alarmed, Lily began to scan the fields as if a madman might rise up out of one of the drifts like a grinning gnome. “The police haven’t come up with anything. I thought it had to be someone camped in the hills. With this weather, he couldn’t still be here. And it’s been weeks since—since it happened.”
    “Sure, that’s right.” Though she was far from convinced,Tess saw no reason to set Lily’s nerves more on edge. “Nobody’d camp out in this cold, especially some itinerant maniac. I guess she just gets under my skin.” She narrowed her eyes at the rig heading toward the ranch from the west road. “Speak of the devil.”
    “Maybe if you—” Lily broke off, shook her head.
    “No, go ahead. Maybe if I what?”
    “Maybe if you didn’t try so hard to irritate her.”
    “Oh, it’s not so hard.” Tess’s lips curved in anticipation. “In fact, it’s effortless.” She changed directions as the rig pulled up. “Been out surveying the lower forty?” Tess asked, as Willa rolled down her window.
    “Are you still here? I thought you were going to Big Sky to soak in a Jacuzzi and hustle men.”
    “I’m thinking about it.”
    Willa shifted her attention to Lily. “If Adam’s taking you out, go soon and don’t stay long. Snow’s coming in.” She flicked her eyes toward the sky, the telltale clouds piling together in thick layers. “You may want to tell him I spotted a herd of mule deer northwest of here. About a mile and a half. You might like to