The Cynic and the Wolf by Julie Steimle (ebook voice reader TXT) 📕

Chapter One

The spread of the land was crisp and sloping with blankets of thick snow. Soft powder, mostly. The snow falling over the landscape under the ski lifts shimmered like little pieces of glass in the frigid winter sunlight. Days like this when there was no clouds in the blue sky, things hardened into ice. Audry stared at it, savoring the moment.

She imagined the story of the Snow Queen with her mirror of vanity, flying high over the scenery until it shattered into a million pieces, falling to the earth. The eyes of so many must have been stabbed as the human world lately seemed so cold and heartless.  No one cared about the wildlife, Audry thought. Not half as much as they cared about riding that stupid ski lift.

Audry Chandra Bruchenhaus, at the end of working on her Master's thesis for the past two years, was ready to be done with this project. But in moments like this, she loved that she got to work out in nature, even in the frigid cold. She loved the scarves, the mittens and the breath puffing out around her head. Her knit hat covered her often frizzy brown hair, usually tamed in braids. She wore sunglasses to fight off the glare, and sometimes ski goggles when it was really bad.

As a young college graduate, finished with bachelor degrees in Zoology and Environmental Conservation much earlier than most people all because she had started college at an earlier age due to being homeschooled, Audry was proud of her hard work. She had been able to travel the length and breadth of the United States and some parts of Canada, inspecting various privately and publically owned wildlife reserves which were connected with recreational facilities such as campgrounds, hiking trails, and ski resorts. And though she reported in at the university campus at NYU frequently and helped TA for Professor Jackson in his courses, she loved being outdoors doing this work more.

Currently she was wrapping up her final location at one of the Deacon family owned wildlife reserves connected to a ski lodge. The land wasn't incredibly large, but it did have considerable vegetation and animal life as well as a decent amount of human traffic. She had visited it in the spring, summer, fall, and winter for the past two years along with other portions of land that family owned--taking pictures of animals on the land, setting up time lapse cameras, getting samples of plant life, animal tracks, and finding various nests and dens around the property. It was long, often backbreaking, footsore work which also required lots of data collection and film editing.

Thing was--to be honest about it--while working on her Master's thesis for the past two years, Audry had hoped to see more incriminating evidence that the combination of recreational land connected with wildlife reserves caused more damage than it really had. But she hadn't. At least not on Deacon land. The Deacon family had been genuine when they had said they worked hard to preserve nature and wildlife. Besides the ample no-hunting signs everywhere (especially on the borders of their territory), they employed responsible park rangers who took their jobs seriously. In fact, she had learned the Deacon family personally inspected their reserves, often popping in without notice beforehand. Not that they had ever done it when she was around, but the staff had stories.

Taking pictures of animal tracks in the snow as she went further along, Audry thought about everything she had gathered and researched. She didn’t stay in a reserve for more than two weeks at a time--just long enough to collect and inspect the data from her various outposts within the reserves. It was currently a few days after Christmas. She had had a great holiday celebration at home with her family--her father and her mother buoyant and happy to have her home from NYU, with also a chance to reconnect with her older brother, Doug, his wife Jean, and her niece and nephew--Skyler and Maris. It was heaven and wonderful. But she had to finish this project soon before she could present and defend her thesis to the school. So, she left just a couple days after the holiday and had arrived the day before, taking up her usual accommodations.

According to the agreement form Howard Richard Deacon III had signed (which she had drafted), she had permission to occupy any available room within staff housing at the lodge. If none were available, she would be set up in a usual rented room free of charge. Only a couple times were the staff rooms too full and she was able to get the lodging that people normally paid for. And they were nice. A decent bed. Plenty of space. But there was an open room among the staff when she arrived this time, and though it was not bad accommodations, Audry had hoped with the season being what it was that she could have gotten something a little less 'cozy'. Her current room had a twin bed, a decent-sized wardrobe closet with drawers, a small shower, and access to the community toilet. The room had a decent-sized window and warm blankets. It even had free internet. But Audry loved the mattress in the regular room with the queen-sized bed. Regardless of what she personally thought about the wealthy Deacons, patrons of the lodge bought comfort and quality.

Gazing at the snow on her way back, Audry's breath puffed clouds in front of her. The moon was already rising in the blue sky. No clouds overhead to block it. It would be a waxing gibbous, and perfectly bright for night photographs. Audry wanted to get a few more wildlife pictures in before she had to leave. There was a den of foxes she had been watching, and she had found a warren of rabbits within a copse several yards behind the lodge.

Happy laughter echoed from the not too distant skiers. She had mixed feelings about them. Under her disdainful feelings toward their play when she had to work, she was a little jealous.

Honestly, she loved to ski. And part of her just wanted to ditch everything and join them. Her favorite cousin, Vincent Williams, would take her on these ski trips with him where his mother's family had a lodge. His family was well off--as most Bruchenhauses came from old money and married into old money. But unlike all their Bruchenhaus relatives, the Williams family wasn't snobby. That was why she liked them. Her father had left the old money and married a hippie--her mother--Clover Busche-Waite, which some people said was done just to spite his parents. But they all loved skiing.

Maybe she could take a short break and do a little skiing. She had skis after all.

But that thought was interrupted by the chime of her cell phone. Audry pulled it from deep inside her pocket, and looked at it.

Another text from Harlin, her boyfriend.

*How's it goin' Babe?*

Then another one.

*Miss you*

Audry winced, feeling split inside.

Her on-again, off-again, currently acting-like-a-jerk boyfriend--Harlin Nichols--was a problem. Her chest ached with each text he sent her because she really liked him. But lately she was just so mad it at him.

She texted back: Miss you too. But you don't need to text every half hour.

His response came a little slower.

*Sorry. I was just getting excited, bk u will b coming back soon. I want to take u out.*

Audry's heart thumped. Harlin's dates were amazing. He really knew how to treat a girl. He was so romantic.

About a year back they had first met at a green committee club. She had been volunteering, helping with the fundraiser. She was really good at fundraisers and always came up with great ideas to earn money for their club---so much that some of the club members called her their little entrepreneur, like an insult as some of them saw capitalism as pure evil. Of course Audry did not like that as they were mocking her. And they continued to mock her until Harlin quashed all that talk, saying she just knew how to drive a good cause.

Of course it was a good cause. They were raising funds to take them to an animal habitat that needed clean up. She believed in it. But the fact that he had defended her made all the difference to her. And they had been close since.

Thing was, Harlin also had these eyes. They were crystal blue. And his wavy shoulder length hair was kind of cute. He almost always wore this second-hand in-the-field-dusty fedora on his head and had this cool dream catcher tattoo on his shoulder. He claimed to be part Oneida Indian, but Audry didn't know if he was just pulling her leg as he really didn't look it. Yet he did have a more aquiline nose and a solid jaw. But his tan was full of freckles, and the tops of his hair bleached blonde in the sun. But on top of it all was his smile. It was out-of-this-world amazing. Great teeth and so wide, like Heath Ledger. In fact, he reminded her a lot of Heath Ledger, or how he would have been if he hadn't died after that Batman movie.

As she crossed the snow in her continued journey to collect data, her mind drifted into thought over him. When they had first started dating, Harlin was the consummate gentleman. He actually asked her if she minded if he opened doors for her on dates or if that bothered her. He consulted her opinion on movies they went to see, and they usually planned dates together. And better, on occasion he surprised her with these outstanding moments, like when he took her hiking to the conservatory and had a picnic there. He was also a great dancer and a wonderful kisser. She really had thought he was the one.

Had.

But after a while it turned sour. Audry was not moving as fast as he wanted their relationship to go, and he was ready to go all the way physically. Audry was not. She wanted marriage before going that route and he thought marriage was just a piece of paper.

But they never quite broken up. In fact, they had been seeing other people in between their brief separations because she still liked him—and he still liked her. She just wanted him to change.

She still remembered the argument that had started their breakup all and what had initiated it. These days it was like a painful scratch. It itched and hurt. They had been exchanging texts most of her research trips. Though she liked hearing his voice, it was also like being a fish still on the hook. And she hated that. She needed resolution either way.

When Audry finally reached the ski lodge, she heading around to the back door. She gazed up at the enormous building and smiled at it. It had this rustic log cabin look to it, but it was huge--almost like a castle, though not in its shape. The front had these giant glassy double-paned windows at which patrons could stand in total warmth with a cup of cocoa in hand and stare out at the falling snow. The view from the front porch was spectacular, especially at night when the slopes were lit.

Round about the main lodge were smaller cabins which were be rented out to groups, some of which were like luxury houses, and others which merely had communal bunks and huge floor space for large skiing groups. The smallest cabins were up higher and often rented in the summer to scouting groups like the BSA and Campfire Girls. Audry had been around when a church group held a girl's camp there that last summer--mostly keeping an eye on whether they littered or were setting fires outside