For much of the day the girls were left alone. Three girls in blue gingham long dresses moving around the cabin trying to be helpful. They were guests, but guests who had been rescued and owed their lives to the men. The least they could do wash sweep, and wash and tidy. They could hardly do things outside in the snow.
Of course they talked. Talked of their rescue, their deliverance by seeing that chink of light from the single window. They could so easily have missed it, and what might, or rather, would have happened if they had not seen it, and whether they were being searched for. They had not heard the sound of helicopters or anything. Would hope already be fading? Would their friends realise there was little hope for girls out in weather like that which swirled outside the log cabin's window.
And then there were the men to discuss - and what they had done. The men were the main topic of conversation.
"Will they... again... tonight?" It was Cess. "They are so big."
"They are that!" Rachie's quick response had the other girls looking at her.
"Well, they are, um, very male."
"Bigger than Ed?"
"Oh, err, much."
"They are bigger than Joe too," said Cess. "I thought he was big. Oh, what will he think of all this?"
The thought of boyfriends turned the girls silent for a while. Tanny thought of Lennie as she stared out of the window at the whiteness all around. What he must be feeling now. Poor darling Lennie. So kind, so considerate, so keen to be reasonable, so ready to take offence at any suggestion of any infringement of women's rights. She could not see the men of the cabin having much truck with those! Poor sweet Lennie. She pictured him walking towards her across the floor in that hotel they had stayed in Indianapolis when she had followed him on a business trip; coming from the bathroom, pink, rather hairless, and erect. They had not had intercourse then, that had come later. It had been so lovely lying together end to end on the bed, his lips seeking her sex and she taking his penis in her mouth. No words, just sucking and licking until they had both come. Tanny closed her eyes remembering the feel of Lennie's penis in her mouth, the touch of his tongue all around and in her sex and the inevitable hot spurting. Of course she had swallowed. She liked doing that. Liked the feel of a man's penis in her mouth. Liked that other sort of intercourse. It was good to suck.
Lennie's a normal penis, but it did not measure up to Abe and his fellows - not at all. In her mind's eye the image of her holding Lennie's penis up against Abe's. It would tower over it and be so visible either side of Lennie's, perhaps quite deflationary to his ego and - Tanny could but smile - his erection.
"Lennie, this is Abe, he rescued me."
"Err, pleased to meet you."
Tanny turned from the window. Were the other girls feeling the same? Were they too finding the maleness of Abe, Grill and Jed unnerving? She could feel a stirring, a moistening under her gingham dress. It was just a natural female reaction, she could not help it.
"Yeah, Lennie doesn't measure up either. More than a knob's worth."
"Tanny!"
"And, sure, they're going to do the same tonight."
"They mustn't." It was Cess being unrealistic and impractical. Rachie told her so.
"Don't be silly, Cess, how can we stop them? We can hardly run away, escape if you like. Yes, we've our boots, yes, are things are dry, yes, we can take furs, but which way to go and how are we going to move in a straight line in this blizzard even if we knew where to go? They're going to want to have us and don't strike me as the sort of men who don't get what they want! I wish they'd shower first though. I missed not having my morning shower. Doesn't feel right."
"No shower," said Tanny, "if you want them clean then we'd better boil the water for the tin bath like they did. I bet they don't normally bother. They're men after all! If we want our men clean we'd better bathe them."
"Our men?"
"Well, you know what I mean."
Guessing when the men would reappear was not easy but they had pots of water warm and ready. Water they could reheat when the men came home. Home to find the girls had been doing girl things around the house, sweeping, fetching water from the well (another rope to that) and cooking. There were not, though, flowers in a vase. That, they could not achieve! Supper was ready.
A noise of dogs, of barking and the men were back. There was blood on their furs. They had been hunting and butchering. The skinned leg of an animal dropped on the table. The girls recoiled.
"For stewing..." It was obvious what was meant.
Their pleasure in finding the girls had cooked supper evident, their amusement at seeing the cabin so clean and tidy very clear, their readiness for the food unsurprising. They sat and ate with the girls, girls who had insisted they washed their hands first, indeed had washed them for them - they had plenty of hot water after all.