Yesterday Island (Alaska Adventure Romance Book 6)

by Renee Hart

In the darkest part of the night, Ulriq tried to turn himself a bit as he felt too warm. Confused at the warmth pressing against his back, he started to squirm, but a voice at his ear shushed him. Feeling safe, he fell back asleep and the two of them awoke with a renewed sense of hope. Marveling at the warmth of their small cave, Iliana praised Ulriq's choice of sleeping quarters.

  “I can’t take credit for this,” Ulriq confessed. “Look!”

  Iliana turned to see what he was pointing at and saw a few long, white hairs frozen into the ice around the cave.

  “What is it,” she asked wrinkling her nose.

  “I think Nanuq, the great white bear came and lay down next to me last night. He kept us warm and saved our lives.”

  Iliana’s eyebrows rose up and she stared at Ulriq in surprise. He stood up and looked around the area. There was no sign of the bear in any direction. He couldn’t even find any footprints in the snow. Shrugging his shoulders, he thought maybe it had all just been a dream. Who would believe such a story anyway?

  Repacking their sled, they tried to ignore the growling of their stomachs. The last of their food was eaten for lunch yesterday. Ulriq had no idea of what they could find to eat out here on the ice. They started walking without talking. They hadn’t gone very far when Iliana spotted a fish frozen into the ice. Pointing it out to Ulriq, the two of them laughed as he poked and pried it free from its prison.

  “Breakfast is served, my princess,” Ulriq said as he sliced some fillets off the fish.

  The two of them walked on happily munching on the unexpected bounty. This day was getting off to a very good start. Their hearts were light as wind.

  By the end of that day, the first island was within sight. Ulriq was no longer concerned with finding the direction and focused his attention on the ice. The cracks and crevices were still a threat, but the ice appeared solid for as far as they could see. They found another hollowed out ice cave and settled in for the night.

  As the night before, Ulriq awoke in the middle of the night to find himself pressed into the warm cave by a large furry body. He made no effort to escape this time, but easily fell back to sleep. He was thankful for the kindness of Nanuq and the legacy of his father. Their lives were spared by the two of them.

  They reached the first island on the sixth day. The people living there were surprised at their appearance. Many of them were the villagers from the isle and they recognized Ulriq after a time. They were very surprised to hear his story of traveling across the ice. Many of them gathered to hear their tale and plied them with food as they talked.

  The next morning, they headed across the ice to home. It wasn’t very far in light of the distance they’d gone before and they made land well before dark. Ulriq went first to inquire of his mother and found her well. Her husband didn’t speak to them, but stared at the two of them suspiciously. He didn’t want to believe her son had returned. It was almost as if Ulriq had died in his mind.

  They decided to stay in the village that night and head out to Domiq in the morning. No one in the village seemed to know anything about the condition of the lodge. Ulriq’s mother just looked at him and shook her head when he asked her. The lodge was irrelevant to them.

  At least the villagers had food this year. His mother fed them both, pushing extra food at Iliana as she eyed her daughter-in-law’s belly without saying anything more. Neither of them caught on to her interest.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Kat found herself thinking about Ulriq and Iliana several times during the next week. She marveled at the kind of love that could bridge the gap between a Russian princess and a simple man. Sharing bits and pieces of the story with her students, she could see their interest growing.

  Their world was quite small and no one thought much about walking across the ice. They’d been told their whole lives it was dangerous or even impossible. Besides, they had planes and helicopters and snow machines. What kind of crazy person would go walking out there on the ice with polar bears and all the other dangers?

  She told them about the lodge and how it had been built by a Russian trader with trees from the mainland. Most of them had only seen it from afar. It was like a whole other world from the small village they lived in and yet it was only a short ride away on J.T.’s UTV.

  Kat wondered at the events that kept the people in the village away from the lodge. Perhaps the answer lies in the journal. She hoped that nothing would keep her from finishing reading the rest of the story.

  By Friday afternoon, she was happy to head back to the lodge with J.T. She was relieved to see his face appear in the doorway as the last student was heading out.

  “Are you ready,” he asked. “I’ve got to get you out there and hurry back. I’ve got a ‘situation’” he said with a shy grin.

  “From the look on your face,” Kat teased, “I’d say it’s more like you’ve got a ‘date’!”

  J.T. just grinned a bit wider as he handed her a helmet. She was happy for him.

  Lana was waiting at the door for them when they drove up. She looked as excited about their arrival as Kat and waved them anxiously inside. Giving both of them a welcoming hug, she looked surprised when J.T. explained that he had to go right back.

  “I hope everything’s all right,” Lana said as she walked inside with Kat.

  “Everything’s fine,” Kat said, “he’s got a date!”

  The two of them looked at each other and smiled.

  “Do you know who he’s dating,” Lana asked.

  “No, but I’m sure it’s not Marissa,” Kat said. “I saw her heading off with Jim after work. I think they’re back together or something.”

  “That’s a relief,” Lana sighed.

  The two of them headed right to the sitting room. Lana had a steaming pot of cocoa and a plate of freshly made cookies already set up.

  “I was hoping you would read a bit and then we’ll have some supper,” she said. “Is that okay with you? I’m dying to know what happens to them.”

  “Me too. I couldn’t stop thinking about them all week. I even shared some of the story with my students.” Kat hesitated. “I hope that’s okay with you.”

  “Of course! This is really a story that belongs to the whole isle. After all, Ulriq was the son of a great leader and may have become a leader in his own right. We have to finish the story to find out.”

  Picking up the journal, the two of them sat down and got ready to read.

  “Whoa! Wait a minute! You’re not starting without me, are you,” came a voice from the doorway.

  Kat looked up to see Alexei coming into the room. She was surprised to find him still here even though this was his home. She thought he’d gone off somewhere ‘pirating”.

  His mother gave him a pleased smile and motioned for him to sit next to her. With everyone settled, Kat found her place and started to read.

  ***

  As they drew near to the lodge, Ulriq searched for signs that anyone had been in the area. There weren’t any tracks and the snow lay unbroken before and around the building. The silence was broken only by the howling of the wind coming in over the ice as they struggled through the deep snow with their small sled.

  Ulriq’s mother had given them some food, but he knew it would be up to him to find more for them. Since Iliana’s father was intending to buy the supplies they needed for the winter, there was very little here in the house for them. He knew they were still facing some challenges if they were to make it through the winter. The one thing he didn’t know was that soon there would be another mouth to feed.

  Their son was born during the earliest part of spring just after the birds arrived. The proud parents told him many stories as he was growing up, but his favorite one was how they’d traveled across the ice. He learned all of their stories by heart so he could tell them to his own children some day for that was the way of the People.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Kat paused and looked up at the others.

  “There’s not much more her
e,” she said. “I can make out some names and dates that seem to be a list of the family photos Iliana brought from Russia.”

  “It’s an amazing story,” Lana said quietly. “I think we all know how it ended. Their son, my grandfather married my grandmother and they had two children…”

  “Two children,” Alexei asked.

  “Yes, my mother and my uncle. He was a soldier and died in the war. My mother married my father and they had two children…”

  “You have a brother or a sister,” Kat asked.

  “I had a brother. He died in an accident when we were children. It was never explained to me,” Lana said sadly. “My mother said there was a curse on this family over the men, but I don’t believe it.”

  “Neither do I,” Alexei added with a gentle smile. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here, now would I?”

  “Well, you nearly weren’t here,” Lana retorted. “If it hadn’t been for J.T., you would have died that day. Thank God, he learned how to swim!”

  “What happened, if I may ask,” Kat said.

  “When Alexei and J.T. were fighting over that girl, this one fell over the cliff and into the sea. J.T. dove into the sea after him and pulled him out. He’d gashed his face open pretty badly and the two of them came home covered in blood. I nearly passed out at the sight of them,” Lana grimaced. “It was a pretty scary time for all of us.”

  “Well, it definitely adds to his mystique as a pirate,” Kat laughed.

  The two of them stared at her in shocked silence.

  “Uh...I mean..,” Kat mumbled.

  Alexei broke out laughing.

  “You think I’m a pirate,” he barely got out before laughing some more.

  “Sorry,” Kat said. “It’s just something my students told me. I didn’t really believe them, but I saw the lights out in the Strait and then you appeared at the house…”

  “Is that what the people in the village think about my son?”

  “I, uh, can’t speak for everyone, but really, it’s just a bunch of silly rumors,” Kat broke off her words and looked at them helplessly.

  “I like the idea of being a pirate, but I’m sorry to tell you the truth is so much less exciting. I’m an oceanographer. I have a small, private submarine and my job is to map the underwater currents in this region. That’s why we have small groups of guests in and out of here. They’re scientists and researchers using the data I gather to further their studies.”

  “Oh!” Kat sat back in her chair feeling very silly. She couldn’t have been more wrong about something if she’d tried. It had never occurred to her to simply ask him about his work like people would do normally. She’d just gone with the assumption the rumors were true.

  Lana stood up and said it was time to make them all something to eat. She headed to the kitchen.

  “Kat, would you be willing to translate Iliana’s journal into English for us? I’d be willing to pay you whatever you think is fair. My mother would so much appreciate it,” Alexei added, hoping to convince her to say yes.

  Kat thought that was a wonderful idea. She would have done it without any payment at all, but she didn’t want to insult him for offering.

  “I’ll do it on one condition,” she ventured.

  “What’s that?”

  “That you come to the school and do a presentation for my class about your work as an oceanographer.”

  Alexei thought about it for a moment and then stuck out his hand.

  “Deal!”

  “Great! I’ll set up a date and do some pre-teaching so they can ask good questions. I think they’ll love meeting a real pirate, uh, oceanographer,” she grinned. “By the way, where do you keep your ship, sub?”

  “I thought you read it in the journal. There’s a series of caves here and one of them is under the house. It opens out to the sea during the lowest tides and it’s like having a private parking garage. It’s a perfect place for a submarine. We try to keep it pretty secret, because of military concerns mainly. J.T. tends to worry about it more than anyone since he’s charged with keeping the peace out here.”

  “So how will you be able to share that with my students?”

  “I’m not going to ruin all of their mysteries. I’m only going to tell them about the ocean currents and how that affects them. The submarine is a tool. The location, well, that’s on a need to know basis, if you get my drift.”

  Kat looked at him blankly as he grinned back at her.

  “Sorry. Bad oceanographer joke…drift…get it?”

  Kat swiped a hand over her head and groaned.

  “Right over my head. Hope my students are a bit quicker.”

  A call from the kitchen let them know supper was ready.

  ***

  Each winter, Ulriq would take his son on the Great Hunt with the villagers. Nanuq no longer came to give a tally, but it didn’t matter. There were so few families left in the village, their hunt was far smaller than ever before. They’d gone back to the old way of taking only what they needed to survive.

  Some of the villagers pressed him to come back and be their leader, but Ulriq wanted no part of it. His heart for the People had changed and he no longer felt like he could lead them. Most of the Elders had died or left and the village was full of strange faces to him.

  When his mother died, his last connection to them was severed and he stayed away from the village more and more. His life was at Domiq with Iliana and his son. His skill at carving ivory brought him a small measure of fame with the oriental traders. This gave them some freedom to trade for food and other goods. Their simple life provided them with all that they needed to be happy.

  Their son was twelve when Nanuq came to talk to him while he walked alone on the rocks one day. He hurried home to tell his father the words of the great white bear. Ulriq warned him never to speak of this to anyone else. The old ways had been forgotten and no one wanted to be reminded of what had been lost. This story was for their ears alone to hear.

  Epilogue

  Kat pressed through the crowd trying to get to her gate in the busy airport.

  “Kat! Kat!”

  A voice calling her name in the crowd caused her to stop and look around. Suddenly, she caught sight of a familiar face.

  “J.T.! Look at you,” she crowed spotting him with a baby on one arm and a little girl hanging off his trouser leg. She hurried over to get a closer look.

  “I see you’ve been busy.”

  J.T. blushed and grinned at her. He made the introductions as his wife came up and rescued the baby hanging off his arm.

  “What are you doing here in Anchorage,” he asked.

  “I’m just passing through. I’m on my way home from Russia again. I have to leave every few months because of the visa deal.”

  “Ah, yes. I get it,” J.T. said.

  “So, how’s your mother doing? I bet she loves being a grandmother. She told me once how important it was to her.”

  “She’s good and you’re right. She’s a wonderful grandmother. She comes down to the village once a week to volunteer at the school and our children spend a lot of time at the lodge with her. I know she’d love to see you and hear about your adventures in Russia. We all would.”

  “That’s not a bad idea. I’ll have to take a look at my schedule and figure out how to work that in, but I’m sure it can be arranged,” Kat said. “How does Alexei like being an uncle?”

  “I think he likes it,” J.T. admitted. “By the way, he’s working with this movie producer to have Iliana’s journal made into a movie. He said that if this happens, you’ll get full credit for your work. You could be famous some day!”

  Kat laughed at the look on his face.

  “I don’t think translators get to be famous. It’s just nice to get a mention in a real movie. I’m sure it will be wonderful. The story certainly changed my life. It gave me the incentive to learn more about my origins and my own history. It’s slow going over there, but the people do love to tell their stories. I’ve really
enjoyed my work in recording them for future generations.”

  An announcement over the loudspeaker broke into their conversation.

  “Oh no, that’s my flight,” Kat said. “I’ve got to go. It’s been great meeting your family. I’ll see what I can do with my schedule and get in touch with Lana about visiting.”

  Giving her a quick hug as a send-off, J.T. stood and watched her go once again. He knew she probably wouldn’t come for a visit. Lana had asked her several times. It was clear to all of them, the young woman was in search of something that went far beyond Yesterday.

  THE END

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  Renee Hart

  About The Author

  Renee Hart is the author of the Alaska Adventure Romance Series. She writes clean Alaskan adventure romance and romantic comedy. Renee lives in the Alaskan Bush with her husband and their dog and cat. When shes not writing you can find her quilting, baking bread or sipping hot cocoa by the wood stove with a good book.