Quietly, they lie there, composing their breath together as the fire crackled. The embers were cooling noticeably and the fire was ready for some restoking. André wriggled slightly to shift his weight from her tiny body, putting his knee into something damp. The wet splotches beneath them had chilled in the night air causing him to wince and adjust his stance further.
There was a crack, then a pop, then another crack. Above, wispy clouds drifted slowly across the wild smearing of stars. There was another loud pop, then a crackle, followed by a snap and another crackle. At the last sound André perked up, rising to his elbows and knees, his ears keen to hear more. It hadn't come from the fire, it had come from the woods a few yards away. Confirming his suspicions, he spotted a lantern glow flickering between the trunks and branches. Someone was coming.
"Up," he whispered to his wife as he rolled off, yanked up his pants and began to relace them.
"Brunet? Brunet?" a voice whispered from the dark as the lantern emerged from the wood and approached along the narrow footpath.
"Pepin," Brunet responded sharply and quietly. Brunet's business partner - or soon to be former business partner if he wasn't already - was dropping in unannounced to pay a visit. Pepin revealed himself next to the dwindling orange flames, a man very much in appearance like Tremblay, with a dark scraggly beard and a couple of missing teeth. His face was flatter and rounder and his physique was stouter and more pudgy, wrapped in laced up bush leathers. He carried a burdened pack on his back with a couple of animal pelts hanging from it. "What do you want?" Brunet asked him coldly.
"Brunet," the stout trapper called again in a tone more relaxed before stopping short at the sight of the golden blonde petite Jacquelyn, unable to hide the covetous glint in his eye. As André had just finished hastily putting himself back together, it was obvious what had just transpired on the blanket. "Ahh, pardon Brunet," he grinned.