He’d work on expanding that place to include her bed.
Yanking his thoughts back to her fort, Sam opened the door and immediately backed away. The smell was like rotting skunk and mold, with maybe some sewage mixed in.
While he struggled not to gag, Tansy laughed and started to move in.
He immediately snagged her arm and tugged her back. “Hang on. That smells like something died in there. Or is dying. We’ve got to be careful.”
Tansy patted his hand. “It’s fine. I know exactly what it is. And I want to get it out of the cabin as soon as possible.”
He didn’t let her go. “What is it?” He couldn’t imagine any circumstance where Tansy would have an animal in there, but the smell was too close to rotting flesh.
“An experiment gone wrong. I think I can eliminate tree bark as a option for fire-retardant clothing.”
She patted his hand again and when he released her, moved into the cabin.
The smell was worse inside.
Tansy moved to a sink and pulled out a large glass container with separated sections. Each held murky liquid and what he now assumed was tree bark.
She moved to the door and took the container outside and to the far side of the clearing. Her eyes were sparkling with fun.
“Chock that experiment up to a giantNo. Maybe even aNever Again. At least I can tell Bella that line of thinking is a waste of time.”
Sam shook his head. “There’s someone else wacky enough to think trees were a good source for fire-retardant clothing?”
Tansy laughed again. She never minded a failure in her search for answers. She always said failure was simply a way of eliminating possibilities.
He still thought she’d make an excellent analyst for the FBI.
Or any other job on the planet.
“Sometimes the answers are in the exact last place you think you should be looking. You can’t dismiss an idea until you try it.” She moved back to the cabin with a shrug. “It was fun to try it out.”
They moved back inside, and Sam moved to the windows. “Do these open?”
Another shrug. “I doubt it. I’ve only been here since December so I haven’t had a reason to try. But they look old. I figured Aisling would know the best way to get them working without breaking them.”
“Is Aisling the carpenter from back in Sacramento? The one who helped you when you bought your lab?”
Tansy nodded. “She’s now specializing in restoring older homes and using reclaimed wood and other materials. She’s talented and I’ve talked her into spending at least a few months working here.”
Because people only had to listen to Tansy speak to buy into her hope and vision for the future.
For now, though, they’d simply have to leave the door open and hope the smell drifted away.
The cabin had a large open space with a kitchenette along the side wall. Furniture almost as old as the cabin filled the space. Dining table for six, couch, and a couple of chairs.
A pot-bellied pellet stove sat on one wall. One corner was closed off, probably a bedroom. No bathroom.
“Outhouse nearby?”
She grinned. “Yep. And that was the first thing I cleaned. The spiders were big enough to ride tricycles.”
Bugs had never bothered Tansy. She found all of nature fascinating. But he was glad it hadn’t been his job to clean the outhouse.
“It’s outfitted with a new seat, its own solar panel, along with interior light and heat now.”
Sam laughed and looked around at all the projects on display. Here was Tansy’s fort.