Buch lesen: «A Home for His Family»

Chapter One

Deadwood, Dakota Territory May 1877

“Sorry for the delay, folks. There’s a bull train on the trail ahead of us, and they’re hogging the road. It won’t be long until we’re moving again.” The stagecoach guard acknowledged Sarah MacFarland and Aunt Margaret, the only ladies in the cramped stage, with a tip of his hat. Water sluiced off the brim onto the feet of the male passengers. “The good news is that we’re only a few miles from Deadwood, and the rain is easing up a bit.”

“Thank you.” Sarah answered him with a nod, but kept her face classroom-firm. She had already learned women were few in this western country, and men were eager to take even a polite smile as permission to overstep the boundaries of propriety. Aunt Margaret had the notion Sarah might find a husband out here in the West, but Sarah had no such dreams. Twenty-eight years old put her firmly in the spinster category and she was more than happy to remain there.

“Excuse me, ma’am.” Mr. Johnson shifted his bulk and reached under his seat. The man’s cigar jammed between his teeth had bothered Aunt Margaret the entire journey from Sidney, Nebraska. “If you’ll oblige, I’ll take my bag. Since we’re this close to the camp, I might as well walk the rest of the way.”

He grabbed his satchel and squeezed out of the crowded coach. The other men spilled out after him like a half-dozen chicks from a grain sack.

“Are they all walking to Deadwood from here?” Aunt Margaret adjusted her hat as she peered through the open door.

Peder Swenson pushed himself up from his spot on the floor. “I’m not. But I am going to stretch my legs and see what’s going on.” The blond eighteen-year-old had kept them entertained with stories of his native Norway on the long journey.

As Sarah watched Peder stride away on his long legs, she couldn’t sit still another minute. “I am, too.”

Aunt Margaret grabbed her sleeve. “You will not. Who knows what you’ll find out there? We’ve seen enough of those bullwhackers along the trail to know what kind of men they are.”

Sarah held her handkerchief to her nose. Rainy weather kept the heavy canvas window covers closed, and even with the men gone, the heavy odor of unwashed bodies was overwhelming. “I’ll be careful. I have to get some fresh air. I’ll stay close by, and I won’t go near the bull train.”

Aunt Margaret released her sleeve, and Sarah climbed out of the stagecoach, aching for a deep breath. With a cough, she changed her mind. The air reeked of dung and smoke in this narrow, serpentine valley. She held her handkerchief to her nose and coughed again. Thick with fog, the canyon rang with the crack of whips from the bull train strung out on the half-frozen trail ahead. She pulled her shawl closer around her shoulders and shook one boot, but the mud clung like gumbo.

A braying sound drew her attention to a wagon a few feet from the coach, leaning precariously close to the swollen, rocky creek at the side of the trail. She stepped closer to get a better look and nearly laughed out loud at the sight of a black mule tied to the back of the covered wagon. The creature sat in muddy slush as it tried to pull away from the rushing water and noise.

A tall man, soaking wet and covered in mud from his worn cavalry hat down to his boots, grabbed for the mule’s halter. “Loretta, if you break that rope again, I’m going to sell you to the first butcher I find.”

The mule shook her head, and he missed his grab, landing flat on his back and sliding down the slope toward the edge of the creek. As he fell, the animal flicked her gray nose toward him and snatched his hat in her teeth.

A giggle rose in Sarah’s throat at the sight, and her shoulders shook as she fought to keep it in.

The man rolled over, lurching to his feet as he grabbed his hat from the mule. “You stupid, dumb, loco...” He muttered all kinds of insults at the animal, who only tossed her head as he slapped the hat against his legs in an effort to clean the mud off it.

A young boy appeared at the back of the wagon, pulling the canvas cover open. He couldn’t have been older than eight or nine, with a straw-colored cowlick topping his forehead. Would he be one of the students in her new academy? Uncle James had written that several families lived in and around Deadwood and that some of the parents were desperate for a good school. Sarah had brought a trunk full of books and supplies for boys just like this one, and for the poor young women trapped in the saloons. She smiled at the thought. Dr. Amelia Bennett would be so proud of her.

The boy caught her attention again, shaking his head as he watched the man and the mule. “She was only trying to help.”

“Charley, the day that mule helps me do anything will be the day I eat my hat. I’ve never seen a more useless...”

“Not Loretta.” Charley’s voice rang with boyish confidence. “She knows exactly what she’s doing.”

The man leaned one gloved hand on the corner of the wagon box while he raised a boot to dislodge the mud with a stick. “Then why does she keep fighting me every time I try to get her to do something?”

“Because she’s smart. She doesn’t want to go any closer to this creek.”

The man stomped his foot back onto the ground and lifted the other one. “The horses don’t have any problem with it.”

Sarah glanced at the four-horse team at the front of the wagon. They stood with their backs hunched as the rain gave way to a cold wind that threatened to snatch her hat away. She pushed it down tight and turned back to the scene in front of her.

“The horses are stupid.”

The flabbergasted expression on the man’s face as Charley pronounced his judgment triggered another giggle. Sarah slapped a gloved hand over her mouth, but a snort of laughter escaped between her fingertips.

“Ma’am.” The man locked eyes with her, then released his foot, stomping the heel on the ground. “I’m happy to see we amuse you.”

“Oh, I’m...” She snorted again. “I’m so sorry. But the mule, and you and those poor...” She couldn’t talk through her laughter. “Those poor horses. I think the mule is right.”

“See, Uncle Nate? I told you.”

“Charley, get back in the wagon.” The boy ducked inside as the man called Nate strode across the few feet of trail toward her. “So you think the mule is right?”

Sarah’s laughter died. No answering smile lit his dark eyes and his lips formed a thin, tight line. She was the only one who had found the incident funny, but he didn’t need to condemn her. She lifted her chin. “You drove into a precarious spot. One misstep and your wagon and all its contents could end up in the creek.”

“You think we ended up there on purpose? The stagecoach...” He looked at the coach, and then at her. “Your stagecoach about ran us off the road.”

Sarah’s face heated in the cold air. A muscle in one of his stubbled cheeks twitched. “I apologize. I should have realized you were at the mercy of the crowded trail.”

He pulled his hat off and wiped a weary forearm across his brow. “Yes. The crowded trail, and the rain, and the forty freight wagons all trying to head into Deadwood today and the cold.” He turned away, gazing into the fog-shrouded pines looming above them at the edge of the canyon, and then faced her again. “And now it’s my turn to apologize. I’m letting my frustrations get the better of me.”

Sarah observed him as he waited for her reply. His apology had turned the corner of his mouth up in a wry grin.

“Of course, you have my pardon.” She smiled, breaking her self-imposed rule. “Anyone would be hard-pressed to let a day like today not frustrate him.”

As he smiled back, a gust of wind ruffled his short dark hair.

“You and Charley are on your way to Deadwood?”

“Yes, ma’am, we are.”

Sarah searched his eyes for that wild gleam of gold fever—the look that made the men she had traveled with lose all their common sense—but his brown eyes were calm and clear in spite of the tense lines framing them that spoke of exhaustion and many days on the trail. He met her gaze with his own interested one. Something foreign fluttered in her stomach.

“My uncle has started a church in town, and I’m a teacher. I’ll be opening a school soon, and I hope Charley will be able to attend.”

His smile disappeared. “Wouldn’t count on us, ma’am. We’ll be busy getting settled.”

The flutter stilled. “But you can’t let a boy like Charley grow up without any education.”

“I don’t intend to, miss. The children will get all the education they need.”

Sarah pressed her lips together. Did this cowboy truly think a child could get a decent education while mining for gold or running wild in the streets?

Her reply was interrupted as the stagecoach driver climbed back up onto his seat. “You’d better take your place, miss,” he said over his shoulder. “We have a way cleared and are going on into town now.”

“Yes, all right.” As she turned to the coach, Charley’s uncle reached out to open the door for her. As he leaned near, she caught the scent of leather and horses.

“Thank you, Mr....”

“Colby. Nate Colby.”

He smiled as he offered his hand to steady her climb into the coach.

“I hope we’ll be able to continue discussing Charley’s education at another time.”

He waited until she was seated and then leveled his gaze at her. “I think we’ve finished with that subject. The children’s schooling is already taken care of.”

Sarah opened her mouth, ready to deliver the stinging words that would put this cowboy in his place, but as her eyes locked with his, the argument died in her throat. He smiled, nodded to Aunt Margaret and closed the door. He was gone.

“Why, Sarah.” Aunt Margaret began, straightening Sarah’s skirt as she took her seat. “Who is that man? You promised you would stay away from the bull train.”

Sarah rubbed at a splash of mud on the hem of her skirt, turning away from her aunt. She was certain her face held a telltale blush. “He was driving an immigrant wagon and has his nephew with him.”

And he had mentioned children, so more than only his nephew.

“But still, you haven’t been properly introduced. We don’t know anything about the man, and you’re letting him...”

“I allowed him to be a gentleman and open the door for me. It isn’t as if he is courting me.” She patted Margaret’s hand in assurance.

The driver called to the six-horse team and cracked his whip. She fell back in her seat as the coach started off with a jolt. The opposite door flew open, and Peder jumped in.

“Uff da, I made it!”

As Peder launched into his description of the stalled bull train for Aunt Margaret, Sarah turned in her seat and lifted the corner of the canvas window cover. Nate Colby stood in the center of the muddy trail, his feet planted far apart and his arms crossed over his chest, watching the stage. She let the curtain fall and braced herself against the rough road. He certainly wasn’t the kind of man she had expected to meet in the notorious Deadwood.

* * *

Nate shook himself. He had no time to stand watching a stagecoach wind its way along the muddy trail between the freight wagons, even if it did carry the most intriguing woman west of the Mississippi. He had a family to take care of.

He turned to the wagon, tilted on the bank between the road and the creek, and that stubborn mule still pulling on the halter rope with all her might as if she could keep the whole outfit from tumbling into the water.

Olivia appeared in the opening of the wagon cover. At nine years old she was the image of her ma, from her upturned nose to her golden hair. “Uncle Nate, are we almost there?”

“We should be in town this afternoon.” Nate tied down a corner of the canvas that had pulled loose in the rising wind. “You get back in the wagon and take care of Lucy. I’ve got to get us off the creek bank and back up on the trail. It’s going to be bumpy.”

Eight-year-old Charley popped his head up next to Olivia’s. “Who was that, Uncle Nate? I’ve never seen a prettier lady.”

Olivia gasped. “Charley, you can’t say that. No one was prettier than Mama.”

“Mama was a mama, not a lady.”

Nate tightened the end of the canvas. “Your mama was a lady, Charley,” he said, drawing the opening closed with a tug. “She was the prettiest lady who ever lived.”

“I told you so.”

Nate hardly heard Olivia’s words as he moved around the wagon, checking every bolt, tightening every rope. She was right; no one had been prettier than Jenny, and no one had been happier to have her as a sister-in-law than him. But if anyone came close to Jenny, it was that girl from the stage. Instead of Jenny’s golden light, she had the beauty of a rare, dark gem, with black curls framing her face. Her eyes had seemed nearly purple in the gray afternoon light, but no one really had purple eyes.

Olivia’s voice drifted through the canvas cover, singing Lucy’s favorite song. Nate pushed against the familiar worry. Lucy would get better soon. Once they were settled, she would get back to the bubbly and energetic five-year-old she had been before the fire. All she needed was a safe and secure home with her family, and she would be back to normal.

But how long would it take until they had a home again? He went through the steps in his head.

Find his land. Good land with plenty of meadow grass for the horses. That was first. Then file the homestead claim. Next would be to build a house, outbuildings, make sure water was accessible.

Nate worked a wet knot loose and pulled the canvas tight before tying it again. He moved on to the next knot.

Find more mares for his herd. Some of the mustangs he had seen here in the West had descended from quality stock, he could tell that. And with some work and gentling, they’d make fine broodmares. Their colts, with his Morgan as the sire, would make as fine a string of remounts as the US Cavalry could wish for.

Test the next tie-down. Loose. He pulled at the soaking knot. The plan had to work. What would become of the children if this chance didn’t pay out?

He retied the rope, tightening the wet cover against the rising wind. The plan would work if it killed him.

Nate pressed his left cheek against the damp, cold canvas, easing the burn of the scars that covered his neck and shoulder and traveled down both arms to the backs of his hands. The constant reminder of his failure to save Andrew and Jenny. The reminder of what his cowardice had cost the children. A chill ran through him. What if he failed again? He couldn’t. He wouldn’t.

Olivia’s song filtered through the canvas, a song of God’s protection and care.

With a growl, Nate pushed away from the wagon and headed toward the horses. When had the Lord protected them? When he was nearly blown to pieces in Georgia during the war? When Ma and Pa died in ’64, leaving Mattie alone to fend for herself? When Jenny and Andrew were burning to death? When three children were left homeless and orphaned?

He could live without that kind of protection. God had His chance, and He hadn’t come through. They would just have to get along on their own.

And they’d get along without any busybody schoolteacher stepping in. As if he’d let some stranger take care of Andrew and Jenny’s children. It didn’t matter that the scent of violets curled like tendrils when he stepped close to her, pulling him deeper into those eyes.

He shook his head. The children were his responsibility, and he’d make sure they had everything they needed.

When he reached the team he checked the traces, and then each horse. Pete and Dan, the wheel horses, stood patiently. Ginger, his Morgan mare, tossed her head as he ran his hand over her legs. At just three years old and growing larger with her first foal, she had the lightest load of them all, but she’d have to throw her shoulders into the harness to get the wagon back on the trail. She could do it, though. Morgans were all heart.

Last was Scout. The stallion rested his nose on Nate’s shoulder, mouthing at his neckerchief as Nate scratched behind the horse’s left ear and smoothed the forelock back from his eyes. This horse had saved his life more times than he could count during the war and carried him all over the West as he had searched for Mattie the years since then. Nate owed him everything.

Scout nudged his shoulder.

“Sorry, boy. No carrots today. We’ve got work to do.” He stroked the dark cheek under the bridle strap, holding Scout’s gaze with his own. The horse understood. He would get the wagon back onto the trail.

With shouts from the bullwhackers and the crack of whips, the train started out. Nate called to his team, “Hi-yup, there!”

The horses strained, the wheels turned in the mud and the wagon lurched up and onto the road. But as it did, Nate heard a sickening crack. Halting the team, he stooped to look under the wagon, dreading to confirm his fears.

The front axle was splintered and twisted along a narrow crack from one end to the other. A stress fracture. But it was still in one piece. He’d have to try to drive the wagon into Deadwood for repairs.

He stamped his feet to get some feeling back into them. The weather was turning bitter, and fast. He had to get the children into some sort of shelter for the night. The wind seemed to take a fiendish delight in whistling down the length of the canyon. If he didn’t know better, he’d think this weather was bringing snow behind it. But this was May. They couldn’t have snow in May, could they?

He’d have to walk to keep the strain off the axle. He glanced up at the wagon. Should he have the children walk, too? He shivered and buttoned the top of his coat. No, they’d be better off in the wagon, out of the wind. He pulled at Scout’s bridle, and the horses started off.

Glancing upward, he breathed out a single word. “Please.” As if he really believed someone would hear him. The wind pulled water from his eyes, and he ducked his head into the blast. When the gust eased, gathering itself for another onslaught, he looked straight up into the pewter sky, at the light breaking through the gray clouds in golden rays. He had to keep the children safe. He had promised.

* * *

“Oh, not again!”

Sarah caught hold of the branch of a juniper shrub as her boot slipped on the muddy creek bank. The night spent in the snug cabin Uncle James had built when he came to Deadwood last summer had been a welcome relief after days in the stagecoach, but she was quickly getting chilled and miserable again on this afternoon’s mission of mercy.

“Are you all right?” Aunt Margaret puffed as she tried to keep up with Uncle James’s pace.

“Yes, I’m fine.” Sarah pulled at the juniper until she was on the trail next to her aunt again and brushed a lank strand of wet hair out of her face. Uncle James reached out a hand to steady her, shuddering as a gust of wind struck them.

“This storm is getting worse, and it’s starting to snow. We need to be getting home.” Uncle James took Aunt Margaret’s arm.

“I’m glad we went, though. Mr. Harders would have been frozen solid by morning in that cold cabin with no fire.” Sarah buried her chin in her scarf.

“The poor man.” Margaret clicked her tongue under her breath. “If he was this sickly, he should never have come to Deadwood.”

James tucked her hand in the crook of his arm. “His doctor told him to come west for his health.”

“And this place is healthy?”

“Wait until the weather clears, my dear. I know you’ll love it as much as I do.”

Sarah took her aunt’s other arm. “Let’s hurry and get home where it’s warm.”

“Wait.” Margaret clutched at James. “What is that? An Indian?”

Sarah peered through the brush along the creek. “She doesn’t look like a Sioux, unless they wear calico skirts.” Sarah started toward the girl, who was now bending to dip a pail in the creek. A few steps took her around the bushes and face-to-face with the barrel of a shotgun.

“You stop right there.” The gun barrel wavered as the eight-year-old boy holding it stepped into view. The same boy she had seen yesterday afternoon, peering out of the covered wagon. Charley, wasn’t it? She looked past him to the empty trail. Her stomach flipped at the thought of seeing Nate Colby again.

“Young man, put that gun down right now.” Margaret’s voice was as commanding as if she was reprimanding one of the Sunday school boys.

“Uncle Nate said to keep a gun on any strangers coming around, and that’s what I mean to do.” Charley squinted down the barrel and raised it a bit higher to aim at Margaret’s head.

This was getting nowhere, and Sarah was wet and cold.

“Come, now, surely you can see we’re no threat.” She smiled, but Charley only swung the gun barrel around to her. The gun wavered as he stared at her. “I know you, but I don’t know them.” He turned the shotgun back toward Uncle James.

“Charley, what are you doing?” The girl with the water pail came up the path behind him, and the boy tightened his grip on the gun.

“Keeping a gun on them, just like Uncle Nate said.”

The girl, half a head taller than the boy and a little older, eyed Sarah as she pulled a dirty blanket tighter around her small body.

“Are you two out here alone?” Sarah smiled at them. “Where is your uncle?”

The children exchanged glances.

“No, ma’am, we aren’t alone,” the girl said. “Uncle Nate went hunting, but he’ll be back soon.” She pulled at her brother’s sleeve. “Come on, Charley. We have to get back.”

Charley let the gun barrel droop and backed away.

“There aren’t any cabins around here.” James sounded doubtful, as if these children would lie.

“We have a wagon. We’ve been traveling the longest time.”

Charley turned on the girl. “Olivia, you know Uncle Nate said not to talk to strangers.” His voice was a furious whisper.

“They aren’t strangers. They’re nice people.” The girl’s whispered answer made Sarah smile again.

“Why don’t you bring your family to our cabin for a warm meal? You can wait there until this storm blows over.”

The two looked at each other.

“Uncle Nate said to stay with the wagon.” Sarah could hear doubt in the boy’s voice.

His sister pulled on his sleeve again. “Lucy is already cold, and night’s coming. It’s just going to get colder.”

“We have stew on the fire,” Sarah said. The thought of the waiting meal made her stomach growl.

“Why are you even asking them?” Margaret stepped forward and took each of the children’s hands in her own. “Now take us to your wagon, and let us take care of the rest.”

The children looked at each other and shrugged, giving in to Margaret’s authority. They led the way to the covered wagon, listing on a broken axle, at the side of the trail. The canvas cover whipped in the wind. So Mr. Colby had made it almost all the way to town before breaking down. Another half mile and he would have reached safety. But where they were now... Sarah glanced at the bare slopes around them, peppered with tree stumps.

As they drew close, Olivia dropped Margaret’s hand and ran to the wagon.

“Lucy! Lucy, where are you?”

A curly head popped over the side of the crippled wagon, and a young girl with round eyes stuck her thumb in her mouth and stared. Sarah guessed she looked about five years old.

Out here, away from the shelter of the trees and brush along the creek, the wind roared. Sarah marveled at its fury, and the children huddled against the gust.

Margaret stepped to the end of the wagon and looked in. “Is this all of you? Where is the rest of your family?”

Olivia’s teeth chattered. “There’s only Uncle Nate. We’re supposed to wait here until he gets back.”

Sarah stamped her feet to warm them. Mr. Colby should know how dangerous it was to wander around this area alone. Uncle James had warned her and Margaret to never go anywhere outside the mining camp without him after they had arrived last evening. Between claim jumpers and Sioux warriors scouring the hills, even visiting a sick neighbor was a risk.

She stepped forward and put her own warm cloak around Olivia’s shoulders. “He can find you at our cabin. We need to get in out of the weather, and you need a hot meal.”

Charley looked at her, his lips blue in the rapidly falling temperatures. “How will Uncle Nate find us?”

“I’ll leave him a note.”

Olivia and Charley exchanged glances, and then Olivia nodded. “All right, I think he’ll be able to find us there, if it isn’t too far.”

Sarah scratched a brief message on a broken board she found near the trail and put it in a prominent place next to the campfire. She raked ashes over the low coals with a stick and stirred. The fire would die on its own.

She took Olivia’s hand in hers as Margaret lifted Lucy out of the wagon. Uncle James untied the horses, Charley took his mule and they started up the trail toward home.

Sarah’s breath puffed as they climbed the steep hill, her mind flitting between worry and irritation with the children’s uncle Nate. These children needed her, no matter what their uncle said. Somehow she would see that they received the care and education they deserved.

* * *

As the snowfall grew heavier, obscuring the distant mountains, Nate gave up. He’d been wandering these bare, brown hills since midmorning and hadn’t seen any sign of game. He and the children would just have to make do with the few biscuits left from last night’s supper.

When the wagon axle had finally broken yesterday afternoon, he thought the freight master would have helped them make repairs, but the man had only moved the crippled wagon off the trail and then set on his way with the bull train again.

“We’re less than a mile from town—you’ll be fine until we send help back for you. Just keep an eye out for those Indians.”

And then they were gone, leaving Nate and the children alone.

Less than a mile from Deadwood? It might as well be twenty, or fifty, when everything they owned was lying by the side of the road. By the time the gray light of the cloudy afternoon started fading, Nate knew the bull train driver had forgotten them.