White Nights (11 page)

Jessie stood with hands on hips, her green eyes alight with excitement as she eyed the darkening sky. “There is going to be a spectacular show up here when that storm breaks. Too bad we won’t be here to see it.”

Eirica, Coralie and Anne all rolled their eyes. “Thank the good Lord for that,” Anne breathed.

Coralie smacked Jessie on the shoulder. “It figures you’d think putting yourself in mortal danger is exciting, Jess. You are truly sick in the head.”

Not put off, Jessie laughed. “Hey, I didn’t say I wanted to be up here when it breaks. I’m not stupid. I just said it’d be spectacular.”

“Well, I for one am thankful that this is all there is to South Pass.” Coralie surveyed the area, speculatively. “I don’t know what all the fuss is about. It sure doesn’t look all that important to me.”

Eirica and Anne hid their smiles and waited. The byplay between the two young women never failed to amuse Eirica, and with Coralie feeling the exhaustion that came with the early stages of pregnancy, she provided lots of ammunition for her sister-in-law. Jessie had no tolerance for complainers.

Sure enough, Jessie responded to Coralie’s negative comments. “Corie, are you blind? Open your eyes. Look beyond the spot of earth we’re standing on. There, down there, lies Oregon. We’ve made it to the
Oregon Territory.
From here on, water flows toward the Pacific. It’s a grand adventure.” To emphasize her feelings on the matter, Jessie spun around, arms out. Her hat, old, dusty and full of teeth marks, flew off. She grabbed for it but the wind swept it away.

Sadie, her very pregnant dog, barked sharply and waddled after it. Jessie laughed softly when the dog couldn’t move fast enough to snatch it from the fingers of the playful breeze. Wahoska chased it down and brought it to Sadie who took it from her mate and carried it back to her mistress, albeit with a few more teeth marks than had been there before. Jessie took it and jammed it down on her head, then she gave both animals an affectionate hug. Though the wolf tended to be standoffish with most of the emigrants, he’d accepted both Jessie as his master’s mate and Rook who snuck him prime bits of meat and thick bones.

Coralie shied away from both animals as they left Jessie’s side to chase the wind. “Jessica Jones, you’re disgusting. Everything’s an adventure to you!”

“White, dear sister. Jessie White, now,” she reminded, pride ringing in her voice.

Anne smiled and retied her bonnet ribbons. “I have to admit this has been an adventure, one I shall never forget, though I’m eager to find myself with a roof over my head once again. But now, I actually believe we’ll make it.” Her smile faded. “If we don’t lose all our oxen. We’ve lost two already and the rest are looking beyond weary.”

Silence fell between the women as they resumed walking across the wide summit, each contemplating the hardship of the trail. Heat, lack of good grass and exhaustion were taking their toll on the livestock. Eirica glanced behind her. Alison and Ian were in the wagon under James’s watchful eye while Lara rode with Rook. From the looks of it, her three-year-old was fast asleep.

Eirica smiled. Today was the first since that kiss beneath the stars that James had arrived to take charge of her wagon. Bad weather had kept him tied to the herd. Glancing at the sky, she was surprised to find him here today. Once more, she peered over her shoulder at him. This time he spotted her and lightly tipped his hat in acknowledgment.

Her cheeks burned and she turned away. He might not have been around much during the last week, but one night he’d ridden in to give her a fistful of wildflowers with a couple of long feathers added to it and tied together with a strip of leather to form a posy. She still had it, tucked safely in the wagon where it wouldn’t be crushed. He’d been so endearing when he’d presented it to her, all flushed and awkward and very appealing to her susceptible heart.

The wind gusted, reminding her of the impeding storm. Loose dirt swirled at their feet. Eirica coughed, then covered her mouth with her handkerchief. The other three women did the same, except Jessie, who wore her handkerchief tied around her neck like the men did. Jessie pulled her red triangle of calico up and over her mouth.

Coralie sniggered. “I swear, you look like a bandit, Jessie.” The three women laughed in agreement, each looking at the bullwhip coiled at her waist and the long wicked knife hanging from its leather sheath. Jessie shrugged off her sister-in-law’s good-natured teasing and suggestions that now that she was a married woman, she should dress accordingly.

Eirica for one disagreed. She envied her young friend. Here was a woman who knew how to take care of herself. Twice she’d witnessed Jessie’s skill with that whip. Just thinking about the first time Jessie had come to her rescue made gooseflesh rise on her arms.

Nights with Birk on the trail had been far worse than those in Illinois. In such close quarters with other people, Birk had grown even more jealous, sure that every man who came near them was looking at her. He’d accuse her of encouraging their attention, punish her for sins she hadn’t committed, then prove his dominance over her by claiming her body with his.

The worst times had been when Birk had had too much to drink and couldn’t perform. He’d blame her and make his punishment far worse than if he’d been able to expend his sexual energy on her. At home, she would have gotten up and gone outside her cabin to walk or light a lantern and sit on the porch with her sewing or mending—anything to keep her hands busy. Out here on the trail, there were too many people around to witness her despair. She’d waited until Birk fell asleep, then left the camp to walk off her demons and release her tears of hopelessness where no one could hear.

What Birk did to her with his hands or objects left her feeling dirty, ashamed and oftentimes, in incredible pain. She’d despaired of even surviving her marriage. Only the knowledge that she stood between him and her children had kept her tied to him. She’d been tempted, oh so tempted to run away, to leave him and hide where he could never find her.

On those long solitary walks she’d dreamt of freedom—just her and the quiet of the night—until the one night she’d come across an unsavory drunk who’d decided she was fair game since she was alone. That was the first time Jessie had saved her. With her whip alone, she’d sent the horrible man running.

The second time Jessie had used her whip to help Eirica had been that last night, when Birk had gone into an uncontrollable rage and refused to leave her and Ian alone. Eirica remembered how helpless she’d felt, lying on the ground, covering Ian’s small body with her own to shield him from Birk’s boots and fists. As before, Jessie had fearlessly stepped in to stop Birk—with the full support of the rest of their wagon party. Birk had finally overstepped what the others could tolerate. And when he turned the whip on Jessie, Wolf had furiously stepped in. After a fight with the wagon master, Birk had been banished.

An arm around her shoulders brought her head up. She met Jessie’s worried, dark green gaze. No words were needed between them. Eirica smiled reassuringly to let Jessie know she was all right. Though Jessie didn’t know it, Eirica suspected her young friend of playing the role of her protector on more than just those two occasions.

There had been that hornet attack that had left Birk bedridden for a couple of weeks. And, of course, she now knew that both Jessie and James had slipped sleeping potions in her husband’s drink at Fort Kearny.

Knowing others cared about her eased past pain. An impish grin curved her lips. “I’ve never thanked you for all you’ve done for me and my children, Jessie.”

Jessie lifted a brow. “I didn’t do that much.”

“Keeping my children out of Birk’s way during the days, watching over me night after night, saving me from that drunk, drugging Birk, that’s not much? And if I’m right in my suspicions now that I know you better, I’m willing to bet you were behind the hornet attack.” At Jessie’s start of surprise, Eirica nodded. “You didn’t have to do any of that.”

For a long moment Jessie remained silent, her gaze focused on the sky above.

She kicked a rock, wincing when it nearly hit the person in front of her. Then she sighed and glanced at Eirica. “Yeah, I did. It wasn’t my place, I didn’t even think my actions through, or the possible consequences, but I couldn’t sit and do nothing. Wolf got real angry when he found out. How’d you know I was behind the hornet attack or that I’d drugged his drink?”

Eirica smiled. “I guessed about the hornets—it seemed too coincidental. And James confessed he drugged Birk and said you’d done the same.” She still marveled over the discovery that James had cared enough to try and prevent Birk’s nightly terrorizing of her and the children.

Jessie stopped dead in her tracks. “Are we talking about James, as in my brother, my do-no-wrong brother?”

Threading her arm through Jessie’s, Eirica pulled her forward. “Yep. The very same. Surprised me as well.” Thank goodness she no longer had to worry about Birk or fear what he’d do if he’d ever learned to what extent her young friend—or James—had gone to in order to protect her from his abuse. The last thing she’d wanted was to have someone put themselves at risk for her. She didn’t think she could live with the guilt.

“Well, maybe there’s hope for my big brother yet,” Jessie responded.

Coralie asked something of Jessie but Eirica let their conversation pass over her. She rubbed her arms against the bite of cold in the air. She shifted her gaze to the north, to the high, rugged, snowcapped blue mountain peaks towering in the distance, a dramatic change in terrain. Did they have to go over those? She didn’t even want to know. Ignorance, in this case, seemed bliss. One day at a time, she reminded herself.

“Look, Eirica, there’s Pacific Springs.” They’d left the pass behind them, were easing down the western slope. Jessie pointed toward a green oasis a couple of miles ahead of them.

“What a paradise,” Eirica whispered, comparing all that greenery to the sage and scrub terrain they’d traversed for hundreds of miles. “It reminds me of Ash Hollow.” She glanced at the marsh. “I wonder if we’ll be stopping for a day of rest. The washing needs to be done and there’s so much mending piling up.”

Just that afternoon, Alison had torn her dress. Of course, with the dress being so old, it was literally falling apart. She needed to make her children new clothes but had no material to do so. She’d have to sell her mother’s china when she reached Oregon—if there were buyers. She just needed one bolt of cloth, but with very little money, it seemed out of reach.

Coralie fell back and sniffed. “Washing and mending is not what I’d call rest, Eirica. That’s a full day’s work. I think I’d rather walk all day.” She glanced at her hands, grimacing, but didn’t say anything.

Jessie put her arms around her. “Don’t fret, Corie. Your hands are fine.”

The other girl sighed. “No, they aren’t. They look like a farmer’s wife’s hands.”

Eirica, Anna and Jessie exchanged amused glances once again, then looked down at their own rough and reddened hands. None took offense but Jessie laughingly reminded, “You
are
a farmer’s wife, dear sister.”

Jessie and Coralie continued to banter and bicker good-naturedly. Eirica ignored them, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other.
Just a bit farther, then we can stop,
she reminded herself.

A single wagon passed them. An elderly woman sat on the bench seat, holding the reins with both hands, bracing her feet against the front for balance. In the back, leaning against a thick pile of quilts, blankets and pillows, her husband rode, a white bandage wrapped around his head.

Eirica eyed them, worried. Word had flown from one camp to another, warning of a desperate thief, but up until nearly killing this old man, no one had gotten hurt. The thief had been reported to just take small items: clothing, shoes, food and knives. But now he had a gun. With so many strangers moving among them, it was impossible to know who the culprit was. “I still can’t believe someone attacked them,” Eirica said, looking at the others. “It’s just horrid. What if the thief tries to get into one of our wagons?” She couldn’t help but worry over the brutal attack.

Jessie frowned, her hand going to the whip at her side. “We’re pretty safe, Eirica. That couple is traveling alone, which makes them an easy mark. Besides, we have Sadie and Wahoska to warn us of intruders.”

Once again, a companionable silence fell. Just being together lent silent support and now that the end of the day was at hand, energy flowed as they each contemplated their evening. The faster they reached the spot Wolf had chosen, the sooner they could steal a few moments to rest before starting the night’s meal.

By the time they reached a small creek a short distance away from the main springs, Eirica was too exhausted to protest when James unyoked the oxen and saw to her family’s needs. It almost made her smile when Dante, spotting James, ran over to grab her tent and pitch it. The young man had made it clear to James that this was his duty.

James walked past her, his lips twitching with amusement. “Damn puppy,” he whispered for her ears only.

Eirica rolled her eyes. James obviously didn’t perceive Dante as a threat. He rejoined her, unloading a box of supplies from the wagon. She avoided his gaze, afraid she’d burst out laughing.

To make cooking and cleaning easier, she’d put together several days’ worth of flour, bacon and other foodstuffs so she wouldn’t have to unpack her wagon to get into the various sacks and barrels each day.

“I’ve got to go.” He glanced at the sky. “The cattle are going to be edgy tonight. We’re taking them as far from the wagons and people as we can in case they stampede again. Wolf thinks we’ll be in for lightning storms tonight. Will you be all right?”

Eirica couldn’t help the glow of warmth that came from his concern or the flutter in her chest when his gaze dropped to her mouth. Nor could she stop her tongue from wetting her lips, or halt the yearning that rushed through her. Instead, she put her hands behind her and stepped back. “I’ll be fine, James. Go. You have your duties to see to.”