Tale of Woe
Nate King was seething mad. He’d seen too many people die because they were careless. All it took was one mistake. He was doubly incensed because Ryker had lived in the Rockies almost as long as he had and was well aware of the dangers. Yet Ryker let Tyne go out by herself.
But as mad as Nate was, he didn’t hit Ryker in the mouth, or even the face. He hit him in the chest. The blow sent Ryker tumbling from the bench.
“Mr. King!” Erleen cried.
Cursing, Ryker scrambled to his feet. “What the hell was that for?”
“I told you not to let anyone go out.”
Ryker blinked, then glanced at Tyne. “I told them not to. But her mother sent her to find you.”
“Why didn’t you come look for me instead?”
“The mother asked the girl. I’m not their nurse-maid. If they won’t listen, it’s on their shoulders.”
Nate would have torn into him again if not for Aunt Aggie. Suddenly she was between them, her hand on Nate’s chest.
“No more. Please. It’s upsetting everyone.”
The Woodrows were appalled by the violence. Erleen had her hand to her throat. Anora was wringing her hands. Peter wore a stern look of disapproval. But what cut Nate the deepest was the bewilderment on Tyne’s face. He stepped back. “Sorry,” he said—to them, not to Ryker.
“My word!” Erleen exclaimed. “That was uncalled for. You acted like a savage.”
Nate directed his anger at her. “When will you get it through your head? This isn’t Pennsylvania. You can’t let Tyne go wandering out alone.”
“I only sent her to call you. She wasn’t to go far, and we are right here.”
Nate shook his head in disgust. Some people were too thickheaded for their own good. He was about to say as much when when Philberta stirred and groaned. The rest quickly gathered around her, with the lone exception of Ryker. He sat on the bench and glared.
Nate went over to the others.
Philberta had opened her eyes and was gazing about in confusion. She licked her thick lips with the pink tip of her tongue, then weakly said, “Where? What?”
Erleen gently squeezed her hand. “Everything is all right. You are in your cabin in the Rockies. Peter and I came to find you after we hadn’t heard from you for so long.”
“Erleen? Is it really you?”
“It’s really and truly us. All of us. We brought the whole family. Plus my sister.”
“Agatha too?”
It could be Nate’s imagination but Philberta didn’t sound happy about Aggie being there.
“She’s always been fond of Sully. You know that. She was gracious enough to foot the bill for much of the cost for our expedition.”
Philberta’s eyes roved the half circle of anxious faces and fixed on Agatha. “Thank you.”
“You are welcome, dear.”
Peter bent low. “Tell us. Where is my brother? Why aren’t Sully and your boys here?”
“Give me a minute,” Philberta said. “I can’t think straight. I am all confused.”
Nate didn’t see what she had to be confused about. To him, she was stalling. But then, his wife always said he had a suspicious nature.
“Take your time,” Erleen told her. “We are here for you. Whatever you want, you only have to ask.”
“I can’t believe all of you have come so far on our behalf.”
Peter said, “The Woodrows stick by one another, come what may. Sully would be there for me if I needed help.” He gripped her wrist. “Where
Erleen, appalled, slapped her husband’s arm. “Let go of her! Can’t you see she is in a bad way? The poor dear has been through some sort of ordeal.”
“That I have,” Philberta said softly. “An ordeal such as none of you could possibly conceive.”
“Enlighten us,” Aunt Aggie said.
“I lost a baby.”
Nate was as shocked as the Woodrows. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ryker chuckle, and he almost went over to hit him again.
“A baby!” Erleen exclaimed. “Philberta! At your age?”
“I know, I know. It’s been fourteen years since our last. Since Blayne was born. We certainly didn’t want any more. But shortly after Sully finished building our cabin, I found I was in the family way. I was scared, terribly scared, as I wouldn’t have a doctor or even a midwife to attend me.”
“I don’t blame you. I would have been scared too.”
“But Sully was confident everything would be fine. You should have seen him. So caring. So devoted.”
“That’s my brother for you,” Peter said proudly.
Philberta wanly smiled. “But confidence isn’t always enough. Especially when we started to go hungry.”
“What are you talking about?” Peter asked. “Sully is the best hunter I know.”
“He never had trouble keeping food on our table back in Pennsylvania, that’s for sure,” Philberta replied. “There was so much game. Deer, rabbits, squirrels, grouse, pheasant, woodchucks.” She paused. “But it turned out not to be the same here.”
“Nonsense. These mountains teem with wildlife. We saw a fair amount of animals with our own eyes.”
“So did we, at first. But it wasn’t as easy as Sully thought it would be. The black-tailed deer aren’t as plentiful as the whitetails used to be. And the smaller game was the same.”
“What about elk?” Erleen asked.
“They are a lot higher up, and wary. There are squirrels and rabbits, but not nearly as plentiful as we were used to.”
Nate could have told them. A lot of Easterners assumed it was as easy to fill the supper pot west of the Mississippi as it was east of the Mississippi. But they were mistaken. Yes, there was a lot of wildlife, but not as much. Yes, deer were deer, but blacktails were a lot more wary than their eastern cousins, and a lot harder to hunt and bring down.
“Sully did his best. And our boys helped. Norton was eighteen. Liford seventeen. Blayne fourteen. They could all hunt. They went out with Sully day after day but too often all of them came home empty-handed.”
“Preposterous.”
“Let her talk, Peter,” Erleen said.
“With five mouths to feed and a baby on the way, it got so we were missing meals. We had to eat whatever we could. Sully told us to watch the animals. Whatever they ate would be safe for us.”
Nate frowned. There it was again. The ridiculous notion that was so widespread people took it as gospel.
“We got sickly, though. I was worst of all. Probably because of the baby Sully made me stay in bed. He had the boys do the chores, the sweeping and cooking and whatnot. But I grew weaker and weaker.” Philberta stopped, and shuddered. “Finally the day came.” She looked up at Erleen and tears filled her eyes. “It was a girl. She was stillborn.”
“Dear God.”
“We buried her out back and got on with our lives. Sully was so sweet. But he was worried too. We all were. Between him and my sons, they pretty much hunted all the game in our valley. They had to go farther and farther afield, and left me alone for days at a time.”
Erleen stroked her brow. “You poor dear.”
“Then Sully shot a bull elk. They butchered it and brought the meat home and for a while we had plenty to eat. Thick, juicy steaks, smothered in mushrooms and greens. They dried a lot of the meat for jerky. We thought the worst was over.” Philberta took a deep breath. “Then Norton disappeared.”
“No!”
