Today, Deb walked the same as always, but she was empty-handed. She could keep walking too, probably for twenty miles, if Trace did decide to go the whole way without sleeping.
All things considered, she thought going on was the best idea.
“There’s a fork in the trail ahead,” Gwen said from her higher perch.
At that same moment, Trace turned to them. “I need to study this for a bit. Take a break. Eat. Let the youngsters stretch their legs. There’s a spring drizzling out of that rock on the right side of the trail. Refill the canteens and let the horse have a drink.”
“That’s a good idea,” Gwen said. “My legs could use a stretch, too.”
Trace went on studying. Deb had her hands full getting Maddie Sue down off the horse, pinned as she was between Gwen and the large pack. But it helped Deb feel better about how secure the girl was up there.
The dog came up and stood beside Maddie Sue, so close that she leaned on him and hugged his neck.
Deb remembered how the dog had growled at first. A dangerous creature, but now it acted friendly as could be. Deb hoped the dog’s behavior was sincere because she could see no way to keep Maddie Sue and the dog apart. They appeared to have bonded, and as Gwen passed Ronnie down, Deb’s hands were too busy to keep Maddie Sue up off the ground.
Gwen climbed down from the horse, mostly in a controlled fall. But she clung to the saddle horn, then the stirrup, and ended up standing, so Deb counted it as a successful dismount.
“There are some flat boulders over there we can sit on when we eat. We can take turns watching the horse while we let the children move around.”
“If we need to, we can use that boulder to stand on to get back into the saddle.” Deb smiled. “You think that will make Trace proud of us?”
Gwen chuckled. She produced her bag and Deb’s, which had been hanging from the saddle horn rather than stowed in the pack on the horse. She also brought two canteens down with her. They tended themselves and the children, including a dry diaper for Ronnie, and a quick trip into the privacy of the woods for the rest of them. They let the horse drink, its reins tied to a low shrub so it could graze.
They took out some beef jerky and more biscuits. Gwen also had an apple in her bag, which she cut into five pieces.
“Look at him.” Gwen nodded toward Trace as they stood eating.
Deb would’ve preferred to sit since she’d walked all morning, but it turned out it took both women to keep the little ones from harm. Ronnie wanted to stand under the horse and splash in the spring. Maddie Sue wanted to pull the wolf-dog’s hair and look at its teeth while standing on the poor animal’s toes.
Finally, Deb convinced Ronnie to toddle toward Trace, who was a good fifty feet away. Deb thought to fetch the little boy before he got close enough to mess up any tracks.
Trace crouched down by the trail to study the ground. Then he stood, moved left, right, looked down again, then side to side.
“I don’t know what he’s doing, but there’s something to interest him.” Gwen chased after Ronnie, plucked him up, and kept a watchful eye on Maddie Sue. The girl chased after the dog, which seemed to have made a game out of staying just out of reach of her fur-tugging fingers.
“I wish I’d had the courage to shoot those men.” Deb’s conscience struck. “All I could think of was to stay hidden and protect myself. I saw one, heard their voices, and I can bear witness to their crimes. But I should have fought.”
She clenched her fists and felt the anger and guilt mix into something ugly. “My gun is a revolver, six shots. I could have at least tried to get them all. I didn’t even have the courage to pull the trigger once.”
“Stop, Deb. You did the right thing, and you know it. It was before the sun was fully up, you’ve not done much shooting in your life, and you’d only have missed them and brought the men right toward you.” Gwen let Ronnie go, and the boy aimed for Trace again.
“But I could have sneaked closer. In that terrible firelight I might have been able to get close enough to hit them all. I could’ve at least gotten a look at them all.” Deb looked down, ashamed of herself. “The truth is, all I could think of was myself, my own survival. Almost the first thing Trace spoke of was reading the tracks so he could recognize those men later and bring them to justice. That’s a noble way to behave.”
“Deb, we’d never been in a wagon-train attack before.” Gwen sounded dry, slightly teasing. “I’m sure with practice you’ll get better at handling such a thing.”
A smile quirked Deb’s lips. “I hope to have no more such practice, for heaven’s sake.” Her chin came up. “But I am going to change, Gwen. I am. The West is different than where we came from. It’s a land that demands strength of people. A land that tests courage. With the muscles in our backs and the brains in our heads, we can do whatever we want out here, and I intend to accept that challenge and grow strong enough to belong in this wild and rich land.”
“Rich?” Gwen asked.
“Yes, look around. The beauty of these mountains, the wealth in lumber, the food to be had from hunting and trapping. Mr. Scott fed our whole wagon train with the use of his rifle. We couldn’t do that in a city back east. And women aren’t allowed to be more than wives and mothers, or spinster teachers.”
“You ran Pa’s newspaper single-handedly, Deb.”
The
