Westward Hearts (30 page)

Augustus’ birthday party turned out to be just as lively as JT’s had been. Perhaps even more so. Some of the girls changed into fresh dresses, and lanterns were hung festively all about the campground. And thanks to the Bostonian girls’ enthusiasm, even the captain and Eli had been invited to attend. The captain only visited briefly, but Eli brought his own guitar this time and seemed perfectly content to play with the musicians.

Elizabeth felt somewhat dismayed that Eli was distracted with the music, but Will Bramford seemed to capitalize on Eli’s absence by dancing with her at every opportunity. “Lavinia tells me you saved her life today,” Will told her as they enjoyed a break between dances.

“Saved her life?” Elizabeth laughed. “That’s a bit of an overstatement.

“Not according to Lavinia.” He took a sip of coffee. “I partially blame myself for her suffering. I’m the one who talked Hugh into emigrating like this. I hadn’t even considered that Lavinia would feel overwhelmed by trying to play mother to all six of our children.”

“Well, your children aren’t exactly children,” she reminded him. “Other than Augustus, the others are nearly grown and able to carry their own weight. I shouldn’t think that Lavinia should feel terribly overwhelmed because of them. But I know this is a taxing trip for her. Perhaps it will feel easier when summer comes. That bleak week of rainy weather took its toll on everyone.”

Will tipped his head toward the Muller wagon. “I’ve heard that our friend Gertie is feeling better now.”

“Oh…?” Elizabeth had noticed that the Muller children were participating in the dancing. She didn’t know what Gertie would think of that but suspected they would all get an earful before long.

“Belinda had the misfortune of inviting the Muller wagon to come to the party, and Gertie expressed her views on dancing and carrying on, as she puts it.”

“Speaking of Belinda.” Elizabeth waved to the friendly girl as she approached them. “I’ll bet you want to dance with your father,” she said to Belinda. And to Elizabeth’s relief, father and daughter joined the others. Now Elizabeth found Jess, also taking a break, as she watched the musicians. “You look pretty tonight,” she told her.

“Thanks to you.” Jess smiled.

“I’ve noticed that Jeremiah Bramford fancies you as his dance partner,” Elizabeth said quietly to her.

Jess nodded. “Yes, and it’s posing a bit of a problem with Evelyn Prescott.”

“Evelyn?”

“Yes. Her cap seems to be set for Jeremiah.” Jess shrugged. “And that’s fine by me. Jeremiah is just a boy.”

“He’s eighteen.”

“Yes, but he’s led such a protected sort of life. He seems quite young to me.”

Elizabeth could understand that, especially compared to Jess’ unusual upbringing. She followed Jess’ gaze, which seemed to be settled on Matthew. “It seems a shame that the musicians don’t get to dance,” she said to Jess.

“Yes, I was just thinking that. Too bad.”

Elizabeth grinned and then stepped up to her brother. “Matthew, I think it’s high time you took a break, and Jess over there seems to be short of a dancing partner.” She removed the fiddle bow from his hand, and although he looked surprised, he didn’t protest. Instead he went over to Jess and, making a slight bow, took her by the hand and led her out to join the others.

“Are you going to play that?” Eli asked her.

She laughed. “Trust me, you wouldn’t enjoy it much if I did.” Then she simply set the fiddle down and, turning from him, walked away. But she’d barely gone a few steps when she felt someone tapping on her shoulder. She turned to see Eli looking hopefully at her.

“I’d like a break from playing music too.”

She shrugged as if this was of no interest to her.

“Would you care to be my partner?”

She gave him a cautious smile. “I think I’d like that.”

Then with a fluttering heart and feeling not much older than the teens who were laughing and dancing and “carrying on,” she let Eli lead her over to join the group that was preparing to dance the Kentucky hoedown.

As she danced she noticed that Will Bramford had taken Evangeline as his partner. And that wasn’t much of a surprise because pretty Evangeline was a lively dance partner. But unless she was mistaken, Will’s eyes were on her. She simply smiled at him, but as she and Eli sashayed up and down the line of dancers, she noticed something even more disturbing. Standing in the shadows, Gertie Muller was watching the merrymakers with a dark and perturbed expression that could only spell trouble.

“We’ll soon make Fort Kearney,” Eli told her as they took a break from dancing. “By Tuesday if all goes well.”

“That’s wonderful.”

“You’ve probably heard that Gertie has lodged a complaint against Ruby Morris’ wagon. The captain plans to deal with the issue before we arrive in Fort Kearney.”

“He won’t send them back, will he?”

Eli sighed. “Hard to say.”

“As far as I know they haven’t broken any rules,” Elizabeth told him.

Eli’s brows arched. “Are you defending them?”

She shrugged. “I’m only saying that if they haven’t broken any rules, it seems unfair to send them back.”

“I’ve noticed how you and your family have gotten friendly with Jess.” He nodded over to where Matthew was still dancing with her, and both seemed to be having a good time.

“Jess is a good girl.”

“I don’t doubt that. And I suspect she had her own reasons to masquerade as a man.”

Elizabeth bit her lip.

“I’m not trying to pass judgment on Ruby and the others,” he said quietly. “I’m just trying to give you a warning. Your father is well aware that their wagon might be cut loose in Fort Kearney.”

Elizabeth folded her arms across her front as she watched Ruby and Doris chatting with her mother. “I do realize this is up to the captain…but it just doesn’t seem quite fair. Ruby chose to make this trip for Jess’ sake. She’s sacrificed a lot. Now if they were gambling and drinking and causing trouble, I would understand and agree wholeheartedly. But…” She stopped herself from saying there were other emigrants who stirred up more trouble than Ruby.

“It’s a long journey, Elizabeth. The farther along we get, the harder it would be for them to turn back. And sure, they’re not breaking the rules now. But what if we’re out in the middle of Blackfoot country and they do?”

She wondered why he was telling her this now. Was it simply to prepare her for the inevitable, or did he expect her to do something about it? Whatever the case, it certainly put a damper on what had otherwise been a fun evening. Feeling slightly out of sorts, she excused herself and went over to join her father. He was just lighting his pipe and dragging a chair closer to the fire, which was mostly just embers now.

“Taking a break?” she asked as she moved a chair near him and sat down.

He nodded with a thoughtful expression as he took a long pull from his pipe.

“Eli was just informing me that the captain might be making Ruby’s wagon leave the wagon train,” she said quietly.

He nodded again, this time with a creased brow.

“It just seems unfair.”

“I know.”

“Isn’t there anything we can do about it?”

“The captain said I could put it to a vote in our unit.”

Elizabeth was surprised. “Really? We can vote on it?”

“Since no official rules have been broken…but he warned me that putting it to a vote might just stir up more trouble for everyone. Might be real divisive.”

“Gertie Muller is rather divisive, don’t you think?”

He just nodded, putting his feet up on a nearby crate.

“What do you have to do? To put it to a vote?”

“I reckon we’d have a unit meeting. And we’d have to explain the situation. You see, not everyone is aware of, well, the nature of Ruby’s business.”

“I have an idea,” she said suddenly. “A number of people, including the Bostonians, complained about the Taylors’ church service last week. They don’t plan to attend their service tomorrow. And some have mentioned how they’d like for you to do church like you did on the first Sunday out.”

A small smile crept across his lips. “They would?”

“What if you talked about God’s mercy and forgiveness?” she said with enthusiasm. “And then you could call the unit meeting for after the church service. And then you could put it to a vote.” Now she scowled, tossing a small piece of wood onto the fire. “But I suppose women wouldn’t be allowed to vote.”

“The captain said that some wagon trains allow women to vote.”

“Are you serious?”

“It’s not very common. But some of the women carry as much weight and responsibility as the men, so sometimes they’re given the vote.” Asa pointed his pipe at her. “For instance, you are the head of your family, Elizabeth. You’re responsible for your wagon and your children. I reckon it only seems fair you get to vote.”

She nodded eagerly. “That does seem fair.”

“Unfortunately that privilege will not be good once we get back to civilization.”

She laughed. “Civilization?”

“Well, you know what I mean.”

“I’d greatly appreciate the opportunity to vote on this, Father.” She stood now, suddenly feeling a sense of mission. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to invite our friends to join us for church in the morning.” She could hear him chuckling as she walked away. He was probably already planning his sermon. She hoped he’d keep it short, like the previous one.

Asa’s church service was well attended. Other than the Taylors and Mullers and Evangeline, everyone in their unit was there. As before, they started with music, singing some cheerful and well-known hymns. But when Asa said the opening prayer, Elizabeth could hear the faint twanging of the off-key piano on the opposite end of their camp.

“Some of you know I like stories,” Asa began after the prayer, “and usually I like to tell farming stories. The Gospels are full of them. But today I’m going to tell you about something that’s not just a story. It really happened.” He glanced around the group of listeners, pausing to look down at where Ruth and Tillie were standing side by side, holding hands.

“But since we’ve got some young ears in this group, I will modify the story accordingly. This all happened a long time ago, when Jesus was a man walking the earth. There were some religious folks who didn’t cotton much to Jesus being the Son of God, probably because Jesus had a knack for making them look bad. So one day these religious men brought a woman to Jesus—a woman who’d been caught doing something sinful. They threw this woman at Jesus and demanded that she be
killed.
”

Asa paused, holding a large rock in his fist for everyone to see. “They wanted everyone to pick up stones and chuck them at her and to keep chucking them at her until the poor woman was
dead.
” Someone gasped. “So Jesus picked up a stone,” Asa said loudly, shaking the stone in the air. Elizabeth watched Ruth’s and Tillie’s eyes growing wider.

“Jesus looked over the crowd of folks, and he said, ‘Whoever among you has
never
sinned, whoever has
never
done a single wrong thing, let him be the first one to throw a stone.’” Now Asa tossed his rock aside and knelt down.

“Then Jesus knelt down just like this.” Asa picked up a stick that he must have set there and lowered his voice. “And he scribbled something in the dirt.” Asa etched the word “lies” and then “gossip” into the dust. And then he stood and pointed the stick in the air. “And do you know what?” He looked at the group. “Everyone left. No one threw a single stone at that poor woman because they all knew that they’d committed sins too. Then Jesus told the woman that her sins were forgiven and that she should go and sin no more.” He grinned as he dropped the stick and brushed the dust off his hands. “Just like that.”

Next they sang a few more hymns, and in a closing prayer, Asa invited God to teach them to be kind and merciful, “Just like Jesus.” And with that, their little service was over. But before the crowd dispersed, Asa announced that there would be an important unit meeting at eleven. “Everyone over the age of twenty-one is expected to attend. Now I know you folks will be busy getting your dinner ready and wagons hitched, but this meeting will only take about ten minutes of your time.”

Asa’s plan was to have the vote be secret ballot, and Elizabeth had taken some pages from her own journal, cutting them up into small pieces for voters to pencil their decisions upon. But before eleven, and with her father’s permission, she hurried over to Ruby’s wagon to explain the situation. She was relieved that Jess and Evangeline were occupied hitching up the team. Somehow she couldn’t bear to see Jess’ reaction to the need for a vote.

Ruby just nodded. “I had a feeling it would come to this. Gertie’s been making a lot of noise. She told me she was speaking to Captain Brownlee.”

“Is that why Asa preached the way he preached?” Doris asked with sad eyes.

Elizabeth sighed then nodded.

“Captain Brownlee warned me that we might be removed from the wagon train in Fort Kearney,” Ruby said quietly.

“There are twenty-two people of voting age in our unit,” Elizabeth told them.

“You must be counting women,” Doris said bitterly. “Surely we won’t get—”