Westward Hearts (33 page)

Elizabeth turned to watch their friends as their wagon first rolled into the water and then began to float. Ruby and Doris seemed to relax some, but as the ferry was about midway across the river, they heard a loud snapping sound.

“The rope in back!” Ruth pointed to the back of the wagon floating downriver from them. “It’s broke, Mama.” And now the wagon, no longer secured on both ends, began to be pushed sideways with the current.

“Get another rope!” Bert Flanders yelled from the east side of the river. “Someone in the wagon get another rope and toss it to me!”

Jess scrambled from the front seat and eventually popped her head out from the back, holding up a rope with a worried look. “I’ve got the rope!” she yelled to Bert and his oldest son.

“Tie it to the wagon and then throw it back to us,” he called as he waded out into the water. “Can you do that?”

She was already tying an end of the rope to a metal loop on the back of the wagon. Then she looped the rope into a coil and attempted to toss it over to Bert, who had his hands stretched out. But it didn’t make it. So she pulled it back, winding the now dripping rope into another coil, and this time, straddling the tailgate of the wagon like a horse, she gave the coiled rope an even more vigorous throw. But just as she was pitching it, the wagon was hit by a strong current, which sent it spinning completely around so that they couldn’t see her. But they heard Jess letting out a loud yelp and then a big splash.

“She fell in!” Ruth screamed, pointing to the blue calico skirt that ballooned around Jess as she was swept away by the fast-moving water. “Jess fell in the river!”

“Oh, dear God!” Elizabeth gasped. “Please, help her!”

“Uncle Matthew is going to get her!” Ruth pointed to where Matthew was running along the shore on the other side of the river. He was calling out to Jess and stripping off his jacket as he ran. And then he leaped off the riverbank close to where she was struggling in the water, and suddenly they both disappeared around the bend of the river.

Elizabeth felt sickened as she grabbed Ruth’s hand. “Let’s go to Grandma,” she said, knowing that Clara must have witnessed the whole thing as well. Elizabeth hurried to get down and carefully helped Ruth down. They rushed up to where Clara was sitting in her own wagon with tears filling her faded blue eyes.

“Oh, my. Oh, my!” Clara shook her head. “That does not look good.”

“He’s going to be all right,” Elizabeth told her mother. “They both are. Matthew is a good swimmer.”

“But the water is so cold…and the current…so strong.”

“Let’s pray for them,” Ruth bravely declared. And in a faithful voice, she began to pray loudly. “Dear God, please help Matthew and Jess. Please help them to swim to shore and to come back to us. We know you can do that, dear God. We kindly thank you for your help today. Amen.”

“Hurry and get this boat across the river,” Asa commanded the man in charge of the ferry. “That’s my son in the water.”

Time seemed to stand still as they waited for the ferry to move like a slow turtle to the other side of the river. Meanwhile, they helplessly watched Ruby’s wagon, still struggling against the current as Brady and some other men urged the oxen to tow it to the other shore. Just as the wagon’s wheels finally connected with the edge of the river bank, Elizabeth flew into action. “I’ll get some blankets,” she told Clara. “As soon as we land, I’ll run them down the shore. Jess and Matthew will need them.” She looked at Ruth. “You stay with Grandma. And wait until Grandpa helps you both off the ferry. We don’t want anyone else falling in.”

Then she dashed back to her own wagon, where she gathered some blankets. Bundling them against her chest, she went up to stand by her father and the man running the ferry, explaining her plan. “And get a fire going as soon as you get landed,” Elizabeth told Asa. “So we can warm them up.” Then, as they neared the shore, she spotted JT standing nearby, looking toward the ferry with a frightened and confused expression.

“JT!” she yelled. “Get on a horse and ride down the river and look for them.”

“Yes, ma’am!” he shot back at her.

“And I’m coming too,” she yelled as he took off toward the livestock area.

When the ferry was still about a foot from the landing, she took a running leap and just kept on going.

“Do you need help?” Will called out.

“Yes!” she yelled back. “Maybe so.”

So now Will and Belinda were running with her. And JT, riding bareback on Molly, shot out ahead of the three of them, quickly rounding the bend. As Elizabeth ran, she prayed silently with each step. “God help them. God help them. God help them.” She wasn’t sure how far they’d run, but her sides ached. It felt like at least a mile when JT yelled out. “I see ’em!” he shouted triumphantly. And sliding off the horse, he ran over to a raised bank and slid down. “They’re down here, Ma!”

Elizabeth and the others followed in time to see Matthew carrying a lifeless-looking bundle of dripping blue calico out of the water. He gently laid Jess onto a rocky beach area, pushing a dark strand of hair away from her pale face.

“Is she dead?” JT asked quietly as they all stood looking.

“No!”
Elizabeth declared as she slid down the riverbank toward them. “She can’t be.” She knelt down, and picking Jess up, she wrapped the blankets snugly around her. Then, shaking her lifeless body firmly, Elizabeth slapped Jess’ cheeks a couple of times and shook her harder. Anything to wake her. She had to wake her!

“Come on, Jess,” she yelled at her. “You can’t leave us like this.
Come on!”

Suddenly water poured out of Jess’ mouth, and her eyes opened with a startled expression. As she sputtered and coughed, Elizabeth put her arms around her, holding her tightly. “Come on,” she told Will and Belinda. “Help me to get her up and moving. We need to get her blood flowing.”

As they all helped to support Jess, who was still coughing and wheezing, Elizabeth glanced over to where Matthew was just standing and staring as if he was too shocked to even respond. Then she noticed that he too was shivering and shaking. “Come on, you get over here too.” She tugged him next to Jess, and opening the blanket, she wrapped them together like two sausages and began to vigorously rub their arms and shoulders and backs. “We need to get you two warmed up as quickly as possible.”

With everyone helping, they got the strange-looking blanket bundle up the riverbank and briskly walking. And then, after Matthew assured Elizabeth that he could stay on the horse as well as keep Jess from falling, they helped them both onto Molly’s back and sent them on ahead.

“Father should have a warming fire going,” she called out. “But you both need to get into dry clothes first thing.” She let out a sigh of relief as Molly began to canter. “Thanks be to God!”

“You can say that again,” Will agreed. “I really thought that was the last we’d see of both of them.”

“My uncle is a good swimmer,” JT told him. “I knew he could rescue her.”

“That was truly amazing,” Belinda said.

“How did you know Jess was going to be all right?” Will asked Elizabeth. “I honestly thought she was dead.”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged as they walked. “I just felt it inside of me. I felt certain that she wasn’t dead…that she wasn’t going to die. I couldn’t give up.”

“You’re a good woman to have around in a crisis.” He turned to Belinda. “If anyone in our family needs urgent help, I want you to run and get Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth just laughed. “You might be better off to fetch my mother,” she told Belinda. “She knows more about medicine than I do.”

Now JT told them about the time he fell out of his grandparents’ hay loft and broke his arm. “Grandma knew just what to do to fix it. It hurt a lot when she did it, but it made my arm heal good and straight. Even the doctor said she did it just right.”

By the time they reached the wagons, Elizabeth felt inexplicably happy. Maybe it was a result of the close call with her brother and Jess, or the fact that they’d all made it safely across the river, or maybe she was simply enjoying the company of her son and Will and Belinda.

Matthew and Jess had already finished changing into dry clothes and were huddling with family and friends by the fire, retelling their perilous story to anxious listeners, when Asa announced that it was time to go. “The captain wants us to make a few miles before we camp tonight,” he explained. “He expects another wagon train might be coming through here just a day or two behind us, and he wants to keep some space between us.”

“Got your wagon all hitched ’n’ ready, ma’am,” Brady told Elizabeth. “Mr. Matthew’s too. If’n you don’t mind, I’ll ride with your brother.”

“I don’t mind a bit. And thank you, Brady,” she told him. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“And Flax is tied at your wagon. So much goings-on, didn’t want him runnin’ off.” He nodded shyly as he walked away.

Jess joined Elizabeth as they headed for their wagons. “I want to thank you,” she told her. “It seems your family continues to rescue me.” She paused to hug Elizabeth with glistening eyes. “Thank you so much!”

“I’m just so very glad you’re all right.” Elizabeth touched Jess’ cheek. “You gave us quite a scare, young lady.”

“I didn’t tell Ruby and Doris
everything
that happened in the river—what a close call it was.” Jess spoke quietly. “I didn’t want to overly worry Aunt Ruby.”

“You just make sure you don’t let anything like that happen again,” Elizabeth said in a slightly stern tone. “We don’t want to lose you, Jess.”

When she got to the wagon, JT and Ruth were already in the seat, and her father’s wagon was starting to roll just ahead of them. “Can I drive?” JT asked hopefully.

“I’d appreciate it if you did, son.” She stepped on the wheel hub and climbed up, pausing to smile at her children as she sat down. “Well, that was an exciting river crossing, wasn’t it?”

Ruth nodded eagerly. “But God did take care of all of us, didn’t he, Mama?”

“He did, Ruthie.” Elizabeth pulled on a leather glove and reached down to release the brake, watching as JT sat tall, clucked his tongue, and then snapped the reins. “He surely did.”

T
he May weather continued mild and warm, and the prairie crossing continued without any serious calamity or mishap. Certainly, it was hard work—walking for miles, carrying water, cooking on an open fire, washing clothes in the river—but so far no one had drowned, no one was sick, the sun was shining, and Elizabeth felt there was relatively little to complain about. But she’d learned by now that a number of her fellow travelers always seemed to find a reason to moan. Perhaps they would be lost if they had nothing to grumble over.

For that reason, she usually tried to avoid certain individuals, like grumpy Gertie Muller or whiney Lavinia Prescott or the preachy Mrs. Taylor. Oh, Elizabeth would never admit to harboring such strong and disagreeable opinions on these three fellow travelers, and naturally she felt ashamed over her lack of good manners, but if she saw one of those three women coming her way, she usually tried to think of some good excuse to go in a different direction. And today that excuse had come by way of the children. When Ruth invited Elizabeth to walk with her and the Flanders’ girls as they collected wildflowers, Elizabeth was more than happy to join them.

But now as the three happy girls flitted about in the sunshine, thoroughly enjoying each other’s company, Elizabeth felt guilty to remember how she had avoided Gertie this morning. They’d both been on their way to fetch water, and Elizabeth had purposely slowed her pace, pretending to stop to admire a prairie flower. Really, how hard would it have been to walk with Gertie or to say something pleasant? Of course, Gertie didn’t seem to appreciate anything pleasant. She truly seemed to derive more pleasure from constantly faultfinding and lambasting those who didn’t measure up to her high expectations. Whether her comments were about a member of her own family or Captain Brownlee (if he wasn’t around to hear it), Gertie seemed to enjoy making noise. It was simply her way.

Now Elizabeth considered Lavinia. Sometimes Lavinia seemed to truly need a friend. But more often than not, Lavinia wanted someone to complain to. The previous night she had cornered Elizabeth at the campfire. She’d gotten her attention by confiding her concerns for her nineteen-year-old son, Julius, and how worried she was that poor Julius might be smitten by Jessica—even more so after her close scrape in the river. However, Lavinia had gone from there to directly complaining about how much she regretted venturing on this perilous trip altogether and how she wanted to turn the wagon around at Fort Laramie and join a group heading east. Elizabeth was well aware that the deprivations and demands were taking their toll on the city woman, and she knew it didn’t help when her rambunctious and energetic children made jokes at her expense. Most of the time Elizabeth tried to be patient with Lavinia, but more often than not she found herself wanting to run. Truth be told, Elizabeth could relate better to Lavinia’s young adult children than to Lavinia.

However, and it was difficult to admit this even to herself, Elizabeth had the most difficulty with the pious Mrs. Taylor. Whenever she saw Mrs. Taylor approaching, Elizabeth wanted to duck behind something and hide. And this afternoon was no different when, alerted by Flax’s barking, she realized that Mrs. Taylor was striding purposefully toward them and waving. “Elizabeth Martin,” she called out.