Wed On The Wagon Train. Tracy Blalock

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СКАЧАТЬ meant when she’d appealed to the Lord, she wasn’t going to question His ways. “Yes, please,” she accepted in relief.

      He gave the animal’s rump a light tap, which was enough to get him moving, and the rest of the team followed behind as docile as lambs, trailing Josiah onto the ferry.

      Her cheeks heated.

      What had she done wrong? She had no experience with driving a wagon. Had the oxen sensed that? If she couldn’t control her team, she’d be subjected to dangerous scrutiny. It felt like dozens of eyes were focused on her even now, and she pulled the brim of her hat lower over her face.

      Once the wagon wheels rolled onto the wooden planks, Josiah hopped back down to the ground. “There you go.”

      “Thank you.” Mattie stepped onto the ferry then glanced back in time to see Josiah heading toward an area where several horses were penned.

      When he reached the fence, he paused to stroke the nose of one animal. It was a different horse than the one she’d seen him riding yesterday.

      The wind tousled his bright hair, causing a lock to fall over his forehead. He was one of the most handsome men she’d ever met.

      But good looks could hide a multitude of sins, as she knew from personal experience. Even months later, she still sometimes had nightmares about what her life would be like if she’d married Charles Worthington back in Saint Louis. She touched her cheek, where a tiny scar served as a permanent reminder to look beneath the surface.

      Josiah appeared to be a truly good man—stepping in on two separate occasions to help her out—but she’d been fooled before and wouldn’t naively trust that he was everything he seemed.

      Too much was at stake.

      And she still didn’t know whether he’d seen through her disguise. Had he discerned more about her than he’d let on? The thought left her unsettled, but she scolded herself not to borrow trouble.

      Nonetheless, she had to keep her guard up. Around him and everyone else.

      The river current suddenly rocked the ferry, pulling her focus away from the far bank. She tightened her hold on the wagon frame and turned to face west.

      It was midafternoon by the time all twenty-five wagons were across the river, and their group made it less than two miles before the wagon master called a halt for the night. After their earlier obstinacy, the oxen seemed to take pity on her and hadn’t balked once on the trail.

      At their campsite, the covered wagons were arranged in a circle, and the area inside quickly became a hive of activity and movement. Mattie had to take special care to avoid being trampled by a nervous animal. Or getting in someone’s way. Observing the chaos, she noted that everybody seemed to know what to do.

      Except her and Adela.

      She didn’t want to stand out as a novice, but belatedly realized she had no idea how to unhitch the oxen. Or what to do with them once they were free of the wagon.

      She wasn’t living up to the promise she’d made to Miles Carpenter.

      Glancing around, she spotted Josiah. He was occupied with a group of horses, so there would be no help from that quarter.

      She’d have to do this on her own. Somehow.

      Circumspectly, she watched the other drivers’ actions in order to imitate them. As she moved toward her oxen, she noticed Adela still sat on the bench seat, where she’d insisted on riding all afternoon, despite the uncomfortable jostling as the covered wagon bounced over the rough trail.

      “Are you going to get down?”

      Tilting her parasol to shade her eyes from the slanting rays of the setting sun, she shook her head. “No. This is the only place to sit.”

      Mattie reached for the metal pin securing the nearest oxen’s neck thingamabob to the wooden doodad, which connected him to a second animal. “You don’t need a place to sit right now. You need to get busy starting a fire and cooking supper.” She abandoned her task for a moment to give her sister her full attention. “I can’t do everything myself, Adela. And since I’m taking over the jobs Papa would have handled, it’s up to you to see to the chores around camp that you and I originally planned to share.”

      “But I don’t know how to cook,” the younger girl protested. “I don’t even know how to start a fire.”

      “You’ll learn.” She wasn’t unsympathetic toward Adela’s plight, but coddling the younger girl would set an unwise precedent. “There’s some wood in that box strapped to the side of the wagon, and the matches are in Papa’s copper tin.”

      But still, her sister sat motionless.

      “The chores aren’t going to do themselves, and you’re wasting daylight,” Mattie prodded. “Things will be even more difficult to do in the dark.”

      Snapping her parasol closed, Adela tossed it into the wagon and clambered down from the high seat.

      Mattie breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

      “Save your thanks until we see if I can make anything edible,” the younger girl advised.

      * * *

      After constructing a temporary enclosure to house his horses for the night, Josiah headed toward the circle of wagons. Slipping between the tailgate of one and the tongue of another, he entered the ring and recognized Matt and his sister at the nearest campfire.

      The boy squatted, feeding a piece of wood into the crackling flames, while Adela stirred a boiling pot.

      “Evening,” Josiah greeted.

      Adela turned toward him, the action sending her skirt swinging into the fire.

      “Watch out!” Josiah reached forward, intent on pulling her out of harm’s way. But it was too late. The flames ignited the edge of the material.

      A series of shrieks filled the air, and the girl’s frantic movements hindered Josiah’s attempts to extinguish the fire by smothering it.

      Grabbing a large pan from the tailgate, Matt yanked the cover off the water barrel and filled the container, then tossed the water over his sister’s burning skirts, dousing the flames. “It’s out.”

      Silence fell as Adela finally stopped screaming.

      Several people had hurried over to see what all the commotion was about, but with the danger now past, they returned to their own campfires.

      Everyone except Josiah’s brother and sister-in-law.

      Rebecca’s eyebrows knit in concern. “Are you all right?”

      Adela looked down at herself. “My dress! It’s ruined.” No pain showed in her expression.

      Was that because she was unharmed? Or was she in a state of shock?

      Matt grabbed his sister and gave her a slight shake. “Never mind about your dress!” Fear raised his voice an octave higher than normal. “Are you burned?” Not waiting СКАЧАТЬ