Valerie Hansen - Frontier Courtship

“I’m what?” Faith’s voice squeaked. She was still struggling to digest his odd suggestion that they speak man-to-man.

Connell laid a finger across his lips. “Shush. Some of Tucker’s people might hear you.”

“What if they do? I have no intention of hiring anyone. I already made that quite clear.”

“I know, I know. You’re a regular mule skinner. Fine. Say that’s true. Who’s going to spell you along the way? Your sister?”

Faith pulled a face. “You know better.”

“Ab or Stuart, then?”

She scowled over at him. “How do you know them?”

“I get around.”

“They used to help me out. The last time Tucker beat poor Ben, I stood up to him and caused him to lose face, so now he doesn’t want either of them to come near me. This morning, Ab helped me harness up and the captain flogged him across the shoulders for his trouble.”

“Nice fella.”

Faith couldn’t help agreeing with the sarcastic observation. “I wish my sister didn’t really believe that.”

Taking off his hat, Connell ran his fingers through his thick hair to comb it back. “That’s the only part that’s got me buffaloed.”

“What does?” She was so caught up in their strange conversation she was almost able to forget the shooting pain in her side every time the wagon hit a rut or bounced over a depression.

“Mrs. Morse tells me Tucker’s been acting interested in your sister. I can’t figure out why. Not that she isn’t a pretty little thing.”

Faith kept her familiar twinge of sibling rivalry to herself. For as long as she could remember, people had remarked how lovely her younger sister was.

“Charity is comely,” she said.

“So’s a butterfly, but men don’t go around courting them. No. There’s got to be something else.” He pondered a bit, then shook his head and replaced his hat. “Blamed if I know. From what I’ve heard about Tucker, he only goes after women of considerable means.”

Faith gasped, nearly dropping the reins. “Oh, no! Why didn’t I think of that?”

Connell reached over and relieved her of the lines without incurring any protest. “Think of what?”

“The mining claim.”

“What claim?”

Faith shifted her body sideways. She wanted to watch her companion’s expression while revealing the family secret. “Papa’s been gold prospecting. Last we heard, he’d been quite successful. I’ll bet Charity told Tucker. She’s just foolish enough to have spoken out of turn.”

Connell’s eyebrows raised. “So that’s why you’re headed west by way of Sacramento City.”

Since they hadn’t yet come to the place where either of the trails to California branched off from the Oregon trail, she was surprised he knew. “Yes, but how…?”

“I’ve been asking around and keeping my ears open. Same as anybody could do. Chances are, Ramsey Tucker’s not the only one who’s heard about your papa’s good fortune by now, either.”

“Oh, dear.”

She grasped the wagon seat and held on tight while they jostled across an unusually rough area. The wagon creaked with the stress. Late spring rains and the passage of earlier wagons had left deep, uneven ruts. Now that drier weather had come, the roughness bound the wheel rims and put a twist on the wagon’s undercarriage that made it squeal in protest.

“I’ll work for found,” Connell offered, expounding on his original offer. “You won’t be the first traveler to need extra help on the trail. Just feed me and give me a place under the wagon to sleep and we’ll call it even.”

“I couldn’t do that,” Faith said flatly. “It wouldn’t be fair to you. It’s been over a year since my father’s last letter home. We may not even be able to locate him when we reach California. I couldn’t guarantee any pay, even then.”

“I never asked for it,” he countered gruffly.

Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew the miniature of Irene and held it up. “See this woman? Her name is Irene Wellman. We’ve been friends since we were children. She disappeared on her way to marry me. I figure, if she was traveling with Tucker on his last trip, she probably mentioned my name plenty. That’s why I didn’t want you to use McClain. I don’t want anybody to get suspicious and shut up before they can spill useful information.”

Gently, reverently, Faith took the picture. The woman was young, in her early twenties from the look of it, and pretty in a plain sort of way.

“After my mother died,” Connell said, “I lived with Irene’s family for a few years and we grew close. She gave me that picture when we parted and we pledged to marry someday. I was sixteen and headed for the mountains to make my fortune trapping. By the time I finally sent for her, she’d decided her bounden duty was to help her father care for her invalid mother, instead.”

“What does all this have to do with me?” Faith asked.

“Irene and I kept in touch as best we could. After her parents both died she had no family left, so she finally wrote and agreed to come to California to join me. That was a year ago. Far as I can tell, she never reached Salt Lake. Nobody will admit to knowing what happened to her.”

“And you think Tucker may be responsible? Why?”

“Because he’s the most likely prospect I’ve come across, for starters. The only connections I’ve been able to come up with are the first initial of his last name and the funny way his drovers started acting when I was asking about Irene. I know it isn’t much to go on, but it’s all I have. I need this job so I’ll be in a position to learn more.”

Faith gave back the miniature, sighed and turned to face the west where heaven-knows-what awaited her. How awful not to know for sure what had happened to a loved one. Was wondering worse than knowing the worst? She thought it might be.

Her mind made up, Faith held out her hand. “All right. Shake on it,” she said. “You’re hired.”

As soon as there was an easy opportunity to do so, Connell pulled the Beal wagon out of line. Halting the team, he called to Rojo. The gelding responded by obediently trotting up.

“You’ll ride him for a while,” Connell said, climbing down and holding out his hand for Faith to follow.

“There’s no need.”

He gritted his teeth. Why did she have to be so proud? “It’s not a favor, it’s common sense,” he argued. “You don’t weigh as much as a good-size calf, the horse is making the trip anyway, and your ribs will heal faster if you don’t go bouncing around all day on that hard wagon seat.” He started to make a token effort to get back into the wagon. “But, if you don’t want to…”

“I see your point,” she said begrudgingly. When he started to reach up to grasp her by the waist then stopped himself, she reassured him with, “I can manage. My side hurts less when I move without assistance.”

Standing by the side of the horse, Connell laced his fingers together to give her a boost up, wincing as he watched the signs of pain flash across her face. You could see from her eyes that she was hurting a lot more than she’d let on. To his surprise, she swung a leg over to ride astride. Her skirt hitched up to her boot tops, showing a bit of white stocking.

Seeing his quizzical expression, Faith adjusted the fabric of her dress and gave him a half smile as she took up the reins. “I was raised riding mules like old Ben without the benefit of a saddle. A body tended to wind up in the brambles if she didn’t sit her mount sensibly.”

Without comment, Connell climbed back aboard the wagon and called to the team to move out. Nothing Faith Beal did or said should surprise him, yet it kept happening. She was an enigma: a frail-looking beauty with the strength and stubbornness of a mule and more than a few useful skills many men didn’t possess.