Tender Journeys

by Janelle Jamison

  “I’m afraid my news about Miss Oberling isn’t encouraging. Fact is, it’s quite the opposite. Jenny is in grave danger, and I knew you’d want to know. I’ll help you any way I can.”

  David paled considerably. “What do you mean?”

  “I happened across some information and learned it involved Jenny. I already knew from talking to Daniel you had hopes of marrying her, so when I heard she was to be involved in an illegal marriage auction, I knew it most likely wasn’t of her own accord.”

  “Marriage auction? What’s that?” David asked, knowing it seemed like a ridiculous question.

  Garrett pushed his cup back and sighed. “It’s mostly a front for white slavery and prostitution. Girls think they’re bargaining for a husband, but most often they’re signing away their lives into all types of heinous activities. No doubt your Jenny isn’t going of her own free will, but that doesn’t matter to the men who run the auction. As long as the women are provided, they will run their trade.”

  “I’m certain Jenny would never agree to this auction,” David protested, sitting down in a chair opposite Garrett.

  “What are we to do?”

  “You love her, right?”

  “Of course, I do. I asked her to marry me on the trip back from Daniel’s. She loves me as much as I love her. I’ve been praying and biding my time.” David buried his face in his hands. “Now it would seem I’ve waited too long.”

  “You gonna give up, just like that?” Garrett questioned. “I know I wouldn’t let the woman I love get away without a fight.”

  “What do you suggest? I’ve been to talk to Natty Morgan—she’s the woman who’s holding her captive. I’ve tried to talk sense to her, but she won’t listen.”

  “Does Natty ever leave the house?”

  “I suppose,” David said as he raised his face in hope. “What do you think we should do?”

  “I can watch her house,” Garrett suggested. “After all, she doesn’t know me. I could keep an eye on her, and when she’s going to be out, I could come after you. You could come break in and take Jenny out.”

  “It might work,” David agreed as he got to his feet once again. “I can’t thank you enough for coming to help me. I would never have known in time and Jenny might have. . .” His voice trailed into silence. “Well, I don’t want to think about what might have happened. We won’t let it happen, and that’s all there is to it.”

  “Then we’re agreed,” Garrett said as he stood and put his hat on. “Give me directions to her house, and I’ll start watching immediately.”

  David walked to the door with Garrett. “Our best chance will probably be at night,” he decided. “Natty used to do most of her sleeping during the day and spend her nights partying at one establishment or another.”

  “Then I’ll go straightway from here to their house,” Garrett said as he stepped into the night darkness.

  “You’re a good man, Garrett Lucas, and I hope we can be friends for a long, long time.”

  Garrett smiled and nodded in agreement.

  “Now, as for the directions,” David said, “you turn left at the corner and head two blocks north. You’ll turn left again at the next corner. Her house will be the second on the right.”

  “Sounds easy enough,” Garrett said and buttoned his coat against the cold. “I’ll let you know when it’s clear.”

  David watched Garrett disappear into the darkness. He got the strong impression he and Garrett were just beginning their relationship. Despite his youth, Garrett Lucas would make a good friend.

  Chapter 10

  David’s opportunity came the following evening. Around midnight, long after David had given up hope of seeing Garrett, he appeared at the door breathless.

  “It’s time, David,” Garrett said as David tried to pull on his boots. “Mrs. Morgan has planted herself in one of the south side gambling houses. She doesn’t look inclined to return home anytime soon, but I suggest we hurry.”

  “I’m with you all the way,” David said, pulling on his coat. “We’ll come back here after we get her, and Pastor Ed will marry us. That way, Natty won’t have a chance of getting Jenny back.”

  “You can come to Jason’s ranch with me afterward,” Garrett insisted. “Since Jason wants you to set up a mission for the Indians, this would be perfect timing.” David nodded and followed Garrett into the street.

  u

  By Jenny’s calculations, it was January 14. She had passed over two months in captivity. Instead of breaking Jenny’s spirit, Natty Morgan had only managed to steel her determination to escape.

  Jenny had taken to matching Natty’s sleeping habits. While Natty ventured away each night, Jenny worked at putting a hole in the wall that separated her bedroom from the sewing room. Natty would never step into the sewing room, and Jenny knew her only chance of escape would be through that wall.

  Jenny sighed as she pounded away at the thin, but stubborn, wall. She had taken the brass candelabra and used the base to chip away at the wood. “Lord, give me the strength I need,” Jenny whispered. She repeated Philippians 4:13 again and again for encouragement: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

  Natty had been gone little less than an hour when Jenny heard noises coming from downstairs. She stopped her pounding and listened. Natty was returning. Jenny’s heart sank as she put the candelabra back on the nightstand. Hearing scuffling sounds on the steps, Jenny returned the unlit candles to the candelabra and sat down on her bed.

  She waited in silence, wondering why Natty had returned so early. It surely couldn’t mean anything good. Her heart pounded harder as the footsteps on the stairs came closer. She pulled her knees up to her chest and held her breath.

  Bang! Bang! Bang! The door was still reverberating from the pounding when Jenny called out in a weak voice. “What do you want?”

  “Jenny! It’s me, David!”

  “David!” Jenny called as she raced to the door. “Oh, David, is it really you?” She leaned her face against the door as if it would bring her closer to him.

  “It’s really me. I’m here with a friend, and we’ve come to break you out.”

  “You’ll never get through this door,” Jenny said, “but I’ve been trying to break through the wall that joins my room to the sewing room. If you go in there, you might be able to get me out. It’s the room to the right.”

  “We’ll give it a try, Jenny. You be sure and stay clear,” David called.

  “I will,” she agreed and moved across the room to where a single candle was burning on a small table.

  Jenny could hear the men move supplies and furniture in the sewing room to reveal the small hole she had put through the wall.

  “This ought to be fairly simple,” Garrett said as he motioned David to stand back. It took only three powerful blows of Garrett’s booted foot until the wood splintered and cracked. Both men reached down and pulled the boards away until a hole large enough for Jenny was created.

  “Bring whatever you can’t bear to leave behind, because I don’t intend for you to ever return,” David said in an authoritative voice that gave Jenny strength.

  Jenny hurried to put her meager wardrobe and family momentos into a bag. The last thing she reached for was the beloved Bible, which had become her mainstay. Placing it in the bag, she handed it through the opening into David’s waiting hands.

  “Just put your head and shoulders through the opening and we’ll lift you out,” David said as his heart raced in fear. Too much time was slipping by, and his concern that Natty would return was haunting his every move.

  Jenny popped her head through the opening and a broad grin spread across her face. “I’ve been working at this for weeks, and you come along, put a little pastorly persuasion into it, and here we are.”

  David reached out
and took hold of Jenny’s shoulders. “It wasn’t me,” he said as he eased Jenny through the hole. Garrett cleared away debris that blocked her path.

  As the men got Jenny to her feet, she immediately threw herself into David’s arms. “I wouldn’t have cared if Indians themselves had come to take me away. Thank you so much,” she said with tears pouring freely down her face. “I wasn’t sure you’d come for me.”

  David took hold of her face and kissed her wet cheeks. “You must never doubt my love for you, Jenny. Never, never doubt that my love binds me to you. Because of it, we can never truly be separated.”

  Jenny nodded and reached up to push back David’s blond hair as it fell across his forehead. “I will never doubt it again,” she whispered.

  Garrett cleared his voice uncomfortably. “I hate to break this up, but we need to get out of here before Mrs. Morgan returns.”

  David dropped his hands and Jenny turned abruptly to face her other rescuer. “Thank you so much for helping us,” Jenny said as she leaned forward and kissed Garrett’s boyish cheek. “I thank God for the both of you.”

  “I, too, thank God, Ma’am, but we needn’t put Him to a foolish test. I suggest we leave by way of the courtyard,” Garrett drawled as he picked up Jenny’s bag and led the way.

  Jenny let David pull her along through the darkened house, hardly daring to believe the joy that rushed through her. She was being set free—free from a life of misery with Natty Morgan and free from the fear of losing David.

  Once they’d reached the courtyard and alley, Jenny let go of David’s hand in order to pull her skirts up and nearly fell into a hole. David took hold of her arm to steady her.

  When they were nearly a block away from Natty’s house, David and Garrett slowed the pace to a brisk walk. Jenny’s pounding heart steadied and her breathing evened. “Where are we going?” she whispered into the dark night.

  “The church,” David responded.

  Standing safely in the vestibule of the Methodist Church, Jenny felt as if the nightmare she’d lived the past weeks was nothing more than a dream. She waited patiently as David exchanged a few words with Garrett before disappearing through the sanctuary of the church and into the back rooms.

  Garrett tossed his Stetson onto one of the pews and put Jenny’s bag beside it. “You’re a lucky woman,” he said as he gave Jenny a lazy smile.

  “I know,” Jenny agreed and returned the smile.

  “By the way, I’m Garret Lucas.”

  “I’m indebted to you, Mr. Lucas,” Jenny said as she extended her hand.

  “Just plain ol’ Garrett is good enough for me,” he said as he took her hand. “I kinda figure after you and David move to the ranch, we’ll become pretty good friends.”

  Jenny’s eyes grew wide in surprise. “What are you saying?”

  Garrett frowned for a moment. “I just figured you. . .well, I thought. . .” Garrett’s embarrassment.

  “Don’t worry about it, Garrett. You haven’t caused me any problem. Please don’t feel bad.”

  “Why should Garrett feel bad?” David asked as he came through the back door with a sleepy-eyed Pastor Ed.

  “I’m afraid I let the horse out of the barn, so to speak,” Garrett said, raising his eyes sheepishly to meet curious stares. “I mentioned something about you all moving to the ranch.”

  David laughed. “Is that all? Jenny, I know this is short notice, but Pastor Ed here has been good enough to get up in the middle of the night and marry us. If you’re willing, that is,” David said softly.

  Jenny looked contemplative for a moment. “Are you sure it’s the best thing for us?”

  “Are you afraid it might not be?” David questioned.

  “No. I feel confident in your choices. I’d love very much to marry you, David.” Jenny’s smile was all the reassurance he needed.

  “Well,” Ed said with a yawn, “if you two are agreed, I’d really like to get on with this.”

  David laughed and pulled Jenny with him to stand in front of Ed. “Then let’s get to it. We wouldn’t want Natty Morgan to come busting in and ruin our plans.”

  Jenny stiffened noticeably, and David offered her a comforting smile. “She’s not going to ruin our plans, Jenny. Don’t worry. God is with us in this.”

  Jenny nodded, and Pastor Ed began the ceremony that would join the two young people together for the rest of their lives.

  Twenty minutes later, David and Jenny Monroe followed Garrett Lucas on horseback. They rode north to a new life serving God. It was the tenderest journey Jenny had ever embarked on, and her heart held a deepening love and admiration for the man she now called husband.

  Chapter 11

  Spring 1893

  Jenny Monroe brushed on the final touches of whitewash and stood back to survey her work. Three small graves gleamed from the outlines of whitewashed rock. There were also whitewashed crosses at the head of each grave; faithful reminders that her children dwelt in heaven with their Creator.

  Wiping the final smudges of paint from her hands, Jenny picked up her things and moved toward the adobe barn. Children’s laughter rang sweet from the open pasture behind the two-story adobe house. Glancing out across the fields, Jenny counted the children.

  One, two, three—her eyes continued their search until she counted seven. Jenny laughed as the children played the games David had taught them. He loved these young waifs as much as she did. Many had come to them as sickly babes—some as the results of epidemics that claimed their parents’ lives—but all of them had one thing in common: they were Indian.

  Jenny loved them as much as the three little ones she’d borne and buried. They were God’s blessings.

  When the children caught sight of Jenny, the sky filled with little brown hands waving with glee. To some, Jenny was the only mother they’d ever known, and they loved her as if they’d belonged to her forever.

  How many children had crossed the steps of the orphanage and mission she and David tended? Jenny thought back over the years she and David had worked to establish their ministry with the Indians.

  She had to laugh to herself as she went back to work. She had once hated the Indians, blaming them for the death of her family. Now she was mothering seven of them and working with the tribe of local Pueblo. God had been so good to her, but the transition hadn’t come without a price.

  Within the first four years of her marriage to David, Jenny had developed a strong, sustaining faith in God. She devoted herself to prayer, and each time she’d found herself with child, her faith and belief had been sorely tested.

  She remembered the anticipation and longing both she and David had shared as they’d awaited the birth of their first child. Having witnessed Katie’s death not long before, they’d also been anxious about the delivery. When birthing day came, Jenny survived. Her baby did not. Jenny would never forget the devastation and heartbreak of burying that little babe who’d never known the sunlight on his face.

  To watch their fears be realized had taken its toll on Jenny’s and David’s renewed hope. He realized he wouldn’t lose Jenny as Daniel had lost Katie. The experience also helped him understand why Daniel’s despair had so easily turned to bitterness.

  Jenny’s emotional recovery was much slower, however. She sat for hours in the room that would have been the nursery. Sometimes she cried, other times she ranted, but finally she accepted the event, remembering Romans 8:28: “All things work together for good to them that love God. . .” She still wasn’t sure what possible good could come from the death of a baby.

  Jenny looked heavenward. The skies had threatened rain all morning and yet the billowy black clouds hung overhead as stubborn sentinels refusing to yield their posts. We could use a bit of rain, Jenny thought as she moved across the yard. Her garden was just starting to show wispy shoots of green.

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sp; Jenny reveled in the change across the land as winter became spring in dusky hues of mint green and flowering white. It wouldn’t be long until spring burst upon the scene in a riot of color and warmth, but for now she was content with the beginnings of life.

  Back in her kitchen, Jenny busied herself with the necessary tasks at hand. She checked her roast, then the clock. David would be returning soon, so Jenny rang the bell to call the children.

  Everyone had their jobs to do, and from the oldest to the youngest, each child knew what was expected. Jenny maintained if you had the ability to walk and hold onto things, you were old enough to help. Even three-year-old Storm, or Night-That-Storms as the Pueblo called him, was an able-bodied worker and happily carried the napkins and place mats to the table.

  Jenny took pride in the children God had loaned her. Some would stay for years, while others were quickly retrieved by family members who’d learned of their fate. Jenny hated to see any of them go and was always happy to see David or one of the Pueblo people appear with yet another needy bundle.

  “Is anybody home?” David called out as he came through the front door. Squeals of laughter filled the air, and all the children found hiding places. This was their nightly game, and no one would dream of doing anything different.

  Jenny stood in the hallway, arms outspread. “I can’t find the children. It seems they’ve disappeared again.”

  Giggles and the sound of hushed whispers could be heard throughout the first floor of the Monroe house.

  “Mrs. Monroe, it would seem you are always misplacing them. I suppose,” David said as he feigned exhausted reluctance, “I shall have to find them for you.”

  Jenny smiled and her brown eyes danced with love. For nearly ten years she’d been blessed enough to call this man husband, and every moment of her life she only loved him more.

  “Ah-ha!” David shouted, and six-year-old Fawn screamed out in pleasure. David tickled her stomach and put her on one of the long table benches. “So, White-Fawn-Dancing, just where are your brothers and sisters?”