Wagon Train Cinderella

by Kennedy, Shirley

  They plodded on and had almost reached the top when the temperature dropped. It started to snow again, the flakes driven sideways by a cutting wind. Callie could hardly see but fought on, her weary body protesting every painful step. She soon lost sight of Hank and Seth in the raging blizzard.

  She couldn’t see the top now…but if she kept going up, she was sure to find it. Not there yet…so tired…how nice if she could lie down a minute…but, no, she couldn’t, because if she did, she’d never get up again…but so very tired…

  What would it hurt to lay her weary body on the snow and take a rest? A very short rest…

  She fought on, but when her knees buckled and she fell, she knew she’d never get up again. It was over. Ma…Lydia…Tommy…now I’ll see you in heaven. Luke, how I loved you. Luke…

  Sleep, blessed sleep. It was all that mattered.

  Chapter 18

  “Wake up! Wake up!”

  Callie forced her eyelids open. What was that voice? It sounded like Luke’s, but it couldn’t be because he was dead. And yet…

  Where was she? It must be heaven because Luke’s face loomed above her. “Callie, you’re all right. I’ve got to get you warm.”

  “Am I dead?”

  “No.”

  Maybe this wasn’t heaven. It seemed like she was in a tent, covered with blankets. Outside the storm raged. Someone was rubbing her hands, then her feet, then back to her hands again.

  She had to gather all her strength just to speak. “Luke? Is that you?”

  “It’s me.” He was rubbing her hands and didn’t let up.

  “But you’re dead.”

  “Does it look like I’m dead?”

  “But how—?”

  “I’ll explain later. Right now you’ve got to concentrate on getting warm.”

  Was Luke not dead? Was she still alive? She was definitely in a tent. There were other people in the tent besides Luke. He was bending over her. Yes, it was definitely Luke McGraw, and he had a deeply concerned look in his eye as he tried to bring back warmth to her frostbitten hands and feet.

  A man she didn’t know brought her a cup of steaming hot coffee and asked, “How is she?”

  “She’ll be all right.”

  “Lucky we found her when we did. She wouldn’t have lasted much longer.”

  Her mind cleared when she sat up to drink the coffee. She was alive and Luke was alive. She wasn’t in heaven after all. The hot liquid tasted wonderful, even more so when it slid in a warm path down her throat. After she’d had a few swallows, she looked at Luke, who still knelt by her side. “Why aren’t you dead? How did you find me?”

  “It’s a long story. I’m not dead because Magnus didn’t kill me, although he meant to when he shot me point blank in the chest. He saw me go down, so, of course, he and his men figured I was dead, and there’d be no trace of me after the fire burnt out the field.”

  “But how did you—?”

  “When they ran for their lives to escape the fire, I crawled to the cliff and threw myself off. Landed in the Humboldt River, which was, thank God, deep enough I didn’t break my neck. I drifted downstream until a couple of Shoshones found me and dragged me out. Took care of me until I got on my feet again.” He gave her a wry smile. “So that’s the story of why I’m not dead.”

  “I cried over your grave.”

  “What a sly devil he was. That grave was empty.”

  She’d been right. Magnus killed Luke, or tried to. She still couldn’t quite believe Luke was alive, but she was trying. “How did it happen that you found me?”

  “When I was well enough, I got a horse from the Shoshones and set out to find you. I crossed the desert in a day. From the Truckee, I followed Jack Gowdy and his train across the Sierras, caught up with them at Johnson’s Ranch, which is well on the way to Sutter’s Fort.” He broke into a smile. “Florida was happy to see me.”

  “I should think! She must have been overjoyed.”

  Luke turned serious again. “But you weren’t there. That’s when I learned Magnus had chosen to take some crazy shortcut and took you and your family with him. You hadn’t shown up yet, so we knew something was wrong. I organized this rescue party, six men with plenty of provisions. We got back to the Truckee. Then we followed Magnus’s shortcut and got to the old trapper’s cabin—”

  “You found them?” Callie’s heart leapt with excitement. “Please tell me how they are.”

  “I guess you already know about your pa, but Lydia, Tommy, and your stepmother are fine. Weak from hunger, of course, and cold, but they’re going to be fine.”

  “It’s such wonderful news I can hardly believe it.”

  “It’s true, all right. They told me you’d gone off with Magnus and were worried sick and didn’t think you’d survive.”

  “I almost didn’t.”

  “I know.” A strange look came over his face. He seemed to be fighting to control his feelings. “I told you once that when the train got where it was going, I’d head back to the wilderness and live the rest of my life alone.” He took her hand. “I can’t do that.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I love you, and we should be together.” His eyes grew hauntingly dark with some unnamed emotion. “I can’t imagine life without you.”

  No, this was one miracle too many. She couldn’t believe so many good things were happening at once. Her appearance! When was the last time she combed her hair? She reached up to touch it. What a tangled mess. “I must look awful.”

  For a moment he stared at her, then burst out laughing. “You think I care what you look like?” He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight against him, like he never wanted to let her go. “Callie Whitaker, you are the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. You’re smart and you’re loyal. You’re as brave as any man. To me, you’re beautiful and always will be.”

  The last of her confusion disappeared. “Oh, Luke, I fell in love with you from the first moment I saw you at the creek.”

  “We’ll have a lifetime to talk about it, won’t we?”

  There were others in the tent, but she didn’t care when he crushed his lips to hers and gave her a kiss full of love and promises. She melted against him and gripped his broad, sheltering shoulders. Now she knew for sure the old Callie was gone. The new Callie looked forward to a wonderful life with the man she loved.

  Epilogue

  Angel’s Camp, California, 1860

  For at least the thousandth time, Callie McGraw went to the front window of McGraw’s Trading Post and Outfitters. She peered down the main street and sighed. “Not yet.”

  Lydia walked to the window and gave an impatient sigh of her own. “Three months since they left New York. It’s got to be soon.”

  At that moment, Callie saw a covered wagon rolling up the street. A man and a woman sat in front. Several children peered out from the back. “It’s them!”

  She ran outside to the wooden sidewalk, Lydia close behind. They shouted and waved as the wagon drew up and stopped in front of the store. Nellie Jonckers jumped from the seat and threw herself into her sisters’ arms. “All those years! At last we’re together again.”

  “Nine years, to be exact.” In a more dignified manner, Abraham Jonckers climbed down and stood beside his wife.

  Callie’s mind flew back to that never-to-be-forgotten day when she had helped Nellie escape Pa’s wrath. She’d always wondered if she’d done the right thing, but now knew for certain she had. Nellie’s eyes sparkled with happiness as she cast an adoring look at her husband. She looked slimmer now, despite the three babies she’d borne.

  When the children climbed down, six altogether, Callie knew immediately which was Coy’s son, not only from his looks but from his age. He looked like a happy child, just like the rest. She knew from Nellie’s letters the boy believed he was Abraham’s child. He’d never know his real father was a murderer and hanged in disgrace.

  After the first
heady moments of their meeting, Callie put her arm around Nellie’s shoulders. “Come inside. I have so much to show you and so much to tell you. Luke’s on a packing trip, but he’ll be home in time for supper.”

  The McGraw family lived in a spacious two-story house on a hill overlooking the bustling mining town high in the Sierras. That night, supper was a joyous affair. The younger children sat at a table of their own: Nellie’s three youngest, Lydia’s four, including the twins, and Callie’s two lively boys who so resembled their father. All day Callie had gone around in a glow. How wonderful they were all together again. Lydia and her husband, Colton, lived close by. He worked with Luke in the store and as a guide for the pack trains, two ventures that provided a comfortable living for both families. Now Nellie and Abe had trekked clear across the country and planned to buy a farm in the valley below. Florida, too, lived in the valley. Not long after she had arrived, she fell in love with a prosperous farmer. She and “the love of her life,” as she called him, lived not far from Sutter’s Fort.

  Tommy sat across from her at the table. What a fine young man he’d become. He would always be on the quiet side, but at sixteen had proven his worth helping in the store and on pack trips with Luke. Often young ladies who came in the store went out of their way to flirt with him. He didn’t seem to mind.

  Not all her memories were happy ones. She’d always remember her stepparents with a pang of sadness. Ma was never the same after Pa died. Her mind seemed to fade until she spent her days sitting in a rocking chair, staring into space. One night, only a year after they were rescued, she went to bed and never woke up. “It’s for the best,” everyone had said.

  Sometimes in the middle of the night, when she couldn’t sleep, she stared into the darkness, her mind drifting back to her unforgettable journey. Ma and Pa…Andy…Coy…cocky Len, dying from his own carelessness. She remembered the faithful oxen—Rosie and Jack, Zephyr and Thor—and that awful day she had to shoot those poor, trusting animals. Until the day she died, the memory would haunt her, but, like Luke had once told her, if she wasted her time grieving, she’d be a softhearted fool. She should give thanks she still had a life and enjoy it as best she could.

  Luke sat beside her. Underneath the table, she slipped her hand into his. The warm glance he sent back showed how much he, too, was enjoying the evening. Never since they’d been married had he given any sign he missed his lonely life in the mountains.

  Luke must have guessed what she was thinking. He leaned to give her a quick kiss on her cheek. “Love you.”

  The quick smile she returned said it all. To think there’d been a time when she thought she’d always be a servant. No longer, thanks to Luke and those months she spent on the wagon train that totally changed her life. Now she couldn’t be happier, with a husband she adored, a comfortable home, two bright, healthy children and a warm, loving family, all of them close by.

  And nobody ever, ever ordered her around.

  Meet the Author

  Shirley Kennedy was born and raised in Fresno, California. She lived in Canada for many years where she skied at Banff nearly every winter weekend and rode the trails of the Rocky Mountains on her horse, Heathcliff. She’s a graduate of the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada with a B.S. in Computer Science.

  She worked several years as a computer programmer/analyst, but because her true passion was always writing, she finally decided to devote herself to becoming a published author and quit her day job—something they say never to do! But she never looked back and since that rash decision has published novels with Ballantine, Signet, and several smaller presses. She writes in several different genres including Regency romance, western romance, and contemporary fiction. She is currently working on another western romance.

  Shirley lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, with her older daughter and two feline editorial assistants, Brutus and Sparky. She’s an active member of the Romance Writers of America, Las Vegas chapter.

  Acknowledgements

  My thanks go to Jackie Rowland Murray, president of the Oatman Historical Society, for her help in the research of all things western. Also, my special thanks go to the late Andy Kohut, artist and gun expert, who told me what I needed to know about how to load and fire a rifle in 1851.