Mattie's Pledge

by Jan Drexler

  “Yes, sir, we sure did. Don’t see many of them around here, since their settlement is down south a bit. But two days ago, just like you said. Some of those Conestoga wagons. They went on up the Stone Road. Seemed anxious to get on and didn’t stay to visit any.”

  Cole struggled to keep his expression bland. “They’re some friends of mine. If they’re only a couple days ahead, I’ll be able to catch up with them.” He paused, as if he had just thought of something. “I’ll be leaving early in the morning, before dawn. Will I be able to get my horse, or do you keep your barn locked?”

  “We never lock the barn. You can leave whenever you wish.”

  “You don’t lock the barn?” Cole put a surprised look on his face. “You must not be bothered with horse thieves here then, the way the innkeepers are down south.”

  The innkeeper’s face blanched. “Why no. We never have.”

  Cole smiled, as if he was relieved. “I’m sure you won’t be a victim of those rascals. But you never know where they might strike next.”

  By the time he had taken a bath in the room off the kitchen and dressed in clean clothes straight from the clothesline, it was suppertime. He shaved carefully, scraping off a two-weeks’ growth of beard, and trimmed his mustache. Darrell and Hiram might not have cared where or how they camped, but Cole hated the creeping dirt that never came off in a quick dip in a stream. Only a hot bath and lye soap would get him clean enough. He grinned at his reflection in the flecked mirror over the chifforobe. With any luck, he’d catch up with the Amish movers by tomorrow night. Somehow he’d get those horses. He smoothed his mustache. That Mattie girl too, if he had read the expression in her eyes right.

  He let himself sleep less than two hours, after spending a long evening in the tavern talking with a couple salesmen from Toledo. He dressed quietly and crept down the stairs, avoiding the two steps that had squeaked beneath his tread the night before. He let himself out the kitchen door and walked toward the barn, estimating the time by the stars. Only a few hours until dawn.

  The barn door opened with a quiet groan and he stopped, waiting to hear if he had roused the stable boy. When no one stirred, he left the door open to the moonlight and went to his horse. He saddled him quickly and tied him to a post.

  “Now you wait here,” he said, calming the bay gelding. “We’ll see if we can get any friends to take with us.”

  The salesmen had driven a carriage pulled by a pair of sleek blacks with matching white stockings. Cole brought them out of their stalls and strung their halters together with a lead. They came willingly enough when he gave them each a handful of grain out of the bin. He closed the barn door behind them and mounted, leading the blacks.

  The tollbooth was closed, just as the innkeeper had told him it would be this early. The gatekeeper expected night travelers to leave their toll in a box, but he walked the horses past the gatehouse and around the single pole barrier. He continued walking them on the grass trail next to the stone and tar surface of the road. Once out of earshot of the town, he pushed the horses into a trot, their hooves muffled by the grassy verge.

  Cole looked back at the sleek blacks. Not a bad night’s work. He grinned and settled into the mile-eating pace that would catch him up to his prey.

  Even on the second day of travel on the Stone Road, a week after they had left Walnut Creek, Mattie couldn’t get enough of the mysterious swamp around her as she walked on the grass trail beside the wagon. The road, straight as an arrow and covered with a macadam surface made of tar mixed with stone, marked the miles-long gash in the canopy that rose on either side. Below the raised road, water stood in pools on either side. Trees rose long-legged from the bright green duckweed, reaching to vast heights where their narrow crowns searched for the sunlight. On the grass-covered slopes of the dike, Mattie saw signs of animals. The splash of an otter disappearing under the water as they passed or the white flag of a deer’s tail were common enough. But as she peered farther into the murky depths on either side, the only signs of life were the drumming of unseen woodpeckers or the flash of a blue warbler flitting through the high branches.

  The night before, as they camped on a raised island, the mosquitoes had pestered them endlessly. The men had made a smudge of the cooking fire, hoping it would keep most of the insects away, but the pests found bare skin even through the thick smoke. Naomi had hunted out some jewelweed, and they had picked handfuls of it, applying its sap to the bites on the children’s arms, legs, and faces. Morning had brought a cool north breeze blowing through the tunnel of a road, bringing some relief, but Mattie knew mosquitoes. They would be back as soon as the breeze died down in the evening.

  They stopped at noon, gathering together on the grass alongside the road. Jacob kept to his wagon, not looking at Mattie at all. Mattie continued to ignore him as well. Never mind the nagging desire to watch him work with the horses or to go with him along the drier ridges leading into the Swamp on a search for firewood. She also ignored the sick feeling in her stomach. It must have been something she ate that made her uncomfortable. It couldn’t have anything to do with Jacob.

  Mattie tried to amuse three-year-old Leah by making a handkerchief baby while the child’s mother, Emma, dealt with a fussy Rebecca.

  “This poor baby has so many mosquito bites, it doesn’t surprise me that she can’t sleep.” Emma patted at Rebecca’s face with a wet cloth while the baby twisted her face away.

  “The last mile marker I saw was thirty-two, so we only have eight more miles to go.” Mattie took the tired handkerchief from Leah’s hands and re-formed it into a doll one more time. “We should be out of the Swamp by tonight, and then we’ll be able to camp on higher ground.”

  Emma stood and rocked back and forth, trying to comfort her daughter. “We can’t be away from this evil place quickly enough for me.”

  Mattie gave Leah a cluster of yellow dandelions, laughing as the little girl giggled and picked it apart, scattering the flowers. “I don’t think the Swamp is evil. It’s beautiful and mysterious.”

  “It’s dangerous, if you ask me. I know I heard a bobcat prowling around our camp last night. And we’ve met so many men on this road. How do we know one of them isn’t a thief?”

  “Most are just travelers, like us. Like those salesmen from Toledo we saw yesterday. They were nice enough.”

  “Fancy men. Outsiders.” Emma slowed her rocking as Rebecca’s cries softened. “We can’t trust outsiders.” She nodded her head down the road behind them. “Like that one. Why does he have three horses? And why is he hanging back, almost out of sight?”

  Mattie stood to see who Emma was talking about. For sure there was a man back there. Far enough away to be nearly indistinguishable in the distance. A sudden memory of Cole Bates sprang into her mind. This man reminded her of him, with his black hat and bay horse. But no one had seen him or his brothers since they left the Ohio River.

  Isaac came up to them and lifted Leah from her seat on the ground. “We’re starting out again. It will put a strain on the horses, but we want to get to the end of this swamp before we camp tonight.”

  While Emma followed him to the wagon with the sleeping baby, Mattie waited, looking for the man behind them. But while she had been distracted by Isaac, the traveler had disappeared from view. She took a few steps down the grassy trail. There was no sign of him.

  “Mattie,” Daed called to her. “Keep up with us.”

  “I’m coming.” She took one last look down the road. Had she seen movement in the green undergrowth?

  Once the horses were hitched to the wagons, the men kept them going at a fast pace. Mattie followed behind. Daed’s wagon was last in the group today, following the Bontragers and Hertzlers. Josef Bender’s wagon led the way, with Jacob driving from his seat on the wheel horse. She could see him far ahead. As far away as he had ever been since their talk back in Holmes County. She was glad to follow behind the last wagon this afternoon, alone for once. Perhaps she would be able to make some sense of
her jumbled thoughts.

  Mattie kept up with the wagons as they passed the next mile marker, but then she saw a flash of red flying through the trees. She stopped to find the bird, searching the dark canopy. The bright red feathers belonged to a large woodpecker. But as soon as she spied it, it hopped around to the other side of the tree trunk it clung to. She walked farther along the path. There, it came back into view. She watched the black-and-white bird, as large as a hen, hammer its red head into the wood. The drumming sound echoed in the trees, then it flew off into the woods.

  Looking around, Mattie saw that the wagons were far ahead of her on the road. She had stopped to watch the woodpecker for longer than she thought. She slapped at a mosquito and climbed back up the dike to the sunny surface. She had also wandered much closer to the Swamp’s black waters than she had thought. She shook her head. It wouldn’t do to let herself be distracted like that. Woodpeckers or not, she would have to hurry to catch up with the others.

  As she started down the road, the sound of hoofbeats drifted toward her from the road behind. She turned to see the man with three horses coming up on her. She looked toward the wagons again. They were too far away to call to, and too far for her to catch up before the stranger would be upon her. A creeping tingle went down her back and she flexed her hands, suddenly cold. She started walking as quickly as she could. Maybe he would pass by without a word.

  The hoofbeats grew closer, then stopped just behind her.

  “Mattie-girl. I was afraid I wouldn’t see you again.”

  Cole Bates flashed his handsome smile at her when she looked toward him, but she turned her back and kept walking. The horses followed her.

  “You’ve let yourself get left behind by your folks.” He caught up to her, walking his horse beside her. “I have to wonder if you did that on purpose, knowing I was following behind.”

  She refused to answer, but he kept on.

  “I also have to wonder why such a pretty girl keeps on with these plain folk. You don’t look like one of them, you know.”

  In spite of her resolve not to, Mattie glanced at him. Lies and trouble. He was a thief and a liar, just like the evil one. She walked faster, ignoring the stitch coming in her side. The wagons continued on, just out of calling distance.

  Cole turned his horse in front of her, standing between her and the rest of the group, the horse hiding them from her sight. “I have an idea, Mattie-girl.”

  “Don’t call me that.” She tried to walk around the horse, but the other two, following Cole on a lead, surrounded her.

  He smiled at her. “You’re a pretty one. And I have a feeling you’d like a more adventurous life than you’ll ever have with those Amish.”

  The way he dismissed her family made her shudder. As if they were the outsiders, and she belonged in Cole’s world.

  The horse moved restlessly as he kept it reined in, trapping her. “I’m heading to Oregon.”

  She was compelled to meet his eyes.

  “Aye, you’ve heard of it, haven’t you? I think we’d do well together on the trail, you and me.” He leaned down from his saddle, his face close to hers. “I’ll take you to see things you’ve never even imagined, Mattie-girl.”

  In spite of herself, Mattie couldn’t look away from him. “Have you seen the mountains?”

  Cole dismounted and stepped close to her. She backed against the crowding horses circling the two of them. “I never have, but I’m going to.” He reached out and touched her cheek with the back of his hand, a single caress. “You have a mind to see them, Mattie-girl? Just say the word, and I’ll take you there.”

  His hand slipped down to her shoulder, then to her waist. He drew her closer until she smelled the alcohol on his breath. His black eyes held hers.

  “No.” Mattie shook her head and pressed back against the horse. Her heart pounded and she shivered with a sudden chill of cold sweat. “No, I can’t go with you.”

  Cole smiled. “Oh, Mattie-girl, I think you will. But not now. I need the horses too, you know.” He shifted his hand from her waist to the back of her head and bent to capture her mouth with his. The kiss was hard and forceful, and she struggled against him until he moved his lips to her ear. “Watch for me. I’ll come get you one night.”

  And suddenly she was free. She took one look at his face, cocksure and laughing, then turned and stumbled, catching her balance as she fought her way between the surrounding horses. She ran along the trail, dreading the sound she knew would come—the sound of the bay gelding’s hoofbeats overtaking her.

  But the only thing she heard was Cole’s laughter. “You’ll come with me, Mattie-girl. I know you will.”

  18

  By the time Jacob drove past mile marker thirty-eight, signs that they were approaching the town of Perrysburg were abundant. He could see higher ground on the other side of the river, where the town was located, and the occasional isolated cabin turned into farms with a few acres of meadowland even here, where the ground on either side of the raised road was still mostly marshes and reeds. He glanced behind often, watching for Mattie. He had lost sight of her soon after they had started out following the noon stop. Her habit of stopping to gaze into the depths of the Swamp worried him, but so far she had always managed to keep up with the wagons. Even so, anything could happen when she was out of his sight.

  When she finally caught up with them again, he sighed with relief. The two days of travel through the Swamp had been monotonous, but not without worrisome reminders of the life that many worldly people led. More than once they had driven past cabins in the Swamp that were little more than shacks built of logs. The men who stood before them, silently watching their progress, reminded him of George McIvey, the English outsider Liesbet had married. One man in particular, unshaven and belligerent, had kept his family behind him—three or four grimy children, and a woman in the shadows of the doorway, with staring eyes and expressionless faces. The scene had haunted him ever since, seeing what Liesbet’s future with McIvey could have been if she had lived.

  What Mattie’s future without belonging to the church could be. Her face the last time they had talked reminded him of Liesbet’s, just before she ran off with McIvey. He felt the familiar wave of helplessness wash over him. There was nothing he could do except watch, wait, and pray.

  Jacob straightened his back. Mattie hadn’t given him her pledge, but at least she was still with her family, and he hadn’t seen anything of Cole Bates and his brothers. He could hope Bates had lost their trail when they stopped in Holmes County, but a twisting in his gut told him that he couldn’t assume they were rid of him.

  It was suppertime when they reached mile marker forty and crossed the Maumee River at the edge of the Swamp, but Jacob kept the group’s pace as fast as ever. Last night’s camp had been a misery, and all the men agreed they were willing to push harder today in order to spend the night in a camp on higher ground.They still had an hour of daylight left before they had to stop for the night, and the higher into the uplands beyond the Swamp they were able to go, the better.

  When he reached a likely looking spot two miles beyond the town, he pulled up.

  “What do you think, Josef?”

  Josef jumped off the lazy board along the side of the wagon and trotted up to meet Jacob as he dismounted from the wheel horse. “I like this spot.” He turned to wave Yost Bontrager and Elias Hertzler to come forward.

  While the older men went to the nearby house to ask for permission to camp on the land, Jacob walked back to tell the others what they were doing. Mattie came to meet him as he reached the final wagon.

  “It’s a good spot to rest.” Her face was pale in the lowering light, but he shoved aside a flash of concern for her. They were all tired after the two-day push through the Swamp.

  “I’m certain there will still be mosquitoes.”

  Jacob tried to control his breathing. So she had spoken to him, but it didn’t mean they had returned to the closeness they had enjoyed before he had asked
her for her pledge. “But they won’t be as bad as in the middle of the Swamp.”

  Mattie hugged her elbows and shuddered a little, stepping closer to him.

  “You liked the Swamp, didn’t you?” Jacob risked looking at her eyes, but she wouldn’t meet his. “I often saw you looking into it, as if you wanted to explore it.”

  She bit her lip. “I did at first. It’s a wild place, isn’t it? I can’t imagine it will ever let itself be tamed, even though people built such a fine road through it, and some even live there.”

  “At first? You mean you grew tired of it?”

  She glanced behind her, back down the way they had come, but the road was empty. “I’m glad to be out of it and onto dry land.” She still didn’t meet his eyes.

  “Elias and Yost are returning. It’s time to make camp.” Jacob started toward the front of the wagons, but stopped when Mattie plucked at his sleeve.

  “You’ll make sure the horses are secure?”

  “Why are you concerned about the horses?”

  Mattie looked at her feet, then at him. “We’re among strangers here, so we should be wary.”

  “For sure.”

  She gave him a half smile, then turned to climb into one of the spring wagons with her mother and the other women and children. Jacob jogged up the road to his wagon, shaking his head. Something was bothering Mattie, something about the Swamp, but she might never tell him what it was.

  The families made camp in the meadow. A nearby stream flowed clean and fast over a bed of rocks, and they filled their water barrels. Andrew started the campfire, but no one cooked food for the late supper. Dried apples and bread that had been baked before they left Holmes County were enough after a tiring day. The meal was quiet, and most families looked for their beds before it was fully dark. Andrew slapped Jacob’s shoulder as he walked by with Johanna.