Mara: A Georgian Romance

by Barbara T. Cerny

  One morning, Mara awoke to some small cramps in her stomach. She initially thought it was something she ate, and that it would pass.

  By noon the cramping was worse. She finally mentioned it to Cecilia, who put her right to bed.

  Two hours later, she started bleeding and the cramps became excruciating.

  Cecilia had Deirdre boil water and gather clean sheets. Cecilia wished the men hadn’t gone to see Mr. DeGinder about some last-minute arrangements for the trip.

  “What’s happening, Cecilia? What’s happening?” Mara cried hard, doubled over in pain.

  “You’re losing the baby, honey. And there is nothing we can do except let it happen.”

  “I can’t lose the baby, please don’t let me lose the baby!” Deirdre held Mara close as she lay there in pain, writhing and hurting.

  Deirdre smoothed her forehead with a cool wet compress, talking slowly and tenderly.

  There was nothing else they could do but wait for the fetus to pass.

  *****

  Cecilia met the men at the door when she heard them arrive.

  She immediately pulled Jake off to the side, whispering the news to him. He bolted to the bedroom to find Mara sleeping. He lay down next to her and gathered her up in his arms. He didn’t know what else to do; his heart broke over the loss of their baby, and for what Mara must have been through today without him.

  She felt him near her and opened her eyes. She burst into tears.

  “I’m so sorry, Jake. I’m so sorry.”

  “We are all sorry, sweetheart.” He kissed her face and let her cry it out, tears dripping down his own cheeks.

  *****

  It was a somber group that completed preparations for the trip over the next three weeks. They coddled Mara, not allowing her to lift heavy objects, and letting her sleep as much as she wanted. She had to grieve in her own way, and the rest supported her and Jake as best they could. Jake hardly left her side, holding her hand, kissing her brow, touching her arm or back. Any little show of love and support he could give her, he gave. At night they lay in each other’s arms, silently mourning their loss.

  *****

  The last day in the apartment was a frantic one. Everyone woke up very early to complete the final packing before leaving. They had decided to be at the wagon train departure point two days early to allow time to fully inventory the building materials. They also needed to test out their lean-to that would be made from one of the tarps hooked onto the carriage. They needed to ensure that the bedrolls and sleeping mats were adequate. And they’d have time to do last-minute shopping, if necessary.

  Laden down with cash, Deirdre and Cecilia finally climbed into the carriage, while Mara joined Jake on the driver’s seat. They made their way up Broad Way to Canal and then off to the docks and the Hoboken Ferry crossing. People waved to them as they rode down the street, the men in their wide-brimmed hats, the women in their bonnets, the wagons full—all telltale signs of a family leaving for the west.

  Luke and Pete drove the two wagons pulled by the eight horses they had stolen from Martin, Marlon, Ellery, and Aithley. Angelo and Python pulled the carriage. Jake tied up five horses they had purchased in New York behind the wagons and carriage, each laden down with full saddlebags. Empress didn’t need to be tied up. She never left Angelo’s side as they moved through the city. She would travel the entire way to Kentucky unfettered.

  They left New York City behind with both excitement and melancholy. New York had been very good to them, as they had found a rich society willing to pay top dollar for high quality jewels and gold, and people willing to help them build a good life. It was hard to say goodbye.

  Deirdre said it best as she threw a huge kiss back at the city and cried, “I love you, New York! Wish me well in my new life!”

  Luke and Jake had taken a trip to the departure site a few weeks back, and knew where they were headed. Luke led the small wagon train, and at a pace of two to three miles per hour, it took them most of the day to reach Newark, New Jersey. They still had two more ferry boat crossings to get through.

  Food for the journey took up a lot of space. They had been told to provide for each of them at least two hundred pounds of flour, one hundred fifty pounds of bacon, dried meat or dried fish, ten pounds of coffee, twenty pounds of sugar, twenty pounds of rice, and ten pounds of salt. Being English, they substituted tea for the coffee and had to convert stones to pounds. The travelers were packed to the gills. The carriage would only hold two people due to the foodstuffs packed inside, so one of the women would always be sitting next to the driver or on one of the horses. They all had their sleeping pillows to sit on, since the hard board of the driver’s seat would kill them after a couple of days.

  The entire trip would be more than 850 miles, through New Jersey, into Pennsylvania, and across a small stretch of Maryland. They would cover Virginia from east to west, finally landing in a place called Fort Chiswell. From there it would still be an additional 325 miles to Columbia, Kentucky.

  In 1805, wagon trains could travel one of two routes. The first was Zane's Trace, the name for a frontier road constructed under the direction of Colonel Ebenezer Zane through the Northwest Territory. The road was constructed in 1796 and 1797, and ran from Wheeling, West Virginia to Maysville in Kentucky. Zane’s Trace was a little over 230 miles long. The Trace was constructed through heavily forested, hilly terrain, and was not easily traveled by wagon.

  The second choice, and the route the DeGinder Wagon Train would take, was the Wilderness Road, the principal route used by American and immigrant settlers into and across Kentucky. Thirty years earlier, an American pioneer named Daniel Boone blazed a trail for the Transylvania Company from Fort Chiswell through the Cumberland Gap into central Kentucky. It followed prehistoric trails to reach the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville.

  At first, the trail was steep and rough, and could only be traversed by foot or on horseback. However, under new taxation, by 1796, an improved, all-weather road was opened for wagon and carriage travel.

  The entire road made a long loop from Virginia down to Tennessee and then up to Kentucky, a distance of almost a thousand miles. The southern part of Wilderness Road passed over the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee via the Cumberland River to Nashville. The northern arc split into two parts: the eastern spur went into the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky at Boonesborough on the Kentucky River near Lexington; the western spur ran to the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville. The Abbot clan would split off from the main wagon train at Middlesboro, and travel the last 130 miles with a few other families also going to the middle of Kentucky.

  They arrived at the departure point around dinner time. Kenny Maher’s man, Ulysses Beresford, and his nineteen men were already there with the ten wagons filled with building materials for the Abbots’ house.

  They pulled the wagons and carriage up to the other wagons, and started the process of settling in for the night. First, they needed to find one of the tarps.

  That located, Jake, Pete, and Luke tried to figure out how to hook one end on the top of the carriage, pull it out, and stake it into the ground in a manner that created a lean-to for them to sleep under. After a few abortive attempts and a lot of colorful language learned in the gutters of London, it was done.

  “Glad you decided to try this before we ‘it the road!”

  “Bloody thing.”

  “Can I just sleep in the carriage?”

  “No!”

  “Bloody git.”

  “Get that rope outta me face, arse!”

  “Get you outta me life, bloody bastard!”

  “Blimey. What do you think you are doing over there?”

  “Boys!” Mara was tired of the complaining. “Act your ages and like gentlemen, will you!”

  “I ain’t no gentlemen.”

  “Come, make me.”

  “Here, if you think you can do better.”

  “It is going to be a very long trip,” muttered Mara, as she walked away to find Mr.
Beresford. At least he might be a little more civilized!

  After they ate and cleaned up, the men started to jockey for the best sleeping positions.

  Cecilia finally put her foot down. “The women will sleep closest to the carriage in the middle and the men will sleep around the edges of the lean-to. Period. Understand, boys?”

  “Yes, mum.”

  “Got it.”

  “Right.”

  Cecilia had to remember that at nineteen, twenty, and twenty-one, these men were still too young for the responsibilities that had been laid on their shoulders. Even Deirdre, at twenty-three, was worldlier than the three former orphans. Married or not, the boys hadn’t yet fully grown up. This trip would either make men out of them or kill them in the process.

  The next morning dawned early. The group had tossed and turned most of the night, as they were not used to sleeping on mats in bedrolls on the ground, and they definitely were not used to sleeping practically on top of one another. Only forty-five to sixty more days of this, thought Mara. She realized the miscarriage might have been a blessing in disguise, given the discomfort she had already experienced. Her healing was nearly complete, both physically and emotionally.

  They spent the day inventorying the building materials.

  “Why are there bricks and mortar here?” Jake asked. “I thought we were to make those in Kentucky.”

  “Those are for building the kiln. You have to have materials to build that.”

  Jake nodded. “Okay. One kiln. Hope you know how to use that thing, because we are in over our heads here.”

  Beresford smiled. “We will not leave until your tents are up, your house space is cleared, your materials are under tarp, your kiln is made, your cabin floor laid, and we’ve taught you the basics to finish the cabin and make bricks. Mr. Maher would kill us if we left a paid customer in the lurch.”

  “You and your men do this all the time? I mean, travel every year on a wagon train or two?”

  “It isn’t a bad life for them; besides, this is the longest we’ve ever traveled. Usually we are only gone a week or two—into Virginia or Pennsylvania, upstate New York. Closer places.” Beresford looked up from his invoice list, and leaned against the wagon. “When the men marry, the wives want them to stay closer to home. But for the single men, this job pays well, and it is always an adventure. Someone has to run supplies back and forth from the frontier and the outer regions, and these men enjoy it.”

  “God bless you.”

  Beresford laughed. “Besides, where else are you able to fight Indians and highway robbers, and push wagons up Cumberland Gap? It is not for the meek or the weak. It will make a man out of you, boy.”

  “I just hope it doesn’t kill me.”

  “You hardly look weak, but growing up in the English aristocracy probably didn’t prepare you for the wilds of America. We generally see the common stock of folk out here.” Beresford nodded to the Abbot clan. “Protect your wives and mother over there. They are in the most danger. That big guy you have with you, what’s his name?”

  “Pete.”

  “Keep him near. He is your best protection. The little one probably won’t help much.”

  Jake raised an eyebrow. “You’ve never seen Luke shoot, have you? Best not ever find yourself looking down the barrel of his gun.”

  “Good shot, eh?”

  “The best.”

  “Then keep him near, too. He’s your outside protection. Pete is your inside protection. Men will be men, and your women will be targets. Especially the two younger ones. Your wife is a real beauty, and the other one is awfully pretty too.”

  “Thanks for the advice. I will absolutely take it.” Jake and Mara had become much more cautious after Mara had been attacked by Harry Paulus aboard ship. He realized they would need to continue to be vigilant and alert throughout the rest of their journey.

  Other pioneers had started arriving, and by nightfall half the wagon train was formed. They had even hitched up the horses and practiced their first march formation and circling the wagons, which they would do every night. It was beginning to look like a real wagon train. They would leave in two days. Whoever did not show up by tomorrow would be left behind. The train would be almost a hundred wagons strong.

  Two days later, they began the long journey to their new home.

  It turned out to be the hardest thing they had ever done.

  This was not like riding from London to Rochcliffe House. It was dusty, chaotic, loud, boring, exhausting, and butt-wrenching.

  They all silently wished they had stayed in New York.

  The roads were rough and crude, sometimes barely wide enough for the wagons to pass through.

  *****

  The success of a DeGinder Wagon Train depended on the wagon master—in this case, Gus DeGinder himself. He led a train once every two years, and this happened to be his trip.

  DeGinder’s company had written by-laws the pioneers had to abide by when disagreements threatened to worsen. The DeGinder by-laws included rules for camping and marching, and restrictions on gambling and drinking. There were penalties for infractions, social security for the sick or bereaved, and rules for dividing up property if someone died on the trail.

  He would give the members of the wagon train about a week to get to know one another, and then hold elections for officers. The officers would dole out punishment for infractions, which could include extra security duty, movement to the back of the march, or even banishment from the train.

  Since everyone believed Jake was a member of the English peerage, he was elected to the board, against his wishes. The people of the wagon train assumed he’d be well versed in governing, and he couldn’t really deny it without bringing on questions he didn’t want to answer. So, not only did he have the work of moving his family to Kentucky in one piece, he had the job of helping keep the peace. He dropped into bed exhausted every night, sleeping like a stone. He and Mara had barely even kissed since leaving New York City. In fact, they were too exhausted to do more than ride the wagons, eat, and sleep.

  A typical day started before dawn, with breakfast of coffee, bacon, and dry bread. The group then packed up their mats and bedrolls, saw to the animals, and repacked the breakfast items in time to be under way by seven o'clock.

  At noon, the train stopped for a cold meal of coffee, beans, and bacon or game prepared that morning.

  Then it was back on the road again. Around five in the afternoon, after traveling an average of fifteen miles, they circled the wagons for the evening. There were enough wagons in this train for a double circle, and after a few days of practice, the group was able to get into formation fairly quickly. The Abbot party had wagons twenty-two through thirty-six in the train—a solid place to be in the march order.

  Luke, Pete, and Jake secured the animals and made any needed repairs, while Mara, Deirdre, and Cecilia cooked a hot meal of boiled rice with dried beef or codfish, and tea.

  In the evenings, the travelers held school for the children. Sometimes they sang, danced, and told stories around the campfire. The Abbot clan usually did not participate, having little extra energy and not much use for camp songs.

  DeGinder reserved only Sunday morning for religious activities, and pushed on during the afternoon.

  In addition to giving the oxen, horses, and other animals a needed break on Sunday mornings, the women also had a chance to tend to domestic chores. Occasionally, when they arrived at a source of clean water, the wagon train would stop for everyone to do laundry. It seemed as if the dust on the Wilderness Road pervaded every article of clothing!

  River crossings were dangerous. Even if the current was slow and the water shallow, wagon wheels could be damaged by unseen rocks or become mired in the muddy bottom. And this land seemed to be teeming with creeks and rivers. But at least a dip in the creek allowed for a quick, fully clothed wash down. The travelers plunged in after taking off socks and shoes.

  Many a time animals from other wagons were unhitc
hed to turn back and help a wagon stuck in the mud. Pete, Luke, and Jake were called upon again and again to go help wagons in trouble. They knew that if their own wagons ever needed help, the people they helped would reciprocate.

  It was the carriage they worried about the most, and spent many evenings maintaining and repairing it. They just hoped it would make it. The carriage had not been designed to handle such rough terrain.

  The tiring pace of the journey—fifteen or so miles a day, almost always on foot—got to them all.

  Pete did double duty as a blacksmith, since one of the horses or oxen always seemed to need a new or repaired shoe. Luke repaired road-weary shoes and boots.

  The women sometimes had to drive the wagons. When the men were assigned security duty once or twice a week for a couple of hours during the night, they would then sleep in the carriage in the morning, and the women would take over for a few hours. Cecilia ended up being a highly competent driver. She couldn’t shoot, but she could handle a team of four!

  The horses, too, were bearing the brunt of the wear and tear. Jake had been forced to rotate the riding horses with the work horses so they didn’t kill their stock. Beaumont, Geoffrey, Parisian, and Crookshanks took turns pulling the wagons to let the others rest. The wagons carrying the building materials were pulled by oxen, a better animal for the trail. This was a lesson learned by the Abbot clan.

  Chapter 52

  The trail was a dangerous place. Accidents were a common occurrence. One man shot himself, another shot a good friend, and yet a third killed one of his oxen when his gun discharged accidentally. All the Abbot clan except Luke unloaded their weapons, keeping the bullets in a pocket.