Nolan was shocked when his grandfather took off his coat. He’d lost a lot of weight since he’d seen him three years ago, and he was shorter. Nolan was taller than his elder, rather than the same height he’d remembered.
“Wood stack still by the back door?” There wasn’t any wood in the bucket by the stove to use.
“Yes, the Reagan boys check now and then to be sure we have wood.”
Well, Nolan’s first job was going to be stoking a fire to warm the house. That used to be his job growing up and it looked like it would be his job again.
Nolan paused in the door between the living room and dining room. The dining room table was pushed against the wall, and there was a small walkway between it and his grandparent’s bed. It wasn’t neatly made as his grandmother always insisted he and Daisy do to their beds each morning.
The kitchen wasn’t spic and span either. Dirty dishes were piled by the washbasin and the oilcloth on the kitchen table needed a good scrubbing to clean off the crusted spills. His grandmother was struggling to open her usually full tin of cookies with her arthritic fingers.
Nolan quietly walked by her and went out the back door to get an armload of wood. First, he’d get the stoves going, and then they’d sit down for coffee and talk.
***
The two knocks on the Reagan’s back door startled Holly before it swung open. Nolan barreled in, slammed the door before struggling to take off his hat and coat and tossing them on the floor. She was sitting at the kitchen table with her hosts.
“I can’t believe they didn’t let me know what was going on!”
His foot was ready to take a step when Kaitlyn yelled, “Boots off!” Nolan retreated to the rug by the door and yanked off his boots, then strode over to the table and took a seat. Kaitlyn slid a plate of cookies over to his side of the table, and then moved her cup of coffee she’d just refilled over, too. Nolan immediately took a sip and stuffed a whole oatmeal cookie in his mouth.
Holly couldn’t believe Nolan was so upset. He had always been so calm and in charge of any situation when she’d been with him.
“I told you he’d be over here this afternoon,” Kaitlyn smirked as she sat down with a new cup of coffee for herself.
Pastor Reagan continued to sip his coffee, as if oblivious to Nolan’s return after his three years’ absence.
“He fell months ago, almost breaking his hip! Her fingers are so arthritic she couldn’t open the tin of cookies she’s kept filled her entire married life! And the cookies in the tin were so stale and old she probably hadn’t baked for months!”
Nolan stuffed another cookie in his mouth, vigorously chewing and swallowing at such a fast pace that Holly thought he’d choke.
Kaitlyn took a sip of her new cup of coffee before pushing it over to Nolan after he drained the first cup.
After eating the third cookie, Nolan looked around the table at Kaitlyn, Pastor and herself. He’d finally calmed down, just as Kaitlyn had predicted.
What a wonderful couple the Reagans were. No wonder Nolan talked about them so much. Holly was so glad she’d be staying with them until the situation with Nolan’s grandparents was taken care of. The Reagans had told her what had been going on with them so she felt so much better about being here in Clear Creek.
“Welcome home, Son,” Pastor finally acknowledged the other man at the table.
“Thank you, Pastor. I’m glad I’m finally here.”
Nolan turned to Kaitlyn, giving her a serious stare before asking, “So what’s been going on with my grandparents?”
“General aging health, plus your grandfather fell in the café kitchen.”
“Have you been in the house lately?”
“No, but I knew Reuben and Gabe Shepard moved their bed downstairs. My boys have been keeping wood stacked by the back door, but your grandfather wouldn’t let them bring it into the house.”
“It’s a mess! Dust everywhere, their bedding reeks and needs a good washing, and how has Grandma been cooking when she can’t open a simple tin?”
“We’ve tried to help as much as they’d let us, Nolan. They told us they’d written to you about their situation and we were not to contact you.”
“Well, that’s one letter that was never written, let alone mailed!”
Nolan set his elbows on the table and scrubbed his hands over his face and through his hair several times. Holly wished she could put her arm around his shoulders to comfort him as he’d done her several times, but she sensed he needed to talk it out with his longtime friends instead.
“I should have moved back two years ago instead of staying in the army.”
“You’re not to blame, Nolan. They could have accepted our help.”
“Stubborn old man... He used to be so big and vibrant.” Nolan wiped his thumbs across his eyes.
“Your mother has been slipping in food we’d leave on the porch, so they haven’t been totally on their own.”
Nolan sat up straight. “Does Daisy know about their health?”
“I’m sure she doesn’t, but you can write and tell her now. Daisy hasn’t been home for years either.”
Holly felt like she and the pastor were by-standers to Nolan and Kaitlyn’s conversation.
“How long has the café been closed? Gramps wouldn’t say, or couldn’t remember.”
“About the middle of September, although they had been cutting back for a while before that. First they stopped serving breakfast, then supper, leaving the café only open for the lunch hour.”
“Who’s been helping them?”
“They had a woman, but she left when they cut her hours to only a few a day. I think she works in Ellsworth now. It wasn’t someone you knew.”
“What are they doing for money?”
“I’d have no idea, Nolan. I assume they had savings from their years of work.”
Nolan looked at her, as if he was first realizing Holly was sitting across the table from him and reached across the table with his hand.
“I’m sorry, Holly. I didn’t think they’d act rude to you like they did.” She extended her hand for their embrace, although it was in front of the Reagans. She slyly looked at Kaitlyn who had a slight smile on her face instead of a frown.
“I must say I was in shock with my first impression of Clear Creek and your grandparents, but Kaitlyn filled me in on what was behind their actions.”
Nolan’s hands were back rubbing his face. What was he thinking now?
“And Gramps took us over to the Paulson Hotel because Mary was there.”
“Well, you had a history with her, and he was hoping for a happy reunion...and two instant grandchildren,” Kaitlyn said matter-of-factly. “You can’t blame the man for trying.”
“Kaitlyn...” Pastor softly drew out her name, as a warning.
“I’d probably do the same thing. Five of my boys are grown and should be married with children overrunning our home, Patrick.”
The couple looked at each other; each raised an eyebrow at the other, and didn’t say another word, just turned back to Nolan.
“Where is Tully? I expected him to still be living here.”
“The boy is seventeen now, but hasn’t decided what he wants to do with his life. He’s working and living with his brother, Seth, at the Straight Arrow Ranch.”
And Holly had become the lucky recipient of an empty nest and a woman who needed to mother someone because of her youngest son’s departure.
“I look forward to seeing everyone on Sunday. I assume they’ll all be in town for church and dinner?” Nolan asked, now calm, as Holly had always known him to be around her.
“Not everyone. Angus is still a railroad detective riding the trains across the country. Fergus is out west somewhere, photographing nature, mining sites, or anything else that he finds fascinating. You know Mack is building houses and businesses in the area, and Cullen took over as the town’s postmaster, so you’ll see them, besides Seth and Tully.”
“I can’t wait to talk to them all again.
I’ll need their friendship to keep my sanity as I settle back into town.”
“What are you going to do, Nolan?” Kaitlyn’s question wasn’t just a question, but a challenge.
“If Holly agrees, tomorrow afternoon we’ll clean my grandparent’s house, and then go into the café to see what needs to be done to open it again. I need income since I’ve moved home.”
Everyone looked at Holly, waiting for her to answer. “Um, yes, I’ll help—if your grandparents allow me to come into their home.”
“They were embarrassed at the state the house was in and didn’t want company to see it. I’ve talked to them and they’ll be grateful for your help.”
“Why wait until tomorrow afternoon, Nolan?” Holly was curious about what needed done at the café because she needed income, too.
“I promised you we’d visit your family at the Fort Harker cemetery, so we’ll rent a buggy and drive over there in the morning.”
“A good choice, Son. Holly, do you want us to come along for a service of blessing?”
Holly looked between the three persons sitting at the table with her. The comfort the Reagans had given her so far told her they’d gladly give her support tomorrow if she asked for it, but she knew this first time back to the cemetery would be very emotional for her. Would she prefer Nolan or Kaitlyn’s comfort? She hated to say no to the Pastor’s offer.
Nolan reached for Holly’s hand again and gave it a slight squeeze. “I think Holly would like her privacy this time since she hasn’t been there for years. Maybe this trip should just be the two of us, Pastor. Is that your wish, Holly?”
Holly nodded to agree. The lump in Holly’s throat was too big to talk past now. It had been thirteen years since her mother died. She didn’t know how she’d react. Would she feel nothing or collapse on the grave sobbing with memories? Nolan would understand whatever she felt.
And Holly wanted to play her violin at the gravesite for as long as she wanted to. Nolan would understand her need to connect with her parents again, with her playing their favorite songs.
Chapter 11
“This is it? This is all that’s left of Fort Harker?”
All Nolan could do was shrug his shoulders. He was young when the fort had closed and it hadn’t been a part of his life like it had been for Holly.
The abandoned fort wasn’t far from Clear Creek so it didn’t take them long to travel there using the horse and buggy from the livery. Kaitlyn had handed Nolan a thick wool blanket to wrap around them when he’d stopped by to pick Holly up. Now they sat close together with the blanket tucked around their knees. Nolan was thinking more about Holly’s body pressed against his side than the fort.
“I recognize the red sandstone guardhouse, and remember running up the outside staircase once on a dare from a friend.”
Holly continued to scan the snow-cover landscape. “The buildings were around the parade field, dozens of them. The guardhouse was on the west end and those three buildings further east were officer’s quarters, although there had to be at least a dozen of them back then.”
“Where did the enlisted men live? Pastor remembered there were about 700 soldiers living here at the fort’s peak, and about twice that in civilians.”
Holly narrowed her eyes as she looked to the guardhouse, then around in a circle.
“They were on the east end, too. There were four or five long wooden barracks, which had to house over a hundred men each. And each barrack had their own kitchen, mess hall, and outhouse buildings by them.”
“Where did you live, Holly?”
“There were buildings,” she looked around again, “probably south, southeast of the guardhouse. Married soldiers and their families, and the laundresses were in some of the buildings. I remember we lived in two rooms, one was a bedroom, and the other was our living area.”
“There had to be a sutler’s store. Do you remember it?”
“That was over by our quarters, as were big storehouses. I just can’t believe it is all gone.”
“You remember this better than I thought you would.”
“I think the Reagan’s talking about it refreshed my memory.”
Holly was searching the landscape again.
“The cavalry horses were stabled in buildings further west of the guardhouse. I don’t remember them but there had to be pens or a pasture for them to be outside part of the time.”
“So where’s the fort cemetery? I’m not seeing a plot of tombstones anywhere.”
Maybe the Reagans should have ridden with them. They would have remembered the fort better being a generation older than he and Holly.
“It was a distance from the fort, but what direction?” Holly mused, looking stumped.
“The fort had to have had a hospital. Was it near that?” Nolan tried to jog Holly’s memory.
“No, I don’t think so. Drive over to where I said our housing was so I can think about this.”
Nolan turned the horse around and drove a ways until Holly motioned for him to stop. She stood up, letting the cold rush in around his legs as the blanket slipped off their laps.
It was eerie to be the lone people in the same spot where over two thousand people lived and worked less than twenty years ago.
Pastor talked about how Fort Harker was an important outpost along the Smoky Hill Trail, as well as the military road from Fort Riley to Fort Larned. Besides providing wagon train escorts, the soldiers were involved in the ongoing Indian wars during that early era of Kansas settlement.
After the railroad tracks reached the fort in ‘67, the fort’s role changed to a staging area where soldiers and teamsters left from to supply forts further west. The fort was no longer needed and disbanded after the train tracks were built to Denver. Buildings were torn down so the lumber could be repurposed.
“Surely there was a road to it,” Nolan thought aloud. But, the area had been abandoned since then. A chilling thought crossed his mind. What kind of shape would the cemetery be in? It would mainly be filled with the victims of the cholera epidemic, which hit the fort in ‘67. The victims were probably buried side by side, as they died, instead of a normal cemetery where families were buried together in their own marked plots. Would there even be markers?
“Let’s drive in that direction.” Holly pointed south then sat back down beside him, pulling the blanket back across their laps.
They slowly traveled about a quarter mile from the fort, changing direction slightly west as Holly kept looking back to the guardhouse.
“I think that’s it, Holly.” Nolan pointed to a spot about twenty yards in front of them. “The ground looks uneven and I see a few wooden crosses here and there.”
Nolan halted the horse when they covered the distance and pulled the brake against the buggy wheel.
Nolan prepared to climb down from the buggy, but stopped when he realized Holly was sitting stock still, staring at the frozen plot of ground.
“Holly?”
“I can’t picture where they’re buried, Nolan. And there’s just a few faded markers left.”
Nolan wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close, silently trying to give her comfort.
“We can walk around and figure out the boundaries of the cemetery. With the snow on the ground we can step off the individual rows of graves.”
“Nolan we don’t have to...”
“Yes, we do, Holly. I promised you I’d take you to your family’s graves.”
Nolan stepped down from the buggy and walked around the back end to help Holly down from her side. He wanted to pull her close, sharing his warmth and...feelings. But instead, he reached for her hand, enclosing it in his gloved hand to walk to the edge of the snow-covered plot.
“Any idea how many people are buried here?” Nolan asked, trying to figure out how far each direction the cemetery went.
“Pastor Reagan thought it had to be around two hundred graves. The cholera epidemic ran from June to the end of the year. Ruth died November 30th so she was
one of the later graves from the epidemic.”
“Did she have a marker?”
Holly didn’t answer while she looked around the cemetery and walked to the first wooden marker. The paint had long faded from the crossed boards, not giving a hint who lay below the ground.
“Father put a new cross on Ruth’s grave to match Mother’s and Bertha’s before we left. That would have been in March...and I remember it was a cold day.”
They walked, hand in hand along a row of graves until they seemed to stop.
“Let me pace this out so we can tell where all the rows are.” Nolan dropped Holly’s hand and walked what was probably the depth of the cemetery. They had walked the first row lengthwise. Now it was clear where each aisle was once Nolan measured his steps between them.
Holly walked the next row while Nolan walked the next, their footsteps marking the cemetery in a grid.
“Stones! Look for piles of stones!” Holly exclaimed excitedly. “The ground was still partially frozen and we piled stones around the two new crosses.”
“Some tribes mark graves with stone cairns. Other’s use a burial scaffold for above ground burials.” He’d seen both types while on trails through the territory. “Your father might have marked your mother’s grave with stones because of her heritage.”
Holly moved to stand in the middle of the cemetery, looking up and down the rows of graves.
“There. The snow has melted around a small pile of rocks...and... There’s the other grave, about three rows to the right.”
Her facial expressions changed from excitement over finding the rocks, to silent shock, realizing who laid below those rocks she’d just discovered. Her mother and sisters.
She stood stock still as Nolan brushed the snow from one rectangular grave and then the other, giving Holly the image of two distinct markers. Both piles of rocks matched, although there wasn’t a wooden marker now on either grave.
Nolan walked over to Holly, pulling her back against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She reached her hands to tightly hold his arms. He held her a long time as the whispering cold wind blew around them, trying to give her warmth as she grieved the loss of her family again.
Montana Sky: Nolan's Vow (Kindle Worlds) (Grooms with Honor Book 0) Page 12