by Savanna Sage
Chapter 16
Linnea turned to Moses, all good humor drained from her expression. “Did you see my husband in an Indian village?”
Squirming under her gaze, Moses replied, “I thought so, leastways, someone who looked like him.”
“Misfortune befalls many men,” Linnea said, turning to her daughter. “Someone who looks like him is not necessarily him. Jack looks like him, but is not your father.”
Ellie sat rigidly, dismayed at her mother’s refusal to believe. No matter what might come of it, Ellie had to go and find Curtis before the Indians found him and killed him. Life without him would simply be too hard to bear. She had no illusions about storming at Indian village to free her father. She was just about prayed out, but her stubbornness had her sending up another silent plea for Papa to somehow find his way home, if nothing else, to prove her mother wrong.
Then her brothers burst in the door.
“Tell me where you got it!” Jesse demanded.
“Got what?” Jack asked.
“You know!” Jesse pointed to a dainty handkerchief just visible in Jack’s fist. “That.”
“You want to be a lawyer,” Jack said. “You find the evidence and figure it out yourself.”
“Boys,” Linnea warned.
“Fine,” Jack replied with a calmness that seemed to infuriate his brother. “Someone gave it to me.”
“Who?” Jesse demanded, his eyes narrowing into angry squints.
After a pause, Jack opened his hand. “Maisie.”
“Why would she give you something like that?”
Jack’s mouth quirked up into the ghost of a smile, as if reliving a pleasant memory. “Well, she fed me a tart. I got some of it on my lip. She was just being polite in giving me her handkerchief to clean it up.”
“Then why do you still have it?” Jesse demanded.
“So many questions.” One of Jack’s eyebrows rose. “You seem ready for the courtroom without further schooling. I couldn’t give it back to her dirty, could I? Once it’s washed, I’ll return it.” Jack got a dreamy look as his eyes shifted to focus out the window.
“How about if I save you the trouble?” Jesse said. “I'll take it back for you.”
“That’s not necessary. I borrowed it, I should return it.”
Linnea stood up and said firmly, ““I wish you boys would get along.”
“I have no argument with Jesse,” Jack said.
“We have some bigger problems here than a handkerchief.”
Both boys looked at her.
“First of all, have either of you seen Polly? David was here earlier saying that Mr. Agar was upset that she wasn’t home.”
Jack shook his head, “I haven’t seen her since last night.”
Jesse gave his brother a hard look. “Me neither, but I’ll put my lawerly skills to work and find her for you.”
“Not only that, Ellie convinced Curtis to go looking for your father, just because Moses saw a white man in an Indian camp.”
“It wasn’t like that!” Ellie protested.
Jesse turned to Moses. “Did you see our father?”
“Looked like him.”
“There are a lot of tall men with dark hair,” Linnea said, her voice tight.
“If we chase two rabbits we won’t catch either one,” Jesse declared. “I”m going out to find Polly, and then we can figure out what to do about Curtis.”
As Jesse went out the door, Jack said, “I will also join in the search.” He glanced down at the handkerchief in his hand.
“Here,” Linnea said, putting out her hand. “I’ll take care of that.”
“Thank you, Mama.” Jack handed it over, then went outside.
“I’m going to look, too,” Ellie said.
“Look for who?” Linnea asked. “I will not have you traipsing after Curtis Locken on your own.”
“Moses will go with me.”
“Into savage territory? I think not,” Linnea said, her voice firm.
“We could help look for Polly.”
“Moses is free to do as he wishes, but we will wait until your brothers return.” As Linnea moved to the washbasin, Moses asked, “Could I help you with that? I know how to wash.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Linnea gave Moses the handkerchief, then sat at the table, her head in her hands.
Moses splashed some water in the basin and scrubbed the handkerchief with a bar of homemade soap. Once it passed his close inspection, he rinsed it and hung it over the wooden bar by the sideboard.
As Ellie sat at the table watching him work in the kitchen, she couldn’t help wondering if Curtis was hungry right now. Had he taken any food with him? How about Papa? Did he have enough to eat?
After a few moments, Linnea stood up and got busy sewing, pinning a maroon colored bodice to a long, gathered skirt.
Aching to go after Curtis, Ellie carved on her dancing Papa figure with a vengeance, not even trying to hide her work. Mama never looked at her, so she didn’t see how much the carving looked like Wilburn. Even though she was afraid of what might happen to her out in the wilderness, Ellie was determined to talk Moses into helping her go look for Curtis. But what to do about Mama? They could just leave. Mama couldn’t physically stop them. But would Moses do it? Ellie didn’t think so. She hated doing nothing. She would rather die trying to find Curtis than just sit there and wait.
But it turned out she didn’t need to wait for long.
Jack burst through the door. “Polly has been found.”
“Mr. Demar locked her in the shed,” Jesse declared as he hurried in behind Jack. “She got back in time to start breakfast after she left here this morning, but he knew she’d been gone.”
“How?” Linnea asked.
Jesse shrugged. “Perhaps he visited her room in the night.”
“No!” Linnea gasped.
“Whatever reason, he said he’d teach her not to run away, and locked her in the shed.”
Linnea’s mouth was in a straight line. “He lied to David about Polly not being there.”
“Sure did. David was spittin’ mad, I’ll tell you. He scooped her up and carried her to his horse, then took her home with him. His parents took her in. David’s staying in his woodworking shed and letting her have his room.” Jesse glanced at Ellie. “Looks like you have been replaced in his affections.”
“Never mind that,” Linnea said. “It appears that Mr. Demar must be the one who hit her.”
Jesse nodded, his brow drawing down in a frown. “There’s no law against it. But there ought to be.”
Jack added, “Mr. Demar says he’s going to the sheriff to get Polly back.”
“No!” Linnea said, rising to her feet.
“He can’t make her go back,” Jesse replied. “At least, I don’t think so.”
“I’ll see to it,” Linnea said, pulling a shawl around her shoulders. “Come with me, Jesse. Your interest in law will help me talk sense into that old Sheriff Childs.”
“If I’m talking law with the sheriff, I’d better dress the part.” Jesse hurried upstairs, then came thumping back down, pulling on a vest that covered his suspenders. “You know, Mama, I’ve been thinking that I ought to get myself off to lawyer school.”
“You’re young yet.”
“But I want to make things right for folks. The sooner I start, the better.” Glancing at Jack, he said, “My life’s not going here how I planned it anyway, considering the lady has a say in what she wants.”
“We’ll talk on the way.” Stopping in the doorway, Linnea swept Jack and Moses with her gaze. “Ellie is not to be left alone. Do you understand?” Her eyes stopped on Ellie, then she stared at Moses. “You promise not to leave her alone?”
“Yes’m.”
Her eyes turned to Jack. “She should be safe enough here with the two of you. I’ll be back as soon as I get this other mess straightened out. We’ll talk to the sheriff about Curtis, too.”
“Shall I hitch up the buggy?” Jesse asked.
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br /> “No time for that,” Linnea answered. “Besides, I could do with a walk before I address Sheriff Childs.”
Once they left, Jack retrieved the handkerchief from the wooden rail and folded it into his pocket. “El, are you alright?” he asked.
“I’m perfectly fine.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.”
“Sorry about the strife,” Jack said, clearly uncomfortable. “If you don’t really need me…” he gestured to his pocket.
“Go ahead,” Ellie said. “Moses said he’d stay.”
Jack glanced at Moses, who nodded solemnly.
“All right then,” Jack said with relief. “I hope it all works out for the best.”
“Thank you, Jack.”
As soon as they were alone, Ellie turned to Moses. “I need you to show me where that Indian village is.”
“I want to help Curtis, but I don’t want to cross your mother.”
“Do you truly mean to leave Curtis to face Indians alone? You’ve seen how whites and Indians get along.”
“He took a gun.”
“One gun?” Ellie cried. “Against how many indians who also have guns?”
Moses’s eyes cut to the door.
“You’re a free man, free to think for yourself and do what your conscience tells you.”
Moses scratched his brow beneath his eyepatch.
He seemed so complacent that Ellie wanted to shake him. “I think...I think Curtis was going to ask me to marry him,” Ellie blurted. Moses sat up straight and stared at her. “But I... I started cry about my father, so he never finished what he was going to say. Maybe I was wrong, but I can’t just leave him out there in the wilderness.”
Moses dropped his hands to the table and studied his fingers weaving themselves together, then apart, then back together again. “Being a slave to a kind master is easier than freedom.”
“No, it’s not,” Ellie insisted. “it is better to do whatever your heart tells you, not what someone else commands, even if it’s my mother.” Ellie pressed her hand to her chest. “My heart tells me I can’t leave Curtis out in the wilderness alone. I’m leaving. If you don’t come with me, then you’re breaking your promise, because you promised to stay with me. You didn’t promise to stay here.”” She strode toward the door.
Suddenly Moses slapped his hands down on the table so loudly that Ellie jumped and turned. He stood erect, his narrow shoulders seeming to fill the room, his head towering above Ellie. “I use my freedom to go look for Curtis, too, and keep my promise to your mother.”
Nearly dizzy with relief, Ellie said, “Thank you! I’ll write a note and change into my riding skirt. You pack some food. And bandages.”
Not finding any paper, Ellie hastily wrote with charcoal on what she hoped was a piece of scrap cloth. She said Moses was with her, as promised, and that Mama shouldn’t worry.
Moses met her at the front door with a bag of food and a handful of rolled fabric scraps. When they stepped outside, the sun was getting high in the sky. A slight breeze blew Ellie’s hair against her back, and she shivered.