by Sadie Conall
Artie paused as a nervous murmur rose above the crowd. Marrok glanced up at his friend and almost smiled. Artie knew how to put the fear of God into people, but it didn’t hurt for they had no idea what lay ahead. It was going to be tough out there and the more prepared they were for it, the better chance everyone had of arriving safely at Fort Hall. After that, they would no longer be Marrok or Artie’s responsibility.
“On our first day we’ll travel twelve miles, as far as Indian country,” Artie continued. “That should get you all used to your wagons and your animals before we cross over the western border. From that point on, I don’t want any one of you folks forgetting where we are, that we’re travelling through Indian lands, that our animals are grazing on grass that their buffalo should be grazing on. And know this for a fact, that without buffalo to feed and clothe them, a lot of them folks will be going cold and hungry.”
“Does that mean them Injuns will be making trouble for us?” one man called out.
Marrok saw Artie grimace with distaste before raising his hand to quieten the voices that rose up in fear all around them.
“First of all, they aren’t called Injuns. Secondly, they got every right to make trouble if you all just think on it a moment. How’d you feel if close to a thousand of them suddenly rolled through this camp pulling wagons, along with several thousand head of cattle, horses and oxen, taking your water and letting their animals graze on this grass. The way I see it, they have a right to defend what is theirs. So treat them with respect and we’ll all get along just fine. But if you go cause trouble for them, well, expect trouble back, for push anyone hard enough and they’ll push back. So if you shoot first, these people will come after you and you’d better believe they’ll get you, for they’re the best damn trackers in the whole darn world and the best marksmen I ever saw. So be it on your head if any one of you starts up any kind of trouble,” he paused as a ripple of fear once again travelled around the crowd. And again Artie raised a hand for silence.
“There’ll be two bugle calls the morning we roll out. The first one will sound at 4am to wake you up. That gives you two hours to feed yourselves and get your children organized and your animals harnessed to your wagons. The second bugle call will come around 6am which is the call to roll out. And you’d better be ready to move, because I ain’t waiting on no-one.” He looked around the crowd. “Let’s all keep safe and let’s get to Fort Hall in one piece. Good luck everyone. You got any questions, you come see me or my men here.”
Ella watched as Artie climbed down off the box and as he turned and walked through the crowd beside Marrok and his two officers, people reached out to talk, to ask questions and Ella turned away. She wouldn’t be seeing Marrok tonight. His role as scout had begun.
*
“Lord above,” Martha exclaimed, as they walked back through camp to their wagons. “I do believe I shan’t sleep the whole time we’re out there. Not until we reach California.”
Willard laughed. “As long as no-one sets out to cause trouble like Mr Dalbert says, everyone will get along just fine.”
Ella glanced across at Constance and noticed the dark circles under her eyes along with her pale complexion, revealing the sickness Constance was battling with this fourth pregnancy. She was five years older than Ella and a pretty woman with strawberry blond hair and brown eyes although her children, nine-year old Clarissa, seven-year old Eleanor and three-year old Archer all owned their father’s dark hair and eyes along with their grandmother’s tall, lean build.
But as they walked through camp, someone brought out a fiddle and as the music drifted across to them, Ruby grabbed Ella and Clara and dragged them along with her, with Abe and Wilber following.
“Come on, let’s dance!” she cried with excitement as other people started heading towards the music.
“Sorry,” Constance said, shaking her head, looking exhausted. “I’m getting these children home to bed, it’s getting late.”
Willard turned to Ella. “We’ll see you tomorrow?”
Ella nodded and hugged them all goodnight then watched as they headed home towards their wagons.
“Come on!” Ruby cried, as more men brought out their fiddles to accompany the first.
“Not me!” Jasper said, his hands in the air. “I’s going back to camp to check on the animals and sleep!”
He watched as they made their way towards the music, then he turned towards Ella’s wagon. He’d just brewed a pot of coffee when Marrok called out to him, passing by on his way to his own camp.
“Are you not joining in the dancing?”
“Doan’t know how,” Jasper replied, laughing as Marrok came towards him. “Just got the coffee goin’ if you want to join me.”
Marrok sat down and as Jasper poured the rich dark liquid into another cup, Marrok glanced around the camp. “Sure is quiet without anyone around.”
Jasper nodded. “Better to sit and be quiet than try and dance. Besides,” he reached down and touched his knees. “These ain’t made for fancy dance steps. And I never had time for such things anyways, so I never learned how to move my feet the right way. Mostly I reckon I’d trip over.”
Marrok smiled. “You ready to leave at the end of the week?”
“Yessir, I am. Although to be honest, I’s still gettin’ my head around the fact we’re not goin’ back to the ranch. But I got my memories tucked away, up here, if I ever need to think on them,” he reached up and tapped his forehead. “Especially those of Violet and Ella’s folk. I won’t never forget them.”
Marrok watched him, intrigued by this gentle man and his past. “You were close to them?”
Jasper frowned as he thought back. “Yessir, I was. Although I got no memory of Violet before I met her in that slave market where Mr Quentin done found us. Everythin’ I knew ‘afore that day is lost to me, my mind full of nothin’ at all. But I reckon I won’t go searching for it. I’ll leave whatever I knew back there in the dark, where I can’t find it.” He tapped his forehead again, watching the tall handsome man opposite him.
“What was Violet like?” Marrok asked.
Jasper smiled. “One of the sweetest women that ever did live. One memory I got real clear is her standin’ next to me in that market, both of us all chained up with no-one wantin’ us. Me a sickly boy and Violet old, until Mr Quentin done showed up and took us north to St Louis, up the Mississippi River on a keelboat, with no chains or ropes or nothin’ else bindin’ us. I doan’t rightly remember he said much. But I do remember the angry words spoken a’tween him and Ella’s mama when we showed up at the ranch. I’ll tell you now, those words lasted for days. I guess she didn’t want us there. But Mr Quentin wouldn’t budge. And so we stayed. Ella was just a little bittie thing in those days. But her Mama gave Violet a room behind the kitchen and I got the room behind the stable. Ain’t never been happier than I was livin’ there, although things changed a bit when Violet died.”
“What happened to her?”
Jasper frowned and shook his head. “Never seen nothin’ like it. I saw her outside at the pump, gettin’ water. She looked just fine to me. But when she was carryin’ the bucket of water back to the house she stumbled. I called to her and started runnin’, for it looked like she tripped on her skirts or somethin’ then I heard her cry aloud ‘afore droppin’ like a stone, restin’ on her hands and knees like she was prayin’ to the Lord. Then she just fell down. Never made another noise, just died right there. Not long after, Miss Martha and Mr Willard came to live with us, although Mr Willard never did stay long.”
Marrok said nothing for a long moment, then he leaned towards Jasper. “How do you feel about heading west?”
Jasper shrugged. “I got no feelings on it to be honest. I just content to be with Miss Ella and Miss Martha. They’s my family. Been with them so long, those folks are all I rightly remember.”
They talked a little of what lay ahead then Jasper threw the dregs of his coffee on the coals. Then he looked at Marrok. “Is it true t
hose Indians might attack us? Take our scalps for riding over their lands? I been hearin’ all sorts of stories walking around camp.”
Marrok shrugged. “I won’t deny there’s some ill feeling out there among some tribes, while others just want to trade. Whether a war happens this summer or in the years ahead, I can’t tell you. But I think a lot of stories you hear are just folk stirring up trouble, so I wouldn’t take much notice if I were you.”
Jasper nodded. “I reckon I can sleep good on that.”
Marrok made a move to leave. “Once we roll out I won’t see you for a few days, for I’ll be heading out early to scout. So if I don’t get a chance to speak to you before we leave, just remember to go easy on the reins. Those oxen are slow but they’re placid enough and if you’re gentle with them, they’ll work hard for you.”
“Yessir, Mr Marrok, I remember all you done told me. And I’m glad you stopped by. It sure was nice talkin’ to you.”
“Just call me Marrok, Jasper. There’s no need for formality between us.”
“Yessir,” Jasper said as the younger man turned and disappeared into the night.
4
Ella lay awake in the dark, listening to the soft breathing of Clara. Above them she could hear Ruby toss and turn in the wagon, the girl clearly as restless as she was. Although Ella had a moment of envying Ruby the comfort of the wagon compared to the hard ground she was sleeping on, even though her mattress was soft enough and the double canvas sheeting underneath stopped the damp rising. And anything was better than being married to Jebediah Crawley.
Unnerved by that thought Ella sat up, careful not to wake Clara, wrapping her arms about her knees in an effort to keep warm against the chill of the spring night.
She thought over all her supplies again, although she was confident she had everything she needed and was as prepared as she ever could be. And Artie had organized it so that when the wagons rolled out, her wagon would follow Willard’s team all the way to the prairies, until they spread out to avoid the worst of the dust. And there would be dust, as hundreds of animals and over two hundred wagons trampled over dry ground.
Ella pulled back the canvas to look outside. There weren’t any clouds tonight and the sky was covered in stars, although their beauty did little to hide the smell of the camp, for the air was thick with wood smoke, spicy cooking smells, animal waste and other things.
Ella shivered and closed the canvas opening, lying back under her blankets. But it was impossible to sleep. Instead she found herself thinking of Clarissa, the eldest of Willard’s three children. For some reason, the nine-year old girl had taken a liking to Ruby, following her everywhere.
“It’s your hair! She’s never before seen a woman with her head aflame!” Wilber joked, after Ella and her team had walked over to see Martha one night after supper. Clarissa lay snuggled within Ruby’s arms as they sat on canvas sheeting around the fire.
“And that’s why they called you Ruby! Because of your hair!” said Abe, nudging Wilber. The two brothers broke into loud laughter.
“Oh hush! As if I didn’t have enough stupid comments like that growing up without having to hear them again from the two of you!” Ruby scolded them. “Well, I shall tell you something! Ruby isn’t even my real name. And Daegan is my mother’s name, for I will not have my father’s. And you were lucky you grew up with a mother, for I never knew mine. All I have is the Irish she gave me, her love of singing and her coloring and I’m grateful for both!” Ruby paused, aware of everyone looking at her, stunned by her outburst.
The brothers looked upset. “We’re sorry Ruby,” Abe said, shamefaced. “You know darn well none of us would change a thing about you.”
Wilber nodded. “We didn’t mean to cause offence. We were just having a laugh.”
“Well in all truth I don’t care overly much,” Ruby said. “And since my own father took sport in teasing me since I was a little girl, I’m well used to people making fun of me.”
As Ella thought back on that conversation, she realized that Ruby would never let anyone get the better of her. And Ella wished she were more like that. Strong and independent. Yet what had caused Ruby to leave a privileged home at eighteen years of age?
She turned as Elmer Weslock began to snore in the nearby wagon. Ella wondered how Nell could possibly sleep with such a racket beside her. Although she seemed to be the sort of woman who could put up with a great deal. She was always putting others first, particularly her twenty-two year old grandson Moss.
The small family had come out from Virginia with the aim of settling in California, although Ella often wondered if Elmer and Nell would have preferred to stay in the small country town where they’d both been born. They had married and raised their two sons there, but with the death of both their boys and daughter-in-law in a carriage accident more than twelve years ago, they had been left to raise their only grandchild. When Moss began making plans to head west a year ago, Nell and Elmer, both in their early sixties and having no other family, agreed to put up the money to finance the move, until deciding to sell everything up and go with him.
Ella liked the family, they were always the first to offer help to anyone and although some might say that Elmer and Nell spoilt Moss rotten, he was independent, hated fussing of any kind and clearly adored his grandparents, along with Ruby. And had Ruby given him the smallest bit of encouragement, Moss would have had Artie marry them tomorrow.
Except Ruby wanted no part of Moss or any other man. Her dream lay not in being a wife and mother but singing.
The snoring suddenly stopped. Nell must have elbowed Elmer in the ribs, getting him to turn over. She wondered suddenly if Marrok snored and grinned at the thought, before peering out from her canvas shelter towards his camp. She could see the form of him as he slept near his fire, although it was too dark to see his face.
He would be gone soon to scout ahead. And as Ella lay back down and closed her eyes, knowing she’d miss him, she once again saw herself standing on the edge of that great dark abyss with no idea how to get to the other side. Although she had an idea that the only person alive who could get her across to safety, was Marrok.
5
The bugle call came rolling across the fields on that cold May morning, stirring every person in Independence. It startled Ella awake and she rolled off her mattress and quickly dressed, her mind foggy from lack of sleep, and as she crawled from the shelter leaving Clara to dress behind her, she took kindling from the pile they had collected and stored near their wagon to get a fire going to make coffee.
And then Clara was working beside her, efficient and silent, taking the bread she’d prepared the night before and placing it in the newly purchased dutch oven before stirring the oatmeal.
Abe, Wilber and Jasper started dismantling their canvas shelters, with Ella and Ruby hurrying to help carry mattresses and bed linen, supplies and clothes to the back of the wagon. Then the brothers left to harness the oxen, leaving Jasper to do a last minute check over the wagon before moving off to tend to the horses.
And as Ella turned back to help Clara, she felt the rise of panic sweep through camp in the shouts and urgent conversations and it suddenly seemed impossible to get everything done in two hours, as men and boys organized wagons and animals while women and girls tended to small children, lit fires and began breakfast. The distressed cries of babies and toddlers being woken at such an hour only added to the urgency, as mothers tended to soiled laundry and sought clean clothes along with everything else.
And then Artie and his officers were riding through camp urging people to get organized. And then breakfast was done and cleaned up, dishes and ovens were put away, small children placed into the back of wagons for safety while the last of the animals were harnessed. With the arrival of daylight, people from town started to gather along with settlers who would leave later with other companies, to wish them good luck and safe travels.
At then 6am came around and the second bugle call rang out and the energy levels
around camp rose to another level as men shouted impatiently to their teams and women called for their families to get everything aboard the wagons. And then Artie’s call came down the line.
Wagons ho!
Ella felt the tingle up her spine as he and his officers rode past her wagon, Artie’s voice loud and clear in that cool morning. Jasper had tied Bear on his long lead behind the wagon, leaving Ella to mount Billy. And as Jasper settled on the buckboard, Ruby and Clara hurried to pull on another pair of stockings beneath their boots to protect their feet, for they would walk for most of the day, just like everyone else who was fit enough to walk. Abe and Wilber stood at the head of the oxen waiting for their turn to move on out, ready with their willow switches, ready to walk alongside the oxen all the way to California.
And then the wagons in front began to move. Slowly at first, the oxen stumbling with the weight behind them but then they were rolling out. Joe Bracedon called out for Ella’s team to get ready to roll as Willard’s team came towards her and then Abe and Wilber were touching the shoulders of the two lead oxen with their switches while Jasper flicked the reins and as Ella sat astride Billy, she watched as her wagon began to roll.
They were on their way. Come winter, she would be in a whole new world. And as two hundred wagons rolled out of Independence amid cries of farewell and good luck, Ella laughed and kicked Billy on to look for Martha.
Her aunt was sitting on the buckboard two wagons in front of Ella’s, next to one of Willard’s drivers, her eyes alight with the thrill of it all. And as Martha looked down at the young woman sitting astride her horse looking up at her laughing, she silently thanked Willard for sending Marrok to find her.
*
They set up camp on the border of Indian territory that first night and as wagons were pulled into circles to create corrals for the animals, Artie and his men shouted instructions and encouragement. And once animals were unharnessed and left to graze within those huge wagon corrals, women began lighting fires to prepare meals for their families.