by Sadie Conall
“No need to speak to your father like that girl. You show him some respect,” Constance said softly.
Ruby smiled. “Well, all I know for sure is that everyone has to have a dream. I bet everyone here has one, even if it’s just getting to California or Oregon.” She bent down and kissed Clarissa on the forehead. “Now, I must away to my bed, otherwise I’ll be good for nothing in the morning.” She excused herself and left, followed by almost everyone else.
Ella watched her team walk back to her camp, but she wasn’t ready to leave yet. And then the Weslocks were saying goodnight, along with Pierce.
Willard looked annoyed as he glanced across at his wife, who sat with a hand on her swollen belly looking pale and tired, then across to Martha, Ella and Marrok before turning his gaze back to his daughter.
“It’s fine to have dreams as long as you’ve got money to pay for them,” he said, his voice low, as Constance turned to Clarissa.
“Off to bed with you, young lady. And wash your face before you climb up into the wagon. And try not to wake your brother and sister.”
Clarissa said goodnight and left them, as Martha shook her head. “I do declare, where do young people get these fancy ideas,” she said. “I was happy if I received a rag doll. Whether it was made well or not was of no consequence to me. I was just grateful to have it.”
Ella laughed and when she made her own excuses to leave, Marrok stood up and offered to walk her back to her wagon. Ella was surprised, for it was light enough. So didn’t need an escort. But she liked to think he wanted to be with her, as much as she wanted to be with him.
“I never had dreams of my own,” she said, looking up at him. “All I’ve ever done is work hard. Although I suppose working my family’s ranch was my dream,” she paused as they neared her wagon. “Do you have a dream Marrok? Is Oregon your dream?”
He shrugged, his eyes dark as he looked at her. “Yes, I suppose it might be, for I took one look at that valley in Oregon and knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life there. If someone were to take it away from me, I would be devastated.”
Ella went to answer him when they both saw Jasper and Clara sitting by the low coals of the fire, enjoying a coffee together after Willard’s supper before they went to bed.
“You’ll want to join them, so I’ll see you tomorrow Ella,” Marrok said, then stepped out into the dark towards his own wagons. Ella watched him leave, wishing she could tell him that all she wanted was to be with him.
3
Ella woke before dawn the following morning, feeling a desperate need to bathe. And although everyone was still asleep and she knew she shouldn’t leave the wagons without someone with her, she crawled out of the shelter feeling hot and sweaty and unclean after the dysentery bug.
Since Independence she washed herself in the privacy of the shelter she shared with Clara, by heating water in a pot by the fire and then wiping herself down with soap and hot water. But now she felt an urgency to put her head under water and scour herself, for the scent of illness seemed to linger in the air.
She looked around the dark circle of wagons and saw no-one around, other than some men standing guard. But they were watching the muleskinners up on the hill who were getting ready to leave, for Ella could see the hot coals of their fires as someone heated coffee and beans, while others harnessed oxen to the wagons.
Ella took advantage of the guards’ attention being directed elsewhere and quickly reached back inside the shelter for a blanket, a clean dress, corset and petticoat. Then she stood very still in the shadows, making sure she was alone.
It was already warm. It was going to be another hot summer’s day. But as she turned to run for the trees, she heard someone close by and saw Jasper crawling out of his shelter, rubbing his eyes.
“You up early, Miss Ella,” he whispered.
“I’m just heading down to the river. I won’t be long.”
“I’ll go with you, this ain’t no place for you to be walking out alone.”
“I’ll be back soon enough, Jasper. I just want some privacy for a little while.”
“Well, it ain’t for me to say you can’t, but you be careful Miss Ella.”
She left him and hurried down towards the trees, stepping under cover of those dense woods and immediately feeling their shadowy depths and smells embrace her. She made her way down to the river’s edge, moving with care between stands of elm, dogwood and maple, so she didn’t see the man lying near the river’s edge wrapped in soiled blankets. Or the empty wagon behind him, or the other man lying wrapped in blankets inside it. Nor did she see their six oxen, hobbled just beyond the wagon deep in the woods.
But the man lying by the river’s edge saw her. And he watched as Ella headed north along the river’s edge, looking for a private place to bathe. He saw the dress and undergarments she carried, along with the blanket. When she disappeared behind a stand of thick pine he sat up, looking back the way she had come before catching another glimpse of her, more than a quarter mile away now. She was still walking, leaving the wagon train and everyone in it far behind her.
The man rose slowly from his blankets and looked back at the trees, finding it incredulous that she was alone. Then he stumbled over to the wagon and shook his partner awake.
“Come on, we got to move!” he hissed.
The other man rubbed his face, then sat up. “You want to leave now? I thought we’re leavin’ later.”
“No!” he hissed. “We’re leavin’ now. Come on, move! We got the chance to take someone real pretty north with us.”
*
Ella stood for a moment at the river’s edge, feeling the utter quiet of the morning, for not even the birds had begun to sing yet. And as she looked out across the river, shrouded in shadows, she suddenly had doubts about bathing here, for the water looked grey and she could hear it tumbling over rocks somewhere downriver.
She shivered, for the trees were dense here and the river seemed deeper than it had upriver, closer to the wagon train. And in the gloom, the water appeared to be moving rapidly downstream.
Ella wondered if she’d made the wrong decision by coming here, but she wouldn’t go back now. And every minute she lingered, was a minute lost bathing. So she stepped back behind some thick shrubs and undressed, taking off her soiled dress, corset and woolen stockings but deciding to keep her chemise on. Then she used some of her precious soap to scrub her clothes clean at the river’s edge before throwing them over a bush to dry.
She took a step into the water, not going too far out, stopping when the water reached her thighs, before she began to scrub herself with soap. She washed her hair, feeling the water sweep away the months of dust of living on the trail and the cloying scent of illness.
As the sky lightened in the east, as the dawn grey pushed away the black of night, Ella could see the water was so clear here she could see her feet among the pebbles on the river bottom. And then she dared to lie back, letting the water run through her hair, unaware of the wagon and six oxen making its way through the trees towards her.
When she came out of the water, washing her face, she heard the sound of wagons on the move and knew the muleskinners were leaving. She dived back under the water, feeling her skin tingle with the coolness of it but as she broke the surface, she turned suddenly, as she heard the clink of metal on wood. Like a harness against the wood of a wagon.
Yet the wagon train lay more than a mile behind her and she’d heard the muleskinners leave, heading north.
Bewildered, thinking she imagined it, Ella looked back into the trees, but she could see nothing there but shadows. She scolded herself for being foolish then once again ducked her head beneath the water, unaware of a wagon and six oxen coming to a stop half a mile above her in the woods.
Nor did she see the youth on the opposite bank come running down to the river’s edge, looking at Ella in dismay as he gripped the bow he carried. He was young, barely a teenager, and like Marrok he was dressed in buckskin and moccasins. H
e wore his hair long and loose to his waist and across his shoulders he wore a leather sheath that held almost a dozen arrows. He crouched low as Ella came up out of the water and called to her in a guttural dialect she had heard Marrok speak so many times.
She turned and gasped aloud in terror when she saw him, but the youth was pointing furiously to the bank behind her.
Ella spun around and saw two muleskinners coming out of the trees. One carried a large buffalo knife, the other held a long, plaited piece of rawhide rope.
Ella turned back to the Indian youth, but he was gone.
She panted in fear. No-one other than Jasper knew she was here.
She began to wade back the way she had come, to try and get to her clothes. And if she could at least try and get closer to the wagon train, someone might hear if she screamed.
But before she even got halfway, she knew it was hopeless because the muleskinners were almost there, where she’d left her clothes. She turned back to the bank where she’d seen the boy, but there was no-one there.
And then she heard a vicious laugh behind her and turned to see the muleskinners step down towards the river’s edge and only then did Ella realize her chemise clung to her body, revealing all she owned. She crouched down in the water in an effort to hide herself, knowing she couldn’t fight these two men, nor could she fight against the weapons they carried. And if she wasn’t killed in the attack that was coming, Ella knew she would return to the wagon train in tiny fragments of what she was. And even as she thought on it, she could almost hear the cries of scorn and the misery which lay ahead, because everyone would blame her, it would be her fault because she had dared to come here alone.
She struck out, half swimming, half walking, heading for the middle of the river, reaching out to grip boulders or rocks to give her purchase against the current which threatened to sweep her downriver. And only now, as the sun rose, did Ella see how deadly her situation truly was. For the noise she had heard at dawn was the river rushing towards a waterfall less than a mile away. She could see it clearly now, where the water fell away into a valley far below.
She began to pant with fear, and in her fear she stumbled, her arm taking the brunt of the fall and as she saw the blood flow from the deep cut, it seemed suddenly as if her body didn’t move as it should, as if her arms and legs were moving too slowly. And then the water was rising to her waist, swirling dangerously around her and she felt the pull of it dragging her downstream towards that waterfall. And as she struggled against it, one of the muleskinners called out to her, his voice high pitched and gentle, as though he called to a child.
“Come on back, girlie. We’re not gonna hurt you. You take no notice of this big ol’ knife. Me and Cecil just want to have some fun. We’re gonna take you north with us. The three of us will have a fine old life together up near the Hudson Bay.”
Ella turned back to look at them, horrified, understanding at last what they wanted. This wasn’t just about an assault. This was about taking her away, up into the wilds of Canada.
4
Marrok splashed his face with water, ridding himself of the stench of the camp. He couldn’t wait to ride out of here, for the place reeked of the wagon train’s illness. He hadn’t been affected by it thankfully, nor had any of his men, but almost half the company had come down with it.
Because of that and the extra day of rest which Artie had allowed, very few people were about. Yet as Marrok looked around at the three circles of wagons, he couldn’t shake a feeling of unease. It had woken him a short time ago out a deep, dreamless sleep, making him toss restlessly, until at last he rose from his bed eager to get outside. And then he saw the muleskinners leaving, heading north to Fort Hall.
He frowned as he watched them. There were only seven wagons. And then he remembered the two men heading for Canada. No doubt they’d left before dawn.
Yet Marrok couldn’t shake that uneasy feeling and he took a walk around the three wagon circles, talking to the guards, making sure everything was alright. And everything seemed like it was. But this feeling unsettled him and he wondered if it was because they were due in Fort Hall within the month and he and Artie would leave this wagon train behind to start anew in Oregon.
Although Marrok wasn’t upset about that. He was looking forward to finishing his job here, excited about the future that he and Artie planned in the north. Although he admitted he would miss certain people, especially one feisty young woman.
Thinking on Ella, Marrok stepped between the wagons, but found only one of his men up and about at this early hour, although Marrok wasn’t concerned about that. These men had worked hard for him and he wouldn’t begrudge them a day’s rest.
A newborn baby was crying in one of the other circles and across from Marrok’s wagon a man was coughing with lung disease. Marrok knew it was Elmer Weslock. And in another wagon close to Ella’s, he heard the brief whispered conversation between a man and woman, the woman’s voice harsh in the silence of the early morning.
He glanced over at the shelter that Ella shared with Clara, but there was no movement there. It looked like she was still abed and resting like everyone else.
He walked back to his water barrel and took another ladle of water, thinking of getting some coffee going when he had a sudden image of Ella walking about camp, her long skirts swishing about her shapely legs. He had grown to like watching her, for he could see her quite clearly in the soft glow of her campfire most nights. He liked the way the shadows of the night shaped and molded the contours of her face, making her appear quite beautiful. And when she ate food that stained her lips he had to look away, for it highlighted them, making them the perfect shape and ripe for kissing.
She was like a flame, although Ella seem unaware of it. But Marrok had seen that fire in her the moment he met her, when she burst into the kitchen in that wedding dress and it was that flame which drew him in, for he knew if it were kindled and tended by the right hand, it would ignite, burning and branding the man who touched it, who made it flare.
And sometimes the color of her green hazel eyes seemed to deepen, reminding Marrok of the colors of autumn or the moss which lay on stones at the bottom of a river, rich in color yet hidden beneath a flowing tide. And Marrok knew without any doubt, like those submerged stones, that if guided by the right man, or woman, Ella could rise into someone formidable because she was strong, even if she didn’t yet know it.
And the constant memory of her slim yet curvaceous body within his arms while they danced, as she moved seductively against him, or when he kissed her in St Louis, the heat and pressure of her mouth against his own stirred him like no other woman.
He moved his shoulders, agitated, unsure of these feelings and tried to shrug them off. What the hell was it about her? Damned if he knew. For he wasn’t a man who gave in easily to temptation, or emotion. Having lived alone now for the better part of ten years, he liked his life, he liked making his own decisions, going where he wanted.
Yet when Ella looked at him, trusting him completely, knowing she would do anything he asked because she had no reason not to trust him, that scared Marrok a little. How easy to manipulate someone who trusted so blindly.
“Damn it,” he swore softly and shook his head to clear the image of her. He should know better. For this was his third wagon train as scout and there had been other young ladies on all of them, all eager to fall in love, all finding Marrok a challenge, for he was so different to other men they knew. Yet not one of them had held any interest for Marrok. Not until this one.
And those few times he’d hurt Ella feelings, he’d done it for her benefit, to protect her. He cared nothing for his own reputation, or what people thought of him. But gossip spread quickly in a close community like this and if she were to start a new life in California, she didn’t need to sully her own reputation because of him. Although there were times Marrok found it hard to stay away from her. Once or twice he’d almost kissed her, but there had always been someone watching, or nearb
y.
He sighed with frustration. He didn’t have time for romance anyway and his future held no plans for marriage. Perhaps later, in the years ahead, but not now. And if that’s what Ella wanted, if she sought marriage, there were enough eligible men on this wagon train who would marry her in a heartbeat if she were agreeable to it, for Marrok had seen them watch her, as they watched Ruby and other single young women. Although the thought of Ella marrying some young buck gnawed at him a little.
He turned and saw Jasper come out of his shelter, the older man looking down towards the river, rubbing his face as though upset. Marrok felt that same uneasiness surface and hurried across to speak to him.
“Are you unwell, Jasper? Have you got the belly ache back, for you don’t look so good.”
Jasper’s face seemed to collapse into deep lines of worry as he turned to Marrok. “I’s well enough, but I ain’t feeling too good about Miss Ella. She left for the river some time ago to bathe, but she ain’t back yet. I’s just about to go down there and see where she is.”
“She went to bathe alone? At this time of the morning?”
“Yessir, I done told her not to. But she insisted on it. She wanted to get clean after all the illness.”
Marrok turned and looked down towards the river. It lay a good half mile away, yet it would have taken her a while to reach it, then find a private spot. He turned back to Jasper.
“Keep this to yourself, not even a word to Clara. If anyone asks where she is, tell them you think she’s visiting with someone.”
“Yessir Mr Marrok. Lord above, I do hope that girl ain’t gone and drowned herself.”
“I’ll find her. But I’m trusting you to keep this quiet Jasper. We don’t want a scandal.”
Jasper nodded and watched as Marrok ran off. But as he passed his wagon, something made Marrok reach for the coil of rope attached to the side of it. Then he ran for his horse and as he rode off, he hoped no-one took any notice of him riding away, bareback.