“The wagon pitched onto its side and the horses panicked,” Ada said.  “Ma lost her hold, the baby was tied to her front and they both fell into the river.  Then Logan Feeney jumped in to save them and he drowned too.  The men all came to get hold of the horses and pull the wagon up onto the bank.”  Charlotte closed her eyes.  Ada’s face was wet.

“All except the one who had made her do it,” Brewster said.  “He didn’t help at all.”

There was silence again.

This time Ada broke it.  “Miller Dawson stayed with us that night and didn’t let go of any of us even though probably no one thought that was the right thing for him to be doing.  He didn’t care.”

“The women brought us food.  Then the council told us about the missionaries and said that’s where we were supposed to go and Miller and the women took us there.  The wagon train was still at the fort when we came back from the missionaries and nobody could believe it.  That’s when Miller said he’d find you.”

“I’m so sorry,” Charlotte said.  “For everything.”

Brewster bowed his head.  Ada wiped her eyes.

“What’s going to happen to us now?”

“It’d be better if we didn’t have to think about it so much,” Brewster said.  “It’d just be better if we knew.”

“What do you want to happen?”

“Would we live here at the fort?”

“No.  At least not forever.  Would you call some place back east home?”

“Not anymore,” Brewster said.  He looked at Ada.  “If there was a way to do it, we’d be more set on going to Oregon Territory like Ma and Pa wanted to.”

“Is that possible?”

“We’ll make it possible,” Charlotte said.  “We’ll find a way, that’s all.  We’ve got time yet to figure it out.”  And then, when the decision was made, she would have to write that letter telling him where she’d gone, the letter that would never get to him.

29

29

The arrangement on the sideboard slowly accumulated new items.

Brewster held up a small black much-used notebook.  “Is it all right if I add this?” he said to Charlotte.  “It belonged to Pa.”

“Yes,” she said gently.  “What is it?”

“It’s his numbers book.  That’s how he worked everything out.  Feet, inches, dollars, acres, pounds, bushels, he never wanted to forget how to do anything or make it or what it cost or how long it took so he wrote it all down.  For Oregon Territory it shows everything he bought and what he was going to do with it when we got there.”

He placed the notebook carefully next to the king-with-the-ax.