“Could you pass the cornbread please?” Miller said.  All the talk was making his head hurt.  Getting to Oregon Territory was easy compared to the thought of living there, having an actual home.  Would they all stay together which he thought meant living with Ada?  Were there wagon trains, and if there were, would he and Ellis still lead them?  He wanted to know but he wasn’t ready to find out yet.

“Could we ask you and Chace questions sometime?” Ada said.

Miller cast his eyes down on his plate.  “What kind of questions is she talking about?” he said to no one.  Now his head hurt even more.

“Do you mean about the tribes?” Chace said.

Ada nodded.  “To know how it was.  To know what you’d be leaving.”

“There’s time if you want to do that.  And only one request.”

“Anything,” Ada said.  Charlotte could hardly bear the certainty in her voice.

“Remember what’s been said.”

“We will, I promise.”

“We don’t have a book,” he said.

Finally, Miller understood what someone was saying.  He still held in his mind all the nights around the fire with the old ones telling the stories one more time so that no one would ever forget.

41

41

The afternoon sun was mellow and almost warm though the breeze was cold. Charlotte sat in the meadow watching Grace play her own game with a handful of sticks and wondering when those little fingers would make their first attempt at a wildflower bracelet.

“Charlotte?”  The deep voice came from above her.  Then there was the matter of possibly ever getting to her feet.

“I can’t do it,” she said.  “I should’ve never sat down.  For the time being, you’ll have to sit down with me.”

Samuel lowered himself to the ground next to her.

“Father,” she said and reached out for him.  He wrapped her in his arms and kissed her forehead.

“My daughter,” he said.

“So we meet again.  When you left me out there on the wagon trail, I didn’t think we ever would.”

“We don’t need to revisit that painful time.”

“Why should we when we have so many other fine topics to discuss?”  She glanced behind him.  “How did you get here?  I don’t suppose you walked.”

“No.  The General’s company has my baggage and horses and they’re still back there somewhere.  For myself, it was important to travel the last part on foot, just to let everything come slowly.  And then here you were.”

“I do need to tell you one thing right away, Father.  Tobias came to see me twice, he was very kind, and I discovered I’m quite fond of him.  Sometime we’ll have to talk about why he tried to leave the Family in the first place.”