“One’s for Brewster, if that’s okay with you.”

“I didn’t see that coming.  Sorry.  I thought it was for you.”

“Brewster never gets enough to eat.  He shouldn’t give so much to the younger ones.”

This life was too hard, Charlotte thought, and they were made for better.  She hoped the green lush hills and rich growing land were more than figments of someone’s imagination, a dubious paradise just seen on one of its better days.

Ada inhaled the biscuit she’d kept for herself.  “When you get to whatever place you’re supposed to be you ought to open a shop.  Do you think there’s such a thing?  A biscuit and bread shop?”

Charlotte laughed.  “Not where farmers’ wives can cook just fine on their own.  Maybe in a town, though.  Or a mining camp.”  She heard what she was saying.

“Where are you bound?” Ada asked.  “With us to Oregon?”  Charlotte shook her head.  She’d found the only twelve-year-old practicing to be an attorney.

“To Fort Randall.”

“Where’s that?”

“I’m not sure.  Before the mountains, that’s all I know.”

“What’s in Fort Randall?”

“You’re a child.  You don’t have to know these things.”

“Why?  Is it only for adults?  Is it bad and children can’t hear about it?”

“No,” Charlotte said.  That’s all she needed, for that rumor to start spreading.  “My uncle’s waiting for me in Fort Randall.  And then I’ll go to live with him in the desert.”  Charlotte almost choked over the words.

“You don’t seem happy about it,” Ada said.

“Enough.  We’re not discussing this anymore.”

“Okay.  I’ve got something else.”

“I can hardly wait.”

“Why were you and Captain Gray shouting at each other?”

Charlotte imagined the word passing from one wagon to the next till people knew who didn’t even want to know.

“You realize that there is something called privacy.  Even in a damned wagon train.”

“Don’t swear,” Ada said.

“Please try and remember the conversations we’ve already had.  I’ll swear when I want to.  And no one was shouting at anyone.  Well, not exactly.”

Ada folded her arms.  “Your face looks better anyway.  There’s some yellow and less of that awful dark purple.”

“Thank you for that report.”

“But why are you alone?  Why aren’t you married?”

Charlotte yanked back on the reins and the team halted.  “Okay.  That’s it.  If you don’t get off, I’ll throw you off.  You know I’ve threatened that before.”

Ada’s brown eyes were flecked with green, her face deceivingly heart-shaped, her hair so incredibly wild.  “I want to stay,” she said, her voice gone small.

Charlotte waited till she regained her composure.  She didn’t want anything bad to ever happen to this child.  “You can stay, but you can’t say a word.  Not for a very long time.  Not a word.”