“I’m sorry if you so strongly feel the terrible burden of being my child, but it’s how you came into the world and you can’t put that aside.   There’s responsibility to it that may not always be wanted but also, if you’d stop ever for just one moment to consider, rare privilege.”

Charlotte could recite this argument word for word.  She’d heard it a thousand times before.  “It doesn’t sound like you’re coming with me.”

“I am not.”

“What if I get killed or kidnapped?  Where is this wonderful plan of yours then?”

Her father spoke with enforced patience.  “They were going to put you on trial.  When they had found you guilty, they were going to hang you.  It wouldn’t have mattered that you were my child.  The tribunal would speak and their word would be law.  They’d already commissioned the gallows.”

“Those men always hated me.”  She knew the people on the tribunal and despised all of them, along with the three fearful women who had held her down and cut off her hair as punishment even before the facts were established.  They could have waited at least that long, because there were facts.  But her crime made them shudder.

“I doubt that’s true, but we’re getting sidetracked.”  Samuel gripped her shoulders more tightly.  “You won’t be going alone, so for once, listen to me.  You are not to move from this spot.  You are to stay camped here, not a mile away, or fifty yards, or down by the river.  Right here.  Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“In a matter of days, a wagon train will come by.  The man leading it is Ellis Gray.  He has a great deal of experience and I trust him.”

“Experience in what?  Widows by their own hand?”

“Please, we can’t speak of that anymore.  Let me finish.  You’ll be under his protection until you reach Fort Randall.  There you will wait again until Tobias comes for you.  I doubt you’ve felt any reason to take an interest in the wagon as of yet, but it holds all you’ll need for the journey and more, I made sure of that.”  He had done the cooking, tended to all the chores while Charlotte stared into the distance, still stunned and barely able to breathe.

“My clothes?”

“Everything.  Food, cooking utensils, bedding, your linens and flatware, anything else of a personal nature that I could discover and pack up.  An amount of silver coin is hidden under the floorboards, be careful with it.  There are documents pertaining to your membership in the Family.  I’ve given you almost all the guns.  I’m leaving you the team and the mare.”

“You’re leaving the horses, but you’re also leaving me.”

“They were going to hang you.  Your fate would be a lesson to the others.”  Samuel closed his eyes, thinking about how close they’d come.