Charlotte wouldn’t be there to watch him grow old.  Maybe she would never see him again.  He’d done an acceptable job of raising her under the circumstances, which were at all times difficult, though he never complained.

“You’ve put a great deal of faith in me that I’ll be able to do this,” she said.

“I’ve told you, there was no other choice.  I had to get you away from there.  If I ride hard, I’ll be back among them with time yet to try and smooth the turbulent waters.  Yes, I have faith in you.  You were old enough to remember the Second Migration, what we did to survive.  And Lord knows I would fear for anyone who came up against you.”

“Father.”

“Well I would.  But now, immediately, we must say goodbye.”  Samuel pulled his child to him and held her hard.  Then he let her go.  “You will be in my thoughts every minute of every day.”

Swiftly, he untied the second horse from behind the wagon and mounted.

“You are always my daughter,” he said, his voice breaking.  He turned his horse away and galloped off.  Charlotte stood and watched until the small spot that had been him became indistinguishable from the prairie grass.  She was numb again.  Her mouth was dry from tangled up nerves and fear, her heart beating wildly.  She waited to cry but no tears came.

2

2

Except for the wind stirring the leaves of the elm, there was no sound.  Charlotte stayed rooted in one place, for how long she couldn’t tell.  Shock didn’t begin to convey her state of mind anymore.  When you’ve shot and killed your husband, she thought, it’s surely something more than shock and whatever it is, it won’t be leaving for a while.  Gradually she became aware of the silence and her place in it.  She was alone, one person in a vast landscape under a huge cloudless sky.  With time, she began to hear again.  The horses stamped and blew.  The three of them were now under her care.  She could stand here all day hoping her father would come back or she could do something about the horses.

She undid the harnesses and turned the team loose to graze.  The grass here by the river was rich and green.  They shook their coats and seemed to relax, glad to be free of the traces.  She knew she had to get in the wagon before she unhitched the mare, though getting in the wagon was the last thing she wanted to do.