“I’ll wait in case you show up someday,” she said.  “I’ll wait even if you never show up.  When you’re old, if you’re still alive, come and find me.”

His eyes held hers, never looking away.  Then he backed up his horse so that she could leave.  She lifted the reins.  He watched until she was gone.  He waited for just a moment, eyes closed, then turned the gray and headed toward the desert.

25

Charlotte never looked back.  She couldn’t.  He was gone and her life now would be whatever lay ahead, moving forward alone, in this direction only.

She could manage only one impression, that the simply constructed fort still bore a close resemblance to a small town.  Though the walls were high, with a guard standing watch in the blockhouse and a huge cannon inside facing the open gates, commerce appeared to be nonstop.  Horsemen, soldiers, buggies, trappers, mountain men, traders, men in suspenders and women wearing sunbonnets all flowed around each other going in and out.  A wagon train had circled up by the river, its herd of cattle spread out to the west.  On the other side of the fort stood an Indian encampment, many of its members visible and milling about.  Charlotte glanced cautiously in that direction then threaded the wagon through the foot traffic and gained entrance to the fort.

Once inside, she found herself on a large parade ground.  Her eyes ran over the rest of the interior, the barracks, stables, an open forge and laundry, a storefront, a mess hall.  She could see a second courtyard to the right, behind the mess hall, and a row of doors behind which might be accommodations.

A soldier approached her.  He was young and eager, with an open, friendly face.  Glancing up at the walkways going along the top of the walls, she realized that all of the sentries were watching her.

“Ma’am?  Are you with the wagon train?  Because the rest of them are all out there.”  He seemed puzzled.

Charlotte willed herself to speak.  “I’m not with the wagon train.”

The soldier looked at her wagon then out the gate, as if hoping to find some other kind of traveling group that she might be with.  Oxen freighters?  The mule cart bringing the mail?  Nothing in the way of an answer appeared.

“You’re by yourself?”  Inexperienced as he was, only three months out from Virginia, still he knew that couldn’t possibly be true.

Charlotte cursed inwardly.  She should have thought this all out beforehand.  She could see it wasn’t going to be easy.

“I was with Ellis Gray’s wagon train that I understand passed through here a while back.”

The soldier considered this piece of information.  “But Ellis Gray wasn’t with them.  Was he?”

“No.  That’s true.  He was not.”

“And they went on again some time ago.”

“I imagine that’s so.”