Watching him walk away is like losing home and Daddy and friends all over again. I don’t have it in me to talk with anyone else today. Not even to search for Jefferson. I loose Peony from the hitching post and ride her out of town to our camp on the muddy rise.

I sit there a long time, knees to chest and locket in hand, watching busy Independence go about its day while the shadows grow long, thinking about Mama and Daddy and Hiram and gold-witching and questions that will never have answers now that the only people who know them are gone.

Chapter Sixteen

Morning brings a new day, and I take up the search with renewed determination. I have to find Jefferson. If I don’t, I have nothing. No one.

I’m methodical, picturing the town and its surroundings like checks on Mrs. Joyner’s tablecloth. I explore each check at a time, corner to corner, and move on to the next. I learn the town forward and backward—every alley, every lean-to, every wagon. Faces become familiar. Some even call out as I pass by: “Hey, Lee! Found your friend, yet?”

And so it goes, day after day, for more than two weeks, past the full moon and Easter Sunday. I haunt the town and the staging areas like a ghost, searching for the one familiar face in the whole world that still means something to me.

By the middle of April, grass shoots start poking up through the prairie mud. Every couple of days, usually on a morning without rain, a wagon company heads west. As soon as it’s gone, a new one sprouts in its place. My supplies run low. An egg that cost me a penny in Georgia costs a dime here. There’s no grazing to be had, and grain for Peony is even more expensive. I spend futile hours looking for a rabbit or squirrel that has somehow managed to evade everyone, but I just end up discharging my revolver and wasting ammunition. At night, I sleep outside wherever I can find a dry place to spread my blanket, usually on the rise a mile outside of town. Most nights I settle for “almost dry.”

As my store of coins dwindles, so does my hope.

Three weeks into April, I’m forced to consider leaving without Jefferson. My heart is heavy as I make one more circuit of the staging area. I wander among the few companies that remain, even peeking toward the one with the Joyners. There’s no sign of Jeff. Reluctantly, I turn away and head back to the town, unsure what else to do.

“Hey, Lee!”