Messenger by Moonlight Part 9

Her husband whipped his head about. "You mind your tongue, woman." He pointed at Annie. "I'll take that coffee."

Annie hurried to pour coffee, served it, encouraged the man to take a seat "out back under the shelter where you can enjoy the spring breeze," and then returned to the store. Finally, on a high shelf-Must things always be on a high shelf?-she saw a few dusty bottles of what looked like medicine. But she couldn't read the labels. Again she needed a ladder. She'd just retrieved the crate and reached the three bottles when she heard someone clear his throat. She looked over just as George Morgan appeared at the end of the row of shelves.

"Didn't want to startle you," he said. "Guess I'll need two ladders."

"Only if you insist on putting things as high as possible," Annie said. She looked down at the three bottles in her hand. The child started coughing again. "The woman asked for something called Wishter's something-or-other."

"Wistar's," Morgan said.

"Yes. That's it. But I don't think you have any." She looked about her. "At least I couldn't find it." She held up the three bottles. "Will any of these work? She offered to trade b.u.t.ter for the Wistar's."

Morgan stepped closer. He took the middle blue bottle. "This will help. If anything will." He shook his head. "That child needs a doctor, not some home remedy." He took the bottle back out to the main room and handed it to the woman. "This is the best I've got. It'll help some. Until you see the doctor at Fort Kearny."

"Doctor?" The man had stepped inside and called out from just inside the back door. "We got no money for a doctor." He glanced at the boy. "He'll be fine. Folks come west when they've got bad lungs, ain't that right? The farther west we get, the better he'll be." He looked over at the woman. "You just see if he don't get better. He don't need no doctor."

Seated on the counter, leaning against his mother, the little boy had fallen asleep. The man strode over and gave him a little shake. "Time you was gettin' back to the wagon train, boy. Look sharp, now, ain't n.o.body goin' to carry you."

"I'll carry him," George said, and glanced at the woman. "Then I can bring back the b.u.t.ter you were going to trade." He looked over at the man. "Longwood's out by the corral. Maybe you'll want to talk to him about the cattle."

The woman took the bottle of medicine and tucked it in her pocket. "You'd best let me carry him. He don't take to strangers."

Morgan put his ma.s.sive hand to the child's back, and the little boy stirred and opened his eyes. He leaned down. "I'm just George," he said. "All right if I carry you for your mama?" He picked the boy up. The child put his head on his shoulder.

"Well don't that beat all," the woman said.

After George Morgan and the woman left, Annie looked around the store, so she'd know what was where. Morgan didn't return for a long while. When he finally did, he was driving a couple of pathetically thin oxen. Thinking she would save him the trip in with the b.u.t.ter, Annie walked down to the corral, but Morgan had no b.u.t.ter. It had "slipped his mind."

Chapter 13.

Is too much for one tiny woman. Mrs. Hollenberg's warning sounded often in Annie's mind during her first weeks at Clearwater. Truth be told, it was more of a haunting. How she regretted the saucy tone of voice she'd first used with the older woman. Anyone can make dumplings. What a fool she'd been. How nave to think that cooking for Emmet and Frank and Pa had prepared her for life at a busy road ranch. At home she'd had time for things like gardening and tending chickens and their only cow. In fact, those things had been welcome distractions from the loneliness hovering over every day without Ma. Annie had thought life was hard then. She'd had no idea.

At Clearwater, Annie's life revolved around the kitchen. She rose before dawn to make coffee and bake bread. Lunch had to be started the moment breakfast was finished. Once she'd served lunch, she had to plan for supper-unless, of course, she was serving beans, in which case she had to start supper while making breakfast. Work wasn't even finished with the was.h.i.+ng of the last supper dish, for if she intended to serve hot bread for breakfast, she had to mix the dough and set it to rise overnight. And, whether she ground them or not ahead of time, it paid to roast the next day's supply of coffee beans before turning in. The days went by in a blur of mixing, grinding, kneading, roasting, scrubbing, sweeping, cooking, and cleaning.

As April gave way to May, the trail west grew busier, with dozens of outfits pa.s.sing by every day. There was no way to predict when immigrants might stop at Clearwater or what they might need or want-including a fifty-cent "home-cooked meal." Annie rarely left the station except to check in with her Rhode Island Reds. She was thankful for Billy's watchful eye over the chicks. Most nights, she fell exhausted into bed and was asleep almost before her head hit the pillow.

On the rare night when she didn't fall instantly asleep, Annie inevitably thought back to Mrs. Hollenberg's warning. More often than not, she was tempted to think the old woman's prediction had been right. The work was too much. The first visit from the paymaster helped strengthen her resolve to succeed or die trying-metaphorically speaking. After the man left, Annie sat in her room staring down at the open cash box in wonder. Two hundred dollars. And a gold coin. A coin she'd earned. Just feeling it in the palm of her hand made it easier to face the next day.

She often thought about the women plodding along the trail in the distance, their calico hems trailing in the dust, their bonnets tied snugly to keep the sun off their faces. Would they find what they were seeking out there in the Far West? Would their dreams come true? She wondered about the woman who'd come seeking medicine for her sick child. What would become of those two, living with an angry man unmoved by his own son's illness? Inevitably, she remembered George Morgan holding the little boy close as he carried him for the weary, worried woman. She hoped the child was sleeping soundly at night.

By the end of the first week of May, the rest of George Morgan's crew had arrived-a blacksmith named Hitch, half a dozen wranglers responsible for driving the cattle out on the prairie to graze, and another trio charged with cutting firewood and fence posts in distant cedar canyons. They would alternate between that and cutting and stacking hay, all of it in preparation for winter. As for the fence posts, Morgan sold those to ranchers in the region.

After his first full circle with the mail, Frank returned to Clearwater happier than Annie had ever seen him. Emmet, on the other hand, was worried. He'd expected at least one letter from Luvina to be waiting for him at the end of his first circuit. When Annie told him no letter had arrived, disappointment dropped over him like a shroud. When she turned in that night, she peered into her brothers' room. Emmet was sitting on the edge of his cot, his Bible open across his knees. He didn't look her way. Right before she fell asleep, Annie offered a pathetic prayer on his behalf. Oh Lord, Emmet's shepherd... have mercy.

The next morning, pewter-colored clouds obscured the blue sky. Over the next several days, a steady drizzle transformed the earth into a kind of mud George Morgan called gumbo and travelers called a variety of colorful terms that made Annie alternately blush and wonder at mankind's creativity when it came to profanity.

The "field crew," as George Morgan called them, had brought their own cook. They stayed mostly to themselves, but with the advent of rainy weather, they took shelter in the station every night, playing checkers and cards to while away the time. Annie learned that George Morgan was something of a legend when it came to checkers. He inevitably won, even if he played with only two checkers. She also learned that Frank liked to play cards, something that would have concerned her except for the fact that George Morgan wouldn't allow gambling at Clearwater-not even when Hitch promised they'd bet navy beans instead of pennies.

The mud and rain made travel difficult, but it didn't keep the stage from delivering the three newspapers Morgan subscribed to-the Nebraska City News, the St. Joseph Gazette, and the Philadelphia Leader. When he wasn't playing checkers, the station keeper spent rainy evenings standing behind the store counter, a newspaper spread before him. One evening when Annie was making the rounds to serve fresh coffee to the men, she paused near the counter and asked Morgan why he subscribed to a Philadelphia paper.

He didn't even look up. "It's home. Or was. A long time ago."

"Really? I'm surprised to hear it."

He took a sip of coffee, peering at her over the rim of the cup. Finally, he said, "I can see that. Why?"

She was sorry she'd said anything. "I just-I don't know." She did know, but she wasn't about to tell George Morgan. People from big cities were refined, and their speech showed it. Both the Patee House dining room and the ballroom had buzzed with conversation. People even talked while they were dancing. George Morgan's interchanges with people could barely be called conversations. He was abrupt to the point of rudeness. Annie could not imagine him fitting into any kind of life in a big city. He didn't bother to trim his beard, and it had clearly been a very long time since he'd cut his hair. Of course she could never tell him that, and so she apologized. "I didn't mean anything by it. Luther said you'd been a trader before you built Clearwater. Billy said you'd spent some time with the p.a.w.nee. I thought you were from out here."

Morgan set the coffee mug down. "The only people 'from out here' are p.a.w.nee. Cheyenne. Sioux."

Well, of course she knew that. She also knew the expression on his face all too well. She saw it every time she did or said something George Morgan thought ignorant.

Now he actually scowled down at the backs of his hands as he asked, "You think I look Indian?"

So much for trying to have a conversation about something beyond rats in the pantry or troublesome chickens Morgan labeled "doomed to die." Annie shook her head. "Of course not. Then again, the only Indian I know happens to have blue eyes. I don't suppose most people would think Billy 'looks Indian'-whatever that means." There. That wiped the frown off his face. She turned to go.

"Wait. I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

Annie whirled back around. "Didn't mean what, Mr. Morgan? To make me feel even more ignorant?"

He just stared at her for a moment. Finally, he swept a hand across the surface of the newspaper. "I recognize an occasional name. There's an odd comfort in that. I don't know why. And you're not ignorant."

Well. That was something. He didn't think her ignorant-and he liked reading about home. Just like Annie, who enjoyed the St. Joseph Gazette. Not that St. Joseph was home-yet. But it would be. "Perhaps you miss Philadelphia."

"Don't miss it. Never regretted leaving."

Then why do you find comfort in reading that newspaper?

Morgan must have seen doubt on her face. "Leaving meant I didn't have to listen to my father's favorite lecture anymore-the one about the son who repeatedly failed to measure up. By the time I left, I'd t.i.tled it." He held up both hands to create quotations marks in the air as he said, "'Destined to Disappoint.'"

How awful. "Our pa used to say things like that to Frank. Mostly that he'd never amount to anything."

Morgan grunted softly. "Well-your pa was wrong about Frank."

"Yes. And your father was wrong about you." Annie motioned about them. "Look what you've built."

"This place you never wanted to come to and can't wait to leave?"

Annie protested. "Just because I-"

Morgan interrupted her. "There's another reason I like to read a back-East newspaper. There's war in the wind, and I like reading a back-East perspective on the situation. Lately, the Gazette is little more than rattling sabers. You'd think shots had already been fired."

Annie nodded. St. Joseph hadn't been the most peaceful place back in March. North-versus-South sentiments had been evident even then, both in newspapers and on the streets.

Morgan pointed to a headline in the Leader. "Here's news that'll interest you. The telegraph is expected to reach Fort Kearny by fall. I expect the Pony will add another official stop so riders can pick up the latest news."

Not long after the brief conversation, Annie returned to the kitchen and began preparations for the next day's meals. As she worked, she mulled over the things she'd learned this evening. Morgan had grown up in the East. When he thought about his father, he remembered disapproval and the awful words destined to disappoint. Pa's last years had been awful, but if she chose to, Annie could reach beyond those years and call up good memories. She wondered if George Morgan could do the same-if he tried. She hoped so.

One thing from the conversation stood out more than anything else, though. He doesn't think I'm ignorant. It was good to know it. Very good.

When the gray canopy obscuring blue sky finally gave way to suns.h.i.+ne, the world around Clearwater was transformed. Green prairie stretched away from the station like an emerald carpet, and wildflowers began to bloom. Luther had been right about Mother Nature's paintbrush.

One day, Annie stole away to gather a bouquet. Back in the kitchen, she laid the flowers on her worktable and retreated to her room to retrieve the damaged lavender and white teapot she'd often used as a vase. The finish was crackled, the spout chipped, and there was no lid, but none of that mattered. It had been Ma's, and that made it precious. The delicate design-a drawing of a well-dressed couple standing on a path leading to a castle in the distance-contrasted sharply with Clearwater's rustic crockery and plain white dishes. As she arranged the flowers, Annie smiled, envisioning the day when she'd be able to order an entire set of dishes reminiscent of Ma's teapot.

She had just set the finished bouquet on her worktable when George Morgan opened the exterior door that led into her kitchen storeroom and asked her to come outside. After gathering up the leaves and stems she'd trimmed away while arranging her bouquet, Annie complied. Morgan indicated a pile of weathered boards in the back of a nearby wagon before pointing to the s.p.a.ce between the open storeroom door and the arbor shading the back entrance to the main room.

"I thought you'd want it close."

Annie stared at him, uncomprehending.

"Billy has more important things to do than tending chickens." He pointed at the s.p.a.ce again. "So. Is this all right?

Oh. He's going to build a chicken coop. "I-yes," Annie stammered.

"It shouldn't take long."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me. I could have rented that stall more than once last week if it wasn't housing a hen party. So I'll build your coop. But I still don't think they'll last. They're too scrawny to thrive out here." He began to unload the lumber.

Annie went back inside. Grabbing the broom, she began sweeping, muttering to herself as she worked. Just when the man seemed to be doing something nice, he buried it beneath a thick layer of don'ts. Don't thank him. Don't expect the chickens to live. And for goodness sake, don't expect Billy to tend them. As if she'd asked Billy to do that. She'd actually told him not to pay them any mind. She'd told him she'd see to them. Was it her fault if Billy seemed to like tending chickens?

Huh. Cobbling together a chicken coop from sc.r.a.ps of half-rotten lumber was more about George Morgan's getting free of a nuisance in his barn than being kind to his cook. He was sure they'd drop dead before laying any eggs. Well. She'd show George Morgan a thing or two. The sweeping finished, Annie put the broom away. Come heck or high water, she would serve that man chicken and dumplings before the year was out or die trying. She scowled at the storeroom door. "And for your information, George Morgan, not a single one of those birds is scrawny."

Neither Emmet nor Frank was at Clearwater when Whiskey John brought news of trouble in Nevada. Paiute Indians had raided a Pony Express Station and killed five men. "They had a bad winter out that way," the stage driver said, "and things were already warming up for trouble this spring. Heard about one chief fasting for peace, but no one's listening to him. Now the settlers are arming themselves. They even called up a Texas Ranger to help 'em fight a war."

When Frank arrived a few days later with the last of the mail from California, the deep furrow between his brows was back. As he watched Jake Finney charge eastward, he swore softly. "That's the last of it until things get sorted out with the Paiutes."

"I'm so glad you're safe," Annie said.

"Why wouldn't I be safe? There's no Indian trouble anywhere near Clearwater."

All right. Change the subject. "The paymaster came through," Annie said. "We've got a good start on the future. Want to see it for yourself?"

Frank just grunted. "Make sure you hold on to it. If this trouble lasts, the Pony Express will go dead broke. We might not see another penny."

There wasn't much point in trying to talk him out of his mood. Frank would have to wallow a bit. Later tonight, she'd show him the gauntlets Luther had delivered a few days ago. Maybe she'd convince him to draw the pattern for the red star he wanted her to stich to each one. For now, though, Annie changed the subject to the chickens. "George Morgan built a chicken coop. He said you talked him into it. Want to see it?"

Frank followed her around to the back of the station, but he wasn't impressed with the ramshackle a.s.sembly of weathered boards. He grabbed one and gave it a wiggle, impervious to the protests from the Rhode Island Reds inside.

"They're a little skittish," Annie said.

Frank went to the divided door and peered over the closed lower half and into the gloom. "No nesting boxes?"

"That'll come. Morgan didn't have the time-and they're too little to need them, anyway."

Frank grunted. "One thing I'll have now is time. I'll see what I can do." The furrow smoothed out a bit as he turned to her and said, "I'm not angry at you, ya know."

"Of course I know."

He nodded and then looked toward the covered wagon down by the blacksmith's soddy. "Looks like Hitch is doing a good business."

"I'd say so. That forge is going sunup to sundown. I had no idea Clearwater would be such a busy place."

"One of the riders up the trail said they counted the traffic coming by Fort Kearny one day last summer." He paused to take the bandanna from about his neck. Walking over to the near well pump, he soaked the bandanna and mopped his face before asking, "Want to guess how many wagons rolled past?"

Annie considered. With a little shrug she said, "A hundred?"

"Hard to believe, but it was five hundred. Guess you'll be serving plenty of meals whether the Pony's running or not." He nodded toward the kitchen. "You make peace with the black iron beast yet?"

"More or less. I'm truly thankful the extra crew brought their own cook along. There's plenty to do without cooking for them, too."

Frank nodded. "Fall off any crates lately?"

Finally. A glimmer of humor in his dark eyes. Annie nudged him. "You fall off any horses lately?"

"Almost. There's this one mare named Jezebel..."

Frank talked all the while Annie poured fresh water for the chicks. He was still talking when he followed her inside so she could make him something to eat. By the time he'd eaten, Annie had learned about more than just Jezebel.

Frank had asked the station keepers along the way to handle Outlaw with a gentle hand. He described the various stations and the men who ran them-and a girl who worked the ranch built up around Midway Station. A girl her father called Pete because "she's his right-hand man."

Something in the way Frank talked about her made Annie suspect that Pete was more woman than girl.

Chapter 14.

The Paiute War raged on in the West all through May and into June. A restless Frank rode out on any excuse he could find. Emmet was more content to stay at Clearwater, happily performing whatever task George Morgan a.s.signed. When he finally heard from Luvina, she mentioned her hope chest and a wedding quilt. Emmet's spirits soared.

Thankfully, the Pony Express continued to pay its employees.

"Your employers are determined to see the effort succeed," the paymaster said, "and they've got the financial backing to do it. The Pony is too important to fail just because of a little rebellion in the West."

For several nights in a row after the paymaster left in early June, Annie opened the black cash box and recounted the stack of bills. She palmed the three gold coins she'd earned and wondered at the miracle of Annie Paxton having the key to a cash box containing over $600. And she worried. What if this was all the money they would earn? The paymaster's a.s.sessment of the "little rebellion in the West" did little to a.s.suage her fears, especially when news arrived of yet another death at yet another Pony Express Station.