“Now Andrew, let’s not be gettin’ all nasty,” Jacob said smoothly. “I was invited to dine with this lovely family, and I’ll not be sullyin’ an invitation from a fine lady by engagin’ in fisticuffs by her fire. What would Mrs. McGrath think of you startin’ a brawl for no good reason?”
“No good reason?” Andrew’s dark eyes glittered. “How ’bout I say that you were makin’ improper advances on her daughter? Who do you think she’d believe? Someone she’s known for years, or a vagrant nobody like yourself?”
“And would Kate back you up on that? She seems like an honest person. We were sittin’ right out in the open, in front of her whole family. Did anythin’ really happen? Or are you just so jealous that someone else is takin’ a shine to your little filly that you can’t even think straight?”
Andrew stood there, rigid, breathing hard, hatred pouring out of his eyes. Jacob had a twinge of unease. Had he taken it too far? Would that push Andrew over the edge, despite his obvious desire to ingratiate himself into their family? Jacob stood his ground, slowing his breathing,priming his muscles to react, staring Andrew down.Don’t even think about it, Thompson. You ain’t got this fight.
Andrew whirled and stalked back to the fire. Jacob let out a breath. It’d been a while since he’d been in an actual fight, even though most of his childhood had been spent living on the edge of one. The tension of the moment faded, and Jacob followed slowly, feeling chagrined. Had he really used Kate like that, talking about her like she was some piece of meat to be devoured, some bauble to possess and enjoy? He winced. He didn’t really think that way, not about her. Other girls seemed content to be a showpiece put on display, but not Kate. She was different. He’d just wanted to get to Andrew, mix him up a little, show him he wasn’t the one running the show around here.
But Jacob couldn’t help feeling dirty. Like he’d rolled in the mud. No. Like he’d plucked a wild prairie rose from the hillside and rolled that in the mud. He shook his head. Never again. Not with Kate. What would she think of him? He vowed that she would never have reason to wonder.
Chapter 12
Katewaswretchedlythirsty.They had left the cool valley of the Little Blue yesterday, with its trees and clear waters and plentiful game, and headed into this desolate stretch of dunes. No water for twenty miles. And nearly every drop they could take with them was needed for the mules as they pulled the loaded Schuttler wagon through the dragging sand. She called encouragingly to the team as they shouldered up the next hill, urging them forward. “That’s it! Big team! Big team! Get up there, team!”
They topped the rise and Kate groaned, looking at yet another hill of sand. Her muscles were tense with the effort. “Whoa!” she called, pulling the team to a stop. They all needed a rest. Ma was to the left somewhere, walking clear of the dust. She pushed her broad-brimmed hat off her head and let it hang by the stampede string at her throat. She squinted up at the gray sky. If it started to rain and turned all this sand to mud, she didn’t know how they’d make it.
Andrew rode up on her right. “You doin’ all right, Miss Kate?”
“Just tired of the sand. Any chance you know when we’ll be through this mess?”
“We should be comin’ up on the Platte sometime this afternoon. But I don’t know if it’ll be thirty minutes or three hours from now.”
“Guess we just gotta keep goin’,” Kate said with a sigh, gathering the lines again.
“You’d think one of your brothers would be in charge of drivin’.”
Kate bristled at the insinuation but tried not to let it show. “Well, Pa brought enough stock to start a dozen ranches, and he’s determined to lose not a one, so it takes all hands to drive the herd. And since I apparently shouldn’t be herdin’ cattle, drivin’ the wagon is my job.”
Andrew nodded, seeming not to notice her pointed remark. “If you’d like, I could sit up with you, drive your team for a spell. Give you a rest.”
She gave him a tight smile. She should really try to be more agreeable; it was a sweet offer after all. “That’s mighty kind of you, Andrew. But I’d hate to add another pound to what the mules have to pull, let alone another whole person.”
“Suit yourself,” he said with a short nod and heeled his big bay forward.
Kate flicked the lines with a little more force than necessary. “Get up there, team! That’s it, Max, that’s it, Delilah! Get up there, Joe, you lazy brute! Just a little ways to go!”
The team struggled forward once again. Max took to the challenge as always, leading the charge, his muscles rippling under his dark, glossy coat. Delilah, hating to be outdone and needing to be the center of attention, pulled right there beside him. And then there was Joe, just a big lout along for the ride as usual until there was something—or nothing—to spook about, and then he’d prance and kick and raise a ruckus to wake the dead. Kate rolled her eyes. What a team. But they managed well enough as long as there was a strong hand on the lines. She had trained them from when they were foals, and they trusted her.
Nearly two hours later, sweating and sore, Kate noticed a ripple of excitement spread through the travelers ahead of her. She perked up. Had they finally made it? A few fat raindrops began to fall. She slapped the mules’ rumps to quicken their pace. They crested the last hill and Kate gasped.
There it was in all its glory: the North Platte River. Its immense expanse stretched before her, wider and more alien than any river she’d everseen. Threaded with channels and peppered with islands, there wasn’t a tree to be seen on either side. The land was so flat and the banks so small it seemed like a thimbleful would cause the river to spill over and cover the entire prairie, and with the last of the dunes flowing to meet the edge of the water, it looked like a vast inland sea—waves of yellow, silt-laden water undulating far out to where the western horizon met the sky.
It began to rain in earnest. Then the late afternoon sun shot out from below the edge of the clouds and blazed out across the land, and suddenly everything before her was cast in gold, the dazzling water glittering like a string of jewels strewn across the prairie, the raindrops sprinkling from the sky like a hundred thousand falling diamonds. It was breathtaking.
Then the driver behind her cursed loudly and shouted at her to keep going. Kate hurriedly got the team moving again.
The approach to the river still took the last hours of the afternoon. Proctor’s pace must have been quick because they had caught up to three other trains camped on the banks of the Platte. Buffalo chip campfires dotted the night like stars.
The next day dawned clear and warm. Ma sat up next to Kate on the hard wagon seat. She looked tired.
“So much has happened. It feels like no time has passed since we left, yet St. Joe seems like a lifetime ago,” Ma mused.
“And here we are at the Platte. Andrew says we’ll follow it all the way past Fort Laramie.”
“I’m glad he decided to come along. It feels good to have people you know and trust with you out here in the wilderness.”
“He’s definitely settled into his role.”
