“We cross today.”
Jacob turned to see Proctor standing there, arms crossed, feet apart, face as impassive as a boulder. How a man of his size could move so quietly Jacob didn’t know.
Seb spat again. “You sure ’bout that, Boss?”
Proctor turned his steely gaze to Seb. “We cross today,” he repeated, voice cold. “I’ll not risk waitin’ a week to see if it goes down if it’ll most likely keep goin’ up.”
As much as he didn’t like the man, Jacob agreed with Proctor. With no letup in sight, the rain would likely continue swelling the river, increasing the danger to all those people waiting a hundred yards behind them. At least they’d had a lot of practice.
“Thompson at the back with the herd?” Proctor asked.
“He’s at the back doin’ somethin’,” Seb said. Another stream of chew hit the ground.
“Munroe, scout out a crossin’. Baker, make sure those folks is gettin’ ready to cross.”
“Yessir,” they answered in unison and led their horses away, leaving Proctor standing there in the rain, as implacable as a mountain.
They walked a few moments in silence. Seb glanced surreptitiously over his shoulder. “So,” he said quietly, “you go check with all them folks and I’ll scout out a crossin’?”
Jacob nodded in reply, already angling for the wagons.
The travelers went about their preparations with stooped shoulders and heavy steps, caulking wagon beds and stretching buffalo hides underneath to make makeshift rafts, barely registering the danger of the swollen river. What was one danger among many? Jacob tried to muster encouraging smiles and firm handshakes, but it was hard to ignore the fact that his socks hadn’t been dry in eight days. Even the McGrath boys, with their perpetually positive attitudes, were quiet and solemn. They looked over the bedraggled cattle as Jacob pulled Kip to a stop beside them.
“Proctor says we’re crossin’ the river today,” Jacob told them.
“’Spose we wouldn’t want to risk waitin’, seein’ as how the water might rise further,” Ian responded. Jacob was always struck by how perceptive the oldest McGrath could be.
“Aw, it’ll be fine, right Jake? It ain’t nothin’ different than what we done a hundred times before,” Danny said, his natural effervescence still managing to shine through the gloom.
“Practice makes perfect, I hope,” Jacob said. “And there ain’t nothin’ to do but just do it. You fellas takin’ the herd over?”
“Yeah,” Ian said. “Pa’s drivin’ our wagon. Didn’t want Kate to have to manage that on her own.”
“Not that she couldn’t!” Danny chimed in with a grin. “Made sure we knew it too.”
Jacob laughed and shook his head. Foolhardy courage is what that was. But the iron band of tension around his heart eased a little. She was in good hands.
“You crossin’with the stock?” Ian asked.
“Figured y’all could use an extra hand, ’specially on a day like today,” Jacob said.
Danny clapped him on the back and grinned, “Glad to have you, Jake.”
Jacob smiled. Over the course of a few short months, Danny and Ian had become like brothers to him. That trust, that companionship—other than Seb, he hadn’t had that since he was eleven years old. And in a matter of days, he would have to say goodbye to them too. He tried to steel his heart against the pain of it. Everything he had ever cared about had been taken away from him. His jaw clenched against the wave of anger that boiled up, but he had nowhere to direct it, so it seethed deep inside him, coiling around his heart like a leviathan of the seas, unseen but ready to take him under the moment he was unguarded. So he hunched his shoulders and fought against it.
Andrew joined them, pulling up beside them without a word, and the young men sat with the placid herd, watching as one by one the wagons sank out of sight down the steep bank of the river, swallowed by the horizon like ships in the trough of a great wave. The quiet tension deepened with each crossing until the only sound was the patter of rain on their hats. Jacob shrugged his shoulders and water dripped down his back. Ian left to go watch their own wagon cross. The worry that boiled inside Jacob was mirrored on Danny’s and Andrew’s faces.
“I sure hope they make it over all right,” Jacob muttered.
“The Lord has them in His mighty hands, Jake,” Danny responded with simple, unwavering conviction.
Jacob frowned. “How do you know? I mean, what if she”—he swallowed—“what if somethin’ happened to them?”
Danny turned to him, his eyes the most serious he had ever seen. “If somethin’ happened to them, they’d be in a much better place than here.”
“So you’d be fine if God decided to just up and take your family from you?” Jacob burst out. The leviathan was awakening again.
“No, Jake. I’d be heartbroken,” Danny said quietly. “But just ’cause bad things happen doesn’t mean God is any less good. If my family died today, He’d be weepin’ right along with me, ’cause He knows exactly how it feels to lose someone He loves.” He locked Jacob in an intense stare. “Our world is broken, Jake, and terrible things happen to good people. But the beautiful thing is that the Lord walks with us through those terrible things. And He made a way for us to get to a place where the pain of it will never touch us again.”
