Page 69 of Caroline’s Compass

“May I hold your hand?”

She appreciated the question more than she could explain.

“Yes.”

His fingers closed around hers gently, with none of the urgency that had driven their first kiss and none of the uncertainty that had followed it. Caroline let their joined hands rest beside the repaired compass. The needle remained steady between them.

Across camp, Lucy whispered loudly, “Are we allowed to look this time?”

Caroline closed her eyes.

Thomas said, “I believe the answer is no.”

Seven sisters immediately found urgent reasons to be somewhere else.

Caroline laughed and slipped the repaired compass into her pocket.

Chapter Sixteen

May 13, 1854

Flooded Lowlands

Rain drummed against the small canvas tent before dawn, a hard, steady sound that did not belong to the mild shower Caroline had fallen asleep hearing. She opened her eyes to the bottom of the wagon and the cold touch of damp air. Beside her, Lucy had burrowed beneath two quilts and left only the end of one braid visible.

Caroline dressed by feel, stepped down into ankle-deep mud, and found the camp already awake. Men pulled picket pins from the softening ground. Rebecca stood at the oxen with water streaming from the brim of her hat. Beyond her, the shallow creek they had crossed the previous afternoon had spread into a brown, rushing sheet.

“That rose fast,” Caroline said.

“It intends to rise faster.” Rebecca pointed with the end of a wet lead rope. “The bank has gone beneath the second wagon.”

During the wet morning, Mr. Bell attempted to protect his hat by placing it beneath his coat. This left his head exposed and his hat dry, an arrangement the younger Mrs. Bell considered proof that marriage could not cure every defect.

“The hat cost money,” he protested.

“So did the medicine you will need when your ears freeze.”

Caroline sent him to help Coleman move feed sacks before the dispute required a wagon council.

At the Whitaker wagon, Grace and Lucy tried to stretch one oilcloth over three crates.

“It covered them yesterday,” Lucy said.

“Yesterday the crates were closer together.”

“Then move the rain.”

Caroline took one corner from her. “Move the flour.”

Thomas passed carrying survey stakes beneath his coat. “Do you want assistance?”

“Can you persuade oilcloth to become wider?”

“Not without falsifying the measurement.”

“Then take that crate.”

He obeyed, and Lucy whispered to Grace, “The courtship is less partial today.”