LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter Three

      It seemed to Mattie that she’d barely slept when the camp was roused early the next morning. Exiting the wagon, she noted there was nothing more than a faint lightening of the sky over the distant horizon to herald the new day. But with animals in need of tending and a wagon to pack up before the call to move out, she dared not delay.

      Rebecca arrived at the Prescotts’ campfire as promised to help Adela prepare the morning meal. Unfortunately, she wasn’t alone—Josiah had accompanied her.

      His presence sounded alarm bells in Mattie’s head. What reason did he have to be here? She could only speculate—and none of the possibilities flooding her mind brought any reassurance.

      “I should see to the oxen,” she said to no one in particular.

      “Go ahead,” Rebecca replied, waving Mattie on her way. “Adela and I will be fine here while you’re gone. And we’ll have food waiting for your return.”

      Mattie had taken only two steps when Josiah appeared at her side and kept pace with her. She opened her mouth, though she wasn’t sure what she intended to say to him.

      He spoke before she could form any words. “I’ll walk with you. I need to take care of my own animals.”

      Despite his perfectly reasonable explanation, she fretted over his motives for joining her. Was it truly as he’d claimed? Or something else, as yet unrevealed?

      He didn’t say anything more before they parted ways to see to their own chores.

      When Mattie bent to her task, she felt a curious prickling sensation at the back of her neck, as if she was being watched. Glancing up, she found Josiah looking in her direction. She ducked her head, hiding her face beneath the shadow of her hat.

      There was no mistaking the fact that he’d shown a marked interest in her over the past two days. The question was, why? What was his true purpose? It likely didn’t bode well for her, whatever it might be.

      Hurrying through the job, she finished up before Josiah and gladly left him behind. Once out from under his worrying silent regard, she breathed a sigh of relief.

      She returned to the circle of covered wagons and found Adela alone at the campfire, stirring a skillet of scrambled eggs and bacon, Josiah’s sister-in-law nowhere in sight. “Where’s Rebecca?”

      Adela pushed a lock of hair off her forehead as she glanced up. “She went back to her own wagon to cook breakfast for her family. But don’t worry, she showed me what to do and gave me strict instructions to stir the eggs so they wouldn’t burn. I haven’t stopped for even a second.”

      While Mattie doubted constant stirring was precisely what the other woman had meant, she didn’t say as much to her sister. She was simply glad to see Adela had been receptive to the cooking lesson. It was clearly helping already.

      “It certainly smells good. Let’s find out how it tastes.” Mattie wrapped a towel around the handle of the skillet and lifted it from the fire.

      Two tin plates sat waiting on an overturned crate that had been set up to serve as a table of sorts. After spooning out equal portions, she took a bite and hummed in approval. “Do you think you can make this on your own tomorrow?”

      The younger girl worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “I can try.” But her tone lacked confidence.

      That was a worry for another time, however. Mattie had more immediate concerns, such as the myriad obstacles she would face during her first full day on the trail. Not the least of which was maintaining her guise as a male.

      The sky grew lighter as they ate, giving Mattie a better view of the activity going on around the wagon circle. Small clusters of men stood at various campfires, nursing mugs of steaming coffee. Women tended to sleepy-eyed children who grumped over being roused at such an early hour. The little ones would undoubtedly be full of boundless energy as soon as the group got under way again, a short time from now.

      There was no opportunity to enjoy a leisurely breakfast, and Mattie urged her sister to hurry after noticing her taking small, measured nibbles the way their governess had taught them. The younger girl wrinkled her nose and muttered about behaving akin to a heathen, but thankfully did as Mattie requested.

      Once the meal was finished, Adela handled the cleanup and packed everything back into the wagon while Mattie retrieved the oxen. Upon her return, she was brought up short by the sight of Josiah, standing with his back to her, just a few feet from her wagon.

      On the surface, his presence seemed perfectly innocent. Nothing more than a man pausing for a moment of quiet reflection as he enjoyed a mug of coffee before taking on the day ahead.

      But she couldn’t help suspecting him of deliberately loitering nearby.

      She quickly pushed the troubling thought aside. She’d drive herself quite mad searching his every action for hidden meaning. And she needed her wits about her.

      Josiah glanced over his shoulder and spotted her, then turned and moved closer. Patting the lead oxen, he subtly urged it in the right direction. “I’m happy to help, if you need a hand.”

      “Thanks, but I can handle it.” She wanted to prove—no, she needed to prove that she could do it on her own.

      Wordlessly accepting her refusal, he stepped back and gave her some space to work. But he didn’t leave.

      She preferred to do this without an audience and attempted to prod him on his way. “Shouldn’t you be getting your horses ready?”

      “I have plenty of time yet. It won’t take long.” He finished his coffee, then tossed out the dregs.

      But still, he remained.

      Fortunately, the oxen didn’t give her any difficulty as she worked to hitch them to the wagon.

      Josiah crossed his arms over his chest, a slight grin stretching the corners of his mouth. “I see the oxen are behaving for you today.”

      “I was worried they might turn stubborn again after stopping for so long overnight, the way they did yesterday before the ferry crossing,” she admitted aloud, now that possibility hadn’t come to pass.

      “You’ll be an old hand at this in no time,” he predicted.

      That was her hope.

      Once the team was in position, it was a simple matter to reverse the process of the previous night.

      Now, if only the rest of the day would prove as trouble-free.

      * * *

      Once out on the trail, Josiah stuck close to the line of covered wagons despite the fact that his horses could travel at a much faster pace than the slow-moving oxen teams.

      He kept an unobtrusive eye on the Prescotts. Although Matt had done all right so far, Josiah wasn’t quite ready to leave the kid completely on his own. This was a foreign environment to the boy and his sister. One filled with obstacles that could easily spell injury or worse for the unwary.

      Miles from the nearest town or settlement, their group had nobody to depend

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