Page 56 of Wagon Train Promises
“Louise? Something wrong?” Angela whispered.
“No. Nothing.” Her words broke into fragments. She cleared her throat to suggest that was the reason.
“It’s good we’re together again. God has kept us all safe.” Gabe’s strong words should have encouraged Louise. Yes, she was grateful but?—
Nothing else. She was grateful they were all safe. Grateful to be back with the others. And soon to be on their way again, heading toward her goal. Fulfilling a promise she had made at her mother’s bedside. Something she had to remind herself frequently of late.
Joe rose in that fluid way of his. “I’m going to check the animals. Make sure they’re all ready to move out in the morning.”
“We’ll come.” As Gabe stood, his sons did too, and the men strode to where the oxen grazed, joined now by the pair that had been stranded across the river.
“We need to finish meal preparations.” The women joined forces to make supper.
The others chattered. Hazel was much more relaxed now she’d been reunited with her family. No one noticed that Louise was quieter than usual. She wouldn’t have known how to answer if they asked about it. There were no words, no explanation for the way she felt. It was like climbing a mountain, seeing a beautiful view, and then falling into a bottomless dark hole.
She wasn’t the only one who decided to retire early. Hazel went to the wagon, leaving Louise alone in the tent. Alone with her regrets and guilt. Sleep came, but only for quick visits.She tossed from side to side, willing herself back to peaceful slumbers.
Just as she was about to doze, voices outside her tent jerked her fully awake.
Gabe sounded upset. Or maybe concerned.
A second voice joined his. More concern.
Louise pulled on her dress, added a sweater against the cool, and crawled out of the tent to see what was wrong.
CHAPTER 14
Pa’s voice came out of the dark. Cecil hadn’t heard him use that tone in a long time. Since Grandmother died. Flames licked upward from the log someone had tossed on the fire.
Cecil had been guarding the oxen but now jogged toward camp, almost tripping in the tall, tangled grass in his haste.
Louise hurried in the same direction.
He got there first. “Pa, what’s wrong?”
“Marnie.” Pa stood with his shirttails out, his hair tossed up. He rubbed at his head. “She’s been up half a dozen times already tonight.” At Cecil’s puzzlement, Pa added, “Sick.”
Louise was at his side. “Sick how?”
“The runs.” Pa gulped the word.
A groan came from the nearest wagon, and Irene emerged and raced toward the closest bushes. She hadn’t returned when Angela followed. Hearing Irene’s warning, she veered to the side.
“What have you eaten?” Louise’s voice was soft and calm, but Cecil caught the undertone of worry.
What was she thinking? That they’d eaten something unsafe?
Joe appeared on silent feet. “What’s the problem?”
Pa explained.
“Maybe bad food. Maybe bad water. Maybe bad air.”
Before the night was out, the only woman not to be rushing to the bushes was Hazel. And Louise, who fussed over those who were sick.
Pa groaned with stomach pain but didn’t appear to have the same urgency.
As dawn broke, Joe spoke to Louise. “White man’s sickness needs white man’s cure. What needs to be done?”
