Midnight Secrets Read online

  “Even minor mistakes can get you killed.”

  “I’m positive you’ll teach me and the others how to prevent any.”

  “I’m glad you have confidence in me, Miss Avery.”

  “If you weren’t qualified, Mr. Carr, you wouldn’t have been hired. If you’ll excuse me, I have to rush or I’ll be in trouble again with the boss.”

  “Do your best today and I’ll say a good word about you to him,” he jested as she prepared to leave. She halted a moment but didn’t turn or reply. He watched her skirttail sway as she hurried along the path to escape him.

  Ginny spread the wet skirt out to dry. Tact is what you’re missing, Steve Carr. Obviously you don’t have many occasions to use it.

  She speculated on the leader. He was different from all the men she had ever met, the gentlemen and the rogues. Steve Carr was a blend of both, and he seemed to let whichever facet he wished to reveal surface at his choosing. Maybe he used that trait to keep people off balance or at a distance. Or perhaps he was playing with her from a perverse sense of pleasure at making a lady squirm.

  Ginny reasoned she might be overreacting to him because of the secret she was keeping. Yet, that air of danger-if-crossed made her nervous and wary. She had seen it in his challenging gaze, a reflexive warning not to get too close or too nosey. She presumed he could slay in the flicker of an eye if need be and never worry over his lethal action. She wondered if his manner was a result of the war? Years of protecting his very life? A loss of everything and everyone he loved, so little mattered except himself and his pride?

  Think only of work, Ginny. You have no time for romance or games, especially with him. Move quickly or you’ll be late and provoke him to another verbal attack. She left the wagon to join the others.

  CHAPTER 2

  Steve instructed the fifteen women on the feeding and watering of the mules. He showed them how to check hooves for painful and possibly crippling splits and stones. He taught them how to examine ears and teeth for problems and how to handle any they found. As he stroked the animal’s forehead, he said, “A mule will bite only if he’s provoked or mistreated, so don’t do either one. Give them good care and affection and they’ll get you where you want to go.”

  Ginny observed the man’s gentle treatment of the creature.

  “Mules don’t spook easily and can be urged into place without much trouble or strength,” Steve told them. He demonstrated how to put on a bridle with bit and blinkers, which the animal didn’t seem to mind. He slipped on” a collar, then showed them how to join the reins, straps, and bands. He added traces and backed the mule into place. With deft hands, he secured the creature to a rear whiffletree, a crossbar that held the leather contrivance fastened in place to pull the wagon. He hitched five others and put them in position, then coupled the six mules into three pairs by chain connecting two collars which kept them under better control.

  A long “tongue” separated the two rows of beasts that were standing obediently awaiting their own instructions. When none came, they stood still, not even braying in impatience. They just flicked their ears to pick up sounds and swished their tails occasionally to discourage pests.

  Steve told the women, “Go to your own wagon and work with your team. Get to know them and let them get to know your touch, scent, and voice. Like your youngsters, mules have different traits and personalities; it’s easier to manage them if you keep that in mind. I’ve sent the men and children to another clearing so you won’t have distractions.”

  Ginny was relieved the guide didn’t glance at her after his last word. She gave a soft laugh when the jolly Ellie Davis asked, “Or sneak help?”

  “Or sneak help,” Steve echoed with a genuine chuckle. “I’ll come around to help as needed. If you get into a bind, call me. This is a lot of hook-ups and leather to learn and master in one showing. I want you to hitch ‘em, then let me check it, unharness ‘em, then do it again. You’ll practice each day until it becomes a simple chore.”

  “What if we can’t do it alone?” Mattie Epps whined with a pout.

  “We stay camped here until each one of you can do your part. The same goes for every step of the training: you learn to do it all before we leave.”

  “Some of us already know how,” Louise Jackson snapped. “What if others can’t ever manage it? We shouldn’t be held up because of them. Our supplies will dwindle while we sit and wait. I think you should place a time limit on how long they can detain the rest of us.”

  Steve was grated by her bossy manner but suggested in a polite tone that those of the women who knew how, work with any who have trouble. “By helping them,” he explained, “you help yourself because it’ll speed up our departure.”

  “What if that doesn’t work?” Louise persisted.

  Steve was compelled to back down on his prior threat, which had been used to intimidate the women into doing their best or risk the outrage of fellow travelers whom they were delaying. “If you can’t do any of the lessons because you aren’t trying hard enough or just don’t want to work, you’ll be left behind after a reasonable length of time, say… eight days.”

  “That sounds fair,” Louise conceded with a toss of her blond hair.

  As the women went in different directions to begin their matching tasks, Ginny perceived that Louise had riled Steve Carr, even though no one else seemed to notice. From her position near him, she saw a sudden tautness enter his body and his jaw tighten. She witnessed the icy stare he bored into the blonde’s back as Louise departed with a smug smirk. Ginny was surprised he had changed his decision; that showed he wasn’t inflexible.

  She was glad she possessed a good visual memory. She separated the contrivances into six piles. On the first mule, she repeated the harnessing process she had observed. She talked softly to him and stroked him as she worked. She prayed he wouldn’t bite her or get impatient with her nervous fumblings. She’d read and seen that some animals sensed fear or incompetence and became ornery, threatening, or uncooperative.

  So far, so good, she encouraged herself. When he was in gear, she tried to guide him into place at the rear of the tongue. He refused to budge! She pulled on the reins, pleaded with him, and finally berated him in whispers in one ear, “Don’t be an obstinate jackass’s son.” The mule gave her a nonchalant glance. “Why are you giving me a hard time? Don’t you want us to finish first? Do you want to get your mistress fussed at again?” The contrary beast looked the other way as if bored with her. “If you don’t obey, you lazy moke,” she threatened, “no sweet and delicious grain for you tonight. Please,” she begged him as a last resort.

  “It helps to push on his chest here and nudge his shank with your foot there,” Steve advised as he demonstrated. “That tells him to back up.”

  Ginny saw the animal respond to the correct procedure, then stop when Steve pulled on the reins to cease movement. “How was I to know that?” she pointed out. “It wasn’t in the lesson.”

  “An oversight, Miss Avery, since none of mine were obstinate,” he observed as she and the animal obeyed and succeeded. “Next, you—”

  Lifting the second set of harnesses, she interrupted, “Don’t tell me, Steve. Let me see how much I remember. Correct me if I’m wrong.”

  He caught the use of his first name. “Continue, Anna.”

  She ignored his grin of amusement as she completed the task, aware of her slip and his response in kind. He had sneaked up unseen and unheard again while she was prattling like a fool to a mule. She was glad her face had not reddened like a vivid sunset to amuse him again. “Right?”

  “Right, but you still have tricky connections to master. I’ll check on you again later. If you run into trouble, give me a holler.”

  When Ginny finished and looked around to signal the scout she was ready to have her work checked, she noticed with relief that several other women were still struggling with their own chores. She motioned him over and eyed his effortless approach on long and lean legs. “Ready, Mr. Carr.”


  He walked around and examined each arrangement. Over the last mule’s back, his gaze met hers as he said, “No mistakes. Unhitch ‘em and do it again. Call me when you’re finished.”

  Ginny was miffed that he hadn’t added something like, A good job. Perhaps he had assumed “No mistakes” was sufficient praise.

  Ginny and the others rested and chatted while waiting for the last two women, Mattie Epps and Cathy King, to finish. She knew she looked and smelled a mess: sweaty and dirty, wearing mule-and-leather cologne, and hair tousled. Since the others didn’t go to freshen up, she didn’t want to appear finicky by doing so. Yet, she hated feeling and being seen in this disheveled way, especially by the approaching scout who visually inspected her this time like a harnessed creature who couldn’t escape.

  Steve’s gaze took in the sultry’ Cathy, a black-haired beauty with a spoiled and flirty streak he didn’t like. She didn’t want to go on this arduous journey, but her husband Ed had given her no choice, and she did nothing to conceal that fact or her displeasure. Steve hoped she’d cool her hot blood before her wanton behavior caused problems for him, as he had more than enough to deal with. It was obvious to him she was late on purpose to snare his attention. Mattie had pulled the same sluggard ruse but for a different reason, with hopes he would cancel the rest of her lesson today—which he hadn’t. He wouldn’t slack off on any of the women’s training for any reason, as he’d agreed to take on this role. “Take a quick break, ladies, for water and… whatever needs tending before we take our walk. One mile today. Be ready to move out in ten minutes.” He left to take a breather of his own.

  “Walk? Exercise?” Mattie complained to Ellie. “I’m ready to drop on the ground and sleep for a year! Haven’t we done enough today? We still have chores before bedtime.”

  “We can’t balk, Mattie, or we’re in trouble. We agreed to obey him.”

  “But I just finished, Ellie. I’m tired. You all got to rest a while.”

  “Because we learned and worked faster,” Louise boasted.

  “That was hard, and you already knew how to do it. I’ll never have to do it. Joel will tend that chore on the trail while I tend my own. It isn’t ladylike to get filthy and smelly like this; I despise doing men’s labors.”

  “If Joel gets hurt or killed, Mattie, what then?”

  In a peevish tone, she spat, “Don’t be foolish, Lucy; he won’t. But if he does, I’ll worry about learning it then.”

  Louise glared at the group’s whiner. “We’ll all have our hands full, so learn to carry your own load now or don’t go.”

  “That’s hateful, Louise Jackson!”

  “It’s the truth, Mattie Epps, so stop complaining and do it. If you use only half as much energy doing your lesson as you do whining about not doing it, you could be finished real quick and simple.”

  As the two peevish women glared at each other, Lucy Eaves said, “I’m taking my break before we leave. Anyone else?” she invited.

  “Me,” Ginny answered, worried over Mattie and Louise’s sharp words and sorry attitudes. If she were lucky, she could avoid both women on the trail, as she didn’t care for dissension. Elude Cathy, too, she added, as she’d seen the married woman steal improper looks at Steve. She followed Lucy into the trees as she wondered how this lovely woman could walk miles each day on a “gimp” foot.

  They trekked half a mile from camp and turned to head back the same way, their pistol-wearing leader out front and prodding them onward. He didn’t slow his steady pace to aid the fatigued ones or halt to wait for intentional stragglers. Trying to get finished and rest before taking charge of active children and cooking the evening meal, hardly anyone noticed the greenery and colorful wildflowers of early spring.

  Ginny did, but dared not slack off to admire them. She tried to keep as close as possible to the pace Steve set, but a stitch in her side slowed her at the end. The speed and distance he demanded on a first outing was surely unlike a leisurely Sunday stroll! No one wasted energy talking or by trying to match the steps of others for companionship or conversation.

  As she entered the edge of camp alone, Steve said, “You look to be in good shape, Miss Avery, but that doesn’t mean you can walk all day for a month or more unless you pick up your pace and increase your stamina. I hope you can improve tomorrow. It’s hard for me to amble.”

  “I hope I do everything right from here on, Mr. Carr, so you’ll get off my back, especially when I’m doing my best.” She left him staring after her, feeling better after her curt retort. She hadn’t seen him halt any of the other women to scold their speed. She didn’t like being complimented then rebuked. His inconsistent behavior rubbed her nerves raw.

  She hated to imagine what demands the future held for her. She glanced back to see him retracing the path to escort the tardy women home, one of whom was the flirtatious Cathy King… She gathered her clothes and needed items and headed to the private area the guide had designated for bathing. She passed and spoke to others who were preparing fires or meals, visiting with husbands and children, and doing various other evening chores.

  She took a bath and dried herself, then tended a feminine chore that came every month with the cloth pads Martha Avery had helped her make. She buried the used one, covered the disturbed area with a rock, and donned clean clothes. She felt better after removing the grime of today’s activities. She dreaded to attack the task ahead—campfire cooking—but she had to eat. As she returned to camp, Ellie Davis solved that problem for her.

  The stout and jolly female halted Ginny and asked, “Anna, dear, why don’t you join us for supper tonight? No need in you cooking and eating alone. We have plenty and we can get to know each other better that way.”

  “That’s kind of you, Ellie; I’ll be delighted, but only if I can help.”

  “Everything will be ready by the time you put away your things.”

  “Then you must let me do the dishes afterward.”

  “That’s fine. Hurry before the young’uns start yelling for their food.”

  Ginny stored her things and returned to the Davis campsite. She smiled as Ellie’s husband and their four children were introduced to her and she to them. She took the place on a bench by a table that Ellie motioned to. She bowed her head and closed her eyes as Stuart blessed the food and asked for safety on the trail ahead. Afterward, everyone was quiet, except to ask for the items they wished to be passed along. She realized the children had been taught to be still and silent while eating, so she did the same.

  The dishes were done. The well-mannered children, ranging in age from eight to fourteen, were on pallets beneath the wagon. Women gathered in small groups to chat or to listen to music played on a fiddle by Ruby Amerson’s husband. The perky redhead was not with him, as she was tending her two babies. She saw Steve summon the men for a short meeting on the far side of the encampment and wondered why.

  To prevent disturbing the Davis children, who were trying to go to sleep beneath the wagon, Ellie suggested the two women go and sit on a quilt near a tree to rest and chat. After they were settled, she coaxed, “Tell me about yourself, Anna.”

  Ginny hated to deceive the sweet woman but she had to keep up her deception. It was the only way for her to reach her first destination, so she must lie with reluctance and a foul taste in her mouth.

  Before Ginny began, Lucy and Ruby joined them. They chatted a while about the day’s events before Ellie entreated “Anna” to relate her story.

  The woman stout of heart and body said, “We shared stories last week, but—since you weren’t here—we’ll repeat the best parts for you later.”

  “Wait for me,” Mary urged as she advanced in a hurry to join the group. Her damp sandy hair ringed her face with short, bouncy curls. “The boys were so full of energy I couldn’t get them to settle down.”

  “We should have waited for you, Mary dear,” Ellie said, “or come to help you finish up. Four kids are a handful; I know mine are.”

  “After bei
ng with their fathers all day, they get rowdy and restless. I was almost too tired to tuck them in and kiss them good night.”

  Lucy smiled as she brushed her long dark-blond hair before replaiting it into its thick braid. “That walk wore us all out. I think we have a slave driver for a guide,” she jested.

  Ruby giggled and whispered, “But he’s a fine one to look at all day.”

  Ellie teased in a matching low tone, “You best not look too long and hard or George will hop on both of you with a brush broom.”

  In an exaggerated drawl, Ruby said, “It’s this fiery red hair I was named for, girls; it flames me up from head to toe when I least expect it. Of course, with two babies to tend and sleeping in the open, it doesn’t do me much good to tempt any man to mischief, even my beloved George.”

  The five women laughed at Ruby’s jests and comical expression. Ginny enjoyed the warmth and rapport in the small group, and relaxed.

  Ellie warned with a playful grin, “Don’t let that King woman see you cast an eye on our Mr. Carr. You don’t want to cat fight with her over him.”

  “You noticed her boldness, too?”

  “We all did, Ruby dear. She’s shameless and spoiled. Going to be trouble, mark my words,” Ellie predicted with a woeful look.

  Lucy lowered her brush. “I hope not. Mr. Carr is a nice man, just a little cocky. I like him and appreciate his help.”

  Ruby and Mary agreed. Ellie winked at Ginny, who didn’t voice her opinion of their handsome guide. None of the others had mentioned how he picked on her, but Ginny assumed they couldn’t help but notice.

  “I’m afraid Louise and Mattie are also going to give him trouble. Us, too. The others seem fine. The Daniels woman is a little hateful at times, but she has a right to be bitter over her losses; those Yanks cost her husband not only the use of his leg but their home. We all have our reasons for anger, but all that can’t be changed, so we’d better make the best of our new starts out West.”