Printers Daughter
Chapter 6
Author's note: Short chapter, but you know what's coming next. This episode has one of the few time notations. It would have to be summer of 1861. I'm moving it to early summer to accommodate the rest of the episodes.
Late spring/early summer 1861. The War news is all bad. Fort Sumter has fallen to the new Confederacy. More and more states are joining the South. Since Nebraska Territory is a "free" territory, we now have Union recruiters in Rock Creek. There's been some violence associated with that. We're loosing Pony Express Riders to the War, so we're doing longer runs, more often. I don't think any of us like that.
Buck and Maggie are having some rough times. Once the school year is out, Maggie plans to go back East for training. And that's real soon. Reservation schools are mostly either government or church run. She wants no part of a government run school (we're fully in agreement with her there), so church run it is. What she likes best, so far, are the Quaker run schools. But Maggie is not a Quaker, so they want her to attend a training school of theirs out in Penn. Once she finishes her training sessions, they will place her in a reservation school. Buck is not liking this idea at all. He really doesn't want her teaching on a reservation, but he knows he's not going to talk her out of it. So the two of them are arguing about littler things.
It's clear Buck doesn't know about Maggie's letter to Mr. Cross. She means well, but Buck is cranky enough right now. This is not going to go well for her once he finds out. I understand that she wants him to find some healing in that part of his life. But there are so many unanswered questions. Is Bucks dad really as bad as his actions make us think? And here's the thing, he knew that his Indian wife was pregnant. Why didn't he do the right thing to check on his kid?
I'm hoping that Mr. Cross never shows up and never tries to check up on Buck. Let sleeping dogs lie.
I know I said that I want to write about Buck and Maggie's relationship, and I am. I think they're work things out. I sure hope they do. But I have news of my own. I'm in love. Or at least I think I am. Her name is Emily Metcalfe. Her father's a problem. He's a man who can't stop gambling and it keeps getting him into trouble.
Emily is amazing. I first saw her and her father at the saloon when I was practicing my drawing. Feisty! Her father as well. I watched him force a cheating gambler to back down. Dangerous, but amazing to watch. I was sort of following them home (from a discreet distance) when I heard a gunshot. Just outside of town that crooked gambler was waiting to ambush them. I hurried over. Since the gambler wasn't aware of me, I was able to attack him. Emily picked up a gun and ended the situation. What an amazing young woman! She was mad at her father and left him by the side of the road. So I gave him a ride home.
Emily came by the next day to thank me. Irritated the rest of the guys. She is so cute. Freckles, cute as a bug. She said she'd go to the dance with me! Buck made me mad. He told me I should slow down with Emily. No way! I think he's just mad at Maggie.
Emily's dad was gone buying a mule, so I helped her work on their new place. A lot of hard work, but it was so much fun! She's so beautiful when she laughs. And I got a kiss on my cheek.
That evil gambler Neville didn't give up. He tried to burn down her barn-and mostly succeeded. She couldn't prove it was Neville. She was so upset she told me to go away. Clearly she doesn't know me. She believes that if you get to know and trust people you get hurt. She wants to just be friends.
I foolishly went to the bar to confront Neville. Buck and Teaspoon stopped me. Buck almost got into it as well. Neville so deserves to die. He even made Teaspoon mad.
But I'm not giving up. Once I finish a group picture of us, I'm going to go back out to the Metcalfe place and convince Emily to go to the dance with me.
I don't think I love her. I'm pretty sure I do.