"Return to Paradise Trail" PART SIX
Day forty-four: We will arrive in St. Louis tomorrow. Excitement is spreading through the wagon train like a wildfire and, I must admit, is a bit contagious. We haven't seen a decent town in weeks. Most of the women want nothing better than to see the inside of a general store. I don't blame them. Although the site of basic necessities was all I saw growing up in a dry goods store, I must admit that not having to worry about having plenty was probably something I took for granted all these years. As I write, I have this small fear that I may like St. Louis too much.
My wounds have not kept me down for very long. I traveled outside of the wagon for the first time yesterday. Molly was very hesitant and tried to stop me. But I insisted and thankfully got my way. Even Sam was reluctant to let me. But a kiss may or may not have convinced him to let me out of that stuffy wagon. Yet even with my stubbornness I must take a moment to be thankful that they both care for me the way they do. They both saved my life…long before I was shot. And to them and God Almighty I should be grateful. I am very grateful that the Lord showed me Sam's heart. All those days I thought he was taking me for a fool, he was simply acting from a caring heart. And although I could be wrong, I think it was a love for me that fueled everything he ever did for me. I feel so ashamed that I treated him as I did. But I will never be found guilty of doing so again. I don't know… I may even be finding myself in love for the first time in my life. Papa Wooster always said I'd know it when it happened. I usually called him a foolish man for leading me on like that. But now that it may finally be in my own heart, I think he was right. Yet I wipe tears from my eyes even as I write this, knowing that he never got the opportunity to see me meet the man who would make me feel as I do. Perhaps he sees it all from Heaven. At least that's my only meager hope that I cling to as I leave grief and my past behind and embrace the future ahead of me.
Sadly, three families will be leaving us at St. Louis to follow the Oregon Trail farther north. They will be missed greatly. I had become acquainted with the children rather well. But I wish them well and pray safety and success for their journey to their new home. To send them off, the Masons have arranged a small party of sorts for this evening. There will be singing and some good food before we must say goodbye. That said, I must end my entry here. I'm sure Molly is in need of my help while John and Sam help with the more heavy ends of the preparations. Until next time…
Charlotte could feel her soul stirring from the sidelines as the lively tunes filled the air strummed from a fiddle and harmonica alone yet laced with joyous notes that hastened the steps of every person present. Gentle twilight hues served as a canopy of welcome and goodbye. And a trace of evening cicadas choired with the notes from the instruments in the hands of their players. The large circle of wagons marked and guarded the area where husbands took the hands of their wives, young brothers offered their hand to their sisters, and the sparking interests of a few young bucks had prevailed upon a lone young lady on the trip thus far.
All these folks were enraptured in the moment around the licking, tall flames of the rather large campfire as they celebrated a milestone in their travels. St. Louis would be a turning point. While three families would head north to join the Oregon Trail, the rest of the wagon train would continue along the Paradise Trail further south in search of their new home in the valleys of Utah. Little was known of what the next trail would bring. What was known was that St. Louis was territory few of them had dared enter. And it would be their destination come tomorrow at dawn.
St. Louis had seemed like just a dot on a map. A speck in the future just waiting to be taken hold of. Yet as the wagon train rolled towards it the following morning, it began to feel like a reality. It no longer seemed unreachable as if it would never manifest.
Gentle streams of midday sunlight beamed down upon the long string of wagons that wound its way through the Missouri plains as Sam Brazos steadied his horse to the side, letting the long line of schooners pass. He even caught a smile from Charlotte as she sat high on the wagon next to Molly, taking her turn at the reigns for a portion of the morning journey.
Charlotte waited until Sam was out of view before turning her palms upward. She cringed a bit as she felt tiny blisters forming in places. She could tell she had not driven a wagon for a length of time and had softened a bit. But no little prick of pain could keep her from helping in any way the she could to get them to St. Louis on time.
"Are we there yet?" A young Tommy Mason sprang from the opening in the wagon canvas and stretched his neck in between Molly and Charlotte.
Molly stifled a chuckle. "No, son. Not quite yet." She hid her smile as she twisted in the seat to face the young boy. "Now get back in the wagon, Tommy. Mr. Brazos said we will have a long spell to drive this morning."
Tommy tucked himself back into the wagon with a groan and sigh before surrendering to his schoolbooks for the time being.
Molly glanced over Charlotte's reddening hands and then up at Sam who had returned to the front with her husband John on horseback. She then recalled last night. Sam had not been happy to hear that Charlotte was eager to help drive the wagon. Molly could easily see the affection in his eyes that drove him to the edge of anger at the thought of losing the woman he had come to love in such a short time. Then Molly remembered her own romance. John Mason had the rather easy task of winning her hand in such manner of traditions as their folks would allow. Yet the westward trail did not afford any easy way for a man and woman to fall in love. If anything, it made it harder. Not harder for the heart. But harder for the heart to survive the trials it took to keep such a flame alive.
Taking one more look at Charlotte's hands, Molly placed her hand on them softly. Charlotte jerked away ever so slightly as the sting of the touch reminded her she had pushed herself too far.
"Would you like me to drive for a while?"
Charlotte turned to see Molly's smile and nodded limply, quickly shifting the reigns from her hands to Molly's as to not slow up the train any.
"I bet you are eager to see St. Louis." Molly smiled again once they had traveled a short length more.
Charlotte rubbed at her hands a bit as she steadily kept her eyes on the trail ahead. She took a deep breath amid her smile before answering. "Yes. I suppose so. Yet, I can't help but feel nervous."
"Oh, me too." Molly was quick to assure Charlotte that she wasn't the only one. "St. Louis is a far cry from the little Pennsylvania town where John and I first started out."
"How did you know you wanted to marry John?" Charlotte suddenly wished she had not been so outspoken and looked back towards Brazos as if she had said nothing.
Molly's keen smile took her back in time as she looked towards her husband from afar. "I suppose it was when I couldn't imagine my life without him. I remember one night when he was away on a hunting trip with his brothers and some of his friends. They were only supposed to be away for three days. Four at the most. After one week, the entire town started to worry. As it turned out, they were fine. They had decided to stay longer and gather more game for the entire town out of charity. But young Amos Perkins twisted his ankle after falling down a hill on his way back to send word." Molly laughed lightly. "When they arrived back, I ran to meet them all. John was happy to see me. But it took a while before they knew what had happened and why I was so frightened. But I knew then that I loved him and wanted to spend my life with him."
Charlotte couldn't deny herself a smile as she listened to the story from the past, somewhat reflecting on Sam Brazos as she thought through the past weeks of her own life. "And what happened to Amos Perkins?"
"He managed to limp to his uncle's cabin which wasn't too far away from where he fell. Poor thing was so mixed up he forgot to send word from there. But we forgave him. At least they all came back in one piece."
"I'll say." The two women shared a light laugh only to pause when Tommy stuck out his head between them again.
"What's so funny?" The young boy's eyes were narrowed as he glared from his mother to Charlotte and back to Molly again.
Molly and Charlotte briefly glanced at the boy before turning back to the team, ignoring the child's urgings with another light pairing of laughs between them.
As St. Louis began to come into view several long hours later, Charlotte's excitement rose by the second. And as the wagon train began parading through the first street of that large, bustling town, there wasn't a soul among them all that couldn't hide a smile or a bit of awe at the sights and sounds that stretched before them and seemed to never stop.
Both Charlotte and Molly quickly eased their trail-worn bonnets from their sheltered eyes as the latter called to the team below to stop. They had reached their first destination. Both ladies were busy exchanging smiles of delight between them both as they scanned the town not noticing that their respective menfolk awaited them from beside the wagon and took turns smiling up at their womenfolk's moment of awe.
Sam softly extended his hand upward, resting it just barely on the wooden seat's edge. "Charlotte, if you'd allow me to help you down perhaps you'd get a better experience of the city with the rest of us mortals down here."
Charlotte met his gaze with a hopeful smile before sighing and standing up. She gently set her hands on Sam's shoulders, feeling his hands wrap around her waist as she made a jump for the ground below with every confidence in Sam's strength to help her keep her footing. Charlotte then lifted a hand to brush a wayward hair from her eyes while feeling a small bead of sweat roll down her heated face as she stood by Brazos to let John help Molly down from the wagon seat. Meanwhile, young Tommy had already leapt from the rear of the wagon, bounding over to the little group with a salivating grin at the sight of a confectionery across the street.
Molly took a peek at what had caught the young boy's interest as John settled her down upon the ground. She smiled, shaking her head. "Not just yet, young man. We've much to do before we visit any confectionery."
Tommy groaned a bit but nodded in understanding, his wide-brimmed hat bobbing up and down to shadow his bowed face.
"Come with me, son. We have some things to unload from the wagon." John rousted Tommy's hair with the palm of his hand and led the young man by his side to the back of the Conestoga.
Sam nodded to a building across the street whose sign read HOTEL. "I'm gonna go set up rooms at the hotel so that you ladies can freshen up if you'd like." He tipped his hat with a final smile before reluctantly slipping away from Charlotte's side and marking a straight path to the hotel doorstep before he had a chance to change his mind.
Charlotte agreed with a tip of her head and a broad grin, securing her arm through Molly's as the two started off for the boardwalk up ahead beside the wagon. Charlotte then lifted her eyes once they were on the wooden surface and began to survey the entire town as far as she could see. Filled with its busy streets and endless commotion, she instantly could tell that she was far out of her comforts. Even on the busiest of days, the small Pennsylvania town where she grew up was much more peaceful. Yet she still longed to see more of the town and what it had to offer a simple young woman like herself on this journey of a lifetime.