Chapter 11

Joshua was sitting in the saloon reading a book when the mail arrived. He did not pay much attention until Lottie told him he had a letter from Jason. Then she handed one to Jeremy, whose eyes went wide with happiness. He hurried to open his letter. Joshua on the other hand took his time to open and to read the letter. When he was done reading, he went out on the porch and looked out at the mountain. Jeremy went out after him and asked him a question:

"J-j-Joshua, W-wh-wh-when is two days from today?" Joshua looked at his brother and said:

"Two days will be January 3rd!" Jeremy looked at him again and said:

That will be Saturday!" He smiled and Joshua nodded, then he stepped of the porch and started to walk towards the camp. Jeremy stood there a moment and then, not wanting to be alone, ran to walk beside his brother. They walked towards the mountain and Jeremy did not say anything. He knew Joshua was thinking. He had his 'thinking face' on. So, Jeremy just walked with his brother. They walked all the way to the camp. When they got there, Swede and Rich were talking. Hoss had gone on to visit relatives but said he would see them on his way back.

Josh just stood looking at the camp, the view and turned toward the lake. He looked at the lake remembering when he and Jason had mapped out this place only three years ago. Jason had taken him along figuring he was getting old enough to help a little more substantially. Joshua missed his brother immensely. Jeremy stood by him and then asked:

"Wouldn't it be nice to meet Jason at the stagecoach before he leaves Tacoma?" Asked Jeremy. Joshua did not answer, not right away but then said:

"Why did you say in Tacoma? Jason is coming back here?" Joshua said to his brother.

"I said it because, Jason and I should have both been on the stagecoach when I left without him in Tacoma. So, if we went to meet him in Tacoma, then it would make everything all right, we could both be on the stage going home!" Joshua looked at his brother, he did make some sort of sense, if they could go to Tacoma a day ahead and meet him at the stagecoach, they would all be together again! Joshua thought that out.
"He will be here in two days, though Jeremy, that doesn't give us much time to get to Tacoma, stay with him overnight and then head back?" Joshua said, all the while still thinking inf how to do that

Hey, Joshua, Jeremy, what are you two doing here? Checking up on us?" Big Swede laughed and smiled.

"Hello Swede, how long do you think it would take us to get back to Tacoma by horse?" Jeremy asked. Swede looked at Jeremy and Joshua looked at him as well.
"Well, I don't know, a few hours, certainly you would have to leave early in the morning and if it was snowing it would take you another day because you would have to stop and wait for the snow to stop!" Both boys shook their heads

"Why do you ask Jeremy?" Swede asked.

"B-b-b…." Joshua punched his little brother in the arm and looked at him. Jeremy got the message and didn't say a word.

"Oh, I think he was trying a math problem we had learned in school!" Said Joshua , shoving Jeremy ahead of him and saying goodbye to Swede at the same time.

"Wh-wh-why did you punch me!" Jeremy said angrily.

"Because if you had said anymore, my idea might have been found out!" said Joshua shaking his head.

"What idea was that?" Jeremy said rubbing his arm. Joshua stopped by a stand of trees and turned around to Jeremy and said:

"I am thinking about how we can get to Tacoma and get to Jason before he leaves so, we can ride on the stage coach with him!" Jeremy's eyes went wide, and he said:

"Mag-Maggie will be with him!" sad Jeremy

"Whose Maggie?" asked Joshua

"She is the lady who helped us." Said Jeremy Joshua looked at his brother and then asked:

"Do you think Jason is in love with her?" Joshua asked. Jeremy looked at his brother, for one thing, girls were gross, he didn't necessarily like girls but to think that his brother Jason or Joshua for that matter liked girls was absurd. But his mom was in love with his dad, she had told him so when he was little, so it is possible that Jason might have that same feeling for Maggie. He looked at his brother Joshua, not sure what to say.

"I-I-I don't know?" Jeremy said. "He m-m-might be?

"Why do you say he might be? Did they do something?" asked Joshua. Jeremy looked at Josh, what something was he talking about.

"You know, what mom and dad did to have us?" Jeremy just stood there and then it dawned on him, and he said:

"Not while I was with him, he didn't! I would have known, he slept right next to my bed all night, until we had to get up early and hide." Jeremy said and Joshua was satisfied with that answer. They continued on then walking back to town.

"Well, it is about time you two showed up? Where did you go?" Lottie asked smiling at them. Jeremy stopped and so did Joshua. Jeremy looked at Josh and Josh answered Lottie:

"I went, well, we went up to the camp to take a look at things!" Joshua told Lottie and she looked at Jeremy who smiled and nodded yes.

"Well, it is almost supper, Josh, will you go get the wood for my room and place it in the bin, please? And Jeremy, your chore today is to help with chopping the vegetables for dinner. Jeremy liked helping in the kitchen and he ran straight to the kitchen to do his chores. Joshua looked at Lottie and said:

"Miss Lottie, you won't tell Jason, will you?" She looked at him and said:
"Tell him what?" Joshua smiled and went to collect the wood for her room and put it away.

Later after dinner, Lottie sat down with the boys and told them the plans that were set up.

"So, you two will be staying here with me another couple of weeks. It doesn't mean that you can't visit Jason, but he will need to get a lot of rest. And he has a nurse helping him, her name is Maggie…"
"I know who Maggie is, she is the lady who helped Jason and me!" said Jeremy. Lottie smiled at him and said:
"What do you think of her, Jeremy?"
"Well, she is nice, but I don't think they are in love, at least I hope not!" said Jeremy. Joshua kept silent. He too hoped that they weren't in love either, but he also knew that Jason would talk to them about that later if it were true. Lottie smiled at Jeremy and said:

"Well, that is a discussion for the next time around. You two need to get some sleep. She covered them up and gave each of them a kiss. Then shut the door.

Joshua lay there in bed. He waited until he heard Jeremy's steady breathing. He did not want to wake up Jeremy, so he waited a little longer, then he slowly got dressed and climbed out of the window. He swung down the tree branch and went over to the livery stable where there were some horses. He was going to ride a horse to Tacoma in the dark and did not want anyone to see him.

"Who is that!" a voice said in the darkness. Joshua froze. He had just put the saddle on the nearest horse and was going to get on it and ride away. But he was too late, a lantern was swung around and shining in his face.

"And what do you think you are doing here in the livery stable boy? Said the voice behind the lantern. Joshua was almost too scared to answer, in fact, he started to sound like his brother Jeremy stuttering when he said:
"I-i-i-I needed a horse!" Joshua said. The voice behind the lanterns said:
"At this time of night?"