Lokni paced back and forth in front of the store. Clint had calmed since leaving the store, so she was reluctant to go back in there. She had considered going to the hotel room, but she wanted to wait for Brandon. Now that she had decided to stay with him, it seemed that she had a desire to spend more time with him.
She hadn’t expected to feel such a strange sensation. But she had missed him all through the day while she was with Wilma. Clint wasn’t the only one who had been excited to see him when he got off work. She had been, too. And she wasn’t sure what to make of it. Was this kind of thing normal when a woman was with a man by choice?
“Is that child your sister or brother?” someone asked from behind her.
Lokni spun around, surprised to see an older woman approaching her. The woman wasn’t one who lived in the town. She was new. She was probably one of the people who’d come in on the wagon train Brandon had mentioned.
“No. This is my son,” Lokni replied, wondering why the woman was even talking to her.
The woman’s eyebrows furrowed. “Your son? How can that be? You look young. How old are you?”
Lokni frowned. It wasn’t any of this woman’s business how old she was. She didn’t know this woman, nor did she have any plans to do anything with her. She glanced at the general store as two more people went inside the building. Through the windows, she couldn’t make out where Brandon was since there were so many people crowded in the small place.
“I’m forty-two, and I still haven’t had a child,” the woman continued, drawing Lokni’s attention back to her. “My husband and I have tried. For twenty-one years we tried. I was older than you when I married. Everyone around us kept having children, and yet, we never could. You obviously can, and you have your entire life to have more.”
An uneasy feeling crept up Lokni’s spine. She took a step away from her, but the woman took one toward her.
In a lower voice, the woman said, “I might not look it since I’m wearing a poorer fabric of clothing for the journey on the wagon train, but my husband and I have done very well financially. He owns railroads. In fact, one of the things he plans to do out west is to establish more lines. That way people aren’t forced to keep taking the wagon train all the time to go from the East to the West coast.”
Lokni wasn’t sure where the woman was going with this, but she didn’t want to find out. She started to head for the general store, but the woman grabbed her arm and stopped her.
“Will you just let me finish?” the woman hurried out while offering Lokni a hopeful smile. “I’m not trying to scare you. I only want to make a proposal. If you’ll give me a moment, I’ll show you what’s in my drawstring purse. I promise I’m not going to hurt you.”
Lokni hesitated, but given the fact that there were other people nearby, she knew the woman wouldn’t get away with doing anything to harm her. So she remained in place while the woman let go of her and undid the strings of the purse. The woman opened the purse and showed her jewelry. On a closer inspection, it looked as if the whole thing was full of valuable gemstones.
“I would like to purchase the child,” the woman said. “This jewelry can provide for you and all the children you have in the future. You’ll never want for anything as long as you’re careful with this. I’d suggest selling a little at a time.”
Lokni couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You want me to sell my son to you?”
“I’ll be good to him. He’ll have a good life. My husband has more money than he’ll ever need. The boy will have everything he wants. He’ll even inherit an empire.”
“No. I can’t sell him. He’s my child. I love him.”
“Of course, you love him. I know I’m asking you to do a difficult thing. Believe me, I wish I didn’t have to ask, but I’m never going to have any children of my own. The only way I’ll have one is if I find one. This will benefit both of us.”
Lokni shook her head and backed away from her, holding Clint protectively to her chest.
The woman stepped toward her, and though she was still trying to be pleasant, a flash of irritation lit up her eyes. “You can’t be older than sixteen.”
“I’m nineteen.”
“Even at nineteen, you have years to have more children. It’s obvious by your clothes that you don’t have much money.” She held up the purse. “The jewelry will do you a lot of good.”
“I can’t sell him. He’s my child. I’m sorry, but I can’t do it.” Her mind went back to the loss of her firstborn. “I know it’s a terrible thing to not have a child, but I can’t help you.”
The woman’s face turned hard. “I don’t see why you won’t. I’m only asking for one child. Not all the ones you’ll have in the future.”
“What’s going on here?” Brandon called out from behind her.
Lokni jerked and turned to him. Carrying a box of supplies, he was heading in their direction.
“Maybe you can speak sense into her,” the woman told Brandon. “I’m in my forties. I can’t have children. I have close to a hundred thousand dollars worth of jewelry in this purse. I’m offering it to her if she’ll let me take the boy.”
“She wants me to sell Clint, and I said no,” Lokni said. “I love him. I don’t care about the money.” She silently implored him to agree with her.
Orson and the others would have been more than happy to make the trade. If they had known her child could have been sold, they would have kept her. They only got rid of her because they considered the child to be a useless eater that would take money from them.
But he wasn’t like Orson and the others. He’d been kind, thoughtful, and gentle with her. He cared for Clint. But did he care enough? Was the allure of one hundred thousand dollars enough to persuade him to give up Clint to this woman? Would he put money before her son?
Brandon shook his head at the woman. “There will be no such arrangement.” He stepped between Lokni and the woman, providing a nice barrier between them. “Our son is not for sale.”
She scanned him up and down. “Your son? What you’re doing with this poor girl is indecent. She’s much too young for you.”
“She’s not too young for me. She’s my wife, and that boy belongs to both of us.” He glanced at Lokni and nodded toward the hotel. “We have nothing else to tell her. Let’s go.”
Relieved, Lokni hurried to go with him. He hadn’t made her give up Clint. He had stood by her wishes. What she wanted mattered to him. And in that moment, she knew, without a doubt, that she loved him.
***
When Brandon realized the woman who tried to buy Clint was staying in the hotel, he decided to take Lokni and Clint to the local restaurant. He was afraid the woman, and possibly her husband, would come over to them during their meal, and given the unpleasant nature of the topic on the woman’s mind, he wanted to avoid it. Now there was no way he was going to join the wagon train. All he needed was to spend the next few months being hounded by a woman who had her eyes set on his son.
He almost went up to her husband when he saw them signing in at the hotel so he could tell him what his wife had been up to. But then, he thought better of it. For one, the husband might be in on it, too. And two, it would be an awkward conversation to have in front of the others who were trying to check into the hotel.
So he opted to keep quiet and take Lokni and Clint to the restaurant. Upon their return to the hotel, he caught sight of the woman and her husband in the dining room. Unfortunately, they caught sight of him and Lokni, too, because as Brandon was unlocking the door to their room, he glanced over his shoulder and saw the woman’s husband standing further down the hallway. The man didn’t make a move toward them. He just stood there and watched them.
Brandon opened the door and urged Lokni to go inside with Clint. He debated calling out to the man or heading directly for him, but the man left. Brandon frowned. He didn’t like this. He didn’t like it one bit. But what could he do about it? He doubted a confrontation would go well. Lokni was still visibly upset. Even Brandon couldn’t get rid of the unease in his gut. The man had a look about him that reminded Brandon of a vulture circling around its prey.
With a shiver, Brandon went into the room and locked the door. After a moment, he turned to Lokni as she started to change Clint’s diaper.
“We need to leave before dawn tomorrow,” Brandon said. He scanned the room and mentally planned out what he should start packing first. “I don’t trust that woman who tried to buy Clint. I trust her husband even less.”
Lokni looked at him. “But you don’t get paid for another three days.”
“I’ll just have to forget it. We got the money Wilma gave you. We’ll make do with that.”
He went over to his leather sack and opened it. Then he went to the dresser and pulled open the drawer and started to roll up their clothes.
Lokni finished changing the diaper then put Clint in the bassinet where he cooed. Clint was such a happy child. He rarely ever complained, and already, he was sleeping through the night. He was like a breath of fresh air. When the rest of the world didn’t seem to go right, all Brandon had to do was look at Clint, and things were better.
He didn’t know if all babies did that, as Wilma had suggested, but he knew Clint did, and there was no way he was going to let someone take Clint from them. He didn’t care how much money they had. There were some things money couldn’t buy, and that precious boy was one of them.
“I’m not going to let anyone take Clint,” Brandon said as he started filling up the sack. “We need to get out of here, and the sooner we do that, the better. Thankfully, those people are heading up to the Washington Territory. We’re going to California. Our paths shouldn’t cross again.”
Lokni pulled clothes out of another drawer and rolled them in a manner similar to his. “Are we leaving right now?”
“No. I don’t want to ruin Clint’s schedule now that he’s sleeping through the night. I was thinking of leaving before dawn. The sun won’t be going down for another hour and a half. If we get to bed within the next half hour, we should be able to get a full night’s sleep.”
The owner of the hotel would be asleep right before dawn, which meant he couldn’t pay him at the desk, and he was afraid to pay him tonight in case the woman’s husband overheard him.
“Do you remember which room the owner of this hotel lives in?” Brandon asked.
“I think his wife said they were in the room beneath the staircase.”
“I’ll pay him on our way out.”
He finished packing the clothes he had rolled up and started to put their food items into another sack.
To his surprise, Lokni went over to him and kissed his cheek.
“What was that for?” he asked.
“For doing what you said you would. Keeping me and Clint safe.”
She offered him a shy smile before putting the rest of their clothes into the sack.
He touched his cheek. It’d been a long time since he’d been kissed. It was nice. Even now, he could still feel her lips where she had kissed him. He hoped the feeling would never go away.
Clint let out another coo, and at once, Brandon’s attention went back to the matter at hand. Turning to the staple items they’d bought at the general store, he packed them.