Chapter 31: Good-Byes

 

By early May the planting was done, including the vegetable garden. The Tanners began to pack their wagon. “Packin’ ain’t as bad as when we left Arkansas,” Hatty told Jenny. “We ain’t got so much stuff this time.”

“You need a man to farm for you,” Tanner said. “Mr. Zeke says he’ll do it for a share of the crops. He can git his younger brothers to help.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Jenny said. “People used to talk about Zeke and me.”

“That was two years ago, Miz Jenny,” Hatty said. “You got a baby now. Captain McDougall will be back this year. You’ll see.”

Jenny clenched her teeth to keep from crying. Only she and the Tullers knew Mac would not be back. Like his first letter, his second also had made no mention of returning to Oregon.

“I wish you’d stay,” she told Hatty wistfully. “I’ve enjoyed having you with me. Otis has been good for William.” She watched the boys play in the yard. Her son, now almost twenty months old, toddled after Otis and mimicked everything the older boy did. “William will miss him.”

Hatty sighed when she looked at William. Jenny knew every small child reminded Hatty of the baby girl she’d lost. Jenny hoped Hatty would find happiness in California, but wondered if she could be happy anywhere after seeing two children dead.

“You still planning to set up a blacksmith’s shop in California?” Jenny asked Tanner.

“Horses and mules always needs shoes,” Tanner said. “And they’s building everywhere in California, I hear. I’ll find work.”

“Who’ll shoe our horses here?” Jenny asked.

“You git Mr. Zeke to find you a good smith,” Tanner said. “Shop’s here. Needs some tools, ’cause I’m taking what the wagon’ll hold. But someone can make use of the fire pit and tables.”

“But you be sure you hire someone respectable,” Hatty said. “Someone to handle the men a smithy brings.”

Jenny didn’t relish the idea of strangers on her farm, though it would be better to have another man around besides Zeke. She’d hated the gossip of their fellow emigrants on the wagon journey when Zeke helped her. Zeke was her friend, but she didn’t want the gossip starting again. Not without Mac here to protect her from speculation.

Jenny held a supper party on the second Sunday in May. The Tanners were pulling out the next morning. Many of the families who had traveled in their wagon company came—all the Pershings and Purcells, Samuel Abercrombie and his family, Daniel and Esther Abercrombie, and Doc and Mrs. Tuller.

Samuel Abercrombie muttered to his wife it was a “damn good thing” the Tanners were leaving. “Don’t need their kind in school with our granddaughters.”

Jenny glared at him but said nothing.

“How long will the journey take?” Doc asked Tanner.

“Two or three months, I ’spect.”

“Not so bad as our trek in forty-seven.”

“No, sir.” Tanner shook his head. “But they’s plenty of mountains twixt here and there. Hope there ain’t no snow left in ’em.”

Zeke had been on Jenny’s claim frequently in the last few weeks to talk to Tanner and help with Jenny’s crops. “I’ll be by on Tuesday,” Zeke told her now. “After the Tanners have left.”

“Thank you, Zeke,” Jenny said, tears welling in her eyes. “I’ll be lonely without them.”

“You and William will do fine,” Zeke said, patting her arm.

“Maybe Rachel could come stay with you. Or Ruth,” Amanda Pershing said. “Heaven knows we have more’n enough bodies ’round our house.”

“Maybe,” Jenny said. “Give me a few days to see how William and I do on our own.” She’d always liked Esther’s younger sister Rachel. At fourteen, Rachel seemed weighed down by the responsibility of caring for her younger siblings and stepsiblings. She’d missed many days during the school term, staying home to help her stepmother with sick children and housework. Jenny was surprised Mrs. Pershing offered to let Rachel move.

The next morning at dawn, the Tanners loaded their last belongings into the wagon and hitched up their mules. Jenny and William stood in the barnyard and waved while the Tanners pulled out.

“Where Otis?” William asked when they could no longer see the wagon.

“Otis is gone,” Jenny said. For William’s sake, she tried to keep her voice from quavering. “Let’s go find some eggs.” She took William’s hand and led him to the chicken coop.

But the Tanners’ departure left a silence that William’s squeals and the chickens’ squawks couldn’t fill.

 

Monday, May 14th—The day was quiet with only William and me.

 

Jenny went to bed early that night and cuddled the pillow she’d taken from Mac’s bed over a year before. She swallowed the lump in her throat. She truly was alone now.

Zeke knocked on Jenny’s door on Tuesday shortly after breakfast. “I’m working your crops today, Miz Jenny. Brought my mules. You need anything, you come get me.”

She nodded. “Shall I bring dinner to you, or do you want to come to the cabin?”

“Why don’t I come to the house? Then I can do any chores you need doing ’round the barn.”

“I can care for Poulette and the colt,” she said. “And the chickens.”

“You let me know if you need any lifting or carrying,” Zeke said. “Tanner told me to be sure you didn’t overwork yourself.”

Jenny smiled and shook her head.

“You need some mules to pull the plow, now Tanner took his,” Zeke told her. “Poulette needs to stay with her colt still, and I can’t always bring my team. Man at church last Sunday had a nice pair for sale. He’d trade for your colt when he’s ready to leave his dam, I think.”

“I can’t sell Shanty.” Jenny thought of Valiente and Mac every time she saw the colt.

“You have money?”

Jenny nodded. She’d use Mac’s coins rather than give up the colt. “How much?”

“Forty dollars for the pair.”

Jenny went up to the loft and came back with two double eagles. She handed them to Zeke. “Buy the mules.” She’d worry later about how to replace the money.

He stuffed the coins in his pocket. “I’ll see the man and bring the pair over next week. And Mother Amanda”—that seemed to be what all the Pershing children called their stepmother—“said to come talk to her about Rachel.”

“Do you think it’s a good idea for Rachel to live with me?” Jenny asked. “I’d appreciate her company, but I don’t want her to feel obliged.”

Zeke sighed. “You ain’t the one making her leave. She don’t feel comfortable with Mother Amanda. Rachel thinks she favors her own daughters. Ruthie fits in with them all right, but Rachel don’t feel she has a place at home anymore. It’s a shame, after all Rachel did for Pa and the young’uns after Ma died. Esther took Jonah, but Rachel kept the rest of our family going.”

“I’ll talk to Captain and Mrs. Pershing.”

“Rachel talked about living with Esther. But staying with you might be better. Esther don’t have any extra room in her house.”

“Esther’ll have three children to care for soon,” Jenny said. “You sure Rachel can’t be more help there?”

Zeke shrugged. “Talk to Pa and Esther. But I think you’d be doing Rachel a favor.”

Jenny started with Esther. “What do you think about Rachel coming to live with William and me?”

Esther clutched Jenny’s arm, eyes wide and a smile on her face. “Would you take her? She’s so unhappy at home.”

“You don’t want her with you?”

“Maybe when the baby comes. But till Daniel adds on to our cabin, I don’t have room. Not with Daniel and me—” Esther stopped, blushing. “Well, you know. It’s bad enough having Jonah and Cordelia around, but Rachel’s a grown girl. I’m so tired by nightfall, but when Daniel comes to bed—” Esther stopped again. She sighed. “I’ll probably be expecting babies for the next thirty years.”

Once again, Jenny felt the chasm between her experience with men and Esther’s. “I’ll talk to your papa about Rachel,” she said.

When Jenny went to visit the Pershings, Mrs. Pershing was ready to pack a bag for Rachel on the spot. Captain Pershing just nodded sadly.

“What do you think, Rachel?” Jenny asked. “You’d sleep in the loft. It’ll be hot up there this summer.”

“But I’d have a bed to myself.” The girl smiled. “I’d be happy to come stay with you, Miz Jenny.”

“Then you’ll have to stop calling me ‘Miz Jenny.’” Jenny smiled back. “You’ll be helping me, but we’ll be friends. Call me ‘Jenny.’”

Rachel’s grin grew brighter. “I’ll come over with Zeke on Thursday.”

On Thursday Rachel brought a small bundle of clothing wrapped in a quilt. She leapt out of Zeke’s wagon. “Here I am.”