Chapter 34: A Man Around

 

As May turned into June, Jenny and Rachel settled into a routine. In the morning Rachel tended to chores in the barn and chicken coop while Jenny dressed William, fixed breakfast, and started a stew or soup for the midday meal. Then they tilled the garden or labored in the fields. Except on Mondays, which they devoted to laundry.

Zeke worked Jenny’s farm two days a week. After the Tanners left, she’d agreed to share her crops with Zeke in exchange for his labor. With the new mule team he’d bought for her, he mowed the hayfield or cleared more land. Sometimes he brought his younger twin brothers to help, and they all hoed weeds in the grain fields.

Each day, Jenny fed whoever was on her claim a noon dinner. Then they all worked outside again until time for a quick supper, washing up, and the evening care of the animals.

After supper Jenny and Rachel sewed and read. Jenny borrowed every book she could from her neighbors, and soon Rachel could read as fluently as Jenny. Jenny hoped Rachel would assist her teaching school in the autumn.

They went to church in Oregon City on Sundays. All the men could talk about on Sunday, June 3, after services was the election to be held the next day. Governor Lane had scheduled a vote to select representatives to the new Territorial Legislature.

“First time I can vote,” Zeke said. “I’m twenty-two now. I weren’t old enough back East. Now I’m a landowner in Oregon.”

“’Bout time we had a legislature approved in Washington. Governor Lane’s overdue for calling it,” Samuel Abercrombie said, hooking his thumbs in his suspenders. “Congress set it up last year, but the governor ain’t done nothing till now.”

“Don’t we still use the laws from the old legislature?” Jenny asked.

Most of the men ignored her, but Doc Tuller replied, “We have a real governor now, one appointed by the President. Good thing he’s set an election to replace those fools who left for California. Governor Lane has approved the statutes on the books, but we need a legislature to conjure up new laws. Particularly after the Whitman Massacre. Militia needs more funds to keep seeking the savages who killed the missionaries.”

“Be fair to the governor,” Daniel said. “He only arrived in March.”

The men’s conversation flowed around Jenny, all about land laws and slavery and taxation. She listened while she and other women served the church picnic. She thought she understood most of what the men said.

“Too bad McDougall ain’t here,” Doc Tuller said. “He’d be a fine representative. Got the legal training.”

“Did purty well as captain, too,” Daniel said. His father frowned at him, and Jenny thought again of the clashes between Mac and Samuel Abercrombie over which of them should lead the wagon company. Mac hadn’t sought to become captain, but stepped up when elected. He’d been a good commander, though it meant he’d spent less time with her. That’s when Zeke started helping her more.

Zeke and Mac had been friends on the trail. Yet Zeke, though physically strong and a good scout, had seemed a boy compared to Mac, who had more education and experience in the world.

Now Jenny watched Zeke participate in the men’s political discussion, as confident as one of the Abercrombies or Doc. He would be a good husband for some woman. Then she remembered Mac had suggested she marry Zeke. Mac had said he’d see to it she was free to marry. How could he, unless they told their story or he died?

Her heart twisted at the thought of either option. She didn’t want to tell their story, and she certainly didn’t want Mac to die. She wanted him to return. She wanted to work with him like she had along the way to Oregon. She knew Mac would never come back to Oregon, but that’s what she wanted.

 

Sunday, June 3rd—Rachel is good company, but I miss Mac. I wish we could have continued like in those first months after we arrived. I was happy then.

Later in the week, after the hubbub of the election was over, Zeke stopped by Jenny’s cabin before heading into the fields. Though it was now June, the morning was misty with low clouds.

“Not a pretty day to be outside,” Jenny said, handing him a mug of coffee. Behind Zeke, she saw the twins petting Shanty and Poulette in the paddock.

Zeke shrugged. “Soon it’ll be so warm we’ll be begging for rain. Where’s Rachel?”

“Gathering eggs,” Jenny said. “The hens are laying well now. I’ll cook some for your dinner, shall I?”

“Only if they’re hard boiled so I can eat in the fields. I want to plant another acre of corn today. It’s late, but I just cleared the ground last week.”

“Don’t we have enough land cleared?” Jenny asked. “I sold plenty from the farm last year.”

Zeke laughed. “You can always sell more,” he said. “Mills will buy all the wheat and corn folks can grow. Don’t you want to get rich off the gold miners in California?”

“I suppose.” She wanted to survive on what the farm produced. But she didn’t need to be rich—only safe and secure.

“Besides, you never know what the weather’ll bring. Farming’s a fickle business.”

At noon Jenny and Rachel took William and a basket filled with hard boiled eggs, bread, slices of fried ham, and ginger water out to Zeke and the twins. They spread a picnic on a blanket by the stream that formed the boundary between Jenny’s claim and Esther’s. The morning mist had lifted, and warm sun shone through the trees, dappling the blanket where they sat in the shade.

After they ate, Rachel stood up and said, “May I go visit Esther? I’ll be back shortly.”

Jenny shooed her on. Jonathan and David ran after her, leaving Jenny and William with Zeke.

“I wish she would treat me like a friend, not her mother or employer,” Jenny said, watching Rachel and the boys wade the stream. “She’s only two years younger than me.”

“She’s a timid one, our Rachel. Got lost in the middle of the passel of young’uns. Caught behind Esther, who talked over poor Rachel all the time.”

“I like having her with me.” Jenny smiled. “She’s good company.”

“You need a man around the place, Miz Jenny.”

“Now, if Rachel’s not to call me ‘Miz Jenny,’ then you shouldn’t either.” Jenny hid her pink cheeks by picking up William and fussing over him. He was a chunky toddler now and squirmed when she tried to hold him.

“This year’s crop of emigrants’ll arrive soon,” Zeke said. “Ain’t as many as last year yet, but there’ll still be a lot of strange men around. Been some mountain lion and wolf sightings also. I’d feel better if you and Rachel had someone here who can use a gun.”

“I can shoot,” Jenny argued. She’d shot a man in Missouri and didn’t regret it. “And you’re here several days a week.”

“Not at night.”

“I don’t have room for you. And it wouldn’t be proper, you living here.” She blushed again.

Zeke sighed. “With Rachel here, no one would say anything. I could sleep in the Tanners’ cabin.”

“What about your farm?”

“I’m there enough. I can prove up my claim.”

“I’ll think about it,” Jenny said. She didn’t know why she was uncomfortable with the notion of Zeke living on her farm. She was already cooking for him many days. Would it matter if he moved into the Tanners’ cabin? It would be nice to have a man here if another panther prowled around the barn like last year.

What would Mac say if he returned? He wouldn’t return, but what if?

“Have you heard from Mac?” Zeke asked, as if he’d heard her thoughts.

She shook her head. “Not since the letter you brought me in April.”

“When do you expect him back?”

Jenny shrugged. “When he’s done prospecting, I suppose.” She hadn’t told Zeke what Mac had written about not coming back. “Unless he goes on to Boston, like he’d planned.”

Zeke swore under his breath, but Jenny heard him. “Doesn’t he know you and William need taking care of?”

“William and I are fine,” Jenny said, sticking her chin in the air. “Mac wouldn’t like you saying such things. I don’t need you living on the claim. Rachel’s all the company I need.”

Zeke stood and stalked off to the plow and mules. “Thanks for the dinner, Miz Jenny.”

Jenny swallowed her anxiety as she watched him go.