“What kind of question is that?”
Samuel Hawken crooked a finger for Nate and Winona to follow him to the back of the shop. Once they were out of earshot of the other customers, he said quietly, “You’ll understand better in a moment, but it’s one I need to ask. Some people don’t like blacks. Usually the same people who don’t think much of Indians.”
“Bigots,” Nate said. Putting his arm around Winona, he declared with a grin, “As you can see, the color of a person’s skin doesn’t matter much to me.”
“Much?” Winona said.
“I had to ask,” Samuel insisted. Again he crooked a finger and led them out the rear door.
The morning sun splashed over them. Four people sitting on the ground rose to their feet. Four blacks. A family, Nate guessed. The man was big and broad, the woman heavyset. Their daughter was quite lovely, their son sinew and bone. All four wore clothes that looked fit to come apart at the seams. All four were plainly worn and tired. The mother nervously smiled. The father offered his calloused hand.
“Nate and Winona King,” Samuel introduced them, “I’d like for you to meet the Evans family. This is Lester, his wife Rassa, their daughter Sarah, and their son Martin.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Nate said. He noticed how Lester glanced down at his hand as if surprised by the strength of Nate’s grip.
“Yes, pleased,” Winona echoed.
Rassa Evans said anxiously, “We’re pleased to make your acquaintance, Mrs. King. We hope you are able to help us.”
Nate arched an eyebrow at Samuel Hawken.
“Here’s the situation. Lester, here, has heard that our shop is a gathering place for every frontiersman who passes through St. Louis. Even those who don’t need guns know they can get the latest news about anything and everything having to do with the frontier.”
Nate grunted. It was true. The Hawken shop was better than a newspaper when it came to all the latest information.
“They figured, and rightly so, that here they could find the person they need to help them with the next stage of their journey.” Samuel paused. “You see, they’re bound for the Rockies.”
Nate looked at them again and was troubled by what he saw.
“That’s right, sir,” Lester Evans said. “We need us a guide to get us there, and Mr. Hawken was kind enough to say he could find us one.”
“We’re hopin’ you will take us,” Rassa said quickly, “if that’s where you’re bound. And the sooner, the better.”
“Real soon,” their daughter stressed, earning sharp glances from both her father and mother.
“Why do you want to go to the Rockies?” Nate came right out and asked.
“To live,” Lester Evans said. “I plan to build us a cabin. We’re goin’ to live off the land like the Indians do.”
Nate hid his surprise. Tactfully, he brought up, “It’s not like living back east. You can’t plant seeds and expect the land to give up her bounty. You have to wrestle with life day in and day out. It’s hard work just to stay alive.”
“But beggin’ your pardon, sir,” Lester said. “You’ve done it, and others like you. Me and mine can, too, if we put our hearts and minds to it.”
Nate was skeptical. Their accents hinted they came from the Deep South, where the climate was warm and the land fertile. Where hostiles were few and the only wild beasts were timid black bears and rare mountain lions. “I can’t help wondering if you know what you’re in for.”
“We’re goin’ whether we find us a guide or not,” Lester said. “But we would be grateful if you would take us.”
Rassa added, “We won’t be no bother, Mr. King. No bother at all.”
“It’s not that,” Nate said.
Winona wondered why her husband was so dead set against guiding them. She was fascinated by the four. They were the first black family she had ever met, and she was eager to get to know them. “I want to help them, husband,” she interjected.
Nate gazed to the west, stalling to gather his thoughts. His every instinct was to say no. He didn’t want their lives on his conscience. “You’re safer staying east of the Mississippi.”
“Beggin’ your pardon, again, sir, but shouldn’t that be for us to decide?” Lester responded.
“I think it should,” Winona agreed.
Nate smiled and took her hand, saying to Lester and Rassa, “Will you excuse us while we talk it over?” He moved off under a maple and turned his back so the family couldn’t hear what he was saying or read his lips. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Winona said. “They need our help. Why do you hesitate?”
“Look at them,” Nate said. “Take a real good look. Do you really think they have any idea what they are getting themselves into? Do you want their deaths on our heads?”
“They appear to be nice people.”
“That’s not the point.”
“That is exactly the point. Our friends the Wards knew nothing about the mountains when they came west, and look at them now. We helped them settle and they are doing fine.”
“This is different,” Nate said.
“Why? Because they are black and the Wards are white?”
“I’m shocked you would say such a thing to me.”
“Then how is this different? Explain it to me so I will understand.”
Nate was going to tell her there might be more involved but he could tell it was pointless. She had her mind made up, and trying to change it was akin to beating his head against a maple tree.
“Look at it this way,” Winona said. “You are the one who believes the hand of Providence is in all things.”
“So?”
“So they need a guide to the mountains. We are about to head back. Providence brought us together so we can help them.”
Nate smothered a flash of annoyance. She had a knack for using his own words against him. “There might be more to this than you think.”
“How so? And even if there is, they need our help. That is what this boils down to. Nothing else matters.”
Sighing, Nate shrugged. “Fine. You’ve made up our minds. But, remember, this was your idea.” Wheeling, he strode over to the family. They were waiting expectantly, Rassa wringing her hands.
“Will you guide us, sir?” Lester asked.
“We leave in half an hour. Meet us out front of the gun shop. We’ll take you with us.”
All four beamed. Lester gripped Nate’s hand and pumped it. Tears trickled down Rassa’s cheeks and she dabbed at an eye with her sleeve. Their son was so excited, he yipped and spun in a circle.
“You don’t know what this means to us, sir,” Lester said.
“I think I do.” Nate pried his fingers loose. “And you can stop calling me sir. I answer to my name.”
“Yes, sir.” Lester started to hurry off. “In half an hour, out front. We’ll be there. I promise.”
Winona came up behind Nate and hooked his elbow with hers. “Look at how happy you made them. You should feel good inside.”
The truth was, Nate felt as if storm clouds were on the horizon and they were about to ride right into them.
As soon as they were out of sight of the Kings, Samuel Worth wrapped his arms around Emala and gave her a squeeze in pure delight. “We’ve done it! We are as good as in the mountains!”
“We shouldn’t have lied.”
“The Hawken brothers told me Nate King is one of the best there is at findin’ his way around and livin’ off the land.”
“It was wrong.”
“He has a family too. A boy and a girl. Sam Hawken says the boy is married and the girl is about Chickory’s age, maybe a little older.”
“Thou shalt not lie,” Emala said crossly. “Lordy, we have been breakin’ commandments right and left.”
Samuel lost some of his exuberance. “What are you on about now, woman? Must you always carp?”
“We lied. We didn’t tell them our real names.”
“What good would that do?” Samuel snapped. “By now word has spread. I doubt there’s a lawman between Georgia and here who ain’t on the lookout for us. And Master Frederick is bound to have posted a bounty, which means the bounty men are after us, too.”
“All the more reason for us to tell the Kings,” Emala said. “They need some idea of what could happen.”
“Once we reach the Rockies it won’t matter. The law can’t touch us there. And the bounty men ain’t about to go that far.”
Emala would not let it drop. “They will if the bounty is big enough.”
Randa said, “What puzzles me, Pa, is how we’ve come so far without once seein’ sign of a slave hunter on our trail.”
“We’re too sneaky and smart,” Chickory boasted.
Samuel wasn’t so sure about the smart part, but they had been sneaky. They’d only traveled at night, for one thing. They fought shy of towns and cities, for another. Always sticking to back roads took longer, but they hardly ever saw another living soul. It helped that most country folk went to bed early.
They still had the horses they’d stolen. Traveling on foot would add months to their journey, so Samuel elected to hold on to them. He’d promised Emala that he would return the animals somehow once they no longer needed them. He didn’t mention that once they reached the mountains, they would need the horses more than ever.
As for food, Samuel wasn’t proud of having to raid so many farms late at night. He wasn’t proud of the eggs they took. He wasn’t proud of the occasional chicken or pig they helped themselves to. They didn’t eat regularly, but they ate enough to keep their strength up, and that was the important thing.
Now here they were, in St. Louis. Samuel could hardly believe it. His dream of being free was on the verge of coming true. All they had to do was cross the Mississippi and the prairie and they could begin their new life. Suddenly he became aware that Emala was talking to him.
“—listenin’ to me? I won’t be ignored, you hear.”
“Sorry,” Samuel said.
“I still think we should tell the Kings the truth.”
“When?”
“When we meet them out front of this here gun place. It would set my mind at ease.”
“But what if it changes theirs? What if they don’t want to take us once they find out we are runaways?” Samuel shook his head. “No. We keep quiet. You can tell them once we are safe in the mountains but not before.”
“So it’s come to this, has it?” Emala said sadly.
“Don’t start with me. I am doin’ the best I know how to keep us from bein’ caught. Or do you want us taken in chains back to Georgia and have me swingin’ from the end of a rope?”
“You bring that up a lot.”
“Only because you keep forgettin’ what’s at stake,” Samuel said harshly. “Pretty near once a day I have to remind you why we are on the run.”
Emala averted her face. She was on the verge of tears. A common condition these days. But she would be strong for the children’s sake, if nothing else. “It just bothers me to go against how I was brought up. My ma raised me to always do as the Bible says, and I’ve tried to do the same with us.”
“Your Bible will be the death of me.”
Shock caused Emala to take a step back. “Samuel Worth! Don’t ever let me hear you say a terrible thing like that ever again. All the good in this world comes from the Bible. It’s the Word of God and I will not have it belittled, you hear me? Why, that’s the same as belittlin’ the Almighty Himself.”
Samuel bit off a sharp reply. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe, or that he didn’t hold Scripture in high regard. But there were times, and this was one if ever there was one, when living as the Bible said to live could get a man killed. And when it came down to it, Samuel was too fond of living to let himself be hauled off and strung up.
“Nothin’ to say?”
“If you’re so all-fired set on gettin’ rid of me, then you go ahead and tell the Kings who we are. Tell them I killed a man. Tell them we’re runaway slaves. Tell them bounty men are likely after us. And when they say they don’t want to take us to the mountains, it’ll be your fault. When the bounty men catch us and take us back, it will be your fault. And when I’m swayin’ from a noose, that will be your fault, too.”
The tears Emala had been holding back filled her eyes.
Chickory said, “I’m tired of you two fightin’ all the time. Why can’t you get along like you used to?”
“Things change, boy,” Samuel said.
“Stay out of this,” Emala snapped.
“I don’t want Pa dead, Ma,” Randa said.
“You too, daughter?”
“Me too. You always say how I can be pigheaded, but you can be just as pigheaded as me.” Randa put a hand on her mother’s arm. “Please, Ma,” she begged. “Please.”
Wiping her eyes, Emala coughed to clear her throat and said softly, “Very well. Not a word to Nate and Winona King until we reach the mountains. And God help us if they lose their lives because of us.”