Chapter Seventeen

~ A New Chapter ~

 

Lorrie was on the porch working her way through a pile of clothes that needed to be mended, looking up now and then to be sure that Sam and Penny were still romping with Blizzard as Jake grazed on the grass at the edge of the woods. Blizzard barked once, but Jake was already moving into the woods to circle what must be strangers coming up the road from the valley.

As two riders approached, she recognized the pinto and the buckskin as horses from Journey’s Rest, the Carruthers’ hotel. A young man was on the frisky pinto, and his companion was riding the placid buckskin. They bore a striking resemblance to each other, possibly even twins, she speculated as they reined their horses in at the porch steps.

The boy shifted in his saddle uneasily and flushed, as the girl asked, “Are you Lorrie Lee?”

Lorrie put the basket of mending aside and stood up. “Yes,” she acknowledged. “Can I help you? And please light and come up on the porch. Sam, get some water for our guests.”

The girl was off her horse in a flash and fumbling in her saddlebag, and she pulled out a book, waving it in triumph. “I knew I could find you!” she said, glancing at the boy. “I’m Clara Thompkins, and this is my brother, Carl. He didn’t want to come, but Mom and Dad wouldn’t let me look for you by myself. And none of them thought I could find you because it was just a book and it couldn’t possibly be true.”

Lorrie laughed at her enthusiasm. “May I see it, please?” Sam and Penny crowded in close to look too. Yes, it was Nancy Chandler’s book, A Woman’s Way West. Lorrie had the copies Nancy had sent her, but it was interesting seeing a well-worn and cherished copy that belonged to a reader. She sat down on the porch steps to look at the pictures. This was an early edition and didn’t have all the photos that Nancy had added to a later edition.

Carl had finally dismounted and tied both horses to the hitching rack; now he was casually looking around. “Is this Jake?” he asked as the mule shoved his way through the two horses to sniff the stranger. So, despite his purported disbelief, he’d read the book—or at least looked at the pictures.

After Clara had gotten over her awe, she scratched underneath Jake’s ears and stroked his neck. Then she looked around, dismissing Blizzard with a glance. “Where’s Gray Cloud?” she demanded.

“Good heavens, Clara,” her brother said, embarrassed. “Don’t you know how old your book is?!”

Lorrie laughed at the siblings. Maybe the next one will be a boy, she suddenly hoped. That would be an interesting addition. She wasn’t sure yet that she was pregnant again, and she hadn’t mentioned the possibility to anyone, since she planned to visit Victoria and her newest child as soon as Barr got back from his hunting trip with Brock.

“I’m sorry,” Clara apologized. “I never thought. He looks so alive.”

“It’s all right. It’s been a while now, and I appreciated your sharing your book with me. If you want, we can walk up the hill to where he’s buried. The whole group, consisting of two sisters, a brother and a sister, an old mule, and a young white dog climbed the hill and stood by the grave. There was an engraved rock at the head of it now. Barr had carved Gray Cloud’s name; Lorrie had planted flowering shrubs, and Jake kept the grass short.

Clara timidly touched Lorrie’s sleeve. “May I pick some of the flowers and put them on his grave?” she asked hopefully. Lorrie saw that she wanted not only to honor him, but to make a connection, so she simply nodded. She handed the girl her boot knife when she had trouble breaking the branches off.

She invited them to lunch. That was something she did now and then, so they wouldn’t think she couldn’t cook, from reading the book. She looked back, and paused to admire the flowers and remember the wolf as he had been, before turning to go back to the cabin. She almost fell over Blizzard, who appeared to be thinking of grabbing her skirt to nudge her along.

After a lunch of toast, cheese, sausage, and potatoes with leftover apple pie—a gift from Hannah—Lorrie took them all on a tour of her cabin; she pointed up the hill to where other cabins were hidden in the trees, and then they all rode down to the hotel to meet Clara and Carl’s parents. Sam and Penny rode double on Shadow, and Lorrie rode Sunny, who still had a scar on her neck from a bullet graze, but her mane covered it so no one asked about it.

“You see,” Clara said, “Here she is!”

Mr. Tompkins smiled and shook her hand. “I’m not the fan that my daughter is, but she had me read the book, and I was very impressed.” Lorrie thought he might be wondering how much of it was true, but she couldn’t say that it was or that it barely scratched the surface, so she said, “I like the way Nancy Chandler gave us all credit for settling Sugar Valley, and it is true that the valley is named after a dog. As for Jake and Gray Cloud, you would have had to see them in their prime.”

He nodded seriously. Now he was impressed. He’d wondered how she would talk about the book that made her a heroine of the old west—a west that was disappearing, even though Indians were still a danger here and there—and not always so much there.

“Here’s Jake now, Father!” Clara pointed excitedly to the black mule that was beginning to turn to shades of gray. Jake trotted up to the girl to see what she wanted when she called his name.

“Tell him it’s all right, Clara. That you were just talking about him and don’t need his help. And tell him to take Sunny and Shadow to the hotel corral.” Lorrie knew she was showing off, but she wanted to give people a taste of what they could do.

Clara stood still and repeated the words to herself. Then she faced the mule, and said, “Jake, take Sunny and Shadow to the hotel corral,” and she pointed at it. Lorrie hid a smile. Clara wanted to help him.

Jake backed up, circled the two horses, untied their reins, laid his ears back, and stamped a front hoof. They were used to being herded by him so they raced to the corral with Jake holding both reins in his mouth, racing along between them.

Mr. Thompkins turned to Lorrie and slowly closed his mouth. “I bet there’s a lot that’s not in that book.”

She nodded. “I couldn’t tell her everything for different reasons.”

“And the book wouldn’t hold it all either, I think.”

“It couldn’t,” she told him, remembering just some of the scenes—and her friends. “But I want to say, sir, that it was a pleasure meeting Clara—and being appreciated.” She blushed. “I mean. I am, here, but to be known beyond my little world, is an interesting experience.”

The Thompkins had actually come to Sugar Valley only to allow Clara to track down the woman in the book, and the entire family was pleased to find Lorrie and the valley not to be a disappointment. Carl even rode up the last day to say good-bye to Jake, who blew in his ear and rubbed his head against his shoulder, so that Carl did not feel left out on his sister’s pilgrimage.

Sam and Penny enjoyed the visit, though they didn’t exactly know why the visitors had come. Barr and Brock had returned before the visitors left, but they retreated to the Summers’ cabin.

Davy’s father returned one day, and Davy spent most of his time with his father, but stopped by on the girls’ birthdays and holidays to exchange gifts and see Lorrie and Barr. “He’s lonely,” he told them, “and I miss you all, and I will remember this as being home.”

“It will always be your home, David,” Barr told him. Lorrie hugged him. “Always,” Lorrie echoed. “And the girls miss their big brother.”

Lorrie visited Vicky, Bolt, Marcus, and little Keith before her son was born. “Timothy Jason Lee,” she told Elizabeth and Hannah as they wrapped him in a blanket. She had talked to Barr about it after she told him she was pregnant again. “The book and the Thompkins made me think about how history is lost when no records are kept. And, of course, sometimes people don’t know if it’s true, but the family should know.”

Barr agreed. “I know more about you from the book, and it showed me what questions to ask. Those two deserve to be remembered.”

Lorrie nodded. “We all do,” she said. “We forget when we get busy; and we think we’ll always be here to tell the newcomers.”

She still recalled the embarrassment of stopping for an anticipated meal at the home of a woman she’d helped in Rocky Falls. She’d met her when the woman had come to her on one of her supply trips to sell whatever Lorrie wanted to buy. She and her daughter had been left while her husband and son went to the gold fields. The women ran out of money and supplies, and were desperate and starving when they got word of Lorrie looking to fill her wagon on one of her early trips. Lorrie didn’t need any of the furniture she was offered, but she gave them money in trade for future meals.

She was still flushed and annoyed when she recounted her experience to Carrol. “They were German immigrants, and I was so looking forward to one of her meals of sauerbraten and potato dumplings. I hadn’t even had lunch that day because I was so close to her home, and I had sent her word, as I always did, by the boy at the livery stable, where I’d stabled Shadow that morning, while I visited Ink at his newspaper.”

She paused and shook her head. “Well, her husband and boy were back and at the table when I knocked. The wife invited me in, but seemed nervous. I’d sat down at a place set for me, when the husband started in, asking me why I was there. He demanded to know why I was taking advantage of his wife, her hospitality, her food. He was red in the face and shouting, and the boy kept nodding in agreement with him. Mother and daughter never said a word. I was so very hungry, and the meal was delicious as always, but that sort of thing does take the edge off your appetite, and the two women looked so appalled and scared that I finally gave up. I stood up with all the dignity I could muster, and thanked him for his hospitality and courtesy to a stranger. Then I left. I was so angry!”

“None of you explained?”

Lorrie shook her head. “They were obviously too afraid. Maybe he left them money and told them that that would take care of their needs. ’Course, it didn’t. He was gone almost three years, I believe. After I got over being angry and feeling vengeful, the thought came to me, that maybe it was a lesson I needed to learn. That not everyone knew me or was beholden to me. And I felt a trifle ashamed. Not much, but a trifle.”

Carrol laughed. “You could have sent him a copy of your book with a chapter devoted just to ingrates.”

Lorrie laughed and shook her head. “The more I think of it, the more I’m grateful for the lesson, lest I become too arrogant, and feel that I can stop and rest on my laurels.”

Little Timmy was crawling onto the porch when Blizzard dragged him back into the house by the seat of his pants. “Thank you, Blizzard,” Lorrie said, and she closed the door to the porch, so she didn’t see Jake take off to meet another visitor. Feeding Timmy and checking to see if the bread had risen, she was surprised by a knock on the door. She was heading for it when Jake pushed it open. It was a trick he’d mastered long ago unless the bolt was in place.

“Nancy! I wasn’t expecting you!”

Nancy Chandler laughed. “The mail is still chancy out here, I see. Where‘s the family?” then she noticed Timmy in his high chair. “I didn’t know you had another one!”

Lorrie shook her head. “I can’t blame it on the mail. I’ve just been busy. Barr and the girls are in town. I think they’re buying me birthday presents. I’m not supposed to know, but all those questions about what I really want, were a clue. And Davy is probably going to stop by, too. We always made certain that he got his share of presents.”

“Well, here’s another birthday present, then. A new edition of my book is coming out. I’m adding more pictures. Some I have that weren’t used, and I thought some new ones of the children and anything else you’d like to add would make it even better. She brought out one of her notebooks and laid it on the table. The photographer is at the hotel. I can have him come up here or we can go down there. Whatever you wish.”

“Both,” Lorrie said decisively. “I want more pictures of the others and their children, especially the ones who’ve grown up, now—and the wives and husbands. It’s hard keeping track of them all. I’ll send word to Carrol and her husband, Dennis and his wife, and Star and her father and mother. I definitely want her and Davy and the Browns in this edition so everyone can see what makes a community.”

“I’ll start a list right now so we don’t leave anyone out,” Nancy said. “The editor wants this edition even bigger, because it’s selling so well. What? Where’s my notebook?”

Lorrie looked around. Timmy was still in his high chair, but Blizzard was sneaking outside with the notebook in her mouth. “Blizzard, you bring that back right now! Go get her, Jake! Save the notebook!” Nancy sat down on the porch steps and couldn’t stop laughing.

 

The End.