PEGGY TOUCHED THE NARROW BAND OF GOLD that circled her finger. Married! She still couldn’t believe that James was her husband. Mrs James Connolly! It sounded grand.
She squeezed his hand as they sat side-by-side on the front seat of their wagon, and jogged along the worn, dusty trail through yet another field. Vivid blue cornflowers stretched skywards in the heat. Peggy was mighty glad of the simple white sun bonnet that protected her eyes from the glare. Already she could feel a warm line tracing a fresh batch of freckles across her nose and cheeks.
James and herself had been wed five days ago. Father O’Hara had married them in a simple ceremony after the twelve o’clock mass in the small parish church of St Patrick’s. John had given her away, and Sarah had been her bridesmaid. Peggy had worn a light lavender-blue dress, and Sarah had lent her a new cream satin bonnet which she had dressed with sprays of flowers.
Oh how she wished that Eily and Nano and Michael had been there to share it all with her! Instead, Mrs O’Connor had appeared and made a big fuss over her. She gave her a present of a grandmother clock.
‘It’s far too much!’ said Peggy, but Mrs O’ Connor had insisted.
‘You have to have something to remember Rushton by, and all your years working in Greenbay.’ The grandmother clock had stood on the mantelpiece in Mrs O’Connor’s bedroom. Peggy knew that once she got settled, she would find a special place for it.
Afterwards they had a fine meal which Sarah had prepared, and Mrs O’Connor and Father O’Hara joined them. It was all very different from the lavish wedding party that Miss Roxanne had enjoyed, but looking around her at the table and seeing the love and affection in James’s eyes, and knowing that Sarah, her best friend was now her sister, Peggy’s happiness was complete.
Going west! They were on their way. Sarah and John’s wagon was up ahead of them. They had joined the wagon-train last Wednesday, and Peggy had stepped up into her very first home, a canvas-covered wagon, with a roll-down mattress bed, a side-bench to sit on and a simple, low table. One half was given over to provisions for the journey and for their new life and homestead.
There were two other Irish families on the wagon train, the O’Hallorans and the Callaghans. Many of their fellow travellers were Dutch, and already she had met Ben Maasen, with his twinkling eyes, who had teased her about being a new bride. ‘You come and talk to my missus. She knows all there is to know about being married!’ he offered. Arlene, his wife, had smiled warmly at her, and introduced their four flaxen-haired children.
Peggy tried to put stories she had heard about Indians and stampedes of buffalo and wild mountain cats and grizzly bears out of her head. Adam Shelton, the wagon-train leader, seemed a good and sensible man who would guide them well on their journey.
Sometimes it seemed to Peggy that her whole life, well, all the important pieces of it, seemed to involve a journey of some sort or other. There was the journey when she was only a little girl, about the same age as Ben Maasen’s daughter, when she had walked until every bone in her body ached and her feet bled and the hunger pains in her stomach had all but driven her crazy in the midst of a starving people, holding onto her big sister’s hand. Then there was that awful voyage from Ireland on the Fortunata, the ship on which she had first met Sarah and John and her beloved James. She shut her eyes, remembering it all.
‘Are you all right, Peggy?’ asked James, his voice full of concern, as he held the leather reins and guided the two horses.
‘I’m fine,’ she smiled. ‘Just fine.’ She leaned over and kissed his cheek. ‘James, I was thinking, the first town we come to, I must post this letter to my family back home. I want them to know all about you, and the wedding and how happy I am.’
He turned to her and smiled lovingly.
Ahead of them lay miles and miles of unexplored territory. It was a long road and a hard journey ahead, but that didn’t bother Peggy a bit, now that she had James beside her. She was on a wagon train, going near half-way across America, just imagine! But this was one journey she really wanted to make.