Chapter Twenty-Two

Three weeks later

September, 1882

Sitting in the back of the chuck wagon, a mug of coffee next to him, Joe finished reading the letter for a second time. He let the hand holding the letter rest on his knee, and pulled his hat low over his face to protect him from the glare of the unforgiving sun.

It was good news about his pa and the breaker’s job. It must have been difficult for him to have had to be supported by his sons for all that time, and not been able to contribute to the home himself. His pa would feel much better about himself now that he was back at work.

And Sam was walking out with someone, was he? That really brought home to him how long he’d been gone and the changes he must expect to find when he returned. He tried to picture the superintendent’s daughter, but beyond the fact she was blonde, he couldn’t see her at all in his head, having always kept as far away from the mines as he could.

As for the new Act stopping the Chinese from going in and out of America – he raised his hat slightly and glanced again at the letter – and then Chen Fai asking Charity to go walking with him … Well, it was no great surprise. He’d long realised that at some point, the Chinamen in Carter would stop seeing her as too American in her ways, and start seeing her for what she was – a sweet young Chinese girl.

And one of only two Chinese girls in Carter.

But she was a Chinese girl with an American family to support her, and she was never gonna end up in a crib or a sporting house like so many of the girls shipped over from China. And nor would she become a thing to be used by men in a railroad camp, which was probably what had happened to her mother. When Charity was old enough, she’d be someone’s wife. He’d make sure of that, and the folk in Carter knew it. He may not be there to keep an eye on her interests in person, but he knew his ma and pa would be looking out for her.

So why did he feel so empty inside, he wondered, as if a bit of him had fallen away.

Frowning, he scanned the letter again. He’d write in his next letter that she shouldn’t spend too much time alone with a man of Chen Fai’s age, he decided. Maybe that was what was disturbing him. He and Chen Fai were similar in age, and he knew how he and the other drovers spent the evenings in the towns they passed through, with the women they met.

Not that Chen Fai would be thinking of anything casual like that, of course.

In everything he’d done, he’d shown respect for Charity. He had a home and a business, and he’d want a wife and a son who could take over that business one day. Calling on Charity as he’d done showed that he was thinking about her as a wife.

And Chen Sing must have agreed to his son visiting Charity. He knew enough about Chinese ways by now to know that Chen Fai would never have knocked at the Walker house that day if Chen Sing hadn’t given him permission to do so. Chen Sing, too, would be looking at the future.

But he was sure that when Charity agreed to walk with Chen Fai, she was too young to have been thinking about such things. It was Chen Fai’s kindness to her that will have been foremost in her mind, contrasting as it did with the way in which the Carter townsfolk treated her. But hopefully, she wouldn’t one day confuse her gratitude for the Chen family’s friendship with the way in which someone should feel about the person they were going to spend their life with. Such a mistake could cause her great unhappiness.

Then he mentally shook his head and smiled inwardly – he was getting way ahead of himself, thinking of Charity as someone’s wife. He took off his hat, smoothed down his hair, put the hat back on and pulled the brim into position. How she would laugh at him if she could see into his mind, he thought as he jumped from the rear of the wagon. She was still only a child, and as far as she was concerned, she and Chen Fai were going for a walk, and that’s all there was to it.

But it was time he went back to Carter for a visit, he decided as he walked across the sun-baked ground to join Ethan. He wasn’t sure when he’d be able to get there, though, as by the time the drive had ended, it’d be too late to get to Wyoming before the snow set in, and he’d already signed for the round-up the following spring. But after that, he’d keep his eyes open for a drive that finished within striking distance of Carter, and when he found one, he’d go and see Charity and his family. He’d find work in Carter for the winter months, which’d give him time to see how his folks were getting on, check that they’d got what they needed, catch up with Charity and Sam, and then leave again in the spring.

It’d be interesting to see what Charity looked like now she was more than four years older, he mused. She probably still had that wide, happy smile of hers, but would just be a bit taller.

A wave of warmth spread through him as he remembered the trusting way in which she used to slip her little hand into his larger one, and how they’d stand side by side on the craggy peaks overlooking Carter.

Yup, he’d go back as soon as he could. After all, he was responsible for her.