Chapter Twenty-Five
L evi wrapped the cloth around his waist, covering himself as best he could. If he was going to share his blanket tonight, he figured he should at least wash the stink from his skin. After conferring with the others in their party, Cookie’s wagon was loaded with their provisions, giving each family more space to pack the supplies they would need to get through the winter.
He had three yokes of oxen, new shoes on the horses’ feet, and an unshakeable determination.
A slight chill in the air, gooseflesh prickled his skin. Levi dried off and dressed quickly. What was the date today? Friday, the first day of October . It would serve him well to remember it.
With Dalton and his party gone, the circle of wagons appeared woefully small. He would miss the man’s camaraderie and hoped they’d make out all right. Perhaps it was best they’d chosen a different path. Fifty was plenty to be accountable for.
Elijah stood with the twins, little Elizabeth, holding onto his leg. “Are you ready, good brother?”
“I am.”
“Oh, no, you are not.” Victoria turned to her sister. “Get me a comb and the scissors.”
She snatched the cloth from his hands, drying his hair while Mary Alice fetched the items she’d requested.
“What in tarnation are you doing, little sister?”
“You look like a shaggy old barn dog.” And she went to work with the scissors. “Can’t let you get married looking like that, so we’re gonna tidy you up a bit.”
“What difference does it make?” With a roll of her eyes, Mary Alice shook her head and turned away.
“Pay her no mind, Levi. It’s gonna take her some time to get used to the notion, is all.” She patted his shoulders and took a step back to appraise her work. “That’s much better. All done.”
“I cannot believe you’re all fine with this.” Mary Alice glared at Elijah, then gathering her skirts, she looked at him. “And you expect us to be a witness to it?”
“I expect nothing, Mary Alice.” Levi took her by the hand, the tattered, mud-stained hem of her dress falling to her feet. “Least of all that you’d understand, but you will show Lucy and Fallon all due courtesy and respect. Is that understood?”
She nodded, staring down at her shoes.
“Good.” He let her hand go. “You can wait here if you’d rather.”
“And go hungry?” Her lips twitching, she glanced up at him. “I’m coming. For the food. Heard you got us a cook. And ‘cause I love you.”
“I love you, too.” Levi drew her to his chest and hugged her, smoothing her long blonde hair down her back.
“We’re gonna go to hell for this, you know.”
“Hell?” He didn’t believe in such a place. Or heaven, either. “I reckon, Mary Alice, we’ve already been there.”
The preacher, if that’s what he really was, waited for them in a small room, tucked away behind the counter where they’d purchased their flour and beans. He didn’t look like a man of the cloth, but if Levi had learned anything, it’s that looks could be deceiving out here. Few folks were what they seemed.
“Name?” the man asked him.
“Levi Gantry.”
“And the bride?”
Josiah spoke up and tapped on the good book the man was writing in. “Lucy Fallon Walker.”
Well, aren’t you a clever one?
It took all of five minutes.
Before he could even kiss his bride—one of them, anyway—Walker tugged on his arm and ushered them all outside. “Now we can have the real weddin’.”
“What was that?” Mary Alice pulled her head back and wrinkled up her nose. “Pretend?”
“ That was your way,” Walker said, then a faint smirk curled his lip. “This is ours.”
They returned to their camp, where Taghee, Hawkes, Tyndall, and Cookie waited with Archer and the others.
A triangle of stones had been laid out around the fire. The tall Bannock approached Josiah and placed a blade in his palm. Levi swallowed and looked at him. “What’s that for?”
“Vows are sealed in blood.” Taghee dipped his chin. “Forged in fire.”
“I cannot watch this.” Hiding her face in Elijah’s chest, Mary Alice covered her eyes.
Taghee chuckled and took a step back.
Without being told to, Fallon and Lucy extended their hands to their father, palm up, so Levi followed suit. Then Josiah cut each of their hands, binding Levi to each of his daughters. Taghee spoke in a tongue he didn’t understand, and after he finished speaking, the old man removed the bloodied bindings and tossed them in the fire.
“It is done, husband.” Gazing up at him, Lucy ran her fingers through his newly trimmed beard. “We are married now.”
Levi supposed he should kiss his wife, but he wasn’t sure which one he was supposed to kiss first.
Fallon decided for him. She got on her tiptoes, and bending his neck, she kissed him. When she released him, Lucy was smiling, patiently waiting her turn, so he obliged her.
Cookie slapped his back. “Made us all a nice supper to celebrate your nuptials. Butchered a pig.”
“C’mon, everyone gather ‘round and eat.” Levi waved a bottle in the air. “I’ve got a lot I need to tell you.”
They all sat before the fire, tin plates on their laps. If anyone was put off by what they’d witnessed or disgusted by what he’d done, they didn’t show it. Levi got a few curious looks from folks, but he pretended not to notice.
Walker wiped the grease from his mouth with his sleeve, swallowed some whiskey, and stood on his wobbly legs.
“I need y’all to listen up, and listen good.” He paused until he had their undivided attention. “I seen all your faces before I ever laid eyes on ya, and I know what’s comin’. Came to me in a dream a long, long time ago. Follow the Seeds-kee-dee-agie , and when you can’t follow it no more, keep going. When you see the lake beneath the three-headed mountain, you will have found your new home.”
“He’s drunk,” someone heckled. It sounded like Clary.
“Maybe I am.” And he took another swig from the bottle. “Still, I seen it. Yer gonna build a town there, grow food, and breed cattle. Keep the ways of the people, listen to the mountain, respect the earth, and you will flourish and prosper.”
“And if we don’t?” Archer asked.
“You’ll die.”
Clary waved a hand in front of his face and stood. “Take another shot, Walker.”
“Mock me all you want.” Not bothered in the slightest, Josiah went over to the Bannock. “Taghee and these fine gentlemen are going with y’all ‘cause they know what I’ve seen will come to be. Same as it did with Levi and my girls here.”
He swung around toward where they sat and nearly fell over.
Levi and Elijah jumped to their feet, catching him in the nick of time.
“Won’t be long, boy. Mark my words. They’re gonna see, and they won’t be givin’ you no shit then.” Slinging an arm around his neck, he said, “Yer gonna have a dozen sons, one for each wagon that left you.”
Elijah’s eyes went wide, and he hid a chuckle behind his hand.
“And you?” Walker poked Eli’s chest, his head bobbing. “Yer gonna see yer sister again.”
And he stumbled off, taking the bottle with him.
“What the hell?”
“He’s drunk, Eli. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.”
“Yes, he does.” Fallon rose and went to him. “Come, rest now. We travel again in the morning.”
Between his two wives and their impending departure on his mind, he got little.
Cookie woke the camp for breakfast. They all ate in reflective quietude, then lined up the wagons to set off on the last leg of their journey.
After Taghee, Hawkes, and Tyndall on horseback, Coulter’s wagon, the coop filled with chickens, was first. His. Elijah’s.
Levi called out their names one by one.
“Archer, Jacoby, Keough, Lewis, Quigley, Mathers, Clary, Wilson, Shepard, Edwards.”
And each of them answered the same.
“Ready, Gantry.”
Walker stood beside him. “Take good care of my girls, ya hear?”
“You already know I will.”
“Heh.” He clapped him on the shoulder. “That I do.”
“Are you sure you won’t come with us?”
“It ain’t for me to go. Never could stay in one place for too long.” Josiah winked. “But don’t worry none, I know where to find ya.”
“Papa.” Hugging him, Lucy wept.
Fallon kissed the old man’s face.
“ Abisha’i ,” she choked in a whisper.
Goodbye.
Jake closed the cover of Levi’s journal.
Arien, with Kellan and Tanner on either side of her, adjusted the pillow behind her back, her mouth hanging open. “You can’t do that to me, Jake.”
“Do what?”
“End the story like that.” She was making these funny motions with her hands, like a hamster running in one of the spinning things. She’d probably be bouncing on her toes if she could. “C’mon, I know there’s more.”
“They followed the river and found the mountain,” he said, teasing her. “You’re living on it.”
She stuck her tongue out at him.
Victor had Arien on strict bedrest until the babies were born. He, Emily, and Billy came by now and then to keep her company, watch movies, and tell stories.
“I know all those names.”
“They’re the OG, pretty girl.” Tanner slipped his arm around her, tucking Arien beside him. “Didn’t I tell you, everyone in Brookside either came from or married into one of those families?”
“Yes, I know that, but he’s leaving out parts.” She palmed her husband’s cheek, but Arien was looking at Jake. “Was the old man, right?”
“About what?”
“Did Levi have twelve sons?”
“He did.” Grinning, Jake bit into his lip with a nod. “Six with Lucy and six with Fallon.”
“Damn.” Her eyes bugged out. “And what happened to Eli?”
“You’re married to his great-grandsons.”
Kellan and Tanner looked at each other and chuckled.
“Wait.” Arien tried her hardest to sit up straighter, but with her enormous belly, she didn’t get very far. “Is his sister alive or dead?”
“They’re all dead, baby cakes.” Kellan helped her up, and giving her a smooch, added another pillow behind her back. “Have been for more than a hundred years. You can pay ‘em a visit at the cemetery.”
“You’re terrible.” She playfully smacked his thigh. “I’ve been meaning to photograph all the old gravestones—preserve them somehow, you know?”
“Oh, I love that idea.” Emily grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “After the babies come, we’ll go with and help you.”
That’d be cool .
“You should write a book of their stories, Jake.” Rubbing her hands together like she was plotting, Arien grinned. “I’d read it.”
I am .
“I might.”
“I need to know what happened to little Elizabeth and the twins. All of them.” And she put her hands together as if she were praying. “Please, tell me, did Elijah ever see his sister again?”
Can I get a pretty please with a cherry on top?
“Her name was Amelia. She was to marry Levi’s brother, Caleb.”
“But she didn’t?”
Jake shook his head. “She didn’t.”
“How come?”
“You’re gonna have to wait for the book.” He winked. This was too much fun.
“No fair.” She threw a pillow at him.
“I’m kidding.” He caught it. “But it’s a long story, so we should save that one for another day. Deal?”
“Party pooper.” Pursing her lips, she tossed her blonde waves and gave in. “Fine. Deal.”
“Oh, I brought you something.” Jake handed her the manila envelope.
“What are these?”
“Old recipes I found. They were called receipts back then.” A few of them had been written in Victoria’s own hand. “Thought you could use ‘em for your vlog, so I made copies for you.”
“This is so cool, Jake.” She held the envelope to her chest like a priceless treasure. To Arien it was, he supposed. “Thank you.”
Billy, who sat on the other side of their wife, gave him his ‘let’s wrap this shit up’ look.
“Course, we need to preserve those, too.” Jake stood and went over to kiss Arien’s cheek. “Well, I need to get my wife home. You get some rest, and take care of those babies, now. Kel, Tanner, you two take care of her.”
“Chrissakes, Jake, you can talk for fuckin’ ever,” Billy said when they got in the truck. “I was dyin’ to go home an hour ago.”
“What for?”
C’mon, now. You really gotta ask, wild one?
“We got plans for you.”
Damn, right.
“You’re so bad.” She swatted Billy and grinned out the window.
“You complainin’, sweet cheeks?”
“Never.” And she kissed him.
Jake followed his wife into the house he built with his brother. They could see and hear that creek from every room in the house. Billy’s vision and Justin’s sketch ultimately translated into one of the most impressive architectural features he ever could’ve imagined—their living room, a glass bridge that spanned the meandering creek, with views of Emily’s flower garden in shades of ivory, cream, and white.
He smiled and went up the stairs.