Chapter 6
“Idon’t understand why we have to make nice with all these farmers.” Seb mumbled the word like a curse around a fresh cigarette.
“Come on, Seb, I thought you loved turnin’ on the charm.”
“Sure, when there’s some pretty eyes and a nice pair of ankles involved.” He spat. “I mean, it’s not like we’ll see ’em agin once we get to Oregon. Heck, some of ’em probably won’t even make it to Oregon.”
“Folks like to know who’s takin’ care of them. You’ve got to understand people, Seb, to know them, and they need to know you, otherwise they won’t listen when you really need ’em to.”
“Folks ought to be smart enough to know sense when someone talks it,” Seb retorted.
Jacob looked to the sky for serenity. After years of doing this, after all the people they’d ferried across the wilderness, he still didn’t get basic human nature. “All right, Seb, just let me do the talkin’.”
Kate slipped through the gathering night, happiness slowly returning after yet another of her mother’s corrections. She pushed it from her mind and her step lightened until she floated like a tendril of mist on the soft air. Is there anything quite so wonderful as a new friend?
The familiar cadence of her father’s voice drifted toward her, folding around her, drawing her in with warmth and love and home.
She walked in dreamy content. Nearly at the fire, an unfamiliar voice pulled her to the ground and into the present.
She stopped and listened. Smooth and low, the voice rose and fell with a musical charisma.
Pulled by the resonant magnetism, Kate quietly stepped to the corner of the wagon, keen to see who it was.
The voice belonged to a young man, perhaps a few years older than she.
His hat hung on his knee as he casually sat in her usual spot on an overturned pail next to Danny.
She could tell he was tall by the length of the leg he stretched to the fire.
Built like a blacksmith, his arms thick with muscle, his shoulders broad and strong, he had the physique of a man used to good, honest labor.
He would have been imposing if not for his ready smile and the easy nonchalance in his posture.
His dark, tangled hair, the color of the rich Missouri soil, curled wild and unhindered from his brow to his tanned neck, and while he wore a beard, it was neatly trimmed.
It made him look older, but Kate could still see his youth in the eager way he smiled, mouth tilted in a lopsided grin, disarming and adventurous all at once.
And his eyes, deep-set and intent, were the most beautiful shade of blue Kate had ever seen; in the light of the fire, they danced in midnight and ice and indigo, clear and intense.
His cobalt eyes shifted to her spot where the shadows stirred on the edge of the firelight, and he locked his bewitching gaze on hers.
Kate froze. It felt like diving into a mountain lake, all tingly and clear, awareness skittering along every nerve ending in her body, where nothing existed but the intensity of swimming in that deep, deep blue.
Then he raised an eyebrow and grinned roguishly. Sudden heat flared in her cheeks.
“Katie!”
She jumped at the sound of her name.
“What are you doin’, lass, standin’ out in the dark?” her father called. “Come on and join us!”
Kate gathered what she could of her composure, deposited the pail of water by the wagon, and walked quickly to the fire.
She ducked her head, hoping that her flaming cheeks wouldn’t show in the dim evening light.
What was she thinking, staring at a young man like that?
Her throat constricted in embarrassment.
“Have you met our fine scouts yet, Katie?” her father asked. She could only shake her head. “Then let me introduce you to Jacob Munroe and Sebastian Baker. Lads, this is my daughter, Kate McGrath.”
“Pleased to meet you, Miss McGrath,” Jacob said, his voice rich and soft.
Sebastian echoed his words, and Kate glanced up just long enough to acknowledge the two young men, one built like an oak tree and the other like a sapling willow, finding her voice in time to respond with a quiet “Good evenin’, gentlemen” before settling on the ground beside her father.
Relief washed over her when the conversation resumed to a general discussion of the conditions of the trail. She let out a breath.
Kate started slightly when she discovered Andrew sitting quietly next to her.
She shouldn’t have been surprised, really, as he came by almost every evening, but she blushed again when he looked over at her, studying her.
She put a hand to her warm cheek. How many times can a person blush in one evening?
She sat tall and clasped her hands in her lap in what she hoped was the picture of Ma’s “demure and composed young woman” and tried very hard to pay attention to the conversation around the fire.
Between Pa’s questions on available land along the trail and Danny’s questions on horsemanship, Ma uncovered who they were as people.
She knew just what questions to ask to lessen the tension of awkward first meetings and to get folks to talk about things beyond just the weather or the best breed of cattle.
She would probe gently yet deeply, and you would find yourself sharing things you wouldn’t normally talk to strangers about, and understanding more about your own thoughts and yearnings than you knew you had in you.
Even the rather surly Sebastian loosened up.
On the edges of the conversation, Kate learned a lot about the two dashing young scouts of their wagon train. Sebastian was a young man who thought very highly of himself and could probably be agreeable if it pleased him, but he kept himself behind high walls built of a practiced nonchalance.
Jacob did most of the talking. He had an easy way of conversing, relaxed and confident but not arrogant, immediately endearing himself to others and making it seem as if you’d known him for years.
He seemed to have a deep understanding of people and what made them tick.
Kate observed the way he talked with the different members of her family: joking with her brothers, respectful and friendly with her father, and particularly considerate and gracious with her mother.
Kate watched in admiration as he quickly built a foundation of relationship with each person.
How someone could talk so easily with people they didn’t know was beyond her.
The conversation slowly turned contemplative, and Kate learned that the obvious bond of brotherhood between Sebastian and Jacob was forged in the dirty, poverty-stricken, disease-ridden slums of St. Louis.
Her heart ached for them. It sounded like a terrible place to grow up.
She watched the faces of the two men. Sebastian’s was a mask of studied indifference, but he stopped talking altogether, lighting another of his cigarettes and stuffing his left hand in his armpit, no doubt trying to hide the two missing fingers on that hand.
Kate wondered if he really didn’t care or if he just worked incredibly hard not to care.
Jacob was a different story. He tried to lighten the subject matter by recounting humorous stories of the colorful characters that peppered the streets, but his eyes were full of sorrow.
He didn’t mention any family at all. She wondered what had happened to them, if they were even still alive.
Kate’s heart hurt for these young men, barely older than she, who had experienced more heartache by the time they were ten than she might experience in her lifetime.
And yet Jacob still smiled. Those experiences seemed to have made him care all the more for those around him.
He seemed a remarkable young man to have lived through all that yet not hardened his heart.
They excused themselves, stating they had more people to meet this evening.
Kate watched them go, wanting them to stay, wanting to get to know them more.
Well, to be perfectly honest, wanting to get to know Jacob more.
She watched them walk away. “What remarkable gentlemen they are,” she mused softly.
“They sure brought their charm tonight,” Andrew muttered.
“Don’t you like them?”
“They put on quite the show.”
“Really?”
“Let’s just say they aren’t so kindly when there’s no womenfolk around.”
She furrowed her brow. Did she misjudge them completely?
Were the outriders really just showmen, out to please people to gain their trust and get their way?
Jacob was awfully charming. Could there be an ulterior motive behind it all?
She glanced at Andrew’s rigid expression.
He obviously had reason not to like them.
Kate quelled the little flutters in her heart, knowing her dreaminess could get the better of her, vowing to reserve her judgment until she knew more.
But oh, those eyes. She’d never be able to forget those eyes.