He searched the room with his eyes to locate his Sharps carbine. He tried to remember where he was.
He suddenly found himself staring into two blue eyes and a soft, wide smile from a young girl sitting on a chair next to the bed.
“Hi, Daddy! You’ve been sleeping!”
He swung his legs out of bed, his socked feet hitting the hardwood floor with a thud. “Darlin’, I reckon that was the best night’s sleep I’ve had since I left Texas.”
“Day,” she corrected. “It’s daytime, remember?”
He opened his arms and she hopped into his lap, giving him a hug. “You mean to tell me all of that out on the frozen prairie was true? I was hopin’ it was just a bad dream.”
“The March sisters said it was the most exciting adventure of their entire lives.”
“Have you seen Mrs. Speaker and Mrs. Driver since we came to the hotel?”
“Oh, yes, we all had lunch together.”
“When?”
“About two hours ago.”
“Two hours? What time is it?”
“Almost 4:00 P.M.”
“In the afternoon?”
Dacee June pushed away and strolled around the room, her long, yellow dress only inches above the floor. Her neatly combed light brown hair flowed out behind her and halfway down her back. “Daddy, how many 4:00 P.M.’s are there?” she giggled.
“Who had lunch?”
“Me, the March sisters, Robert, and Miss Milan.”
“And you left me here to sleep?”
“Robert tried to wake you up, but he couldn’t. Is it true that you need more sleep when you get old?”
“Who told you that?” he quizzed.
“Louise Driver.”
“I wouldn’t have any idea,” he huffed. “I’ll tell you in twenty years.” Brazos strolled over to a small basin of mostly clean water and splashed some on his face. “Did you see Mr. Edwards?”
“No, but Robert and Jamie Sue went looking for him.”
Brazos spun around, water dripping from his beard. “They did? Why?”
“Because you said Mr. Edwards had some information about Jamie Sue’s brother.”
“Oh, yes … but I … well, I needed to talk to Grass before they … I mean, maybe I should go for a little hike and see if I can find them.” Brazos sat on the edge of the bed and tugged on his boots. “You wait here, darlin’, and I’ll go see if I can …”
“I’m coming with you,” Dacee June announced.
“This is a busy place, and you ought to …”
“Daddy, I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“Now, li’l sis, I want you to …”
“Daddy, I just spent the past three weeks thinking I might never see you again in my whole life. Please, Daddy, I don’t want to sit in this room alone.”
Brazos jammed his hat on his head. “You’re right. Come on.” He snatched up his carbine, propped against the head of the bed. “From now on, it’s you and me.”
Dacee June sprinted across the room and grabbed her cloak.
“Now, girl, you know it’s sort of a man’s world up here in Dakota. In order for you to make it, you’ll have to pack a gun and shoot straight. I expect you’ll be wantin’ to chew tobacco. Make sure you hit the spittoon and not the floor.”
“Daddy!” she squealed, then slipped her warm hand in his. “I’ll do none of that and you know it!” They strolled out of the room into the hotel hallway. “But I did learn some very interesting words on the riverboat!”
“Dacee June!” he scolded.
“Mother was right,” she announced.
“How’s that?”
“She said you were very easy to tease.”
“She did, did she? What other things about me did she tell you?”
“She said if I ever found a boy who was like you, I should marry him on the spot, no matter how old I was.”
“Your mother said that?”
“Yes, she did.”
“Well, she was wrong.”
“She was?”
“Yep. I won’t let you get married until you’re at least … thirteen.”
“Daddy! I’ll be thirteen in eleven months!”
“Good. That gives you almost a year to find someone just like me.”
“I don’t know if I’ll find anyone like you if I search my whole life!”
Brazos held the front door of the hotel open for her. Oh, sweet Dacee June … you’ll find him. And whenever it is, it will be way too soon.
As they walked in front of the Lakota Trading Post, Brazos spotted the March sisters inside. He and Dacee June slipped through the front door of the crowded store.
“Well, Miss Dacee June,” Louise called out. “I see you’re taking your father for a stroll. That’s very considerate of you.”
“Yes,” Dacee June giggled, “a gentlemen his age does need his daily constitutional.”
“I don’t want to hear any more old man jokes,” Brazos cautioned. “Especially from two girls who attended Coryell County School at the same time I did.”
“Oh, my,” Thelma smiled, “but we were several grades behind you.”
“Not that many,” he reminded them.
“Yes,” Louise sighed, “our ages do seem to be getting closer over the years, don’t they?”
Brazos ran his calloused finger along the new wool blankets stacked on the shelf in front of him. “What are you two doing in here? I thought you’d be booking passage on the steamboat.”
“We’ve already done that,” Louise told him.
“Are you going back down to St. Joe or all the way to St. Louis?” he asked.
Louise tugged on her tiny, single pearl earring. “We bought tickets for Bismarck.”
“Bismarck?” Brazos felt his chin drop. “You two are going north? What on earth for?”
“We understand it’s a better place for a Black Hills departure.” Thelma’s smile revealed a glimmer of why she had been selected Queen of the Coryell County Fair of 1849.
“Black Hills? You don’t want to go to the hills!”
“Louise and I talked it over and decided that Deadwood City sounds like just the kind of place that needs a woman’s influence,” Thelma announced.
“But there aren’t any women in there!”
“Precisely. There will be plenty of work for us,” Louise concurred. “We can form a reading society, teach music, recite poetry, prepare Bible lessons for the children.”
“There aren’t any children in Deadwood.”
“There will be at least one,” Dacee June reminded him.
“Well … well … it’s just too dangerous … you two can’t go into the hills. I won’t allow it!” he puffed.
Louise looked over at Thelma with a sly grin. “Oh my … he won’t allow it!” she snickered. “What shall we do about that?”
Thelma stared right at him. “Brazos Fortune, do you intend to marry either one of us before next Monday?”
“Do what?” he shouted, silencing most of the conversations in the store. “Eh … eh … of course not!”
“Well,” Thelma continued, “unless you happen to be a husband, I don’t believe you have any say in where we go, or where we live.”
“No disrespect to your father intended,” Louise nodded at Dacee June.
“I think it would be great to have you live in Deadwood!” Dacee June bubbled. “Then I could come visit you when it was too cold for me to help Daddy dig for gold!”
“That settles it,” Thelma announced. “We’re going to Deadwood City.”
“But you can’t. How will you get there?”
“How is Dacee June going to get there?” Louise questioned.
“She’s riding one of the freight wagons … at least, most of the way.”
“That will be nice. We’ll ride on one, too,” Louise insisted.
“But it’s too dangerous. You could get scalped,” Brazos said.
“So could Dacee June,” Thelma added.
“But you don’t know how violent some men can be!”
“Yesterday was not exactly a church social.”
“But … but …”
“Oh, Father, you just can’t control everyone’s life,” Dacee June said. “I am lookin’ forward to having the March sisters with us. They said they would teach me how to quilt, and make truffles, and help me memorize the works of Shakespeare.”
“I do believe you three are gangin’ up on me,” Brazos complained.
Dacee June raised her thin eyebrows. “Did it work?”
“What choice do I have?”
“Smart man,” Louise said.
“Sarah Ruth always said Brazos was a very perceptive man,” Thelma quipped. “Of course, she did have him tied around her little finger.”
Brazos pulled off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. I’m going back to the gulch with Dacee June and the March sisters? We’ll have to build another cabin. What will Big River and the Jims say to that? What will Grass say … Grass! “I need to find Grass Edwards. Have you ladies seen him?”
Louise ran her finger along the shelf in front of her and examined the dust she collected. “Robert and that charming Miss Milan looked all over for him. Someone told them they thought Mr. Edwards returned to Bismarck.”
“Where is Robert?”
“He’s with Miss Milan, of course. Don’t they make a delightful couple?” Thelma gushed.
I’m not sure Grass Edwards will think so. “Just where is the delightful, charming couple?”
Louise brushed the shelf dust off her glove. “On their way to Bismarck, of course.”
“Why?”
“To find Mr. Edwards and learn about Miss Milan’s brother,” Dacee June explained. “Haven’t you been listening? Robert said he would see us in Bismarck before we left for the Black Hills.”
I was only asleep a few hours. How did all this happen in so short of a time? “When does the next boat leave for Bismarck?” he asked.
“Not until morning,” Louise informed.
“Tell us, Brazos, should we purchase supplies here or in Bismarck for the trip to the Black Hills?” Thelma pressed.
“You’ll find more supplies at better prices in Bismarck,” he mumbled.
“In that case, we’ll go see if we can find a decent cup of tea in this town,” she announced.
“Yes, indeed. Put that on our list,” Louise instructed her sister. “We should buy several pounds of tea in Bismarck.”
The two ladies strolled toward the front door of the store.
“I wonder if we’ll be able to buy any orange pekoe?”
“Black Chinese tea,” Thelma added, “you know how I love black Chinese tea.”
“You didn’t like it before you read that article about …” Their voices faded with the closing of the door.
“What are we going to do until morning?” Dacee June asked him.
“Right now we have to find Grass Edwards.”
“They said he went to Bismarck.”
“I know better than that. He has two very good reasons for waiting in Fort Pierre.”
“What are those?”
“He promised me he would, and Grass keeps his word. And second, because he thinks his sweet Jamie Sue is in Fort Pierre.”
“His sweet Jamie Sue? I didn’t think they had ever met.”
“They haven’t,” Brazos sighed.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Grass Edwards hovered at a round oak table at the back of the Heart of Dakota General Store and Grocery, studying a large sketchbook alongside a round-faced, sandy-haired man who wore a tattered suit and tie and gold-framed spectacles.
Both men looked up at the sound of Brazos’s spurred boot heels striking the floor. When Grass spotted the young lady at his side, he stood up, as did the man next to him. His smile widened from ear to ear.
“Miss Dacee June! The pride of Coryell County!” Grass called out. “You cain’t believe how relieved I am to see that you found your old decrepit Daddy. I was beginnin’ to think he was lost on the prairie and I’d have to go find him.”
“Hi, Mr. Edwards. You look very handsome today. My daddy found me, actually!” she said. “He and Robert found us. But I was doing OK. I had a shotgun and six shells left.”
Grass stared at her from head to toe, shaking his head. “You look like you’ve grown a foot since I saw you last.”
Dacee June curtsied, then spun around slowly. “I am twelve years old now.”
“Are you married?” Grass quizzed with a grin.
“No … ” Dacee June tilted her chin slightly towards the ceiling. “But a boy on the boat was very interested in me.”
“He was?” Brazos expelled the words as if they had been caught in his throat.
Dacee June winked at Grass Edwards. “He’s very protective, you know. I tease him like that just to keep his heartbeat at a healthy level.”
“He always was easy for you women to manipulate.”
Dacee June glanced down at the papers on the table. “Mr. Edwards, I haven’t seen you for over three years. You were on your way to California, if I remember.”
Her presence seemed to put instant color in Grass Edwards’s face and sparkle in his eyes, like an elixir to the spirit. “I went to see the elephant, Miss Dacee June. But your daddy couldn’t get along without me, so I chucked it all and came back.”
She wrinkled her smooth, round nose. “Did you like California, Mr. Edwards?”
“Nope, Dacee June. It was horrible. Why, the weather was like springtime all year round, and all them ladies wanted to do was dance, and the fruit trees is so plentiful they jist beg you to eat some of it. I spent most of the time sittin’ in the shade and sippin’ on hot chocolate. It’s horrible livin’ like that all the time. I’m like your daddy. I figure a man needs to work himself sick, suffer a lot, and live in poverty if he really wants to be happy.”
She looked up at Brazos and back at Grass. “Mr. Edwards is taunting me.”
Brazos slipped his arm around her shoulder. “He’s just a little touched, honey. That’s what happens when you wade around in the Black Hills gulches too long.”
“Can we buy my new clothes now?” she asked.
Brazos released her shoulder. “Eh, I need to talk to Mr. Edwards a few minutes.”
“May I look for some on my own?”
“Yes, but don’t leave the store.”
“May I buy a dress with short sleeves?”
“No, you certainly may not.”
She rocked forward on the toes of her lace-up shoes. “What kind of clothes can I buy?”
“Warm ones. It’s going to be mighty cold in Deadwood.”
“Deadwood?” Grass choked out the word.
Dacee June skipped down the aisle of the store.
Brazos pushed his hat back. “Dacee June’s coming with us.”
“Well, don’t that beat all?” Grass brushed down the sides of his drooping mustache. “I know it’s dangerous, but it surely will brighten up the place. I’m mighty glad you found her safe. You found Robert, too?”
“Yeah, we teamed up about a half a day west of here.” Brazos paused and looked away from Edwards’s eyes. “In fact, Robert wanted to talk to you.”
“Well, send him over. I’ve been back here studying these illustrations most all the time you were gone.”
Brazos glanced down at a large, watercolor painting of a yellow flower. “That’s a nice picture, mister.” He addressed the round-faced man with spectacles who had silently witnessed their conversation. “Did you paint it?”
“That ain’t no anonymous flower,” Grass instructed. “That there’s a Viola nuttallii.”
“It’s a very good likeness. We saw a few of those on the prairie last spring. Grass, you’ll never guess who else I met up with out on the prairie.”
“And you’ll never in a thousand years guess who this here artist is!” Grass nodded to the sheepish young man who looked about twenty-five.
“Well,”
Brazos mused, “you aren’t nearly old enough to be the original Thomas Nuttall.” He reached out his hand to the man, “Howdy, I’m Brazos Fortune.”
The man enthusiastically shook Brazos’s hand. “I’m glad to meet you. Mr. Edwards has told me quite a lot about you. I appreciate your letting me go back with you to Deadwood.”
“Go with us?”
“Yes, I want to work with Mr. Edwards to sketch all the plants of the Black Hills. I find it a unique opportunity to work with someone who has such great knowledge as he has.”
“Yep, that’s Grass, all right.” Brazos glanced over at Edwards, who beamed with the pride of a father of a newborn child. “He’s just a bundle of intellectual surprises. Why, you hang around with Grass long enough, and he’s liable to name a weed after you.”
The young man’s eyes widened. “Really?”
“By the way,” Brazos pressed, “I didn’t catch your name.”
There was a wide, toothy grin. “Milan. I’m Vincent Milan.”
Brazos felt his carbine grow heavy in his left hand as his shoulders slumped.
“Yep, he’s my sweet Jamie Sue’s brother.” Grass tapped his fingers on the stack of illustrations. “He’s a naturalist out here studying the prairie after finishing his schoolin’ back east. Ain’t that something?”
“But … but … what about … ?” Brazos stammered.
“That guy we met who claimed to be Vincent Milan? I reckon he was just an imposter, using Vince’s name to set up an ambush. Probably stole the name off the handbill.”
The young man pulled off his spectacles and held them in front of his face. “I can assure you, Mr. Fortune, I have no connection to such blackguards.”
“Don’t that beat all?” Grass grinned. “And him a naturalist? Why, Jamie Sue and me is just destined to be together. Vince and me teamed up, but couldn’t find her in town.”
“She was with Dacee June. I brought her back with me,” Brazos announced. “Someone told her that Grass went back to Bismarck, so she took off to find him there.” He glanced over at Vincent Milan. “She had no idea that you were here.”
“She’s actually lookin’ for me?” Edwards pressed.
“I told her you could tell her about her brother, thinkin’ that bushwacker was Vincent Milan. I didn’t want to break that kind of news. Good thing I didn’t.”
Beneath a Dakota Cross Page 15
