Elise went on to describe the arrangements they had made, and even their dickering session with Sallie Deaver. She hoped her family would see the humor of the situation, though it might lose some of that as she translated her thoughts into German. Unfortunately, over the last twenty years, her English had become stronger than her command of her native tongue. It took her nearly an hour to compose the letter. She hadn’t seen her sister in six years. Would she ever see her again?
She closed the letter by admitting that she was a bit frightened by what lay ahead, yet excited about the possibilities. What she didn’t express was the weight of responsibility she felt. Lady Anne’s well-being lay squarely on her shoulders.
Had she made a mistake by falling in with Lady Anne’s whim? No, she couldn’t think that. The young woman was determined to find her uncle. If Elise had refused to go with her, Anne would have found another companion.
The scout’s bluntness and the daunting list of provisions had nearly overwhelmed her, and she couldn’t imagine how they’d have come through bargaining for a team and wagon had Eb Bentley not stepped in. There was no turning back now. Lady Anne was set on finding the new earl of Stoneford. And if that proved impossible, she would need someone there to comfort her at the end of the trail.
Anne stirred and sat up, stretching her creamy white arms.
“Feel better, my lady?” Elise asked.
“A bit. But you must stop calling me that, even in private. Sometime you’ll slip in front of people.”
“I’ll try. And now I’ll get the dress you’re giving to Mrs. Deaver. It’s nearly time for us to go and meet Mr. Costigan.”
Elise opened the trunk that she thought held the dress in question. One of Lady Anne’s finest ball gowns was folded in a sheet on top.
“Elise, why did I bring so many fancy dresses?” Anne asked, watching from her seat on the edge of the bed.
“I believe the logic was that one never knows whom one will meet aboard ship—or in New York or St. Louis.”
Anne chuckled. “Well, Mrs. Deaver can’t use a watered silk ball gown.”
“This is the one I was thinking of.” Elise pulled out the white muslin dress sprigged with embroidered pink flowers. The summer-weight dress looked darling on Anne, and Elise hesitated. “I hate to give it to her, you look so well in it.”
“Perhaps I should save my plainest dresses to wear on the wagon train.” Anne reached out and fingered the snowy material. “This one wouldn’t be very useful though. In one day it would be ruined.”
“Your woolen dresses will hold up better, as Mr. Whistler said.”
“I suppose you’re right. Let’s give her the muslin. Or do you think—I did bring one mourning costume.”
“No, she wants something pretty. I’ll contribute a pair of my cotton gloves.” Elise draped the dress over her arm and closed Anne’s trunk.
“I’ve thought of another way we could save money.” Anne’s voice was a bit timid, and Elise turned to observe her face.
“I’ve thought along those lines, too. We mustn’t spend all you have getting to Oregon, or we shan’t be able to come back.”
“Yes. So I thought that after Mr. Costigan loads our wagon today, we could move out to the field with the other emigrants. That way, we wouldn’t have to spend any more for the hotel room.”
“Such as it is. This room probably isn’t much more comfortable than our beds in the wagon will be,” Elise said. “But we’d be outside of town. Do you really want to be away from the shops and other conveniences?”
Anne shrugged. “It would help prepare us for what’s ahead.”
“I suppose that’s true, though I hate to take you away from comparative ease. You do realize we’ll have to cook for ourselves once we leave here?”
Anne gritted her teeth. “That’s true. But it might be shrewd to discover our shortcomings before we’re too far from civilization.”
“Let’s think about it and see how Mr. Costigan does.” Elise didn’t mention it, but she also had concerns about the security of their belongings once they were loaded in the wagon. Could they trust Costigan to guard it for them?
Costigan sat on a barrel outside the livery stable as the two ladies approached. Elise was glad, though she’d half expected him not to show up, and something perverse in her nature would have been gratified to know her suspicions were founded.
She caught Anne’s eye. “Well, he’s here.”
“Yes. That’s a good omen.”
He hopped down when he saw them and tipped his hat. “Afternoon, ladies. Pottle’s out back, rounding up your mules. He says you bought six stout ones.”
“That’s right,” Elise said. “Can you drive them for us to the place where we’ll get our wagon?”
“Yes’m. How far is it?”
“About half a mile.”
“Then I’ll just hitch ’em up and ground drive ’em over there. If you want, you can just tell me where it is, and I’ll go fetch the wagon and bring it to your lodgings so we can load it.”
“Well…” Elise hesitated. To outward appearances, Costigan wanted to please and was willing to work hard. Why couldn’t she just trust him? Was it because he’d been recommended by Eb Bentley? Or was it her conservative, cautious nature and her compulsion to keep Lady Anne safe?
“We need to deliver the bundle to Mrs. Deaver,” Anne said, nodding toward the package Elise carried.
“That is correct.” Elise was a bit relieved for the excuse to go along and observe Costigan’s behavior. “Let me speak to Mr. Pottle. He can help you harness the team, and Miss Stone and I will set out for the boardinghouse on Mill Street and deliver the package. When you have the team hitched, drive over, and we’ll see you there.”
The sun shone brightly, and a light breeze blew as she and Anne walked toward Mrs. Deaver’s lodgings. Perfect weather for drying up mud and making grass grow. Elise felt stirrings of wanderlust. This journey could be the best time of her life, if she’d let it. She must help Anne see it that way, too.
She remembered the countless outings she’d taken Anne on when her mistress was a child. She’d tried to approach each day as an adventure and an opportunity to learn. Was this any different? They would see sights most Englishwomen couldn’t imagine.
“You must make sketches of our journey,” she said to Anne. “You draw so beautifully.”
“Thank you. I believe I’ll do that. I bought a new sketchbook in St. Louis for the purpose. It will help me remember the places we see.” Anne tipped her head and looked at Elise from beneath the brim of her hat. “What do you think of Mr. Costigan now?”
“Still undecided,” Elise admitted.
“I think he knows what he’s doing,” Anne said. “We’re fortunate to have found a man so knowledgeable about horses and willing to go for low wages.”
“We shall see.”
The landlady admitted them to her parlor and went to fetch Sallie. The young woman entered a few minutes later with her little boy clinging to her hand. The baby must be sleeping, Elise thought. At least they didn’t have to put up with the infant’s wails again.
Anne stood and held out the package. “Here are the dress and gloves we promised you, Mrs. Deaver. I hope they please you.”
Sallie sat down on the settee, and Anne placed the package in her lap. Sallie laid back the edge of the wrapping paper and gasped. Elise feared at first that she would say the dress wasn’t suitable.
Sallie fingered the soft muslin folds. Her lips trembled.
“It’s prettier’n anything I’ve ever owned.” She looked up at Anne. “Thank you, but you could have given me something plainer.”
Elise smiled wryly, thinking, No, Sallie, she couldn’t.
“If it doesn’t suit you, they have some ready-made dresses in Ingram’s store,” Anne said.
“Oh no.” Sallie hugged the dress to her bosom. “This is the beatingest dress I ever saw. I can wear it when I get off the train in Hartford. Maybe my folks will quit sayi
ng that Ronny didn’t take good care of me.”
Elise forbore commenting on the skewed logic of her statement. Instead she slid the white gloves out from between the folds of the skirt. “Here are your gloves, Sallie.”
“Oh my! They look brand new.”
Elise cleared her throat. “Our driver will be here soon with the mule team. We’d like him to hitch up the wagon and take it to our hotel. Is there anything else you need from us?”
“I don’t think so. I’m leaving for Connecticut tomorrow.”
“We wish you a safe journey,” Anne said.
They left Sallie to admire her new dress and headed back up the street. At the corner, they met Thomas Costigan, who was driving the team down the street, walking about six feet behind the last two mules and holding the long leather lines. The mules’ feet and Thomas’s boots squelched in mud with every step.
“How do, ladies!” He shuffled the reins and lifted his hat for a moment and then dropped it back onto his brow.
“Good day, Mr. Costigan,” Elise called. “We shall be at the Kenton House Hotel. Mrs. Deaver and her landlady know you’re coming.”
He nodded.
“There now,” Anne said as they resumed their walk. “If he’s not dependable, I don’t know what is.”
Elise smiled. “Yes, it seems we’ve got the beatingest hired man in Missouri.”
The ladies spent the next hour repacking their belongings and deciding what to keep in their satchels so that they’d have all essentials accessible. Thomas arrived with the wagon, and they went out to inspect it. Elise was impressed by the solid look of it, but Anne bemoaned the lack of space inside.
“How shall we get everything from the store in and still live in there?”
“Most folks take a tent and sleep in that,” Thomas said. “Of course, you’ll use your foodstuffs on the way, and you’ll gain space every time you eat something.”
The bows were in place above the wagon bed. With a little assistance out of Anne’s reticule, Thomas found a couple of lads to help him carry the trunks down the stairs of the hotel and load them into the wagon. Then they spread the canvas top over the bows and tied it down.
“Well,” Anne said dubiously, “there is our home on wheels.”
“Yes. Are you sure you don’t want to stay at the hotel one more night?” Elise expected her to vacillate, but Anne shook her head vigorously.
“No, I think we should move right to the field. We can get to know the other travelers sooner if we do. And as you said yesterday, if we’ve forgotten anything, we’ll soon find out. Better now than a hundred miles out on the trail.”
“All right, Thomas,” Elise said. “We’ll go pay the hotel bill, and you can bring out the last bits of our luggage. Are you prepared to stay at the field with the team tonight?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll fetch my bedroll after we go to the store for your supplies.”
Loading the provisions they’d purchased at the emporium took another two hours. They added a tent and a second wagon cover, along with a few sundries the ladies thought might be useful. For some reason, Thomas kept putting items in the wagon, taking them out, and rearranging them. Elise gathered it had something to do with the balance of the load. That and her occasional protests that some item or other had to travel where she and Anne could reach it easily.
“We can’t be pawing through a ton of crates and bundles to find our cooking utensils,” she told him at one point.
“No, ma’am, you can’t.” He hauled out the box of pans, ladles, and spatulas and positioned it on top of one of the trunks. “Now, where’s your tinderbox? We may as well put that in with the cooking gear.”
Elise gulped. She’d never mastered the art of fire building. There was so much she had yet to learn. Perhaps Thomas could tutor her and Anne in the fine points of trail living. They must become self-sufficient if they intended to survive this jaunt.
CHAPTER 10
Elise awoke for the twentieth time to find that at last the walls of their canvas tent were growing lighter. The sun must be rising. Unable to stand another moment on the hard, damp ground inside the tent, she sat up and rubbed her hip.
Shivering, she hauled her satchel onto her lap and groped inside for her clothing.
Anne rolled over and pulled the blanket close to her chin. “It’s freezing!”
“Just about.” Elise’s teeth chattered as she fumbled with her clean stockings. Her fingers ached. The storekeeper had included two wool blankets in their kit—Thomas had declined one, saying he had his own bedroll. They had proven far from adequate for the cold night air. The women ended up adding extra flannel petticoats beneath their nightdresses. They laid one blanket beneath them and spread the second one over them and huddled together like children in an ice-cold nursery.
“We’ll need to go back for more blankets.” Anne tucked in the edges of the top one, now that Elise was out from under it.
“Yes, and a couple of feather ticks if you think we can stuff them into that wagon.”
“I’m sure there’s some reason why they didn’t include proper bedding in our list of supplies.” Anne’s voice was muffled by the blanket.
Elise sighed as she tried to figure out which side of her corset went where in the semidarkness. “Men. They always think they have a good reason for everything.” Immediately she felt guilty. “I’m sorry, my dear. I shouldn’t complain. This is exactly why you wanted to come out here yesterday, and it’s a good thing we did. We’ve already learned a great deal.”
Anne poked her nose out of the blanket nest. “Yes. We learned that we have no hope of raising this tent without Thomas, and that there’s not enough room for us to sleep in the wagon, even after we take out the tent and blankets. And that apparently western people don’t use sheets. Or do you think Mr. Ingram just forgot to put them in?”
“No. I think they consider sheets to be superfluous on the trail.”
Anne sat up, clutching the blanket about her. “Are they really so vulgar? These wool blankets are itchy.”
“I’m so sorry, my dear. Of course they’ve irritated your sensitive skin all night long. We’ve simply got to find a solution to this bedding problem today.” At last her corset seemed to be in place. “Forgive my asking, but could you…?”
“Of course.” Anne let go of the blanket and pulled Elise’s corset strings. “It’s hard to get it tight when my hands are cold.”
“I believe I’ll wear a dress that doesn’t require hoop petticoats today,” Elise said. “But of course, the one I want is in the wagon.”
“I think I’ll wear my cashmere since it’s so cold,” Anne said. “But none of the women in the encampment seem to be wearing wide skirts. Do you think we should forgo our crinolines altogether? It seems scandalous, but…”
“But I had the distinct impression yesterday that we were being sneered at,” Elise finished for her. “Are we insane to carry fashionable clothing across the plains?”
“But what if we got to Oregon and found that everyone was wearing crinolines?”
“I don’t know. From what I’m hearing, we’ll spend a lot of time walking, and it will be dusty and dirty. We’ll be doing our own laundry and cooking. We can’t wear our good quality clothing for that.” Enough light came into the tent now that she could see Anne’s troubled face. “Perhaps we need some plain dresses in calico or printed muslin.”
Anne sighed. “Like the one I gave away yesterday.”
“No, not white. I think we should look carefully at what the other women on the wagon train are wearing. Most seem to favor a full skirt with a basque that buttons up the front.”
“I’m not sure I’m ready to give up my crinolines,” Anne said.
“Well, I’m going to go and root through my trunk for something more suitable, and then I’ll start breakfast.” Elise patted about in search of her shoes.
“I shall help you.” Anne crawled out of the blankets. “Brrr. But if I’m going to be a true pioneer woman, I
need to brave the cold and learn to cook.”
“Call to me when you’re ready for me to help you with your corset.”
Elise crawled out of the tent, stood up, and lowered the flap. She looked around at the camp. Every wagon but theirs had a fire burning near it, and women hovered over them. Children scampered about, and dogs woofed. Men walked purposefully with buckets of water and armloads of firewood.
“Morning, ma’am.”
Elise turned and found herself face-to-face with Thomas. “Hello. Early risers here, aren’t they?”
He chuckled. “That’s the usual, ma’am. Once we’re on the trail, we’ll get up even earlier than this. We’ll most likely pull out at sunup every day. That means we’ve got to have breakfast over with and the dishes packed up and the team harnessed and ready to move.”
Elise eyed him with wonder. “Indeed.”
With new determination, she found the dress she’d all but ruined on the ship coming over. She’d mended a tear, but the stains from food and tea spilled during a storm had refused to come out. She’d almost discarded it after they landed, but kept it, thinking she might be able to salvage the material. Out here, no one would care about stains, and the huge apron she’d purchased at the emporium would engulf her, covering most of them.
She changed in the wagon, donning the old dress, and climbed down. The final step was a good eighteen inches, and she plunged to earth and staggered. Thomas was lighting the fire and didn’t seem to notice. After she caught her breath, she hurried to the tent door.
“Anne? Do you need my assistance?”
“Yes please.”
Anne had on her stockings and cotton drawers. Elise helped her mistress get into her garters and chemise. Next came the corset. She fastened it in front then turned Anne around so she could pull the strings tight.
“Do you want your petticoat with the smaller hoop in the hem today?” Elise whispered.
Anne looked over the streamlined silhouette Elise had chosen. “Yes, I think so. I’m sure we’ll be less of a curiosity if we leave off our wide hoops.”
THE Prairie DREAMS Trilogy Page 10
