Chapter 14

When we got back to the wagons, we went to see Ab first. Lettie told him everything that had happened.

"Do you have friends you can stay with, Lettie?" Ab asked.

"I don't know anyone on the train. Frank made me stay inside the wagon all of the time."

"She can stay with us tonight, Ab. I'm sure that Millie and Tess will know where she can stay permanently," I said.

"That'd be great, Jase. The next place I know of where she could leave the train if she wanted to is the trading post at Laramie. That's a couple of weeks travel ahead."

"I'm not going to leave the train unless you force me to," Lettie said.

"We wouldn't force you. Think about it before you get there though. Oregon is gonna be a very rough place for a woman by herself."

We rode on back and found Millie and Tess next to our wagon again, talking with John. "Guys, this is Lettie Calvin," I said. "Lettie, this is my wife, Millie, my sister, Tess, and Tess' boyfriend, John."

Everyone said hello, then I asked, "Millie, would it be okay if Lettie stayed with us tonight. Her husband was killed and she doesn't have anywhere to go."

Millie smiled at Lettie, then looked serious. "I'm sorry to hear about your husband, Lettie. You're welcome to stay with us for as long as you want."

"You have to realize, we're not city people," Tess said. "If our ways seem strange to you, then I'll apologize, but we probably won't change."

"I was brought up on a farm, Tess. It's not likely that your ways are much different than the way I was brought up."

"If you're a farm girl, how did you end up getting married to Calvin? He looked and acted like he had a lot of money."

"He did. His father owns half of the county where I grew up. My father owed his father a lot of money. His father said he'd cancel my father's debt if I'd marry Frank. Dad said no, but I said yes. Dad was going to lose everything if I didn't."

"It's too bad you had to do that, Lettie," I said. "Jeb Howe said Frank treated you pretty bad."

"Some bad, I guess. He was afraid to go too far though. I knew something about him he didn't want to get out. Maybe I'll tell you all about it after I know you better."

"I need to get back out and do some more scouting. Could one of you let Lettie ride behind you, or find her a place in the wagon?"

"Sure, Jase," Millie said. "We'll take care of her."

We made a switch and I went back up to tell Ab I was heading out again. "How far out is the place where this happened?" Ab asked.

"I'd say it's another five or six miles."

"Is it a good place for us to camp for the night?"

"Yeah. There's water and wood."

"We might as well stop there for the night then. It'll take a while to bury the two men."

"Okay, that sounds good to me. I'm going to ride on ahead and see if I can find any of Lettie's livestock. Without that, she doesn't have anything."

"Okay, why don't you take Gil Jacobs with you if his pa doesn't mind? He'd probably be a big help."

I did take Gil with me and he was a big help. We rounded up fifteen cattle and all six of their oxen. We had them in the meadow where I'd found the burned out wagon. I went through what was left of the wagon while Gil looked for more animals.

I did find one thing of interest. There was a metal box shoved off in one corner of the wagon. It had a padlock on it and so it roused my curiosity. It took me a while to get the box open, but I was glad I did. I didn't count it, but there had to be two thousand dollars worth of gold coins in the box.

I was grinning from ear to ear as I transferred the coins to my saddle bags. "At least Lettie isn't destitute," I thought.

John had supper with us again. That made five of us at the evening meal. I watched as Lettie helped Millie and Tess and I was impressed. It looked like she knew what she was doing.

After we finished eating, Tess and John decided they wanted to take a walk. When they were gone, Millie said, "They're going to be gone a while and I'm a little chilly. Why don't we go in the wagon and lie down under the covers? I think we'd all be more comfortable."

Lettie agreed, reluctantly. Once we were inside and bundled up she seemed to relax. We all kept our clothes on in deference to our guest.

"Ladies," I said as I put my arm around Millie, "This is something we have to keep quiet, but I found something in Lettie's burned out wagon."

"What did you find?" Lettie asked.

"I found a metal box with money in it. I didn't count the money, but I did move it to my saddle bags. It looks like there's quite a lot."

"I had no idea he had any money with us. You could have taken it and I'd have never known about it," Lettie said.

"No, Jase couldn't have taken it," Millie said. "Jase is the most honest person I've ever met."

"What do you want to do with your life now?" I asked to change the subject. "You could go back east, or you could go on to Oregon."

"I don't know," Lettie said then paused. "I don't think I could really go back east. Frank's dad would hound me until the day I died. He knows I know Frank's secret. If it ever got out, his dad is afraid it would reflect on him."

"That must be some secret," Millie said.

"Well... I guess I might as well tell you." Lettie stopped and sighed then she went on. "Frank didn't like girls. He liked little boys instead."

"You mean he... ?" Millie started.

"Yes, I mean he... I guess legally I wasn't really married to him. Our marriage was never consummated. I'm still a virgin."

"But, with little boys?"

"Oh, yeah. If I had been a boy our marriage would have been consummated. I caught him with one right after we were married."

"His father wanted him to get married so he'd look normal," I said.

"That's right. Even dad didn't know. I never told him. I wouldn't have known either if I hadn't caught him. I'd have thought he just didn't like me."

We were all quiet for a few minutes then Millie said, "Lettie, you can stay with us as long as you like, as long as our ways don't bother you."

"Your ways seem just fine to me, Millie."

"Oh, you haven't seen all of our ways yet," Millie laughed. "Jase and I haven't been married long. We love each other. I like boys and he likes girls, so we consummate our marriage frequently. We usually sleep naked and if Tess is sleeping in the wagon when we decide to do a little consummating, she usually just turns her back."

Lettie laughed. "That's what I dreamed my marriage would be like when I was growing up. I'd watch mom and dad every chance I got and they weren't shy about it. Then I got married and it was to a man who liked boys."

Millie and I both laughed. "Tess and I used to watch mom and pap too. We were always disappointed though because they only did it at night."

"Mam and pap never did it where any of us could see them," Millie said. "After Bob and Sam were born, I don't know how they ever managed to have the rest of us."

We all giggled about that, then Lettie got serious. "Millie, I don't want to put you guys out. I'm a stranger to you guys. You've got no call to try to be helping me like you are."

"Where we came from, people made friends quickly. They made enemies just as quick. From the minute we saw Frank, we knew we didn't like him. From the minute we saw you, we knew we did. If our ways don't bother you, then you're welcome to live with us at least until we get to Oregon," Millie said.

"There's something else you should know about Tess and me. We're half Cherokee Indian. Mom is a full blooded Indian. That bothers some people. If it bothers you, just let us know and we'll find someone else you can stay with."

"Why in the world would that bother me," Lettie asked incredulously.

"It does some folks," I said. "It's just like in the south, if you're 1/16th Negro then you're a Negro. Most people in our country consider Indians to be less than Negroes."

"Well, I'm not one of them, Jase. You are a handsome man. Tess is absolutely beautiful. You both have better manners than my husband did. You saved my life and now you're offering me the hospitality of your wagon for the next several months. I'd have to be crazy to think less of you because you have Indian blood."

"Lettie, you seem very mature, but you look awfully young. How old are you?" Millie asked.

"I could say the same thing about you. I'd guess I'm about your age. I just turned seventeen."

Millie broke out laughing. "Jase is almost seventeen. I won't be sixteen for another month. Tess is my age."

"So I'm the old woman of the bunch. Well, I'll just have to try to set a good example for you youngsters," Lettie giggled. Millie and I laughed too.

Tess came in soon after that and snuggled down with the rest of us. Four people in that wagon was a tight fit, but no one complained.

May 8, 1845

I awoke with Millie cuddled to one side of me and Tess cuddled to the other, just like always. Only, it wasn't Tess. The girl whose head was on my left shoulder was Lettie. I had an arm around Millie and Lettie.

When my eyes fluttered open, I saw Tess peeking over Lettie's shoulder at me. "Morning, Sis," I said.

"Morning, Jase. Did you sleep okay?"

"Yep. I felt like the middle puppy in a pile of puppies, but I slept okay. It is a mite crowded in here, but we'll survive."

"Well, I still had my man to cuddle against, so I slept just fine," Millie said. "The only thing I didn't like about it was that we still had our clothes on."

Millie and I kissed, then when I glanced back over at Lettie, I saw her eyes were open. Millie must have noticed too, because she asked, "Did you sleep okay, Lettie?"

"I slept better than I have in months," Lettie said. "Frank would never let me cuddle up to him. In fact, most of the time he slept in one wagon and I slept in the other. I could hear the men tease about it, but they never knew the real reason."

"So, you like cuddling up to a man when you sleep?"

"Millie, I'd have liked to have cuddled up to a dog when I slept. You can't even imagine how lonely I've been."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Come on, Girls, it's time we stirred our lazy butts and get breakfast going. Jase has to go out scouting."

The natural road I mentioned yesterday continued for several more miles and we made good time while on it. We made a total of eighteen miles today. I hadn't gone more than half a mile from camp when I found three more cows. I took them back and turned them over to Caleb, then went about my business.

We seemed to be getting out of the marshy area and travel down closer to the river seemed possible. I still didn't quite trust it though, so I made our trail as far from the river as possible while keeping to more easily traversed areas.

John ate supper with us again. I just assumed this was going to be a natural thing from now on. We sat and talked while the women fixed the meal. "You said that you and your wife had planned on ranching in Oregon," I said. "Is that what you're planning to do now?"

"Well, I hope so. I've heard that beef cattle are very expensive in Oregon, so I'll have to spend a few years trapping before I have much of a herd."

"How expensive are they?"

"Well, one of the people I was talking with before Jenny got killed said that they run about five times what they cost back east. He said a cow from a good breed could run as much as a hundred dollars."

"Did I hear you right?" Lettie asked. "A hundred dollars a head?"

"That's what I hear," John said. "They say you can buy Mexican longhorns for around eight or nine dollars a head, but cattle of a recognized breed go for much more."