Chapter 1

Early February, 1845

I stood quietly in a hazelnut thicket, waiting patiently. The sky was turning purple and an early morning haze made everything seem slightly unreal. I was waiting for a deer. I had seen a large buck in the little clearing in front of me several mornings in the last couple of weeks, but the buck had always seen or heard me first.

I'm Jase, Jase Tackett, by the way. I turned sixteen last July, and now, in early February in the year of our Lord, 1845, I considered myself very much a man. Heck, I'd been providing most of the meat for my family since I was twelve. Pap is a good, honest, man, but he ain't worth a whole lot when it comes to providing food for the family. He calls himself a trader and he does a lot trading all over Lawrence County Kentucky, but he does a lot more flapping of his jaw than anything else.

My mom is a Cherokee Indian and I've learned a lot more from her than I ever learned from Pap. She taught me how to skin a deer and how to tan its hide. She taught me a lot by example too. Like the patience I needed to stand here unmoving, waiting for this big buck to show up. She also taught me to keep my mouth shut, unless I had something important to say.

I saw a movement in the edge of the tree line and I froze completely. It was the buck. He had stopped before he was all the way into the clearing and was looking all around. He sniffed the air and then, satisfied that nothing was amiss, he stepped all the way into the open and began grazing on the wild clover in the field.

I checked to see that the cap was firmly seated on the nipple of my Kentucky Rifle, then as I watched the deer start to graze, I slowly lifted the rifle to firing position. I carefully pulled back the hammer, muffling any sound with my hand. The deer must have heard something anyway because he looked up. He was staring straight at me when I gently squeezed the trigger.

The deer never stood a chance. He fell before I even started to lower my rifle. The deer hadn't been more than fifty yards away and I could put ten shots in a circle the size of a hen's egg at that distance.

I reloaded my rifle before I went to the deer. This area is pretty tame now. In fact it was almost too tame, but mom had also taught me to be cautious.

The buck looked to be in pretty good shape for it being late winter. This winter had been mild and the forage had been good. I quickly bled the buck and then gutted him and removed his scent glands. His body was huge, but he only had three points on his antlers, so I knew he was young and the meat would be tender and tasty.

It took me a while to get the carcass home. It was almost a quarter of a mile through some pretty rough country. When I finally brought him into the yard, mom came out and looked him over. She smiled and nodded, then went off to get her skinning and butchering knives.

My sister, Tess, is not nearly as reticent as Mom. In fact, I think she took after pap in that respect. She took one look at the buck, then she ran and threw her arms around me. "That's a big one, Jase. Where'd you get him?"

"In that little meadow going over toward Liam's place," I said.

"That's going to be some really good eating. Come on inside and I'll fix you some breakfast while Mom skins him out."

I followed her in and sat down at the table. I watched Tess as she mixed up a batch of johnny cake and fried a slice of smoked pork. I had to smile when I saw she put some dried apples she'd had soaking on to fry. Tess took good care of me and I Ioved her for it.

"Did Pap say anything about when he might be back from this trip?" I asked.

"Not really. He's been gone almost a week though and he doesn't usually stay much longer than that. What do you think about all this talk he's been doing about moving to Oregon?"

"Might be good. I hear there's good land to be had for free."

"Yeah, but I hear it takes six months to get there. It'd be a hard trip and you know Pap."

"Yep. Pap's a good starter, but not much of a finisher."

"Mom said I could go over to see Millie Lawson this morning. Would you like to go with me?"

I thought for a minute before I answered. Millie was the prettiest girl I had ever seen. She had red hair and blue eyes and a smile that lighted up my whole world. I was in love with her in the worst way, but with Pap talking about moving to Oregon, I was afraid to get too close to her. Still...

"Yeah, I'll go," I heard myself saying. "Caleb told me he had some new horses that I'd like to take a look at."

Caleb is Millie's pap. "That's not all you want to look at," Tess teased.

I know I was blushing three shades of red. If my sister only knew just what I wanted to look at, she'd have been blushing too.

I finished eating and we told mom we were going over to the Lawson's. Tess kept up a running commentary as we walked the two miles over to their place. I'd have been vexed if it had been anyone else talking so much, but I couldn't ever be mad at Tess.

Millie came running out when she saw us walking into their yard. She was wearing a homespun dress and even it couldn't hide her shape completely. Her red hair hung in waves to just below her shoulders and she wasn't wearing a bonnet. She was so pretty, I'll swear my heart stopped.

Millie is Tess' age, which is just one year younger than me. In this part of the country, she's definitely marrying age. I'd been thinking last fall about asking her pap if I could court her, but then my pap started all of this talk about moving to Oregon.

"Hi, Tess," she almost yelled, then the two young women hugged each other. Then she turned to me and lowered her eyelashes. "Hi, Jase," she said softly.

"Hi, Millie," I said. I'm usually very shy, but I added, "You're looking mighty pretty this morning."

Millie blushed and said, "Thank you, Jase. Hey, would you guys like some cold cider? We keep a jug down in the creek to keep it cool."

"I'd like some, but I want to talk to Caleb first. Could I get some after I talk to him?"

"Sure. He's out behind the barn cutting some wood."

I left the girls chatting away and went to find Millie's pap. It looked like he had finished with his splitting and was carrying the wood to his back porch and stacking it. I nodded at him and picked up an armload. I just put it on the porch and went back for another load as he stacked it. When we had moved all of the wood to the porch, Caleb stuck out his hand and we shook.

"I wanted to take a look at those horses you were telling me about," I said.

Caleb smiled and said, "Come on."

I followed him back to his corral. He did have some fine looking horses. There had to be a dozen nice looking mares and one of the most beautiful stallions I had ever seen.

Off in a separate corral was another stallion. He had to be one of the ugliest horses I had ever came in contact with. He was almost as big as a plow horse. He was light grey, dappled with black. That wouldn't have been so bad, but his head looked like it was too big for his body and his ears looked more like the ears of a jackass.

"This stallion is named Thunder because his hooves sound like thunder when he's runnin'," Caleb said.

"He's a beautiful animal. That's a good name for him," I said. "What's the other stallion's name?"

Caleb grinned. "His name is Sin, because he's as ugly as sin."

I had to laugh. "He might be ugly, but I'll bet he could carry you all day and be as fresh as when he started out."

"I'll make you a good deal on him if you want him," Caleb said. "He's as strong as a bull and he handles real well. As ugly as he is, I just don't want him mounting any of my mares. I wouldn't have bought him, but the feller who sold me the rest of them threw him in for cheap."

"I just might," I said. "Pap is talking about moving to Oregon this spring. I could use a good horse on the trail."

"Yeah, Jeb and I have been talking about that. It's not just talk though, Son. We're going to do it."

"You're going too?" My heart was in my throat as I waited for him to answer.

"Yep. I figure Oregon would be a good place to start a horse ranch. Your pap, my sons, Sam and Bob, and Silas Johnson are up in Wheeling right now buying wagons. We figure we're going to have to leave here by the first of March if we're going to make it to St. Louis, Missouri in time to join a wagon train."

"Pap hasn't told us nothing about it," I said. "There's a lot to get done before we take off."

"Well, we just decided last week. He took off for Wheeling right after we talked. He had that old pack mule of his'n loaded down with peltries. Sam and Bob and Silas Johnson had loaded mules too."

I thought for a minute then figured it was as good a time as any to ask. "Caleb, I'd like to ask your permission to court Millie."

Caleb nodded and said, "I was wonderin' when you was gonna get around to askin."

"Pap's been talkin about Oregon for almost a year now and he's been real serious for six months or so. I didn't think it was right to start courting Millie if we were gonna to be leavin."

"You've got a good head on your shoulders, Jase. You've got my permission."

"Thanks, Caleb. You won't regret it."

"No, I don't suppose I will."

I went back around the house and found Millie and Tess. They were talking away, as usual. I sat down on a stump and listened to them for a few minutes, then Millie asked, "Would you like that cider now."