Chapter 15

George came up and said, "The herd is gone, Jase. What should we do?"

"There's not much we can do, tonight, George. Get some help and drag these bodies off somewhere. Also, see if you can find their horses."

George took off and in a few minutes, we saw Jo coming back with Becky. Becky was wracked with sobs as she knelt beside her husband. Jo squatted beside her, and put her arms around the distraught wife.

Ab and I had the fire going pretty well now, and we watched as Tess cut off Bob's shirt. The wound in his chest was huge. Blood was pouring out of it. Tess raised him up, but there was no exit wound in his back.

Moving him must have awakened him, because Bob's eyes came open and he saw Becky. As hurt as he was, he still smiled when he saw her.

"Becky, listen to me," he said. "I'm not going to make it."

"Oh, Bob!" Becky wailed.

"Listen. When I'm gone, I want you to go with Jase and his family. They'll take care of you and Della."

"Bob..." Becky started.

"You know what my family is like. Just promise me you'll do it, Becky."

"I promise, Bob. I love you."

"I love you too, Becky. Take good care of our baby." Bob drifted off again as Becky continued to hold his hand and sob.

Bob's sisters and their husbands came running up and basically pushed Jo and Becky out of their way. They started to push Tess too, but she gave them a look that would have curdled milk and they backed off.

"What happened?" Maud asked.

"Bob was shot in the chest," Tess said. "The bullet is still in him. He's been coughing up blood, and he's bleeding a lot from the wound. I'm trying to get the bleeding from the wound stopped."

"Shit," Gait said. "Did the men who shot him get away?"

"Bob and I got four out of the five of them," I said. "The other one got away."

Lettie and Wanda had taken the baby into our tent and stayed with it the rest of the night. Towards morning, Della had gotten hungry, so Lettie went to find Becky so she could feed her.

No one got much sleep that night.

The next morning we went through the dead men's possessions. All four of them had revolvers. Their horses had been easy to find and when we went through their saddlebags, we found all of the things needed to keep the revolvers operational.

One of the men was Jo's father. I told Jo her dad was dead and I asked her if she'd want us to say some words over him. She said that she'd just as soon we didn't.

When I talked to Tess, she told me that Bob was still alive, but that he was still unconscious.

"He seems to be getting worse by the minute, Jase. I don't think he's gonna wake up."

"Have you seen his wife and baby this morning?" I asked.

"No, but Jo just said she's in her wagon with Wanda. Jo went to talk to her a while ago."

"Okay, we're going to have to start rounding up the herd this morning. We're not going to move camp until Bob's either better, or gone."

I found Ab, John and the Simmons boys. We decided to start looking for our cattle and horses right after breakfast.

"I don't think they'd have run far," Ab said. "If those idiots had followed them, they'd have been scattered all over creation."

It took two days to find all of the cattle and horses that we were going to find. We were short eleven cattle and two horses, when we decided we weren't going to find any more.

Bob died the first afternoon. We buried him right away, and Ab said a prayer over him. Becky was almost hysterical. Lettie, Wanda, Jo, and Tess tried to comfort her as much as they could. They took care of Della for her. Bob's sisters completely ignored her.

That evening I asked the Simmons boys if one of them would drive for Becky.

May 30, 1848

Everything was pretty much back to normal, this morning. My leg was hurting pretty badly, so I decided I was going to ride on the wagon this morning. Lettie said she'd ride with me. As we were getting ready to take off, Lettie brought Becky and Della over and said she was going to ride with us.

We got everything moving, including our wagon, which I was driving. Becky wasn't saying much and I could understand why.

Finally, Lettie said, "Becky, did you know that Bob asked us to take care of you and Della?"

"Yeah, he told me. I don't want to be a bother to anyone, though."

"You're not going to be a bother, Becky. Bob said his sisters didn't like you, and hadn't wanted you two to get married. We do like you."

"Thanks, Lettie. No, they don't like me. They knew I was pregnant when Bob and I got married. They kept trying to tell Bob the baby belonged to someone else. That's not true, Lettie. Bob and I loved each other very much. He was the one and only man I was ever with."

"Bob told me that too, Becky. I believe you both," I said. "Even if that hadn't been the case, it was none of their business. Just as it's none of our business, now."

"Thank you, Jase. Bob and I had been in love for years before we got married. Bob's parents owned a big farm, and my parents were poor. His parents didn't approve of me and they even forbade Bob to see me for years. He'd sneak over, anyway. When Bob told his parents I was pregnant, and that we were going to get married, they had a fit. They said they were going to cut Bob off, so he didn't get a thing when they died."

"I take it that didn't scare Bob," I said.

"Nope. He told them to go to hell. He'd done a lot of hunting and trapping as he was growing up. We had enough to buy our wagon, and the supplies we'd need to get to Oregon. We waited until Della was born and was old enough to travel. That's when we found out that Bob's sisters were going, too."

"Gait had said that all of you were going to settle together. Is that what you and Bob planned?" I asked.

"No. We didn't want to argue about it, but we never intended to be within a hundred miles of them if we could help it."

"Have you given any thought to what you want to do, now that Bob is gone?" Lettie asked.

"Not really. I still don't want to be around his sisters. I suppose eventually I'll get married again. I don't look forward to it, though. I really loved Bob and I don't think I'll ever get over him."

We rode on in silence for a while, then Becky asked, "Are all of you guys, family?"

"Not really," I said. "Lettie is my wife and Tess is my sister. Ab was the wagon master on the wagon train when we went to Oregon, and Pris is his wife. John is Tess' husband. We hired the Simmons boys to help with the cattle and the wagons, for the trip."

"What about Wanda and Jo?"

"Jo ran away from home and hid out in one of our wagons. Her pap was a bad man, and a worse father. He was one of the men Bob and I killed the other night."

"But... I thought Jo must be your sister, Jase. I've seen you hug her and seen the two of you walking, holding hands."

Lettie giggled and said, "Jo wants to be part of our marriage."

Becky looked at Lettie with a puzzled expression. "You wouldn't mind Jase having two wives?"

Lettie was laughing her pretty ass off, by now.

"If we take Jo into our marriage, she'll be Jase's fifth wife. Wanda is another of Jase's wives."

Becky just sat there with her mouth hanging open.

Finally she asked, "Are you guys Mormons?"

"No, just six people who love each other," Lettie said.

"I'm stunned," Becky said. "I have about a million questions for you, but I'd like to think a little before I ask them."

"We're not saying the way we live would work for everyone, Becky," I said, "but it works for us. My first wife, Millie and I, were kind of like you and Bob. We grew up together, and we were in love for years before we got married. Then, Lettie's husband was killed by Indians. At first, Millie and I took Lettie in just to help her. Then, Millie and I both found ourselves falling in love with her. Millie suggested we invite her to join us in our marriage."

"You have another wife, too?"

"Yes, Emma also had her husband killed. Circumstances led us to take her in as well. Then all three of us fell for her."

Becky looked puzzled then asked, "Lettie, you said you all love each other. Do you all make love to each other, too?"

"Yes, Becky, we do. Does that shock you?"

"A little bit, I guess. I've heard of that kind of thing, of course. I'd always heard that a woman who was like that didn't like men at all."

"Not true, Becky. All of us love Jase, first. It's just that when Jase doesn't feel like it, or he's busy with someone else, we make each other feel good."

"I'll have to think about that for a spell. I guess if it works for you, there's nothing wrong with it."

Della started fussing, and Becky said it was time to feed her. "I'll turn my head, Becky," I said.

"A year ago, it would have embarrassed me to death if a man saw my naked breast. It really doesn't bother me any more, Jase," Becky said as she prepared to feed Della.

Lettie giggled and said, "Yeah, but Jase likes the taste of breast milk. When Millie had her baby, she practically had to fight Jase off so she could save enough for the baby."

Becky smiled as she offered her nipple to Della.

"Bob was like that, too. He'd wait until Della had drunk her fill, then he'd empty me out. He said he really liked the taste."

"I've tasted Millie's, too," Lettie said. "I liked it, but Jase loves it. He said he can't wait until Emma has her baby, so he can compare flavors."

Both women giggled.

"I wonder if there is a difference in taste between women," Becky said.

"I think there'd have to be a difference," I said. "There's a difference in how different cows' milk tastes."

"Are you comparing Millie to a cow?" Lettie teased.

"No," I said, "and don't you dare tell her I was. She'd skin me alive."

We all got a laugh out of that.

Gait came around while we were having our nooning and said he wanted to talk to me. I walked off with him a ways and waited for him to get to what he wanted.

"Jase, Bob's sisters saw Becky riding with you and your wife this morning and they didn't like it. They think she should be riding on her own wagon."

"That doesn't make sense, Gait. Why would they care where Becky rides?"

"Maude and Hessie think Becky is a slut, who trapped Bob into marrying her. They say she shouldn't be around decent people."