Chapter 1

December 24, 1849

We finally got back to Oregon City today with our 7 prisoners from The Dalles. When I turned them over to the sheriff, he looked at me and told me to go to bed and see him in three days at the Governor's office. He told me that while we had been gone, the sailors of the Huntly had gone on trial for piracy, found guilty, sentenced to death and hanged the same day. We were tired enough to sleep for a week, but there were reports that had to be written, I needed to get Elizabeth and Claire home and Louise needed to be reassured about the safety of the other family members. Josh told me that he still needed to pick up his land claim and I decided to go with him while Claire and Elizabeth got us a hotel room. Willy decided that he would continue on toward Cincinnati as he was in a hurry to get back to Ola. He told me that he would tell Louise that we were all safe.

When we got to the Land Claims office it was too late. The office had closed for the Christmas holidays. There was a note on the door saying that the office would open again on the 27th. Josh and I gave up and headed back toward the hotel. While we walked I noticed that we were getting looks directed at us. I thought that we would be marked because of using napalm against the Thompson gang, but I hadn't thought the rumor would have spread so fast. We had made a quick passage back to Oregon City from The Dalles and I wouldn't have thought that the story could have gotten here so fast. When Josh and I got to the hotel I found Claire letting the desk clerk have it for insisting that Sun Lee leave.

I was feeling beat and in no mood to argue with some stupid clerk. I just pulled out my badge and gun and placed them on the desk, "I want two rooms for me and my party." He turned toward me as if to brush me off when he stopped and became pale. I don't know what I looked like but he shut up and gave me two keys. Turning to Claire, I gave her a key and told her to take Sun Lee and herself up to the room and I would join her shortly. I turned back to the desk clerk, "Sorry I forgot I need one more room for my son as well." He silently handed me another key and I turned and gave it to Josh. "Josh, I'll see you in about two hours for dinner with your mothers and Sun Lee." I gave him eight gold eagles and told him to buy some new clothes for all of us if he could find a store still open. Turning back to the desk clerk I told him I wanted three baths delivered to my rooms as soon as possible. I picked up my gun and badge and stumbled toward the stairs and my rooms.

When I managed to stagger up to the room I felt two pairs of arms helping me to bed and removing my clothes. That was the last thing I remembered until I was awakened by Elizabeth shaking me and showing me a set of new clothes. I looked out the window and saw that it was almost dark. I had slept for several hours and was almost feeling human again. In the corner there was a galvanized tub with steam coming out of it. Elizabeth followed my eyes, "The other bath was cold a long time ago and we decided that you needed a warm bath before you got dressed." I was more than happy to follow her suggestion and got up from bed and sat in the too small bathtub while Elizabeth washed my back and front. I wished, not for the first time, that I could manage to build a hot tub. I was still young, but even so, riding for 10 days in a row with 7 prisoners was rough. I could really use something to relax my muscles after that.

After I got clean I put on my new clothes that Josh had bought and was surprised at how well everything fit. I would have thought that the suit had been tailored to my size not bought off the rack. I was starved but really didn't mind that my family had let me sleep. I had been exhausted from the stress of guarding the prisoners and my self recrimination for what had happened when I fought the Thompson gang. I hoped that no one would ever learn about how I created either the napalm or the claymore. I had nightmares that the Civil War would be fought by men armed with the weapons of the modern age. That would create devastation even greater than had actually occurred.

When we got out of the room I found Claire, Sun Lee and Josh waiting for us. We headed downstairs where the desk clerk called to get my attention, "Sir! Sir! I have a message for you!" I looked around expecting to see someone else in the lobby. There wasn't anyone else around so I guessed he meant me. I went to the desk and was handed a note with some beautiful calligraphy addressed to me. When I opened the note I was defeated for a while by the ornate decorative writing. Finally I thought I recognized what it was trying to say and handed it to Elizabeth. She gasped and handed it to Claire.

Claire took a quick look and looked at me as if she had been hit. By this time Josh was about to explode with curiosity and Sun Lee wasn't much better. Taking it from the suddenly lax grasp of Claire, I handed the note to Josh. "Governor Joseph Lane and his family requests the pleasure of your company and that of your wives for Christmas dinner for the purpose of discussing the future of Oregon", he read aloud. He looked at me with speculation, "Are you going to take both Mom Claire and Mom Elizabeth?

"Of course! After all it does say wives doesn't it?"

Josh looked doubtful, "Dad, I think that he meant all his guests should bring their wives, not that you should bring all of yours."

"I won't be able to bring all of them, there's no way I could get Louise here in time." I didn't like Lane or his views and looked forward to the opportunity to harass him a bit. Lane was pro-slavery and would vote for secession as well when it came around. Elizabeth and Claire gave me horrified looks but gradually began to get the humor of the situation. He had just invited perhaps the most anti -slavery family in Oregon to discuss the future of Oregon. I thought it was a hoot!

I think the desk clerk thought we had gone mad when we began to laugh standing in the lobby. Still chuckling, I headed out the door to go to a restaurant in Portland we eaten at the last time I was here. I figured that we would find restaurants more likely to serve Sun Lee there than in Oregon City. I wasn't expecting trouble but I wore my gun and had made sure Josh had his before we left the hotel. I had purchased Elizabeth and Claire new guns in The Dalles before we left to replace the ones they lost when they were kidnapped by the crew of the Huntly. They carried them in their bags, which like most modern women they carried everywhere. I had offered Sun Lee a gun as well but she told me that she would rather depend on her own weapons. I discovered that she had a pair of throwing knives and several shurikens that the wagon had held.

I had tried to throw shurikens when I was taking marital arts but had never managed to be very good with them. Sun Lee was good! She had demonstrated for me and she could throw them hard enough to sink in two inches into hard wood. She hit every target I set for her within twenty feet with no decrease in the strength of the throw.

We were well armed for a party of our size and it ended up being a good thing too. We had just passed one of the storage sheds next to the waterfront when we were attacked. I hadn't known that Josh had received training in Krav Magen, but I guess that living in our household there was no way he could have avoided it. In less time than it takes to tell of it we had the great majority of the attackers on the ground and unconscious. There were two others still standing but I think that was because they had two knives at their throats and were pinned to the wall with shurikens in their shoulders. As they were the only ones still standing I talked to them, "Who are you and what were you planning to do with us?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. We thought you were someone else."

I took out my knife and cut the sailor, for that's what I thought he was, on the wrist. "I'll ask again and then I'm going to walk away for a while. I guarantee that you'd rather have me be here then these women. I'll just kill you, they will make you beg for it."

I looked at Sun Lee from the corner of my eye and she did look like she could make a man suffer until he begged for death. Remembering that she was the only survivor out of four prisoners, I would guess that she might enjoy it. Claire and Elizabeth seemed eager to repay them for their captors' actions as well.

The sailor followed my eyes and began to shake, "Perhaps you've heard of me, I'm Deputy Alex xxxxx." His eyes whipped back to me and he got even paler if that was possible.

"We were told to make sure you didn't leave the waterfront."

"By whom?"

"I don't know, some guy in a pea coat came around Joseph Kelly's place and offered twenty dollars gold to anyone who made sure you didn't leave the waterfront."

"Describe him", I demanded.

"How about taking out this blade from my shoulder first?" Sun Lee drew her knife across his throat cutting it lightly and had it back against his windpipe almost immediately.

I looked at him with a mild expression on my face, "I figure two more times and no matter how careful she is you'll have a cut throat. Describe him."

"A heavy set man with dark hair and brown or black eyes. I don't remember any more, I was looking at the gold!" I nodded at Sun Lee and she pulled the knife away and then suddenly pulled out the shuriken out of his shoulder. As he slumped down she hit him behind the ear with the heel of her hand and he fell to the ground.

I questioned the second man and he was able to give me the additional detail that the man spoke English with a slight accent and appeared to be in his mid-thirties. Sun Lee did her thing again and I noticed that she held her hand in a tiger claw position when she hit. I began to notice other things about her when I realized that she had trained extensively in the martial arts. She was always balanced and was uncommonly strong for a woman her size. I considered and finally asked, "Samurai?"

She gave me a startled look and then made a slight bow, "No longer. I lost my status when I was sold to the Portuguese by my father's enemies after they destroyed my family. Now I am Sun Lee."

I bowed back, "I understand, Sun Lee."

I went though the pockets of the sailors and found the gold they had been given in several pockets. Apparently many of them had used their new wealth to get drunk before they began hunting us. The ones I did find were brand new, looking like they had just come from the US mint. I didn't know how many of these had been passed out during the night and knew we would have to be careful getting back to the hotel. I wished I had Willy here right now. He was a lot better at sneaking about than I was. I decided that we would change our clothes to blend in better. We dragged the men whose clothes we thought would best fit us into the storage shed and began to change. Nothing we could find would fit either Elizabeth or Sun Lee at all so I decided that they would be ladies of the evening. Taking off their hats and making sure that we spilt whiskey over the already stinking clothes we were wearing we began our journey back to the hotel.

We kept to the shadows keeping quiet when we saw larger groups of sailors wandering around the wharves and storage sheds. I grabbed Elizabeth and gave her a kiss when we were unable to keep hidden, while Josh got the same treatment from Sun Lee. Claire showed her gun and muttered, "Bugger off! This is a private party!" if anyone came too close. We gradually came into the more respectable area of town and I relaxed slightly. Redonning their bonnets and making the best repairs they could Elizabeth and Sun Lee went into the livery stable to pick up our buggy.