Chapter 14

"What's wrong?" I asked as I held the crying Josie. She just cried and it was Ehawee who spoke up.

"Jake was shot up but he's still alive. A gang from one of the California gold towns took over the town and are forcing everyone to pay them or something 'happens'. The town folk are trying to fight them but anyone who tries has been killed or hurt bad. That's how Jake was hurt. He told Josie that he would destroy the gang or die trying." Ehawee spoke English like she had grown up speaking it and I must have shown my surprise because she gave me a look.

"Did you think because I'm an Indian that I would speak in broken sentences? I thought you were different from what Josie told me."

"No, I'm just surprised at how well you are speaking. I thought that you didn't speak English."

"I didn't trust you. My mother was white and she taught me English together with Sioux before I was taken by the raiding party. Josie told me that you could be trusted." After that she fell silent and wouldn't speak to me anymore.

Josie managed to talk then, "Jake's a good man but he's no gunfighter. He'll be killed if he tries to stand up against the gang again. I love him and I couldn't bear it if he died. You've got to help him!"

I stood there holding Josie trying to tell her that I couldn't help because of our problems here. Before I could get more than a few words out I was interrupted by Elizabeth, "Of course we'll help." She gave me a glare when I started to speak again. Quickly putting an arm around Josie she began leading her toward the house we shared. "You look tired. Just go to bed and we'll talk more tomorrow." Turning to Ehawee she continued, "Would you rather join the other children or stay with Josie?"

Suddenly Ehawee acted uncertain, "Can I stay with Josie? I need to be around someone I can trust right now."

Louise spoke up then, "I know what you mean honey. When I was rescued by Alex and my other wives I needed to be around someone I could trust for a long time too before I felt safe again." She gave Ehawee a hug, "It wasn't until I bore my first child that I really felt like I belonged in the family. Before then I always wondered if they would get tired of me after a while and send me away."

Claire gave Louise a hurt look, "I thought we had shown you that you belonged with us before that."

"You did, darling, but I wasn't too sure how Alex and Elizabeth felt about me. Sometimes it seemed too good to be real before then."

I could see Ehawee's mind racing while she heard Claire and Louise talking. I decided that we needed to change the subject, NOW! I cleared my throat, "We'll talk about it tomorrow. Right now we need to get these two settled down for the night." Louise gathered the children and bundled them off to their beds in the second house. They complained as they went to bed, wanting to listen to what we were saying. Claire followed Elizabeth and Josie into the house leaving me outside with Ehawee. She stood looking at me in silence for a moment, then nodded as if she had decided something and went inside leaving me wondering just what was going on.

I had lost control of the situation for right now but one thing I was determined to be sure of, my family would be safe before I went anywhere. With that determination I went inside. I found Elizabeth coming down from the upstairs followed by Claire. When I looked at them Claire spoke up, "They're in bed resting from the trip."

"I'm sorry about Jake and the other people but there's no way I'm leaving you alone again. I couldn't handle it if anything happened to one of you while I was helping them."

As I was speaking Louise came in. She put her arm around me and guided me toward the living room. Elizabeth and Claire followed us in and we sat down. I looked at my wives and saw they were fidgeting as if they wanted to say something but weren't sure how too.

I just sat there waiting for someone to say something. Claire looked at the other wives and finally spoke up, "We were thinking that we might want to consider moving." I just sat there waiting for her. She took a big breath and then continued, "You know that I'm the head of the underground railroad here in Oregon?" I just nodded; we had known that for a long time. "I've been asked to coordinate the movement of freed slaves from the eastern United States into Canada and help them get settled there." She could see me beginning to speak and hurried on, "The Society of Friends has agreed to finance the cost of getting them settled and have offered to make sure that we don't loose anything because of the move. No one would ever learn who we are and we'd be safe in Canada."

"What about our place here? What would happen to it?" I objected.

"One of the Society of Friends would be the reported owner, but we would keep the deed. They will take care of the property until we wanted to return or sell it to them."

"What about our friends and Josh and his wives?"

"Corrie and Willy have no interest in leaving, nor any reason to. Josh can come with us if he wants too, but I think he'll stay here to watch over the place."

Elizabeth spoke up then, "Alex, we love you but we have felt like we are the only people here. You're always gone and we almost never see you. You've been hurt and we worry that one day you'll leave and we'll never see you again. If you go anyplace we want to be with you." I began to protest but she continued over me, "We know that you can handle yourself, but we want to be around so we can help."

Louise spoke up then, "Alex, I love you and the others but I never really wanted to be here in the first place. I liked the place I was at before the slavers stole me. I miss the cities and being around people of my own race. I'll go wherever you go, but could you think about it. I worry about what will happen to our children and us, if anything happens to you"

I gave all three of my wives a hard look, "How long have you been talking about this?"

Elizabeth spoke up, "About eight months ago is when they asked Claire to take over the north eastern route. We hadn't thought about it much until the preacher began stirring up trouble. Since then we have been talking about it a lot."

The mention of the children stopped me. I was worried about them too. I didn't know what would happen to them if the tension that had developed between my family and the rest of the town continued. I didn't say anything and Claire and Louise came over and gave me a kiss before heading to their house and the children. Elizabeth sat in my lap and placed her arms around my neck. "We love you", she whispered in my ear. "We have agreed that you won't go anywhere without one of us again. Since Claire and Louise would rather be with the children I'm going with you from now on."