Chapter 16

By the end of the week, Margaret and the boys were back in their rightful home. It took three whole days just to clean the owner's apartment, as the usurper hadn't been a clean person.

Margaret closed the hotel for two weeks. She hired two men to paint and repair the place, inside and out; while their wives washed and aired all of the linens, rugs, and mattresses. As an added touch, Margaret had the men put flower boxes outside all of the windows. At the end of the two weeks, the refurbished 'English Rose Hotel' opened its doors for business.

"Beau, may I have a word, please," asked Shaylee.

"But of course."

"We will be leaving, soon. I need to know what your plans are."

The little man sat and looked pensive, for some time.

Finally, he looked up and said, "Edmee told me you were a direct person. She also said that she has dedicated her life to the DuPuis family. Do you know that she wept in my arms for many hours? She said that she loves me but cannot leave the children. She begs me to come with you!"

The little man gave out with a huge sigh and shook his head as he said, "But Madam Darcy needs me, also. I have a duty..."

Shaylee smiled and interrupted the small Chef as she said, "That may be true, BUT, do you love Madam Darcy? Is staying here worth losing someone of great value to you? I know that you love Edmee, it is obvious. Beau, there are many employers in this world, but how many true loves? You, a Frenchman, should understand this of all people. It seems to me that you both have waited for a very long time to find the One. Is a job worth throwing that away?"

Shaylee rose and said, "There is not much time left, Beau. Do not make the wrong decision."

Beau shuddered, and then rose to his feet. He stood there for a minute, and then nodded. He squared his shoulders and strode off to the hotel's office.

Twenty minutes later, there was a scream from the rooms upstairs, followed by an explosion of joyful French. The next sounds to drift down the stairs were the slamming of a door, followed by the vigorous squeaking of bedsprings and moans of pleasure.

Maeve was standing next to her sister looking toward the office. She noticed that Margaret was leaning against the doorframe, softly weeping.

"That cannot be for a lost Chef. I wonder what the matter is, now."

"Well, we may as well go find out. We will be leaving soon, and I do not like leaving unfinished business behind," said Shaylee.

"Is something the matter?" asked Maeve.

"No, not really. My husband was foolish sod, but he was my foolish sod, and I miss him terribly. I do so envy Edmee, right now," said Margaret as she wiped her tears away with the back of her hand.

The two sisters looked toward the second floor. Filled with their own thoughts of loss, they said at the same time, "Ahh..."

It had taken two months to refurbish the rolling stock, restock the larder and the animals' grain supply. Just as an extra buffer, the wagons were fitted with two extra fifty-gallon water barrels. Shaylee had taught Millie and Lucy how to be excellent shootists. They were nowhere near as good as Shaylee or Maeve, but were certainly as good as Cecile at least. Jean and Edmee had added some rudimentary hand-to-hand combat techniques, also. For that small town, the two students were the most dangerous people around.

The funny thing was that no one other than Jeremiah knew that his two girls were armed at all times. The big blacksmith smiled to himself when he thought that if some ruffians should try to manhandle his two girls that it would be fatal to the miscreants. He said a silent prayer of thanks and a request of safety for the strange foreigners as they left town and headed west again. The big man had done a complete overhaul on all of the rolling stock. He even restored the strange French coach. Wheels, axels and frames, whatever he found that needed looking after, he fixed for the people that had saved his new daughter and healed his wife. The three were incredibly happy, now.

At the top of the ridge, Shaylee stopped her horse and looked back at the little town.

"I hope that we can attract good people like those down there to our new town," she said.

Maeve stared at her sister in slack jawed surprise!

Shaylee looked at her sister and said questioningly, "What?"

"You just said OUR town."

"Well, I did promise you that I would never leave you. That means I need to stay in town. Therefore it will be OURS. Right?"

Maeve did not respond but just kept staring at her sister.

"Oh, stop that, you will get flies in your mouth. Come on, it's time to move on."

The rest of the trip to their new valley was boring in its smooth and trouble free travel. In fact, tension grew as everyone kept waiting for some calamity or other to happen. However, Jeremiah's work was superb and the rolling stock gave no trouble. The animals, after a two-month rest, did their job without any injury or illness. In plain language, it simply was a fine trip!

Ten weeks after leaving Ferry's Landing, the little wagon train pulled to a stop at the top of a small pass. Spread out before them, was a beautiful valley. It was divided by a river that ended in a lake, at the far end of the valley. It was picture perfect!

Jean pulled up beside Shaylee and said, "See that rise next to the lake?"

"Yes."

"That rise is above the flood plain. See how the flood debris stops half way up the hill?"

"Yes, so?"

"The valley is a bowl. During the spring floods we need to be above the floods."

"Ah, yes! I see! Yes, you are right. That is where we should build! And look how the forest is close, there! It will be a simple matter to get logs for the buildings. I don't know why I didn't see it myself. Thank you, Jean. Oh, look! There is a sort of plateau that runs parallel to the river right up to the back of that hill. The whole town could be built high and dry, and the flood plain could be used for crops, just like the Egyptians do along the Nile."

Jean smiled and nodded his agreement.

Epilogue

Five years later the town of Lakeview was a prospering community.

The first two years had been difficult, because there were only those in Shaylee's group doing the building, plus they were doing everything else as well. But slowly, other people heard of the little valley as they traveled west. Many decided that they had traveled far enough, and settled in. One of the new arrivals was a Norwegian widower, with two strapping boys. It did not take long for nature and propinquity to take over. Soon Belle and Cecile were married and pregnant. Being of the Viking culture, it did not bother the boys that their girls wore pants and were armed at all times. In fact, they reveled in having strong independent women for wives; instead of weak American women, who needed constant care.

During the fourth winter, a half frozen man stumbled into the valley. He had seen the smoke, and had fought his way through the snows for help. Shaylee had been out hunting, and found him nearly frozen to death.

Noah was the last surviving member of an ill-fated wagon train that had signed on with a bad guide. They had left too late in the season, and been bogged down in the mountains when the snows came. People were starting to revert to cannibalism and Noah could not stand it. He'd had to watch as, one by one, his wife and children died of exposure and starvation. One night he managed to drag the bodies of his family away from the encampment and the cannibals. He laid them all out at the base of an unstable talus pile left from a landslide. After a lot of work he managed to cause a small slide, enough to cover his family and keep them safe from the monsters that inhabited the remains of the wagon train.