raise a hand against you, but I will ask, from one man to another, for mercy. My mother is elderly, and my daughters are young. If left to wander the prairies on our own, I fear for their safety.”
The man cocked his head sideways, his lips pursed as he considered. Then he nodded. “No reason to be uncivilized if we don’t have to be, I figure.” He returned his pistol to its holster. When the weapon disappeared, Emma slumped with relief. The man intended to let them go.
He spoke to his men. “Earl, take charge of those oxen. Lester, you and Porter give them your canteens.”
Lester wasn’t happy with his boss’s order. He spat at the ground by Emma’s feet. “What fer?”
“Because I’m being merciful, like the man asked. Now get them women out of our wagon and give them your canteens. And mind your manners, you hear? These ain’t no saloon girls.”
Our wagon. Emma’s heart fell. He was planning to steal their wagon and leave them on the trail with nothing but a couple of canteens. A strange brand of mercy these Englischers practiced.
Lester grumbled as he and another man dismounted and approached the wagon. Emma turned to give her sister a warning glance. Don’t make trouble. Do as they say. Her message reached its mark and Rebecca nodded, and then she allowed herself to be lifted down to the ground by the man’s rough, dirt-encrusted hands.
For a moment Emma feared Maummi wouldn’t be as pliable. The spirited woman’s jaw jutted forward, and her lips gathered into a furious pucker. When Lester held his hands toward her to lift her down, she clasped the arms of her rocking chair with a white-knuckled grip and glared.
“Young man, with his own hands my dearly beloved made this hutch forty years ago. You’ve never see a finer piece of furniture in all your born days.”
A smirk twisted Lester’s lips, revealing a set of crooked, blackened teeth. “I’ll keep that in mind. Ought to bring a good price when I sell it. Or, when the weather turns cold, it’ll make me a good fire to keep my backside warm while I sleep.” His laugh rolled over the plains around them.
A purple-red flush suffused Maummi’s face, and Emma feared for her heart. But after a moment the old woman set her jaw and rose from her chair with the air of one who deigns not to answer a taunt. She allowed herself to be lifted down from the wagon, and when Lester had set her on her feet, she straightened a wrinkle from her apron.
When she accepted the canteen from Lester’s hand, she looked up into his eyes. “I’ll keep you in my prayers, young man.”
Even though their situation was dire, Emma bit back a smile. No doubt the Almighty would get an earful about Lester and the others tonight, and she doubted if Maummi would be praying for their souls.
Emma stood beside Rebecca, Maummi, and Papa off the side of the trail and watched the thieves turn their oxen around to head in the direction they had come. No doubt they were heading for Hays, where they would sell all their possessions. She reviewed the contents of her trunk. Her clothes wouldn’t fetch much of a price, but Maummi’s hutch certainly would. The only other thing she possessed worth anything was—
Tears stung her eyes. Mama’s quilt.
No!
A lump swelled in her throat. A stranger’s hands would finger those beloved stitches and rub across the beautiful squares, the quilt made especially for her, meant to adorn her wedding bed.
It’s wrong to become attached to a possession. The loss of a quilt doesn’t mean a thing. Mama’s love in making it is what matters.
She swallowed back a sob and blinked to clear her eyes in time to see the wagon disappear behind a ridge where the trail curved behind them.
“This is the way of the Englisch.” Papa put a hand across her shoulders in a rare display of affection. “Come, daughter.”
He turned them around with their backs toward their wagon, and they began their march.
Dinnertime had come and gone when Emma spied a settlement up ahead. Rebecca saw it too.
“Look!” She pointed toward the small cluster of buildings nestled in the center of a swell in the surrounding prairie. “It’s a town.”
“Where?” Maummi shielded her eyes with a wrinkled hand. “My eyes are failing me after all the harsh sun. Is it a big town?”
Emma glanced down at her. Maummi’s eyes had started to fail her