Free All Together in One Place by Jane Kirkpatrick Page B

himself. He wore little wire-rim glasses. A shock of brown hair slipped over one lens. “Then let our chosen leader decide about women and dogs and the Sabbath stops and such after that.”
    “I ain't turning over my rights ‘til I know who's voting. I wont follow someone I don't know,” said the ferret-faced man, arms crossed over his chest.
    “Who gets to vote on whether to vote?”
    “You see the kettle of worms you've unleashed, Antone,” Jeremy said. He sat back down. A few applauded. He shook his head, paused, and stood back up. “All right. I'm in for election. I stand for limited rules, independent thinking, and making decisions based on essentials. We stay together only so long as we agree. Disagree and we move out on our own, join up with others more to our liking.” He sat back down, and Hathaway patted his back.
    “Well, can women vote?” the ferret man persisted.
    “Who'll stop us?” Ruth asked.
    “I rest my case,” Jeremy said. “We're all too independent to form up a kind of congress way out here.”
    “I rest mine, too,” Antone said. He lifted both palms in the air as though to say, See? What did I tell you? “If we cant decide even who will vote, then howre we going to figure out how to cross a mountain together?”
    “I suggest we take the matter up later, after people have had a time together. Once we cross the Missouri and see each other in action, we might know better who'll be a qualified captain or if we even need one at all.”
    “Whose wise counsel is that?” Jed Barnard, the former solicitor, spoke across the circle. Heads turned.
    “Mazy Bacon, wife of Jeremy,” Mazy said. She swallowed and didn't look at her husband, but she felt him turn to stare.
    “All in favor ofthat sage advice say aye,” Jed finished. The resounding response reminded Mazy of thunder.
    “Good. Let's dance,” shouted a youngish voice, and the crowd began taking sideboards from the wagons and laid them in the dirt. Several other people disappeared, walking toward distant fires. The Schmidtkes huddled near their wagons.
    “You might have waited,” Jeremy said. His voice was stiffer than a new leather stirrup, and he spoke low. “Could have had this decided tonight if you'd have kept your counsel to yourself.”
    “People need time to consider things, Jeremy. This gives it.”
    “Just because you can't make a decision until it's been wrestled to death, doesn't mean others can't and shouldn't.”
    His words stung. “Giving things a little time often reveals a right and perfect answer,” she said.
    “Or none at all,” he said. “It's human nature to want to do things on our own. It's what this heading west is all about. Self-sufficiency. That's what's essential”
    “Is it?” she said. “And here I thought marriage was a yoked team ” She stood, turned her back to him, stared at the dancers beginning to assemble. She heard him blow his nose, stand up, and stomp away“I apologize for sounding critical of your care of our Tipton,” Adora said, coming up behind Mazy who wondered how much she'd overheard just now. “I remembered her with more flesh. But she says she's solid as an iron horse”
    “Whatever made you decide to come?”
    “I told Hathaway here,” Adora poked a finger to her husband's chest, “I just could not take it, I just could not. Every night was a row up a salt river. I woke up more beaten than when I went to sleep.”
    Tyrell strode across the disbanding circle and faced Tipton, flanked by her parents. His hands gripped his suspenders; his eyes held Tipton's. Adora said, “Your daddy said if I was going to mourn you so, we'd best go west, too.”
    “All the way? To Oregon?”
    “I believe our plans include California,” Charles told his sister He towered over the girl, tight curls around his head giving him a Roman look, even with his hat pushed high, exposing his smooth forehead. Mazy detected an edge to Charles's words. “More promise there, Papa says ” He