Free Journey of Honor A love story by Jaclyn M. Hawkes Page B

rain today?"
    "You? Afraid? You laugh in the face of danger."
    "Danger maybe; Giselle terrifies me. Where are my boots?"
    "You didn't look too terrified earlier."
    "No one's terrified when they're asleep, you numbskull. But you didn't see me when I was awake. I was positively petrified. And perfectly comfortable. There was no way I was movin'."
    Mose looked at him. "You better get that grin off your face before she sees you. You look disgusting."
    He pulled his boots on and swung his gun belt around his hips. "You jealous, Mose?"
    Mose shook his head. "No. I still love Callie too much to be jealous. Just happy for you. But I'm sure I never had that sappy, mindless look when I was in love."
    "Sappy? Mindless? Oh brother! Do I really look that bad?"
    They stood up and Mose looked at him. "Yeah. Pretty much." He looked up as Giselle headed their way with Trace's breakfast. "You're gonna get busted, too."
    She came up to them and stopped to look at Trace for a second. "You okay, Trace? You look a little… I don't know. Strange."
    Mose laughed and Trace said, "What do you mean? Strange?"
    "I don't know." She paused, studying him. "Strange happy. I brought you your breakfast since you didn't come in, so I can clean up." She handed him the plate and cup and then leaned under the wagon and began folding the canvases and rolling their beds. Mose began to chuckle and then coughed to disguise it as he walked away. Trace shook his head and smiled and walked around to set his cup on the wagon tongue. Between not sleeping and then being teased, these two were going to kill him.

Chapter 5

    Trace was on horseback again that day and it was a good thing. They’d crossed any number of streams, and the Platte river a couple of times, but today it was high from the rain and it got a little rough before everyone was safely across. They would probably have lost Josiah’s calf if Trace hadn’t rescued it from horseback as it was swept away. Back safely on relatively dry ground on the far side of the river, he took a minute to stop and say a prayer of thanks that everyone was safe before heading back out on the trail.
    Later that afternoon, they saw their first buffalo of the trip. The vast numbers of the past were mostly gone now, but there were still some huge herds that roamed the plains and this was one of them. It was probably the reason they’d heard the wolves last night. The wolf pack was likely hanging around the herd, waiting to pick off a calf or sickly old bull. While the animals were still just a black shadow on the western horizon, Trace rode over near Josiah’s wagon. He wanted to see the VanKomens’ faces when they saw their first buffalo herd. The massive beasts were probably something these kindly Dutch folks had never seen before.
    As the afternoon wound down, the black shadow grew and sharpened until finally it became a herd of individual, shaggy, black and brown creatures. Giselle’s eyes grew wide as the first wagons headed into the gap created when the buffalo gave way to the approaching wagon train. There were thousands of them on both sides for nearly as far as the eye could see, and as soon as the last wagon passed, the gap gradually closed back up and the train was entirely swallowed by the sea of ragged black.
    Dark fell before they were out of the herd. Trace had them continue on until the buffalo petered out before circling to make camp. The buffalo probably wouldn’t have even noticed if they had camped in their midst, but their own stock would have been skittish and a herd that size could have literally wiped their camps out if they had decided to stampede. For that matter, they still could, but at least out of the middle of the herd the wagon train was safer.
    Trace had them circle on a hill above a small stream. As they were setting up camp, he heard something further up the water course and he went to investigate.
    Half a mile away, off by themselves, was a buffalo trio consisting of a young bull, a cow,