Mama's Bible Read online

  Mama's Bible

  Mildred Colvin

  (2012)

  * * *

  Running from the Law. Leaving everything behind. What more is there to lose?

  Katie Donovan soon learns she has much to lose, but even more to gain on the long journey to Oregon in 1850.

  Two men vie for Katie's affection. Clay Monroe is ready to marry and vows he will win Katie's heart before they reach Oregon. His proposal has her head and her heart spinning.

  Jason Barnett is attracted to Katie, but her rebellion against God keeps him from pursuing her. As he grows closer to her and her family, can he turn away once they reach the land of their dreams?

  Cross the wilderness with Katie as she travels The Oregon Trail.

  Mama’s Bible

  _________

  Mildred Colvin

  Historical Christian Romance

  Mama’s Bible

  Copyright©2012 by Mildred Colvin

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover Photo ©Mildred Colvin

  Scripture portions are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to events is entirely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without permission in writing from its author except for brief quotations in printed reviews.

  Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  DEDICATION

  To Becka, the sweetest daughter a mother could have. I love you!

  Chapter 1

  Missouri, Spring 1850

  Katie Donovan’s heart pounded in rhythm with the sound of hoof beats on the road behind her. She crawled to the back of the covered wagon and looked out into the moonlit night.

  Dark forms took shape in a billow of dust, quickly becoming recognizable as two men on horseback racing toward her and her family. Was it the law? The wagon couldn’t outrun horses.

  “Dad.” Her voice choked. Her hands shook at she touched her neck. Could he hear the hoof beats? She turned and tried again, louder this time. “Dad.”

  His hand closed around the pistol he had hidden behind the seat.

  The breath she sucked in caught in her throat. What had happened to her gentle Irish father? Would he kill yet another man?

  “Donovan! Tom Donovan!” The insistent call echoed through the night over the sounds of the creaking wagon and racing hoof beats.

  Dad reared back, slowing the wagon to a stop, his profile grim in the moonlight as he peered around the canvas covering. He gripped the pistol and brought it in front of him.

  Katie reached for her little sister and held her close. Susannah looked up at her with wide, innocent eyes. Katie put her finger over her lips to silence the little girl and trembled for what might happen.

  The two men pulled to a stop at the front of the wagon. As the closest man turned toward her father, the moon caught and held in its light the glint of a Silver Star pinned to his vest.

  “Howdy, Sheriff.Deputy.” Dad nodded to them. “You’re a bit far from town tonight, aren’t you?”

  “I thought that was you, Donovan.” The sheriff’s deep voice sent a shiver down Katie’s spine. “We stopped by your place first. Musta just missed you.”

  Dad’s shoulders moved.

  Please, Lord, don’t let him shoot them.

  “Thought we had an agreement, Donovan, that you was to stay close to home.” The sheriff peered around the corner of the canvas cover and nodded at Mama. “Howdy, ma’am.”

  Mama’s smooth white skin seemed even paler than usual with her bright blue eyes wide and pleading. “My husband didn’t mean to kill anyone, Sheriff. He was protecting our home.”

  “Your husband had no home to protect when he bashed Mr. Hiram Bentley’s head against the iron post in front of the saloon, ma’am. Several witnesses said he lost your property fair and square in the poker game.”

  Mama’s head bowed. “I understand, but if you’ll let us go on to Oregon, we’ll be out of your jurisdiction, so you won’t have to worry about Tom again. I’m sure he’s learned his lessons—about drinking and gambling.”

  The sheriff looked back at Dad. “Is that right, Donovan? Are you giving up spirits and cards?”

  The deputy’s snicker irritated Katie. He had no right to laugh, true though it was Dad had a weakness toward drink. How many times had they moved because he couldn’t hold down a job more than a few months before getting into some kind of scrape?

  Dad’s good-natured grin lit his face. “Sure, Sheriff, that’s what I promised my wife I’d do. A new home in a new land is what I need.”

  “Maybe you’re right, Donovan.” The sheriff looked past Tom. “Ma’am, I’m sorry you lost your home. Mr. Hiram Bentley did not die. He got a little bump on his head is all. I’m leaving this rascal in your custody. I wish you the best in getting him straightened out.”

  “Thank you, Sheriff.” Mama’s face relaxed.

  The sheriff nodded. “You got away with it this time, Donovan, but next time it might not be so easy. The next man you hit in a drunken fit may not make it and then where will your family be? What about those two boys of yours? What kind of example—”

  The sheriff leaned closer and peered into the wagon. He turned and looked down the road. “By the way, where are they?”

  Dad shifted. “They went ahead with the cattle.”

  “So, you really are headin’ for Oregon?”

  “Yep. Not much left for us now.”

  “No, I guess not.” The sheriff touched the brim of his hat and nodded toward Mama. “We’ll be gettin’ back to town. Hope you find what you’re looking for out West.”

  ~*~

  How far was it from Jefferson City to Independence? Seemed they’d been traveling forever and they were only now reaching the start of their journey—the beginning of the Oregon Trail. Katie sloshed through another mud puddle and glared at the same gray cover they’d traveled under for days. Spring showers had been their constant companion across western Missouri, and the longer she trudged through mud and water, the more she longed for a warm, soaking bath.

  After traveling alone for so long, the busyness and noise of Independence came as a shock. Katie’s eyes opened wide at all the men, women, and children. The drizzling rain seemed to have no effect on any of them. Shaggy-haired mountain men shuffled past wearing buckskins. Riverboat captains, dockworkers, soldiers, and traders filled the streets, shouting to each other as they went about their business.

  There were so many Indians. Dressed like white men or wrapped in old-looking blankets, they lounged in front of stores. What were they doing in town? One rode a shaggy brown and white pony past her so close she could have touched him. Instead, she shrank back. The Indian didn’t even look, and still her heart pounded out of control. She walked beside the wagon, looking from side to side half expecting one of the savages to jump out at her with bow and arrow ready or a tomahawk raised.

  Katie breathed a sigh of relief when the wagon stopped in front of a large house not far from Main Street. A sign in the front yard said, “Miller’s Boardinghouse.”

  Dad’s voice sounded tired. “Let’s see if we can get rooms here. We need a place to stay a few days before we join a wagon train. In the meantime we’ll stock up and get ready to go.”

  Katie looked at the two-story, white framed house that would be their temporary home. A boardinghouse wasn’t as luxurious as a hotel, but it should have the necessities they’d been forced to do without since they’d been on the run. At the moment, only two things mattered. A bath and a clean bed.

  ~*~ />
  Katie glanced out the upstairs window as two men in a wagon turned off the road. The man driving stopped behind the boardinghouse, and her older brother, Tommy, helped their mother climb down from the back of the men’s wagon.

  Katie leaned out the window as the four walked across the yard to the Donovan’s covered wagon. The men climbed in the back and soon began unloading—no! She covered her mouth with her hand to stifle a cry of alarm as the men pulled Mama’s rosewood organ from the wagon. She ran from the room and down the stairs. Mama’s organ was an heirloom. Grandmother Duvall had owned that organ and given it to Mama on her wedding day. No one could play an organ as well as her mama. What could she be thinking? With the farm gone, it was the only remaining tie to her childhood.

  Katie burst through the back door as the wagon holding the organ rolled out of the yard and into the road behind the boardinghouse. “Mama, your organ. Stop them. They can’t take it.”

  She ran past Mama and Tommy to the road, her heart pounding unmercifully. She couldn’t catch them. She ran back to her mother. “Mama, why did you give them your organ? How could you?”

  Tears blurred her vision, but not so much she couldn’t see the matching tears in her mother’s eyes. Mama held her arms out and Katie stepped into her embrace. “I know, honey. I know. I feel the same way, but I had to.”

  “Why, Mama?”

  Mama pulled back and captured Katie’s gaze with her own. She reached out and pulled Tommy into the embrace. “Because the money will be needed more. This move to Oregon will be hard.” She looked from one to the other. “Tommy, you will be nearing twenty-one by the time you set foot in Oregon. Katie, you are nineteen already—old enough to marry and start a family of your own. As hard as our journey will be for all of us, I fear it will be hardest on the two of you.”

  Katie brushed off Mama’s dire words. Their beautiful organ—gone. This was Dad’s fault. She wiped the tears that wouldn’t stop falling. First their farm and now Mama’s organ had been taken from them. What more damage could he do to the family? She huffed. What indeed? There was nothing more of value remaining for them to lose.

  Mama’s nanny goat, staked a few feet away, lifted her head and bleated. Katie glared at her. If Mama wanted money, why hadn’t she sold the goat instead of her organ?

  ~*~

  “Here, Bossy.” Jason Barnett touched the side of his employer’s milk cow with a stick to guide her toward the holding ground near camp. The heifer trotted along beside. Mr. Taylor hadn’t been feeling well this morning or he’d have taken the cows himself.

  The Taylors were like parents to him. When they took the notion to move to Oregon, there was no stopping them. Not that he’d tried all that hard. He liked the idea, but he was young and healthy. They were—well, old enough to be his parents. He wanted his own land, but he wouldn’t dessert Mr. and Mrs. Taylor to get it. They’d have to come to some agreement once they reached Oregon.

  “There you go, Bossy.” Jason patted the Guernsey on the rump and let her join the other cattle in the holding pen. Once they got on the trail, things were bound to be different. Poor Bossy might have to be tied to the back of the wagon while they traveled. He’d wait and see how things were handled after the meeting later today.

  “Yahoo.” A boy on a spirited horse raced past. He circled back and joined a small herd of cattle being driven by a man.

  Jason watched them drive their cattle into the pen. One contrary cow lumbered his direction, obviously trying to avoid confinement. Jason ran toward her and waved his stick. His actions seemed to change her mind as she pivoted and went into the pen.

  “Hey, thanks, Mister. Calamity gets ornery.” The boy called out. He jerked the reins and the horse made a quick turn.

  Jason froze in place as boy and horse went down in the mud beside the creek that ran next to the pen. Before they hit the ground, he started running toward them, his heart pounding. The journey hadn’t even started. He prayed aloud as he ran. “Lord, please don’t let him be hurt. Keep the horse from falling on him.”

  ~*~

  “Westport is just ahead.” Katie’s father called out over the noise of the wagon rattling down the muddy dirt road. “This is where we should be able to hook up with a train going to Oregon.”

  “Come, Suzy.” Katie took her little sister’s hand and pulled her toward the front opening of the wagon where they could see. Thankfully, the drizzling rain of that morning had stopped. As the wagon crested the top of a slight rise in the road, Katie caught her breath. White from many canvas-topped wagons, spread haphazardly across several acres of land, shone in the morning sun. A mass of people moved about attending to one task or another. It was as if they’d stumbled upon a village on wheels. What would these people be like? In the next six months of travel, they’d be in close contact and would without doubt make many friends or enemies.

  So many families moving out West was hard to understand. Why would they go? Surely each had their own story. “Manifest Destiny.” She breathed the words under her breath.

  What did it mean? That the United States was destined to expand clear to the Pacific Ocean, and her family would be part of it. To imagine the United States becoming so large was almost unbelievable, yet just looking at all the people gathered here filled Katie’s mind with the possibility. If so many were willing to pull up roots and take off across a wilderness that promised danger to reach an unknown land, then others would follow. Yet not everyone was going because they wanted to. How many had been forced to go, as her family had?

  Contagious excitement vibrated in the air, dimming Katie’s resentment. There was too much to see and experience to harbor anger. Her heart swelled with the thought that she was a pioneer in much the same way as her ancestors had been almost a century before.

  “This looks like a good spot.” Dad guided the oxen to the left and stopped under a maple tree.

  A breeze shook several drops of water from the leaves above their heads as they climbed from the wagon. Katie grabbed Susanna’s hand and laughing with her, ran a few steps away to keep from getting wet. She lifted Susanna and twirled with her.

  “Whoa there.”

  A deep voice startled her. She stopped just short of bumping into a man. Another twirl and Susanna’s feet would have hit him. He caught her by the shoulders to steady her. She let her sister slide to the ground.

  “Katie, you almost knocked Jason down.” Katie’s younger brother, Karl, ran toward them with a disapproving look on his freckled face.

  “Oh, I’m sorry.” Katie stepped back as Jason released her. “Suzy and I were just getting away from the rain dripping out of the tree.”

  Susanna’s laughter caught her attention. “You look like a drownded rat.”

  Katie looked at her brother and noticed that his clothes and hair were soaked.

  “What happened to you?” She turned to her mother. “Mama, look at Karl. I knew he was too young to let run free.”

  Mama stepped closer. “What happened, Karl?”

  Karl’s eyes shone with excitement. “I was on Star, and she slipped when we put the cows in the holding pen. I fell in the mud, but Jason came and helped me. He held my horse while I took a bath in the creek. I knew you wouldn’t want me to come back all muddy.”

  “Of course not.” Mama put her fingers over her mouth.

  “You took a bath in your clothes?” Susanna’s blue eyes grew wide. “We aren’t supposed to do that, are we, Mama?”

  Karl’s grin grew even bigger. “Yeah, I took a bath and washed my clothes all at the same time. Good idea, huh?”

  Susanna giggled. Katie crossed her arms and shook her head. What her little brother wouldn’t think of doing would scarcely be worth mentioning. She often wondered how her mother could put up with his shenanigans.

  Tommy, Katie’s older brother, strode into camp and spoke to his father. “We got the animals taken care of. There’s a holding pen just outside camp where everyone’s putting their cattle and extra horses. We’l
l be taking turns keeping watch over them. Once we’re on the trail, though, each family will be required to drive their own animals.”

  “Sounds fair to me. Have you talked to anyone to know who’s in charge? If they let you put your animals in the pen they must have room for us.”

  Tommy nodded. “It’s a large company. I think they figure there’s safety in numbers. There’s a man, Jeb Larson, who’s the guide. I was told there’s to be a meeting this afternoon to elect a wagon master.”

  Dad nodded. “All right. We’ll be there. Let’s get this wagon unhitched.”

  Katie’s attention moved back to her mother as she spoke to Karl’s new friend. “I appreciate you helping my son and I’m pleased to meet you, Mr. . .?”

  “Barnett, Ma’am, but please call me Jason. I didn’t do anything. Just helped Karl to his feet and held his horse while he got the mud off.”

  “You’ve made quite an impression on him.”

  Jason shrugged. “From what I’ve seen, Karl’s a pretty special boy.” He reached out and ruffled Karl’s red hair. “Glad I could help.”

  Karl ducked, but not before Katie saw the pleased expression on his face. Mr. Barnett had made a friend for life, whether he wanted it or not.

  Mama turned toward her soaked son. “You get in the wagon and change into something dry. Go now before you catch a cold.”

  Katie stepped back as her mother and brother left. She glanced at the young man who looked as if he’d rather be anywhere else at the moment. His blond hair contrasted with bronzed skin apparently no stranger to the sun. The effect was striking. Muscles, obviously toned and strengthened by hard labor, rippled beneath his blue cotton shirt. He was not the most handsome man she’d ever seen, but something about him drew her. Of course, his coloring would attract anyone’s attention.