Page 54 of The Hardest Part

“What are you saying, brother?”

“It’s too late, Victoria.” He gazed at her, the child on her lap, as if he’d failed them somehow, his hands falling away from her twin. “We’ll never make it through the mountains.”

“So, we’re staying?” Elijah asked.

“No.”

“Where are we going, then?” Her lip trembling, Mary Alice placed her hand in his.

He squeezed it. “Home.”

Only Levi couldn’t tell them exactly where that was yet. Following the Prairie Hen north was the only workable option. With winter looming, he couldn’t risk taking them into the Rockies, and the trading post was no place for young Elizabeth and his sisters. They understood that. Elijah did, too.

The man he called brother came to his side. “You reckon we’ll be able to convince the others?”

“Not even gonna try,” Levi said, pushing the hair out of his face. “All we can do is tell ‘em what their choices are. Whichever road they choose is up to them.”

He just nodded.

“One more thing.” And he hooked his arm around Elijah’s neck. “Lucy is coming with us. I’m going to ask Josiah for her hand.”

Mary Alice gasped.

Looking at her twin, Victoria grinned. “Told you so.”

“Is that all right with you, little sister?”

“Well, I suppose so.” She pretended to mull it over for a moment, then a smile came over her face and she giggled. “Lucy is a far better cook than I’ll ever be.”

The head of every family in their party gathered around the campfire. Elijah opened a bottle of whiskey and passed it to Archer. Levi handed a second bottle to Lewis while he and Walker told it to them straight.

“I say we keep goin’,” George Dalton said. “We got another month, maybe two, before the snow comes.”

“Heh.” Walker took the bottle from Lewis, and after downing a swig, he wiped off his mouth on the back of his hand. “That’swhat the Donner folks said, too, and y’all know what happened to them, don’t ya?”

“Can’t say that I do.”

“A damn tragedy, George, that’s what.” With a shake of his head, he passed the bottle to Dalton. “Just last year, they got caught in an early storm up in the Sierra Nevada. Thirty-nine souls perished, and the ones who didn’t? Well, rumor has it they had to eat the flesh of the dead to stay alive.”

“Don’t believe it.” He waved Josiah off and raised the whiskey to his lips. “I still say we keep goin’.”

“If that’s what you wanna do, ain’t no one gonna stop you.” With a half-hearted shrug, Walker looked away, his gaze flitting from one man to another. “Y’all are gonna have to decide for yourselves. Sleep on it. Tomorrow you can rest, but unless you plan to make arrangements with Bridger to shelter here, you’d be wise to get movin’ by the following morning.”

Dalton turned from the fire with a nod, taking the bottle of whiskey with him.

Then, one by one, the others got up and followed.

Levi cast his glance to Lucy, who sat over by the wagons with Fallon, Elizabeth, and his sisters, and, taking in a lungful of courage, he tapped on Walker’s shoulder. “There’s something I need to ask you.”

“Go on, then. Ask.”

“I find myself in love with your daughter, sir.”

“I know.” Cracking a grin, he picked up the bottle Archer had left and tipped it into his mouth.

“I want to take her with me.” Levi took the whiskey from his hand and set it down. “So, I’d like your permission to ask her to be my wife.”

“Yup, seen it comin’.” Walker bent his neck back, and gazing skyward, he closed his eyes. “You have my blessing, young man, but know, you have to take her sister, too.”

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