Page 163 of Eleanor’s Earrings

“About falling in love on the trail.”

Eleanor smiled. “She would not listen.”

“Would you have?”

“No.”

The next morning, they rolled west again.

Eleanor rode Nathaniel's spare horse beside him, with one garnet at her ear and its mate safe in his pocket. Caroline drove the lead Whitaker wagon, studying the trail and glancing occasionally toward Thomas Reed. Rebecca handled the second wagon and kept a practiced eye on both teams, leaving Eleanor free to attend the rear division as co-captain.

Two wagons had left Independence carrying eight sisters and one dead man's plan.

They now carried a growing family, a living plan, and the promise of Clover Creek.

Home remained months away.

For the first time, Eleanor understood that home was also traveling beside her.

Three days later, after two steady travel days and a halt chosen for water, grass, and enough privacy to satisfy Caroline, Mr. Daugherty married Eleanor and Nathaniel in the middle of the wagon circle at sunset.

There were no church bells, no lace veil, and no wedding feast beyond Martha’s biscuits made with a precious measure of sugar. Grace and Lucy gathered tiny prairie flowers. Mrs. Bell cried openly and threatened anyone who mentioned it with her walking stick. Before the blessing was finished, Rebecca informed Nathaniel that marriage did not reduce the sisters’ numerical advantage.

“I had already calculated that,” Nathaniel said.

“Good,” Rebecca answered. “You may survive.”

Eleanor wore both garnet earrings for the ceremony. Afterward, Nathaniel touched the repaired left clasp with his good hand.

“Still separate,” he murmured.

“Still together.”

That night Caroline arranged for the younger sisters to sleep under the second wagon and announced that anyone who disturbed the newlyweds without blood, fire, or a flood would answer to her.

Lydia immediately asked whether wolves counted.

“No.”

“Mr. Daugherty?”

Caroline considered. “Possibly.”

Eleanor heard Nathaniel laughing outside the small canvas shelter the women had rigged a discreet distance from the wagons.

“You can still escape,” she told him when he entered.

“From the marriage?”

“From my family.”

“Too late. Rebecca has threatened me twice. I believe that makes me officially related.”

Eleanor smiled, but nervousness tightened beneath it.

Nathaniel saw.

He sat beside her rather than reaching for her. “We do not have to do anything tonight that you do not want.”