Page 82 of Caroline’s Compass

“From six feet away?”

“Grace said I must practice.”

Packing for departure became a celebration of the engagement, done at speed. Grace tied a blue ribbon to the lead wagon bow. Rebecca removed it because the ox tried to eat it. Lucy tied it higher. The ox regarded this as a challenge.

The tents came down next. Grace pulled the wrong line and dropped one side of the sisters' canvas fly over Charlotte, who continued reciting the packing list from beneath it. Lydia announced that Charlotte had become a speaking parcel. Charlotte replied that parcels were generally treated with greater care. Caroline lifted the canvas while Rebecca freed the peg Grace had knotted twice for safety and once by accident.

Lucy rolled three bedrolls together and produced a bundle too wide for either Whitaker wagon. She argued that keeping them together would save time at evening camp. Martha asked how much time they would save after carrying the bundle through Nebraska by hand. Lucy reconsidered and separated them, though she tied her own cup inside Grace's blanket and did not discover it until the bundle rang.

Caroline started to correct every knot. Then she saw Rebecca checking the second wagon's lashings, Charlotte counting the folded canvas, and Martha assigning the cookware without waiting for instruction. Nothing had been forgotten. Nothing required Caroline to take the work back merely because she could do it herself.

She limited herself to the lead wagon. The compass went into its blue-wool wrap beneath the route book, where she could reach both without disturbing the flour chest. Father's papers remained dry in the leather pouch. Caroline fastened the flap, tested it once, and stepped away before a second inspection became an argument with Rebecca.

From his blanket nest in the Bell wagon, Thomas called, “Was that restraint?”

“It was efficiency.”

“I will revise my terminology.”

Rebecca passed with an armful of tent poles. “Do that quietly. She may attempt efficiency again.”

Martha handed Thomas a parcel of biscuits for the Bell wagon. “You must eat.”

“Mrs. Bell has already fed me twice.”

“That was breakfast.”

“Both times?”

“She worries in courses,” Caroline said.

Charlotte brought the route book. “Where should I record the engagement?”

“You should not,” Caroline said.

“It changed the composition of the company.”

“No one joined or left.”

Lydia looked at Thomas. “He joined.”

“He was already here.”

“Not properly,” Grace said.

Thomas accepted the route book from Charlotte and wrote one line beneath the flood entry: May 17—C. Whitaker agreed to a permanent joint survey.

Caroline read it. “That is not an official route event.”

“It altered my destination.”

She tried to remain stern. The attempt lasted until Lucy asked whether a joint survey required matching hats.

The company rolled west before noon. Caroline drove the lead Whitaker wagon. Rebecca held the reins of the second. Eleanor and Nathaniel rode the line of twelve wagons, and Thomas traveled where the younger Mrs. Bell could prevent him from stepping on his injured ankle.

At the ridge’s western edge, Caroline took one last bearing. The flooded country lay behind them. Fort Kearny remained ahead, but it was a landmark now, not Thomas’s destination.

Before the traveler appeared, Caroline and Rebecca reviewed the next day's wagon order together. Rebecca proposed moving the Lawson wagon ahead of the Bells because the younger team tired on grades. Caroline asked two questions, accepted the change, and entered it in the record under both their names.