Caleb climbed over the seat with ease and, standing atop the trunk behind the seat, he raised his right hand over his head and lifted the hoop while pulling the loose end in toward the sideboard with his left.

Anna grabbed the end of the wooden hoop and guided it toward the bracket. The force required to bend the wood was more than she expected, and she had to reset her footing with a bounce. Giving a determined grunt, she heaved against the wood, pushing it up into the bracket. She staggered back a few steps and slapped her hands together, trying to downplay the strength she'd spent.

Caleb effortlessly lifted the canvas over the hoop, smoothing out the wrinkles, then stepped back over the seat and pulled the rope that fed through the pucker, centering the opening. In mere moments, he had the wagon covered and ready for the night.

Mutter rose from the chair and admired his handiwork. "That's wonderful. Thank you."

"You're welcome, ma'am." Caleb set his hat on his head and smiled at Anna. "I'd say we make a good team."

Mutter's eyebrows shot upward while Anna's ears warmed.

"Yes, well, you did most of the work." Anna tugged her sleeves straight. "And we are grateful for your help."

"Anytime, miss." Caleb pinched the brim of his derby and nodded at Anna, then at Mutter. "Ma'am."

Anna nodded, and as she watched him stroll toward the Le Beaus' wagon, she found herself hoping she would need his help again soon.

15.

Anna breathed in baby Evie's freshness, holding the tightly wrapped bundle against her chest. She'd been around Gabi, Caroline's nieces, and Mary Alice's twins as babies, but none of them were babies anymore.

If she'd married Boney, she could have soon had babies of her own ...

No! She chided herself for doubting her heart again. She and Boney both agreed marriage wasn't right for them. And she'd vowed to trust God with her heart as well as her mother. If only she were better at it.

Across the campfire, Mary Alice checked the biscuits that were steam baking on top of the kettle. "You've charmed Evie."

"And she's charmed me." Burying her nose in the baby's thin hair, Anna drew in another deep breath. "She smells of soap and talcum powder."

Her hands hidden in quilted gloves, Mary Alice lifted the tin of biscuits from the kettle. "I just fed her, so that sweet smell won't last long." Her laugh made the baby jump.

Anna traced Evie's soft cheek with the back of her fingers. The baby calmed and returned to slumber.

"You look fully at ease in that role, Anna." Maren sat at a small table cranking the coffee grinder.

She was at ease, which only created a familiar tension. She'd passed up her chance at starting a family of her own. Now, even with Grovater doing so much better, he and Mutter would still need her help to start their new lives.

Mary Alice set the hot bread pan on the table away from Maren's coffee dust. "You know, Anna, Boney Hughes isn't the only single man in camp." Her lips pressed together in a catlike grin.

No one had to tell her that. She'd just watched one charm Mutter and bend a wagon hoop into place as if it were no work at all. And what of the image of him clasping his hands to give her a lift? Charming and surprising.

"Mary Alice is right." Maren stilled the grinder. "What about Charles Pemberton? There's nothing wrong with your brother, is there, Hattie?"

"Sounds like a trick question." Hattie tittered. "But I suppose as big brothers go, Charles is all right." She glanced at Anna with a grin that matched Mary Alice's. "Only thing is, you might have trouble finding him if you don't know where to find Camille Le Beau."

A chorus of "Ohs" prompted a round of giggles.

Anna lifted the baby to her chest, letting Evie's head rest on her shoulder.

Hattie pulled the pins from her hat. "That only leaves Captain Cowlishaw, Tiny, Frank, and Oliver Rengler."

Four could play this silly game. Besides, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, as Dedrick had been fond of saying. "I wouldn't put Garrett Cowlishaw on the list," Anna said. "Not with the way he looks at Caroline."

Mary Alice nodded and gave the stew a brisk stir.

"What about that other trail hand-the ruggedly handsome and mysterious one. Caleb Reger, is it?" Newlywed Maren Wainwright was enjoying this game a little too much.

"Oh! I must have forgotten about him." Mary Alice was the camp master of teasing grins.

Anna let out a long sigh. "He was just at our camp, and you all know it. Hattie waved on her way by."

Hattie's eyes widened in feigned surprise. "Are you saying I'm a gossip?"

Anna and everyone else pinned Hattie with a knowing gaze.

"Very well." Hattie pursed her lips, raising her chin a notch. "I did mention seeing him there. But only because I'm a romantic."

"My grandfather was busy, so Mr. Reger offered to help."

Mary Alice cocked her head, dipping her chin. "Mr. Reger was bending wagon hoops and pulling canvas. You can't tell us you haven't noticed him."

Caleb.

"Of course I've noticed him. So has Hattie. He was none too happy with either of us our first day on the road." Though he did want to clear the air. No need to mention that part. Or the dimple.

Mary Alice waved her wooden spoon. "You don't have to worry about Hattie where Caleb Reger is concerned. She has her sights set on Boney."

Her face turning the color of ripe tomatoes, Hattie pulled the hat from her head and hid behind it.

Anna leaned toward Hattie. "You do?"

"I don't. At least I have no compelling desire to marry him."

Mary Alice stirred the pot. "You mean, even if you had a clean shot at him?"

"I wouldn't express my feelings in terms of guns and targets, but I do like Boney."

"Then it's a good thing I didn't marry him," Anna said, smiling. "I think so." Hattie grinned, feverishly blinking her blue-gray eyes. "If you think so."

"I do." The moment the words slipped out, heat rushed up Anna's neck, and her friends burst into laughter.

Perhaps she should've let Caleb clear the air between them.

Though as far as she was concerned, he already had.

Caroline dunked the cloth into the dishwater. Mary Alice Brenner's laugh carried to the Kamdens' camp. The threatening storm clouds from earlier had passed without incident, and although the temperature was dropping with the setting sun, the night sky was clear. Dishwater dripping from her hands, Caroline held a clean tin plate out to Rhoda Kamden.

"I'm thankful for your help." Rhoda wiped the plate dry with a thin towel and set it on the corner of the table. "I just don't seem to be able to keep up with it all anymore."

Duff, Lyall, and Maisie busied themselves with Gabi and the other children, playing marbles and chasing a hoop within the camp. After the Zanzucchi boy broke his arm this afternoon, all the parents were on alert. Ian Kamden had gone to see if his services as a wheelwright were needed. His mother was in the wagon fetching her knitting.

Caroline's quilting circle friends had invited her to join them for supper tonight. She should've asked for the evening off. A little laughter would've been good for her. Sitting around a campfire would be sweet relief for her feet too.

She glanced at the circle of three-legged stools Ian Kamden had set out for supper, then handed Rhoda another clean plate. The sprite of a woman hardly seemed big enough to withstand the birth of one child, let alone five. "I don't know what I'd do without you, Caroline."

"I'm glad to be of help." That much was true. But she couldn't say she was glad she was here, because she'd much rather be at the campfire with her friends.

"I'm sure you'll soon need a break from the children and caring for us." Rhoda carried the plates to the wagon box and glanced toward the Brenners' camp and the sound of Hattie's and Anna's laughter. "For a little time with your friends."

"I'd like that. Thank you." Feeling selfish, Caroline pulled a tin cup from the dishpan. "But I'm fine." Her time with the Kamdens was temporary. Besides, she did have many of her friends on this journey with her. The younger Mrs. Kamden seemed lost and alone even in the midst of her family of eight, with a husband who hardly spoke a word and a mother-in-law who seemed bent on making up for it.

"You get along well with the children." Rhoda took the clean cup from her. "And Mither Kamden is happy for your company."

"Except when that horn blows in the morning and I tell her it's time to rise from her bed."

Rhoda snickered. "I'm glad it's you sleeping in there, and not me."

Caroline raised a teasing eyebrow. The work had given her a purpose, making her feel useful. But she was thankful the job was only for five months.

And she missed her quilting circle friends. She'd take Rhoda up on her offer of time off. Soon.

The senior Mrs. Kamden climbed out of the wagon, clutching a cloth sack. "I can't find it." She walked to the worktable and looked at Rhoda. "I said, I can't find it."

Caroline and Rhoda both glanced at the sack in her mother-in-law's hand. "You have your knitting. There."

"I know that." Davonna Kamden scrunched her face. "I'm not stupid." She laid her hand on her chest. "I'm talking about the locket my husband gave me."

Caroline lifted the biscuit pan from the table. "You went into the wagon to get your knitting."

"I know what I went to do." Davonna huffed. "I decided to look at my locket." She squared her shoulders, broad compared to Rhoda's. "Someone is taking my things."

Caroline stilled. Could someone have really taken the locket from their wagon?

"That seems a drastic conclusion, Mither Kamden. I'm sure you'll find the locket," Rhoda said. "Things like that are easy to misplace."

Another huff from the elder woman.

Cloth in hand, Caroline scrubbed the pan. "I can help you look for it in the morning."

"That would be a waste of precious time." The older woman pressed the knitting sack to her midsection. "If the locket were there, I would have found it."

Ian Kamden strolled into camp, carrying a broken spoke. He looked at least as tired as Caroline's back and legs told her she was.

"Son!" Davonna waved him over. "There's something you should know."

He glanced at his wife then at Caroline, his brow knit together.

"Don't look at them," Davonna said, her voice seeping agitation. "They're hiding the truth. I'm the one who knows what's going on."

Rhoda busied herself drying the clean pan while Caroline retrieved the empty bean pot from a nearby rock.

"Whatever your news, Mither, do I need to hear it this moment?" Mr. Kamden tossed the spoke into the fire then looked at his mother.

"Well, if you ask me,"-Davonna glowered at Rhoda-"this cannot wait."

He sank onto one of the stools and stretched his legs, crossing them at the ankles, then looked at his mother.

Caroline quieted her scrubbing cloth. She shouldn't listen in, but if Davonna Kamden was right about valuables disappearing, and there was a thief in their midst, she wanted to know about it. Mr. Kamden had been milling about with various men. She'd seen him talking to Garrett Cowlishaw before supper. Perhaps he'd heard news of other folks having such problems. She hoped not.

"A thief is an abomination to the Lord." Davonna raised a finger in the air, apparently for added punctuation to her proclamation.

Mr. Kamden frowned. "A thief?"

"Yes." Davonna pressed her hand to her chest. "And we have one among us."

"In the Boone's Lick Company?" Dragging his feet back to the legs of the stool, he looked up at his wife. Rhoda shrugged.

Davonna's nod was slow and deliberate.

Standing, Mr. Kamden glanced out at the encampment of wagons. "I was just with several of the men. No one said a word about a thief."

"They may not know yet, but they surely will."

"Something here has gone missing?"

"It most certainly has." Davonna clutched the collar on her shirtwaist. "The locket your father gave me."

"Anything else? It seems that if someone went to the trouble to go through your belongings, they would have taken other things ... more valuable things."

Davonna crossed her arms and set her jaw. "It pains me that you think me careless with such a precious gift."

"Mither, I'm only saying that such a small item can easily be misplaced."

"I know who took it."

Caroline lifted the kettle from the dishpan, tipping it toward the light of the fire to see if she'd gotten it clean. If someone had truly stolen the locket, how could Davonna know who'd taken it when she'd only just discovered it missing?

"Who is it, Mother?"

Caroline and Rhoda both stilled.