Donners of the Dead

Chapter Two

“I’m Eve Smith,” I said, my voice surprisingly loud and clear. I could hear June and Rose fretting behind me, but there was no use in pretending I was someone I wasn’t. Besides, I wanted to know why these strange men were here and looking for me. I barely even existed at times.

“Ignore her, she’s lying,” Avery said, trying to block Tim’s eye line. Any other time I would have been touched by his loyalty to me but not now.

I walked across the room, holding the knife in plain sight, and stopped on the other side of Avery. Up close, I could see the puffiness under Tim’s eyes and the red tinge of his nose, more signs of his age. Still, his eyes remained clear as day, even as they crinkled at the corners as I approached. He barely noticed the knife.

“I said, I’m Eve Smith.” I looked dead at Tim, resisting the compulsion to look behind him at the two others. Their silence continued to be menacing.

“Well, how do you do, Eve Smith?” he greeted cordially, tipping the brim of his weather-beaten hat.

“I do just fine. Now how may we help you?”

“Why, aren’t we well-spoken,” he commented. I waited for the comment about never meeting a well-spoken Indian before, but it never came. A smile twitched at the corner of his dry lips as he appraised Avery. “Your friend here was trying to protect you, I reckon, but the fact is, ma’am, we don’t mean no harm.”

“Then what do you mean?” I questioned boldly.

He raised his brow, taking a moment before he spoke. “Me and my friends here, we’re a makeshift search party of sorts. This is the last settlement before we head off into the mountains, and after inquiring at the general store for a local tracker, boy weren’t we surprised when a woman’s name kept coming up.” He looked me up and down. “However, now I see you’re more of a girl than a woman.”

“She’s a lady,” Avery said, his shoulders tensing. “I don’t think you should call her anything less while you’re standing outside her home.”

“My apologies,” Tim offered quickly, though he and I both knew I was the furthest thing from a lady. Aunt June and Rose were ladies. I was just impressed he called me ma’am.

“Besides,” Avery went on, “there are other trackers in the area. I can certainly be of help.”

My heart squeezed at the thought of him going off with these men.

“We might right need the help of a young man like yourself, Avery Packwood,” Tim said. “But Eve’s name kept on coming up. And though we know we might find someone—a man, perhaps—at one of the local tribes, our general consensus is that you can’t trust a savage.”

I bristled at that and Avery shot me a warning glare over his shoulder, knowing I was seconds from saying something hot-tempered. Tim seemed friendly enough, but we certainly weren’t safe yet.

I took in a deep breath. “I’m half-savage. Will that be a problem?”

Tim grinned. “Not with me. Besides, I hear you’re a lady. Now, what we want to know is if you’d be willing to join us on our expedition.”

The moment he said that, there was a flurry of hoofbeats as the rest of the riders appeared just off the porch, obviously coming up empty-handed from the Millers. I could feel the stares as they rode high on their horses, could smell the gunpowder at their sides.

“There is no blazing chance she is going on an expedition with a posse of strange men,” Avery said. Once again, my heart did a skip at how protective he was being, even though I wished he would let me handle this.

“Can the lady not speak for herself?” Tim asked. “Decide for herself? Are you her father?”

“Her uncle acts as father to her,” Avery said. My eyes flitted down to see two drops of sweat slide off the barrel of his shotgun, his hands pale and clammy.

“Then what does her mother say?” Tim looked over me and into the house, his eyes curious, and I knew my mother was there.

I looked behind me quickly. My mother was at the foot of the stairs, her plaid shawl wrapped around her, the ends fraying and moth holes littered throughout. It had been a gift from my father, and as such, she never let anyone touch it or wash it. It was on her all the time. Her golden hair was a mess and sticking out every which way, while her green eyes held only sadness. My mother would have been beautiful, even more so than Rose, whom she deeply resembled, but life had other plans for her.

“She doesn’t speak,” I said slowly, looking back at Tim. “But even if she could, I’m quite sure she’d ask why I should help a bunch of strangers like yourselves.”

Tim leaned against the doorframe casually, pausing briefly to examine the broken pieces of wood. “What happened here? Someone try and break down your door?”

No one said anything. We waited for him to continue.

He did with a tepid sigh. “I’m sure you’re all familiar—more than most folk—with what happened in them mountains over there.” He jerked his head in the direction of the Sierra Nevadas that rose up from the valley. “About them poor Donners.”

“They disappeared,” I said. “A few years ago. Got stuck in the snows.”

“Four years, to be exact,” Tim said. “Then I’m sure you know that one of the search parties that went after them never reported to Sacramento.”

I shook my head. “No, I didn’t know that.”

“Isaac over there,” Tim gestured to the skinny man behind him, the one who had originally told the group to fan out. “His uncle was in the Donner party. And his nephew was part of the search party that went after him. What Isaac wants is to find his uncle and nephew. See, it was last August that his nephew, George Clark, and his search party should have reported into Sacramento. They were supposed to go up the same route as the Donners and find out what really happened, and then report to Sacramento with news. You see, while most of the party had been rescued from the other side of the pass, George didn’t quite believe the tale was so simple. He thought there was more to the story, perhaps more survivors than reported, perhaps his family. But the thing is, George Clark and his team never showed up. It’s been a year now. Just over. No one has seen or heard of them. There were records that the party passed through here last June, but no one has seen them come out the other side. It don’t matter if you’re asking in Oregon City or Fresno, no one has plumb seen ’em.”

“When you say, find out what really happened to the Donner party,” Avery spoke up, “what do you mean? From what we heard, they came across hard times, hard weather. Lost a lot of men, women, and children. Nothing too unusual about that.”

“Well, let’s just say then that George Clark still believed his father to be alive in the mountains there. There were also some, well, let’s call them rumors, that George refused to believe.”

Rumors? I raised my brow but Tim carried on. “Regardless of what happened to the Donners, it’s George’s party we’re concerned about.”

“It’s been a year,” Avery pointed out. “How can you be sure they’re still alive out there?” He gave Isaac an apologetic glance. “Sorry for being so crass, but you must agree.”

Isaac shifted on top of his grey mount. “I have reason to believe he—they—might have found a way to stay alive.” Whatever he believed, however, Isaac sounded awfully grim. His face was both long and pinched, like his cheeks stuck out more than his nose. “Of course, we aren’t from these parts, Ms. Smith, and neither was George. That might have been one of the reasons why they were unable to locate what they were looking for. It could be why they never made it across the pass. I put together this expedition here in hopes of finding George, or at least some answers. Now, I think we have a shot at doing this on our own. But we’re all from Texas and Tennessee and Missouri. We don’t know your land, your terrain. If we had a tracker such as yourself, as well as a few locals such as Avery, we stand a much better chance.”

“Naturally,” Tim said, adjusting the holster around his waist, “we don’t assume you’ll be doing this out of the kindness of your pretty heart. There’s a lot of money in it for you and anyone else who wishes to help out.”

“How much money?” Avery asked. I looked at him, surprised by the sudden eagerness in his voice.

Tim let out a soft laugh. “So, we be speaking your language now, boy? Well, I reckon the lady here would get one hundred dollars, plus a safe route back. You and anyone else who wishes to join us would get fifty. Perhaps seventy five, if you can provide us with an extra horse or mule. We’re needing a pack animal.”

I couldn’t breathe. A hundred dollars. I’d never heard of anyone in these parts having that much. I was sure the only thing that was worth more than that was Uncle Pat’s ranch.

We were all shocked, the silence coating us. I could almost hear the wheels turning in Aunt June and Rose’s heads, coming up with all the stuff they could buy. New wristwatch, new dresses, a new carriage, new breeding stock. I also knew that the money would never truly be mine, so long as I was under this roof.

Somehow, Avery lifted his jaw off the floor and cleared his throat. “You understand that this will have to be discussed with Mr. Smith when he gets back. He is legally in charge of Eve, and I am his employee here at the ranch.”

“I understand,” Tim said, “though I reckon you’d never make so much money even if you worked here for the rest of your life. We’ll give you all time to think about it. But not too much time. We want to get up in them mountains before the first snow falls. We’ll be back tonight.” He dipped his hat to me and the women in the house. “Ma’am. Ladies.”

He turned to leave, striding over to his horse. I stayed at the door, watching them until I saw Mr. Snarl pass by. He glanced at me under his hat and I was struck by how dark his eyes were and their intensity as they looked me over. I realized the whole time we’d been talking with Tim, I’d been waiting for him to say something, to make his presence known. Instead, he and the scar-faced man had stayed silent. I felt like they would have been the enforcers if things had gotten out of hand.

Avery gently pushed me out of the way as he closed the door, making sure to lock it behind him.

For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, I felt like the only thing standing between me and danger was a wooden door.

The four of us were so tense and anxious that evening, waiting around for Uncle Pat to come back, that we were jumping at every little sound, and barely picked at the mutton stew Aunt June had made. My mother had retired to her room after I gave her another book to read (a nice thing about Rose was that she’d often bring home books from school—I was never sure if it was her own doing or if her mother made her, but the books still came, giving my mother something to do with herself).

We didn’t talk about what had happened. Instead, everyone kept silent, perhaps locked in dreams about a better life. It wasn’t that the Smith’s homestead was lacking in anything—I do believe Uncle Pat was one of the wealthiest in town—but nothing ever came easy for any of the early pioneers. Supplies took forever to come in from the east, and the lack of real civilization in this territory only contributed to the isolation. Naturally, I was born in the small settlement, so I never knew any better and frankly was never curious about the big cities, but I could see Rose’s eyes wet with thought as she imagined spending the money on a stagecoach ticket back to St. Louis.

As for Avery, I wanted to ask him what he’d spend his money on, but I was afraid of two things. If I asked him, it would sound like I wanted him to go, which was the furthest thing from the truth, and I feared that he’d tell me it had something to do with Rose. A ring? Two stagecoach tickets out of here? Anything to buy a future.

I watched him carefully as he put on the fire, seeming to be taller now, stronger somehow. It felt like he’d grown up in the last few hours, standing up to those mysterious Texans and everything.

Thankfully, the house felt more full and relaxed with the sounds of the flames crackling and cooling our nerves. We were right peaceful when the front door jangled before being kicked open.

There was a split second where I thought it was the men and they were back to take me with them, regardless of what my uncle said. Instead it was my uncle, looking worn out, his hair disheveled.

He stopped when he saw all of us in the room, now sitting like eager cats in our chairs, our eyes on him and prodding for information.

“What in the dickens is going on here?” he boomed, shutting the door behind him. “What happened?”

“Did you find Martha?” Avery asked. If I didn’t know he was such an honest man, I would have thought he was just asking to be polite.

He nodded, brows drawn together. “Yep. On our way back. She was up in a pine tree, too afraid to come down. She’s hungry and shook up, but she’ll be all right. Though Ned gave us permission to shoot that dang horse on sight if we ever come across it.” He glanced over the rest of us. “Now you can’t all be that interested in Mrs. Kincaid’s well-being. Come on. Spill it.”

We glanced at each other. Aunt June’s lips were tight and her focus was on Avery. He told my uncle to take a seat in the rocking chair and then explained everything from the beginning.

I don’t know what I was expecting. Maybe for my uncle to think it was a terrible idea. But that wasn’t the case at all, at least not when it came to me heading out there. Dollar signs floated above his head.

“But dear,” Aunt June said, wringing her hands together. “She’s family and we’re responsible for her! We can’t send her off with a bunch of strange men. It’s obscene!”

His shoulder ticked up in a shrug. “Eve can handle herself.”

“Well, I won’t allow it. I wouldn’t do this to Eve or to my own flesh and blood.”

“Then let’s ask Gail, shall we?” He smirked at his own joke about my mother. I started thinking maybe a mountain expedition would be more preferable than spending my days here.

“Patrick,” Aunt June said shrilly. “No. Not unless Avery and a female chaperone go with her. She’s just eighteen.”

He rolled his eyes. “The more people to join her, the less money she gets. And we got married at eighteen. What else is Eve going to do with herself?”

“I don’t care. I promised Gail I would take care of her and that is what I’m doing.”

I couldn’t help but smile at my Aunt. She almost never spoke her mind, let alone stood up for me. Unfortunately, I could tell from the look in his eyes that this only made him despise me more.

“Fine,” he grumbled. “I’ll arrange for a chaperone.” He wagged his finger at Avery. “But just so you know, I’m taking some of your pay as well. It’ll help me find a replacement for you while you’re gone. Lord knows I can’t handle this ranch on my own with the both of you out searching for a lost cause. I don’t know what these men are expecting to find out there, but so long as they’re paying us, I don’t really care either.”

And that was that. My fate was sealed without anyone even asking what I wanted. Oh, I suppose if I had started making a fuss right away things might have been different, but I doubted it. If I refused to go, Uncle Pat would make my life miserable here and I couldn’t leave for good without leaving my mother behind.

“The men said they’d be coming back soon,” June said. “They didn’t seem the sort to have their patience tried.”

Uncle Pat sighed at that and told June to get her shawl, that they were going down the road to the Young’s and enquiring if one of their elder daughters would be willing to come along for a quarter of the pay.

Once they left out into the early night, Avery, Rose, and I sat around the fire and waited again.

“Eve,” Avery said, leaning forward on his wool pants and clasping his slender hands together. “If you don’t want to do this, just tell me. You have barely said a word about the whole ordeal.”

“It’s not for lack of trying,” I said dryly. “If I had more time to think about this, maybe I’d know how I feel. Honestly, I feel nothing right now. I don’t fear for my life because you’ll be with me. At the same time, I don’t want you to go.”

He nodded slowly and looked to the flames. I was very aware of Rose sitting quietly in her seat, her dress bunched up around her, watching and listening. “See, the problem is I do want to go. But I don’t want you to. And it seems we’re a package deal.” I smiled at that. He glanced at Rose and my smile faded. “Rose, what do you think of all this?”

She beamed at him with her pretty smile and bounced excitedly in her chair, patiently waiting all this time to tell us what she thought. “I think it’s a wonderful idea, this whole thing. How heroic you’ll be, Avery, joining those wild men and rescuing the poor souls out there.”

He sat up straight, chest puffed out like a pompous goose. “You’re right about that. And when I get back, I’ll buy you anything you want.”

When Rose nearly shrieked—as if she wouldn’t get some of the money I earned—and started yammering about getting a fancy cage crinoline because her starched petticoats weren’t holding up, I excused myself and headed upstairs to talk to my mother. The fact that Avery said he’d buy her something and that she was mentioning her undergarments was rubbing me in all the wrong ways, and the fact that I was bothered by that when I had a dire situation on my hands didn’t help.

I paused outside my mother’s door and knocked lightly. I never wanted to barge in on her, and when sometimes she didn’t answer the door, I left her alone. This night, however, I hoped she’d get up and let me in. Though she wouldn’t say a word, she needed to hear from me what was going on and I needed someone to listen. My mother and I had never really been close, but I still knew I could tell her anything.

I waited with my breath in my throat before she finally opened the door. I heard her scuttling back to her chair as I stepped inside the room. It was cold and dark save for a single candle on the bedside table. Aside from the stack of books alongside it, the bed, the washbasin, and the chair she was sitting in, there wasn’t much to her room. It was like she’d never been able to call it home. I guess I wasn’t much different either.

I sat down on her bed, the springs creaking beneath my weight while she stared at the flame dancing above the candle. That was her thing—she never looked like she was even aware of you sometimes, as if her mind was somewhere else. It probably was half the time, yet I knew she was very aware of everything.

“Mother,” I said, my own eyes drawn to the flame as well. I paused, gathering my thoughts. Our shadows danced on the walls. “Mother, I know you saw those men today. Heard them. Maybe you heard more than that. But they’ve asked for me to accompany them into the mountains. Rumor has it I’m the best tracker in town…I guess people didn’t know who to recommend with Pa gone.” I saw her flinch slightly at his name, so I knew she was listening.

I went on. “I don’t want to leave you here, but I know your sister will take good care of you. She was really worried about me, believe it or not, and made Uncle Pat agree to an escort for me. Avery is going too, which is both good and bad. At least you know I’ll be safe.” She continued to watch the flame. “I’m not even sure I want to go, to be honest. I…I have a strange feeling about it. Them showing up. The disappearance of the Donners and their search party. A horse trying to kill us last night because he didn’t get enough oats.”

I was trying to joke about that last part, foolish pride or something, playing off the fear. But my mom looked straight at me like she’d just snapped out of a dream.

I cocked my head, eyeing her quizzically. “What is it?”

She opened her mouth, trying to say something, but nothing came out. This was quite new—usually my mother never even attempted to speak. I watched her closely as she made a motion for a pen. Before I could do anything, she got up, her shawl flapping around her, and pulled out the bedside table drawer. She took out a pen and paper, and for the first time in a long time, she began to communicate with me.

She sat back down and wrote slowly, her forehead deeply creased, as if English was a foreign language, as if she’d never been taught to read and write, as if she’d never been more than a shell.

I tried to read her scrawl upside down.

You need to go.

I swallowed thickly, shocked that she would write that. Didn’t she worry about me? Didn’t she care?

“I’m getting paid but I don’t know how much we’ll get,” I explained, wondering if that was why she wanted me gone. “Uncle Pat will take most of it.”

She shook her head and tapped at the paper again. I nodded, trying to make sense of it, when she started writing again. I couldn’t see over the curve of her hand until she was finished and lifted it up for me to see.

You need to go. You need to find it. What’s out there.

A chill ran down my spine, though it could have been the draft in the room. The nights were getting colder, faster, another reason why I had a bad feeling about the expedition. And yet here was my mother, telling me to go, to find it.

“What is it?” I asked gently.

She shook her head, and as quickly as she had come to attention, her hands folded on top of the note and her eyes went back to the flame, turning glossy green as her mind went elsewhere.

I stayed for a few more minutes, hoping that she would come back to life but she never did. With a heavy sigh, I got up, tucked her shawl around her, and kissed her on top of her head before leaving her behind to her thoughts and the flame.

It was late when Uncle Pat and Aunt June came back, but they came with news.

Donna Young was one of Eldrich Young’s daughters. She was pleasant and in her mid-twenties, never married and completely devoted to God. She also had a great knowledge of first aid and had offered up a lot of the winter clothing she made on the side. She would be joining me and Avery on the expedition, not expecting anything in return. She said it was God’s will that she help. I wasn’t sure if I believed that but I was in no position to question it. I only felt sorry for her. I had met the men we were traveling with—she had not—and there was no doubt that Uncle Pat had sugar-coated the whole thing to sweeten the deal.

On the way back from the Young’s, they also ran into Tim who had been holing up in the Barker’s barn until it was time. They made the arrangements with him right there and then. Me, Donna, and Avery would join their search party, along with the extra clothes Donna was providing, and Ali, Avery’s mule that he was offering, getting more profit in exchange.

“So when do we get paid?” Avery asked Uncle Al as he rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes, ready to return to his home for the night.

Uncle Pat grunted. “Unfortunately not until you arrive in Sacramento, the cheap bastards. You better not go running off on me once you get to California. You owe me some back wages, don’t you forget it.”

Avery’s eyes flitted up to the second floor, resting on Rose’s room where she was now asleep. “I won’t forget it.”

I cleared my throat. “So when do we leave? We’ll need to hurry on if we want to beat some of the bad weather.”

Uncle Pat gave me a malicious grin. “Bright and early tomorrow morning.”

I gulped and exchanged a wary glance with Avery.

Just like that, everything about my life was about to change. There wasn’t even time to think about it. And yet, as I lay in bed soon after, knowing I had to get up early and leave this place behind, my thoughts kept hovering over what my mother had written. What she could possibly mean.

You need to go. You need to find it. What’s out there.

What’s out there. I didn’t even know if that was a question.