Travis wasn't too happy about taking a stray dog and an old cat along on the ride, but he'd been married long enough to know better than to waste time arguing with determined women.
As the sun came up, they took a barge, leaving Galveston far behind for the mainland of Texas. Sage watched the water and thought about how Drum used to swim the river to visit her.
The man who'd touched her last night was nothing like the boy from years ago. She knew they were just pretending in the stairwell. He'd made that clear, just as she'd made it plain that all they would ever be was friends. Only for a short while in the total darkness, she hadn't wanted to pretend. She'd wanted a lover. Not Drum, but a real lover. He was too wild to ever be the man she needed.
Only when he'd been kissing her she hadn't thought about him being younger. She'd forgotten how wild he was. She'd forgotten that he made his living with a gun. All she had thought about was how he made her feel. In his arms, she'd been alive.
She'd promised herself when she was eighteen that she'd study and help people. She had also sworn she'd never care for a man who would die by a gun. Somehow Sage believed that promise would keep her heart safe. Only Barret never handled a gun in his life that she knew of, and he'd still died.
"You all right. Doc?" Bonnie said as she knelt beside Sage. "Don't tell me you're sorry to leave Galveston."
"No. I'm not sorry. I'm ready to get home.” Sage looked up at the nurse, thinking about how frightened she must have been during, the robbery. "How about you? Are you all right?"
"I'm fine. Good, actually. Mostly back there I was worried about you. I'm sure glad Mr. Roak brought you back safe and sound."
"Why do you call him Mr. Roak? He's not much more than a kid really.”
Bonnie shook her head. "I don't think of him as a kid and, judging from the looks other people turn his way, I'd say most people agree with me." She sat down beside Sage and added, "When I was no more than five or six, my parents took me to see a man speaking at our church. My father said he had greatness about him. He said some men are born to it, and there's nothing they can do but step into the shoes already made for them. I feel like Mr. Roak is that kind of man. It wouldn't be proper to call him by his first name."
Sage didn't see it, but Bonnie had her way about her, and she wasn't a woman to change. For the hundredth time, Sage tried to picture how bad things were for Bonnie in Boston. It must have been intolerable for her to agree to come to Texas.
They talked of their mission to open a doctor's office and a small clinic. Sage felt her world coming back in balance. She tucked away the time on the stairs and promised herself not to think about it again.
But that night when they camped, she lay on her bedroll and wished Drum's arm was around her for warmth. She ached for the feel of him against her, and all reasoning wouldn't make it go away.
Will sat beside her after breakfast the next morning. He had the old family Bible, wrapped in what looked like a deer hide, in his lap. His serious gaze watched her, and she knew he was waiting to say something.
"I need to ask you a question," he whispered.
"Of course”
"The captain said you're a real smart woman. He says you'd have to be, to be a doctor."
The boy looked like he was drowning in worry. "How can I help you?" she asked.
"My father told me if Andy and I ever found ourselves alone, that we were to talk to a judge we could trust, but I don't know how to find one. Your brother is a lawyer. Do you think he'd do? The Rangers talk about him as a great man and said he knows the laws”
Sage smiled. "Travis knows the law. He'll help you if he can. You can trust him."
Will nodded, thanked her for her advice, and stood. "I need to show him something before we go any farther. He might decide we're too much trouble to take along”
"I doubt that”
The thin little boy walked over to her big brother. Travis knelt to Will's level just as he always did when he talked to his son, Duck.
Sage watched them walk over by a pile of rocks while she began to break camp. She couldn't hear what they said, but Travis was obviously giving the boy his full attention.
When they came back to the wagons, neither made any comment about what they'd discussed, but Will had the hint of a smile and looked like he'd had a weight removed from his little shoulders.
Just before she climbed in the wagon, she kissed Travis on the cheek.
"What was that for?" he grumbled.
"For being my big brother," she said.
"I'm the best one," he teased, reminding her of years ago when her brothers always tried to get her to name the best among them. They hadn't been much older than Will and Andy when they'd taken on the job of raising her.
Travis lifted his arm, and the little caravan began to move.
It was late October when they reached Austin. Travis came home to a world of trouble. The capital seemed to be boiling over, with tempers flaring over the issue of slavery.
Like most Texans, Sage and her family didn't own slaves, but there was talk of Texas pulling out of the Union if the states split over the issue. Since Texas had entered as a sovereign country and not a territory, it had the right, at least to the minds of most Texans, to pull out. Texas had flown its own flag before, and it could again. But most people had come from other states, southern mostly. If the South fought, their loyalties would be there.
Travis was called away to the state capitol before he'd had time to change clothes.
Sage felt the turmoil moving in like a great storm and could hardly wait to leave, but Travis was torn. He wanted to go to Whispering Mountain with his family, but he knew his duty was at the capital. Travis stood with Sam Houston in wanting to keep the country together.
After three days trying to decide, he sent Sage and Bonnie and the Smith boys on alone with guards for safety. His wife, Rainey, refused to leave if he stayed, even though she cried when she said good-bye to Sage.
"We'll try to be there for Thanksgiving. If not, tell Jessie well make Christmas. Tobin and Liberty have promised then also." Rainey said.
Sage didn't feel like it would be home without two of her brothers there. In her heart she always thought they'd all live on Whispering Mountain and raise families. But they'd moved on to form families of their own, something she'd never have.
"Ready?" Bonnie whispered.
"Ready” Sage tried to smile. It was time to move on, she thought, in more ways than one.
The road between their home and Austin had been safe for years, but Sage still remembered the time she'd been on a stage and they'd been attacked. She left Austin well-armed and silently wishing Drummond were by her side.
•••
The third morning out of Austin, Bonnie Faye Pierce sat in the buggy alone. Over the miles she'd learned to drive the small, one-horse contraption that carried her, the luggage, and sometimes little Andy when he decided he needed a nap mid afternoon.
Sage usually sat beside Will in the front wagon. The seven year-old was good with the reins and could have handled the team alone, but Sage thought it safer to ride beside him. They were the lead wagon, setting the pace on the trail. Then came Bonnie in what everyone called "her" buggy. Next, a tough old man drove the four-horse team that pulled a wagonload of supplies for the clinic. Bringing up the rear were two wagons Travis's wife Rainey had packed with household supplies she thought they'd need to set up the apartment where they'd live in back of the clinic.
Bonnie couldn't believe this crazy dream of the doctor's was happening. Months ago in Boston right after they'd buried Dr. Barret Lander, Sage had told Bonnie of her plan. She'd even shown her a letter to her brothers back in Texas describing exactly what she needed to set up an office in a little town that didn't seem to have a name.