Mona Hodgson - [Hearts Seeking Home 01] by Prairie Song Read Free Book Online Page B

crate no one else would have cause to open along the way?
    Anna lifted the lid on the biggest crate. Supplies for setting up housekeeping at the other end of the trip. Blankets, artwork, and Sunday dishes lay on the top. After peeling the first layers back, Anna removed two wrapped bundles in the center. The first turned out to be a vase. She unwrapped the second bundle and found an amber bottle. Whiskey, no doubt, Mutter’s drink of choice. Anna returned the empty wool blanket to the crate and set the bottle at her feet. Mutter wouldn’t have stashed just one bottle. She found another in Mutter’s trunk, wrapped in a dressing gown, and a third bottle in a sack of oats.
    While disappointed in Mutter, Anna was satisfied with her success. Now to dispose of them. Anna bent to retrieve the bottles.
    “Someone in there?”
    She’d just grabbed the bottle necks when the gruff, but familiar, voice startled her. The bottles clanged as she released them.
    “Who’s in there?”
    She couldn’t let Caleb Reger see inside. Moving quickly, Anna stuck her head out of the opening above the seat. The trail hand stood mere feet away, his boot propped on the tongue.
    “It’s me. Anna Goben.”
    His boot slid to the ground and he removed the derby from his head. “I’m sorry to disturb you. But I saw your grandfather and … I thought you’d all gone to supper at the Inn.”
    “I’m joining them shortly.”
    “When I heard rummaging, I thought there might be an intruder.”
    “Thank you for your concern.” Anna drew in a deep breath. “I was looking for something that had been misplaced.” That much was true. Liquor had no place in the new life awaiting Mutter.
    “Have you found what you were looking for?”
    “I did. Thank you.”
    “You said you are to join your family.” He glanced at the trees, awash in twilight-gray, and returned the derby to his head, causing a tuft of brown hair to stick out over each ear. “It’ll soon be dark. Your grandfather wouldn’t want you walking alone. Let me escort you.”
    “Thank you. But I will be ready momentarily, with plenty of light left for the short walk.”
    Caleb’s chest expanded in a deep breath. “Very well.” He brushed the brim of his hat. “Good evening, Miss Goben.”
    “Good evening.”
    When he turned toward the road, Anna withdrew into the wagon. She detested herself for putting on a false front like some sort of shopkeeper selling cheap baubles. But she hated the alternative even more. Mutter’s reputation was at stake. Anna wanted to believe that if the temptation were removed, Mutter could let go of the bottle. Doing so would be that much harder if her secret were out and the Company looked at her as an outsider.
    Anna slid the three bottles into an empty flour sack and set them on the grub box, just outside the back of the wagon. She wrapped a dark shawl about her shoulders, then climbed out of the wagon and looked toward the creek below. She wouldn’t have to sneak around forever. But for now, it was the only way to give Mutter the chance she needed to start fresh. And if it worked, Anna would also have a new beginning.

6
    T he next morning, Anna and Hattie stood on the edge of Boone’s Lick Road with Emilie. Anna’s bay whinnied and tugged against the reins, objecting to the lollygagging. The time had come to leave Saint Charles, but she and Hattie weren’t as anxious as her pony was to say good-bye.
    Clutching Anna’s note, Emilie wiped a tear from her cheek. “Remember to send the circular letters.”
    Anna nodded. “Every month. We’ll mail the first one this side of Independence.”
    The sound of clomping horse hooves and churning wheels rode the breeze. Distracted, Anna glanced over her shoulder at the line of white-capped wagons inching their way up the hill out of Saint Charles.
    She looked at Hattie. “We must go.”
    After one last hug for Emilie, Jewell, Mr. Heinrich, and Mrs. Brantenberg-Heinrich, Anna and Hattie climbed onto