Woman of Courage (5 page)

“Thanks, I appreciate that.”

“Tomorrow is the Sabbath,” Amanda mentioned to Harvey as they were setting up camp that night.

“What about it?” he asked, not bothering to look up from the fire he was tending.

“The Bible says that God rested on the seventh day of creation. It was His example to us.”

“Uh-huh,” Harvey muttered with disinterest.

“If God rested, then so should we.”

“You can rest tonight on your sleepin’ mat,” Harvey shot back.

“I am referring to a full day’s rest—on the Sabbath,” she said, stepping up to him.

“How you gonna rest, knowin’ we’ve got all that ground to cover?” he asked gruffly. It was obvious that his irritation was mounting.

“I think it would be best if we only traveled six days of the week and rested on the seventh,” she insisted, standing her ground.

Harvey muttered an obscenity and spit on the burning logs. “Have ya gone loco, woman? We don’t have time to be sittin’ around on our backsides all day, restin’. I thought you was chompin’ at the bit to get to Oregon Territory and the Spalding Mission.”

“I am,” she answered sweetly, hoping to soften the man’s temper. “But since the Lord rescued us from those terrible Indians earlier today, I think it is only right that we should honor His commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy.”

“I’ll tell ya what, missy,” Harvey said, squinting his beady eyes, “you can ride on that horse of yours, prayin’ and even readin’ your Bible if ya want to, but we ain’t stoppin’ our travels for no day of rest, and that’s final!”

“But … but I thought….”

“Well, ya thought wrong!” He tossed another log onto the fire. “Now, if ya don’t mind, I’d like to have some supper, ’cause I’m hungry enough to eat a bear and a couple of jackrabbits besides.”

Amanda placed her hands on her hips and thrust out her chin in defiance. “May I remind thee, sir, that I am the one paying thee to act as my guide? Therefore, I feel I have the right to decide when we will travel and when we shall rest.”

He stepped close to her, so they were almost nose to nose. “Is that a fact?”

“Yes, it certainly is.”

Harvey’s deeply set eyes narrowed into tiny slits. “And may I remind you, Missy Pearson, that it’s me who’s gonna get ya safely across the Rocky Mountains, not God!”

“What about the things that happened today?” she retorted. “Was it not obvious that God intervened on our behalf?”

“Maybe He did, and maybe it was the fact that the Injun knew you were a Bible-thumper. Or it could have been just plain luck. Most Injuns are superstitious, and it don’t take much to spook ’em. Either way, I’m in charge here, so what I say goes!” Harvey slapped his calloused hands together.

“Well, I do not like it one bit!” Amanda snapped back.

“Whether you like it or not, we’re in Injun territory, and I say that come tomorrow mornin’, we’re gonna get up early, saddle our horses, and travel till the sun goes down.” He raised his bushy eyebrows and scowled at her. “Unless, of course, you’re fixin’ to let God take ya to Oregon Territory without any help from me.”

Amanda pushed her lower lip out in a pout. “Does that mean thou wouldst leave me here in the wilderness, alone and unprotected?”

He nodded, and spit again, just missing the toe of his boot. “You wouldn’t be alone. You’d have God with ya, remember?”

Knowing she had lost the battle, Amanda whirled around and marched off to get the needed supplies for making their evening meal. “What’s the use in arguing? Men can be so pigheaded,” she muttered under her breath. Amanda paused and looked upward.
Forgive me, Lord. I know I should not be so ungrateful or stubborn, but thanks to my equally stubborn guide, I will be forced to travel on the Sabbath. I hope Thou wilt understand and will not hold it against me
.

Amanda spent most of the following days quietly following Harvey’s instructions as they continued their journey. She barely managed to squeeze in time for her morning scripture reading and prayer, when Harvey ordered her to mount up. He meant what he said about traveling on the Sabbath, and as the weeks passed, Amanda realized she would never have a day of rest until they reached the Spaldings’ mission.

That man is deplorable
, she fumed.
He’s uncouth, ill-mannered, and doesn’t seem to care about God. It’s no wonder he isn’t married. No woman in her right mind would be desperate enough to marry a man like him
. Amanda wondered why Papa had hired Harvey as their guide.
But then
, she reasoned,
wilderness guides aren’t easy to come by, and Harvey does seem to know his way around. He should, I guess, since according to him, he’s been doing it a long time. And he surely understands the Indians a lot better than I do. I suppose I should be more grateful
.

“Looks like we might be in for a storm,” Harvey said, breaking into Amanda’s thoughts. “The wind’s pickin’ up, and a few raindrops just splattered on my nose.”

Maybe that is because thy nose is so big
, Amanda mused. Feeling guilty, she reminded herself that a good Christian woman, on her way to preach the Good News to the Nez Percé Indians, should not be entertaining negative thoughts about another human being—especially one who was trying to get her safely across the mountains.

Amanda had been so busy reflecting on her companion’s negative qualities that she hadn’t even noticed the change in the weather. Harvey was right, it was beginning to rain. The once crystal-blue sky had darkened with gray clouds, and the wind lashed angrily at the tree branches on all sides of the trail. She shuddered as the trees groaned, swaying from the force of the wind. The spooky, creaking sound teased her nerves.

“Are we going to stop and take shelter?” Amanda called to Harvey.

“Not yet,” he replied. “There’s too many trees here. Don’t wanna chance one of ’em blowin’ over on us. We’ll keep ridin’ till we find a clearing that looks safe.”

Amanda figured Harvey was probably right, although being in the seclusion of trees made her feel safer than when they were out in the open where they could be watched more easily. He always seemed to be right, though, and that irritated her more than she cared to admit. She reached behind and pulled a small tarp from one of her packs, while holding firmly to her saddle with the other hand. With difficulty, she managed to drape the covering over her head and shoulders, hoping it would shield her from some of the drenching rain.

“Is it always like this here in the Rockies?” she yelled over to Harvey. The rain pelted so noisily on the tarp that Amanda had to strain to hear his answer.

“Mostly in the springtime,” he hollered back. “It rains a lot in the mountains, ya know.”

No, she didn’t know. Until now, Amanda had never been in the mountains. She’d never been away from New York until this trip. She’d never seen anything like the vast greatness and majesty of these mountains.

Amanda shivered and wiped some raindrops from her cheeks. When she and Papa had first left home, she’d foolishly thought this trip would be a fun adventure. So far, there had been nothing fun or pleasant about her journey. The routine of riding all day was exhausting. Camping outdoors and cooking over an open fire were inconvenient. Her mission was worthy, and she shouldn’t complain, but there were times like today when she felt irritable and out of sorts. The damp weather had done nothing to cheer her melancholy mood, either. To make matters worse, she missed Papa something awful, and she didn’t think she’d ever stop blaming herself for suggesting this trip.

As they traveled on, the weather grew steadily worse. The wind howled eerily, and rumbles of thunder shook the earth with such force that Amanda wondered how the horses and mules stayed on their feet. Lightning zigzagged across the sky, and rain pummeled the ground with the fury of angry warriors, changing the trail to a sludgy mud. She held herself so tightly in the saddle and felt so tense with worry that she wondered how much longer her muscles could endure the stress.

Back East whenever there was a storm like this, Amanda would watch it through a window from the safety of their home. Those thunderstorms had never frightened Amanda like this violent weather. She figured it might be because they were outside with no protection. It felt so cold.

Just when Amanda thought she could take no more, the sky lit up with a jolt of lightning that streaked toward the ground and slit a tall pine tree right down the middle. It struck so close that the hair under her bonnet felt charged. Harvey’s horse whinnied and veered to the left, but it was too late. The tree fell with a mighty force, landing on top of both horse and rider!

Amanda screamed. “Harvey, no!”

A
manda screamed again, but it was drowned out by the fury of the wind and rain. Both Harvey and his horse lay motionless on the ground, pinned beneath a heavy tree.

She reined in her skittish mare and quickly dismounted. Stepping around the fallen tree, she dropped to her knees next to her guide. “Harvey, canst thou hear me?”

No response.

Amanda called his name again and again, but he lay there, unmoving, dark blood oozing from a gaping wound in his head. She placed her hand against his nose to feel his breathing, but the air was still. Harvey’s arm lay free from the tree, and Amanda felt for his pulse. Nothing.

Amanda watched helplessly as the last breath of life shuddered from the horse’s nostrils. As much as she hated to admit it, both Harvey and his horse were dead. As she reached out to close Harvey’s eyelids, sobs of anguish, coming from the depths of her soul, poured out. She’d not only lost her father, but now her guide was gone. Amanda was all alone, with nothing but two horses and two pack mules. She had no idea how to get to the Spaldings’ mission, and even if she did, what chance would she have of providing food, shelter, and protection for herself along the way?

“Oh Lord, what am I going to do?” Amanda wailed. Despite Harvey’s rough exterior and disinterest in spiritual things, the poor man was one of God’s creations, and he deserved a proper burial. She was fairly confident that she could manage to dig a grave, but how on earth was she going to move that tree off Harvey’s body?

Amanda’s horse whinnied, and she suddenly realized how the task might be accomplished. She would tie a rope to her horse’s saddle, and secure the other end to one of the larger limbs on the section of tree that had fallen on Harvey. If the horse could pull the tree aside, Amanda would be able to free Harvey’s body before digging his grave.

A strangled sob caught in her throat. “Dear Lord, please help me. I have never dug a grave before!”

Amanda’s legs trembled as she rose to her feet. The raging storm was slowly diminishing, with the thunder and lightning ebbing away, but the heavy rain continued. Maybe the rain would make the ground soft for digging. But if the ground became too muddy, it would be harder to dig. She took a rope from one of the supply bags and set to work. After nearly an hour, she managed to get the tree off Harvey and his horse. By then, the rain had stopped and the storm had moved on, although she could still hear thunder in the distance. Now she faced the chore of digging a shallow grave for the unfortunate man.

She found a shovel in one of Harvey’s packs and began digging into the wet earth. Once the hole was deep enough, Amanda gritted her teeth, and using what strength she had, she rolled Harvey’s body in. Then she covered him with a tarp and began the job of filling in the grave with rain-soaked dirt. When that was done, she piled several rocks on top, tied two sticks together to form a cross, and placed it at the head of the grave. There was nothing she could do about Harvey’s horse. He was too big and heavy for her to consider trying to bury. The animal would have to lie on the trail, to be eaten by the buzzards or whatever creatures might come along to claim it for a meal.

Amanda’s muscles ached so badly that it was all she could do to stay on her feet. Since they hadn’t stopped for their afternoon meal, she hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. But despite her fatigue, she felt no hunger. Her stomach had begun to churn, and she feared she might get sick. Turning away from the grave, Amanda went to the river, filled her canteen, and washed up. What she wouldn’t give to soak in a tub full of warm water. After taking care of Harvey’s body, Amanda had been splattered with mud, but the river’s water, cold from melting snow, was better than nothing.