Frontier Bride (Harlequin Historical) by Seymour Ana

Author:Seymour, Ana [Seymour, Ana]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises
Published: 2011-07-15T04:00:00+00:00

They had divided the supplies and the animals evenly between the two flatboats. Hannah was relieved to discover that Ethan and the four Trasks would ride on one, while she would be on the other with the Bakers and the Websters. Each family had been allowed to keep two horses or mules, which, with Ethan’s horse, put three animals on one boat and four on the other. In addition, a double pen had been built on the Trasks’ boat to house five squealing piglets and a dozen chickens.

Nancy Trask had wanted to bring along a cow, in case her milk was not enough for the baby, but there were none available for purchase at the fort. Anyway, Hannah thought as she viewed the impossibly full deck, she didn’t see how a cow could have been squeezed onto either of these boats. There was barely room for the people who would have to make the vessels their home for the next few days.

In the center of each boat was a small cabin to provide shelter in case of bad weather. At the front and back were two long, attached oars that the boatmen at the Fort Pitt landing called sweeps. The vessels looked ungainly and inefficient next to the sleek bateaux of the fort traders, but they held an amazing amount of supplies. Hugh Trask in particular had piled dozens of crates and bundles on his boat, saying that he needed more supplies with a new baby on the way. Perhaps, in spite of how he had acted at the Hudson’s Bay post the other day, he was finally becoming more responsible about equipping his family.

Hannah watched from on board as the men made the preparations to cast off. The farewells had mostly been said last night, though Major Edgemont had come down to the docks this morning to say goodbye to Hannah and present her with a little bouquet of spring wildflowers. They lay wilting and forgotten in her lap as she sat perched on a barrel of salt, one of the more precious of the supplies they carried. Without salt they’d have no way to cure meat for the winter.

Suddenly there was a shout from Peggy at the front of the boat. “Hannah, Jacob’s going to fall right over the edge.”

Hannah sighed and pushed herself off the barrel. The children had been up since before dawn, excited about the adventure ahead. “Tell him to be careful,” she hollered back. She climbed over crates, plow parts, kettles, Eliza’s spinning wheel and other assorted clutter and made her way around the animals to the flat-nosed front of the boat. The gunwale surrounding the four sides of the boat was low. It would be easy for even a small child to tumble over it. Jacob was on his hands and knees hanging over the wooden lip to touch the water.

“Get back, Jacob. They’re about to launch and there’s going to be a jerk that could toss you right overboard,” she told him.

“I told you so,” Peggy said smugly.

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