Sweet Prairie Passion (Savage Destiny) by Rosanne Bittner

Author:Rosanne Bittner [Bittner, Rosanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DCA, Inc.
Published: 2012-09-23T05:00:00+00:00

Zeke decided it was best to leave the death site as soon as possible, and that afternoon they got underway to get in a few miles before nightfall. Olin Wales led the oxen for the Trent wagon, as Jason Trent still sat inside crying and drinking. Abbie sat at the back of the wagon, watching the little grave disappear.

“Jeremy Trent—age seven,” the market read. “A brave boy, who gave his life on the trail to Oregon.” She wondered how long the wooden marker would last.

* * *

Six days later, as they neared the north fork of the Platte, where they would have to cross the river again, Jason Trent had not improved. He’d been drunk most of the time and unable to lead his own oxen. He barely spoke and ate even less often. He’d brought along plenty of whiskey, for medicinal purposes and to trade with, but now he’d drunk up most of it, and by the ninth day after Jeremy’s death, the man was on his last bottle.

With Trent too drunk to think straight most of the time, and Abbie wrapped up in tending to him and doing everything by herself, Quentin Robards moved in on LeeAnn almost completely. She rode with him on his horse some of the time and spent all her spare time with him. She had become even colder and more distant toward Abbie since Jeremy’s cruel death. Now when Abbie needed her sister more than ever, she was unreachable, and the loneliness Zeke had predicted was becoming a hard reality.

Zeke and others tried to talk Jason Trent into wanting to live again. They reminded him that his daughters needed him; but the man only wailed that they were nearly grown, and that LeeAnn didn’t need him at all, for she had Quentin Robards now.

“Abbie, she’s the strong one,” he whimpered. “She’ll always be all right. She knows her way, my Abbie. She knows her way. Soon she’ll be gone from me, too. And I’ll have nobody—nobody!”

Always he used the same words. Jeremy’s death had seemed to affect the man’s mind to the extent that there was no reaching him.

They made it to the north fork, where they made camp on the east side. Everyone turned in early to rest up for the crossing in the morning, which Zeke promised would be as bad or worse than their first crossing. Jason Trent bedded down under the wagon, unable to bear being inside near Jeremy’s things any longer. Abbie fell asleep to the man’s soft sobbing. That sound was to haunt her forever, for it was the last thing she heard out of Jason Trent.

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