Aggie placed a hand on her arm. “Don’t let him bother ye. Yer safe here among friends.”
Beti cast a glance up at Zeke. She trusted him. And while she’d decided that Toby would accompany her to Kentucky, she was glad that Zeke would be a part of the wagon train. Not that she needed to rely on him for anything, no, she could take care of herself, but it was good to know that the man would be there just in case.
Six
Zeke drove a new wagon with Mose in tow to Miss Polly’s boarding house. He hadn’t seen Beti, as he came to call her in his head, since the day she’d hired Toby Abbott to escort her to Kentucky. The man himself met them in front of the barn.
“That’s a fine-looking wagon, Mr. Smith.”
Zeke nodded at the pleasant greeting.
“Hey, Toby!” Mose hollered. “I reckon this will be ye rig for Kentucky?”
“Aye.” Toby made his way toward Mose leaving Zeke free to scan for Beti. He spied her just as she stepped out on the back stoop. The slanting late day sun lit the strands of hair escaping her cap. His breath stopped when joy radiated through her entire person at the sight of the wagon. Happiness that he had pleased her pumped through his remaining thoughts.
Zeke alighted favoring his right knee. He welcomed the pain that reminded him that it was wrong of him to think of Miss Sigridsdatter as Beti in his mind, along with all the other things he’d allowed himself to dream in the week since he’d seen her. Soon they would all join the wagon train, and it was just as well he abolished foolish notions. Though he could not squelch the feeling that this trip put her in danger.
She rushed to the wagon running hands along the side. “It’s beautiful.” Blue-green eyes gleamed as she took in his work. “It didn’t take ye very long.”
Pride swelled in his chest. “A wagon is not as complicated as a boat.”
“Thank ye for it.”
A shaggy black dog arrived at her feet and turned to face him. She reached down and plunged fingers into the scruffy fur. “That’ll do, Nellie.”
The dog relaxed its position though it waited for her next command.
“May I?” Zeke asked before extending a hand to the dog.
“Aye.”
The dog took a cautious sniff of his outstretched hand, but didn’t leave Beti’s side. Miss Sigridsdatter, he reminded himself.
“This is Nellie. She helps with the sheep.”
“Sheep?”
Beti waved a hand toward the pasture, where, on the far side, six sheep stood munching grass. That complicated matters.
“Ye are bringing sheep.”
Her answer was to look him straight in the eye. The challenge was clear in her steady gaze and her rigid shoulders. He could see the little fluffballs roaming all over the mountains while she chased them.
“Nellie keeps them from running away.” It was as if she read his mind the way he could read her body language.
He could do aught but smile. “I bet she does. Have ye considered predators?”
“I own sheep, Mr. Smith. I am constantly aware of predators. Nellie and I are a good team.”
“And the two-footed variety?”
A knowing look gleamed in her eyes as she raised her chin. “I have been aquatinted with those beasts as well.”
A powerful protectiveness rose in his spirit. How had she become acquainted with those particular beasts? Who had saved her?
“Are ye sure ye wish to make this trip? We keep hearing of savage attacks on the roads and settlements in Kentucky.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Are ye sure ye should be making the trip yeself? Ye know what happens to a single man caught by Indians in the fields?”
“Aye, but—”
“I will tell ye what I believe, Mr. Smith.” He kept quiet watching those magnificent eyes flash she rocked on her feet on her toes by the time she’d made her point. “I believe that when it is my time to die, the Lord will call me home. How it happens is not for me to decide, but I do know that it will not happen one minute before the Lord intends it to.”
Arguments about tempting fate and several others surged into his mind. He swallowed them.
He slapped a fist on the wagon. “I must go.”
She stepped back. Nellie stayed put.
A week later Zeke stood with Isaac and the others at the front of the forming wagon train on Main Street.
“As we’ve already discussed. I’ve spaced ye evenly through the line. As to the single women. I put Aggie behind ye Gordon so she won’t know yer keeping an eye out for her. Zeke yer last in line with Miss Beti in front of ye,” Isaac finished.
“What are we going to do with Aggie?” Mose asked in his usual wide-eyed no filter manner.
