The Course of Destiny

Chapter Five

I watched him leave then lifted my cup and tried a sip of the cold coffee. As soon as the strong flavored liquid hit my tongue I regretted it. I wrinkled my nose and set the cup down.

No wonder it keeps people awake. There's no way you could sleep with that disgusting taste in your mouth!

I started on the eggs. They were also cold, but I was hungry so I didn't mind it much.

Once I was done eating, I stood and looked around. I felt a bit awkward standing there while the men did all the work. They seemed to be almost finished, though.

As the other horses were being harnessed to the wagons, Wesley came over to me with Silver. "Do you want to ride on your horse or on one of the wagons?" he asked me.

"On a wagon, if you don't mind." The hours of riding the day before made me a little sore.

"Alright." He tied Silver's lead to the smaller wagon so he could follow behind.

I walked over to the same wagon and climbed on. Wesley did as well after he made sure the harness of the horse that was going to pull it was secured correctly. I called Archie over so he jumped on and lay at my feet. The other two men put a few last items in the big wagon, got onto it, and set off.

"So where are we going?" I asked Wesley.

"Near Emerald Ranch," he answered as he urged the buckskin horse forward, following the other wagon.

Holding onto the seat since these roads - if you could even call them that - were very rough, I looked around at the beautiful forest. The warm morning light shone through the trees and birds flapped around while singing their joyful songs. There were lots of squirrels as well, and I even spotted a fox. I took a breath of the crisp spring air, enjoying the nice day, though something started nagging on my mind.

Wesley's father and Giles weren't happy when I arrived the night before. His father seemed to be the most angry about it, as he hadn't said a word to or even acknowledged me. This bothered me. It was very kind of Wesley to let me stay with them, but I didn't want to be a nuisance. If I wasn't welcome by all three of them, I would have to leave and figure things out on my own.

"Something wrong?" Wesley asked, bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Well... your uncle, or mostly your father, I suppose, don't seem to like that I'm here. I very much appreciate you letting me stay, but I don't want to get in the way," I told him truthfully as I fidgeted with my skirt.

"They don't mind you being here. That's just how my father is. He doesn't mean anything by it."

"Are you certain?"

"Yes. But..."

I looked at him. "But..?"

"But, you have to pull your weight. Work hard."

"Oh, of course. I would do that even if I didn't have to. What kinds of things do you want me to do?"

"Uh... Probably things around camp."

"What, like cooking and cleaning?"

He was silent.

"Respectfully, I'm tired of doing those. I want to do new things. Isn't there anything else I could help with?"