Courting Morrow Little: A Novel

  Books by Laura Frantz

  The Frontiersman's Daughter

  Courting Morrow Little

  LAURA FRANTZ

  To my brother, Chris, who has Christ's heart for a hurting world.

  Red River, Kentucke

  July 1765

  Morrow paused on the river trail to wipe her brow with the hem of her linsey shift. It was a true Kentucke July, and the woods were hot as a hearth, the leaves of the elms and oaks and sycamores curling for lack of water, the dust beneath her bare feet fine as flour. Even the river seemed like bathwater, its surface still and unbroken as green glass. She'd been following her brother Jessamyn to swim, but a treasure trove of wild grapes along the river's edge slowed her.

  "Morrow, quit your dawdlin," Jess yelled over his shoulder.

  She stuffed the grapes into her mouth till it wouldn't close then filled her pockets for him. His quick grin was thanks enough.

  "Why, them's big as marbles-or trade beads, he exclaimed, filling his own cheeks. "Reckon Ma would want some to make jelly?"

  "We can pick her some after we swim, she said, shucking off her shift and hanging it from a sticker bush.

  At the sight of her, Jess began to snicker. "Morrow Mary Little, you're fat as a grape yourself. And so white you hurt my eyes"

  Truly, she was as plump as she could be. Stout, Pa called her, like most of the Little clan. Though five years old, she'd still not lost her baby fat, and only her face and feet and hands were tan. The rest of her was white as milk.

  She grinned, bubbling with glee at his teasing. "You're so skinny I can see right through you. And you're brown as bacon"

  Only ten, he worked the fields alongside Pa like a man, tending tobacco and corn while she mostly toted her baby sister around and helped Ma spin. Joining hands now, they jumped off their favorite rock, shattering the river's calm. Cool at last, they surfaced, smiling, glad to be free of the fields and Euphemia's fussing.

  Morrow twirled in the water. "Ain't it fine-" she began.

  But the smile had slipped off Jess's face. He held up a hand as Pa sometimes did, forbidding further talk. Bewildered, she looked about. But her brother wasn't looking, he was listening. Beyond the noisy jays and flighty cardinals and whisper of wind, past the heat shimmers of midsummer and the wall of woods, came a startling sound. The humid air was threaded with shrieking and screaming.

  All at once Jess began to wade to shore. Morrow followed, but he turned, his freckled face suffused with a strange heat. "You stay put-don't even twitch-till I come back"

  She watched the woods swallow him up as she sat in the shallow water, unable to stand up any longer on her trembling legs, unable to listen to the shrieking and screaming out there somewhere. With her hands over her ears she waited, and then when the water turned cold she started up the trail to their cabin, forgetting her dress. Naked as a jaybird, she flew into the quiet cabin clearing. The slant of the sun told her it was nearly time for supper. But where was Ma calling her to come in? Or the ring of Pa's ax as he split wood? Or Jess reminding her to bell the cow before he turned her loose in the meadow? For once she even missed her baby sister's wailing.

  Her bare feet ate up the dry, dun-colored grass leading to the cabin porch. There on the steps, like a discarded doll, lay Euphemia. The dying sun lit her baby sister's wide blue eyes, only Euphemia didn't blink or cry. Had she fallen down and hurt herself? Morrow looked around. Where was Ma? Her breathing was a bit ragged now as she surveyed the toppled churn and water bucket by the cabin door. Some unseen hand seemed to tug her ever nearer, but she saw she'd have to step over Euphemia to get there, and she couldn't do it.

  Sweat trickled down her face, yet she started to shiver like it was winter, eyes on the open door. Frantic, she looked around for Ma and Jess and Pa. Digger should have been here too, alerting them with his bark, welcoming them home. As soon as she thought it, she saw his furry body beneath the rosebush to one side of the cabin, an arrow through his middle.

  An Indian arrow.

  With a cry she jumped over Euphemia and ran into the ransacked cabin. Ma was slumped over her spinning wheel, but Morrow couldn't get to her past the splintered furniture and broken glass and scattered clothes and quilts. A flurry of feathers from the tick that had been Ma's pride were dancing in the draft coming through the cabin door. They rained down around Morrow restlessly, soft as a snowfall, almost as white. Standing there, her heart hurt so fiercely she felt it would burst.

  "Morrow!"

  Behind her, hard hands scooped her up and tore her away from the sickening sight. Pa carried her to the barn, away from the blood and the smell of death and their torn-up things. But he couldn't remove the gruesome memory. And he couldn't explain why the Almighty had let it happen in the first place.

  Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania

  June 1778

  Morrow took out a painted paper fan, her gloved hands trembling, and recalled the look of horror on her aunt's face moments before when she'd embarked, as if she'd stepped into a coffin instead of a keelboat. Or perhaps Aunt Etta was ruing that she'd smothered her niece in silk, given the tobacco-chewing boatmen at the oars.

  Beneath the wide brim of her straw hat, Morrow's eyes timorously swept the deck. Was she to be the only female on board? And what of her escort?

  Up and down the rickety dock she looked, searching for the man her father had hired to bring her safely from Fort Pitt to Kentucke. Even with the summer sun in her eyes, it didn't take long to find him. Amidst all the folks lining the waterfront, one man stood out and was making straight for her. Although his attire was the same as almost every other settler in sight, he moved with an air of authority that nullified the need for any introduction. Only Ezekial Click could cause the crowd to part as decisively as the Red Sea.

  "Captain Click!" someone shouted.

  With a dismissive wave of his hand, the frontiersman turned toward her, his moccasins making short work of the long plank that dangled over green water smooth as a ballroom floor. He soon stood before her, his long rifle pointed toward the summer sky. He was leaner and more weathered than she remembered and wore a fringed linen shirt that fell to buckskin breeches. His long yellow hair and eyebrows were streaked white from the sun, and his fur felt hat was angled jauntily to one side, a turkey feather atop it. Brilliant blue eyes peered out of a brown face, instantly taking her measure. "Would you be Miss Morrow Mary Little?"

  "I am' Charmed by his use of her whole name, she dropped a small curtsy, which seemed only to amuse him.

  "It's been some years since I've seen you:" His voice was deep and mellow yet held a hint of command. She tried not to stare but couldn't help herself. It was this man who had wooed them into the wilds of Kentucke so many years before. Being a Quaker and a frontiersman, he seemed to have a fondness for preachers like her pa. Among all the rogues and ruffians who followed him onto the frontier, the new Kentucke settlements could stand a preacher's civilizing influence, he'd said. And so they'd followed him west and, she reflected, seemed to be following him still.

  "I reckon you remember little of that trip, he mused, shifting his rifle to his other arm.

  She flushed, eyes returning to the river. "Just the horseflies and the heat"

  But even as she said it, a bittersweet wave washed over her. She recalled her mother packing wafer-thin china plates into straw-lined barrels outside their summer kitchen in Virginia. Tearful goodbyes to neighbors and the fine brick home she'd been born in. And then the memory blurred to deep green woods so suffocating the sun never shone. One sweltering day atop a rocky precipice called Cumberland Gap, their wagon had tipped its load and sent those fine china dishes flying like pigeons into a shady chasm so deep they'd never see
daylight again. Her genteel mother, she remembered, had been pregnant and burst into tears. Was he remembering it too? The smile on his face told her he just might be, but then it slipped away.

  Was he also thinking of that simmering summer years before when her family's life had been torn asunder? He'd not speak of it, she guessed. 'Twas far safer to ponder what she knew of him. The man standing before her was a bit of a riddle, both revered and reviled in the Kentucke settlements. Rumor was he had a daughter so wild he'd had to carry her to finishing school in Virginia and was just returning from doing that. Morrow supposed Lael Click was nearly as well known as her father, what with her fair hair hanging to her feet. Though they'd never met, she'd heard enough to make her ears burn.

  "This won't be a pleasure trip, he told her, adjusting the brim of his hat.

  The warning in his words made her tense. Once again she was mindful of her fancy dress and ashamed she'd not had the sense to wear homespun. Did he think she was all lace and ribbons, not fit for rigorous travel? She noticed that he'd already dismissed her and was now perusing the polemen ... who were perusing her. With a flick of her wrist, she snapped open her fan so she could hide behind its feminine folds. Feeling flushed, she turned her attention to the rough wood of the boat, which was little more than a raft with a crude cabin atop it, the sides peppered with loopholes that bespoke danger. A floating fort, no less. Perhaps this was why the frontiersman looked so at home on it.

  His voice shifted to a more soothing tone. "You should see the Red River in two weeks"

  Two weeks. A fortnight and she'd be home. But would they ever make it? Aunt Etta's parting look told her they might not. Indians were known to lie in wait along the north shore of the Ohio River, intent on killing settlers who dared venture down that vast watery road. Her father was well aware of the danger and had hired the famed frontiersman as a hedge against trouble. If anyone could bring her safely home, it was he.

  But no matter how capable he was, Ezekial Click couldn't take away the fear she felt as the keelboat shuddered and left the dock, dodging a sandbar as it moved into the sluggish current. He led her to a barrel to sit on, the dark lettering on the side telling her it held rum. A morning mist hung over the three rivers that intertwined here, and an eternal wind set the ribbons of her hat aflutter like the fort flag high above. Softly she recited the waters' names to test her memory. The Monongahela, the Allegheny, and the Ohio-Indian words, all.

  As she pressed her back against the sun-warmed wood of the cabin, her eyes stayed true to the north shore, the Shawnee shore. She heard Captain Click remind the polemen to keep to the middle of the mile-wide river, well out of rifle range. Her gaze fastened on the place known as Fort Pitt. Its wooden walls were receding now, a brown bulwark atop a high hill overshadowing a scattering of Indian lodges encamped on the plain beneath. She squinted in the sunlight, remembering Fort Pitt was a place for treaties and trade goods. A gateway to the west.

  How safe was she? The grim set of Ezekial Click's jaw assured her she'd have been better off staying in Philadelphia. Unbidden, a Scripture learned at her father's knee rushed to mind. I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. The words wove through her head like a song. But solace her they did not.

  Captain Click served her a wooden trencher of greasy beans and bacon before joining the steersman, who held the tiller of a wide-bladed oar aft of the cabin. Night was falling fast, the stars winking at her like the jewels that adorned the gowns of the belles back in Philadelphia. But the evening air was still steamy, and the mosquitoes seemed more intent on her supper than she was. How she wished the Redcoats had evacuated the city in April instead of the heat of June!

  She slapped at a particularly large insect, thankful the army had finally evacuated at all. What was supposed to have been a simple six-month visit to her father's sister in Pennsylvania when she turned sixteen had stretched to two years. Morrow had arrived in that great city with the Redcoats on her heels, and the cozy visit she'd envisioned had changed into one of near servitude as the British took Philadelphia. Aunt Etta's humble dress shop in Elfreth's Alley had become an astounding success as officers' wives and the local ladies flocked to have gowns made for the weekly balls, horse races, and theatrical events.

  Remembering, she smiled wryly and looked down at the dress she wore. When the English ladies had left the city, they'd neither paid their bills nor collected their dresses, so Morrow was the beneficiary of this entrancing gown and a good many more. Aunt Etta's fine hand could be seen in all the feminine details of the ecru silk she now wore, from its silver thread to the blue sash about her waist. A veritable garden of flowers in full bloom adorned the hem of the full skirt, sewn with such stunning detail that Aunt Etta had been forced to make a half dozen of them. Morrow had soon been pressed into service, her humble sewing skills transformed as she assisted her aunt in catering to the high-minded women of the scarlet and gold regimentals.

  Dazzled at first by all the finery and fuss, she soon grew tired of the wearisome work. But it was more than this, truly. While Sir William Howe and his mistress led the unending gaiety in the city that first winter, General Washington's ragtag army was freezing and starving not twenty miles away at Valley Forge.

  Now, amidst the monotony of the boat, snippets of her life in the city returned to her like scenes from a play, full of color and drama in retrospect. Was it just a fortnight ago that Aunt Etta had all but begged her to stay?

  She'd been minding the shop when her aunt returned from the printer, her face a deep poppy red beneath the lace veil of her hat. 'Twas the heat, Morrow guessed, as June had bloomed so hot one could cook an egg on the cobblestone walk.

  After shutting the door so hard the shop bell jingled for half a minute after, Aunt Etta removed her hat, an elaborate concoction of raspberry silk and faux pearls and flowers, and arranged it on a wooden stand in the storefront window. Impeccably dressed, she was as much an advertisement for her services as the shingle embellished with the image of a needle and thread outside her door.

  "There's a new mantua maker six doors down;' she said, shedding her lace mitts and dropping them onto the countertop. "This woman is boasting she can sew a gown in one day! The printer showed me her advertisement himself, though I scarcely believed it"

  "One day?" Morrow echoed. "Perhaps a child's dress or an infant's christening robe. Certainly nothing like the gowns you turn out"

  "Not I, Morrow. We. The gowns we turn out. Just this morning Lady Richmond stopped me on the street and asked if you would embroider the hem and sleeves of her sacque gown for the coming officers' ball. I didn't dare tell her you'd be on some sinkable contraption halfway down the Ohio River by then' She began walking about the shop, stopping to straighten a stack of ladies' magazines on a tilt-top table. "Though there is still time, you know."

  Morrow paused in placing some silk masks on a shelf. "Time?"

  "To change your mind about. . " She hesitated, lips pursed sourly as if the very word was lemonlike. " Kentucke'

  Morrow expelled a little breath. "But the plan is in place. Pa's expecting me"

  "I daresay my need of you exceeds his need of you:'

  Biting back a reply, Morrow turned to the shelf and tried to change the subject. "Captain Keene and Mr. Marcum came in while you were away and purchased some things"

  Etta rounded the counter, eyeing the shelves of fabric. "My, but those two are running up quite an account. They're here nearly every day. I wish one of them would ask for your hand and be done with it. Then you'd have to stay on"

  Morrow tried to soften her aunt's agitation with a smile. "Mr. Marcum is more interested in shoe buckles and sleeve ruffs than me. And Captain Keene is said to be betrothed to a lady in England. Besides, I told them I was leaving."

  "And?" Etta paused, green eyes sharp.

  "Mr. Marcum bade me farewell. And Captain Keene.. " She felt herself go pink at Etta's probing stare. "The captain said he'd not frequen
t Elfreth's Alley quite so often once the sunlight of my presence had left this place"

  "Ah, I knew he was smitten!"

  "For all his pretty poetry, Aunt, the man is twice my age"

  "At four and thirty he's quite a catch. And a respected officer in the king's army, to boot. What prospects have you once you return to the wilderness?"

  "Prospects?"

  "Lice-ridden frontiersmen? Rum-soaked trappers and traders? Your father should be ashamed calling you home at such a marriageable age"

  As she remembered it afresh, Morrow's stomach clenched tight. What if Aunt Etta was right? What if she was making a terrible mistake returning to Kentucke? Sighing, she set down her half-finished plate and let the steersman's dog finish her supper, her thoughts turning toward home. She'd not seen her father in two years. Two years. Though her homesickness had been acute, the British occupation had kept her rooted to the little shop and house on Elfreth's Alley until today. But now she was free. Free! The stench of the city was fading away, and she could draw an easy breath. If notfor.. .

  Shutting the thought away, she lay down on a pallet in a corner of the keelboat's cabin behind a muslin curtain. Captain Click was never far away, his gun trained on more than Indians. He'd let no one take liberties with her, she knew. Perhaps he was thinking of his own daughter tucked safely away in one of the finest finishing schools in the colonies. Morrow wished he'd talk about her and ease the boredom that hung between them. But she'd heard that the frontiersman was a man of few words. Besides, he had little time for idle chatter. Though he lounged against the house of the keelboat like the most indolent loafer, his beaver felt hat pulled low over his astonishing blue eyes, his surveillance never ceased.

  The next morning, beneath the brim of her own hat, she stole a discreet look at him in the brilliant sunshine. Not a twig snapped along the north shore or a leaf stirred in the gentle wind that he wasn't unraveling its source. Sighing, she took out the volume of poetry Aunt Etta had packed and turned her attention to a bit of lighthearted verse. Only she wasn't lighthearted.