west, just like Zane. We’ll have a good trip—you can count on us.”
“I’m happy too,” Dianne said, smiling. “It sounds like a great adventure, and I know Uncle Bram will be happy to see you. He wouldn’t want you living here without Pa—especially not with the war going on.”
“Whether he’ll be happy or not remains to be seen,” their mother replied. “This will be a difficult journey. We’ll have to help one another and learn as we go. No doubt some of the other women can teach us some of what we need to know. Other than that, we’ll have to depend on our own ingenuity.”
Dianne nodded, realizing that the trip would probably be hardest on her younger sisters. “I’ll help the girls as much as I can.”
“We’re big enough to help ourselves,” Ardith, the most headstrong of the Chadwick children, announced.
Dianne grinned. “Of course you are. I just meant that I’d give you an extra hand. I know you’re strong and smart.”
“What about school?” Ardith asked. “Come Monday, I was supposed to complete my report on George Washington.”
“School’s done for the year as far as I’m concerned,” Dianne’s mother said with a resigned sigh. “Are you sure this is the best time to go, Dianne—boys?”
“If we don’t go now, we’ll never get there by winter. The mountain passes fill up with snow early on. Like I said, I’ve been studying up on this,” Dianne replied.
Their mother nodded and smiled at Ardith and Betsy. “You’ll get by. I’ll help you with lessons until fall. Maybe by then we’ll be in Virginia City and there will be a school nearby.”
“That’s when we can get a dog,” Betsy announced, dropping her hold on the pigtail. “I want to call him Shep.”
Susannah picked up The Prairie Traveler and got to her feet. “That’s fine, Betsy. We’ll call him Shep. Now I’ve got some reading to do.”
With her mother’s clear indication that the discussion was over, Dianne and her siblings got up to tend to their various chores. Dianne still needed to dust their rooms upstairs as well as the store shelves, although she wasn’t sure it was necessary if they were leaving next week. Living over the store made the Emporium a natural extension of their living quarters. It also doubled the workload—not that Dianne really minded. She enjoyed working with the customers, though she absolutely hated bookwork. Her father had always kept the ledgers so it wasn’t any real concern to her, but now she was finding herself caught up with the unfamiliar task. She’d asked Morgan and then Zane for help, but neither one was interested. Trenton could have helped her, but he hated the store and refused to stay around any longer than he absolutely had to, preferring instead to be sent on delivery missions for his father.
“Do you think there will be other children on the trip west?” Ardith asked Dianne. Morgan and Zane slipped from the room while Betsy picked up the broom and began her job of sweeping.
“I’m sure there will be lots of children on the trip.Why do you ask?”
Ardith shrugged. “I just don’t want to go to a place that doesn’t have other children. I want to make friends, you know.”
Dianne thought of her own beloved friends. Especially Ramona and Sally. How would it be to go so far away and not have them to talk to? What would it truly be like to live on the open prairie? Where would they sleep and tend to private matters? Where would they go to church?
A rush of other questions filled her head. Maybe she’d made a mistake in pushing for this change. How would they survive the trip? How would they manage it all? She picked up the duster and began to work.
I really don’t know how to do much of anything for myself. How can I hope to help keep my family alive and well on such an arduous journey?
CHAPTER 2
D IANNE FOUND SLEEP IMPOSSIBLE THAT NIGHT. IT WASN’T UNTIL she heard Trenton sneak into the house that she could finally rest. She