The Far West Read Free

Parsons doesn’t know for sure where Lan is,” Allie announced. “I saw him after church yesterday, and I asked.”
    “Allie, I thought you knew better than that,” Papa said. “Mr. Parsons isn’t likely to have the whereabouts of a settlement rider at his fingertips, especially this late in the season.”
    “Well, he should!” Mama said in a cross tone that meant she knew Papa was right but she didn’t like it one bit. “Anything could happen out there.” Robbie made a face behind her back that nobody saw but me.
    Before Papa could reply, there was a knock at the door. Papa frowned; no one in Mill City came calling during thedinner hour. “I’d better see who it is,” he said. A minute later, we heard muffled voices in the front hall, but Papa didn’t come back. Just when Mama was about to send me or Allie to find out what was going on, the door of the dining room opened.
    “I’m home!” Lan announced.
    Allie burst into tears of relief. Mama gasped, then stood up to give him a hug. “My stars, Lan, you gave me a turn! Why didn’t you let us know when you were going to be back? We were expecting you a week ago!”
    “Allie had just about convinced herself that you’d been eaten by saber cats,” Robbie put in.
    Lan winked at me over Mama’s shoulder, then let go of her and turned to Robbie. “Things happened, and by the time I knew for sure when I’d get here, there wasn’t a mailbag heading east that would have beat me home.”
    I was looking from Lan to the doorway. Papa hadn’t come back yet, and Lan had an expression on his face that he only ever got when he was planning to surprise someone. “Lan?” I said. “What sort of things happened?”
    “Oh, this and that. No saber cats, though,” Lan said, and grinned. Now I was positive he was up to something. He stepped to one side and said in a too-casual tone, “I brought you a surprise, Mama.”
    “Is that why you’re so late?” Allie sniffed. “I can’t imagine what would make up for all the worrying we’ve done.”
    Lan shot me a look; then he turned to Allie and his grin broadened. “You tell me if it was worth the wait,” he said, and called back down the hall, “Come on in!”
    There was a rattle of footsteps, and six people crowded into the room, two adults and three childings, with Papa bringing up the rear.
    “Rennie?” Mama said, her eyes going wide. “Rennie!”
    “Auntie Eff!” my almost-eight-year-old nephew, Albert, said importantly. “Uncle Lan brought us. We came in a giant wagon! It took weeks , and there was a whole herd of mammoths. I was hoping they’d follow us, but they didn’t.”
    My niece, Seren Louise, aged six, was right behind him. “Auntie Eff, we saw a lady with a feather on her hat!”
    “Annie Eff, Annie Eff!” yelled Lewis. He was the littlest of the childings, barely three, and he seemed more interested in having an excuse to shout than in understanding what was happening.
    All three of the childings had grown enormously in the year since I’d last seen them, and they were all happy to be admired and wondered at. When Mama finished exclaiming over Rennie and passed her along to Allie, I told Albert and Seren and Lewis to come and meet their grandmother. Mama and Allie and Robbie had never met Rennie’s childings before, because they’d never made the trip out to the Oak River settlement, and neither Rennie nor Brant had been back to Mill City since they’d run off together eight and a half years before. I’d been to visit them at Oak River twice in the last two years.
    While Mama was busy hugging the little ones, I sat back. Brant was standing quietly beside the door, just watching. His brown eyes were tired, and there were lines in his face that hadn’t been there a year ago. My stomach clenched. He lookedmuch too sad and worried for this to be an ordinary family visit.
    I glanced at Lan. He looked just as tired, which didn’t surprise me if he’d just spent a week helping ride