The stagecoach rumbled onward, sending dust through the window to the interior, where Nicole Tyler sat with seven other passengers, squeezed in like sardines in a can. She tried to focus on anything but how uncomfortable and hot she was, yet it was hard. It was autumn, when the days could turn from cold to hot in the blink of an eye.
Today was one of the most uncomfortable, hottest autumn days that Nicole could recall. It was torment sharing the tiny space of the coach with so many people.
As they sat squeezed together, inhaling each other’s body aromas, Nicole squirmed uncomfortably on the hard seat.
She was a beautiful girl, her hair the color of the fiery red setting sun she had witnessed so often from her home in Missouri. Her eyes were the color of the lush green grass in spring. Her face was oval, her cheeks were a lovely pink, and her lashes were thick and long. She drew attention wherever she went.
Today she wore a dark cotton floor-length travel skirt and a white long-sleeved blouse that did nothing for the shapely curves beneath her attire.
For the most part, she could be defined as petite, but she had been blessed with those attributes that drew too many a man’s notice, as far as she was concerned.
All that she wanted out of life was to be left alone to find her own happiness. Ever since she had been old enough to understand how a teacher shaped children’s lives sometimes even more than their parents, it had been her dream to teach. She wanted to help make children’s lives fulfilling and happy.
Soon this dream would come true, and she was delighted at the prospect.
She longed to be a teacher even more than she wanted to be a wife. Up until now, no man had interested her.
Ignoring the only man in the stagecoach today, and the way he seemed to fix his eyes on her much too often, she held on to the seat as she stared through the window.
As they passed beneath the welcome shade of tall and stately trees on both sides of the road, all she could think about was how anxious she was to get to Tyler City, where she would be reunited with her mother and father.
She loved her parents, but often during her
childhood, she had been given cause to question her father’s choices in life.
Most of her friends adored their fathers, but
her
father was vastly different from her friends’.
He had cheated his way into wealth by his skill at gambling. In fact, he had amassed enough money to leave their home in St. Louis, Missouri, and had bought up land in Utah, enough land to build a whole town.
Nicole’s face flushed red even now as she recalled the reason why they had left St. Louis. Her father had cheated at cards one time too many, and the leaders of that fine city had told him that if he didn’t take himself elsewhere, they would lock him up and throw away the key!
Her father had heard about Utah, with its green valleys, towering mountains, and rivers teeming with fish. His favorite pastime after playing poker was fishing.
Nicole had accompanied her father many a time when he went fishing in the muddy waters of the mighty Mississippi River. She had brought in many a delicious catfish that her mother had cooked and placed on the evening dining table.
She wondered whether her father was enjoying the fishing in Utah. Had he truly been able to put his gambling days behind him and enjoy spending time with his wife, whom he had often neglected while gambling was the most prominent thing on his mind?
Her mother had not enjoyed fishing or boating, so she had not shared those rare moments when Nicole joined her father on the river, laughing and talking.
Nicole had seen her mother smile with joy when Nicole’s father had told her that he was through with gambling and that he would build her a whole town in Utah that she could all her own!
It would be named after their family.
It would be called…Tyler City.
It had been decided that Nicole would stay in St. Louis until she finished her schooling and received her teaching credentials. Until only a few weeks ago, she had lived with her aunt Dot and uncle Zeb.
But now?
Having finally earned her teaching credentials, she was anxious to join her mother and father in Tyler City.
Her father had told her that with the town so new, everything from doctors to teachers were needed.
She would be the first teacher!
She had begun her journey west on a riverboat. Oh, how slow it had been.
After smelling the stench of fish that wafted in from the river, she had been glad to board a stagecoach for the final leg of the trip. Even now the smell of fish seemed to cling to her skin and clothes.
But it had been rugged traveling since she had
boarded the stagecoach. She ached all over, especially her behind.
The voices of children broke through her thoughts, bringing her eyes to the four little girls who had been silent for most of the trip.
But now their father had announced that they had almost reached their destination, a new, small town called Hope. Their excitement at this news showed in their lovely eyes and high voices.
Suddenly their father ordered them to silence, scolding that they were bothering the young lady.
Nicole almost spoke up to tell him that it mattered not to her if the girls were talking, but decided against it. After spending so many hours in the coach with this man, she knew that his word was law to his family. To them he was almost a god!
Her fellow travelers were a family of Mormons, which included four little girls and two wives. The man’s name was Jeremiah Schrock, and his wives’ names were Nancy and Martha.
But Nicole had not been told the names of the girls. When she had entered the stagecoach, the man had introduced himself to her, as well as his two wives. From that point on he had remained silent except for when he found reason to scold one daughter or the other.
Though he did not speak to her, he continued to give Nicole looks that made her very uncomfortable. He was a man of fine appearance, with a
square jaw that was prominent even though he wore a beard.
He had sparkling blue eyes, and was dressed in a suit of black that revealed muscles bulging against the tightness of the fabric. Nicole knew that he was the sort to attract many a woman’s eyes to him.
But not her. She hated the way he looked her up and down, as though he might be sizing her up to be his third wife!
That thought repelled her. This man had already taken two wives, seemed to enjoy lording it over them. She had no desire to be the third.
During this long trip on the stagecoach, Nicole had avoided the man’s stares by gazing out the window, while feeling pity for the poor things that he had already claimed as his.
They were timid women, who hardly spoke a word during their entire time in the stagecoach.
She now looked out the window just in time to see that the stagecoach was approaching the small town of Hope, where a small community of Mormons had been established.
Nicole strained her neck to see as much as she could of the place. She found it to be a lovely, quiet community of small, yet pretty, houses, all painted white.
Many children were running around outside, laughing and playing. She saw women hanging
wash on lines. She saw a vast garden planted with everything needed for survival.
Just as the stagecoach drew to a stop, Nicole smiled and waved from the window to a little girl. The child stared back at her from between a man and woman whom Nicole concluded were her parents.
Nicole flinched when one of the wives who was departing the stagecoach, the one named Nancy, stepped on Nicole’s foot. She realized quickly that it was no accident when Nancy glared at her as she stopped to meet Nicole’s gaze.
This woman had quietly sat by as her husband measured Nicole’s appeal, but she was obviously seething at the idea that Nicole might be her husband’s third wife.
Nicole wanted to tell Nancy that she would never consider joining their family, but kept silent as the woman joined the others outside. The members of the small community took turns embracing the new comers.
The girls were soon gone, holding hands with new friends, giggling, as they ran off to play.
The stagecoach lurched forward, jarring Nicole so much that she almost fell from the seat. She settled in again for the rest of the journey, thank goodness, this time alone.
She smiled as she thought about what lay ahead…her family’s very own town. She envisioned it being neat and pretty, and as peaceful as
the Mormon town that was now far behind her and soon forgotten.
Sighing in relief at having the coach all to herself, Nicole was pleased to see that she was now traveling through a beautiful setting of lush trees and thick, green grass.
She enjoyed smelling the scent of flowers that grew wild amidst the grass. Their varied colors gave the countryside the look of a patchwork quilt.
She gazed farther from the window and saw one of the tallest mountains she had ever beheld.
She had been told about this mountain before boarding the stagecoach. It was said that many Navaho people lived on it, renegades who had gone there to avoid conflict with the U.S. government.
She had heard that the Navaho had fled high up on that mountain to be safe from the cavalry, and also other enemy tribes.
She shivered as she recalled someone saying, too, that no one but the Navaho should go on that mountain or they might wind up being scalped.
Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by the shocking sight of rolling black smoke in the distance.
What alarmed her most was that the smoke was coming from the direction of Tyler City.
She stiffened when she heard the approach of a horse. A lone rider came up to the side of the stagecoach and shouted at the driver that he should turn the stagecoach around and drive
quickly back in the direction they had came from. He told them to flee for their lives, and Nicole felt sick inside when he explained why.
He was saying that things had gone crazy in Tyler City.
Murder!
Mayhem!
The stagecoach driver wasted no time making a wide, shaky turn with the stagecoach.
When Nicole realized that she wasn’t going to be taken to Tyler City after all, she stuck her head out the window and shouted at the driver.
“Stop!” she cried. “Please turn back. You must go on to Tyler City! You can’t leave those who are alive there stranded. You must go and help them. My…parents…are there. Please?”
“Not on your life, lady,” the driver shouted back at her. The stagecoach was now headed away from the burning inferno behind them. “Get your head back inside! Shut your mouth! I’m not ready to lose my scalp. Don’t you know it’s Injuns that are responsible for what’s happened there.”
Realizing that nothing she said would convince the driver to go to Tyler City, she knew that all that she could do now was try to convince him to stop and lend her a horse so that she could ride there, herself.
While she had lived with her aunt Dot and uncle Zeb in St. Louis, her uncle had taught her how to ride, and she was now as good as any cowpoke who might challenge her to a race.
“If you won’t take me to Tyler City, please at least lend me a horse so that I can go there myself,” Nicole shouted.
Her hair blew around her face and whipped against her cheeks.
She brushed it aside as she waited for either the driver or the guard to answer her.
The man who had warned of the devastation up ahead had already raced off to safety.
“Please, oh, please, at least do that for me,” Nicole cried when the men still didn’t respond to her. “My mother and father are in Tyler City. In fact, it’s my father’s town, established by him, and named after our family.”
That drew the driver’s attention.
He gave her a strange, pitying look, then drew the horses to a shuddering halt.
Nicole saw this as a positive sign. She grabbed her reticule and hurried out the coach just as the driver jumped down to stand beside her.
“It’s your scalp, lady,” he said, nervously shuffling his feet. “Guess I can spare one horse if’n you can cough up enough money to pay for it.”
Her heart pounding, Nicole opened the reticule and grabbed a handful of coins. “That’s all I have with me,” she said, searching the man’s dark eyes as she held the coins toward him in the palm of her hand. “Please say it’s enough. I truly must go and see how my parents are.”
He stared for a moment longer into her eyes,
looked at the coins, then shrugged and took the money.
As he shoved the coins into his front right breeches pocket, he hurried to the team of horses.
“I think you’re mighty foolish,” he said, as he finally separated a brown mare from the others. “It’s no skin off’n my back whatever you do, for the horses don’t belong to me, but the stagecoach company. I’ll just tell ’em this mare was stole by a bunch of Injun renegades.”
He placed a bridle and reins on the horse and led it to Nicole. “I think you should think again about what you’re going to do,” he said, before handing the reins over to her. “It sounds like bad trouble in that town.”
“I know,” Nicole murmured. She swallowed hard and glanced at her bag of belongings lashed to the top of the stagecoach. In it were her teaching certificate as well as other things precious to her.
She started to mount the horse, bareback, but stopped when the man who rode with the stagecoach as its guard pitched Nicole a rifle and a small leather bag of ammunition.
“I wouldn’t sleep nights if’n I hadn’t given you something to protect yourself with,” he said thickly. “I just wish you’d reconsider.”
The driver came with a saddle that he carried with him on his trips, secured it to the horse, and then got Nicole’s travel bag and attached it at the side of the saddle.
“You are too kind,” Nicole said as she opened her bag and wedged the rifle into it, with only the butt sticking up in the air.
She hurriedly mounted the mare, gave the men a quivering smile, then rode off in the direction of the black, rolling smoke.
She was afraid that she might already be too late to help her parents.