Joelle's Secret by Gilbert Morris

family?”
    “Well, my pa and ma died of cholera on the way to Oregon, like I told you, when I was only five. I had two older brothers and two younger sisters. I took off on my own when I was sixteen.”
    “Did you ever see them again?”
    “Never did.”
    He said no more, and finally she asked, “So you made out all right?”
    “Sure, I made it fine. We’re going to be all right. We’re going to go to California. We may not find any gold, but we’ll see the ocean.”
    They were quiet for a long time, and she was shocked at how his story had touched her. Finally he said, “You OK?”
    “Yep.”
    “Good-looking young fellow like you is gonna have a good time. Girls like young fellows like you. Why, that waitress in Fort Smith was in love with you.”
    “She was just silly, and she went for everything in pants.”
    “She liked you though. She couldn’t keep her hands off of you. Always called you ‘honey’ or ‘sweetheart’ or something. And you never gave her a tumble.”
    “Didn’t like her.”
    “Well, there’ll be some more.”
    “What about you? Have you ever been married or anything?”
    He suddenly laughed. “Never been married. I guess anything suits my love life. That just about says it.”
    “You sound like you don’t like women.”
    “Well, I had one give me a pretty hard bump. I guess I’m careful. Hard for me to trust any woman now.” He suddenly laughed. “You and me, Joe, we’ll be crusty old bachelors. OK?”
    “OK, Owen. That’s what we’ll be.”

Chapter Nine
    LONG SHADOWS GROWING EVER longer were thrown by the buildings that lined the front street of Independence, Missouri, as Owen and Joelle entered the town. Joelle was tired, for the days had been long on their journey and the nights short. Owen had wanted to make good time, and although the oxen lumbered along at a snail’s pace, they had traveled from sunup to nearly dusk, stopping only in time to cook a meal.
    During the time when Joelle sat across the fire from Majors, she had become more interested in him. He was like no man she had ever met, and constantly she was thinking about how her deceit would disgust him if he knew she was a young woman and not the lad he thought. She hated to deceive anyone but especially this man she had grown fond of. The fondness troubled her at times, but she realized that was because she had nursed him back to health. He had been so dependent on her that she could not help but think of him as weak. But he certainly wasn’t weak now.
    “Well, it looks like Independence has grown up a bit.”
    Joelle glanced at Owen. “You been here before?”
    “Oh, sure. Been awhile though. When I came through, there wasn’t half a dozen houses and a couple of stores. She’s humming now. This is the jumping-off place for all the wagon trains headed for California or Oregon. I liked it better as it was.”
    Joelle took in the main thoroughfare of the town, which, in essence, differed little from most small towns in the South. There was a brick courthouse with a dignified steeple, surrounded on three sides by a white picket fence. All around the square buggies and horses were tied to hitching rails. She saw that, for the most part, the town was composed of two-story frame buildings with steep roofs. There were a general store, hardware store, bank, hotel, livery stable, laundry, blacksmith shop, post office, and a sheriff’s office. There were also three saloons and a small weather-beaten church wedged in between a dentist’s office and a doctor’s office.
    “Whoa!” Owen called, and the oxen stopped obediently.
    “What do we do now, Owen?”
    “I guess we find Harry Jump. Let’s take these critters to the edge of town where we can stake them out. We can’t take them with us.”
    Fifteen minutes later they found a spot, and it was obvious that outside the town itself the wagon trains were forming up. Joelle spotted at least three as she watched Owen take the oxbows off the stock and tie them