Jacob's Journal

Written by my Mother on the first page of this new personal Journal I read, To my handsome son Jacob Eurastus Payne —Happy Birthday. In giving you this gift, this Journal, I hope you fill the blank pages with the events of your life. Experience you will need will be inside.
As I place the lifeless body of my own Father in the wagon, I think about my Mother. How can I tell her? Two men took the money from his wagon…the money that would have paid off the rest of the debt against the ranch. Everything we worked for is lost, everything.
West is the direction I’ll have to go. Find a new life and a new living. Here, new St. Louis, Booth will find me, steal the wagon patents from me and kill me. Nick will go with me. Booth will wait…until I’m ready that is.
And then I met Virginia McNaughten. Things got better then. How much better, you’ll find out soon…