p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Out of all of the men within the room, regardless of their status or wealth from the neighbouring properties, he was one of very few that bore a trace of the abnormal and wore nothing to signify the blessing of relative affluence. Of course it had never quite been as though any poorer men were unwelcome or unusual, although, for still there were a handful of individuals who were weathered and sweated through their coats, unable to spare enough to buy themselves a drink, yet this was a rich man's drinking hole. Armed and with dust under the nails, donning a jacket of the cheapest wool available around the entire state, he didn't belong in this place any more than a dog snatched up from the town's streets. Were he naturally any less charismatic it could not be doubted that he would be denied entry, although regular behaviour was sure to undergo an adjustment when no one was permitted to leave./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Keenly he was observed by one of the room's few women, hidden away by the leadlight window, staring up to the ceiling's carved fixtures. She supposed she might well have been drinking like the rest of that room's quiet, uncomfortable occupants, were she accepted as a man or if she wasn't expected to be accompanied in these late hours. Instead she lingered in the corner and swatted flies with an absent hand. Most of the room's other residents were the moths clinging to the dull electric light, yet even with the unfavourable and filthy atmosphere considered (dead insects were on the sills, the glass in the windows and floor dirtied by years of red dust and unwashed flesh), outside seemed far worse - if one was to glance beyond the window they would find distant flashes of lightning, illuminating an expanse of dying grass and unattended sheep. br /br /Even in the dusk, heat could be seen rising from roofs of sheds; it was, presumably, warm beyond belief, and with her shortness of breath from the channelled heat from all the room's other members, she did not doubt it. Her dress' collar rested high at her throat, containing all unnecessary humidity, black without reason for mourning. All hair was drawn sharply back against the skull./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"For several hours she'd relied upon several outlets in order to vent her boredom and frustration - it began with watching the men play cards, but she grew tired of that extremely quickly and from thence turned to desiring a drink, then company, then forgetting all about the idea of yearning for anything because she was troubled enough as it was and such thoughts were painful to muse too long upon. She was emterrified/em, besides - her heart had been erratic the entire time she had been there, silent and unable even to doze. The promise of a storm had been the first exciting thing she'd witnessed until this stranger had arrived, both drawing her focus and succeeding in keeping it./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Drawing back her concentration from idler thoughts, she realised that this particular new resident was strange largely in that she had not noticed his presence when first he had entered, yet then he had somehow appeared and had made himself rather comfortable by the other side of the room with a large quantity of alcohol he seemed more than pleased to be in ownership of. He talked jokingly, easily; his clothes and appearance made him at first seem like a squatter, but he had a particular manner about him, a confident laugh and unaffected conduct, that seemed to heavily suggest his origin was of something quite separate to a dependence on the weather and a lifetime of having selfishly quarrelled over land with both settlers and traditional owners alike./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Somehow this indication he was not something so ordinary actually proved consolatory, for if he was such a simple sort he would be far easier to dislike and hold in negative regard on the grounds of his existence being so corrupt in nature. Why this reassured her in any manner was bewildering for a time, at least until she saw him smile from across the room, pausing during the action of clearing sweat from her eyes, and realised he seemed so wholeheartedly likeable that it would be a shame to dismiss him so easily (her family's sort were landowners, the kind that claimed land as legitimately as it was possible to be in a country settled by the dishonest, but it was natural she had been raised in a manner of distrust). Every remark he spoke with ease, commenting good-naturedly upon the shots and hollers that still blew in from outside the hotel. "Nothing much to worry about," he commented aloud when yet another shot echoed in. "It'll be all over in an hour or two, no panic needed."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"The response was the first of several which she emdisturbingly/em strange, not merely because he displayed such a flippant understanding of the situation's many worrisome qualities, but because he seemed to even have a emgrasp/em of what was occurring. He was unusually courageous in speech, yet this trait made it enormously hard to tell if he was just a concerned resident or something else completely. As simple as it was, this quality of conviction immediately set him even further aside from the majority of the room's individuals. Contrastingly, this landowner's daughter had an uncertain kind of understanding, wrought of rumours and other brief excerpts of nervous assumption. It was near inconceivable to divide what was known from what was a presumed reality, so for this unknown figure to display such a reckless imitation of knowledge was near to disconcerting./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"She was taken at that time, however, by a fresh determination that, for the first time, did not wither immediately - one born mostly of curiosity but also from a sure wish to not waste away whatever hours were still to come by vacantly studying a man she knew nothing about and whom also made her oddly emfearful/em, craving an occupation. Rising silently, she made for the balcony, the door to which gave entry to both fresh air and any source of audible gunfire. The sun was ruthless, there; she stood above the road, draped in black, feeling she had burned her hands badly so soon as the iron railing came into habitual contact with her skin. Any sky was paled by sun, any metal reflecting the light and blinding those who studied it. All in all, it was quite unbearable, but in the very least the appeal was greater than sweating away indoors, alone and stressed by apprehension, all too certain that the very figure who so utterly fascinated her was equally dangerous to know and was the sort she would regret ever finding intriguing./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"It was the sight below that had earlier prohibited her from venturing outside; all that could keep her attention was the atmosphere of hot gunpowder on the road, guarded by bearded defenders, jeering at the small crowd of policemen whom had gathered, chortling amongst themselves. It was beyond anything she had ever quite imagined, both in happening and in the sheer intensity; it was easy enough to watch the scene's dramatics with no hesitance, once all of it was there and it was challenging just to look away, to take in the ecstasy of the occasion as anyone would when they could doubtlessly state they had only seen weapons fired upon passing wallabies and never before onto a trooper. For a time she was seized by it all to the extent that she no longer cared to save her flesh from being branded against the railing, but leant forwards with one hand cradling her chin, trying with all strength to identify something more about these loud-spoken assailants, transfixed./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"She knew their title, but she did not who they were, nor what motives they exactly sought to fulfil by holding up the hotel, harnessing all that profanity and threats could provide, then allowing their hostages to still indulge in comforts by having as much alcohol and music as they wished for. From what she could hear the festivities within were gradually starting, yet she would and could have no part in it, no place amongst the working men of this square, drunk establishment. Some would title her sheltered, yet there was in actuality very little to know about a community that settled about a small town and kept largely to themselves, far less than liberal with what pounds they earned./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Attempting to concentrate yet more intently upon the events below, setting aside any other irritations, something caught her eye strangely, like it was out of place even in comparison to the completely unfamiliar violence still persisting below, the assailants now gathered against the pillars. Peering close, it was not until she had swiftly spun around and exhaled, trembling, that she could register she had sighted a corpse - unmoving, cold, uniformed, emdead/em./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""How bad's this heat? Couldn't be worse in Hell, I reckon."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"The change in subject and direction was almost more surprising than the appearance of a new individual, a new face she had yet to look upon and consider./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"The stranger's initially most noticeable characteristic was his peculiar voice - it was a voice that seemed it could once have been English but then gave up somewhere along the line. While certainly she had heard her fair share of similar accents, all altered yet of the same strain, his was the heaviest she had yet encountered and significantly overcame what she regarded as the diluted quality of her own voice. It had made his sentences lift at the end and cut short his words, made them coarse to the ear but soft on the tongue. It was a voice of efficiency over elegance. Physically he had something of a juvenile look about him, clean-shaven and bright, fanning himself with his own hat. He looked over the balcony with an air of interest, and then turned back once again, grinning. "They're doing well down there, no doubt about it. They've given the traps a real scare, no less when it occurs to them your lot were never in terribly much danger to start with."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""I cannot say I understand you." The woman recoiled, pressing herself back against the balcony's decorated edge, ducking her head somewhat in an instinctive bid to avoid any such conversation with this unknown, this gentleman of entirely dubious profession and origin, concluding in her mind she would most certainly not permit him to see she had at all been affected by the scene below./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""I'm not fussed. I can say sorry now, though, if I'm bothering you."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"This talk of his was so utterly natural and disregarding of the situation's severity that he may as well have been remarking upon the weather. He emdid/emstop after a time, although, then looked up quite intently, just as it appeared to dawn on him why his comments were greeted with such an arresting silence, one sucked dry of appreciation for whatever intrigue he happened to draw from the situation as a result of his potential involvement./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Saw a bit too much, did you? Knew I should've locked the door earlier."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Her hand went to her throat, drawing motions against the flesh, kneading into it. "Nothing of the sort." Nothing more would she grant him; pleasant in manner or otherwise, it was not his place to interrogate her, let alone approach her while isolated against this metal alcove./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Feeling her own forehead, she brushed past the speaker, stumbling back indoors with both skin and mind burning in the aftermath. It was not enough that the stranger could merely return to his address of the locals at that time, however, joining with the jovialities that had begun to stir from the hotel's heated midst; he lagged slowly behind as she returned to the corner's silence, asking after her health a little hesitantly as he eyed her over. The attentive nature of the action concerned her, and so she said nothing, letting him talk conversationally of sun and promises of rain, of sheep that had perished of heatstroke and a kangaroo shot beside someone's field; he talked of small things, as though what was essentially a sort of siege had never once occurred and they'd met for the first time in a very different setting. Most of the room's other occupants still remained, casting her odd, sidelong glances, yet laughter rang from the neighbouring room./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"It was little wonder she'd found him so interesting. He acted like he didn't have a care in the emworld./em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""You'll be caught up in the crossfire out there, easy. Can't say for certain whether you would've been shot or not but I'd hate to be responsible for your death, you know."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Is there something you want from me?" Why the words were such an effort became an answer which escaped her knowing./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Nothing especially to speak of. Just want to make sure you're going alright before I head over to the next room."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Catching herself before she replied in any way that would reveal too much, she quietened, finding little else but irritation within this sudden consideration for her wellbeing. She was willed both to appreciate the care of his conduct and also to repel it immediately. All morality that persisted from her (clearly more emstrict/em) upbringing urged for a rebuttal, so much so that at last she decided she would reject any further offer of a distracting conversation. She had emdoubts/em, moreover, and his character posed a dozen different questions about why he mingled so confidently in the upper levels as opposed to remaining at the bar below. It also said something in that she had never before seen him in her life, even when her earlier fascination was considered./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""I apologise; my conduct was dismissive earlier. I did not intend to behave so startled on the balcony." That should have been the end of that, any sort of dismissal accounted for, yet still this weathered stranger persisted in such a light tone that his perseverance was not even detestable as it ought to have been./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Shaking his head, there came forth a laugh. "Absolutely no need for any of that. It's a real sight out there, and while I may not know what it is you saw you seem shaken to me, and there's nothing much wrong with that. Happens to everyone. No need to speak so formal, love." Leaning back against the back of a chair, he appeared triumphant as he glanced towards the ornate doors a couple metres from where he stood. "I'm glad the rest took my advice. Good thing for them to lose their cares while emthis/em-" He gestured to the entirety of the room, before jabbing a finger in the direction of the hotel's front facade. "- goes on."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"This unassuming, jovial countenance was in direct opposition to her own (she still could not bring herself to look upon the stranger directly, nor properly hide her tremors); his treatment of her was still emunwaveringly/em oblivious to her reservedness. He filled the gaps when she couldn't bring herself to speak, behaving in much the same manner as he treated the men - his speech conveyed very little awkwardness, despite how his appearance seemed to detract from the worth of any assumption he could live in a town and interact commonly with other women here and there. /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""You know something of it, then?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"He shrugged once. "Enough. The police won't step down and that's emtheir/emproblem."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"The repeated, potent sound of his accent was so amusing she could've smiled, however, and likely would have done were she not still completely perturbed by his unwavering interest and inappropriate remarks when he should not have been attempting to talk with her at all. He was far too quick with his words, besides, far too determined in both his delivery and mannerisms for her mind at the time. He was the type that never strayed from direct eye contact, and gave an impression of living for the short term delights of life more than anything else. While his manner lacked familiarity, it was still open enough that he behaved without hesitance and possessed a verbal boldness; he was emlikeable/em, just as she had earlier led herself to believe, but in part he was exhausting./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Tell you what, I'll leave you be in just a moment. Be back in a tick."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Part of her was weary by the time he got up and left, disappearing downstairs the same moment a roar of laughter came from the next room, now accompanied by clinking glasses and a piano - in the space of two hours the atmosphere had become joyous, merry and senseless, transformed from that early dullness even before the newcomer had arrived - it was nothing remotely similar to the fearing quiet that could be expected given the knowledge the hotel was being held up (who might have believed her were she to declare the bushrangers had been the perpetrators, encouraging the occupants to dance and drink themselves to oblivion?)./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Bearing two glasses, the gentleman made his return, scaring her half to death with the volume of his words."Bought you a drink," he said pleasantly, and then his grin returned. "It's the best thing to calm your nerves. Maybe now I'll have a word out of you, if you don't mind having me." Sitting down, he crossed one arm across his knee, the other already raising his glass to his lips, smiling against the edge. "It's brandy."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Flustered and incredulous both at once, she stared up him, working out a reply, examining first her drink's contents and then at the eyes before her. When she spoke it was done stiffly. "Thank you, sir, but I cannot accept this by any means. I should not be drinking. Besides, I do not even know your name, nor am I obliged to accept your generosity. You'll forgive me, but I cannot possibly say we are familiar or otherwise have a emremote/em understanding of each other."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Jack," was the simple reply, just as the at last identified individual pulled his jacket a little further over the revolver protruding by his waist. He seemed unaffected by the lack of a reaction his introduction received. "'Quite a nice town you live in, very modern with all that iron. It makes me think I'm back in Melbourne all over again, at least partly - no slaughterhouses up here." She watched him intently as he talked, noting the scent of horses and alcohol that lingered about him, his languid behaviour and sudden entry. All of it made her final conclusion seem emterrifyingly/em blatant./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"His enthused talk was cut off by her first sentence, spoken as carefully as the way in which she raised the glass of brandy. Still she would not touch the alcohol itself. She did all she could to contain a less than favourable note of faint antipathy, but still it seeped through, accompanying the declaration she hadn't believed herself capable of speaking aloud. The quiver there was feebly restrained./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""This is wrong, very wrong. emI/em should not be here. emWe/em should emnot/em be conversing. I am quite aware of who you are - you're the same as those men outside, I emam/emaware, and under emno/em circumstances should I emever/em be-"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"A reproachful look cut her off, even though her accusation, itself, seemed to have a spectacularly emunnoticeable/em effect, and that was granted it had one at all. Jack seemed to have predicted it from the outset. "It's a living; it's a damn good living. You learn to know the bush better than you know the cities and from there, it's simple." He talked in a low mutter, not even minding his companion's solidifying expression of emhorror/em. "Most of the smaller banks will surrender all the pounds they have at first sight and the rest need little persuading. I've never had need to kill a man." He glanced around, lifting his head from where he had lowered it and hunched his shoulders so his words would not drift beyond their table. Perhaps it was habit, but his hand fell to his side, back to where the firearm rested. When he was satisfied that no one had overheard he closed his hand over his glass of beer, returning to his regular posture. br /br /"The others work and bust wherever they might seize the chance. Personally, I think it's an absolute emthrill/em they let me come in here while the others do the taunting and have their own fun. I get to drink." He raised the glass in a mock toast, smiling once more, perhaps still completely unaware of his unappreciative audience and the reluctant mindset of his conversational partner, were she to be titled so./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"It was impossible to say whether or not she had ever quite desired to know these things of him, regardless of whether what had previously existed was a solid interest in his very being. She couldn't say if she ever had wished for him to sit across from her and treat her as an acquaintance, if only for the short time it lasted./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"At last she found her answer. "This is not for my ears to hear. Forgive me, but this is entirely improper and my family will think very ill of me. I felt a little faint and that is all you need to know."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"With that she swept up her skirts, rose immediately, and then got up to leave, almost wholly without guilt regarding how soon she had elected to abandon whatever pleasantries and small talk were offered by this overly agreeable bushranger. She did not even turn when that same lilt attempted to call her back again, yet when she reluctantly conceded he was neither pleading nor desperate within any realm of imagining. He merely extended out her glass to her, still drinking from his own. "Unlawful doesn't equal murderous. There isn't a drop of poison in there."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Moving forwards mechanically, she took the drink from him, staring at the contents as she absent-mindedly swilled it (he had bought it for her, after all, and it was naught but unkind to refuse the drink now). She meant to turn back, then, but a glance at the glass' contents made her hesitate, looking back over her shoulder at the bushranger, who surely had to be the most affable criminal she could imagine. "Oh, Lord, there's a fly in it." Laughing oddly, she handed Jack the alcohol, yet all he did was pick out the writhing insect and flick it away. /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Don't worry, it didn't drink much. Cheers."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Unable to believe a word she was hearing, she took back the brandy, intending to end the conversation there, although now it wasn't Jack but herself that hindered any goals she maintained, and a question burst forth from her lips. "Why is all of this occurring? Answer me that. That is all I need to know."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Jack looked amused. "Because it's good money. You get a lot of patrons here and thus a bigger number of paying people fretting about the hostages. This sort of tactic doesn't work too well both up north and down south, you see - just blew down here from Darwin week before last, and it's a graveyard up there, same as Adelaide. There's a bit of gold around the place and plenty of telegraph poles if that kind of thing interests you, but otherwise there's nothing to gain. Travel's getting quicker so it wasn't even that difficult. Arrived here a short time ago, settled out in the bush, rode out here come early morning, spent the whole day making a few bribes-" br /br /Stopping himself, Jack apologised, drinking again of his beer, dragging a sleeve across his lips before he spoke up. "Sorry, didn't mean to pretty much avoid your question entirely. Truth is that the climate's good here, and it's clever to make acquaintances while the chance presents itself - the more you've got on your side, better chance there is of you getting out untouched. If your lot think we're no threat and we give them all the drink they want, everything's fine. Moment they think we're a problem, though - well, all bets are off."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Yet you will not permit us to return."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Not while there's gunfire going on outside, no." The final word he spoke with a wry, singular shake of the head./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""I must say that, despite your reputation, you behave in a manner suggesting you care greatly for not only my health but everyone else's, as well. It seems conflicting to me."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""It's just common sense. But, regardless, I gather the impression I should have treated you better earlier, so sorry about that. It's a bad habit. I'll buy you another drink to make up for it, if that's what you're after."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Certainly not," countered the breathy reply, and the speaker gingerly set aside her brandy, instead lacing her fingers together. "All I want to do is leave this place. I do not belong here; they all look at me strangely. I want to leave here, emplease/em."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""That would defeat the purpose," replied Jack, suppressing another grin, looking like he was trying not to look too pitiful. "I'm sorry, but all this is done for a reason. I wouldn't keep you locked up here if I had a say. I do all this mostly because I find no fault in fleeing authority. Our history is unfortunate - that is, myself and your crude excuse for an emoperational/em police force - which isn't actually emmy/em fault, but here we are."br /br /"I would usually suspect otherwise."br /br /Jack snorted. "Are you British?"br /br /She glanced away, desperate for something to stare at. "Possibly."br /br /The width of his smile said quite enough about the conclusion to which he had been drawn./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Their banter continued for a short while after that, but it was not needlessly prolonged; she took her leave soon enough, ridding herself of any obligation to continue conversing with a bushranger. While his accepted occupation beforehand had not bothered her, she not found herself excessively nervous, afraid to meet his eye and take proper note of why he was armed and what things he had said to her sheer minutes beforehand, muttering across the dirty, furrowed wood of the table. Why on Earth was he emhere/em? Presumably it was because someone was required to be kept inside the hotel to survey the hostages, but it was hard enough coming to accept that she had inadvertently become a hostage to a gang of very few men with a remarkable amount of influence./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"He seemed so simple in nature, the sort of man that could make small talk with anyone and find it enjoyable. Even then, when she brought herself to glance up from her alcohol to look toward where he had been, she found he had drifted somewhere else and vacated his place. Given the surreal nature of his appearance, he may as well have never been there at all. She wished wholly to despise this bushranger of obscure origin, to hold him in distorted regard and find his every word to her forgettable. Yet he was, despite the degrading nature of his recklessness, perfectly entertaining yet boisterous. Jack was an acquaintance she could now say she had but also had never longed to know, one whom most probably desired to see upon the gallows, another dead bushranger to speak fearfully of in the paper./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"emBushranger/em. The term struck her as odd, unnatural. In her youth she had heard repeatedly of bushrangers throughout the state, of their exploits and virulent behaviour within various towns, threatening without reluctance. She'd seen their death masks flaunted, and been warned of the probable dangers of interstate travel (not that her sex, class or income would ever permit travel, yet all the same, the idea of being accosted was a miserable one). All of her knowledge suggested an inwardly preserved anxiety which was afraid to be corrected./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Standing once more, she took her brandy, getting up to search for the very figure that she very nearly walked into. He reeled back when she halted, adjusting his collar, holding a drink she was quite sure she hadn't seen earlier and was more than likely fresh./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Hello again. Before you ask, yes, this emis/emmy third drink." Pausing to take a long draught, his eyes did not leave her, even while she hesitated to allow him to finish./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"The young woman spoke through a dry throat, but the question that escaped her was entirely separate from her intention. "Were you subject to transportation?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"For some bizarre reason, it was emthat/emquestion that was the one to make him laugh as he truly hadn't beforehand. "A convict? My God, no. Although I probably should be, knowing my actions over this past year have been not emexactly/em in accordance with the law, by any means. Good thing you can't be transported to your own country, isn't it?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Have you robbed coaches?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Jack whistled, studying the dregs of his glass. "Sure have. I lost count some time ago."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"While already she had subconsciously taken a drink of the brandy, she quickly set it down once more, stirred by his remark. "Would you call yourself arrogant, sir?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""I think I'm honest, which you might dispute, and you're quite free to have your own outlook. In truth I would regret to be told I in any way appear conceited. Not a good reputation to have."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""You are quite comfortable with your profession, so I fail to understand why being understood as arrogant would concern you." /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""It's unbecoming," Jack replied, voice uncharacteristically soft, but in a way that seemed still not fully serious. "I see myself differently. I don't ask for much, just a bit to live on and something to entertain now and again. Speaking of which, are you a dancer?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"It was not the first question of the evening to catch her off guard, feeling intrusive despite its simplicity. A large part of her didn't even want to reply lest he know something emalmost/em personal. A sense of dread overcome her a moment after she responded. "No. No, I'm afraid not."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Whatever emotion she had expected to dawn upon Jack was replaced seamlessly by an odd look of relief. "That's good, because personally, I'm dreadful. Just wanted to make sure before you assumed I was decent, but of course if you'd said 'yes' I could quite easily pretend I had an inkling of what you were on about. Nonetheless, I'm up for giving it a go."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""I don't believe I ever implied I was eminterested/em in dancing."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Neither did I, but it doesn't matter. You look bored out of your mind."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Well, I emhardly/em think this is suitable," she began, yet Jack stood at the same moment, setting aside his empty glass and dusting off his hands for whatever reason he deemed it necessary. Music slipped through the doorframe on the opposite end of the room, an avid concoction of a rather poorly played violin and a piano that seemed it was being utilised by someone who'd had too much to drink. Every note would have been misshapen were it to be recorded on paper. Thankfully, it was a short term trial to endure, yet something about the uneven cacophony made it seem wholly suitable to the situation./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Now, I don't have a single clue what to do. From what I know you just move your limbs a bit and that's it. Is there something I'm missing here?" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Perhaps, although again I must confess I know very little on the topic."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""At least you know something. My knowledge of it, well - it's a bit of a disgrace." It seemed she would be betraying herself were she to admit he was making her laugh, even if, still, what she knew of him was shallow. All the same, it was only after much persuading that they wound up at the door, then shortly after amidst a sweating, vivid throng in the room over, ears assaulted by the music's onslaught, strangely caught up in a dancing mass of individuals who, remarkably, all seemed rather happy where they were, an atmosphere of merriment persisting. Everything was all dark skirts and untucked waistcoats, a stressed violin and laughter that temporarily drowned out the unceasing animosity outside the hotel./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Look at that," murmured Jack, chuckling to himself, reaching outwards to toss his hat onto the dusty floor. "They haven't got a clue. The constables'll be having an absolute fit when they see this. A whole town of people perfectly satisfied even with emus/emhanging about. What a laugh!" Raising his chin to peer over the crowd, moving his head this way and that, he appeared to nod briefly to the fellow playing the violin, giving an odd gesture and another of his grins. Almost immediately it was returned, although the violinist was swaying so it was difficult to tell./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"When Jack turned his head back toward his companion, his hand was caught in his hair, and for a time his eyes were rather vacant, at least until he blinked and it all was swept away in an instant. "'Think I might remember something, now." Readjusting their hands with a great deal of effort, Jack was biting the inside of his mouth, doing nothing to avoid the image of a dance-concerned incompetency from prevailing. When both were at last settled after several minutes of quiet disagreements and questions, they were able to fall into a sufficient albeit awkward stance, one which was pitifully clumsy but, all the same, was suitably peculiar, for both found themselves laughing. While they had begun hesitant, particularly the young woman, in time the dance became quite tolerable./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""I think I must've forgotten how boring dancing is, as least these types," said Jack, wincing just as a horrifically misjudged note was struck upon the piano. "Let's liven it up - how about you tell me how you wound up here?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""I'm sorry?" Her mind had been so occupied with recalling (as well as improvising) dancing that having a question all of a sudden directed back toward her was bizarre. "I... Well, I should not have actually been here to begin with. I came along with someone else and was left here soon after, just before your group arrived." Her eyes went to the ceiling, torn as to whether or not she could find it in herself and later consider it justified if she were to say anything else. Already the situation was precarious, even if it was pleasurable - she had been abandoned within a hotel, left to her own devices for two hours, then been encountered by a man of unlawful character who simply happened to be astonishingly likeable. What could she tell without it becoming later regrettable?/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"It time, it was due only to his unchanged look of interest that she obliged. "My brothers have been interstate for a fortnight. I was brought here by my uncle, who wanted to collect a package from a patron for some reason or another, and requested I come with him in order to help with the bundle. Still none of the agreement makes much sense to me, but once we were here he went outside to talk to someone, and then your gang came. I don't know where he went."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Jack's expression altered momentarily, and he stilled their dance. "What'd he look like?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"She provided a brief description, heart quickened by anxiety. "He didn't... Leave me here, did he? What do you know?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"The next words she was waiting for came very slowly, Jack running his tongue over his teeth before speaking, practically drawing out the moment as much as was plausible. "Think we might've scared him off, actually. Your family own any property out near the bush?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"A nod. /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"The bushranger's laugh was short and held nothing close to his regular joviality. "Well, that'd be it, then. I know, I'll take your mind off of it."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Stirred deeply by the news of her apparent isolation, it was immensely difficult to fathom those next words. "A story, you mean? I would feel like a child again."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Don't worry, it's a good one." Falling into silence, he let their odd dance resume, speaking up again a few seconds after. "Alright, here goes. So I was born by the banks of the Murray, down south - fair while from here, but that's irrelevant. My father grew oranges, but my other relatives all had sheep so we ended up tending to emthem/em a lot of the time. Anyway, one day one of the sheep ran off somehow, and I ended up chasing the bloody thing right into the bush. Tripped a couple times, then; hell, by the time I caught it I was dripping wet..."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Their talk extended another two hours after that, initiated with stories and ending with conversations. They spoke of simple, homely things, the criminal and the landowner's daughter; Jack proved himself earnest as much as he was loud-spoken, and in time it was easy to forget who exactly he was, and for what reason he dwelt in the hotel that evening, armed and energetic. The storm came and went, scarcely heard above the abused piano, yet even while it was raging it was a joyous occurrence because both were quite aware of what relief it provided. Truly, neither might ever had possessed the capacity to imagine they would find one another so amiable, or in any way a well of intrigue./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"The bush stone-curlews had overcome the lorikeets' cries by the time the candles were out and Jack's name was called; he was obliged to pull himself away, to descend to the lower levels with a quiet apology on his lips and find himself disposed after all those hours of conflict./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""The police have finally cleared off. They relented at ten o'clock," Jack explained when he returned, plucking his revolver from his waist. "The hostages are all free to leave. I would let them all know, myself, but they'll work it out. Same goes for you. I'd hang around 'til morning, though - the roads are hell this time of year."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Now I know your profession, I am well aware I ought to view you as knowledgeable," was the reply. Most other coherent terms of address she'd composed faded the next second when Jack leant forwards, pressing a kiss to her cheek./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Was a pleasure meeting you, darl'," he said briskly, drawing back with his gun cocked and eyes bright. "Stay around the area. I'll be back by May, probably; the weather's not bad. Don't worry yourself too much in the meanwhile."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Prior to that evening she never could have imagined herself crestfallen by a bushranger's departure, let alone one whom could quite easily have taken her life from her; indeed, she hurried to the front window, leaning against the filthy glass to watch him leave the hotel, smiling despite her own nature and decorum./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"She was still smiling when a number of shadows crossed forth from a building across the road, wearing uniforms that glinted even beneath the weak light of the moon. She could see Jack's stolen horse, see the panic in the twitching, nervous limbs of both animal and rider. She could see the weapons raised, hear the profane and furious shouts./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"She didn't even have time to scream when the horse stumbled forward and Jack was shot dead. /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Keenly he was observed by one of the room's few women, hidden away by the leadlight window, staring up to the ceiling's carved fixtures. She supposed she might well have been drinking like the rest of that room's quiet, uncomfortable occupants, were she accepted as a man or if she wasn't expected to be accompanied in these late hours. Instead she lingered in the corner and swatted flies with an absent hand. Most of the room's other residents were the moths clinging to the dull electric light, yet even with the unfavourable and filthy atmosphere considered (dead insects were on the sills, the glass in the windows and floor dirtied by years of red dust and unwashed flesh), outside seemed far worse - if one was to glance beyond the window they would find distant flashes of lightning, illuminating an expanse of dying grass and unattended sheep. br /br /Even in the dusk, heat could be seen rising from roofs of sheds; it was, presumably, warm beyond belief, and with her shortness of breath from the channelled heat from all the room's other members, she did not doubt it. Her dress' collar rested high at her throat, containing all unnecessary humidity, black without reason for mourning. All hair was drawn sharply back against the skull./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"For several hours she'd relied upon several outlets in order to vent her boredom and frustration - it began with watching the men play cards, but she grew tired of that extremely quickly and from thence turned to desiring a drink, then company, then forgetting all about the idea of yearning for anything because she was troubled enough as it was and such thoughts were painful to muse too long upon. She was emterrified/em, besides - her heart had been erratic the entire time she had been there, silent and unable even to doze. The promise of a storm had been the first exciting thing she'd witnessed until this stranger had arrived, both drawing her focus and succeeding in keeping it./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Drawing back her concentration from idler thoughts, she realised that this particular new resident was strange largely in that she had not noticed his presence when first he had entered, yet then he had somehow appeared and had made himself rather comfortable by the other side of the room with a large quantity of alcohol he seemed more than pleased to be in ownership of. He talked jokingly, easily; his clothes and appearance made him at first seem like a squatter, but he had a particular manner about him, a confident laugh and unaffected conduct, that seemed to heavily suggest his origin was of something quite separate to a dependence on the weather and a lifetime of having selfishly quarrelled over land with both settlers and traditional owners alike./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Somehow this indication he was not something so ordinary actually proved consolatory, for if he was such a simple sort he would be far easier to dislike and hold in negative regard on the grounds of his existence being so corrupt in nature. Why this reassured her in any manner was bewildering for a time, at least until she saw him smile from across the room, pausing during the action of clearing sweat from her eyes, and realised he seemed so wholeheartedly likeable that it would be a shame to dismiss him so easily (her family's sort were landowners, the kind that claimed land as legitimately as it was possible to be in a country settled by the dishonest, but it was natural she had been raised in a manner of distrust). Every remark he spoke with ease, commenting good-naturedly upon the shots and hollers that still blew in from outside the hotel. "Nothing much to worry about," he commented aloud when yet another shot echoed in. "It'll be all over in an hour or two, no panic needed."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"The response was the first of several which she emdisturbingly/em strange, not merely because he displayed such a flippant understanding of the situation's many worrisome qualities, but because he seemed to even have a emgrasp/em of what was occurring. He was unusually courageous in speech, yet this trait made it enormously hard to tell if he was just a concerned resident or something else completely. As simple as it was, this quality of conviction immediately set him even further aside from the majority of the room's individuals. Contrastingly, this landowner's daughter had an uncertain kind of understanding, wrought of rumours and other brief excerpts of nervous assumption. It was near inconceivable to divide what was known from what was a presumed reality, so for this unknown figure to display such a reckless imitation of knowledge was near to disconcerting./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"She was taken at that time, however, by a fresh determination that, for the first time, did not wither immediately - one born mostly of curiosity but also from a sure wish to not waste away whatever hours were still to come by vacantly studying a man she knew nothing about and whom also made her oddly emfearful/em, craving an occupation. Rising silently, she made for the balcony, the door to which gave entry to both fresh air and any source of audible gunfire. The sun was ruthless, there; she stood above the road, draped in black, feeling she had burned her hands badly so soon as the iron railing came into habitual contact with her skin. Any sky was paled by sun, any metal reflecting the light and blinding those who studied it. All in all, it was quite unbearable, but in the very least the appeal was greater than sweating away indoors, alone and stressed by apprehension, all too certain that the very figure who so utterly fascinated her was equally dangerous to know and was the sort she would regret ever finding intriguing./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"It was the sight below that had earlier prohibited her from venturing outside; all that could keep her attention was the atmosphere of hot gunpowder on the road, guarded by bearded defenders, jeering at the small crowd of policemen whom had gathered, chortling amongst themselves. It was beyond anything she had ever quite imagined, both in happening and in the sheer intensity; it was easy enough to watch the scene's dramatics with no hesitance, once all of it was there and it was challenging just to look away, to take in the ecstasy of the occasion as anyone would when they could doubtlessly state they had only seen weapons fired upon passing wallabies and never before onto a trooper. For a time she was seized by it all to the extent that she no longer cared to save her flesh from being branded against the railing, but leant forwards with one hand cradling her chin, trying with all strength to identify something more about these loud-spoken assailants, transfixed./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"She knew their title, but she did not who they were, nor what motives they exactly sought to fulfil by holding up the hotel, harnessing all that profanity and threats could provide, then allowing their hostages to still indulge in comforts by having as much alcohol and music as they wished for. From what she could hear the festivities within were gradually starting, yet she would and could have no part in it, no place amongst the working men of this square, drunk establishment. Some would title her sheltered, yet there was in actuality very little to know about a community that settled about a small town and kept largely to themselves, far less than liberal with what pounds they earned./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Attempting to concentrate yet more intently upon the events below, setting aside any other irritations, something caught her eye strangely, like it was out of place even in comparison to the completely unfamiliar violence still persisting below, the assailants now gathered against the pillars. Peering close, it was not until she had swiftly spun around and exhaled, trembling, that she could register she had sighted a corpse - unmoving, cold, uniformed, emdead/em./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""How bad's this heat? Couldn't be worse in Hell, I reckon."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"The change in subject and direction was almost more surprising than the appearance of a new individual, a new face she had yet to look upon and consider./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"The stranger's initially most noticeable characteristic was his peculiar voice - it was a voice that seemed it could once have been English but then gave up somewhere along the line. While certainly she had heard her fair share of similar accents, all altered yet of the same strain, his was the heaviest she had yet encountered and significantly overcame what she regarded as the diluted quality of her own voice. It had made his sentences lift at the end and cut short his words, made them coarse to the ear but soft on the tongue. It was a voice of efficiency over elegance. Physically he had something of a juvenile look about him, clean-shaven and bright, fanning himself with his own hat. He looked over the balcony with an air of interest, and then turned back once again, grinning. "They're doing well down there, no doubt about it. They've given the traps a real scare, no less when it occurs to them your lot were never in terribly much danger to start with."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""I cannot say I understand you." The woman recoiled, pressing herself back against the balcony's decorated edge, ducking her head somewhat in an instinctive bid to avoid any such conversation with this unknown, this gentleman of entirely dubious profession and origin, concluding in her mind she would most certainly not permit him to see she had at all been affected by the scene below./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""I'm not fussed. I can say sorry now, though, if I'm bothering you."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"This talk of his was so utterly natural and disregarding of the situation's severity that he may as well have been remarking upon the weather. He emdid/emstop after a time, although, then looked up quite intently, just as it appeared to dawn on him why his comments were greeted with such an arresting silence, one sucked dry of appreciation for whatever intrigue he happened to draw from the situation as a result of his potential involvement./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Saw a bit too much, did you? Knew I should've locked the door earlier."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Her hand went to her throat, drawing motions against the flesh, kneading into it. "Nothing of the sort." Nothing more would she grant him; pleasant in manner or otherwise, it was not his place to interrogate her, let alone approach her while isolated against this metal alcove./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Feeling her own forehead, she brushed past the speaker, stumbling back indoors with both skin and mind burning in the aftermath. It was not enough that the stranger could merely return to his address of the locals at that time, however, joining with the jovialities that had begun to stir from the hotel's heated midst; he lagged slowly behind as she returned to the corner's silence, asking after her health a little hesitantly as he eyed her over. The attentive nature of the action concerned her, and so she said nothing, letting him talk conversationally of sun and promises of rain, of sheep that had perished of heatstroke and a kangaroo shot beside someone's field; he talked of small things, as though what was essentially a sort of siege had never once occurred and they'd met for the first time in a very different setting. Most of the room's other occupants still remained, casting her odd, sidelong glances, yet laughter rang from the neighbouring room./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"It was little wonder she'd found him so interesting. He acted like he didn't have a care in the emworld./em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""You'll be caught up in the crossfire out there, easy. Can't say for certain whether you would've been shot or not but I'd hate to be responsible for your death, you know."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Is there something you want from me?" Why the words were such an effort became an answer which escaped her knowing./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Nothing especially to speak of. Just want to make sure you're going alright before I head over to the next room."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Catching herself before she replied in any way that would reveal too much, she quietened, finding little else but irritation within this sudden consideration for her wellbeing. She was willed both to appreciate the care of his conduct and also to repel it immediately. All morality that persisted from her (clearly more emstrict/em) upbringing urged for a rebuttal, so much so that at last she decided she would reject any further offer of a distracting conversation. She had emdoubts/em, moreover, and his character posed a dozen different questions about why he mingled so confidently in the upper levels as opposed to remaining at the bar below. It also said something in that she had never before seen him in her life, even when her earlier fascination was considered./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""I apologise; my conduct was dismissive earlier. I did not intend to behave so startled on the balcony." That should have been the end of that, any sort of dismissal accounted for, yet still this weathered stranger persisted in such a light tone that his perseverance was not even detestable as it ought to have been./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Shaking his head, there came forth a laugh. "Absolutely no need for any of that. It's a real sight out there, and while I may not know what it is you saw you seem shaken to me, and there's nothing much wrong with that. Happens to everyone. No need to speak so formal, love." Leaning back against the back of a chair, he appeared triumphant as he glanced towards the ornate doors a couple metres from where he stood. "I'm glad the rest took my advice. Good thing for them to lose their cares while emthis/em-" He gestured to the entirety of the room, before jabbing a finger in the direction of the hotel's front facade. "- goes on."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"This unassuming, jovial countenance was in direct opposition to her own (she still could not bring herself to look upon the stranger directly, nor properly hide her tremors); his treatment of her was still emunwaveringly/em oblivious to her reservedness. He filled the gaps when she couldn't bring herself to speak, behaving in much the same manner as he treated the men - his speech conveyed very little awkwardness, despite how his appearance seemed to detract from the worth of any assumption he could live in a town and interact commonly with other women here and there. /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""You know something of it, then?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"He shrugged once. "Enough. The police won't step down and that's emtheir/emproblem."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"The repeated, potent sound of his accent was so amusing she could've smiled, however, and likely would have done were she not still completely perturbed by his unwavering interest and inappropriate remarks when he should not have been attempting to talk with her at all. He was far too quick with his words, besides, far too determined in both his delivery and mannerisms for her mind at the time. He was the type that never strayed from direct eye contact, and gave an impression of living for the short term delights of life more than anything else. While his manner lacked familiarity, it was still open enough that he behaved without hesitance and possessed a verbal boldness; he was emlikeable/em, just as she had earlier led herself to believe, but in part he was exhausting./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Tell you what, I'll leave you be in just a moment. Be back in a tick."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Part of her was weary by the time he got up and left, disappearing downstairs the same moment a roar of laughter came from the next room, now accompanied by clinking glasses and a piano - in the space of two hours the atmosphere had become joyous, merry and senseless, transformed from that early dullness even before the newcomer had arrived - it was nothing remotely similar to the fearing quiet that could be expected given the knowledge the hotel was being held up (who might have believed her were she to declare the bushrangers had been the perpetrators, encouraging the occupants to dance and drink themselves to oblivion?)./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Bearing two glasses, the gentleman made his return, scaring her half to death with the volume of his words."Bought you a drink," he said pleasantly, and then his grin returned. "It's the best thing to calm your nerves. Maybe now I'll have a word out of you, if you don't mind having me." Sitting down, he crossed one arm across his knee, the other already raising his glass to his lips, smiling against the edge. "It's brandy."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Flustered and incredulous both at once, she stared up him, working out a reply, examining first her drink's contents and then at the eyes before her. When she spoke it was done stiffly. "Thank you, sir, but I cannot accept this by any means. I should not be drinking. Besides, I do not even know your name, nor am I obliged to accept your generosity. You'll forgive me, but I cannot possibly say we are familiar or otherwise have a emremote/em understanding of each other."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Jack," was the simple reply, just as the at last identified individual pulled his jacket a little further over the revolver protruding by his waist. He seemed unaffected by the lack of a reaction his introduction received. "'Quite a nice town you live in, very modern with all that iron. It makes me think I'm back in Melbourne all over again, at least partly - no slaughterhouses up here." She watched him intently as he talked, noting the scent of horses and alcohol that lingered about him, his languid behaviour and sudden entry. All of it made her final conclusion seem emterrifyingly/em blatant./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"His enthused talk was cut off by her first sentence, spoken as carefully as the way in which she raised the glass of brandy. Still she would not touch the alcohol itself. She did all she could to contain a less than favourable note of faint antipathy, but still it seeped through, accompanying the declaration she hadn't believed herself capable of speaking aloud. The quiver there was feebly restrained./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""This is wrong, very wrong. emI/em should not be here. emWe/em should emnot/em be conversing. I am quite aware of who you are - you're the same as those men outside, I emam/emaware, and under emno/em circumstances should I emever/em be-"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"A reproachful look cut her off, even though her accusation, itself, seemed to have a spectacularly emunnoticeable/em effect, and that was granted it had one at all. Jack seemed to have predicted it from the outset. "It's a living; it's a damn good living. You learn to know the bush better than you know the cities and from there, it's simple." He talked in a low mutter, not even minding his companion's solidifying expression of emhorror/em. "Most of the smaller banks will surrender all the pounds they have at first sight and the rest need little persuading. I've never had need to kill a man." He glanced around, lifting his head from where he had lowered it and hunched his shoulders so his words would not drift beyond their table. Perhaps it was habit, but his hand fell to his side, back to where the firearm rested. When he was satisfied that no one had overheard he closed his hand over his glass of beer, returning to his regular posture. br /br /"The others work and bust wherever they might seize the chance. Personally, I think it's an absolute emthrill/em they let me come in here while the others do the taunting and have their own fun. I get to drink." He raised the glass in a mock toast, smiling once more, perhaps still completely unaware of his unappreciative audience and the reluctant mindset of his conversational partner, were she to be titled so./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"It was impossible to say whether or not she had ever quite desired to know these things of him, regardless of whether what had previously existed was a solid interest in his very being. She couldn't say if she ever had wished for him to sit across from her and treat her as an acquaintance, if only for the short time it lasted./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"At last she found her answer. "This is not for my ears to hear. Forgive me, but this is entirely improper and my family will think very ill of me. I felt a little faint and that is all you need to know."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"With that she swept up her skirts, rose immediately, and then got up to leave, almost wholly without guilt regarding how soon she had elected to abandon whatever pleasantries and small talk were offered by this overly agreeable bushranger. She did not even turn when that same lilt attempted to call her back again, yet when she reluctantly conceded he was neither pleading nor desperate within any realm of imagining. He merely extended out her glass to her, still drinking from his own. "Unlawful doesn't equal murderous. There isn't a drop of poison in there."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Moving forwards mechanically, she took the drink from him, staring at the contents as she absent-mindedly swilled it (he had bought it for her, after all, and it was naught but unkind to refuse the drink now). She meant to turn back, then, but a glance at the glass' contents made her hesitate, looking back over her shoulder at the bushranger, who surely had to be the most affable criminal she could imagine. "Oh, Lord, there's a fly in it." Laughing oddly, she handed Jack the alcohol, yet all he did was pick out the writhing insect and flick it away. /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Don't worry, it didn't drink much. Cheers."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Unable to believe a word she was hearing, she took back the brandy, intending to end the conversation there, although now it wasn't Jack but herself that hindered any goals she maintained, and a question burst forth from her lips. "Why is all of this occurring? Answer me that. That is all I need to know."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Jack looked amused. "Because it's good money. You get a lot of patrons here and thus a bigger number of paying people fretting about the hostages. This sort of tactic doesn't work too well both up north and down south, you see - just blew down here from Darwin week before last, and it's a graveyard up there, same as Adelaide. There's a bit of gold around the place and plenty of telegraph poles if that kind of thing interests you, but otherwise there's nothing to gain. Travel's getting quicker so it wasn't even that difficult. Arrived here a short time ago, settled out in the bush, rode out here come early morning, spent the whole day making a few bribes-" br /br /Stopping himself, Jack apologised, drinking again of his beer, dragging a sleeve across his lips before he spoke up. "Sorry, didn't mean to pretty much avoid your question entirely. Truth is that the climate's good here, and it's clever to make acquaintances while the chance presents itself - the more you've got on your side, better chance there is of you getting out untouched. If your lot think we're no threat and we give them all the drink they want, everything's fine. Moment they think we're a problem, though - well, all bets are off."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Yet you will not permit us to return."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Not while there's gunfire going on outside, no." The final word he spoke with a wry, singular shake of the head./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""I must say that, despite your reputation, you behave in a manner suggesting you care greatly for not only my health but everyone else's, as well. It seems conflicting to me."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""It's just common sense. But, regardless, I gather the impression I should have treated you better earlier, so sorry about that. It's a bad habit. I'll buy you another drink to make up for it, if that's what you're after."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Certainly not," countered the breathy reply, and the speaker gingerly set aside her brandy, instead lacing her fingers together. "All I want to do is leave this place. I do not belong here; they all look at me strangely. I want to leave here, emplease/em."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""That would defeat the purpose," replied Jack, suppressing another grin, looking like he was trying not to look too pitiful. "I'm sorry, but all this is done for a reason. I wouldn't keep you locked up here if I had a say. I do all this mostly because I find no fault in fleeing authority. Our history is unfortunate - that is, myself and your crude excuse for an emoperational/em police force - which isn't actually emmy/em fault, but here we are."br /br /"I would usually suspect otherwise."br /br /Jack snorted. "Are you British?"br /br /She glanced away, desperate for something to stare at. "Possibly."br /br /The width of his smile said quite enough about the conclusion to which he had been drawn./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Their banter continued for a short while after that, but it was not needlessly prolonged; she took her leave soon enough, ridding herself of any obligation to continue conversing with a bushranger. While his accepted occupation beforehand had not bothered her, she not found herself excessively nervous, afraid to meet his eye and take proper note of why he was armed and what things he had said to her sheer minutes beforehand, muttering across the dirty, furrowed wood of the table. Why on Earth was he emhere/em? Presumably it was because someone was required to be kept inside the hotel to survey the hostages, but it was hard enough coming to accept that she had inadvertently become a hostage to a gang of very few men with a remarkable amount of influence./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"He seemed so simple in nature, the sort of man that could make small talk with anyone and find it enjoyable. Even then, when she brought herself to glance up from her alcohol to look toward where he had been, she found he had drifted somewhere else and vacated his place. Given the surreal nature of his appearance, he may as well have never been there at all. She wished wholly to despise this bushranger of obscure origin, to hold him in distorted regard and find his every word to her forgettable. Yet he was, despite the degrading nature of his recklessness, perfectly entertaining yet boisterous. Jack was an acquaintance she could now say she had but also had never longed to know, one whom most probably desired to see upon the gallows, another dead bushranger to speak fearfully of in the paper./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"emBushranger/em. The term struck her as odd, unnatural. In her youth she had heard repeatedly of bushrangers throughout the state, of their exploits and virulent behaviour within various towns, threatening without reluctance. She'd seen their death masks flaunted, and been warned of the probable dangers of interstate travel (not that her sex, class or income would ever permit travel, yet all the same, the idea of being accosted was a miserable one). All of her knowledge suggested an inwardly preserved anxiety which was afraid to be corrected./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Standing once more, she took her brandy, getting up to search for the very figure that she very nearly walked into. He reeled back when she halted, adjusting his collar, holding a drink she was quite sure she hadn't seen earlier and was more than likely fresh./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Hello again. Before you ask, yes, this emis/emmy third drink." Pausing to take a long draught, his eyes did not leave her, even while she hesitated to allow him to finish./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"The young woman spoke through a dry throat, but the question that escaped her was entirely separate from her intention. "Were you subject to transportation?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"For some bizarre reason, it was emthat/emquestion that was the one to make him laugh as he truly hadn't beforehand. "A convict? My God, no. Although I probably should be, knowing my actions over this past year have been not emexactly/em in accordance with the law, by any means. Good thing you can't be transported to your own country, isn't it?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Have you robbed coaches?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Jack whistled, studying the dregs of his glass. "Sure have. I lost count some time ago."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"While already she had subconsciously taken a drink of the brandy, she quickly set it down once more, stirred by his remark. "Would you call yourself arrogant, sir?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""I think I'm honest, which you might dispute, and you're quite free to have your own outlook. In truth I would regret to be told I in any way appear conceited. Not a good reputation to have."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""You are quite comfortable with your profession, so I fail to understand why being understood as arrogant would concern you." /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""It's unbecoming," Jack replied, voice uncharacteristically soft, but in a way that seemed still not fully serious. "I see myself differently. I don't ask for much, just a bit to live on and something to entertain now and again. Speaking of which, are you a dancer?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"It was not the first question of the evening to catch her off guard, feeling intrusive despite its simplicity. A large part of her didn't even want to reply lest he know something emalmost/em personal. A sense of dread overcome her a moment after she responded. "No. No, I'm afraid not."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Whatever emotion she had expected to dawn upon Jack was replaced seamlessly by an odd look of relief. "That's good, because personally, I'm dreadful. Just wanted to make sure before you assumed I was decent, but of course if you'd said 'yes' I could quite easily pretend I had an inkling of what you were on about. Nonetheless, I'm up for giving it a go."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""I don't believe I ever implied I was eminterested/em in dancing."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Neither did I, but it doesn't matter. You look bored out of your mind."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Well, I emhardly/em think this is suitable," she began, yet Jack stood at the same moment, setting aside his empty glass and dusting off his hands for whatever reason he deemed it necessary. Music slipped through the doorframe on the opposite end of the room, an avid concoction of a rather poorly played violin and a piano that seemed it was being utilised by someone who'd had too much to drink. Every note would have been misshapen were it to be recorded on paper. Thankfully, it was a short term trial to endure, yet something about the uneven cacophony made it seem wholly suitable to the situation./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Now, I don't have a single clue what to do. From what I know you just move your limbs a bit and that's it. Is there something I'm missing here?" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Perhaps, although again I must confess I know very little on the topic."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""At least you know something. My knowledge of it, well - it's a bit of a disgrace." It seemed she would be betraying herself were she to admit he was making her laugh, even if, still, what she knew of him was shallow. All the same, it was only after much persuading that they wound up at the door, then shortly after amidst a sweating, vivid throng in the room over, ears assaulted by the music's onslaught, strangely caught up in a dancing mass of individuals who, remarkably, all seemed rather happy where they were, an atmosphere of merriment persisting. Everything was all dark skirts and untucked waistcoats, a stressed violin and laughter that temporarily drowned out the unceasing animosity outside the hotel./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Look at that," murmured Jack, chuckling to himself, reaching outwards to toss his hat onto the dusty floor. "They haven't got a clue. The constables'll be having an absolute fit when they see this. A whole town of people perfectly satisfied even with emus/emhanging about. What a laugh!" Raising his chin to peer over the crowd, moving his head this way and that, he appeared to nod briefly to the fellow playing the violin, giving an odd gesture and another of his grins. Almost immediately it was returned, although the violinist was swaying so it was difficult to tell./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"When Jack turned his head back toward his companion, his hand was caught in his hair, and for a time his eyes were rather vacant, at least until he blinked and it all was swept away in an instant. "'Think I might remember something, now." Readjusting their hands with a great deal of effort, Jack was biting the inside of his mouth, doing nothing to avoid the image of a dance-concerned incompetency from prevailing. When both were at last settled after several minutes of quiet disagreements and questions, they were able to fall into a sufficient albeit awkward stance, one which was pitifully clumsy but, all the same, was suitably peculiar, for both found themselves laughing. While they had begun hesitant, particularly the young woman, in time the dance became quite tolerable./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""I think I must've forgotten how boring dancing is, as least these types," said Jack, wincing just as a horrifically misjudged note was struck upon the piano. "Let's liven it up - how about you tell me how you wound up here?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""I'm sorry?" Her mind had been so occupied with recalling (as well as improvising) dancing that having a question all of a sudden directed back toward her was bizarre. "I... Well, I should not have actually been here to begin with. I came along with someone else and was left here soon after, just before your group arrived." Her eyes went to the ceiling, torn as to whether or not she could find it in herself and later consider it justified if she were to say anything else. Already the situation was precarious, even if it was pleasurable - she had been abandoned within a hotel, left to her own devices for two hours, then been encountered by a man of unlawful character who simply happened to be astonishingly likeable. What could she tell without it becoming later regrettable?/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"It time, it was due only to his unchanged look of interest that she obliged. "My brothers have been interstate for a fortnight. I was brought here by my uncle, who wanted to collect a package from a patron for some reason or another, and requested I come with him in order to help with the bundle. Still none of the agreement makes much sense to me, but once we were here he went outside to talk to someone, and then your gang came. I don't know where he went."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Jack's expression altered momentarily, and he stilled their dance. "What'd he look like?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"She provided a brief description, heart quickened by anxiety. "He didn't... Leave me here, did he? What do you know?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"The next words she was waiting for came very slowly, Jack running his tongue over his teeth before speaking, practically drawing out the moment as much as was plausible. "Think we might've scared him off, actually. Your family own any property out near the bush?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"A nod. /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"The bushranger's laugh was short and held nothing close to his regular joviality. "Well, that'd be it, then. I know, I'll take your mind off of it."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Stirred deeply by the news of her apparent isolation, it was immensely difficult to fathom those next words. "A story, you mean? I would feel like a child again."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Don't worry, it's a good one." Falling into silence, he let their odd dance resume, speaking up again a few seconds after. "Alright, here goes. So I was born by the banks of the Murray, down south - fair while from here, but that's irrelevant. My father grew oranges, but my other relatives all had sheep so we ended up tending to emthem/em a lot of the time. Anyway, one day one of the sheep ran off somehow, and I ended up chasing the bloody thing right into the bush. Tripped a couple times, then; hell, by the time I caught it I was dripping wet..."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Their talk extended another two hours after that, initiated with stories and ending with conversations. They spoke of simple, homely things, the criminal and the landowner's daughter; Jack proved himself earnest as much as he was loud-spoken, and in time it was easy to forget who exactly he was, and for what reason he dwelt in the hotel that evening, armed and energetic. The storm came and went, scarcely heard above the abused piano, yet even while it was raging it was a joyous occurrence because both were quite aware of what relief it provided. Truly, neither might ever had possessed the capacity to imagine they would find one another so amiable, or in any way a well of intrigue./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"The bush stone-curlews had overcome the lorikeets' cries by the time the candles were out and Jack's name was called; he was obliged to pull himself away, to descend to the lower levels with a quiet apology on his lips and find himself disposed after all those hours of conflict./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""The police have finally cleared off. They relented at ten o'clock," Jack explained when he returned, plucking his revolver from his waist. "The hostages are all free to leave. I would let them all know, myself, but they'll work it out. Same goes for you. I'd hang around 'til morning, though - the roads are hell this time of year."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Now I know your profession, I am well aware I ought to view you as knowledgeable," was the reply. Most other coherent terms of address she'd composed faded the next second when Jack leant forwards, pressing a kiss to her cheek./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;""Was a pleasure meeting you, darl'," he said briskly, drawing back with his gun cocked and eyes bright. "Stay around the area. I'll be back by May, probably; the weather's not bad. Don't worry yourself too much in the meanwhile."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"Prior to that evening she never could have imagined herself crestfallen by a bushranger's departure, let alone one whom could quite easily have taken her life from her; indeed, she hurried to the front window, leaning against the filthy glass to watch him leave the hotel, smiling despite her own nature and decorum./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"She was still smiling when a number of shadows crossed forth from a building across the road, wearing uniforms that glinted even beneath the weak light of the moon. She could see Jack's stolen horse, see the panic in the twitching, nervous limbs of both animal and rider. She could see the weapons raised, hear the profane and furious shouts./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"She didn't even have time to scream when the horse stumbled forward and Jack was shot dead. /p