The next day Scarlett Jo woke up early and got ready to meet with the banker that was helping her sort out the legal paperwork that would claim her father's inherited land for herself. She slipped on another soft yellow dress and cream heels. After looking out the window and seeing that though it was still early in the morning the day was bright, so she slipped a hat on her head to keep the sun out of her face. Later as she was walking through the lobby, the lady working at the reception desk stopped her.

"Excuse me, miss, but is that your vehicle that is parked on the curb out there?" She said awkwardly as if she was uncomfortable asking. Scarlett looked out to where the woman was pointing and nodded.

"Yes, it is. Is there a problem?" Scarlett asked.

"Well, the owner doesn't want the boarders here to be parking in front of the building and cluttering the road." The receptionist said, her eyes apologetic. Scarlett Jo sighed and looked out at the vehicle that had been bought with the money that helped cause her father's untimely death. She had already been thinking about selling the blasted thing when she was on her way to Virginia just to get the reminder of her father's death out of her face. Scarlett turned back to the receptionist and smiled.

"I'm sorry about that, ma'am. I've actually been looking to sell the thing." She said pleasantly, pushing a loose strand of auburn hair over her shoulder. The women's eyes went wide with enthusiasm.

"Well, my cousin has been looking around for a vehicle here lately. I can see if he might be interested." The women exclaimed. She leaned down and pulled out a pen and a blank piece of paper. "I will write down your information for him if you like."

"That would be very nice of you." Scarlett said, her green eyes twinkling.

"Well, alright then. I will get that to him. You have a nice day, Miss Williams." The receptionist smiled one last time at Scarlett Jo and waved as she walked out the door.

Scarlett hopped into the Model-T that wouldn't be hers for much longer and drove over to the bank. She met with a plump little man that seemed very impatient about digging up documents that were decades old, but he eventually found them and had Scarlett Jo prove that she was indeed the daughter of Jesse Williams. The man seemed surprised that she had showed up with all the possibly necessary paperwork and the transaction concluded without a hitch with the deed to the land and small shack being handed over to Scarlett Jo.

Afterwards, as Scarlett walked out into the street from the bank she looked out at the busy streets of Franklin filled with men, women, and children going about their day and filling the air with their Virginian accents. She turned her face up into the warm sunlight and gave a sigh of relief and contentment. It seemed like she found a place where she could settle down for a little while and where her past might not catch up to her. Scarlett turned her head and looked at a clock in a nearby window and decided that she could have lunch with Maggie before going about her day. She was growing fond of Maggie and was excited that she had already found a friend in a place that she knew nobody.

She drove the short distance in a small amount of time and as she pulled up to Blackwater Station she noticed that Forrest Bondurant was sitting on the porch in a rocking chair and puffing on a cigar. An officer was standing in the driveway in front of him and seemed to be carrying on a conversation. Scarlett pulled off to the side and climbed out of her vehicle, lifting her dress so she could step out. The officer turned around and took his hat off quickly when he saw Scarlett Jo walking towards the station.

"Hello, ma'am." He said quickly, dipping his head. Scarlett flashed her pretty smile at him and stopped to shake his hand.

"Hello, officer. I'm Scarlett Jo Williams." She said sweetly, shaking his hand. The officer didn't seem to know how to take another beautiful, random woman standing in front of Blackwater Station with Maggie showing up only a month or so earlier.

"Please, call me Jeff. Well, I don't know what old Forrest here is doing to make all these pretty ladies come up out of nowhere." Deputy Jeff Richards said with a smile, earning an amused-sounding grunt from Forrest. Scarlett chuckled and shook her head.

"I actually came here to claim some land that my father inherited several years ago. I just got the deed this morning." Scarlett explained for what seemed like the millionth time. Her smile directed at the deputy didn't falter though. He nodded in understanding before setting his hat back on his head again.

"So you will be sticking around for a while then." The deputy said matter-of-factly.

"I think so. We'll see how things go I guess. Good afternoon, Jeff." Scarlett said before stepping onto the porch. As she passed Forrest, she locked eyes with him. A long stream of smoke blew out of his mouth.

"Mr. Bondurant." She greeted politely. He nodded his head at her as she walked past before turning back to the deputy.

Scarlett stepped into the station and was greeted with a hug by Maggie who had been sweeping the floor under the bar. After Maggie finished up with the sweeping, they sat at the bar side-by-side and smoked cigarettes, puffing smoke towards the ceiling of Blackwater Station. They chatted for a while before Scarlett grew bold and turned towards Maggie with a knowing look on her face.

"Can I guess something about these Bondurant brothers?" Scarlett asked and Maggie turned to her with a slightly amused but serious look on her face.

"Well, I suppose you can."

"They're moonshiners aren't they?" Scarlett blurted quietly, not wanting any of the handful of patrons sitting inside the room to hear their conversation. Maggie hesitated a moment before nodding slowly.

"I don't know if I should be telling you, but I trust you even though I haven't known you for too long. What gave it away?" Maggie asked curiously.

"Well, Howard was sitting here at the bar last night drinking some white lightning as if it were nothing even slightly out of the ordinary. But what really made me suspect on top of that was when I went in to give Forrest his dinner last night the numbers showing on his records for profits were way too large to be coming from just this station. Though that's not any of my business, but I couldn't help noticing. I also saw a ledger of names with sums crossed off and circled on it." Scarlett explained.

"So you know a lot about business numbers I'm assuming." Maggie said slowly, taking a sip of her coffee. Scarlett thought for a moment before nodding.

"Yeah, my father taught me how to help run our convenient store at a young age and I had to learn all of that so he could focus on other things. I got pretty good at it after a while." Scarlett said conversationally. She leaned her head on her hand and looked at Maggie who was studying her discreetly.

"There's something about these Bondurants, especially Forrest. They are considered unlike ordinary folk around these parts and it didn't become that way by them being all gentle and polite. Some of the crazy, religious folks around here even go as far as to say that Forrest crawled out of hell itself to get here. And they treat him like the King of Fire and Brimstone when he goes walking down the streets of Franklin, scattering like flies when they see him coming. It's no different with Howard, though they do their best to keep Jack out of the violence." Maggie explained, dragging one last time from her cigarette before putting it out. Scarlett Jo finished hers also and thought about what Maggie said.

Though she seriously doubted that Forrest Bondurant clawed his way out of hell to be selling some moonshine in Franklin County, she could see the violence that seemed to ooze out of him and even the eldest Bondurant. Scarlett figured that to gain weight in a backwoods community like this that fear had to be used to convince others that you were someone worth respecting. She wasn't exactly naive to the ways of men using fear to get what they want. Scarlett turned to Maggie with a friendly smile on her face and shook her head.

"I don't think Forrest is slick-talking enough to be any kind of demon." She said and giggled. Maggie laughed and agreed good-naturedly before saying that she had to get back to work before one of the Bondurants came in and asked what they were paying her for. Scarlett Jo nodded and decided that she was going to look at what the shops had in town.

"Well, bring Forrest's coffee out there before you leave. He's been sitting out there for a while and is probably going to come in and get some here pretty soon anyway." Maggie said before handing Scarlett a mug. Scarlett said one last good-bye to Maggie and waved before heading out the door. Forrest looked up from the small notebook he had been writing in with a stub of pencil and eyed the mug in Scarlett Jo's hand.

"Here you go, Mr. Bondurant. Maggie just made it fresh for you." Scarlett Jo said sweetly, passing the mug to Forrest's large, outstretched hand. He made a sound in his throat before tipping back the mug. Scarlett turned to leave and started head down the steps of the porch.

"Hey, now." She heard Forrest say in a thick, backwoods voice. Scarlett turned back to him and looked at him expectantly.

"Maggie seems to like ya." He said slowly as if he was unsure where that statement was going. Scarlett smiled and rubbed the back of her neck absently.

"Well, I would say so. I certainly like her; we have a lot in common." She replied taking the opportunity to study Forrest's face as he sat there and seemed to think for a moment.

Facial hair lined his jaw and full lips drew Scarlett Jo's attention to his mouth. His blue eyes were trained on a lower part of her dress and Scarlett shifted from one foot to the other under his gaze. She couldn't help but think that a handsome face like that attracted a decent amount of female attention around these parts. Coupled with the fact that he was apparently powerful and respected, Scarlett imagined that plenty of the local ladies completely ignored the fact that the religious folk compared Forrest Bondurant to the devil himself.

"Uhh… You could come and help her around the station if you like. We're gone more often these days; said she could use some help." Forrest said, pulling a toothpick out of his pocket and lowering his eyes to the ground. Scarlett leaned against a pole that held the overhang over the porch.

"You mean like a job." Scarlett Jo said slowly, one side of her mouth pulling up in a lop-sided smile.

"If that's what you wanna call it." Forrest replied with a drawl, spinning the toothpick around in his mouth. Scarlett grinned and pushed herself off the pole to prepare to leave.

"Well, thank you, Forrest. I really appreciate it. I'm going to look around town, have a nice day now." Scarlett Jo said, heading down the steps.

She heard Forrest give one of his characteristic grunts and say, "Bye, Jo."

She didn't turn around but smiled when she heard the shortened version of her name.

When Scarlett Jo arrived back in town she took a couple of hours to acquaint herself with the town and visit some of the shops. When she asked a shopkeeper about where she might find some flowers to purchase, he directed her towards a small house where an Amish family grew food and flowers to sell. She had actually worked for a summer in a garden of a rich family in Chicago and had grown fond of caring for flowers and watching them grow beautifully.

At the small farm, she was able to purchase four young rose bushes that the Amish women put in pots for her to load on the back of the Model-T. Scarlett Jo had seen the red flowers and couldn't help but to think how nice they would make the outside of Blackwater Station look. But she would let them grow to be a little bit larger before she put them in the ground where drunken men may stumble over them. She would run the idea past Maggie first and of course she would have to ask at least one of the Bondurants, though she somehow doubted they would care too much.

She carried the pots up the stairs to her room where she set them on a window sill and wiped the dust off the small leaves that were sprouted from the step and blowing it off the flowers. Scarlett then watered them carefully and set about putting towels under the pots so as not to dirty the room. Afterwards, she moved around the room doing some last minute straightening that she hadn't done after unpacking.

Later on in the afternoon a knock came on the door which turned out to be Maggie asking after Scarlett Jo to join her and the boys in some dinner. Cricket was staying for dinner also and had brought up wanting to see Scarlett again after seeing her that first day. Scarlett hurried and changed into a different red dress that was cut low and showed off a bit of porcelain skin. It hugged her sides perfectly and Maggie commented that she looked nice on their way out to Maggie's vehicle. In the lobby, the same overly-fancy man that Scarlett had already met was just entering the building. He immediately directed a sickly smile at Scarlett Jo and stood in the two's way from leaving.

"You are dressed awful well this evening, Miss Williams." He said, his eyes running up and down her dress. A shiver ran down her spine and she gently laid a hand on Maggie's arm to signal for them to leave.

"I don't remember having told you my name, deputy." Scarlett answered, moving to walk past the man who was wearing a pin-striped suit and bow-tie.

"Please, special deputy. And I have ways of finding out things I may want to know." He said, grinning again before retreating and stepping out of their way.

Scarlett stepped away from Maggie once they had gotten outside and visibly relaxed.

"Who was that man, Scarlett?" Maggie asked, worry lacing her tone. Scarlett Jo waited until they were in her vehicle in front of the front doors to the hotel before she answered.

"I'm not quite sure, but I don't like him. That's not the first time he's tried talking to me too." Scarlett Jo said, twisting her fingers together as a nervous habit. The man didn't sit right with her and by the way Maggie was looking at her with concern he didn't with her either.

"Well, you tell me if he causes you too much problems." She told Scarlett before they dropped the topic and talked about the roses that Scarlett had bought. Maggie seemed pretty excited and agreed that it wouldn't hurt to brighten up the place a tiny bit.

That night Scarlett, Maggie, and Cricket sat down with the Bondurants for a healthy dinner that lasted for a couple of hours. Scarlett talked with Cricket for quite a while who happened to be sitting next to her. He had washed up a little bit for the occasion and Scarlett laughed good-heartedly at the conversations that he and Jack had about the big mobsters in the cities. She couldn't help but to think that they weren't quite what Jack was saying they were. He seemed to look-up to them in some ways which Scarlett couldn't quite understand, but she didn't judge Jack or Cricket for it.

During the meal Scarlett would sometimes make eye contact with Forrest who was sitting across from her as he grunted along with the conversations that were happening around the table.

"So, Forrest. I was in town today and found some awful pretty, rose bushes. They aren't very big yet, but I was wondering when they are if I could plant them in front of the porch." Scarlett said smoothly, looking at Forrest over her cup as she took a drink. Forrest stopped chewing the bite of food he had in his mouth for a moment before swallowing.

"Uhh…I don't see why you couldn't." He said after a while and Scarlett smiled brightly at him and turned to Maggie excitedly. After that incident Scarlett saw Howard looking at Forrest oddly before shrugging and continuing to eat his food.

Conversation was easy for the rest of the night though Forest didn't talk much, which seemed to be expected by the other dinner guests. At the end of the night, everyone said their good-byes before heading home. Scarlett gave Cricket and Jack a hug before heading towards the door with Maggie. As she walked by Forrest, Scarlett briefly laid her hand on his arm.

"See you later, Forrest." Scarlett said quickly and hurried after Maggie. She heard him grunt a farewell behind her.

That night, Scarlett lay awake in her bed and couldn't help but to think that some divine providence had finally decided to deliver her away from the evil that had surrounded her life in Chicago those last couple of months before she left.