Disclaimer: I do not own The Magnificent Seven.
Hello! Thank you for reading and reviewing my story. I am editing my chapters one by one, and then posting. I hope to have the whole story up by Sunday. J
Chapter 3
They had been riding for hours, without a break. When they finally stopped for the night, the women were exhausted. The three of them moved towards a tree and leaned against it. Teddy moved towards them tying the horses to the tree so they wouldn't run off during the night.
"You ladies just rest, I will go and gather some firewood. There is a creek over yonder if you need to wash your face, or drink some water." Teddy said moving towards some logs on the other side of the bend.
"Well," Elizabeth said standing up, "I think rinsing that filth from me, sounds like a great idea."
"Wait," Emma moves to her knapsack and pulls a worn dress from it, "I know it's not as nice as your fancy Boston dress but I thought you might want to change."
Elizabeth looks down at her hands, still holding the front of her dress together, and the memories filter back. Tonight she was almost raped. In a haste Elizabeth grabs the dress mutters a quick thanks, and moves towards the creek.
When she reaches the water Elizabeth pulls the rest of her dress from her body, and submerges herself into the cool water. The sun had begun to set on the horizon and she could still see two feet in front of her so she began to wash. Elizabeth scrubbed and scrubbed but she could still feel his hands all over her. The feeling of his breath on her face, the softness of his hands, which never had to work a day in their life running down her bare chest. That's when the sobs came. Elizabeth sobbed for Rose Creek, the town she had begun to call home. She sobbed for her body which had been tainted that night in the hotel, and most of all she sobbed for Matthew her brother. Elizabeth thought back to the moment in the street when Bogue shot her brother. She never even got to say goodbye.
The town of Rose Creek was not what it had appeared when she first traveled there. When she arrived Elizabeth thought that there would be new opportunities and a chance to find herself a place in the world. Instead, she was broken, and alone.
Emma approached the creek slowly as to not scare Elizabeth. She could hear Elizabeth's sobs and coughed loudly. Elizabeth quickly turned and gasped. So much for not scaring her, Emma thought.
"Hey…uhmm let's get you out of there, and you can warm up by the fire and get something to eat. Does that sound ok?" Emma asks.
"Yeah, that sounds good," Elizabeth replies turning to wipe her eyes and get out of the water.
"Ok, I will meet you over by the campsite alright?" Emma asks.
"Ok, be there in a few minutes." Elizabeth emerges from the water and grabs her ruined dress to dry her body with it. Slipping on the new dress, and tightening the bodice Elizabeth turns to follow Emma.
When they both reach the fire, Teddy is talking to the girl they brought with them from the town. Elizabeth sits down next to her and grabs the plate of food Teddy offers her. She turns and looks at the girl from the hotel with new eyes.
The girl could not been more than twenty years old and her body is marred with bruises of all sorts. The makeup they put on to gussy up the girls has long been wiped off. All that's left is a hollow shell of a once vivacious young woman. Elizabeth leans closer to the firelight to see the girl more closely. She has dark black hair, and blue eyes, a rare beauty. The way she is gasping down the food makes Elizabeth believe she has not been properly fed in a long time.
"So," Elizabeth starts slowly, "What's your name?"
The girl takes a moment to swallow the food, and turns to the strangers sitting around her. "My name is Autumn." She tells them. "I was taken when I was fourteen from my home, my father…he sold me to pay off his debt. I was taken to the pleasure house and taught how to pleasure men. I have not been free of Bogue's men since I left there at fifteen. This is the first time I have thought to escape but….when I saw you leave I knew I had to get away from there. Those men they treat me horribly, they fuck me and then leave. They don't even pay, since I am one of Bogue's whores. I can't do it anymore" Autumn pulls her legs to her chest and sobs. Teddy removes his jacket and places it around her shoulders.
Emma and Elizabeth look at each other in pity. What a terrible life this girl has had to endure.
"Autumn," Emma begins, looking at Elizabeth for support, "you don't ever have to go back there if you don't want to. You can stay with us and travel and see the world. But I will tell you, we are going back to Rose Creek…."
"What?" Elizabeth cuts her off.
"We have to find men who will help us regain the town and get rid of Bogue and his men once and for all. I will not allow Matthew to die in vain." Emma tells the women firmly.
"Ok, so where are we going to find these men?" Elizabeth questions.
"We are going to go town by town, looking for the best of the best to come to our aid." Emma says proudly.
Elizabeth and Autumn look at Emma doubtfully but shrug and accept the plan, nothing better coming to mind. Emma decides that they should assign watch shifts in case someone follows them and not being able to think of sleep Elizabeth volunteers. Emma passes over the rifle, hugs Elizabeth and goes to sleep. Elizabeth stands and moves towards the tree, her back pressed against it to help keep her awake. The others move down into their blankets and the world goes dark.
After several hours, Elizabeth wakes up Emma for her shift, and they continue switching throughout the night. In the morning, they are all still alive, and ready to continue on their journey. The group spends three days of stopping at towns and asking for help until their mission begins to feel hopeless.
"We need to keep trying!" Emma shouts, "let's go to this last town, and then we can turn in for the night. I promise. Teddy go to the post office and get the latest news from Rose Creek. Here's some money," she hands him a sack full of coins and her rushes to the post.
The three women enter the town, hats hung low over their heads as to not draw attention. The girls tie up their horses down away from the saloon, and wait for Teddy to return. About fifteen minutes later Teddy came back with news.
"Great news, Bogue has left for three weeks to Sacramento! Some luck at last!" Teddy tells the women.
"That's great Teddy but the way we are going right now, we are not going to find anyone to bring back home to help." Elizabeth shouts dejected from their continued failure.
Just then, guns went off from the saloon, there was a moment of silence and then men came pouring out of the saloon shouting for the sheriff.
The women and Teddy move toward the commotion. The sheriff and the men pull their guns on the door to the saloon as a large black man exits the front door with his hands raised.
"My name is Sam Chisolm, I am a bounty hunter with the state of Kansas, and deputized in seven others. I am here to collect this man for bounty," he pulls a paper from his pocket and hands it to the sheriff, "this is the man I am looking for."
With that the Sheriff and the men back away and turn the body over to Mr. Chisolm. As Sam goes to remove his horse Emma gestures to Teddy to talk to the man.
"Excuse me sir, we are looking for excellent men such as yourself to come and help our town of Rose Creek from a bad man who has taken it over," Teddy tells him.
"Not interested boy..." Sam tells him.
Emma was having none of that, "Sir, we need your help, no one else with help us defeat Bogue. He is murdering innocent people in the street."
Sam stops, looking down at Emma, "You wouldn't be talking about Bartholomew Bogue now would you?" he asks.
"Yes, that is him name. He murdered my husband, and tried to kidnap my sister in law Elizabeth, he is an awful man."
"I'm in." he tells her, "how many men do you got?"
"Well…with you that makes one." Emma tells him.
"Well, I have a few ideas about some more men we could use. Let's go." Sam leads them toward the stables. Elizabeth goes to follow but something catches her eye, two men leading a man towards the railroad tracks with their guns pointed on him. Elizabeth knows she should just ignore them but ignoring her curiosity was never a strength of hers. Elizabeth grabs her gun from the holster and follow the two men, making sure to stay out of sight.
She follows them for several moments until they force the man to turn around. Elizabeth couldn't help the gasp that escapes her lips at the man before her. He is a cowboy through and through, light dusty brown hair, tight jeans with a large silver belt buckle, and two empty holsters at his hips, deep brown eyes, and a smile that made her stomach do flips.
"Now, Faraday go into that mine tunnel so we can kill you." The shorter of the two men snickers.
"You can kill me right now, because there is no way I am going into that mine." The man called Faraday tells the two men. "In fact, before I die how about I show you guys a trick." He tells them pulling out a deck of cards.
The shorter man is not impressed and raises his gun but the other exclaims he loves magic and wants to see a trick. Elizabeth takes the moment of distraction to move closer, until she notices the man Faraday sees her. Elizabeth raises her hand to her mouth and gestures for him to keep quiet the man smirks and continues with his trick. When the trick is about over, the man pulls a gun from behind and shoots the taller of the two who has lunged forward for the gun.
Elizabeth comes from her hiding spot and shoots the shorter man in the arm, he howls in pain. When he reaches towards his gun Elizabeth shoots his hand.
Faraday gets up, the other man dead on the ground. "Are you alright?" Elizabeth asks him.
"Am I…am I alright? Shouldn't I be asking you that young lady?" he asks.
"I'm fine." Elizabeth huffs and begins walking back towards town. She is tired of men always treating her so fragile, she just shot a man twice for Christ's sake!
"Wait!" Faraday shouts at her retreating backside, he turns from her threatens the smaller of the two men and then takes off after her.
Elizabeth can hear the sound of him running after her, and turns sharply. "What? What is it that you want?" she yells at him.
"Look, I'm sorry it's just not every day a woman comes to help me, and then ends up shooting someone!...What I should have said was thank you. When I saw you in the brush I didn't know what to expect, and it certainly wasn't you being a good shot! Let's start over, what's your name?" he asks her patiently.
"My name is Elizabeth Cullen." She tells him.
"Elizabeth, a beautiful name for a beautiful woman, I am Josh Faraday."
"Nice to meet you Joshua." She calls him.
"No, my name is Josh."
"Well, I have decided to call you Joshua." Elizabeth tells him.
"I'll take it," he tells her, "I've been called worse things."
Joshua leads Elizabeth towards the stables where she watches him try to talk to his way into getting his prized stallion back. Just then, Emma, Autumn, Teddy, and Sam ride up and Sam offers to buy the horse for Joshua to work for him. Elizabeth turns away from him, and Joshua turns to say something when she pulls herself up on the horse behind Autumn. Joshua looks at her, noticing she is with the group and readily volunteers. When he is saddled and on his horse again, he rides up next to her.
"How many days have the two of you been riding that horse?" he ask.
"We have been looking for help for six days, so…six days." She tells him.
"That's too long for a horse to have two people, why don't you ride with me?" he asks.
Emma looks back at her and Elizabeth nods her head removing herself from the horse and climbing up behind Joshua.
"Now, that's better isn't it?" he asks her, "Hold on tight we like to go fast."
Elizabeth places her arms around his wide muscled waist and grips tight. She could hear him grunt in satisfaction, and they took off into the desert.
Hours later, they stopped and Sam begin giving instructions. "Alright you, Elizabeth, and Teddy will head to Volcano Springs to find my Cajun friend Goodnight Robicheaux, I will take Emma and Autumn and we will go to the hills to find a Mexican outlaw I think we can use. We will meet up in three days in Comanche Wells." Sam tells Joshua who has his hand resting on Elizabeth's so she won't let him go.
Elizabeth would never admit it out loud but having a man so close should repel her, especially after the moment with Bogue but she felt very comfortable with Joshua's hands wrapped around her own. Elizabeth began to pull away and Joshua turned quickly in the saddle to look at her. At that moment Elizabeth stopped her movement and looked at him.
"It's ok," she whispers to him, Elizabeth could see the quick show of fear in his eyes at her letting him go and maybe he felt something too. Elizabeth adjusted her body, replacing her hands in his own, and placed her head against his back breathing deeply. In response Joshua took a deep breath and relaxed his own body shutting his eyes briefly before he took off for Volcano Springs to find the Cajun.