I am going to learn to quit bragging on myself eventually. I try to post new chapters at night when 80% of people are off work but *shrug* I don't know if you guys just don't see em or what but I am going to try posting a little earlier. Here we go Chapter Seven! Griselda it is your time to shine!
"So you really want to be an outlaw?" he asked.
Marianne shrugged, "I was an atrocious lady. I mean yes I knew the proper decorum and how to behave but I much preferred being on the back of my horse, gun in hand."
Bog chuckled, "Yeah, you don't seem like the tea and social dances type."
"Me, no. Not so much but my sister…" she trailed off Bog turned back to her and noticed the faraway look in her eyes as the horse brush in her hand stilled.
"What?" he asked.
"My sister," Marianne sighed. "The whole reason I came out here was to get this damned necklace back for her and now I am here for good. I mean she has Sunny but I am her sister and I promised Mother I would protect her."
Bog looked around, "You can still leave if you want to?" he said hoping and praying that she wouldn't. He hated to admit, even to himself, it but she was starting to grow on him.
"Is it true!" came the grating voice of his mother from the stable door. Bog flinched of course his mother would have heard. The whole gang was probably abuzz now.
"What?" Marianne asked looking around Gunner's tall flank.
"Are you really Los Duendes newest member?" she asked dashing up to the girl as best she could and taking her hands looking up from her stooped position.
"Uhhh…" she blinked at the elderly woman then at Bog. She gave a small smile and shrugged. "I guess."
"Excellent!" Griselda shouted. "She is gonna be good for you, Bog."
Bog went from calmly happy to flummoxed in an instant. "Wait! What?!" he demanded following his mother and the woman he was dragging to the living quarters. "What are you talking about?! Mother?!"
Of course Griselda didn't stop waddling along or talking to Marianne. She continued chatting and talking of things that embarrassed Bog so badly that he almost dove back into the stables and would have just about broke a kerosene lamp to die.
"He was the weirdest looking child you have ever seen, had that long crooked nose and that sharp face, looks just like his father did. He was never good at farming but was always a sneaky little thief. Wasn't bad with a gun or a horse neither."
Marianne looked, pleadingly over her shoulder at the scrambling gang leader trying to catch up with his mother and the newest member of his gang. She had to suppress a snickering laugh at that.
"Of course there are some of his points you are gonna have to work on, or learn to live with, but it's nothing a smart, pretty girl you can't handle," she said. "You two are gonna be so good for each other."
At this Marianne pulled up short. "Wait, what?" she said this time, giving Bog time to catch up to them. His mother was surprisingly fast when she wanted to be.
"Well it's obvious," Griselda growled out in her loud voice, placing one hand on her hip and gesturing to them with the other, "You two are perfect for each other."
Marianne and Bog glanced at one another and took a couple of steps back, hands raised defensively.
"I just came to get my sister's necklace. I am only joining because my other option is going home and hearing my incompetent ex-fiancé gloat over how he saved me, which he most assuredly did not."
"And because she has one hell of a right hook, can obviously shoot damned good, and sits a horse like she was born for it," Bog added. Marianne smiled a little at the compliment. "But we are in no way, now nor never, courting."
"Hell no," Marianne agreed.
Griselda squinted at the two, her beady little eyes flicking between them. Bog and Marianne shifted nervously under her glare.
She huffed and waved her hands at the two of them as if batting away their nonsensical words. "Mother's know these things. Bog, I know you know this from when I warned you about that little floosy you were so interested in that ended up breaking your heart, but didn't your mother ever say anything about any of this, sweetie?" she asked turning to Marianne.
The woman dropped her eyes and bit her lip.
Bog took over at this point, "She lost her mother at a young age, Mother. The necklace that she came here so adamantly in search of for her sister once belonged to their mother."
"Oh honey, I'm so sorry," Griselda said, taking her hands in a consoling matter.
"The Primrose Butterfly necklace was her most treasured piece of jewelry. That's why Dawn has it. She is much more of a jewelry lover and I usually break the chain or something. Papa says I look like her and when I see Dawn with the necklace I know that we will both always remind him of the good times he and Mother had together…"
"Do you want to bring it back to her?" Bog asked. "I'll … send someone with you if you like or you can choose to stay. It is all up to you."
"Thanks. I'll decide in the morning. It has been a really long day and I could use some rest," she muttered.
Bog nodded. "Brutus!" he shouted waving the huge strong man over. "Show Miss Fairchild to her room."
"Marianne," she said. "If I'm an outlaw now, no need to keep a lady's title."
"Right. Show Marianne to her room would you?" Brutus nodded and gestured for her to follow.
Griselda grabbed Bog's arm as he started past. "You remember this, boy. That girl is perfect for you and you better damned well not let her go. You hear me. She is your second chance and you let this slip through your fingers and I will send you straight to see your father. You hear me?"
"Mother, I am not letting something like that happen to me ever again. You know how I feel about love," he said walking away. "I am not falling in love ever again. And judging from her reaction to the Sheriff today, she isn't open to love either."
"That's when you need it the most, and sometimes you fall whether you know it or not," she said with a pat to his arm and then she hobbled off to her room.
Bog stared after her for a few more minutes, then shook his head and went off to his own room.
Ahhhhhh! Griselda the genius crazy perfect mom! Enjoy my loflies and remember I like reviews and reblogs. They maketh me so happy :D
tmwillson3: Oh you are gonna love it
Guest: Ohhh it gets so much better in El Bosque Oscura Ranch.
Storylady35: They are just crazy haters. This movie is epic!
goofymoon: Thanks
Guest: I am glad you are enjoying it: )
