Julia didn't turn back, she knew that if she had looked back at Arthur, she would have come back to him and bit the shit out of him.

And while a part of her wanted to do that, the other just wanted to leave and don't talk to him anymore, not after what he said to her.

She cursed herself for having told him about her past, but she thought he was different, she thought he wouldn't have judged her, but he did.

After what seemed to be an eternity, she stopped in the middle of the road, looking around and sighing when she realized she was near the camp.

"You alright boy?" she asked petting Wind Catcher before she looked around again.

What she could do? She didn't want to go back to camp, she knew that Arthur would have been there, and she didn't want to see his stupid face at the moment. So, she took out her map and exanimated it until she found a spot that seemed to be calm and quiet at east-south of the Braithwaite property.

So, she headed south with Wind Catcher and when she reached Bolger Glade, she noticed a big, abandoned building that seemed to be a church.

She got down from Wind Catcher and reached the building, being careful in case someone unfriendly was there, ready to jump on her.

When she got inside the building, she noticed a couple of bedrolls near a dead fire and some other things spread across the ground. It seemed to Julia that those things had been there for a while and maybe the owners were dead or simply gone. She decided to stay, so she took her bedroll, and thanks to the remains that had piled up, she reached the second floor of the church, where she set her things near the window from which she could see all the surroundings.

Then, she took her bow from her saddle and ordered Wind Catcher to stay there while she went hunting.

It took some time to finally catch a rabbit and then she collected some wood to light up a fire.

The sun was about to set when she started eating and when she finished, she led Wind Catcher into the church before she reached her bedroll and watched the sunset while drinking some brandy.

She didn't remember how she fell asleep, but soon enough the alcohol overwhelmed her senses, forcing her eyes to close.

A sudden sound made Julia jump on her sit. She looked around realizing that the fire on the first floor had gone out and it was still dark outside. She heard some voices coming from her left and turning her head she saw through the broken window four men walking towards the church.

She quickly hid behind the wall and took one of her pistols while she continued to spy on the men.

They were yapping and laughing when, the one Julia thought was the boss, stopped them with a gesture of his hand and looked around.

"There's someone here" he said to the others that took out their guns.

Slowly, Julia reached the ground floor where Wind Catcher was and hid behind the wall.

"Come on. We know you're here" said again the man.

Julia thought about what to do. She could have killed them, but not without risking her life.

Maybe she could have talked them into a deal, at least it was worth a try, so she slowly came out of her hideout, her pistol still high and pointed to the man that grinned when he was her.

"Well, well…look what we have here" he said to his companions that stared at her from head to toe.

"What you doing all alone in a place like this? You don't know it's dangerous for a woman to wander around here?" he asked taking some steps ahead.

"If I were you, I'd stop right away" Julia said raising her pistol some more to point it to his head.

The man chuckled and raised his hands.

"You're a tough one, I like you" he said.

"Let me go and I won't kill you" Julia said ignoring the man.

The others started to laugh.

"We're the Lemoyne Raiders and this is our territory" said another man, he missed some teeth.

"I've already dealt with some of yours and you know what? They're all dead. If you're smart enough you won't do the same mistake" she threatened.

The man in charge lowered his hands and stared back at her.

"You think we're scared of you?"

This wasn't going as planned; they would never let her go. She had only one option left.

"You should" Julia talked back.

The man couldn't finish laughing that Julia shot him twice in the chest. His eyes widened while he kneeled on the ground, spitting blood.

Julia quickly hid behind the wall when she heard some of the others shooting against her.

"That whore shot him!" yelled a man.

Julia leaned from the wall and shot another one of them who hid behind a fallen tree. The first time she missed him, the second she hit his shoulder, but he wasn't dead yet.

She covered herself again while recharging her pistol when she heard a shot and a bullet nearly hit her head but instead marked the wall.

The man who had shot, moved to the other side of the church and he was aiming at her ready to shoot again, this time he surely would have hit her.

Wind Catcher pranced and neighed, scared by the gunshots. Julia moved quickly, freeing him so he could run towards the man and push him on the ground, making him lose his grip on the gun.

The man was about to sit up when Julia shot his head, then silent.

She could only hear the man she had shot on the shoulder whining while he walked towards her, his pistol was still in his hand while the other was covering the wound.

Julia turned and shot him in the neck then, she looked at him fall face-first onto the ground.

She walked towards him and then her eyes moved to the other corpse a few feet from her.

Wait a minute, she only killed three of them.

Julia realized another was still alive when she heard some steps behind her. She turned, the pistol already in her hand but the man was faster. He hit her in the face making her fall on the ground.

"You're gonna die and not in a good way" he laughed.

The pistol had slipped from her grip, but Julia reached for the other. The man, understanding her intention, got on her. His large and skinny hands gripped her throat while Julia tried to pull him away from his chest, feeling the air leaving her lungs.

The man laughed again, showing his missing teeth.

Julia was starting to see black spots on her sight and her lungs were burning. One of her hands sneaked between her body and his trying to reach the pistol on the other side of her belt, but it was too difficult.

"You're gonna die and then I'm gonna have so much fun with you" whispered the man tightening his grip on her throat.

Julia moved her hand along her side feeling the cold handle of her knife. She quickly gripped it and raised her arm, stabbing the man right in the neck. His eyes widened and his grip loosened a little.

Julia withdrew the knife from his neck, feeling soon after his warm blood on her face, forcing her to close her eyes.

Now the man's hands were just a shadow on her skinny neck.

She pushed him aside and then sat up crawling back before she got on her feet. Her hands reached her eyes trying to clean off some blood while heavily panting. She looked around seeing Wind Catcher walking towards her.

"You did good, boy" she whispered patting his snout.

It was the sunrise when she collected all her things and got on Wind Catcher, ready to go back to camp.

When she arrived, Bill pointed his rifle to her.

"Who's there?" he asked.

"Myles" she answered while slowing down.

Bill frowned when he noticed her face covered in blood.

"Shit, what happened?" he asked.

"Sons of bitches tried to kill me" answered Julia passing him.

She heard Bill laugh while she reached one of the posts where she left Wind Catcher.

"Oh, good morn… Jesus!"

Julia raised her eyes on Kieran who looked at her shocked.

"Can you take care of him?" she asked ignoring his gaze and giving him the reins before she walked towards her tent where she took a clean shirt and a cloth.

Then, she headed towards a barrel full of water, where she took off her shirt remaining with only her camisole, catching the attention of some of the others that stared at her.

Julia started to wash off all the blood when she heard someone approaching. She thought it was Dutch or Hosea, but then she noticed those long blond hair covered by a white hat.

"It seems you had a bad run-in" he said.

"Get lost, Micah" she talked back continued to wash her face.

The man ignored her and stepped closer to her, so close that Julia could feel his warmth.

She tensed up but didn't stop what she was doing.

"Maybe, I can help you cool off…" he said brushing his fingertips over her bare shoulder.

Julia grabbed her knife in a heartbeat and turning around she grabbed Micah from the collar, pushing him at arms length while with the other hand she pointed her knife to his throat.

"Touch me again and it'll be the last thing you do. I'm not Dutch and I'd be more than happy to kill you, you hear me?" she said.

The man raised his hands, staring at her with his small cold-blue eyes, nowhere similar to Arthur's reassuring ones.

"Get lost, now" she said pushing him away.

He continued to stare at her.

"Dutch won't need you forever and I'll be there when it happens" he said with a menacing tone.

"I'm looking forward to it so I can shut your mouth forever" she talked back staring at him in the eye.

She followed him with her eyes while he walked away muttering something she didn't catch. Her eyes quickly moved towards the big figure in the distance and for a moment she felt her heart sink.

Arthur was there, staring at her with what seemed a worried look on his face, and he actually was.

After their fight, Arthur went to the saloon, sure that Julia would have been at the camp. He drunk a couple of whiskeys before he collected all his strength and came back only to discover that she wasn't there.

His eyes flew to the direction of her tent and he felt a little bit relieved by seeing that her things were still there.

That night he couldn't sleep as Julia's expression of pure disappointment continued to appear in front of him. He felt so guilty for what he had said, but then he thought about that kid embracing her with his lips on hers…

He sat up rubbing his eyes trying to calm down and then he took his journal and started to write, feeling a little better.

Arthur opened his eyes, staring at the space for a moment before he realized he had fallen asleep while writing.

He looked around and when he saw Julia stamping across the camp with her face covered in blood, he quickly got up making his journal fall on the ground.

Arthur started to walk towards her but stopped soon after as she took off her shirt, showing her candid skin under that almost transparent camisole. From where he was, he could see her back covered with some scars.

He started to wonder how she had got them but soon enough he came back from his trance as he saw Micah approaching her with his usual grin.

He closed his hands into fists as he touched her shoulder and he was ready to reach and beat him. However, he couldn't take a step that Julia pointed her knife at Micah's throat while threatening him.

Arthur was amused, her strength was something out of the ordinary and for a moment he wished she would have killed that rat, but then Julia let Micah go and stared at him while he walked away.

In a second, her eyes snapped to Arthur and he felt his heart racing. She gawked at him for a few seconds before she turned and continued to wash off the blood on her face.

When she finished, Julia dried her face and then wore the clean shirt, throwing away the other, too dirty and torn.

"What the hell happened?" she heard saying at her back and turning around she met eyes with Dutch.

"I met some men of the Lemoyne gang. They tried to kill me but apparently, they didn't try enough" Julia explained while taking some coffee from one of the coffee pots.

"If only you would have come back to camp…"

"I didn't want to" Julia cut him off.

Dutch inhaled trying to stay calm.

"Why?"

Julia looked at him before her eyes moved to Arthur who was seated in his tent.

"Some reasons" she answered.

"So, you risk your life staying out there with those dangerous degenerates around only because you don't want to stay here. Ain't that stupid?" the man berated her.

Julia gave Dutch a severe look, lowering her cup of coffee.

"You can stop pretending you care about me, Dutch. I don't want your false attention or your fathering lessons. I had my reasons to not come back and I'm still alive" Julia replied before she left.

She spent the rest of the morning in her tent, trying to sleep a little bit since she felt tired.

When she woke up and got out of her tent, she walked towards the pot full of stew and took some before she sat on the small harbor.

While she was eating, she looked around noticing Arthur and Hosea talk. The young one rubbed his neck and looked at his feet as the old one seemed to be scolding him. Hosea walked away, but Julia continued to look at Arthur who sighed walking towards the shore where he stopped looking at the lake before he turned his head towards her.

Julia quickly stood up and left.

As she walked near Pearson's wagon, she heard someone calling her and turning around she faced Sean.

"What you want?" she asked sighing.

"You busy?" he asked why his usual idiotic smile.

Julia looked away for a moment and sighed.

"Why?"

"I found something interesting. Come with me" he said making a gesture to her.

"I won't move a muscle if you don't tell me what it is about" she replied crossing her arms on her chest.

"Alright. I was riding around, couple of days back and I come across this old cabin. Couple of fuckers lazing about outside all liquored up. I didn't think nothing of it, but then I come across this hunter down by the river and he tells me that they're stick-up crew. Says they hit a train a couple of days back near Emerald Ranch. Nice fella he was, shared a bottle we did then I robbed the bastard blind" he said laughing in the end.

Julia shook her head, smiling slightly.

"Why are you telling me? Why not tell Hosea, or Dutch or Morgan?" she asked.

Sean shrugged.

"I thought that maybe you wanted to cool off from this morning and that turd of Micah and we'll find some good money for sure" he said.

Julia thought about it. If stay away from camp meant to stay away from Arthur and not see him, it wasn't a bad idea at all.

"Alright then" she said in the end.

Julia got on Wind Catcher and followed Sean out of the camp.

"Where we heading?" she asked.

"Back up north a stretch, not far from the state line" the young man answered.

During the ride Sean didn't stop to talk for a second and Julia was about to shoot him, but limited to sigh every now and then, trying to concentrate on something that wasn't his unbearable accent.

When they finally got closer to their destination, Sean led Julia up to a hill where they got down their horses and reached the shack on foot.

"So, what's the plan?" asked Julia.

"I'll deal with 'em. Let's make sure we keep one of them alive to tell us where they stashed the money"

Julia looked at him pretty impressed by his plan. She was about to say something when Sean looked at her with a cocky smile that made Julia regret even thinking about congratulating him.

When they were able to see the shack, they also noticed a man seated outside.

"Look, there's one of them outside. This is good"

"So, you deal with him and I cover you" said Julia.

"Alright" answered Sean before he started walking towards the man.

Julia took the rifle she had bought from her shoulder and hid behind a tree near the shack waiting for Sean to do his part.

She watched him reached the man who quickly stood up, pointing his pistol at him and asking what he was doing there.

"Look, I don't want no trouble. I just thought you might like to know I passed a big posse of lawmen headed this way. About a dozen of 'em coming up east" said the boy pointing somewhere.

Julia shook her head amused.

"What? Where?" asked the man worried moving his eyes from Sean.

Big mistake because he took out his pistol and pointed at him.

"Right here" he said shooting his head.

The man fell on the ground and soon after others came out of the shack.

Julia started to shoot man after man until the only one who was still alive tried to sneak away from the door on the back.

Julia saw him and quickly chased him, swinging her lasso and throwing it at him she caught the man by his foot.

"Good catch!" yelled Sean running towards the man.

"Okay, okay! I give up. Please don't shoot! I'm unarmed!" pleaded the man.

"Tell us where the money is, and we'll are let you go" said Julia.

"Behind the…the wall in the bedrooms, if you stick your hand between the gap" stuttered the man trying to free his feet.

Julia turned to Sean and made a gesture with her head and while he walked to the shack, she freed the man.

"Get lost"

Then she reached Sean founding taking a box from behind the wooden wall of the room.

"Oh, oh…look at this!" he said showing Julia two rather big piles of money.

"Here, this is yours "he said giving one to her.

Julia took it and smiled at him.

"What's the real reason you asked me to come with you?" she asked looking at him.

Sean shrugged.

"Oh, you know…I wanted to make amends for my behavior. I know you think I'm an idiot and I was b-but know I'm better you see" he said.

Julia raised an eyebrow at him and shook her head.

"We can say you're a little better, yeah. Now, let's come back to camp before Dutch lectures me again" Julia said walking towards the door.

The second after Julia put her foot down her horse, Abigail approached her and tapped her shoulder making her turn.

"Hi. Hosea wanted me to tell you he's waiting for you on the harbor. He wanted to talk with you"

Julia frowned and looked at the man in the distance who was simply looking at the lake.

"Err…thank you" she said to Abigail who nodded and went away.

Julia reached the harbor, making Hosea turn as she walked towards him.

"My dear, how are you?" he asked.

"Fine. You wanted to talk to me?" Julia answered crossing her arms on her chest.

"I just wanted to ask you if you were okay"

Julia looked at him in the eye and something in Hosea's expression made her think he knew about her fight with Morgan, that was why he was scolding him that morning.

She shrugged and looked away.

"Why wouldn't I be okay?" she replied.

"Oh, you know, we're in a particularly stressing situation, especially for you"

"I'm fine"

"I know, you're strong. But anyway, I wanted to propose you a job" he said catching Julia's attention.

"What is it?" she asked now interested.

"Bill brought a wagon full of moonshine the other day. It belonged to the Braithwaites and they were trying to sell it to the local gang you had dealt with. I tried to sell it somewhere else, but it seemed that no one wants to cross a rich and powerful family. Tomorrow I'm going to give it back and try to make some money and I was wondering if you wanted to come"

Julia thought about it for a moment.

"Is Morgan coming?" she asked raising a brow.

"I haven't told him" the old man answered.

"Alright. I'll come" she said in the end.

"Wonderful. Meet me in the wood when you're ready. The wagon is hidden there" said the man and Julia nodded before she walked away.

A job with Hosea, she couldn't believe it. She never saw the master at work, it would have been fun.

While walking towards the fire she noticed Sean and Arthur talk near Dutch's tent, in front of the donations box.

Sean had an annoyed expression on his face while Arthur was scolding him.

"Maybe you should calm down, English man" said Sean patting Arthur's shoulder before he left.

The older man stared at him menacingly before he noticed Julia looking at him. They stared at each other and Julia could notice Arthur's expression change and becoming more relaxed. His blue eyes wandered on her face and for an instant, she thought he was about to say something, but then he lowered his eyes and left.

She huffed realizing soon after that she was hoping he wanted to say something to her. How stupid? She didn't need him and his excuses. In fact, she didn't want him to speak to her ever again.

Right?

...

HI EVERYONE!

I haven't got time, so I'll be quick, sorry.

I hope you're doing all right, I'm fine just a little stressed, but finally things seemed to get better here where I live.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I really like how Julia faces any situation cold-blooded and I had so much fun writing about Arthur's point of view, even if it wasn't much.

Sorry, but I gotta go. I'll post next week on Monday as awlays.

HORSE KISSES!