The Way of Time (Red Dead Redemption 2)

by Fedeipox

When Emily opened her eyes, for a moment she forgot she had made a strange kind of journey, an impossible kind of journey, a journey not in space but in time. What would you do in her place? Wouldn't you go crazy? It takes a great strength of both mind and body not to start crying out in desperation, and this is exactly the type of strength Emily had had that morning.

10. Chapter 9: Getting accustomed

It took a little before he opened his eyes. First he regained consciousness, stretched his back on the hard ground covered by the old worn blanket, and then he tried to yawn. I say he tried because when he opened his mouth immediately a pain on his lower jaw forced him to close his mouth again and squeeze his eyes in a suffering expression.
"Ahi, coño" he swore and brought a hand to cover the right cheek.
That beast, the day before, had almost broke his face with that huge punch he had given him, and if it wasn't for Arthur, who had distracted him, he would have been a headless Mexican by now. He wondered how Arthur was doing after that fight. He was the one who had got worse, being beaten by that big man in the middle of the road.
He finally decided to open his eyes and check if Charles was still asleep next to him or he had already woken up. He was already up of course, he didn't expect otherwise. Sitting up, Javier also realized he had a terrible pain on his left ribs, but this time he had no idea of who among all those men inside the saloon had been the one to hurt him there.
"Hey, you getting ready?" he asked to Charles when he reached him near the horses.
"Ah-ah. We must meet with Trelawny in one hour."
"I know, I know. Give me a minute" he said turning around and slowly heading to the kitchen.
He needed coffee, and something to eat for the journey. He greeted Pearson, Miss Grimshaw, Abigail and the Adler widow on his way to the coffee pot and as soon as he kneeled down and put his hands on it, Emily showed up.
"Arthur told me about the bar fight. How are you?"
"Fine enough."
"You have a bad bruise on your face. You should put something on it, like some ice."
"Where do you think I can take ice?" he snorted pouring himself some coffee.
"Right. I better reach Charles. I want to check how is he and then we should go out for the lesson."
"We're leaving" he informed her standing up with a grimace of pain.
"Leaving? Why?"
"We found Sean. We're going to rescue him."
"Sean, really? Have you told Karen?"
"Not yet."
"Well, I'm going to tell her now! Good luck Javier!"
As she said that, she run away with her skirt fluttering in all directions. Javier shook his head, finished his coffee in a few gulps, took a couple of bean cans from the supplies and went back to Charles. In fifteen minutes, they were already leaving.
Karen had just woken up and she sat upright to stretch her back and rub her eyes. Abigail, who was already up, walked right in front of her, but she didn't say anything, not even a 'good morning'. Everybody in camp knew that they didn't have to say a word to Karen in the morning, at least not until she had drunk her coffee and smoked her cigarette, especially her cigarette, or she would have summoned all the powers on earth and sky to make a lighting strike you exactly where you were, leaving only a pile of ashes on the ground.
Everybody knew that, except Emily who came running with a big smile on her face, or as Karen described her in her mind, the most idiotic expression she had ever seen. The hell was she smiling for so early in the morning?
"I have to tell you something that will make you…"
"Fuck off."
"But…"
"Fuck off!"
"It's about Sean."
Despite the fact that she wanted to kill her at that moment, Karen looked up at her and that was all Emily needed to start talking.
"Javier told me they found him. Charles told me the law took him captive, but they're going to rescue him. Aren't you happy?" she said clapping her hands and making some little jumps that made her look more stupid than usual.
"Delighted. Now, please, will you FUCK OFF!"
Emily jumped at those loud and rude words, and turned around with a scoff.
"Screw you, Karen" she replied running away.
Karen stood up and slowly headed to the kitchen and only when she took the first sip of coffee she actually thought about what Emily had told her.
So, Sean was alive. Good. No, not just good, GREAT. She missed him, she was hoping so hard that he wasn't dead, and she couldn't wait for him to come back.
Karen shook her head. The hell no. He was a pain in the ass. He was a little piece of shit with the biggest ego she had ever seen in a person. As soon as they had seen each other, he would have surely started with all that fantasy about her being in love with him.
But of course she loved him. He was an idiot sometimes, but she did love him, she just couldn't tell him. And yes, she couldn't wait to see him again, and sit with him by the fire and sing one of those beautiful songs he knew, with that terrible voice he had that made him sound like a dead cat.
Karen smiled to herself and then pushed away the feelings and the thoughts, taking another sip and preparing for a day of work with Miss Grimshaw.

...

Javier and Charles weren't the only couple that was leaving that morning. Walking again next to the horses, Emily spotted Lenny and Micah loading the last things on their saddles and she walked closer both pushed by the curiosity to know where they were heading and to tell them Sean would soon be with them again.
"Dutch told us to go to Strawberry. See how things are lying in West Elisabeth, find some opportunity. I guess Sean will be here by the time we come back, so we can have a party" said Lenny.
With most of the men gone, the camp soon became silent and at Emily's eyes it appeared also extremely sad. The empty tents and campfires made it look like an abandoned place and she hoped that moment wouldn't last much and that soon everybody would have come back.
Her mind went to Arthur and about how he was doing with the reverend. She had thought that rescuing him wouldn't take much time, but she was wrong because she didn't know Arthur was having a hard time at the Flatneck Station.
She decided to spend that time finishing the oil for John's scars and when she was done, she went looking for him.
He was seated at one of the tables and he was studying a piece of paper with a lot of lines and names on it.
"You people seem to have a thing for maps" she laughed sitting next to him.
"Excuse me?" he asked frowning.
"Never mind. I'm done. Here's the oil" she said leaving the jar on the table, which John took to study.
"It's still too soon. You have to wait for those cuts to heal completely, which will take a week more, I think, and then you can start using it" she added.
"Well, thank you, I guess."
"What are you doing with that?" she asked pointing at the map.
"Looking for a place to rob. A town, a ranch, something in the surroundings that could make us gain some money."
Emily didn't like the fact that he wanted to rob some people in a town or in a ranch, but she asked anyway: "and, have you found something?"
"Hosea said Valentine is a live stock town, so they should sell, what? Cows and sheep in there?"
"I've seen sheep when I've been there" Emily informed him.
"And the nearest place to have sheep may be this "Emerald Ranch". We could go and find out if they are preparing some for being sold."
"We?"
"Well, yeah I guess…"
John turned his head from left to right and checked the place like he was looking for something.
"There's no many folks left, so I guess… I can't bring Bill, he'd ruin everything so… maybe I'll go alone" he ended looking again at the map and shaking his head.
"If you need a hand, and you just have to check something, I can come with you" proposed Emily.
"You?" asked John looking at her.
"Why? Because I'm a woman?"
"N-no…"
He wanted to say "because from what I heard you are as dumb as Bill" but her face made him understand that it was better if he didn't utter that sentence.
"Yes, yes I think I can bring you with me" he said in the end.
"Good. When?" she asked.
"Well, I still don't know. I'll let you know."
"Okay. Remember: everyday, twice a day, and your face will look much better in a month" she added tapping on the jar before standing up to go away.

...

Arthur left the reverend under his tent just when Miss Grimshaw came closer to ask what had happened.
"Just… the usual" he replied with a shrug.
"Poor bastard."
"He was lucky, this time. Real lucky" he said going away.
He couldn't believe the crazy chase that man had forced him to do that morning, and he was feeling already tired, but there was no time to rest.
He went looking for her. He wanted to tell her about his discovery, even if he already knew she would freak out at the news.
She was speaking with John. He waited until she stood up to go away and in the meantime he observed how the two of them looked so distinct from the distance: John so ugly, scarred and mean, Emily so pretty and neat. It must have been the same impression Arthur gave to the deputy when he walked inside the sheriff's with her.
And how? How could Arthur walk beside her in the street and not feel diminished by her presence? And how couldn't she notice that?
He took a deep breath and reached her.
"Hey."
"Hey, you're back. How's the reverend?"
"Alive, for now. I found him. I found one of the men in the photographs. The pig farmer."
"Emmet Granger?"
Emily already knew the people in those photos by heart.
"Yeah, and… well, I asked him about Calloway, but uhm… he wasn't very pleased and… well I had to shoot him."
"YOU DID WHAT?" she exclaimed bringing her hands to her face and covering her mouth in shock.
"Hey, he kept threatening me, and humiliating me, so first I returned the favor. Then, I was going away but he engaged me in a duel. I couldn't…"
"You returned the favor?"
"I made pig shit rain on him."
Her face changed immediately from shocked and disappointed to funny and goofy: she was trying to restrain the laughter.
"You did what?"
"I-I put dynamite in a pile of pig shit and made it rain on him."
She busted out laughing and Arthur smiled at her amusement. He expected another reproach for his behavior, not a laugh.
"Anyway, I couldn't leave without taking care of him" he said in the end.
"Jesus, Arthur" she whispered and brought a hand to hide her eyes, still smiling, but forcefully returning to a serious demeanor.
"You didn't have to kill him."
"Yeah, well next time why don't you try to convince a crazy old man to talk about his past as famous gunslinger."
"I would have if you had brought me with you! You promised I could come."
"Believe me, you haven't missed much."
"But next time I'll come with you. Say it!"
"Okay, okay. Next time we'll try to convince the asshole together."

...

Emily sighed and looked at his face. She wanted to ask more details about how Granger had died, understand if Arthur was just defending himself or if he had started the thing, but at the same time she was afraid to know he had been the one who started it. She didn't want to think about him as a murderer.
"At least you found something about Calloway?" she asked in the end.
"Nothing."
Silence fell between them, an embarrassing silence. Emily couldn't remove from her head the image of Arthur shooting someone in cold blood, and at the same time, that image reminded her of something similar she had done recently, and the weight of her actions was starting to be felt again on her shoulders. Arthur cleared his throat before finding an excuse to leave, breaking the silence and the tension.
She couldn't believe those people knew nothing but violence. It seemed they didn't even try to find an alternative to killing, some way to convince people that wasn't pointing a gun to their heads. She had created an idolized idea of them at the beginning, but that idea was starting to fade away.
But she had to admit the shower of shit was funny. She smiled again thinking about it. It must have been like one of those scenes in kids cartoons, like Mickey Mouse or Duffy Duck, just more… dirty.
In a couple of hours, in addition to everybody leaving camp, Arthur and Hosea decided to leave too. They wanted to go looking for one of the legendary animals in Hosea's map. They called her intentionally to tell her about it, and not only that.
Arthur had already removed the saddle from his horse and he was tapping his hand on its back.
"I'll leave Drover to you. Take good care of him, he's a good horse" he said.
"You're leaving it to me? And how… how will you travel?" she asked.
"I'm going to sell this one" he replied pointing at the big black horse next to him.
"And in the meantime, I'll buy a new horse. Drover is good, but sometimes he gets scared easily, so be careful when you ride him."
"I will" she said, but in her mind she was thinking she would have never tried to ride him on her own.
She looked at them mounting on the horses and disappear into the woods. And now, the camp really felt empty. However, Miss Grimshaw gave Emily no time to think about it, putting her to work after the days of laziness and boredom.
She was assigned to the clothes washing and she took the chance to wear her "normal" clothes and wash the shirt and the skirt.
"In the future is so much simple" she said to Abigail as they hanged the clean laundry.
"We have a thing called washing machine. You put the clothes inside and it washes them, so you don't have to rub and ruin your hands with water and detergents."
"Why don't you build it, this way Miss Grimshaw will stop torturing us" she replied, but her tone was heavily sarcastic. Abigail was one of those who still didn't believe in Emily's story.
Talking seriously, no-one believed in the possibility that Emily truly came from the future, but some of them, like Mary-Beth, Tilly, Hosea and Charles, believed in her conviction that she came from the future, so if it was real for her, it was real for them too, but they didn't actually believe in a fact, they believed in a belief.
"You all are too hard with her. She's just doing what she thinks it's better to make this camp work. Your hygienic situation it's already unstable. Without her it would be disastrous" said Emily.
In those days she had thought a lot about the harsh reaction Miss Grimshaw had had with her, but also about how worried everybody said she was because of her disappearance, and so, Emily decided to forgive her and forget the fact that she had been slapped, and, on the contrary, she started to take her defense every time somebody silently attacked her for something she said or did in camp.
Since the place was much more boring with most of its people gone, Emily also started to visit Kieran constantly, alway being careful not to touch him with a single finger, but she had also noticed that since she had loosened his ropes and made him sit on the ground, no-one had tightened them again, so that now he could stay seated and sleep correctly.
Emily wondered if that had happened because she had somehow put some humanity in those people's heart or just because no-one bothered to put him in the right place again.
With Kieran, Emily talked mainly about horses. When the man found out she knew nothing about those animals he loved so much, he decided to make her some real lessons about them.
"What about that one? What breed is it?" she asked pointing at Dutch's horse.
"That one is an albino Arab, which is different from a white Arab because of his eyes, you see them? They are clear."
"What about Charles's horse? Taima. She is so strange, with all those colors."
"He has an Appaloosa. Quite common horse, sweet and calm, good for training."
It also happened that she brought Drover near the spot Kieran was tied to, so that he could give her indications about how to groom him. How to use the brush correctly, how to touch him, all the things she used to do with Charles.
"You know so much. If you weren't tied here I'd ask you to teach me something more about riding, now that everybody who could teach me is gone" she murmured with a long face.
"I wish I were free too."
"You know what you should do? Prove yourself to them. Give them something that can make them understand you are not a bad guy."
But that was a real issue for Kieran, because he was terrified that, if he spoke, Dutch would kill him after he had what he wanted.
Emily didn't want to hear it, she didn't want to think Dutch or Hosea or somebody else could be so ruthless to kill poor Kieran as soon as they had what they wanted. She was aware that after what had happened she better didn't stick her nose in that question, but she was taking it as something personal and wanted to do something: to prove to herself that those people weren't as terrible as sometimes they seemed, to prove that Kieran wasn't dangerous, to prove to everybody that kindness was the right way.
"Emily!"
The kid's voice distracted her from her thoughts.
"Hey, Jack!"
"Can we play?"

...

Emily didn't stop making up new games. Every time Jack asked her she always came up with something new. Duck, Duck, Goose was one of his favorites because they played with his mom, Tilly, Mary-Beth and Karen, even if the latter wasn't very pleased to play and they had to force her. Then, there was hide and seek, Simon Says, which was super fun because they played with Mr. Pearson - whose name was Simon - and he always found something hilarious to make, and then Hopscotch and the Explorers. If Jack was having a bad day or he was bored he knew he could always go to Emily and she would have found a way to cheer him up.
That day they played hide and seek and when they were tired enough, to rest, Emily chose a particular spot in camp and told him to lay on the ground and look at the sky.
"Why?" he asked.
"You'll see" she replied.
It was the perfect day: there were enough clouds and not much wind so that the movements they made created many shapes and figures. Emily explained him how it worked and soon they started to see every kind on thing in the clouds.
"Look! That looks like a dog! I like dogs!" exclaimed Jack.
"And that looks like roasted chicken! God, I miss chicken" Emily said bringing a hand on her half empty stomach.
"How does it taste like?"
"It tastes like chicken."
"I've never eaten chicken."
"What does it mean, you never tried chicken?" she asked looking at him in shock.
"Mr. Pearson only makes his stew. I eat that."
Their argument went on for a while, until Emily sweared she would have found a way to make Jack eat chicken.

...

After a few days from everybody's departure, John decided to check Emerald Ranch for those sheep he wanted to steal. Emily changed her clothes again, wearing something that wouldn't catch attention and with John they took a wagon: he was still recovering from Blackwater and the wolves attack, and he couldn't ride. To the wagon they tied John's Old Boy and Emily's Drover.
"Why don't we just… I don't kn0w, ask them to do the job and get payed the half from the sheep sale instead of robbing them blind" said Emily while they headed to the ranch.
"Because that way we get paid for half of it. By robbing them we get the whole reward" replied John.
"But they are good people, trying to make a living from those sheep. It's not right."
"If you wanted to make things right you shouldn't have joined a gang of outlaws."
"But why don't you try to make things differently? It doesn't have to be that way."
"Too late for that. We've been doing it this way all our life."
Emily huffed. He had such a narrow mind. For them it was black or white, good or evil, outlaws or fine people, while in reality there were so many shades, so many chances to do things in a different way.
They didn't want to be "slaves of the government"? Good, they could live that life - in 1899 it was still possible - but they didn't have to steal sheep from a ranch to do that.
"So what? We walk inside and tell them we want to rob them?" she asked annoyed.
"We meet the people and ask if they have cattle to sell. I reckon we'll soon find out where and when they'll move it, so we can ambush them."
"Wow, you thought it through."
"I'm not as stupid as they say I am" he joked.
"They don't say you're stupid, they say you're an idiot. It's different" laughed Emily, but she soon realized her words had offended him.
"Hey, don't look at me like that, I only repeat what they say."
"Who says that?"
"Nah nah, I'm not snitching on them" she laughed, shaking her head.
"Ahh… I don't care anyway."
The road they took was definitely longer than the one she was used to do to reach Valentine and during their journey Emily asked John about his past, just like he had done with the others, and she found out he was an orphan too, and that he had joined Dutch when he was around twelve.
"What kind of life has it been?" she asked. For her it was impossible to think of living like that.
"Restless. But I know I wouldn't be able to live any other kind of life. I feel like I was born to do this" he answered.
"Born to be an outlaw?"
"To be free."
Emily didn't have the courage to tell him she though that wasn't freedom at all. How can a life lived on the run be considered freedom? Without considering the moral wrongs they did on themselves every time it happened they killed someone. But how could she explain that to John? He couldn't understand, he had an "Old Wild West" mindset. She decided to change topic.
"How long will it take to reach this place?"
"Not much."
"With a car it would be much easier. Can you believe that we can travel across a state in one night?"
"In one night? They are fast those cars of yours" laughed John.
"If I had a car right now, I could reach Saint Denis in half a day, maybe less. Maybe I could be home for lunch and eat the wonderful roasted chicken my mum does."
Silence fell as Emily lowered her eyes and studied every single straw of grass on the side of the road. John of course hadn't sensed the change in her mood.
"How long does it take with a horse for Saint Denis?" she asked looking at the horizon.
"I ain't sure, but… I'd say two days."
"Two days" she whispered and her eyes fixed on the road again, while in her head she was thinking about how to get to the city.
The road led them through the Twin Stack Pass, and, as soon as the rocky promontories ended, something made its appearance, something that, at least, could lift Emily's morale of an inch: a herd of wild horses.
"Whoah! They are beautiful, in their own way, aren't they?"
"I guess they are."
"Oh my God! It's just like that movie… oh, what's its name? The one with the wild horse!"
"What are you talking about?"
"The movie! The movie!" she kept yelling and pulling John's sleeve pointing at the horses running away.
"Oh, I wish I had my phone with me so I could take a good picture" she complained.
"Don't you have one of those things to make photographs back in camp? I saw you was trying to take a picture of Mary-Beth the other day."
"Yeah, but with that thing I need fifteen minutes to get the angle and the light and I never know how the photo will be in the end, if I got it right… that machine is a nightmare" she said gesturing widely.
"With my phone or a normal camera, one of those we have in the future, would be much easier."

...

John glanced at her. That was the second time she mentioned the "future" in his presence and from the natural way she pronounced those words, John was having a hard time believing that she was crazy, because she didn't sound like a deluded fool, she sounded normal.
"You use telephones for pictures? Not for calling people?" he asked perplexed.
"We use them for both. You can call people, send a SMS, Whatsapp and make photos. Or watch a movie, listen to music…"
She rattled off a series of actions she could do with that magic phone of hers, but the more she tried to explain, the more John was confused.
With silence falling, they both looked at the green landscape around them and smelled the fresh air of the morning. The temperature in the Heartlands was ideal: not as cold as the mountains, not as hot as the south, but something in-between that made it perfect for a journey under the sun like the one they were making.
With another whip on the reins, John's attention was caught by some far buildings with high chimneys. Emily followed his example and saw them too. She knew exactly what it was, there were so many of them in the future, even if with a little more modern style.
"Oil factory" murmured John.
"Yeah, I know. Who does it belong to?"
"I have no idea."
"Maybe Leviticus Cornwall?"
John jerked his head around to look right at her face.
"What do you know about Leviticus Cornwall?" he asked.
"That he was a great man with a great business."
"You mean a pompous son of a bitch with a lot of money" John laughed bitterly.
"How can you say that? You don't know him."
"Dutch told me about him."
"But from my understanding, he doesn't know the man either" she replied frowning.
"Dutch knows people like him. He's been fighting them all his life."
Fighting? What was he been fighting? Economists? Businessmen? But those people are only a representation of a greater thing: progress. And you can't fight progress.
Emily was starting to understand Dutch's character a little better: a man with wrong but strong beliefs who had succeeded in convince a bunch of people to follow him in a life of sin and misery, but presenting that life to them like the best they could aspire to, some sort of guru, a mentor.
Again, Emily didn't find the courage to tell John that Dutch's fight seemed useless and impossible. She didn't want to attack that man who everybody saw like a light in the dark, the head and heart of the group. It wasn't wise.
They focused their attention on something else, talking about futility and ordinary things until they finally reached the Emerald Ranch. In Emily's eyes it was a very peaceful place - at least at the beginning - quite big, but with most of the houses abandoned, which was something she found strange.
Maybe the place was having a period of recession and many had decided to leave, or worst, they were fired. The thought made her feel awful. Those people were probably having much trouble already on their own, they surely didn't need them to steal their sheep. It could have been the final blow to make them fall in ruin.
The three men inside the yard stopped what they were doing to look at them when they jumped down the wagon and walked down the street. The man with the scarred face and the limp and the little maiden. What a strange couple.
"How can I help you?"
The words caught Emily and John's attention. A man had spoken them, a gray-haired man with clear eyes.
"Hi partner. We're looking for, erm, sheep" said John walking towards him, hiding how he could the hurting leg.
"We're starting a little business of ours as ranchers and we need animals" he added.
The man eyed John from head to toe frowning slightly at his words.
"You don't look like a rancher. What happened to you?" he asked nodding to John's leg.
"Wolves."
"Ah… nasty bastards."
"You can say that. So, about them sheep?"
"Listen buddy. We don't sell privately. If you want some sheep there will be an auction one week from now. You can buy your sheep there."
"One week from now you say? And I'll find some of your animals there?"
"Sure, we are the best around here."
Relieved by the fact that everything was going as expected, John entertained a conversation of a few minutes with the man about cattle, pretending he really wanted to start his own business. Emily in the meantime had already lost herself. She was looking around at that strange place, so quiet, so old.
Emerald Ranch had the stables and the animals on one side and the houses on the other, and the main house was perfectly distinguishable from those of the employees because it was definitely bigger and fancier, with its green and white exterior.
Studying the building, she saw a woman at the window, looking down at her in the street, but Emily's eyes had passed on her too quickly to understand that she was actually there, and returning on that window a fraction of second after, she had already gone.
At the beginning she thought of a reflection, a game the light had played to her eyes, otherwise, why should that woman hide from her? The fact struck Emily in such a way that she started looking round, at the other houses, the other people, and she noticed there wasn't a single woman among them, just men.
Her mind started to roam: she imagined the ghost of a woman hunting the place at night that scared all the women out of the place so that none of the ranchers could take wife, and without the chance to accept new people because of the ghost the place had started to fall in disgrace.
"Are you looking for something?"
The man who had spoken had red hair, green eyes and a walrus mustache. Well built and tall, according to Emily he could be around forty.
"Just looking around. Why are those houses closed?" she asked pointing at the ruining buildings.
"This was a sort of little town once, but it didn't work. That was a saloon, and that one was a general store."
"Why didn't it work?"
The man smiled, looking away and Emily found his smile incredibly attractive, but at the same time she was sure he was hiding something.
"It just didn't. Mr. Wagner, the owner, is a little jealous of his property and didn't want any stranger to come here. That's why you and… your friend should leave as soon as possible."
Something inside Emily trembled at those words. The red haired man looked nice, but the worried way he had said those words was scaring her. She dared to ask just one question more.
"What about the woman at the window?"
The man took some steps backwards and shook his head slightly.
"Good day to you, Miss" he said and just walked away.
Once alone, Emily glanced again at the window before she ran back to John, who, in the mean time, talking with the man, had reached the fence and was pointing at some cows.
"John, John, I think we should go" she urged him with a trembling voice.
"Yes, I think I have all the information I need. I'll see you at the auction then" he said to the gray-haired man stretching out a hand.
"Oh, no. Not really. We always send the young ones to herd the sheep to the auction."
"Oh, well, goodbye then, partner."
The two shook hands and, finally, John and Emily walked back to the wagon.

...

"They'll move around ten heads one week from now, walking past the Twin Stack Pass. A perfect spot to surprise them. They sell each animal forty dollars. It's not much but I reckon it will do for now."
John looked at Emily, seated next to him on the wagon and suddenly realized there was something wrong: she had a troubled face.
"What? What happened?"
"That place… that place gave me the shivers."
"Why? Seemed normal to me."
"Something happened there, something terrible they're trying to hide."
John scoffed and shook his head. She was definitely exaggerating.
"And what would it be?"
"A murder" she said without hesitation.
This time John laughed openly, but he hadn't considered the still painful stitches on his face and the laugh chocked in his mouth and turned into a moan of pain.
"What gave you the idea?" he asked.
Emily wanted to tell him about the ghost of the woman at the window, but she knew he would have probably called her crazy
For all the way back, she was rather silent. Heading to Emerald Ranch, she had chewed John's ear off, and honestly, he preferred her when she talked, because that silence was making the journey long and boring.
"Oh! I forgot!" she exclaimed slamming her hand on her forehead.
"What?"
"I wanted to buy a chicken."
John's expression doesn't need a description, he was more than bewildered at those words.
"What?"
"A chicken. The other day Jack told me he never ate chicken. I wanted to cook one, or try to cook one for him."
"He's never eaten chicken?"
It was Emily turn to look at him in bewilderment.
"You don't know that your son has never tried chicken?"
No, John didn't want to talk about that, Abigail already burdened him with fatherly questions everyday in camp.
"Never mind, we're almost home" he diverted.

...

Emily didn't waste time. As soon as they untied the horses from the wagon, she run to the girl's tent looking for Mary-Beth.
"You have no idea what I just discovered!" she almost yelled.
"What?" asked Mary-Beth raising her eyes from Tess of the d'Ubervilles.
"There is a ghost in Emerald Ranch" she whispered kneeling down next to her.
"A ghost?" she whispered back with wide eyes.
"I swear to you, I've seen her! She was at the window, and I might know who she is."
Emily exposed her theory about a young woman, the lover of Mr. Wagner, the ranch owner. She was killed by his husband because of his jealousy and now her ghost didn't leave the house until midnight, when she used to hunt the entire ranch and scare the other women out of it.
"Wow, this makes a really good story" said Mary-Beth in the end with sparkling eyes.
"Do you want to write it?"
"Can I?"
"Of course! Who knows, maybe one day you'll be famous for it."
"That's the dream" sighed Mary-Beth taking out a little journal and writing a couple of lines.
Emily peeked at it trying not to be noticed, but from upside-down she couldn't make anything out of it. Mary-Beth had a strange handwriting: small, twisted, with the words really close one to the other.
As soon as she put the journal away, Emily looked around, pretending indifference, and causally her eyes fell on Dutch in the distance, smoking his cigar and watching the camp people at work.
It was like this that she thought of asking Mary-Beth about the 'Kieran situation', no-one better than her to give advise. She told her about her idea of trying to convince Dutch to free Kieran, if only he had done something for Dutch in turn.
"I don't know" answered Mary-Beth with a shrug, "you should go and ask Dutch in person. Talk to him, he will listen."
But despite Mary-Beth's certainty that Dutch would have listened to her, Emily was still unsure. She knew she had to speak with him: he was the boss, the ruler, the one who took all the decisions there, but she had postponed that moment because Dutch's character intimidated her. There was something in him that pushed her away from him in a resolute way, and, since the beginning, since that moment when she had attacked him because of his camp organization, they hadn't truly spoken again.
But Emily knew she had no other choice: she had to face him soon or later, and, after all, it was for a good cause.
Hi, Dutch. How are you? No, no, what the hell, they saw each other everyday, what a stupid start. Hello, boss! Boss? No, not boss. Just the idea to say that word made her sick. Hi, friend! Friend? What friend? They weren't friends. Hi, we need to talk. Yeah, right. Like they were a couple and she wanted to leave him. No, no, no. She had to be natural, just natural. Which meant be an idiot and embarrass herself.
"Hey, Dutch. Can we talk?"

...

Dutch narrowed his eyes and nodded slowly. What did she want from him? She seemed nervous. Maybe she had caused some more trouble? Besides, the fact that she wanted to talk with him was strange. Generally, she looked for Hosea when she needed to talk, never for him, because Hosea had that paternalistic way of doing things that reassured everybody. It had always been like that, ever since Arthur and John were young.
The girl slowly headed to the back of his tent, away from indiscreet eyes, and he followed her.
"I-I… well, I have a proposition" she started and Dutch noticed she was looking everywhere but to him.
"It's a bout Kieran."
Dutch breathed deeply but tried anyway not to lose his composure. He didn't want to clip her wings, even though he knew where she was going.
"I was wandering, if… if he proved himself to you, would you, erm, let him live?"
She looked up at him and it was at that moment that Dutch understood that she cared, she truly cared about that O'Driscoll, and she probably would have done anything in her might to help him. But he still din't trust him, he could never trust him, he knew Colm's boys, they were unworthy of trust. Anyway, he was intrigued.
"Prove himself?" he asked.
Emily's eyes sparkled with hope.
"Yes, yes, like… give something to you, or do something for you. A, erm, loyalty token or something."
"Uhm… loyalty token. The only thing that I could possibly want from him is his boss hideout."
Then, Dutch thought about something. It was a very devious thing to do, he was aware of that, but if she was so determined to help, she would have helped, but by following his rules.
"If you are able to convince him to talk, give away this information, I'll let him live" he said in the end.
"You promise?"
"I promise."
"I can't" said Kieran when Emily explained the terms to him.
"Why not?" she asked.
Kieran wasn't an idiot, he knew what Dutch was doing, using that girl to get what he wanted, and he knew his options where two: if he spoke, Dutch would have found an excuse to kill him and even if he didn't, Colm O'Driscoll would have found him, sooner or later, and Kieran would have paid for his betrayal.
But even if he tried to explain that to Emily, she was too convinced that Dutch might never kill him, and she didn't want to listen to him.
"Are you sure that's not just an excuse?" she asked angrily. "It seems to me that you're not trying to help me getting you out of this situation, Kieran."
"Why, why would I lie?"
"I don't know, but I've tried to help and Dutch is meeting you halfway."
It was at that moment that Kieran understood Emily had fallen in Dutch's trap.
"Don't you understand he's playing you?" he naively asked.
Emily was outraged by that statement and she left Kieran to walk as far away from him as possible. It seemed he liked to be tied to that tree after all.

...

Hosea came back the day after. He had left Arthur halfway from camp when he said he wanted to reach Javier and Charles near Blackwater to free Sean. He said the bear hunting didn't go exactly as expected, but he had fun at least.
The first among them to come back was Charles, all dusty and sweaty, telling everybody about their success in West Elisabeth. Then, Sean and Javier showed up and it was time for introductions.
Emily found Sean incredibly cheerful and full of life for someone who had been captured and tortured: he had an everlasting big smile on his thin freckled face and as soon as he stepped foot in camp, some sort of festive atmosphere had come with him.
"Come on! Le't celebrate the return of Uncle Sean!"
Emily was exited about all that happening. She was craving music, mental lightness and the company of someone who could ward off the heavy and dark thoughts from her mind.
Those weeks had been hard: she had done things she had never thought to do, living in that place that seemed to destroy, day after day, her good intents and rightful ideas.
The preparations implied the purchase of alcohol and for that Sean seemed to think he could take Dutch's place, ordering to go and buy some in Valentine.
"Nah nah, Mr. Macguire, your party, yours the responsibility to buy what you want" said Miss Grimshaw putting some dollars in his hands and pushing him towards the wagons.
"I need company" complained Sean, but Miss Grimshaw's answer was a simple gesture with her hand, like to tell him: 'not my business, choose who you want'.
Sean looked around. He had no intention to bring Javier nor Charles. Their journey back to camp had already been boring enough. He needed someone alive, someone with a good sense of humor.
"Hey, you girl!" Sean called out loud.
Emily didn't answered and didn't even turned around. There were five girls in camp, how could she know he was addressing her?
He could walk closer and ask her gently, but Sean being Sean, he preferred to be rude and quirky as usual.
"Hey, the new girl! Yeah, you! You come with me to buy some booze?" he yelled and now Emily's attention, together with the one of everybody else in camp, was caught.
"Sorry, you were talking to me?" she asked walking closer.
"Yeah, you come with me?"
"S-sure" she agreed a little taken aback for the request.
He could have asked everybody, maybe his girlfriend, but he had asked her. Why? And this fact was also noticed by Karen, who anyway had pretended not to hear nor see what was happening and kept to work as usual.
"You know Valentine, girl?" asked Sean getting on the wagon.
"Yeah, I've been there a lot of times."
"Good, so you can guide me there."
"And, my name is Emily, by the way."
"Okay, Emily, nice to meet you. How did Dutch find you?"
Emily frowned at those words.
"They haven't told you anything about me?" she asked.
"No, they should have?"
"Not a word about the crazy dumb girl that comes from the future?"
Sean laughed and this way Emily noticed he missed a tooth, maybe more than one.
Javier, Charles and Arthur hadn't said anything about her since they had recused him, and Emily felt bad for that. Not that she wanted everybody to talk about her, but she would have appreciated a mention, a few words to explain her presence in their group.
So she started with her story. Sean was delighted that in the world existed someone who talked almost as much as him, and Emily was happy to have found someone who finally liked her the way she was, with her habit to speak too much, her being naive and her simple humor. A bond was created between them that afternoon, a good friendship which, unfortunately, wasn't destined to last much.
"And you say Hosea believes ya?" asked Sean when she was done with her story.
"Actually, a lot of people believe me now."
"Well, if they believe you, I believe you too. These weeks mustn't have been easy for you all, since Blackwater."
"No, not really. But from what I heard, you got the worst."
Sean started about all the things the Pinkertons had done to him and how he had played the 'brave big boy' and told them nothing. Emily let him talk, glad that, unlike the other people at camp, she didn't have to pull the information out of him.
They easily bought two crates of beer and two of liquor at the general store in Valentine and came back right before the sun was down completely.

...

When Arthur arrived, the party had just began. The first bottles had been opened and Sean was about to end his speech, half drunk already. Right after that, music started.
"Come on! Play something we can dance to!" Emily exclaimed, and Arthur noticed she had some color on her cheeks. Had she been drinking too?
"Like what?" asked Javier, taking his guitar.
"I don't know. What you dance to in 1899?" she laughed.
"I might have an idea" said Uncle sitting on one of the logs near the campfire with his banjo.

(Music: I can't put links so search on YouTube for: Battle Hymn of the Republic!)

He started a song which Emily was sure to have heard someplace else, maybe right in the future. It reminded her of a public event, with a great crowd and a lot of flags and banners, and she remembered herself, very very young, on her father's shoulders to watch whatever was going on on the distant stage.
Then, Uncle started to speed up the rhythm of the melody and Javier joined him with those few notes he was able to catch. Anyway, the two of them together made something great to which Emily couldn't resist and, grabbing Mary-Beth's hand, they started dancing.
With their skirts moving frantically to the rhythm of their jumps and the sound of their laughs, soon the eyes of everybody were on them and Mary-Beth felt so embarrassed she had to stop. Emily begged her with the eyes and tried to pull her back to the dance, but she simply wouldn't keep on.
"Come, dance with me!" exclaimed Sean taking her arm and the two of them started swinging around.
Emily loved music, she loved to dance and sing, it was the best way she had to stop thinking and in that moment she forgot everything.
She started laughing in that sweet way that made her irresistible to others eyes and this didn't slipped away from Karen, who was the only one who didn't like what she was looking at. Jealousy is powerful and dangerous, and God knows how dangerous Karen could be.
The rest of them was enjoying the music and the presence of that strange girl, who brought such an unusual happiness among them, making them forget all their problems.
Emily let Sean go and reached for Tilly's hand instead, who needed a little more insistence to join the dance, but in the end proved to be the best dancer among them.
Hosea was again proud he had insisted to keep her with them, Charles felt peaceful in looking at her dancing, Sean had finally found someone to have a fun time with, Mary- Beth felt lucky in finding such a friend, and Arthur… well, Arthur couldn't help but still feel unworthy of her, even though he knew nothing romantic could start between them, because of his past, because of what he was, because he was sure she wouldn't stay with them much longer.
As soon as she had become aware of what they were and what they did, she would have left them for a better life. Girls like her generally did.

---

Hello!

I am alive! And back to work!

I am really sorry I disappeared on you, but I was working on my old story. It needed revision and still a lot of work to make it, I won't say perfect, but at least enjoyable, and with the summer and the exams in the middle, it took me more than I expected. But I am here now, working again on the Way of Time.

I hope you liked the music! I wanted to paste the link but the site doesn't allow me. I've found out Uncle actually plays this song in the game, in Beaver Hollow, and I've also found out it's an American Patriotic song? Created during the Civil War? Anyway, I think it's perfect for this scene.

Quick question: is my John too intelligent? I ask it because I've seen people tend to write him really dumb and... I don't know, he actually had a good idea for making that train stop during the game, also Arthur said that, and I thought he could have another great idea.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter friends and I am so happy to post something new again! Now I just have to keep writing. Sounds easy, it really isn't.

See you soon!