Hello, my readers!
So I wanted to let you all know that some of the chapters skip ahead of time, but I am hoping most of you have come to realize that. There will be sexual themes and content soon, I promise! I am terrible at writing pure smut without a story so please stick around longer, I know, it is a bit boring without some sexy content!
Also, I may or may not enjoy writing Mary-Beth/Micah Bell ;)
NOTE: The new updates are going to be very long and I am sorry but they will be worth reading, I promise!
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The sun shines brightly
The heat of the rays is warm and welcoming.
Birds chirp gleefully.
Bonnie is back home on the ranch. Her father is doing great. He has stopped drinking and is currently busy with breaking some wild mustangs up in the hills. Returning home had been one of the best things to happen to Bonnie and Drew.
Bonnie is certain that Belle seduced her father and had relations with him but it wasn't what either of them wanted long-term. Belle decided to stay in Lemoyne, after sweetly declining Bonnie's offer to move to her ranch. She will miss Bonnie greatly and Bonnie will miss Belle just the same. There isn't a day that goes by that Bonnie doesn't thank God for bringing Belle into her life. She is forever grateful to her father for even knowing Belle.
If Drew hadn't fooled around with Belle when he was a tad younger then Bonnie wouldn't have ever met Algernon Wasp or Arthur Morgan.
Who knows what could've happened and who Bonnie could've encountered if the tremendous outbreak that took her last brother didn't take over New Austin. Her now only living brother lives in New York. He is some fancy pants City boy now. He has no reason to come back to see Bonnie or Drew. Jack never did get along with Bonnie while growing up and funny how he is the only living Macfarlane son. The one who never gave a shit about the family ranch.
It is a warm afternoon and Bonnie finishes up harvesting some tomatoes from the backyard garden. Kneeled over the large, almost full basket of fresh vegetables, Bonnie runs her bare arm across her sweaty forehead and rolls up one fallen sleeve of her cream-colored, buttoned-up blouse.
She sits in the garden, on her knees, trying hard not to get her skirt dirty in the process. She does have on an apron but it doesn't cover much of the skirt, except for the front of it.
Bonnie leans forward to pick another red, perfectly plump tomato and is instantly alerted of the wheels of a stagecoach and the trampling hooves of the animal pulling it from the front of the house. Drew isn't around so there is no reason for Bonnie not to go around to the front and check.
Amos is in front, on the dirt road talking to the coach driver, and is suddenly greeted by Algernon. He steps out of the back of the coach, dressed as finely as ever. Amos and Algernon shake hands and Amos turns to Bonnie, not realizing she'd be so close by.
"You have a visitor, Ms. Macfarlane," Amos says firmly and wanders off the second Bonnie nods her head. Amos leaves Bonnie's space, realizing that Algernon Wasp is a decent man, simply by the way Bonnie nods her head.
"Thank you, Amos," Bonnie kindly responds and Amos finally leaves quickly for the barn.
The heat here in New Austin is calm and not so bitter like in Lemoyne. Algernon definitely looks out of place here on her ranch but she's glad to see him nonetheless.
The tall man smiles sweetly at her and Bonnie nervously flattens out the front of her white apron while offering him the same smile. It's been a week since her move back to New Austin. She hasn't had the time to sit down and write Algernon but the minute she has free time, that's when she will do so.
He stands close by and pulls out an envelope from his jacket pocket. Across the front of the envelope is his wonderful, cursive handwriting. Bonnie takes the letter in both hands and stares at it a minute longer before looking back up at Algernon.
His emerald eyes go back and forth between Bonnie and the letter.
"I was going to send it by mail but I wanted to see you," the tall, fine dressed man admits, fixing the gold-trimmed monocle over his eye. Bonnie smiles big and bright, admiring the man even more.
"Are you hungry, Mr. Wasp?" Bonnie asks, holding the envelope in one hand at her side, looking into his eyes.
The sun isn't nearly as blinding as it is in Lemoyne and the bugs are practically nowhere around here. Bonnie is so glad to be back. Algernon smiles small and looks over his shoulder at the coach. He has only an hour left before he has to be back in Saint-Denis. He is meeting a client from New York at his shop this afternoon.
"A cup of tea would be wonderful," he says with a big smile, clasping his hands together. Bonnie smiles back at him and leads him to the house.
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Clemons Point
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Mary-Beth closes her book and lays it down on the ground beside her. She looks up into the bright sky, lost in the slow-rolling clouds, and uncrosses her legs to stretch out and lean backward on her hands. The young girl smiles to herself and closes her eyes. The warm smell of pine and cedar fill her nose and Mary-Beth dozes off into the wonderful fantasy world of her book.
If only her fantasy lover was real. The passion and tenderness in the romance book is something she longs for. She only just started reading this book but it's similar to all of the other romances that she has read.
Her day-dream is completely shattered the second Mary-Beth is greeted by an unwanted nudge in the arm by a boot. She hurries to pick up her book and hide the title, but the man beside her couldn't care less. Her eyes draw slowly up the length of Micah and she watches him blow out a lungful of smoke into the open, staring out at the lake's surface. Mary-Beth scrunches up her face for just a second, turning her gaze back down at the book in her arms, and then realizes something.
"You think real romance is that pathetic?" Micah grumbles, still staring out ahead. He knows the kind of steamy books that Mary-Beth reads, hell, everyone does.
Micah takes in another long inhale from his cigarette, Mary-Beth can hear it sizzle in the shared silence between them.
Her heart suddenly thumps against the dirty cover of her book and she starts to gnaw on the inside of her cheek, looking at her boots before sitting cross-legged again. Romance can be as pathetic as it wants to be. Mary-Beth prays for the most downright, silliest, cheesiest romance of them all. Micah can make fun of her for reading them all he wants but it doesn't change her mind about it.
Exhaling another cloud of smoke, Micah looks down at Mary-Beth before flicking the butt and turning to face camp. Mary-Beth can hear the grinding of pebbles and the breaking of grass beneath Micah's boots as he moves away and she stops him.
Her fingers are gripped tightly to Micah's left pant leg and he is just as surprised by her action as she is. John is near the dock, not close enough to care about the situation between Micah and Mary-Beth but close enough to hear, even if he doesn't want to. Micah huffs and cracks a half-smile, forcing himself from her weak fingers. He turns back to face Mary-Beth on the ground and gets close. Mary-Beth frowns and is now on her hands and knees with her book on the ground.
Micah doesn't bother to draw his eyes over to the book and gives it a swift kick to the side. Mary-Beth whimpers to herself as it skids a few feet away in the dirt and she sits back down on her butt, letting her legs fold parallel to her body.
"You lookin' to get caught?" Micah asks, raising one dark eyebrow and raising one hand to brush his mustache. Mary-Beth looks up at him with a confused look on her face.
Micah doesn't say another word and doesn't even give Mary-Beth the chance to before he leaves.
The young girl is terribly confused at what is happening between herself and Micah. She grabs her book, brushes it off, and stands up, brushing off her skirt. She leaves the area and wanders off to find Tilly.
.
Arthur finishes his bowl of morning slop and heads on into a pair of shrubs to empty his bladder. Last night was interesting. Fate had pulled Bonnie and himself together again for a night of friendly entertainment.
In the lovely countryside of Rhodes, Arthur offered to take Bonnie shooting. He wanted to see what she knew about firearms and how she handled a pistol if any kind of weapon for that matter.
He replays the scenes in his head like he's 16 again and man is it relaxing. Leaving the shrubs, Arthur scratches the side of his face and groans at the prickly sensation of short beard hair. He shaved just two days ago and the hair is back in the blink of an eye. The outlaw sighs on his way toward his cot. He retrieves his straight razor and some shaving cream he regularly borrows from Dutch before crouching down before his dirty mirror to shave.
Before long at all, the camp is full of sounds. Everyone is awake now.
Not too far from Arthur, Dutch and Molly are arguing once again about something unknown. A late morning earful of Dutch and Molly fighting is exactly what Arthur wanted.
Arthur covers his cheeks and jaw with the warm shaving cream and stares at his reflection in the mirror. The smell is nice but something he's all too familiar with. He needs a new smell. Arthur coughs and has a secure hold on the straight razor. He leans in a bit closer to the mirror and turns his head to start on the right side of his face.
He licks his lips slowly as he presses the razor into his skin and ever so carefully draws it downward. His eyes keep track of the path he makes, very careful not to nick himself this time.
"You are truly driving me insane woman!"
Dutch yells from behind Arthur and Arthur blinks his eyes out of annoyance. He keeps the razor still and starts again, shuffling himself even closer to the mirror.
"Arthur!"
Dutch shouts directly from behind Arthur and instead of nicking his face, Arthur ends up cutting his palm. Pretty badly.
The younger man growls below his breath and stands up. He holds his bleeding hand with his other and turns to face Dutch. The older man looks at Arthur with an irritated expression then sees the blood.
"Jesus Arthur, get yourself cleaned up, I need you for a moment!" Dutch says abruptly and storms off back the way he came.
Arthur is pissed and bleeding.
"Damn it!" Arthur curses and looks down at his now two bloodied hands. It's bad and it's dripping onto his boots. He finds Mrs. Grimshaw and she fixes him up good. Better than he ever could himself. Before she sends Arthur on his way, she stands before him with her hands on her hips.
Arthur just looks down at his bandaged hand.
"You can be such an oaf Mr. Morgan!" the older woman states and flicks her wrist at him, signaling him on his way.
Arthur mumbles gibberish under his breath and realizes just how true Mrs. Grimshaw's words are. Even if Dutch hadn't shouted his name, he probably still would've hurt himself.
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Macfarlane Ranch
.
Algernon had left half an hour ago, leaving Bonnie in the kitchen with his letter in her hands. He is definitely a gentleman. She isn't sure he is someone she wants to spend her life with though. He is so different from her. He lives a different life than hers; he's so clean and dapper and she, well, she is a home-grown country girl with a side of cow poop.
How he became so infatuated with her in the first place is still unbelievable. With a silver letter opener in one hand and the letter in the other, Bonnie enters the family room and sits down in an upholstered chair near the open window.
She opens the envelope with care and unfolds the letter. Her azure eyes are mesmerized with every word, beautifully written, and smiles. Algernon Wasp is terribly infatuated with Bonnie Macfarlane and she has no clue on how to deal with it. She is sure she feels the same way about him but still can't seem to accept his kiss.
She reads the letter.
Bonnie puts it in her nightstand in her bedroom and leaves. Drew isn't back yet but it doesn't worry her. Arthur had invited Bonnie to shoot off a few rounds with him tonight around 3:00 pm in the highlands in New Austin. He is traveling quite a bit for her but he offered and she accepted last night as they were slowly getting to know a little bit about each other. Arthur Morgan doesn't have any reason to be friendly with a random now eighteen-year-old woman but she isn't like any other random woman he has come across lately.
Being with her takes him back to the times when he was younger and he feels safe and happy with her, no matter if they had just met. No one from camp has to know.
Bonnie was taken aback by Arthur's age when he told her. She never thought she'd be the attraction of two older men. She has only had suitors in their 20's and the oldest was 23. Drew has only met Algernon once and he was too inebriated to even know what was going on at the time.
Bonnie doesn't want to really focus on love right now. It will likely come when she isn't expecting it.