The day was hot and as soon as she got up, Emily's first thought was to pull up the sleeves of her shirt and open a few buttons on her chest.
Walking towards the kitchen, one thing that she noticed was that most of the people were still lying down on their cots or blankets, regardless of the fact that the day had already started.
Sean's party had been animated, not only by the music, but by the alcohol too. Those people became wild when they drank, wild and bad-tempered. Karen, especially, had been the most sour towards Emily, treating her with nasty glances and silences for all the evening.
"Morning" she murmured to Abigail and Sadie reaching the kitchen and taking some biscuits.
"Morning to you. I know you enjoyed the party last night" said Abigail.
"Yeah, it was pretty fun. We danced and drank, and then Uncle sang a really ambiguous song, which apparently all the men knew. And, I couldn't believe it, I've seen Miss Grimshaw sing too! Where have you been, by the way? I wanted to ask you for a dance."
"Sadie didn't feel good. I kept her company."
"Oh, I hope nothing bad."
As an answer Sadie looked away and it was at that moment that Emily thought enough was enough.
"Listen, Sadie. If you are still angry at me because I've tried to help Kieran…"
"No need to rehash that story."
"No, I want to tell you I'm done doing that. Okay? Apparently, he doesn't need my help, or he's an idiot. You were right, I shouldn't waste my time with him."
At her words, Sadie finally put away her resentment, and nodded at her meaningfully.
"So, I hope you're feeling better this morning" said Emily, and finally, after days of contrast, the two of them returned to that polite acquaintance that was their relationship.
Now that Charles was finally back, Emily had her teacher again, and, thanks to Arthur, she also had her personal horse.
She went looking for him. Between the doing nothing and learning how to ride a horse, she definitely preferred the horse. After all, those animals she had despised all her life because of her father's belief, turned out to be better than she thought.
Charles was one of the few to be awake yet and, as usual, he was working on something when Emily found him.
"We better go now, I'm planning to go hunt later" he informed her.
"You want me to wear my jeans?"
"Yes, I want to check if you've improved."
That sentence made Emily incredibly nervous: not only she hadn't practiced since last time they had gone out together, but she was sure that riding Drover wasn't the same as riding Taima.
After she changed, Charles helped her to mount on Drover, and the two of them slowly walked out of camp.
"What are you planning to hunt?" asked Emily trying to focus her attention on something that wasn't her anxiety.
"Try to keep calm, I can sense you're worried from here. I'll go looking for bisons. My people considers them one of the greatest gifts from Mother Nature."
"If I were riding Taima I wouldn't be this nervous. Arthur told me this one is pretty skittish. Bisons you say? Wow, I'd do anything too see one. A real one. I've been to the Natural History Museum of Saint Denis once, and there I saw a stuffed one, but…"
"A stuffed one?"
Charles's voice expressed all the shock he was feeling at that moment, like if a stuffed animal seemed outrageous to him.
"Yeah, you know, a fake one. Anyway, I'd like to see one in flesh and bones."
"You can come with me if you want."
Emily was excited at the idea to see a bison, but at the same time there was something that was keeping her from saying immediately 'yes' to Charles's proposition.
"But, you said you're going to hunt it."
"Yes."
"I don't know, I don't want to see the killing of an animal."
"You wasn't much impressed when I hunted that deer for you to bring to Valentine."
"Because it was already dead, and on the wagon it was covered by the blanket so I couldn't actually see it. This time you're talking about killing one in front of me."
"It won't suffer, if that is what worries you. I try to kill every animal in a quick and painless way."
"It's not that, I… I don't want to see blood."
For the first time since they had left camp, Charles looked at her and Emily, feeling his eyes on her, turned her head in the opposite direction, pretending to look at the landscape. Yes, she was embarrassed by her stupid fear of blood.
Blood and guns, two things they were used to see too often to be scared about. Charles knew that if she hadn't changed herself, abandoned her fears, she wouldn't have survived that world, nor that kind of life.
"You'll come with me then" he said.
Emily turned around to protest, but he gave her no chance to do so.
"I want you to face your fears, learn how to survive."
"Why? Why do you care? I'll probably never need to hunt or kill, so there's no need for me to…"
"What if you do? Huh? What if you need to do one of these things, but you can't because you've never learned?"
It was a good point, but Emily didn't care. She didn't want to go and she made it clear to Charles, who, after some insistence, gave up.
As Emily expected, her lesson was disastrous. Drover was incredibly more stubborn than Taima and Emily was having a hard time in controlling him, until the worst happened.
She was trying to make him turn around, pulling the reins leftward, but he really didn't want to listen. So, in a moment of pure frustration Emily gave a big tug and the horse jerked. Doing so, Drover caught Emily unaware and she slipped from the saddle. She tried to keep herself steady, tightening her knees around the horse, but she couldn't and in the end her right shoulder hit the ground.
"Fucking horse!" she exclaimed in pain.
She hated him, he was the worst! Why Arthur had to give him to her? Did he hate her perhaps?
"Here, here. Don't worry, it's just a bump" said Charles running by her side to help her stand.
"I told you, I told you he's an asshole!"
Charles laughed her words and helping her back to her feet he took his decision.
"Come, I'll mount up with you. This way you'll feel safer."
He helped her back on the horse first and then he joined her.
"Okay, no harsh nor sudden movements. If he doesn't listen try to convince him more gently. It's not easy for him either, you know? He has to learn to trust you."
Charles had a wonderful way to do, a wonderful way to teach and Emily was literally hanging from his every word. Moreover, his presence on the saddle made her feel like she had nothing to worry about.
When he understood Drover was calm, Charles decided to leave Emily alone again. After spending some more time walking left and right, they decided it was enough for that day and decided to go back to camp.
Once Emily set foot into camp, she thanked all the divinities on earth and sky for being back safe and sound, even if probably with a big bruise on her shoulder.
Honestly, that horse was unbelievable: how was she supposed to love him, take care of him and learn to trust him, just like Charles had told her to do?
"Okay, now dismount and give him a treat" said Charles.
"A treat? For what? For throwing me off the saddle?"
"For being a good horse that needs to understand who his new owner is" he replied severely.
Emily rolled her eyes and huffed heavily as she dismounted Drover. Then, she took the carrot Charles was handing her and put it near the horse's mouth.
"Now say some soothing word and feed him" he ordered walking closer.
"Yeah, yeah. You've been good Drover" Emily said without a trace of kindness in her voice and she was about to give him the carrot when Charles stopped her hand.
He moved behind her and took both her wrists: with one hand he forced her to pet Drover on the neck, with the other he made her slowly feed him the carrot.
"You're a good boy, Drover. She'll learn how to love you" said Charles and his voice sounded like honey.
Yes, Charles had a wonderful way to do things, and Emily was so happy to have him as a friend.
...
For the first day after God knew how much time, Arthur woke up with the realization that he had nothing to do: there wasn't work to be done, there weren't people need saving, he could finally spend some time in camp, with his family, and not feel the burden of duties on his shoulders.
He took some coffee and exchanged a few words with Mr. Pearson. Then, he went speaking with Hosea, and then with John, asking him how he was doing, and he witnessed the umpteenth arguing between him and Abigail.
It was at that moment that he spotted Charles and Emily coming back form the riding lesson. The two of them dismounted the horses, and then Charles gave her some indications that she was reluctantly following, until he walked closer, took her hands and showed her how to do it properly.
Something happened inside Arthur when the two of them touched, something in the area of his stomach twisted and he knew exactly what it was: the powerful sting of jealousy.
But, why would he be jealous? He had said to himself that nothing could happen between him and that girl, over and over again; and yet the idea that she could find what he wasn't able to give her in someone else, even someone good and worthy like Charles, was troubling him.
In the distance, Emily and Charles moved away from the horses and reached Charles's tent nearby. She was laughing like a child and the sight pushed Arthur to walk closer as they sat down to talk.
"Hey folks" he awkwardly said.
"Arthur" she exclaimed looking up at him.
"You've been riding?" he asked pointing at the horses.
"More or less. That asshole of your horse threw me from the saddle."
"That's not true" chuckled Charles, and Arthur was surprised in seeing him smile. He was barely the type to laugh and he had seen him doing it only a couple of times in the six months he had been spending with them.
"The horse made a sudden movement. They still have to know each other."
"Are you hurt?" asked Arthur.
"Just a little pain in this shoulder, but… it doesn't feel like I broke something" she replied touching her right arm.
"Well… be careful next time" he said and did as to go away. He didn't want to bother the cute couple further more. But he couldn't take more that two steps that Charles called him back.
"You want to come hunting?"
"What you hunting?"
"Bison."
"Bison?"
Charles asked himself why he sounded so surprised, but Arthur was acting a little strangely that morning, so he tried not to mind too much.
"Yeah, I've seen a couple on the plains, some time ago, I reckon there is a herd. I'll show you how we hunt one."
"Well…"
Arthur took a second to think what to do. He was hoping in a day of laziness and he truly didn't care about hunting bisons, but at the same time he thought that, going with Charles, maybe he could have a word with him and try to understand if something was going on between him and Emily.
"Sure, why not?" he said in the end.
Charles stood up and took a big shotgun from beside one of his crates, and him and Arthur where ready to go when…
"Can I come too?"
...
Both Arthur and Charles looked taken aback by her request, but Charles most of all.
"You said you didn't want to come."
And it was true, she didn't want to go…at the beginning. But then Charles had asked Arthur to go with him and… well she wanted to go now… to spend some time with him… with them.
"Well, I've changed my mind."
"Are you sure you can handle it?" asked Arthur.
"Pff, of course I can" she answered with a wave of her hand.
Charles didn't need any more reasons, he had understood why she wanted to come, and without a word he headed to the horses.
After the bad experience, Emily didn't feel like riding Drover again, so she decided to ride with Arthur on his new horse, Ares.
"What breed is it?" she asked.
"What, now you're interested in horses's breeds?" chuckled Arthur.
"I'm just trying to learn something new."
"It's a Tennessee Walker."
Arthur followed Charles as he headed to the plains of the Heartlands and in the meantime he explained why bisons were so important for his people. Emily found all that fascinating, and when they reached the great valley and the open space revealed the herd of bisons, she couldn't help but let out a soft expression of amazement.
"Incredible, aren't they?" asked Charles. "We should only kill one of them."
"Why kill one? Can't we just… look at them?" said Emily.
"With the meat we can feed the camp, selling the pelt we can make some money, every part of the animal is useful. Sometimes, we need to hunt and kill animals for our sustenance, it's a gift."
Then, Charles looked at her troubled face. He knew she was there just because of Arthur, but it didn't mean she had to suffer.
"Why don't you wait here while we hunt? And then you reach us as soon as we're done?"
"It's a good idea" added Arthur turning on the saddle to look at her.
"Yeah, yeah, I think… I'll see you later" she murmured slipping down from the horse.
Arthur and Charles left Emily on a hill not too far from the herd and rode down the valley. She looked at them as they made the animals move, Charles rounding them and making them follow the direction he chose, Arthur picking one and isolating it from the rest. Then, the image of the bison collapsing at his feet, and immediately after the distant echo of the gunshot.
It was like watching a documentary in real life, and despite being sorry for the poor animal, Emily couldn't help but feel lucky in experiencing something like that. She walked down the ridge, reaching the grassy ground of the lowland and determined to walk the distance between her and her friends to look at that majestic beast from close up.
What about the blood? She asked herself. The hope was that there wasn't too much, maybe none at all, but she knew it was a vain expectancy. She would find a way, one way or another: she surely couldn't miss something like that.
"Hey."
The three letters, pronounced by a deep male voice, made her turn around, and an ugly face was all she could see before passing out.
...
"Nothing here. Have you checked that side?" yelled Charles.
"Yes, nothing here, either. Just a couple of dead bisons" replied Arthur.
When the both of them couldn't see Emily anywhere, they mounted on their horses and started inspecting the surroundings. She was supposed to reach them after they had killed the animal, but she hadn't, and they waited for about twenty minutes, thinking that maybe she had walked away for some private reasons or something, but even then she hadn't come back.
"Dead bisons? Like killed by other animals?" asked Charles. It sounded strange.
"Like shot and left there" answered Arthur who wasn't giving to that event more attention than it needed, but the same couldn't be said of Charles.
"Show me" he said and the two of them rode eastward.
It was exactly how Arthur had told him, the bisons had been shot and left to rot under the sun, spreading their bad smell all across the Heartlands. Just at the sight of them, Charles's guts twisted in anger, but he tried to keep calm and use his mind.
"They're hunters and they're not too far. This is still fresh. Maybe they have taken her too."
"Why would some hunters take her?"
"I don't know. Let's find out."
Not far from where they had found the carcasses there was an old campfire, already extinguished, maybe dating back to the day before, and from which spot was visible a column of smoke in the distance, the sign that another fire had been lighted.
Without the certainty that it was them, Charles and Arthur headed there. As a precaution, they decided to dismount the horses in a covered point and approach the camp on foot.
The men where two, with mean faces and dirty clothes, seated next to a couple of tents which solidity was rather dubious. The burning logs were nothing but two coals and they produced more smoke than fire. And there, on the warm grass, there was Emily, still unconscious, with her hands tied together on her belly and a gag in her mouth.
What could those two possibly want from that girl? It wasn't credible that they believed she could have some information they needed. But to find out, they only had two choices: wait, and take a risk the two hunters might harm her, or act immediately and try to make them talk the hard way.
Useless to say they didn't get to choose. One of the two, with long greasy hair stuck to the sides of his face, walked closer to the girl and shook her to make her regain consciousness.
...
When she came back from the other side, Emily didn't immediately understand what was going on. Through her blurred sight, the man who was shaking her shoulders looked like John. But she remembered having left camp, and why should John be there if she had gone hunting with Charles and Arthur? No, it wasn't John, it was someone with yellow teeth and an awful smell. The smell of dead things.
"Wake up, beautiful" he said with a raspy voice.
When she realized what had happened her first instinct was to stand and run, but she had her hands and feet tied and she couldn't move. She tried to talk, but she was gagged.
She felt breathless, she wasn't able to let the air in and out properly, and she started painting.
"Here, let me help you" said the smelly man with a smile that surely wanted to be sweet and caring, but that in Emily's eyes was creepy.
He freed her from the gag, which left a terrible taste of dirt in her mouth. She wanted to ask who they were, what they wanted from her, why she had been kidnapped, but all those questions remained in her mind, because she wasn't able to utter a single word.
"Maybe you want to know why we took you" said the smelly man looking to his right, and following his gaze Emily noticed another man she hadn't seen before.
He too had dark hair, but shorter than the smelly man, and he was so skinny that his ribs were visible through his open shirt.
Not one, but two. From bad to worse.
"But I have a question for you" the smelly man kept saying and with every word pronounced only a couple of inches from Emily's face, his hot foul breath made her sick.
"What is such a beautiful girl doing all alone in the Heartlands?"
Answer or not answer, that was the question.
"Because me and my partner made a bet" he said pointing at the other man.
"I say you're lost. He thinks you're here for a reason. Maybe traveling on a stagecoach with a bag full of valuables?"
Now Emily was understanding where he was going with his speech: he thought she was a rich girl traveling on a carriage just like they used to do in that time. So, what was her next move? Lie and tell them what they wanted to hear, or tell the truth? What if they hadn't believed the truth?
"I was hunting."
Just as expected the two men laughed, they laughed hard and long and their voices echoed inside Emily's head, leaving behind the beginning of a headache.
"Hunting? What, you think we're idiots, girl? Huh?"
Emily was tired, just tired to hear that disgusting raspy voice ringing in her ears, tired of the smell of dead things of that man. She wanted him to stop talking, just stop talking and go away.
"You know what's the only thing someone like you could find out here?"
Suddenly, the man's attitude had changed: he's voice was lower and his pupils were oddly enlarged. He ran a hand on Emily's leg lifting her skirt in the movement. She gulped, perfectly knowing what he was trying to do. Her eyes widened and her lips opened ready to scream.
A hand was on her mouth before she could do that, but it didn't belong to the smelly man, but to the other one who had stood up and reached her from behind without her even noticing him.
"Shh shh. Don't you worry. We'll be kind to you" he whispered in her ear.
In the meantime the smelly man's hand had reached her thigh and his rough dirty hands were making shivers run down her back.
"Stop, stop please" she said behind the man's hand, and nothing but an indistinguishable sound came out.
"We'll be quick, you won't…"
The smelly man's words were stopped by a loud sound, just like a firework had been blown up right there, by her side, but it wasn't a firework.
Emily closed her eyes as soon as she felt the hot sticky drops touch her face and she didn't dare to open them again. It didn't matter what was happening around her, she didn't want to look. She knew what she would have seen if she had done that and she couldn't, she didn't have the strength to face it.
...
Red. That's all Arthur was able to see. When those animals dared to touch her, he saw red. Charles beside him, wasn't in a better mood. In his mind, the scene could be summarized like the encounter of two scrawny and mangy jackals with a swan. They had cornered her, ready to dine on her white meat. They had to do something, and soon too.
"Arthur, I think…"
Charles couldn't finish his sentence because Arthur was already standing. With a few long and quick steps he came out of his hideout and took his revolver. The gunfire reverberated on the plains. The half destroyed head of the man touched the grassy ground with a dull thud.
The other man moved back raising his hands in the air and murmuring words about mercy and understanding, words that Arthur wasn't listening to. He was focused on Emily: her eyes tightened, her lips pursed but letting out a small whimpering, her face spotted with blood drops.
Charles came out too and now both him and Arthur were pointing their guns at the man's chest.
"Why you took her? Who are you? Have you killed those bisons too?"
Charles was making his interrogation, but the answers he received weren't much. The man was shitting himself now.
While Charles walked closer to the man and made him kneel on the ground, Arthur reached Emily and crouched in front of her.
"Emily" he whispered laying a hand on her shoulder and at his touch she startled but still didn't open her eyes.
"It's me, Arthur. It's fine, you can open your eyes now."
She shook her head and another whimper came out from her trembling lips. At her denial, Arthur took out the knife and cut the ropes on her ankles and wrists. Again, she jumped slightly as she was set free.
"Come on, let's get back to camp."
Still no answer, still no intention to open her eyes. Arthur had no idea what else he could do. He reached out a hand and took her face, trying to be as delicate as he could.
"Emily. I'm here. Look at me. Look at me."
Slow and hesitant, Emily did as he was asked. Her big dark eyes met the deep blue of Arthur and she felt out of danger, but not calmer. She wanted to go away from there.
The other man was still begging for his life and Charles was still keeping him kneeled down. Hearing their voices Emily turned her head in their direction, but she couldn't catch a single glimpse of them because Arthur took again her face and made her look at him.
"No, focus on me. Don't look, you understand? Eyes on me."
Emily knew that Arthur didn't want her to see the dead man on the ground next to them, even though she could picture how he had to look and the thought made her sick again.
"Here, arms around my neck" said Arthur and lifted her in a blink of the eye.
"Charles, can you deal with him? I'm bringing her back."
"Sure."
Arthur let her down only when they reached the horses. He made sure she was able to stand on her own and then he took a rag and a flask with some water from the saddle.
"Here let me clean you" he said and gently passed the cloth on her face.
Touching her like that was strange, it was intimate, and if she hadn't just experienced something so terrible, it would have been also kind of romantic.
In the meantime, in Emily's head there were all kind of images and thoughts except something romantic. She wasn't even feeling Arthur's touch. She was still seated on that grass, with the picture of that man's head blown up right in front of her eyes.
What kind of world was that? What kind of life? Always hunted, always wary, always scared. She had to go away, find a better place, a better life, but that meant she had to leave them all: Arthur, Charles, Mary-Beth, Hosea… They were the only certainty in that chaos.
Or maybe she could find another solution. But how could she feel less scared, less wary, less hunted? She already knew the answer: Arthur had told her, Charles had told her, Hosea had told her, everybody had told her, but she hadn't listened to them because she had thought she didn't need that. But now it was the only possible solution.
She had to change.
...
"I don't think it's a good idea."
"Trust me Arthur, I know what I'm doing."
"No, you don't. That's not what you want to do, that's not who you want to be."
"I want to be safe."
"You are safe. As long as you are with us, you are safe."
"Just like the other day, right?"
There she was, in the middle of the room of the gunsmith of Valentine, looking at the different pistols and revolvers of the catalogue, even though she already knew what her purchase would have been.
That day, after Arthur had blown her kidnapper head off, Emily had taken a decision, an important decision: she wanted a gun and she wanted to learn how to use it.
She wanted to feel safe and to be able to protect herself and to do that she had to overcome one of her greatest fears and to throw away all her moral and ethic ideas against firearms. After all, that was the Wild West and it had its own rules. Her only choice was to follow them or perish.
Arthur, on the other side, wasn't so sure anymore. It was true he had advised her to change, but now… he believed that buying a firearm, she would have put herself even more into trouble.
"What happened with those hunters…"
"Was an epiphany. I've finally understood what you meant."
"I was wrong, I was wrong, you don't have to change."
"Yes, I do. And you know that."
Arthur opened his mouth ready to reply something, but what could he possibly say to convince her? After all, she was right, but the idea that what she was about to do would have destroyed everything she was and had ever been couldn't get out of his mind. Yes, he knew way too well that the path she was taking would bring her to the ruin, and he couldn't stand it.
"Here you are, Miss. Your Cattleman Revolver" said the shop owner reappearing from the back of the shop.
He laid the weapon on the counter and patiently waited for her to take it, hoping that, this time, she wouldn't run out of the shop.
Emily knew what she was doing, and took the revolver in hand without thinking twice. The feeling was always the same, both physical and psychological: a strange sense of power, both terrifying and intoxicating.
"I'll need some ammunitions too" she said to the man.
"Yes, of course" he said turning around and opening a drawer from where he took a little red box.
"It's 52 dollars" he informed her with a relieved smile on his face; he was truly selling her something.
"Wait" said Arthur making both the seller and Emily look at him. "You need a belt. To bring it around."
"Right. Be right back" said the man and disappeared again in the other room with a smile bigger and bigger with every moment they spent in that shop.
"I don't have enough money for that, Arthur" said Emily.
"Well, I'll buy it for you. You can't walk around with that thing in your hands."
"Considering where I am, people wouldn't be surprised if I did" she replied ironic.
Arthur gave her a severe look, but she didn't care much.
"Now you have to teach me how to use it" she said studying the little death device.
"I won't. Ever. You have no idea of what you're asking me."
"I feel pretty certain."
"As soon as you shoot for the first time you'll regret buying it."
"I don't think so. And I have already fired a gun, if you remember."
No, that girl really didn't want to understand, but Arthur was going to show her what she was putting herself into. He was going to scare her so much that at the end of the week she would have changed her mind on everything and decided to stay at camp with the other girls, safe under her tent, for the rest of her life.
The belt was too big for Emily's little waist, so the shop owner had to add two more holes in it. The final result was surprising: Emily felt one hundred pounds heavier, just like instead of a simple belt with a gun in it, she was carrying the weight of the world.
It was the weight of choice between life and death, she was aware of that, and she promised to herself that she would have never let anyone or anything change her mind and make her believe that thing she was carrying wasn't dangerous, because that conviction was what distinguished bad people from good people.
"Is there something else you have to do here?" asked Arthur as soon as they walked out of the gunsmith.
"No, I think I'm done."
"Okay, then. Come with me" he said heading to the horses.
"Where are we going?" she asked following him, the holster she had just bought bumping annoyingly against her leg.
"You said you want to learn how to shoot. Good. No easier way to learn than practice."
Arthur mounted on Ares and Emily on Drover. For the first time, she had accepted to ride her own horse and the experience hadn't been bad at all, especially thanks to Arthur who, knowing way too well the flaws and whims of Drover, had helped her to get to Valentine with all her bones still intact.
Emily hit the spurs and followed her teacher picturing in her mind some sort of big field with round targets in it, just like the ones they used for the archery competitions or something like that. She believed that was what Arthur meant by practice, but she had no idea she was completely wrong.
He slowed Ares down to walk right by her side and took out a paper that he showed to her.
"Do you remember him?" he asked.
"The fraud doctor who poisons his patients?" she asked in turn recognizing immediately the poster with the bounty they had taken at the sheriff's office.
"Yeah, time to deliver him to justice, what do you say?"
"When you talk about practice, what do you mean exactly?"
She was starting to think about the worst. What if Arthur wanted her to kill someone? To kill the doctor?
"You are going to live one of my days, what you say? Huh? A day as an outlaw."
"I've never said I wanted to be an outlaw. I said I wanted to learn how to defend myself."
"Well, this is what happens when you insist you want to learn how to use a gun. You have to actually use it! And if you live with us, by law, you also are part of us."
Emily couldn't understand what was his problem. Why was he so angry at her? Why was he acting that way? After all, she wasn't doing anything bad, she wasn't asking for something impossible. She just wanted to be able to take care of herself. What was her alternative? Go away? Leave them all? And to go where? With who?
Silence fell. Emily didn't want to keep playing his game. She would have followed him, quiet and obedient, and she would have understood what he wanted from her.
...
He was sure they would have found him eventually. He could feel it in his bones. That gorge wasn't far enough from town, but he didn't want to move too far, yet. He had his patients in town, people he was "helping", people who had to pay him still, before he could move on.
Oh yes, they were going to find him. Any day now. Any moment. And… there they were: the sheriff? The deputy? One of the three bounty hunters on his tracks? Who that shape belonged to? That dark thin shape that was walking towards him in the twilight of the sunset. Who was he?
It wasn't a he. It was a she, a girl, with long blonde hair and a brown skirt.
"Mr. Albright?" she called.
"Who are you? Who sent you?"
He jerked up and took a step back. She didn't look like a bounty hunter, but never trust the appearances.
"My name is Emily, I-I'm looking for Mr. Albright. The doctor? Is that you?"
"How did you know where to find me?"
The girl moved her eyes on the ground and it seemed she was thinking deeply about her next words.
"One of your patients told me. Please, Mr. Albright. I need your help, I need one of your miraculous medicines. My grandmother is… well, she isn't in good health."
He kept studying her face carefully, on which there was a mix of embarrassment and apprehension, her short skinny arms, that she was keeping behind her back, in some sort of reverence, and her big brown eyes, moving around every time she was looking for the words she had to say.
Well, who was he to deny that poor girl's grandmother some relief from her sufferance?
"But of course, of course I can help you, Miss" he said amiably and he reached the crate from where he took the tonic.
"This is what you need" he stated showing her the bottle, but it slipped form his hands and crashed on the hard rock at his feet as soon as he laid his eyes on her again.
And there she was, pointing a revolver right to his face, gripping it with both her hands. Her face, though, hadn't changed, there still was that mix of fear and awkwardness that made him think she didn't really want to do what she was doing.
"W-what does it mean?" he asked loudly.
"Mr. Albright! You are under arrest" she replied with a firm and steady voice that didn't suit her appearance.
She surely didn't look like a bounty hunter, and maybe that was her secret, but if she truly was, she had to be the dumbest bounty hunter in the world, because there was something she hadn't thought through.
"I think you are missing something, Miss."
That was it, no more need to fake, no more need to lie. He abandoned the scared innocent attitude and a sneer appeared on his face while with his right hand he reached for the gun under his jacket.
Her face didn't change: she wasn't intimidated, but she wasn't reacting to his provocation, either.
"You better walk away. I have no intention to harm you, if you let me go" he said.
"I can't, Mr. Albright. You are killing people with your two-bit remedies."
"How do you think to stop me? You alone, with that revolver you clearly don't know how to use" he laughed as he pointed his pistol at her.
As an answer, she cocked the weapon. He smiled nervously and did the same.
"I don't want to kill you, Mr. Albright. Just come with me, peacefully."
"You are a fool if you think I'd do something like that."
"No, I think you are the fool here, buddy."
...
"Again. Say it again" asked Emily.
"My mother is sick and I need medicine" replied Arthur annoyed.
"You need his miraculous medicine."
"Yeah, yeah, it's the same. And then?"
"Then, you wait for him to give away his identity, and when you are one hundred percent sure it is Mr. Albright, you will arrest him."
They were whispering between them as they looked at the distant figure kneeled next to the little campfire. From the distance, that seemed to be their man, but they had to be sure, and besides, the sheriff wanted him alive, he had said it clearly and more than once, so they surely couldn't risk to kill him by mistake.
"If your plan is so great, why don't you put it into practice?" asked Arthur. That was exactly what he wanted: scare her, make her believe she wasn't ready for that kind of life.
"And what if he has some kind of weapon with him? A gun? A knife?" Emily asked in turn.
"Well, you just bought a gun, didn't you? And you want to learn. Besides, I will always be ready to intervene if things go bad."
Arthur didn't believe the doctor was really that dangerous. After all, a man who used poison to kill people, wasn't much of a man at all.
Emily took her decision, drew a deep breath and stood up. Under Arthur's indications, she removed her belt and walked towards the man hiding the gun behind her back.
The two started talking, the doctor soon fell into their trap and Arthur thought his time was about to come. He would have intervened only to tie him and put him on the back of his horse.
But there was something else he was thinking about: maybe it was better if Mr. Albright didn't see him coming, because Arthur was sure the coward would have run as soon as he had had the chance. So, he slowly climbed on the rocks to get to the other side of the ridge and surprise him for behind. That way all his ways to escape the arrest where blocked.
But the climbing was hard and the rock smooth and slippery and it took him more time that he thought. Emily had already asked the doctor about the tonic and he had given up his identity, just like they wanted. He had to hurry.
"W-what does it mean?"
Arthur looked down and doing so he put the foot in the wrong place and slipped, hitting his kneecap on the rocks. He didn't mind the pain, too concentrated on Emily who now had taken out her gun. What the hell was she doing? She wasn't supposed to do that?
"Mr. Albright! You are under arrest."
Arthur rolled his eyes. That girl was unbelievable. Who had thought her that police shit?
"I think you are missing something, Miss."
Again, Arthur looked down at them: the doctor had taken out his own gun and was pointing it at Emily. He had to move, quickly, before those idiots killed each other.
"You better walk away. I have no intention to harm you, if you let me go."
"I can't, Mr. Albright. You are killing people with your two-bit remedies."
He fastened his pace reaching the peak and climbing down on the other side.
"How do you think to stop me? You alone, with that revolver you clearly don't know how to use."
Arthur heard the sound of the hammer of the new Cattleman Revolver pulled down, and the one of another gun immediately after. He was nearly there, nearly there. Don't do anything stupid! Both of you! He wanted to yell. But he didn't need to.
With a last jump, quieter than a mountain cougar, he ended up right behind the doctor, with his clothes all covered in the grayish dust of the mountain rocks, but just in time to save the situation.
"You are a fool if you think I'd do something like that."
"No, I think you are the fool here, buddy" growled Arthur and as soon as the fraud doctor turned around to understand who was talking, he punched him right in the face.
As the man took a couple of steps back, Arthur's field of view was empty and he could exchange a look with the girl.
"What took you so much?" she asked lowering the revolver.
"Wrong timing. But you did just fine."
"I have no intention to come with you two!" shouted the doctor walking backwards towards the edge of the ridge.
Emily moved closer, raising her revolver again to the man's chest.
"It doesn't matter what you want or don't want to do. You are coming with us, end of the question" replied Arthur.
"Who said that?" asked Mr. Albright, but the question was rhetoric.
Almost at the same moment, he raised his gun against Arthur and Emily as a reflex squeezed the trigger of that terrible weapon she had in her hands.
She yelped, surprised by her own gesture and by the powerful kickback of the revolver while the doctor, both his feet on the edge of the cliff, lose his balance and fell back with a
terrorized scream.
All Arthur could do was look at him as he went down, screaming like an idiot and into the water. That fool had been lucky enough to fall into the river.
"What have you done?" he exclaimed looking at Emily.
"I-I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW!"
She was there, looking right at the point where the doctor had disappeared, with her big eyes full of shock and realization of what she had done.
Arthur distracted himself from her to look down at the troubled waters and there he was, the doctor, struggling to stay afloat as the river dragged him down the gorge and towards the valley.
"Help! Help!" he shouted between a gasp and the other.
"Come on! We need him alive!" said Arthur and run to his horse.
He heard her footsteps behind him and when he jumped on Ares, she mounted on Drover too.
"I hope Charles taught you how to gallop" he said looking at her.
"He did" she whispered back.
She still was a little shaken, but present to herself, and that was all Arthur needed. He hit the spurs and the chase began.
...
What had she done? Why did she fire the gun? The doctor was there, talking and then… he had raised his pistol against Arthur, and all she could think about what that she had to protect him, she had to do something to help him and… her finger slipped.
It was too late for crocodile tears now, she had done what she had done. All that mattered was that the doctor was still alive and they would have rescued him and brought him back to the sheriff.
"Try to hold on to something!"
Arthur kept screaming advises to the man who obviously couldn't hear a thing, as he rode his horse past the river and to the other shore. Emily tried to keep up as she could: she really wasn't an experienced rider and even less she was good in galloping, but at least she had the theory. Now, she just had to turn the theory into practice.
The position on the saddle was uncomfortable, the muscles of her back were hurting and she was sure there was something she was doing wrong, but she was going, fast and free, following Arthur on the little rugged path. How she would have stopped, that was another question.
"Alright, I'm gonna throw the lasso. You catch it, okay?" yelled Arthur and out of nowhere, he decided to stop. Emily needed a moment to realize that and as she did she pulled the right rein, so that Drover missed Ares only of a few inches. Letting out a squeaky yelp, she pulled the two strings together and pointed her feet straight on the stirrups until Drover stopped completely.
"Okay, okay… that wasn't too hard, was it?" she whispered to herself, patting Drover's neck to calm him, because in pulling too much the bit she had unnerved him.
She did it! She had managed to stop a galloping horse. Now, there was nothing she couldn't do!
She made the horse turn around and gave a slight kick of her heels. Her legs were shaking a little as she reached the place where Arthur was pulling the doctor out of the river.
"Oh! Thank you! Thank you! You saved my life" was saying a breathless Mr. Albright as he was dragged on the shore in a worse shape than a boiled vegetable, but all in one piece and with no sign of blood on him. Thank God, she had missed him!
Dizzy and utterly confused, he could barely understand that Arthur was hogtying him.
"What? What are you doing?" he asked weakly.
"Bringing you to the sheriff" answered Arthur.
"But…"
Mr. Albright couldn't add anything else. Arthur hit him again, right on his temple, and the man passed out.
"Why did you do that?" complained Emily outraged. There was no need to hurt him, he already had had a terrible experience.
"I'm not riding back to town with this one blabbering in my ears all the time" said Arthur picking the senseless body up and carrying it to Ares.
In a matter of seconds, they were on the road to Valentine.
At the beginning, all was calm. After the crazy moments she had just lived, both her head and body needed that rest. But then, Arthur started with the reproaches.
Why did you shoot? Who could have hit him! You could have killed him! The sheriff said he wanted him alive! And look in what shape he is now! We need this money!
"What else could I do? He was about to shoot you!" Emily replied.
"No, he wasn't. He is an idiot. I could handle him just fine."
Some groans and mumbles caught Emily's attention. The doctor was awake again, and way sooner than she expected.
"You are making a mistake, a big mistake" he said.
"You made a mistake, Mr. Albright. The day you decided to turn your back to the Hippocratic oath" rebuked Emily.
"The what?" asked Arthur.
"Oh, you are a smart one, aren't you" sniggered the doctor, "but who gives you the right to judge me?"
"We are only in it for the money, buddy" replied Arthur.
"Oh, that's even worse."
"Now, shut up."
Arthur turned around on the saddle and hit the man on his face again, not too strong, but enough to make him pass again.
"Arthur! Leave him be!"
"You want to hear him complaining for all the time?"
Emily shook her head in disapproval, but she knew he was right.
"So… what was that hippo… hippo-thing you said before?"
"The Hippocratic oath?"
"Yeah."
"All practitioners must swear an oath when they start their careers, to cure and never to harm a patient."
"Huh… and what if the wound is too great and there is nothing the doctor can do but… put an end to the patient sufferances."
"Welcome to the 21st century greatest debate."
Again, some groans from Ares back made Emily understand Mr. Albright was awake.
"Uh… I don't think I am feeling very well. It seems I keep blacking out" he murmured.
And just like before, Arthur turned around before Emily could do something to stop him and he hit the man on the temple.
"Yeah, my friend. You seem you do keep blacking out."
This time, Emily couldn't restrain a giggle. She had to admit Arthur's humor was fun. Brute, but fun.
They reached the sheriff's office, left the horses at the post and listened again to the doctor's justifications and complains as Arthur carried him inside.
Emily had a slight thrill: she was delivering her first criminal to the justice, her first bounty. What Arthur had thought to be a day as an outlaw, had turned out to be a day as a hero. Who knows how many people she had saved? How many victims she had compensated? How much good she had done? And all thanks to her courage. The courage to overcome her fears. The courage to change.
"Oh, there you are and… Miss, it's good to see you again" said the sheriff as the both of them entered the office.
Emily opened her mouth to wish the sheriff a good morning, but she couldn't utter a single word because the deputy, as soon as he saw Emily come in, stood up from his chair all at once, toppling it onto the ground with a loud noise that echoed inside the room.
"Oh! Erm.. g-good morning to you, Miss Emily" he mumbled struggling in the tight space between the desk and the wall to pick up the chair, with a face redder than a mountain apple.
"Morning to you, deputy" she replied feeling the man's embarrassment.
"Where do I leave your man?" asked Arthur with Mr. Albright still on his shoulder.
"The first cell" instructed the sheriff.
As Arthur brought Mr. Albright inside, the deputy slowly walked towards Emily, moving his weight form a leg to the other with an awkward dangling.
"So, your friend caught the poisoner" he murmured.
"We caught him together" said Emily with a satisfied smile.
"Oh… y-you mean you…"
"Yes, I helped him. It feels good, you know? To catch the bad guy and send him where he belongs to."
"Y-yes, it does. That's why I decided to do this, in my life."
"You always wanted to be a deputy?"
"A sheriff."
"Oh well, that is a beautiful dream, son. Now, if you don't mind…" said Arthur closing the cell door and heading to the sheriff, "what was the reward?"
"Right, erm, here you go, fifty dollars" said the sheriff handing him the money.
"Good day gentlemen."
Without a word more or a look or a single gesture, Arthur walked out of the room, under Emily's perplexed eyes. Then, she turned to look at the deputy.
"Well, I'll see you around, erm…"
"George" he said stretching out a hand that she shook. "My name is George."
"See you around, George" she repeated with a smile. "Sheriff" she added with a brief nod to the deputy right before running outside.
Arthur was by the horses, counting the money and parting them.
"Seems you have a new friend" he said sourly as she reached his side.
"Unlike someone, I make the effort to appear friendly" she rebuked.
"Oh, yes, you are so friendly. 'You know, George, it feels good to put criminals in prison, send them where they belong to'."
As he said this, he put her half of the money in her hands with a rude gesture and Emily thought that sullenness was absolutely uncalled for. She had said nothing wrong, quite the contrary, she was sure that what she was doing was good and just, so why was Arthur attacking her like that?
"Well, it is the truth, isn't it? Criminals belong to prison!" she said without thinking and without realizing that her words might have hurt her friend.
"Yeah, you're right" murmured Arthur turning around and mounting on Ares. "So, next time you bring me in, okay? And you go with your new lawful friend. How does this sound?"
Hello hello!
How are you? I am tired. The last four days have been full and tiring, but I still managed to finish this chapter!
Did you like it? I had so much fun writing it and even though it is Arthur centered I couldn't leave behind my sweet Charles. So yes, the scene with him is my favorite of course.
Love triangle with the deputy?! I don't know. Maybe.
Okay, stop with the blabbering and back to work.
See you soon!