The hotel clerk looked rightfully alarmed when he burst through the doors for the second time that day, this time caked with mud. "You're not here for any trouble, are you mister?"
"Hey, that before? I was protectin' a lady." Arthur reached into his pockets and pulled out a dollar. "Obviously, I need a bath. The deluxe variety." After his exploits from earlier, Arthur wasn't sure he'd be physically able to reach everywhere he'd need to. "Also, I need somethin' done with these clothes. I don't care if they're still wet when I leave, anythin' is better than this."
The clerk nodded quickly. "Just one moment then, and we'll prepare your bath. Vivien will be assisting you this afternoon. She'll grab your clothes once you get settled and pass them off."
"Sounds good."
It took a few minutes, which felt longer than normal seeing as he was too dirty to sit on anything, but finally he was summoned back. When the door closed, he hurriedly stripped before sinking into the tub. Damn that felt good. It felt like gang life and all its problems were a million miles away as the steaming water enveloped him, the scent of some flower hanging in the steam. Blame Dutch and Hosea for instilling such classy tastes into him, even if they were impractical at a time like this.
Just as soon as he'd settled in, there was a knock at the door. "Are you ready for me to enter, mister?"
"Yeah, come on in. My clothes are right by the door."
The door creaked open, revealing a slender but wiry woman. The way she was dressed, with her low-cut bodice, Arthur had to wonder if they were catering to lonely male customers. He didn't usually ask for help, didn't want to spend the money or have to deal with awkward women like the kind Javier and Charles had found in the saloon, and he was already wondering if this would be worth getting those spots on his back. "I'll be right back to help you, mister. I'm just gonna send your clothes to get scrubbed." She had all the opportunity at that point to bend forward and reveal a good amount of cleavage in his direction, but instead bent her knees with her back still straight to grab his garments. Perhaps clothes did not make the person after all, he mused as he reached for the soap. May as well get started. There was a lot of scrubbing to do.
By the time she returned, the water was brown. He could tell she was trying not to appear obvious as she analyzed the situation, her dark eyes darting back and forth. "Say mister, do you want to step out while I refill the tub for you?"
"I don't know if I can afford two baths," he admitted.
She just shook her head, her braid whipping back and forth. "No extra charge, mister. You paid to get cleaned up, and there's no way you can get clean in this. We've got towels over in the corner, you just let me know when you are ready and I'll start emptying the tub." Before he could argue, she had exited the room to give him privacy. Well damn, Valentine had some excellent customer service! He did as he was instructed, wrapping the towel around his waist, before summoning her back in.
"It'll just take a few minutes mister, I'm sorry to keep you waiting."
"Oh, don't you worry 'bout that, you're the one doin' me a real favor here."
For lack of anything better to do, he watched her as she worked. Girl was a real hard worker, and now he could see why she was so wiry. Despite how they'd dressed her up, he could imagine her pulling her weight at camp, maybe even more than the girls they did have. "So, how long you been doin' this?" Arthur could have kicked himself for trying to make small talk, but his curiosity had gotten the better of him.
"Longer than I'd like," she replied, turning her focus to refilling the tub from the large vat of water sitting over the embers. "Sometimes you don't have a whole lot of choices." As the words trailed off, she seemed to realize how they came across. "No, wait, I mean…"
Arthur chuckled, leaning against the wall. "Don't worry none, miss. I appreciate honesty."
She sighed with relief. "Just don't tell my boss, okay? I need this job."
"My lips are sealed."
Once she finished filling the tub and adding the suds, she left the room once more so he could reenter the bath. God, she was right, this was so much better than trying to finish bathing in a tub full of shit. "All good."
This time when she came back, she was wielding a brush. "All right mister, you just let me know where you need me."
"My back," he answered quickly, leaning forward in anticipation.
"That makes sense." She got to work, the perfect balance of rough and gentle as she scrubbed the dirt off.
Arthur sighed, enjoying the feeling of getting clean. "It's been such a rough week…"
"I can tell, the way you walked in here. You, uh, work with the sheep like everybody else around here? Haven't seen you before."
"Nah." Arthur chose his words very carefully. "We're on the road a lot. But even this mess was from, ah, somethin' else."
Thankfully the woman didn't ask any more questions. He wasn't real eager to reveal that he'd been brawling right outside the hotel. Once his back was clean, she switched over to helping him rinse his hair, fingers massaging his scalp in a way that made him melt, the tension he'd been carrying over the past several days disappearing. "You may not like this job, but you're awfully good at it."
"Thanks, I try my best." She leaned forward, sending her braid falling into the water. Before she could stop herself, she cursed. "Damn it, if they'd just let me cut my hair shorter…" Immediately, her face turned bright red in embarrassment. "I'm so sorry, mister, that wasn't very lady-like!"
Arthur finally laughed as he guided her braid back out of the water. "Miss, you are twice the lady that pair of flirts down at the saloon could ever be."
"You mean Anastasia and Lucille?"
The Anastasia part rang a bell. He was pretty sure one of the women had thrown it out there right before having the nerve to call him a 'pussy cat'. He looked like he'd taken a bite of something powerfully sour. "Yeah, I think so."
The woman wrinkled her nose as she began rubbing his shoulders. "They tried to get me to join their…particular line of work. No way. I've still got SOME pride left."
"I can tell, and it suits you."
"Well…thank you, mister. I guess sometimes this job ain't so bad." She stood abruptly. "I think that should do it. Your clothes will still be pretty wet; you want me to fetch any spare clothes you've got?"
Arthur sighed, remembering that Tennessee was all the way back at camp with his extra outfit. "My buddies ran off with my horse. I'll just have to make do with wet clothes."
She smiled. "All right, I'll go bring them to you then."
By the time she returned, Arthur was out of the tub with the towel around his waist again. "Say, miss…" He'd been thinking about this the entire time she had been gone, debating whether it was worth looking like a fool or not. Again, his desire to know was stronger than his desire to play it safe. "The man up front told me yer name, but I wasn't payin' all that much attention at the time. Would ya tell me?"
The woman looked at him with wide eyes. She must wonder what his intentions were, and he couldn't blame her; probably had a lot of unwanted advances working as a bath assistant. "Vivien."
"Vivien. I'll remember that, because, well, you see…I wanna give you a tip for doin' such a great job, but I don't have the money right now. I'll come back and ask for ya, okay?" Yes, that seemed like a completely reasonable reason to want to know her name.
The worry melted away. "I should say 'no' to that, mister, but you say you like honesty. I'm in no place to be turning down tips. Thank you so much." Before he could reply, she was already scurrying out the door. Arthur began donning his damp clothes, appreciating the fact that after everything that had gone wrong earlier, he was back to feeling human. The bath definitely was part of it, but he couldn't help but feel Vivien had also helped.
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
It was getting late, with the sun nearly set by the time he made it back to camp. Admittedly, he'd sat by the livestock yard drawing sheep and chickens just to clear his head before heading back, and he'd also made sure to take out a deer despite only having his revolver. The deer he'd left in the bushes, unwilling to get dirty again after his magnificent bath. Let Bill go haul the carcass up to Pearson.
When he arrived, he immediately noticed Josiah and Hosea in deep conversation. They both stopped as soon as he drew near. "Why Arthur, you're looking much less savage now," Josiah teased with a smirk.
Hosea sighed. "I heard about what happened in Valentine… Caused quite a scene in front of the entire town, and not of the upstanding citizen variety."
Arthur desperately wanted to point out that Bill had started the whole thing, and that Javier and Charles had also jumped in, but that would be childish. Besides, he knew he'd lost his temper and made things worse, and it did no good to pretend otherwise. "I'm sorry, Hosea. I was tryin' so hard to be good, but what that miserable bastard said to me, I just…" He huffed in frustration. "I'll work on damage control. Go do some favors down in town."
His mentor patted him on the shoulder reassuringly. "I'm sure you've been doing your best, Arthur, and I know you'll make things right in the end. Right now, though, we've got a more pressing matter. Has Mr. Trelawny mentioned Sean to you?"
Arthur snapped to attention. "That's right! Josiah, what about 'im? Can we get to 'im?"
"As I was telling Mr. Matthews, some bounty hunters picked him up and are waiting to be given the best offer for turning him over to custody. They were in Blackwater, which I can personally testify is a death trap for any of you to enter, but I heard they will be moving him downriver. We need to get to him before they pass him off and send him to a federal prison out west."
"We'll ride out immediately!" Arthur insisted. "We ain't gonna let Sean slip through our fingers. We've lost too many lately the way it is!"
"No, we'll wait until morning light. They won't be leaving until tomorrow anyhow. It will be better for all of you to be well rested. I imagine this will involve quite the shoot-out; the Ike Skelding gang has a great many hired guns."
"Who should we send, Arthur?" Hosea inquired. "Lenny and Micah are out scouting at the moment."
"Javier and Charles. We need this done quickly and quietly." He sighed. "I don't know how much sleep I'll get tonight, Josiah, but I'll try. We leave at dawn."
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Christ, they'd needed a moment like this desperately. So many blows back to back: losing all their money, the deaths of Dutch, Davey and Jenny, Mac gone missing, and sitting up in those mountains clinging for survival. When Arthur returned to camp behind the others, he found the entire place in an uproar of the best possible kind, and naturally the cocky Irish kid they'd rescued was at the center of the storm, giving speeches that were already slurred from several drinks. Despite being in custody for over a week, being kicked about by the bounty hunters, and strung up by the ankles, he acted as if nothing had happened. Arthur knew he'd found out about Dutch through the bounty hunters, so perhaps he'd had enough time to process that while sitting around. Or, perhaps he just wanted to get drunk so that nothing was wrong in the world. Who could tell with Sean?
"…and even grumpy Arthur Morgan missed me!" he chirped with a goofy grin, calling out the newcomer to the party.
Arthur shook his head with a smile, because he couldn't deny it. Pain in the ass that he could be, the kid had a way of keeping things from getting too somber, and they needed it now more than ever.
"Drinks are on me!"
"You never have any money, so how can you say that?" Still he reached for a bottle of whiskey and held it out to toast the MacGuire boy.
He wandered around the camp, greeting the others, but mostly absorbing the atmosphere. Javier had taken out his guitar and was leading a rousing rendition of Louisville Lady (to which Arthur did sing along under his breath, though luckily Uncle drowned him out). Hosea, in a stroke of sentimentality, pulled out the phonograph and put on a waltz; it was perhaps his way of bringing Dutch into the celebration, knowing he would have been so happy to have Sean back safely. As it was, it prompted Mary-Beth to ask for a dance, which he did while pretending to be aloof. She always saw through that act though, and smiled the entire time as he twirled her about. Afterwards, he stopped by various tables where his comrades were growing steadily tipsier, mostly to get a laugh at their current states of inebriation.
He was about ready to call it a night, remains of a second bottle in his hand, when he noticed a figure on the outskirts of camp. He couldn't for the life of him recall who he hadn't seen, and so he ambled over. When he got within a few yards, he realized it was the O'Driscoll, long forgotten in the haze of euphoria. When the boy looked up to see who was approaching, his eyes glistened, as if they were holding back tears. Wanted a drink that badly, huh?
"Some party, eh O'Driscoll?"
"Y-yeah. Great party," he mumbled.
"Ya want a drink?" Arthur swirled the contents of his bottle right in front of the prisoner's face. "Got plenty o' whiskey floatin' around."
He gave Arthur a hard look before hanging his head. "Real bad."
"Well, help yourself to one."
Kieran hated himself so badly for falling for such an obvious trap. His desperation was making him more of an idiot than usual. Arthur began to walk away, still chuckling at his gullibility, and suddenly everything boiled to a point.
"Six Point Cabin!"
Arthur paused, turning to face him with his brow furrowed in confusion. "What was that, O'Driscoll?"
"Six Point Cabin. Where Colm was headed. It's the only thing I can think of that you might find important, 'cause I keep tellin' you I was nobody in that gang!"
Arthur stared at him, before slowly draining the rest of his bottle. "Can't tell if I'm drunk and hearin' things, or if you're the easiest prisoner I've ever had to crack. I know you were even gettin' water from somewhere, seein' as you should be a prune by now. Incredible…" Throwing his bottle somewhere near the boy's feet, he shuffled off to his tent. "I ain't got the energy to deal with this now. In the mornin', you're gonna take us there, and if you're lyin', it will be about as bad as you can imagine for you. Now, I'm gettin' to bed so I can be in a deep sleep before Sean and Karen start doin' their thing. Enjoy their little performance; they ain't particularly subtle."
Kieran was left alone to imagine what awful things they would do if Colm wasn't where he thought he was, and to wonder what his tormentor had meant with his last comment. About an hour later, he found out. He wished he could unhear all of it.