Okay, so, this one kinda got away from me a little bit lol. It's my longest chapter yet, but I hope you still like it!
"What your Daddy thought about you bein' with him?" Django asked when Sara paused the story to start putting pieces of coal into the snowman, smiling as she did.
"What did he think, Django," she reminded him. "If you want people to believe you're not a slave, you need to stop talking like one."
"Right," Django nodded, before repeating, "What did your Daddy think about you bein' with him?"
"I don't think he was pleased at first, but ultimately he knew King was a good man and would treat me well." She replied before looking out at the figure riding over to them, the sounds of thuds in the snow alerting them both to the approaching man.
"I brought the bottles." King told them as he dismounted Fritz. Fritz walked straight over to Sara who laughed, before breaking the carrot she was holding in half and feeding it to the horse as Django pushed the bottles into the snowman, making King and Sara back off.
Django stepped back to a rock and turned before staring at the snowman he and Sara had built. He whipped his pistol from its belt and shot before walking back to the snowman, running his finger inside the perfect bullet hole in the bottle.
"I think it's safe to say you're faster than the snowman." Sara called as she and King walked back over to Django after taking a safe distance.
"Now that's accurate." King nodded. "You know what they'll call you? The fastest gun in the south,"
"So what have we got next?" Sara asked when they were walking back to camp. Fritz whinnied softly and nudged her arm making Sara smile as she rubbed his nose with her glove clad hand. He nudged her and she shook her head. "No you big beggar, those are for Maggie and Tony." Fritz let out an impatient sounding whinny and Django looked at King.
"It's almost like he knows what she saying." Django commented and King rolled his eyes.
"Don't even get her started." He muttered back to his friend who grinned as Sara narrowed her eyes at the teasing men.
"What?" Sara looked at them suspiciously.
"Nothing dear." He assured her quickly and she scoffed lightly and rolled her eyes.
"So what do we have next?" she asked as she changed the subject from their teasing to something they could all think about.
"Uh, we have Ira Hardy, believed to be living under the name Dr. William Weston." He told her as he held out a handbill.
"Where he is?" Django asked.
"Well, he is believed to be hiding just at the bottom of the mountain." King replied. "You want to take this one?" he asked and she smiled.
"Wait, she gonna take one?" Django asked.
"Of course she is, she's a bounty hunter as well."
"Your wife a bounty hunter?" Django asked in disbelief.
"She's standing right here Django, ask her yourself." King chuckled.
"You don't see me teaching school anymore, are you?" she asked with a smile as they approached the cabin they had been staying in. It had been deserted some time before, the entire farm had, so they had moved in, a small barn in the back was just large enough to fit the three horses, and there was a nice fireplace.
"I just ain't seen ya kill no one." Django explained as he walked alongside her while she took Fritz's reins and led him towards the small barn.
"Have you ever seen god?" she asked and he paused with a slight frown. "Just because you don't see him, doesn't mean you don't believe in him, right?" she asked and he shrugged.
"Didn't know women could be bounty hunters." He admitted.
"I didn't know black men could be." She replied and he smiled before he nodded.
"I hear ya." He replied after a moment and opened the doors to the barn. After Django helped her get the saddle and bridle off of Fritz she smiled as the horse started rubbing on the sides of the walls, itching himself as she walked over to Tony and held up the carrot.
"Where's my love?" she asked and the horse pressed his nose to her mouth before she grinned and gave him his piece of carrot. She did the same to Maggie before she and Django went to the cabin where King was making a fire for them. After sitting down on an old bedroll that had been left behind Sara sighed and ran her hand over her stomach.
"So," King said as he finally got the fire to light. "What do you think for tomorrow?"
A pregnant woman in a small town normally would catch a few looks, but none seemed too interested as Sara sat at the table in the small bar, eating her lunch to herself and reading her book. Men had more important things to do than to worry about one woman who was minding her own business and was likely waiting for her husband, so they left her alone. It was only after the barkeeper went to check on her did she suddenly draw everyone's eyes.
""Oh- Oh!" she groaned, doubling over as she held her stomach with one hand and gripped the edge of the table with the other.
"Ma'am, you okay?" one man jumped up and rushed over to her.
"I- I think the baby- It's coming!" she gasped, at this point she had the entire attention of the bar.
"Okay ma'am, just come right this way," he took her hands and pulled her up before he led her to a couch on one wall of the bar and pointed to a man he'd been eating lunch with. "Go get Dr. Weston!" he shouted and the man jumped up and ran out the door.
The barkeeper rushed over with a glass and knelt down next to the man who was helping her with concern in his eyes. "Ma'am, take a drink of this, it'll settle your nerves." He handed her a glass of whisky which she sipped, before fanning herself.
"What's your name?" she asked the man who had helped her over to the couch.
"Marshall Kole." He replied. "Marshall George Kole."
"Good to know you Marshall." She replied, before grimacing and grabbing his hand.
"Aaaaaaaa!" she yelled, as she squeezed through the contraction.
"That's right, keep breathing." Marshall Kole instructed before the door opened a few moments later and the man returned with Dr. Weston.
"What have we here Marshall?"
"She was having lunch and she went into labor."
"Where is your husband my dear?" the doctor asked.
"He's- Ahhh!" she squeezed Marshall Kole's hand again. "He's at the barber's shop getting a shave, he said he'd meet me here." She replied.
"Well, it's going to be alright, I promise." He patted her leg as he opened his bag.
"You promise?" she asked as she looked up at him with fear in her eyes.
"Of course I do," he assured her. "I'm a doctor, I'm going to take care of you, I promise."
"Just like you promised that stagecoaches going West they would be alright?" she asked and he paused at what he was doing and looked at her.
"I beg your pardon?"
"And the stagecoaches you'd drag into Indian territory before torching them?" she continued, her face suddenly void of pain. "Just like you promised them you'd take care of them as well, Ira Hardy?" she tilted her head slightly. "Or your partners that you shot and killed before taking off with all of the loot?"
"Ira Hardy?" The Marshall looked at Hardy whose face was becoming twisted with fury. "Ira Hardy, the murderer and stagecoach robber-" was all he had time to get out before Hardy launched himself forward, wrapping his fat fingers around Sara's neck. There was a sudden flurry of excitement as men rushed forward to pull him away from her but not before a gunshot rang out. Everyone looked at the Marshal who was staring at the woman sitting on the couch as the doctor slumped against her and she pushed him off and onto the floor.
"I think you'll notice that it was self defense Marshall, not to mention, that man was a criminal, wanted Dead or Alive, so I was in every right killing him." She pulled the handbill from her sleeve and he looked at it before nodding.
"So you were." He shook his head. "My only question is, how were you so good at faking the baby coming?" he asked and she laughed lightly.
"Oh Marshall, if I told all my secrets, people would grow bored and lose interest." She sipped the whiskey he had given her and then set it down. "I must implore you for your help one last time," she held out her hand and he helped her up before she stepped over the body. "So, Marshall, I believe you owe me six hundred dollars." She told him and he shook his head before nodding.
"Yes ma'am." He sighed. "Someone bring Hayes to the coroner." He yelled at the men left in the bar while the two of them walked to the door and out of the bar.
"Never doubt her." King looked at Django as Sara and the Marshall walked by, arm in arm, chatting as they walked to the Sheriff's office Django shook his head and the two men looked at each other before following after Sara and the Marshall.
"Here we are, the Wilson-Lowe gang," King pulled the handbill off of the wall in the Sheriff's office while the Sheriff and the Marshall counted out the six hundred dollars and then gave it to Sara.
"Dear," she walked over to King who smiled wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
"You were magnificent." He told her before kissing her forehead. She smiled and then kissed him quickly.
"You must be Mr. Schultz."
"Doctor, actually." Sara corrected the Marshall.
"Well, Dr. Schultz, may I say, you've got yourself quite a woman there."
"Yes, I've grown rather fond of her." The German native smiled at Sara who smiled before shaking her head.
"Having said that, is there anyone else in town you'd like to shoot while you're here?"
"Oh, I'm sure there are plenty of people we'd like to shoot," Sara scoffed. "But let's just keep it to the ones with the handbills Marshall; I'd hate to see my face on one of those things."
"Well Mrs. Schultz, if your face ever is on one of those things, you come find me. I'll help ya get it off. That's a promise."
"Thank you, Marshall Kole." She smiled before linking her arm around her husband's. "Where's Django?" She smiled at him and he smiled back before letting her lead him out of the Sheriff's office.
"He's waiting just outside with the horses," he told her and she nodded as they walked out of the office and to the street where Django was indeed waiting for them.
"So that was a good two hundred dollars each." She told Django who smiled as her as he held Maggie still for her to mount the horse.
"And a nice lesson not to discount the effect a womanly touch can have on a bounty." King added, making her laugh lightly.
"How about it Django, are you convinced women can be bounty hunters?" she asked as she gathered the reins in her hand and he walked over to Tony and mounted the horse.
"Yes ma'am." He replied and she grinned.
Later that night as they sat in the cabin after dinner, when King announced he was going to look in on the horses. Almost as soon as he left Django looked at Sara eagerly. "What?" she laughed at the look on his face.
"What happened next?" he asked and she rolled her eyes with a small laugh.
"You really want to keep hearing this?"
"Yes," he insisted and she sighed.
"Okay- where did I leave off?" she asked after a moment.
"The two of you was actin' like old friends." Django replied and she nodded.
"That's right." She agreed. "Um, it wasn't long before the start of school again that my father fell and broke his leg." She remembered. "It was a full day's ride to my cousin's, and I had to be taken before school was to start and my father couldn't drive the cart…"
Sara sat at the table writing a letter to her cousin, and one to the superintendent to the school explaining her circumstances when her father hobbled into the house on his crutches. "Franklin," her mother jumped up and rushed to him. "I do wish you'd not go to work on your leg." She sighed as she helped him get comfortable.
"A man breaks a bone, but the world goes on my dear." He told her before looking at Sara.
"Sara, you ought to be packing."
"Packing?" Sara asked as she looked up from the letters she was writing with a small frown.
"Klaus Schultz is leaving town to trade some of his leftover furs in the morning, he and his brother have offered to take you to Milo's." he explained and she smiled widely at the news that she wouldn't have to miss the school year.
"Franklin, are you sure that's a good idea?" her mother asked, making the smile fall from Sara's face as she looked back at her mother.. "Neither of the Schultz men are married and Sara is-"
"Sara is a very capable young woman." Franklin replied, making Sara smile again before she looked back at her mother.
"I'm not saying that they would do anything, but, what would people think?" she asked, slightly exasperated at having to explain this to her husband.
"I think if they took one look at my leg, they would understand the situation. Besides, both of the Schultz brothers are too old to think of Sara in any way other than neighborly."
"I suppose you're right." She nodded with a small smile. "If you're sure."
"I am. Sara, go pack." He told her and she nodded quickly before going to the room she and her sisters shared.
"Whoo, is it cold out there." King walked back into the house, dusting the snow off of himself as he stomped his feet just outside the door and then stepped in and closed the door behind himself.
"Are the horses alright?" Sara asked and he nodded.
"Oh yes, they're doing fine." He assured her. "We're quite lucky that little barn has such thick doors."
"Lucky indeed." Sara nodded.
"Are you coming to bed?" he asked as he took off his jacket and then paused to warm his hands by the fire.
"I'll come along in a bit." She replied. "Django and I were just reading a book."
"Okay," he nodded before looking at Django. "She's an excellent teacher, is she not?" he asked and Django nodded.
"Go to bed, you look tired." Sara laughed.
"I shall be asleep before my head hits the pillow." He kissed her temple. "Not too much longer, we do have to leave tomorrow." He reminded them.
"Not too much longer." She agreed before he went to the bed in the corner of the room. After getting into bed Sara and Django went over lessons quietly before King's breathing went shallow and he was soon pronounced asleep by his wife. "Okay," she nodded. "So the next morning Klaus and King showed up to pick me up." She looked at Django, speaking softly and he leaned in, as if he was afraid he was going to miss a single word.
The next morning she said goodbye to her siblings and her parents while Klaus, the younger of the Schultz brothers, got her bags settled in the back of the wagon amongst the furs he'd be bringing to trade out of state. When he was finished and Dr. Schultz was finished assuring Mr. and Mrs. Gallagher that it was no problem taking Sara along, Dr. Schultz helped Sara into the front of the wagon while Klaus sat in the back amongst his skins and the bags.
The doctor gave a snap of his reins and the horses moved forward. "Dr. Schultz, I cannot say again how much I appreciate you taking me with you." she said to him and he smiled.
"Miss Gallagher, the pleasure was mine." he said as he looked over at her with his charming smile, making her smile back before she looked out at the horses.
"What are your horses names?" she asked after they had ridden a ways, the day was bright and amiable, and Klaus was sitting in the back of the cart, working on some sort of small wood carving project. Sara had tried to watch him for a time but it unsettled her stomach to be facing away from the direction they were going in.
"Mm, the one in front of you is Bess and the one in front of me is Frederick," he said.
They talked about the horses for a time, Dr. Schultz told Sara about how he had bought the horses together, how he and Klaus had broken the horses and how they were so gentle they wouldn't hurt a fly now. Sara talked about her students and the classes she was teaching, and soon they fell into a comfortable silence while Sara watched the plains pass by.
"May I ask you a question?" Dr. Schultz asked seemingly out of nowhere and she looked over at him before nodding.
"Of course." she replied.
"Why do you keep your hair in this ridiculous thing?" he gently tapped the straw bonnet she wore.
"I beg your pardon?" she asked with a small laugh.
"This thing, why do you wear it?" he asked. "Is it meant for a purpose or simply to look pretty?"
"Do you mean me specifically, or women in general?"
"Both I suppose." he said and she nodded.
"Well, um, for some women it is a fashion statement, something to protect their hairstyles and faces from the elements, for others it is a necessity to keep their hair neat." she explained.
"And you?" he asked.
"My mother says it's to protect the world from my hair." she rolled her eyes.
"Oh come now, surely she doesn't," he laughed. "I remember you had such beautiful red hair," he said as he looked at her with a small smile.
"It is curly and out of control and it would be indecent for me to wear it loose."
"Well, I don't know much about decency in this country," he said with a small shrug. "But I do know that looks extremely uncomfortable," he reached over and tapped one of the pins keeping her bonnet in place.
"It is." she admitted with a small laugh. "My mother is a kind woman but she can be very harsh when setting hatpins,"
"Then what is the harm of taking the silly thing off?" He smiled at her and she scoffed.
"It is indecent!" Sara laughed and he grinned before shrugging as he looked back at the horses and then back to her.
"Well, I won't tell if you won't." he said softly, almost conspiratorially as if they were sharing a secret while he gave her a small smirk. She looked behind her to see Klaus had fallen asleep amongst his skins before she smiled lightly and he raised an eyebrow making her grin and look down at her lap before she reached up.
"Please, allow me," Dr. Schultz put the reins between his knees and reached over to untie the ribbon under her chin while Sara removed the hair pins from where they kept the hat pinned to her hair, allowing him to lift the bonnet off of her head. He dropped it behind the bench on his sleeping brother who didn't stir.
"Much better." he smiled at her and she smiled back at him before he took up the reins again.
Before she had left Sara's mother had wrapped a picnic for Sara and the Schultz brothers to eat for lunch on their trip, as she had often done for Sara and her father when they took the trip out to the plains. A few hours into their trip they came across a small ravine and King decided it was time to stop for lunch and to let the horses have a break before continuing on.
The picnic consisted of cold fried chicken, biscuits, jam and honey, a few hard boiled eggs, and a dense cake her mom made and drizzled in honey and sweet berries. Her mother hadn't packed any plates or forks, everything had been packaged in thick paper and they ate with it on their laps and with their fingers. She had also sent them along with a large container of cold coffee which Sara was thankful that the Schultz brothers at least had metal cups, they agreed to share Klaus' cup while Sara drank from King's for their picnic.
Klaus sat between Sara and King on the Buffalo hide he had laid out for their picnic and turned his head back and forth as he listened to each of them talk, eating his chicken as he listened to the two dominate the conversation.
Sara knew that Klaus had never been one for too much conversation, she had known him a little for years, when she had been younger she always liked to see the new horses he'd bring home and listen to the stories of him trading with the Indians, but as she got older and spent more time with her girlfriends, she had seen less and less of Klaus Schultz.
He was older than her- both of the Schultz brothers were, but he lay somewhere between Sara and King's age, he was younger than his brother, and the two had come to America some time before, Sara honestly had no idea how old he was, maybe in his twenties or thirties.
"You've got a bug." Klaus said suddenly, making her freeze.
"Get it." she pleaded. He reached behind her and plucked something from the back of her head. She smiled at him gratefully and he smiled back lightly before setting whatever he had taken into the grass. They continued to eat and talk before Klaus reached behind her again and pulled something from her hair. He offered no explanation, just raised his eyebrows. After the fourth time when Sara's hair started to fall she realized he had been pulling her hair pins out.
"Mr. Schultz, please!" she said as he plucked another one out with a grin.
"Klaus, what you're doing is indecent." Dr. Schultz said with a grin. Klaus grinned before plucking another pin out making her hair fall in a twisted curl, leaving her hair now hanging in twisted red curls around her shoulders.
"You look human now." Klaus grinned as she started to pull the rest of her pins from her hair with a huff. She stood and walked away from the picnic, leaving Klaus laughing on the buffalo robe and Dr. Schultz calling after her.
"You know Klaus meant no harm," Sara looked at Dr. Schultz when he caught up to her.
"I know," she replied softly. "But my mother was worried enough about my reputation, going off with two bachelor brothers with no chaperone, now I'll be arriving to my cousin's with my hair lose-" she sighed in exasperation. "It will look bad," she explained, "And I'd hate for my father to forbid me from spending time with you again,"
"That's what you're worried about?" he asked and she nodded as she looked up at him.
"Well- yes." she said and he sighed as he held his hand out to her. She looked at it for a moment before she slipped her hand into his and he wrapped her arm around his elbow, holding her hand against his elbow with his other hand as they started to walk.
"Sara," he said as they walked together. "I enjoy our time together, all this time, I have thought you would only look at me as nothing more than a old dentist, a friend of your father's-"
"I don't," Sara said quickly and he nodded as he patted her hand.
"Please, let me finish," he requested and she nodded. "But to know that you worry your family will not let us see each other again," he continued and sighed as he looked down at her. "Are you quite sure that's the way you feel?"
"Yes," she said instantly and he looked down at her with a small smile, stroking her hand gently under his for a moment as he watched the wind blow her curly red hair over her shoulders. He understood her concerns now, and while it was true that if he were perfectly honest, King had to admit her hair looked much better down than hidden in the ridiculous cap, her concerns were valid now that he understood them.
"If that is how you feel- I will talk to him," he told her and she looked back at him.
"Klaus?" she asked and he smiled.
"Your father," he replied and a pink flush spread across her cheeks.
"You- That is to say- you feel the same way?"
"You've grown into a beautiful, charming young woman Sara," he told her as they walked along the bank of the water. "I would be a fool not to have noticed," he explained as they walked together. "Is that what you would want? For me to discuss this with your father?"
"I do," she said as she looked at him before explaining. "But I don't want to be married yet,"
"May I ask why not?" he asked and she smiled.
"When I marry I'll have to leave my work, I will have to leave the school and become a wife," she explained. "I won't be allowed to have friends or spend time with my sisters,"
"I don't know how they do marriage in the United States," King chuckled as they started to walk again. "But I do not intend for my wife to be a slave, I intend for her to be a partner in our marriage, but I understand what you're saying," he agreed. "How long do you think you'd like to wait until you'd be ready to marry?"
"Five years?" she asked and he smiled as he looked down at her before he nodded.
"Then I will wait for you," he told her as he gave her hand a soft squeeze. "And in that time, I hope you will allow me the opportunity to get to know you better,"
"I'd like that," she replied and he smiled.
When they got to her cousin's home she had twisted her hair into a simple bun and hastily pinned her bonnet back into place, lest her cousin's wife see and think it indecent and tell her parents.
She and Klaus had been talking for most of the way, King throwing a comment in every now and again, but mostly he liked to listen to the two bicker. Be it about politics or books they had read, the two seemed to choose opposing sides just so they could argue with each other.
When Sara got off of the cart it was King who helped her down. She smiled up at him as he looked out around the side of the cart, her cousin's wife and her cousin were looking at the pelts Klaus had with interest.
"Well Dr. Schultz, I guess this is goodbye." She told him and he smiled gently.
"Perhaps we will stop by on our way back." He suggested.
"I would like that." She admitted and he smiled. "It's my birthday in two weeks," she added and he smiled at her.
"I thought you would grow weary of the company of two old bachelors." He joked and she smiled.
"I'd never grow weary of your company." She told him. He smiled and was about to say something, before he shut his mouth. Rather, he lifted his hand up and lightly brushed a loose strand of hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear. Sara tilted her face into his touch before he cleared his throat and took her hand, lifting her knuckles to his lips where he pressed a small kiss to her hand.
"I will see you in two weeks time," he promised softly before he let go of her hand. She looked over and saw her cousin's wife coming around the wagon and she nodded as she gathered her satchel from the front of the cart before looking at him.
"Two weeks?" she asked, noticing the way the sky around them seemed to glow in the sunset.
"Absolutely, mein Schatz," he said softly before he smiled at her cousin's wife. "We will take you up on that offer and we shall see you on our way back," he said to her and then climbed into the wagon, Klaus hopped into the seat next to him and Sara smiled, waving at them both as they started down the road, leaving her behind as they went on to see different places while she stayed behind.
"Sara, come inside," her cousin's wife called to her as she walked to the doorway, Sara watching as King and Klaus drove the horses away and she sighed before she walked towards the house, pausing at the door to look back out and watch them ride away.
It was going to be a very long two weeks.
Okay so things are definitely a little different from when I originally shared this story, and you can see that now, but I've done a lot more research into courting and relationships in the 1800's, not to mention I did some timeline work on their ages and everything, and everything that's going to happen in the story. But yeah, this is going to be a little different from the original version of this story, but I hope you still like it!
Let me know in the reviews what you thought of this chapter! It was a lot of fun to write and I'm really happy with how it turned out!