Damn Charlie and his big mouth! He never should have hired the man in the first place.
With every word that flew out of the shaking man's lips, they were one step closer to a sure fire conviction. If they weren't going to be hung for the murder, thefts, and kidnappings that they were charged with already, he'd have killed Charlie himself. But if there was any small thing to be grateful for in these circumstances, it was that the boss wasn't with them He wouldn't have to wait for the noose to do the job. The boss would have done it with his bare hands first.
Up until Charlie broke, there was still the chance he could have talked his way out of the noose. Maybe ended up on some chain gang or something. He'd always been the smooth talker of the group. And then, lo and behold, them two start blabbering like idiots.
Damn. Didn't Charlie have any sense at all?
The little fool had told the man in black everything. How they were just after the money and that the dead guy just got in the way. And if that wasn't bad enough, Charlie continued on and told him that catching Ezra was a bonus. He believed that Standish cheated during a poker game earlier that the week. When they'd found him lagging behind the others in a gun fight Charlie just grabbed him up for a ransom. And, as if they weren't in enough trouble already, the idiot went and admitted they'd all known that Ezra was a lawman, closing the noose tighter around their necks.
It seemed so long ago that Julian Larabee had stepped onto that carriage and begun her adventure West. Now, hundreds of miles from the city she grew up in, she found herself sitting on a wooden bench just outside a saloon, next to a handsome green-eyed man wrapped in a woolen blanket.
Her brother had recovered most of her belongings from the wreckage. The majority of her clothing and personal items were found tucked safely inside her precious trunk that somehow remained intact and untouched. To her greatest relief, the only possession she had ever cared about lay wrapped in the bottom, beneath her dresses. A small daguerratype, encased in a black and peeling gold frame. It was a picture of her parents, a month after they'd married, and the only image that existed of the people she could barely remember.
She was clad in one of her own dresses, a black and white cambric dress, that closely resembled the one that the young widow Travis wore that day. The dark fabric suited her mood, and was more than a bit symbolic. Today, at noon, the verdict would given on the fates of three of her captors. Her happiness would have been complete save for the fact that the leader of the gang had eluded capture, despite the efforts of her brothers friends. Not one single person in the entire territory had come forward with any new information about the missing outlaw. Chris told her that because the area was so large, it was easy for a man who didn't want to be found to disappear forever. It was likely the man slipped over the border days ago and would never be found. So, she had to be satisfied with what she had in front of her.
She knew that she would never be the same naïve girl that started out on her trip but she refused to give into despair. The empty, pained feeling that seemed to have plagued her continually the first few days, was becoming less insistent as the days passed. After gentle prodding from Ezra, she finally revealed to Nathan the full extent of her injuries endured during her captivity. The gambler had made her realize the importance of having the healer make sure she would heal properly.
And truth be told, had Ezra not been there to hold her while she cried, Julian thought she might have killed herself during those first dark days. But she would not allow herself to cry anymore. Ezra was right; the hurt, it would never go away completely, nor would she ever forget what those men did to her. But she couldn't let it destroy her. She couldn't let it make her into a weak frail thing, afraid of every shadow. If she let them do that to her, then those men would have taken more from her than just her innocence. They would have taken her soul. And so, when most people would have curled up in a ball, hoping to die a quick death, Julian smiled and laughed, refusing to let those men win.
Looking around at the now familiar faces, she relaxed knowing that she was surrounded by good, if new, friends. Her brother, his friends, Mary Travis, and countless others, all stood by her during the trial and the days that followed.
Julian had come to really like Mary in particular. She saw beneath the beautiful face laid a strong mind and brave soul. The two women hit it off from the first. And according to Nathan, this woman would be her sister-in-law by now if her brother weren't such a 'blind fool'! Well, it should be fun to watch the two of them dance around one another!
Buck and she got along famously, as always. He had taken her out riding the first day Nathan pronounced her well enough to leave the clinic. The pair launched right back into the roles they had been forced to abandon thirteen years before. Buck continued to tease Julian about various aspects of her face while Julian called him the nastiest names she could think of.
While she enjoyed their visits together, she continued to feel a little out of place with her brother's old friend, especially when the other boy hung around him. JD, about her age, was nice enough, but there was something about the way they both competed for Buck's attention that made Julian nervous around him.
Josiah was a unique character as well. She liked the older man, even if he didn't talk much past the usual pleasantries and scripture verses with her.
And Nathan, well, how close can a person be to her own doctor? But since her release from his clinic, she found the healer to have a great sense of humor instilled among his honor. She saw the gentle way he treated every person, regardless to race or gender. Knowing the type of person he was, it made her respect him even more.
Then there was Vin Tanner, Chris's closest friend in the group. It had surprised Julian at first, until she noticed the way Vin and her brother would talk. It was as if they were brothers themselves. She had worried about Buck when she saw this closeness, but soon realized that although he and Chris weren't as close as they had been, they were still good friends.
But of all the Seven, the man beside her was probably the one easiest for her to relate to. Maybe it was those days they'd spent huddled in the damp, dark cell together that made them so easy around each other. But whatever it was, she could talk to Ezra like she'd never talked to another and she cherished this.
Julian told him about her childhood, her parents, her aunt, boarding school, everything. Ezra, in return, had shared some of his past with her. She saw the hurt and anger in his eyes as he spoke of his mother and some of his experiences as a child. At least she was in boarding school because her rich aunt didn't know what to do with an eight year old. Ezra went to boarding school because his mother didn't want him. Despite this though, the two were very much alike. She knew that he was not telling her everything. At times, he would stop suddenly in his story and begin anew on a completely different topic. Maybe he never would fill in those gaps, but Julian made sure he knew that if he ever decided to, she would be there for him, no matter what.
Chris could not fully understand this friendship between his little sister and one of his men. He was not pleased with the fact that the two spent most of their waking hours in each other's presence But Julian did not worry about Chris's approval. His frowning interference did not stop her from helping Ezra to his seat outside the saloon everyday and sitting with him for hours on end. The idle chatter that comprised much of their afternoon conversations, was riddled with discussion over books and poetry. Ezra had pleasantly surprised Julian when he brought a copy of The Canterbury Tales with him one morning. They'd spent the week taking turns reading aloud the adventures of a knight, laughing over the warnings of Bath, ridiculing the out-dated notions presented in the stories. For days after they'd finished Julian had referred to the gambler mockingly as "the Clerk".
And sometimes, when they were laughing, and the whole world seemed to consist of that bench and it's two occupants, Julian forgot those days in the cell, and felt like herself again.