Chapter Six: Getting By

Chapter Text

Chapter 6: Getting By

1888

"Sound it out Hazel, you can do this." Dutch says giving the 8-year old girl a nudge with his elbow to try and draw her attention back to the book in front of her trying to hide his own frustration. If Dutch could teach Arthur and John how to read he was going to teach Hazel if it killed him.

"I don't wanna." She says crossing her arms and putting her head on them, her lower lip poking out.

"You need to learn to read, it's important."

"Most kids go to school to learn to read."

"Hazelnut, you know attending school isn't an option right now. Besides, why do you want to be stuck inside some stuffy building getting your knuckles smacked when you mess up?"

"At least I would have friends my age and not have to sleep on the ground." She grumps as she straightens in her chair and glares at Dutch who feels his left eye twitch at her words. This has been the never ending argument since they spent the winter months at a large ranch. In order to not draw too much attention to them Hosea had enrolled John and Hazel into the local school. John skipped most of the time but Hazel had enjoyed herself more than any of them had expected considering how restless she always was at camp.

But there had been other girls her age, something the child had never experienced. Annabelle passed when Hazel was just a few years old and Susan, as much as Dutch loved that woman, was not exactly the companion Hazel wanted or even needed. Hazel had taken well to John but it still wasn't the same as the relationship she had developed with Anna, Grace, and Peggy at that school. She had even spent several nights at the girls' homes, causing Hosea to have to meet various parents to help with their story. Hazel had gotten to sleep in actual houses that were decorated and had furniture and all the things that came with having a house.

Then the winter ended and the group needed to move on.

Hazel had begged to stay and live with Peggy and her family, and Peggy's family had even offered to watch the child until Hosea and his brother found work. Hosea had delayed their leaving by one week so she could at least spend her 8th birthday with her friends before they left the state far behind with the law on their heels a week later.

Since then Hazel has been moody and distant. Anything she was asked to do, while she would do it, it was half-hearted and not fully finished.

"We're not having this discussion again. You know why we live this life Hazel-."

"No, I don't! Other people stay in one place and have friends and don't lie about their names and are taught by teachers not bank robbers!" Hazel pushes herself away from the table and tosses the book she had been mumbling from to the ground as she ran into the woods to the left of the camp. Dutch dropped his head into his hands and rubbed at his hair that he swears is turning more and more gray with each fight Hazel had with everyone around the camp.

Susan had the boys in town to get their haircut because if they put John's off anymore it would drag on the ground behind him and Arthur just looked like a mountain man if his wasn't reigned in every so often. Hosea was with Person at the larger town they were by picking out a new spit for the fire. So it was just Dutch left at the camp with Hazel and he wanted to get their lessons over for the day before everyone got back.

Dutch remembers when Arthur started questions parts of their lives, but he had seen the worst of humanity when he was an orphan on the streets and John had never been interested enough to ask. It was easy to answer questions about his beliefs when his students already had a slight bias towards his way of thinking when it came to the evils of civilization.

Hazel hadn't been exposed to it. She was kept in camp most of the time since she was so young and when she was in town it was never for long and it was usually for a store or post office run. And of course the one time she is the child has a merry time and found friends and a feeling of belonging that she always acted like was missing at camp.

Dutch decided he would let Hosea handle this one. Dutch stood up and saved his beloved book from the ground and walked the skirts of the camp just so he could get Hazel's general location and to make sure she hadn't left camp. Tantrum or no tantrum if Dutch caught her outside of camp she would be dealt with sooner. Rules were rules and her leaving camp was something she was not allowed to do on her own.

Several hours past and Hazel had emerged from the woods and tried to sneak into the tent she shared with her father to get her blanket before running back to her hiding spot at the top of a tree. Dutch just shook his head at her failed attempt at stealth. Just another thing she would need to learn when she got older. Johnand Arthur had to be taught several things, but they had a good foundation of basic survival skills to build off of. Hazel was the blankest slate he had ever seen.

Dutch was tossing a few logs on the fire to stave off the evening chill when Hosea and Pearson rode back into camp, a large spit and what looked like a newer pot on the wagon behind them. Arthur had come back a bit before them and said that Mrs. Grimshaw was taking John pant shopping so he was given leave to head back on his own. Dutch didn't blame him, John was going through a growth spurt and would have to try on the pants and everyone in that store was going to have a bad time.

"Arthur?" Dutch calls to the young man who was scratching Copper's ears and drawing by a tree, "Can you please help Mr. Pearson, I need to have a word with Hosea." Arthur is up, tossing his journal in the satchel that never seemed to leave his side anymore, and heads towards the wagon, Hosea pats his shoulder in passing before he stops in front of his friend.

"What did she do this time?" Hosea asks, noticing the lack of his blonde little girl in the camp.

"Another tantrum about school. She's in that tree over there. Good luck." Dutch says as he walks past Hosea with a sympathetic smile to help with the spit. Dutch was ready for some better quality food.

1899

Strawberry was an interesting town.

Hazel had been there a few weeks and after spending one night outside the post office she was offered a place to stay by a nice lady named Maddy Cade and her family. They were a nice family and Hazel had a feeling they weren't always on the clean path they were on now considering how sympathetic they were to her "plight" of being ditched on the side of the road by her husband and how they overlooked the obvious holes in her story that just didn't add up the more one thought about it.

Plus Hazel's wanted posters didn't just consist of her family. Norman "Skinny" Cade had a small bounty on his head from several years ago down south somewhere. He wasn't someone the law was actively looking for. And since Strawberry basically patrolled themselves, if there was word on him going around town he would know before they could do anything.

Normal was a part-time hunter and a full-time woodworker. The town was small but was trying to be more grand than it actually was and Normal was busy more times than not and their son, a sweet 13-year-old boy named James were always in the woods cutting timber or working on the very grand and somewhat stupid looking hotel on the other end of town.

Hazel had slept the first few days she was at their home away, her body just giving out after basically walking the whole stretch from Blackwater to Strawberry in the rain and cold from the freak storm that had apparently dumped a lot of snow up north. When she had finally woken up she could finally open both her eyes and move her shoulders without a lot of pain. She was still yellow and bruised but she was getting better.

She was working light shifts at the doctor's office cleaning so she could go a small way to repay Maddy and Norman for all they had done for her. Maddy thanked her and would only take a few coins from her outstretched hand every time Hazel got paid. They spent their evenings talking about little things and Hazel found out that Norman had been all over the map, his stories were always a little weird, like he was leaving things out or giving minor details about the story. Their running narrative was Norman was a wondering drunk who changed his ways when he met Maddy.

Love got her dad out of the life and, as much as Hazel hated the woman, Mary would have been the one to get Arthur from the life.

All in all, her "life" in Strawberry was good.

But she was still itching to find her father. The newspapers were of no help. Just articles that told about the lockdown in Blackwater and how "Dutch's Boys" had fled north and had disappeared into the storm. She had a slight glimmer of hope when an article about a train robbery was top story about a month into her stay in Strawberry, but Hazel didn't think that the group would be that dumb as to rob a high profile train while they were running from federal agents. Hazel had thought about moving on once she was fully able to travel again and purchase a horse, but in reality she had no idea where to even look. They had used the fake name "Greg Lamberus" when they were in Blackwater and the next one on the list would be "Amos Millson" but Hazel couldn't just write coded letters and send them to every post office she could find and hope she got a response. The few times the group had been split in the past a coded letter was left at the last camp, and there was no way that they would have had time to leave a letter and there was also no way she was going near Blackwater to look for an invisible note.

She had a feeling that she would spend her legally gotten money on a train ticket to New York where she might be able to track down Trelawny. But even that was probably a waste of her time. New York was a big place and Trelawny could disappear in a place like that.

But until she had enough money to get that train ticket she was going to enjoy her "civilized" life in the tiny town of Strawberry.

1888

Hosea dug around in the never ending mess that was the tent he shared with his daughter until he found a book with green faded letters that was wrinkly from water damage and random scribbles from pens that little hands had found years ago. He also grabbed a stuffed horse that had once been a dark brown but now had various patches of difference colors all over the threadbare body. Peanut the horse had been through a lot in the last eight years.

With the items in his hand Hosea walks over to the tree and looks up at the branches and sees his little girl pressed tight against the bark of the tree with her head buried in her blanket covered knees. He puts the book and toy down and tosses his coat on them so she won't see them. They need to have a talk about her attitude first. "Knock knock" Hosea says as he tosses a stick into the bundle of leaves to the left of Hazel. "Mind coming down here young lady." Hosea says when her eyes look down to see who was messing with her.

"Don't wanna."

"If you're not down here by the time I count to three you're going to wish you were in a taller tree. Down here. Right now Hazel" At his tone she doesn't have to be told twice. When she drops with a small thud on the ground she takes several steps away from him and crosses her arms.

"I'll apologize to Uncle Dutch" she says quickly and flatly.

"Yes you are, but not before we have a little talk. I'm not sending you to Dutch until you know exactly what you are apologizing for. Come on." Hosea holds his hand out, motioning for her to follow him. He's not surprised she doesn't take his hand as they start their walk, but it still bugs him a little.

They walk a few minutes in silence, in a big circle so they keep passing by the tree they started at, until the last of the tension that she hadn't worked out stuck in the tree leaves her body and she just deflates, her shoulders and arms dropping heavy to her sides.

"I'm sorry dad. I really didn't mean it."

"I know you didn't. But that doesn't change the fact that you did it does it?"

"No. Is Uncle Dutch mad at me?"

"He's frustrated with you, maybe even a little disappointed. All Dutch wants is for you to know how to survive when you are older. We live in a nasty world Hazel. A nasty world with nasty people. Yes, not everyone is nasty or corrupt, but there are plenty of people that are."

"The ranch wasn't nasty. They were nice and you and Uncle Dutch had real jobs and Arthur was close to Mary, there were a lot of nice things and I just don't get why we couldn't just stay there."

"Do you remember what we did with the money we got from the bank?"

"Yeah, gave lots of it the poor."

"And what did a lot of them say when we gave them the money or food?"

"That we helped them."

"Would we have been able to help them if we stayed at the ranch?"

"No."

"And that is why we couldn't stay at the ranch. I liked it there too Hazel, it was nice having a bed and watching you have friends your age and all the good things that happened there. But that's not the life we can have if we want to help people. We live like we do so that others will have a better chance at living like your friend Peggy. That make sense?"

"Yeah….but…if what we do is the right thing, why would you get in trouble for it?"

"Because to most people what we do is wrong." They reached the tree again and Hosea stopped walking and grabbed his coat from the ground and pulled it over his shoulders before he sat on the ground and Hazel sat next to him, finally leaning against his side as he wrapped an arm around her. He handed her Peanut and opened a copy of "Peter Pan." Hazel snuggled Peanut into her chest and ran her fingers over the faded green title of the book. "Remember this story?"

"Yeah, Robin Hood and Little John steal money from the evil prince."

"And what did they do with money? Did they spend it on themselves?"

"No, they gave it to the poor people."

"And didn't Robin Hood and Little John have to live in the woods? Live in secret? Even though what they were doing was for the good of the poor?"

"Yeah…..so…..we're Robin Hood?"

"Sort of. We do good work, but we have to do what some consider an evil to do that good. We move around and live out here so we can keep doing the right thing."

"So what you do is only bad because they people you take it from are bad?"

"The world isn't just black and white like that. There are people that have too much, have more than they could ever use in a lifetime. Then there are people who have nothing. Sometimes the people who have everything wont give to the people have nothing. So we help them out with that. You don't look at Robin Hood like the bad guy, you look at him like a hero."

"So you and Uncle Dutch do what you do to help people?"

"Yes, and we've helped a lot of people. Look at Arthur and John, they wouldn't be alive if we didn't help them. We do more good than harm living like this."

"At the end Robin Hood gets to have his house with Maid Marion, will we have a house at the end too dad?"

"I hope so Hazey. I hope so."

1899

Horseshoe Overlook hasn't changed much since the last time he was here. Hosea was one of the last to arrive at the new camp since Arthur decided to bust the wagon wheel. Reverend Swanson greeted him not long after Dutch gave his "make money" speech and asked him what to do with Hazel's trunk and tent. Hosea told him to set the tent up, put Hazel and his stuff in there. When Hazel was 12 or 13 her birthday gift had been a very small tent of her own. She being the only young girl he and Dutch thought it would be a good idea. Hosea had downsized into a lean-too that he now shared with Lenny. The lean-too was good for him. Fresh air for his lungs and lots of open space for him to crawl out of when his age reared its head in the middle of the night, it also made life easier to see what Sean was up too after he and Hazel became a thing.

Hosea wasn't going to let a good tent go unused because of who it belonged to, he would use the tent. But the real issues was her trunk full of things, Hosea had it brought into the old cabin in Colter but other than a few glances he hadn't actually gone through it. He didn't want to, because going through it would mean she was actually gone. Mac and Davey's trunks had been left in Blackwater, but all they really had were clothes and liquor. Sean didn't have trunk of his own, he shared with Lenny since the pair were as inseparable as any two people could be. Hosea knew Lenny wasn't going to toss Sean's stuff until he knew for certain. Jenny's had been buried with her.

The first night was the most relaxed most of the gang had been since Blackwater. Warm and fed since Charles went and found a deer and a turkey. Hosea sat on a rock by the cliff and watched most of the group shared a good meal by the fire, Javier strumming his guitar. Abigail was sitting next to Ms. Adler who was calmer than she had been when they were in the mountains, but she was still suffering. Hosea knew what it was like to lose one's spouse, but Bessie hadn't been murdered so even he couldn't fully understand her pain.

Plus he would be of no use to her while he was still trying to decide if he needed to mourn his daughter or not.

Arthur was under orders to bring him a paper from Valentine. If any of their people were captured in Blackwater it might be in there. Bait for a rescue attempt or just to show the lawmen had actually done something successful after the shootout. But even he thought it was a long shot. Hazel was only wanted in a few places they had been, folks from Blackwater would mainly be after himself and Dutch, maybe even Arthur since it was a well-known fact that Arthur ran with them.

Hosea sat at the domino table and dealt out a hand of Solitaire not really feeling like socializing too much. He remembers teaching all the kids this game, it was a good way to teach them how to count and even strategize a little bit. It wasn't as good of a strategizing tool as the chess that they "played" with Dutch, but it was easier to get antsy teens to play card than it was chess.

"Mr. Matthews, you need to eat." A sharp voice sounded to his left, Hosea just flipped a card over and moved the 4 of spades to his pile.

"No thank you Ms. Grimshaw, I'm going to pass tonight."

"No you are not. We need you strong right now and passing up on perfectly good stew is not going to keep you strong." She says plopping the metal bowl in the middle of his hand.

Hosea sighed and set the draw stack on the table and started pushing his food around with the metal spoon.

"I miss her too Hosea. I miss them all. Hazel, Jenny and my girls always got into something. All the pranks they would pull on each other. Jenny was a sly one. All that pretty blonde hair and tiny face was really misleading. Her and Hazel were the perfect combination of smart of inconspicuous."

"Jenny was happy picking pockets and scouting. Poor girl didn't deserve to be shot off her horse and drug across the desert. But at least we know where she is, we were all able to be with her in her last moments."

"Hazel's a strong girl, if anyone made her way out of that mess it's her. You have to have faith in that."

"I don't know how much faith I have left anymore. I feel something, like a dark cloud hanging over the horizon that you know will drop a major storm and you see it getting closer, but the more you look the slower it moves." Hosea finally just pushes the bowl away from him, not eating a bite. "I just want peace. We had a good thing going, we pushed our luck, and now here we are. Missing men, dead women, and my daughter…..this little girl who was supposed to put me in the ground is just gone. If I ever get her back she's not leaving this camp."

"When we find her Mr. Matthews, you won't be able to keep her in camp. You know she has her heart set on helping with a bank job this year. Been counting down to her 19th birthday for a long time. Something magical always happens on her birthday, she might surprise you yet." Ms. Grimshaw stands and pats his arm before she pushes his bowl closer to him again and walks away.

Hosea picks his spoon back up and scoops a random leaf into his mouth, the wild game flavoring the already bitter herb more and Hosea drops the spoon back to the bowl and moves it off his cards and picks his draw stack back up. He needs to find the ace of diamonds.

The crazy taxidermist was in town today, bringing a bear that was going to be in the new hotel. Most of the woman and children stayed away from the main road while she was around. She seemed nice enough if not a little jumpy and…..strange...that was the only word Hazel could think of while she watched the commotion by the store. A new paper was due for delivery from Blackwater and she was hoping to hear something this time, but she wasn't holding her breath. She pulled a drag from the cigarette as she flipped the card with a panther on it around in her hand. She didn't need this one, she had several of these in her trunk.

So maybe she didn't have several of them anymore. She thought darkly as she pushes it into the new satchel she had gotten made by the trapper that was making his rounds around the area. It wasn't as nice as the one Pearson had made for her a few years ago, but it was what she needed right now, something to hold her stuff in, which wasn't much. But there was new poster for her collection. Seeing Micah's face on the wall outside the post office was not something she was looking for, but it had caught Norman's eye and when he stopped and stared at it Hazel saw it too.

If she ever saw him again maybe she could turn him in for the bounty. He wasn't worth as much as her father, but he wasn't a cheap find either.

"What a lovely town dear, just look at this place!" a soft voice sounds to her right, Hazel turns her head and sees a young couple walking away from a loaded wagon, all the stuff they had were strapped tight to the walls of the open wagon, two shire horses heaving as they dunk their heads in the water trough. "Think anything up north will be this nice?"

"Don't count on it Charlotte, we're up here to get away from this, start our new life."

They were a handsome couple, young and painfully obviously city folk who wanted to see the wilds of America. Hazel gives a small smile and tips her hat as they walk past her into the store. Another puff on the cigarette, she still didn't get what everyone liked about these things, her chest felt tight as she released the gray cloud back into the air. She mainly puffed on it as a way to curb her nerves as she waited in this town for either word or her wallet to….grow….

Hazel smiled and tossed the cigarette on the ground as she walked back to Norman's house and pulled out the new bandana she bought, her purple one being lost along some Blackwater street, and the old cattleman she had been given by a nice, yet very hyper and fast talking red haired man with a birthmark over his right eye she had ran into while she was herb hunting. She pulled her hair off her face and neck and knotted her skirt at her left knee. Hopping on Hoagie, Maddy's saddler that she didn't ride very often since she didn't leave town much, and rode to the post office to watch the couple finish their shopping from across the street. She even had time to buy a new paper from Gabe and skim the only title that said "Blackwater" before the couple came out of the store. She watched as they got on the wagon and slowly made their way out of town.

Hazel waited until they were over the crest of the hill before clicked at Hoagie and slowly trotted off after them. She just needed them far from town, she just wanted their money. They looked like they had plenty stashed in that wagon to last them, they wouldn't miss a few bucks and she needed that few bucks.

Morning falls over the camp and Hosea lays in bed and listens to the camp come to life. This tent had been through a lot and Hosea hadn't realized how many patch jobs it had been through. Signs of his daughter's horrible sewing skills evident in the uneven stitching and the odd shapes of the patches that are on the canvas make his heart ache. Most of the girls are up and they are all over by the fire spit drinking the swill that they all like to pretend is good. The O'Driscoll boy whimpers from his spot by the tree as Micah jerks him to his feet for the day. Pleas that have long since grown stale and old still fall from his mouth, but not as loudly as days before, it had been a long time since they boy had been feed a proper meal, but he knew Mary-Beth was sneaking him food from time to time.

"Hosea?" a voice calls from outside the tent.

"Yes Abigail?"

"Can I come in?" She asks unsure, her voice soft and calm. He soflty sighs and pushes himself into a sitting position, pulling his pants back over his union suit and shrugging on his blue shirt.

"Come in, but leave that bribe coffee outside." He says as he pushes Peanut the threadbare horse under the blanket as Abigail pushes the canvas aside with a soft smile.

"I thought you might like something warm this morning."

"I'm quite alright, what brings you over this morning."

"John wants to get out of bed and I was wondering if you thought he was well enough to do so?"

"Well his face didn't split open on the trip down here, if he can survive that rocky ride I'm sure he can stand up a move slowly around the camp."

"He wants to find Hazel. I can't get it out of his fool head, he swears he saw her when he was dragging Davey out of Blackwater, says she was with a lawman. He swears she's alive and he won't-." She freezes in her words as if finally remembering who she was talking too. "I'm sorry. I just know if anyone is going to talk some sense into him it's you. I'm not saying I don't want to find her, I do. Sean and Mac too. But John is not the person who needs to go traipsing all over West Elizabeth and ends up with the law right next to her."

"I'll talk to him. He still where he's supposed to be right now?"

"Should be, I left Karen with him, John's a tough idiot, but even he wont be too cross with a hungover Karen."

Hosea nods and grabs his boots from the ground and Abigail leaves him to finish dressing in peace. He just gets the scarf that John and Arthur had bought him as a Christmas gift years ago when he hears Arthur's gruff voice carry angrily over the camp.

"Damn it Marston, you are in no shape to go riding around the place, let alone dragging that ugly mug into a town crawling with Pinkertons you idiot!"

Hosea rubs at his forehead as he steps out of his tent and sees Arthur holding tight to Old Boy's reigns. John had stolen a horse on his way out of Blackwater with Javier, Old Boy being one of the horses that helped pull a wagon across the states. A good thing too since the horse John had been on died in the mountains.

"I'm not going into the town Morgan; I'm going to find Hazel. She was flung over the back of a bounty hunter; you know what those man are like. I can't just sit here, I gotta go do something. Now stop foolin' around." John says back through gritted teeth as he tries to pull the leather from the tight grip.

"Bounty Hunter or not the damn place is on lockdown, you won't do her no good if you get captured right beside her."

"I swear to God-"

"ENOUGH!" Dutch's voice yells before Hosea can even get his mouth open. Hosea turns and sees Dutch storming over to their wayward sons, tossing his cigar angrily to the ground. "John, Arthur, that is enough from the two of you. All it's been for the past several years is petty bickering and name calling and I am through listening to it. Arthur, I told you to get to Valentine to check on Bill, Javier and Charles. And John, you just got out of that damn bed, the last thing you need is to be riding all over the damn map for a missing person that you have no idea where to even start looking. Get away from that damn horse and carry a flour bag if you're itching to do something." With the boys looking properly scolded and glancing at Hosea too see what he would do.

Hosea walks over and places a hand on both of their shoulders. "You better get going Arthur, you know how Bill gets when he's around new people. You'll be breaking up a bar fight if you wait any longer." Arthur nods and tosses the leather straps hard towards John who catches them with a flinch as the sudden movement tugs at his recently stich free skin. "John, thank you for tyring to find Hazel, but Dutch is right. Blackwater is a deathtrap for most of us right now, and you'll stand out with your lovely new face. If Hazel is alive she'll find us. If she taught me anything it's to always have faith in family. She never stopped having faith in you."

The horses pulling the wagon had more stamina than Hazel was expecting. But as hilly and woody this area was it wasn't too hard to keep track of them, plus they had stated very loudly that they were headed north and there was only so many ways to go north from Strawberry. Hazel cut a path through the woods and waited at a fork and pulled her bandana up and waited.

She had never held up a wagon on her own, she usually had at least one other person, usually Sean or Lenny, with her. But she had been the person doing the actual holding for years. A teenaged girl was always unassuming and most wagons stopped for her. She plucked at the edges of her thumb nail and strained her ears for the sound of anything.

She heard birds, squirrels running through the leaves at Hoagie's feet.

"They're not in any hurry so why should you…." Dutch's voice echoed in her mind, he always knew when she was nervous while waiting to hit something. Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes and went over her plan in her head one more time. She just wanted the cash. Unless they had it buried in the never ending sea of crap in the wagon it shouldn't take that long. City folk usually didn't put up too much of a fuss.

Hazel opened her eyes and sat up straighter in the too big saddle for this horse and gripped the gun tight in her hand. The sound of the horse was close, Hazel took a deep breath and kicked her spurs into Hoagie's sides, the horse pausing enough in shock that when she ran out of the woods the couple on the wagon screamed as they almost collided. Hazel quickly pulling to the right to avoid actually hitting the much larger shire house, she whips her gun towards the couple and pulled the hammer back. "All your cash, out of your pockets, now!"

"Oh God, Cal!" The lady stammers loudly as her hands flutter to the air.

"Now, we can talk about th-."

"Do I look like I want to talk? Cash now!"

"We-we don't have much, just-."

"I didn't ask how much you had, just hand it over. Cash only!" the man desperately pats the pockets of his vest. Hazel's heart is hammering and she is trying not to look around too much, needing to keep as focus as possible. "Don't make me shoot you for moving so slow!"

"Ok, ok, I'm-here!" the man tosses a brown wallet at her. Hazel catches it and motions for the man to put his hands up.

"Now was that so hard? Welcome to the wilds, have a good day." She tips her hat and clutching the wallet close she rides hard from the wagon.

She rides the long way back to Strawberry, pulling the wallet open as she goes she almost cries when she sees 2 $10.00 bills and a few loose coins. She has enough to get that ticket to New York and she can even leave a little extra behind for Maddy and Norman.

She smiled the whole time as she walked back from the stables that housed Hoagie. The sun was going down when she walked into the house and later that night when she laid down on her bed she had a new since of hope. She was so happy. If anyone could get her back to her family it was the crazy man that was in New York.

Hosea tossed his book to the side, the sun too low in the sky for him to read anymore. The calm that had settled over the camp was disrupted as a loud man on an appaloosa came riding into camp. Dutch greeted Josiah like a lost son come back from the dead. Josiah had many faults but he always had good information, but Hosea was surprised to see him since he had taken off a few weeks before the Blackwater heist went down to chase his fortunes in New York.

Hosea just waved and stuck in nose back in his book, he wasn't in the mood for the shit show that Josiah and Dutch always got up too. Two outlaws who always tried to one up each other with their outfits and ideas. They had ridden off into town to check on the four men they had sent that direction earlier that morning. Arthur had been back once to drop a high Swanson on his bedroll then he hadn't been seen since.

Hosea was scrapping the bottom on the metal bowl to get the last bites from it, having not eaten the day before he was actually a little hungry. The camp was still keeping their distance for the most part, he would hear the other's whisper Hazel's name but they would be shushed almost immediately by someone. Sean, Jenny, and the Calendar boys weren't talked about much either. Hosea opened his book trying to find where he left off when the most annoying voice that existed decided Hosea needed company.

"What you readin' Old Feller?" Micah sneers as he sits down across from him, beer bottle sloshing with his movements.

"Just a book." Hosea says behind gritted teeth.

"You don't like me much do you?"

"No. Not much."

"When you're dead I'll miss you."

"I don't imagine the feeling's mutual."

"Maybe we can burry you next to Hazel. If you ever find her body." Micah lets out a low chuckle.

Hosea's eyes flash as he pushes away from the table, tossing his book at Micah's face and pulling him gun from belt. "You watch just who the hell you're talking to boy. I'll drop you where you stand if you mention my daughter one more time."

"Woah, easy Old Feller." Micah says as he holds his hands up, the grin on his face not dropping far. "I didn't mean nothing by it. But if Davey didn't make it what makes you think that she did. Dying is an occupational hazard for bank robbers. You wouldn't be so damn miserable if you just excepted shes gone." Hosea pulls back the hammer and points it between his eyes, his anger bubbling hot in his stomach.

"Micah! Get the hell away from him!" John says as he storms over and pushes Micah back several steps from the table. "The hell is wrong with you?"

"Just some advice, John. Old man's been pouting around the place since we left Blackwater. He's been a real dark rain cloud that sucks all joy from the world. I just wanted to give him some friendly advice. I'll leave you to your book." Micah says, reaching down and tossing the book back towards Hosea before walking off towards the scout fire.

John and Hosea glare daggers at the retreating blonde man and John's fists clinch at his sides as he tries to not chase after him and stab him in the back. Hosea slowly lowers his gun and puts it back in his holster.

"One day that idiot is going to mouth off to someone and he's gonna get a bullet in his brain." John crosses his arms and glances at Hosea. "Hey, ignore whatever the idiot said. Like you told me this morning, faith." John pats the older man on his shoulder before heading over to the pot for his serving of stew.

Hosea picks up his book and goes over to Silver Dollar and decides he needs something stronger to drink than what's in camp.

Not e: This chapter was out a lot faster. I started a new game in RDR2 to help me keep all the missions in order and the stranger encounters in the right area. I've been free-roaming with John for a while and the moment Arthur's face gets on my screen I just lose mind he's so awesome and there will be more of him next chapter.

I want to thank everyone for taking time out of their day to read this.

I'm sorry for any spelling and grammar errors that litter this thing. It's hard to catch them all when I look over it.

According to Google Solitaire was a thing as early as 1798.

The conversation between Hosea is based off a random camp encounter that I always seem to get before Arthur and John go steal some sheep. If I bother freeing the moron that soon.

Norman and Maddy didn't have a last name that I could find so I made one up. And I'm pretty sure the teen who asks Arthur to help find his dog is their son, but I couldn't find a name their either.