Alright Chapter one blew up! I love you guys and I am glad Rio de Hadas took off so well. Here is the next chapter.
The sound of gunshots rang out and Marianne pulled Gunner to a sharp stop.
"No," she gasped, "Papa… Dawn!" she dug her heels into her horses sides, spurring him back to her family and directly into troubles line of fire. She didn't care she had to save her family, but she was on the other side of town and, while Gunner was fast, he wasn't that fast and that was a long way to run.
But she was Marianne Fairchild and she had to try. Just as she took the turn around the corner into the town square just as she saw the leader of Los Duendes looming over her deathly pale sister. Marianne didn't think, she flicked the button, lashing down her Colt's pearl handle and whipped out the pistol firing.
The bullet hit it's mark knocking his hat clean off his head. The gangly man spun his angry blue eyes on her and seeing her cocking her gun for another shot and riding like a wild Indian toward him.
"Alright, you sorry curs, back to the hideout!" he shouted to his gang. The outlaws whooped as they stampeded out of town. Marianne wanted to follow them and give them a good beating and a piece of her mind. But her sister's distraught, tear-stained face stopped her. She shoved her colt back into its holster and jumped from Gunner's back once she reined her horse to a stop.
"Dawn!" she cried, "Are you alright?"
"Marianne, darling, there you are," Marianne grit her teeth so hard she heard them crack. "I was so worried when those bandits stormed the town. I fought off at least a dozen of 'em," Roland bragged. Marianne took in his unmussed hair, his dry, un-sweat stained clothes and brow with a cocked eyebrow.
"Uh-huh," she said flatly, and almost told him just what she thought of his fight with a dozen bandits, when her sister's hysterics stopped her.
"Mari-Mariannne!" Dawn cried.
"Look, Sheriff," Marianne spat, "I would love to hear how you 'single handedly ran off all the bandits' and somehow remained so… the same, but as you can see my sister needs me. If you'll excuse me," she said, swinging back up into Gunner's saddle. "Papa, shall we?" she asked polite and curt, knowing he would have a fit about her secreted away Colt pistol later but wouldn't actually do anything about it because of what she had done to save her sister. If nothing else she could use the old, "a lady needs some form of protection in these dangerous times" excuse.
When they got home Sunny took the horses and wagon back to the barn and glanced worried at Dawn. Marianne gave him a look saying that Dawn would tell him soon but not yet. Now she needed her sister.
Dawn collapsed into Marianne's arms and cried as the elder sister led the young blond into the house. She looked pleadingly at their Father who just looked sadly at his daughters and went to his study wiping a stray tear along the way.
"Dawn, what happened? What did that thug do to you?" Marianne asked, sitting her sister down on the chaise lounge in the hall.
"He, he," Dawn hiccupped, lifting her white lace gloved hand to her bare throat where she always wore their mother's primrose and butterfly choker with rare pink diamonds. It was missing and Marianne felt her rage boiling anew.
"That bastard," she hissed.
"Marianne!" Dawn gasped scandalized.
"Sorry," Marianne said. "Don't worry, Dawn, I'll get Mother's necklace back. Promise."
"You will do no such thing, Marianne Fairchild," their father's voice said. "This is a job for the Sheriff which you are not, young lady. It is bad enough you have a man's gun instead of a Derringer like other ladies but you will not go out looking for a man's trouble."
"So you are going to send the hapless halfwit for the town's precious possessions?" she shouted. "I can do this, Papa."
"Absolutely out of the question, Marianne. Put it out of your mind," he said. Marianne fumed and spun storming upstairs.
000
Bog sat in his room at the old abandoned church where Los Duendes hid out. He held his hat in front of him staring at the bullet hole that almost took his life.
That girl… she sat the horse and handled the gun like she had been born in saddle with pistol in hand.
"You got lots of nice stuff, Bog," growled a familiar voice.
"Thank you, Mother," he muttered, rolling his eyes and setting his hat back on his head. Unfortunately, that drew her eyes straight to the bullet hole.
"What the hell happened?" she demanded, storming over to him with her waddling walk, her back stooped and her dress, the height of fashion ten years ago, a faded calico hanging listlessly from her aged body, her greying red hair falling from the curls she had forced them into that morning.
"Nothing, she missed," he growled turning away.
"She! She? Was she pretty?" Griselda asked.
"Mother!" Bog yelped.
"What!? I was just askin'! Any girl can shoot like that has got to be able to keep you in line," she said picking up an emerald broach.
"Like what? She missed!"
Griselda snatched the black felt hat, stained grey around the brim with many years' worth of long days in the sun and pointed at the bullet hole just north of where his head was. "That wasn't a miss, boy. That was dead on. She meant to miss you. That is what a sane person calls a warning shot."
Bog scoffed and turned back to the necklace in his hand. All that fuss over one little necklace. He remembered her brown eyes like fire under the brim of her pale hat. That woman was nothing but trouble and his mother had no idea what she was talking about. She wasn't even there. A warning shot his boots. She was a lady with a gun trying to play tough. He had no idea of the hornet's nest that was preparing itself in Rio de Hadas.
Surprise! Haha I hope everyone is still loving this thing!
Moriko Saki: Thanks I am glad you like it. I already have all of it written though. ;)