Yay! Here's more! Enjoys my loflies!
It was late at night and the house was silent and dark. Marianne ran the shears through her hair, slicing her long locks off without a second look. When her once long brown hair, straight as a board, lay at her feet she pulled her hat down low over her eyes.
Never mind what her father said. Never mind that oaf of a Sheriff. She could do this. She tightened the belt around her waist, feeling oddly free in trousers instead of a ladies skirts and petticoats. Marianne checked her gun, five bullets, good. Dagger? Sharp as can be. Perfect. She read over her note one last time and placed it on her vanity mirror. With a deep breath, she turned down her oil lamp and slipped out the door of her room and down the stairs in stocking feet to the door. Boots and saddlebags full of essentials in hand.
"Marianne?" Dawn's little voice squeaked from the top of the stairs. "Is that you?"
"Yeah, Dawn, it's me. Go back to bed," she whispered.
"What are you doing up?" the sleepy younger sister asked through a yawn.
"Nothing, nothing… just… just going out for a little ride. Blowing off some steam. Alright?" she asked. Marianne heard Dawn's bare feet pad down the dark wooden staircase.
Her blue eyes caught the moonlight reflecting it back like watery, worried, pools. "You're going after them aren't you?"
"Don't tell, Papa," Marianne pleaded.
"I won't," Dawn sighed sadly. Marianne turned to go out the door and heard Dawn's gasp at her missing long hair, that had been so like their mother's before the Cholera took her. "Marianne," she said as her sister opened the backdoor to head out to the barn for Gunner, "Be careful. Please. Promise me you'll be careful."
"I promise, Dawn. And I promise to bring Mother's necklace back to you as well."
"You just bring you back to us," she whispered. Marianne nodded though she doubted Dawn saw it in the darkness of the night.
The elder of the two slipped out of the house and off the wood wrap around porch before slipping on her boots and running to the stables. Luckily the moon was full tonight and there was no need of a lantern as she saddled her faithful sorrel.
With one final note for Sunny tacked to the tack room door she led Gunner out of the stall and out to the street. With a heavy heart, Marianne looked over her shoulder at her home. She thought of calling the whole stupid plan off but she had to do this. For Dawn as well as for herself.
"Come on, Gunner," she whispered patting the big horses neck and trotting off into the night.
000
Dawn watched her sister ride off into the night. She knew why her sister felt so adamant about this but she hoped that she would be safe.
That gang of outlaws, Los Duendes, weren't just someone Marianne could outsmart in her usual way. And their leader, Branson "Bog" King, was the worst of the worst. It was said that he was as 'ruthless as a one eyed rattlesnake with a toothake' if she was quoting that cowboy correctly.
Sure Marianne was a force to be reckoned with, the same cowboy calling her, 'feistier than a tumbleweed in a tornado.' He used a lot of cowboy euphemisms, now that she thought about it.
Dawn just had to talk to somebody so she tossed a couple of pebbles down at the bunkhouse where the farmhands and house help stayed. Pare opened the window.
"Miss Fairchild?" he asked looking up at her. "Can I help you with something?"
"Tell Sunny to meet me at the paddock, please, Mister Pare," she whispered politely, always remembering her decorum.
"Yes'm," he said disappearing again.
Dawn donned her robe and made sure she was adequately covered before slipping out of the house just like her sister, knowing that after his nightly brandy, nothing could wake their father.
"Miss Dawn?" Sunny whispered softly so as not to spook the horses grazing and sleeping in the paddock.
"Sunny, over here," she whispered back.
"What's wrong? I heard about the attack today, are you alright?" he asked taking his friends hands worried.
"I'm fine, Sunny but Marianne…" tears welled in her big blue eyes again, "…Marianne left… she… she's gone after the bandits. Sunny, I'm scared for her."
Sunny blinked at her for a moment before Dawn launched herself into his arms. A bit stunned he gently placed his hands on her back and stroked soothing circles into the silk robe.
"It's alright, Miss Dawn," he said. "You know how Miss Marianne is. She doesn't like it when anyone messes with the people she cares about."
"But this isn't some schoolyard bully, Sunny," Dawn cried as loud as she dared, pulling back and swatting him in reprimand, "These are Los Duendes! They are professional killers and thieves and… and… and who knows what else!"
"I am sure she'll be alright, Miss Dawn," Sunny said. "Now, it's been a trying day for you. Maybe it's best if you get a little shut eye."
Dawn sniffed but nodded in compliance. "If you say so," she said. "Goodnight, Sunny." With that she turned and went back into the house.
"Goodnight, Miss Dawn," he said, turning to head back to the bunkhouse, his own worry for his friend weighing heavy on his mind. She would be alright. She was Miss Marianne! But some nagging feeling told him this was going to change everything.
As promised a chapter a night. I may do some art for this tomorrow too. Wish me luck my dearies!
nemo: thanks, my tumblr fans adored it