Thank you to everyone who has been reading the story and sending me positivity! I'm having a lot of fun writing this, and I have a ton of ideas, so you guys might be seeing quite a few new chapters soon. I am determined to finish this! Again, thanks for reading.
"Daisy," Calvin beckoned from behind the rifle. "I suggest you step away now 'less you want to get blood on them clothes of yours." The idea was sent forth in goodwill on Calvin's part, his voice pleasant and easy as if he were commenting on the fine weather. Daisy's face grew hot and red under her brother's foolish scrutiny.
"Calvin!" she admonished, feet planted firmly next to Cap, whose breath turned short and quick. Through distant observation, Cap appeared calm. His shoulders slumped, his mouth pulled taut in a repressed smile. But Daisy felt, through her immediacy to this strange Hatfield, that he was not so complacent. He was frightened of the gun, of the possibility of being blown to a million tiny bits, and inexplicably, Daisy sensed that the fear related to her presence.
"Daisy," Calvin called again, his eyes never venturing beyond Cap's bored expression. "Are you gonna move or am I gonna have to kill him right in front of you?"
"Stop this right now, Calvin!" Daisy cried in distress, and Calvin's confidence wavered. He looked to his sister's imploring face. "He didn't do nothin' to me," she explained.
"But," Calvin began, the gun sliding off his shoulder. "I heard you scream." Daisy shook her head in quiet disbelief, desperately seeking to give her sibling the benefit of the doubt. Surely the scene was warped to a boy like Calvin: someone, like herself, who had grown up in the old Hatfield and McCoy feud. It was only in his nature to be suspicious, even violent, towards those of the opposing family. Daisy held her hands up towards Calvin, beseeching him to listen and adopt some semblance of sense.
"Calvin, Cap saved me," she stated simply, bringing one arm around towards Cap so that it briefly pressed against the front of his coat. Daisy felt a warmth radiating from Cap's chest, a sort of charge that shot up her arm into the rest of her body. She quickly glanced at Cap and found him staring back: he had felt it, too.
"Saved you from what?" Calvin asked. He dropped the rifle towards the ground, letting it hang loose in his arms. His eyes followed the trajectory of the lax gun, through the piles of brown and golden leaves, past the feet of Daisy and Cap, to the inanimate body of Thornton, sprawled on the ground like a spider crushed under a boot.
"Christ Almighty, Daisy," Calvin whispered, his incredulous eyes absorbing the scenes of a scuffle: the rustled leaves, the discarded stones, the bits of blood. "What did you do? Is that Thornton? Is he…dead?"
"He ain't dead," Cap answered for Daisy. Calvin frowned at the intrusion. "He's just…sleepin'. Had too much to drink."
"I don't believe I was askin' you, Hatfield," Calvin spat, inching towards Cap, readying himself for a fight. Daisy stepped between the two.
"That is enough," she said, looking only to Calvin. She heaved a sigh and placed her hands on her hips in defeat, shaking her head towards her sibling. She was bone tired, worn down to her wick by the events of the day, both good and bad. Her skull felt like it had been cracked like an egg and was slowly being pulled apart by tiny and eager fingers. She wanted to stay there in the leaves, away from all of the explanations and lies that were inevitable in her near future. She could curl up like some lost and wild animal and sleep in the dirt, amongst the small creatures who knew little of the world beyond the necessity to live from one day to the next.
"I'll explain it to you on the way home," she said to Calvin, her arms dropping to her sides. She examined the tops of the trees and the way they had blackened entirely. Night was upon them, and if Daisy and Calvin did not make it home soon, there would be trouble with their Pa. She turned towards Cap, who had remained stock still, only his eyes, one concerned, the other ghoulish, tracing the plains of Daisy's face. She saw herself through those eyes: her own were used and red, her skin pale and translucent like the petal of a flower. The blood from her injury had dried to the color of rust, running down towards her mouth like a vein, or a path on a map, leading Cap towards something hidden and sweet. She blushed a violet-red under his fixation, and Cap smiled at the fervency of her nature veiled under the glass of her fixed countenance.
"Thank you," she said shyly, as if they had not shared the tumult of unspoken emotions that rushed between them before Calvin's arrival. "For everything." Cap tipped his hat to her.
"Don't mention it," he replied, watching the reluctance in Daisy's step as she went to join her brother on the far side of the clearing. "You get her home safe now," Cap said with a smile, and Calvin grimaced.
X X X
"So you're tellin' me that a Hatfield saved you?" Calvin had asked the question a dozen times, and Daisy filled each answer with the same bashful nod. As far as her brothers were concerned, Daisy had always harbored a special place in her heart for Calvin, and she knew that he felt the same affinity towards her. Perhaps it was their appearances that bonded them so. Both with their onyx hair, their bright eyes, their amicable and humane dispositions. Daisy knew, deep down inside of herself, that Calvin's threat towards Cap had been superficial at best.
"Thornton was the one that attacked me," she explained again, and Calvin's dark brow furrowed in confusion.
"Thornton?" he asked as they trudged along the darkened path. "But, but he's crazy about you, Daisy."
"I thought so, too," she conceded to her own hubris, ashamed of her confidence in Thornton's affections towards her. Much like Johnse Hatfield, Thornton had wanted only one thing from Daisy, one thing that Daisy would not give so freely as a favor.
The two walked on in silence, their heads bent towards each another. They had always shared everything: their joys, their failures, their secrets and dreams. Calvin did not toy with Daisy's inexplicable necessity to be a modern woman, one who was equal to her spouse in almost every way. He knew that the books she read piled up inside her brain like a library, feeding her the sort of information that most women could not comprehend. In a way, Calvin admired his sister's relentless desire to shun societal expectations in favor of her own inclinations. She was more human that way, more primal, following instinct over cultural requirement. Still, Daisy knew that Calvin took issue with finding another of his sisters in such close proximity to a Hatfield.
"It don't mean nothin', Calvin," Daisy assured her brother, watching the moonlight flicker over his dark head. "He was only checkin' to make sure I wasn't injured. I doubt I'll ever speak to him again." Calvin nodded and looked over to her, his newly stubbled cheeks a testament to his manhood. You're just a boy, Daisy thought, paying for the sins of the father.
"I reckon I should thank him," Calvin supplied, and a smile spread across his youthful face. "I won't, but I reckon I should." The weight of the day fell off of Daisy then, dropping around her like sacks of sugar. She was safe, although not entirely relinquished from the gripping truths afforded by the hours before. Thornton was violent and small-minded, dangerous to Daisy and her wellbeing. Her life would be different now, turning itself towards some new goal entirely unrelated to marriage. Perhaps she would grow into a spinster, living with Roseanna and their aunt, spending her days in silent servitude. And Cap – she didn't think she would see him again, not for some time, anyway. But privately, in the small hours of the morning, when the rest of the family slumbered about her, Daisy would remember the feel of Cap's hands upon her face; of the way his mismatched eyes stared and studied; of the pure and open energy that radiated off of his body, pulling her towards him. She would cherish those moments.
"Just one more thing, Calvin," Daisy said to her brother, holding out a hand to stay his onward trek. He turned towards her. "Please don't tell Ma or Pa about this. I couldn't bear to think of their reactions." Calvin thought for a long second, finally nodding his head.
"Alright, Daisy," he agreed. "Let's get you cleaned up."