Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death;

The Deadly Sins

the sins of pride,greed, lust, (wrath), gluttony, envy, and sloth

Chapter Three

Strawberry, California

June 1866

The girls had followed Heath into the cabin after he insisted. They sat at the old kitchen table as Heath poured them a cup of coffee. He stepped up to the table and placed the steaming mugs before them.

"I washed the cups and the coffee pot." Heath said as he sat down across from the girls. He watched as each girl blew on her cup of coffee. "I ain't the best at making a cup of coffee but it will calm you both some."

"Where'd you come from Heath? Or more like where have you been?" Johnna asked as Libby seemed to be dumbstruck by Heath's handsome features.

Libby blushed while looking at him. On the porch, she had thought he was beautiful like an angel. Now, she realized he was all male and so handsome it made her heart thump rapidly. The boy sure had grown up in three years. Heath was already a beautiful child. Now, he was a gorgeously handsome young man.

"I was with some men on the cattle drive. I've been working for a spread for awhile now. The boss said that Strawberry was close enough to where we sold the cattle. I could go visit my mama and my aunts." Heath glanced around the room. He frowned slightly but continued talking."Mr. Henry, that's boss's name, he's been helping me by writing Mama letters. Ya both know I can't read nor write. I can sign my name but that's it. Mama can't either but I reckon she had Rachel read them to her. " Heath smiled crookedly at the girls.

This time both girls felt their hearts leap as they stole glances at the handsome teen cowboy.

"I'm sure she did." Libby finally spoke. She didn't want Heath thinking she was duller than dish water. "Rachel gathered the mail often, Heath. But no letters came since the war has been over. Last letter your mama got from you was before you went to that prison camp. She received a letter telling her from someone in the army about you being captured and taken to a Reb prison camp. We all thought you were dead."

"I didn't." Johnna clasped Heath's hand hoping he didn't pull away. She could feel the tension in his shoulder's when she had hugged him earlier. Heath didn't embrace her back then. "I didn't think you were dead."

Heath didn't pull his hand away. He only nodded. "Uncle Matt probably intercepted the letters. I sent Mama some of my pay. I should've known better. What happened here? The place looks abandoned." Heath swallowed as he peered around. "The furniture is all over the place or broken. Looks like dried blood about too. Did some wild animals take up living here after Mama, Hannah and Rachel moved out?"

Libby burst out crying before flinging her head down on the table. Heath tried to control his breathing at the redheaded teen's distraught actions. He glanced up to Johnna for answers as she seemed to be the calmer of the two teen girls.

Johnna squeezed Heath's hand. "It is a sad story, Heath. Your Aunt Rachel can tell you more than we can."

"Mama's dead. Isn't she?" Heath jerked his hand away from Johnna. Heath stood up quickly. He paced back and forth. "Isn't she?"

"Yes." Johnna bit her lip. "Hannah too."

"What happened?" Heath said in a demanding voice. He sounded older than his age and more menacing than the Heath they once knew.

"Rachel lives over top of the saloon. We can go ask her." Johnna stood up.

She walked over to Heath. She pulled his face to look at her. She was shocked to see he shed no tears. After peering in his eyes, the shock left. Although the boy refused to cry or show emotion, his eyes were a window to his soul. She saw the hurt there.

Johnna slid her hand across Heath's cheek. There were fine hairs growing there just like they were on his chest, which was partially bare due to a few buttons undone on his shirt. He was becoming a man in body. She figured his eyes told he had been a man long before his body started becoming one.

Heath allowed Johnna's soft touches to his face. He had been with saloon girls here and there but hadn't felt the soft caring touch of a female since his mama. That was when he was twelve.

"Where are they buried?" He didn't want his mama in a potter's field. Yet, he knew she would never be allowed to be buried in a church yard.

"Beside the cabin. Out by the little rose bush." Libby stood up as she wiped her eyes on the back of her sleeve. "Miss Rachel keeps the graves real good."

"Cotton?" Heath asked as he closed his eyes still relishing the feel of Johnna's fingers softly caressing his face.

"He's with Miss Rachel." Johnna leaned her head into Heath's chest. Her arms went around his waist as she rested there. His heartbeat pounded in her ears. He was here and alive. She began to sob against his chest. He could feel her tears trailing down his hot skin as the tears soaked in his threadbare shirt.

Heath placed his arm around Johnna as his other hand gently wrapped in Johnna's curly tendrils of hair. He knew the girl was crying for him. Because he was unable to cry, she was crying for him.

Girls like Johnna had seen the worst of people. Now, he knew Johnna had looked into his eyes and saw the same harsh reality of this world staring back at her. She knew he had faced the hardness and the coldness of man. Therefore, she cried for the boy lost and for the man, who could no longer shed tears for the sorrows of life.

"We best get going. Red will beat her senseless if that man wakes up and Johnna is gone." Libby's voice still hitched with tears as she spoke. "You can go talk to Rachel in the morning. Papa may let you stay in our barn. I don't think you should stay here."

"I can stay here. I cleaned up Mama's room." Heath said as he continued comforting Johnna. "But Johnna ain't going back there tonight. I'll handle her ma. I got money to pay for your time, Johnna."

Johnna nodded in agreement. Then the three left the small green cabin to lead Libby home. Libby couldn't help but think the cabin didn't seem so scary with Heath back.

The rays of the morning sun bombarded Johnna's sleep. She stretched out her long shapely limbs before glancing up from her pillow. There Heath stood leaning on the windowsill peering out towards the Eastern sky.

In the light of the morning, Johnna could see Heath's body was still very much a teenager. He was lean but taut with muscle. The boy had surely worked hard to get that much muscle on him. Johnna slipped her hand over her mouth when she realized his back was not only marked with muscles from hard work but with scars from hard flogging. Heath had endured so much in his life. Like she, they were outcasts. However, she had never been flogged or beat like a slave had. Ma Red like to hit her and some of the patrons, especially Fred Garland . However, Johnna was thankful a whip had never touched her back.

The dark skinned saloon girl slipped out from under the coolness of the threadbare sheets. She glanced over at the small table beside the bed. Two coins lay on the table waiting for her to take. Time well spent with pay more than enough. The irony that Leah Thomson's bible lay near the coins didn't go unnoticed by Johnna. Undeterred, she slipped the coins inside of her dress, which was hanging on the bed post. Ma Red would take a switch to her if she didn't bring back something for being gone all night.

Johnna prayed for forgiveness for taking Heath's hard earned money. Afterall, if it were up to her she wouldn't charge him for her time. She enjoyed spending time with the blonde cowboy. After her short prayer, Johnna didn't slip her dress on but made her way to Heath.

The boy had his jeans on but no shirt. Johnna leaned her bare torso against his bare back. She felt the ridges on his back against her skin. She also felt Heath flinch at her touch but he calmed after she eased her cheek to rest on his shoulder blade.

The girl couldn't help but think he was a child still in body. She had seen grown men and the fifteen year old wasn't one. She reminded herself she too was a child at age seventeen. At least, they shared that as well as other things. Children living in an adult world.

Heath was experienced now compared to the twelve year old boy, who was skittish as a newborn colt around her. Now that he was fifteen, Johnna could tell he had been with other women. It saddened her slightly that she was one of the women who had stole his innocence away. For the first time, Johnna wished she had not led the twelve year old into her room that night over three years ago. She was fourteen at the time. Johnna felt that was no excuse. She wielded the power over the child then. Now, she felt her heart racing as she realized this young man could mold her to his will if he only asked. She knew he would not ask even if he possessed the power to do so.

"Rachel did real good burying Mama and Hannah there. Mama always liked the sunrise." Heath spoke about the small graves outside of the bedroom window. There was a long pause before Heath spoke again. "How many were there? I can tell it was more than one by the mess in the front room."

"I heard tell it was five in all." Johnna whispered into Heath's back. "Heath, Miss Rachel can't come into this house now. It haunts her. She isn't herself either. I'm just warning you. But she comes to take care of the graves every day. I think she talks to them both."

"I'll ask her to step up to the back porch. You reckon that will bother her?" Heath slid his hands over Johnna's hands, which were playing with the small patch of hair on his chest.

"Not rightly sure, Heath." Johnna kissed his back between his shoulder blades. "I know the men entered from the front but it all happened in the front room. Not on the back porch."

"I don't think they made it past the front room." Heath's voice was monotone, which frightened Johnna if she was to admit it. He definitely wasn't the scared kid anymore.

"You want to come back to bed, Heath?" Johnna hoped she didn't sound like she was pleading even if she was doing just that.

"I'd like that. But I can't. I need to check out the front room in the daylight before Rachel comes by." Heath pulled away from Johnna's embrace and went to pick up his discarded shirt off of a nearby chair.

"I can stay and help." Johnna knew her voice sounded desperate to him.

She couldn't help it. It was nice pretending she was his and he was hers for a little while. It was like a game of make believe. What did the little girls call it when she heard them play? Playing house. She never got to play house before. She wasn't allowed to join in their fun with their dollies. Yes. She wanted to pretend a while longer and play house.

Johnna began to button up Heath's shirt for him. He stopped her by placing his hands over her trembling fingers. "You helped enough last night, Johnna."

Johnna stared up at him. Her eyes brimmed with tears. Biting her lip, she felt her heart twist and constrict until Heath tapped her nose with his finger. "You don't have to help but you can get dressed and stay with me today. You can get one of mama's dresses from the trunk at the foot of the bed. It would be nice having a friend around while I do what I got to do."

Heath kissed the crown of her head before pulling away and finished buttoning his shirt. He left Johnna to get dressed while he went to assess the front room.

Johnna slipped into the soft worn dress once belonging to Leah. It wasn't much to most but to her it was like a princess's gown. Although the dress smelled of must due being in the trunk for a few months, it still was better than the smell of stale liquor and cigarettes like her dresses. The worn cotton was soft to her skin compared to the tight lace of her saloon dress. The dress fit tighter in the bust but looser in the waist than it had Leah. The dress was also slightly shorter on Johnna than Leah. To Johnna, she felt like the most beautiful woman in the world wearing the plain cotton dress.

The girl's fingers played with the cotton as she studied the dark blue flowered pattern on the pale blue dress. The dress was faded from the original color of the material it once was. Johnna wondered how many hours Leah had put in sewing the dress. Johnna wished she could sew. She'd make a dozen dresses just like the one she wore now.

Johnna stopped fidgeting with the dress when she heard a crash from the other room. She knew that Heath was raging in private. A tear slipped down her cheek as she thought of the boy she loved. And she did love him. She loved him so fiercely it ached. Johnna knew why she loved him. She loved him because he was the only one in her life who ever treated her like she was somebody. She loved him knowing the love wasn't returned.