Evelyn trotted into the bustling town of Rhodes with Arthur and Annabell following closely behind her. Annabell had decided to ride along with Arthur much to Evelyn's surprise, the girl tended to stick next to her mother's side at every opportunity, but Evelyn couldn't help but be happy. It was refreshing to see the girl growing and bonding with other people, before she had only her mother and 'grandma' Bethany in Armadillo. Evelyn didn't think she remembered her life before, with her father. If she did, Annabell had never mentioned it before.

As the adults hitched their horses they had to keep Annabell from excitedly running around as the girl giggled loudly and tried taking everything in at once. Evelyn grasped the girl's hand and lead her into the general store. The entry bell twinkled above them and the shop keeper greeted them warmly.

"Okay Annabell, go pick out something for you and little Jack." Evelyn told her. Annabell immediately ran off, touching everything she could get her hands on. Evelyn chuckled and turned to Arthur who was looking around at what the store had to offer.

"Is there anything you want?" She asked him. He shook his head, picking up a fountain pen.

"Nah, thank you Miss but I couldn't ask you for anything when I got the means of buyin' it myself." Arthur declined, making Evelyn roll her eyes. The brawny man apparently didn't understand what a gift was. She shrugged and browsed the shelves. She really wanted to get something nice for Abigail and Sadie, as thanks for how much they help her with looking after Annabell when she was away. She just wasn't sure what the ladies would like as neither of them seemed to be the materialistic type.

Her eyes fell onto a beautiful necklace, a sparkling silver chain and a sapphire jewel surrounded by smaller golden gems. She ran a finger around the jewel, she was very fond of the color blue, the color of her mother's and also her daughter's eyes. Her heart twinged as a memory of her mother surfaced in her mind. She missed her. The price tag on the necklace glared at her, and she sighed sadly as she turned away, unable to justify spending so much on herself. Not when she could be buying things for Annabell and their new family.

"Mama!" Annabell called, skipping up excitedly to Evelyn and clutching her skirt. She waved her hand excitedly, pointing to a doll on a high up shelf. Evelyn grabbed it and brought it down to Annabell's height. The girl grabbed it gingerly, petting the dolls black yarn hair and admiring its' purple gown.

"Is that what you want, Anna?" Evelyn asked. She smiled fondly as the girl excitedly shook her head yes. "Okay, hold on to it. Did you find something for Jack?" She asked, and the girl lead her to another shelf with Childrens toys on display.

"I want to get him the dragon. He likes dragons, mama." Annabell said proudly. Arthur came up behind them, nodding in approval.

"That kid does love his creatures." Arthur said, ruffling Annabell's hair to which the girl stuck her tongue out at him. Evelyn grabbed the wooden carved dragon with a chuckle. all that was left was her gifts for Sadie and Abigail. For Sadie she chose a leather belt with beautiful carvings etched into it of wild horses and swirling designs. It had a small pouch stitched onto the side, for either herbs or extra ammunition and Evelyn felt it was a great balance of femininity and usefulness for the wild woman. For Abigail she chose a shawl, having noticed that the one the woman wore was full of holes and stains. The shawl she chose was crafted from a soft warm wool in a beautiful pale lavender color.

Satisfied, Evelyn paid for her items, refusing Arthur's offer of paying for it himself, and they exited the store to secure their items in the saddlebags strapped to their horses. Arthur had returned to the store briefly, saying he forgot to grab that fountain pen for MaryBeth. When he returned they walked over to the saloon and sat for lunch.

Evelyn chuckled at how out of place Arthur looked in the nice and quiet saloon, it was definitely a far cry from the bar in Valentine and seemed to be more refined, with well dressed women with feather hats and prim men in suits all sipping quietly on whiskey or exchanging gossip. They waited for their food to arrive, Annabell playing with her new doll and Evelyn and Arthur making small talk.

"Mr. Calahan!" A man shouted from across the bar. Arthur winced, turning to see Sheriff Gray happily strolling towards them "It's a pleasant surprise to see you here, Mr. Calahan! And who's this?" Gray asked, gesturing to Evelyn and Annabell. Arthur froze, unsure of what to say. He looked between Evelyn and Annabell, stuttering slightly.

"My wife, Mr. Gray. Uh, Evelyn, this is Sheriff Gray, I told you about that job I got didn't I?" Arthur said, praying Evelyn knew to play along.

"Of course, Arthur. Mr. Gray it is so nice to meet you, I've heard many good things about what you're doing for this town." Evelyn said easily, offering her hand for the sheriff to politely kiss. The Sherrif blushed, rubbing the back of his head,

"Oh it ain't nothing. Just doing my duty," He said, and waved to Annabell who was clutched to Evelyns arm. "You have a lovely daughter." He commented. Evelyn nodded gracefully.

"Thank you, I'm afraid she is a bit shy but we appreciate your kind words." Evelyn thanked him. Gray nodded and clapped Arthur on the back.

"I oughta get back to the office but it was wonderful meeting your family, Mr. Calahan. I trust you had no issue with those horses?" Arthur nodded and tipped his hat.

"Course, Sherrif." He answered. With that the Sheriff parted ways, leaving Evelyn to look curiously at Arthur.

"Moving awfully fast, aren't we Mr. Calahan?" She teased, eliciting a groan from the man.

"You get use to it." Arthur replied.


Evelyn sat next to MaryBeth with Lenny on the other side of her. The two had offered to join Evelyn in her evening reading as she helped Jack and Annabell whenever the children would run into a word they struggled with. MaryBeth read a romance novel, and she blushed and giggled quietly to herself at random intervals. Lenny opted of a historical retelling, and Evelyn decided to read up on her Herbology book, hoping to garner more knowledge on medicine. The kids read some storybook Arthur had retrieved at Jacks request.

Sadie and Abigail had responded more pleasantly than Evelyn had anticipated them to when she had given them their gifts. Both of the women had hugged her, expressing their gratitude and swearing that they mean to repay her. Evelyn refused, saying that their help with Annabell was more than she could ever repay. Evelyns heart warmed at the memory.

Sadie had taken her aside and asked how her trip to town went, and Evelyn recanted the days activities to her. She was confused when Sadie seemed to push for certain details, mainly revolving around Arthur. When Evelyn retold the details of the Saloon visit Sadie elbowed her excitedly. Still, Evelyn couldn't see what the bizarre woman was so happy about. She mentioned as such to the woman, and Sadie just groaned and shook her head, leaving and muttering something about 'they're both as dull as a doorknob.' Evelyn took slight offence to that.

MaryBeth was called upon by Miss Grimshaw, and the little groups reading break was over. Evelyn set up the kids with a warm bath and she left to help prepare dinner. Dinner was stew, as per usual, so she set about cutting up vegetables and adding seasoning into the broth. She wasn't much of a cook, back when she was with her husband they had servants for every chore one could think of, and Bethany had insisted on cooking most nights, so Evelyn was happy to help most nights to get in some practice at the camp.

Arthur, Dutch, and Micah had gone off to some sort of meeting with someone they had history with. She wasn't caught up on the lore of it all, but according to the hissed curses from Sadie the man they were meeting up with, Colm O'Driscoll, was an awful man that the gang have had dealings with for decades. The awful men had killed Sadie's beloved husband, and Dutch's one true love, a woman also named Annabell. Her heart ached for both of them, to lose that one special person must have been debilitating, especially for two people that seemed to love so deeply. She watched Sadie now, as the woman paced back and forth anxiously.

"Hey Sadie," Evelyn called. Said woman stopped to look at her. Evelyn gave her an apologetic look. "Would you mind coming over here and helping me out? I'm afraid I've fallen behind." She asked. Evelyn hoped to maybe take Sadie's mind off of her troubles. Sadie relented, coming over to where Evelyn was working at grabbed a knife and fell into pace with Evelyn.

"My husband... He was a good man. I loved him. I just..." She trailed off. "I just wish they'd kill Colm while they got him." She said grimly. Evelyn nodded, letting her vent.

"I don't understand your pain, but I know how much you must be hurting. I hope for your sake Colm gets what's coming to him." Evelyn said softly. Sadie grasped her arm and gave a pained smile.

"Thank you, Evelyn. You've been a good friend to me." Sadie said earnestly. The two returned to their work in companionable silence, Sadie no longer anxiously twitching.

The stew was finally finished and the men had not come back yet. Everyone was starting to grow anxious, and Charles and Javier were close to going out and searching for the trio themselves. Their worries were quickly settled as Dutch finally arrived at camp, Micah behind him. Everyone crowded around them with baited breath.

"Well? How'd it go?" Miss Grimshaw asked as Dutch got settled into camp. Dutch shook his head, seeming confused.

"Well... I'm not quite sure, Miss Grimshaw. It was bizarre. We just talked, and after a bit Colm and his men just... Left. We waited, expecting to get ambushed or something but... Nothing. Arthur never fired a warning shot, and we were never ambushed. So, we just left." He shook his head, dazed and unsettled. The rest of the camp twittered uncomfortably, as that wasn't something they were expecting.

Dutch wiped his palms on his pants and looked around. "Where's Arthur?" He asked. Everyone looked between them in confusion.

"Wasn't he supposed to be with you two?" Javier asked. Dutch's face paled.

"Yes but... when we met up at the fork he wasn't there. I assumed He'd just came back to camp after nothing happened." Dutch explained. Evelyns heart sank.

"He wouldn't just leave you, Dutch. Something isn't right." Evelyn said. Charles cursed, and hurried over to his horse, Taima.

"Javier, come with me. We need to look for him before the sun goes down." Charles called out, and Javier was already rushing to his own horse.

"Don't have to tell me twice, let's go." Javier said. The two hurried away. Dutch got up and headed to get back onto The Count.

Hosea stopped him. "Dutch, if this is a set up it'll be you the O'Driscoll's are waiting for. Stay here, I'm sure Charles and Javier are more than qualified to find our boy." Hosea said, wrapping an arm around Dutch's shoulders when he went to protest. The camp members dispersed to their previous activities, though now all of them waited for Charles and Javiers return anxiously.

Evelyn went to gather Annabell in her arms, if only to help quiet the deep-set fear in her heart. The little girl seemed to notice the change in moods and pat her mother on the cheek in an effort to soothe her. Evelyn leaned into the girl's hand, smiling at her, feeling bad for worrying the girl.

"How about I play with your hair, hmm?" Evelyn offered. Annabell accepted happily, jumping out of her mother's arms and hurrying to their tent where she fetched the comb and a hair tie. They settled down, Evelyn slowly stroking the girl's blonde hair with the comb and humming softly. She braided the long blonde hair into a neat plait, and wondered idly if maybe she should cut it to be shorter. When Annabell's hair was finished she insisted on helping her mother with her hair and brushed out Evelyn's long straight black hair, occasionally snagging the comb on a tangle and jerking Evelyn's head to the side.

Evelyn's heart sank when Charles and Javier returned hours later, Arthur nowhere to be seen.