*Author's Note*

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Election Day, 1860 Pt.1

Jessa POV:

Today was Election Day and the big get together for it was being held in West Virginia. After arriving at the venue, I took Silas and went to find Roseanna while Tolbert set up his shine wagon. Of course, he wrangled Pharmer and Bud into helping him. Calvin was off trying to sweet talk some girl while Jim was walking arm in arm with his fiancé, Lissa. Randall and Sally were talking to their neighbors, the McClintocks, while Alifair was watching some of her siblings. The McCoy cousins were around too, just walking around and mingling with people.

Whenever I spotted Roseanna, she was talking to Perry Cline, who seemed to be standing too close to her for comfort. I don't know why, but her body language seemed to portray her as nervous and uncomfortable. "Perry, you don't mind if I snag Roseanna for a while, do you?"

"Of course not, Jessa." Perry told me with a polite smile while the blonde next to him swiftly sidestepped away from him and over to me. "I should go vote and find Brenton anyways." He remarked before giving Roseanna a slight nod and telling her, "We'll talk again another time, Roseanna."

"Bye, Perry." Roseanna told the dapper dressed lawyer before he walked away from us. Looking at me, Roseanna gratefully smiled and said, "Thank you for rescuing me from Perry. He was trying to pursue me, again."

My indigo eyes turned into the size of saucers and my brows shot up into my hairline as I blurted out, "What? Perry Cline's trying to court you?"

"Yes." My fair-haired sister-in-law nodded. "He's always looking at me oddly and he's always trying to spend time alone with me to talk, sit, or stroll."

"Uh, I know he's the family lawyer, but he's a bit too old for you." Barf…Ick, that's one thing about the 1800s that creeps me out, the large age differences with couples.

"I know, he's old enough to be my poppy." Roseanna shuddered, feeling as creeped out as I did about the age difference between her and the lawyer. "I'm sure any number of ladies would be happy with Perry's pursuit, but I'm not one of them."

Before I could say anything back to Roseanna, a commotion over at Tolbert's shine wagon caught my attention. He was laughing at Cotton Mounts, making fun of the slow boy for something, and Ellison Hatfield, the boy's dad, had loudly asked my husband, "You think that's funny?!", while marching over to him.

"Oh no, Tolbert's mean mouth's got him in trouble." Roseanna sighed as we watched Ellison grab my husband roughly by the collar and drag him over to where Cotton was standing by an anvil with his head hung low in embarrassment.

"Apologize." Ellison ordered Tolbert in a steely tone.

"I'm sorry yer a bastard, Cotton Top." Tolbert sneered, acting like a smartass.

"That's not good enough." Ellison told Tolbert, tightening his grip around his neck. "Now apologize."

"A'ight, a'ght." Tolbert gruffly agreed to apologize. I think he only did that tho so Ellison would let go of his neck. "I'm sorry I called ya names an' I won't call ya no more names 'gain."

"Get outta here." Ellison ordered Tolbert, pushing him towards the shine cart a few yards away.

While Tolbert went back to his shine wagon, Mrs. Hatfield marched right up to him. Oh no, this isn't going to be good. I started to go over to my husband's wagon, but was stopped by a hand firmly grabbing my arm. I knew it wasn't Roseanna that stopped me since the hand wrapped around my arm was large and calloused. I looked to the side only to see Shaw standing next to me with his daughter Lydia perched on his hip.

"Don't go over to him, he'll fight with you because he got embarrassed by Hatfields." Shaw advised.

Before I could utter a word, the little boy in my arms let out a squeal of, "Dada.", upon seeing Shaw.

"Um, I'm gonna go find one of my friends." Roseanna announced in a soft, but slightly awkward tone, before rushing off into the direction that Nancy McCoy was in.

"Well, looks like she's giving us some family time." Shaw slightly chuckled, guiding me to start walking with him in the direction that was the opposite of Tolbert's shine wagon.

"This isn't family time, Shaw. We're just talking at election day."

"Honey, hate to break it to ya, but this is the closest thing to family time we're gonna get as long as you're still with Tolbert." Shaw slightly sneered as we passed by a pickle booth. Damn, a pickle actually sounds good right now.

"Please, Shaw, don't bad mouth my husband today." I pleaded, causing Shaw to just shake his head and roll his honey hued eyes at me. "I know, he's not perfect, but he's trying his best."

"First of all, he's not legally your husband, and second I don't know why you're with him trying to make things work when he lied to you about taking care of Silas. He said he'd make sure our son wasn't marked a bastard, but then he turned around and declared him a bastard."

"Shaw, I've been with him for nearly 2-years. I can't just walk away from that because he's struggling with fatherhood every once in a while."

"But what about my chance at fatherhood, Jessa? Cause of his lies and twistin' things I'm stuck being a weekend dad while he's with my son every fucking day and doesn't even give a shit about him."

Cutting my eyes at him, I lowly hissed under my breath, "Shaw, we're not having this talk here. Somebody could overhear us."

"Fine, we'll talk about this next time you bring my son to visit me." Shaw relented, his stubbled jaw twitching slightly. Adjusting his daughter on his hip, he told me, "I gotta get back to Johnse's wagon. I volunteered to help him and Cap sell some shine." Smiling at Silas, he told him, "Bye, buddy. Be good for mama." Looking at me he added in a simple, "Bye, honey.", before turning around and heading back towards Johnse's shine wagon.

"Well, Silas, let's go buy a pickle." I told my son, making him giggle, before walking over to where the pickle booth was at.

Shaw POV:

I was standing next to Johnse, leaning against his shine cart, while Cap was perched on one of the barrels. We were watching people pass by while waiting for customers to come up to buy some booze. Across the way Tolbert was selling his shine with the help of his brothers, Pharmer and Bud. As I adjusted Lydia on my hip, I noticed that Johnse's attention made a beeline towards something in the distance. Following his line of site, I noticed that he was looking at Roseanna, who was strolling with Nancy. God, I hated that black-eyed bitch with a passion. She was screwing Cap's brother-in-law (most likely as a scheme) and was a danger to my son's safety since she was a scheming shrew.

"Hey, can I get a cup?" Lias asked, coming to a stop next to Johnse by the tap of the barrel he was by.

"Only if you pay for it." Johnse told Lias as he held his cup out to him.

"Oh, some on, give your uncle a free sample." Lias pouted, shaking his empty tin cup at Johnse as he leaned an elbow on his large barrel of booze.

"No. I gotta make a living, goddamnit." Pointing over to where Tolbert was, Johnse told Lias, "If ya want free whiskey go talk to Tolbert McCoy."

"Maybe I will." Lias quipped, lookin' over his shoulder at the wagon where Tolbert was hagglin' at with a customer while his brothers scurried to fill up bottles and sneak them to their drunk cousins behind the ginger's back.

"Lias, don't do that. One cup of McCoy whiskey's worth a lifetime of headaches." God, if he went over there to buy a cup of Tolbert's whiskey, he'd end up swindling him out of a family heirloom fiddle that'll become the basis for the fight that gets Ellison killed in a couple of years. If I can stop that then so be it.

"Cap, Robert E. take over for me, will ya?" Johnse asked him brothers before running off to go woo Roseanna, who had walked away from Nancy since the dark-haired girl had stopped to talk with Alifair and another one of the McCoy girls as they waited in line to play a game of ring toss.

Okay, well looks like the Romeo-Juliet part of the feud's happening right on schedule. I honestly wish him luck with that since I know how hard it is lovin' somebody from the wrong side of the Tug.

"Hey, don't be wasteful." Lias scolded Cap, who jumped down from the barrel he was sitting on and knocked Lias' tin cup out of his hand right as the older man turned the tap on the whiskey barrel to fill his cup with.

"Johnse left me in charge til he gets back and he said no to givin' ya free samples." Cap told Lias while turning the tap and turning off the flow of shine coming out of the large barrel sitting in the back of the wagon.

"And to think you're my favorite nephew." Lias shook his head while picking up his discarded cup off the ground.

Hell, I think that Cap was EVERYBODY'S favorite nephew…

While Cap and Lias squabbled over Johnse's shine, I noticed that Johnse was leading Roseanna away from the venue and into a clearing that'd take them deep into the woods. I also noticed that Nancy, Perry Cline, and Brenton, who was standing next to the slimy lawyer, had seen the star-crossed lovers take off. Great, those three would be scheming and hatching up something since they saw the Hillbilly Romeo-Juliet sneak off together.

"Hey, you need your flask filled up?" Cap asked me, breaking me out of my mental musings, as his mismatched eyes looked at my shirt pocket.

"Yea." I nodded. Pulling my flask out of my pocket and handing it over to my cousin, I chuckled, "Don't worry, I'll pay the buck for the shine."

"I know you're good for it. Hell, Johns says you're one of his best customers."

Olga POV:

"Yer man's fillin' up mine's flask." I pointed out to Allie as we made our way ov'r to Johnse's whiskey wagon. "Shaw don't need no fill ups; he drinks too much as it is." I told her, shakin' my head at the sight of Shaw's eyes twinklin' as they watched Cap fill up the flask.

"Shaw's a drunk?" Allie asked, givin' me a slightly wide-eyed look.

"Yes, he is." I nodded 'fore goin' on to say, "He can polish off a whole bottle o'whiskey himself at the table 'fore bed at nite."

"Oh…but, he doesn't look like the type tho." Allie remarked, her voice hangin' heavy in the air as she watched my man greedily snatch the filled up from her man's hand.

"He hides it well." I sighed, watchin' Shaw hand a dollar ov'r t'Cap for the whiskey.

Allie stopped in her tracks an' grabbed my arm, causin' me to stop an' look at her. She had a sincere look in her Sapphire eyes while askin' in a soft, but serious tone, "Olga, now tell me true, has he ever gotten violent with you when he's drinking himself to death?"

"He yells an' once he threw a bottle at me after I shut the bedroom door, but he's nev'r laid a hand on me."

"Not yet he hasn't, but he might." Allie firmly sighed. Her sapphire eyes went dark and firm as she told me, "You need to take Lydia and get as far away from here, from him, as possible. You're my friend and I don't want to see you get hurt any worse than you already are."

"I'll keep that in mind." I told her, causin' her to nod at me.

"Let's go look at some crafts; give Shaw some time alone with his flask." Allie told me, loopin' her arm in mine an' draggin' me far 'way from the shine wagon our men were at.

Tolbert POV:

Money was tight wit' how Jessa insisted on makin' beef stew 3 or 4 times a month. We were scrapin' by, barely, even wit' the money I got sellin' my shine. Hell, money's so tight that I was considerin' takin' on some work as a hand at the Clermont's farm. Jessa was too frivolous when it came t'spendin' my hard-earned money. My wife acted like greenbacks grew on the yard tree or somethin'. Even wit' all the shine I was sellin' today I'd still be short an' tight on cash when I got home. Reckon that's why I was lettin' Lias Hatfield, the musician of the Hatfields, look at my gran'pappy's heirloom fiddle while I filled up a bottle for . I desperately needed money.

"How much for the fiddle?" Lias asked, lookin' 'tween me an' the fiddle he had in his hand.

"I want a greenback an' a half for it." I told him, waitin' for the large bottle I was holdin' under the tap t'fill up.

"I'll give ya two-bits." He shrugged, placin' the fiddle on his shoulder.

Pharmer's eyes were dartin' 'tween me an' Lias as I turned the tap off so Mr. McClintock's bottle wouldn't overflow. "It was my gran'pappy's." I told the Hatfield while passin' my customer ov'r his purchase.

"Tell ya what, I'll give ya 75 cents and you fill my cup up, but I'll owe ya a quarter." Lias told me, removin' the fiddle from his shoulder an' pointin' to his cup that he had restin' on the wagon next t'my shine barrel.

"Deal." I told him with a nod since I needed the money.

We both spit in our hands an' shook on it, makin' the deal solid, 'fore he paid me for the fiddle. I filled up his cup an' then he went on his way.

Jessa POV:

While walking around looking for Roseanna I noticed that Tolbert was talking with Lias Hatfield at his shine wagon. I saw that Lias was holding Tolbert's fiddle (the one he inherited from his late grandfather McCoy a couple years back) and I quickly figured out that a sale was taking place. Oh god… By time I walked up to my husband the Hatfield had left. "What was Lias Hatfield doing over here?" I asked Tolbert, not bothering to beat around the bush, with one of my brows arched up curiously.

"He wanted t'buy my heirloom fiddle." My husband told me in a matter-of-fact type tone to his smoothly gruff voice.

I felt a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as I asked, "Okay, so how much did you sell it for?" Dead lord, why did he even sell it for?

"I asked for a greenback an' a half, but settled for 75 cents wit' a quarter owed an' throwin' in a cup o'whiskey." Tolbert proudly told me, actin' as if he'd made the best deal in the world.

"What? Oh my god, Tolbert, you got swindled. You basically just gave away a fiddle and a cup of whiskey for 50 cents and an IOU." I blurted out without thinking since I had quickly figured out that my husband had very bad haggling skills.

Tolbert's face quaked angrily as he roared, "Don't ya dare say I made a bad deal!"

Before thinking better of it, I let out the remark of, "But you did make a bad deal."

"I did what I had t'do to make some goddamn money cause yer spendin' it as fast as I bring it in, Jessa."

"Oh no, don't you dare blame me for us bein' broke. I only spend the allowance you give me, if money's getting blown its cause of you." I shot right back at Tolbert while Pharmer's eyes was awkwardly darting between us, watching us bitch.

"Don't ya accuse me o'wastin' money. Yer the one that's goin' to the goddamn butcher 3-or-4 times a month for beef stew meat." Well, I didn't hear him complaining when he's gobbling down two bowls full of stew for his supper. Grumpy jackass.

I narrowed my eyes at Tolbert while smugly reminding him, "Well, we gotta eat Tolbert."

"Ya needa start cookin' whatever I put in that smokehouse an' stop spendin' all our money!" The redhead ordered, his voice booming and shaking lowly.

"I'm not spending all of our money, Tolbert." I told him right as a shadow loomed over me. I looked over my shoulder only to see that Shaw had come to my aid. Oh boy…

"Stop yelling at her in front of my son, Tolbert." Shaw ordered my husband, who's nostrils were angrily flaring like a bull's, in a cold steely tone.

Getting up into Shaw's face, Tolbert angrily spat, "Don't ya dare call Silas yer son. I'm the one supportin' him, ya worthless bastard."

"But he is my son, Tolbert." Shaw reminded the fuming redhead in a calm demeanor. "Now, if I see you fighting with Jessa in front of my boy again, I won't think twice 'bout steppin' in and giving you a real fight." Shaw told Tolbert in a deep and cold tone before pivoting on his heel and storming off over to Johnse's shine wagon (that was missing its owner) to get Lydia from Cap, who was holding the little girl while he leaned against the large barrel on the shine wagon.

"So, Silas really belongs to Shaw Eldridge?" Pharmer asked from his spot sitting on top of the large whiskey barrel that was in Tolbert's wagon.

Tolbert's head spun around so fast it could've rivaled the girl's from the Exorcist. Pointing at his brother he barked out the order of, "Don't ya repeat a word that lyin' Vance bastard said." Narrowing his stormy eyes he added in, "Ya hear me, Pharmer?"

"I hear ya." Pharmer nervously nodded his head, his chest rising and falling quickly out of fear.

Turning his attention to me, Tolbert gave me a hard look with his stormy-blue eyes and ordered in a gruff, but suggestive tone, "I think ya better go find one of my sisters t'stroll wit' cause I ain't in the mood for family time right now."

Johnse POV:

"Well here we are, this is my drip still." I announced as we reached my still that was a few miles walk from the election day festival. "I can make a good half gallon of fine West Virginian Russian corn likker a day." I told Roseanna while leadin' her over to my still, which was underneath a wooden awnin' I made so the weather wouldn't mess it up. "I borrowed the money for the parts from my pa." I told her as we stopped right under the awning, next to the still. She just smiled sweetly and nodded her head. Goddamn, Roseanna was so pretty. Just one glance at her and I was in love. "Figured I'd make a good livin'; support my family proper." I pointed into the direction my cabin was at while tellin' her, "I even built a cabin not far from here so my wife can have babies in."

Lookin' up at me wit' her sparklin' blue eyes, Roseanna asked, "You got yourself a wife?"

"No." I answered 'fore smilin' and tellin' her, "Now I know your teasin' me cause we both know I ain't got nobody."

"I heard you've got girlfriends by the bushels." She told me in an accusin' tone. Yea, I just can imagine some of the gossip that gets thrown 'round 'bout me. I know I like the ladies, but I ain't nothin' compared to Abel. Now that feller's got a whore problem.

"I ain't serious 'bout none of 'em." I honestly told the sweet blonde standin' next to me. I wanted to make sure she knew I wasn't with anybody, that us talkin' and flirtin' was okay.

"Oh…" She trailed off, biting her lip a bit nervously as I smiled at her.

"Now, tell me true, have you ever been kissed before?" I asked, curious if I was readin' her right and she was as sweet and innocent as she came across. I mean if she'd been kissed before it wouldn't stop me from pursuing her, but I guess I just liked the idea of this pretty sweet girl bein' all mine.

"Not countin' grandma's and such?"

"Not countin' grandma's and such."

"Um, couple times, maybe." She blushed, her eyes falling onto the ground.

Well, then looks like I'm gonna be her first kiss. Goddamn, I just wanted t'be with this sweet girl. I don't know why, but I was drawn to her. "Well, I bet you've never truly been kissed and not to boast, but I do think I'm a good kisser." I told Roseanna while closing the space between us. She hung her head low to her chest as a nervous blush appeared on her cheeks. Gently, I placed my hand under her chin and lifted her head up so she could look at me. I gave her a soft smile before dippin' my head down and pressing my lips softly against hers in a kiss. She was a bit surprised, never havin' been really kissed before, but after a few seconds she moved her lips against mine. "Well, no you can't say you've never been kissed." I smiled at Roseanna after breaking our short, but sweet kiss.

Roseanna was blushin' so hard that her cheeks were beat red as she looked everywhere, but at me, while whisperin', "Good lord…" Okay, so reckon she liked kissin' me then. Lookin' up at the sky she announced, "It's gettin' late, we better get goin'."

"Come on, we can make it back 'fore dark." I told her, takin' her hand in mine and leadin' her away from my still and back into the woods that'll bring us to the clearin' by the festival.

AN:

Well, that was the first part of the election day stuff. Hope you guys liked it. Next up will be the conclusion of election day.