Spit Fire (Rdr2)

Horseshoe Overlook (7)

The guys all returned safe and sound for that I was thankful. We finished loading the wagons and Arthur helped me climb onto the one he was driving. I sat between him and Hosea.

After we crossed the creek the back wheel, fell off. "Everything alright back there?" Dutch asked.

"Everything look OK. I broke the G** damned wheel," he said jumping down.

"Recken we can fix this," Hosea said getting down.

Charles came to help. I got off and started picking up the supplies that had dropped. I looked up and saw a group of Indians on the top of the mountain. The guys finished fixing the wheel. "What you recken?" Arthur asked.

"If they wanted trouble we never would have seen them," Charles said.

"Poor bastards, we really did a number on them," Hosea said.

Arthur helped me back on the wagon and Charles  climbed on the back. Hosea told us how the white man had mistreated the Indians and how a lot of them were robbed and murdered in the most horrible ways.

"How do you rob and kill folks pleasently?" Charles asked.

"You don't," I said.

Charles laughed at that. I smiled and laid my head on Arthur's shoulder. "You must be tired," Arthur said.

"Yeah," I said yawning.

3rd party POV

"Get a nap if you can, when we get to this new camp, what's the name again Hosea," Arthur asked.

"Horseshoe Overlook," Hosea said.

"When we get there, I'm gonna take you to town and get you some clothes and take you to the doctor to check on the baby," Arthur said. 

I nodded and closed my eyes. I felt Arthur gently lay me where my head was in his lap.  He gave Hosea the reigns and he ran his fingers through my hair.

"You love her," Charles said.

"Yeah," Arthur said. "She hasn't had an easy life. Her and John's dad really did a number on her. John told me a bit about it. I'm glad she doesn't remember all of what John told me. Said their dad killed her mom shortly after she had Lizzy. Lizzy a few hours old their dad decided to try and sell her but because she was so young nobody wanted to take her away from what family she had. John at 6 had to take care of her. She thinks her dad did it. John would feed her a bottle every couple hours. Said if their dad heard her crying he would hit her. When she was four she spilled a cup of milk and her dad punched her, so hard she flew across the room and broke her arm and her face was so swollen John himself didn't recognize her," Arthur explained.

"After she got better, whenever her dad would get drunk he used her as a punching bag. Then she found a hiding spot, when he came in drunk she would disappear for days at a time. Scared John half to death, John decided to follow her and found her hiding place. Said he would fix a bucket of water every other day, and laid a blanket out, and left her food," Arthur said.

"She doesn't remember much," Hosea explained.

"But she is as protective of John as he is of her. She got upset with Abigail for treating John like shit. She doesn't like the way Abigail puts John down. John and I don't see eye to eye but when it comes to her, it's different,"Arthur said. "She gets miss treated in a lot of towns we've been to because of her being half Indian."

"I've never seen her as anything but good," Charles said.

"That's why we keep her away from our jobs. She easily blacks out and it's like she can't control her actions," Arthur explained. "But she loves hunting and fishing."