The Five Dollar Mail Book 3: The Road Home

18:Sacrifices

Cover painting by Angela Taratuta. Chapter artwork of Fiona by Diego Candia. All graphics by me.

Book 1: The Green, Book 2: Lynch's Boys, Book 3: The Road Home, and the Riders & Kickers Anthology are available on Amazon under the name Regina Shelley. So if you hate waiting for chapter posts and/or want a more polished read, the finished product is available now.

Fiona was irritated at how much she enjoyed talking to Captain Scarcliff...or "Alex" as he had boldly requested she call him. She had politely declined, but only because she felt enough like a traitor. She didn't care to add to it by becoming even more familiar with the man she had once promised herself she would despise. She was a lot more comfortable with the situation when he was simply an infuriating and overbearing bully who did what he wanted with no regard for anyone else. It was easier to dislike him when she could see him as the ass who had nearly gotten Saint and Wash killed, instead of the man whose worry for his men's safety had pushed him to desperation.

Despite her vague revelation that she had a beau, the Captain had done his best to be charming and pleasant company. She could tell she had wounded him; it had not been welcome news that her affections were elsewhere. For a while, he'd had the air of a man attempting to hide a bullet lodged in his chest. But to his credit, he had swallowed his disappointment and continued to do his best to put her at ease. I suppose it's just as well, isn't it? There's no reason toy with him, to let him get his hopes up by letting him think he has a chance.

Her book lay across her lap and she absently smoothed the open page before her, settling back in the rocking chair on the porch of the guest quarters and sighed. If things were different, how would I feel about him? Would he have a chance then?

Movement across the yard caught her eye and she looked up to see him walking across the yard towards the porch. She seemed to be seeing a very different sort of man than the one she'd encountered coming here. It's harder to disregard someone when you know who they are. She watched him as he approached, her mind going back to the first time she'd seen Storm, as it had so many times she'd lost count. Storm's cast-off blue army coat had been faded, flapping open in the breeze in sharp contrast to Scarcliff's. Scarcliff was starched and buttoned up, and his dark hair was closely shorn and neatly combed. Silver gleamed too early at his dark temples, telling of heavy thoughts and exhausting stress. Who would he be if not for a Captain in the Army? If he could be himself, without all this? Might he be different?

"Good afternoon, Captain," she said, favoring him with a genuinely kind smile.

He touched the brim of his hat to her, nodding. His blue eyes softened when they looked at her, the habitual rigidity draining from his face. "I've had afternoon tea set up for you in the officer's mess," he said, smiling back.

"Captain, you are too kind," she closed her book. "Will you join me?"

Another flash of blue caught her eye over his shoulder. Another man was running across the yard towards them, holding his hat onto his head with one hand as he went. "Captain! Sir!" he huffed, jolting to a halt and saluting.

Captain Scarcliff's attention snapped to the enlisted man, and his demeanor immediately hardened back to the no-nonsense military man he had to be. Fiona thought the soldier couldn't have been much older than their own dear Tommy, and the childish flush of his youth, so poignant in this cold, hard place, unsettled and disturbed her.

"First Lieutenant Collins requests your presence at the brig, Sir," the young soldier barked.

"What's happened?"

"Coupla reds making trouble at the gate and refused to leave. He arrested them and threw them in the brig."

Scarcliff glanced at Fiona, worry creasing his forehead, before returning his attention back to the soldier. There was fear in his blue eyes and she knew it was not for his own safety. Her heart had started to pound. Is this it? Are we about to be attacked?

"There's more..." the enlisted man said, glancing at Fiona. "They claim to be here to talk to the Express people. They say they work for Central Overland."

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