Outlaw - Born & Bred

Chapter 10 - Knives and Nightmares

Dutch walked out his tent, and closed the flap. Casie was still sleeping, and the last thing he needed was her being disturbed. Lately it had been like one step forward, and two steps back for her. Every time they got over one thing, something else would come along to remind her of her past.

He couldn't protect her from everything, but when she came home like this, it broke his heart.

Arthur saw Dutch emerging from his tent, and wandered over.

"How is she?" he asked.

"Sleeping." He replied, with a sigh.

"I'm so sorry," Arthur said, shaking his head, "I had no idea, what exactly happened with her mother?" He asked.

Dutch sighed, "Stabbed to death by her father, whilst Casie watched. She was five. He said, if she ever told anyone, she would get the same."

"Jesus!" Arthur exclaimed. "Poor kid."

"It seems, her father would regularly beat her, and starve her. Then the sheriff made her watch her father hang." Dutch sighed again. "Most adults would struggle with that sort of trauma, but she's a kid, and she's been keepin' it all locked up inside. Finding us and bein' shown a bit of kindness, well, the locks are off, and all that emotion has just come floodin' out." He warned.

"Maybe Dutch, you should let folks know. Just so if we see her startin' to fall, we can try and catch her." Arthur suggested.

Dutch nodded, I'll speak with Hosea and Miss Grimshaw. Can you talk to anyone else you think she might spend time with. Micah, Sean, maybe Charles."

Arthur nodded and walked away. He decided at that point that Micah didn't need to know. He also thought it a bit strange, that he hadn't mentioned John at all. He was worried that maybe Dutch and John were growing apart. Not much he could do about that, and John didn't seem to like Casie overly much anyway.

Arthur spoke to Charles first. He said nothing, but just nodded. It was sometimes difficult to gauge what Charles was thinking. He was quiet, and sometimes not very talkative. But as Arthur had said to Casie the other night, he was a good man.

Casie walked out of Dutch's tent. She'd slept so long, how was it that she still felt tired. Probably because of the nightmares. The nightmares which wouldn't go away. The same one night after night. She never told anyone. Not even Dutch. She'd told him about everything else, well he'd sort of made her tell him. But not the nightmares. She shook her head. Forget about them, find something to do.

"Hey." The voice brought her out of her daydream.

"Charles" she looked surprised. She hadn't really spoken to him much, only really met him when they went out hunting yesterday. She tried to put that memory to the back of her mind.

"Will you ride out with me?" he asked.

Casie looked around. She didn't want Dutch or Arthur to think she was sneaking off.

"Its OK, I told Arthur I would take you out, if you wanted to go." He said.

Casie was surprised, it was as though Charles knew exactly what she was thinking.

"Yes." She said smiling. "I would like that."

Charles and Casie rode for a while. Charles would change direction every so often. Casie thought he might be tracking something, but she wasn't sure what, so she just followed his lead. After a while they rode up onto a ridge. Below the ridge there were herds of bison grazing.