HUNTER'S TALE

11.

John didn't even go to Russell. He jumped on his horse and in gallop headed towards Houston. He came to Patton's office. Probably he had nothing to lose, but the hint of hope came to him. The man helped him. Even if with words, he seemed like he could help more. The drowning man will catch at the straw and John was determined to do anything to safe Mary and protect his family. Secretary let John in and soon a much younger man entered. "You must be Mr Fitzgerald," he offered him hand to shake. "I'm Abraham Patton. My father is in Washington, sir, so I'm here instead during the time of his absence," he explained, showing John the seat. "What can I do for you?"

John was a bit disappointed at first. He saw the young man and not his father instead. "Ah..yeh, I had a talk about a year ago with ya father. Do ya know, when he'll come back?"

"He will stay in DC for six months."

"Six months?" John sighed disappointed and rubbed his eyes wearily. "Ya attorney?" He looked at the man and narrowed his eyes.

"If I wasn't, I wouldn't be sitting on this chair, Mr Fitzgerald," he smirked. "Tell me, what brought you here."

Having no other choice John decided to trust the man and took a seat across his table. "Alright, here's the deal." He cleared his throat. "My woman, Mary, and I have two littl' boys. Mary's being through a bunch of shit throughout her life. From a shitty abusive husband from Lafayette, who's also local chief officer and after him a thug named Martin from the French quarter of New Orleans," he said in one breath. "She almost killed him to save her life and now he's after her. I know, I can't legally fight these son of bitches so... what can ya do for me?"

Man listened to John carefully and connected his hands on the top of heavy table. "So I assume, her husband found her and wants her back? You said, he's after her."

"He wants her in jail. Accusing her for attending of murder and prostitution," he explained.

"Oh," Abraham thoughtfully hummed. He took a bottle with whiskey and poured two glasses. One for him and one for John. "Since she almost killed him, I guess she took no documents with her identity, while she was leaving. She did leave, since she is with you, yes?" He asked and John nodded, accepting the glass. "What name you used for her in birth certificates of your children? Does she carry your surname?"

"Yeh, Mary Fitzgerald. Formerly Burton," he said and nodded to the man for the whiskey. He took a sip from his drink and put down the glass. "The local registration won't ask for confirmation, but if someone from Huston will dig in, they'll find out, that she has no legal papers at all." He sighed deeply and looked at the man in the eyes. "I'll be honest with ya, Mr Patton. I can do this in my way, if I have to. Woodlands are a bunch of communities of trappers. We know how to kill. We ain't trained to shoot on the straight field like the officers of Huston. If these son of bitches come down there, I promise ya, they'll be shoot like a bunch of goddamn ducks." Fitzgerald wasn't joking about it. He'd rather bring civil war to the South than give Mary to these men. "I'm only tryin' to find a way, so my sons won't have to live like criminals...hidden."

"Well, you could move to Indiana and she could ask for divorce there. I've heard few women successfully got divorce there," Abraham said. Maybe it was his youth. He had larger knowledges than his father. "However, it happens, that sometimes people loses their documents. Then they need new ones. If there is document claiming, she is Fitzgerald, born Burton, I think, we can start make another ones. Wedding certificate," he hummed. "Then her documents based on these two. I'm sure, you have witnesses, who will confirm, she is Fitzgerald."