Dutch's Daughter [[RDR2 Arthur Morgan x OC]]

prologue

Charlotte was born in the spring of 1868 to Josephine McRea. Her father and mother met in a high class saloon in the town of Strawberry. He was losing at a hand of poker and she was serving... drinks. It was a one night stand and although Miss McRea wrote to the man some months later with news of the baby, she never saw nor heard from him again. She managed to give Charlotte a decent life, for the most part. Typically, she would spend her days working at the local general store and her evenings with "customers" back at the saloon.

In the winter of '78, Charlotte's mother becomes gravely ill. No longer able to work, her daughter has to find a way to bring in money and put food on the table. She started with hunting small game and fishing in between shifts of a job she'd scored, delivering mail around town. Though as her mothers condition worsens, she is forced to sacrifice the time flying from one job to another to stay home and take care of her, taking up less honorable habits to earn the money. She began pickpocketing men in the bar, sifting through the packages in the post office for valuables and was eventually bold enough to even rob a few saddle bags in town.

Unfortunately, during a quiet, cold night in '79, dawning on Charlotte's 11th birthday, Josephine loses her battle with Tuberculosis. Charlotte is left alone in their tiny cabin, with no close family to turn to. Until the first day of summer, when a tall stranger shows up at her door, a frail blond fella beside him and a young boy hiding in his looming shadow. Clean shaven and dressed in long white sleeves, a black vest with a red pocket handkerchief, gold chains and worn boots with shiny new spurs. A cattleman's revolver greets him at the door, held between tiny, shaking hands.

The man introduces himself as Dutch Van Der Linde.

Her long lost father.

Before her death, Josephine had managed to write Dutch one last letter, informing him of her terminal illness, knowing her death was looming near. Her final request was that he come and collect Charlotte and give her a life better than what she could during her last days. Using her final breath, she put all of her hope in the man who she'd only known for one regrettable night of her existence.

Now, materialized there on her half broken porch, Dutch looks down at his daughter, eyes squinting, searching for similarities between them. Soft black hair, a bold nose and strong jaw - a spitting image of the infamously dangerous gang leader. He tells her he's going to take her home with him to begin a new life but she makes it clear she won't go easily. A flick of a finger sends the rugged teenage boy into the house to collect her things while Charlotte pitches a fit. Eager to please, the boy shoves a shoulder into the kids side, his cigarette spitting ash onto the shoulder of her sweater. If there is one thing Charlotte is capable of, it's throwing a true tantrum, clinging to the door frame while her so called father pulls her by the ankles.

"Goddammit, girl! Your comin' with us whether you like it or not!" he shouts at her, eventually breaking her grip and swinging her petite body over his shoulders. Fists and fingernails weakly dig into his back, kicking and screaming. The man has tolerated far worse than her abuse, making it easy for him to ignore it while he swings her on top of The Count. A soothing voice reminds Dutch to be gentle, she's just a girl, his girl, after all. The boy - only a few years older than Charlotte - returns from the house and loads up a horse of his own with a sack full of the few belongings the poor girl had. Quieting down, she slumps into the saddle, tears rolling down her cheeks, Dutch's body presses tightly against hers to keep her from wiggling free or attempting to run. She has no choice but to give in, watching her childhood home, her mother's grave, her sweet quiet town disappear behind her.