There's No Place Like Rhodes (Book 2)

Future Conflicts

Well, it certainly wasn't an auspicious start to how Charlotte expected her Christmas Eve to begin.

Instead of dodging uncomfortable questions with her extended family, they'd had to dodge bullets. In lieu of the inevitable quarrel she'd expected with her father, she'd sparred with a lawman—two even. And rather than wrapping gifts, she'd unexpectedly had to wrap a wound.

When the shots had started and Arthur drew back inside the jailhouse dragging Officer Pitts, Charlotte had felt terror strike through her, freezing her in place. But at the sight of Officer Pitts' blood, her true call to action emerged. She was able to smother the fear and shift to a clinical mindset. It was hardly a thought for her to withdraw the handkerchief on her person and examine the wound. Arthur spared a moment to ask her if it was fatal, before returning to the window and defending the jailhouse with Karen.

"I'm dying," Officer Pitts had gasped in desperation.

As Charlotte dressed his wound as best she could, she told him, "You're not dying. It's painful, but it won't prove fatal."

She forced herself to ignore the gunshots above her. The wood cracking, the splinters flying and the glass shattering became a muted background noise. As long as Arthur and Karen continued their confident firing, she could concentrate on keeping Officer Pitts conscious.

Arthur had once told her he got through dangerous and frightening situations by not thinking on them over much. Charlotte hadn't fully understood the sentiment until she'd been put under duress again and actually knew what to do with herself.

And, eventually, the gunshots had stopped. When she looked up again, Arthur was headed for her and Karen was brazenly scaring off the remaining Raiders on her own.

Arthur asked how she was, but he avoided eye contact even when she stood with him against Officer Pitts and then still when they faced off with Sheriff Thomas. The outcome of which, raised her usual dormant temper as she recalled his words.

"Don't be coming 'round these parts again," he'd told Arthur stonily before leering at her and then Karen. "None of you."

He dared say that after all the...the insanity they'd been through? Sheriff Thomas was expelling them out of town as if they were the ones in the wrong.

"Banishment? Really!" Charlotte exclaimed in outrage as Arthur led her by the elbow down the dirt lane, Karen beside her. "After all you two accomplished by defending that jailhouse and pushing back those horrible men? That's how he repays you? Banishment!"

"We shot up his town," Arthur said. "Don't matter which side we was on."

Charlotte glowered at the road ahead. "What a terribly ungrateful man."

"He had every right to take us in, if he was so inclined." Under his breath, Arthur added, "Poster you stole wasn't the only one in their possession."

Her brows furrowed. "Another one?"

"I told you before, I ain't a good man and I've been worse," Arthur said, still not meeting her eyes. "The sheriff let us off easy. He coulda made life real difficult if he wanted."

"He had no right—"

"You don't got to get worked up over it, alright?" Some impatience was creeping into his tone. "I ain't mad about it and you shouldn't be neither. It is what it is."

Before she could argue, Karen broke in, "Arthur's right, sister. We're getting out of here without havin' to run for our lives. That's another win in my book."

It was strange to Charlotte that they felt no offense over the situation. They both brushed it off as if it were an every day occurrence to be jilted by the law. Although, in hindsight, with their sort of background it likely was a common experience.