Traveler trilogy Book 2, updates every Friday!
Five years after killing Levi Cornwall, Arthur Morgan is happy. He has a wife who loves him, an honest job he enjoys, and two beautiful children named Sadie and Hiram. All of it is turned on its head, h...
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Charles pulled a sheet of deer sinew from his satchel and picked a strand off of it with his teeth, tucking it into his mouth to soften it for a moment. He was decorating an eagle feather to tie in his hair after having given one of the ones he had to Jenny the other day. This one, he thought, might need some beading, paint, or some cut notches to decorate it. Crafting with feathers was a hobby he much enjoyed, and dreaming up a shape for the things to give them a bit of life and color was fascinating to him.
He removed the string of sinew, no thicker than a piece of fishing line, from his mouth and began to wrap it around the quill of the feather, which he had whittled down into a point and curved around into a loop to make it easier to tie into his hair with a leather thong. When the sinew dried, it shrank and stuck to the feather shaft, tightening the string and naturally gluing it in place. He'd just finished wrapping it when he heard hoofbeats.
It was Arthur, riding that buckskin gelding of his back into Dutch's camp. In front of him in the saddle sat Jack. Charles had heard something about Arthur taking the boy fishing that morning, and he supposed they were back now. There was, however, an unexpected look on his face that seemed to be a mixture of fear and anger.
"What d'you think's got him all riled up?" asked Jenny from beside Charles. She'd been watching him work with the feather in an effort to learn more about her cultural heritage, and Arthur's return hadn't been lost on her either.
"I don't know," Charles said slowly, setting down the feather and getting to his feet. "C'mon. Let's go see what he says. Looks like he's heading for Dutch's tent." He could hear Jenny following after him, her tiny footsteps following in the wake of his own.
"Do you think it's news about Mac?" Jenny asked breathlessly. It was hard to hide the anxiety in her voice, and it broke Charles just a bit inside. Being from the future, he knew good and well that Mac was dead, and he dreaded the day Jenny found out. She seemed quite fond of him, after all.
"I don't know," Charles said quietly as they drew up to Dutch's tent. Given Arthur's angry tone, they didn't even have to eavesdrop. Instead, Charles motioned for Jenny to follow him, and then set about pretending to listen with concern, although he knew exactly what vexed Arthur. He'd seen Milton and Ross down by the river.
"We got a problem," Arthur said to Dutch in a frustrated, anxious voice.
"What?" Dutch asked in a lazy voice. He sat on his bed reading a book, and he didn't seem worried in the slightest about Arthur obviously being rattled. Even Charles thought it a bit odd. A man as brave and fearless as Arthur was not normally so nervous.
"I just met some guys down by the river. A feller named... um... Milton? And I don't remember the other feller's name." He thought for a minute. "Ross," he said after a brief pause. "Milton and Ross."
"And?" Dutch replied, clearly nonplussed and annoyed that his reading had been disturbed, although he at last looked up from his book.
"And," said Arthur, growing even more frustrated with Dutch's calmness, "they are employees of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and they know about the train, and they know we're here."
