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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"The city looks so different than I remember it, and yet so much the same," Tori said quietly to Arthur. "I've only been to Saint Denis a couple of times, but it looks so different without the highways and cars everywhere."
Arthur smiled at her and clucked to Cheyenne to bring her into a trot. They'd been lagging behind the others a bit, and now that they were surrounded by the bustling city, it wouldn't do to get separated. "This was how I always knew it," he replied to her. "I felt the same way when I left the hospital here with Jackson."
Tori wrinkled her nose. "It smells. Even worse than Valentine, in fact, and I didn't think that was possible."
Arthur grinned and took a deep breath through his nose. "Piss, horse shit, air pollution, and swamp gas. Ain't nothin' like it. Makes you miss Big Valley, eh?"
"No wonder cities were breeding grounds for disease," she replied, shaking her head. "People literally just pour their chamber pots out the window and into the street."
"That's because only the rich could afford any sort of indoor plumbing at all, and the city didn't really have a waste management system to speak of, just some storm drains that empty into the Lanahachee River from the streets," Jackson piped up as Arthur and Tori caught up to where he rode with Mac and Francis. "You can see why cholera, dysentery, and other diseases caused by fecal contamination were common."
"Jesus," Tori gasped. "What about us? Where will we get clean water to drink?"
"I brought lots of iodine tablets," Francis said helpfully. "The water from the pumps in Valentine was clean enough, but here, we'll need a little something extra, especially given that we're staying in the slums near my aunt's church. We can also boil the water too if we run out of iodine."
Tori smiled. "That makes me feel better."
"The slums are towards the outskirts of town too," said Jackson. "They're near the cemetery if I remember correctly from what I researched before we came back here. They may not have running water, but there'll be outhouses around, and places for us to hunt and fish and forage."
"And a better doctor than Calloway," Tori said, her face brightening. "No offense, Francis, but I'd prefer it if someone I didn't know on a personal level examined me. If he tries to give me cocaine, I can just politely refuse."
"And he'll listen to you most likely," said Francis. "There's a reason the modern Saint Denis hospital is named after Dr. Barnes. He'll eventually become the United States Surgeon General, and one of the few doctors at the time to approve of women becoming physicians as well as men. He's a man who did his best to treat patients with what he had at the time. You can trust him."
"Okay," said Tori quietly. "When we get moved in then, will you come with me, Arthur? I'd still like to see a doctor of some kind about my pregnancy and why it's been so hard for me to keep food down with this one."
