The Ballad Of a Bird~ Jack Marston Story

☙ ✯ ❧Chapter Thirteen☙ ✯ ❧

{listen while you read?~ I recommend Gallows Pole by Willie Watson}
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(not edited)

Birdie awoke the next evening to Clara walking into the tent she occupied with fresh bandages and a cup of coffee for the woman

After she sat down on the chair Jack left out and started to change the dressing on Birdies cheek

"How's the inside I guess this isn't a tree scratch" Clara asked sending the woman a small smile as Birdie ran her tongue over the cut on the inside

"It's healing faster than the outside" she answered and Clara nodded happily

"Great! Now if we could just get this one to stay closed" she said which caused a giggle from both girls as she continued to change the bandages

"So Jack told Kullen you and him had a long talk last night about what happened in the seven years y'all where separated" she spoke and watched as Birdie cheeks redder a little

"Yeah we did"she confirmed

"I don't mean this in any mean manner and if it comes out that way i truly didn't mean it, but what are you to Jack? Rex told me after y'all rescued me that Marston was a touchy subject" she asked the woman her own curiosity growing on this woman who was a mystery to them

"I grew up with Jack and his parents me and my father where in the same gang" she said and Clara looked at Birdie shocked

"Oh I always thought you where his sister or something" she said and gestured to the portrait of her as a young girl near them in a barrel that was acting as a bedside table

"He has that.." Birdie said her voice drifting while reaching for the portrait and running a finger along the glass keeping it protected feeling eyes on her she looked up to Clara who held questioning eyes
"Oh, I had this portrait taken a few days before I left because my daddy had one taken when he was my age at the time and I wanted to see our photos together but I left before I could retrieve it from the photographers office Jack must of gotten it"

She explained and Clara smiled

"He's missed you over the years" Clara said softly causing Birdies glaze to shift to the woman in front of her gathered the old bandages and Birdies now empty cup and exited the tent, Birdie looked back at the portrait of her younger self her face stress free and no crests her freckles where dull instead of their current darker colors due to long exposure to the sun and her scars where yet to placed expect the tiny four scar coming from her hairline that have been there since she was three and she remember what happened like it was yesterday

Her and Jack where playing around the camp and she had tripped over a rock in camp and fell onto a beer bottle Bill had left on the floor her head broke the bottle and she remembered Arthur pacing behind Hosea as the older man stitched his little girl up and how her father never let Bill here the end of it

She sighed softly before settling it back down next to a photo of John and Abigail making her smile at the man and woman she missed dearly

But her thoughts where interrupted when the tent entrance ruffled as it opened once again she turned to who was entering finding Jack with a shy smirk as he held Kings saddle in his hands before setting it down by the chest at the end of the cot