The lost spark in your eyes //RDR2 // Arthur Morgan

Chapter 9

Katie rode into camp that night, noticing the horses of Bill, Charles, and Uncle at the hitching post. Nodding to herself, she was kind of relieved that the others had made it back to camp safe after their adventurous robbery. She dismounted Satan and gave him something to eat so he could rest from the day.

Taking in the sight of the camp, she spotted most of the gang sitting around the campfire. Javier was playing his guitar, and the others were singing along, most of them already slightly drunk.
Katie let her horse behind her to make her way towards the fire to join the others. A movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she stopped in her tracks. Looking to her left, she saw Hosea, who was sitting at the table. A small smile plastered his face as he watched the gang around the campfire. Looking between her father figure and the fire, she started to make her way towards Hosea.

"What are you up to, old man?" He slightly startled at her voice, not noticing her arrival. Katie took a seat on the chair next to him as he looked at her. She when noticed the old picture of him and Bessie, his already passed wife, in front of him on the table.

"How are you feeling, hun?" She smiled at him, letting out a small chuckle. She knew that Hosea was trying to avoid answering her question.

"I'm alright. I'm not happy about the scars, but I'm doing alright." She already knew where this conversation was leading to as Hosea placed his hand over hers on the table.

"I thought we would lose you... I don't want any more folk to die." He gave her hand a slight squeeze as he continued to watch the gang around the campfire.

"You still think of her?" Katie nodded towards the old photograph that still laid in front of him, and he let out a small sigh as he looked at it.

"I miss her every day. I think about her when I wake up. And I still think about her when I go to sleep. And it confuses me... how a wretched sinner like me could be given someone so perfect... so beautiful to take care of. For once in my life, I did my best. And when she dies. And I live on. Well, at least for now... she has been gone for many years. All them years I was given, and she was not. And we're expected to believe in judgment? What kind of a judge would save me and take her... do you remember her? I know you were quite young when we took you in." Katie smiled at the older man, tears burning in her eyes as he talked about the wife he had lost many years ago.

"Not much, but I do remember her. You and her taught me how to read and write. Dutch and Arthur were more the horse riding and shooting type of teaching. I also remember the way I felt when she hugged me... it was a mix of both warmth and protection." Hosea looked down at the photograph in front of him and nodded when Katie mentioned the lessons she had with him and Bessie.

"We always wanted to have our own child.  It never really worked, though. And when I found you. Trying to sneak up and steal from my saddlebag. You were what, twelve years old? Thinking I wouldn't notice you." Katie let out a laugh as she remembered the moment she tried to steal from him, thinking he didn't he see her.

"The moment I brought you back to camp, I saw that sparkle in her eyes. She immediately treated you as her own. It was just the beginning of the gang. Only Dutch, Arthur, and the three of us. And then Dutch found little John about two years later, and you grew up next to each other. After Bessie died... I never thought I would see any kind of love again. But then you and Arthur became a thing." By the mention of Arthur, Katie looked at him, sitting at the campfire, talking and drinking with the rest. Feeling her stare on him, he raised his eyes, locking eyes with her over the campfire, sending her a smile.

"He would never admit it, but he really adores you. Was always thinking about you and trying to get out of camp to find you. Even broke Micah's nose -" Katie turned around to look at the older man again, slightly leaning back and eyebrows raised in surprise.