From the Ashes

Chapter 5

"Well now! If it isn't Dutch van der Linde's little pet?" The O'Driscoll shouted, grinning and holding his repeater.

"Shit. O'Driscolls." Violet could feel the rumble of Arthur's words as she still had her hands around his waist.

She gulped.

"I don't think you should just be wanderin' around here, friend!" The other man called, " 'Specially when you've got such a pretty little lass wit' cha."

The other two men laughed and Violet felt sick in the pit of her stomach. She had heard of the terrible things O'Driscolls were known to do to people.

"I think it'd be in your best interest not to rile me, friend." Arthur growled at him, all but spitting the last word.

Violet felt him slowly move, hand reaching for the new gun at his hip. She stiffened and tried her best to stay hidden behind his large frame, the mare shifting nervously beneath them.

She could see the other O'Driscolls begin to stir in her peripheral vision. Starting to go for their weapons and readying their horses.

Before she even had time to blink, Arthur had drawn his revolver and shot the man who spoke squarely in his left eye. She made a small yelp.

In the same moment, Arthur had turned his horse to face the other two men and three more shots rang out. One going through one man's throat and the other going between the other's eyes.

As she watched the limp bodies fall from their horses, her adrenaline skyrocketed. She glanced between them and Arthur, not really seeing much of either, heartbeat thundering in her ears.

"Hey now, it's okay." Arthur said softly as he urged his mare to walk on. It seemed he wanted to get Violet away from the corpses as quickly as possible, for which she was grateful. She was almost in a haze with shock from what she had just seen.

Once they were a good distance from the carnage he pulled the Warmblood off to the side of the road. He gently unclamped Violet's hands from around his middle that had turned into vices, then swung his leg over the horse in front of him and slid to the ground.

He turned to look back up at Violet.

The movement jarred her from her stupor and she looked into his blue eyes that were filled with concern.

"Are y' alright? I'm sorry 'bout all that." He kept those eyes on her, then they seemed to widen as he noticed something. "Is that blood?"

Violet's body stiffened as she looked down at herself, checking all over. When she looked at her right shoulder she saw a trail of blood going down. She lifted her sleeve and sure enough, there was a fairly deep gash going across the top of her arm.

"Son of a bitch.." she groaned. In the fog of her mind, she did remember hearing three shots.

Damned O'Driscolls.

"Hang on." Arthur said as he reached into the saddle bag just under Violet's leg. He pulled out a black bandana and motioned for her to lean down towards him. "Let's tie this on there, get the bleeding stopped."

Violet did so and he wrapped the fabric tightly around her arm and the wound, stopping the blood from flowing down her arm and further ruining her new but used blouse. She was sure Miss Grimshaw wouldn't be too pleased about having to find her another new shirt so soon.

He finished tying the bandana and his fingers lingered for just a moment on Violet's arm before he stepped back and spoke again.

"We gotta get you back to camp and get that cleaned up." Arthur said quickly as he mounted his horse.