Miss Morgan

Three

Trigger Warning- mentions of murder/suicide

Spring 1880
-Arthur-

We are finally heading to Chicago after a tough winter with a lot of snow. I'm riding my chestnut quarter horse, Bolt, with Ivy riding Dutch's thoroughbred, Bourbon. Dutch and Susan are driving the wagon alongside us.

Ivy loves the horses. She's good at shooting, she's good at robbing, she's good at most things she tries, but she's a natural with the horses. Dutch wants to find her a horse of her own but wild herds aren't so easy to come by out this way. He says the best horses are the ones you tame yourself. I didn't tame Bolt and it shows. I got him from some rich bastard we robbed who tried to pull a gun on Ivy. I was faster with my gun and I took his horse.

We set up a small campsite in the woods to rest on our slow journey to Chicago and it takes us a few weeks before we finally reach the city.

Dutch and Susan have been bickering a lot lately about how to raise Ivy, among other things. Dutch wants Ivy to be one of the men and know how to take care of herself, partially because that's also what Ivy wants. Susan thinks Ivy should stay back at camp and help her with the cooking and cleaning but gets mad when she doesn't do it right.

Dutch and Susan fight over this, but she's my sister and my responsibility. Personally I like having her along to work jobs with me where I can keep an eye on her. I also would much rather not eat anything she's cooked ever again.

Dutch grumbles as he storms out of camp after another argument with Susan. Ivy looks heartbroken that she's the cause of their problems so I decide to take her down to the river by camp to go fishing.

We walk down to the river, sit on a log and cast our lines. "I make Susan and Dutch mad." Ivy mutters quietly. I can hear the sadness in her little voice.

"They make each other mad, kid. Ain't your fault." I correct her.

"I miss Hosea and Bessie."

"Me too." I agree with her. It's been years since we've seen them. Dutch told me he'd been working jobs with Hosea again but wanted to keep it a secret so Ivy wouldn't get her hopes up that he'd come back.

"I caught one!" Ivy squeals with excitement as she reels in a bluegill. She pulls it off the hook and throws it in our bucket.

"Good job." I smile at her. We enjoy the day by the water and we catch a good amount of fish before heading back to camp.

When we arrive, I give the fish to Susan to prep for dinner and I help her prep them. As I work, Ivy sits by the fire reading her book, The Count of Monte Cristo. Something about escaping prison and finding treasure. I tried to read it but quickly lost interest, but she's been reading it since we got here. Dutch read it to her while we were traveling here from Milwaukee, then once they finished that book, she started reading it over again by herself. Probably because we haven't been able to find her a new book yet. Maybe I'll find her one in town.

Dutch comes back to camp and he goes straight into his tent. The next morning he and Susan argue and he leaves again. It's a cycle that continues for the rest of the week.

Then one evening, Dutch comes back into camp and he yells for Ivy. "Ivy! Come over here, I have a surprise!"

I follow behind as Ivy runs out to the edge of camp and I see Dutch holding the lead of an incredible albino Arabian. "It's time you got your own horse, kid." Dutch grins widely as he hands the lead to my sister and I hear Susan scoff behind me before returning to her work.

"He's perfect!" Ivy squeals with excitement. I try to hide my jealousy. It's nicer than any horse I've ever seen.

"He needs a name. What do ya think?" Dutch asks Ivy and she thinks on it for a moment.