Miss Morgan

Fifty-Three

July 1899
-Ivy-

John and I spend most of the next day in bed after the nightmare at the Aberdeen Pig Farm. The camp is quiet and peaceful, a welcome change of pace after the last week of chaos.

I wake up late in the afternoon and lightly kiss John so I don't wake him up before I head downstairs. The sun shines in my face when I step outside and burns my retinas. I adjust my hat to try and shade my eyes.

"How you feelin'?" Dutch gives me a smirk.

"Like I got kicked in the head by an angry bull." I mutter, grabbing a bowl of stew.

Dutch laughs. "I won't ask."

"I wouldn't." I shake my head.

"You interested in workin' the trolley station ol' Signor Bronte told us about?"

"Sure." I smile. It's been a long time since I worked a robbery with Dutch. I was supposed to steal that moonshine with him in Rhodes but my brain apparently had other plans for me.

"I'll talk to your brother when he gets back from town." He walks away, passing John as he goes. They give each other a typical manly nod in greeting then John joins me by the stew pot, scooping out a bowl for himself.

"How you holdin' up?" I ask him.

"A little nervous to eat this stew, to be honest." He mutters. "What do you think that meat was those freaks fed us? You know what, nevermind I don't wanna think about it."

I giggle. "Probably best we try to forget about all that, huh?"

We walk over to the gazebo to sit in the shade while John tries his best to choke down Pearson's stew. I notice Arthur ride in, leaving his horse and stopping to talk to Sadie Adler on the front porch of the old house.

Abigail is sitting over at the table eating her stew, while little Jack plays in the mud by the fountain facing the bridge to leave camp. I heard Abigail and Arthur are together now but I haven't talked to my brother about it. Not when he's still getting love letters from Mary Gillis.

Mary-Beth is sitting in Kieran's lap by the fire. The two have been inseparable since Kieran's O'Driscoll attack only about a week ago. I think it was a week ago, my days have blurred together quite a bit. I'm happy for them.

Seeing all these new romances among the gang makes me happy, mostly because I have my own with John once again, but it makes things feel hopeful. Until I notice Karen, laying on her bedroll by one of the wagons. She takes a drink of whiskey but she doesn't leave that spot much. I haven't gotten a chance to talk to her since Sean died.

Karen had just found out she was pregnant shortly before he died. She's taken his passing really hard, falling right into the bottle. She snaps at everyone who tries to tell her to take it easy with the drinking. I don't blame her. She's grieving. She loved Sean and it's really sad the two had only just discussed dating right before he was killed. I make a note to myself to go talk to her.

I also look around the gang and I see everyone nervous, wondering what's to come. We've lost so much only recently. We need to get out of this mess.

"Whatcha thinkin'?" John pulls me from my thoughts.

"Just watchin' over the camp." I mutter, letting out a breath. "Dutch asked me to join them on the trolley station job in town."

"That so?" He stirs his stew.

"Yeah."

"You have fun with that." He smiles at me. I'm glad to see his color starting to return. He's had a rough time since the Aberdeen assholes tried to poison us. I'm just so glad he's still here with me. There was a whole shallow grave of poor bastards who weren't so lucky.