Blackwell Bounty

Chapter One

"I told him I just couldn't simply have lunch with a man who promotes so much violence," Caroline said, sounding distraught with the subject of conversation. "But he insisted that he was an adequate suitor in times such as these. I simply could not help but to refuse. The man was carrying a gun when he came to court me for goodness sake!"

"It's Wyoming, Caroline. There ain't many people who go without a gun in Wyoming."

"'There aren't many people who go without a gun', Edith," Caroline corrected her younger sister. "My goodness, I don't know what mother was thinking, letting you stay out here with father when you should've been in Boston with us."

"It wasn't mother's decision. I wanted to stay with Papa," Edith said, trying to keep a hold of her temper.

Caroline had just come for a short visit to see her sister and father, and Edith didn't want to spend the visit arguing about what was proper and what was not, though Caroline seemed bound and determined to make her little sister into a 'lady' before sundown - much like she had in previous visits. But nothing she said would alter Edith's views on the world. She wasn't some fancy woman from Boston. Actually Caroline wasn't either. She'd been born and raised in the dusty town of Blackwell just like Edith, but unlike the younger of the two sisters, Caroline had gone to Boston with their mother two years before. They'd gone to visit Aunt Clara, who was sick at the time, but they never returned for good. They wrote. Caroline visited from time to time, but they never came back to stay.

Edith couldn't help but be angry with her mother for deserting them but Caroline insisted that 'conflict' between a married couple - meaning their parents - was simply not the business of the children. However, Caroline and Edith were not children anymore. The eldest was twenty two and the youngest was nineteen. Both were old enough to know about the conflicts of a husband and wife. In fact, both were old enough to be married themselves but Edith lacked the desire to hitch herself to a man through marriage and Caroline lacked the means. She was a rather picky lady and she wasn't easily satisfied by a silver tongue who couldn't prove his words with actions. This fact was easily exhibited by the man she'd just spoken of who had approached Caroline in hopes of earning her affections but instead he received a haughty "Good day" and was sent on his way.

"But you haven't even come to see mother in Boston. She misses you. Why don't you just come back with me for a week or so? Father won't mind in the slightest. He even told you that you should go."

"She's the one who left. Not me," Edith snapped. She couldn't help but feel that way about the situation.

Caroline stopped abruptly, turning to face her sister in the middle of town on the boardwalk. "Do not take that tone with me and certainly not when the conversation is about mother," she said, her voice taking on a sharp and low quality, clearly chiding her little sister much like she had done for the past several years. "You know she does her best."

Edith wanted desperately to fire back a smart mouthed retort at her sister. Or maybe even just yell for her to 'shut up', like when they were younger. But she bit her tongue. Arguing with Caroline was useless. Edith's words would fall on deaf ears.

So Edith simply nodded.

Caroline smiled, pleased with with obedience just portrayed by her little sister, who she'd almost deemed hopeless of ever learning how to rein in her back talk. "Good. Then let's go to the mercantile and-"

In the next moment a thin man with blonde waves of hair askew had bumped into Caroline and sent her stumbling backward. Luckily, Edith managed to catch a hold of her sister's arm to keep her from falling to her backside in the dirt. A few of Caroline's blonde tendrils of hair escaped the hold of her hair pins but other than that she was physically unharmed. That said nothing about the harm to her pride, however, as her cheeks flushed crimson.