The Unbound Horizon

Cleaning Up

Evelyn

When they had finally arrived back at the house, Evelyn told Colton to go to his cabin and that she would get some things and be right over. She quietly slipped in the house, trying not to wake anyone and grabbed a rag, a bucket for water, and some whiskey to use as disinfectant. After quietly closing the door behind her she went to the well, pumped some water into the bucket and made her way to Colton's cabin.

"Sit down." she said as she walked in. Colton grabbed a chair and did as she said. Evelyn put the items on the only table in the cabin and sat down in the chair across from Colton. Rolling up her sleeves, she dipped the rag into the bucket of water and wrung it out, and went over the places of Colton's face that were dirty, and bleeding. Her being here in Colton's cabin, cleaning his wounds was the last thing she would ever expect to be doing, but he had saved her, and she didn't know why. Why would her enemy do anything for her? Was he an enemy? What if him saving her was just to gain her trust so that he could betray it later? Or, what if Matthew was right, and there were such a thing as good Yankees? Either way she wasn't sure how she felt about the situation, but she did know that she hated owing people. Colton helped her out tonight, and had gotten hurt because of it, and that was on her, so the only thing she could think to do was to help heal him, and hopefully doing a good deed, would get her off the hook.

Colton

She was so demanding, he thought, and not just with him, but with her whole family, no one seemed to mind it though, it seemed like it was understood that her being demanding always resulted in the best interest of everybody, so no one objected. He sat down in a chair next to the table as she had instructed him, and the. He watched her move about the room placing a pail of water on the table along with a rag and some whiskey, and then grabbing a chair placing close in front of his. She was concentrating very hard on her task of cleaning his face, and he was scared to move, in case his movement startled her. Obviously she was deep in thought about something, and he was curious to see inside her mind. It was then that he felt the ice cold water come in contact with his eyebrow, which stung and felt refreshing at the same time.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked her. Evelyn face immediately changed from focused concentration to surprise.

"Nothing,"

"Your sure? you look like your thinking pretty hard."

"I'm sure" Evelyn replied, trying hard to look indifferent.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Maybe." Evelyn said.

"What happened with you and that kid?" Colton asked, even though he had heard the story, he wanted to hear what she had to say about it.

"You mean Mason?"

"Yeah, what happened with you two? why was he at the barn tonight?"

"Why do you care?" Evelyn asked, not meeting his eyes, and going about cleaning his face. Why did he care? Colton thought, her question made him feel stuck, he had no good answer, and didn't know what to say, which was weird, because he always knew what to say.

"I guess I just want to know if I'm going to have to save your life every night, or if it's just a one time thing." he said, jokingly, Evelyn starred at him with a look that said, she was not amused.

"This is going to sting a lot." she said, as she brought the whiskey soaked rag to his eyebrow. Colton flinched,

"Ow, fine ok, if you won't tell me, can I try and guess?" He asks with his eye squeezed tight where the whiskey had been applied.

"Um, I suppose." Evelyn said, knowing there was a slim chance he would get it right.

"I'm guessing you have known each other a long time, and that at one point he loved you, and then you loved him too, but now I'm guessing that now he doesn't love you the way he once did, but still wants you because he has nothing left. Also I think that you still love him against your will, and that for some reason, you think no one will ever love you like he did, and that your chance for love and happiness is gone, because you don't think anyone will see past your masculine exterior to see you as the woman you are, or be able to love you because of it."