The Ballad of Broken Vows

Chapter 6: Cassidy

Arthur leaves me with Miss Nancy and Eliza. I admire how beautiful Miss Nancy is. In a way, she reminds me of my mother. Her gray hair sits in a bun on top of her head, and wrinkles are drawn around her eyes and the corners of her mouth. Her whole demeanor reminds me of my mother, my heart almost hurts just looking at Miss Nancy.

Arthur stays for a second before he heads back into the middle of camp. Miss Nancy begins teaching me how to properly wash and ring out the clothes in the small creek. The wooden woven basket is filled with muddy and bloody clothes from the gang's previous robbery. I grab a green and white striped shirt from the basket; it has a large blood stain on the bottom right with a long horizontal gash. I can tell the person wearing the shirt had been stabbed.

"How do we know whose is whose?" I ask Miss Nancy, she looks up from squeezing the water out of a pair of pants. Without a word, she points to the tag in the shirt. She then gets up and takes the freshly washed clothes into the camp. I look to where she pointed on the shirt. There in the inside collar are the letters 'AW' sewn into the tag. Arthur Wilson. My heart instantly starts pounding. I wonder how many of his other shirts have gunshot holes and knife rips in them.

"You okay, Miss Bell?" Eliza asks me with a concerning voice. I look up from Arthur's shirt and meet her eyes. I soften my expression and shove two fingers through the knife rip and ask, "should I sew this up?"

"Miss Nancy usually does that, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind you helping her. The rest of us don't know how to sew." Eliza says as she dunks a shirt into the creek and begins swishing it around, red and brown swirls in the water.

"Thank you, Eliza." I say as I copy swishes the shirt in the water. "For the clothes."

"You're welcome," she says with a smile as she rings the shirt out and repeats the washing process again. "I don't own any pants, but once we finish the chores, I'll be happy to go into town with you and buy some."

"Thank you for the offer, but I don't have any money." I respond. "But, I kind of miss wearing dresses." A smile spreads across Eliza's face. We talk about the gang and what we like and dislike about it. I tell her about Butch and how poorly he treated me. She then tells me about her husband, who is the camp cook, and how she met him and how happy she has been since she married him.

After about thirty more minutes of talking with Eliza and washing clothes, I notice two other girls down the creek staring at me. I smile and give them a slight wave, but they just roll their eyes and return to washing their basket of clothes. I adjust my hair, thinking maybe I didn't look as presentable as I thought.

"Just ignore them." Eliza whispers as she glares at the two girls. I can tell there might be some bad blood there, which means I do not need to be a part of it.

"Who are they?" I ask. I said I don't want to be a part of it, but that doesn't mean I don't want to know who they are... and why there is bad blood there.

"The red head is Jane Ward, she's a snobby thing. Tall as hell with an attitude to match." Eliza says nodding her head towards the red-haired lady. "And the blonde, that's Macie Ross. There is no nice word for that girl, so I'm just going to say she's a bitch." Her eyes narrow at the sight of the girl named Macie.

"I kind of get the bitch feel from her." I say, glancing back at Macie. Without a second thought, I start silently comparing myself to her in my mind. Macie has a more slender figure with narrow shoulders than myself. I have more of a muscular build from working on the ranch day in and day out. Her hair is straighter and stays put, whereas mine is wavier and wilder. Over all, she is more beautiful than I could ever be.

"She is practically in love with ol' Arthur Wilson." Eliza says shaking her head and returning to work. My breath catches in my throat. Macie is in love with Arthur? I look away from Eliza so she doesn't see the panicked expression on my face. "The poor girl has been trying to sleep with him for years, but Arthur won't do it because of the 'no relationship' rule that Doc has for the gunslingers. It drives Macie crazy."