Lonesome | Arthur Morgan

Chapter 11

♡

As the afternoon went on, the weather nor the conversation between Arthur and Lilian had died down. They sat for hours into the evening, sat by the fire, mainly listening to Arthur's adventures that he was aloud to speak about with Lilian. He still mentioned some stuff to her that he shouldn't have as he slowly turned to some whisky in his saddle bag. "Are you hungry?" Arthur interrupted the conversation topic as he felt a hunger pain in his stomach.

"A little but I'll be fine till we get back to camp." Lilian winced a little as she thought of what leftovers Pearson would have for them.

"So you can wait till tomorrow to eat?" Arthur looked to Lilian as he moved towards Solitaire to get some food and drink from the saddle bag.

Lilian shook her head and looked to Arthur confused as he sat back down, but this time a little closer rather than across from her. "Wait. What? We aren't going back tonight?"

"Have you seen the weather? Do you really want to have a nice forty five minute ride back in that?" Lilian shook her head to Arthur, pouting a little. "Exactly. Now, I don't have much on me at the moment as I didn't know I would be spending the night out here." Arthur hands her some bread and cheese. Lilian takes it with a thankful smile.

Before Lilian begins to eat, she places her bread and cheese on a handkerchief on the floor and reaches into the pocket of her dress, pulling out a small blue tin with the initials 'LJ' printed on the lid. Arthur watched curiously as he sticks a small cutting of meat on a knife. "Here." After Lilian had rustled her fingers about in the tin, her arm reaches to Arthur with her hand tightly gripped.

Arthur holds his free hand out and watches whatever falls into his palm. He pulls his hand back to him and stares down at the two items. "Uh thank you!" He looks at them for a few second but his unaware on what they are. "But what are they?"

Lilian giggles a little, her cheeks blushing too. "It's a mint and a sugar almond. They're sweets. It's what the posh people tend to eat for snacks."

"Ohhh." Arthur too began to have rose tinted cheeks. He was turning red more from embarrassment not knowing about the sweets she had given him. "Well thank you again." He placed the mint in his mouth whilst putting the sugar almond in his pocket. "Hmm it's good!"

"You're supposed to eat the mint after you've eaten your food, Arthur." She watches Arthur chew on the mint slowly as he realises his mistake. "It's okay though! I eat them whenever really. They're always on me."

"And what's the other thing?" Arthur says after he has swallowed his chewed mint. He reaches into his pocket to pull out the plumper looking item that had a baby pink colour to it.

"That's a sugar almond. My father brings me them back when he goes away to Europe." Lilian watches Arthur put the candied nut into his mouth, watching his facial expressions.

"Not bad. I think the most sweet thing I've had is those pastries we get in camp." Arthur begins to devour the piece of meat on his knife. "Oh and I tried a bit of chocolate once too and that was pretty good." Arthur had a slightly mischievous look to him Lilian gives Arthur one last smile before beginning to eat the bread and cheese. Their conversation lasted till the stars had shown through the dusky clouds and the couple had become more whimsical.

"We've talked about me so, how about you?" Lilian perks up as she kneels before the fire, warming her hands, a sweet smile on her face.

"What about me?" Arthur smirks in return as he picks at some bread in his palm.

"Well you know a lot about my personal life, I barely know yours. Let's start with how old you are?" Lilian lifted the bottle of water they had been sharing to her mouth, her smiling eyes peering over the top as her head went back.

"I'm thirty two." Lilian raised an eyebrow, passing back the bottle to Arthur as he revealed his age. "And before you ask, no I'm not married or got a girl and before you ask why it's just because I don't, okay?"

"It's because it would be hard? Wouldn't it?" Lilian has a softer smile towards Arthur this time instead of the little cheeky one she usually has. There is a silence between them for a moment before Lilian speaks up again, attempting to comfort Arthur as she had a sudden worry she had upset him from mentioning the difficulty of him being able to love another with his lifestyle, which was somewhat true. "That doesn't mean you should put it off though! You never know, a girl for you may come up and you can't be all 'willy nilly' with them."

"I'm not having this conversation with you." Arthur looks back to her rolling his eyes a little, grinning.

"Why not?" Lilian scowls but it wasn't intimidating to Arthur, it was just cute. "It's because I'm right? Ain't it?" Lilian turns towards Arthur and moves onto her hands and knees, her scowl turning into a testing smile.

"You may be right, yes but I don't need to hear your little fantasy world. The most experience you have is books." Arthur's eyes settle on Lilian, admiring her for a few moments, his grin softening as she continued to ramble after he spoke. Lilian could sense Arthur wasn't paying attention as he hadn't interrupted her yet. With Arthur's eyes watching her, she didn't know whether she was either intimidated or felt feelings of lust, either way she knew she liked it.

"What are you staring at?" Lilian said, interrupting herself as she looked to Arthur, watching his quick shifting eyes.

"I don't know, you tell me." Arthur spoke softly as he took one last glance at her before looking out to the storm.  Lilian shifted a little closer to him, not knowing what her intentions were of doing this. Arthur didn't budge as he felt her get closer but he did not look to her as she did.

"Where am I sleeping tonight?" Lilian questioned as she looked about, confused as she saw no tent.

"By the fire, in my roll up." Arthur said a little bluntly, shrugging his shoulders.

Lilian looked about then back to him, scowling. "What?! With you?"

"If you like." Arthur chuckled, a smirk peering to his lips causing Lilian to blush but shake it off soon after, even though she deep down knew she would adore that.

"I'm being serious, stop being silly." She coughed to clear her throat, looking down at her lap as she sat on her knees.

"I'm being serious. You can have my roll up, I'll probably not sleep much as I don't trust who will target us while we sleep." Lilian nodded to Arthur, biting her lip slightly. "Unless you want to share?" Arthur looked to her grinning as he lifted the flask of whisky to his lips.

Lilian shook her head gently, beginning to stutter as she didn't know how to reply with a lie or the truth. "Mr Morgan, I think you don't know what you're saying." She was soon quietened by Arthur's gentle touch as his hand placed to her cheek. No words were spoken as Arthur leaned forward. He rose to his knees and peered down at Lilian. She didn't have a clue what he was doing, just following his touch as his thumb brushed the corner of her lips. Arthur was confused himself on what he was feeling for the girl in front of him. They shared a stare into each other's longing eyes before Lilian felt the warmth of Arthur's lips on hers, the feelings of loneliness and isolation being wiped in those few seconds of their kiss.

♡

Here you go! ;) Remember to vote and add to your reading lists! Helps me a lot and means the world to me :) thank you for supporting the story so far!