The ride back to camp was silent, if not a little strained. The look on Dutch's face when I said I would prefer to be in a separate tent said it all. He said that he understood, but I wasn't quite sure that he did. I hadn't really decided where the future would lie, for us. At this moment in time I just needed some space. Since being with the gang, either as a prisoner, or as a guest, I had always been with Dutch. Never really being able to be my own person. I say guest, but in truth I had never really been that. I had never really been free to come and go as I pleased. I didn't even know if that was the case now. One thing he had shown me today, was that despite being wanted, there weren't bounty hunters waiting to pounce on me at every turn. Having said that, I still wanted to learn how to shoot, but now hadn't seemed the right time to ask about getting me a gun. There were other priorities, like clothes. All mine had been seized by the bounty hunters when they found me in Valentine, and shipped me over to Strawberry.
When we arrived back at camp, the sun was beginning to set. He jumped off his horse first, then came over and helped me off Honey. I wouldn't have blamed him, if he'd left me to it. I guess he wasn't that sort of man. He yelled over to Keiran to deal with the horses. I would have quite happily sorted them out. Although to be fair, I was aching a little.
"Miss Grimshaw!" Dutch yelled out, as we walked back towards where all the tents were.
She appeared from behind a wagon.
"What is it?" she asked, somewhat tersely.
"I need you to setup another tent... for Miss Maddox!" he stated.
I stiffened slightly, it didn't feel quite right when he called me that. When he called me Jesse it always seemed warmer somehow.
Susan huffed, "It'll take a while, I hope you weren't planning on going to bed just yet!"
I shook my head, "I'll go sit by the fire for a bit," I offered.
Susan rolled her eyes, and walked off, yelling for Mr Pearson, who I guessed would be erecting the tent.
As I walked over towards the fire, I got a few strange looks. It was almost as if now I wasn't sharing a tent with Dutch, I was almost unwelcome. I ignored them, and sat down by the fire.
I hadn't been seated long, when I heard a voice I recognised.
"Good evening, Miss Maddox!"
I turned around, and sighed, "Mr Trelawny!"
He came and sat down. I felt he was partially to blame for my current state. He appeared to be the person who would gather intelligence for Dutch. I somehow doubted that the gang would have found Billy so easily, if it hadn't been for him. If he hadn't found Billy, then Micah wouldn't have killed him, and I wouldn't have nearly been hung.
"How are you fairing, Miss Maddox?" he asked.
I looked at him, from what I could tell he was being sincere. But then he was a con man, so it could well be he was just asking the question to be polite. Besides going on my current track record, I didn't really trust my judgement.
"As well as you can imagine, after almost being hung!" I replied, dryly.
He hummed, then hesitated. "I think there's something you should know." he offered.
I sighed, and rolled my eyes.
"This seems to be my day for revelations, do go on!" I replied, somewhat sarcastically.
Josiah frowned, "you probably already know, or you've guessed that I was the one who tracked your friend Billy down?"
I hummed. "I guessed as much, although not really much of a friend as it turned out, but go on."
YOU ARE READING
Bulletproof
फैनफिक्शनJesse Maddox lives with her daddy, looking after him and trying to keep him off the bottle since her mama died. Her daddy doesn't do much apart from sit around the house and drink since his wife died. Bringing the money in is left to Jesse. She has...
