The Last Love Of Arthur Morgan

The (un)Happy Past!

Sadie and Charles rode in for dinner, although they were reluctant to cut in on family time. Abigail and Lorna both assured them that they were family and had to stay.

Uncle came back from a long excursion in town and made himself comfortable at the table. He wasn't exactly invited to dinner, but when was Uncle ever invited for anything?

As dinner was being served, Arthur popped open a bottle of wine. But not just any wine, an Angelo Bronte fine red, 1899. The greasy Italian cocksucker made his fortune in other ways as well and wine was one of them - the only legal fortune, Arthur imagined.

Even as much as he hated Bronte, he felt like a hypocrite for criticizing him. After all, the Van Der Linde gang was much like the Italian mafia, only sloppy and less corrupt. In some ways, Dutch killed the very same man he was pretending he wasn't.

"It's a fine day to celebrate." Arthur announced, pouring a glass of wine.

Lorna smiled."Yes, we're all finally together as a family-"

"I second that!" Sadie cheered.

"To family." Charles held up his bottle of brandy.

"To family." The seven adults echoed throughout the house.

After their small toast, Abigail and Lorna began serving the glazed ham, yams, mashed potatoes and cornbread. There was an apple pie for dessert, made by Abigail. She was so proud that she could actually follow a recipe now.

"This here is the best food I've had in ages!" Uncle commented, a mouthful of ham.

Lorna snickered."Thank you. I'm glad you're enjoying it."

"So-" John cleared his throat."Arthur tell you what we're plannin' on doing?"

"No, what?"

John looked to Arthur, who looked irritated - this was not the time to spring on Lorna that they were going after Dutch and Micah, not when her and Abigail spent all day cooking this wonderful meal. He shrugged as he poured himself some more wine.

"I agreed to go into the bounty business with them. It'll give us some more money if we need it an' get me out of the house."

Lorna smiled."I was wondering when you'd finally cave in."

"It took some convincin', but ol' Johnny boy finally did it." He smacked John on the back.

John choked on his wine."Uh, yeah, I did."

"Well I'm glad. You'll be earning straight and helping the town be more productive. And who better to ask to hunt down criminals - you know all the tricks and schemes."

"Yeah well...they don't know we're former outlaws. Arthur Morgan and John Marston are supposed to be dead." Arthur reminded.

Lorna sipped the red wine and nodded."Just in name, of course. No one will ever know you're alive, you certainly don't look the same."

"Just to be on the safe side - the old Arthur and John, dead," Arthur began cutting his ham."Can't mess this one up."

"But you went and bought this piece of land under your old names, didn't you?"

Arthur sighed and closed his eyes."Lorna, please. We're tryin' to have a decent meal here."

"I just don't get it. You say you don't want to use your real names, yet you go and buy property using your real names?" She placed her wine glass down."Which is it?"

Instead of continuing this frustrating conversation with Lorna, Arthur turned to John and glared at him, gripping his knife in his hand. He was ready to beat the living shit out of John for bringing this up, but the only thing stopping him was the children. He dropped the knife beside his plate and stood up from the table.