Gold Dust Widow: The Story of an Outlaw's Revenge

Chapter 10: Jasper

Having Clara bouncing against me for hours as we rode was much too distracting. My mind was spinning with other imaginings and I was growing more and more frustrated, and stiff.

Despite her innocent shrugs, I was certain that she was leading us somewhere and that I was completely lost.

So I cut the day short and chose a place, backed by a wall of red stone, and surrounded by thick trees to camp.

I kept a sharp eye on Clara while she made the fire. Ares was exhausted, but I roused him for some jerky and he ate happily before falling back to sleep at Clara's feet.

I watched her huddled in her coat; chewing her jerky as she mixed the flour I had with water and created flatbreads that she was cooking over the fire. Beside her, a pot of beans bubbled. I was down to my last can. We had to find Oak Creek soon or we'd have to start hunting for our dinners.

She pushed her dark locks out of her face as she bit into one of the flatbreads and smiled a little.

A sudden image of her cooking over a stove surrounded by dark-haired children popped into my mind and I couldn't get it out again.

"It's ready," she murmured glancing up at me. I quickly turned away so she wouldn't know I'd been watching her.

I gave a little grunt and came to sit down next to the fire across from her.

"Salt would have been nice," she pursed her lips. "I had salt in my bags. Norman better not have tossed it," she grabbed at her beans with the flatbread and stuffed it all into her mouth, licking the sauce.

"Norman French?" I prodded.

Her gaze snapped to mine and she gave me a wry smile.

"He stole my horse. He is always stealing my horse. He gets his stolen all the time. I've shot him a couple of times for all his thieving," she snickered.

"What sort of relationship do you have with the men in the gang?" I asked.

"I ain't a whore, if that's what you're asking," she scoffed. "I was there for the same reasons as them. We all understand each other."

I slowly bent to grab some beans with my bread and stuff it in my face. Salt would have been nice. But it was a great deal nicer than anything I'd made the last couple of days.

"What reason was that?"

"Are you interrogating me again Marshal?" she arched her brows. The light from the fire flickered across her smooth skin.

I stuffed more food in my face to avoid thinking of what the firelight would look like against her naked body.

"I'm trying to converse," I replied.

"Tell me about you Marshal, and then I'll tell you what I was doing with Hank and the guys," her voice grew softer and when I glanced up at her again, she was prodding her sore shoulder.

"Deal," I grinned at her. "What do you want to know?"

She paused, for a moment, and then glanced up at me. "Why did you become a lawman?"

I slid one of my .44 out and spun it in my fingers. She watched me.

"It wasn't always the most obvious career choice for me. My brother and I would get up to a lot of no good. My poor mother was exhausted, chasing after us all day. There were two of us, Ian is my big brother. And we were both reckless."

She continued eating as I spoke, stroking Ares' fur.

"Ian thought himself a talented gambler. It got him into some trouble. A lot of trouble. He got himself mixed up with some foul men, owing them money. After they beat him to a pulp, he ran away from town. So the men he owed money to came knocking on our door. They took everything, the house, the land, all of my Ma's jewellery. Ma and I were left on the streets. I was seventeen, so I decided to go and look for my brother. By the time I found him, he'd joined with the men who'd taken our lives from us, and he was riding with them. I returned to find my mother working in a whore house."