Outlaw - Born & Bred

Chapter 26 - Recovery and Plans

Dutch, and the rest of the gang, arrived back at Shady Belle, just as the sun was rising.

They had ridden all through the night. It had been a fairly uneventful ride back. Casie, was exhausted. She would occasionally fall asleep, during the ride, but as soon as her back, touched Dutch's chest. She would awake, with a groan, as the pain, shot through her back.

As soon as they reached the hitching area, Dutch and Micah, jumped off their horses. Micah, lifted Casie, off of Dutch's horse, and the two men, supported her either side, as they entered the house.

Blood had already started to seep through the oversized shirt which Casie was wearing.

Once they had carried Casie to her room, they removed the shirt, and lay her, on her stomach.

She immediately drifted off to sleep.

Dutch sat by her side.

"Micah, please can you go and find Hosea. He'll know what to do."

Micah nodded, and headed off. Hosea, had become almost like the camp's resident physician. Well recently anyway. He was the one, who removed bullets, stitched people up. Although Micah wasn't sure what he would make of Casie's injuries.

Micah found Hosea, checking on Arthur. As much as he, and Arthur, didn't get along, he knew that the gang, needed Arthur. One look at him, and he knew that things weren't good.

"How is he?" he asked, matter of factly.

"Not good," Hosea replied, he raised an eyebrow, "don't tell me your worried about Arthur?"

"No," Micah scoffed, "only in as much, that Casie, will be upset if anything happens to him. Which brings me to why I'm here. She's in a bad way, can you take a look?"

"What happened? she's not been shot again, has she?" Hosea asked, concern in his face.

Micah shook his head, "Colm beat her half to death, it ain't pretty. A gunshot wound would be more straight forward, I reckon."

Hosea picked up his bag, and headed towards Casie's room. He opened the door, and looked across at where Casie lay. The colour drained from his face.

"Jesus Christ, Dutch. What did that bastard do to her?" he growled.

Dutch shook his head "Can you do anything Hosea? Javier cleaned it up as best he could, but the ride didn't help much."

Hosea took a closer look. The bruising, that the belt had made was starting to come out. But the cuts, were of more concern. Hosea looked closer and sniffed.

"At least they aren't infected," he said, "you have Javier to thank for that. Let her rest for a while, I'll come back later."

Hosea thought for a moment. "I think we'll bring Arthur in here, that way I can keep an eye on the pair of them."

Dutch sighed. "How is he, Hosea? I'm sorry I've been so pre-occupied with Casie."

Hosea shook his head, "he's lost a lot of blood, I removed the bullet, and stitched him up. He has a fever." Hosea looked at Dutch, "You, my friend, need to get some rest, I'll arrange to get Arthur moved, and the ladies can sit with them for a while."

Dutch nodded, and stood up. "You should probably do the same Hosea. Arthur and Casie need you, probably more than me, right now.

Charles and Javier, moved Arthur later that day. There were still two beds in Casie's room, from when she had been brought back from Cumberland falls. Susan Grimshaw, Tilly and Mary-Beth took turns in sitting with Casie and Arthur, whilst Hosea and Dutch got some much needed rest.