Reckless Hearts

Chapter 10

You lay on your cot, the pain in your arm hadn't really subsided. You began to wonder if falling into a morphine addiction might not be a good idea. Still the chance had passed you by, and to honest, as sorry as you were feeling for yourself, you knew morphine addiction wasn't really the answer.

You decided to focus on your breathing. It had certainly done something last night. As you lay there, you felt the throb slowly subsiding, as you focussed, and relaxed.

You were brought out of your relaxed state, by screaming. Well to be honest it wasn't actually screaming, it was it was the high pitched shrill yelling of a woman. She was obviously furious with someone.

Although you had promised to stay put, and rest. You curiosity got the better of you, especially when you heard her say your name.

You swung you legs over the side of the cot, and crept to the door of the tent, and peered out.

That's when you saw her, the redhead, who had given you a look of hatred, when you'd gone into Dutch's tent so that he could remove the bandage from your hand.

She was screaming at him

"Oh yes, I've seen you. It's Miss Finlay this, Kara that. Sitting with her until the early hours, when you could have been with me."

Hindsight, is a wonderful thing. If you'd had hindsight, you wouldn't be nursing a broken arm, and you wouldn't have stabbed yourself with the knife. This time, if you hadn't gone to the tent door, Miss Molly O'Shea wouldn't have seen you.

But she did. As soon as she did, her attention turned to you.

"There you are, you little whore," she screamed. "If I see you anywhere near him, I'll break your other arm!"

You backed away from the tent door. You heard Dutch's voice. You could tell by the tone he was angry. It was the same tone he had used, in his tent after you had the shooting competition with Micah.

"That's enough," he yelled. "How dare you call a guest in my camp a whore. You better watch your tongue, Miss O'Shea. Now get out of my sight."

The first thought that entered your mind, was how angry Dutch would be. Because he knew you'd got out of bed. The second thought was, is that what they all thought of you. She'd just called you a whore, Micah had called you the same.

You sat down on the chair, closing your eyes, and pressing the heel of your hand to your forehead.

"Kara? Are you alright?" Dutch asked.

You weren't that surprised that he came in to your tent. What did surprise you, was he wasn't giving you a roasting for getting out of bed.

You looked up, "Yes, I'm sorry. I guess I should have stayed in bed." You apologised.

He hummed. "It probably didn't help, but if I'd heard someone ranting and raving, with my name on the tip of their tongue, I probably would have been curious." he added.

You sighed, "Dutch? Does everyone here, think I'm a whore?" you asked, your voice trembling slightly. "Maybe I should leave, seems like where ever I go, trouble seems to follow."

Dutch stared at you wide eye, a shocked look on his face, one that you hadn't seen before.

"Don't be ridiculous," he scolded, "No one thinks of you like that, well no one that matters," he added.

He smiled, "lets put you back to bed, and no more silly talk about leaving."

Dutch wrapped his arm around your waist, and helped you back over to the cot. He gently lifted your legs onto the cot, and laid you down. Finally covering you with a blanket.