Author's Note: This chapter's song if "Find out Who Your Friends are" by Tracy Lawrence. I chose this because This is the beginning of Arthur and Adeline's friendship. I'll link it above for you.
Adeline woke up the next morning to birds chirping and rays of sunshine flowing through the opened window. She got out of bed and walked over to the wash basin to rinse off her face. Next, she got dressed in an olive green, plaid dress with a simple off-white apron. After tying her hair up in a loose bun, she grabbed her small purse and walked out the door of her rented room. If her grandma saw her leaving the house without a hat or bonnet, she would have scolded her but Adeline liked feeling the sun on her face.
The clerk at the front desk waved to her and wished her a good day as she walked out the door. The first thing she needed to do was set up a new bank account in Valentine and have her money from New York wired over. Once that was done, she could head to the general store and buy whatever she needed with the change she had with her.
At last, she was finally done at the bank after what felt like hours and she could go to the general store. As she walked in, she noticed that the store was nearly empty except for her, the clerk, and two other shoppers. One was an older woman looking at the bolts of cloth and the other was a man looking at the hair pomades and supplies.
Adeline greeted the clerk and turned to find what she was looking for. According to her list, she needed some canned foods, some seeds for her garden, and some bolts of cloth. She picked out a few cans of corn, carrots, and peas. As for seeds, she picked out some beans, herbs, and carrots. The older woman who was getting cloth earlier had left, leaving Adeline to view the entire selection. She eyed the only other customer in the store as he had just moved from looking at hair pomade to horse food. She couldn't see all of his face because of his cowboy hat but she could tell he had some scruff and an athletic build. Adeline stopped herself so she wouldn't scare him. She finally picked out a few yards of fabric and went to pay. She paid the clerk and, with one last glance inside the store, she left.
Adeline carried her paper bag of goods with her as she walked down the road and to her old home to start unpacking. She figured she'd take this stuff first and then come back for her stuff at the hotel. She didn't mind the walk- it refreshed her.
The early spring air woke her up more as she walked on towards Whitewater creek. The gentle breeze rustled her hair and made her eyes water just a bit. Adeline hadn't realized how for she'd walked in so little time. As she turned right onto the road that would take her to Whitewater, she looked behind her and could no longer see Valentine. As she rounded the road ahead, she heard somebody call out for help.
"Help! Please! Anybody!"
At first she was skeptical because plenty of scammers would do this on the streets in New York. 'But this isn't New York. They might be seriously hurt,' she thought to herself. Adeline picked up her pace and finally saw the person crying for help. It was a middle aged man on the side of the road, clutching his leg.
"Sir, are you alright?" She called out.
"Ma'am! Please help. I've been bitten by a snake and I will surely die if I do not get help." The man cried out.
She ran up to him and bent down to see his leg. There was blood but she saw no bite marks. She looked into his eyes to see a menacing look on his wrinkled face. It was then that she knew something was wrong. She stood up fast and turned to run away but was stopped but the click of a gun.
"One more step and I will pull the trigger," the man threatened as he stood up, keeping the gun aimed at her. He wasn't injured and he was only faking to rob her.
"Please, I don't want any trouble. I have nothing of value," she pleaded with her assailant.
"We'll be the judge of that," another man said, coming out from the nearby forest to take her paper bag. Two others followed the first man out of the forest. The man with a gun stepped up to her and shoved her into the arms of his companion so he could put his gun away. The new man held her arms behind her tightly and wrapped an arm around her mid-section to keep her from struggling.
"Let go of me, you slimy urchin," Adeline shouted at them. The man holding her growled at her and kicked the back of her knee.
The men looked up from going through her bag, "She's got almost nothing of value in here." They threw her seeds and bolts of cloth to the side.
"Now that's not true," the man who must have been their leader said. "All of this stuff wasn't cheap so shes gotta have money somewhere. Somebody search her. Dress, pockets and undergarments as well," he added with a smirk.
Adeline began to squirm as she realized what they were about to do. It wasn't so much the money she was worried about as it was these gross men putting their hands on her. One man came near her and searched her dress and apron for pockets and after finding her coin pouch, he threw it to his leader. He then continued to search her.
"That's all that's left, there's no need to search still," she spat at him.
"Oh but sweetheart, you could be hiding more somewhere. Plenty of women hide money in their corsets," he grinned at her as he let his hands glide to the neckline of her dress to unbutton it.
"Let go of me! Don't touch me, you vermin." She yelled, finally having enough. She thrashed around in the one man's arms, breaking free enough to elbow him in the jaw.
The other man who was about to undo her dress looked at her with pure rage, "Oh now you've done it, you little wench."
~~~
Arthur was riding his horse down the pathway to Horseshoe overlook. They had just arrived there and Dutch had sent him out to scour the town of Valentine. Already it seemed people were suspicious of him. A woman in the general store kept glancing at him oddly. He was almost sure they didn't know him from the Blackwater robbery that went wrong. But that would explain the weird looks he got in town. Not wanting to draw too much attention, he left early and headed back to camp.
"Let go of me! Don't touch me, you vermin." Somebody yelled. It pulled Arthur right out of his own thoughts. He gave his horse a small nudge to go faster and as he rounded the corner he saw four men surrounding a young lady- one rooting through her bag and the other getting awfully grabby with her.
The man lunged at the poor lady and tried to back her up against a rock but she struggled like no other. She kicked and punched at the man, which only seemed to make him angrier.
Arthur was an outlaw but he was not a completely terrible person- he knew what he had to do. He rode in closer and pulled out his pistol and aimed it at the man assaulting the girl. "I would stop that if I were you."
The men froze and looked at Arthur, obviously not expecting anybody to use this path. One of the other men drew his pistol and aimed it at Arthur. "It's best you just move on in the other direction, friend."
Arthur looked the man in the eye, "How about you let this nice young lady go? Then we can talk about movin' on."
The girl looked at him with shocked and thankful eyes before the man behind her grabbed her again as the other men pulled their guns at Arthur. "Mister, no offense but there's one of you and four of us. Your odds ain't so great."
"Oh I'll be willing to take my odds," Arthur chuckled. Arthur was smart and calculating. He was expecting one of the thieves to fire at him. What he wasn't expecting was the young lady to grab the pistol out of the man's hands who was holding her. She took it quickly and smashed it down on his collar bone. The man crumpled. She quickly aimed it at the three other men.
"Well now its two against three. Care to make it two against two?" She asked the leader. He narrowed his eyes at her.
"Give the lady back her stuff and leave before our odds become two on zero." Arthur threatened.
The thieves dropped all of the things they had just stolen on the ground. One man came to pick up their friend who was on the ground clutching his shoulder. The others called their horses and once everybody was mounted, they galloped away. Arthur made sure to keep his gun aimed until they were out of sight and once they were, he saw the woman drop the gun.
She looked at him with a small smile, "Thank you very much, sir. I don't know what I can do to repay you."
Arthur gave her a small nod, "No repayment needed. My day was pretty boring until this. Gave me somethin' tah do."
"Well still, thank you very much. I don't know what I would have done without your help." Adeline added.
"Seemed like you had it under control," Arthur said with a curt laugh.
"I guess you could say that," Adeline said, not wanting to let this stranger know that she had no idea how to use a gun and she was just winging that entire thing.
"If you're alright, miss, I should be getting back home."
"Yes, yes, I will be just fine. Thank you, sir." She smiled at him.
He gave her a small, barely-visible smile and nodded before taking his horse and continuing down the path to the left.
He wondered if she recognized him from the general store like her recognized her. He gave one last look behind him as his horse cantered down the path. She was walking into the distance, quite oblivious to who Arthur was. Even if she recognized him from earlier, she had no idea he was a wanted outlaw. To her, he was just a hero passing by at the right moment. And he wanted to keep it that way.