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“Mr Smith, the stew is ready if you’d like to grab a bowl.”
“Thank you, Ms Grimshaw.”
“Anything new?”
“No, she hasn’t woken yet. I’ll find you when she does.”
Ruby stirs at the voices close by. She opens her eyes to blinding light and looks around, realising she’s laying in a cot inside a covered tent. More voices can be heard outside, and somewhere nearby a dog barks as a child laughs.
Ruby looks around and sees Charles Smith sitting in a chair by the entrance to the tent. He’s facing away from her, watching the back of an old woman walk away. Ruby tries to sit up, and immediately regrets it; the pain coming from her left ribcage is unbearable and she groans in agony, flopping back down on the bed. Gasping, she rips the covers from her to look down at her side. The left side of her abdomen is covered with bandages. She’s about to rip the bandage off when two big strong hands grab her wrists and pin them down to her sides.
“You… probably don’t wanna do that.” Ruby looks up into a pair of warm brown eyes. Charles is still holding her wrists down, but loosens his grip when she stops struggling. “Glad to see you’re awake and lively, though.” He chuckles at her frustration.
“Where am I and how did I get here?” Ruby looks around once more. She can smell water nearby, but it doesn’t smell like the river or the swamps.
“Clemens Point, just west of Rhodes.” Charles answers simply. “Arthur and I brought you back here after one of those men shot you,” he says, nodding at her bandaged ribcage. “The bullet went straight through, luckily.”
“Why’d you have to get involved?” Ruby demands. “I had it covered! I could’ve handled it myself… without getting injured.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt that. But you definitely would’ve caused some damage, and I think you’d rather not set your business on fire along with half the town.” Charles frowns. “You thirsty?” He asks suddenly.
Ruby realises her throat feels dryer than New Austin, and nods. Charles immediately gets up and heads out of the tent. Ruby watches him leave, frowning at his back. “She’s awake.” She hears him tell someone out of view.
Footsteps approach hurriedly, and Stevie and Kira come into view. Ruby gasps.
“Stevie? Kira? What are you two doing here?”
“I was on guard duty when Arthur and Charles brought you in,” Kira answers. “This is the Van Der Linde Gang.”
It’s as if a light flicks on in Ruby’s brain. “Oh! Of course! Javier and John were in the saloon the day the Lemoyne Raiders shot the place up trying to get to me. I didn’t realise it was them, though. I only heard him,” she nods in Charles’ direction, “shouting their names. Which also makes sense as to why you’re here.” She smirks at Stevie.
Stevie smiles slyly. “Yes, I was here for John, obviously. Kira came and got me as soon as you arrived here yesterday. But speaking of him-” She also nods her head towards the tent flaps. “He hasn’t left-”
“Wait-” Ruby cuts her off. “Did you say I arrived here yesterday?! I’ve been out of it for a whole day?!”
“Well…” Kira pulls out her gold pocket watch. “A day and a half, actually. You were bleeding pretty badly when they brought you back. Some of the gang members fixed you up, and you’d do well to leave that bandage on.” She adds, watching Ruby’s hand subconsciously move to her bandaged rib cage.
“Hey,” Stevie asks suddenly. “You thirsty?”
Ruby frowns. “Why do people keep asking me that? And yes I am, but Mr Smith went to get me something, I think..” She trails off, looking out the tent past Stevie and Kira.
The two women by the bed exchange a look that doesn’t go unnoticed by Ruby.
“What is it?” She demands.
“I’m surprised he left you,” Stevie smirks. “This is the longest he’s been away from your side since you arrived.”
Ruby narrows her eyes. “You make that sound like a good thing.”
“Actually, Ruby,” Kira quips. “It ain’t a bad thing.” She looks at Ruby warmly. “I haven’t spent much time around him, but Charles seems like a pretty decent guy. He pulls more than his fair share around camp, and Arthur seems to trust him, so I do too. Sometimes I trust Arthur’s judgement more than Javier’s.” She rolls her eyes.
“Yes,” adds Stevie. “I’ve only ever heard good things from John about him, and John don’t like just anybody.”
Ruby sighs. The movement of her ribcage expanding sends shooting pains across her whole abdomen and her face contorts in a pained grimace. Kira and Stevie immediately move over her, Stevie pinning Ruby’s arms back as her hands make their way to her wound once more.
“Fucking Lemoyne Raiders,” Ruby gasps, attempting to get up. “I’m going to fucking.. kill.. every last one of them.”
“Not in this state, you’re not,” says Kira firmly, pushing Ruby back down onto the bed. Even in her weak state, Ruby is unsurprised at Kira’s strength; as petite as she was, Ruby had seen Kira throw grown men to the ground before.
Ruby groans defeatedly. “Wait ‘til I find those bastards’ location,” she growls. “There’ll be no such thing as the Lemoyne Raiders once I’m finished with them.”
“And we’ll be right there with you,” says Stevie. “But for now, you need to get your strength back.”
Ruby looks up at her two friends, trying to find the words to thank them, but at that moment Charles re-enters the tent holding a bowl of stew and a bottle of beer.
“So, all I could find was beer, but I did bring you some stew. The camp cook, Pearson, ain’t the best cook, but it’s… edible.” Charles shrugs.
Ruby thanks Charles, attempting to sit up but struggling. Kira and Stevie scoot back and share a knowing look as Charles hurriedly sets the bottle and bowl next to the bed before placing a hand under her back.
“Need a hand?” he asks.
“Sure, thanks,” says Ruby grudgingly, annoyed at having to accept the help. She carefully wraps her arm around his shoulders as he places his other hand under her knees, gingerly shifting her so she is sitting up in bed. As he hands her the bowl of stew, Kira stands up.
“Well, I’ve gotta get back to guard duty. Stevie, you should find Roxy and let her know Ruby’s fine.” She looks at Stevie pointedly, and nods towards Ruby and Charles, raising her eyebrows before exiting. Stevie stands immediately, taking the hint.
“I’ll see what I can find out about the Raiders. I know Roxy had some trouble with them a while back.. I’m sure she’ll be eager to help. We’ll come check on you tomorrow.” She glances at Charles one last time as she leaves.
Ruby chuckles to herself at her friends’ subtleness, ignoring the pain in her side. Charles doesn’t seem to pick up on the exchange and sits down in the chair facing the bed.
“So what do you think?” Charles asks, nodding at the bowl of stew in Ruby’s hand.
“Did he.. empty a whole sack of salt into this?” She looks at the stew sceptically.
Charles chuckles. “Oh - ” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a strip of green. “Add some oregano, it’ll help with the flavour, at least.”
Ruby takes the herb gratefully. “Thank you,” she says, mixing it into her stew and spooning it into her mouth. The oregano made the stew almost nice.
Charles watches her eat with a curious expression.
“What, never seen a girl eat before?” Ruby asks irritably.
“What happened there?” He uses his own hand to gesture towards his eye, indicating Ruby’s scar that ran straight down her left eyebrow and over her cheek. Ruby places the bowl down on the bed and ducks her head so it was out of his view, something she had come to subconsciously do after all the years of shame from it.
“Don’t look at it,” she mumbles. “Please,” she adds, her eyes lifting to meet his. Charles’ hand gently lifts her chin so her gaze is level with his.
“You still look beautiful,” he says quietly, his eyes boring into hers.
Ruby scoffs.
“A beautiful badass?” he amends, giving her a sheepish smile.
“Much better,” Ruby says indignantly, returning to her stew. “I’ll tell you about mine if you tell me about yours.” She nods, using her eyebrows to indicate towards the slash running across his right cheek and ending at the corner of his mouth.
Charles chuckles darkly, a sound that seems to come from deep within his chest. “I don’t want to send you running for the mountains. Maybe one day,” he says, standing up. “But for now, you need to heal. Unfortunately, you are going to have another scar under those bandages, but it just makes you even scarier.” He smiles as he heads out of the tent.
Ruby hears the question under it all: maybe one day… did that mean he intended to stay around? Suddenly, she remembers something.
“Hey – Charles! Bones?”
“What?” He turns, a puzzled look on his face.
“My horse.”
“Oh, right. He’s fine – he’s out with the other horses, being taken care of. Funny, actually. We didn’t even have to lead him back with us, he just followed along behind us the whole way here.”
The sun is beginning to set over the campsite, reflecting a bright yellow glow from the water over the camp as Charles walks away towards the water. Ruby watches him, wondering who this handsome stranger was and why he was being so kind to her.
Ruby remains in Clemens Point for a few more days until she is strong enough to leave. The morning after, she woke to the smell of coffee and looked around to find a cup beside her bed along with a fresh set of clothes. Stevie came back daily to check on her (although Ruby suspected she also had ulterior motives for coming to camp), and she and Kira helped her change her clothes and bandage. Her wound from the gunshot had healed nicely in just under two days and by the end of the third, Ruby was able to sit up without the assistance of Charles, who had brought her stew every afternoon and even helped her hobble out to sit around the campfire on her third night.
The sun is setting once more on Ruby’s fourth day in Clemens Point. Just as Kira and Stevie are finishing up, Arthur Morgan comes into the tent, calling out loudly to make sure Ruby was decent.
“Mr Morgan,” smiles Ruby politely. “I never got a chance to thank you for helping me out the other day. I would say if it weren’t for you and Mr Smith, I wouldn’t have made it out of there alive, but…” she trails off, her lips pulled back in a taut smile and her eyes hard.
“I know, I know. You had it covered. Charles already told me about how you think you were gonna escape from four on one” Arthur waves her off. “Actually, I’ve got some news and I’m sure you wanna hear it. It’s about them Lemoyne Raiders.”
Arthur tells Ruby, Stevie and Kira about how he and Lenny found where the Lemoyne Raiders were camped out in an old estate house outside Saint Denis.
“Shady Belle? I know the place,” Ruby says. “Wasn’t aware it had any inhabitants.” She looks at the other two young women expectantly, leaning forward.
“We’ll scope it out,” says Kira. “Stevie and I will collect Roxy tonight and report back.”
“Okay, but-”
“We won’t hit it without you, Ruby. This is your payback,” says Stevie. “If you’re ready, we’ll do it tomorrow night.”
Ruby sighs and leans back against the wall of the tent. “I appreciate that. Thank you.” She looks at Arthur. “Looks as though my stay is almost up.” Ruby stretches her arms, showing how much her injury is allowing her to move.
Arthur chuckles. “Well, I know of at least one person who won’t be thrilled about that news.”
Ruby rolls her eyes, but they land on Charles, who’s sitting at a table across camp sharpening some arrowheads. As if she called his name, Charles looks up and meets Ruby’s gaze. His lips pull up into a small smile and he stands up and makes his way over to the small gathering in the tent.
“Well, Hosea mentioned something about wanting to find some ancient Braithwaite gold, so I’m gonna try ‘n’ find a lead on that,” says Arthur. “Take care, Miss Cortez.” He nods at Stevie and Kira and claps a hand on Charles’ shoulder on his way out.
“Yes, Javier said he wanted to try out a new fishing spot that’s great for fishing at dusk, so I best go get ready. See you tomorrow, Stevie,” Kira says as she follows Arthur.
“Alright, well. I guess that’s my cue to leave too. I’ll be back to collect you tomorrow, Rubes.” With a final glance back at Ruby and Charles, Stevie leaves.
“Hey,” Ruby smiles up at Charles.
“You wanna join me for a drink by the fire?” Charles asks.
“Sure,” she says, getting up. Charles moves forwards to help her stand up, but Ruby holds her hands out to stop him. Charles gives a wry chuckle at her stubbornness but stands back. Ruby grits her teeth but manages to stand up surprisingly quicker than she had been able to earlier that day.
“You know, it’s not a sign of weakness to ask for help,” Charles says, offering his arm for stability as they exit the tent.
“It is, and I don’t need help anyway,” says Ruby, swatting his arm away and hobbling towards the campfire.
Charles grabs two bottles of beer from a crate on a nearby table and the two of them find a seat on a log by the fire. An older man who had introduced himself on Ruby’s second day in camp as Hosea was telling a story to a few other members of camp. Ruby and Charles both sat and listened, drinking as the night grew heavier and cooler air began to set in.
At some point in the night, during her fourth bottle of beer, Ruby realised her head was spinning and her eyes began to droop. Charles had ducked off for a bathroom break and to grab more beer, leaving Ruby sitting by the fire by herself, listening to an old man everyone referred to as “Uncle” playing a harmonica.
“Heeeey pretty lady.” A young woman with short blonde curly hair and freckles splattered across her nose sways up to her and plonks herself down on the log next to Ruby. “You’re the moonshiner Charles keeps going on about, right?” She looks at Ruby through half shut eyes and smiles. “I’m Karen,” She holds out her hand.
“Hi, Karen, I’m Ruby,” Ruby says, shaking her hand. “I’ve seen you around camp while I was stuck in bed.” Ruby giggles drunkenly. “Wait – what do you mean ‘going on about me’? I’ve only met the man once before,” she says, bewildered.
“Exactly!” Karen laughs. “For a man of few words, let me tell you, I’ve heard a few times now about how you shot up the Rhodes saloon, killed a bunch of these ‘Lemoyne Raiders’, then jumped off a balcony onto your horse!”
“When you put it like that, it makes it sound so much more badass. But really, it was nothing,” laughs Ruby, waving her off.
Karen sighs. “I’ve seen the way he looks at you, Ruby. And believe me when I say that at some point, us girls here have wished he would look at us that way.”
Ruby tries to think of something to say, but the alcohol clouds her brain and her mouth feels dry. As if on cue, a gangly red-headed man with missing teeth swaggers by, telling her he found something “really interesting behind a tree just outside of camp if she wanted to check it out”, adding a wink. Karen giggles and follows him, wishing Ruby good night as she leaves.
Ruby watches the pair leave, and spots Charles heading back to the fire with two more bottles of beer. He sits down in the seat Karen had occupied a moment before, handing Ruby a bottle.
“So,” says Charles. “You’re leaving tomorrow. Are you sure you’re healed enough?”
“Of course I am,” says Ruby, jumping up from the log and doing a small jog on the spot. “If I weren’t healed could I do this?” She lifts her arms above her head and turns in a small pirouette, but her stitches pull slightly and she collapses back on the log, laughing.
“Okay, okay, I get it,” Charles laughs as he catches her, but his expression turns sombre.
“What is it?” Ruby asks
Charles sighs. “I just.. I guess I’m worried I won’t see you again,” he says quietly, looking down.
Ruby looks at him thoughtfully. A combination of alcohol, tiredness and humidity are turning her brain fuzzy, and her hand finds its way under Charles’ chin, tilting it up so his eyes meet her own.
“I know where to find you,” she murmurs, leaning forward. “You’ll see me again.”
Charles closes the distance between them, his lips meeting hers as his hand cups her cheek gently. Ruby leans closer towards him and Charles’ other hand finds her waist when a hooting laugh carries across the fire. Ruby pulls away and looks over to see Uncle watching them joyfully.
“Yes! I knew you’d do it Charles, I told John you’d do it! He doubted you’d make a move but I had faith in ya! Where is that greasy bastard, I gotta go get my money..” The old man gets up and hobbles away, muttering about ‘bets’ and ‘making moves’.
“Did they.. did they bet money on us?” Ruby asks incredulously.
“I think so?” Charles laughs.
“Well, on that note, I think I’m going to bed. I don’t think it would have been much longer ‘til you had to carry me there anyway.” She stands up.
“It wouldn’t be the first time I carried you to bed,” Charles chuckles. He stoops down and sweeps Ruby up into his arms. “And hopefully it won’t be the last.”
Ruby wraps an arm around his shoulders as he carries her back to the tent. Charles lays her down gently on the cot before leaning in to kiss her lips again, deeper this time, before pulling away.
“Good night, Ruby,” he murmurs, placing a soft kiss on her forehead.
“Good night, Charles,” Ruby smiles, sleep already taking her over.