Despite all this, I still love you 3
How she found herself back here even she did not know. Ever since that night Nora tried avoiding unpleasant spaces, one of those being the very last place she had seen Hixon alive. The area brought back bad memories and she found herself unable to willingly travel by it let alone pass through it. Yet here she was, leading her horse through the swampland as she faced one of her biggest problems.
She looked down at the scorched ground and even Casper began to grow unsettled, letting out whinnies of protest to continue further. She turned towards the stallion, patting his neck firmly in an attempt to calm him down but it only frightened him further for an unknown reason.
Perhaps he too became haunted by Nora's past.
The horse's frantic behaviour began to put Nora in distress as she remembered the cry of the wagon's horses just before the explosion, getting reminded of flying back and thinking all had ended for her there and then in that very moment.
She heard the pain cry from Lem as he thought he was the one to have killed her. But perhaps, Nora was lucky he was there when he had been, otherwise, the fire would have gotten to her regardless.
Speaking softly to her Stallion, she began leading him out of the remnants of that night. Maybe it was so he would calm down once being out of the area or maybe she found an excuse to not face what had been haunting her once again.
As she left the vicinity she remembered just what it was she came this way for, an errand to run for her closest friend before distraction caught her. She let out a quiet sigh before mounting her horse once sure enough that he would not buck her off, firmly patting his neck before riding off towards Rhodes where she believed the nearest general store was.
...
Maybe Saint-Denis was a little closer, she decided. Cutting across the train bridge having provided ample in shortness but it also meant she would have further to travel once she bought the supplies she needed.
She didn't know when she started running errands to and from stores for the Fike's but she noticed how Lem would keep her on her feet daily just to bring in all sorts of provisions and supplies, but maybe it was an excuse to not see her look so glum all the time in the moonshine shack.
Maybe he was just being kind and providing a distraction in the best way he knew how. She weren't so sure.
It had been cans of food and salted meat she had been tasked with getting. The cans primarily for their moonshine business as berries were in no short supply and neither was alcohol.
So a couple cans and a satchel of salted meat was enough to be stored on the back of her horse and Cripps would usually come around weekly with more supplies so it wasn't as though Nora had too much to carry and riding back on Casper would be enough.
She also made sure to buy a few apples for the journey back, figuring her horse would appreciate a treat that was different from the carrots she would give him. She wished she had a wide choice of foods picked out for Casper, but she couldn't always afford an assortment of treats to give him and so wild carrots would suffice for now.
...
"How'd you get on?" Maggie asked as soon as Nora entered the property in which she purchased. The younger woman placed the saddlebags on the counter in the corner and began to remove the items requested before turning towards her boss with a gentle smile. "Good."
"You were gone quite a while, Miss Morgan. Thought you had been killed."
"Well, they ain't got me yet an' I doubt they'll get me any time soon."
Having said this impressed Maggie who gave Nora a nod in silent agree. Once her saddlebags had been unpacked and the provisions ordered were placed on the counter, she said her temporary farewells as she left the building to place the bags back.
"Hey there, Nora." Lem called from behind, walking up to her side with an old guitar in hand.
"You play?"
He looked shy. "Yeah, n-not in front of people."
"Didn't realise you could play."
He walked away to lean the guitar against the wall of the moonshine shack, returning to stand by Nora once more who had taken to treating Casper with an apple she non-verbally promised him.
"Learned a long time ago, still pick it up her an' there but for the most part I don't really like to play no more."
Nora frowned at these words shortly after pulling away from her horse. He bounced back and forth on his feet as he awkwardly stood before her, his hands swaying loosely at his sides. "You were gone a while, run into any problems?"
"One." She answered, walking past to sit on the old bench outside the shack. Lem followed suit, taken to lean against the building and look down at her rather than sit by her side. "Went back to that swampland, where we got Hixon an' Danny-Lee."
"All the way down there?"
"Guess somethin' called me to it." She replied, gently shrugging her shoulders.
He pushed himself from against the wall and walked around to stand in front of her, crouching so he was at her level while she was sitting.
"How'd it go?"
No reply but the saddened expression he received as a response to his innocent question. He didn't need to ask anything more as he already knew the answer, but he still donned a smile. Gently he reached forward and took hold of her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze and rubbing the back of it with his thumb. "For what it is worth, I'm proud of you." He said, his voice calm.
"I went someplace an' you're proud?"
"It's a bad place for you Nora. It's like askin' me to go back to jail an' face what's been troubling me." He began. "Although can't really do that."
She let out a light chuckle just as he rose from the crouching position to finally sit by her side.
"How long were you there for?"
"Couple minutes but I had to leave as Casper here was started to become frightened."
"Or was you frightened?"
"I was uneasy being there but once Casper started to get jumpy I decided to leave."
"For what it's worth, M-Miss Morgan, I'm proud you went there. On your own doing."
"Guess so." She turned to look at him, getting entranced by his blue eyes for a moment that she had forgotten what it had been she was meaning to say.
"Lem."
"Yeah?"
Finally peeling away, she looked down at her hands that lay in her lap. "Just wanted to thank you, f-for bein' so kind to me. Makin' a lot of this better."
"I know you'd do the same for me."
"I hope so."
...
She pushed forward, missing the hail of bullets sent her way from the heavy fire following the agent as he manned the maxim gun.
She grew panicked, knowing it would be near impossible to walk out without a few scrapes and wound from it but she needed to keep trying for Maggie depended on her to do.
Blindly she aimed over the boxes she hid behind and fired her rifle a couple of time's, praying for something to be hit. When the shooting from the gun ceased did she look up to see what little work she had accomplished.
Nobody was there, but she saw a few running back for it.
Taking a deep breath she ran forward, her legs feeling weak and threatening to give way underneath her.
Her lungs burning.
She would say that she was doing this for Maggie, the woman having sent her. But maybe, she was really doing it for Lem.