It was only a few hours before dark when the four of them rode into Barbadine the next day. Jonah was in a raw mood.

Not only was he worried about what he knew he had to do while in this town backfiring in his face but Joe hadn’t been speaking to him since their talk by the river.

She was bristly, angry, and short tempered even more so than usual. But only with him, of course. With Bart and Reb she’d been laughing and talking as if they were all best buddies.

Jonah didn’t want to admit it aloud but that bothered him more than her bad mood.

“I’m heading to one of the saloons. I’m feelin’ a bit thirsty.” Bart said after dismounting his horse and handing the reins to the livery keep.

“Me too.” Reb agreed as he adjusted his eye patch.

“You comin’? Hell with the two of you we’ll make a killing at the poker table!” Bart stated as he wrapped his arm around Joe’s shoulders. Joe glared at him and he chuckled as he removed his arm.

“I’ll catch up later. There’s some things I need to take care of.” Jonah said with a shake of his head and Bart and Reb frowned.

“You okay?” Reb asked.

“Yeah, Reb, I’m okay.” Jonah insisted. Bart and Reb nodded and then walked away, though Bart stopped and looked over his shoulder at Joe.

“You comin’?”

“Later.” she snapped.

Bart looked back and forth between Jonah and Joe, acting as if there was something he wanted to say, but then he just sighed, nodded and continued on his way.

“You oughta go on, Joe. I don’t want any company just now.”

“Where you plan on goin’?” Joe asked before sticking her thumb nail between her teeth and beginning to chew at it.

“I’m gonna go talk to some people.” Jonah replied, vaguely. He still wasn’t real happy with Joe and didn’t understand why she was suddenly talking to him again. For a woman who claimed to not suffer from any usual female tendencies, she sure did jump from mood to mood awful quick.

“Ya sure ya don’t want company?” Joe urged and Jonah frowned at her.

“I said I didn’t.” he grumbled and anger flashed in those green gray eyes of hers.

“Fine then. I’ll be at the saloon.” She turned on her heel and stomped away leaving Jonah shaking his head and watching her go.

She was damn confusing but he didn’t have time to worry about her right now. Right now he needed to go talk to the sheriff, and then, if the sheriff would allow him to, he wanted to go apologize to the old man and the woman with kids that had been at the bank the day Scarlett had robbed it.

With a sigh, Jonah left Copper and his saddlebags in the livery hands care and then adjusted his hat on his head before heading toward the sheriffs office toward the other side of the busy little town.

He kept waiting for someone to recognize him. For cries to ring out, demanding he be brought to justice for what he had done.

But that didn’t happen. A few men tipped their hats to him in friendly greeting and two ladies smiled, just the same as they would to anyone they passed.

Jonah took a deep breath and then squared his shoulders and pushed open the door to the jail.

The sheriff had been too far away from the bank the day of the robbery for Jonah to know the details of what he looked like but the star on the mans chest told him this was that man. The sheriff stepped around his desk, his long legs and rangy build moving with a lethal grace that told Jonah this was a lawman who knew how to handle himself.

“May I help you?” the sheriff asked.

“Yes, sir. My name is Jonah Winchester.”

The sheriff studied him for a moment and then recognition dawned in his pale green eyes. “Well I must say I’m surprised to see you back around here. You ain’t here to turn yourself in are you? Because I done told your friend that you aren’t wanted. There were a couple folks that spoke up for you.”

“Actually, sheriff, I was just wanting to apologize.”

“For what?” the sheriff asked with a grunt as he leaned against his desk and crossed his arms over his chest. “If anything my deputy owes you an apology. He’s the one that filled you full of bullet holes.”

“Naw nobody owes me anything. I should have stopped her once I realized what she was doing…. I don’t have a real good excuse why I didn’t.”

“Shock, I reckon.” the sheriff said with a shrug. “She’s done it before in other towns but you’re the first fella she picked out that lived. You should feel lucky.”

Jonah thought about the shame and guilt he seemed to be constantly plagued with and then nodded without conviction.

“Sure. Lucky.”

“I’ve looked into finding that woman but nobody gets too good a look at her face for a poster…”

“I can help with that. I can help make a poster for both of them.”

“You met the husband?”

“Yes, sir. I didn’t realize that’s who he was at the time.”

“Well I got me a deputy that’s pretty darn good at drawing those things so why don’t we get him in here and we can at least get a couple made.”

“I’d like to have one to take with me…”

“Take with you where?” The sheriff asked with a raise of his brow.

“I plan on looking for her.” Jonah replied, squaring his shoulders and meeting the lawman’s stern gaze.

“Now I can’t aid some vigilante. You let the law deal with her, boy…”

“Sheriff, with all due respect, it’s my right to pay her back. She might have taken money from your town but she stripped me of every last bit of pride and dignity I had and set me up to die…”

The sheriff sighed and rubbed the back of his neck before pulling off his hat and scratching at his graying hair.

“Now I can’t help you out if you plan on killing the woman. She needs to be arrested, stand trial and then punished according to the law.”

Jonah’s jaw tightened painfully and his fist clenched. “I don’t plan on killing her unless she doesn’t give me any other choice. I’ll give her to the law and let them deal with her if that ends up being at all possible. You have my word on that.”

“And the husband?”

“Can’t make you any promises on that. Men aren’t known for going down without a fight.”

The sheriff studied Jonah hard for several long moments and Jonah just stood there proudly and met his gaze. Finally the sheriff sighed and nodded.

“Alright then. Truth be told the woman needs to be caught. I tried to bring the U.S. Marshalls into this but unless you got some money to make it worth their time it’s hard to buy their service.”

“So much for helping the helpless and serving their country.” Jonah mumbled and the sheriff chuckled.

“It is what it is. Bitching about it won’t change a thing, or at least it hasn’t so far. You sit tight here for a minute and I’ll go round up my deputy and we’ll get these pictures going.”

***

Jonah walked out onto the street and looked up at the darkening sky. Instantly he let his boots lead him toward the butcher shop down the road. He knew the shop would be closed but the sheriff had let him know that the old man who had been shot in the bank lived above the shop.

The sheriff had refused to tell him where the woman and her children lived. He’d said that her husband was the type to shoot first and asked questions later and he didn’t believe the man would be too keen on Jonah showing up at their home.

Slowly, Jonah climbed the steps to the upper door of the butcher shop and knocked several times.

He heard movement come from inside and then the door was thrown open and Jonah was staring down the barrel of a shotgun.

“Woah!” he called out as he held up his hands, stepping back and bumping against the banister. “Don’t shoot me.”

“Who the devil are you?” A gruff voice asked and Jonah looked around the gun to see the old man from the bank standing there. His gray hair was sticking up straight and his heavily wrinkled face was drawn angrily as his dark eyes studied Jonah.

“My name’s Jonah Winchester, sir.” Jonah replied politely. “Would you mind lowering that gun? It makes me feel a bit uneasy when I got one close enough to my eye I can see the pits on the inside of the barrel.”

The man scoffed and lowered his gun. “There ain’t no pits on the inside of that there gun.” he countered. “I recognize you. You’re that feller from the bank.”

“Yes, sir.” Jonah replied as he took off his hat and held it in both hands.

“Well what are you doing here?”

“I just came to apologize.” Jonah replied and the man frowned.

“For what exactly?”

“Well…” Jonah shifted his boots on the rickety wooden boards beneath them. “For what happened that day. For not stopping her before she shot you.”

The man just waved his hand and scoffed. “I lived a bit when I was younger so that wasn’t the first time I’d been shot. Besides if she hadn’t shot me then old Widow McLeary wouldn’t have had any reason to come over and tend to me while I was recoverin’.” the man winked and Jonah found himself chuckling. “That woman makes a mean pie.”

“I’m damn relieved to see you’re okay.”

“You shouldn’t feel so bad about what happened.” the old man countered. “One thing life has taught me is that things happen and we just have to deal with ’em and move on. Dwellin’ on the past does a whole lot more hurtin’ than it does helping.”

Jonah nodded, but knew that that life motto would be one that was easier said than done.

“Do you want to come in and eat ya a bite?” the old man offered. “I was just about to sit down to some pork and potatoes.”

“No thank you, sir. I actually have some friends that are waiting on me. I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything you needed and….”

“Don’t let that woman ruin you, boy, that’s what I need. It’s clear from that sad look in your eye that she put a whoopin’ on you as big as the west itself but that’ll heal with time if ya let it.”

“No offense, sir, but I happen to think that she and women like her did me a favor. I won’t ever fall for that lie again.”

“What lie is that?” the man asked as he leaned against the door frame.

“Love.”

The man clicked his tongue and shook his head sadly. “That’s a hell of a thing to give up on.” he stated. “Why I was married to my wife for thirty years before the Lord called her home and then I was alone for damn near twenty before that woman shot me and Widow McLeary started coming around and fussin’ over me. Now I’m thinking’ I might just be fallin’ in love again. Love is good for a man. It gives him something to strive for. A reason to be good.”

“Yes,sir.” Jonah replied respectfully, though he didn’t believe it to be true. He’d loved Penny. Deep down loved that woman. He would have given her the moon and the stars, and he had bent over backward to give her everything she ever asked of him, (which had been an awful lot), but that hadn’t meant a thing to that woman and she’d run off without a backward glance.

Then there’d been Scarlett. While he hadn’t been in love with her, he had been going in that direction. He had trusted her. He had thought that the words she said, the way she touched his body and allowed him to touch hers had meant something but it hadn’t.

Love was a lie. A bold faced out and out lie and Jonah wasn’t gonna be dumb enough to fall for it a third time.

“Well you go on then and get to whatever it was you were gonna be getting to. I’m gonna go get to eatin’ my supper.” the old man stated as he pulled the silver pocket watch from his vest and checked the time.

“Have a good evening, sir.” Jonah replied and then he put on his hat and walked away, feeling the mans eyes watching him every step.

Jonah stepped into the saloon, knowing this was the one Bart and Reb would have chosen because it was the most questionable of all in town with the balcony rooms where whores pleasured the men and the dancing girls on the stage in the corner. The poker tables were manned by men that looked more like winos than dealers and it was clear the piano player had been sampling a bit too much whiskey.

“Over here, Jonah!” Bart’s voice called out and Jonah nodded, got a shot of whiskey from the bar and then joined his friends at the table.

“I figured y’all would be playing poker.” Jonah said as he sat down and realized that Joe wasn’t around.

“We were but ya can only lose so much money ‘fore you call it quits.” Reb informed him.

“Joe lost money?” Jonah asked, finding that hard to believe.

“Hell no, where do you think all our money went?” Bart demanded. “Naw she just up and left, though it seemed like she wasn’t feeling all that great. I believe she went to the hotel to lay down.”

“Was she sick?”

“She wouldn’t tell us if she was.” Bart replied simply. “I’m thinking about checking on her though, of course that might just serve to get me shot.”

Jonah chuckled. “I’ll check on her, Bart.” he assured the man before downing his shot glass. “She won’t shoot me, she likes me more than she likes you.”

“You leavin’ already?” Reb demanded as Jonah stood and adjusted his hat.

“Yeah. I ain’t really feeling much into conversation tonight. Y’all make sure you don’t stay up too late. We’ll be leaving out just as soon as we can in the morning.”

“Don’t worry, Jonah. I’ll make sure he don’t get carried away.” Bart said with a chuckle as Reb’s eye followed the movements of one of the whores from upstairs making her way into a balcony seat with a man and then pulling the curtains closed to block their view.

Jonah just shook his head and left the saloon, deciding that checking on Joe and then going to bed sounded like a good plan to him.