The smoky haze filled the stale air as Jonah sat at the bar with his whiskey and his thoughts. Two years of his life were gone. Wasted. Wasted on a woman who had run off with the first rich banker who had come sweeping in, leaving her poor ranch hand lover behind with a shattered heart and a ruined reputation.

After being called Penny’s Clown a couple dozen times and hearing the whispers and the snickering that had seemed to accompany him everywhere, Jonah had known it was time to leave that town and that life behind.

Back to a life of wandering. With no possessions other than his horse and what few scraps of clothes and this-or-that that happened to be in his saddlebags.

His friends were happy to have him back at least. Reb had let him know how crazy he’d been to try to change who he was for a woman and Bart had said he knew Jonah would come to his senses eventually.

“Turn that frown upside down, Jonah!” Bart exclaimed with a laugh as he flopped his skinny frame down on the stool next to Jonah. “There’s a good card game fixin’ to start. Why don’t ya come on and show us how it’s done?”

Jonah downed his remaining whiskey and then nodded as he swiped his dirt stained shirt sleeve across his mouth.

“When you’re left broke and crying just remember that you asked for it.” he replied with a grin. Bart chuckled and slapped Jonah on the back as the two men stood up and made their way across the fairly empty saloon.

It was the middle of the day and the sunlight coming through the windows, shone off the dust motes floating in the air and made the whiskey inside the glass bottles seem to glow in the reflection.

Jonah sat down at a table with a dealer from the saloon, Bart, Reb and two men that Jonah didn’t recognize.

“Ain’t a damn poker player alive today that’s any better’n our Jonah.” Reb stated with confidence as he adjusted his patch over his left eye. One of the strangers snorted and the other spit a long stream of tobacco into the spittoon on the dirty wooden planks of the floor.

“I’d beg to differ with that statement, gentleman.” he stated with a broken toothed grin. “I happen to believe that title would belong to me.”

“I doubt that.” Reb scoffed, his single blue eye narrowing as he picked up his dirty glass and took a long drink of beer.

“Whatd’ya say y’all quit gabbing like a couple of school girls and get down to business?” Jonah asked as he nodded at the dealer.

The men all placed their bets and the dealer dealt the five card stud game they were playing.

After ten hands in which Jonah won more than half, folded twice and only lost one it seemed that the two strangers were coming around to seeing things Reb’s way.

“You are damn good at poker, young gun.” The tobacco chewer stated as he rubbed the back of his neck. “You make a living at this or something.”

“Well…” Jonah started, but in true Reb fashion the man interrupted him.

“Hell no! Not Jonah. He’s looking for a town to settle down in. He’s a settler. He wants a job.” Reb said the last word as if it were some sort of curse or the plague and there was a collective shiver from the all the men at the table other than the dealer and Jonah.

“I try to tell him to stop trying to be what he’s not. His mama was a whore, his daddy was a outlaw and here he is trying to be an upstanding citizen.” Bart added with a shake of his head. Jonah rolled his eyes and adjusted his hat on his head.

“Well I believe I’ve heard just about enough about myself. I’m out.” he said nodding at the dealer as he stood. Jonah walked toward the door and Reb was quick to jump to his feet and follow him.

“Hey, you ain’t sore at us are you? We was just foolin around.” Jonah shook his head and squinted as he looked out at the sunlight.

“Naw, I ain’t sore at y’all. I already knew ya never knew when to shut up.” he replied with a grin.

“Where you goin’?” Reb asked and Jonah shrugged.

“Reckon I’ll check on the horses.”

“Well I’m gonna stay here and work on makin’ some money back. Gotta have money if I want me a warm bed at night.” Jonah chuckled and patted his friend on the back.

“Have fun, Reb.” Reb laughed and then walked back in the saloon, leaving Jonah alone on the rickety boardwalk in the late February chill.

He looked up and down the rather deserted main street of what they pathetically called a town. Really it was barely a dot on a map. But it had the essentials. A livery that was in better shape than the rundown hotel that didn’t cost much, a gunsmith , a blacksmith, a tiny mercantile that didn’t actually sell much of anything and a saloon complete with rot gut whiskey, skunk beer and used up whores.

He narrowed his gray eyes, ran his hand over the blond scruff on his jaw and then let his long, lean legs lead him toward the livery to see to his horses. He didn’t trust the overweight, sleepy looking youth who was in charge during the day to take care of Copper the way Jonah saw fit.

After all, the gelding was the last steady thing that Jonah had in his life other than Reb and Bart and Jonah didn’t figure they’d need fresh oats and rubdowns, not from him at least.

The livery was dark and dingy and it took Jonah’s eyes a moment to adjust before he could make out anything more than shadows and blurs. He looked around for the boy that worked here but didn’t see him. The lazy lay about was probably napping in the loft. Jonah shook his head at that thought and headed toward the stall that he’d placed Copper in the night before.

He was nearly there when he heard a scuffling from an empty stall to his left.

“Shut-up, bitch.” he heard a man growl.

“Please don’t.” a woman pleaded. The sound of a hand striking skin came to his ears and Jonah saw red. He could guess what was happening and he sure as hell wasn’t gonna just sit here and allow it.

He ran for the stall and saw the man, with his pants and gun belt around his ankles and a woman below him, her legs flailing and kicking while her arms were pinned to the hay and dirt covered floor beneath her. Her dress was up past her knees and the man was currently trying to rip her thin underclothes away.

Jonah jumped forward, grabbed the man by the back of his dirty brown vest and yanked him away, flinging him across the barn and against the closed stall door on the other side.

“What the hell?!” the man exclaimed and then his blue eyes widened just before Jonah’s fist came down hard on his face. Blood poured from his nose and Jonah yanked him up by the collar of his shirt.

“You think it’s fun to touch a woman who isn’t willing?” Jonah demanded coldly and the man shook his head.

“Hell no! She was plenty willin’! She likes it that way!” he gasped, blood covering his lips and the front of his shirt. Jonah nodded, punched him one more time for good measure and then threw him down. The man scrambled to his feet, pulled up his pants and then scurried from the barn.

Jonah turned to the woman to find her sitting in the corner of the stall, trembling with her knees pulled up into her chest. Jonah pulled off his duster coat and held out his hand.

He saw her brown doe eyes narrow as she studied him carefully. Her black hair was a disheveled mess and her clear porcelain skin was flushed with fear. Her full, heart shaped lips were turned down in a frown as she looked up at him.

“You can trust me, ma’am.” Jonah said gently. Slowly she reached out her hand and took his, allowing him to help pull her to her feet.

She used her free hand to clutch together the ripped bodice of her dress. Jonah wrapped his duster coat around her shoulders and she pulled it tight around her to hide the disheveled state of her own clothing.

“Do you live around here, ma’am?” he asked and she shook her head.

“My brother and I are passing through. We’re staying at the hotel.” Jonah nodded and led her from the liverly. The fat boy met them at the door.

“What happened?” he exclaimed when he saw them both. Jonah just shook his head.

“Where’ve you been?”

“I had to use the outhouse.” the boy replied. “What happened to her?”

“I took care of it.” Jonah assured him. “Have you given my horse fresh water today?” The boy swallowed hard and nodded, his chins bouncing.

“I was on my way to do that now, sir.” he promised and then he walked quickly into the livery barn, looking over his shoulder once at the woman.

Jonah noticed that she was much shorter than his six feet two inches, probably just over five feet, and his duster coat was dragging on the ground, the sleeves swallowing her arms. She was pretty in an exotic way. Jonah wondered if maybe she had some injun blood in her, though her skin seemed awfully pale for that.

“Where is your brother, ma’am. I feel I should let him know what happened.”

“Oh, he is dealing with some business, sir.”

“My name’s Jonah, ma’am. Jonah Winchester.”

“Thank you, Jonah, for being in the right place at the right time. I hate to think of what could have happened had you not been there.”

“Well, ma’am, don’t you worry about what coulda been. I was there so it didn’t happen.”

“My name is Scarlett Reign. This hotel has a diner inside, Mr. Winchester.”

“Yes it does.” Jonah replied with a shiver as he recalled the runny, bland excuse of a breakfast he had eaten there that morning.

“Won’t you please join my brother and I for dinner there tonight? It’s the least we can do after what you did for me.”

“That won’t be necessary, ma’am.” Jonah replied with a shake of his head but Scarlett smiled sweetly and batted her thick, dark lashes.

“Please reconsider, Mr. Winchester.” Jonah felt every bit of his willpower and resistance fade away. Reb and Bart had always told him that he fell too quick for a sweet voice and a pretty face and this Scarlett had both.

“Well, ma’am, I guess a man’s gotta eat don’t he?”

“Yes, Mr, Winchester, yes he does.” she replied with a nod. “Thank you again for saving me.” she replied as she shivered and wrapped his coat tighter around herself.

“Don’t mention it, ma’am. Get on up to your room now and ya oughta stay there ’til your brother is done with his business. That man might still be hangin’ around and I’m sure he’s plenty mad.”

Scarlett nodded, offered him one more grateful smile that made the sun seem to be a little dimmer in comparison and then turned and disappeared up the hotel stairs.

Jonah watched her until she was gone and then headed back to the livery to tend to Copper.