I heard the stories of you. I heard the legends of your bravery and your heroism, and I believed them. I believed that I would find a holy warrior when I reached this place, a heroine who would help me avenge the deaths of my parents." Victoria's voice grew quieter as she spoke, her words sliding a stone lid over her hopes as her father's brothers had slid stone lids over her parents. "I suppose I was the fool, a naive girl still believing in fairy tales. If nothing else, I gained wisdom on this journey. A poor consolation, but with only cowards and old men left to me, I should be grateful to have learned it while I am still young."
The hunter listened to her tirade, her face blank. When Victoria finished, Cora took a deep breath and looked down at her boots. The white streak in her hair shone softly in the light. Victoria stood still, surprised at herself for what she had just said. Father Baez's warnings popped back into her head, and she swallowed. Her speech may very well get her shot by this woman. To die in the storeroom of an American saloon wasn't how she pictured her end, but maybe she should have seen it coming when she stepped off the train in this miserable little town.
"What's your name, girl?" Cora's voice was quiet.
"Victoria Dawes."
"Well, Victoria Dawes," she said, eyes glinting, "consider yourself lucky. Ain't nobody in this town gets to call me a coward to my face without getting themselves a right fine licking. What I gave you was a tender little kiss compared to what I've given some." Cora shifted her weight, leaning toward the young woman to drive her point home. "You try it again, it ain't going to matter none that you is a woman, fancy or otherwise. You ain't the first woman I've whipped, and you ain't going to be the last.
"Now, you're as green as any grease-licked city sprout could be, so that's why I'm letting you off so easy like. Not so easy as some would have, maybe, but a lot more easier than most others. This here is rough country, and the sooner you skedaddle on back to England, the better. You came out here looking for heroes. Well, there ain't no heroes. Not here, not anywhere. I reckon I'm the nicest old coot you're like to meet out here. Half the men in the other room would have taken your womanly charms without a second thought had they come across you in some back alley. The other half maybe ain't that bad, but they sure ain't above taking a fine lady's finery, neither. I'm plumb amazed you ain't had yourself a run-in with such folk yet."
"Father always said I was lucky," Victoria said with a small smile.
Cora nodded. "Your daddy sounds like he left the second part out, the part where he says you ain't all that bright. Ain't you fancy people got bodyguards and such to keep you from doing fool things? What got it into your head that you could just march on out here with nothing but your own self?"
Victoria raised her chin. "I am not a coward. My parents are dead, and I am the only one who cares to see them avenged."
"Revenge's a right fine thing," Cora said, "but all you're like to find out here is your own death. You got anyone cares enough back home to come hunt down the bastard that does you in?" Victoria shook her head. "Well, then, all the more reason to call off before that happens."
"Where am I to go?" Victoria asked. "Where can I turn now?"
"Turn back home," Cora said. "Surely there's somebody in that big fancy country of yours as could help you out."
"No," Victoria replied, her hands curling into fists. "Your friend's colleagues refuse to associate with women in such matters, and I don't know of anyone else who might help. Most wouldn't even believe the story if I told it to them."
Cora brushed her hands on her trousers. "Sounds to me like you is out of luck, then. Best get on with your life and make your parents happy that way."
"I can't. I refuse. I swore to them over their graves that I would avenge them. I can't very well return emptyhanded."
"Well, you ain't returning no other way unless you find yourself a hero someplace else."
Tears sprang again to Victoria's eyes, and she hated herself for them. "It would