Frontier General Store

November 1883 Third week

There are many a sounds that come out of the rooms above the saloon and Jason has learned to sleep thru most of them. Anyone that woke him up would have hell to pay. They could settle their fussing among themselves or he'd settle it. The room he takes when he is in town is at the far end-- the quietest end. Dara has the room next to his. She didn't take too many callers preferring to make her living singing and so it went getting progressively busier the closer one got to the stairs.
Jason had only gotten back from following Jax out into the woods and is catching up on his shut eye when something wakes him. He is instantly alert and waits for a second to figure out what woke him. It's a whimper, nothing loud really, coming from the next room. Jason rises and pulls his pants and boots on leaving the suspenders hanging. He raps on the door. "Dara? You alright in there?" There is no answer. Jason calls out again and then opens the door and starts swearing at the sight. He goes down to the next door and pounds on it until one of the girls answers. "Get me hot water and bandages. And have someone send for one of my guys."

"Are you okay, Jase?" Lorraine looks him over for any sign of injury.

"Dara's not." Jason says grimly.

"Good morning." Jax announces to the manager of the General Store. He is the first customer of the day. "I would like to file for a homestead property out in the valley. Everything you told me about it I'm quite impressed."

"It's a little late in the year." The manager shakes his head. "You should wait for spring... see if you're still interested."

"Oh I'll still be interested come spring so I might as well get a head start now." Jax goes over to the map on the wall and identifies the parcel across from the Cassadines. "This one right here. And then I'll need to have you fill this order. It is supplies I will be taking out to the valley and storing for the winter."

The manager looks at him and then shakes his head. He'd thought that Jax had more sense. "Lets do the paperwork."

"Excellent!"

Jason is scrubbing his hands furiously from the elbows on down in the kitchen of the saloon. He hasn't been so ticked since he came out of the coma and every single one of the Quartermaines started getting in his face. He'd headed out to the range then to get some peace and quiet something in very short supply in the Big House. Emmie and Grandmother had negotiated a peace for him in his absence.
The Quartermaines left him the hell alone and he took care of the ranching end of their business. And he was good at it. Didn't mean that every time he was at the Big House that he didn't hear all about the son that should have been a doctor. Just meant that the visits to the Big House were few and far between and then only for as long as he had business there.

"Jason, you aren't gonna want to hear this but she can't stay here. She can't work and well... it's bad for business."

Jason looks over at Jake and lifts a brow. He dries off his hands and then going over to the kitchen door throws out the pink tinged water. He rolls down his sleeves. "She was working for you when she was hurt."

"But that doesn't mean... look, I'll pay her a bonus, a severance bonus. Hell I'll even hire her back when she's healed but she can't stay here. It freaks out the other girls."

"Freaks out the girls to know they could have been the ones in her shoes. Where the hell were you?" Jason swears. "I knew something was off before I left. Something just felt wrong."

"There was no way of knowing. He looked normal enough turned out to be some crazy bastard with a twenty year old ax to grind. It's why I don't hire squaws. They always end up getting the rough trade. Men wanting to fight the Indian wars all over again."

"She can't stay here cause she's bad for business. She can't stay with those stuck up bitches that run the rooming houses. I'd rent her a house but she can't be on her own. It's gonna take her a good while to heal up. Dara'd be a sitting duck for any crazy coming along."

"Aren't there some blacks out in the valley?" Jake suggests. "Figure they'd take care of their own."

"Yeah, right. Like all white folk take care of their own." Jason rolls down his sleeves and buttons them at the wrist. His movements are sharp.

Johnny and Rinaldo show up at the kitchen door. "You wanted to see us, Boss?"

"Leave us." Jason orders Jake. As soon as Jake is gone and the door between the kitchen and the saloon closed, Jason starts listing Dara's injuries one after another. The men are silent and get progressively grimmer. Dara is a personal favorite of them both. Every night they were in town, they wouldn't settle in for the evening until after they'd heard her sing her whole set. Then Jason gives the guys a description of the last man Dara had been seen with the night before. "Find him. Do exactly to him what he did to Dara. And then take him twenty miles out from anywhere and leave him."

"Sure you don't want us to kill him, boss? After we make him hurt." Rinaldo adds just to be clear.

"Nah, that would be too easy."

"I will need to rent a team and wagon for a trip out to the valley. I'll have it back to you in a week, ten days tops." Jax's next stop is to the stockyards. He'd turned in his horse just that morning and is making quite the turn around.

"Got a couple of wagons. Figure you for wanting to pick your own team." The stockman agrees with a nod. "Let me know what you decide." He steps away from Jax when he sees Jason striding his way. "Mr. Morgan, what can I do for you?"

"Those Taggart people out in the valley. What do they want. I know they raise pigs to make hams and stuff. But is there anything particular they want?"

"I talked to Miz Flo's girl a couple of different times... she was always looking real hard on the boars. And I don't figure they got one although they kept planning on getting one."

"Pick the best one you have left and crate it up for me. I'm going to need a team and wagon too. Bring it round to Jakes."

"If you're heading out to the valley, you should be talking to that funny talking fella. He's talking like he's going out there too."

Jason just looks at the stockman and then over to Jax. "Just find me a pig." He walks away.

"What a grim individual." Jax comes back over to the stockman after making his selections.

"That's Jason Morgan. He's not a man to cross. Fact is most people cross the street when they see him coming." The stockman has decided he'd been a bit too chatty and changes his tune a bit. "But if you're ever in a bind, he's the man to see. He fixes things. Don't talk much just gets to it."

Dara gathers her strength and reaches out to one of the posts of her bed and grasping it firmly pulls herself to her feet swaying at the effort.

Lorraine sees what she is doing as she passes the open door and races into Dara's room. "Oh no you don't. Jase said you were suppose to stay in bed. He'll have my hide if you aren't." Lorraine winces at the slip of her tongue.

"I'm fine." Dara protests ignoring the fact that her back feels like it is on fire. If she couldn't work then she'd be done for. She has her little nest egg but it wouldn't last long. This is a setback at the worst possible time. She isn't ready yet. She figures that if she can't work then she'd have to find another place to stay. Jake didn't rent room to boarders well cept Jason and that's 'cause he's a Quartermaine who doesn't mind pitching in where needed whether it's hauling in barrels of whiskey, doing the books or kicking some ass that needs kicking. "I can work. I'm fine. Just a little stiff is all."

Lorraine laughs. "Right. It wouldn't take much of a breeze to blow you over. You're already rocking on your feet. Damnit Dara! Sit down before you fall down." Lorraine reaches out to Dara but doesn't know where to put her hands that won't cause more pain. Dara finally gives in and sags down on the bed keeping a hand to the post to hold her upright.

That is the way Jason finds them. "Who do you trust, Dara? Lorraine and one other."

"Penny."

"Go get her, Lorraine." Jason orders. He crosses to the bed and squats down resting on his heels balancing his arms on his knees. "You can't stay here."

"I can work, Jason. Okay. So I took a beating. Not the first, won't be the last. I just need a couple of days..."

"Dara, he didn't just take off some skin he got the meat too. Wouldn't surprise me if some of those little patches of white I saw were bone. You need to rest up and I don't mean on your back-- all winter long would be best. Hell you need to get out of this business all together. You hate it something fierce."

"Jason... I got no place else to go. Don't let Jake throw me out, please."

"The valley I run the Quartermaine cattle thru to the summer grass-- there are homesteaders out there now. You can stay out with them."

"Oh yeah, right. Knock knock. Here I am, be staying for the winter. Never in a million years."

"There is a black family..."

Maybe pain makes her brave or stupid but Dara interrupts. "You know, Jase, my mother is black too and it didn't stop her from showing me the door when I started singing somewhere other than church!"

"They're good people."

"Lord! Save me from good people." Dara retorts.

Jason sighs. "I'd take you out to the Big House but damn it, Dara. I'm never out there and don't want to leave you on your own to heal. Especially around Alan or the Old Man."

"So let me stay here. Convince Jake."

"No. It's not an option. The valley or the train home that's your choices." Lorraine and Penny show up at the door to Dara's room. Jason looks over his shoulder at them. "Pack her things. Leave out one warm comfortable outfit to travel in. Help her get dressed. No corset, the stays will rub her back raw...er."

"Jason..."

"The train or the valley."

"Fine. The valley but if I'm not happy there..."

"Then I'll take you out to the Big House." The torturous look on Jason's face tells every one in the room what a pain that would be not for Dara, who'd probably be spoiled rotten by Miz Lila and Emmie, but for him.

Jax checks over the harnesses to the team he'd hired to make sure that everything is in good repair and set right on the horses. The manager of the store and his son are loading the wagon with all the items that Da and Jerry had requested. "That's about it."

"Mr. Jacks, if it wouldn't be an inconvenience to you... would it be possible to send some items out with you to the valley? There is some mail for the others and a few packages."

"Not at all." Jax smiles. perfect. It'll be my introduction to the other families.

"Jax..."

"I'll be bringing Da and Jerry back with me, Lady Jane. For that American Thanksgiving you have your heart set on."

"You'll be careful."

Jax grins. "Of course. When am I not?"

Jane shakes her head. "Why do I bother with the lot of you?" She reaches up and cups the side of her son's face. He leans in to give her a kiss on the cheek. "Oh yes, that's why. Because I love you all to distraction."

Jax whispers in her ear. "Only be ten days at the most, Mum. Take care of business for me while I'm gone."

Jane nods. Another reason why she loves her husband and sons to distraction. They'd never treat her like a brainless doll even when they are being overprotective. "You've got all your gear if the weather should turn nasty."

"Got my woolies." Jax grins again. "Don't worry so, Lady Jane. All your birds will be back in the nest in a few days."

"Oh I almost forgot." Jane opens up her purse. "Mrs. Scott wants you to give this to someone named Miz Flo who lives out in the valley. She wants a ham for her Thanksgiving Dinner and believes Miz Flo can provide it. The money for the ham is folded into the letter."

"I'll be quite the postman this trip." Jax nods in the direction of the General Store manager who is loading the last of the mail into the wagon and then tying down the tarp.

Jason pulls in behind them at the Store. Dara is seated up front by him. Half of the back of the wagon is taken up with a big, cranky pig in a crate. Most of the rest is packed with Dara's trunks. They are carefully wrapped and partitioned to keep them away from the pig and any additions he might make to the back of the wagon. Jason hops down. "Stay put. I'll be right back. Just want to pick up a couple of things. Then we'll be on our way."

"I don't believe I've ever seen her before." Jane wonders at what is distracting her son.

"She's the singer at the saloon. And the man with her is the foreman of the Quartermaine ranch. They are also heading out to the valley for some reason." Jax says softly. "But I'll have a few days to find out the whole story."

Jason comes out of the store with a sack over his shoulder that is bulging with, from the sounds of it, tins. He tosses it behind him into the wagon and then climbs up. Yahing to the horses he gets out on the trail.

"Well wasn't that rude! Not a word to you and he knows you're going out to the valley too!"

"Everything I've heard around town about Mr. Morgan, Lady Jane... he's a rude fellow. But let me get on the trail. Sooner gone sooner back."

Jane gives him another kiss on the cheek and then steps back. She waves as he leaves and then with a sigh she walks back to the rooming house alone. At least Mrs. Scott would be happy. Her message to the valley was on it's way.

The journey isn't easy. Jax could have made it to the valley long before Jason and Dara but had been quick to notice that there is something wrong with the singer. He didn't take Jason Morgan as the type to treat a woman like spun sugar but he was with Dara. Keeping a careful eye on her and not pushing beyond her limits, taking frequent breaks so she could stiffly walk around as much as she was able. As soon as Jax had realized that the woman was ill he'd adjusted his pace as well. Course the hair had gone up on the back of his neck when a day into the journey they'd been joined by two rough looking men, armed to the teeth and grim faced.

"Are you expecting trouble, Mr. Morgan?"

"Not now." Jason had retorted and left it at that.

Dara had called the two roughnecks by name... Johnny and Rinaldo. And like Jason they both treated her like spun sugar. She didn't have to fetch anything but it would be brought to her. She was piled with blankets that were probably heavier than she was to make sure she was warm enough. They competed in telling her stories to try to make her smile or laugh but what they really wanted was for her to sing. And every night she would. Not the bawdy songs she'd sung in the saloon but rather sweet songs that they remembered from their youth.

At the entrance to the valley, Jax pulls up to let Morgan come even with him. "It was a pleasure traveling with you, Miss Dara. I shall miss your nightly serenades."

"Mr. Jacks." Dara acknowledges him.

Jax increases his pace so that his wagon is the first in the valley. From Jerry's directions he knows where he is going. There are a few people out and about splitting firewood and doing chores but they don't give him any notice as they are used to wagons from town heading up to the Cassadines.

Jason pulls into the Taggart place. Marcus pauses in what he's doing planting the ax firmly in the stump he uses for splitting wood. This couldn't be good. Morgan and two of the cowboys he remembered from the cattle drive. Jason swings down and walks over to Taggart. "I need to talk to your mother... privately."

Both of Marcus' brows go up at that one. "I'll get her for you."

Marcus goes into the cabin and comes back out with his mother who is wiping her hands on her apron. Flo's eyes go wide when she sees who is seated in the wagon and her lips get tight. She stomps over to where Jason is standing. "You got something to say to me." If there was one thing she'd noticed about Jason Morgan when they'd harvested the hogs is that he is a blunt man saying exactly what he thinks.

Jason looks over his shoulder. He doesn't want Dara's feelings hurt and he reads this woman well enough to know that might happen. "In private."

"Fine." Flo stalks inside the shed and shuts the door in her son's face after letting Morgan in.

"I want Dara to stay with you and your family for the winter."

"I'm raising a girl, Mr. Morgan. I would scarcely invite a whore into my home."

"Careful how you talk, Mrs. Taggart." Jason warns starting to get ticked.

"It's not respectable work. And I don't respect the women that do it."

"How about women that used to do it."

"Are you saying she's quit? That she isn't gonna be sniffing around my son or the other men in this valley?"

"Mrs. Taggart, Dara took a beating, a bad one. Not cause of the work as you call it but because she is black. I figured that make a difference to you. She was beat not cause of what she is but who she is."

Flo takes a step back at that. "Ha. And I bet nothing happened to the sonofabitch."

"He got what he gave." Jason says grimly. "That's the way I work, Mrs. Taggart. It's been Dara's plan all along to get out of the business. She was just waiting to make enough money to get out. She isn't asking for charity. Dara can pay her own way."

"Money she made whoring." Flo can't quite get over that one.

"Severance pay and money from me for information she got me on the Jacks."

"I'll talk to her. If she's quit she can stay. If she is going to continue her old business... she won't be doing it out of my house."

Seeing no sign of activity at the soddie that is the fourth house in the valley, Jax continues on up to the next property. Jerry had said that the Cassadines lived here and were just about the only family on speaking terms with them. Setting the brake, Jax swings down from the wagon. He brushes his coat absently and tugs at his sleeves then knocks at the front door. A woman in a black dress with a starched apron answers the door. Jax's brows go up upon seeing her. A housekeeper had been unexpected for homesteaders but considering the scale of the Cassadine homestead perhaps he shouldn't have been surprised. "Is Mr. Cassadine at home?"

"Who may I say is calling?" Mrs. Lansbury blocks the door.

"Jasper Jacks. I am actually looking for my father and brother..."

Mrs. Lansbury steps back from the door allowing Jax entry. "Please wait here."

Jax rocks on his heels but the wait isn't long. A young man comes to the entryway. "I am Nikolas Cassadine. Mrs. Lansbury says you are looking for you family?"

"Yes, there didn't seem to be anybody at the next place down."

"I believe they are across the river. Would you like me to accompany you?"

"I don't want to put you out."

"You aren't."

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