<div class="floatleft">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/8/8a/Sarah.jpg)</div>There may have been a bottle placed on the table before her but she didn't touch it, the small glass was held in her hand and one single sip had been taken but nothing more. She wasn't too pushed if any one noticed this, Sarah didn't think any one cared enough what or how much she drank. They were too busy dealing with the crap of their own lives to bother with another wretched soul trespassing on their time. Her gaze however took in every man in the room and the girls that lingered on a few laps. It was during her scrutiny that a door overhead slammed shut and laughing of a high tinkling variety wafted down to her ears. It sounded shrill and overly done as if forced joviality was necessary to placate whoever the woman was with. Sarah had a moment where she felt sorry for her but it soon passed. Whoever the woman was had chosen her own circumstances and if life itself had forced the situation on to her, then there were always options. True death was possibly the best one in all the others that came to mind, but Sarah didn't and couldn't feel sorry for any one that chose that way of life.<br/><br/>Footsteps moved, one heavy and the other padding lightly as if in barefeet. Murmured voices before the woman ran back to her room and closed the door again behind her. As the figure of a man walked down the stairs right in her line of vision, Sarah felt the hair on the back of her hands stand up. A cold shiver crept along her spine and her insides turned as if she would throw up. It took all her nerve to steel herself just to remain seated. Brody Castle! She would recognise him or any of his brothers twice over but as he turned his head and looked directly at her, his gaze barely flickered with anything but lust. He didn't recognise her and she couldn't blame him. She was a far cry from the farmers wife he had raped. Her hair wasn't brushed all neat and tidy, she wasn't wearing skirts or a blouse ... she was no longer married and she was no longer pregnant she slapped on in her own mind as the gnawing desire for revenge took over.<br/><br/>Her fear of this man was gone, she could feel it seeping from her. She was not the scared fragile woman she once was, she had a purpose and that was to gun down him and his brothers. Without saying a word to any one other than nodding his head at one or two, he left the saloon and taking a sudden gulp for courage, Sarah drained her glass and left soon after him. When she got outside she saw nothing more than a lone rider galloping out of town and she moved into the middle of the dirt road to watch him. Anger bubbled within her as the doors to the Saloon opened and footsteps made their way across the wooden flooring to the road after her.<br/>"What business you got here miss?"<br/><br/>Sarah turned to see a lean looking man dressed in dirt gray trousers and long coat, his stetson pushed high so she could easily see the scar that ran down one side of his face dragging on his left eye making him look garish. She didn't doubt he scared children with that face.<br/><strong>"None of yours."</strong><br/><br/>He spat some tobacco to the ground, a blob of black staining the sand.<br/>"Well now see ... you're a stranger and I don't much take to strangers. Especially ones that go following friends of mine outside."<br/><br/>Her eyebrows quirked up as she regarded him, one hand moving to unclip her gun from its holster.<br/><strong>"Well if he's a friend of yours then you're no friend of mine."</strong><br/><br/>Before she had fully unclipped her gun, he had his out and was lifting it swiftly at her. Sarah pulled roughly on her own gun but his shot rang out first, the bullet clipping the side of her arm while her own hit the wooden column of the Saloon to his right. She swore as the pain tore through her, it was superficial but for now she wasn't to know that. It just bloody stung like hell.