12 years later...

Scarlett stared down at her father's grave, his death still a clear memory in her head though in 12 years many things had changed. Her mother remarried a man that Scarlett couldn't stand. All her sisters were married off to wealthy men that her step father knew and set them up with. Smiling she remembered each and every one that she had rejected. She knew that it drove her mother and step father crazy that she would do anything she could to avoid getting married.

"That man is driving me crazy pa." Scarlett spoke to the stone that never spoke back. "He actually wanted me to settle down with a doctor! I can't stand someone who thinks they know everything! He very much thought he knew anything and everything!"

"You rejected the doctor too?" Henry's voice called out to Scarlett.

"I had too! He was too...inquisitive." Scarlett spoke with a giggle as she looked to her best friend. "You didn't sound like you were on his side either."

"Scarlett, I don't want you to end up a spinster. I want you to be happy." Henry said with a sigh as he nudged his friend playfully.

"I will be happy when that brown hatted man is dead." Scarlet said her voice turning cold as ice.

Henry nodded, he had no idea who the man was but somehow Scarlett held onto the grudge. Not that he blamed her for that but they didn't have a name just a scar she saw when she was a girl. Who was to say that the man wasn't dead now anyway?

"I'll marry right after I kill him." Scarlett said turning to leave the graveyard.

"Oh yeah? You really think someone would marry you once you have wanted posters all over town?" Henry scoffed as he followed his friend.

Stopping in her tracks Scarlett looked over her shoulder at Henry. Ever since she was a girl she loved him and deep down she knew he loved her too. Not that she would ever admit that to him in a million years but at the right time she would. Until then she would give him the smallest hints ever.

"You would, don't even try to deny it." Scarlett smiled her pearly whites at Henry who just nodded knowing that he couldn't disagree with her.

"My Pa is trying to marry me off too though so get this done with soon or I may not be around to marry you." Henry said walking out to the red head who had held his heart. "Then what would you do?"

Scarlet looked into Henry's eyes. Her heart felt troubled hearing that he was trying to be married off as well. It made sense though since they had both been avoiding this for as long as they could. They were both of marrying age, Scarlett was 19 which meant that Henry would be 20 almost 21 one here very soon.

"I have to do this Henry, I swore to myself that I would find the man and give him the same injustice he gave my father." Scarlett said sincerely.

Henry watched her in shock, she was serious. He had heard her say over the years that she would hunt the man down and end him but for some reason he never took her seriously. Henry grabbed Scarlett and held her close.

"What if you don't make it? What if he kills you or you end up in jail and hung as well? I can't bear to think of anything happening to you." Henry said as he held her tight.

"Mr. Jackson, you would do well to remove yourself from my step daughter's person, she has a gentleman caller at the house." Scarlett's step father, Morgan, called out to them.

Henry moved away from Scarlett and sighed. Looking to her step father and hating the man a plan came to her mind. Not the smartest of plans but maybe this would be something to show her step father that he couldn't control her and maybe even reassure Henry that she needed him with her always. Grabbing Henry's head Scarlett leaned in and placed her lips against his. Henry was wide eyed with shock but that was over quickly as he leaned into his first kiss with the girl he loved.

Henry had a feeling he knew why Scarlett was kissing him. Just to make her step father upset. Judging by the sound of him yelling at the two of them it was working too. Scarlett pulled away and smiled at her friend. Henry smiled back a small smile as she walked past him and to her step father who narrowed his eyes at Scarlett and then at Henry before taking off down the street with Scarlett a few steps ahead of him.

Walking back to the grave of Jacob Worthington, Henry took out a small bunch of flowers he hid in his vest and laid them on the grave of his best friends father.

"Forgive me Mr. Worthington but I think I have been hopelessly in love with your daughter since I was a child and now knowing that evil man is trying to marry her off to one of his friends is driving me mad." Henry admitted to the stone as he sat down on the dirt beside it as looked at the dirt ground. "I have nothing to offer her though, I am still training to be a deputy and if she did go through with her plan I fear I would have to take her in no matter how good her reasoning is."

Sighing Henry looked up at the bright blue sky, anyone would be happy to have such nice weather on a day like today but Henry just seemed to be at war with himself. The woman he loved couldn't fight marriage forever or if she did, she would become and outlaw and he may have to arrest her.

"Love isn't fair." Henry sighed.

"Are you speaking to the sky?" Lucy, one of Scarlett's sisters asked as she walked forward and placed flowers at her father's grave. "If so I don't think it will answer you back."

"No just rambling." Henry said as he stood up and dusted himself off.

"Talking about Scarlett I suppose, you really are so in love with her that she occupies your mind that often?" Lucy asked with a kind smile.

Shrugging Henry thought it best not to answer her question.

"She is about to meet another suitor, I can only imagine what she will do this time to get out of it. I must admit she is quite smart like father was. She finds the most amusing ways to show what a troublesome wife she would be." Lucy laughed as she thought back at all the stunts Scarlett had pulled. "Still, one day they will kick her out though, she will be a spinster and penniless. What would you do then Henry?"

"Me? What could I do Lucy?" Henry asked surprised by Lucy's question.

"Maybe admit you love her, have her settle down and marry you, have children. You know things normal women do." Lucy said with a sigh.

"Lucy, you and I both know Scarlett is not normal and she will not just settle down. Besides I'm just her friend, that's all she will ever see me as." Henry said as he began to walk out of the graveyard.

"I don't know many friends who kiss right on the mouth." Lucy called out making Henry pause.

"She only did that to make Morgan angry, it worked so she got what she wanted." Henry said as he kicked a rock past a stone then walked out of the graveyard.

"Poor clueless boy, Scarlett should just marry him already. If only he read her journal as much as my sisters and I did." Lucy said putting a finger to her lip in thought.

Scarlett sat inside her family home, in the dinning room, looking painfully bored at the man in front of her trying to impress her with talks about the railroad and what good it would do for the west. Her mother smiled trying to show that she was attempting to listen to the man. Morgan, laughed at every joke the man made no matter how bad they were.

"What of you Scarlett? What interests do you have? Do you sew? Write perhaps?" the gentleman asked as he looked to Scarlett finally.

"No, not really I prefer to go on adventures far away from home. I can hardly tell you all the times my mother has woken from her bed only to find me not in mine."

The man's fork dropped from his hand with his mouth still open from his attempt at trying to eat the dinner Scarlett's mother had prepared. Scarlett's mother, Olivia closed her eyes and shook her head slightly in regret and anger. Deep down she knew that Scarlett didn't want to marry but she also know that she and Morgan couldn't support her forever so she had to marry.

"Disappear?" the man questioned.

"Well just one a few adventures for a month or two at most." Scarlett smiled.

"A month or two...what about your duties as a daughter and one day to your husband as a wife?" he questioned yet again.

"I do not plan to marry, not you nor anyone my step father brings into this house for I would rather die." Scarlett said rising from the table. "Good night mother, kind sir it has been an honor to meet you but I will not marry you. Good night."

With that, Scarlett turned and left the room. Morgan nor Olivia showed surprise but the suitor did. The good looking, blonde haired man smiled and now thought of Scarlett as not only a challenge but someone he could see himself spending the rest of his life with. With a bright smile he looked over at Morgan.

"You have a deal, I will take her as my wife, in her own time of course because it seems at the moment marriage is the farthest thing on her mind. I will stay in town do let me know when she is ready." The man smiled as he stood from the table.

"Are you sure Mr. Cunningham? She may not ever agree to marrying you as you just heard." Olivia spoke up to the surprise of Morgan.

"Oh quite sure, please call me Jasper, I will wait for her as long as I must for I have a feeling I already love her." He said and then left the home.

"Well...that went splendid." Morgan grinned as he stood.

"She will break his heart and rub him into the dirt." Olivia said looking to Morgan.

"Not if we find leverage....what does she want Olivia?" Morgan replied.

"I can only guess one thing, revenge on her father's death." Olivia sighed as she looked to her husband.