Episode 2 Scene 3

Scene 3
Patch is talking to Maybelle.

Maybelle – No, I won’t marry you!

Patch – Maybelle, please! I’ll die if you won’t marry me.

Maybelle – Well hurry up and die then, and good riddance! I won’t do it!

Patch – You’ll die if you won’t marry me.

Maybelle – I’d rather be dead than married to you.

Cyrus, Hazel, Crane, Jed, and Guy 1 walk into the camp. Patch smiles.

Patch – Well maybe you don’t value your own life or mine, but perhaps you value theirs. Do you want to see them die, just because of your pride?

Maybelle looks distressed. She can’t decide what to do.

Patch – Their lives aren’t worth much to me, and I’d just as much rather kill them as not. Do you have any objections?

Maybelle looks horrified. Patch, not hearing a response, cocks his gun and points it at Hazel.

Maybelle – Wait!

Patch pauses, and looks at her.

Maybelle – Patch, please don’t.

Patch – Marry me.

Maybelle – Two conditions.

Hazel – Maybelle, no!

Patch – Go ahead.

Maybelle – First, they have to be able to go free. Them, and the parson, and anyone else that you might be holding captive needs to be released.

Patch – And the second?

Maybelle – I want a proper wedding, tomorrow. Not necessarily in a church, but without guns. I don’t want anyone held at gunpoint during the ceremony. It would feel too forced that way.

Patch – Done. It’ll be tomorrow at 1:30, and for your sake, nobody had better be late.

Patch walks off. Crane follows, and Jed and Guy 1 take Cyrus and Hazel to the other side of camp.

Crane – You’re letting those two stay alive? You remember what happened last time with them. You can’t trust them, even when they’re dead.

Patch – The wedding’s at 1:30; they’ll be dead by two. Once the vows are made, I won’t need them anymore.

Crane – Smart thinking.

Patch – Hey listen. Those girls have another sister, a younger one. You remember?

Crane – Yeah. Bout that high?

Crane holds his hand up, and Patch nods.

Patch – I want to you go and bring her back here, as extra incentive for Maybelle. You think you can handle her alone?

Crane – Sure thing. I’ll be back in an hour or two.

Patch – So long.

Crane walks off.

Cut to:

Maybelle is talking to Guy 2.

Maybelle – What do you mean, I can’t go over to the stream? I have to do some washing.

Guy 2 – Patch says nobody’s to leave without his permission.

Maybelle – But this is on his business. After all, I’m marrying him tomorrow, and I don’t think he’d want me to be wearing a dirty dress.

Guy 2 is unsure.

Maybelle – It’ll only take a few minutes. If Patch is angry, let him talk to me.

Guy 2 – Fine. Go ahead, but not too far.

Maybelle – Thank you sir, I’m much obliged.

Maybelle walks down to the creek with her dress for the wedding. Guy 2 follows her and watches her from a distance. Maybelle bends down to soak her dress.

Buck – Don’t turn around.

Maybelle starts, but doesn’t turn. The camera pans to Buck, sitting behind the riverbank, out of view of Guy 2.

Buck – How are you, Maybelle?

Maybelle – Buck?

Buck – You’re durned tootin’ it is. Where are Cyrus and Hazel?

Maybelle – In the camp, a few hundred yards behind us.

Buck – Are they all right?

Maybelle – For now. But Patch says he’ll kill them if I don’t marry him tomorrow.

Buck – Are you going to?

Maybelle – I said I would, but personally I’d rather die.

Buck – Is there any way to get out of it?

Maybelle – If someone could come in and break up the wedding…

Buck – No good. Those men will be jumpy throughout the whole ceremony, with their hands near their guns. Any attempt to rush in could turn into a massacre. But you’re right, we need to think up some way of you not saying ‘I do.’ …Hey wait a second!

Maybelle – Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Buck – I think so.

Maybelle – I’ve got to be getting back.

Buck – Okay. See you tomorrow.

Maybelle walks up from the stream, wringing out her dress. After she passes Guy 2, she smiles, knowing that he didn’t hear the conversation.

Fade out