Kid sat in frozen shock, his eyes locked on Louise’s
slender frame, suspended from the cross Pike’s men had just raised over the
edge of the Mission’s wall.
How? he wondered inanely, how had she gotten there? She
was supposed to be safe at her new station!
Even as his breath was stuck in his chest from fear,
his heart was leaping with joy to see her again, the competing emotions keeping
him from moving or reacting in any discernible way. All told, probably not that bad a thing
judging by Pike’s expectant look, which Kid caught out of the corner of his eye
when the other man moved impatiently.
But Kid never took his eyes off Lou.
She looked sooooo good to his eyes, starved for her
as they were. Yet, he was scared stiff
by her appearance. He’d forgotten how
fragile she was, her slender body so easily bruised and broken. Usually her fierce personality overwhelmed
her appearance, leaving people with the impression of a strong, sturdy
individual. Having been separated from
her for so long, her fragility was fully apparent to his eyes and heart. It didn’t help that her position, with arms
stretched out on the cross, just pulled her skin tight over muscle and bone,
exaggerating her innately petite frame.
Lou found her eyes locked on Kid’s face as soon as they
raised the cross they’d tied her to up onto its end. But she couldn’t meet his gaze, looking
quickly away in shame at her position.
She’d come to help, but now she was just another problem they’d have to
deal with, a liability to her brothers, just like Kid was always saying. The thought that she might prove him right infuriated
her and she frantically tried to think of ways to rescue herself. She’d spent years learning to take care of
herself, so she’d never have to scream for help again and be let down. It broke
something inside that she might now have to wait to be rescued. She knew they’d try, but they shouldn’t have
to endanger themselves for her. As she
fingered the ropes that bound her hands together, feeling the weakness in her
muscles that meant she couldn’t break free, a small part of her, deep down
inside, broke instead. Who was she if
she wasn’t ‘Lou McCloud, Pony Express Rider,’ the puny but spry youth who was
as rough and tumble and tough as any of her brothers?
Unable to find an answer, her eyes wandered back
toward Kid, almost against her will. She
could see the tension in his body as he held himself back from charging the
Mission gate singlehandedly. She closed
her eyes and prayed, with every fiber of her being, that her presence here
didn’t cause her brothers or, most especially Kid, to get hurt. The thought that she could be the one to
injure them in some way was almost more than she could bear. The pain of that
bit deep and a slight shudder ran through her.
Despite her pain and shame, she couldn’t keep from
sneaking peaks at him though. It had been too long since she’d seen him, really
seen him. When she’d run into him on that run a couple weeks ago she’d never
gotten a good look at him. That had been
a night of feelings, emotions, not appearances.
So now she drank in the sight of him.
While she felt small, puny as Teaspoon had once described her, he looked
strong, vibrant in a way that drew her, heart and soul, to him.
His strength drew her, like a moth to a
flame, and she found herself unable to look away. She could feel it wrapping around her, calming
the fear and pain and anger warring inside her, letting her relax and think
logically. She longed to fly down off
the cross and throw herself into his arms, to soak up the strength he so freely
offered her. He always seemed to be
there when she was at her lowest, sharing his strength with her, helping her
back to her feet. It was an effect she’d
never realized he’d had on her before and she marveled at it. She only now realized just how tight the
ropes that bound them together were, when she needed his strength so badly yet
couldn’t quite reach out to him the way she wanted. She
hadn’t really noticed it in his absence. Only now, when he was there yet still
just out of reach,did his effect on her truly blossom in her soul.
“Oh, now I
wouldn’t try that if I were you.”
Lou’s head jerked to the raised platform just behind
the mission wall that Frank Pike stood on.
She blanched as she saw him cock his raised pistol. Another swing of her head back to Kid and she
saw his hand slowly, carefully move away from the pistol on his hip as Frank
spoke again.
“You never know who might get caught in the
crossfire.”
She knew who Pike meant. Her.
He’d found her letters and figured out who she was to Teaspoon and the
others. As she watched Kid wheel Katy
around and gallop off she cursed herself for being so stupid, not only in
getting caught but in carrying with her the evidence that made her a threat to
those she loved. Had it only been three
days ago she’d ridden out, so sure she was on the way to help her family escape
this situation?
**********
Three
days earlier….
The small fire she’d lit to cook her supper over
flickered merrily, casting valleys and mountains of light across her sharply
carved features, the skin pulled taut over her bones with all the weight she’d
lost in the last few weeks.
Her slender hands trembled slightly as she held the
letters in front of her and read through them again. She’d carefully wrapped all of the letters
the boys, Teaspoon and Rachel had sent her in an oiled cloth to protect them,
Kid’s on top. Some of them she’d re-read
so many times by now she had them memorized.
This time, though, she set the others aside and opened Kid’s missive.
As she re-read the dear
words, certain phrases jumped out at her this time, making her pause and purse
her lips in frustration.
“Treating you like a proper woman…
I flirted with her shamelessly…. I know you and you’d be right in the
thick of things, trying to save Amanda, protect Teaspoon, help all of us. …..
But I would spend my time worrying about your safety and not concentrating
on what I need to do.”
“How can someone so
special be so infuriatin’ at the same time?” she muttered to herself
questioningly. “I should be with ya,
Kid. You and the others. Whatever yer goin’ thorugh, I should be goin’
thorugh, too.” She sighed and pressed
the letter closed, holding it to her lips as she continued to mutter to
herself. “Half yer letter is you tellin’
me how much ya still care about me. And
the other half if you tellin’ me how glad ya are I’m not with ya.”
Even as she growled in
frustration at the Kid’s pigheadedness, she could hear Rachel whispering at her
from the back of her brain. It was
something she’d told Lou during one of their conversations earlier when Kid had
been getting on Lou’s nerves with his protectiveness.
“You
know, the funny thing is, it’s only the ones that you really care about that
can get to ya like that,” Rachel had half-laughed, her green eyes twinkling.
“But
they’re all like that,” Lou’d argued.
“Cody and Hickok and…” She’d let
her words trail off at Rachel’s look, daring her to continue lying to both of
them. She’d laughed slightly herself,
shaking her head. “I guess yer right,”
she’d admitted ruefully before heading off to make things up with the Kid.
Lou smiled as she put
the letters away, tucking them into the inner pocket of her coat as she lay
down to sleep. Rachel was still
right. But that didn’t mean she could just
stay out of things as Kid obviously wanted.
They were family and she had to go help, in whatever way she could.
**********
Lou leaned forward,
shadowing her eyes as she watched the group of riders heading out of the fort
at a gallop. The one in particular
looked a lot like Jimmy, the way he hugged his palomino horse, brown locks
flying out behind him. And there, that slender dark one could so easily be
Buck, the stockier man next to him, Ike.
She couldn’t see the man on the far side of the group very well, but he
definitely had Noah’s height as he sat upright on his steed. But they hadn’t responded to her call, not
even looking her direction when she’d given their standard owl hoot, something
Buck had taught them all to do.
Shaking her head, she
moved on down the street toward the Army’s main office, to see if the others
had gotten here with Emory Pike yet.
**********
“Do you think we fooled her?” Buck asked anxiously
as they slowed to a stop on top of the hill overlooking Fort Laramie.
Noah shrugged.
“She didn’t follow us, at least.”
“I still don’t see why we couldn’t stop and let her
catch up,” Jimmy groused.
*That’d be a big mistake, Jimmy,* Ike signed
wearily.
“Why? Cause
it’ll make the Kid angry?”
“No,” Noah shook his head. “Because of where we’re going and the odds
that we’ll make it out of there alive.”
“She’s family,” Jimmy persisted. “And she can carry
her own.”
“Family or not, I say she stays out of it,” Noah
said. “Besides, how do we even know
she’s here because of us and not some special run?”
*We don’t want to scare her off so she never comes
back,* Ike added.
“Yer right, Jimmy, Lou is family,” Buck
continued. “And whatever her reasons for
coming here are, I think we owe it to ourselves to make sure at least one of us
survives this. I gotta side with Noah on
this one.”
Jimmy grunted in frustration and pulled on his
horse’s reigns, turning the palomino toward the west. “Still got a lot of ground ta cover between
here and the mission, so let’s split up.”
Noah nodded.
It only made sense to make the best use of their numbers.
Buck uncharacteristically chimed in, “I’ll trail Jane. She’ll be harder to follow than the buckboard
and, the way she took off, she might have a better idea than us where Pike’s
headed.”
Before the others could respond, he spurred his horse off at a tangent to
their direction.
*Who’s Jane?* Ike asked, confused.
**********
Lou sighed as she pushed the food around on her
plate. The beans were unappetizing, only
half cooked and overly salted. The
perfect ending to a perfect day.
Not. She’d ridden hard to get
here in little more than a day, then spent all of this day first finding out
she’d missed the others by less than an hour and not being able to find their
tracks. The authorities said they’d
hanged Emory Pike yesterday and didn’t see any reason to help her search. Now
she was at a loss as to what to do next.
A heavily perfumed working girl pushed past Lou,
where she sat huddled in the corner by the stairs. She didn’t even have the manners to apologize
as she continued to chatter and laugh with her companion. Lou steadfastly ignored the couple, turning
her own problem over and over in her mind, trying to find a solution, until she
heard the name Pike.
Her head jerked up as her eyes trailed the couple
meandering up the stairs, her ears straining to catch more of their
conversation.
“I was hopin’ you’d come out ta the ranch with some
of the gals tomorra,” the cowboy grinned loopily. “It’s the boss’ birthday and we’re tryin’ ta
get him somethin’ special.”
“Well, I’m that alright,” she giggled back at him,
tapping her closed fan on his chest flirtatiously. “But ain’t none of us gonna be available
tomorrow.”
“Why not?
It’s a Sunday, ain’t like this place’ll be open fer business,” he
whined.
“That’s why we’re headed out ta Pike’s place,” she
murmured so low Lou could barely hear her.
“And he thinks I’m somethin’ special, too. No tellin’ how long he’ll
want me ta stay around, now that he’s back.”
The conversation continued as the couple turned the
corner down the hallway toward the bedrooms upstairs, but Lou couldn’t make out
any more of it. She didn’t need to,
though. She knew how to get to Pike’s hideout and how to get inside without him
even knowing he’d been infiltrated. A
seraphic smile lit her face. This was
something only she could do. None of the
boys would be able to pull this one off.
**********
“You sure you want ta do this, fella?”
Lou nodded as she grabbed the saloon girl’s hand and
started leading her toward the stairs.
Her other hand dipped into her coat pocket to finger the bottle of
laudanum she’d bought off a China man down the block.
The girl, Diamond Lil’, laughed and skipped to catch
up with Lou, wrapping one long, white arm around her shoulders.
“I can see yer eager ta get started,” Lil’
trilled. “But…well.. ya do seem a bit…
ahem… young….”
“I’m older’n I look,” Lou huffed in her gruffest boy
voice, trying not to laugh in Lil’s face at her concerns. She was obviously at least three years
younger than Lou. “And it ain’t like I
ain’t seen the upstairs of a saloon before.”
Probably about the same age you
first did, she thought.
That seemed to pacify the girl who was now content
to lead Lou to her room upstairs.
There,Lil’ immediately started trying to wrap herself around Lou. But Lou shrugged uncomfortably and peeled her
off, saying, “I’m feelin’ a mite thirsty.
You got anythin’ ta drink up here?”
“Sure!” the girl sang out, thrilled at the request,
for it would mean a bigger payday for her.
She turned and pulled a key out of her bodice to unlock a cupboard along
one wall. “Whiskey?”
“Sounds good,” Lou murmured. “Get one fer yerself while yer at it. I’m feelin’ generous.”
Ecstatic at her good fortune, Lil’ poured two full
tumblers of whiskey, then put the cap back on the bottle and turned to lock it
away again. While her back was turned,
Lou quickly pulled out the laudanum and dribbled several drops into the tumbler
closes to the other girl. She just
barely managed to tuck the bottle back in her pocket before Lil’ turned back
around.
To cover her motion, she reached down and quickly
grabbed the tumbler closest to her, the undrugged one, and lifted it in
toast.
“To a fun-filled night,” she murmured.
“Bottoms up,” Lil’ giggled and suited action to
words. Lou barely sipped hers as her
eyes watched Lil’ avidly finish off every last drop of the pseudo-whiskey, no
way would they sell the real stuff at a place like this, along with the
sleeping draught Lou’d added.
“So, Lil’,” Lou said, reaching out to take the other
girl’s hand, “Where ya from?”
“Oh, here and there,” the girl fumbled, her tongue
already thickened by the drug Lou’d given her.
“Mostly right here,” she giggled loopily pointing at the bed beside
them.
“Ever wanted ta go anywhere special?” Lou asked,
playing for time.
“Sure, don’t every girl?” Lil’ shrugged as she
reached out to wrap her arms around Lou’s neck again, stumbling over her own
feet in the process.
“Uph,” Lou grunted as she caught Lil’ and kept her
from falling to the dusty floor. “Come
on,” she muttered as she half led, half carried the quickly fading girl to the
bed. “Let’s sit down.”
“Oooh, are we gettin’ to the fun part now?” Lil’
asked, slurring her words. She flopped
backward onto the bed and flung her arms wide in invitation. “Come show Lil’ how much you love her.”
Her eyes fluttered shut, saving Lou the need to come
up with a suitable response.
Lou sighed despairingly as she pulled the frayed and
tattered quilt out from under Lil’ and used it to cover the girl warmly. Lil’ snorted in her sleep and rolled over,
curling up like a child, one hand tucked under her cheek.
Lou reached up and gently pushed the light brown
locks away from Lil’s suddenly frighteningly
young face, covered by garishly bright cosmetics in an attempt to
disguise it’s youth. She shook her head
as she turned away from the now peacefully sleeping girl and began to ransack her
wardrobe.
“That ain’t love, darlin’,” she whispered
sadly. “And I hope someday ye’ll meet a
man that can show ya the difference. And
that you’ll have the courage ta accept real love when it does comes knockin’.”
**********
Bam, bam, bam!
The sound of a heavy fist landing repeatedly on the
door roused Lou from her light slumber in the chair next to the bed. She’d dressed in a skirt and chemise of Lil’s
that she’d found at the back of the closet.
It was the least revealing clothing she could find that still left her
looking like the working girl she was impersonating.
“Lil’, up and at ‘em. We’re leavin’ in five minutes. You’d better have yer raggedy butt down here
by then,” a rough, masculine voice called through the door. “You don’t want me havin’ ta come in after ya
again.”
“I’m comin’,” Lou called in a slightly falsetto
voice, trying to sound like Lil’. Apparently it was good enough because the sound of heavy footsteps moved
away from the door and down the hall, followed by a repeat of the knocking and
message she’d gotten obviously at the next room.
Lou quickly stood and checked on Lil’, who continued
to snooze the sleep of the untroubled in her drug induced dreamworld. Lou straightened the covers over her and then
reached into the drawstring pouch she’d tied around her waist to pull out a
couple of coins. She’d kept Lil’ up here
all night and the girl would be expected to give the majority of the money from
the night to the proprietor. Lou didn’t
want her in trouble because of what Lou’d done.
She started to lay the coins on the dresser, then
looked back at the sleeping girl and, shrugging, pulled the pouch off and left
the whole thing there. Maybe the extra
would give the girl the courage to leave, find something else, somewhere else.
Wrapping a shawl around her head to disguise her
shorn hair and shield her face, Lou took a deep breath and opened the
door.
An hour later, she was sitting in an old red
stagecoach, trapped between two other women as they all bounced and jounced
their way across the prairie. Lou’d
tried to get a window seat, so she could at least breath fresher air, but a
last minute arrival had pushed her away.
Now, she just caught glimpses of the outside world in the middle of the
up and the down of each bounce.
One hand rested against her thigh, where she’d
carefully hidden Kid’s letter inside the handkerchief she’d been embroidering
for him, wrapped tightly around one leg.
The rest of the letters and her other things she’d left behind at the
livery stable with Lightning. The feel
of the crackling paper as she moved brought her courage.
The sudden sound of a different set of galloping
hoofbeats from the stagecoach’s horses had Lou straining to see through the
window yet again. She caught a glimpse
of a woman bent low over a horse, her long, dark hair flying out behind
her.
Amanda?
Lou mouthed silently. Had she made her
escape? Then, another bounce brought the
entrance of the hideout into view and Lou saw Amanda disappear through the same
gate the stagecoach lumbered through minutes later.
**********
Present
day….
Kid leaned low over
Katy’s neck, pushing the paint to move as fast as she could, racing back
toward camp almost as face as his own brain was racing. What had Lou been doing in Pike’s camp? How’d she gotten there? She must have somehow followed them, but
how? When? Why hadn’t she come up to them instead of
heading to Pike’s hideout?
Topping the ridge, he plunged down into the copse of
trees where they’d camped and his gaze settled on Jimmy walking across the
clearing. His eyes narrowed. He didn’t know how, but somehow, he knew
Jimmy was responsible for Lou being in Pike’s grasp.
With no more thought, Kid launched himself from
Katy’s back onto Jimmy, taking him down into the dirt. Even as he raised a hand to punch him, Jimmy
rolled free and pushed away from his enraged brother.
“Kid! What
the hell are you doin’?” Jimmy exclaimed.
Kid stood there, breathing heavily, hands fisted at
his side as he uttered the damning words, “They’ve got Lou!”
“What?!” Jimmy responded, confused. “How’d--”
“Kid!” Buck interrupted urgently. “We’ve got bigger problems!”
“Like what?!” Kid growled, never taking his eyes off
of Jimmy.
“Pike’s dead.”
This earned Buck a quick glance, but then Kid’s head
whipped back toward Jimmy.
“I don’t care
if Pike died. I want ta know what Lou’s
doin’ in the middle of this.”
*She showed up in Laramie,* Ike gestured, stepping
between Kid and Jimmy.
“She showed up in Laramie?” Kid asked
incredulously? “And you didn’t tell me
about it? You didn’t tell her to go
back?” The last was aimed at Jimmy, who
looked away, unable to meet Kid’s probing gaze.
“Kid, we gave her the slip,” Noah said quietly,
trying to calm the situation. “She was
just getting into Fort Laramie as we were leaving. She never even knew we were there.”
“Well, that sure worked out,” Kid gritted out,
stalking toward Jimmy. “Tell me the
truth, Jimmy. Did you want her to go back ta Sweetwater, or wherever she’s been? Or did you want her go to with you?”
Jimmy looked desperately at Teaspoon for help, but
Teaspoon just shook his head warningly at him.
Finally Jimmy shrugged and said quietly, “I just
wanted her ta come with us. I wanted her
ta come home.”
“Damn you!”
All the fear Kid felt for Lou’s safety combined in
that moment with his longing for her he’d surpressed for the last few weeks,
his grief over her loss, his guilt over not being there for her when she’d
needed him most and his jealousy of Jimmy, who had been there to help her. Unable to think clearly anymore, he lowered
his head and rushed Jimmy.
Jimmy grunted as Kid collided with his chest,
pushing him to the ground. Trying
desperately to free himself without hurting the other rider too badly, he put
one arm up to guard his face, while pushing at Kid with the other, until the
two of them rolled over.
At that point, he felt the others intervening,
reaching in and pulling them apart and heaved a sigh of relief. He really didn’t want to have to beat Kid up,
again. Especially not if Lou was about
to come back to them. He shuddered to
think what she’d have to say about him hitting Kid. Again.
“That’s enough!” Teaspoon thundered. “Kid, we gotta
get inside that Mission.” He moved over
to Kid as the others let the young man go and grabbed his arms tight. “We’re gonna get Amanda. We’re gonna get
Lou. And I got the feeling you wanna
help us. But you gotta set aside whatever you got goin’ on with Jimmy ‘til we
get that done!” He paused peering deeply
into Kid’s eyes. “ You understand?”
Kid nodded jerkily in acceptance as his rage cooled
and he concentrated on the need to rescue Lou.
Seeing reason return to Kid’s gaze, Teaspoon nodded,
too.
“You been closer ta that mission than anyone else.
Can ya tell us somethin’ about it?” he asked.
“I’ll do my best,” Kid answered, looking nowhere but
at Teaspoon.
“What’re we gonna do now that Pike’s dead, Teaspoon?”
Cody asked, worry coloring his voice.
Teaspoon’s voice hardened as he answered. “Pike
deserved to die. That don’t mean he still can’t help us.”
**********
Lou shifted uncomfortably on the cross. She was starting to lose feeling in her arms,
the way they were stretched out. And she
had to breathe very shallowly, her position didn’t allow for anything else,
leaving her constantly feeling out of breath.
Even more distracting than the physical was her
mental frustration. Everything had been
going perfectly. She’d gotten inside the compound without a second glance, even
managing to evade the attentions of the saloon girls’ admirers as she slipped
away. That was, until she’d run into
Amanda.
She’d been so furious at her in that moment, when
Amanda’s very presence wearing the same clothes she’d seen on the woman on
horseback confirmed she wasn’t being held captive. Lou hadn’t been paying close enough attention,
had let the confrontation with Amanda distract her and hadn’t noticed until too
late the arrival of Pike and his men.
First Amanda had handed her over to them, giving
away her connection to Teaspoon. Then
they’d searched her thoroughly, embarrassingly so, quickly finding Kid’s
letter. That had been all the
confirmation Pike had needed to have her ‘interrogated.’
She tentatively probed at a loose tooth, wincing as
her tongue hit a bruise inside her mouth.
The wince itself a reminder of the growing black eye she sported. And she wasn’t sure but thought she might
have a cracked rib or two. Pike’s man,
Ramirez, hadn’t taken it easy on her because she was a woman.
Lou let out a huff of humor at the irony. One of the few times she wished her gender
had won her a little consideration and… nothing. Luckily, for all Ramirez’ admiration of her
stamina, the damage he’d inflicted was no worse than a bad fall off a horse,
something she’d had plenty of experience with.
But now she was nothing more than a tool, something
Frank Pike could use to threaten her family into bringing him his brother.
“Why’re ya doin’ this?”
The sound of Amanda’s distinctive voice floating up
from behind her, jerked Lou out of her contemplations. She turned her head from side to side, trying
to catch a glimpse of the other woman, to no avail. But she heard everything.
“A demonstration,” Pike said. “She’ll be the first
ta die if they try and trick us. And
you’ll be the second.”
Lou shivered as a sharp wind slipped past the thin
shield of her clothes with his words.
“What are you talkin’ about?”
The outraged confusion in Amanda’s voice, hinting at
a suspicion of what Pike really meant sent the shiver to Lou’s bones.
“Comin’ back with my coin was brilliant. It was just brilliant,” Pike purred. “And turnin’ her over ta me. That was very good. Too good ta be true.”
“Frank!”
“I’ve never met Teaspoon Hunter. But what he’s done in the past few days has
made me respect him,” Frank said, his voice suddenly hard as flint. “And what
she went through at the hands of Ramirez made me respect her. These people cannot be deceived easily. They know you. The real you.
That’s who they’ve risked their lives ta rescue.”
“They’re fools!”
Even Lou could hear the desperation in Amanda’s
voice. Maybe she had been telling the truth
when she said she was trying to warn Teaspoon.
“No,” said Pike. “Just loyal.” He grunted. “Like
you. I’m a fool.”
Even as she strained her ears to listen in on the
conversation, Lou was keeping her eyes glued to the horizon. So she saw the others riding toward the
mission even before Ramirez, who called a warning to his boss.
“Riders! Four
of them. One of them’s your brother.”
Lou narrowed her eyes as she watched them getting
closer. There was something wrong with
the fourth rider. She couldn’t quite peg
what it was, but had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Then, as she flicked her eyes across the group, she
realized Teaspoon had included Kid. She
had not doubt the others were out there, sneaking in somehow, but wondered why
Kid was there. She could see the brittle
worry in his eyes as they lifted to meet hers when the riders passed by her on
the way to the front gates.
Couldn’t Teaspoon see Kid was barely in control of
himself? Why would he have brought him
along like this? He was jeopardizing the
entire plan, whatever it was.
Once they entered the mission, she couldn’t see what
was going on anymore and had to rely on her ears again. Whatever was off with Emory Pike, it was
clear Frank had noticed as well because gunshots quickly started peppering the
yard.
Frustrated and worried about her family, Lou twisted
against the ropes tying her to the cross, trying to get free.
“Kill the girl!
She heard the command and knew he was talking about
her. She opened her mouth to call for
help and the only thing she could think of came out.
“Kid!”
She heard more scrambling and flinched at a rifle
shot coming from above her, but opened her eyes again when she felt
nothing. She hated getting shot!
A sudden sound of boots trampling across the wooden
walkway just below the top of the wall had Lou looking down at her feet, hoping
to be able to see something. When a pair
of slender, feminine hands appeared, reaching toward the ropes tying her in
place, Lou relaxed. Amanda.
Within moments, she was free and leaning against the
other woman to half limp down off the walkway to the ground below. She frowns in concentration, trying to ignore
the painful prickles of circulation returning to her arms and legs after so
long up on the cross. She hated looking
weak, especially after having to be rescued when she was supposed to be the one
doing the rescuing.
As soon as she felt safe to walk on her own two
feet, she pulled away from Amanda’s supporting grasp and took refuge inside the
nearest tent.
“Thought fer sure I was gonna die,” Lou muttered,
panting a bit at her recent efforts.
“So did I,” Amanda, equally out of breath, grinned
at her. Then she turned and began
exploring the contents of the tent.
“What’re we gonna do ta help ‘em?” Lou asked,
determined to get Amanda back out into the fight and helping those who’d come
to rescue them both.
Amanda turned back toward Lou from the back of the
tent, holding up what looked like an odd candle she’d pulled out of a crate.
“How about a little fireworks?” Amanda smiled
wickedly.
Recognizing the ‘candle’ as a stick of dynamite, Lou
jumped to her feet and ran to inspect the box.
“Yes!”
She didn’t remember
much after that. It was a flurry of
running, lighting sticks of dynamite and tossing them whichever direction would
do the Pike Gang the most damage, and running some more.
**********
Kid looked around
frantically. He’d practically had a
heart attack when he’d heard Lou calling his name in desperation and seen the
rifle pointed at her head. Thank God
Cody had already been in place and heard his warning in time to take the
would-be shooter out.
But in the furious
firefight after that, he’d lost track of her.
Now he found himself ducking through rows of tents, searching hurriedly
for both Lou and Frank Pike. He had a
score to settle with him that went well beyond Amanda’s capture. He knew the bruises he’d seen dotting Lou’s
face and arms, and most likely the rest of her body, were Pike’s fault. And he intended to exact full payment for
them.
Kid ducked as he heard
one bullet hit the wall near his head, but not fast enough. A follow-up bullet punched its way into his
arm.
“Ugh!” Kid grunted, falling and turning to see the
man who’d been next to Pike on the wall pointing a pistol at him. Kid raised his own gun and fired
rapidly. Not even waiting for the man to
fall, Kid began seeking some cover where he could reload. He knew he was down to just one bullet in the
chamber.
**********
Lou never knew what made her look in that direction,
whether it was a familiar sound, something she’d seen out of the corner of her
eye but not really recognized, or just pure God driven intuition. But for some reason she turned her head to
peer down an ‘alley’ between two rows of tents.
There was no fighting coming from that direction, no reason for her to
go there, nothing there for her to blow up.
But she looked anyway. And she
saw Kid, struggling to get to his feet.
“Kid!” she yelled in sudden fear, knowing he had to
be hurt to be down on the ground the way he was. She ran quickly to his side and began
searching him for wounds, finding the blood soaked sleeve of his coat
easily. “Oh my God!”
“I’m alright,” Kid reassured her.
Assured he was going to live, she reached under his
arm and started trying to help him to his feet.
“Come on.
We’ve gotta get outta here,” she grunted trying to push him toward the
entrance to the mission. But Kid
resisted her efforts.
“Pike’s gonna pay!” he growled as his eyes covered
her face again, taking in each and every bruise she suffered.
Lou shook her head, more worried about Kid’s safety,
especially with her lack of a gun.
“We’ve gotta get outta here,” she repeated
stubbornly.
Kid shook his head, just as stubborn. Pulling out of her grasp, he rolled back into
the position he’d been moving toward before she’d seen him.
“I gotta get ta Frank,” he muttered persistently as
his eyes tracked the bandits running frantically to and fro, trying to escape
the fire coming from the various riders.
Suddenly he stiffened as a familiar figure stepped out from behind the
cover of a trellis. Squinting, he took careful aim and squeezed the trigger,
grunting in satisfaction as his target fell.
“That was fer Lou.”
Lou sighed in exasperation. Maybe now he’d listen to her.
“Let’s get outta here, Kid,” she muttered, reaching
down once again to grab his arm and help him to his feet. This time he followed her lead.
Within moments the reached the riders’ horses, still
standing calmly where the boys had left them when the firefight began only a
few minutes earlier. Guiding Kid to
Katy, she helped him mount up, then climbed onto the rim of the saddle behind
him.
“I kin ride fine,” he muttered.
Lou ignored him, reaching around his waist to grab
the reins from his hands. Looking up,
she realized the others had coalesced around her and were mounting up as well.
“Boys, let’s get out of here!” Teaspoon yelled.
Lou couldn’t have agreed more as she dug her heels
into Katy’s sides and followed the others out of the mission, to safety.
**********
“Looks like nobody’s followin’ us, Teaspoon,” Cody
called after they’d been riding for a good hour. “Should we maybe stop for a bit? Make sure everyone’s alright?”
He tossed his head pointedly back at Kid, who rode
stolidly in Lou’s arms.
“Yep, might be a good idea, son,” Teaspoon nodded in
agreement. “Should be a small restin’
place just over the next hill there.
We’ll take a break, water the horses, check on any wounds, while we’re
there.”
Lou sighed with relief as they pulled up on the
horses and dismounted a few minutes later.
The trees provided a break from the increasingly chilly prairie winds.
It was only March and this part of the country didn’t really start Spring until
June or so. The short break they’d
experienced in the weather was obviously over.
Stepping away from Katy, she started to rub her
arms, but Kid wrapped his larger arms around her, hugging her close.
“Ain’t ya got any more clothes than this?” he asked,
really noticing for the first time how little she was wearing.
“Not here,” she muttered shortly. Pulling away from him, she said, “Come on,
I’m sure Buck’s got somethin’ we can use ta treat that arm. I’m pretty sure the bullet went straight
through, but it needs ta be cleaned--”
She stopped when she saw him shaking his head at her
words.
“No,” he said.
“Not until ya get into somethin’ warmer. I could make it back ta Laramie
easily enough as is, but you’d freeze ta death.” He eyed her up and down, taking in the
unusual fragility of her limbs and added, “’Specially with as little meat as ya
got on yer bones right now.”
“And just what do ya ‘spect me ta wear?” she
snapped, losing what little patience she had.
“Ain’t like I could carry a full carpetbag in on the whore-wagon.” She
looked around and grunted, “What? Expect
me ta make a dress outta leaves or somethin’?”
“I figured ya’d wear yer own trousers,” Kid grinned
suddenly, reaching up to untie the saddlebags on Katy’s saddle. Lou tilted her head quizzically, trying to
figure out what he was up to. Her jaw
practically dropped as her cheeks heated to a fiery red when Kid pulled out a
pair of her own pants and handed them to her.
“You, uh, left these behind… the last time,” he muttered shyly.
She looked down at the fabric in her hands and
recognized the ripped trousers she’d asked the hotel laundry to sew up for her
when she’d run into Kid weeks ago. She wondered why he'd kept them with him, even on this trip.
“Um, thanks,” she muttered, not raising her eyes to
meet Kid’s. She blinked in consternation
as he pressed another piece of fabric into her hands and finally looked up.
He shrugged. “You need a shirt, too,” he smiled
gently. “Ain’t got one o’ yers, but it
ain’t like ya ain’t stolen mine before, anyway.”
“But…”
“Go,” he said, turning her around by the shoulders
and pushing her toward a nearby bush. “Get changed before ya freeze to death.”
She walked away, bemusedly considering the clothing
in her hands, so lost in thought she totally missed his gentle caress across
her bare shoulders.
**********
Her hands shook as she tied the last of the bandage
in place over Kid’s arm. It was a good
thing he’d made her change first. If she
was this shaky with nerves, she’d never have managed to clean his wound
shivering in that thin camisole and skirt.
Biting her lip, she wrapped the sling around his arm
and tied it together, trying to figure out what to say to him, not that they
were alone and could actually talk. The
rush of exhilaration and seeing him again was gone, replaced by a stone in the
pit of her stomach.
Finally, as she was tying a knot in the sling to
hold it in place, she said, “Yer gonna be alright, Kid.”
Kid looked up at her, but she looked down at her
hands, refusing to meet his gaze.
“It’s you I’m worried about, Lou.”
Lou sighed, lettingher hands fall to her lap. “Kid,”
she started to object, but he kept on going.
“You never shoulda come. I told ya in that letter.”
“You told me what you wanted, Kid,” she said,
shaking her head and reaching up to pat his shoulder. “But what you and I got.. well…” She paused, looking around the rest of her Express
family scattered about the clearing, then added, “What we all got, is
stronger. We’re a family. And when one of us is in trouble the rest of
us got ta help out.”
Her hand clenched in the fabric of his shirt as she
prayed he’d understand what she was trying to tell him. Staring deep into his eyes, absorbing the
warmth of his small grin, she thought just maybe she had. Finally.
**********
“I hope they’ve got a good steak,” Cody moaned. “I’m starvin’.”
*Like that’s unusual,* Ike signed, grimacing behind
Cody’s back.
Lou swallowed a giggle at the familiar complaints. It had been a long ride back from Pike’s
mission hideout to Fort Laramie and she was looking forward to getting some
rest. Although, truth be told, her
stomach was still upset from the emotional upset earlier in the day and the
thought of a giant, juicy steak, oozing blood the way Cody liked them, was a
bit more than she could handle at the moment.
“Well,” Teaspoon harrumphed, walking back from the
hotel desk with a handful of keys.
“We’re gonna have ta double up, boys.
We got the last three rooms left.
Amanda, you and Lou can take one. Kid and Jimmy, yer with Hack. Cody, yer bunkin’ with Buck an’ Ike.”
Lou raised one hand to cover the grin threatening to
take over her face as she saw Kid glaring at Jimmy and Jimmy at Hack over the
room assignments. Not to mention Cody’s
loud grumblings over being stuck with the snorer, Buck, and Ike’s hands
flashing in derision.
“What about us?” Noah asked.
Teaspoon shrugged laconically. “They only had the three left and I don’t
figure we kin stuff four of us in one of them beds. So you and I get the barn. And glorious silence.”
The last was said as he glared Cody’s direction.
Noah’s eyes narrowed as he considered Teaspoon’s
explanation. They could all tell he
figured there was more to it than what Teaspoon had said and were waiting for
him to explode. But he let it go this
time.
“As long as I get a good steak dinner, that’s fine
with me,” he said finally.
“Well, hurry up and get yer stuff up ta the rooms,
boys,” Teaspoon said, nodding. “And then we’ll eat!”
Amid the chorus of cheers that announcement brought,
Lou tugged at Teaspoon’s sleeve. When he
looked down at her, she said quietly, “I.. I think I’ll just turn in fer the
night. I’m awful tired. ‘Sides, I ain’t all that hungry anyway.”
Teaspoon smiled at her gently and patted her
shoulder.
“You have yerself a good rest, gal,” he said
softly. “Ye’ll be feelin’ fine as rain
come the mornin’.”
**********
Lou slipped her feet out of her boots and sighed
with appreciation to finally have them off.
They weren’t really hers, but had belonged to the saloon girl she’d
borrowed the rest of her outfit from, and they’d pinched her toes like
crazy. Unfortunately, though Kid had
been able to provide her with her own trousers and his shirt to wear, he
couldn’t do anything about her footwear.
So she’d been stuck with them.
Luckily, her own clothes remained hidden in Lightning’s stable down at
the livery.
She yawned.
She’d get them tomorrow morning, she decided, moving toward the bed and
pulling the coverlet back.
“Lou?”
She jumped at the sound of her name accompanied by a
light tapping on the door.
“You in there?” Kid’s voice asked, floating through
the oak door. “Lou?”
She shook herself at his renewed call, realizing
she’d never responded. With a jump she
hurried across the room and opened the door.
“You… you weren’t asleep yet, were ya?” he asked,
looking her over carefully.
She shook her head.
“Can I come in?” he finally asked when she failed to
say anything.
Silently, she stepped back and made room so he could
pass through the door. She shivered as
his arm brushed her on his way through.
She wanted so much to reach out and wrap her arms around him and never
let go. But she was afraid. Afraid to
hope, to dare wish that things might work out, that she’d truly understood what
he’d been saying in his letter.
She jerked when his fingers wrapped themselves
around hers and he tugged her gently.
“Why don’t we sit down?” he said quietly, leading
her toward the bed.
She slowly sank down onto the edge of the
straw-filled mattress and watched as he carefully sat down in the single chair
in the room, facing her. He ran his
hands up and down his thighs, as if drying sweaty palms, in a familiar, nervous
gesture. Then, he suddenly reached up
and snatched his hat off his head and began twirling it in his hands.
“We need to talk,” he said quietly.
She nodded.
The two sat there, staring at each other while
silence was the only sound filling the room.
To Tell The Truth
To Tell The Truth
Wow, great story and so happy to read something new. You left us with a bit of a cliffhanger. I hope you continue the story as I want to know what happens next.
ReplyDeleteThe next bit is almost ready to publish. One last round with my beta and a graphic is all it needs. But be prepared. It's got an even bigger cliffhanger ending. LOL! What can I say, I like to leave my readers wanting more. =()
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