The Gift 3/11

Summary:  It's been four long years of war and separation.   But now the hostilities are over.  But Kid's family is still flung to the far corners of the earth and he's feeling guilty he didn't go with them.  Will the spirit of the Christmas season help him forget?

Chapter 3

Wyoming Territory

“We should stop for lunch soon,” Lou said, breaking into the silence that had hovered over the small family of travelers.  “The children need a break.”

“Yeah,” Kid sighed, looking down at baby Noah, who was becoming less of a baby every second.  He’d spent the last hour squirming in front of Kid, trying to slide off Katy’s back at every opportunity.  Hugging the child closer to him, he pointed out a nearby stand of trees.  “Looks like there’s some water over there.”

“Race you?” Lou suggested, smiling, hoping to raise her husband’s spirits.

Kid was about to turn down the offer, but Noah started jumping in his seat.  “Race!  Race!  Race!”

“Do I have a choice?” he asked with a lopsided smile and spurred Katy into a land eating gallop.  Lightning at their side, as always.  Putting his head down to snuggle his cheek next to his son’s, listening to the child’s bright laughter, Kid wished things could always be like this.  The pounding of the horse’s hooves, the laughter of his children, no one else to worry about, no cares in the world.  Life could be so much easier..

“Stop where yer at or I’ll shoot!”

The sound of the trigger being cocked, much more than the squeaky earliteen voice behind the threat, had Kid pulling back on Katy’s reins.  She whinnied in protest, rearing slightly as she tried to stop on a dime.  With one arm wrapped around Noah and grasping the reins firmly, Kid had his pistol pulled, cocked and aimed before she came to a complete halt.

“Who are you and how dare you threaten my family?!” Kid roared.

“Threaten your family?  Yer the one ridin’ like hell toward my family’s camp, armed fer trouble!”

“Alright, why don’t both of you put yer guns down, slowly and easily,” Lou suggested, trotting Lightning up to Kid’s side to place a restraining hand on his arm.  “He’s just a child, Kid.”

“I ain’t no child,” the boy protested, even as he lowered his gun, Lou’s feminine voice calming his fears.  “You ain’t got no call ta be callin’ me a kid, neither.”

Lou laughed lightly, dismounting to walk up to the boy.  Pointing back at her husband, she said, “He’s the Kid.  That’s his name.  I’m his wife, Lou… Louise McCloud.  We’re just travelin’ through on our way home.”

“Tucker….”

The boy turned toward the sound at the weak call and hurried to the back of a covered wagon in pitiful shape.  The canvas was badly worn, torn in several places, the wagon in obvious disrepair.  The oxen were gaunt.  The camp looked like a tornado had blown through just a few minutes ago.  The eggs on the fire were smoking, about to burn.  Lou hustled over to pull the skillet out of the flames and set it on the wagon’s tailgate, only to have the tailgate fall out from under it.  She looked up at Kid helplessly.

“Greenhorns,” he muttered.

Lou looked from him to the scene inside the wagon.  A small woman, smaller even than Lou, lay on her back, heavily pregnant.  Her unwashed hair hung in greasy, limp tangles around her face.  Two more children, a girl around the age of 5 and a toddler of indeterminate gender, a bit younger than Noah, huddled by her side.

“Who are they, Tucker?”

“I don’t know,” the boy said, carefully tucking the blankets more tightly around her.

“Maybe they kin hep us,” she said, sighing.

“We don’t take charity!” the boy began to protest.

“Fer myself, no,” the woman said softly.  She reached up and gently wiped a hand across the little girl’s face, pushing the hair out of it.  “But it ain’t just me we gotta worry ‘bout.  These chillen’s won’t survive much longer.”

“I’m hunry, Missus,” the little girl whimpered.

“I know sweetie.”

“Kid,” Lou shouted.  “Why don’t you get lunch goin’.  And set up the tent.  We’re gonna be here a bit, I think.”

“Why?” he asked, right by her ear, startling her.  “What’s goin’ on?”

“These folks need our help, Kid,” she said softly, almost whispering.  “We can’t leave ‘em here ta starve or freeze.  Wouldn’t be Christian.”

“No,” he agreed more firmly.  “It wouldn’t.”  Turning to the family huddled in the wagon he asked, “Where y’all headed?”

“Oregon,” the boy who’d greeted them with the rifle said determinedly.

“Well, ya ain’t gonna make it ‘fore the winter snows close them passes.  By this time of year only an Express rider could make it through,” Kid said.

The boy and the woman shared a look of near panic.

“Don’t worry,” Kid added.  “We’ll help you fix this wagon up so it’ll get ya to the nearest town, find a place you can winter over.”

“Thanks, mister,” the woman said, her eyes misting over.  “I don’t know how ta thank ya.”

“Why don’t you start by tellin’ us yer name?” Lou suggested with a smile, lifting an inquisitive EmmyLu up onto her hip.  The girl lay her head on her mother’s shoulder and stared pensively at the other children.

“I’m Martha… Hollander,” the woman introduced herself, saying her name more like Maw-Tha in her deep southern accent.  “That’s my brother, Tucker,” she added pointing to the young man hovering at her side.  “These’re my…. children, Ellen and Albert.”

Lou flicked a concerned glance at Kid and saw that he too had noticed the odd pauses in her introduction.  She wondered what the woman was hiding, but figured it couldn’t be worse than her current situation.

“Well,” Kid said briskly, following Lou’s own train of thought.  “Let’s get these children washed up and fed.  Then, Tucker, you can help Lou and I get the wagon fixed up.  Tomorrow we’ll take y’all to Box Elder and help you find a place.”

**********

“I hate this stuff,” Lou groaned as she stirred the pot of black, bubbling pitch and plant material with a large stick.

“Why’s it so stinky, Ma?” EmmyLu asked, peering around her mother at the pot.

“I don’t know honey,” Lou smiled down at her daughter, trying hard to breathe through her nose.  “Probably whatever makes it so sticky also makes it stinky.”

“Sticky stinky?”

Lou laughed and nodded.  The little girl wandered off to join the other children.

“The glue about ready?” Kid asked, walking up to her while pulling off his gloves.  Sweat shone on his forehead despite the winter chill in the air.

Lou nodded.  “Ready when you are.  So’s the sinews.”

“Good,” Kid said, smiling slightly at her.  “Cause I could use yer help.  Tucker’s willin’, but he just don’t know what he’s doin’.”

Lou looked over at where Martha sat under a nearby tree.  She looked almost pretty after a good meal.  Though she could still use a bath.  For the moment she was wrapped up in nearly every blanket the little family had and was happily entertaining the youngest children with a game of cat’s cradle.  Assured her little ones were safely occupied, Lou turned back to Kid and nodded.

“I’ll be right there.”

“Good,” he repeated again, leaning forward to kiss her quickly before heading back toward the wagon where he and Tucker were working to get the broken axle off so they could repair it.

Lou watched him closely.  He was walking taller, smiling more than he had in months.  She grinned.  Nothing ever worked to make Kid feel better than to let him feel like he was helping someone else out.

**********

“Alright,” Kid said, taking a good grasp of the base of the wagon bed.  “When Lou and I lift on the count of three, Tucker, yer goin’ ta pull the axle clear of the wagon.  Ready?”

“Yes, sir,” the young boy nodded eagerly.

“Here we go,” Kid said, meeting Lou’s eyes across the wagon seat.  “One… two… three!”

“Ungh,” Lou grunted, lifting with all her might.

“Pull, Tucker,” Kid gasped out.  “Quickly.  We can’t hold this for much longer!”

“Got it!”

Without another word, Lou and Kid let the wagon fall back onto its wheels.

“You alright?” Kid asked, stepping around the wagon to Lou’s side.  She stood, bent over, hands on her knees, gasping for breath.

“I’ll be fine,” she muttered, straightening up.  “Yer the one that was liftin’ the wagon without gloves.  How are you?”

He tried to shrug off her concern even as she reached out to grasp his hands and inspect them.

“Um hm,” she murmured.  “As I thought.  I shoulda never let ya get away with insistin’ I wear yer gloves.”

“We only had the one pair with us, Lou,” he protested.

“And now you’ve got two palms full of slivers.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“As soon as we get that axle glued back together, I’m goin’ ta have ta pull them splinters, Kid,” she warned in an exasperated voice.

“Let’s just get this thing fixed before it gets dark,” Kid said, already turning back toward the task at hand.  “I don’t fancy spending another night out here if we don’t have to.”

**********

“Will it really hold?” Tucker asked, as they surveyed the temporarily repaired axle back in its place under the wagon.

“Not for long,” Lou said.

“But long enough to get y’all to the next town,” Kid added.  “Now, let’s go get washed up.  This pitch’ll stick forever if we don’t get rid of it quick.”

“I never thought of using pine pitch as glue,” Tucker marveled, following Kid toward the creek.  “And them wet sinews?  Where’d you learn ta use them ‘sted of rope?  How’d you know they’d get all tight like that when they dried?”

Lou smiled as she watched them move away.  Kid was like a… well a kid in a candy shop with Tucker’s adoration.  And it was easy to see Tucker was dying for a man he could look up to.

She wanted to clean up, too, but thought this might be a good time to help Martha get cleaned up as well.  Turning toward the other woman, Lou paused.  Martha’d let the blankets fall off the back of her shoulders as she reached out to capture little Albert before he tumbled too close to the firepit.  And now Lou could see not only how painfully thin the girl, and baby on the way or not she was truly just a girl herself, really was.  But that wasn’t what made Lou gasp.  The blood that had seeped through the back of the dress, creating a pattern of crisscrossing lines that traveled from the top of her shoulders all the way to her low back and upper buttocks, did that.

“What the hell happened to you?” Lou demanded in a fierce tone.

Chapter 4

Owies & Kisses

Summary:  Little misunderstandings can leave an awful painful injury.  But sometimes it just takes a kiss, or two, or three, or more, to make it all better.

Author's note: This story is a sequel to my novella Starting Over.

Thunk!  Thunk!  Thunk!  

He paused to wipe the sweat from his forehead, glancing almost bitterly over the pile of firewood scattered around him.  He supposed he should stop chopping and start stacking.  But that just didn’t provide enough outlet for his… not anger, not exactly.  Frustration, he decided to call it.  He didn’t understand what had happened to his loving wife.  One day she’d been her normal, passionate self.  The next, she hadn’t wanted anything to do with him.  Now, it felt like she was avoiding him.  She and Lou would be whispering frantically about something when he entered a room, but would go silent as soon as they saw him.  Today, she’d run off to town with Lou without even saying good-bye to him.

He’d thought she was in love with him, that he’d finally found the love Emma had once described to him.  Had he really been that mistaken?  Or had he just managed to do something to foul it up?  Like always.

Sighing again, he lifted the ax to his shoulder with one hand, setting another piece of wood on the chopping block with his other.  With one hand at the base of the handle, the other near the head of the ax, he swung with all his might, letting his hand slide effortlessly down the handle as the ax came down on the waiting chunk of wood, splitting it right down the middle with a satisfying THWACK!

**********

“Damn it!” Kid muttered as the horse on the other end of the lead rope once again shied away from him, jerking the rope roughly through his ungloved hands.  Kid knew he shouldn’t be out here doing this.  One should never try to train a horse when one is already upset.  But he’d had to get out of the house.

He knew he’d missed the pregnancy with Mary Kate, but surely Lou hadn’t been this cranky.  But he couldn’t imagine what else could’ve turned her into such a termagent.  This morning all he’d done was bring her a cup of coffee and she’d started yelling at him like a banshee for trying to poison her.

He’d decided it was better to spend the day out of her sight and hidden in the barn.  He’d been in such a hurry to escape, he’d left his good work gloves sitting on the dresser by their bed.  A couple of hours ago he’d even found himself hiding in the hayloft when Lou had come stomping out to hitch up the buckboard and take off with Lydia for who knew where.

He didn’t even question where they were headed, just breathed a sigh of relief that he could come out of hiding.

Taking advantage of his preoccupied state, the horse jerked toward the other end of the corral, causing the lead rope to slide roughly through Kid’s unsuspecting fingers.

**********

“I feel kinda bad ‘bout the Kid,” Lou muttered as she drove back toward the ranch the two couples had purchased just a few weeks ago.  “It ain’t his fault coffee smells so putrid to me right now.  He was tryin’ ta be sweet, but he danged near got ever’ bit of breakfast I’d managed ta choke down all over his front.”

“At least he knows why,” Lydia said softly in her deep Tennessee accent.  “That’s more than I can say about Jimmy.  The poor man’s got no idea why I’ve been acting so strange these last couple of weeks.”

Lou shrugged, slapping the reins against the horses’ backs to keep them from slowing to a stop and snacking on the nearby scrub brush.  “Mebbe,” she allowed.  “But I figger you’ll be spillin’ the beans soon ‘nough, now.”

Lydia grinned, one hand going to her flat belly.  Lou just shook her head.  “’Sides, Kid may have some idea of why, but it ain’t like he was around fer this the last time.  I don’t manage ta get my temper under control and there may never be a baby #3.”

Lydia laughed outright at that.  “I sincerely doubt that.  I’ve seen the two of you together.  Kid can’t keep his hands off you any more than Jimmy can keep his off me.”

Lou joined in Lydia’s laughter, patting her own, already rounding, stomach.  “Ain’t that the truth?  Might explain why we’re in this condition so danged fast!”

**********

Kid trudged slowly toward the house he and Lou shared with Lydia and Jimmy, as well as their children, his and Lou’s Mary Kate and Lydia’s Carl, Jr.  The children were off at school for the day.  Thank goodness.  And he didn’t bother wondering where Teresa was. 

Lou’s little sister was staying with them for now, as well.  She kept saying she was going to leave any day, but never quite seemed to manage it.  He snorted.  She’d said she was going to head back East with Cody and his family to join Cody’s Wild West Show after Jimmy and Lydia’s wedding.  But she hadn’t.  He had a sneaking suspicion her reasons involved a certain tall, dark skinned former Express rider who now ran the telegraph office and was currently trotting up to the ranch buildings on his sorrel mount.

Stopping in the middle of the ranch yard, Kid waited for Buck to arrive, reaching out to grab his horse’s bridle as he pulled to a halt.  Kid winced at the pain of the leather straps of the bridle biting into his palm.  He’d known better than to work with a horse while distracted.  Now he was going to pay the consequences.

“What brings you out this way?” Kid asked as Buck agilely clambered off his horse.

“Lou invited me over for supper, when she and Lydia were in town,” Buck said nonchalantly as he stepped up next to Kid.

“Hmmm,” Kid murmured.  “How was she?”

Buck gave him a strange look which Kid did his best to ignore as the two men walked into the barn.

“Seemed like… well, like our Lou,” Buck finally answered.  Kid grunted.  He was afraid of that.

It didn’t take them long to unsaddle Buck’s horse, give it a quick rubdown with handfuls of hay and a little feed.  Soon they were walking back out of the barn, toward the house.

“Damn it!”

The enraged shout coming from the side of the barn had the two men running to find out what was wrong.  They slid to a halt at the sight of Jimmy sucking at the pad of his thumb while glaring at a pile of split logs tumbled willy nilly in the dirt.

“What happened, Jimmy,” Buck asked, grinning.  “Did they bite?”

“Yes,” Jimmy growled, holding out his hand to demonstrate.  “Damned things gave me a splinter!”

Kid and Buck started laughing.  Jimmy just stood there looking like a child whose favorite pet had died.

“Come on inside,” Buck said, grabbing Jimmy’s elbow and urging him toward the house.  “I’ll wager the ladies have somethin’ ta fix ya right up.”

Jimmy suddenly blanched and began back peddling.  “No,” he said, almost frantically.  “I’ll… uh.. I’ll be fine.”

Getting in on the game, Kid came up on Jimmy’s other side and grabbed his still free arm in a steel grip, ignoring his own slash of pain at the use of his hands. 

“Now, Jimmy,” he chided, trying to swallow his laughter.  “You need to have that looked at.  I’ve seen untreated splinters fester and kill men bigger’n you!”

Buck and Kid began to march Jimmy toward the house in lock step, ignoring his vigorous protests.

“What on earth is going on out here?” Lou called, hearing the commotion from kitchen at the back of the house as the men reached the porch.

Pushing Jimmy through the front door in front of them, Kid and Buck followed him into the house.  They peered over his shoulder to see Lou stepping out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on an apron, with Lydia and Teresa crowding behind her.

“Jimmy’s hurt,” Buck and Kid chorused.

Lydia pushed past Lou and rushed to her husband’s side.  Frantically, she began running her hands over him, searching him for injuries.

“What happened?  Did you get shot?”

“Erm,” Kid hedged.  “Uh, he hurt himself… uh, choppin’ wood.”

Lou tossed Kid an odd look at his tone of voice, but didn’t say anything.

“Where?” Lydia demanded urgently, suddenly fearing he’d cut himself on the ax.

Sheepishly, Jimmy held up his hand for his wife to look at.  “I, uh, got a splinter.”

Lydia stopped her frantic motions and peered at the palm of the hand he was showing her.

“Where?” she asked again, this time wonderingly.

“There,” Jimmy said, pointing to the pad at the base of his thumb, as if wondering how she could have missed it the giant piece of wood piercing his hand.  Lydia reached out and grabbed his hand in both of hers, peering closer.

She sighed in exasperation and began dragging her husband back toward the kitchen.  “I’ll need better light,” was all she said to him.  To Lou she added, “Could you get me a bottle of whiskey?  And a knife?”

Jimmy blanched at the mention of the knife. 

“I’m fine, really,” he tried to convince his wife.

“Nonsense,” Lydia riposted shortly.  “You’ve been hurt.  If we don’t take care of it, it could get infected.  We wouldn’t want that, now would we?”

Jimmy shook his head in reluctant agreement even as she pushed him down into a chair at the kitchen table, next to the large western facing window.

Taking the big butcher knife Lou had brought her, Lydia doused it in the amber liquor.  Then, without warning, she grabbed Jimmy’s hand and used the tip of the knife to begin digging into the pad of his palm.

“Owwwww,” Jimmy yelped.  “Are ya tryin’ ta kill me woman?  Ignorin’ me ain’t enough?”

Buck and Kid didn’t even bother to hide their laughter this time, each leaning against one side of the kitchen door.  Lou turned and glared at them.  Teresa reached up and whacked Buck in the back of the head as she came back into the kitchen with a basket full of clean rags.

“Don’t be an ass,” she hissed, then turned to Lydia.  “I brought these to bandage his hand with when you’re done,” she said, setting the basket down on the table at Lydia’s elbow.

“Thanks,” Lydia grunted, pulling the hand Jimmy was trying to slip out of her grasp firmly back against her chest.  “Stop that.”

“Please,” Jimmy practically begged.  “I’m fine.  Really.  I don’t need this.”

“Oh, stop being such a baby,” Lydia said, digging into his palm once again.  This time Jimmy didn’t yelp.  He merely whimpered.  “There,” she breathed in satisfaction.  “All done.”

She held the tip of the knife under Jimmy’s nose.  He nearly went cross eyed trying to look at it. 

“Awful small for such a fuss, don’t you think?” she asked.

“It wasn’t the splinter I was makin’ such a fuss about,” Jimmy whined.  “Ya did more damage diggin’ it out than it did goin’ in.”

Lydia sighed and set the knife aside.  She reached over and grabbed the whiskey bottle.

“Wait!”

She turned at Buck’s call and raised an eyebrow.  “What?”

“I’ve got somethin’ better,” he said.  “It’s in my saddle bags.”

Lydia darted a questioning glance at Kid.  He nodded.

“Well, hurry up about it,” she told the Indian.

“Here,” Lou said, grabbing up the bowl of alcohol leftover from Lydia’s cleaning of the knife and taking it over to Kid.  “Go dump this, would you?”

He reached out to accept the bowl.  Lou, not paying much attention, sloshed some of the whiskey out of the bowl and it dribbled onto Kid’s blistered hands, hitting the raw skin of a couple of blisters that had already broken.  He was unable to control the rapidly inhaled gasp of pain.

“Kid?” Lou asked, concerned.  “What’s wrong?”

“Nothin’,” he muttered, trying to finish taking the bowl from her.  But she squeezed her hands around his, pushing the edges of the bowl into his palms.  He winced again, harder this time.

“Don’t give me that,” she said, almost harshly, as she jerked the bowl back out of his hands and set it down on the counter next to her.  Reaching around Kid to grab the hands he was now trying to hide behind his back, she pulled them into the sunlight sparkling through the window.  “Good Lord!  What did you do to yourself?”

“I.. ah… I was just trainin’ one of the horses,” he muttered half under his breath.

“Must’ve been more’n that,” Lou responded, shaking her head, “to cause this much blistering.  What’d ya do, ferget yer gloves?”

Kid shrugged sheepishly, not wanting to explain.  Not letting go of his hands, she dragged him across the kitchen to a chair opposite Jimmy’s.

“Sit!” she ordered.  He sat.  “Teresa,” she added, “bring me the bowl please.  Lydia, could you hand me the knife and the whiskey?”

“Wait a minute,” Kid spluttered.  “What do you need all that fer?  I ain’t got no splinters.”

“No,” Lou said.  “But we need to pop them blisters so they’ll start healin’ proper.”

“Loooouuuuissseeee,” Kid whined.  “Just let ‘em be.”  A moment later he added, almost unheard, “Please?”

Lou shook her head adamantly, turning toward him with the large knife, freshly washed in more whiskey, in one hand, sending shards of sunlight flashing across the room.

“Now, what kind of a wife would I be if I let you walk out of here with injured hands?” she crooned sweetly.  She grabbed the worst injured of his two hands and tucked the arm under hers to hold it in place.  Then she began to dig the tip of the knife into each of the half dozen large blisters scattered across the palm.  As each blister popped, she used a whiskey dipped rag to soak up the moisture.  She ignored Kid’s yelps of pain with each one, muttering only the occasional, “Sit still, will you.  Or this’ll take twice as long.”

“Here you go,” Buck said, slightly out of breath, as he jogged back into the room holding out a pot of something.

“What is it?” Lydia asked suspiciously, as she reached out to take the pot from him.  She lifted it to her nose and sniffed dubiously.

“Don’t ask,” Lou said without looking up from what she was doing.  “Just apply generously.  I’ll guarantee ya it works.”

Shrugging, Lydia turned and looked straight into her husband’s eyes as she dipped her fingers into the pot and pulled out a large dollop of the unguent before handing the pot to Lou.  Jimmy’s eyes widened as he saw the contents.  Sharing a look with Kid, he and his best friend both gulped as their wives advanced on them with determination.

“Hands out, boys,” Lou purred, reaching down to grab the first of Kid’s hands before he could even react to her command.

“Ow!” Jimmy and Kid squealed in unison as Lou and Lydia generously spread the medicine across their injuries.

Buck nearly doubled over in laughter, one arm wrapped around his stomach, at the sight.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Lou crooned.  “Did that hurt?”

“Yes,” Kid whimpered pathetically.  Jimmy merely nodded mutely.  Lou and Lydia shared a look of their own, then began wrapping their husband’s injured hands in the clean rags.

“Poor baby,” Lou whispered, finished bandaging Kid.  She sat down in his lap and pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead.  Moving her lips down to his, she added, “Do you want me to kiss it and make it all better?”

Kid didn’t answer.  His lips were already too busy, completely occupied responding to the pressure of Lou’s own mobile mouth on his.  He didn’t even notice the slight pain in his hands from the pressure of pulling her closer to him.

“How’d you get that nasty old splinter, anyway?” Lydia asked tenderly, pushing a stray lock of hair back behind Jimmy’s ear.

He shrugged, then after a moment found his voice.  “Uh, I was… uh, choppin’ wood.”

Lydia pulled back to look into his expressive eyes.  “But, why?” she questioned.  “We already got plenty chopped.”

“I was….. well…. “ Jimmy ground to a halt, unsure how to explain to her.

“Oh, baby,” Lydia commiserated in sudden understanding.  He wasn’t good at talking, she’d figured that out a long time ago.  But still waters ran deep.  She pressed one palm to his cheek.  “Surely you weren’t upset by me?”

Jimmy leaned into her touch even as he shrugged in answer to her question.

“Darlin’,” she said, affecting his own accent, “you may’ve been the ‘cause of my…. mood… the last few days.  But that ain’t a bad thin’.”

Leaning forward she began to feather kisses down the side of his cheek and over to his ear.  Pausing there, she whispered, “Besides, this mood won’t last more’n, oh… ‘bout eight more months.”

She didn’t wait for his response, simply resumed kissing her way down the side of his neck, gently letting her breath blow across the moist trail she was leaving behind, making shivers course down his back.  Enjoying her attentions, it took him a minute to figure out what she’d said.

Jerking his head back to look into her eyes, he gasped out a strangled, “What?!”

She looked down into his shocked orbs and simply nodded her yes.  Leaning forward again, she whispered to him, “Why don’t you take me upstairs and we can…. discuss baby names.”

“Ye… yes, ma’am,” he stuttered, standing up in one jerky motion and slipping an arm under her legs to pick her up.

Taking advantage of the distraction Jimmy and Lydia were creating, Lou giggled in Kid’s ear, “Let’s get out of here.”

Grabbing his hand in hers, she began dragging him toward the back door of the kitchen.  At his suddenly indrawn breath, she glanced back and realized what she’d done.  She shifted her hand up to his elbow and finished pulling him out the door, where he turned and pushed her up against the back wall of the house to finish the kiss she’d interrupted.  She laughed throatily against his lips, enjoying his eagerness for her.

Within seconds the only ones left in the kitchen were Buck and Teresa.

Teresa looked at the tall, handsome young man and smiled.  “Looks like we’re on our own again.”

He nodded.

“What say we go pick up the children from school,” she suggested, “seein’ as how their parents seem ta be a bit… preoccupied… at the moment and have ourselves a picnic supper down by the swimmin’ hole?”

“Sounds good to me,” Buck smiled, his teeth flashing white.  He held out an arm and Teresa tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow and they walked out of the kitchen arm in arm.  Leaving behind only a bloodied knife, a few rags and a bowl of used whiskey next to a half empty bottle on the kitchen table.  “And remind me never to get a splinter or blister around those two, would ya?”

The Gift 2/11

Summary:  It's been four long years of war and separation.   But now the hostilities are over.  But Kid's family is still flung to the far corners of the earth and he's feeling guilty he didn't go with them.  Will the spirit of the Christmas season help him forget?

Chapter 2

Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory

“Sorry to see you two going so soon,” Sam Cain, Territorial Marshal, said, pushing his hat back on his head to get a better view as he watched Kid hand a still sleepy EmmyLu up to Lou, already mounted on Lightning.  “Sure y’all can’t stay through Christmas?  We’d love to have you.”

“You know we can’t do that, Sam,” Lou smiled down at him.  “Barnett could never hold the place together that long.  We’re pushing things as it is.”

Sam laughed knowingly.  His old deputy had fit in well, and happily, as their main, and only, ranch hand.  But he hadn’t made any great gains in competence since he’d worked for first Sam and then later Teaspoon.

“We’ll miss you,” Emma said, hugging Kid one last time before he mounted up too.

“We miss you, too, Emma,” Kid said quietly as he pulled her tight against him.  “Stay safe, you hear?”

“I think that’s supposed to be my line, young man,” Sam laughed, putting an arm around Emma’s waist as she stepped back from Kid’s embrace.

“I know…. it’s just….” Kid paused and stared off into the distance.  “I know this ain’t been the visit everyone’s been wantin’,” he continued, carefully not looking at Lou, “but there’s too many folks missin’ right now.  And I just can’t stand the thought of anythin’ happenin’ ta those what are around, ya know?”

“I know son,” Sam said softly, putting a hand on Kid’s shoulder.  “I know.”

“They’ll be back, Kid,” Emma added.  “Just as soon as they can.  You know that?”

Kid nodded jerkily before turning to mount his horse so they wouldn’t see the tears welling in his eyes.  What if they couldn’t make it back?  What if they’d died in that infernal war?  Trying to shake off the fear that wouldn’t quite leave him alone, he leaned down to take Noah from Sam.  Cradling his son in his arms, he swore he’d try to get back to being the Pa and husband his family needed him to be.  He didn’t know how, but he’d find a way.  He couldn’t desert them, too.

Nudging Katy into motion, he turned her nose westward and began the journey home.  Lou followed behind him, a packhorse attached by leadlines to Lightning.  A chorus of goodbyes and merry christmases followed them down the street and out of the fort.

Fort Riley, Kansas

The young man with long, curly, light brown hair that hung below his shoulders, rode his horse with a relaxed ease that belied his tense watchfulness of the streets around him as he entered the fort.  He’d been told there might be work for him here as a scout.  He’d spent some time in the regular army during the war, but it hadn’t been for him.  All those rules and regulations had more than chafed.  So, he’d gone his own way, spending much of the war working undercover south of the Mason Dixon line.  Since the end of hostilities, he’d slowly been working his way west again.  He might not care much for Kansas but it was more his home than Virginia or Georgia would ever be.

Turning his palomino toward the first saloon he came to, James Butler Hickok slid off its back and tied the animal’s head to the hitching post.

“Don’t worry,” he muttered to it.  “This won’t take long.  I’m just gonna grab a bite ta eat, then find the commander ‘round here.”

Without a backward glance, he sauntered toward the batwing doors through which light, heat and laughter floated out to assault him.  Pausing outside the entrance, he pulled the collar of his coat straight up, as much against the stares of passersby as a protection against the frigid, cutting prairie winds.

Putting one hand out in front of him, he pushed his way through the doors and strolled smoothly up to the bar.  He slammed that same hand down on the dark, rich wood of the bar to get the barkeep’s attention.

“Got anythin’ ta warm a man on a cold night?” he asked bruskly.

The barkeep pointed at a handwritten sign perched against the mirror behind him.  “Chili’s a dollar a bowl.  Steak’s’re two.  Or ya kin head over ta Ma Turner’s place down tha street and take yer chances with her slop.  I wouldn’t recommend tryin’ the army food.”

Jimmy laughed derisively at the thought.  “Had ‘nough of that durin’ the war,” he muttered.  Digging in his pocket, he pulled out a couple wrinkled bills and placed them on the bar.  “I’ll take a bowl of the chili and whiskey.”

“Comin’ right up.”

The food may not have been the best, but it was hot and the whiskey burned.  Good enough for a cold December day on the prairie, Jimmy thought to himself.  It’d been a long time since he’d had any better.

Using the biscuit that came with the chili to sop up the last bit of juice in the bottom of the bowl, Jimmy let his mind wander back to those days when he’d been assured of a truly good meal after a long, hard ride.  The pay hadn’t been the best in those days, but there’d been so much more to compensate.

He sighed.  Better to just forget about it.  Four years and a nasty war were too much to overcome.  There was no going back.  Especially not after the way he and the Kid had fought so bitterly at the end.  Better to let them have their happily ever after while he got on with his ever after.

A wild, raucous laugh from the other corner of the saloon yanked the tired man out of his reverie.  Looking up curiously, he wondered who it was.  There was something oddly familiar about that sound.  But all he could see was a bevy of saloon girls clustered around a table, avidly watching whatever was going on.  Then one of them moved.

The face was older, the hair longer, the beard and mustache new.  But it was him.  His brother.  The one who’d tried so hard over the years to remind Jimmy of the fun in life.  But he’d been wrong, Jimmy thought.  There was no fun.  Just survival.  He sighed and began to turn his back on his past, physically as he had symbolically so often.  But just as he moved, the man looked up from his cards and met his eyes.

“Hickok?!” he gasped so loudly Jimmy could hear him all the way across the noisy saloon.  Cody’d never been one for discretion, that was for sure.  “Jimmy Hickok, is that you?”

“Damn it!” Jimmy muttered, slamming his whiskey glass down on the bar and pushing away from it, heading toward the saloon door.  But he wasn’t fast enough.

Cody jumped out of his seat, throwing his cards down on the table.  “I’m out,” he said absently, his eyes glued to his brother’s disappearing back.  Hustling out into the cold Kansas night, he hurried to catch up.  Slapping a hand on the other man’s shoulder he swung him around to get a good look.

“It is you!” he exclaimed, pulling Jimmy into a fierce hug.  “By God it’s good to see you again.  Ain’t none of us would’ve even know if you was dead or alive if it hadn’t been for that duel with Tuttle you got into over in Missourah.  What are you doin’ here?”

“Lookin’ fer work,” Jimmy shrugged, pulling away from Cody and turning to check the stirrups of his saddle.  Anything not to meet the other man’s eyes.  “Heard the 7^th Cavalry needed scouts.”

“Sure do,” Cody nodded, smiling.  “Especially since I quit this morning.  But you can’t join up yet.  Wait ‘til after the holidays.”

“Whatever for?” Jimmy asked, exasperated already with his still too talkative sibling.

“’Cause ain’t none of us seen you in four years,” Cody said, the smile slipping from his face as he reached into the pocket of his coat to pull out a handful of letters.  “And Emma and Lou’ve both been after me for months now ta come home and visit.  They’d’ve written you, too, if they’d known how to find you.  And I ain’t standin’ for the  hidin’ they’ll both give me if I show up without you, now that I’ve found you!”

“Leave it alone, Cody,” Jimmy growled.  “You ain’t changed a bit have you?  Always stickin’ yer nose in.  They don’t want ta see me.  Don’t need ta see me.  Not after all this time.  After the way I left.”

“Rosemary?  Is that what this’s about?” Cody guessed.  “You oughta know they ain’t still holdin’ a grudge over that biddy.  You dropped her fast enough once you got ta seein’ what she was really like.”

“But… Noah….”

“We all know damned well he’d’a found some way ta get himself killed in that war,” Cody spat.  “Wasn’t he the one introduced himself to ya as ‘born ta hang’?  No, they ain’t holdin’ no grudges.”

“Then there’s the Kid….” Jimmy tried one last protest, pulling his coat tighter around him, whether to protect himself from the winter wind or from his own conscience even he couldn’t say.

“Jimmy, give it up,” Cody demanded, almost angrily.  “Why do you think Emma and Lou have been so persistent?  He’s feelin’ all sorts of guilt fer lettin’ us go off ta war without him, even if it wasn’t his side.  You gotta know he turned his back on the fightin’ fer our sakes, much as Lou’s.  Now, he’s wonderin’ if we’re even alive.  And you know how Kid gets when he’s feelin’ guilty.  Good Lord, man, he’s even worse than you are!”

Looking into his brother’s eyes, Jimmy could almost feel the promised welcome home.

“You sure?” he asked, hating the note of  uncertainty in his voice.

“I’m damned sure,” Cody said, smiling and slapping Jimmy on the back.  “Now, let’s get back inside where it’s warm.  We’ll play some cards.  I’ll beat ya like I always did.  Enjoy the pretty ladies and then hit the road for home in the morning.”

Turning back toward the saloon, Cody practically dragged his reluctant brother after him.  He didn’t know what Jimmy’d been through the last few years, but could tell it had been hard on him, perhaps harder than the rest of them.  Well, he was going to enjoy this Christmas season whether he wanted to or not, Cody thought to himself with a grin.

Chapter 3

The Gift 1/11

Summary:  It's been four long years of war and separation.   Now the hostilities are over.  But Kid's family is still flung to the far corners of the earth and he's feeling guilty he didn't go with them.  Will the spirit of the Christmas season help him forget?


Chapter 1

Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory

December 20^th, 1865

They were tall, definitely knee high.  And they shone brightly in the late morning sun that filtered through the store window.  Someone had spent quite some time buffing the black, patent leather until it gleamed.  The smell of the leather and oil hung in the air, as attractive as the boots themselves.  They were perfect.

Lou’s shoulders slumped at the thought.  Yeah.  They’d be the perfect Christmas gift for Kid, but there was no way they could afford them.  Turning away from the display, she moved across the store to the shelf stocked with candies of all sorts.

“A little something sweet for the babies?” Emma asked, smiling as she glided to Lou’s side, her skirts swishing gently about her.  It was a trick Lou had never quite managed to acquire.  She’d learned, eventually, how to move in the long skirted dresses without tripping over her own feet.  But that was about the best that could be said.  She wasn’t precisely graceful at any time other than on the back of a horse.

Lou nodded her head.  “I’m afraid it’s about all we can afford this year,” she murmured.

Emma wrapped an arm around Lou’s shoulders in commiseration.  She well understood what it was like to not have the money to spend on her children the way she’d like.  The last few years had been hard on everyone.  And Lou and Kid had just been starting out, with the babies coming practically on the heels of their wedding, scandalously so by some accounts.  They were making ends meet and had a good start on a working horse ranch, but had little for the extras in life.  The only reason they’d been able to make this visit was because Lou had insisted on bringing the children along when Kid came to deliver a shipment of horses to the Army here at Fort Laramie.  But Emma also knew Kid and Lou were too proud to accept handouts.  So, she’d just have to be sneaky and get them all extra nice Christmas gifts.  She’s sneak them into their luggage when they left, so they wouldn’t discover them until they were well on their way home.

“Well,” Emma said briskly, hiding a secretive smile.  “What do you think they’d like?”

Lou reached out immediately and selected a brightly colored stick of red and white candy.  “Emmylu will want the peppermint, there’s no doubt about that.”

Emmylu, or Emma Louise McCloud, was a precocious three and a half year old, born not quite nine months to the day after Kid and Lou’s wedding.  She had all of Kid’s black and white view of the world and Lou’s determination and outspokenness.  She also had a liberal helping of stubbornness from both parents, making their lives miserable upon occasion.  Emmylu, born on the Fourth of July, and her younger brother, born on Thanksgiving, were their Holiday Babies, as Kid liked to call them.  Lou rubbed her belly, just starting to show, and wondered if they’d continue the trend.  Maybe this one would be a May Day baby.

“But I ain’t so sure ‘bout Noah,” Lou mused.  Her just barely two year old son had had little opportunity to try candy yet so she wasn’t really sure what he’d prefer.  Since she could only afford to get him one stick, she wanted to make sure it would be one he’d like.  “What do you think, Emma?  The peppermint?  Horehound?  Molasses?  Butterscotch?”

“What’s that one?” Emma asked, pointing to a collection of black candy sticks at the end of the shelf.

“Licorice?” Lou wrinkled her nose.  “No, I don’t think so.  Not for his first piece at least.”

“Why don’t you go with the butterscotch, then,” Emma suggested.  “It’s sweet but nothing too….. drastic.  Should appeal to the little one.”

A soft smile broke out on Lou’s face, one that obviously had little to do with her young son.  “Just like his Pa,” she murmured so softly Emma wasn’t even sure she’d heard her correctly.  “Better get two or Kid’ll get jealous.”

“What about you?”  Emma asked.  “You deserve a little something sweet for Christmas, too.”

“Well….” Lou dithered a moment, tempted but reluctant.

“Oh, go on,” Emma encouraged.  “It’s only ten cents.”

“Alright,” Lou said, finally giving in.  Reaching out as eagerly as any young child, she snatched a stick of the horehound candy off the shelf and added it to her small pile of purchases.  Along with the four sticks of candy it included a mass of brown yarn she planned to turn into mittens for everyone, a small packet of sugar for Christmas cookies and three oranges.  They were the last ones the store had, sitting there in their proud glory on the counter.  She and Kid would have to share, but it didn’t matter.  She could hardly wait to enjoy their juicy sweetness on Christmas morning.

Moments later, the two women had paid for the things they’d picked out and were walking down the boardwalk, deftly, at least on Emma’s part, sidestepping soldiers rushing to and fro, on their way back to Emma and Sam’s house, chattering about everything and nothing.

Lou laughed at Emma’s stories about her boys’ latest antics, Sam, Jr, and Isaac were always getting into something.  Then there was baby Sarah Elizabeth, born just four months ago.  Just starting to roll over and attempt crawling, she was the center of Cains’, all of them, world and was going to end up being one spoiled little girl if they didn’t watch it.

Lou’s lighthearted gaiety faded as they neared the Cain residence on the edge of town.  Sam was out in the yard, playing horsey with the children.  Right now Emmylu was riding his shoulders, digging her heels in and yelling “Yee-haw!” at the top of her little lungs, while the others cheered her on.  Kid was nowhere in sight.  Lou knew where he’d be.  Sitting in the bedroom Sam and Emma had given them, staring out a window, absently fiddling with his harmonica.  It seemed that was all he did lately if he didn’t have an actual chore presented to him.

It broke Lou’s heart to see him like this, but she didn’t know how to break him out of his growing depression.  It had started back in late summer, when the celebrations over the end of the war had faded away and none of their brothers had shown up, as promised.  Kid kept staring across the prairie, watching and waiting, ready to call out ‘Rider comin’!’ at the first sign of anyone’s return.  Except none of them had shown up yet.  Each day he’d withdrawn a little more from her and the children.  Now, she didn’t know how to reach him anymore.

She sighed forlornly.  Emma, having seen Lou’s eyes flit across the front yard to the front porch and then up to the second story window of their bedroom, put a comforting hand on her arm.

“It’ll be alright,” she said.  “He’ll… you’ll both get through this.  For better or worse, remember?”

Lou visibly tried to shake off her own melancholia.  “I know,” she said, forcing a smile for Emma’s benefit.  “We’ve had the better, and we will again.  But, I worry about them, too, you know?  Teaspoon, Cody…. Jimmy,” her voice caught momentarily on that last name, her best friend.  “We haven’t even heard from Buck in years.  I know it weighs on Kid.  It’s just so hard to see him hurting like this.”

She’d known this day was coming from the moment he’d announced his decision not to go to war.  It was shortly after they’d discovered she was already with child.  They’d only been married a few weeks and Kid had been loath to leave her behind.  So, instead, they’d contacted Emma and Sam and arranged to buy the old Shannon farmstead now that it was no longer being used as an Express Station.  They’d moved further west to escape the tensions of the war and start the horse ranch they’d been dreaming about and planning for, but not before they’d gotten a promise from each of their brothers and Teaspoon to come visit as soon as the war was over, thinking it would only be a few months.  But the war had dragged on for three more years.  Now it was over and still they hadn’t come yet.

“I’d hoped this trip might help, seeing you and all.” She stopped and shrugged.  There was nothing more to say.  It hadn’t worked.  Leaving Emma to greet her husband, Lou went on inside the house in search of her own spouse.

Moving up the stairs, she paused in front of the door to the room she, Kid and their children were sharing.  She took a deep, fortifying breath, then opened the door and briskly strode into the room, chattering brightly.

“I managed to get a few Christmas presents for the children,” she said, smiling as she laid her packaged purchases down on the bed.  “It won’t be much, but they’ll have fun.”

She turned to where Kid was sitting in a chair by the window, just as she’d figured he’d be doing.  She walked over and brushed his hair off his forehead before leaning down to kiss him in greeting, acting for all the world as if nothing were wrong.

“Sam and Emma are planning a special goodbye dinner tonight,” she continued.  “But I want to make sure we get the children in bed early so they don’t keep us from getting an early start in the morning.  It’s going to be a long enough ride home as it is and I’d like to make it back before Christmas.  I know Barnett will be glad to see us back, too.  He’s never comfortable when we both leave the ranch and he’s got to take care of everything.”

Continuing her chatter, she began to pack their possessions into the carpetbag and saddlebags they’d brought with them.  She lost her train of thought as the first few notes escaped the harmonica, but then continued on as if nothing had happened while Kid played the melancholy tune of Aura Lee behind her.  There’d been a time when she’d thought it was pretty.  Now, she detested every note of that song.

Chapter 2