Chapter 8
“Well if that don’t take the
rag off the bush,” Carter marveled, with a growing smile. “I must admit I’ve been hornswaggled but
good!”
Carter’s colorful comments
seemed to awaken the frozen crowd of shocked pioneers. Everyone began to speak at once.
“Louise? Is that our Lou he’s talking about?”
“Is he really a girl?”
“Why’d he pretend to be a boy?”
“Why’d he own up to the truth
now?”
“What else hasn’t he told us?”
“Now folks,” Preacher Heath
moved to the front of the room to stand next to Ike and Lou, holding his hands
out for quiet. “I’m sure if you give
them a moment to breath, this fine young couple would be happy to answer your
questions.”
Ike nodded, Lou simply scooted
a little closer to his side and he reached out to wrap one arm comfortingly
around her waist. The preacher smiled at
them kindly. “I’d like to start off by
asking, did you really both ride for the Express?”
“I can answer that one,” Carter
said with a bellowing laugh. “Lou… ah…
Louise…. here rode through quite regular for the Express. Ike was through occasionally, too. But it was Lou what always put the fear of
the Almighty in me. Somehow he… uh…. she
always managed to walk out of my store with exactly what she wanted at a price
that should have beggared me. And that’s
the Simon pure truth!”
The crowd tittered at Carter’s
words, giving Lou the courage to begin answering questions.
“Yes, I’m really a girl. Always have been. I pretended to be a boy so I could get a
decent paying job that didn’t end up with me in a brothel,” she paused a moment
to cover a shiver of memory. “As for why
we decided to tell everyone… well….”
She stuttered to a stop, unsure
how to continue. Looking to Ike, she
silently begged for help.
“But she’s expecting a baby and
won’t be able to pretend no more,” Jeremiah piped up for her.
Lou’s mouth fell open in pure
shock this time. “How.. how’d you know
that?”
“What? You didn’t think we’d put it together?”
Jeremiah asked. “We aint’ deaf, dumb and
blind, ya know.”
Once again, everyone
laughed. The repeated laughter relaxed
the group and soon they were breaking up into smaller clusters, getting their
questions answered a few at a time. No
one noticed a teary eyed Emily Metcalfe sneaking out the back door.
*Shall we dance?* Ike asked an
hour later, holding out his hand invitingly to Lou.
“Yes, please,” she smiled. As he swept her into his arms and out into
the swirling crowd of people dancing vigorously to the upbeat music provided by
Mr. O’Callahan and his two eldest sons, Lou continued, “That went better than I
feared.”
Ike shot an “I told you so”
grin her direction as he swung her in a dizzying twirl. Lou laughed at his antics. “But good Lord, the questions! I’m exhausted. I don’t think I’ve ever talked so much in my
life. Give me a double run anyday over
another night like this!”
**********
“Damned buttons!” Lou grumped
as she struggled to fasten her britches.
She was in a hurry to hit the trail that morning, before Henderson had a
chance to tell her she couldn’t do her job anymore. But her steadily expanding belly was getting
in the way, already.
“Here, Lou,” Teresa said,
holding out a string to her, “use this.”
Lou let go of her waistband to
reach out and accept the offered string.
Holding it up in front of her face, she asked, “What am I supposed to do
with this, Resi?”
Teresa giggled, happy she knew
something, for once, that her idolized big sister didn’t. Taking the string back, she tied it into a
circle as she spoke. “You loop one end
around the button, pass the whole thing through the buttonhole, then loop it
back over the button again. It’ll let
you keep wearing your trousers for another month or two.”
Looking at her little sister
skeptically, Lou followed the directions.
“It works,” she marveled. “How’d you know about that?”
Teresa shrugged. “It’s a trick the nuns taught us when we’d
outgrow our clothes and couldn’t get new ones yet.”
Hugging Teresa to her quickly,
Lou said, “Thank you, honey bear.”
Then, grabbing a handful of the
ever ready soda crackers, Ike had bought several more boxes for her from
Carter, she hopped out of the wagon and headed to where they had the horses
tethered. Moments later, she was flying
down the trail.
**********
“Ike, what are you doing
here? Why aren’t you out riding the
trail?” Henderson asked as he saw Ike urging their oxen out onto the road west.
*It’s Lou’s day to ride point,*
Ike gestured.
“What?” Henderson reached up to scratch his head in
confusion. “Jest a sec. Jeremiah!” he shouted. “Get over here and translate for me.”
“Yes, sir,” Jeremiah called
back, running over from the O’Callahan wagon two spaces ahead of the McSwains.
“Now, what did you say, Ike?”
Jeremiah watched Ike a moment
then said, “Lou’s out riding point today.
It’s her turn.”
“Hold on a minute, I ain’t
gonna have no woman scouting and hunting for me,” Henderson began to
sputter. “’Specially not one in a
delicate condition!”
Jeremiah didn’t wait for Ike to
respond. “Uh, have you met my sister,
Mr. Henderson? You try stopping her from
doing something she’s set her mind on.
Ain’t never worked for none of us!”
Ike laughed and ruffled the
boy’s hair. He’d taken the words right
out of his hands.
Henderson hmphed grumpily,
glared at Ike a moment, then swung his horse around and trotted off.
*********
When Lou rode in around noon to
report on the campsite she’d found for that evening, Henderson listened to her
report, then waved her off.
“Go talk ta yer husband,” he
grumped.
With dread in her heart, she
headed toward her wagon, sliding off Sundancer before he came to a complete
halt and tying the reins to the tailgate.
Accepting the sandwich Teresa held out to her, she settled onto an
upturned log next to Jeremiah. After
chewing and swallowing her first bite, she finally looked across the campsite
at Ike.
“What’s with Henderson?”
“He wanted ya to quit workin’,”
Jeremiah piped up.
“But Ike told him it was up to
you,” Teresa said.
Lou smiled gratefully at
Ike. “Thanks.”
*He said he’d leave it up to us
as a family. Figured you’d been doing
the job just fine so far. But, he’s not
comfortable with you keeping it up too much longer, under the circumstances.*
“That ain’t fer him to decide,”
Lou started to bluster.
“That’s what Ike said,” Jeremiah
assured her.
*But, you should start thinking
about when you’re going to stop working so hard,* Ike continued,
undeterred. Crossing to her side, he
added, *After all, we want to take good care of this baby.*
He reached out a hand to pat
her stomach familiarly.
“Keep yer hands to yerself,”
she squealed, batting his hands away and laughing. “As I recall, that’s the kind of thing that
got me into this fix!”
Ike just smiled at her,
wistfully.
**********
“Louise, you going to join us
this evening?”
Lou started at hearing her full
name called out. Turning around, she
paused to let a slightly breathless, pregnant to the point of bursting, Mrs.
Heath catch up with her. “Join you? Fer what?”
“Why, the weekly Ladies
Meeting,” Mrs. Heath said.
“Why?”
“Because you’re a lady, young
woman. And, because you might enjoy it.”
“I ain’t much fer talkin’ ‘bout
the latest quiltin’ patterns an’ gossipin’ ‘bout who done what recently,” Lou
said. “Somehow I don’t think y’all’d be
too interested in discussin’ the latest developments in pistols or how to track
a deer.”
“Oh, come on, give it a
try. I think you’ll enjoy it. We just talk about whatever’s on our
minds. You might be surprised at some of
the topics that come up,” Mrs. Heath smiled.
Shrugging her shoulders, Lou
assented, “I’ll think about it. One
meetin’ ain’t gonna kill me.”
The preacher’s wife reached out
and patted Lou on the back. “That’s the
spirit my girl. The meeting will be at
my camp this week. Come on over after
supper.”
Lou nodded as she watched the
other woman walk, waddle rather, back toward her wagon.
**********
“What’s she doing here?” Mrs.
Grayson muttered under her breath as she saw Lou approach the Heaths’ camp.
“She’s coming to the Ladies
Meeting,” Mrs. Heath said calmly. “I invited
her.”
“Why? She isn’t a lady. She’s barely a female,” Prudence sneered.
“That’s no way to talk about
one of God’s children,” Mrs. Heath gently reproved the girl. “She may have lived an unconventional life,
but she’s a woman in the middle of the wilderness, just like the rest of
us. And,” placing a hand on top of her
rounded belly to emphasize her point, she added, “she’s in a condition where
she’ll soon need our help. It’s our
Christian duty to offer it. She’s
certainly not stinted on helping any of us when we needed it, now has she?”
Even the Graysons couldn’t deny
that. Mrs. Heath pushed herself
laboriously to her feet to walk the few steps over and welcome Lou, with hands
outstretched.
“Come on over and have a seat,
child,” she said, pulling Lou into the circle of light cast by the
campfire. “You know everyone here, so
relax. You’re among friends,” she added
with a pointed look at the Graysons and a couple of the Stuart women who’d
expressed reservations as well.
“Come sit with us,” Amy Nolan
invited, patting the ground between her and Emily. Lou walked over and lowered herself
gracefully to a seat. She rubbed her
hands down her pants legs nervously, noticing even Emily had put on a dress for
the meeting. Lou hadn’t had time to
change after a day in the saddle and could feel the accumulated grime
announcing her differences from the other women like a flag held high. She hunched in on herself when Emily made a
point to scoot a few inches further away from Lou, refusing to look her
direction. Lou sighed forlornly. She shouldn’t have come.
“How are you feeling?” Amy
asked.
“Yes, have you noticed any
improvement in the morning sickness?” Mrs. Heath queried.
Lou looked up, surprised. “How’d you know ‘bout that?”
Mrs. Heath laughed. “After your big announcement? It wasn’t too hard to guess. Ike had already told me you were feeling
poorly when he asked if I had any soda crackers. I hope they helped.”
“Yes, ma’am. I can’t tell you how grateful I am,” Lou
smiled, relaxing a bit.
“All I can say is I don’t know
how you two do it,” Clara Stuart piped up.
“I won’t let my John touch me as long as we’re on the trail. No way I want to get caught while traveling
across country like this!”
“You know, there are ways to
enjoy marital relations without worrying about babies,” Amy said quietly.
“What?!” Mrs. Grayson
gasped. “Interfere with God’s plan for
you? Why, that’s sacrilege!”
“And refraining from marital
relations isn’t?” Mrs. Heath
responded. “I do believe Paul counsels
in 1st Corinthians 7:5, “Do not deprive one another except with consent for a
time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together
again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”
“So, what’s this method you got
of avoiding babies,” Kathleen O’Callahan asked curiously. “Does it work better than the rhythm method?”
“One would hope,” Lou muttered,
placing a hand over her belly. That’s
what she’d been attempting to use and look how things turned out.
“Oh, yes. Much,” Amy smiled. “It’s called a ‘male shield’. It’s--“
“Shut your mouth, young woman!”
Mrs. Grayson snapped. “I will not have
you corrupting my innocent young daughters with this indecent talk.”
“Oh, please,” Beth Stuart
rolled her eyes. “I’ve heard worse out
of their mouths on a Sunday morning!”
Tuning out the growing
argument, Lou began to restlessly look around the group. Thus, she was the only one who noticed Mrs.
Heath’s uncomfortable shifting. When the
other woman suddenly blanched and let out a deep groan, Lou was the first to
her side.
“Are you alright?” she asked,
worried about this woman who’d gone out of her way to be nice to her.
“I… I think my time’s come,”
Mrs. Heath smiled wanly.
“Your time?”
“Her baby’s coming, you foolish
child,” Mrs. Grayson snapped. “Girls, go
home. This is no sight for young,
unmarried ladies. You shouldn’t have
even heard what we were talking about earlier.”
“I’ll let Mr. Henderson know,”
Emily volunteered. “We won’t be able to
pull out tomorrow.”
“Do you have a tent?” Kathleen
asked, concerned.
“Yes,” Mrs. Heath gasped,
panting a little. “Mr. Heath has it
stored in the wagon somewhere.”
“I’ll go find it,” Lou offered,
immediately turning to crawl into the wagon and start searching. At least finding and setting up a tent was
something she had some know how in.
Once the tent was up, Lou found
herself pressed into service boiling water and warming blankets. The other married ladies kept her busy but
wouldn’t let her run off.
“You need to have some
knowledge of what to expect, my dear,” Kathleen O’Callahan smiled at her. “I know this is a sort of trial by fire, but
better that than nothing.”
Lou wasn’t so sure of
that. She thought she’d rather have
remained ignorant. Childbirth appeared
to be a painful, noisy, messy thing. And
she wasn’t so sure she wanted any part of it.
That was, until the new baby was actually born.
She stood, transfixed, watching
as the wet, bloodied infant was pulled squirming from its mother’s body. Mrs. Grayson held it up by the rear legs,
smacking its bottom until it squealed.
Then the newborn was placed gently in the warm towel Lou held in her
arms, while the other women swarmed around Mrs. Heath, cleaning her up.
Lou just stood there, staring
down at the baby boy, unable to believe this child had just come out of another
human being.
“Well, wipe it off, hurry,” Amy
Nolan smiled at Lou. “We need to get
that boy to his mother so she can feed him.”
**********
Lou walked back to her camp,
slowly, in the pre-dawn hours. She was exhausted
and elated at the same time. Stopping
next to their wagon, she placed a hand over her belly. For the first time, this child felt
completely real to her. Not a burden, or
a problem to be solved, but a human being to be loved. Finally, she could understand, at least a
little, Ike’s anticipation and excitement over it.
“Ooh!” she gasped in shock, as
she felt an odd roiling and rumbling in her belly. Looking down, she waited a moment. It happened again. “Is that you, little one? Are you eager to come out and play? Well, yer gonna have ta wait a bit
longer. Yer momma’s got a lot to learn
before you get here. But she’s learnin’
just as fast as she can!”
So caught up was she in the
moment, in her wonder over her new understanding of what was happening to her
body, she didn’t hear Ike rollover on his pallet under the wagon. She didn’t see the light reflecting off his
opened eyes as he watched her, protectively, lovingly. He was glad she was coming to terms with this
pregnancy. Maybe now, they’d be able to
move forward and work on something else.
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