A few hours later the boys sat down for lunch. Everyone looked surprised as Lou walked in and sat down.
“I thought you weren’t feeling well, Lou?” a very confused Kid asked.
“No way Kid. I told you she probably just didn’t feel like slaving away with the rest of us trying to fix that god forsaken corral fence.”
Everyone in the room shot a look of annoyance at Cody as he smiled, obviously proud of his attempt at humor.
“Cody, why don’t you put that mouth of yours to something it’s good at and leave Lou alone.” Rachael said as she gestured towards Cody’s plate.
Cody looked at Rachael with an injured air, but then shrugged and began working his way through the mountain of food on his plate.
With Cody shut up, Kid asked his question again. “Lou, are you sure your ok. You seemed pretty sick this morning?’
“Kid, I’m fine.” Lou snapped. “It must have been a quick flu or something like that. Stop worrying!”
With that said, everyone looked at Cody to see if he would have a comment to make, but he was to engrossed in what was on his plate to hear anything that was going on around him.
Throughout the rest of the meal the conversation remained strained. Lou kept glaring at the Kid and eventually she just got up and left the table after mumbling something about having to get Lightning ready for a ride. After she left the table the rest of the riders just stared at each other, each of them trying to think of a reason for Lou’s odd behavior.
“I wish I knew what was up with her,” Jimmy sighed as the rest of the riders nodded their agreement.
Lou was thinking along the same lines as Jimmy as she hurried towards the barn where Lightning was stabled.
“What on earth is the matter with me! I can’t even have a civil meal with my family without getting all worked up.”
Lou opened the door to the barn, went straight to Lightning’s stall and started grooming her. She was about halfway done when she rested her head on Lightning’s familiar neck and started to cry. About a half an hour later she realized that she hadn’t the slightest idea what she was even crying about. She felt incredibly drained and she still had a ride to St. Joseph’s to make. She finished saddling Lightning and decided to ask Teaspoon for a few days off after she finished her ride. She thought she might go visit her sister and brother while she was in the area. “Who knows,” she thought, “It might do me some good to see them again and it would definitely be nice to get away from here for a few days.” She smiled to herself as she went to talk to Teaspoon.
As she set out on her ride Lou thought about what she wanted to do when she got to St. Joe. As had been expected, Teaspoon was more than happy to grant Lou a few days off from work. Even Rachael thought a few days away from the bunkhouse might be a good idea for her. Lou decided that she would spend a few days in the city of St. Joe before making the trip out to the orphanage to see her brother and sister. Even though she hated to admit it, she was somewhat nervous about seeing her brother again. Their last meeting was filled with guilt on her part and a long festering bitterness on his. She wondered if he had been able to forgive her yet. Those thoughts soon left her mind as she rode into the pony express station at St. Joe. The mochila hand-off went smoothly and now she was free to do what she wanted. For a few glorious days she could be Louise again.
The first thing Lou did after dropping the mochila off at the station and getting herself a hotel room was to go get herself a dress. She had decided to treat herself to a new one and she wanted one that would be appropriate for dinner and the town dance that she had seen advertised on a flyer posted on the general store window. She went into the dressmaker’s not sure of exactly what she wanted, but the second she walked into the store she saw the dress of her dreams. It was a gorgeous maroon color with a handmade lace collar. There was even lace at the hem of the dress. Lou knew she shouldn’t spend the money, but something told her she had to have that dress. She walked up to the counter, gave the owner of the store her size, and went to the back of the store to try on the dress. She was amazed and a little disappointed when the dress didn’t fit. It was somewhat tight around her breasts and her abdomen. She’d worn the same dress size since she was fifteen and she certainly hadn’t gained weight since joining up with the express. At least she didn’t thought she had. She sighed and asked the store owner to bring her the next size up. Fortunately, there was a another dress in stock that fit perfectly. Lou took one satisfied look at herself in the mirror, smiled, and started to fix her hair. When she came out of the dressing room the store owner barely recognized her. The tired-looking, small, somewhat plain girl had transformed into a strikingly handsome woman with upswept reddish-brown hair, a glowing complexion, and a light to her eyes that hadn’t been there when she went in. Lou saw the admiring look in the store owner’s eyes and knew that the dress had made her into exactly what she wanted to be for the next few days; a beautiful, respectable woman.
Later on that day, Lou was sitting in a restaurant having dinner by herself when a tall, handsome gentleman walked over to her and introduced himself as Jonathan Kay.
“Hi Jonathan, my name’s Louise. Would you like to sit down?”
“I would like nothing better than to take my repast with such a beautiful woman.” Jonathan replied, as a genuine smile lit up his face.
Lou and Jonathan sat in that restaurant for hours just talking about their dreams and wishes and hopes for the future. Jonathan didn’t ask any questions about Lou’s past and since she wasn’t in any hurry to bring up the topic she didn’t ask him either.
“ ….. so then we crawled under the floorboards and started knocking underneath the house and that old lady started screaming about how the house was haunted and practically had a heart attack. She moved out the next day and the new property owners had no problems with us kids raiding their apple orchards.” “Jonathan, you were such a horrible child. If I were your mother you would have been in major trouble.”
“But the thing is, Louise, Mother never found out and if she did she didn’t ever mention it to us. You see she disliked that old lady as much as we did.” Jonathan laughed out-loud.
Lou wiped at the tears that were streaming down her face and as she did she happened to glance out the window and see that the sun had set hours ago.
“Oh no!” Lou exclaimed, “It must be almost 9 o’clock!”
“Well, if it is that late in the evening you must let me escort you back to your hotel.”
Lou smiled and agreed to Jonathan’s request. When they reached the door to the hotel Jonathan looked at Lou with such intensity that she began to feel a little nervous.
“Why are you looking at me like that?’
“I was wondering if you would mind very much if I kissed you.”
Lou blushed and said teasingly, “Well, you may kiss me on the cheek like a gentleman if you’d like.”
Jonathan smiled, “I guess it will have to do for tonight”
He kissed her cheek and Lou practically melted.
“Goodnight Louise.”
“Goodnight Jonathan.”
It wasn’t until she was in bed, snuggled under her covers that Lou realized that she hadn’t thought about Kid all day. She felt somewhat guilty, but shook it off and told herself that if he didn’t love her enough to wait for her, she should just get on with her life. Besides there was that fling that he’d had with that Samantha that she was still somewhat upset about. She rolled over in bed and thought about how sweet Jonathan had been. She really had had a good time talking with him. She sighed in contentment as she rolled over in bed and fell asleep dreaming of his lips brushing her cheek.
On to Chapter Five
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