By Joanna
Chapter I
Thief in the Night
His eyes flashed darkly, glittering under a large silver moon. His breath was easy, a whisper on the wind. Every move, every twitch of his tight muscles was premeditated, every thought confident. There was no need to hurry. He'd get what he wanted. Doubt or fear was not something he could contemplate. He would not fail.
Marshal Teaspoon Hunter looked up from the paperwork on his desk as boots clicked on the porch outside his office.
"Kid! You can't sleep in this jail for the rest of your life, that is unless you are itching to commit some horrible crime...and then I'd kill you so you still wouldn't be any better off!" Teaspoon exclaimed as Kid sheepishly filled the doorway, blanket in hand.
"I don't know, Teaspoon. I'd rather be dead from a quick shot to the heart than burned to death from the heat of Lou's stares," Kid pointed out quietly.
"Kid, you two is gonna have to work out your differences. You're putting all the rest of us in a real uncomfortable place. I don't like the tenseness at the station. It's supposed to be a home, not a battlefield."
"Which is why I want to sleep here," Kid answered.
Teaspoon sighed, "You two surprised me. You gonna let this come between you two not only as lovers but as friends?"
Kid shrugged, "I don't know, Teaspoon. We just can't seem to get along any more. It always turns into a fight over something I did or something she said. She ain't gonna forgive me for what I said about us. Or Samantha for that matter."
Teaspoon shook his head, "You're gonna have to learn to live together if nothing else. I don't want to have to hear about this forever."
"But tonight?" Kid wondered, looking at the floor.
Teaspoon sighed, "Sweet dreams."
He shook his head as he left the office. Since Lou turned Kid's proposal down and Kid had met up with Samantha, the peace at the station had been shattered. Meals were quiet and strained, and even now that Samantha was gone and Kid seemed to recover from Lou's rejection, the hostility was overwhelming.
Alone in the jail, Kid turned to the lumpy bunk in the empty cell with resignation and finally fell into a fitful sleep.
"Sweet mother of Jesus!" The panicked voice preceded the jail door opening by only seconds. Kid sat up before he was fully awake, breathing hard.
"Marshal! Marshal Hunter!"
Kid finally opened his eyes and gained his bearings enough to respond to the figure swaying in the doorway.
"What is it?" He asked, rubbing his eyes tiredly and yawning.
"Where's Teaspoon? I got big problems! Horse thieves just stole half my stock!"
Kid sighed, knowing Teaspoon would need to deal with this rather than Barnett, Teaspoon's flighty deputy.
"That ain't all!" the man continued, and Kid studied him as he gasped. He was dressed in his long johns and boots. His eyes were wild and his face pale.
"What else?"
"Well, I woke up and saw an apparition of a black horse over my bed before I heard the horse thieves outside! I swear that it was a ghost horse staring right down at me! I woke up and hollered so loud that my wife held her ears. When I opened my eyes again, the ghost was gone. And so were my mares!"
Kid held his hand up to silence the rambling man, "Okay, let me saddle my horse and I'll take you to the marshal." He shook his head. Better Teaspoon have to deal with the crazy man than him, he quickly decided.
Five sleepy souls stumbled out onto the porch of the bunkhouse slowly, muttering and shivering. Their curiosity had been piqued by the loud voices in the station yard.
"Well, wonder what all this is about," Jimmy mumbled as they lined up to watch a man in his underwear ranting at Teaspoon, throwing his arms out to aid him in the telling of his story.
"Probably a drunk who saw a ghost," Cody yawned, "I say we go back to bed."
"Wonder what Kid's doing with him though?" Noah wondered, "Must've had a good reason to bring him all the way out here."
Lou glared at Noah for mentioning the forbidden name and silently went back into the bunkhouse and climbed into her bed, taking delight in trampling the blankets on the lower bunk that was Kid's.
The riders on the porch exchanged glances and Noah shook his head, "Remind me never to offend her. She sure holds a grudge."
"Don't ever offend her," Cody said helpfully and turned to go into the bunkhouse too, followed by Ike.
Jimmy and Noah remained, watching with interest until the man breathed deeply and nodded, and Teaspoon clapped him on the back and led him to the tack room to bunk there for the night. Kid shuffled tiredly over to the porch and looked up at his friends with bloodshot eyes.
"Well what was that about?" Noah asked, nodding in the direction of the tack room.
"Man had his horses stolen by horse thieves," Kid answered, yawing and stretching, "But that ain't the half of it. The crazy old coot thinks he saw a ghost horse standing over his bed when he woke up!"
Noah laughed, "Probably had a little whiskey before bed."
"Jimmy, you all right? You look like you just seen a ghost horse yourself," Kid laughed lightly.
Jimmy didn't hear them. His gaze was fixed on the horizon as a boyhood memory came back to him. Old Bill MacMurphy had told them of such a horse...only it had been ten years ago, and the horse had already been ancient then. Surely Satan did not still roam these parts?
"Jimmy?" Noah called out, nudging his friend and nearly knocking him over.
Jimmy jumped and looked at Noah in surprise, as if he'd expected to find someone else there.
"What? Oh. Horse thieves huh? Maybe, but maybe not. Maybe it was a mustang stallion."
Kid shook his head, "The mustangs keep to the mountain valleys Jimmy, you know that."
Jimmy shook his head, "Not this one."
"What one?" Noah and Kid asked together.
"I'll tell you in the morning. Let's get some sleep now," Jimmy said, "Kid, you actually gonna sleep in your own bed?"
Kid shot him a glare, "Well, if I'm dead by morning you'll know who did it I suppose. Can't wait to hear what Teaspoon thinks of this wild horse theory."
Jimmy snorted, "Well, all's I can say is that you better hope I'm wrong. Because I have a feeling it'd be a hell of a lot easier to stop a band of outlaws than this stallion."
Too tired to appreciate the mystery surrounding Jimmy's stallion Kid and Noah left him standing on the porch and crawled into their warm bunks.
Jimmy stood alone on the porch and his eyes searched the horizon. He smiled slightly into the wind and murmured, "Well, Satan, looks like I may just catch you after all."
Lou blinked sleepily and tried to understand why she had her jacket on over her long johns. She remembered then the disturbance from the night before and groaned. The fact she hadn't been asleep before Kid rode in didn't help. But, she supposed, that didn't change the fact that she had a run later today. With a sigh, she sat up, socked feet dangling as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
Stifling a yawn she turned to slide to the floor, her foot searching for the edge of Kid's bed so she could step the rest of the way down. Finding something solid she let her weight slide slowly downward.
Suddenly the bed yanked from under her with a loud "Ow!" and with a shriek of surprise, she tumbled over backwards onto the hard wood floor with a loud thump.
"Lou!" Kid cried out, sitting up and rubbing the arm she'd stomped on and trying to understand why she was laying on the floor looking up at the ceiling. Suddenly understanding that he'd caused her to end up that way, he struggled to get to her side. In his anxiousness, he didn't realize his sheet was tangled around his ankles and it was too late to stop himself from pitching headfirst out of bed, landing mostly on Lou.
Her breath escaped her in a loud "oof" as Kid crushed her. When he fell, his head knocked the edge of a chair left in the middle of the floor and it crashed to the ground. The other riders jumped to sitting positions, grabbing for guns left hanging by the door and looking around in confusion.
Noah rubbed the knot on his skull where he'd rammed it into Ike's upper bunk. The boys exchanged glances with raised eyebrows to find Kid on the floor on top of Lou. Both of them lay still, staring at each other with what seemed to be a combination of fury, confusion, and surprise.
Noah's dark eyes lit up with amusement as Kid and Lou looked around and realized everyone was staring at them, "We always thought you and Lou would get back together Kid, we just didn't think it would be so soon, or so openly."
Lou felt her cheeks growing fiery hot with embarrassment.
"Get off me!" She growled at Kid, pushing against his chest in earnest.
Kid did so, rolling to his side and sitting up dazedly as Lou, still bright red with mortification, stood up, grabbed her boots and stomped outside.
Kid hung his head in defeat, shaking it back and forth to clear it of his muddled thoughts and the ache of hitting the chair. How she could remain so furious at him, he didn't know.
Jimmy sighed and jumped to the ground, barely missing Cody's head. "I'll go talk to her."
Kid bit back any protest and climbed to his feet as Jimmy closed the heavy door behind him.
Jimmy found Lou bent over the basin in the barn, scrubbing her face furiously.
"You'll be sorry when you ain't got no face left to wash," Jimmy said quietly with a smile as she jumped and spun to face him.
"You scared me half to death, Jimmy!"
He grinned sheepishly in apology, "I didn't mean to Lou," he paused when he saw the tears in her eyes yet again, and sighed, "Aw, Lou, you okay?"
Lou turned back to the basin and splashed more water on her face so she might hide her tears until she gained control. "Yep. I'm fine."
"Noah was just kidding you know, he didn't mean anything," Jimmy supplied.
"I know!" Lou snapped then sighed and let her shoulders sag, "I am just tired of everyone watching me to see what I'm gonna do or say around Kid. It's hard enough feeling so confused, but when everyone knows everything that's happened, and thinks it's a grand show, I just...I can't abide it Jimmy. I've got my dignity."
Jimmy leaned against the side of the barn, staying out of her way as she went about drying her face and brushing her hair. Hair that now almost reached her shoulders. Lou held a special place in his heart since he found out she was really a girl. But the more she looked and acted like a young lady, the higher he regarded her. He'd become her confidant when she and Kid broke it off and he took this role very seriously. He often felt he didn't do a good job of easing her hurt, but he did his best.
"They ain't making fun of you Lou, or Kid neither," Jimmy explained as she scrubbed her teeth with a frayed willow bark twig, "They are just trying to lighten the mood between you two. They are getting tired of walking on egg shells around you is all."
"So they just want us to make up, and for me to forget that he said I didn't mean nothing to him?" Lou threw her hands in the air, leaving the stick in her mouth. When Jimmy started to smile at her, she shot him a warning glare and continued, "They want me to just pretend that Samantha never came along and that he didn't make a complete fool of himself over her?"
Jimmy scratched his neck, and looked over Lou's shoulder in the mirror, trying to decide if he wanted to shave or not.
"Jimmy Hickok, are you paying attention to me?" Lou demanded.
"Be kinda hard not to," Jimmy responded, and met her eyes in the mirror, "Lou, things can't get much worse between you and Kid. And it is a bad place for all of us to be too, surely you understand that?" Lou's nod showed him she did. Encouraged, he continued, "So don't you think you can find it in your heart to just talk to him?"
Lou yanked the twig from her mouth and flung it at his head, "I can't believe it! I should have known all along you'd take his side! You'll all take his side because you're all men, and y'all don't blame him for taking interest in Samantha!"
"Now Lou, that ain't…" Jimmy started as Lou flung the towel back on the rack and started storming away, "Lou! Lou, don't be like this!"
She disappeared around the corner and Jimmy glared at himself in the mirror.
"Smart, Hickok," he muttered, then to make himself feel better, added, "Women."
"Why hello, Kid! Nice to see you here for breakfast for once," Teaspoon said sarcastically as he let himself into the bunkhouse. He instantly noticed the absence of Lou as well though.
Kid glared but chose to change the subject, "Where's the man from last night?"
"Rode on home to his family. I suspect it weren't so much that his horses were stolen as his counting abilities were impaired with some hard liquor. Told him to go count them, have some breakfast, and come get me if they really were missing."
"I don't know, Teaspoon. Maybe they were stolen. You should hear Jimmy's theory," Noah said over the rim of his cup.
Teaspoon looked at Jimmy with interest as he sat down, "What theory would that be? You hear of horse thieves around these parts?"
"Just one," Kid supplied, snickering.
"Quiet!" Teaspoon warned them, and hiding a grin, turned to Jimmy, "The floor is yours, Jimmy."
Jimmy shot Kid and Noah glares that promised they'd pay later and mumbled, "It ain't nothing. I just pointed out that it could be a mustang stallion stealing the mares."
"Mustangs don't usually run through Sweetwater," Cody broke in through a mouthful of food.
"Well, this ain't no ordinary mustang. He's well known around these parts, or he was about ten years ago. He's a black stallion they call Satan. He's stolen over a thousand mares in his life. Kid said the man saw a black horse over his bed. Maybe he saw it out the window or something…" Jimmy couldn't bring himself to tell the others about the real story of Satan. He would never live down the fact he'd remembered and maybe even believed there was something extraordinary about the stallion.
Rachel, just sitting down to eat herself, shrugged, "Don't sound so far fetched to me."
Jimmy smiled, "Well, thanks Rachel."
"After all, just the other day I saw a pig walk away with some candy from Tompkins store," the pretty woman finished before she and the others burst out laughing.
Jimmy felt his ears grow hot and shot back defensively, "We'll see who's right, all of you! Then you'll be eating some crow instead of these biscuits!"
Lou was grateful for the open prairie and the crisp cold air of early spring that made Lightning feel strong and fast. The wind whipped the tears from her eyes, and she didn't try to stop them. Only here, in the open spaces of the plain could she let her wounds reopen without the fear someone would come along and warn her she'd make herself sick with her sorrow.
She'd felt this way once before, when her mother died. Although she had not lost anyone physically now, she had the oddest sense of grieving, of total emotional severance. She was growing used to the dull ache that invaded her every thought. She just couldn't stand the fact that everyone in the station realized exactly what had happened between her and Kid. She'd never been ashamed of the choices she and Kid made until Kid seemed to become determined they weren't behaving properly, and had decided that she didn't measure up to his expectations.
She shook her head and brushed her sleeve across her eyes when the station rose into view.
She wrinkled her brow in confusion when the station master met her in the dirt of the station yard with no horse in hand.
"What's wrong Tom?" Lou wondered in confusion as she pulled her blowing horse to a halt, "Where's my mount?"
The bearded man scratched his cheek and shook his head, "I ain't got any horses left. They all got stolen two days ago."
"Stolen? There were some horses out of Sweetwater taken last night too. Did you get a look at who stole them?"
Tom instantly flushed and looked at his boots, "No. Not really."
Lou raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean, not really?"
"Well, truth is I was in town at the saloon when they were taken," he shifted nervously, knowing good and well Lou knew the company rules against drinking.
Lou rolled her eyes, "Well that's just great. What am I supposed to do?"
Tom shrugged, "How tired is your horse?"
"He's plenty tired Tom, he's been running twenty miles. I can't stay on schedule if I keep going on him."
Tom sighed and held out his hands, "Well, I suggest you stop here and rest him, then continue on him. I just fixed breakfast."
Lou sighed and shook her head wordlessly. There was no way she was going to stop in an out of the way place with a half sober station manager. "Lightning can go another few miles. I'll just rest him then."
Tom shrugged, "suit yourself."
With a sigh, Lou swung onto her horse and continued on the trail.
She was already two hours behind schedule when she reached the next station. She should have been shocked to see the station manager come out to greet her empty handed as well, but she was beginning to adjust to the fact this wasn't destined to be a good day. She would have sworn Lightning heaved a sigh of frustration too, moments after she did the same.
"Let me guess," Lou muttered, "Horse thieves?"
"Yeah, how'd you know? That horse looks like it's been ridden into the ground."
"He has. I don't suppose you got a look at the ones who did it?"
He shook his head, "No. Took them right out from under my nose three nights ago."
"You're telling me there isn't another horse at this whole station? I've only got another ten miles to ride, but my horse won't make it that far in a night."
The stationmaster looked at her, "Well, I got one old mare that I had in the barn and that wasn't taken. I suppose you can take her if you make sure to bring her back to me. She's real old though, but a mite more rested than him."
Lou nodded in agreement, "Okay. She can't be as worn out as Lightning."
Lou had second thoughts about her last statement as the mare was led from the barn saddled. She was an ancient liver chestnut with a swayback.
Thinking that this might be the worse run she'd ever made, Lou set her mouth in a straight line and fought to keep from bursting into hysterical laughter. As she swung up on the mare, who pinned her ears and balked instantly, she turned to the man on the ground, "Keep my horse in the barn. I don't want anyone getting him. Feed him well and rub him down. He's going to have a long ride back tomorrow."
"Get up," she told the mare who lumbered out of the station at a slow canter.
Because of the mare's slow gait, dark fell long before she made her final destination. With an oath, she finally pulled up when the mare started stumbling more than walking. Lightning could have picked his way through the rough terrain, but not this mare. It was out of the question to continue on her.
Lou patted the mare regretfully after unsaddling her and spread out her bedroll. If there were horse thieves around she couldn't take the chance of lighting a fire to cook over or warm herself, and she didn't have any food anyway, having planned on spending the night in Willow Springs. She huddled shivering in her bedroll on the harsh spring night, for the first time too tired and too exhausted to think about her problems with Kid, and fell instantly into a deep sleep.
The next morning the sun was higher in the sky than she would have preferred when she stretched and opened her eyes.
"Well girl, let's go," she yawned as she turned to see how the mare had fared the night.
She couldn't scramble to her feet fast enough. How? She asked over and over again as she looked in every direction on the flat plain.
The mare had vanished without a trace, the halter laying on the ground, still tied to the hitching line. Lou shivered slightly when she considered how close the outlaws had been to her, how easily they might have slit her throat without her ever knowing they were there.
"No!" Lou screamed into the wind in fury, clenching her fists and gritting her teeth. It was still a good seven miles to the next station, and from the looks of things, she was going to have to walk every step of it. Questioning her run of bad luck, she slung the mochila and her bedroll over her shoulder, leaving the saddle behind.
She walked until her feet and legs ached, and she knew she'd still only covered half the distance. She tripped and faltered over the uneven ground. Estimating she was supposed to be back at Sweetwater by the time she'd make it to Willow Springs, she cursed again.
She still had three miles to go and the sun was just past its highest point in the sky when she heard a horse approaching. She looked up quickly, and her hand rested on her gun. Soon, she dropped it and waved both arms high above her head. When the rider spotted her and sped his horse toward her, she sank to the ground in relief.
"Buck, I don't think I've ever been so happy to see anyone in my whole life," she grinned.
"What happened to you?" he questioned as he dismounted and sat on the ground beside her, "You hurt?"
She shook her head, "None of the stations had horses except one old one since Sweetwater. There's horse thieves in Sweetwater too," she explained, knowing he'd been out on his own ride for four days, long enough to miss the trouble.
"So you're walking instead?" Buck wondered.
"No. The horse I borrowed was stolen last night, right from under my nose. I never even heard them, Buck."
Buck shook his head. Lou was almost as light of a sleeper as he was. Anyone who could steal a horse from her care was obviously very good at what he did.
"I don't know why they would have wanted that mare. She was on her last legs," Lou supplied, then suddenly looked at him, "What are you doing here anyway?"
Buck stood up and offered her a hand, "Well, I knew you were due to ride into Willow Springs last night, so I thought I'd wait for you so we could ride back together this morning. I got worried when you didn't show up and decided to come after you."
Lou smiled, "I'm sure glad you did! My feet are killing me!"
Buck grinned and took the mochila from her, fitting it over his saddle. "I guess that's why they made it the pony express instead of the people express," he laughed, and Lou giggled as well, standing back as he climbed on his tall chestnut horse and extended his hand to her. She swung up easily behind him, sighing in relief to be off her feet.
"I guess we'll be the first double riders to bring in the mail in Willow Springs," Buck commented, "But we'll get you a fresh horse there and head back today."
The ride back was a long one, but with Buck's company Lou didn't mind it so much as the ride out. They stopped and picked up Lightning, with Lou making sheepish apologies for the loss of the mare as well as offering the station master a younger horse from the Willow Springs Station, and continued toward Sweetwater.
"These outlaws are good Buck," Lou mumbled as they passed the first of the station close to dawn the next morning, having decided stopping would only invite horse thieves. "No one's seen hide nor hair of them, and yet they've covered every station from Sweetwater to Willow Springs."
"Could be Indians," Buck suggested, "Sioux or even Apache, even though it's a bit more northern than their usual territory."
Lou nodded, and the comfortable silence resumed.
The sun was rising when they rode slowly into the Sweetwater station.
"Oh no," Lou murmured as she saw Ike, Noah, Cody, Teaspoon and Jimmy standing in the station yard looking perplexed.
"We got trouble," Teaspoon informed the two bedraggled, dust covered riders before they could dismount.
"Wouldn't happen to sound like horse thieves would it?" Buck wondered as he jumped to the dust.
"Something like that," Cody muttered.
"How many did they take?" Buck wondered.
"Well, Kid's out on a ride, so they didn't get Katy, and Jimmy's palomino was stalled up because he had a touch of colic, and four other horses were stalled for different reasons. Other than that, they got them all."
Jimmy shook his head, his eyes again focused on the horizon, "Not them," he said quietly, "Him. There's only one."
A few minutes later, after Buck circled the station, he came back and nodded, "He's right. There's only one set of prints not familiar. An unshod horse."
"I told you so," Jimmy reminded them, then whistled through his teeth, shaking his head. He tried to ignore the feeling he was being watched, but a cold finger seemed to tap the back of his neck and he shivered violently.
"Satan's back," he whispered so low that no one else could hear him.
To be continued...Chapter Two
Copyright 1998-This work is not to be reproduced without the permission of the author
