Chapter XVI
By Joanna
"Where have you been?"
Lou cringed at the panic and anger in Cody's voice when he ran down the drive to practically jerk her off the wagon. Although his hands were gentle as he sat her on her own two feet, there was no mistaking the stony fury in his eyes or the tremble of his voice.
"I got Jimmy out," She said weakly, waiting for Jimmy or Jonathan to come to her aid at any moment. Instead they sat quietly and let her bear the brunt of Cody's anger.
"And how did you do that?"
Lou looked at the ground sheepishly.
"She attacked the warden and made him sign papers, then got Captain Monroe here to come find me. It went well…until they found the warden. Now the prisoner's alarm is going off and they'll be hot on our trail in no time."
"What kind of a lead do we have?" The voice was new, and Lou looked past Cody's broad shoulders to find Kid unsteadily coming down the walkway. Her heart surged with joy to find him standing, however precariously. They had to get away from the prison guards. If Kid were to go back to prison, there was no doubt he'd die.
Suddenly the foolishness of what she'd done sank into her fully. In saving Jimmy, she'd put them all in danger of treason. She glanced behind her at Jimmy who was staring knowingly back at her.
Regret it now, Lou? See? I told you it wasn't worth it. Jimmy's thoughts were plain in his eyes as Lou gazed at him.
Ever so slightly, she shook her head 'no' in disagreement. It was worth it.
"We have to get away from here," Lou said quietly, "We have to go now."
"Yes, that's brilliant. But where can we go?" Cody snapped, "And how will Teaspoon and Buck know where to find us?"
"I wouldn't worry about us son, we always show up in the nick of time," everyone but Jonathan sighed in relief at the gravelly man's voice, and turned to smile slightly at Teaspoon and Buck, who'd just ridden up.
"We've got the papers to release Kid," Teaspoon said, eyeing Kid, "Apparently, you didn't have much faith in us though."
"We've got bigger problems than that now, Teaspoon. Not only did we bust Kid out of there, now Lou's gone and gotten Jimmy out, and in doing that got the whole prison on our tail."
"Merciful God. Do I need to ask what Jimmy was doing in prison?"
"It's a long story," Jonathan contributed his two cents, "one that I'd still like to know part of."
Teaspoon eyed the Yankee Captain and shook his head in confusion. Better to sort it out later, for now the questions would have to remain unanswered.
"Well, sounds like we'd better get riding," Buck noted.
"But where are we gonna go? Anywhere we go we've got a traitor in our midst, North or South" Cody muttered, again casting an angry eye at Lou.
"I know where we can go. It will be safe…if we can get there," Jonathan said slowly.
"Where are we going to go?" Kid asked warily of the man in blue.
"It'll suit you just fine, I'd imagine. We're going back to Virginia," Jonathan told him.
Lou groaned audibly. She'd just convinced her husband after years of heartache to leave Virginia behind. Now, they were going back?
"What do you expect to do in Virginia? Robert E. Lee is still holding his land quite well. Where do you expect to go?" Jimmy asked.
"Home," Jonathan said quietly.
"Home?" It was more a chorus than a question, from Lou, Kid, Cody, and Jimmy.
"Yes. Home. I'm from Virginia."
"And you're fighting for the North?" Kid spat out, "You burned my home and my land…a fellow Virginian?"
His voice was rising, and his cheeks were flushing with unhealthy anger. Lou broke free of Cody's tight hold on her arms with a defiant glare at him and ran to her husband, wrapping her arms around his waist and struggling to take the strain off his weak body.
"Kid, stop it. Jonathan helped me get Jimmy out. He's betrayed the Union for us."
"After he betrayed Virginia."
"Kid!" Lou's voice was sharper than he remembered ever hearing it. Taking a good look into his wife's blazing eyes, he chose to close his mouth and instead turned his gaze from Jonathan to the hotel.
"We've really got to get moving," Jimmy murmured, "I'd just as soon not go back to Lookout any time soon."
Kid's shudder was visible to everyone, and Lou felt herself shake as the tremor ran through her husband.
She gently squeezed him as he trembled and her voice was low and determined.
"I promise you, you won't go back there Kid."
"Buck, Jimmy, go saddle the horses and get a fresh horse for the wagon. I'll go pack our things," Cody said decisively.
"A wagon will slow us down," Buck said quietly.
"We have no choice. Neither Kid nor Lou can ride. We're just going to have to risk it," Teaspoon murmured, quickly taking charge of the situation.
Jonathan Monroe watched quietly from atop the wagon, unsure of what he'd gotten himself into, but sensing immediately that these people were no strangers to danger or hardship, and marveling at the strength and confidence in one another that radiated from all of them. Two Yankees who risked their lives to save a diehard Rebel, a firebrand of a woman, an older man, and an Indian. One of the strangest groups of people he'd encountered, and yet, five minutes told him that they all belonged together. They were a family.
The day was stressful and long, and everyone was tense from hours of riding through heavy underbrush and crossing water to throw off any hounds or trackers. Lou's muscles ached from the jarring wagon and the effort of holding herself as still as possible. She longed to feel the smoother action of a horse, but it was unthinkable. She couldn't ride.
Beside her, Kid had drifted back into a feverish, restless sleep. Often he cried out and raised his hands, but when she tried to hold them with bandaged hands that were bleeding again, he frantically pushed her away. Who ever he was reaching for wasn't her.
She alternated between sitting in the hay and blanket filled wagon and sitting beside Teaspoon on the bench, who drove most of the way. His face was creased with worry, but he constantly set a reassuring hand on her shoulder or her knee.
Cody continued to glare at Lou, and she returned his glare with equal defiance. Jonathan grinned and shook his head after one such exchange.
"Just hope it dies down before we camp or there will be hell to pay," A voice behind him warned.
Jonathan turned to see Jimmy Hickok with a slightly amused expression on his face as well.
"Yeah, I have a feeling that getting him mad wouldn't be too smart."
"I wasn't talking about him. If I was you, I'd watch out for her," Jimmy laughed heartily for the first time all day.
"I'm sure you're right. I've even seen her mad."
"I heard that!" Lou called over her shoulder.
"Do you deny it?" Jimmy asked innocently.
"You'd better heed your own advice, James Hickok," She growled, but as soon as she faced the front she sent Teaspoon a wink.
Night fell finally, and still, they progressed, wanting to put as much distance between them and the prison as possible. Jonathan guessed that the search would have been called off long ago. The prison just didn't have the manpower to continue an all night search. Too much had to be done at the prison. One prisoner's escape was bad, but the hope and morale it could give to the men inside could be a disaster. Jonathan often wondered why the men didn't revolt. Some of them would die, but manpower was so scarce that the majority of them would succeed.
Finally, near dawn, Teaspoon gave the order for them to set up camp. Lou was fast asleep, her body pressed contentedly near Kid's in the back of the wagon when the sudden lack of motion caused her to stir.
"Go back to sleep, sweetheart, we're going to stop here for the night."
"I'm starving," She replied sleepily, "Do we have anything to eat?"
"I'm sorry honey. Not right now. I'll see if I can find anything," Teaspoon told her quietly. He sighed. Lou was looking pale, and she needed to keep her strength up. The stress of fleeing for her husband and Jimmy's lives was wearing on her quickly.
"Here, Lou, I want to look at your hands," Buck said, "The bandages are bled through."
Lou nodded wordlessly and fought down tears of exhaustion. There was nothing to be done about the ache of her expanding body or the gnawing pains of hunger from within, and crying wouldn't help.
She allowed Buck to lift her from the wagon, and sat by the tiny fire they dared build. She winced as he unwrapped the bandages from the tender cuts, wondering if it was just that morning that she'd cut her hands in the first place. It seemed like ages since they left the prison.
"You did a good job on your hands, Lou. What happened?"
"Scissors…I fell with them in my hand."
"At least the wounds look clean. They should have been stitched up, but it's too late to do that now. Let's just clean them with some water and put fresh bandages on, all right?"
Lou nodded wordlessly, and glancing into his gentle black eyes brought another wave of self pity on her and she almost broke into tears again. She quickly averted her eyes. Buck saw clearly that she was fighting with tears, and instead of prodding her, let her be as he tended to her raw hands as gently as possible.
However, the tenuous effort to not shed her tears was lost when Cody crouched down beside Lou. He suddenly sat his arm around her shoulder and squeezed it tightly.
"For what it's worth now, I'm glad you got Jimmy out, and I'm glad you convinced me come out here and get Kid out, Lou," Cody said in a low voice, not wanting anyone but Lou and Buck to hear his concession to her.
Tears welled in her eyes at his gentle touch, and finally she could control her tears no longer. She loathed herself for her weakness as she turned her nose into Cody's neck and sobbed quietly.
"Hey, Lou, it's all right. We're gonna make it," Cody said quietly.
"I'm such a fool!" Lou muttered, pulling away with sudden anger and wiping at her eyes. She was aware that all of them were watching her, Buck, Cody, Jimmy, and Jonathan.
"Don't tell me you regret all this now," Jimmy asked gently.
"No, not that. I'm just not myself. Never mind," Lou growled, frustrated that they didn't understand that she was embarrassed because of her tears, not her actions.
"It's just the baby making you talk like that, Lou," Buck smiled up at her, "You can't help it."
"What would any of you know about that?" Lou snapped before she had any inkling of what she'd just said. It was too late to take it back though, and she got up and retreated from all of them to stand alone in the dark.
Teaspoon appeared in the circle of light holding an arm full of berries, "This is the best I could do tonight Lou. It's too dark to hunt anything."
"Never mind. I'm not hungry. I'm going back to sleep," Lou muttered, finding her anger was wearing thin and quickly returning to sadness.
The others watched her as she awkwardly climbed into the wagon, but when Jimmy made a move to help lift her into the back of it, she threw a scathing glare in his direction. Wordlessly, he stopped in his tracks.
"Goodnight Lou," Jimmy murmured softly when she stood triumphantly in the bed of the wagon.
The fire caught her tears as she wordlessly nodded around the thump in her throat and awkwardly settled next to her husband. He awoke long enough to reach for her and pull her into a tight embrace against his side. Lou's fingers dug slightly into his chest.
The other's voices, although hushed, drifted to her.
"What's wrong with her Teaspoon?" Cody asked.
"She's pregnant. Pregnant women are prone to mood swings."
"Not Lou," Jimmy reasoned, "It's not like her."
"She has no say in it," Teaspoon explained.
"Still, I feel like there is something else," Jimmy said.
"Well, you got to realize, she's been surrounded by men for months now. She's scared and she needs another woman around."
"Well, you're in luck. I have a sister at home," Jonathan informed them.
"Good. She needs another woman to talk to," Teaspoon said, "I'm sure it can't be easy on her with us. She can't really talk about her condition, and Kid's still not well enough to be coherent most of the time."
Tears dropped off Lou's nose as she listened. Teaspoon didn't know how right he was. She just couldn't bring herself to voice her fears in front of the boys, although they were family. She couldn't even talk to Teaspoon about her condition.
Even now, when she hadn't felt the baby kick for two days.
She prayed Jonathan Monroe's sister would welcome them, and be a companion to her. She wanted Rachel and Emma and Rock Creek with an intense longing that made her feel ill.
She was homesick beyond belief, but, she realized, going home would be a long time in coming.
"Almost there," Jonathan's voice had an eager excitement in it as he pushed them all onward. It was almost dawn, and five days since they'd left Point Lookout. They were in desperate need of rest, but Jonathan was insistent. He was going home.
Terror ate at him. In the last reports he'd had, his home was still standing, but in war things could change fast and he feared he'd find a pile of ashes.
"It's just over this hill," Jonathan said with excitement, and urged his horse faster.
The wagon, driven by Buck, rumbled up the hill, and Jimmy, Teaspoon, Cody, and Buck all followed closely. At the top of the hill the whole caravan came to an abrupt halt, and everyone's jaws hung slack in shock.
They'd expected a modest farmhouse.
Spread out in front of them, on a rise that overlooked thousands of acres of pasture and crop land was a massive Colonial plantation house. The house seemed to stretch forever, and the six huge white marble pillars lined across the front of the house seemed to glow pink with the light from the slowly rising sun. It was by far the grandest house they'd ever seen.
"Welcome to Monroe Hall," Jonathan said quietly with an amused smile. He was not arrogant or offended at their awe, but the pride in his home and his land was evident in his words. He urged his horse to lead the way to the main house.
The boys, Teaspoon, and Lou exchanged shocked glances, and wordlessly followed their host to his mansion.
To be continued…Chapter XVII
Copyright 1998-This work is not to be reproduced without the permission of the author
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