Chapter III
By Joanna Phillips
There was a moment of stunned silence when Kid appeared on the porch, looking ready to take on the entire company, and especially the tall man who dared lay hands on Lou.
Lou gasped as she snapped her head around to look at Kid. Seeing the soldiers start to draw their weapons against him, she let loose a sound that was inhuman and ripped herself from the Yankee's grasp. She crossed the porch in two great leaps and shielded Kid's body with her own.
"Don't hurt him!" She screeched, clinging to him even as Kid struggled against her hold.
"Drop the gun!" Joseph Kent cried out, "Or we'll be forced to fire!"
Lou ripped the gun from Kid's grasp and threw it over the porch railing, "There!"
"Lou!" Kid hissed in irritation.
"You can't fight them, Kid!" Lou said, looking into his eyes and tightening her hold on him, "Promise me you won't fight them!"
"They are going to try to take me prisoner, Lou, I'm not letting them!"
"Kid, how are you going to stop them?" Lou reasoned, then pleaded "please, I don't want to see you shot here!"
Kid sighed and fought the urge to tell her that whether he fought or not, the Yankees could kill him if they wished. He wondered momentarily if it might not be better to die than to be hauled to one of the prison camps in the North to waste away slowly. Horror stories had been traded across campfires since the war started about Old Capitol and other such prisons. But for Lou's sake, he knew he couldn't fight.
"Seize him!" Captain Kent cried out, and men instantly charged up the porch.
"No!" Lou cried out softly as they roughly took his arms and pushed her backwards, "Please! He's sick!"
"Stand back, ma'am!" Kent snapped at her.
Still, Lou refused to leave her husband's side as they roughly drug him down the stairs. Lou shuddered when she saw him faltering with exhaustion.
The men brought Kid to a halt in front of the Captain's horse, and Lou stormed to the animal's side, "My husband is very ill! Please, sir, I'm begging you, let him go! I give you my word he will not fight again! Tell them Kid," Lou said, voice trembling and pleading her husband's cooperation, "tell them that we'll leave Virginia, and go out West, and that you won't fight any more!"
Kid raised his head steadily and glared at the Captain, and Lou's shoulders sagged as she recognized the defiance in her husband's angrily glittering blue eyes.
"Kid, please," Lou whispered, but her husband did not break his stare with Joseph Kent's steely gray eyes. It was not in him to lie to this man, even if it meant saving his life. He would not trade his devotion to his cause for his freedom, and that distressed Lou to no end.
"Ma'am, I don't think your husband is agreeing, and even if he was, I'd take him in! He's killed American boys!"
"Have you not killed boys as well?" Lou demanded of the Captain, "This is your chance to stop the killing! He's weak, and sick! Surely in the middle of all this madness you can show some mercy!"
"It's past time for mercy, my dear," The Captain said, and suddenly he seemed to look years older than he really was, "Search the house and burn it!"
"No!" Kid suddenly barked, "You can take me prisoner, but leave my wife's shelter out of this! She's done nothing! She doesn't even support the South! My God! It is a sorry day when you blue-bellies have to resort to burning women and children out of their homes in the dead of winter!"
Lou shivered at the bitterness and hate in Kid's voice. The war had given him a hardness she'd not seen before, and though she knew he'd never turn on her with those eyes, she was frightened for him.
"It doesn't matter, Kid, I'm going with you," Lou said softly.
"The Hell you are!" Kid growled.
The Captain remarked at the same time, "I'm afraid you can't Ma'am."
"I won't let you take him without me!" Lou growled fiercely, "You'll have to kill me!"
"Lou, don't be stupid! It's too dangerous for you to go! I'll be fine!"
Lou felt tears rising rapidly in her eyes. If only she'd let him go back to the field like he was supposed to, this wouldn't be happening. The realization that in prison Kid would be out of the fighting was no consolation in the face of the cold, damp cell he would be thrown into. He wasn't strong enough to survive it, she knew.
Lou fought her way to her husband's side, and knowing she only had a few minutes left with him, the other soldiers moved back.
"Kid," She sobbed, her tears scorching his neck, "Kid, don't let them leave me here! I want to be with you!"
"Lou, honey, you can't," Kid whispered, not wanting the men to hear his trembling voice, or see the tears forming in his eyes as he clung to his wife for the last precious seconds before he was hauled off to God knows where. He was scared out of his mind for himself, but more so for her, alone in the South with no home, "You have to go back to Rock Creek and wait for me there!"
Lou couldn't stop a clipped sob from escaping her lips, but when she would have protested, Kid persisted.
"Lou, please listen to me! Go to Rock Creek! I'll send word where I am when I get there! It's the only way! I promise you, Lou, that this is not goodbye forever! I'm going to make it, and I'll come for you when I get out! The war can't last forever, and they can't hold me prisoner forever! Lou, look at me!"
Lou found it incredibly hard to raise her eyes to Kid's crystal blue ones without losing all control, but she slowly looked him in the eye, drawing comfort and reassurance from them, as she always did.
"When have I ever let you down?" Kid whispered, tears slowly rising in his eyes as he forgot about the hundred or so soldiers surrounding them. Lou was the only thing into world to him for the moment, "Lou, please trust me now, if you've ever trusted me! Go to Rock Creek, stay there!" When Lou started shaking her head "no," Kid's voice became desperate, "damn it, Lou! Please! I need a promise from you that you will go to Rock Creek and stay there!"
Lou could no longer see clearly for the tears rolling from her eyes, "I'll go to Rock Creek," she promised, but refused to promise she'd be staying there.
Suddenly, a loud crackling noise caught their attention, and they both spun to see their rickety wooden farmhouse transformed into a towering inferno. Lou could summon no sadness to see all their things lost, not now when Kid was being torn from her arms, leaving her alone. She sighed and glanced at Ellen and Henry's home, also roaring with fire.
She turned her back on the scene and instead buried her head in Kid's chest, sobbing violently as he put his arms around her and leaned down to whisper in her ear, "Lou, I love you more than life! Ride Safe, my dear!"
Lou stood on her tiptoes to kiss him passionately, sobs catching in her throat as she did so.
The bittersweet moment was over entirely too soon as the men pulled Kid away and slapped chains on his wrists.
When Lou sobbed and reached for him, struggling to cling to him, two men held her back.
"Where are you taking him?" Lou demanded through her tears, fierce even with the sobs racking her and her voice trembling wildly.
"I'm afraid I can't say," Joseph Kent said softly, "We can't risk you reporting our location or direction to the other side!"
"I just want to know how to find my husband!" Lou screamed in total frustration, and Kid twisted in the arms of his captors, who were leading him slowly away from her, to see what was the matter.
"Then I'd suggest you do as he asked, and go out West, and wait for his letter. They will allow him to write, I assure you! And, he'll be cared for. Really, wouldn't you rather have him safely locked up than on a battlefield?"
"Don't you act as if you are doing me a favor, you horrible man, or as if you've shed any mercy here! You've burned my home and taken a sick man from his bed to lock him in a tiny, damp space! I wish I would have shot you when I had the chance!"
Kent, at that point, felt he could take no more of the small girl insulting his honor, and rode his horse dangerously close to her, "You'll do well to remember, my lady, that you are at the mercy of the Army of the Potomac, and more directly, me!"
"I don't know if that is a threat, but there's nothing you can do to me worse that what you have done! Get off my land, Captain! Get off now!"
Captain Kent sighed and spurred his horse after sarcastically tipping his hat to her. He shook his head, remembering the time when he hadn't been a monster, and his shoulders sagged as the weight of his duty as a warrior fell upon him.
Lou watched Kid's stubbornly squared soldiers until he was almost down the drive, sobbing silently until she could not draw breath. Just before the company turned the bend out of sight, she took a few running steps in the snow and hurled her voice over the distance.
"I love you Kid! And I'll find you!" Lou choked on a sob, then went on, "I promise you on my life, I'll find you, where ever you are!"
Kid turned back, but could find no words as he met Lou's eyes over the distance.
Jonathan Monroe, who'd been so impressed by the girl's defiance and strength earlier, looked back at her too. The flaming house filled the background, and he realized that the inferno that raged behind Louise McCloud was nothing compared to the fire that burned within her. He had the odd feeling that one day he'd see her again.
Lou craned her head and looked after the company, fighting the useless urge to run after them, to follow them. She couldn't. There was no way to fight the entire company. Not yet anyway.
When the last of the soldiers had filed out of sight, Lou finally collapsed on her knees in the snow, the warmth of the burning house doing little to help her chilled soul as she doubled over and sobbed her shattered heart out.
Lou arrived in Richmond a few days later, feeling like a different person. The night after Kid was taken had been hellish, with her sifting through the remains of their home for anything salvageable. Her efforts had gone to waste, and she'd only escaped with the clothing on her back, and a bag full of small jewelry and silver that she'd buried at the start of the war.
Her eyes were wide, but dry, as she looked at the bustling streets and large buildings. Richmond thrived with the war, and soldiers, belles, and politicians were everywhere. Lou found herself almost run over several times upon crossing the street, and her dirty brown dress drew looks of disdain from the prominent citizens.
It took her hours to discover where Henry and Ellen's daughter lived, and she prayed she hadn't missed them. When the large black woman had answered the door to the respectable town house, it had taken quite a lot of convincing for her to call Ellen down. Lou knew she looked the part of a street urchin more than that of a lady. When Ellen's kind face curiously peeked out the door, Lou lost the iron control she'd maintained since she picked herself up from the snow, and rushed into the woman's arms, sobbing the story out.
"I have to get to Rock Creek!" Lou finally stated.
"You can't go out West! Transportation is all but stopped, and it is too dangerous!"
"I have to! It's the only way Kid can get word to me! I have no idea where they sent him! He could be anywhere! And I've been to the telegraph offices already, the lines are down! Mail is so unreliable that even if Kid gets a letter out to Rock Creek, my family there would have no way of knowing how to get word back to me! And I have no where else to go!"
"Nonsense!" Ellen's beautiful daughter, Alana, said softly, "You're welcome to stay here! We'll try to find your husband!"
Lou was already shaking her head, "That's so kind of you, but I have friends in Rock Creek who can help me get Kid out!"
"Then write them from here, and let them come to you!"
Lou shook her head softly, "I can't…you see, when Kid and I left, there were hard feelings between them. The only way I'll be able to convince them to come is by going out there myself."
"Then Henry and I will go with you!" Ellen began.
"No, Ellen! You can't! I promise, I'll be fine! Remember, I rode for the express! I'll travel faster alone! But first, I need to sell a few things for passage on the railroad, and then the stage…and some clothes. Can you help me find someone to buy them?"
Alana was already shaking her head, "I have trunks and trunks of clothes that will fit you perfectly, so I won't hear of you purchasing any! And we can loan you the money to buy passage!"
Lou was willing to take up the offer of clothing, but adamantly refused the money. Although it hurt her to part with the ear bobs Rachel had given her the night before her wedding, or the cameo Kid had given her before riding into battle, she got good prices for both pieces. Ellen and Henry still planned on going with her, so Lou snuck out quietly during the night, leaving a note thanking them for all they had done for her. She glanced up at their darkened windows with a lump in her throat as she wondered if she'd ever see the kind old couple again.
The war wrought havoc on the railway system, and Lou had to take a train North before she could travel West, and even then, she knew the chances of having a smooth journey to Rock Creek were slim. It became painfully obvious as she tried to plan her trip back home that communication was all but shut down, as was travel, and she would have to embark on part of the journey on her own. She felt no fear, no hesitation at doing so. It was absurd for her to travel all those miles West, only to turn around and head East to find Kid, but Kid had made her promise to go to Rock Creek.
Lou sat on a train for many days, sleeping in the train station or in the cars when she was permitted as she traveled North, then changed trains to begin the long trek West. Alana's borrowed clothes proved beautiful and respectable enough to awaken the protective instincts of the honorable men travelling with her against the less honorable ones she came into contact with.
"End of the line, Mrs. McCloud," the kindly conductor who had looked after the petite woman with the sad eyes suddenly said, shaking Lou's shoulder to wake her.
She jumped and her pale face was alarmed until she got her bearings on who the older man in front of her was, "Where are we?"
"St. Louis."
Lou groaned, "So far away! Is there a stage operating nearby?"
"No ma'am, the stages are all shut down. Surely you don't expect to travel to Rock Creek alone?"
Lou's eyes were troubled, "I have no choice. Thank you sir, for your kindness!"
The older man would have protested, but Lou had quickly gathered her bag and exited the car. Once outside she was shocked by the brutally cold weather, and sighed. She knew the trail well, but had no horse, and very little money to get her to Rock Creek.
"What do I do now, Kid?" She murmured softly into the howling wind, before wearily walking into the train station, feeling utterly beaten.
In St. Louis, she found the status of communication and travel even more hopeless than in Richmond. Her idea of telegraphing Teaspoon and having him send someone to meet her was thrown out the window. The streets of the once bustling town seemed more like a ghost town. There was not an able bodied man in sight, and even those mutilated by war were not out on the street.
Lou took a deep breath before walking into a seedy looking shop to sell off the last valuable thing she had, with the exception of her wedding ring. She offered the locket her mother had once given her to the shopkeeper with trembling fingers, and felt tears rise to her eyes as she pocketed the small amount of money she received in return. She'd been low in her life many, many times, but she never imagined she'd part with the necklace. The shopkeeper, greedy though he was, promised to keep it in the back and not sell it for six months. Lou doubted she could count on him to keep his word, and walked to the stable with heavy feet.
In the stables she was confronted with yet another problem. All the available horses had long ago been confiscated by the army, and the hostler didn't have the first animal for sell. Luckily, an old farmer heard Lou pleading the stable man for anything and announced, "I got a horse you can buy, lady."
Lou grimaced at the toothless old man, sure that whatever horse she was about to meet would be far overpriced and leave much to be desired.
She bit her lip grimly to keep from laughing in sheer desperation as she was proven right. Standing outside the man's rickety shack of a barn on the outskirts of town, Lou had to blink twice to believe her eyes as she gazed at the horse that she was about to purchase. It was a strange cross of a draft horse and a donkey, and quite possibly the ugliest animal Lou had ever laid eyes on, albeit the largest. However, her tender heart went out to the poor creature as she saw the scars on both sides of his flanks. Her pity for the poor beast's large, woeful brown eyes sold her on him, even if he hadn't been the only horse in town. With a dirty glare at the mean old man who had abused the gentle creature, Lou took the monster's rope and started leading him back toward town, well aware of the toothless old geezer's cackle behind her at his good end of the deal.
Once again in town, Lou spent her last cent on provisions to last her the week long trip in the wilderness, knowing that it would be cold and miserable for both her and her new companion. She purchased a worn, old saddle and strapped it on the animal, though it looked ridiculously small on the huge horse's back, and climbed on, feeling as if she was astride an elephant. Years of abuse had rendered the horse as gentle as a mouse, but also as slow as a turtle, and sighing, Lou headed out of town, desperately hoping there would be no need to outrun anything that moved faster than grass grew.
What Lou didn't realize was that the wilderness was more wild than ever, and now filled with a predator she'd never known in the express days, a predator known only while wars raged. War brought out the worst in many, many people, and gangs of desperate and cruel deserters slowly grew as the battling continued. In the lawless frontier some of the most ruthless and cut throat bands of these men, wearing mixtures of tattered blue and gray, watched and waited for unfortunate souls to come along their path.
Lou, on the plodding old horse she soon named Gentle Ben, unknowingly traveled along this very path, growing ever closer to danger without even realizing it.
To be continued…Chapter IV
Copyright 1998-This work is not to be reproduced without the permission of the author
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