Chapter V
By Joanna Phillips
Lou wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and picked up a cup of warm tea. She let herself out onto the bunkhouse porch quietly. Jimmy was sitting on the stairs, looking up at the rising moon. It was a brisk winter night, and the ground was bathed in silver. It was his favorite kind of night, she knew, because she knew him so well. That being as it was, she also knew he was troubled.
"Thought you might like something hot," Lou said, announcing her presence.
He turned and smiled at her, seeing the cup in her hands, "That was nice of you, Lou."
She came to settle beside him, almost lost in the folds of the blanket, and passed the warm cup on to him. She was quiet, waiting for him to talk. She knew he had a lot on his mind, and she also knew he just couldn't talk to the other boys about Callie.
"Do you think I did more harm than good Lou?"
Lou sighed, "I don't know, Jimmy. I think Malone has already made up his mind what to do with her. At least you helped prolong it."
"But now he thinks he can make so much more money on her."
"If she's as beautiful as you boys say, I think he probably already expected to make a fortune."
Jimmy sighed and glanced at Lou, then back at the sky, "She is beautiful. But it's more than that! There are lots of beautiful women out there, and men don't try to hurt them like they do her! What is it about her that makes them all want to hurt her?"
Lou's voice was gentle, "The same thing that makes men like you respect her. It's her spirit. She won't back down. Some men see it as a challenge to break her spirit."
Jimmy glanced at Lou's profile and something occurred to him, "I know someone else like that," He smiled, and she looked at him in surprise.
"No, I'm not beautiful like Callie. Just stubborn," Lou smiled back.
"Yeah you are stubborn," Jimmy agreed, "Probably more so than Callie. But you're wrong Lou. You are beautiful too, though Lord knows you tried hard to keep it from us for a long time--not that I blame you after what you'd been through." He blushed a bright shade of red.
She looked awkward for a moment at the reference to Wicks, then sighed. "That's sweet Jimmy."
"I got a question Lou," he began hesitantly.
"Alright," Lou said agreeably.
"It's kind of sensitive…" Jimmy warned her.
"You know you can ask me anything, Jimmy," Lou reassured him.
"Aw, all right. When you were working for Wicks, did he make his women sign contracts? I mean, did you sign one?"
"Yes he did, and yes I did, though I had no idea what it was I was signing at the time. He'd hunt any girl that ran out on him down like a dog, Jimmy. And usually they killed themselves or he killed them when he found them."
"How'd you get away?" Jimmy wondered.
Lou smiled and deepened her voice, "I became Lou!" she paused and sighed, "If you're thinking for Callie a way out, don't. She's got to make that decision on her own. It could be a life time of running and hiding, and that ain't something that many people can stomach."
Jimmy stole a sideways glance at Lou. She'd run for years, and eventually Wicks had found her, just when she thought she was safe. She knew what she was talking about.
"For some reason, I think she's already hiding," Jimmy said quietly. "I think she may have been running awhile."
"Well, that may be the best place for her to hide, just like here was the best place for me," Lou said.
"Lou, for what it's worth, I'm glad that you got away, and that you became 'Lou'. Even though it ain't been easy on you, I'm glad, cause I would have never known you otherwise. You deserved better than that life."
"All women deserve a better life than that," she said, her throat suddenly tight as she thought of all the ones who hadn't, and would never, get away.
"Why don't we go inside where its warm, Jimmy? Things will look better in the morning."
"I might go for a walk Lou, but you go inside. After that water fight today, we are all tempting death as it is!"
Lou laughed, "I won, you know."
Jimmy raised his eyebrow at her, "I can call Kid, and we can go visit the trough again if you need your memory refreshed as to who won!"
"No! That's fine!" She laughed and stood up to go inside.
She was opening the door when Jimmy called back at her, "Hey Lou--thanks!"
She grinned and winked, "Go see her! You'll feel better for it."
"Y'all would get along good, Lou," Jimmy smiled.
"Well, then, you'll have to introduce us. My guess is that she could use a woman friend."
"You're a damn good one," Jimmy said without jest in his eyes and she didn't know if he meant a good friend or woman. Either way, his words warmed her and she gave him an appreciative smile. She went inside then, leaving him smiling after her.
*
Jimmy walked the now familiar path to the saloon slowly. He wasn't sure why he was taking Lou's advice, but it was as if he didn't have a choice. He had to see her. He doubted she felt the same way.
He paused at the foot of the stairs to the saloon and took a deep breath. His coming to see her would inevitably lead to a confrontation between them. His blood ran faster at the thought. He felt alive when he stood face to face with her blue eyes blazing, more so than ever before. He'd just about gathered his courage to walk inside when a quiet voice rang out.
"Hey, Lancelot."
Jimmy leapt skywards in surprise. His eyes darted to the porch. Callie looked down at him and laughed slightly.
"Callie!" He breathed in surprise.
"None other," She agreed with a smile.
"You all right?" He asked softly.
"Sure," She said, nodding, "I think the more appropriate question is are you all right?" She motioned toward his scratched face.
He turned a million shades of red at the memory. Her laughter was musical.
"Who is Lancelot?" he asked, brow wrinkled.
"Never mind that," she shook her head.
"How come you're out here?" Jimmy wondered.
"I got out of my room and crawled down," She smiled, "Not a very lady like spectacle, I can assure you! But it was such a beautiful night! The moon is so bright!"
Jimmy smiled.
Callie smiled back, "Well are you just going to stand down there all night?"
Jimmy blushed, "No miss. But it does seem an awful shame to go up there on that porch where we can't see the moon. Would you like to take a walk? I mean, would you get in trouble?"
Callie considered it as if it were the most difficult question of her life. Her eyes rested on Jimmy as she weighed the options. Jarvis was playing a big game tonight and wouldn't miss her for hours. He'd left her alone all day, assuming she'd had enough after Jimmy. But did she want to take this first step of friendship with this man? What good could come of it? Her heart had long been cold. However, Callie realized, she was lonely. It had been so very long since she'd laughed, and so long since she'd had a real friend. She was in need of both.
"I would like very much to take a walk," She smiled. He extended his hand out for her, and helped her down the stairs. His movements weren't quite as practiced as some of her suitors in days past, but his sincerity made up for the awkwardness.
Jimmy felt as if he owned the moon and the stars they admired together as they strolled through the deserted streets of town. Callie looked as beautiful as ever in the moonlight. Her eyes glittered as she laughed at his stories of the boys and himself, and all the trouble they got into.
"Can we visit the stables?" Callie wondered suddenly, her hand tightening on his arm.
"Of course," Jimmy said as he looked into her eyes and thought, look at me like that and we can go anywhere, even Kansas!
Once they entered the stables, Callie left his arm and eagerly hurried forward, the silk of her skirts rustling against the hay. Jimmy watched as one of the finest horses he had ever seen pricked his delicate ears and nickered when he saw the girl coming. He walked over slowly to lean against the door and watch Callie stroke the beautiful animal joyously, and was amazed to see tears of happiness touching the girl's eyes. "You have a fine eye for horses. This one is an Arabian, and a fine one at that! One of the nicest horses I've ever seen."
Callie bowed her head to hide the amused smile that crept onto her lips. Of course he would think her ignorant to the ways of horses, but it was absurd to have him tell her what breed of horse The Ghost was, considering she'd raised and trained him.
"It is almost like he knows you!" Jimmy commented.
Callie finally glanced over at Jimmy, a dimple at the corner of her mouth the only indication of her amusement, "Well, I suppose he does know me, considering I was the first person to ever lay hands on him!"
Jimmy looked at her blankly, slowly realizing what she was saying, "This is your horse, Callie?"
She nodded, "His name is Ghost. He comes from a long line of champions! I raised and trained him."
"But how? I mean, how does a saloon girl afford a horse like this?" Jimmy wondered.
Her eyes were suddenly startled and she avoided his stare. She'd not even considered the questions that would arise from her telling him she owned the horse. He sensed her closing off, and couldn't stand to see it happen again.
"Uh-uh, Callie! You aren't going to get off that easy! How did you get this horse?" Jimmy wondered.
"I, uh…" Callie searched for a lie.
"The truth," Jimmy warned her, "Where are you from Callie? What are you doing here?"
Callie shook her head stubbornly, "I don't want to talk about this!"
"I don't care!" Jimmy said quietly, "I do."
"Why can't you just leave me alone? I just wanted to talk to someone like I was a real human being again! Why do you always have to bring up what I am!"
"I don't bring up what you are, Callie!" Jimmy said, his voice climbing as her's did, "I don't know what or who you are! I am trying to find out why you pretend to be this!" He waved his gloved hand at her low cut dress, "All this town may choose to see you as nothing but a saloon girl, but I know different! I can see it in every move you make! You are better than this, but you're afraid of something, and if you'd just quit being so damned stubborn and tell me, you'd see that I'm not going to hurt you, I'm not going to hold it against you, and I might even be able to help you!"
She looked at him with wide eyes, and Jimmy imagined that she wasn't used to being scolded.
"For one night I was trying to forget all this! And I almost did, but you just couldn't leave well enough alone! You just had to get something from me! You had to have your answers! I just wanted a friend, Jimmy!" Her face fell and she turned and started running.
"Callie, wait! I'm sorry!" Jimmy cried out after her. Ghost pinned his ears back, almost as if he knew Jimmy had hurt his mistress. Sighing, Jimmy ran after her.
She was fast, and had climbed the stairs to the saloon when he reached the bottom of them. "Please wait a minute!" He gasped out, nearly doubled over from the effort of catching her.
She stopped, but didn't turn around, and her back remained as stiff as a board. Jimmy climbed up the stairs and walked in front of her. Callie had tears streaming down her face, and she bowed her head in shame. Jimmy took his finger and placed it under her chin, slowly raising her head.
Her eyes looked into his, and he studied the loneliness and heartache that seemed so close to the surface tonight, her fierceness forgotten. "No more questions," He said softly.
"Promise?" Callie said, and when he nodded she smiled, and wiped at her eyes, "I'm sorry, Jimmy. You must think me a fool!"
"Not likely," Jimmy smiled, "At least not in the past hour!"
She laughed and glanced nervously at the swinging doors of the saloon and the loud music and laughter pouring out of it. "Let's go over there." He followed her to a secluded corner of the porch.
Jimmy would have followed her to the ends of the earth. Soon she was giggling at more of his tales of the Pony Express. He was laughing too. She was easy to talk to, he discovered. Jimmy couldn't say what had caused such a change in her, but he guessed it was because he'd finally won a little of her trust when he hadn't hurt her earlier that day.
"She had you all fooled? How did Teaspoon finally found out?" Callie asked, her eyes wide. Jimmy grinned and laughed at the memory. He knew that telling her about Lou would be a good idea. And he had no doubt she'd keep the secret.
"He jumped into the lake with her! We were close by, and we heard her screaming like someone was killing her, and we all went flying down to rescue her. That's about the time Teaspoon ducked under the water and got the surprise of his life!" Jimmy laughed louder, "You should have seen the look on that man's face when he came out of that water! It took him hours to understand what was going on!"
Callie laughed too, "I guess so!" As an afterthought, she added shyly, "Lou must be amazing!"
Jimmy smiled, "Yeah, she is. She can ride circles around all of us! Y'all would get along just fine."
"Maybe one day you can introduce us," Callie smiled.
"That's what she told me about you too!" Jimmy said.
Callie suddenly stood up and stretched. Jimmy did the same, realizing how much time had gone by.
"I have to get back inside! Jarvis will have the army out after me if he thinks I've gone."
Jimmy nodded, curbing the urge to plead with her to leave the saloon and come with him. He didn't dare do anything to disturb the truce between them. "Can I come and see you here tomorrow?" He asked fearfully.
Callie wanted to tell him it wasn't a good idea, but when she looked into his eyes she knew she wanted to see him again. "Yes."
"I'll see you then!" Jimmy smiled, and waited as she climbed the outside stairs to the second story and paused outside her window. She waved down at him, and he leapt over the railing and walked away, a smile lighting his face.
Callie watched him go, then sighed and climbed back into her window with a gentle smile still in place.
"Have a nice time, my dear?" A voice growled.
Callie gasped and jumped, hitting her head hard on the windowsill.
"Where have you been, Callie?" Jarvis asked, from where he sat in a chair that was blocking her door.
"I just stepped outside for a bit of fresh air," She lied smoothly.
He crossed the room in two steps and hit her across the face, knocking her to the floor and towering above her, "Don't you ever lie to me! I saw you with that Hickok boy! Taken a shine to him, have you? You're thinkin' he may be your way out, think if you give yourself away for free he'll take you away from here? I think you're forgetting who you are! The marshal is a good friend of his! What would he think of you if I showed him who you really are? A murderess, a thief, a liar, a whore! But don't worry, Callie, when I'm done with you tonight, he won't want what's left of you anyway!"
There was nowhere for Callie to go as he reached for her with hands that trembled in rage.
"Lou, all I am saying is that this girl may be trouble! I just don't think you ought to encourage Jimmy to keep trying with her!"
Lou rolled her eyes, and glared at Kid. They stood on the bunkhouse porch, arguing over what Kid had heard Lou tell Jimmy earlier. The disagreement had started in the bunkhouse, but at the order of Noah, Cody, and Jesse, they had moved to the porch.
"Ah, don't look at me like that Lou! I just don't want Jimmy to get hurt again, that's all!" Kid protested.
But Lou wasn't about to let go of his earlier tirade that easily, "Oh, and you think I want to see Jimmy hurt? You're so blind sometimes Kid!"
"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked defensively.
"Did it ever occur to you that this girl probably needs to be treated like she counts for something? She needs someone to care about her! And Jimmy does! Maybe it won't work out, but maybe it will! Do you ever look at the bright side of things?"
"Lou!" Kid cried out as Lou stormed down the bunkhouse stairs to pace angrily back and forth, "I'm telling you, something about this girl doesn't add up! She's hiding something!"
"Of course she is!" Lou said in exasperation, and then in sheer frustration picked up a pebble and threw it at him, "you're such a hypocrite! You knew I was hiding something but you and I fell in love!"
"This is different, you didn't work in a saloon!"
Lou finally turned her face up and shouted at the sky, her patience gone. Kid just wasn't going to let himself see that he and Jimmy were so alike in so many ways! Kid had always been more cautious, but they'd both taken the same chances with love, though not with the same speed.
"Sometimes I wish I did work in the saloon! I've done it once before, you know! I'd like to go sign up with Jarvis Malone right now just to shut you up and make you leave Jimmy alone!"
"So go do that now so we can get some sleep in here!" Cody yelled from inside the bunkhouse. Lou blushed when she realized they'd listened to every word.
"Yeah, you were so good at it the first time! It only just about killed you!" Kid snapped back sarcastically, but shifted nervously, under Lou's sharpening stare. "You ain't gonna really do that again are you?"
Lou glared at him, wanting to kill him, but knowing that the primary force behind this hard headed argument was his love for Jimmy. "If you don't leave Jimmy alone, I just might, Kid!" she sighed.
Jimmy turned the corner quietly, and stopped as he saw Lou and Kid fighting on the porch. He raised his eyebrows. When they fought, they fought big, and he had no desire to interrupt. He smiled wickedly. He did have a desire to eavesdrop though.
His smile disappeared at Kid's next words.
"Jimmy's gone head over heels, and she's not worth it Lou! She's bitter and hateful, and like it or not, she's a whore."
Jimmy charged him. Lou barely had time to jump out of the way before they were both facing off in the hard packed dirt.
"Take it back!" Jimmy demanded.
"I'm sorry Jimmy, but it's the truth! The sooner you recognize that, the better off you'll be."
"Stop it!" Lou cried helplessly as the others quickly came out to the porch.
"Noah, Cody! Stop them!" She cried out after the first few punches were thrown. Noah and Cody quickly ran down to pull them apart, kicking and screaming. Everyone stood in shock for a moment under the beautiful sky, breathing heavily.
Suddenly Jesse coughed from the porch and wondered, "What's burning?"
The others all looked around to find the air growing hazy with smoke. They jumped in alarm, and tried to find where it was coming from. "It's at the other end of town," Noah pointed out, and they turned and looked over the tops of the stores to see the sky glowing orange with fire.
"It's the saloon!" Jesse cried out, and the fire bells in the town began clanging.
Jimmy's face went white as he tore himself from Cody's grasp and ran into the barn. The others followed him, and in less than a minute they were all on their horses bareback, and clutching at buckets as they started down Main Street at a dead run. Teaspoon ran up to greet them, having come from the Marshal's office.
"It's a bad one boys! Don't think we can save the saloon, but we got to keep it from spreading to the other buildings! If they catch fire, Rock Creek could burn to nothing!"
Jimmy didn't listen to Teaspoon. Instead he stumbled over to where most of the saloon girls had gathered, searching frantically for Callie.
"Where's Callie?" He demanded of the women.
"You got to help her! Jarvis locked her up in her room! Last I saw, he was in there with her!" One of the girls told him.
Jimmy spun and sprinted for the door of the burning building.
"Jimmy!" Lou, Noah, and Cody cried out simultaneously.
Then, Lou watched in horror as she saw another figure close behind Jimmy.
"Kid! No! Please!" She screamed, and started to bolt after them.
"No Lou!" Noah cried out, and caught hold of her shoulders. She fought him for a moment, then stopped dead, staring at the increasingly towering flames.
"They'll be killed!" She murmured, her fingers digging into Noah's hands as they rested on her shoulders.
Noah squeezed her shoulders in reassurance and then released her. "Come on, we have to get some water on that fire and help them out! They're gonna be fine, Lou!"
She nodded but still was plagued by a gnawing doubt as she turned and looked up at the tall inferno that threatened to claim the lives of the two men more dear to her than anyone in the whole world.
To be continued…Chapter VI
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