Jimmy watched Lou as she fell to her knees in front of him, her heart wrenchng sobs upsetting him more than he cared to admit. Hearing a noise behind him he turned to see Buck and Ike standing in the barn door watching their eyes full of pain. Jimmy knelt in front of Lou, and she melted into his embrace. When Katy had galloped into the station yards, her neck covered with blood, the Sioux arrow protruding from her saddle they all knew that something serious had befallen Kid.
They had also known that Katy's return would bring more pain and suffering to Lou than their young friend could bear. Buck checked Katy over to make sure that the blood was not hers, but somehow when she had run in they had all known that it was Kid's blood. They had all looked at each other, nobody wanted to be the one to tell Lou, she had been through so much lately and noone had wanted to cause her further suffering and heartache, but Jimmy had known that it should be him to tell her and had automatically walked into the barn to tell her the news.
'Lou, we don't know what has happened to him, he might just be hiding out.' Jimmy spoke as he stroked her silky hair.
'He would never let Katy run free. He loves that horse more than he loves life' Lou sobbed into his chest.
'Maybe he didn't have a choice Lou' he paused and pulled her from his chest, holding her face between both of his hands he looked into her watery brown eyes. 'We don't know what happened, we don't even know if he's hurt.' she averted her eyes as he spoke she couldn't bear to look into his eyes for fear of the pain she would read in them.
'He's bleeding you said Jimmy, he must be hurt. He must be hurt bad' she struggled to pull free of his embrace.
'You know Kid is strong Lou, and it would take God himself to make him leave you behind. Surely you know that. If he is alive, we will find him, and if he's not we will still find him.' Jimmy spoke pulling her back into his arms, unable to bear the suffering he could see in her face.
'Jimmy' she pulled away from him. 'promise me that either way' her voice broke on a sob 'we'll find him.'
'Lou' he looked deep into her eyes so she knew that he was not lying to her 'either way we will bring him home.' he vowed for her.
Jimmy stood and pulled Lou back to her feet. He embraced her as she walked with him, glad for his support. When they got outside she seemed to pull herself together and went straight to the bloodstained Katy's side and kissed the gentle horse on her muzzle content to sooth her frayed nerves with the touch of Kid's calm gentle horse. Seeing the amount of blood that had dried on her neck, she knew that Kid was in mortal danger, if they didn't find him soon, it may be too late.
'We'll find him girl for both of us. I promise you' she murmured at the horses ear.
Wiping her face with the backs of both hands she turned to see the expectant faces of the rest of her pony express family. She casually wiped her hands on the seat of her pants and walked with a new purpose to the barn.
'Lou where do you think you're going?' Teaspoon spoke calmly as they followed her into Lightning's stall, all of them content to let Teaspoon do the talking.
'I'm goin to find Kid, I'll go on my own or you can come with me.'she looked into her good friends eyes, they had shared so much lately she just hoped that he would help her 'Buck I'd appreciate your tracking skills' at his nod she knew that Buck would help her and she turned back to the others 'I won't stay here and worry about whether or not he alive, or out there dying somewhere.' she led Lightning from her stall by the halter.
Teaspoon grabbed Lou by the shoulders and forced her to look at him 'Lou I know you're hurting inside and nothing that we say can help, but I don't want you out looking for him.' he didn't have to explain why, all of them knew that if the Indians had murdered Kid they didn't want Lou to see
'Teaspoon, I can't see anything worse out there than I can already imagine in here.' she tapped the side of her head, tears welled in her eyes again and overflowed miserably ' What if he's hurt so bad you can't get him back here. I need him to know how much I love him. I don't want him to die without me, I don't want him to die alone' she paused.
'If you don't let me go, I will quit and try to find him myself. You can't make me stay here.' she spoke angrily as she put the saddle over Lightnings back.
'Now Lou honey, theres no need for rash talk like that, Buck, Jimmy, Noah, Ike Saddle up, Cody, I need you to take a note to the next waystation and tell them they need to cover our runs as well. When you get back I want you to stay with Rachel incase he comes back here. The rest of us are going to find Kid and bring him home.' he stated as they all went about preparing to ride out.
On to Chapter Three
