Chapter Two

Kid’s reaction completely stunned Lou. For a man who was renowned for his calm demeanor and fair judgement of others, the anger she saw rise in his eyes, the set of his jaw and the tone of his voice were something she hoped to never experience again.

Shouting loud enough to wake the dead, Kid looked at Lou and yelled, “You what!”

The words continued to tumble quickly from her mouth. “I’m sorry Kid. I really am. I should have told you before, but I just didn’t know how.”

His blood was boiling now, he was sure of it, and his hands had unknowingly clenched into tight, white-knuckled fists. So caught up in his rage was he, he didn’t even notice Lou flinch away from him fearing he would strike her.

“You didn’t know how! You didn’t know how! Jesus Lou, how about, ‘Hey Kid, guess what? You’re not my first husband.’ That would have worked just fine!”

Jumping up to move away from her, he was oblivious to their friends who now sat wide-eyed and awake on their bunks. Too shocked to say anything or do little more than stare, they all had the same thought running through their heads. Had Kid just said that Lou had been married before or were they just having a collective nightmare?

Kid bent to pull on his boots and grabbing his coat, hat and gun he headed for the door. He didn’t know where he was going, but he had to get away from there. He couldn’t believe this was happening to him! How could the woman he loved, the woman whom he trusted with his life, keep such a deep secret and betray their love like this?

Racing towards him, Lou tried to stop his retreat. Grabbing his sleeves, she begged him to listen. “Kid, please don’t walk away! We need to talk about this.”

His anger at her was growing by the minute. He knew he had to get away before he said anything to make the situation worse. He needed out and she was in his path. Grabbing her roughly and pulling free from her grasp, he pushed past her.

“Lou, stay out of my way! We don’t need to talk about anything! I don’t want to hear it. There is nothing you could say to me right now that would make this mess any better.”

Fearing for Lou’s safety, Jimmy hopped off his bunk and started towards the couple. He had never seen his best friend so angry, so ready to fight.

Throwing up his hand to stop Jimmy’s approach, Kid’s voice burned with anger. “Back off Hickok and stay out of this! It’s got nothin’ to do with you! Or any of you!” He swept his pointed finger around the room to ward off the rest of his friends as they rose from their bunks.

Lou started to cry in earnest. This shouldn’t be happening! Where was the calm, serious, cool-headed Kid who she knew and loved? They should be talking and working this out, not fighting over it. She hardly recognized this furious man before her.

Kid opened the door and started out into the rain. Lou chased after him, back across the muddy yard, calling for him to stop and talk to her. “Kid! Kid! Don’t walk away from me! Talk to me!”

Oblivious to the downpour, Kid never broke stride as he raced towards the stable with Lou close on his heels. The rest of the riders tumbled onto the porch just watching the wagon wreck occurring before them, unable to slow it’s crashing momentum.

Fighting against the forceful wind and driving rain, Lou continued to shout after Kid. Her pleas for him to stop, falling on deaf ears. Their argument continued inside the stable as Kid rushed to saddle Katy.

“Kid please listen to me! Don’t ride away from me! You promised in Davenport. You promised we would face any trouble together. We can get through this if you’ll let me explain.”

He remembered his promise as clearly as he remembered proposing to her, but right now that day was tarnished for him. “Lou, there’s nothing to explain. I don’t want to hear anything you have to tell me!”

“Kid, that’s not fair,” she screamed.

“Fair! You want to talk about fair as you stand there trying to explain away your deception. Lou, I can’t believe you would do this to me, to us!”

Her voice caught in sobs, she struggled for control. “I swear I wanted to tell you before. It’s been killin’ me to not have you know, but it was another time, another life!”

“Listen to yourself, Lou. What about our time, our life? Didn’t you think that I had the right to know that I would be your second husband? That someone had been in your bed before me!”

His verbal assault rocked Lou to her core and caused the color to drain from her face. She didn’t even have the energy to properly slap him for the insult. Growing weary and full of remorse she let her head fall and her tears mix with the rainwater falling to the floor. Her voice cracked as she spoke. “Do you really believe that, Kid? That I would have lied to you about something that important?”

Kid mounted Katy and looked down at Lou. Even soaked to the bone and swollen from crying she was beautiful. He loved her, no matter what. He knew that, but his pride was hurt and his manhood was challenged and all he could do at this moment was ride away. Finally dropping his own voice, he spoke, “I don’t know what I believe right now, Lou.”

She stared up at him and pleaded with her eyes. She pleaded for him to stay and work this out with her. “I love you, Kid.”

Throwing her own words at her, he snorted and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, you sure have a strange way of showing it.” Turning back in the saddle, he gave Katy a kick and started out into the night.

Momentarily rooted to the spot where she stood, Lou clutched her heart as if Kid had actually reached inside of her and ripped it from her chest. She knew he was hurt, but she never realized he was so spiteful. Understanding it was deserved, in a way, she also understood she had to stop him, not let him leave angry. Chasing after him as he tore from the stable into the stormy night, she screamed his name and pleaded with him to stop. He rode on, without turning back.

Lou fell to her knees in the cool, dark mud beside the corral as Kid rode from sight. Suddenly feeling desperately alone and terrified for their future, she buried her face in her hands and let loose with a sickening wail. Oblivious to the pounding rain she rocked in the mud as sobs racked her tiny body. Kid had left her and she feared he would never come home again.

Woken by the commotion, Rachel and Teaspoon reached the bunkhouse in time to see Kid tear out of the stable and ride off.

“What in tarnation is going on out here. You boys are making enough noise to wake a hybernatin’ bear!”

“It’s not us, Teaspoon. It’s them.”

Teaspoon followed Noah’s pointed finger and Kid and Lou came into his line of sight. He was stunned when he saw, the normally calm, Kid barrel away from the station and then he watched Lou fall to her knees in obvious emotional torment. His voice only slightly above a whisper, the normally reserved man was near tears. “Holy Mary, Mother of God. What is going on here?”

Cody was the only one who would dare to repeat what they had heard. With seriousness rarely seen, the normally jovial young man broke the bad news. “Lou’s big secret is out. She’s been married before.”

Rachel gasped and clutched the porch rail to keep from fainting. So this was what had been tormenting the poor child, not wedding jitters! She could barely control her tears and allowed herself to be pulled into a steadying embrace by Buck who saw her shaking hands and pale face.

Hearing Lou’s tortured wail, Rachel turned to Teaspoon and pleaded with him. “Teaspoon, go get her please! We can’t leave her out in this rain.”

“I’ll get her, Rachel.” Without another word, Jimmy charged into the rain and raced to Lou’s side. He scooped her up, cradled her in his arms and pulled her close to his chest to try and shield her from the harsh wind. “Shhh…Don’t cry sweetheart. We’ll fix this, you’ll see.” Her pain was killing him. He couldn’t fault Kid for riding out, he knew he probably would have done the same thing, but he hated to see Lou hurting like this.

Cody and Noah rushed to his side and helped Jimmy get Lou into Rachel’s house. Hurrying her inside, Noah had to practically pry Lou’s arms from around Jimmy’s neck as Cody built up the fire. Curled into a ball on the sofa, like a frightened young child, the men could only stare at Lou as she cried an endless stream of tears. They felt at a loss as to what to do for their friend, for either of them. Rachel and Teaspoon hurried in and sent the boys on their way. They would take care of her for the night until they could make some sense of this muddy mess.

Joining Buck back in the bunkhouse they all sat at the table, afraid to go back to sleep.

“How is she?”

“How do you think, Buck? She’s crying her eyes out.”

“I was just asking, Jimmy. No need to get crazy on me.”

“Sorry Buck, I know you didn’t mean nothin’ by it, I just can’t believe it.”

Noah traced his finger around a knot in the wooden table and asked his question without meeting any of his friends’ eyes. “Did she really say married?”

“’Fraid so,” answered Cody. “This just isn’t right. When could Lou have been married? She would have been only fifteen or sixteen. We know what she’s been up to for the last few years or so and we know she just turned eighteen.”

“I don’t know Cody, but whenever it was, she obviously never told the Kid.” Jimmy shook his head at the fresh memory of how angry his friend was. He was almost embarrassed to speak the next words. “I thought he was gonna hit her.”

Buck was shocked by his admission. “He’d never do that! Kid loves Lou. We all know he’d never hit anyone like that, not after what he went through growin’ up.”

“Buck, you didn’t see her flinch? She thought it too. He was that upset. Now I don’t think he would have done it on purpose, but man, he was crazy with anger right then and I just really thought it was coming.”

“Thank god it didn’t.” Noah knew the Kid couldn’t stand a man who would hit a defenseless person, especially a woman, and he knew that type of irrational and reckless behavior towards Lou would have killed him. “What are we gonna do about this?”

“Nothing.” Jimmy looked up and stared all his friends directly in the eyes. “And I mean it. This is between Kid and Lou and they’ll tell us when they’re good and ready.”

“What if he don’t come back Jimmy, then what? We don’t even know where he ran off to.”

“Oh he’ll be back, Cody Don’t you worry. I’ll find him and even if I have to drag him back here, hog-tied on a buckboard, he’ll be back. Then they’ll sort this out and everything will be back to normal. I will be walkin’ Lou down the aisle on her wedding day!”

Shaking his head sadly, Noah spoke in agreement. “I hope so. We’d better get back to sleepin’. I figure we got at least one day of double duty ahead while they patch this up, maybe more.”

Heading for the security of their warm, dry bunks each rider fell asleep thinking of their friends with their new knowledge that one of their family had a secret past.