CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The clerk behind the counter was watching Jimmy and Jack with curious eyes.
He'd seen many things in his years at the railroad station, but he couldn't
remember ever seeing a man and woman meet for the first time and look at
each other quite the way these two were looking at each other. It made the
clerk feel as if he had unwittingly intruded on a very private moment. "Miss?" He had Jack's ticket to New York ready for her, but she seemed to
have forgotten all about it. "My God...Jimmy," breathed Jack, her eyes searching his. "What are you
doing here?" His hands were still on her shoulders. "What am I doin' here? Jack, what
are you doin' here? We thought you were in New York." "I'm going back. I've bought a ticket. Just now," she said, gesturing
toward the counter but not moving to take the ticket from the clerk. Jimmy suddenly realized that he was still grasping her. He dropped his
hands and self-consciously crossed his arms over his chest. "How -- how are you, Jimmy?" "Real good, Jack. How are you?" "I'm all right as well." She looked more than all right. Just as seeing Lou dressed up never failed
to take him by surprise, it was proving no differently with Jack. She was
wearing a simple gingham dress with few frills, that suited the quiet
loveliness of her features. Her hair had grown longer, in soft waves, and
was swept up in a loose bun. She was soft and graceful, the Jack he had
always seen, despite her breeches and boots. His heart pounded wildly. All
he wanted was to steal her away and hide her somewhere where she would be
safe; the sadness and hurt in her eyes was as evident to him now as it had
been all those months ago when they had first met. For the first time, he understood the Kid and his fierce protection of Lou.
It had always puzzled him before: if the Kid loved Lou, why couldn't he just
live and let live? Hope for the best, protect her as he could, and trust her
to make the right decisions? Now it all made sense to Jimmy. To hell with
rationality and common sense, and too bad if Jack was angry in the process.
He couldn't let anything bad happen to her, he wouldn't let anything bad
happen to her. "Lou's here with me." "Lou?" Jack's face lit up. "Really? Where is she?" "Outside." Jack darted out of the rail station and a moment later Jimmy could hear
squeals of delight. When he peered through the window he could see Jack and
Lou in each other's arms, hugging like two little girls. He smiled despite
himself. "Sir?" Jimmy turned to the clerk. "Sir, is the lady going to be purchasing this ticket?" Jimmy grinned. "She is. And we'll be traveling with her. Two more tickets
to New York City." When he joined Jack and Lou on the porch, they were sitting side by side
and chattering rapidly. They seemed to have already covered the past several
months and were now on to the Kid and Lou's wedding. "We'd like to get
married in the summer," Lou was saying. "And I want you to be there, Jack. I
want you to stand beside me at the weddin'." Jack's smile faded. "Oh, Lou, I don't know. I don't think I'll be able to
be there." "Is something wrong?" Jack folded her hands in her lap and stared out onto the street where
people and carriages were moving by at a steady pace. "Did you get my
letters, Lou?" "Just barely. We got them a few months ago. Why, Jack, what is it?" "I finally contacted my mum, Lou. I sent her a telegram late in the winter,
and I received a telegram back from her just a few days later. She said my
dad was very ill with pneumonia, and she asked me to come home." Jack looked
back at Lou, and her eyes were shining with tears of relief. "She asked me
to come home, Lou, can you believe that? After all I've done to them, she
asked me to come home." She reached a hand into her dress pocket and
withdrew a crumpled piece of paper. "Here; read it." Lou took the telegram and read aloud, "'Darling daughter -- stop. Thank
heaven you are alive and well -- stop. All is forgiven, dearest -- stop.
There is nothing to forgive -- stop. Your father is ill with pneumonia --
stop. Will you please come home -- query. As soon as possible -- query.
Love, Mother'." When she and Jimmy looked at Jack, the smile on her face was
impossible to overlook. "Of course I couldn't leave in the middle of winter, but I sent her a reply
that I would leave as soon as possible. It killed me to know that my father
was ill and I was so far away, but I heard from Mum again just a few weeks
ago, and she said after they received my first telegram, my father took a
turn for the better and now he's on the mend!" In her excitement, Jack
reached for Jimmy's hand and held it tightly. "Oh, God, I could just dance
around the town and kiss everyone I bump into." Jimmy and Lou couldn't help but laugh, they were so genuinely pleased for
their friend. "Jack, I'm so happy for you," Lou gushed sincerely. "That is
wonderful news." Jack slipped her hand out of Jimmy's and flushed. "It is. It's wonderful
news. I can't believe they forgave me." "I don't think they felt there was anything to forgive, Jack," said Jimmy.
"That's what your mother said, isn't it?" "Perhaps they didn't, but I certainly feel there was." "You're bein' too hard on yourself, Jack," urged Lou. Then she stopped and
grinned. "Maybe I shouldn't be callin' you 'Jack' anymore. Folks might think
it's kinda funny, seein' as how you look so proper and ladylike these days." Jack laughed. "D'you think I mind what others think? You go right on
calling me Jack; it sounds nice, and I've missed it. And I'll call you Lou,
even though you look very much like a Louise just now." "Why are you here?" asked Lou. "We were headin' to New York City to find
you." "You came all this way to find me Lou shrugged. "Nothin' to say, really. You're our friend, we wanted to help. But why are you here?" "For a while I was staying in a boarding house in New York, where I sent you my first letter from. There were loads of businessmen staying there as well, and eventually I befriended some of them. One of them, Mr Harmon, saw through my disguise instantly, and he eventually offered me a job here in Landingham. I've been working as his secretary for several weeks now. It's pleasant enough, and the pay is substantial." "Then why are you goin' to New York?" asked Jimmy. "Are you quittin'?" "No, I'm...I'm going back to England, actually. I promised my mother I would, and I'm dying to go back. I so long to see my parents." Lou's face fell and Jimmy had to look away. "Oh, dear," murmured Jack. "Lou, I'm so sorry. I'd give anything if circumstances were different, but I have to go back, you see." "I understand, Jack." But Lou couldn't quite keep the disappointed, almost defensive tone out of her voice. "What I don't understand is why you stayed away from us for so long. All those months, we were all worried sick. I know it wasn't your fault your letters didn't get to us, but why didn't you just come to Rock Creek? Everyone told you to come back, but you didn't." "Bart warned me not to set foot anywhere near you," Jack answered, voice quivering. "I was frightened of what he might do to any of you. He threatened to put Teaspoon in jail!" Jimmy found it hard to mask his irritation at Jack's naivete. "Bart Philips has no jurisdiction over Teaspoon, and he certainly wouldn't put the fear of God into any of us. You should've ignored his bullyin' and come to Rock Creek. We would have protected you, we would have looked out for you." "He's not just a bully, Jimmy! Bullies I can handle, bullies can be dealt with because there's never any action. Bart is a violent-tempered man who would have made good on his word! After what he did to me, why would I give him the opportunity to do it to any of you?!" "What did he do to you, Jack?" Jimmy asked quietly after a moment of silence. Jack bit her lip. "It's not important now. It's in the past." "For someone who's spent a good portion of her recent life dwellin' on the past, you certainly seem in a hurry to forget things when it suits you!" "That's not fair, Jimmy!" Lou watched as Jimmy and Jack glared at each other. This had just gone rapidly from bad to worse. "Stop it, both of you," she warned. "This is not how I wanted things to be when we found you, Jack. Jimmy, you owe her an apology, I think." "Fair enough. I'll apologize as soon as she tells us what it is that Bart did to her." He fixed his eyes on Jack, and she knew he wasn't going to back down. Lou added, "Yes, Jack, please tell us." "Well...," Jack began reluctantly. "D'you remember the state I was in when I arrived in Rock Creek?" They nodded, eyes wide. "Like that, only a bit worse." There didn't seem to be anything to say. Certainly there was nothing that could be done about, but that didn't stop Jimmy from looking as if he wanted to thrust his fist through the thick wooden wall he was leaning up against. Looking closer at her friend, Lou could see a small, raised scar at the edge of her left temple and a slight bump on her small nose, a vague but rather prominent discoloration on her chin -- marks that surely hadn't been there the last time they had seen Jack. And it suddenly occurred to Lou that when Jack had rushed out of the station she had limped noticeably, favoring her right leg. "Oh, Jack," she whispered, eyes filling with tears. "Oh, don't you start," grinned Jack. "Once you start, I'll start, and who knows when I'll stop? Honestly, Lou, it was ages ago now, and I'm fine. I'd take a gun to the bastard if I could, but as I can't, I've found that living well is a nice revenge of its own." "How can you be content with that kind of revenge?" demanded Jimmy. "Jesus, Jack, we didn't find the men who injured you in the first place, and now you're willin' to sit back and let someone else get away with hurtin' you!" Lou sighed. "Stop, Jimmy, please. You're soundin' like Buck." "That doesn't sound like the Buck I know." Jack seemed puzzled. "The Buck you remember isn't around much these days, Jack, and the Buck who is around sounds a lot like Jimmy does right now: bitter, angry, wantin' revenge. I tell you I can't take anymore of it, Jimmy!" "Why? What's happened to Buck? Has he been hurt?" Jimmy hung his head, thinking of Ike, and Lou gazed sadly at Jack, saying, "He has been hurt, but not the way you're thinkin', Jack. Ike was killed. It happened a few months ago. He was protectin' a young girl he'd become friends with, and you know Ike...he wouldn't back down. It's been pretty hard on all of us." More silence. From elation to disappointment, anger to melancholy, in less than twenty minutes. Was this what being grown-up was going to be like? Jimmy said softly, "Rachel was right. Things sure are changin' fast." Chapter Fourteen Back to Chapter Twelve |
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