“I’ll get it!” called Lou, already halfway down the hall. “Who could it be?” she wondered aloud. “Everyone we know is already here.”

Still talking with her head turned over her shoulder as she reached the door, she opened it without looking.

Facing forward only after she heard the gentle throat clearing of a woman’s voice, Lou found herself looking into the face of a well dressed, but severe looking blonde woman. She didn’t recognize the woman and was about to ask what business she had when movement to the side of the door caught Lou’s eye.

The austere woman pulled at what was causing the distraction and practically shoved a young boy front and center.

Lou’s eyes were immediately drawn downward and what she saw instantly took her breath away.

There was no mistaking the eyes that looked up at her from her doorway. They were the very same eyes that she had burned into her memory on the day they first kissed over seven years ago. They were the very same eyes she had looked into so lovingly, only that morning. Yet if it wasn't the eyes that gave it away it was the tousled wavy hair, the slightly crooked nose and the full lips. It was all of him.

Her pulse quickened and her face went flush and as she fainted to the floor, Lou knew she had looked into the eyes of Kid's son.

Expecting Lou back in a matter of seconds, Kid grew worried when one minute passed and then another. Excusing himself from the table, he hurried towards the door.

“Lou!” Kid could see his wife in a crumpled heap on the floor just inside their doorway. A strange woman was fanning her with one hand and patting her on the cheek with the other and he didn’t know what to make of the situation.

“She just fainted for no reason,” drawled the woman in a thick southern accent.

Falling to his knees beside Lou, Kid scooped her into his arms. It was then that he saw the boy, still rooted in the same spot he was in when Lou fainted. Immediately Kid knew what had happened to Lou and he didn’t know what he would say to her when she awoke.

“Jackson?”

“Yes, sir,” answered the boy.

At that moment the rest of the family came bolting into the foyer, Kid’s cries having alerted them to a problem.

“Kid, what’s going on here?” demanded Teaspoon. “What happened to Lou and who are these people?”

Kid didn’t even know where to begin. His whole world was about to crash down on him and the one person he needed to understand the most was already passed out in shock, having understood what he'd never dared to tell her…what he never thought he'd have to tell her.

“Daddy!” cried Mary Emma. “What’s wrong with Mama?” The child tried to rush at Kid, but Jenny held her back to keep from tipping Kid over as he held Lou.

“Sweetheart, Mama’s alright. She just doesn’t feel so good, so I’m gonna take her upstairs to lie down.”

“Kid, are you gonna tell us what in tarnation is goin’ on here?”

“I will Teaspoon, in time, but first I have to see to Lou. Please take everyone back to the table.”

Buck stopped Kid as he started up the first stair. “And what about your guests?” he hissed.

Bowing his head in intense shame, Kid spoke softly, yet loud enough for the assembled group to hear. “Please set two more places at the table. My son, Jackson, and his traveling companion will be joining us.” Without another word, Kid continued up the stairs to his bedroom where he could tend to Lou.

The foyer was so silent you could hear a pin drop. The children had headed for the kitchen and the adults were frozen in place, stunned by Kid’s departing words.

As the seconds dragged on into minutes, none of the former Pony Express members made a move to welcome the child or his companion. It was Caroline who took charge and escorted Jackson and the unsmiling woman into the dining room.

“You both must be very hungry from your travels. Why don’t you join us for some supper? Andrew, will you please lead the way?”

Passing Rachel, Caroline paused by her side and gripped her hand. “You four stay here and talk some, Andy and I will get the others settled, but don’t stay too long or the kids will get suspicious.”

Rachel nodded her understanding, but still could not speak. She moved next to Teaspoon and allowed her husband to wrap his arms around her and pull her into an embrace. The comfort of his arms was all it took and Rachel broke into sobs.

Teaspoon tried to comfort her, but knew words would be inadequate. “Shh, sweetheart. It’ll be all right. There has to be an explanation for all this.” It didn’t feel right to the wise Marshal, but he knew the Kid would be able to tell them what was going on.

“Teaspoon, how can you say that it will be all right? Did you see that child? He’s obviously Kid’s son! How could Kid not tell us? Us, how could he not tell Lou? I don’t believe this. It’s just like before their wedding!”

Buck guided Jenny towards the bench in the foyer. He could see the stress of the situation was beginning to wear on her. “Eagle Feather, maybe you should lie down. Shocks like this aren’t good for you and the baby.”

“Buck, I’m fine, just a little weak kneed right now. I just don’t believe this is happening again.” Although living far from Rock Creek at the time of Kid and Lou’s wedding, Jenny had been filled in on the story of Lou’s past and her marriage to Flynn as well as the fact that she kept it a secret from Kid until they were ready to walk down the aisle. “Did you see the boy? I hate to say it, but he looks to be about ten or eleven years old. Where is the mother? And more importantly, who is the mother?”

Rachel, Teaspoon and Buck all looked at each other. Jenny had stated the obvious. The child was of an age that he had to be born before Kid joined the Express.

“Can’t say I have any earthly idea of who it could be, but I find it hard to believe that Kid would abandon a woman and his child?”

“That’s not the Kid’s way and you know it, Teaspoon. That’s not fair to say he abandoned them!” Buck was outraged that Teaspoon thought Kid was capable of such an indignity. He and Kid had grown very close in the years after the Express and Kid was like his brother. He would defend him to the end. “I know him, Teaspoon. There’s more to it than that.”

Jenny reached for Buck, pulling him down onto the seat beside her to keep him from pacing the house and upsetting himself worse. “No one’s accusing him of anything, Buck. Teaspoon’s just talking. We’re all just talking about what ifs here. We’re not gonna know the truth until Kid tells us and I think he’s got a more pressing problem right now.” Jenny rolled her eyes upward to where Kid had just carried his unconscious wife.

Silence returned to the foursome as they contemplated the implications of their guests’ arrival.

“Excuse me, I’m sorry to interrupt, but I need to tend to the buck board I drove out here. I rented it from the livery and it wouldn’t do to return the horse worse for the wear.”

All eyes turned towards the voice, dripping with false southern charm, which came from the woman who had escorted the boy into their lives.

As patriarch of the group that had molded itself into a family over the years, Teaspoon stepped forward to attend to the woman’s needs.

“Of course, Miss…”

“Esther Crane.”

“Miss Crane, please excuse us. We’re just trying to digest this situation. I’m Teaspoon Hunter and this is my wife Rachel Dunne Hunter. Sitting on the bench is Buck Cross and his wife Jenny.”

“Do you all live here?” asked Esther looking at the two couples and thinking of the third, now upstairs.

Rachel had stopped crying and was trying to pull herself together so as not to make a bad impression on the stranger in Kid and Lou’s home. “Well, yes. And no. We don’t all live here, I mean here in this house, but we all live on this property. I mean we all have separate houses. Teaspoon and I and our two boys, Avery and Charlie, you met them in the kitchen, we live in the house to the left of this one. Buck and Jenny and their three children live in the house to the right.”

“The twins and the little blonde girl are yours?” Esther glanced at Jenny with a pinched look on her face.

Jenny pulled herself up straighter. She would not let this woman dismiss her family so easily. “Noah and Isaac are the twins and Sally is our daughter. We own this ranch with Kid and Lou.”

“What about the other woman?” Esther’s questions were very direct and she was beginning to make the whole group uneasy.

“Caroline and Andrew are our friends. Andrew is Teaspoon’s deputy.” Rachel stood taller. She, like Jenny, would not let this stranger second guess their living arrangements. “Michael and Katherine are their children. The other children are Kid and Lou’s.”

“Two girls? No sons? My, I guess this is a shock.”

Pushing herself up from the bench, Jenny stepped into place beside Rachel. “Three girls. Their infant daughter is asleep upstairs. And this would be a shock no matter the gender of the child.”

“Well, you all seem to take the bible literally here in Nebraska territory don’t you?”

“What do you mean by that, Miss Crane?” questioned Rachel cautiously.

“Be fruitful and multiply.”

It took all of Rachel’s last nerve to keep from slapping the woman. Stepping aside to allow Esther to pass out the front door, Rachel spoke to her back through gritted teeth. “I believe you have a broomstick, I mean buckboard, to attend to. Stable is straight in front of you.”

Not another word was spoken as Esther stepped out into the evening air. Once she was beyond hearing range, the four friends all started speaking loudly and at once, anxious to discuss what had just transpired.

“Will you please all settle down?” demanded Caroline Stevens returning from the kitchen. “You’re beginning to scare the children. That boy hasn’t said a word since he sat at the table and the other children aren’t speaking either. Mary Emma and Sarah are in tears. They don’t understand what Kid said, but they know something is wrong with Louise.”

Teaspoon, Rachel, Buck and Jenny all looked down at their feet. They had been so eager to discuss what they thought was going on that they forgot to take into account a key element of the situation - the children, both family and foreigner.

“You’re right, Caroline,” agreed Rachel. “We’re behaving poorly, but this just caught us so off guard and that woman, she was so rude! Why don’t I go upstairs and check on Kid and Lou and the rest of you go back into the kitchen. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

“Now Rachel, you saw the boy’s face, I don’t think he wants your help up there.”

“Teaspoon, right now, I don’t think Kid knows what he wants. I’m just concerned about Lou. We don’t know if she hit her head when she fell or worse. I just need to see if she’s alright.”

Teaspoon could sense his wife would get hysterical if he kept her from checking on the young couple and he hated to admit it, but he would feel better knowing that she was up there mothering them. “Okay, you go on up, but don’t interfere. This is something they’re gonna have to sort out. You just make sure she’s awake. Understood?”

She nodded her head in agreement, but Rachel knew it would be hard to keep from meddling. It was a part of her nature to want to help the people she loved.

The door to Kid and Lou’s bedroom was open, but Rachel still knocked before entering. Kid looked over his shoulder and nodded for her to come in. He was sitting on the bed beside Lou’s unmoving form, running a wet cloth over her face. She was still ashen, but there seemed to be a hint of color returning to her cheeks.

“Lou, wake up sweetie. Please. We need to talk.” Kid pleaded with his wife, desperate for her to wake up so he could explain himself. “Please wake up, Lou.”

Rachel stepped forward and placed her hand on Kid’s shoulder. When he looked up at her, tears streaking his face, she felt as if her heart would break for the aching man.

“I didn’t know she would find out like this, Rachel. Honestly, I was just as surprised.”

“I know, Kid. It’ll be okay.” Rachel took the rag from his hand and dipped it into the basin. Ringing out the wet wrap, she placed it on Lou’s forehead and let it lay there.

Kid continued to murmur words of encouragement to Lou, urging her to regain consciousness. Finally, Lou began to stir.

“Lou! Thank God you’re okay.”

“Kid?” Lou’s voice was shaky and the ringing in her head was making her unsure of her surroundings.

“I’m right here. Don’t try and sit up, you’re in our bed. Rachel’s here too.”

“I think I fainted.”

“You did. Did you hit your head? Does anything hurt?” Kid was running his hands across Lou’s limbs in an attempt to feel for any bumps and bruises.

“No, I don’t think so.” Lou closed her eyes and took a deep steadying breath before looking at her husband again. “There was a child at our door.”

Kid knew the moment of truth had arrived and he knew he would have to move delicately through the situation or he would risk losing everything he and Lou had built together over the last seven years. “Yes, there was a child at our door.”

The scene at the door was replaying in Lou’s head. She could clearly see the image of the boy. “He looks just like you,” she whispered eerily.

Kid didn’t respond, but waited for Lou to continue. Rachel stayed towards the back of the room, anxious to leave, but afraid to in case the situation deteriorated.

“Kid, I need for you to answer a question for me. I need for you to be honest with me.”

“Of course, Lou. Honesty.”

“Is that boy your son?”

Kid was fully prepared for the question, but hearing Lou ask it aloud felt like being horse-kicked in the gut. “Yes, he is my son.”

Lou looked at Kid’s troubled face, but could no longer see the same things she had only hours before in the very same room. Instead, she only saw the face of a man she no longer knew, a man who had deceived her. She was angry and embarrassed, yet in desperate need of more information, no matter how devastating it was.

Rolling onto her side, her back now to Kid, so she could avoid looking at him, she quietly asked another burning question. “How long have you known about him?”

Kid didn’t know how to respond. If he told the truth, he would be digging himself into an even deeper hole. Yet, if he lied, it would only be worse for them both in the long run. He decided to try being vague. “I’ve known for a while.”

Lou recognized the attempt at stalling and refused to accept it. “That’s not an answer.”

Rachel, still off to the side of the bed, had long been forgotten by her troubled friends. She felt like she should leave, but was rooted in place by a morbid sense of curiosity. She was as anxious to hear the Kid’s reply as Lou.

Kid dropped his head in shame. “I’ve known for about seven years.”

Lou couldn’t reply. Awash with so many emotions, she wasn’t sure which one would win the battle to guide her reaction. What troubled her most was that if Kid had known about his son’s existence for that long, then he knew about him before their wedding, before she had told him her big secret about Flynn.

“Kid,” Lou whispered, keeping her back to him.

He leaned in close so he could hear her. “Yes, I’m here.”

“I want you to do something for me.”

“Anything, Lou. You name it.”

“I want you to get out.”

Kid was stunned. “What do you mean by that, Lou?” Kid turned to look at Rachel. Just as confused as he was, she could only raise her shoulders in a shrug.

“Just what I said. Get out.”

“Okay, I’ll go downstairs for a while so you can rest.”

“Downstairs is not what I meant.”

“I don’t understand you then. If you don’t want me to stay here, with you, and you don’t want me to go downstairs, then what do you want from me?”

Lou rolled back over to face the Kid and sat up slowly to avoid making herself any dizzier. Choosing her words carefully so there was no further misunderstanding, she knew the volume of her voice was rising. “What I want from you is nothing! What I want you to do - is get out of this house!”

“Louise!”

Lou gave her old friend a stern look. “Rachel, this ain’t none of your business. It’s between us.”

“But Louise, you’re being irrational.”

“Do you honestly think that? After hearing what he just said? Would you do me a favor and check on the children for me? I would greatly appreciate it.”

Rachel understood that she had been dismissed and although she was a little offended at the way Lou had spoken to her, she was actually grateful to be freed from the tension filled room.

Kid stood up and began to pace the length of their bedroom. “Lou, Rachel’s right. You’re being irrational! We can talk about this. I can make you understand.”

“Don’t you see? I don’t care about understandin’!” Lou was lying to him, she did want to understand, she wanted to fall into his arms and beg him to make it all go away, but her pride had taken control and she would not cry, she would not beg, she just wanted him out of her sight.

“I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Kid, are you listening to yourself? It has nothing to do with whether you did it on purpose. The bottom line is, you lied to me! Actually, you’ve been lying to me for our entire marriage. It’s all been a lie!”

“That’s not true, Lou. And you know it! You lied to me before and I forgave you.”

“That was different.”

The blooded rushed to Kid’s face and his hands closed into tight fists at his side. “Why? Because it was you and it happened before we knew each other? Well so did this!”

“That’s obvious!”

“That’s not fair, Lou. If you’d let me explain, you’d understand that it ain’t my fault.”

“Oh no, Kid. It’s never your fault. Whose is it then? Is it that boy’s? Mine? Your daughters’?” At the mention of her own children, Lou gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.

“What?” asked Kid, somewhat annoyed by her dramatics.

Lou struggled to get off the bed. “The girls! Do they know who he is? Where are they? Oh my babies must be so confused!”

“They’re fine, Lou. They’re with Jenny and Caroline. Please, can you sit back down so we can discuss this? Can’t you see I didn’t know about him at the time?”

“You’ve known about him for seven years.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t know about it when he was born. She just sprung it on me!”

“Stop right there, Kid. Don’t say another word. I don’t want to hear about her. I don’t want to know who she is or anything. Just leave me be so I can sort through this.” Lou turned her back to him again. She could feel the tears forming in her eyes and didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

Kid started towards Lou’s slumped form, but stopped when he saw her bristle at his intended touch. Swearing under his breath, he turned towards the door instead. “I’m gonna take them back to town to the hotel. We’ll talk about this when I get back.”

“Don’t bother coming back,” Lou whispered.

“I know you don’t mean that, Lou. We have a family and a life together. We can work through this.” Although angry at her stubbornness, his voice was desperate. He would not let her give up on them so easily.

“We had a life and we had a family. I just can’t put the girls through this and I can’t do it either.” She turned to face him, too hurt to care if he saw her tears. “God damn it, Kid! How could you do this? We promised no more secrets before we got married. We vowed to love and honor each other forever. Yet, here you are with a secret so big it just shatters those vows! They meant nothing to you!”

Kid dropped his head. He was hurt that Lou felt as she did, but he would not be ashamed that the boy was his son. “Lou, you may not believe me, but I do love you. I cherish you and I honor you every day. Our vows meant the world to me; you and the girls mean the world to me. Yes, I made the mistake of not telling you about Jackson, but I had my reasons. If you can’t see it in your heart, a heart that you claim is mine, to let me explain and prove my love to you, then you’re right, I need to go. I never expected you to be so cold and callous, Lou. I thought we learned our lesson about hasty judgments, but I guess I was wrong.”

Lou watched Kid walk out of their room without so much as a look back. She wanted to chase after him, she wanted to understand why he had done it, but her feet stayed glued in place. She stayed in that spot for several minutes, until she heard the front door open and close and the footsteps across her porch cease.

Jenny waited until Kid and the mysterious visitors were out the door before heading upstairs to check on Lou. Watching Lou from the open doorway, it broke her heart to see her friend looking so defeated. Seated on the bed with tears streaming down her face, Lou was tightly clutching a picture of her family.

Lou felt the bed dip as Jenny took a seat beside her. She couldn’t bring herself to meet Jenny’s eyes and instead spoke quietly while running her hand over the glass.

“Was this all a dream, Jenny?” she asked rhetorically, indicating the portrait in her hand. “Were we never meant to be together, to live happily ever after like the storybooks say?”

“Oh, sweetheart. It’s not all over for you and Kid. Yes, this is quite a shock for you, but you’ve weathered worse. You two will survive this.”

“I told him to get out of our house. That was my first reaction. Not, tell me about it. Not, let’s fix this, but get out. I quit on our marriage and right now it seems the only way to handle this.”

“I know, we heard.”

Lou buried her head in her hands. “And the girls? Did they hear us arguing? They must be so upset.”

Placing her arm around Lou’s shoulder, Jenny squeezed her reassuringly. “They’re understandably upset. I don’t know if they’ve ever heard you to fight like that. I know I haven’t. The girls don’t really understand what it’s all about. The boy didn’t say a thing while he was at the table and when the arguin’ got bad, Caroline took all the children to my house.”

“Thank you for lookin’ out for them,” sniffed Lou while wiping her face dry. “Their father and I certainly weren’t thinkin’ of them tonight.” Lou glanced out her window and across the yard to Jenny and Buck’s house.

“I really should go and talk to them, but I just don’t know what to say. Maddy’s so little, she won’t feel the repercussions until later, but Mary Emma and Sarah are already old enough to know. How do I explain this? What will it do to them?”

“Lou, you’re speaking like this is permanent. You and Kid will work this out and other than makin’ them understand who the boy is, there will be nothing to talk about.”

Shaking her head, Lou slipped from Jenny’s friendly grip to pace the floor. “You don’t understand, Jenny. I can’t just let this go. How do I take him back after this?”

Jenny knew that Lou wasn’t seeing the irony of the situation. “Louise, he forgave your transgression.”

“Are you taking his side now?” Lou demanded.

“Not taking any side, just pointing out a fact you forgot.” Jenny rose from the bed to stand before her friend.

”I didn’t forget about that, but as I told Kid when he said the same thing, this is different. He should have told me right then. Right when I told him about Flynn. He knew about the child’s existence then, he could have told me when we were making up before the wedding. He could have straightened this all out then and we would have dealt with it, but now, after all this time. That’s not fair.”

Lou crossed her arms and began her rapid pacing again. “I’m just so angry right now! And it’s not just at the Kid. I’m angry at the other woman. I’m angry at the boy. Hell, I’m angry at the world right now! They’ve all made me doubt two things that I was always completely confident it - my marriage and my family. And I hate that.”

”What are you doubting, Louise? You can’t tell me that the man who walked those people out of here doesn’t love you and those girls more than the air that lets him breath.” Rachel leaned on the doorjamb and looked at Lou with a stern eye.

”This is hurtin’ him just as much as it’s hurtin’ you, Louise. And as far as that boy is concerned, you can’t blame him. He’s just as confused as the rest of us. As for the other woman, who I hope to God is not that Esther Crane person the boy’s traveling with, well that’s another story.”

”Did he tell you who the mother is?” Jenny held her breath once the question was out. She had dared to ask the one thing that everyone was curious about.

Lou stopped dead in her tracks. “No. I didn’t ask. He barely offered. I really don’t care to know.”

Rachel and Jenny didn’t say a word. They both knew Lou would tell them when she was good and ready.

Wiping at her eyes one last time, Lou plastered a false smile on her face and pulled herself together. “I’m going to see the girls, and then after they’re in bed, I’m going to sleep and when I wake up, I’m gonna start planning for our future.”

Together Rachel and Jenny watched Lou walk out of her room with the appearance of determination. Her back straight and her head held high, she headed out into the night.

Chapter Four