Chapter Twenty
Teaspoon, Kid and Louise rode into the station in the wee morning hours, the wind still cutting like a knife through the air. They didn’t see Buck’s horse, but they figured he must have taken care of it already and put the gelding in the barn. Teaspoon dismounted his horse and helped Kid with Louise while he dismounted Katy.
“I got the horses,” Teaspoon said. “You get her inside and warmed up.”
Kid nodded, nearly frozen to the bone himself. Rachel met him at the door.
“Oh, Lord, Kid!” she said, worried. “Get in here before you catch your death! Let’s bring her into the kitchen. It’s warmest there and Cassie’s heatin’ some bricks for me.”
“Where’s Doc Barnes?” Kid asked.
“Buck rode out after him a while ago, but he’s not back yet,” Rachel told him. “He musta had to track him down at someone’s house.”
Kid carried Louise into the kitchen, where Rachel and Cassie had prepared a makeshift bed in front of the red hot cookstove. Kid’s stomach growled when he smelled Rachel’s chicken and dumpling soup, but his first priority was getting Louise to wake up and to make sure she was warm.
Cassie removed two heated bricks from within the stove and carefully wrapped them in burlap sacks. She placed them at Lou’s feet as Rachel piled blankets on the young woman and tried to spoon feed her the hot soup. Kid took Louise’s hands in his and rubbed them together to try to get her circulation going again.
“Kid, help yourself to some soup,” Rachel suggested.
“In a minute,” he answered.
“Kid, you’re gonna fall over from exhaustion,” Rachel told him. “Remember you’re still healin’ yourself. Cassie an’ me will take care of her just fine.”
“Rachel!” Kid protested.
“Kid!” she argued back. “You ain’t gonna win this one, so don’t even bother tryin’.”
Realizing she was right, Kid found a bowl and ladled himself some of the soup. He sat down at the table, watching Rachel and Cassie like a mother hen, his eyes never leaving Louise.