Chapter Four
"Kid!" Lou called out into the darkness.
Lightening struck and Lou realized she'd been dreaming, her candles now long burned out into puddles of wax, the house getting cold, and her husband no closer to home than when she'd fallen asleep.
Lou rolled off the couch, vaguely aware that Rascal tumbled down after her. Her body ached from falling asleep in a cramped position. Opening the shutters a crack, Lou saw that the rain had not let up, but at least the mud was gone from the air.
Moving to the fireplace, she began building a blaze from the wood Kid had chopped two days ago. Had it only been two days since Kid had been with her? It felt like an eternity.
In no time at all, Lou had a fire going, the flew open now that the mud had been washed away. Wearily, she crossed to the stairs to her and Kid's bedroom. There's be no going out in this weather tonight, so there was no reason why she shouldn't change into her nightdress. As she placed her hand on the railing, she smiled a old smile, remembering just the other day when Kid had grabbed her up into his arms while she was standing on the porch worrying over something small.
"You have bigger things to worry about, woman!" he'd teased. "Like whether or not you'll be able to walk straight after I'm through making love to you tonight!"
Lou had thrown her head back in laughter, while Kid proceeded to carry her up the stairs and to their bedroom. Lou'd been able to walk straight the next day, but just barely.
Now she was heading to her cold bedroom alone and with the knowledge that her lover had bigger things to worry about than making sure she couldn't walk straight. Rascal trotted faithfully behind her and once they reached the room, he plopped himself just outside the door.
"Giving me privacy, huh?" she smiled.
Lou thought to a time when her and Kid's passion had gotten a tad out of control, to the point where they were worried about waking the neighbors with their moaning and carrying on. They'd nearly laughed themselves into convulsions when they realized the only one they'd upset was Rascal, who was howling like a banshee outside their door. When they'd finally let him in the room, he'd made a bee-line for Louise, alternately sniffing at her and glaring at Kid with accusing eyes. "I didn't hurt her, you silly dog!" Kid cried, indignantly, at the time.
Slowing pulling off her dress and peeling away the layers of undergarments, Lou stood naked before the large mirrored vanity that Kid had made for her before he'd gone off to war. Smiling wryly, she observed how her body still held onto the lean muscle she'd developed over the years with the Express, but she also noted, with some pride, that her figure had filled out just enough to encourage her that her truest tom-boy days were over.
It was startling how easily she could envision Kid standing behind her, his strong, naked body pressed against hers as he admired the view in the mirror.
"Lord, you're beautiful, Lou," he whispered huskily into her hair. She blushed and looked into the reflection of his eyes.
"Only because I have you to be beautiful for. I'd be an old sack of grain if I didn't have to keep lookin' so good to keep you."
"Woman, you lie like a dog," he laughed and spun her around in his arms so that they were now facing eachother, seconds away from the inevitable bliss. "You know it's me that ya got following you around like a mad man, just hoping you'll never leave me."
"Is that so?" she smiled. "Well then, I better capitilize on that." She pushed him back onto the bed with a devious look on her face, intending to do as she promised.
Lou sighed, alone in her bedroom, getting goosebumps on her naked flesh and yearning for her husband's touch, she felt un at ease. She absently reached into the bureau and pulled out the light linen nightdress Emma had given her during her first anniversary apart from Kid. It was beautiful in its simplicity, lightly embroidered, white and falling to her toes. The long, loose sleeves were slightly too long for Lou and she could pull the ends on the sleeves into her fists when she was anxious. Like now. The feeling of the linen against her skin gave Lou some comfort. If she put her nightdress on, surely Kid would come home. It was the signal of the end to a day. He would be home momentarily, and then she would be thankful that she'd neglected to wear anything else under the light fabric.
With that in mind, Lou started back down the stairs, petting Rascal on the head as she took her first step off the landing.
Without knowing how it began, Lou felt herself move from the once stable position on the top step, to falling forward and watching the wooden steps rise to meet her with remarkable speed. She tried to find her footing, but the long nightdress seemed to be wound around her feet. Lou heard Rascal give a startled yelp as she felt her head kiss the stairway, and then Lou heard nothing.
***
The rain was falling so hard it actually hurt his exposed skin. But there wasn't time to bring Katy to a halt and adjust his collar, or pull his coat tighter to him. The lightening that struck both near and far from his speeding horse was enough to keep him riding at this break neck pace. And the fact that Lou was alone in their home was even more a reason. As Kid rode as hard against the driving rain as possible, something Lou had said as he mounted Katy two days ago came back to him.
"When you come home, if you've been good, I might have a surprise for you," she purred.
"A surprise, eh? It wouldn't be anything like the "surprises" you like to give me when I wake up in the moring, or when I go to sleep at night, or when I'm in the shower, or when we're at the water hole, or when we're by a campfire all alone, or..."
"Stop it!" Lou cried, out as she playfully swatted his hand away, a hand that had been wandering from her hip to the side of her breast during his monologue. "It has the possibility of being better than all that, ya fool. So you better be on yer way if you want to get that surprise as quick as you can." And with that Lou stood on her tip toes and leaned off the porch to kiss Kid quickly on the cheek before she gave Katy's flank a smack sent him on his way.
"Ride safe," she'd called out, laughing, as he'd waved over his shoulder and then put his effort into controlling the gallop that Lou had sent Katy into.
Kid hissed into Katy's ear to set a faster pace through the sloshing rain with the memory of Lou waving and laughing from their front porch burning in his mind.
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