Chapter Six
Mama Lou,
I'm so happy I'm almost crying. I'm going to be a father! It was the last night we "danced," wasn't it? That night, I knew we had done something wonderful, I just didn't imagine it would be this kind of wonderful! I love you so much, sweetheart. You're going to be an amazing mother, and we're going to be the best parents that ever lived because we've got so much to make different from how we had to grow up.
We were both hard on eachother, Lou. We both made mistakes along the way, but the important thing to keep in your mind is the fact that we finally saw the way to be happy and we took it without looking back. You have nothing to make up for, Luv.
Some day this war will be over and you and me and our baby, we can sit on the front porch of the house I'm going to build for you and laugh and dream. I wish there was some promise I could make that would let you believe I'll be there when the baby is born. But I don't trust the tales the men tell about how quickly and easily the South will win this war. It just doesn't seem like something this big could work itself out so soon. I wish I could see your beautiful brown eyes right now. The thought of those eyes looking into mine is making my cheeks turn red, so I best stop for now.
I love you, Lou. The father of your child...it seems to good to be true. One day I'll come home safe to you, I promise you that. One day you'll know to look for me and Katy on the horizon. Until then.
Love,
Kid
Lou reread the letter from her bed upstairs in the station house. She hadn't cried when she'd come to the end the first time, nor the second, nor any time after that. She merely read the words until they made no sense in her head, all jumbled up and running together. It was like saying the same word over and over until it didn't even sound like a real word anymore, just a strange noise.
Her mind saw the letter fall onto the quilt before her and she assumed she must have let it drop from her hand, but she couldn't be sure. Rising slowly, she crossed to her bureau and pulled out a worn dress she used to clean house in. Changing swiftly, she donned the dress, laced up her riding boots and walked to the window. It was late already. Rachael had come up for the last time to check on Lou before going to bed. Lou had feigned sleep, and now she knew she'd be alone till the morning.
Taking nothing with her except the letter, Lou snuck out of the house and toward the barn. Lightening was saddled and mounted in a blink, it was so automatic to Lou. Riding out into the open plains, Lou was leaving her life behind her.
***
"Can you hear me? Lou, baby, please wake up. I don't know how bad off ya are and I can't take you out in this storm for the doc, so please, baby. You gotta wake up so I'll stop worrying."
Lou felt his face close to her's, his arms holding her in his lap. She wanted to respond but as she began to move her lips to form the words, Kid and his reality slipped farther and farther from her and she found herself in the past once again. Old demons to be faced...
***
Lou's head was aching. That was the first thing she noticed. Then she felt a wind move across her body and she shivered. But when she felt a blanket being pulled up over her shoulders, Lou's eyes flew open as she gasped in shock.
"You're finally awake," came a soft voice from beside her. Lou spun her head to see who spoke, her body ready to attack. Coming face to face with a beautiful Kiowa woman was not what Lou expected to see. Had last night gone like she had prayed for it to, Lou would have expected to see nothing ever again. "You've been sleeping soundly for a few hours, but now that you're awake, I think I should take you home."
Still not ready to speak, Lou took in her surroundings. She was partially covered by a hide and a campfire was burning out beside her. The sun was already blazing and Lou guessed that it was almost ten o'clock in the morning. Her hair that she was now letting grow long was snarled and she raised her hand to touch the tangles. It was then that she felt the bandages.
Wrapped around her left arm was a thick bandage, clean and applied with great care. Tears welled up in her eyes are she recalled her actions from the night before. Glancing around the camp fire, she noticed the torn and bloody remenant of her sleeve along with red soaked pieces of cloth waiting to burned.
"I thought you might need to see what you lost," said the woman, simply.
Lou looked away from who she now knew to be her rescuer. The last night and it's horrors crept back to Lou and the memories frightened her. Had it really been her own hand that her eyes saw cutting into her skin? Had her own voice really uttered a prayer to heaven, asking for the unthinkable?
"You should not think too long on what happened here last night," the woman interuptted her thoughts. "Many people go near the edge of the great cliff for many reasons. You did not fall over that edge. You have a strong spirit that would not let you fall."
"If you hadn't been there..." Lou began.
"But I was." The woman reached her hand out and Lou took it. "Let me take you back to Running Buck and your family now."
"How did you know that Buck..."
"He comes to us more often now that his family is breaking apart. He's told me much about you and your husband, so much that I knew it was you when I rode near." Then the woman broke into a sly smile, "Plus, I recognized your horse with the mail pouch." She began to laugh at this and Lou joined her, her first laugh since that day.
"My name's Louise McCloud, but I suppose you already knew that, too."
"I am Silver Spring. And I am happy to see you smile, Louise." Silver Spring began to gather the camp together, leaving her to take care of the bloodied rags as Lou had nothing else with her. Holding her own blood in her hands, a shiver ran through her body as she realized what this morning could have brought to Buck and Rachael. And to Kid. She burned all the rags, save but the one that had been her sleeve. Stuffing the rag into the tell-tale manchilla Lightening still wore, her hand came across Kid's letter. Carefully she opened the paper and noticed that some of her blood had dripped onto the letter. Lou remembered seeing her hand slide the letter into the bag before seeing the ground rise to meet her. It was as if it had all happened to someone else and she were only an observer in her own body.
I love you, Lou. The father of your child...it seems to good to be true. One day I'll come home safe to you, I promise you that. One day you'll know to look for me and Katy on the horizon. Until then.
Silver Spring watched from a distance as Louise began to cry standing beside her horse, heaving huge, painful sobs from her petiete body. She'd lost her baby, that much Silver Spring knew from Louise's incoherant ramblings when she'd found her, and she knew that Louise's husband was fighting in the white man's war.
After a long while, Lou's sobs had quieted and she stood leaning against her stallion in exhaustion. Quietly, she folded the letter and slipped it back into the manchilla. She'd mourned enough for now. Lou knew the hardest task was still at hand. Moutning Lightening and glancing wearily at Silver Spring, she turned to head back towards Sweetwater.
Kid had to be told.
Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III ChapterIV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X
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