Chapter Seven

"Lou, do you know Alexandria Maxwell?" Kid had seen the look on Lou’s face when the clerk told them the woman’s name. It was the same look she had on her face when she saw Charlotte. Her past had come back to haunt her again. He just hoped she would open up to him this time before something terrible happened. "Kid, I can’t talk to you about this right now. I’ve got to find out if she is who I think she is. When I know, I promise that I’ll tell you about it." Lou knew she had to let Kid know how she knew Alexandria. She wouldn’t keep anything hidden from him this time. "Alright Lou. Let’s get back to the hotel. What do you want to do first?" "Let’s go visit Jeremiah and Theresa. Then we can go and find out where Alexandria Maxwell is singing. I’ve got to find out if she’s the same person I used to know." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ "How far behind him do you think we are Buck?" "About half a day. I know a few short cuts that could catch us up to him though. I also know where they’re staying." "How could you know that Buck? There’s a lot of hotels in St. Jo." "Kid told me he always stays in the same place. We’ll just check there first." "Well, we’d better get going. I don’t want him to find them before we do." Noah knew they weren’t too far from St. Jo. He hoped they had the advantage since they knew where Lou and Kid would be staying and Brooks would have to search the hotels. Noah just hoped there wasn’t a problem and Lou and Kid had to stay somewhere else. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ "Kid that was so much fun! I wish I could make it here to visit them more often! I really miss them." Lou and Kid had spent the afternoon with her siblings. They took the kids to a park and enjoyed the time they had together. The kids had to be back at the orphanage by dinner, but Lou and Kid made plans to spend the next day with them. "I’m glad you had fun. What are we going to do this evening?" Kid would’ve liked nothing better than to spend the evening alone in their hotel room, but he knew that Lou wanted to find Alexandria. "Well Kid, I’ve got us tickets to hear the amazing Alexandria Maxwell perform this evening. If you don’t mind going that is." Lou knew that it didn’t matter if he would go with her or not. She had to talk to Alexandria and find out why she came back to St. Jo. "Of course I don’t mind. You don’t actually think I’d let a beautiful woman like yourself out of my sight. Someone may just sweep you off your feet and I’m not about to let you go!" Lou loved it when Kid talked like that. She couldn’t believe that he picked her to be with out of everyone available to him. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Jonah, Buck and Noah all reached St. Jo around the same time Lou and Kid were dropping off the kids at the orphanage. Buck and Noah had made good time taking the short cuts, now they just had to find Lou and Kid. Luckily, they knew which hotel they needed to look in. Brooks wasn’t that lucky. Hopefully, they’d have time to warn Lou and Kid before he found the right hotel. Chapter Eight Alexandria Maxwell was one of the best singers anyone had heard. Lou didn’t remember ever hearing Alex sing before, but she wasn’t surprised at the talent Alex had hidden. There were a lot of things that Alex had hidden from the world. "Kid, Let’s go see if we can get in from the back. I’ve got to talk to Alexandria and find out if she’s who I think she is." "Alright Lou, lets go." Kid wasn’t sure he wanted to do this, but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to talk Lou out of doing this. It was pretty easy for the pair to get backstage. Lou decided they should wait for Alexandria in her dressing room. "That was a wonderful performance tonight Alex." "Of course it was Eric. I never have a bad performance." Lou and Kid could hear her approaching. Kid could see the color draining from Lou’s face. He grabbed her hand to reassure her that everything would be all right. "I’ll see you in a moment. Please give me some time to change." Lou heard the man’s footsteps leaving as the door opened. "Why can’t he just...Who the Hell are you and what are you doing in my dressing room?" "Alex? Is that really you?" "Lou? What are you doing here?" Alex couldn’t believe who was standing in front of her! When they both ran away from Jonah Brooks two and a half years ago, she was sure they’d never see each other again. "Yep, it sure is. What are you doing here? I thought you said you’d never come back to St. Jo as long as you live." "Well, I’m here as the wonderful Alexandria Maxwell. Not the scruffy little Alex Maxwell that left years ago. Who’s your friend?" Lou knew Alex was avoiding the question. She needed to find out why. "Alex, this is the Kid. He’s my...boyfriend." Lou said that with a smile. She loved telling people about her relationship with Kid. "Kid this is Alex Maxwell. She and I worked together a couple years ago." "It’s nice to meet you Ms. Maxwell." Kid wasn’t quite sure he meant those words, only time could tell. "Nice to meet you to Kid. Lou, why are you here?" "I work for the Pony Express now. Kid and I both do. We had a ride here and are taking a few days off to visit my brother and sister. We saw you yesterday at the hotel. With your sudden departure, we had a place to stay." "The Pony Express? I didn’t think they hired women." "They don’t. To Russell, Majors, and Waddell I’m still a man. Only a few of the riders know I’m a woman. I’d lose my job if the company found out the truth. Alex, what are you doing here?" Lou had to find out what would make Alex come back to St. Jo. "Well, I’m not sure. My manager told me I should perform here. As long as I stay away from the ranch, I should be all right. Brooks never found out about me." Alex knew that Brooks would be looking for either Lou or herself. He wasn’t about to let go of that much money that easily. Lou never knew about the money Alex stole. Alex didn’t want her to know either. It was safer for Lou that way. "Lou I’d love to chat, but I really need to get some sleep. I’ve got two performances tomorrow. Come and see me tomorrow after the late show. I’m not performing the next day so we could get reacquainted then." "I’ll do that Alex. Good night. I’ll see you tomorrow." Lou knew that Alex was brushing her off, but she couldn’t figure out why. With any luck, she’d have all her answers tomorrow. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Noah and Buck couldn’t find Lou and Kid anywhere. They knew where the two were staying, but no one had seen them since they checked in. Buck even thought about checking at the orphanage, but he didn’t want to worry the kids. Their best bet was to just wait it out at the hotel. Lou and Kid couldn’t stay out all night. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ "Lou, you’re going to tell me what’s going on right?" Kid knew that she had said she’d tell him, but he wasn’t sure she’d go through with it after her talk to Alexandria. He was rushing her back to the hotel to make sure that this talk wouldn’t get put off until morning. "Of course Kid. Buck, Noah what’re you doing here?" Both Lou and Kid were surprised to see their fellow riders outside the hotel. "We came to find you. We’ve got some news. Let’s get inside." Buck wasn’t looking forward to telling them about Brooks. He didn’t know how they would react. When they got up to Lou and Kid’s room, Buck didn’t waste any time telling them about Jon Brooks. As he told them about the "inspector," Lou grabbed hold of Kid’s hand and wouldn’t let go. "The only thing we can’t figure out is which one of you he’s looking for." Noah had figured it out while Buck was explaining. There was only one other time they’d ever seen Lou react like this and that was when Wicks had shown up in Rock Creek. "He’s after me. I don’t know why though. There’s nothing that I took from him." Lou had only taken her possessions and Lightening when she left Brooks. She had a bad feeling this might have something to do with Alex. "Thanks for letting us know what’s going on guys. Did you get a room?" Kid wasn’t very worried about his friends. He needed to find out what was going on from Lou. "Yeah, we’re staying just down the hall," Buck replied. "We’ll figure out what we need to do in the morning. Night Buck, Noah." Kid didn’t want to sound rude, but he really wanted to get Lou alone so she could tell him what was going on. "Night Kid. Are you in a hurry to get Lou alone or something?" Noah and Buck both found it funny that Kid was rushing them out of the room. They just thought he was ready to do a little dancing and they were in the way. Kid ignored the question and just smiled at the two as he pushed them out of the room. Chapter Nine "Alright Lou, you’ve got to tell me what’s going on?" Kid’s smile dropped as he turned away from the door. He was determined to find out the whole story by morning. "Kid, I’m not proud of what I did then. It was right after I got away from Wicks and I hadn’t been dressing and acting like a boy for long. While I was in St. Louis, I met this ‘boy’ Alex Maxwell. He seemed to know the ropes and we became friends quickly. I didn’t know how to get around and take care of myself. Alex taught me to survive. After about a month, I found out that Alex was a girl. She had me completely fooled. I asked her what happened to her, why she started dressing like a boy. She told me...she’d tell her story when I told mine." Kid couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He didn’t realize how many girls passed themselves off as men to survive. It was hard enough accepting that Lou had done that and the reasons behind it. How could so many girls have this much trouble? "Well, I wasn’t ready to tell my story yet, so I just kept quiet. Alex and I were barely getting by. We decided that we needed to find work, but finding someone who would hire us was very hard." "Lou, how did you guys make it if you didn’t have jobs?" Kid was pretty sure that he knew how. He just didn’t want any more surprises later. "Kid, you know how. We stole what we needed to eat and nothing more. Neither of us wanted to do it, but we wouldn’t have made it if we didn’t." Lou was very ashamed that she had stolen food. She knew it wasn’t right, but she didn’t have any other way to survive. It was only one of her demons. "One day, we took from the wrong man. We explained to him our situation, not that we were girls though, and he told us he could use some help on his horse farm outside of St. Jo. I used to help take care of the horses at the orphanage so I knew a little about them. We both eagerly said we’d love to have the job." Kid could tell the story was difficult for Lou. He knew that it couldn’t be nearly as hard as talking about what Wicks had done to her. At least he hoped that wasn’t the case. "The work at the farm was great. We were both doing our jobs well and Brooks never worried about the horses when we were working with them. That’s where I got Lightening. We each got our pick of the horses shortly after we got to the ranch. It was our payment for a job well done he told us. He said his last trainer had abused the horses and he couldn’t get a good price for them. We believed him. We should’ve seen what he was then, a snake." As the memories replayed themselves in Lou’s mind, she couldn’t help but wonder how she could’ve been so naive. The evidence was right under her nose! Kid could see the torment this was putting Lou through. He walked over to her and took her hand. It wasn’t much, but Lou seemed to relax a little after that. She just smiled at Kid as she continued her story. "We worked for Brooks for about 8 months before we found out what was going on. Alex and I got to be very close during that time. We were like sisters. By that time, we knew each others stories and had found out we had a lot in common." Lou remembered that night. The only difference between the girls is that it had been Alex’s uncle, not her boss. The girls swore they would never let men use them like that again. "Kid, I can’t tell you her story, only that it was similar to mine. I won’t betray her trust like that. I hope you can understand." It was hard for Kid to believe that this could happen to young girls. What man would do that to a child? He just couldn’t understand it. "I understand Lou. I wouldn’t want you to hurt your friend like that." Lou was very relieved to hear Kid say that. "One night though, everything changed. It had been pretty slow. Brooks hadn’t been getting many horses to us to work with so we were pretty bored. Well, that night, Alex and I decided to do some exploring. We found out a little more than we were supposed to though." That night would be hard to forget. As she got ready to tell Kid about one of the worst nights in her life, she moved across the room. She wasn’t ready for him to comfort her until this was over. "We were walking past the house when we heard some yelling. Brooks was screaming at some of the other men about why they hadn’t stolen more horses. We had no idea that the horses were stolen. We thought that Brooks bought the horses and then trained them to get a better price. We were so wrong. We tried to get out of there without being noticed, but one of the men saw us and told Brooks. He sent all of them to catch us. We both hid, but Brooks and his right hand man found us. They drug us into the house and decided to beat us until we told them what we heard." Lou took a deep breath so she could go on. "I’m still not sure how it happened, but Brooks noticed that I was a girl. When he saw that, he decided to try and make me talk in different ways." "Lou, did he…you know?" Kid hoped Brooks didn’t hurt Lou like that. He didn’t know how she’d survived all she’d been through in her life. "No Kid. Before he could do anything, there was a lot of shouting coming from outside. They left us to find out what was going on. I untied Alex and we hid. After a few minutes, we heard a bunch of horses leaving, so we decided it was time to leave. I ran out to get the horses ready and pack up my stuff. Alex stayed behind to do something. I never did find out why she waited. Well, we rode out of there and never looked back. We stayed together for a few days, but decided it would be harder to find us if we split up. That was two years ago." Lou was relieved that the story was over. It wasn’t as bad as telling Kid about Wicks, but it was close. Kid walked over to her. He pulled her out of the chair and sat down pulling her onto his lap. Nothing else was said that night and Kid just held Lou in the chair until dawn. Chapter Ten "Alex, who were those people coming out of your dressing room tonight?" Eric had been waiting for her when he saw two strangers come out of her dressing room. Ever since she had told him about her past, he had been very diligent about not letting her be alone. "That was Lou and her boyfriend. She saw me coming out of the hotel yesterday and had to find out what I was doing here. Eric, she went through the same thing as I did. She got found out by Brooks, I didn’t. I was the lucky one." Alex was still haunted by what had happened. One night she broke down and told Eric everything. Since then he had become more than just her manager, they were working very hard at having a relationship. "I told her to come back tomorrow so we could talk more. Eric, she doesn’t know that I stole money from Brooks. I don’t know if I should tell her about that. She always had a bigger problem with stealing from people than I did." "Well, why don’t you just see how it goes? If you think you need to, then let her know. I think she’d understand your reasons. I’ll be there with you. I don’t want you to do this alone. Now I think you better get some sleep. You’ve got a big day tomorrow. Good night Alex" Eric kissed her on the forehead and left to go to his room. "Good night Eric" One of these days I’ll get him to stay with me. Alex had been trying to get him to stay for awhile and he never would. Men! ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Buck and Noah knocked on Lou and Kid’s door early the next morning. They were surprised to see Kid in his clothes from the night before when he opened the door. Lou was sleeping on the bed, also still in her clothes from the night before. "Long night Kid?" Noah hoped that everything was okay between them. They hadn’t had a big argument for a couple weeks and the boys were really getting used to the peace and quiet. "I know everything about Brooks now. It took a lot out of her when she told me. I hope we can figure out what this guy wants." Kid was determined to keep Lou safe this time. He wasn’t going to let her out of his sight. "Kid, what’s the plan?" Buck was very worried about keeping Lou safe. He had seen the tricks that Brooks had tried to pull to get information. "Well, we need to wait for Lou to talk to Alex. Brooks may be looking for her too and she needs to be warned about what’s going on." Kid thought this might have something to do with Alex staying longer where they had been hiding. "What should we do until then?" Noah wanted to start looking for Brooks, but he was willing to listen to what Kid had to stay. "Why don’t you guys start looking for Brooks? I’m going to stick with Lou. We’re supposed to go and visit her brother and sister today. Then we’re going to go and talk to Alex later. We’ll meet back here tonight and go from there." "We’ll get going then. Good luck Kid." Buck had a bad feeling about today, but he decided not to tell the others. "Thanks Buck. Be careful." Chapter Eleven Jonah wasn’t having any luck finding Louise. He knew she had to be staying somewhere in the city, but she wasn’t registered at any hotel. He had checked them all. He even checked at the Pony Express station to see if she had been through. She had stopped there and then disappeared. He decided to take a break and head out to the ranch to see how the operation was running. He was still stealing horses, but had a much larger operation now. When he left to get his money, he was getting ready to sell most of his horses to the South for the war. "Mr. Brooks, it’s good to have you back. Did you get everything accomplished?" Jack had been with Brooks since the beginning. He knew that Brooks had gone out to get Louise and the money she stole from them. Now that he was a partner in the ranch, it was his money that was missing too. "Not yet Jack. She’s somewhere in St. Jo. I just haven’t been able to find her. Don’t worry though, I will." "I’m not worried. If anyone can find her, it’s you. Are you going to go and check out the singer that’s in town? I went last night and she’s very good!" "Well, maybe I’ll have to go and check her out. I’m going to go and get changed." Brooks headed for the house and on his way decided spending an evening listening to a singer might be relaxing. He could afford a little break. There would be plenty of time to look for Louise tomorrow. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Lou was getting tired of having Kid follow her everywhere. He wouldn’t let her out of his sight. "Kid, don’t you have something else you could be doing?" "You don’t want to spend time with me? I thought that was the plan of us having time off together out here." "It’s not that Kid, I just want to have a little space." "How about this? I’ll just drop you off at the orphanage and come back to pick you up in a couple hours." "That sounds good Kid. It’ll be nice to have some time alone with Jeremiah and Theresa." "Just be sure you don’t leave until I get there to pick you up. Brooks is out here somewhere and I don’t want him to find you." "Kid, I can take care of myself. Besides, I don’t have anything that he could want. I don’t know why he’s looking for me!" Lou knew Kid had a good reason to worry and that he was making sense, but she wanted to do some shopping without Kid looking over her shoulder. "I’m sorry Kid. I know you’re just worried, but I’ll be fine." With that said, they pulled up to the orphanage. Lou leaned over to give Kid a kiss before she got out. "Be careful, have fun, and I’ll see you in a couple hours." Kid wasn’t really happy about leaving Lou there by herself, but what could happen to her at the orphanage? Chapter Twelve Lou went to find Jeremiah. She had a plan, but she needed to explain to him what was going on. "Louise! I’m so glad your back." Theresa was running towards Lou. "Well this is some greeting!" Lou picked Theresa up and spun her around. "I told you I was going to come back today!" "I know, but we just don’t get to see you very much. I thought maybe you would have to leave early." Lou felt guilty about not spending much time with her brother and sister. Now here she was trying to get a little time alone, when she should be spending it with them. "Sugar bear, where’s Jeremiah?" "Here he comes. Are you going to spend the whole afternoon with us?" "Well, most of it honey. Hello Jeremiah." "Hi Louise. I wasn’t sure you’d come back today." "I told you I would. I have a favor to ask you." "What?" "I need to do some shopping. I was wondering if you would keep from telling Kid that I left when he comes to meet us for dinner." Lou was sure Jeremiah would cover for her. She just needed an hour to pick up some things. She wanted to pick up something nice to wear for a special dinner with Kid. "How long are you going to be gone?" Jeremiah just knew something like this would happen. "Just for about an hour. As soon as I’m finished, I’m going to come right back here." Louise understood why Jeremiah was upset. She really wasn’t going to stay away long. She just needed to get a nice dress. It probably wouldn’t even be an hour. "Jeremiah, I promise I’ll be back. The three of us and Kid will spend the rest of the day together." "I guess Lou. Just make sure that you’re back. I don’t want to have to explain to Kid where you went." "Thanks Jeremiah. I’ll be back soon." Lou was so glad that Jeremiah wasn’t going to tell Kid. She knew exactly which store had the dress she wanted. Everything was working out perfectly. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Jonah had decided to head to town early to get tickets for the singer. Jack had raved all day about how wonderful this Alexandria Maxwell was and how he had never heard such a beautiful voice. Jonah knew that since Jack just couldn’t stop talking about her, she really must be wonderful. As he passed the orphanage, he saw a young woman come out. She looked very familiar to him, but he couldn’t place her. As she looked around before she crossed the street, he realized where he’d seen her before. He quickly rode past her and ducked into an alley to await his prey. As Lou rounded the corner, she was grabbed from behind. "I’ve been looking for you Louise. Now you and I are going to take a little trip. I believe you have something that doesn’t belong to you." Back to the Library        Onto Chapters 13-18  Drop Jamie a note and let her know what you think!