Chapter 3
September 1863
A humming voice welcomed Kid to another day. His hand automatically crept on the bed in search of his wife, but as usual her side was empty. Opening his eyes, he saw her on the chair, rocking back and forth as she nursed their son. "Good morning, sleepy head," Lou greeted him with a smile.
Kid rubbed the remainder of sleep out of his eyes and then he stared at his wife intently. The image of his son breastfeeding never ceased to amaze him. Jed always looked so relaxed and contented in those moments, and Lou seemed to acquire a special beauty and shine that he hadn't seen in her before.
"What's that face for, Mr. McCloud?"
Kid changed the smile he had bore on his lips for a serious countenance, and shaking his head, he said, "We're both very lucky to have you. I don't know what we'd do without you." Louise smiled at her husband's sweet declaration, but then she couldn't help yawning.
"The little fellow kept you awake again, honey?"
Louise shrugged her shoulders. "His tummy is still bothering him. Poor boy's been crying half the night. He must be exhausted."
"I didn't hear you or him," Kid replied as he slipped out of bed and started to put on his trousers.
"I was awake when he started to fuss, so I took him downstairs before he woke you up," Lou explained.
"You should've woken me up."
"What for? Kid, you work very long hours on the ranch and you need your rest."
"You work as much as I do, Lou, even more. It's not fair you have to shoulder the responsibility for our son on your own. Between his night feedings and his colic you hardly get any sleep. I know I can't feed him, but at least I'd like to be of help when he's feeling poorly."
"Kid, I'm his ma. It's my job. Besides, you and Buck have relieved me from my chores around the ranch, which means you have an extra workload."
Kid came closer to the rocking chair where his wife was sitting. He bent down and whispered in her ear, "I love you." He placed a soft kiss on top of his son's head, discovering that he had fallen asleep.
"I told you... he's exhausted," Lou remarked as she gently placed a finger in the corner of the baby's mouth to release him as Jenny had told her months ago to do. It wasn't the first time Jed fell asleep while nursing, and she knew that this meant that as soon as he woke up, he'd cry and demand his food with all the force his small but powerful lungs let him.
Kid took the baby from her arms and carefully laid him in his crib. Lou walked after him and both of them gazed at their sleeping baby's peaceful figure. Louise hugged her husband from behind and rested her head against his arm. "You know what, Kid?" she said and he turned his attention to her. "I can hardly wait for Jed to grow up and hear him talk. I so long to hear him say he loves me and have all his kisses."
Kid smiled at his wife's words and bringing her hand to caress her cheek, he added, "Lou, with all the children we're gonna have, you'll get plenty of cuddles and I-love-you's." The fear he had felt the day Jed had come to this world was not forgotten and he had really meant his intention of not having more children at the time. Yet, right now as he looked back to that day, things appeared in a different light. Actually, he'd like them to give Jed a little sister one day. Of course that wouldn't happen so soon, with Lou nursing and with their difficulty in conceiving their first child, but Kid felt like joking with his wife.
Louise raised an eyebrow in surprise. "With all the children we're gonna have?" she echoed, a note of amusement in her voice. "How many do you plan for "us" to have?"
"Well, I haven't actually worked out a figure," he replied in the same teasing tone, "but I'm planning to love you enough to have hundreds."
Their lips met in an intense and sense-assaulting kiss. Lou's hand crept under his longhjohns top, eager to feel his warm skin, his tight flesh, his well-formed muscles... As his mouth left hers and traveled down her neck, a moan escaped from the deepest corners of her soul and she muttered in a husky voice, "Do you think you can stay for a bit just to greet your wife good morning?"
Kid smiled, remembering how these good mornings used to be. "You sure you aren't too tired to greet me back?" he asked, briefly stopping his loving ministrations on her soft, white neck.
"Please Kid, I need to," Louise replied, her breathing quickening at the mere idea of being with her husband. Since Jed was born, they had made love only once. After recovering from the effects of labor, Lou had been so tired that she sometimes almost fell asleep while standing. Jed was a nervous and fussy little boy to whom sleep didn't come easily or remain long. Besides, he was tormented by colic, and often spent hours shrieking at night before he dropped off to sleep. It was no wonder that she didn't find many occasions to enjoy the pleasures of being with her husband, which contrasted with their marital customs before becoming parents, even when Lou was as big as house when pregnant, she had felt full of desire for her husband. Her desires had recently started to reappear, now that it had been a while and she had begun to recover from childbirth.
As soon as her begging words were out of her mouth, Kid started to fumble with the belt of her robe until he finally managed to untie it with a swift motion. He pulled the garment off her shoulders, dropping it at her feet. She smiled nervously, placing her hands on his broad shoulders, and jumped up to clasp her arms over his shoulders and her legs around his waist. Through the thin material of her drawers, she could feel his manly desire; she let out a satisfied giggle as she took a stronger hold of his shoulders. Kid started walking backwards. When his legs bumped against one side of their bed, he purposely tumbled onto it with a heavy thud. Louise landed on top of him while they both laughed as quietly as possible, trying not to wake Jed.
Without losing a single minute more, Louise pulled her nightgown over her head and sat half-naked on his lap on her husband's lap under his intense stare. Her breasts were voluptuous and full from nursing the baby, and Kid's admiring gaze told her that he liked what he was seeing. "You're so beautiful," he breathed mesmerized as he placed his hands on both sides of her hips. Louise smiled mischievously and lowered her body forward, starting to undo the buttons of his shirt as her mouth made a beeline of kisses on his exposed skin. Kid slipped his hand her bloomers, exploring her soft skin before finally tugging the material off her. Louise peeled the cotton longjohns top from him and her skilled fingers started working on his pants while her tongue traced every inch of his flat and muscular abdomen. She was almost feverish with excitement, longing to enjoy a passionate encounter with her husband, when suddenly an indignant wail erupted from the other side of the room. Louise sighed in frustration as she shared a knowing look with Kid. She eased off her husband's lap and looked for her discarded nightgown, which she soon located on the floor.
"Seems this son of ours is determined to be an only child. If he keeps this up, you better forget about having an army of a family," Louise joked as she threw her white gown back on. "He seems to choose the right moment to demand attention from us."
"Maybe he's just jealous of the attention his mama gives to another man... even if the other man is his pa," Kid replied amusedly as he started getting dressed for the second time today. Lou smiled as she picked up the boy and sank down on the rocking chair again. She uncovered herself and the baby eagerly started to nurse. " I can't blame him for wanting you back," Kid continued in the same tone. "He can't live without you... like his pa."
"Like father, like son. Gosh, I'm really doomed," Louise exclaimed and started laughing, Kid joining in her mirth.
"Yeah, and you love it, don't you?" Kid added as he stood by the full-length mirror on the wall opposite their bed and tried to make his hair back to a decent shape. As he did so, he thought that he urgently needed a haircut, but things were so busy lately that he hadn't had the time to even stop by at the barber shop.
After his words Louise sighed in an exaggerated fashion. "Yeah, I have to admit. I love this fate and wouldn't change the two of you for anything in the world."
Kid came closer to her and gave her a soft kiss and before pulling away, he whispered, "I'll make it up to you tonight." Louise smiled in agreement and as Kid walked to the pegs to retrieve his jacket, he asked, "So honey, what are your plans for today? You taking Jed to the doctor?"
"Yeah... I've run out of the medicine Dr. Harris gave me for his tummy," Lou explained as she kept her eyes fixed on her baby. "Jeremiah's taking me to town... he's volunteered to go for provisions to Tompkins."
"He's taking his responsibilities here very seriously," Kid remarked as he caressed the soft hair on his son's head. "He surprises me, I have to say."
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Louise agreed. "He's growing into a nice young man." She paused briefly and then continued, "Anyway, I'm also mailing the letters for Emma and the boys for Jed's christening and while my brother is at Tompkins', I'm going with Jenny to the seamstress's. She's supposed to get her measurements for her wedding dress taken today."
"Oh..." Kid exclaimed, sharing a grin with his wife. "And will you make Miah wait for you girls to finish? That could take you hours."
"Oh Kid! We aren't that bad!" Louise complained, scrunching her face in mocking annoyance. "Anyway, he won't have to wait. I'll walk back to the ranch." She breathed out in a dreamy way as she added, "I'm so glad that Buck and Jenny are getting married. I'm really looking forward to their wedding."
"Before we know it, it will be here. Time goes by so quickly. A couple of months ago Jed was just a tiny wee thing, and look at him now. He's growing stronger and bigger with each passing day," Kid remarked, which was received by a bright smile from Louise. He crossed the room to the dresser and picked up his silver pocket watch. Kid opened the watch's lid and checked the time. "Well, I think I better get ready for the day. You coming to breakfast?"
"I will when Jed finishes his and I make myself decent," Lou replied, swiping her hand over her body, still clad in her wrinkled night clothes. She knew that by the time she made it downstairs, her husband would already be gone. She really missed her old routine, but she wouldn't change what she had now. She didn't mind the lack of sleep or the tiredness... she'd have all the time of the world to sleep later but these moments with her baby boy were unique and would never be back. So she wanted to treasure them in her heart for all eternity, every single one.
Theresa happily pushed the carriage where her nephew lay along Rock Creek's main street while her brother and sister walked behind her. She usually came to school on foot. The ranch wasn't too far from town, and on her way she normally came across her best friend, Penny, and the two girls walked to school chatting. Today, though, Theresa had preferred to take a lift with Jeremiah on the buckboard, especially since Louise and the baby had tagged along. She was so smitten with her nephew that she spent every free minute she had with her sister and the baby. Theresa even gave a hand when she changed the baby's diaper, bathed him or sometimes the girl even watched him when her sister took a nap those frequent days that she hadn't been able to sleep a wink during the night.
The three siblings sauntered along the street when suddenly a loud voice resounded behind them. "Tessie! Wait!" They turned to see a young girl running towards them. Her bright red hair was neatly done in plaits, which bobbed up and down as she dashed along. The hairstyle and her calico print dress and freshly starched white pinafore showed that she couldn't be older than thirteen. Lou recognized the freckled, red-headed girl as Penny Douglas, Theresa's best friend. Oddly, her nickname wasn't related to her given name. Penny wasn't short for Penelope or anything similar, as her parents had inflicted the poor girl with the name Berengaria, for reasons known and understood only by the Douglases. Penny hated the bizarre name and almost had made it disappear from people's minds by insisting on the nickname her five older brothers bestowed upon her because of the shiny copper color of her hair.
"Good morning y'all!" the girl greeted them breathlessly after the run she had taken, and turning to Theresa first, she added, "Tessa, I waited for you at our usual place. I thought you were sick when you didn't show up."
"Sorry, Penny. I didn't mean to stand you up. I simply came on the buckboard with my sister and my beautiful nephew today!" Theresa exclaimed, a bit too importantly for a twelve-year-old, and her hands never let go of the carriage.
Penny's mouth broke into a wide smile and her hazel eyes lit cheerfully, and turning to Lou, she asked, "Oh Mrs. McCloud, can I have a look at little Jed, please?"
"Of course honey," Lou replied as she lowered the hood for Penny to have a better view of her son. Jed was peacefully sleeping. After last night it was no wonder that he was so tired. Lou thought with a smile that that her son had his days and nights mixed up, and wanted to sleep only when he wanted to, not on her schedule.
"Oh Mrs. McCloud, he's so lovely! And he's grown up so much since I last saw him!" Penny exclaimed in a grandiloquent fashion.
Louise smiled. Penny usually tended to romanticize and embellish everything with a special charm all her own. In fact, the girl had seen Jed a couple of days ago when she had come visiting Tessie, so Lou doubted that the red-haired child could see any changes in her baby. Penny was a peculiar young girl, with an excessive imagination, and being the youngest child and only girl in a five-brother family, all made her personality, to put it charitably, unique. Yet, she was a nice, kind-hearted girl and a good friend to Theresa, and Louise liked it when she was around. "Yeah, he's getting bigger, honey," she simply said to the girl's words.
"Someday I'll have a little boy like yours, Mrs. McCloud," Penny continued. "Yeah, I prefer boys to girls... they're so much better. I know that you can't choose what a baby will be and you have to be contented with what the Good Lord sends you, but if I could choose, all my children would be boys."
"Penny, you're a bit too young to think about having children," Theresa replied among giggles. "You don't even have a sweetheart!"
Penny crossed her arms over her flat chest, a bit annoyed. She knew that her friend didn't care about romance and preferred to have her nose buried in books. Penny wasn't a bad student, but she would skip school if she could, and what she dreamed of was to be like her ma, to get married and have a big family. "One day I will have one... I'll get married in a white church, decorated with white roses and white lilies. And then I'll have a dozen babies," the girl stated seriously and as she uttered her words, she couldn't help but blush as she caught Jeremiah watching her with a strange expression. "Hi, Miah!" she said in a low voice. "I didn't notice you were here," she lied and then added, "You know, we miss you at school."
The boy snorted scornfully at the mere mention of school and added, "Well, I for sure don't." He hadn't felt happier than the day he had walked out of the schoolhouse for the last time. Working on the ranch alongside his brother-in-law and Buck was hard and tiring, but he'd take the most exhausting day on the ranch any day rather than spend a single hour at school. He loved horses and animals, and adored working with them. Besides, having a regular job and a salary made him feel like an adult. Lou had even stopped treating him like a child now, which was what had irritated him most about his sister.
"There's gonna be an autumn festival at the school next month and Mrs. Dunne told us the old pupils were welcome to join us," Penny explained, dropping the hint that she wouldn't be unhappy to see her best friend's brother at their little party, but rather the opposite.
"Well, I don't think I can go to that baby party," Jeremiah sneered unkindly, almost laughing at the idea of finding himself in the company of a bunch of little kids at a silly function. Even if he could go, he'd rather be riddled by Indian arrows than spend time in childish fun. Kid had told him they could go to a cattle market in Saint Joseph together since Buck couldn't come with him this time. It would be the first time the boy would spend a few days away on a business trip and he couldn't wait for that.
"Oh..." Penny let out in obvious disappointment. She was about to say something else, but in that moment the peals of the school bell reached their ears, which meant that they should hurry up.
"Come on, Penny. We're gonna be late!" Theresa exclaimed.
Jeremiah handed his younger sister her books and slate which he had been carrying, and with a few words of good-bye, both girls dashed towards the schoolhouse. Louise smiled mischievously as she saw her brother's eyes staring at the fleeting figures of the two girls. "Miah, you should've been nicer to her," she said as she took the position Theresa had hogged before and started to walk, pushing the carriage along.
"I was nice!" the boy defended himself.
"It didn't sound that way from where I stood."
"And well... what if I wasn't? She's just a silly little girl who irritates me!" Jeremiah replied with an indifferent tone.
"She's not so little. She's just a year younger than you, Mister," Lou reminded him and lowering her voice, she added, "and you know she likes you." Jeremiah blushed as he shrugged his shoulders. His surprised eyes turned to his sister as he heard her say, "And you like her too."
"What the heck are you talking about?"
Louise smiled, not caring about the unkind tone in her brother's voice. "Miah, I wasn't born yesterday. I've seen the way you look at her and honey, you're so obvious. You use any excuse to get into the house when she comes visiting. Last time you popped in for a glass of water five times. You can act as detached as you want but you won't fool me, little brother."
Jeremiah pulled an unhappy face. "I didn't know you kept such a close eye on me ... If you do this to me, I don't want to imagine what you do to poor Kid! I wouldn't want to be in his shoes."
Louise ignored the criticism in her brother's comment and added, "Jeremiah, honey, we're just talking. I think it's very sweet."
Sweet wasn't something the boy liked to be called, and he especially hated that his sister could read him like an open book. "What's this, Lou? Your new hobby? Match-making? Don't you have enough with mothering and being a wife yourself?"
"Miah, I just want you and Tessie to be happy, that's all," Louise replied. "Like Tessie said, you and Penny are both still too young to think about courting, but you can be friends. And if you like her... really like her, you aren't doing yourself any favors by making her think she's just a child to you."
Jeremiah considered his sister's words seriously. The truth was that he liked Penny, but it was too embarrassing to admit it, even to himself. Even though he kept repeating to himself that Penny wasn't anything special, just a child, he couldn't help but feel funny whenever he saw her. Actually, he had liked her since the day he had started school in Rock Creek two years ago. He remembered how he had been taken by her perfect red plaited hair, her freckles, her goofy smile and her sparkling, lively eyes. She was different from any other girl he ever knew, or any other person, for that matter. Of course Jeremiah had never breathed a word of this to anybody, but it seemed elder sisters had a way of knowing things. "I guess you're right."
Louise smiled even more brightly on hearing her brother's admission, and added, "I think she's a lovely girl."
Jeremiah felt his cheeks blush even hotter and turning his red face to Lou, he finally said, "She is pretty, isn't she?" Lou let out a happy giggle and both siblings ended up laughing together as they continued their way towards Tompkins' store.