Chapter 28

March 1872

Curled up by the fireplace, Lou looked up from her book at the sound of shouting outside. Setting the book aside, she went over to her window and pushed aside the lace curtain to look at what was causing such a racket. The children, stir-crazy, had gone outside to play in the snow and Natalie had gone outside to watch them. Natalie was idling on the porch in her coat and hat, drinking a cup of hot tea, as the children shrieked at one another furiously over something Lou couldn't quite follow. Lou's eyes glanced back at Natalie, who looked bored and inattentive.

Nice work if you can get it, Lou thought irritably. They were paying that woman to stand there doing nothing, it looked like. The children were flinging snow at each other a little too vigorously for Lou's liking, and as she struggled with the sash to open it and call out to them, tell them to take it a little easier, one of Isa's snowballs went over Jed's head and into Natalie's face.

Lou paused, startled, and Natalie set her cup down, stalking over to Isa. Through the window, Lou could see Natalie grasping Isa by the arm firmly and bending down to say something to her. Though she could see Isa's crestfallen face, she could not hear the words that were spoken. Isa nodded her head and, following Natalie's pointed finger, went and stood on the porch facing the wall, where Lou saw the girl was weeping quietly with shame.

Lou struggled into her own coat and gloves, and went out on the porch. Natalie was now making a snowman with Jed while Isa stood against the wall alone.

"Go inside, honey," Lou said, quietly. "It's too cold out here unless you're moving around." Isa looked worriedly at her mother, but Lou just smiled back. "Your punishment is up, officially. Go sit by the fire and wait for me, okay?"

"Mrs. Mortimer?" Lou called.

Natalie turned, her face pink and sparkling in the cold, her eyes bluer than ever against the blue of her woolen hood. "Yes, Mrs. McCloud?"

"Can we have a word, please?" Lou was already shivering in the cold, but waited until Natalie came to the steps. Jed remained at the snowman, but his face was too studiedly avoiding looking at them, and Lou knew that he was listening. Sighing, she said, "Mrs. Mortimer, why was Isa the only one punished for throwing snowballs?"

Natalie put her hands in her pockets, puzzled. "She was the one who threw a snowball in my face; there's a difference, ma'am. It's one thing to have a snowball fight, it's another to throw snow into a grownup's face, don't you think?"

"I don't think it was on purpose," Lou pointed out.

Shrugging, Natalie said, "Well, perhaps if she's punished for it, she'll be more careful and avoid accidents in the future. If you think Jed should be punished too, then by all means, I certainly have no say in the matter."

Jed scowled at Lou and ran in the house, muttering under his breath about people who don't know what they're talking about making trouble that wasn't called for. Lou glanced back at Natalie and saw the hint of amusement in the other woman's eye ... and turned helplessly on her heel to follow her children into the house.

Natalie grinned over the memory when she thought about it later that evening, on her way to the barn. Louise obviously had no idea how to handle Jed, and it wasn't likely Lou would win loyal little Jed's heart away from her anytime soon, if ever. The thought that someone cared, someone was on her side, especially the boy who had taken her own lost child's place in her heart, meant the world to her right now when she felt so all alone.

She saw that a light was on in the barn; Kid usually hitched her buggy for her and left the horse and buggy in the barn for her to drive home, and it was time to leave. Without thinking, she pushed the door to the barn open.

Looking around, she saw that the horse wasn't hitched up as she had expected. Suddenly she realized that she was not alone in the barn; there were strange, muffled sounds coming from the far stall. Seeing the tack room light was on, she rushed to it, looking for Kid, but the room was empty. Creeping to the door, she peeped through and saw that there were two sets of feet showing under the stall door across from her. Kid's feet and Lou's small ones, standing between his. Natalie began to go faint, nauseous, as she realized what was happening.

"C'mon, Kid, don't be shy. It won't be the first time we did a little riding in the stable," Lou's voice purred huskily, and Natalie went cold with horror as Kid protested, feebly.

"That was ten years ago," he laughed. "I'm an old man now, a father of two."

"You need a little more encouragement, I see," Lou said. Natalie heard and saw Kid's belt buckle hit the floor of the stall.

"Lou ... the ... the kids might come out ... it's still light out," he said, but his protest was cut off with a moan as Louise dropped to her knees in the stall, and Kid's hand gripped the door of the stall suddenly. "Lou," he moaned, and Natalie sat numbly listening as that ... that horrible woman serviced him there in the stall like some whore would. The few minutes that followed, filled with Kid's cries of pleasure mixed with protests that someone could discover them, were agony for her, breaking her heart with every moment that passed, every sound, every panting breath the man she loved drew. Kid finished with an unmistakable groan of pleasure, and the barn grew quiet; finally, Natalie came to her senses and went to push the door open and make her getaway, but the stable door swung open unexpectedly. She ducked back, wishing that a hole would open up in the floor and swallow her up permanently.

She need not have worried about being noticed; Kid was carrying Louise astraddle in front of him, her legs wrapped around him, as the two of them kissed as if they would never stop. Natalie saw that Lou's scrawny legs were bare to the hip, her undergarments scattered over the stall, as Kid stumbled toward the hayloft. When he almost tripped and fell, they giggled foolishly together and Lou disengaged herself.

"Where do you think you're going?" Lou protested, and Kid shook his head.

"You're not getting away that easy," he teased her, slipping a hand inside her dress and opening it to the waist. Her bony chest was fully exposed as he fondled her. "It's your turn now. Upstairs."

"You don't have to," Lou said, suddenly shy and pulling her dress together. "I don't mind taking care of you ... you took care of me so long."

"Not the way I wanted to," he said, picking her up again and carrying her awkwardly up the ladder to the hayloft. Natalie waited, feeling dead inside, until she was sure they were too preoccupied to notice any movement from her, and then walked like a condemned woman to the door, amid her hated rival's shrieks and groans as Kid gave her what Natalie longed for, over and over ... and walked out, leaning despairingly against the door outside.