Chapter 3
A blush crept onto her cheeks and her heart started pounding when Louise recognized the familiar surroundings the stagecoach was rolling through. Poking her head out of the small window, the young woman focused all her senses on the beautiful scenery that whizzed past her eyes. She had ridden through this land so many times in her Pony Express days that she could identify everything, the vegetation, the smells, even the different feelings of the air caressing her skin.
Minutes later she spotted the first buildings in the distance, and she gulped, feeling her throat go dry. Above the indistinctive wooden buildings the local stables stood up proudly, and when the coach finally made its way into the town, she was welcomed by the jovial peal of the church bell where she had got married so many years ago. Even though she tried to block the memories, they came unleashed anyway.
"Rock Creek, ladies and gentlemen," the driver's rough voice announced as the stagecoach came to a standstill in Rock Creek's main street.
Few seconds later Louise got out of the vehicle after a middle-aged lady who had joined the coach half-way between Seneca and Rock Creek. As soon as her feet touched the dusty ground, her eyes instantly saw Rachel. "Louise!" the former station mistress squealed happily and ran to hug her friend. "It's so good to see you … so good."
"And I'm glad to be here," Lou replied with a smile when both women pulled away.
"Tell me, how are you?"
"Fine, I'm fine," answered Lou.
"And your sister?"
"She's good too, but sorry she couldn't come with me. You know, we couldn't both be away and leave our shop unattended. Besides, Tessie just wouldn't go anywhere without her dear Albert. She's so attached to him that it's sickly."
Rachel giggled heartedly at Lou's comical expression. "She's just in love, Louise. It's natural."
Lou shrugged shoulders, trying to appear indifferent, but in truth, Rachel's casual comment stirred her already troubled waters. If every soul under the sun was in love, so what? She shouldn't care, it shouldn't hurt, but as a matter of fact, she cared, and it hurt like hell.
Looking around as a way to distract her mind, Louise remarked, "Rock Creek has hardly changed over the years."
"Actually, it's grown quite a lot," Rachel disagreed to her comment. "Bunches of new people have settled down around Rock Creek in the last years, but it's true that the town in itself looks practically the same."
Rachel noticed that Lou's eyes were staring at the last building of the street whose shutters on both stories were shut. "I took the liberty to clean it a few days ago. I wasn't sure if you'd want to stay there."
Louise did not reply, and kept her eyes glued on the building in the distance. That blue-boarded house had been her home after she had left her job at the Pony Express. So many dreams had filled those walls, but unfortunately, the spell had been broken too soon, and the magic had vanished. The years she had spent there had been too strange, and the house that had first been her lovely palace turned out to be her personal dungeon.
"I… I'd rather not," Lou replied awkwardly.
"No problem, honey. You can stay with us at home."
Minutes later the two women were crossing the yard that had been part of the Rock Creek way station years ago. Today it belonged to Rachel. The station mistress had used all her savings to buy the whole property from Russell, Majors and Waddel. Next to Sweetwater, this had been the home where she had started to live again after leading a dead existence when her husband had died. That was why Rachel had been ready to sell her own soul to keep the place as her own, and she was now its proud owner. Everything looked almost the same, but for some exceptions. The stables that had taken in so many horses in the past had decreased its size while her white-washed house had almost doubled its dimensions. Nothing else had changed, and even the bunkhouse stood unaltered, and when Rachel had guests visiting, they could stay there comfortably.
"Welcome home, Louise," Rachel said as she opened the door, and both women stepped inside. A tall, handsome man was sitting on the sofa, and stood up when he saw the two ladies enter. "Do you remember Allan?" Rachel asked her friend.
"Of course! How can I not remember your husband?" Lou exclaimed as if her friend had gone crazy, and stretched her arm to shake hands with the man. "How are you, Allan?"
"Good. It's nice to see you again, Louise."
Allan's words were instantly followed by a soft squeaky cry, which drew Lou's attention. Her eyes grew wide as she directed them to the bassinet next to the sofa Allan had been sitting on. A smile appeared on her lips as she exclaimed, "Oh Rachel. Is this…?"
"Yes, our Louise," Rachel confirmed, beaming proudly.
"She… she's beautiful," Lou breathed, watching the baby in awe. "Can… can I hold her?"
"Naturally," Allan replied, and Rachel quickly lifted her eight-month daughter from the cot and placed her in Lou's arms.
The baby squealed happily, staring with big green eyes at the new face watching her. "She's quite fussy with new people, but she seems to be charmed with her namesake," Allan commented.
"You should've been her godmother," Rachel added in a slightly critical tone. "We would really have liked to have had you at her christening."
"I know," Louise whispered, gazing at the baby adoringly, and regretting what her friend had reminded her. Rachel had been asking over and over to be her baby's godmother for months, but Lou had always declined the invitation and request, stating she still felt unable to go back to Rock Creek. Rachel had finally convinced herself that there was nothing she could do, and picked one of her friends to fill the place she wanted for Lou. "I'm sure Anna Mallory is perfect for this beauty. She lives close by, and I'm too far to make a good godmother."
Rachel shook her head in obvious disagreement. It wasn't that Anna was not great; Lou's excuse was just too lame. The former station mistress did not intend to question Lou's words because she had learned long ago that it was impossible to reason with Louise when she had made up her mind about something.
The front door opened and a gruff voice interrupted the moment between the two women. "Where's my girl then?"
"Teaspoon…" Lou breathed, her mouth stretching into a wide, natural smile. Rachel took the baby back, and Louise ran to the old marshal's open arms. "I'm so happy to see you."
"Yes, me too. And you look beautiful," the man added, gently holding her at arms' length to have a good view of the woman who was almost a daughter to him.
"At least much better than the last time you saw me," Lou muttered sadly.
Teaspoon exchanged a tense look with Rachel and Allan before he dared to ask, "How are you holding up, sweetheart?"
Lou sank down on one of the sofas as if all of a sudden she realized how heavy her soul actually was. "I guess I'm better," she said in a soft voice. "It's been a horrible year, totally horrendous."
Teaspoon sat down next to her, and stroked her arm affectionately. "The sheriff didn't find out anything else, did he?"
Lou shook her head morosely. "Miah had many faults, but he was a decent, young man. He didn't get into brawls, and I never saw him carry knives with him. I refuse to believe that his death was the result of a fight he provoked." Lou sighed to control the tears threatening to spill. "He was killed in such a hideous way… his chest was almost completely pierced from all the stabs he received. My brother didn't deserve that death, and his murderer shouldn't get away with it."
"I agree," Teaspoon replied.
"I think the sheriff's stopped looking for the bastard who did that to him," Louise added between gritted teeth. Another sigh escaped her lips, and then she said, "I'm still too shaken even though almost a year has slipped by. Maybe this time here will help soothe my nerves, clear my mind, and shush those ghosts away."
"We were so pleased when you wrote you were coming," Rachel replied. "It wasn't so difficult, was it?"
Lou shook her head. "I fled to Seneca because I couldn't face what was missing in this place, and now I come all the way here to escape my home. I'm hopeless."
"Not worse than most people," Allan replied.
"And you know what I always say. What is family for if not to cushion our painful behinds after a fall?"
Lou could not help but giggle at the marshal's words. Teaspoon had the knack to cheer her up in the most horrible moments even though his powers had failed when he had been at Jeremiah's funeral. In any case, she was actually happy to be surrounded by her family again. In Seneca she was not alone either, but things were different. Theresa had her husband, and from time to time Louise felt as if she were an outsider in their small, perfect family of two.
"So when's everybody expected to arrive?" Lou asked eager to change the subject into more pleasant thoughts.
"Buck and Julia will be here sometime tomorrow morning, and Cody sent us a telegram to welcome him with all the honors in the afternoon," Rachel informed her.
Louise shook her head with a smile. "Same old Cody. Nobody else is coming then?"
"Well, Emma's son was poorly, and she might travel depending on how he gets on. So we are not sure if she'll show up. And apart from her, we haven't got word from anybody else."
"I see," Louise replied thoughtfully.
"I wish everybody could be here," Teaspoon added in an evocative voice. "Then it'd feel like old times."
"It could never be like old times, Teaspoon," Lou stated with a strange choking voice. "Too many are missing forever, and our wounds will never be healed."
"You're right, honey," the marshal admitted, patting her knee, and an unexpectedly thick, tense silence fell over all of them like a bad omen, a terrifying prophecy, which was only broken by the baby, burbling happily in her mama's arms.