Chapter 31
Silence dominated the early hours of the evening inside the wide space that encompassed the store. The sounds of life and humanity still lingered outside, and from time to time the peal of the church bells resounded above all other noises.
It was the end of the working day, and Louise was back in her tiny office, counting the day's earnings. After the argument with Jack, nothing had changed, and his sour countenance expressed his latent irritation. Fortunately, it had been a very hectic day, with customers going and coming all the time, so she had been kept busy, and had no time to think much of the situation with her employee. However, she was very aware of Jack's sore feelings as he kept glaring in her direction when she had to ask him something, and the couple of times Kid had shown up, Jack had not tried to hide his discontent either.
"Hey!"
Lou looked up and smiled at her husband, who stood at the door. "What are you doing here? I was just finishing."
Instead of answering her question, Kid asked one of his own. "Are you tired?"
"Not particularly. Why?"
"I thought we could go for a walk. I really want to spend some time alone with you. I missed you today, and I feel like escaping this house and your brother-in-law, who keeps looking at me as if I were a blood-thirsty bandit, ready to kidnap you."
Lou giggled, thankful for having a reason to do so after such an intense day. "He ain't that bad!" Lou exclaimed. "When you get to know him better, you'll really appreciate him. And yes, I'd love to go for a walk with you." Louise placed the takings in an envelope, which she put inside an iron box and locked it. The box then went into one of her desk drawers.
"I'm ready to go," Louise said as she rose to her feet and slid into her jacket.
As Lou and Kid walked the length of the room towards the door, they saw Jack. His eyes darted to Louise and looked daggers at her.
"Glad to be free from work, ain't you?" Kid remarked amicably, addressing the young man.
"Ecstatic," Jack said as he stood by the door. "There are some days that you wish you were somewhere else, and this is one of them," he said sarcastically, glaring at Lou pointedly. "Goodbye," he finally said, dashing out of the store as if he were fleeing from hell.
As soon as Jack had disappeared, Kid turned to his wife. "What's with him? Is he always so intense? He was looking your way as if he wanted to kill you, and I didn't like that. Is he upset that he might lose his job when you leave?"
The couple had already stepped out of the store. Louise was locking the door, her eyes focusing on the key. "No, it ain't that. As a matter of fact, I didn't have the chance to tell him today."
"Then what is it?"
Lou hooked her arm around her husband's as they started walking along the main street. In soft tones Louise told Kid what had happened today and what kind of relationship she and Jack had always had. When she finished, the Southerner said, "I can't say I'm surprised you're a pretty little heartbreaker."
"Kid, please," Lou replied, unhappy about the comment that her husband had meant as a compliment. "This ain't easy for me. Yes, I made a mistake, and I should have been more categorical in my position."
"When you fall for somebody hard, it's difficult to ignore your heart and what it tells you. And involuntarily you always hope for the impossible, or for what you think might be improbable. It happened to me. When we broke up, in the good old days of the Express, I hoped you'd still love me and come back to me even though I hadn't acted right with you. And I also had hopes deep down in these years we were apart."
"And it turned right in the end," Lou remarked.
"Thankfully yes. I was lucky, but it doesn't have to be like this at all. Lou, don't torture yourself, thinking you did something wrong with Jack. He just believed what he wanted to believe, and if he fooled himself with an unreal reality, that's his problem. I think that even if you had told him you were the mother of a litter of children, he would still have hoped something from you.
"I imagine so," Lou muttered.
"And he needs to learn where he stands, and you can't let him disrespect you in any way no matter if he feels upset."
"I know. He's a good fella… I don't think he meant any of that."
Kid looked at her curiously. "I don't need to be jealous about this, do I?"
"Kid!" Louise exclaimed, her forehead creased into an unhappy scowl. "How can you think that?"
"Don't frown, honey. I was just teasing you," Kid said, but deep down a slight pang of jealousy shook him. He knew he had no reason to worry, but the idea that another man was besotted with his wife did not leave him indifferent. "Well, let's forget about the matter, and enjoy this lovely walk on this beautiful evening."
Lou smiled, silently agreeing with her husband. The sun had just a few minutes left to live before it died at the same time as the day. The atmosphere was cool, but not too cold, and there were quite a few people in town. Lou held onto Kid's arm proudly, but also she leaned onto him for protection as she was starting to feel very self-conscious.
All eyes were on them, and Louise could sense the curiosity and even speculation from the onlookers. Since she had a business in town, she knew most local people even though she was not close to anybody. For years everybody had assumed she was a single woman. Lou knew that soon the truth about her real marital status would spread through town like wildfire. Some people would call her a liar, and many would speculate for the reasons why she had concealed her marriage. Lou had never cared much about what other people thought about her, and she felt she did not owe anybody an explanation about her life. Yet, she would hate that in those speculations Kid's good name could be questioned. Louise was sure that some of the neighbors in this town could be cruel and insensitive about other people's private matters, and if they did not know the whole truth about something, they just came up with their own explanations. Lou was sure that would happen when people learned about her husband, which would certainly set tongues wagging, and she would have to endure that as best as possible. Thankfully, in a couple of weeks she and Kid would be gone and on their way to their ranch where they would live their dreams.
"This is very nice, ain't it?" Kid asked, breaking her train of thought.
Lou nodded and smiled. As she looked into his eyes, an idea started to take form. A naughty grin appeared on her face as she said, "I have a surprise for you."
"A surprise? What surprise?"
"If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise, would it?" Lou replied. "Just be a little patient."
Kid did not say anything else, and let her lead the way now. Even though he was itching to know what she was up to, he did not ask her. When she finally steered him to the local stables, he realized what her surprise was. Without uttering a single word, he turned to her and smiled widely, conveying his feeling in a very obvious way.
Lou greeted the stables owner, somebody called Alfred, and then the couple kept walking along the corridor flanked by stalls. As soon as Kid finally saw her, his face lit up.
"There she is," Lou said, pointing at one stall. "Come on, Kid. Go to her."
The Southerner approached the stall warily, not expecting his loyal mare to recognize him after so long. "Katy," he called in a whisper and rested his hands on the stall door. "Katy girl." The mare let out a snort, and her eyes rose to the man calling her. Her muzzle touched Kid's hands tentatively, and somehow she noticed something very familiar, maybe in his touch or his smell. The mare started neighing contentedly, and brushed her muzzle against Kid's hand over and over again.
"I'm home again, and back to you, Katy," he exclaimed, stroking the area between the mare's ears, which he knew she liked.
Lou smiled at the sweet reunion. Now things were finally right. Katy should have been with Kid all along because they belonged together… just like herself and her husband. Little by little what time and her stupid pride had pulled apart was finally returning to its right place.
"Let's go for a ride, Kid. Just like old times," Lou suggested.
Kid turned to look at his wife. "The sun will set soon," he remarked.
"So what?" she exclaimed, giggling. "It wouldn't be the first time, you know. Tonight there'll be a full moon, and I just know the perfect, romantic spot for us to go… a beautiful place… just for you and me… undisturbed."
The Southerner grinned, obviously loving his wife's plans more and more by the minute. "How can I say no to that?"
"Then don't," she added matter-of-factly. "Could you please saddle the horses for me?" she asked while she opened the door of the next stall, where her own horse was. Kid followed her with his eyes as she walked inside, and picked up a leather bag that hung from a nail on the wooden wall. "I have to do something first."
"Do what?"
Lou pulled a brown riding skirt out of the bag and showed him. "I can't ride in these clothes," she said, running her hand over her dainty white blouse and elegant blue skirt she was wearing. "I always keep something here to change into," she added as she came out of the stall. Kissing him slightly on the lips, she whispered, "Won't be a second."
Lou pranced down the corridor to use the small shed where the stables owner allowed her to change her clothes while she called, "Alfred, could you please tell my husband where I keep our saddles?"
Twenty minutes later the couple led the horses out of the stables, and once outside they mounted on them. Kid patted Katy's neck encouragingly, unable to control his obvious high spirits, and smiled at his wife as they steered the horses to the main street. The last weak sunrays had tinted the sky in a myriad of orange and purplish colors, making a breathtaking celestial landscape to admire, and some of those rays fell on Louise. Her hair shone in a reddish shade, and her shades glowed. Kid kept staring at her, drinking from her beauty and his own happiness.
"Shouldn't we let your sister know where we're going?"
"No need," Louise replied. "I sometimes go riding after work, so they know that if I ain't at home by dinnertime, they can start without me."
"All right then."
They continued down the town's main street at a slow pace, talking and laughing together like the newlyweds they still felt. Once they reached the limits of the city, they would set the horses into a gallop, and enjoy outrunning each other like they used to do in the past. Unaware of anything else around them, the couple never suspected that two pairs of eyes were watching them with great interest behind a window on the top floor of one of the buildings.
"Is that him? The husband?" a rough voice asked, tilting his slightly creased face to the sandy-haired young man on the pinto mare.
The other man next to him nodded his head. "Yes, sir."
"Do you realize what this means to us?" the older man asked, and not expecting to receive an answer, he added, "We wouldn't be in this tight spot, if you had done your part."
"I tried!" the young man protested.
"But not enough!" the grey-haired gentleman stated in an authoritative tone. Shaking his head, he added, "Anyway, what's done is done. No use crying over spilled milk. This little husband won't spoil things for us after all, and you know what 'you' have to do."
"Yes, sir."
"We'll have to alter our plans, but time's running out," the older man, added, massaging the junction between his eyes as a mild headache was starting. "Don't fail me, son. I count on you."
"I know."
"And remember, no more hostile outbursts like today's, understood?" The young man nodded, biting his lip, humiliated to be scolded in this way. "I want you to smooth things with Louise McCloud… We can't raise any suspicions. Do anything to gain her trust."
"She already trusts me."
"Then don't let that get ruined because of your stupid irritability! Get on well with her and her husband, and then do your part. That Southern rancher can't be the stone on our road."
"Yes, sir. Don't worry. Everything will go as we planned it. The time has come… finally."