Chapter 4
"There's lots of reasons Lou may have for keeping some things to herself. I wouldn't push too hard, if I were you." That had been Rachel's advice. It was sound except that Jimmy kept thinking about how she had snuck off after Boggs all by herself rather than tell anyone the truth. 'Course she'd been hiding a lot of things back then.
Fuck it. He knew Lou and he knew something wasn't right. He trusted his instincts. Which meant he'd just have to ask her outright. He caught up with her as she was heading towards the center of town. "Going to see your friend?"
"Yeah." Another terse answer.
"Want some company? I wanna meet this old friend of Louise McCloud's," he said, smiling.
She stopped. "Maybe some other time Jimmy." She didn't quite meet his eyes. She was trying to skirt him.
"Lou, if this woman's really your friend, why have you seemed so troubled since she got here?"
"What? I'm not -"
"Don't. Just don't. Unless it's the truth, don't bother."
"Charlotte is my friend," she told him, looking him square in the eye.
"Why don't you want her meeting any of us then?" She started to object and he shook his head at her. "Truth, Lou."
The truth had been bubbling up inside her since she'd seen Charlotte. That memory. That night. Jimmy saw something was troubling her, deeply. It was written all over her face. He reached for her arm and she shoved him away forcefully.
"Don't touch me," she snapped. She stormed off, cursing herself for her reaction. What would the ever perceptive Jimmy Hickok read into that, she wondered.
On her walk to meet Charlotte at the hotel, Lou attempted to rein in her emotions. Just because she was here didn't mean anything was wrong. But she also knew that Wicks didn't just let his girls go. Something must have happened. She'd get her chance to question her old friend over breakfast.
She sipped her coffee while she watched Charlotte eat. Lately her appetite had disappeared along with any chance at a decent night's sleep. "Charlotte, how did you get away from Wicks?" she finally worked up the courage to ask. "And don't tell me that he just let you go."
"Well he did. I'm older now, Louise. He had no use for me so he let me go, threw me out more like it."
"Really?" Lou felt a little lighter, thinking that she really had managed to get away without a fight. "Well what are you gonna do now?"
Charlotte talked at length about her plans. She wanted to open up a fancy dress shop like the two of them used to talk about. Something that would bring to the west all the fashions from Paris and London. Lou remembered how she had once shared this dream. When she was a young girl, the colors and frills of the ladies' dresses had enticed her. She supposed that was their purpose. Back then, her options seemed limited and owning a dress shop of her own, making pretty dresses for other women, had seemed like a grand idea. Now, she wasn't so sure. She didn't want to lose her job riding for the Express, which meant she had to stay Lou, not Louise. Days filled with picking out patterns and cloth, sewing till her fingers were sore, didn't sound as appealing as it once had.
It was hard to imagine that Wicks let her go. Even if he thought she was past her prime, keeping her was the sort of thing he would do for pure spite. Lou had no reason to doubt her friend, but the ache in the pit of her stomach wouldn't go away. She felt awful for thinking it, but she didn't think it would go away until Charlotte was far away from here. So while she was happy that Charlotte was free and that they were able to reconnect, guiltily she hoped she would move on quickly and set up her dress shop somewhere far from Rock Creek.
As she approached the station, her thoughts drifted to Jimmy and the way she had treated him earlier. She wasn't sure how to explain herself but she did want to find him and try to make it right before her ride.
The Golden Horse was a fine ranch and Kid's trip had proved fruitful. He was leaving with five new horses and a borrowed hand to help him bring them back to the station. There was no need to visit the other places on his list since he'd had such good luck at the first place he visited. The horses were quality and the price was fair. He was sure that Teaspoon would be happy with the two pintos and three mustangs he was bringing back. And he was mad at himself for turning tail and running instead of fighting for Lou. He needed to get back and show her that he still loved her and wanted them to try again. He could forgive any indiscretion, if she would promise to be his and only his.
She found him in the barn. Lightning was already saddled and he was checking the straps.
"Hi." She smiled hesitantly, a peace offering.
"She's almost ready for ya," he said without looking up.
"Thanks." She took a deep breath. "Jimmy I'm sorry about before. For biting your head off."
He nodded, raised his eyes to look at her. "It's alright. I'm sorry for prying. Just, if something was wrong, if you needed help, you'd tell me right?"
"'Course," she said a little too quickly. He had his doubts but pushing her wasn't gonna get him anywhere.
"Rider coming!"
"I gotta go." Their hands brushed as she grabbed the reins from him and then she was in the saddle, riding away.
It was dark when Lyle Wicks arrived in Rock Creek. The saloon was the first place he went, but all he found were some second-rate whores and cheap whiskey. He described Charlotte to the bartender, but he hadn't seen her. If she had checked into the hotel, it was under a fake name. He would have to wait till morning to look around the town. This trip was already costing him more than he wanted to spend. It would come out of her hide.
Charlotte wandered down to breakfast the next morning. She was enjoying the service at the hotel. Here, no one knew who she was and she was treated like a respectable lady. It was all she had ever really wanted. She was enjoying her toast and eggs when he sat down across from her.
"Hello, Charlotte." Her blood ran cold. "Don't try to run." She froze, hating that she still feared him so much. "There's a warrant out for your arrest, so there's nowhere to go. You took my money, Charlotte. I should kill you for that."
Finally finding her voice she spat at him, "I earned that money. You owed it to me."
"Women like you aren't owed, they're owned." He smiled grotesquely at her and she felt bile rising in the back of her throat. "Now let's go get my money and go home." He rose from his seat, took her painfully by the arm and led her towards the guest rooms.
Her heart beat rapidly in her chest as they walked down the hall, approaching her room. Wicks pulled her to the right as a cowboy was passing them in the hallway. She eyed the gun at his side and seized her one opportunity. Pulling the six shooter from the man's belt she turned it on Wicks.
"Don't move" she commanded as she backed away. Fumbling at the doorknob she nearly fell into her room, locking the door behind her. Through the door she could hear Wicks and the other man calling her crazy. She was cornered and she knew it, but she would not go back. Anything was better than that. Death was better. She paced around the floor, trying to think of a way out. Only one came to mind. She could hear Wicks banging at her door. There was one window in her room. She was four floors up. She wasn't sure if she'd just break an ankle or her neck. Aiming the gun she shot at the window and watched it shatter, she ran and jumped through the jagged glass, feeling it rip at her clothes and skin as she went through. And then she was flying towards the ground. Everything went black.
"What the hell is going on, Teaspoon?" Jimmy was pacing the dusty ground outside the doctor's office.
Louise's friend had hurled herself out a window that morning. Shortly after that, a man came to the marshal's office saying she'd stolen a large sum of money from him and showed him a warrant for her arrest. They'd searched her room and sure enough, they found a carpet bag with over a thousand dollars in it.
"We'll find out when the lady wakes up and we can question her, hopefully." Till then, Teaspoon was holding onto the money. He had a right to question the woman before handing over evidence. This made that Wicks fella furious, but there was nothing he could do but wait.
"I knew something was wrong." Jimmy felt himself shaking with anger and worry. He couldn't help her if she wouldn't talk to him, dammit.
"Lou will be back this afternoon and I'll talk to her then. In the meantime, you still got a job to do."
"Teaspoon, I can't go."
"You telling me you can't take your run?" He gave the younger man a stern look. Jimmy wanted to argue. Instead, he gave him a pleading look. Teaspoon found himself softening. "If you can find someone to take your ride…." He threw his hands up.
"Thanks, Teaspoon." He took off for the station.
Noah agreed to take the ride, leaving Jimmy to resume his pacing at the station until Lou returned. He was trying real hard not to compare himself to Kid. He would fret like an old lady whenever Lou was five minutes late getting home. Jimmy told himself this was different. Her friend had been hurt. There was trouble with the law. This was rational worry not just blind anxiety.
Buck and Ike sat on the bunkhouse porch watching their friend walking back and forth. Lou certainly had an effect on men. They were both worried too, however. They'd heard about Charlotte and the accusations. And Lou had been acting strange ever since that woman got here, more guarded than usual. Was she somehow mixed up in this? It wasn't like her to protect a thief, unless there was more to it than that.
By the time Lou did ride up to the station, all three of them were waiting expectantly. "What's this about?" She could see the worry on their faces as the three men stood in a row to greet her.
"Something happened to Charlotte," Jimmy told her.
When he told her Wicks was here, looking for money, that feeling in her stomach reared up and she almost got sick then and there. Charlotte had lied and she'd led him straight to her. Jimmy asked if she wanted to go see her friend.
"Where's Wicks now?" she asked him first.
"He's mad about having to wait for his money. He was sitting in the saloon, last I saw. Why?" Jimmy was starting to think Lou was scared of this man, which meant he'd hurt her, which meant he wanted to kill him.
"Doesn't matter, let's just go." She put her glasses on and pulled her hat down low. He thought he saw her hands shaking.
When she saw her friend lying in that bed and heard more about how she'd flung herself from her hotel window, guilt roiled in Lou's belly. She had been so scared of Wick's finding her, she hadn't thought about her friend. She may have suffered one night, but Charlotte had suffered years, a lifetime really, under his wrath. She'd rather risk death than go back to him. Tears escaped her eyes as she sat beside her and grasped her hand.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered, taking in the woman's bruised appearance.
Jimmy hovered nearby. "Lou, can you tell me what's going on now?"
Teaspoon, Jimmy, and Lou sat in the marshal's office, blinds drawn. Jimmy thought he saw Lou weighing how much to tell them. Once she'd finally settled on the version she was ready to share, she began.
Charlotte was a prostitute at a parlor house where Lou used to work doing laundry. After she'd been there about a year and was just about to turn 15, Wicks thought she was ready to be turned out. Jimmy wanted to call Wicks out right then, but forced himself to listen to the rest of her story. "Charlotte helped me get out of there before he could." Both men released huge sighs and Lou knew she wasn't being completely truthful. But she couldn't tell them what he'd done to her before she got away. "We lost touch after that but if she took his money, I'm sure he owed it to her. She had to run. It was the only way to get away from him. You can't let him take her, Teaspoon." If she lives through this, Lou thought.
Teaspoon mulled over her words. Her story wasn't an uncommon one for a young woman like herself. It still broke his heart. As far as the law was concerned, Wicks hadn't committed any crime. "Maybe we can convince him to take his money and drop the charges." He would do his best to reason with the unscrupulous louse.
"And we just let him go?" Jimmy bellowed. "He tried to pimp a child for fuck's sake." He saw Lou flinch at his words and immediately regretted his outburst. "I'm sorry," he said more softly. "It just ain't right."
"Not it ain't," the marshal agreed. "But the man hasn't broken any law and I got nothing to arrest him for. Why don't you walk Lou back to the station. I'm gonna go have a talk with the man." Seeing Lou's hesitance, he added, "I'll come get you when Charlotte wakes up." She agreed and Jimmy followed her out.
From across the street, Wicks watched as the angry gunslinger and puny rider emerged from the office. There was something familiar about the little one.