Episode Reference: Just Like Old Times
Just who does she think she is?
Lou glanced sideways at the person seated catty-corner from her.
There she was sitting with all her fine fabric and curly blonde hair at
the head of the table; a seat that was reserved for a person of
respect, a person that the rest of the diners looked up to. So
what was she doing sitting there?
She picked up a carrot off her plate with her fingers instead of her
fork, took a big bite of it and began to chew as loudly as the cooked
vegetable would let her. The small Express rider rolled her eyes
as one story after another tumbled off her tongue, spoken in her
perfect Southern drawl. Not even Kid spoke with an accent like
that! He might not speak like her but according to Miss Long Lost
Love, he was everything a woman could want in a man. So then why
was she married to someone else but sitting there making doe eyes at
Lou’s man?!
Her chocolate colored eyes found the man sitting opposite her as she
sadly realized he wasn’t hers anymore; he was free to be taken by any
woman that came along, even a married one from his past who still
obviously had strong feelings for him. Thank goodness, though,
for once it seemed Kid’s innocence about matters of the heart was
actually to Lou’s advantage as he appeared to be as blind to it as he
had been with her attraction to the blue eyed Virginian. But that
still didn’t stop him from sitting there, not eating his dinner, as he
listened with open ears, ears that she used to nibble on with a passion
reserved only for him, as his childhood sweetheart embarrassed him with
tale after tale, reminding them all of how perfect he always had been
and always would be.
Lou sometimes hated that part of him, alright, she hated it most of the
time, but it made him who he was and it was one thing for her to bring
it up but for another woman to point that out about him, well, that was
just not playing fair. But she hadn’t played fairly since she
stepped onto the Express property with her frilly little parasol hiding
her delicate skin from the sun’s rays as she pretended to desperately
need to mail a letter at just the precise moment Kid was getting ready
to make a ride. Like she really had no idea he was here,
she huffed silently in annoyance. There was no way Lou could
prove it but a girl doesn’t just happen to chose a small town out west
for no particular reason, as she claimed, without knowing the person
she was seeking was working in that town. And seeking him she
was! She just seemed to be having a harder time of getting
through his thick skull than she thought she would so she was calling
in reinforcements to help make her look good in Kid’s eyes.
Lou then moved her eyes to the rest of the boys seated around
her. All of them had their eyes trained on one person like she
had them in a trance. Lou bit into another carrot in a way to
keep her breath from coming out in a huff. Put a pretty girl in
front of them and the boys were goners! Well she was pretty but
they never thought that way about her. The dark haired girl
glanced down at her attire and ended up dropping her carrot so she
could fold her arms over her near existent chest. So she didn’t
fill a blouse out as far as this woman did and her words weren’t
textbook perfect and her hair wasn’t cascading down her back in curls;
she was still all woman inside. Ask Kid, Lou thought, he’ll vouch
for the curves she did have.
A woman like her was trouble and definitely up to no good. One
look in Rachel’s direction and Lou knew the station mistress thought
the same way, only Rachel was too kind to say or do anything to
indicate she was thinking such a thing. Lou, on the other hand,
was mature enough to admit she was turning green and more than once
brought her hand up alongside her cup of milk, wishing she had the
nerve to tip it over, sending all the liquid toward the person sitting
on her right. A smile lifted the corners of her lips but she
quickly frowned it away so as not to give herself away.
Oh, why couldn’t the boys see her for who she was?! Lou sighed as
she watched her once more twirl her fingers around the diamond necklace
she wore around her thin, untanned neck. Probably stolen, Lou
thought with a smirk in her direction. No young man did that good
unless he was the son of a wealthy man and came from a big city.
A gold chain maybe but not diamonds! The only piece of jewelry
Lou had gotten in her time being with the Kid was a gold ring and she
had bought that herself!! Well Miss Finely Dressed had better
realize Kid would more than likely buy something for his horse before
he did his girl; Lou had proof of that but she also knew Kid was very
good at making up for his mistakes, very good indeed. A smile
escaped her lips this time at the thought of how he made up his errors
to her.
A high pitched giggle from next to her brought Lou’s thoughts back to
the present. The boys were now being told how Kid had rescued her
and someone named Garth … these people didn’t even have real names …
from a fiercely flowing creek. Well Kid had rescued her from an
outlaw’s bullet, so there! But it wasn’t her he was now looking
at, was it? Lou sighed sadly as she realized this woman had all
the right moves, all the right curves, all the right curls, and all the
right words to get what she wanted from the person sitting across from
her. Of course it only took a woman to notice she was putting on
an act; that she was wearing a disguise that hid who she really was and
what she really wanted; this proper Southern woman, as she tried to
display herself as, knew exactly what to say to get the boys to side
with her but all it showed Lou was that she wasn’t the darling they all
thought she was. No one was that perfect or nice unless they
wanted something; Lou had learned that long ago.
Lou had finally had enough as the boys definitely seemed to have fallen
into her trap and were taken with this newcomer. She mumbled an
excuse about having to do chores, threw her napkin on the table, and
walked away without so much as a look behind her, even though she felt
a pull to glance at the man who slept in the bunk beneath hers.
But she resisted the urge and figured, anyway, that he wouldn’t be
looking her way as he had much more of a woman to keep his sights
on. Woman, my foot! Lou slammed the door closed behind her
as she decided she would do everything in her power, even elicit anger
toward her, to convince Kid that he was dealing with someone who wasn’t
what and who she said she was.