Chapter 15

Apologies & Goodbyes

Kid walked quickly back down the hall to Mrs. Beckworth’s room. He stopped outside the door and tapped lightly. He heard her weak voice call, "Come in."

He opened the door slowly and walked into the dimly light room. "Come on in dear." She said in her commanding, yet weak voice. "Please take a seat here next to the bed." She motioned towards the chair near the bed.

Kid walked towards the bed and took a seat and said, "I hope your feeling better Mrs. Beckworth."

Mrs. Beckworth sighed, "Well I take it you remember who you are?"

"Yes mam. I remember everything."

"Well then I guess I have a lot of explaining to do." She sighed again. "Please know first off that I never meant any harm to come to you. I really just wanted to talk with you. I didn’t intend for my men to shoot you, those idiots." She weakly smiled at Kid and then continued. "I was in town for my weekly meeting when I saw you. You looked so much like my son. Especially when he would be riding his horse. I just had to talk to you. I told my men to stop you as you left town and bring you back here. I told them to do what ever it took to get you to come back here and meet with me. I guess they took that a little to far."

"Yea, I think so." Kid said softly.

"You see my son, James, was killed about 10 years ago. I guess I’ve never really gotten over it. I just wanted to get to know you a little. But when you woke up and you couldn’t remember anything…well I just thought it my second chance to have my son home again. I figured you would eventually remember who you were, but I thought I would deal with that when the time came." She paused and looked at Kid, "Can you forgive an old woman for such foolishness? I really didn’t mean for you to get hurt."

Kid said, "Of course I forgive you. I know now that you didn’t mean for what happened to happen. Plus I could have asked for a nicer place to recuperate." He said, "Or fall in love Lou again." He thought.

"So now tell me," Mrs. Beckworth said, "This young lady Miss. McCloud. Is she your sweetheart? She looks at you with such love in her eyes. I hope she’s OK. I don’t really know what happened. Dr. Adams said I shot her."

"She’ll be fine, Lou’s tough." Kid said with pride in his voice. "I hope she’s still my girl. We’ve had a real rough time lately but to be honest I think her being here has been a good thing for us." Kid went on to explain to Mrs. Beckworth about his and Lou’s relationship. How he had asked her to marry him and she said no. How he hadn’t understood at the time but he was trying to be more understanding now and how he hoped that someday she would change her mind and become his wife.

"I’m sure she will dear." Mrs. Beckworth said patting his hand. "You can tell by the way she looks at you that she is completely in love with you and would do anything for you. In fact she almost died for you." She concluded shaking her head. "Please tell her how sorry I am for everything."

"She knows, Mrs. Beckworth." Kid said.

"So will you be leaving soon?" She asked

"Yes, I hope to leave this afternoon if the doctor says it’s OK." Kid said. "I really miss my family."

"Tell me about your family?" Mrs. Beckworth asked. So Kid told her all about his Pony Express Family. He told her about how when they all first started working for the Express they we’re all weary of each other but now they were all very close just like a family and would do anything for each other.

Kid and Mrs. Beckworth talked for a while longer then she said goodbye to Kid and apologized again for everything. Kid stood up and left the room and headed back to the sitting room were his friends were waiting.

"So," he said as he entered the room, "Lets say we go home. Doc do you think it would be all right? Can Lou ride?"

"Lou will be fine." The doctor told him, "And so are you. Just try to take it easy and be careful. I really don’t want to see any of you in my office again." The doctor laughed and left the room.

Lou stood up and went to pack the few things that she had brought with her. Kid went into his room but soon realized that there was nothing there that belonged to him. Jimmy had gone downstairs with the doctor but came back soon and knocked on Kids door saying, "Here the doctor thought you might want these back." Jimmy threw Kid a package that he opened to reveal his own clothes.

Kid smiled a broad smile and quickly changed. Jimmy went out to the stables and got Katy and his horse saddled for the ride home. "I’m afraid well have to ride together," Kid said to Lou as they entered the room.

"I can’t think of a better way to go home." Lou said smiling at him. "So what are we waiting for lets go."

The three friends saddled up and headed home.