"Now you boys better be on your best behavior while we're in town." Emma Shannon said as she guided her horse down the dirt road leading away from the Sweetwater way station.
"Aw, Emma, you don't have to remind us of that every time we go into town." William Cody complained as he rode his horse alongside the left side of her carriage. "We ain't kids."
"No, you aren't Billy, but I know that if I ask you to be mindful of your manners, then you will." The station mistress replied.
Cody was about to say something else, but his horse suddenly startled, rearing up, and he had to concentrate his attention on settling the gelding down.
"Rattler!" Jimmy Hickok called out, from astride Sundancer, who was about a body length behind Cody's mount. He drew his Colt, angling for a shot, and watched with alarm as the snake slithered under Emma's carriage, making her horse, Delilah, bolt into a run.
"Emma!" Lou called out in alarm and kicked Lightning into a run after the fleeing carriage, eager to assist Emma in any way she could.
A gunshot sounded behind her as Hickok dispatched the rattler, and then she was aware of thundering hooves behind her as her fellow riders, spurred their mounts into action to catch up with her and Lightning.
"Whoa! Whoa! Easy girl! Easy!" Emma called out calming commands to Delilah as she fought to get her faithful, yet terrified, horse under control.
She didn't see the large hole in the road before it was too late. Delilah's hooves missed it altogether, but one of the carriage wheels rammed into it, and the frame of the carriage bounced up, lurched suddenly to the side as the wheel popped out of the hole and onto the dirt road once again. And then she heard a loud clanging sound, and a moment later, the carriage lurched again as Emma watched the wheel spin away down the road, as the frame tilted unevenly forward, and it was this, more than the station mistress's jerking on the reins, that finally brought a panicked Delilah to a halt.
"Are you alright, Emma?" Kid called out as he and the others galloped up on their horses, all of them wearing varied expressions of concern on their faces.
"I'm alright." A visibly shaken Emma assured them, as she climbed carefully down from the carriage, and began to examine Delilah for any injuries she might have sustained during their mad dash. "Someone better go fetch the wheel and see if it's salvageable."
Kid did as she instructed and returned a few moments later with the wheel. "The frame and axle seem to be okay. It must have just gotten jostled free from the impact it made when it bounced out of the hole back onto the packed dirt of the road."
'Well. Let's get it back on, time's a-wasting." Emma said, and gestured for the riders to take up positions around the carriage.
"A Little more…a little more," Lou practically chanted as she directed Kid, Jimmy, Cody, and Emma as they worked together to put the fixed wheel back on the carriage. "Hold it."
Cody's eyes strayed off the work at hand and onto the beautiful young woman in another carriage, approaching their location. He let go of his end of the wagon so that he could get a better look at the vision of loveliness coming closer.
"Tell me I ain't died and gone to heaven." He commented.
"You're going to die if you don't help!" Jimmy bit out through gritted teeth, as he strained to hold up his end of the carriage so that Emma and Lou could slide the wheel on.
"And it ain't going to be heaven you're going to." Kid added.
"Got it!" Lou exclaimed.
Jimmy took off his hat and hit Cody with it. "What the hell's gotten into you letting go like that!"
"That!" Cody pointed out the young woman to the hotheaded rider.
Everyone turned their eyes toward the road. Lou rolled her eyes as Jimmy and Cody instantly stared, and then glanced at the Kid. He, too, seemed to like what he saw. Kid, realizing Lou was watching him, cast his eyes down onto the dirt road.
"She smiled at me." Cody commented.
"You wish. It was me she was smiling at. You're just so cockeyed you can't tell the difference." Jimmy told him.
"Oh yeah, then who is she waving at?" Cody demanded.
"Me." Jimmy said, waving back at the pretty woman.
Emma took in their good natured banter with amusement. "She's waving at me."
She turned and walked toward the other woman as she pulled her vehicle to a stop. "Well hello, Abigail. How are you? These are my Pony Express riders over here. A fine bunch of boys, most of the time anyways."
Cody sighed. "I'm in love."
"With yourself." Jimmy joked.
"Okay, so she looks nice in a dress." Lou commented.
"She fills it out real nice." Jimmy smirked as he thought about what Abigail might look like without it on.
"What do you think, Kid?" Lou turned toward him, her stomach feeling queasy over Jimmy's comment.
"Safer not to," Kid remarked.
"Okay, so Abigail McPherson is pretty." Lou admitted reluctantly.
Jimmy and Cody looked at her in disbelief. Abigail McPherson was more than just pretty.
"Alright, she's beautiful." Lou corrected herself. "But can she ride?"
"Funny, I was just thinking that." Jimmy exchanged a wide grin with Cody.
Emma came back over to them as her friend started her carriage in motion again. "Jimmy, Cody, you're both wrong. She was smiling at Lou."
"At Lou?" Jimmy and Cody exclaimed together, as Kid grinned, and poked Lou in the side.
She squirmed out of his reach and blushed.
"I guess she takes a shine to the silent type." Emma said before she climbed into the carriage.
"She'll love Ike then." Jimmy remarked, causing them all to chuckle, as he and the others mounted their horses, and the entourage continued on their way into Sweetwater.