Chapter 1

The plains stretched before his eyes as he rode his horse at breakneck speed. It was in moments like these when he felt completely free. It was just him, his horse and the land. The feeling of the wind on his face, the dizzy speed and the beautiful surroundings were incomparable to anything else. Yeah, he really enjoyed doing a job for once in his life, however risky it could be. Kid couldn't feel luckier than at this moment. Looking back at the last year he could say that he had finally found a place in life, that he was actually happy even though saying that aloud might sound completely ridiculous. Yeah, he was in a moment of bliss and now things were definitely gonna change for the better.

Working for the Express had brought him the forgotten sense of belonging. Since his mother had died and he had left Virginia, Kid had felt lost in the world and in all those years there hadn't been anybody who he could turn to, nobody who cared for him. When he had seen that notice requiring riders, he'd never thought that he would find a family in his fellow riders. They had grown very close as if they were brothers and like in the best families they bickered what felt like all the time. There had even been a few clashes, but at the end of the day they had grown to care for each other and every one of them had deep respect for the others. They were so different, but it was precisely that sense of difference that had brought them closer. Somehow they had all been unfit to find a way in the world, but in the Express they were equals, no one was better or worse than the next one. They were all orphans who for one reason or another had been roaming this earth for a while, never finding their place.

Ike was the kindest soul Kid had ever met. He was a mute but he had a way of communicating with horses that amazed them all. Nobody was better with horses than Ike, and it pained Kid to think that his friend couldn't have more opportunities to prove his worth as people sometimes considered him much like a freak. Buck was Ike's best friend since they met in a mission when they were children. He was half Kiowa and had taught Ike the Indian signs. He was an excellent tracker and had a calmness over him that made him the ideal man to trust in a stressful situation. His Indian background, though, was not well accepted by the majority of the respectable citizenship, and on a few occasions he had found trouble because people just saw the color of his skin. However, his friends in the Pony Express saw beyond that and he was just one of them.

Noah's case was similar to Buck's. He was a young black man and to many people's dislike he was free from enslaving hands. Noah had joined the Express months later than when all of them had first come together. Initially Noah had somehow felt threatened by Kid as the land where the blue-eyed rider originally came from saw colored people as just plantation slaves. However, after the first awkward moments there hadn't been any problems between the two riders. Kid thought that Noah was one of the proudest and best people he had ever come across. He was a loyal friend and definitely a fighter.

It was difficult to think of Cody without a smile. He was a natural prankster, and he was always in the middle of mischief around the station. He was one who always had the knack to raise everybody's spirits when the atmosphere was low. Everybody teased Cody mercilessly, but he never seemed to mind it. In fact, Kid thought that his friend enjoyed it to a certain extent although he would never admit to it. Cody always gave the impression that all he cared about in life was women, food and doing as little as possible. Nevertheless, Kid knew that deep inside Cody was a kind and soft soul and he was one of the best when they worked together. Yet, this was something that no one would ever dream of telling the blonde rider as it would just mean boosting his already too big ego.

Finally, there was Jimmy. James Butler Hickok was a hot-head or at least had been when they had first met him. It seemed that problems felt drawn to him no matter the circumstances. He already had a reputation that he hadn't sought and that he actually abhorred. For the majority he was Wild Bill Hickok, the famous and reckless gunslinger, but for the little Express family he was just Jimmy, a boy who, despite his hard appearance, was eager to belong somewhere. Jimmy was really softer than what he wanted to let on, but he had been shown from a very early age that softness was a sign of weakness, so that was why he always had that hard image to the rest of the world. For Kid he was one of his best friends, and even though they couldn't say they had really hit it off at the beginning, a true friendship had gradually developed between the two riders.

Yeah, they were a close bunch, and sometimes they could be quite a wild group. For those moments Teaspoon was always there to tame their wild hearts. He was the station master and the town marshal as well. Teaspoon was quite special in his own way as the kindest souls remarked or like the most direct ones called him, he was an eccentric. He definitely had a special philosophy which in most cases made him right in his judgments and had saved the riders from more than one fix. The six riders had grown to respect their boss greatly and almost saw him as a father figure to their makeshift family, but they often teased him for his excessive verbosity, and even tried to avoid listening to his well-known long speeches. They laughed at his expense quite often, and, even though Teaspoon tried to appear miffed, he secretly enjoyed his boys' harmless banter.

Teaspoon was fine for a good laugh, but nobody would dare to joke around Rachel. She was the woman who looked after the riders and cooked their meals. She had come after Emma had married Sam, the former marshal, and moved out of town. Initially the boys, especially Cody, had fooled around and ogled her voluptuous body. She was a beautiful woman but she wouldn't have any disrespectful treatment from the boys as a daily basis. So she had given them a piece of her mind right from the start and made sure that such behavior would stop then and there.

Apart from that first clash, all the riders had treated the lady with the due respect from that moment on. Kid really liked her and sometimes he asked her for advice because Rachel was there, always eager to help. Kid mainly considered her as a big sister, another good element to this family. Sometimes he wondered how she managed to cope with living among a bunch of boys. Kid guessed that she must feel lonely sometimes without much female company at hand. Rachel didn't have many lady friends in town since many snotty people looked down on her for the life she led, living alone with just a group of boys. That was the opinion of the ladies in Sweetwater and now that they had moved to Rock Creek a couple of weeks ago, he didn't think people's minds in this new town would vary much.

Kid tried not to linger too much on the bad thoughts, and attempted to concentrate all his attention to the hopeful horizon that was now in sight for his life. This would be the perfect element to complete his existence. He couldn't stop smiling since he learnt of the changes approaching. Finally, she was going to be his, and Kid couldn't thank heaven enough for making it possible. It hadn't been easy for either of them, but at last all their efforts seemed to pay off. Now he had a good life here in the West and would do anything to make her as happy as he felt. Kid fondly remembered the first time he really had set eyes on her. He had been completely mesmerized by her beautiful smile, her little nose, her voice and those big eyes of hers. There was no other woman who could match her and Kid felt like the luckiest man for having her love. Their first kisses had been so awkward; both of them feeling shy and inexperienced. It had been quite a while since those moments but in a way it felt as if it had been like yesterday. Now all the problems and everything coming between them would be just a far-away memory because they would always be together from now on and nothing or nobody would change that. She would be back in his life and Kid couldn't wait to caress her pale skin and smell the fragrance of her long blonde hair again.