"Are you sure this is a good idea Lou?" asked Victoria as the group of girls followed the female rider as they rode on horseback headed towards the hothouse.

"Look, I already told you girls that the boys are out running errands in town and won't be back for at least a couple of hours." Lou emphasized once again trying to ease her friends concerns.

"I know that's what you said...but is it safe?" asked Charlotte worriedly.

"Charlotte I swear, you're driving me crazy!" cried Lou somewhat exasperated.

"I'm just asking. I mean we're so far away from everything and everyone." Charlotte mentioned, looking about cautiously. "What if we get buschwacked by a gang of indians or lawless men."

"Charlotte then all you'd have to do is drop your bloomers and for crying out loud they'll be so shocked it might just give us a chance to get away!" noted Cassie sarcastically.

The girls laughed at Charlotte's expense who didn't find it at all funny. They were afterall women, out by themselves and God knows what could happen to them if they met trouble. She declined to say another word seeing her companions were more at ease with the situation than she was. Forsaking the teasing she just told herself to relax, they were just going to have some quiet time alone and everything would be all right.

Soon they reached their destination. The hothouse. The boys along with Teaspoon's direction finished building it just a couple of weeks ago and this would be the first time that the girls had actually had an opportunity to use it without the boys' looming presence. Teaspoon enjoyed having a hothouse so when they left Sweetwater he was determined to build one for their enjoyment here in Rock Creek and so they did.

Dismounting their horses, they left the animals out to graze on the green pasture that surrounded the structure as they walked toward it, each holding a sheet they would use to wrap themselves in. "It is so beautiful out here!" exclaimed Cassie. "So peaceful."

"Yeah. Kinda takes you away from all the daily madness doesn't it?" added Lou.

"It's so big!" noticed Charlotte readily, wide-eyed, taking in the size of the immense teepee-like hut.

They finally entered following Lou's direction. They each chose a comfortable enough spot, undressed down to their undergarments and placed the white sheets they had brought along down on the makeshift benches to lounge about. After a good thirty minutes or so, the heated stones inside made the temperature rise and the girls just settled in to enjoy the relaxing atmosphere.

The boys returned from their expedition to town with a buckboard full of supplies: feed for the horses, grain, flour, preserves and the like that would last for the entire week. They were met outside by Rachel who began inspecting the supplies making sure they hadn't forgotten anything.

"So Rachel, the word's going 'round town that you're gonna be the new school marm." cited Cody with his boyish grin.

"Hush your mouth." she told him.

"Well I was just repeating what Mrs. Wilson was telling Tompkins." he defended.

"Of course no news can escape Cody's ears." Noah quipped as he handed Kid a sack of potatoes. Kid only smiled, totally agreeing.

"Look; news is news. Don't matter how you get it."

"In your case Mr. William F. Cody, I don't want you spreadin' wild rumors 'round town. Teaspoon just mentioned it to me before he left for Fort Kearny the other day. I haven't made up my mind yet."

Cody persisted. "So it's true?"

"Didn't you hear what she just said?" reprimanded Jimmy who was getting annoyed with him.

"I know she said she ain't made up her mind yet but it still don't hurt asking."

"I swear Cody, if your hearing was as fast as your mouth Lord knows we'd all be the better off for it." teased Noah.

"Yeah, he wouldn't have such a big mouth to go along with his big ears." joked Buck.

"Ha, ha. I forgot to laugh at that one Buck."

"This is sooo relaxing." cried Charlotte as she took in the soothing vapors eminating from the scalding rocks in the middle of the hothouse. "I've never felt so relaxed."

"I never thought it could be so wonderful." chimed Victoria with a dreamy look in her eyes as she leaned against the wall, her hands cuffed around the knee of her bent leg.

"Didn't I tell ya?" Lou cackled, proud she had made such a great suggestion. She stood from her seat and taking a ladle full of water, poured it unto the heated rocks. Sizzling sounds came forth filling the room with a cloud of steam as the water hit the smoldering rocks.

"Mmm..." sighed Cassie with closed eyes as she lay on the bench, enjoying the treatment the heat gave her tired muscles.

Victoria sat up rolling her eyes. "That's not what I was talking about. I was talking about being in love." she said warmly.

"Oh, why didn't I guess that?" answered Lou with mild sarcasm as she poured more water on the heated stones.

"Seriously Lou, I mean don't you all feel the same? Doesn't Kid stir in you wild emotions? Cassie, what about Noah? I'm sure you still get those shivers down your spine everytime you see him don't you? And Charlotte, I know for a fact that Buck pulls your strings any ol' time."

"You can say that again." Charlotte agreed wistfully.

"Okay Victoria, what's on your mind?" asked Lou.

"What do you mean?"

"Victoria I know you well enough to know that whenever you start talking like that something about Jimmy's on your mind. So what is it?"

Victoria sighed. "Okay you're right. Darn you do know me too well."

"Well shoot girl, don't keep us waiting." urged Charlotte anxiously.

Victoria paused. Her friends looked at her to finally say something. "I kind of need some advice." she fessed up.

"Then you've come to the right place darling." encouraged Charlotte as she took a seat next to her friend. "Now tell us, what is troubling you." she invited, placing a gentle hand over Victoria's.

"All right, but this does not pass these walls." she charged and they all agreed. Still the anticipation was killing them and they urged her to come on with it.

"As you know, Jimmy and I have gotten really, really close. I never thought I would love anybody the way I love him. When we're together it's as if nothing else matters. It's just him and me and I'm starting to feel that I want more."

"More what?" inquired Charlotte with a wrinkled nose, discerning exactly where Victoria was heading with this conversation.

"I mean when we're together, alone...I think I want more."

"You mean you're ready to take the next step?" asked Louise.

Victoria nodded. "Yes. I think I am but, I'm not sure. I mean sometimes I'm sure, then sometimes I'm not. How do you know when you're ready?" she wanted to figure this out. "How did you know you were ready with Kid, Lou?"

Louise thought for a moment, wrapping her sheet about her. "I don't think there's really ever a said time when you feel you're ready."

"I don't understand."

"I mean you can't just say I'll be ready tomorrow, 'cause tomorrow you may not be. It's a feeling you know; a feeling you get deep down inside you. It's like you want to share that part of you with that special person. There's no prepartion for that. You just know it. If you have no doubts you love them and you feel good about it, I would use that as my guide."

"I agree with Lou. The worst thing a woman can do is to get intimate with a man and then regret it the next day." added Cassie.

"I'm so confused. I know I love Jimmy, I don't doubt that but I'm scared. What about if we sleep together and things just aren't the same afterwards?"

"They never are." Cassie told her honestly.

"It sure wasn't with me and the Kid that's for sure. I'm thinking...'Why does a man think he owns you after you sleep together?'"

"Well I wouldn't put it that strongly." rebuffed Charlotte.

"That's the way it felt like after Kid and I started riding double. Kid had such a hard time dealing with things. My job, my living in the bunkhouse, where I was going, when I'd be back. Everything was much more complicated."

"But you worked it out." Victoria justified.

"Yes we did and I'm glad for it. But at the time I think we moved too fast." she confessed.

"Lou you don't have to scare her half to death!" consoled Charlotte, draping an arm around her concerned gal pal. "Look Victoria, all it boils down to is how you both feel about it and if you believe it'll only make your relationship better."

"I guess so. But...I have no experience whatsoever; Jimmy is much more experienced."

"And that's the way they like it believe me. They love being the teachers. Buck's taught me lots of things I never knew."

"Charlotte!" cried Victoria turning red. Charlotte was not one to be shy concerning such intimate matters.

"So Vic, has he asked?" she probed.

"Charlotte!" scolded Lou.

"What?! We're all friends here." Then turning back to Victoria asked, "So...has he?"

Victoria paused unforgivingly too long for Charlotte's taste. Charlotte urged a response with a twisting hand motion. "He has." she admitted. At the sound of Victoria's confirmation the girls gave out a chorus of shriekish yells, the sort you hear at the revelation of some juicy tid-bit. Victoria covered her face, now a bright red from the sheer embarrassment she felt and the utter excitement her friends showed.

"How did he ask?" queried Cassie, sitting up. Victoria related the evening, that beautiful, starry night which was so vividly etched in her mind. That night after dinner as they lay on a blanket at the lake, looking at all the stars up above, he kissed her so passionately, she felt herself melting into him and then he asked to make love to her. He was so passionate, so tender, so in love.

"OH!" expressed Charlotte with a hand on her chest, "That is so romantic."

Louise sat silently. Hearing Victoria's intimate secret with her former lover made her feel a touch of jealousy. True, they had had only one intimate encounter and they knew it had been a terrible mistake, a mistake made in a heated moment of passion yet the memory was kept alive inside Louise. She had no doubts in her that Victoria would find the ocean of passion that Jimmy offered to be an overwhelming one. One that would only make their love stronger.

A deafening silence soon fell in the hothouse when Cassie said, "I remember the first time Noah and I made love." The girls were attentive, giving Cassie full attention as she continued, "I invited him over to my house for dinner one night. Rachel was having Quinn to spend the night so he could go horse trading with the boys the next morning. So we enjoyed a nice candlelit dinner and we danced to the music on the music box he'd bought for me. As we danced, I remember thinking..."he's so tall, dark and handsome." I could feel his hearbeat almost, I thought it could've been mine as he held me so close. He told me how much he loved me and how much he wanted to show me how much. I remember his words exactly. "Cassie, you're the most special thing in my life, the most beautiful woman in this world. I love you so much I can't keep it all inside anymore. I want to share it all with you. I want to show you just how much I love you." Then he looked at me with such deep passion I felt myself just crumble in his arms as he said, "Cassie, I want to make love to you." It was the most passionate love I've ever experienced." she reminisced with closed eyes, the hairs on her arms standing straight up, despite the intense heat inside.

The girls mouths fell open. None realized the depth, the active love-life each of them had. This had been the first heart to heart of this magnitude they'd ever dared had and, they found it refreshing as it turned into a sisterhood sort of bonding experience between the good friends.

"Hey Jimmy." called Kid excitably, entering the bunkhouse. His best friend was busy at the bunkhouse table cleaning his guns. "I just found out the girls are out at the hothouse, ...alone."

"Really?" he said with peaked interest, a crooked smile sweeping his face.

"Thinking what I'm thinking?" instigated Kid rather mischeviously.

"Nah--We couldn't."

"Come on Jimmy! We still haven't gotten them back for that little evil deed they pulled on us. If you need a reminder of that leaf covering you had to make 'cause they ran off with our clothes at the water hole."

Jimmy recalled the devilish act clearly. "How could I forget? You have a point Kid. It's payback time."

Kid gave his friend a wide smile. "Good! I'll go fetch Noah and Buck."

"I'll get the horses ready." And immediately the two riders dispersed to commence their evil deed.

"I tell you girls, they do things in Paris you wouldn't think possible." informed Victoria.

"Well I've heard about those foreign women. They are not called acrobats for no good reason." voiced Charlotte.

"Oh please!" Cassie cried.

"It's true." interjected Victoria. My cousin Margaret spent an entire year in Paris and the things she learned while she was there would make your head spin."

Charlotte leaned in, very curious to know. "Like what?"

"She told me that..." Victoria imparted some of the knowledge her rather unreserved cousin Margaret was more than willing to expound on once she'd returned from overseas and visited with her in Philadelphia.

"You're kidding me." gasped Louise.

"I've seen pictures."

"Pictures?" she asked.

"Yes. She brought me a book."

"A book?!" cried Charlotte. "I'd like to take a look at that." she voiced in a naughty tone.

"Oh yeah Charlotte, like I travel with it."

The girls looked at Victoria as if asking, "Well, do you have it?" Victoria discerning what the look her friends gave her meant, simply responded, "It's in my room."

"What are we waiting for then?" chimed in Lou as they began to gather their things in a hurried manner when they heard the sounds that they feared the most...

"Girls? Oh girls!..." called the voice that sounded all too familiar and belonged to Kid.

The girls froze. "Oh my God, it's THEM!" came the shriek from Victoria, peeking through the spaces of the logged hothouse. "And we have no clothes on!" she remarked excitedly.

"You're in your undergarments dear." said Charlotte dismissively.

"Charlotte, we are not decent and I'm sure Buck wouldn't appreciate you showing off your lacy trims to the other boys." Victoria scolded.

"Good point."

"Hey girls, we know you're in there." yelled Jimmy.

"You boys better not even think about coming in here." shouted Lou.

"If you know what's good for you!" added Cassie.

Noah continued the teasing. "Oh come on girls. There's more than enough room for all of us in there."

"Yeah, we don't mind sharing." Buck chimed in with a sly smile.

The girls began draping the white sheets they had brought over themselves to cover their now see through undergarments which were clinging tightly onto their moistened bodies.

"I swear Jimmy Hickok, you best not set one foot in here." shouted Victoria.

"Come on Victoria, don't be like that." he said as the boys walked up to the building. The girls could see their figures through the gaping spaces as the boys peeked in.

"Grab that bucket of water." came the order from Lou. Charlotte fetched it at once. Cassie getting the hint, took possession of the second bucket full of water. "The first one comin' through that door'll be sorry." Lou warned.

"Come on Lou. Quit foolin'" asserted Kid as he opened the door.

SPLASH! Was the sound that met his face when Lou doused him with a heaping bucket of water. It sent Kid back in total shock as the second bucket was sprung on them too. The boys stumbled backwards, giving the girls the advantage who took the brief interruption as a way out and with shriekish screams, ran out of the hothouse in every direction. The boys having recovered rather swiftly, took off in pursuit of their own girl, enjoying the playful chase.

Victoria ran the best she could, despite restrained strides due to the sheet she donned. She didn't get very far, Jimmy catching up with her quickly. He grabbed her by the waist from behind. "Gotcha!" Victoria laughed uncontrollably as he laid sweet kisses on her neck. She turned around to face him as he held her close.

"You, are in big trouble mister."

"Like I always say, trouble follows me wherever I go."

"Yes it does...and it's right here in front of you." she replied wickedly.

Jimmy looked at her intensely. She was seductive. Her lenghty dark hair shone, wet from the steam that had bathed them, strands of her locks sticking to her lovely face. She eminated an angelic glow that stirred in him deep desire. He leaned in, following the urgings he felt and kissed her softly. Victoria must have shared what he felt for she welcomed him fully, her arms opening the sheet as she embraced him. Once they separated, Jimmy looked down on her and swallowed hard. She wore only her undergarments and he could see the form of her through the damp cottony fabric now stuck to her body. Victoria followed his gaze realizing his hands now rested on her hips, the sheet lay on the ground by their feet. Her first thoughts were to cover up but she didn't respond. She was moved instead to raise herself on her toes to kiss him with a full mouth, her fingers slipping into his long brown hair.

"I love you." she told him and Jimmy felt trembly and weak at that moment. He gazed with lovesick eyes telling her how beautiful she was, his eyes scanning once again her femininity.

The same thought ran through their minds. She knew what she was pondering and could be pretty sure he was thinking the same. She stood there, concentrating only on him, her stare burning into him. Raising her hand, she began removing the strap of her camisole slowly off her shoulder and it fell loosely down her arm. Jimmy's heart raced. She did the same to the other side as her breathing intensified, Jimmy noticing the fact from her heavily rising chest. The camisole itself continued to drape her body as Jimmy caressed her bare arms up to her now bare shoulders, bringing their lips together once again. The passion in the air was thick. They both understood what lay ahead and welcomed the thought.

The sound of an approaching horse broke the moment. Victoria's eyes flew open as she heard the galloping beast and Jimmy too turned his head, looking over his shoulder. The rider was not anyone familiar to them and she quickly pulled up the straps on her shoulders as Jimmy now fully turned to face the rider, shielding her half-naked body from the stranger.

"Who is that Jimmy?" she asked, raising herself on her toes to look over his shoulder.

"I don't know but I want you to stay behind me."

"I will, don't worry."

"Mr. Hickok?" inquired the approaching man, calling out to the young man before him.

"Who wants to know?" Jimmy eyed him suspiciously.

The man was dressed in a business suit and wore a black bouler hat and rounded spectacles. He clumsily dismounted his horse making it obvious the man didn't ride much. He approached the two young people, dusting his jacket and then taking a handkerchief from his pocket removed his hat, and patted his sweaty brow.

"Mr. James Hickok I presume?" he asked politely once again. Noticing Victoria shielded behind the young gunfighter, he got the feeling that his timing hadn't been the best and sensing that such was the case, excused the intrusion. "I'm sorry for my unannounced presence." he apologized, then looking at Victoria, tipped his hat. "Ma'am." before he continued, "I tell you, you sure are one hard man to catch up with."

"What do you want and who the hell are you?" Jimmy asked directly, his tone short.

The way Jimmy spoke could intimidate any man and in this case the stranger felt a bit intimidated. "Uh--I-I stopped by your waystation and was informed by a Ms. Dunne I believe was her name that I could find you out here. My name is Elliot Mercer." he introduced himself with an extended hand which Jimmy didn't take, his suspicious glare not leaving the man.

"Well, I guess we can skip the formalities." remarked Mr. Mercer as he withdrew his hand from the uncomfortable greeting.

"What is it you want with me?" Jimmy sternly asked.

"You certainly are a direct man Mr. Hickok." he said nervously and decided to get on with what he had to say instead of getting Jimmy more annoyed. "Does the name Jonas McBride ring a bell to you?"

He nodded. "What about him?"

"I was Mr. McBride's lawyer for many, many years...kept me rather busy too, the scoundrel."

"What does he have to do with Jimmy?" inquired Victoria peeking from behind.

"I don't know if you've heard the news but Mr. McBride is no longer with us."

"Yeah. I heard he was shot trying to escape on his way to Fort Laramie for his hangin'."

"Yes, it's true. Sad I must say, but true." he confirmed with a lament. "Anyway Mr. Hickok, today is your lucky day." He took an envelope from his pocket and handed it to Jimmy.

Jimmy took the envelope, looking at it strangely. "What is it?"

"Your future Mr. Hickok. You are a very rich man."

On to Chapter III