"My, my, aren't we up early this mornin'," Rachel said with a grin.

Lou jumped, startled at the voice, having not heard Rachel approach.  "Oh, Lord, Rachel!  You startled me," she gasped, a hand held to her breast.  She was without the sling this morning and it felt good to stretch the muscles in her shoulder.

"So I noticed," Rachel replied.  She walked toward the table and picked Lexi up out of his basket, kissing his cheek affectionately.  "Good mornin', sweetie.  You look almost as happy as your mama does this mornin'.  Maybe if your little cousin had settled down some last night, I could look a little happier myself."

Lexi giggled, content to be cuddled for the moment in his Auntie Rachel's arms.

Lou had gone back to humming as she tested the milk from the bottle on her wrist.  Rachel chuckled.  "Well, you seem mighty chipper today as well," she said, her eyes twinkling.

"Don't let the humming fool you, Rach.  Lexi had me up at 5:30 this mornin' and wouldn't let me go back to sleep.  Figured I might as well make coffee and start on breakfast," Lou replied, taking the baby from Rachel.  She sat at the table, cradling Lexi as she offered him the bottle.  "Here we go, baby boy."

Rachel eased herself into the chair next to Lou, watching as Lexi turned his head away from the rubber nipple, refusing the bottle.  "This good mood wouldn't have to do with one blue-eyed former Pony Express rider with the strange first name now would it?"

Lou tried to get the baby to accept the bottle a couple more times, unsuccessfully before what Rachel'd said sunk into her consciousness.  She looked up quickly, a small smile fluttering across her face.  "Maybe," Lou replied evasively.  "However, it seems that my own baby is conspiring to ruin my good mood, ain't ya?"  The baby just fussed some more.  With a sigh, Lou gave in and unbuttoned her blouse to nurse him.  "Ya know, this weanin' stuff is for the birds."

"But you'll miss these times with him soon as he starts eating solid food and walkin' away and then runnin' away from ya," Rachel said in a quiet voice.  She stroked her rounded tummy gently.  "I can't wait."

"I'll remind ya of that when you're in labor," Louise replied sarcastically.  "I suppose I will miss it as he gets bigger.  But maybe this little guy'll have a baby brother or sister by that time and I'll have to do it all over again.  Would ya like that, Lexi, hmm?"

Rachel's ears perked up.  "Do I hear wedding bells already?" she asked excitedly.

Lou shrugged.  "He hasn't asked me yet," she admitted.

"He hasn't asked you?!  What the hell's wrong with that boy?"  Rachel moved to get up.  "You just wait 'til I talk to that boy, er, man.  What's he waitin' for?"

Lou laughingly grabbed her arm and pulled her gently back into her seat, apalled that Rachel just might do as she said.  "Don't you dare, Rachel Hunter!  Besides, there's no hurry.  We talked about things last night and Kid wants to take things a little slower this time," she acknowledged.

"I thought that's what bothered you the last time, him going too slow."

"It's different now -- I'm different.  I used to get so frustrated with him because he'd never admit how he felt about me, never told me.  Now that I look back on things we did take things too fast.  Neither of us was really ready to go as far as we did," Louise said softly.  She smiled down at the contented baby.  "I don't mind taking things slower.  I wanna be sure when and if he asks me to marry him, that he wants me for me and not just because of the baby."

Seeing the insecurity written on the younger woman's features, Rachel said nothing in reply, merely stroked Lou's hair lovingly.
 
 

Awake now, Jimmy knew it'd be useless to try and go back to sleep with Rachel and Louise due to come over and start breakfast soon.  With a great sigh, he threw the blankets off himself and crawled from his bunk, pulling on his pants even as he yawned hugely.  With bleary eyes he looked over to Kid's borrowed bunk and saw his friend trying desperately to overcome the pain in his hand.  They'd, of course, teased him mercilessly last night when the story came out about how Kid had attacked an innocent tree, hitting it so hard that he was lucky the hand wasn't broken.  "You okay, Kid?" Jimmy asked, approaching his bunk.

Kid groaned at his own stupidity, forgetting about his bruised hand and grunted, "Yeah.  Too bad there ain't no cure for stupid."

Jimmy chuckled in response, sitting down at the table in the center of the room.  "True, but stupid does keep ya humble," he replied.  "At least it does in your case."

Kid just shook his head at the jest as he rose carefully from his bunk.  "Thanks," he replied ruefully.  He set about gathering his things and getting dressed in the early morning chill.

"Where you headed?  Off to arrest that tree?" Jimmy asked, grinning.  "Ya know ya gotta be mighty careful 'bout those rose bushes of Rachel's too.  I think they're in conspiracy with the birches."

Kid poured some water from the pot Rachel kept on the stove into the basin in the corner of the bunkhouse and began preparations for shaving.  "Very funny, Jimmy," he said good-nauredly.  "Ya know some of us still have to work around here.  I gotta get into town and open the office for Teaspoon.  Lord knows, I been neglectin' my job lately."

"Speakin' of reasons for neglectin' your duties, Kid," Jimmy said, getting up from his seat at the table.  "Just what is goin' on with you and one Louise McCloud?  You two seemed awfully cozy last night when you come back from your trip."

"Two dollars says they were out startin' on a little brother for Lexi," came a muffled voice from across the room that Kid could just make out as Buck's.

Kid could feel the tips of his ears flush.  "We were not!  We were just out talkin', that's all," he insisted

"Hmph.  So that's what he's callin' it these days," Noah said from his bunk without even opening his eyes.

"Noah, we were just...."

Jimmy waved his hand dramatically.  "Dancin'...talkin'...same thing," he commented.

Ike tapped on the wooden frame of his bunk and all eyes traveled to watch as he signed.  <Someone got lucky,> he signed with a wide grin and the riders could imagine the singsong voice that would've accompanied the phrase if Ike could actually vocalize them.

Danny couldn't help but get in on the fun as well, feeling lucky that his relationship with the young Southerner had changed for the better.  "There's nothin' to be ashamed of, Travis," he assured Kid.  "You were just wearin' that patented 'I've-just-been-with-a-woman' look."

Kid wiped his face off with a towel after his quick shave and turned to address the room.  "Look, I was not with her you understand?  We were just talking about some things.  Talkin', not dancin'.  There was no dancin' goin' on last night!  We were standin' up the whole time," he insisted.  The whole room burst into laughter.  "What?  We were!"

"Tried that once," Danny said, "but my knees gave out after half an hour and the gal got splinters in her backside from the door.  Not a good way to end a nice evening I'm afraid."

"Given Kid's speed on the trigger, she'd only be there for about five minutes before it was all over anyway," Noah guffawed.  "He'd be sleepin' it off before she even realized what was goin' on."

"More like forty-five, Noah," Kid replied unthinkingly, his pride affronted by his friends jests.  However, he didn't realize that the words he thought he was thinking in his eagerness to get his things and get going were actually being said aloud.

Protests filled the silence after his remark.

"What?"

"No way!"

"I don't think so Kid."

Kid could shoot himself for unwittingly opening up this particular can of worms.  He turned his back to the room so they couldn't see his flushed face and began stuffing things into his saddlebags, his male pride refusing to just let the subject lie.  "It's our record," he muttered.  "Forty-five minutes against the door, four hours in the bed, two hours on the floor, and another hour in the tub."  Kid turned to point to his friends.  "And don't you dare breathe a word of this to Lou, 'cause that'd be the last anythin' I get for a long, long time if she knew I said anything!"

"When'd you two have enough time during Express days to even think about records?" Buck asked incredulously.

Kid ran a hand over his face as he replied, his answer getting muffled by his action.

"What was that, Kid?" Jimmy asked with a grin.

"On a run to Laramie.  It...it was a birthday present," Kid admitted, his voice dying away to a whisper at the last.

Noah sat up in his bunk, intrigued by the story.  "So you're sayin' you and Lou 'danced' for seven hours and forty-five minutes as a birthday present for one of you?  Hell, that's my kind of birthday," he said grinning.

"Not all at one time of course!"  Kid looked around at the grinning faces of his friends and wanted the earth to swallow him whole.  Instead, he beat a hasty retreat out the door.  "I-I gotta go," he muttered, slamming the door behind him on the laughter echoing through the bunkhouse.

His face still flaming, Kid walked to the barn to get Katy ready to head into town.  He was cinching his saddle when suddenly a small pair of hands blocked out his sight.

"Guess who," a familiar low voice said in his ear.

"Uh, Rachel?"

"No," the voice replied with a chuckle.  "Try again."

"Tessie?"

"Not quite."

"How 'bout Mrs. Abbot?  No, her hands are much fatter," Kid tried.  "I know!  It's that redhead from down at the Wild Horse who keeps sittin' on my lap."

"Damn you, Kid!" the voice growled, as she bit his neck playfully.

He turned around quickly, catching Lou offguard and wrapping his arms around her waist to pull her close.  "Ah, now there's the Louise I know and love," he said flirtatiously.  "Sassy as the dickens."

Lou tried to stay mad at him, but the way his eyes had lit up upon seeing her prevented it and she returned his morning kiss wholeheartedly.  She pulled back from the kiss and kept her arms around his neck.  "I just thought I'd come on out and see you off," she said.

"See me off?  Well, sweetheart, I surely don't think we got time for that right now...."  Lou hauled off and whacked his chest hard with her open hand.  "Ow!  Oh, see me off.  For a minute there I thought I heard you say somethin' else," Kid said with a smile.

"You would," Louise replied sarcastically.  She tried to pull away as he lowered his head to nuzzle her neck, but Kid held her fast.  Lou gasped as his lips lightly grazed her skin.  "Oh, not fair," she whispered.  "You know my weak spots."  She bit her bottom lip, bringing one hand up to thread her fingers through his sandy curls and hold his head closer.

"You know all mine," he muttered in return, his warm breath on her skin sending chills through her.  "Just happens yours are easier to get to."

"Mmmhmm, less clothes to remove."  She let loose a low throaty laugh at his comment that turned into a soft whimper as she felt Kid nibble at her earlobe.

In the next moment, however, they both stiffened and pulled apart at the sound of a horse thundering into the stationyard.

"Marshal!  Marshal Hunter, hurry!"

Instinctively, Kid rushed out of the barn, Lou following close behind him.  As they emerged from the barn's dimness, Kid could see young Charlie Statler dismount from the foaming horse, looking around the yard in a panic.  The boy's eyes caught sight of Kid and he rushed over, grabbing his hand.

"Mr. Travis, you and the marshal's gotta come into town quick.  There's been a murder!" the boy cried.  His eyes became liquid.  "Laura Wilson killed her.  There was so much blood all over the kitchen and her throat...it's gone!"

The boy was beginning to panic and Kid could barely make out what he was saying in his rush to get it out.  He placed his hands on the boy's shoulders and looked right into the thirteen-year-old's eyes.  "Charlie, Charlie, listen to me.  Are you listenin'?" he said seriously.  The boy wiped his nose and nodded.  "Good.  Now, start from the beginning.  Who's been murdered?"

By now, the boys had emerged from the bunkhouse and Teaspoon had joined them from inside the main house to listen to the story.  "Maria, Mayor Wilson's housekeeper," Charlie replied.  "Someone cut her throat open and wrote on the wall in their kitchen.  Miss Wilson, she's missing and they say she did it!"

Behind Kid, Lou gasped in shock.  She may not have liked Laura Wilson, but she'd never pegged her for a murderess, especially considering the brutality of what Charlie was accusing her of.  There hadn't been many out and out murders in Sweetwater since Teaspoon had taken over the marshal's office, but this one sounded like the worst of them all.

"Merciful God," Teaspoon swore, passing a hand over his grizzled face.  He was getting too old for this kind of thing. It was one thing to kill in a shoot out or in self-defense, but to truly murder someone....  He came forward, a strained smile on his face as he touched the boy's shoulder.  "Ya done good Charlie, comin' to get us like this.  Lou, why don't you take Charlie here inside the house and see if you and Rachel can rustle him up a bite of breakfast while the rest of us get saddled up?" he offered.  "Ike, would you take care of Charlie's horse?  You can borrow one of ours when we head back into town."

Lou came forward, her heart reaching out to the distraught boy who'd seen more than he should.  She threw an arm around his shoulders, gently guiding him toward the house.  "It'll be alright, Charlie.  Marshal Hunter and the boys'll take care of things," she soothed, casting a worried glance at Kid and the others as they headed into the barn for their mounts.
 

Chapter 24