The lone figure stood silently next to the new growth of grass, that was sprouting up, where the funeral pyre had been just only two months ago. Buck watched as she knelt in the dew kissed grass under an early morning sun. Then she slowly reached her hand out to touch the fresh grass and looked toward the sky while softly crying.

Isabelle was unaware of being watched as she cried for her cousin…a cousin she never really got to know before her family had gone back to California. She had been only three years of age at the time and he had been at least 7, but she remembered his ready smile and the way he made her laugh. Now she finally knew why her family hadn’t heard from them in such a long time. So, with the decision to return home in mind, she said one last good-by to her cousin and slowly got to her feet…her journey at an end. As she turned toward the buckboard that she had borrowed, she suddenly stopped when she noticed a man leaning against it. When his eyebrow slowly arched skyward she began to panic, then she hiked up her skirts and began to run…not listening to him yelling after her that he wasn’t going to hurt her.

He finally caught her and they both went tumbling to the ground. While he took deep breaths he asked, “Why di…dn’t you stop? I just wanted to know what…you were doin’ here.”

She shoved at him with all her might then began to spout off some un-lady like words. When she notices his eyebrow arching again, she feels the heat of shame slowly creep up her face and turns her head away from his beautiful brown eyes. Then she sighs as she thought of what her mother might say (if she’d heard her) and begins to mumble her apology to the man.

“Are you apologizin’ for the curses?”

Her eyes flew to his at the question, but then she noticed that he was smiling and his eyes were twinkling. She couldn’t help but to smile back then she replied, “For the swearin’ I guess. I didn’t expect anyone to be out here this early.”

“Why are you here?” he asked again as he helped her up.

She glanced over at her cousin’s resting-place then back to the young man and with fresh tears coursing down her face she replied; “He was my cousin.” 

“Your cousin?” he answered, clearly surprised at her declaration. “But he ne…”

“We…my family returned to California when my grandfather became ill. I was only 3, but I never forgot my cousins.”

“Do you know what happened to his family?”

“Yes,” she replied sadly, “now I must return home and let father know about his brother.”

As she began to walk back to the buckboard, the man walked silently beside her and when they were next to where the funeral pyre had been, he asked, “Why don’t you just write to your father?”

“Why? There’s no reason for me to stay here any longer.”

“I…” he paused as he gazed upon the new growth of grass then with a soft sigh he continued. “We work for the Pony Express.”

“You were his friend?”

“Yes and I’m still his friend. My name’s Buck Cross.”

She smiled at him again as he helped her into the buckboard then replied; “I’m Isabelle.”

He smiled back as he went to tie Night Shade’s reigns to the back of the buckboard and then got up in the seat next to her. When they were on their way back to town he asked where she learned so many colorful words.

Her laughter was like sweet music to his ears. Then she answered, “My father. I’ve spent many summers sailing the waters with him and my brothers.”

“What does your mother have to say about it?”

“Not much,” she said with another laugh. “Although, if she had her way, she’d never had let father take me out that first time…says he’s soiled my ears with all his sailor talk.”

They were still laughing when they arrived at the stationhouse. Then as he helped her down she noticed several young men coming from across the street. One of them had long blonde hair and was munching on an apple. There was also a dark skinned man, a pretty faced one (that looked too much like a girl) and another blonde headed man…only his hair was shorter and was the color of sand.

“Hey Buck, who you got there?” the man with the long blonde hair asked.

Buck grudgingly looked up from Isabelle’s sparkling green eyes with a sigh and gave Cody a stare. Then he replied, “This is Isabelle McSwain and th…”

“McSwain?” 

“Yes. She’s his cousin,” Buck replied then continued before he could be interrupted again. “That’s Cody,” he said to her as he angled his thumb at his friend, “and they are Noah, Lou and Kid. You’ll probably meet the others later.”

“There are more of you?”

“Only one really and he’s out on a run. Then there’s Teaspoon, who’s probably at the office and Rachel.” Then while he was still talking to her, she heard a woman’s scolding voice coming from behind. 

“All right boy’s, what’re you doin’ just stand…well, hello…who are you?” she asked when Isabelle turned around.
Cody stepped between Isabelle and Buck, draped his arm around her shoulder and replied, “This pretty lady is Ike’s cousin.”

“His cousin?”

“Yep. Her name’s Is…”

“I can speak for myself, thank you very much, Mr. Cody,” she replied as she took his hand from her shoulder. Then she turned back to the woman and introduced herself. “I am Isabelle Sha’ree McSwain.”

“Well pleased to meet you Isabelle,” Rachel responded as they shook hands. “I’m Rachel. Why don’t you come on inside, have some tea with me and tell me about yourself.” She then looks back at the boys and tells them to get the rest of their chores done.

“Awe Rachel,” Cody complained as they all turned at the same time to head back the way they’d come.

July 1861

She had written to her family, telling them of their relative’s deaths and letting them know that she’d decided to stay in Rock Creek so that she could make her own way in life. She was able to help out at the schoolhouse in the mornings and helped Rachel in the afternoons. Buck was a little surprised, but then not surprised at all. Isabelle was a good friend to all of them, like a sister to Lou and a daughter to Rachel. Then he focused his attention back on her and Rachel as they walked down the street, laughing under the morning sun. He still stood there even after the others came out of the bunkhouse.

“Buck?” Jimmy began, then sighed when he noticed what or rather who had caught Buck’s attention and asked, “Are you just goin’ to keep starin’ at her like you’ve never seen a woman before or are you goin’ to do somethin’ about it?” 

No answer was forthcoming from his friend. 

“Buck?”

“You say somethin’ Jimmy?”

“Never mind. Say, you think Isa would go with me if I asked her to the next dance social?”

“Too late…I’ve already asked her,” Cody replied as he joined them.

“What dance?” Buck asked as he glared at the two men.

“Saturday’s one. You know, the one where the rest of the town-folk will formally get to meet her.” 

Buck spun on his feet so fast that the dust practically flew in his friends’ face and he quickly sprinted towards the shop he’d seen her and Rachel enter. He barely skidded to a slow walk just before reaching the store and slowly walked in without realizing that it was the dressmaker’s shop. As he stood there with a stunned look on his face, he watched Isabelle twirling in a shimmering green dress that matched the sparkle in her eyes.

“Oh Miss Rachel,” she said with a smile, “isn’t this just lovely?”

“It’s perfect.”

Then as Isabelle turned toward the dressmaker, she noticed Buck standing in the doorway and began to blush. When she sees his eyebrow begin to arch, her heart started doing the waltz and she quickly ducked behind the curtain so she could calm her nerves.

Meanwhile back at the bunkhouse, Jimmy and Cody were laughing it up as they told the others about how fast Buck had taken off down the street when they said they were going to ask Isabelle to the dance.

“You didn’t really ask her?” questions Kid. “Did you Cody?”

“Yep…sure did.”

“And what was her answer?” asked Noah.

“Nope.”

“Yeah. She totally turned him down flat,” Jimmy responded. Then they all cracked up laughing and were still laughing when Buck finally came back.

Buck ignored the lot of them as he walked into the bunkhouse and poured himself a cup of coffee. But when he sat down he could still feel the four pair of eyes boring into his skin. Then he slowly looked up at them, raised his eyebrow and said, “What?”

“Well, you goin’ to tell us what Isa said?”

“No.”

“You did ask her…right?”

“No.”

“Why?”

He didn’t answer them for a few moments, then replied, “Because.”

“That ain’t no answer Buck,” commented Jimmy.

“It’s mine,” he responded as he got up from the table and headed for the door. Just as he was about to open it, a certain raven-haired, green-eyed little woman opened it from the other side and his heart began to beat like a tom-tom drum.

“Oops, sorry,” she apologized when she nearly collided with him. “Excuse me please.”

He just stood there; staring into twin pools of liquid green then took the tray of dishes from her. Then the both of them stood so still that it seemed like the world around them had disappeared. When she began to feel a delicious heat coursing throughout her body, she spun around, ran back to Rachel’s house and collapsed onto the couch with a heart felt groan as she tried to understand why he would have such an affect on her.

“Isabelle, are you ok?” Rachel asked.

“I think so…maybe.” Then she shook her head and replied; “No I’m not.”

“This has to do with Buck, doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” she whispered as Rachel sat next to her. “I just don’t understand him.”

“What exactly don’t you understand?”

Isabelle looked up at Rachel with a sigh then replied, “Well he looks at me like a beau or husband would look at their woman, but then he doesn’t do anythin’ about it. He hasn’t asked me for a lunch or dinner date or anythin’ else. So what am I to do about the feelin’s he’s stirred up in me?”

“First of all,” Rachel began, “he’s had several bad experiences with some women in the past year. We all thought, however, that he and this one girl might become an item, but she left town after her mother was killed. So he’s probably not asked you because he’s just bein’ cautious.”

“Well I think he’s bein’ just a little too cautious and I intend to change that.” Then she jumped up from the couch, before Rachel could say anything else and headed back out the door.

“What’re you goin’ to do?”

Isabelle turned toward her friend with a smile and replied, “I’m goin’ to ask him to be my escort for this Saturday’s dance,” and then she proceeded out the door.

The door to the bunkhouse swung open with a bang as a determined Isabelle walked in, then she looked directly at the man responsible for all the confusing emotions tumbling about inside her. He didn’t move a muscle, didn’t even raise a brow in question as she stood there with her hands firmly on her slender hips. Then she spoke up. “You…outside”. Then spun back around and stepped outside once again.

“Uh-oh,” came a whispered voice from one of the bunks. “I think you’re in trouble Buck.”

“Shut up Cody,” the others said in unison as they all followed Buck out the door to see why Isabelle seemed to be upset with him.

Isabelle turned to face Buck as soon as she heard the soft sound of his steps from behind then subconsciously took a step backwards when she noticed his arched eyebrow, but then she stepped toward him, looked up into his soulful brown eyes and asked him to the dance.

You could of heard the sound of thundering hooves from the next town, it was that quiet. When the others began to laugh, she gave them a look that had them quit just as fast. Then she looked back at Buck and replied; “Well…have you nothin’ to say?”

He couldn’t quite believe he’d heard what he heard, then answered, “You want me to take you to the dance?”

“Yes I do. Now, are you goin’ to or not?”

“Yes.”

“Yes what?”

“Yes I’ll take you to the dance.”

“Good.” Then she pivoted on her heal to head back to Rachel’s, but when she got to the stairs, she looked over her shoulder and said, “Don’t be late.”

Later that evening at supper, everyone at the table (with the exception of Noah, who was on a run) kept looking at her and Buck with silly smiles on their faces and it got to the point to where Isabelle finally decided to take matters into her own hands again. As she got up to re-fill her water glass, she asked if anyone else would like some. Both Jimmy and Cody were the first ones to raise their glasses. She wanted so badly to wipe the smirky smile off their faces that she just had to pour the water over their heads, so she did.

Saturday - Dance Day

“Miss Rachel, Miss Rachel,” Isabelle called out as she came flying down the stairs.

“What is it?”

“I-I had a dream last night,” she replied as she took a deep breath and sat at the table. “It just didn’t make sense though.”

“Would you like to tell me about it?”

She looked up at this woman who’d become a second mother to her and with a soft sigh, she begins to tell her of the dream.

“I was visiting my cousin’s burial site. Everythin’ was so quiet and peaceful, then I heard a sound and looked up. There, soaring in a cloudless sky, was the biggest eagle I’d ever seen. He kept circlin’…lower and lower till I thought he was comin’ straight at me. He was so big, but somehow I knew he wouldn’t hurt me, then he landed right across from where I was sittin’ and just stood there lookin’ at me. Then I noticed he held somethin’ in his beak and when I looked closer, I saw that it was a carving.”

“A carving?”

“Yes…of an Eagle and it was held by a golden string that was hooked though the tips of the wings. Does that make any sense to you?”
“Couldn’t say that it does, but you might want to talk to Buck about it, maybe he could tell you what it means.”

“You think so?”

“Yes,” Rachel replied as she set about preparing breakfast while Isabelle just sat there staring at the table. After a few moments, she got up to help finish making the meal.

Later, as the hours ticked by and the time of the dance was just minutes away, Isabelle began to pace the length of the room while getting dressed and ended up buttoning the dress all wrong so she stuck her head out the bedroom door and yelled for Rachel.

“You ok?” Rachel asked when she reached the bedroom.

“Not really…seems I’m all thumbs,” Isabelle smiled as she gestured to her dress.

“Don’t worry,” Rachel replied as she helped re-do the buttons. “You’ll do fine. You know…Buck’s a lucky man, whether he knows it or not.”

“He’ll be here won’t he?”

“He’d better or I’ll have his hide. Now, go on, finish up then come on downstairs.”

A few moments later, she heard Rachel calling out to her and answers, “I’m comin’,” as she grabs the matching shawl and purse to her dress. When she steps outside, she sees that Rachel had already looped her arm through Teaspoon’s and Buck was standing there, his fingers nervously turning his hat in circles. Then he looked up at her and his mouth fell open.

“Close your mouth Buck,” she replied as she stepped from the small porch, “you’re goin’ to let the flies in.” Then she laughed as his mouth snapped shut. “That’s better. Now, let’s go to this dance so I can show you off.”

For the second time that week she amazed him. First she had asked him to escort her to the dance and now she wanted to show him off. Then he raised his brow and asked, “You want to show me off?”

“Of course. You are the best looking young man in this whole town.”

“But I’m Kiowa,” he whispered, still not believing she would have ever dared to ask him out in the first place and that his mixed blood didn’t seem to bother her.

“So. You are who you are and I am honored to have you escort me to this dance.

His heart began to sing as he walked alongside this lovely young woman toward the dancehall and as they stepped inside, he didn’t care who stared at them. Then he led her onto the dance floor; still a little surprised by her earlier statement…she was proud to be with him no matter what anyone else said.

A few dances later, he asked if she would like to go outside for some night air. When she said yes, they walked passed their friends (who were smiling ear to ear) as he led her 
outside. They walked a short distance then stopped to sit on a bench and just sat there for a few moments while lightly holding onto each other’s hand. Then she whispered, “Buck?”

“Hmmm?”

“I’d like to tell you about a dream I recently had and if you can, could you tell me what it means?”

“Ok.”

He listened quietly as she spoke of a great Eagle soaring in the sky while she was sitting next to her cousins’ burial site, but when she spoke of seeing the carving of an Eagle on a golden string, he gasped.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothin’,” he replied as he shook his head. Then he jumped to his feet, grabs her by the hand and says, “Come on…there’s somethin’ I got to show you.”

They were both out of breath when they reached the bunkhouse and as she stood by the table, he went to his bunk and pulled out a beaten up old trunk. When he began to open it, she slowly walked a little closer to see, and then it was her turn to gasp. After he had pushed aside some clothing, he took out a small box and gently cradled it in his hands as he sat on his bunk.

“That belonged to him, didn’t it?” she asked as she lowered the lid of the trunk and sat down.

“Yes,” came his whispered reply. Then he opened the box and showed her the contents. There was a mans pocket-watch, a lady’s locket, some letters wrapped in a faded ribbon, a wanted poster…

“A wanted poster? Is this the man that killed my cousins family?”

“No.”

“Then why w…”

“This was the man he saw at the time his family was being killed and thought that he’d done the killing.”

“Someone else did?”

“Yes.”

She looked back at the well-worn poster with a sigh, then asked, “Are they in jail?” When he surprised her with a negative shake of his head, she questioned, “Then where are they?”

“Dead.”

She nodded her head as she re-folded the poster. Then as she went to hand it back to Buck, she noticed that one of his hands was balled into a fist and asked him what he had. When he didn’t answer her, she placed the poster back into the box herself, knelt on the floor in front of Buck while saying, “let me see”, as she gently uncurled his fingers. When his hand was fully extended, she just stared at the object lying there as tears filled her eyes.

“The carving from my dream,” she barely spoke as she looked into his equally watery eyes.

“Yes. He’d made it several months ago and said he was goin’ mail it off to a cousin he’d not seen in a long time, but things just got so busy with us movin’ from Sweetwater, that he hadn’t had time to send it.”

“Did he say who it was for?”

“Yes…it’s for you. He wrote a short letter to go with it.” Then as Buck searched for the letter, Isabelle sat on the floor holding the precious Eagle in the palm of her hand. When Buck said he’d found the letter, she looked up and saw that he had extended the letter towards her.

“I-I can’t,” she cried. “Will you please read it for me?” She could see that he was unsure about reading something personal so she asked him again. “Please Buck, I wouldn’t be able to do so ‘cause I might spill some tears on it.”

He reluctantly nodded his head, then began to read.

Dearest Cousin Isabelle,

I know how much you disliked all the coddling from the family when you were a baby and how you would say “bird” every-time I would fly my kite. So, I made this carving for you. When you wear it, just close your eyes and let his wings take you to the clouds.

With love,
Cousin Ike

After he finished reading, she began to cry in earnest then Buck took her into his arms and whispered some words of comfort. As her tears slowed to a trickle, he cupped her chin and placed a soft kiss upon her still trembling lips. A few moments later he said that he’d walk her over to Rachel’s before the others came back from the dance. As they stood to leave the bunkhouse, they felt the slightest of breezes when there should’ve been none. Then Isabelle let out a startled gasp.

“B-Buck?” she whispered as she pointed toward the door. When he looked in that direction, he himself was a little stunned. There, standing in the doorway stood the spirit of his friend…her cousin.

“Take care of him,” Ike spoke softly as he began to float towards the sky. Then before he completely vanished, he said, “and Buck…take care of her.” Then he was completely gone. 

The days passed quickly as the nights grew longer and Isabelle had finally saved enough money, from her jobs at the schoolhouse and the Express station, for a down payment on a piece of property she’d had her eye on. What she didn’t know was that Buck had already put some of his own money on the property.

“Rachel, would you come to the Land office with me today?” she asked one morning just before breakfast.

“The Land office?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Isabelle groaned in frustration. She had asked Rachel before and always got the same answer. Then she took a deep breath and replied, “I’d like to buy that piece of property I’ve told you about.”

“Can’t today.”

“Why not this time?”

“You’ll see,” Rachel answered with a smile as she headed out the door without the breakfast.

“Raaachellll,” Isabelle grumbled as she followed her friend out the same door only to come to a sudden stop on the tiny front porch. At the bottom of the stairs, with a bouquet of flowers gripped in one hand and his hat in the other, stood a nervous Buck. Rachel, Teaspoon and the others formed a half circle behind him and she felt the sting of tears pooling in her eyes. Then as Buck got down on one knee, she clasped a hand over her mouth to keep from saying anything while he asked her the question she knew he was about to ask.

“Isabelle Sha’ree McSwain,” he began, “would you do the honor of havin’ me as your husband?”

She was so totally speechless that all she could do was nod. Then she practically stumbled down the step and into his loving embrace.