TITLE: Book Of Love
AUTHOR: Kirsten T.
FEEDBACK: robin-t@clear.net.nz
DISCLAIMER: The Young Riders is owned by MGM/UA and
Ogiens/Kane Productions. No copyright infringement is intended.

Book Of Love
By Kirsten T.

The young couple walked through the dusty rooms in the old house. It was in
surprisingly good condition, considering how old it was.

"My grandfather told me that this used to be a Pony Express Station."
Connor's eyes shone as he remembered the stories his grandfather used to
tell him of the Pony Express riders. "Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill used
to live here. I think grandfather said that his great great grandfather used
to be an express rider as well."

Connor's wife Jordon looked unimpressed. She couldn't figure out why Connor's 
grandfather would leave an old express station to both of them. Although
Jordon wasn't delighted at the thought of moving in, she was pleased to see
Connor so happy. The house had four rooms obviously two had been built on
for the children that had once lived here. They were painted in bright
colours with pictures of circus creatures carefully painted on the walls.
There was one room however that had appeared to have remained untouched.

"Isn't this great?" Connor had always loved this house. It held such happy
memories for him that he hadn't noticed Jordon's lack of enthusiasm. "I'm
going down to see what the stables are like." He raced downstairs, leaving
Jordon standing alone in the untouched room.

"I'll just wait here then, shall I." She muttered to herself. Walking around
the room, she noticed a book on the bedside table. Picking it up, she almost
choked on the dust that came falling off of it. Slowly she opened it to the
first page. "Well, I have nothing else to do except talk to myself." The
handwriting in the book had barely faded, so it was easy for Jordon to read.
Settling down in the chair that was near the window, she started to read.

Monday 1868 June

Katelynn looked a vision in white as she walked down the garden towards me.
Her red hair in curls on top of her head. Those blue eyes that always seem
to read my deepest thoughts. I can't imagine ever having anyone else in my
life. For once, I finally feel as though I belong. Kid and Lou have always
been like family, but with Katelynn, it's as though I have found my
soulmate. There were times when I never thought I would. I watch her sleep,
her red hair like a river flowing across the pillow and there is a great
peace to her which is strange considering what she has been through in her
life. I am writing this all down so that our grandchildren will know what an
amazing woman their grandmother is.

Friday 1868 July

Katelynn's past came back to haunt us again. The McMurry gang turned up in
town today. It appears that they don't like being beaten at cards by a
woman. The fact that Katelynn gave one of them a nasty scar a few years
back, didn't help. Who would have thought that walking down the street could
be so dangerous. The feeling of bullets flying past my face have never
scared me as much as they did today with Katelynn beside me. But that was
where she stayed. When we drove behind the wagon she was right beside me,
when I fired my gun at an unknown foe, she was still beside me. When Harold
McMurry starting screaming Katelynn's name, my blood ran cold. When he
yelled out what he was going to do to her, when he got hold of her could
only be compared to sacrificing a virgin to a blood thirsty dragon. He was
soon silenced when Katelynn's knife hit him in the chest. Louise gunned down
a second McMurry brother. I still don't understand the connection those two
have, how one can instinctively know when the other is in trouble. Luckily
both Jimmy and Cody made it up onto the roof and took out the last two
McMurry's.

Here at the end of the day it is truly a miracle that we are all still
alive. I never appreciated making each day count as though it was my last
until I met Katelynn.

Tuesday 1869 January

Katelynn fainted today. I thought it was the heat. Katelynn works so hard,
I'm not sure if it's because she is trying to prove something or maybe it's
just that she doesn't know any other way to get through life. Anyway, it
turns out I'm going to be a father. Everyday Katelynn makes another one of
my dreams come true. Yet I am concerned at what sort of life this child will
have. I know this child will be loved but I wonder how easy it will be for
our child to fit into a world that judges people so harshly by the colour of
their skin.

Wednesday 1869 March

Katelynn has had morning sickness ever since we found out that she was
pregnant. She can't seem to keep anything down and the doctor is concerned
about Katelynn loosing so much weight. She has always been thin but it is
scaring me how gaunt Katelynn looks. I don't know what I would do if I lost
her.

Thursday 1869 March

This is the first day that Katelynn has kept her food down, but the doctor
has confined her to bed until she puts some weight. Katelynn is not amused.
She finds it hard to stay still for more than ten seconds. I don't know how
Lou did it, but she managed to convince Katelynn that the more she stays in
bed, the quicker she can be out and about. If I had my way, I would keep her
in bed for the entire pregnancy.

Monday 1869 September

One of Teaspoon's old army friends turned up today. It turns out Isiah knows
Katelynn. My wife knows the strangest people. Isiah got caught with someone
else's wife quite a few years back and was about to be hung when Katelynn
met him. Apparently, Katelynn stopped the hanging by claiming that she was
his daughter and her dying mother was waiting for him to come home. It seems
as though my wife had father figures around the whole country. I guess it
makes up for the way her real father treated her. For the life of me, I
can't understand why anyone would ever want to hurt someone like Katelynn.
Not only is she beautiful, she has a good heart too. I have never seen her
look as beautiful as she does at the moment. She has such a glow about her.

December 1869

I am the father of a beautiful baby girl. We almost lost Katelynn though.
I'm watching them both sleep. They look so peaceful that it's hard to
believe that I could have lost them both today. The screams that were coming
from this room made my blood run cold. It sounded as though the doctor was
murdering Katelynn, not delivering our child. I have never seen so much
blood in my life. I know that we were warned that the birth could be
difficult because of Katelynn's lack of weight, but I don't think that any
of us were prepared for this. We named our daughter Kathryn 'blue sky'
Cross. She has her mother's ice blue eyes and next to her mother she is the
most beautiful creature in the world. The doctor says that if Katelynn makes
it through the night, she should be fine. it looks as though Lou and I are
going to have a sleepless night tonight. Lou won't sleep until she know her
sister will be fine.

Christmas Eve 1869

I can't believe the circus turned up on our doorstep today. I don't think
that too many of us were surprised to find out that they were friends of
Katelynns. I think the circus troop got the shock of their lives when I
carried Katelynn out to see them. She is still too weak to spend too much
time on her feet. I don't know what surprised them more: How thin and pale
Katelynn is, or the fact that Katelynn got married and had a child.

They brought Katelynn the perfect presents: another horse and dog. When
Napoleon and Blackie died it was as though Katelynn had lost two of her best
friends. We had quite a night, exchanging stories with the circus
performers. They seemed to brighten Katelynn up. It is good to hear her
laugh again.

March 1870

The circus troop left town and Jimmy arrived. He is quite taken with his new
niece. It didn't take him long to notice that Katelynn hasn't regained all
of her strength. We had a bit of a laugh today. Some guy had been so busy
starring at Lou that he knocked himself off of his horse. It was lucky that
Jimmy turned up when he did otherwise Kid would have flatten the guy.

April 1870

Anthony O'Malley, an Irish conman decided to try his luck in Sweetwater.
Unfortunately for him, Katelynn and Lou caught onto his scam immediately.
It's strange. I would never have pictured my wife with an Irish accent
before today. Just when O'Malley could have taken the whole of Sweetwater
for every last penny, Katelynn and Lou completely turned his own scam back
on him. Katelynn and Lou managed to convince him that Katelynn was an Irish
Princess that had a small fortune in gold arriving on the stage coach. When
O'Malley went to rob the stage coach, Cody and Jimmy were waiting to catch
him.

1880 July

Paintings of Katelynn and Lou have been turning up all over the country. The
papers say that fights have been erupting everywhere one of these paintings
have been shown. We have had strangers turning up, sometimes in the middle
of the night. Kid and I have had to chase ten different men off of the
property since those paintings started to show up. The man that tried to
make a pass at Katelynn came up short, especially when Katelynn caught him
round the neck with her whip. Kathryn gets more beautiful everyday. Everyone
says she looks like me but I see so much of her mother in her.

August 1880

Katelynn and Lou met the author of the paintings that have been causing so
much trouble. Cody warned him to stop painting Katelynn and Lou and to stay
away from them and the children. May the spirits help anyone that tried to
hurt the children. Katelynn and Lou will fight anyone who dares try anything
with our children. I get the feeling that this artist is only going to cause
more trouble and this family could do without any more trouble. Jimmy's
death has hit the women especially hard. Teaspoon seems to have aged ten
years. I know Teaspoon was closest to Jimmy, we all knew.

Late August 1880

Katelynn's funeral was today. Kathryn doesn't understand that her mother
won't be coming back. I have to admit, it's hard for me to go to sleep at
night knowing that I won't wake up beside Katelynn. I saw her in the sunset
tonight. She said that she would never leave me and she has kept her word. I
have never loved anyone as much as I love my Ice Princess. It's so lonely
without her.

Jordon turned to the next page to find the writing had stopped. Whoever had
written these words had obviously stopped writing after the death of his
wife. She wiped away the tear that was running down her cheek. She wondered
what it would be like to be loved so much.

Connor watched his wife from the doorway. He wondered if it was such a good
idea to move in here. It was a dream come true for him, but things were
already strained between them, this could make things worse.

Jordon looked up to see Connor watching her. "Do you know who Katelynn is?"

Connor ginned. "Yeah, come in here, I'll show you." He took her hand and led
her into a room that appeared to be a sitting room. Around the room were
numerous paintings of two women. "The woman with the blue eyes is my
grandfather's great, great grandmother, Katelynn. The other woman is her
twin sister, Louise."

Jordon marvelled at the strength in the women's faces. "They're beautiful."

Connor smiled at the sparkle in his wife's eyes. "You know, we don't have to
move in here if you don't want to."

Jordon turned to face her husband. "This place has a lot of happiness as
well a sorrow in it. It's full of memories. Perhaps we can make some good
ones of our own." She laughed as her husband picked her up and swung her
around. She knew how much this place meant to him. "By the way, what was
your grandfather's great, great grandfather's name?"

Connor looked into his beaming wife's face "Buck Cross."

The End