It had stopped raining and the runs were back on schedule. The boys had gotten use to Rawnie’s presence and she to them. Well sort of anyway. She tried to stay out of their way most of the time, but since there was not much else to do at the station she had taken the opportunity to watch them.

Part of her wished she had something to do, some smaller chores for Emma perhaps, but she had to remind herself that she would be leaving soon, so it was better not to be too involved. Instead she spent her days strolling around the station or on Emma’s porch, reading. Neither Emma nor Teaspoon had said anything about her not helping and this only confirmed her suspicious that they didn’t want her here.

She didn’t know that all Emma and Teaspoon had intended was to give her some time to grieve for the father she never knew and get use to her new situation.

She had learned some things about the station, some useful, some just information. She knew there was a hole in the back of the henhouse and that Ike occasionally snatched an egg through it to feed the puppy he had hiding in the barn. She knew Emma knew of it, but didn’t say anything.

Ike normally stayed around the animals, as if he found them more social than the people around him. She could understand that. Animals didn’t lie, nor did they base their opinion of you on what you looked like or where you came from. She knew Ike couldn’t speak and that when he removed his bandanna, he lacked hair, but she didn’t know why. Kid had said something about scarlet fever, but she’d never heard of scarlet fever removing your speech.

Anyway, Ike had never been anything but kind to her, so she didn’t care about him being mute, or hairless, for that matter. You couldn’t help liking Ike. She had seen him taking care of the animals with a tenderness she didn’t think a man could possess, and besides, he always smiled at her when she ran into him. Two days ago she hadn’t been able to stop herself from smiling back, but even that had not changed anything. Ike still respected her solitude and did not impose himself on her.

However Cody was a different matter. Sometimes she felt like a prize in a competition and Cody was the only contestant. She often wondered if he had no chores to do, since he always managed to find her, offering to show her the sights or simply trying to impress her. He hadn’t been unfriendly, but he was a bit obnoxious. Still, she found herself missing his company when he was on a run. He didn’t let life get complicated, or he didn’t care. Rawnie wasn’t sure, but he took her mind off the harder things in life, like the thought of how long Teaspoon would let her stay. Cody was easy to understand, she thought. She didn’t think Cody really cared about her, but it was nice to get the attention. At least he made up for the coldness that she experienced from Jimmy and Lou.

She had quickly decided she didn’t like Jimmy, mostly because it was obvious he didn’t like her. She generally tried to stay out of his way. In one way, she thought it was sad, since she could identify with him. He, too, had a defiant stance and seemed to enjoy solitude now and then.

She had more trouble with Kid. Kid was too good to be true. Nobody could be that polite so, out of sheer frustration with his helpfulness, she had yelled at him once. He had merely smiled at her sympathetically and, at that moment, she disliked him even more. She disliked his easy manners and his relaxed, outgoing way and how he always offered to help her. She knew he wanted something from her, all men did, but her trouble was she couldn’t figure out what. She found it harder to avoid him, though, but she had noticed that he tried to stay out of her way when Lou was at the station.

Lou, there was someone she couldn’t figure out. She had caught Lou’s hostile stare on occasion, especially when Kid was around her. There was something odd with Lou, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. On one of her evening strolls, she had noticed Kid and Lou having what seemed like an argument, and although she couldn’t hear any words, there was something familiar about how they acted. She had seen it before, somewhere.

Besides, she thought it strange. She had never seen boys solve their problems in discussions, not without them ending in a fight. Maybe the others gave him some slack since he was the smallest of the riders. ‘They did seem to look out for him,’ she pondered. ‘Like he was their little brother, or something.’

All of them were as tightknit as a real family, and she had no part in it. Even Buck fit in. A halfbreed was able to be part of a family and not her. Thoughts like that went through her head as she sat on Emma’s porch and watch the riders jealously. Sometimes she had thought to ask Emma for some chores, but it always ended with her being silent. ‘Why would she work for them?’