“Do you think we’ll see a real stagecoach, Peter?” Katie craned
her neck out the open buggy window. They had only pulled out
of Elizabethtown a few moments before, but already a foreign
emotion fluttered in her chest like a caged bird.
Peter flipped the reins. “I reckon so, at some point. Bandits are
holding up trains, not stages.” He glanced over at Katie. “Are you
alright? You look like you’re about to jump right out of here.”
Katie turned to face him, her hands knotted in her lap. “I can’t
rightly explain it, Peter. I’m so excited that I’m doing this—little
Katie Knepp on the adventure of a lifetime.” Her cheeks ached from
grinning. “But I’m so scared at the same time I don’t know whether to
look this way or that, fear this or fear that. The unknown is so—fearfully
exciting!” Heart pounding in her chest, she turned her attention
from Peter back to the buggy window. “Maybe we’ll even see a bandit.”
Peter chuckled. “You’re quite an elemental woman, Katie. It takes
the real things in life to keep you happy. Adventure, emotion. The
mundane everyday will never suit you, will it?