Summary:  There are obstacles to Adam and Charity getting married, but Adam finds a solution after overcoming those problems and seeing no other way to calm the waters. There is a budding romance for Hoss too as the story develops.

rating = T  WC = 15,839

 

 

Charity Series #4 — Let’s Do It

Chapter 1

“Now this last letter says that Adam Cartwright was arrested for murder. A so-called stranger in town convinced the only witness to recant her testimony and he was released as he was on the gallows about to be hanged. Now no one has ever been charged with that murder. It seems that he got away with murder. His father was also charged but there was another incident when his father was threatened by a gunfighter named Poole and it was Adam who stepped forward and shot him. And of course we know it was Adam who stepped up and murdered my poor brother. He never got punished for that either. Now Charity thinks to marry him. That is not going to happen. I will stop that as soon as we get to town. Virginia has written about that family in her letters to me in the past. I never knew so much about him when he was courting her, but the man has two brothers. Thank goodness that Virginia spurned his advances and went after Todd instead. Now if Charity’s got her heart set on marrying into that family, then she can marry one of those brothers of his.”

“Mother, Charity doesn’t listen well.”

“Prudence, she will listen to me. She is my niece, and I am the oldest in the family and the head of the family now. I’ll make her listen.”

“I don’t know why I had to come with you out here.”

“Your younger sister is already married, but with our finances so poor, there were no good prospects for you there. There are a number of newly wealthy men out here. I want you to find one and get married. You’re older than Charity and you should be married before she is.”

“Does Charity know that we’re coming?”

“I sent a wire to Virginia before we left. We’ll be staying with her so she was the one to tell. Charity is staying with them so I’ll be able to get her straightened out.”

Staring out the window through the crack between the canvas curtain and the wood frame, Prudence wasn’t so sure she wanted any of the men out here. They all seemed so rough and uncouth. Some were more well-spoken than others, but none had the more civilized speech to which she was accustomed. She expected more restraint in their behavior and their decorum. She certainly wasn’t used to smelling the men around her, and these men smelled. Some were decidedly unpleasant to smell while others smelled of leather and horses, but she disliked the smells in general. She couldn’t imagine being married to a man even with the best characteristics of the men she had met on their trip. She visibly cringed as she thought about it. Her mother noticed.

“You’re not shivering, are you, Prudence? We’ll be in that town soon, and you can have a warm bath and rest when we get to Virginia’s home. I’m sure she has a well-appointed home where we will be quite comfortable. Her husband inherited the family estate.”

“What is an estate like out here? It doesn’t look like much anywhere.”

“The cities have been impressive enough even if they are new and somewhat rough. Some of the houses in Denver were very impressive.” As the stage rolled into Virginia City, the two women were able to look up the hill. “And some of the houses here are very impressive too. My dear, I think we will find a suitable husband for you here, and you will have your cousins close by as well.”

“And you, Mother?”

“Of course, dear. I have to stay here and watch over you and my nieces.”

As the stage rolled to a stop, Julia was pleased to see Charity and Virginia waiting there for her. She was even more pleased to find that Todd was there and that Adam Cartwright was not. She wanted some time to work on Charity and the sooner the better as far as she was concerned. She wasted no time in getting started. As soon as she had been introduced to Todd, she and Prudence and their luggage were loaded in the large carriage, and they were headed back to the McCarren ranch, and Julia was on a roll.

“I suppose your young man was too busy with his various rough activities to be here to greet your family.”

Surprised by the criticism, Charity was defensive. “Aunt Julia, Adam is working on the addition to the house. He wanted to get it ready for you and Prudence. It needed to be finished and we didn’t have much warning that you were coming. He’s been working every spare moment he’s had to finish the addition so that you would be more comfortable when you were here.”

“You don’t have to be so defensive, my dear. I know all about your young man. He has a lot to answer for, but you don’t have to answer for him.” She followed that with a litany of the complaints against Adam that she had spelled out for Prudence as they approached Virginia City. At the time Charity didn’t question how her aunt knew so much about Adam.

When Julia began comparing Adam to Todd, Virginia began to get defensive as well until she realized that everything being said pointed out how Todd was a better choice than Adam. In fact, Julia praised Virginia’s choice to break off her relationship with Adam. That wasn’t accurate, but it was the way she preferred to think of it as well so she said nothing to dispute that version of events. She could see Todd smiling a bit as well. She was well aware that the criticisms of Adam were unfair, but Charity was doing her best to defend him, and Virginia assumed Adam would be capable of defending himself as well when he met Julia. She also assumed that Julia would be quite impressed upon meeting Adam and that would alleviate many of her concerns. With those two thoughts, she was mostly amused by the conversation between her aunt and her sister. However the conversation grew more heated as they traveled.

“He was in jail after he was arrested, convicted of murder, and about to be hanged by the neck until dead until the man that his family hired was able to pressure the only witness to take back her testimony. No one has ever been charged with the murder of that poor woman’s father. He got away with murder.”

“They didn’t hire anyone to get her to change her testimony. Lassiter was in town following the men who lynched his father. He didn’t want to see another injustice here. He only talked to her to make her see that lying was the worst thing that she could do. It wouldn’t bring justice, and she would have hated herself for the rest of her life.”

“Is that the story he told you? What story has he told you about all the other men he has murdered?”

Indignant to the point of fury, Charity’s face was red. “Adam has never murdered anyone. Virginia, please tell Aunt Julia how wrong she is.”

“Now don’t drag your sister into this. She was smart enough to cut herself free from this ruffian so then he went after you because you were younger and too innocent to know better.”

“Virginia didn’t end that relationship. Adam dropped her.”

That brought Virginia into the conversation. “Charity, you have no right telling Aunt Julia something like that.”

The conversation shifted entirely to the two sisters then. “Well, it’s true so why can’t I say it?”

“It’s a matter of point of view, then. In my point of view, I ended that relationship by letting Adam know there was no future for him with me. It simply took him some time to realize it and walk away. It was my idea though. I controlled what happened.”

“Virginia, you were completely devastated by Adam walking away. You were so angry with him, and you and Papa talked about it, and Papa was so angry too. It was only when Todd came to the house and walked with you and told you that he wanted to spend time with you that you calmed down. Don’t try to rewrite the history now to make Adam look bad or worse. He has apologized to you for not letting you know sooner that his courting you wasn’t a good idea. You told him you forgave him because you were happy with Todd. That’s all water under the bridge. Don’t try to make it flow back upstream now.”

Virginia said nothing more, but it was clear that she was upset. Charity realized that she had made a mistake and wouldn’t have her sister’s help in countering her aunt’s rather vicious attacks upon Adam. Todd had remained silent during the entire exchange and Charity wondered at that too. She had to ask.

“Todd, Adam is your friend. Aren’t you going to help me explain to Aunt Julia how wrong she is? You know all these things as well or better than I do.”

Todd knew he was in an untenable position. He needed to defend his friend against unfair and scurrilous accusations, but his wife had gone silent in her anger at Charity. Any attempt by him to help his sister-in-law was only going to create trouble with his wife. She was fussing with the small cradle at her feet that contained their newborn baby. Virginia had been moody since the birth of the baby and almost anything could set off crying that could last for hours. Todd took the safe route out of the conversation. “Charity, you know Adam as well as I do at this point, and you’re doing as well a job as anyone could defending him. Just keep doing what you’re doing.”

“You see there. Todd knows better than to defend the man. He’s willing to let a woman try to do it. Now Adam nearly denied Virginia the chance to be a mother. Don’t let him do that to you.”

“How could he do that to me? He wants to marry me.”

“My dear Charity. The man is too old to be marrying someone as young as you. You could have several children, but he may be too old to father any. He may, pardon the expression, have sown his wild oats already and not have any left for a fertile field in a young woman such as yourself.”

That served to mostly embarrass Charity and wasn’t a topic that either Virginia or Todd wanted to discuss. Julia greeted the silence that met her remarks as evidence that she had scored with that salvo not understanding that it was the nature of the statement that had led to the silence not the strength of the argument. The house came into view then, and both Julia and Prudence were stunned into silence by the four men working on the addition that Todd and Virginia had mentioned when they had met them at the stage. There was the young cute one with the flirting smile that Charity introduced as Little Joe Cartwright. There was the seemingly shy powerfully built big man who was introduced as Hoss. The older man with the booming voice and command presence Julia guessed was the patriarch of the Ponderosa well before he was introduced. But it was the man with the dark complexion, dazzling grin and dimples, and the most masculine presence Julia had ever encountered who drew her attention and nearly robbed her of her ability to speak.

Watching her aunt Julia, Charity was confident then that those arguments that she had been making were going to go away. However as they entered the house, she was sadly disappointed.

“Charity. I can see now how he ensnared you. He is a very handsome man, but that is what the devil does. He hides behind a pleasant or even gorgeous visage, but inside, the evil lurks and the old deceiver plots and plans on how to take his victims. He’s far more dangerous than I ever thought. My poor girl, we’ll have to move quickly to counter his influence on you.”

Chapter 2

As soon as her Aunt Julia was in her room getting refreshed from her trip, Charity headed outside to talk with Adam. She was in a sour mood after having endured her aunt’s badgering about Adam for an hour. Ben told her that Adam was behind the house, and she walked back there and approached Adam who climbed down from the roof with his shirt open. Normally that would have made her insides clench and her heart beat faster. At that moment though, it had no effect. If she had been paying closer attention, she would have realized that her aunt’s strategy was already working on her.

“Did you know Lassiter before he came to Virginia City?”

“No hello or how are you? How about thank you for finishing the addition so your aunt and her daughter will have rooms for their visit? What’s this mood all about?”

Stopped in her tirade before it began, Charity was first perturbed and then chagrined as she realized what she had done. “Oh, Adam, I’m sorry, but Aunt Julia spent the whole trip out here telling me reasons why I shouldn’t marry you. She has slandered you in every way imaginable, She thinks you’re a murderer. She says you got Lassiter to force that change in testimony so that you could get off that gallows. I never realized you were standing there with a rope around your neck about to be hanged when Sally Byrnes changed her mind about what she was saying.”

“I guess at that moment her conscience couldn’t take letting two innocent men hang for her father’s death no matter how sad she was about losing him and how much she wanted revenge for his death. But why bring that up now?”

“She thinks you’re all wrong for me. She says you’re too old.” Charity blushed a little then. “She thinks you won’t be able to father children with me because of that.”

Bristling visibly at the insult to his manhood, Adam stared at the house. “First of all, why is she so set against me marrying you? When I was courting Virginia, there was only enthusiasm from your father for the match. But I wonder too where she got all this information when she was living in Philadelphia. It’s not like my history is of any interest to anyone there.”

Frowning, Charity thought about that. “I was so busy reacting to each of the charges she was making against you and trying to defend you that I didn’t take the time to wonder about that, but I am now. I’m going to ask her that. But Adam, until I can turn her around a little, it might be best if we take a few days apart.”

“No.”

“What do you mean by that? I ask one little thing and all you do is refuse with a one word answer.”

“If we do that, she starts to win her little game already. Don’t you see? She’s trying to drive a wedge between us. If you take a few days, then she’ll do her best to find excuses to extend that, and just like she did on that ride from town, she’ll do her best to fill her conversations with vitriol about me. You came out here gunning for me just a short time ago after an hour with her. What would it be like after a few days of her constant harping on the issue? No, I should spend even more time with you while she’s here.”

Smiling coquettishly then, Charity moved closed to Adam and put her hand on his open shirt so that her fingers brushed the hair on his chest. “Oh, I guess having you here morning, noon, and evening would offer some nice benefits.”

Adam grinned and would have grabbed her for a hug and more except that his father approached the two of them to tell them that he was leaving with Hoss and Little Joe. Charity dropped her hand to her side too and tried to act demurely, but she was sure Ben had seen where her hand was when he turned the corner of the house. Her face was probably a bit flushed as well. Ben also said that Todd had come out to thank them profusely for the work that they had done. “Charity, your aunt came out with her daughter. She is a very delightful woman, very charming. She complimented our work as did your cousin Prudence. If I had to guess, I would say that Hoss has his eye on Prudence already. He was a bit tongue-tied when he greeted her which is a sign with him when his heart is beating hard for a woman. It doesn’t happen often, but with that boy of mine, he loses his speech when he starts losing his heart.” Ben paused. “Adam, are you coming home with us?”

“I’ll be a little while yet, Pa. Go on without me.”

With a smile, Ben was gone. Then Adam did pull Charity into an embrace so the two could kiss. The kiss grew deeper and more passionate quickly as Charity pressed herself against Adam. Inside the house, Julia watched the two. She wasn’t surprised at what she saw for she had felt the magnetism of the man when she had met him earlier and no longer believed that Virginia had ended her relationship with this man. Julia thought only a silly ninny would do that. However, somehow she had to find a way to break her younger niece free of him. She began to think of ways she might do that. She started to get an idea then which made her smile because it could be very pleasurable for her to accomplish her goal that way. Virginia had mentioned a party that they were giving because she and Prudence were there. Undoubtedly, the Cartwrights would all be invited. That would be her opportunity. Her lips curled in a particularly self-satisfied way and she licked her lips as if in anticipation of what she hoped to do.

Outside, Adam almost shivered making Charity pull back a little and look up at him. “Are you cold?”

“No, I suddenly had this feeling like a cold hand ran across my shoulders. It was strange.”

Charity moved closer to Adam again and wrapped her arms around his neck and then slowly slid then down his shoulders and across his back and up again. “There, does that feel better?”

“No, sweetheart, I think that you need to do that more. I’ll let you know when it’s enough.”

“Why do I get the feeling that it will never be enough?”

The two laughed then with all the tension between them relieved. Inside the house watching the easy way they had with each other, Julia seethed. She had hoped to have had an impact already and thought that she had. When Charity had left the guestroom to go confront her young man, Julia had been sure there was going to be an argument, but he had handled it all very smoothly. She had to keep that in mind. She had been informed of his intelligence and gamesmanship, but now had seen it in action. She would have to be very thorough in her planning and execution if she was going to succeed in breaking her niece away from him. She began to think that if she could get the youngest brother to pursue her then that might be a way to work this. She began to plot anew especially as she watched Charity with Adam outside and the intimate way she touched him. Julia considered it highly improper although it was fairly innocent.

With her fingers still on Adam’s shirt and her fingers still being tickled by the hair on his chest, Charity decided to be bold and ask something she had wanted to do for some time. “May I touch your chest?”

With a bit of a quizzical look, Adam looked down at her. “What?”

“I want to put my hand on your chest. I’ve seen your chest a number of times and the hair on it. It looks like it would be all hard and scratchy, but then it tickles my fingers like it’s soft at times like this. So I want to touch your chest.”

Moving his arms back, Adam opened himself to her inspection. “You do know that if I asked this of you, I would probably have gotten my face slapped.”

Grinning wickedly as she softly caressed his chest, Charity was ready with her answer. “It depends on when you would have asked.”

“Sweetheart, sometimes I wonder if you don’t know what you’re doing to me. We’re going to have to get going on planning this wedding. Waiting too long is going to be torture for me.”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t tease you so much. Now that Aunt Julia is here, perhaps we can move the wedding up to the end of this month. Can you wait four weeks?”

“Four weeks doesn’t seem so long compared to waiting months. Yes, please. The end of the month would be wonderful. But what about her objections to me?”

“I don’t know where she got her information, but she’s wrong, and I’m going to let her know that. Virginia needs to back me up on that and Todd too.”

“They didn’t?”

“Oh, Adam, you know how they are. I’ll have to remind them again of what’s important and what friends do for one another. I swear that sometimes I don’t know how you and Todd were ever friends for so long and I wonder how Virginia and I had the same parents. But there is going to be a party, and of course you and your family will be invited. Aunt Julia will see how wrong she is about everything.” Charity paused for a moment. “Are you going to tell your family what I told you about Aunt Julia?”

“I was going to. Is there some reason I shouldn’t?”

“Well, she got bad information. I would like to give her a chance to redeem herself with me and with you without everyone knowing what a fool she’s been.”

“That brings me back to that question. Where did she get all that information? She was in Philadelphia. Someone must have gone to a lot of trouble to send her information to create this problem or she made an effort to find out information when she knew we were going to be married.”

“I don’t know, Adam, but I intend to find out.”

With one last embrace and kiss, Adam said goodbye and headed home. Charity watched him leave and when she could no longer see him, she turned and walked into the house intent on finding out a few things.

Chapter 3

When Adam arrived home, Ben teased him a bit about being so late and was surprised at Adam’s rather sour response. When he questioned whether there had been a problem with Charity, Adam denied it, but he was hiding something. Ben was sure of it although Adam’s smile when he talked about Charity and her desire to have their wedding in a month had Ben wondering what could have gone wrong because it was clear that the relationship between the two was still as strong as ever. He knew it would do no good to press Adam about it. He would talk about it when and if he was ready and no sooner. In fact he must have realized that he had given too much away with his attitude and adjusted it so that his brothers had no idea there was anything amiss. Dinner had been delayed only a few minutes but of course Hoss had to complain at least a little about that. Adam teased back and the usual responses had everyone in a relaxed and jovial mood. Ben saw no hint of what could have been wrong and gradually forgot about it thinking that perhaps it was something inconsequential. The invitation to the party at the McCarren ranch arrived late on the next afternoon. Todd was there to ask them all to attend. Ben noted then that Todd was a somewhat nervous around Adam as if there was something that had him worried. Observing again, Ben watched as Adam was friendly but somewhat guarded in his responses to Todd. That was when Ben knew that there was definitely something going on yet still had no idea what it was. The undercurrent was powerful though so whatever it was, it had the potential for trouble so Ben decided to press Adam to see if he could get him to talk even if it was an unlikely prospect. He waited until after dinner when Hoss and Joe were engaged in one of their frequent and contentious checkers matches. Adam walked outside so Ben followed and found Adam leaning against the porch post.

“I don’t suppose you meant this as an invitation to conversation, but I’m worried.”

“Pa, I told you that everything between me and Charity is fine. We’re looking at getting married at the end of the month. I’m sure by the time of the party, she’ll have worked out a date with her sister, and we can move forward with planning.”

“But something’s wrong.”

“Nothing I’m free to discuss and nothing that I will allow to come between me and Charity.”

“Does it have something to do with her Aunt Julia? She seems to be the only thing that’s changed recently. Although she was very charming and pleasant, I do remember who her brother was, and he could do the same and it hid a very nasty personality quite well.”

Rather softly, Adam responded. “Pa, I’m not going to discuss Charity’s aunt with you.”

Moving to lean on the opposite side of the post, Ben nodded. “I understand.” And he did. He surmised that the problem was Charity’s Aunt Julia but that Charity had probably asked Adam to keep the issue confidential. Adam was not free to discuss it, but had said enough to his father to let him know. A few days later, as they prepared to ride to the party, Ben moved to Adam’s side as he was about to mount up on Sport. “I’ll do my best to keep Charity’s aunt busy, and I’ll put in a few good words for you too if it will do any good.”

Grinning, Adam nodded as he mounted up. “Thanks, Pa. Any little bit should help.”

Unfortunately that wasn’t true. There had been a running battle at the McCarren ranch since Adam had left. Charity had countered every argument that her Aunt Julia had made, but it seemed that there was an endless supply of nasty stories about Adam in her reticule. Each one was slanted to make Adam look bad even though the true story was usually the opposite. The only time that Charity had scored points was when her aunt moved into territory about which she apparently had little information.

“Now I know it was nice for the Cartwrights to work over here to curry favor with Todd, but is it necessary to invite them to the party?”

“Curry favor?”

“Yes, obviously they were here helping out to try to win Todd’s approval. He’s an influential rancher. They would want that especially with the record of transgressions that oldest son has accumulated.”

Both Todd and Virginia had not been able to hold back their laughter at that. Charity joined them as Julia and Prudence wondered what was so funny. They had seen how plainly the Cartwrights had dressed and seen them working like common laborers. They knew they owned a ranch, but the information that had been sent to Julia had apparently assumed that she knew about the Ponderosa and had not told her anything about the Cartwright holdings.

“Now what is so funny? I see nothing of such hilarity in what I said.”

Charity wanted to be the one to tell her but Virginia beat her to it. “The Cartwrights own the Ponderosa. It is the biggest ranch in Nevada and one of the largest in the whole west. It’s probably twenty-five times bigger than our ranch. They have investments outside of the ranch and even own a silver mine among other things. If Adam has his way, they’ll be diversifying even more.”

“They’re wealthy?”

“Very.”

“Then why did you dump Adam? You could have been a wealthy woman, a powerful woman? No wonder my brother was upset when you broke off that relationship.”

A bit uncomfortable with that turn in the conversation, Virginia didn’t respond so Charity had a chance to step in. “So it is all right for Virginia to marry Adam but not me? Why is that?”

“I’ve given you a host of reasons, but foremost among them is that he is too old for you, too, shall we say, experienced in the world. You need a young man and one who is more innocent. Now that young Cartwright, that Joseph seems more suitable. You should pursue him.”

“I don’t love him. I love Adam.”

However that train of conversation got Julia on another track with her daughter Prudence later. “You’re older and they’re haven’t been many men interested in you. You ought to go after this Adam Cartwright. You’re pretty enough and willing from what I can tell.”

“Mother!”

“Well, you do want to marry, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do, but I don’t think I want to marry a cowboy. I’ve lived my whole life in a city. How could I ever learn to like living out here?”

“These Cartwrights apparently have enough money. You heard what Virginia said. He could support you in style even if it’s not in a city. You would be like royalty out here.”

So by the evening of the party, Julia had a lot on her mind. She wondered how she could steer Charity toward Joe and Joe toward Charity, how Prudence could try to ensnare Adam, and perhaps how she might charm Ben. If a Cartwright was good enough for the younger Keith younger generation, she guessed she could give it a try as well. As soon as she saw the Cartwrights arriving, she was there at her charming best to try to sink her hooks into Ben. Quickly Prudence asked Adam if he could help her carry some things. He had wanted to see Charity first, but he couldn’t refuse the request from Prudence without seeming churlish so he complied although a bit begrudgingly. Once Prudence had Adam carry the boxes into the house, she steered him toward the bedrooms shared by her and her mother. Adam got a bit suspicious then but wasn’t too concerned until he was in one of the rooms only to find that Prudence had closed the door behind him.

“Prudence, let’s head back to the party before anything happens that we’ll regret.”

“I won’t regret anything that happens here with you.”

“Prudence, trust me, you will regret what happens here. Please move, and I’ll be on my way before anything happens.”

“Adam, I want something to happen.”

“Listen, I want to be gentlemanly about this but you’re making it very difficult.” Adam made a move to step around her and leave, but Prudence reached out her arms to try to embrace him. He pushed her arms down forcefully. Irritated, he pushed her back, but she pushed against his pressure and was stronger than he expected and pressed up against him. He couldn’t help it. He laughed. Prudence was surprised first, then shocked, and then embarrassed.

“How dare you?”

“How dare I? First I’m a ruffian, a murderer unfit to marry Charity. I’m too old, too dangerous, and all sorts of other derogatory drivel that your mother tried to use against me, but apparently I’m good enough for her daughter. Is it my money that you find attractive or do you like all those things that your mother says I am? Are you such a ridiculously hypocritical bitch that you would be willing to take me even if all those stories are true? This is a rather amateurish attempt at blackmail and shows how ignorant you are of such things. You should let your mother to her evil, and you should try to find a husband on your own. You obviously need one.”

Prudence began to cry in shrieking sobs and Julia burst through the door expecting to find her daughter in some compromising position with Adam. Instead, the two were six feet apart with Adam looking fiercely angry and Prudence sobbing. Adam stared hard at Julia.

“I suppose you were the architect of this.”

By then, Charity, Virginia, Hoss, Ben, and Joe had arrived as well. They listened as Prudence detailed how Adam had called her a bitch and said she was after his money as well as calling her ridiculous and ignorant among other insults. Julia looked at Charity.

“Now do you see what kind of man you intend to marry? He’s cold, cruel, and heartless as well as all those other things I’ve told you.”

Charity gave Adam a glare before coldly asking him to leave so that the ladies could attend to Prudence in private. He walked out with his family but before he could explain, Hoss poked a finger into his chest.

“That was right mean. You need to taste them words before you spit ’em out!”

That got Adam’s back up, but before any more could be said, Ben intervened and told Hoss and Joe to head to the party and try to make sure the other guests were having a good time. He stayed back to talk with Adam.

“Pa, do not start in on me.”

“I wasn’t going to do that. That appeared to be a rather blatant attempt to set you up. Don’t worry about Hoss. He’s a bit attracted to Prudence, and you know how he is if a woman starts crying. Charity too will come to understand what happened. It’s difficult when one sees a crying woman and an angry man standing there. I was suspicious as soon as she singled you out for that errand. It seemed much too contrived.”

“I thought so too, but I didn’t see that coming.”

“Perhaps it would be best if you wait for a chance to see Charity and get things straight between you but not spend too much time here where Julia gets to work her schemes.”

“You figured it out,”

“It wasn’t too difficult. I’ll do my best to keep an eye on her, and perhaps I can even get her to back off. Give it some time, but it might be good if the two of you are not in close proximity for a while. She can’t do much if you’re not here.”

Ben would have said more but Charity found them. Adam waited for his father to leave. “I did try to get her to stop before I laughed. It was just so ridiculous. I told her three times to get out of my way and let me leave. I tried to be a gentleman, but she refused to let me be civil about it.”

Charity rushed into his arms, hugged him, and kissed him fiercely. “I’m sorry, so very sorry. I’ve been so on edge for the last couple of days fighting with Aunt Julia. I took it out on you, and that was so very unfair, but when I saw Prudence crying, the anger in me that I had been holding in erupted. I know that you didn’t deserve anything like that. If anything happened, I know Aunt Julia set it up. You may not believe it, but Prudence is an innocent. She does what her mother tells her to do without question. She’s going to feel terrible later when she understands what her mother hoped would happen.”

“What did Prudence think would happen?”

“Her mother probably convinced her that you would fall for her charms. She’s quite desperate for a husband. She wants a man to pay attention to her, and that’s never happened for her. She needs a nice, gentle soul and her mother always steers her toward the wrong kind of man. It’s the biggest reason she isn’t married. Her younger sister Margaret is much like her mother and married a man her mother chose. You wouldn’t like either of them.”

“Probably not. Pa thinks I shouldn’t spend much time here. He’s concerned about the schemes your aunt is probably planning. He’ll do his best to corral her, but she seems to be unbreakable.”

“You talk about her like she’s a horse.” When Adam gave her that crooked grin she knew that was what he had intended.

“Are you in a mood for a picnic?” Charity grinned back at him. “Let’s get some food from the party, and I’ll take you on a picnic away from the turmoil. We’ll have our own private party and talk about our wedding.”

Once more, the couple reconciled, but Adam was beginning to worry about the effect that Julia could have on their relationship if she stayed much longer and their wedding was a month away. He did his best on the picnic to remind his fiancée of how much he loved her and desired her but knew too that Julia would be working her vile scheme again as soon as Charity returned to the house. Julia would probably be especially upset that her plan had not worked and that Adam had taken Charity away from the party.

Chapter 4

When Ben had a chance to talk with Adam on the Ponderosa, he made it clear he wasn’t pleased that his son had taken one of the family members hosting the party away from the party either. “You should have stayed and showed everyone that you were blameless too. By leaving, there was talk that perhaps something less than honorable took place. Charity being gone made it seem that you had created a division within that family.”

Those kinds of comments as if he was a schoolboy in need of instruction in the social graces had Adam immediately on the defensive and none too pleased with his father. “You were the one who suggested that I not spend too much too at that party. I was not going to run away and leave my betrothed there unescorted. She and I get too little time together as it is especially with her aunt doing everything she can to try to turn Charity against me. Charity needed to spend time with me as much as I needed time with her. It couldn’t be at the party and that was no fault of mine. I am not the one who created a division within that family. Julia is the same as her brother, and people will come to realize that in time. For now, my friends know better, and frankly, I don’t care what gossip mongers think.”

“Do you care about how your family feels about ya?” Hoss decided to make his feelings known. “When we left that party, that little gal was still stinging from what ya done to her. Those were pretty mean words ya used. I don’t know how you can be so cruel to her. She ain’t ever done nothing to ya.”

“She was trying to set me up so that her mother could insist that I have to marry her. That’s what she was trying to do to me. I didn’t cooperate in their little plot, and she wouldn’t take no for an answer. I’m sorry if she was hurt, but I tried to be a gentleman about it, and she wouldn’t let me.”

“You think you know everything. Did you ever think that maybe she liked you and that’s all it was? You mighta been only being nasty to an innocent gal?”

“This is ridiculous. You’re both trying to make it seem like it was a minor thing. Well it wasn’t, and I’ve had enough talk about this. I need to be ready for whatever plot Julia is cooking up next, and apparently I’m not getting much help here.”

Exasperated that things had turned so contentious, Hoss lost his temper. “Why can’t you ever accept that you might be wrong?”

“I can be wrong, but Charity and I know more about this than you do or than Pa knows. I’m done talking about it. I’m going to my room. I’ve got some thinking to do.”

Knowing that they had pushed too hard and too far, Ben was conciliatory but too late. “Son, we can talk about this. I don’t like to leave it like this.”

“Pa, there are things I can’t tell either of you. Without that information, you can’t reach a fully informed conclusion so it’s better to leave it as is for now. Eventually you’ll either hear all of it or it won’t matter, and we can forget all about this. All right?”

“I guess it has to be if you aren’t ready to say any more, but I wish you could trust us with the rest of the story.”

“It’s not that I’m not ready or that I don’t trust you. I made promises.”

There was a plea in Adam’s voice to let it go. Ben nodded understanding that those promises had probably been made to Charity. Hoss was still upset and didn’t understand how his father could so easily acquiesce but grudgingly did as well because his father had. It stood that way the next morning at breakfast when Adam made his request.

“I haven’t had a chance to go hunting in a long time, and we could use some fresh meat that’s not beef. We’ve had a problem with predators up in our northeast pastures so I could try to take care of that problem too. I thought I would take a week and go hunting if you can spare me. It would let things calm down around here too. Julia can’t work her schemes against me so easily if I’m not here.”

“Adam, I need you to go over those contract offers before the meeting in Sacramento in two weeks.”

“I’ll be back in a week to do that with you.”

“I would prefer to do those first and have you do the hunting after that.”

“Pa, there is no crisis with the contracts. Julia is creating a crisis right now. If I’m gone, she won’t be able to set anything up like she tried to do yesterday. Charity plans to spend more time in town so she has less contact with her. In fact, Charity asked if she could ride with you to church next Sunday. She said with Julia and Prudence there, it would be more comfortable for her to ride with you.”

“We could certainly do that. How is this plan the two of you concocted going to help?”

“We’ve moved up the wedding date to a month from now. Charity and Virginia have picked the date and have kept it a secret from Julia. Charity will make arrangements when she is in town. Virginia will do what she can without Julia noticing. Within a week, invitations will be going out, the banns will be published by the church, and the announcement will be in the newspaper. It will be very difficult for her to stop it at that point.”

“You and Charity worked all of this out yesterday?”

“Yes, and I worked out a few more details last night. I’ll talk to Charity when I go to church with her today. We won’t head back to the ranch until late so we have little or no contact with Julia.”

“What if Julia has other plans?”

“We’ll have to deal with them, but at this point you and Hoss probably have more to worry about than I do. Now I need to get going because I’m picking up Charity to go to church.”

After Adam left, Hoss questioned his father because he hadn’t been satisfied with what he had heard from his brother. “Pa, why does Adam think that Prudence was plotting against him? She didn’t seem like she’s that kind of gal.”

“Hoss, she may not be, but at this point she is following instructions from her mother, and her mother is that kind of woman. She is very much that kind of woman, and Adam has every reason to worry about what she might be plotting. Sadly as long as Prudence cooperates with her mother, Adam is going to have that attitude toward her. I think he was harsh with her, but it’s his life and his happiness that are at stake here. It’s put him on edge.”

“Well being on edge ain’t no reason to make a gal cry, is it?”

“Hoss, remember to get all the information before you draw a conclusion. Adam knows more of what’s going on than we do. We need to trust him. Perhaps you should talk to Prudence and try to find out what she knew and what she was told to do. If she is as innocent as you think she is, she’ll tell you, won’t she?”

Thoughtful, Hoss agreed and said that perhaps he would invite Prudence to take a ride with him that afternoon. When he did so later at church, Julia told Prudence to go with Hoss. She assumed Hoss wasn’t very bright, and because Prudence obviously had no chance with Adam, perhaps she could snare Hoss. It was an alternative avenue to some money that Julia could not resist pursuing. She advised her daughter to be friendly to Hoss and to consider him as a prospective husband.

“But Mother, I’m not attracted to him. I wanted someone like Adam.”

“He has money. That’s attraction enough, and besides, he’s not so bright, and that will make things much easier for us. Now go along with him and be nice to him.”

It was the beginning of her plan unraveling, but she was oblivious to it at that point having dismissed Hoss as of no concern. She had thought she would have to possibly charm Ben enough to get a marriage proposal from him, but if Prudence could snare a son, that would be so much better and far less of an imposition on her. She would have access to Cartwright money so that even if she failed to destroy Adam’s relationship with Charity and his reputation in general, she would be fairly well set anyway. She felt better having a contingency plan. She hadn’t had one when she had been content to live off her brother’s largesse. His death had left her in a lurch which she fully intended to avoid in her future.

Adam wasn’t the only Cartwright male then who was involved with one of the women from the Keith relation as Hoss and Prudence spent quite some time together that day. Adam picked up Charity and they attended church services together. When Adam saw Charity and explained what he intended to do, she was not very happy with the plan but accepted it as necessary. She knew it would be difficult though to put up with her aunt’s efforts to get her to break off her engagement to Adam without him to turn to for support. Finally, Ben was pulled into the mix when Julia manipulated him into agreeing to give her a ride home because Todd’s carriage was supposedly so full even though Charity wasn’t there and Prudence was leaving with Hoss. Ben only remembered all of that after he had agreed to give Julia a ride. It would not have been gentlemanly to remind her so he did as he promised but realized finally how clever the woman was and how correct Adam was to do his best to avoid being near her.

It was quite late in the afternoon when Hoss returned. Adam was packing for his trip, and Joe had decided to go with him so the two were together. Hoss walked in the house and asked where his brothers were because he had seen that the other carriage was back and that their horses were back as well. Ben told him the plan even though he wasn’t pleased at all with it.

“And how was your afternoon? Did you and Prudence have a pleasant time?”

“We did. Pa, we did get around to talking about what happened between her and Adam. She claims he was mean for no reason and said her mother never told her to do nothing.”

“And?”

“She was a mite upset when she was telling me. Her cheeks was red, and she couldn’t stop rubbing her hands together and such. Pa, she was lying.”

“You’re sure?”

“As sure as I can be. She couldn’t look at me when she was telling me any one of those things. It was like she was feeling real bad about it.”

“So you won’t be seeing her any more, I guess.”

“No, I like her, and her being so embarrassed about having to lie, well I understand it. She did it to protect her mother. She was doing what her mother wanted her to do. I think she needs somebody to say she ought not to be doing everything her mother says. It’s like a conversation I had with Adam once when he said Bill Enders killed Toby. Remember that? I said ‘I don’t know, Adam, but sometimes you seem to be the only one marching in your direction, and everyone else is going another way. Doesn’t it bother you to be alone like that?’ What he said stuck with me all this time. It kinda went like this. He said it didn’t bother him too much. He only had one good reason for that. He said ‘It’s better to be alone going the right way than following the crowd going the wrong way.’ Now I figure that Prudence has to be showed the right way and has to have somebody there to help her be strong enough to follow the right way cause she ain’t never had that. She done follows her mother cause it’s what she’s always done.”

“It’s difficult to get a child to go against a parent.”

“She ain’t a child no more. It’s time for her to show she can take care of herself and go the right way. In my gut, I got a feeling that’s what she wants to do. You know how I feel about gut feelings.”

“Julia probably sent her after you.”

“That’s all right cause I wanted her to catch me, but Pa, you know I got my eyes wide open on this one.”

Chapter 5

As Adam walked to the house on Sunday evening, he wasn’t looking forward to talking with his father or Hoss. He had spent a very enjoyable afternoon with Charity. The two of them had taken the carriage to where Adam hoped to build a home for them eventually, and they had stayed there talking and enjoying time with each other until they had to leave so that Adam could get her home before dark. Anything later would only have given her Aunt Julia more ammunition to use against him. As it was, she probably thought they spent too much unchaperoned time together, but in the west especially away from the cities, the rules were quite different than they were in Philadelphia. Adam thought that his father and Hoss were still upset with him and was pleasantly surprised by the warm greeting he got from both of them and Little Joe when he walked in and placed his hat and gunbelt on the credenza.

“Son, I’m glad you’re home. We were talking about you.” Adam frowned slightly and Ben was quick to explain. “Nothing to worry about. Little Joe would like to go with you on your hunting trip. It seems he’s a bit put out that none of the women seem interested in him.”

Joe was startled by that and looked affronted as Hoss began to chuckle and then did one of his deep booming belly laughs. Adam had to grin as well seeing the look on Little Joe’s face and thinking that the kid had a face made for the stage with those broad expressions of sadness or joy that he could muster at a second’s notice. Even their father chuckled at his youngest son’s reaction to his small joke.

“I wouldn’t mind some company. Whenever you’re hunting predators, it’s good to have someone watching your back.”

“I think that’s what I’ll be doing for Pa while you two are out hunting.”

Hoss had a grin for his father then as Adam frowned not knowing the meaning behind that statement. Ben sighed and decided he would explain before Hoss gave Adam a more colorful version.

“After you whisked Charity away in the carriage after church, her aunt decided that the McCarren carriage was still too crowded and asked me for a ride in our carriage. Then of course she asked for a tour of some of the Ponderosa, and next she wanted to see the house.”

Unable to help himself with such a topic, Hoss had to interrupt. “Yep, before you know it, people are going to be wondering if Pa is courting her. She shur made it look like she was on the hunt and he was what she was hunting.”

“Hoss, don’t even joke about a thing like that!”

Not only was Ben looking at Hoss daring him to say any more, Adam looked so affronted by the possibility that he had his younger brothers laughing heartily. Hoss had more to say then but on a more serious note.

“Adam, I gotta say I’m real sorry about all I said to you yesterday about things. I know Prudence was trying to set you up just like you said. I don’t think she knew then exactly what she was doing. She honestly liked you and thought she could get you to like her, but the rest of it, I’m sure was her mother’s doing. She’s not the kind to think up something like that on her own.”

“You know that much about her already?”

“I spent a lot of time with her yesterday, and I spent the afternoon with her today. Yeah, I think I know that much about her already. I plan to spend more time with her too. I hope you don’t have a problem with that.”

“Of course I don’t, but what about her mother? If this is her plan, you could be playing with fire. I’d hate for you to get singed.”

“Prudence said her mother told her to be nice to me.”

“And you know what that means.”

“Yup. She figures you’re too difficult, and she figures me for an easy mark, but I kinda like Prudence. I’m thinking that after today, she likes me some too. Maybe I can help her find the right way to go like you did with Charity showing her what her father was really like. You did the same for Virginia. It will hurt, but she needs to learn the truth and to stand up for herself and to do what she knows she oughta do and not what her ma tells her to do. Besides, Pa is the one you oughta be worrying about. I think that Julia has her hooks set to sink ’em in him and reel him in.”

With Adam looking at him in inquiry, Ben had to tell him the rest. “Julia asked me if I had time to give her a ride to town tomorrow to do some shopping. She said that Charity is going but will be in town before the shops open and be there all day. Virginia is still very busy with the new baby, and Todd has ranch work he has to do. She practically begged, and I couldn’t say no.”

All Adam could do was grin as his family was beginning to discover Julia’s true nature. He now had allies in his fight against her. Charity was the one about whom he was worried though. “Charity is having a hard time of it in that house with Julia constantly harping at her. She’s doing her best to avoid having to be with her and listen to her complaints about me. It would be good for her, Pa, if you could get Julia away from there at least for a while to give her as well as Virginia and even Prudence a breather from her. That would be a kind thing for you to do.”

Giving his son a long-suffering look, Ben agreed and his younger sons were gracious enough not to laugh. With a heartfelt thank you, Adam asked Joe if the two of them could plan out a route to take and what items they would take with them. They also needed to consult with Hop Sing about provisions. Hoss was slightly perturbed because he would have more work to do for a week, but he also had free rein with Prudence because Adam had stated no objections. In his mind, the week might work out well anyway.

For Ben, things went very much according to plan for the first couple of days. Ben took Julia to town for shopping, and she managed to get him to take her to lunch too where he introduced her to the ladies from the church service group who were having their weekly social. They invited Julia to join them the next day, and much to Ben’s shock, she agreed to do that. Of course, on the way home, Julia again insisted that Ben go by a more scenic route to show her more of the Ponderosa. He knew it was a ploy to get more time with him and to work on him, but it gave him the same opportunity.

“Aren’t you terribly disappointed in Adam?”

“Not at all, ever. He makes me very proud.”
“But he has murdered men. How can you be proud of that?”

“Adam has never done that. It is true that he has been forced into situations where he has killed men when defending himself and others. He will do what is necessary, but each death has weighed heavily on him. I remember when he taught Little Joe to shoot. I overheard him telling Little Joe what a big responsibility it was carrying a deadly weapon because if he ever was forced to take a life, he would carry the burden of it for the rest of his life.”

“And yet he has done it over and over again.”

“Why do you persist in trying to denigrate Adam when everything you have to say can be countered with facts that make your points moot? It seems you had it in for my son before you ever knew him. Is there some motive at play here of which I am unaware? Who has been giving you this information and trying to make you an enemy of my son for no good reason?”

In a defensive posture and attitude that Ben could not miss, Julia countered with her usual arguments. There was nothing new. There had not been anything new since she arrived. It was two days later before Ben knew why. Hoss had gotten away on Tuesday to visit with Prudence. She had been told by her mother to be nice to Hoss so she was. Hoss knew that if he got her to break free of her mother, one consequence of that might be that she no longer would be nice to him, but he was willing to take that chance in order to help her. He had some interesting information for his father.

“Yeah, Pa, she wasn’t even planning to come out here for Charity’s wedding. She said it was too far, too wild, too expensive, and such. Then her ma started getting these letters from someone in California. She musta got some money too apparently cause suddenly they could afford the trip too. Prudence told me all that when she was saying how much she missed Philadelphia and how she had nothing to do here. I guess she likes to work with children and had a job there working with some.”

“So there’s someone else behind all of this. Julia is not working on her own.”

“Seems that way. Somebody got her to come here to make trouble for Adam and Charity. Now who would do that?”

“Hoss, I can think of one person who has money and a grudge.”

After only a short time of thought, Hoss had the same thought as his father. “The Toad! He’s the only one who would have a grudge and know how important Charity is to Adam right now.”

“It has to be, and if it is, then he’s probably nearby. He would want to see the results of his work. But at some point, he’ll need to contact Julia again because she’ll need more money and more information if she’s to keep this smear campaign going.”

“Pa, how we gonna watch her so we can see her meet with him?”

“We can’t, but now we know what Todd and Virginia can do for us. They said they would help, and this is one more thing that they can do. Next time you go see Prudence, be sure to find a little time to have a chat with Todd. That will seem very natural to all of them. If I have a reason to go there first, I’ll do it, but we need to find out where Morris Mann is. We need to deal with him once and for all. Now, did you and Prudence have a good time when you weren’t getting information from her?”

“Pa, a gentleman don’t tell, now, does he?”

But Hoss’ grin and slight tinge of pink in his cheeks told his father all he needed to know. It seemed that Prudence might be finding that there was more to his middle son and that she was finding those qualities very attractive after all.

On the McCarren ranch at about that same time, Prudence was being grilled by her mother as to how things were progressing with Hoss. She told her mother that things were going as planned, but they weren’t going that way at all. She was supposed to be manipulating a dull-witted man into marriage so that her mother could work a scheme to grab some of the family wealth before they had the marriage annulled. Instead, Prudence was finding all sorts of wonderful qualities in Hoss. She wouldn’t dare mention any of that to her mother, but Hoss was gentle, kind, and considerate. Prudence had never met a man who listened to her, cared about what she said, and treated her like a lady. She was afraid that she was falling in love with him and was very afraid of her mother’s reaction if she dared to do that or even mention the possibility. But she had kissed Hoss because her mother had told her she should let him have that liberty. Except that it hadn’t happened that way at all. When Hoss had touched her cheek and turned her face to his before gently kissing her, she had no thoughts at all other than enjoying the kiss and wanting more. They had kissed more and the kisses had grown more passionate, and Hoss had held her close and made her feel like a treasure. She had never felt like that in her life. If he could do that in one afternoon, she dreamed of what it would be like to be with him longer and wondered if that was a possibility.

In town, the rumors were flying, but they weren’t about Hoss or Adam. They were about Ben. On Wednesday, Julia had joined with the ladies service group from church and when they asked about Ben, she talked about how Ben had given her a ride home from church just like young couples were wont to do, how Ben had twice given her long tours of the Ponderosa stopping at vantage points along the way to enjoy some time to partake of the delights of the scenery with the accompanying winks to hint that it meant more than she was saying, and how Ben had taken her to town for shopping and then to lunch before another of those long rides on the Ponderosa. By the end of the meeting, every woman there was at least half-convinced that Julia was going to be the next wife of Ben Cartwright and that talk was spreading all through town. Adam had ordered some special wedding decorations, and when they arrived on Friday addressed to Mister Cartwright on the Ponderosa, it only fueled the gossip as people seemed to forget that Adam and Charity were planning their wedding.

Chapter 6

The next day while riding along a ridgeline, Adam spotted a dead heifer. He signaled to Joe who was a short distance away, and after Joe turned to follow him, he rode to the dead animal. He was surprised to find that the animal had been shot and the hind quarter had been cut mostly away. He stood and looked all around to see if there was anyone within sight. When Joe got there, he noted that Adam had pulled his rifle from his saddle and was holding it in a ready position.

“I don’t know what I did, older brother, but whatever it was, I can tell you that I am genuinely very sorry.” Joe was grinning but his grin faded at the grim look on Adam’s face. “What is it?”

“Someone shot this heifer and took meat. You know how we’ve noted how each set of remains we’ve found seems to be missing a leg. You joked about the three-legged cows and heifers we had. We assumed though that a bear or other animal must have dragged off part of each carcass. This shows us that it was something else.”

“Someone is hunting our cattle for meat?”

“Looks that way. By the time we find the carcasses way up here, predators have been at them, and all evidence of them being shot and butchered are gone especially because the shooters only take a small amount of the meat. Each one then is a banquet for the bears and wolves. It’s drawing more of them in here too.”

“Who would do this?”

“That’s why I got my rifle. The only people I could think who would do it are men who are not used to living off the land and are hiding out up here.”

“But where are they living? We’re using the line cabin and no one has been there.”

“Yes, and there were no provisions there, no pot or pan, and no blankets. We assumed that people passing through must have taken the supplies, but what if it’s people staying up here and they needed those things?”

“I’ll tie off the horses, and we can look for tracks.”

“If we do that too obviously and we’re being watched, we could get shot. Let’s mount up and do a ride around part of the perimeter. From here, where would men most likely go?”

“You can see as well as I do that they would have come in the way we did or go out up the valley. Oh, I get it. They’re probably up that valley and in those trees if they’re watching. All right, we head back out and come back through the trees without being seen?”

“Yeah, that’s the plan.”

In order to be undetected, the brothers took nearly two hours to work their way quietly through the trees and found the signs they expected to find. Very cautiously, they followed those and after another two hours they were watching two men at a camp with an expensive tent and quite a bit of gear. It was clear that a small fortune had been spent on the supplies and equipment. Adam had to revise his opinion of why men would be up here hiding out especially after he saw the man sitting outside the tent waiting for the beef roasting over the campfire. He looked at Joe and grinned.

“I’m going to enjoy this very much.”

“Over the saddle whether we have to shoot him or not?” Joe grinned in response to his comment as well as to Adam’s obvious enjoyment of the situation. An hour later, they were headed toward Virginia City to deliver two men to Sheriff Roy Coffee. Each of them had a large amount of roast Ponderosa beef to eat on the way, but their two prisoners were making the ride on empty stomachs. The search of the tent had revealed much valuable information, and Adam and Joe had found it all very enlightening. They looked forward to confronting Julia with it, but first they were going to enjoy very much seeing the Toad behind bars with no likelihood that he would have any way to avoid a prison sentence. About halfway to town, Adam told Joe to ride ahead with the man who had been working with the Toad. Joe whispered a quick question.

“You’re not going to do anything to the Toad to get yourself in trouble, are you?”

“It’s tempting, but nothing will happen to him. No, what I want is for you to talk to the other man and make him an offer. Tell him we won’t press charges other than trespassing if he agrees to testify against the Toad. He’ll serve some time in jail but probably not more than the time needed for the trial and then he’ll be free to go. Compared to prison, it’s a great deal. He would be a fool not to take it. Sell it, Joe. You’re good at that.”

Tipping his hat in farewell and in acknowledgement of the compliment, Joe told the accomplice to move on ahead. Toad complained and looked worried, but there was nothing he could do about the situation. He was clearly scared that Adam was going to do him harm. By the odor emanating from him, his bladder had expressed his fear for him. Adam rode a bit further away and continued toward town without saying anything. When he got to Sheriff Coffee’s office, Roy insisted that Clem take the Toad out behind the jail and had him strip and put on clean clothing from his saddlebags. Luckily Adam and Joe had allowed the two men to pack some clothing before taking them to town. As expected, the accomplice was telling all to Roy. Morris Mann, the Toad, was furious, but there was nothing that he could do. Roy had Clem lock him in a cell in the back as all attention was on the accomplice and getting his statement and getting it signed and witnessed. Once that was accomplished, Adam and Joe were ready to head home. Roy had some news that shocked them and made them ride home at a furious pace.

“The news about your pa is all over town. I’m guessing this news is gonna change things.”

“What news?” Adam and Joe almost chorused the question.

“Well, for a couple of days now people been talking about that Miz Julia telling the church ladies that she and Ben was getting married.” Roy was grinning because he knew it was gossip but also knew how upset Ben would be to hear what had happened. When he hears all this about the Toad and then hears what she done told folks, well, I gotta say I wish I could be there to see that.”

While Adam and Joe took off for home to talk with their father, Hoss was with Prudence. The two of them had been spending more and more time together. Prudence did find that she was learning to respect Hoss and to like him. However, the one huge obstacle was that she couldn’t imagine living in the west and couldn’t imagine Hoss living in a city. The two of them could be friends but she couldn’t see it going any further than that even if her feelings for him were growing exponentially. She had never been in love before and wasn’t at all sure what she was going to do. She wanted to speak with Charity about it but didn’t think that her cousin trusted her. She couldn’t blame her for that after what she had tried to do. She guessed that Charity didn’t trust her but was surprised when Charity brought up the subject with her.

“Pru, Hoss is a very special man. I don’t want to see you hurt him.”

“Charity, I won’t hurt him. I like him very much. What I tried to do with Adam, well, I guess you know it was because mother asked me to do that. I’m very sorry about that. Hoss has told me about Uncle Lem. I guess mother is like her brother. When did you realize your father wasn’t a good person?”

“It wasn’t like I knew it one day. Realization came slowly at first. I didn’t want to believe it.”

“I think I had that feeling about Mother too. I didn’t want to believe it, but after what she wanted me to do with Adam, and then when Hoss explained why she wanted me to do it, well it made more sense the way he explained it than the way she explained it. When I asked her about it, she agreed with the way he said it. Then she said I should go after Hoss and marry him so we could get some money before we had the marriage annulled.”

“She told you that?”

“Yes, she thinks I’m doing what she wants, but I told Hoss what she told me to do. It took a while to be honest with him, but he’s the best person I’ve ever known. I can’t help myself when I’m with him. He makes me be a better person.”

“Pru, you are a good person, I think, if you follow your conscience and your heart instead of your mother’s schemes, you’ll be a happier person too.”

“But I’ll be all alone. Mother will disown me if she finds out that I’m not doing as she told me to do.”

“Pru, you won’t be alone. Adam and I will help you. I’m sure that Hoss will help you. The Cartwrights help many people never abandon people who need help.”

Armed with that information, Prudence tried to think of a way out of her dilemma and couldn’t imagine how she could manage it. Without confiding everything to Hoss, Prudence spent time with him as a way to reassure herself that being with good people was a better way to live life. Hoss had asked if he could take her on a picnic, but before they got to the meadow where Hoss had planned the picnic, a hand came to tell him that he was needed back on the ranch. He apologized and said he could have someone drive her back home, but a prize mare was delivering a foal and was having severe difficulties so he had to be there to try to save both.

“No, Hoss, I’ll go with you. I’d like to see you at work.”

“It could be difficult. Things don’t always work out the way we want ’em to.”

Prudence had a momentary attack of nervous stomach but took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “I’ll be fine.”

Hoss nodded. “I’m proud of you. You’ll do fine.” He meant it for more than that afternoon too. Happy to have her at his side, he returned to the ranch and moved quickly to where the mare was and started giving instructions to the men who were trying to help the mare who was in distress. Two hours later, the foal was born. Hoss grabbed it in his arms and handed straw to Prudence who stood beside him in shock at the delivery. She had seen nothing like it ever in her life. As Hoss vigorous rubbed the foals chest and throat, he told Prudence to poke its nose with the straw. Hoss begged the foal to breathe and worked to get it to breathe. It took what sounded like some little sneezes but then began to breathe. Hoss encouraged it over and over to breathe more. When it began to breathe more normally and opened its eyes, Hoss helped it to stand. When it managed to do that even if it was a little shaky, he looked at Prudence and grinned, and she grinned back before throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him. It was at that point that Adam and Joe arrived home.

“Well, older brother, there is a romance apparently but not the one that the gossips are talking about.”

“Certainly looks that way.”

Keeping his arms around Prudence’s waist, Hoss mostly ignored their comments and welcomed them home. Prudence was a little embarrassed but when Adam and Joe acted as if it was not a big deal, she relaxed and listened to the brothers talk. When they told Hoss what they had heard in town, Hoss began laughing but Prudence was shocked. She had no idea the scope of what her mother had been doing. Now she knew. Any loyalty she had to her mother was gone. Hoss said he would stay with Prudence letting his brothers have the pleasure of telling their father. It was no pleasure of course. Ben was angry, but when Adam and Joe told him about the Toad and what his accomplice had admitted, Ben was satisfied that the whole mess was almost cleaned up. There was still a little time left in the day so Adam decided to ride over to talk with Charity especially because he wanted to tell her about the Toad and what he had found out. When he got there, Charity was not in a good mood. Adam could hear her aunt in the house complaining about Charity talking with him outside.

“It’s been very difficult being her with her without any support from you and not even a way to get away from her for respites.”

“You’re mad that I went hunting?”

“Well, yes, no, oh, I don’t know. When you have someone like Aunt Julia in the house, it’s very difficult to think logically.”

“We found that it wasn’t normal predators killing our cattle. It was two men. The Toad and a man he hired.” Charity was shocked. “He was hiding there because he wanted to be close when his plan worked and my life was shattered when your Aunt Julia’s plan worked. He’s the one who sent her the information, the money, and the encouragement to ruin our relationship. If she succeeded, he had promised her ten thousand dollars. It’s already in a bank account in her name, and she gets access to it when you spurn me.”

“That’s diabolical. She’s got to be punished.”

“He’s in jail, and he will go to prison because he was killing cattle on our ranch. Roy doesn’t know of any law that she broke though.”

“It was a conspiracy.”

“It was, but not to break a law.”

“You have to do something. Roy has to do something. I can’t do any more than I have done already.” Adam was frowning and Charity misinterpreted the look. “You don’t have to look so angry. You look like you might regret asking me to marry you.”

“No, don’t ever say that, and I’m not angry, but sometimes I do wish I knew how to make you stop talking when I’m thinking.”

“Oh, I believe you know that already.” Adam stared at Charity so intensely then that he made her uncomfortable. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

“Usually you don’t mind me looking at you.”

“I do when you look at me like I’m a pot of honey and you’re the hungry bear.”

“Now, sweetheart, you’re not afraid of what I might do, are you?” Adam moved closer to her and she backed up a bit involuntarily but then pushed out her chin.

“Of course not.”

Reaching out with a lightning move, Adam grabbed her and kissed her then and held her close whispering in her ear.

Pulling back, Charity had to see his face when she asked the question she needed to ask. “We can’t do that, can we?”

With a broad smirk, Adam had an answer for her. “We most certainly can. It’s one way out of this mess. No one can stop us. What do you think? Are you game to try it?”

“It’s bold. It will shock our families. It will scandalize some.” Adam smirked even more because he was sure he knew what she would say next. “You’re so confident of me aren’t you, but damn you, you’re right. Let’s do it.”

Chapter 7

The next morning, Ben headed to town to check in with Roy and to do his best to stop the rampant rumors spreading through town. When he arrived in town, he was dismayed that one of the first people he saw was Julia whom he had hoped never to see again. He thought that Adam would have confronted her and that she would have been getting ready to leave town. Instead, she was infuriated saying that she had heard that Adam had taken her niece to a hotel. She demanded that Ben do something about that. Ben was surprised only a little as he had guessed what had probably happened especially when Adam had not returned home the night before except to get a few things and tell them that he was going to be in town for a few days. Charity had been with him. And by her smile, Ben had not taken long to understand what his son was planning. He would have preferred a different solution but understood why Adam wanted to do it. So Ben had the hint of a smile as he marched to the hotel with Julia hot on his heels and looking righteously affronted. As he got to the front desk, he smiled at the nervous desk clerk who was looking beyond him at the angry woman.

“Hello, Charlie. Did my son check in here?”

“Yes, he did, Mister Cartwright.”

“Could I see the register please?”

Charlie turned the register around so that Ben could see it. Ben smiled broadly and turned it so that Julia could see it as well. Smirking, Ben watched in amusement as she looked at Adam’s well rounded flourish in the register which was how he had signed the ‘Mr. and Mrs. Adam Cartwright’ that Ben had expected to see written there. He asked Charlie for two sheets of paper and wrote a list of items on one sheet and a note on the other.

“Please have these things delivered to my son’s room for him and his wife. Send this note with those items please. Please bill all of it to me and include his room and any other expenses they incur here.” Ben handed a nice tip to Charlie who smiled a bit nervously.

“Adam said not to disturb him for anything.”

“He won’t mind this. If he does, tell him to take it up with me. Here, give me the note.” Ben added a postscript at the end of his note telling Adam to be nice to Charlie because he was only following instructions, and then told Charlie what he had done.

“Thank you, Mister Cartwright. That should take care of things.”

Slowly, Ben turned to Julia. A number of people had managed to follow the two of them into the hotel lobby without seeming to do that, but the lobby was inordinately crowded with people who had no business there and suddenly were very quiet and attentive too.

“Your efforts to destroy my son’s relationship with your niece are over. They’re married. Your partner in this endeavor, Morris Mann, better known here as The Toad, is in jail.”

Shocked at being thwarted and unmasked all at once, Julia gasped. “You can’t have me arrested.”

“I wish I could, but you’re probably correct. I’m sure that Roy is searching the laws for anything we could use but being a lying, conniving witch of a woman who would do anything for money including destroying her niece’s happiness is probably not a crime against man although your Maker probably has an entirely different opinion of your activities. I suggest you leave town before you find that Roy has found a law that applies to the lies you have been telling.”

The crowd parted like the sea before Moses as Julia turned to leave. Their hostile looks let her know that there was no sympathy for her. It was over. She walked to the carriage that she had been using and quickly left to return to the ranch for her luggage. She knew that it was time to leave. Unfortunately she had no idea where she was going nor what she was going to do. She thought that she and Prudence were going to have to impose on Todd and Virginia for money to travel and then they would need money to live. She had no idea yet that Prudence might have other ideas.

In the hotel, away from all the turmoil, Charity leaned back against Adam’s chest as he stroked her arm and kissed her shoulder and neck. She had longed for his intimate touch and feared it at the same time. Yet the reality had been so different than anything that she had expected. He had been fiercely passionate yet somehow gently patient with her when she had been hesitant. He had taken the time she needed to be comfortable with each step making sure that she was a willing participant each time. He had held her and kissed her gently when she had become nervous and hesitant telling her that he could wait, but she didn’t want to wait. Encouraging him to continue by touching him and kissing him in return, she had slowly been able to shed some of her inhibitions as she saw that she made him so happy by her touch. Asking what he liked had been a revelation as well. After a few hours in bed, she thought that she had become fully comfortable with being with her new husband but then she felt an urgent need and realized that to stand and walk away from him naked was making her nervous all over again.

“What’s wrong?”

“I need to use the water closet.”

“Of course. Go ahead. I’ll need to do that too. You go first.” As she hesitated, Adam seemed to understand. He had slid out of the bed and gotten the robe she had brought with her. He handed it to her and then walked to the opposite side of the bed and sat with his back to her. “Go ahead. I won’t look this time.”

Charity had been immensely grateful that first time that he had been so understanding. While she was gone, he lit a lamp. When she had returned, Adam was resting up against the pillows in the bed and had a big grin.

“Why are you smiling now?”

“You’ve wrapped my present again, and I get to unwrap it once more. It’s one of the best parts of being married. I no longer have to wonder what’s underneath all that wrapping. I can unwrap you.”

“I should get to unwrap too but you’re not wearing anything.”

“You could pull back the covers. You’ll have to be satisfied with that for now.”

She was and she did. Adam slid from the bed and gathered his wife in his arms. His hands slid down her sides to the sash of her robe opening it so that he could press his body next to hers. Soon they were again exploring and finding new ways to give and receive pleasure with each other before they fell into a deep and restful sleep in each other’s arms. In the morning, they had a repeat of that situation except when Adam moved to disrobe his wife, there was a knock on the door. He called out that he didn’t want to be disturbed and got a response that it was room service.

“I didn’t order any room service.”

“Your father did, sir. It’s a gift from him to you and your wife.”

With a smile, Adam asked Charity to step back away from the door. He pulled on his pants and opened the door so that Charlie could push a small cart into the room. Adam was going to pull a tip from his pocket when Charlie told him that his father had already taken care of that as well and then left. Adam picked up the note from the table, read it, and smiled.

“What is it?”

“Pa congratulated us and said this is for us to celebrate. He also said if I thought this was getting me out of a church wedding and a big party on the Ponderosa, I am very wrong. He’s waited too long to let me off the hook this easy.”

“I’m hungry. What did he send up?”

The newlyweds enjoyed their second meal as a married couple then. The next morning, they checked out of the hotel in time to see Julia boarding the stage. Todd, Virginia, and Prudence were there as well as Hoss. Adam held Charity back until the stage had pulled away, and then they walked over to find out what had happened. Virginia showed more spirit than she had for a long time. She was holding her baby but looked resolute.

“She expected us to support her. We said we wouldn’t but we would give her enough money to leave and to get a start somewhere else. She asked what she would do, and we told her to get a job. Our father supported her after her husband died, then Charity helped her, and then she got money from the Toad. It’s about time she took care of herself. No one owes her anything. She wanted Pru to go with her. I suspect she thought that Pru would get a job or she would get another scheme going and use her to get money.”

Standing with Hoss who had an arm around her shoulder in a protective mode, Prudence smiled wanly as she explained what had been a difficult decision for her. “I told Mother that I am done with all of that. I’m staying here. Todd and Virginia have agreed to let me stay in the addition now that Charity won’t be living there. I’ll help take care of the baby and the house and learn about working on a ranch. I do know how to cook and sew very well so there might be other things that I can do. I’ll work.”

Everyone noted Hoss’ big smile at Prudence’s announcement. He was looking forward to getting to know her better, and he was proud that she had decided to follow the right path instead of her mother. Hoss looked at his brother then.

“I thought you said the end of the month?”

“We decided to end all the turmoil once and for all. We’ll still have the church wedding and the party. Pa said we have to do that, and we want to do that.”

“Yeah, Pa told us that when he got back. He made a big point of saying none of us was ever gonna get out of having a church wedding and a big party unless we had the minister marry us at the party.” Hoss chuckled at that one. “I think he was trying to convince himself as much as me and Joe. He was happy though. We drank some champagne to toast your weddin’ even if you wasn’t there. Dang stuff tickles your nose even if it tastes good.”

“No one is going to mind that Charity will be living at the house then? I can’t get a house built for a while yet.”

“Nah, it’ll be great having a gal around the house. Charity, maybe you can teach Joe some manners especially about keeping his feet off the furniture. Pa would like that.”

The whole group chuckled about that, and then went to a restaurant for a lunch to celebrate the wedding before heading home. At lunch, Virginia made it clear that she expected Charity to have a fine wedding dress and have a wedding portrait done in the family tradition too. Soon all three ladies were going to be deeply involved in wedding plans. All the men could do was roll their eyes and hope for the best.

At the end of the month, a prison wagon picked up Morris Mann to take him away for his three year sentence at hard labor. Prison was going to be a hard place for a man like the Toad because the one asset he had, his wealth, was meaningless there. No one paid much attention to him leaving. In Sacramento, Julia started her job in a seamstress shop. Part of her compensation was that she got to live in the small room behind the shop. She would earn enough there to support herself but not enough to cause trouble for anyone. By working, she would be busy enough to be too tired to have the energy to plot and connive. Both Morris and Julia were bitter people but neither had the resources nor the opportunities any longer to cause trouble for anyone.

The next day, Ben Cartwright proudly watched as his eldest son said his marriage vows in church and brought the whole congregation to complete silence when he sang a hymn in honor of his wife and their families. The party was probably the biggest the Ponderosa had ever seen, and Hoss and Prudence danced every dance. She was amazed again at the big man never realizing that he could be such a wonderful dance partner. Ben watched them as much as he watched Adam and Charity. Joe walked up to him late in the evening.

“A penny for your thoughts, Pa.”

“It always amazes me how two wounded hearts, wounded souls, can come together and both are whole again, and perhaps even better than they were before.”

 

Tags:  Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Family, Hoss Cartwright