SUMMARY: Adam is back, but he and Joe are at odds. Ben is surprised to find out why, but the big surprise is in what the brothers reveal in their conversation.
rating = T word count = 1259
At Odds series
Only a Brother Can Know (by BettyHT)
At Odds (by BettyHT)
A Masquerade (by BettyHT)
Only A Brother Can Know
Sadly, to Ben Cartwright, it seemed nothing much had changed. He heard Adam and Joe arguing and sighed. Somehow he had hoped that his eldest returning home would be a good thing, but all that had happened so far had been that Joe’s anger was greater and Adam didn’t seem comfortable in his home. He feared he could lose both of them. Sitting at his desk, the ledgers open in front of him, he couldn’t bring himself to concentrate enough to work on them nor could he close that window that brought those angry voices inside. Jamie heard too and walked to his desk and talked softly so that the two men outside couldn’t hear.
“Pa, it’s going to be all right. Adam and me talked. He’s doing that on purpose.”
“On purpose? He’s purposefully stirring up enough anger in Joe to make him leave?”
“No, he said Joe had let everything get him down and numb. He’s trying to stir him up enough to fight back. He wants to see what he called his ‘old fighting spirit’ come out. He said if there was ever anyone who could make Joe want to fight, it was him.”
Leaning back in his chair, he regarded his youngest with some curiosity. “When did you and Adam start to talk so much?”
“You’ve been assigning us to work together, right? Well, it worked. We get along real well, or well enough. I ask questions a lot, and he likes to answer them. It’s a pretty darn good system.”
Jamie grinned then making Ben smile. At least he had two sons who could get along without fighting. The words outside though were getting more heated and he worried that Adam’s method might not work as he intended.
“Why did you ever come back?”
“It’s my home.”
“You sure never acted like it, and you weren’t here when we needed you. You didn’t come back when Hoss died. You weren’t here when I got married. You come slinking back to claim your inheritance when your whole world fell apart, I suppose.”
“My world didn’t fall apart.”
“Well mine did.”
“It didn’t.”
“You have no right to tell me about what I’ve lost. I lost everything.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“You’re a damn liar to stand there and talk that way. Shut up.”
“I won’t shut up because I know you haven’t lost everything. You’re too afraid to face life right now so you’re burying yourself in your sorrow.”
“I am not afraid.”
“You are.”
A fist connected with Adam’s chin at that point so fast he never saw it coming. Then there were more blows that he could barely fend off before they did irreparable harm. He didn’t strike back but did his best to defend himself until Joe had spent his fury and his shoulders were slumped and his head was down. By then, Ben and Jamie were on the porch too. Ben grabbed Joe.
“What is the meaning of this?”
“Pa, stay out of this. It’s between me and Joe.”
Ben wasn’t used to Adam using such a commanding tone with him. Then Adam did something that Ben would never have expected seven years earlier. He pried his father’s hands from Joe’s shoulders and had his father step back as he wrapped an arm around Joe. Adam was bleeding from his nose and lower lip but didn’t care.
“Pa, would you leave us alone, please.”
Shocked, Ben complied. The commanding tone of his son made arguing seem like a hopeless endeavor. Jamie smiled at him and took his arm.
“It’s going to be all right, Pa.” Looking back at Adam, Jamie wasn’t as sure but he prayed it would be.
Once Ben and Jamie were gone, Joe looked up at Adam and shook his head. “Why?”
“You had to get the anger out first. I love you, Joe.”
Unable to handle all the emotion and words he had never expected to hear, Joe began to cry. Heaving sobs wrenched his body for several minutes before he could stop. Once he got control again, he looked at Adam who was staring into the distance as if a world away.
“How could you know?”
When Adam spoke, his voice was soft. “I took a job in England. I met a wonderful woman there. She was twelve years younger, but we liked the same things and talked so easily together. We fell in love, and I knew I couldn’t leave unless I married her and took her with me. We were coming home and a letter would have arrived as fast as we would. She miscarried while we were on the ship. She hemorrhaged. No one could stop it.” His voice broke as he spoke because the raw emotion was still evident. Taking a moment to get his emotions under control once more, Adam continued. “The day we consigned her body to the deep, I stood at the rail and wanted to join her. I thought I had lost everything when I saw that shrouded body slip beneath those dark waves and considered that I had nothing to live for any more. It took everything I had there for a moment not to jump that rail. Then I thought about how we had talked of the future and what we would do and the people we would see. I could still do most of those things. When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around. I came home instead.”
Very softly, Joe asked only one question. “What was her name?”
“Marlene. Her father was English and her mother was German. I was in England when you married Alice. I didn’t get your invitation until I arrived home and got the bad news from you in the same batch of mail that was waiting for me.”
“And Hoss? Why didn’t you come home?”
“That telegram was forwarded to me. I got it while I was in England. I couldn’t have come home in any reasonable time frame. That’s when I met Marlene. She was my rock during that time. I might have fallen apart completely if not for her. One of the first things she said to me was that every man has to fight his own battle in his own way. It sounded so much like Hoss it was like he was there except he wasn’t. Dealing with his loss while I was alone would have been unbearable. Marlene was a godsend.”
“So you didn’t find out about Hoss’ death until long after it happened.” For the first time, Joe began to understand how difficult it had been for Adam to face the loss of Hoss when he lived so far from the rest of the family. Joe had his father, Jamie, Candy, and a few other hands to whom he was close and had known for a long time.
“Yes, it took quite a while for that mail to catch up to me. It’s why my letter probably arrived so much after the fact too.”
“I’m sorry I thought such bad things about you.”
“It’s all right. I counted on it.”
“We’re good now though, aren’t we?”
“We were always good, Joe. We had to remember how to show it.”
Tags: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Family, Jamie Hunter Cartwright, Joe / Little Joe Cartwright
Originally reviewed this story in 2018. I enjoyed it just as much today.
Thank you so much for the extraordinary compliment of rereading and commenting again.
My beginnings of my previous comment I had started seemed to disappear! Hopefully this is not a duplication of my unfinished comments. As I was commenting… In contrast, unlike your fan that prefers the shorter, I prefer the longer stories. The longer the better. There is a chance for plot and and character development. Unless a shorter story is a part of a series, I don’t Select it. The longer stories are like reading a novel that you can break into reading sessions over various sessions. I prefer stories that are apart of a long series. So you have a fan base that prefers the longer stories as well.
Thank you so much. Some topics are better handled as you say by development in a longer story. This series continues with stories that do work on more character development where this first story only dealt with one main issue.
Great story! I loved the sharing of the ways to get past those horrible times of losing so much. They still have each other. Since Adam was somewhat of a second father at times and a brother always, this was a wonderful way to show that.
Thank you so much. Yes, when they needed each other the most is when those two showed the depth of feeling they had.
Nice story. real nice interaction between Adam and Joe.
Thank you. Strong emotions in that interaction.
They both knew each other so well. 🙂
Thank you. Yes, knowing each other so will let one help the other too.
Love story about Adam and Joe, may always seem to disagree, but Adam seem to know what Joe and listen to him. Nice Jamie was in it to, sure they would have got on ok. Thanks for all the stories you write and post, I have enjoyed all of those I read
They have a complex relationship, and it’s fun to explore all the parts of it and not focus only on the fact that they can argue. They also talk about serious issues and they love each other. In this story, I tried to pull all three of those things together.
‘We were always good.’ I like that …
A hard time and hard story for Adam, but I like to see him here using that to help Joe. It’s what family is all about. Also — I’ve always thought Adam and Jamie would get along well. 🙂
Enjoyed, thx for writing!
Thank you so much. Yes, Adam is probably more like a father to Jamie than a brother but they seem like they would be compatible. In many ways, that was the relationship Adam had with Joe too and his instinct was to help his younger brother through the tough times.
I loved it!!!
Very touching and lovely story about these two brothers!
Thank you so much. These two brothers feel things very deeply and they needed to show that and did.
Adam understands what makes Joe tick and how to get him back to normal. This especially helps if he can truly empathize. Lovely story about the love and bond these two brothers have. The last line seals it.
Thank you so much. Yes, they had far more in common than they realized most of the time. They needed to talk more, and this situation brought them to that point.
Always love the interactions between Adam and Joe. Your story exemplified it extremely well. And, the length was just right for filling in a short period of time.
Their relationship is complex, but the love is there and as strong as between any two brothers can be. Sometimes it didn’t show because of the anger, but it was always there, and I wanted to show that. Thank you for reading and commenting.