Chapter 41

 

Reuben was dismayed at the lack of interest in his weekends adventures.   He had been used to his friends gathering around him, envious of his time with his Pa out in the wilderness and eager to hear the latest events, but that Monday morning, he found himself the victim of some newer and more interesting news.  Even Tommy who was always an avid supporter and listener of his tales was vague and shook his head and said “Heard it all before, Reuben…”

 

David Riley just said he didn’t want to hear all about another boring camping adventure, he had heard them all before, and when Reuben said that he was almost eaten by a bear, David had actually laughed at him.

 

“Wait until you hear Jimmy’s news…” Tommy said with a nod of the head, a very emphatic nod at that..

 

“What’s so important about Jimmy’s news. I bet he wasn’t nearly eaten by a bear, was he?” Reuben said with an attempt of a swagger in his voice.

 

“No,” Davy admitted with a shrug of his thin shoulders, “But then you’ve never had Mr Evans come to your house for supper, have  you?”

 

“Yes, we have.”Sofia replied as quick as a whippet, she had very fond memories of the time Mr Evans came and stayed with them at the Ponderosa, “and he slept in the spare room, too.”

 

Tommy sighed very heavily and shook his head as though to say, “Brave attempt but not good enough.” while Davy just tossed his head with the result his hair flopped over his face, and his grin showed too many teeth which made Sofia feel ‘mad’ inside with a longing to kick his shins.

 

Rose Canaday came and stood beside her looking curiously at them all, for she was a country girl too now, and no longer included with town gossip.  Annie Sales, followed by Betsy who was chewing on a toffee, came up and grabbed Sofia by the hand and led her away.    She could tell by the way her friend puffed out her cheeks that she was about to say or do something she would later regret.

 

More children were piling into the yard ready for the new day to start.   Mr Evans arrived and was greeted with a chorus of “Good morning,Mr Evans.” which quite startled him, he looked around and recognised certain faces, nodded, smiled rather anxiously, and then made his way to the school house.

 

“What’s going on?” Rose demanded from the town girls, Annie and Betsy.

 

“Mr Evans helped Mrs Carstairs move into the apartment above Miss Ridley’s store.” Annie whispered.

 

Rose and Sofia exchanged looked, frowned, and shrugged, they knew that, and they also knew that Mrs Sales had promised to prepare them a meal to save Mrs Carstairs time…so what was so important about that?   Reuben was hearing much the same tale, proving yet again that the old saying about the Mayor sneezing and everyone else getting a cold was still true, in Virginia City, whatever a man or woman did, was breakfast time gossip the next day, if not sooner.

 

 

“Mr Evans had lunch and supper with us, and he stayed at the Ponderosa too..a whole night…” Sofia said yet again just in case they had not remembered or heard her say so earlier.

 

“Hush now, Sofia Cartwright, we know all about that…” Annie sighed, and shook her head as though her friend exasperated her at times.  “Mr Evans stayed on and had supper with Mrs Carstairs.”

 

Again Rose and Sofia looked at one another and then at the other two girls.  “That was nice, Jimmy would like that too.” Rose said.

 

Annie tossed her head and her ringlets, always corkscrew tight and bunched together with red ribbons, bounced upon her shoulders.   She had the advantage over the other two girls who obviously had not been privy to the sharp tongues of their mothers who added far more to the story than was necessary, sprinkling the real facts with a good does of speculation and vinegar.

 

“But she’s a single lady and he’s a single man…” Annie said and blinked sagely behind her glasses doing a good impersonation of an owl.

 

That meant nothing to Rose nor to Sofia, they shrugged and looked over at the other children.  Rose said she was going to skip rope with Abigail Gates, and ran off leaving Sofia with the Sales girls.   Reuben was suffering just as much from his naivete as the girls, as Davy provided the details of what his mother’s sharp tongued speculation had conjured up during breakfast that morning.

 

When Jimmy arrived, just before the bell tolled to prepare the children for the classes, he was surprised to find himself the centre of attention, of Davy throwing a possessive arm about him and Tommy bringing up the rear behind him and ushering him up the steps to the big door of the school.   Reuben was left behind like so much flotsam as the surge of bodies propelled themselves up the steps, and for a long moment he stared up and around him like a lost soul.

 

Sofia joined him and slipped her hand into his, she looked up at him and frowned, quizzical and puzzled “Why is it, Reuben?  Why is everyone making so much fuss about Jimmy?”

 

Reuben shook his head, he hadn’t understood much of what Davy or Tommy was going on about,  Jimmy Carstairs was still just Jimmy Carstairs after all, nothing was going to change that!     He, Sofia and Rose trudged their way up the steps into the building, and entered the big hall.   Sofia glanced up at the beautiful stair case and suddenly realised she no longer felt that same enthrallment she had once done, she no longer saw herself the princess mounting the stairs to meet her Prince  Charming.    Somehow she felt she had lost something special, and with a puzzled feeling in her thoughts, she mounted the steps behind her brother.

…………………..

 

Miss Tyndale checked the books in her hand and with a sigh placed them into the box.  They were too worn to be of use anymore, leaves were falling out like those that hung upon the boughs of a tree, the last to fall to the ground when winter came.  The books would have to go, and it hurt her to part with them as they had been on those shelves for as long as she could remember.

 

She was also worried about Miss Godfrey who had arrived at work that morning looking, well, not to put too fine a point on it, not quite herself.  First thing Miss Tyndale had noticed was that Miss Godfrey no longer wore her hair in such a severe style, it was looser, prettier as it framed her face, instead of being scraped back into its severe top knot.   Also she had discarded her glasses, telling Miss Tyndale that she really didn’t need them as much as she had thought she would have done.

 

Miss Tyndale thought that latter was something of a miracle, one either wore glasses because one needed them or not!   But the woman was still a good worker, and very good with the customers, helpful and co-operative, and very sure to remind the noisier elements to be quiet as befits those attending the library.

 

But there was definitely something wrong, something different about her assistant and it piqued Miss Tyndale’s interest as to what it was, because it seemed to her, obviously, something to do with that dance.  Hadn’t she said no good would come of it?

 

Halfway through the morning, just as Miss Tyndale had sealed up the box of old books to be taken away, a  young man arrived looking rather anxiously around him until he recognised Miss Godfrey.   A tall,nice looking young man with a studious air and glasses.  She could remember seeing him going in and out of Roy Coffee’s house so had assumed, rightly, that he was living with the ex-sheriff.

 

“Can I be of assistance, young man?” she asked, bustling up to him with an official looking air about herself.

 

“I have a message for Miss -” the young man paused and looked over Miss Tyndale’s shoulder and smiled as Miss Godfrey appeared, “Ah, there you are…” he said and nodded at Miss Tyndale, dismissing her by looking directly at Elizabeth “Mr Woods will see you tomorrow morning if that would be convenient.  About 11 o’clock.”

 

“Thank  you, Mr Tombs.”  Miss Godfrey looked at Miss Tyndale “Would it be alright if I took that time off, Miss Tyndale, I will work through my lunch hour instead.”

 

Miss Tyndale fidgeted with her brooch, and fussed over her collar before she nodded, “Very well, but make sure it is only the hour.”

 

She watched the young man and Elizabeth as they agreed the time and then shook hands, as though a deal was done.   As Grant turned to go she watched him all the way to the front door, then turned to her assistant, “Mr Woods?   Is that Mr Hiram Woods?”

 

“Yes, I have to see him to discuss some things that are very important to – to events in my past.” Elizabeth replied and Miss Tyndale was quite sharp enough to notice the blush on her cheeks and the stammer in  her voice.

 

A mystery.   She drew in her breath and nodded, “I see.”

 

She saw nothing at all but stated the two words with the utmost conviction that she would find out and ’see’ in due course.   Miss Godfrey merely smiled, a rather shy reticent smile to be sure, but she didn’t look in the least bit concerned nor perplexed.  Busy little Miss Tyndale watched her assistant as she returned to her work, to her way of thinking a mystery indicated that lies had been told along the way … and Miss Tyndale had been raised to believe that there was no good lie, for a lie had been the cause of the first sin, and the first sin had led to ruination for all mankind.

 

She was wondering if she had been too hasty in hiring Miss Godfrey as her assistant, and now had to think of some way in which the woman could be dismissed.

 

Paul Martin checked over Joe Cartwrights arm very thoroughly, ignoring the groans and the sighs for he was well used to the vocal chorus that would come from this young man whenever he had cause to come into contact with him.

 

“Sit still, will you, young man!” He snapped, “You’re worse now that you were when you were an infant.”

 

“I can’t remember ever being an infant,” Joe lamented, and grimaced as the old Doctor coaxed the injured arm into yet another position.

 

“You’ll do fine.” Paul said letting Joe’s arm drop from his fingers, “It isn’t broken, just badly sprained.  Sometimes they feel more painful than an actual break.  You have my sympathies.”

 

He scribbled out a prescription and handed it over, “Wear the sling if it helps, don’t overuse the arm, you won’t be able to for a while, it will be too painful.   But when you can persist at it, don’t pamper yourself too much or it will not get any strength back into it.”

 

Joe nodded and stood up, slipped his arm into the sling and took the prescription. Paul frowned “I suppose Hop Sing has been giving you something to put on it?”

 

“Yep, of course.”

 

Paul nodded, “Well, keep using it, it’ll no doubt do you more good than anything I can give you.”

 

Joe grinned and was about to pick up his hat when the door opened and Bridie stepped inside, smiled at him and then turned to her husband,  “Are  you ready to come now, old man?”

 

“Ready and willing, my dear.” came the reply and Paul winked over to Joe, “ALways agree, it saves time and pain in the long run.”

 

Bridie shook her head and smiled, a smile as broad as ever and eyes twinkling with love and pleasure at seeing the man she loved even if it was only a few hours since she saw him over the breakfast table that morning.

 

“In the wars again, Joe?” she said nodding over at his arm.

 

“Slightly, Bridie, nothing serious.”

 

“And how’s Mary Ann?  And the children?”

 

“All well.” Joe replied feeling a sinking pit in his stomach as he remembered how cool they had been towards each other recently.

 

Bridie nodded, and her smile faded a little as she put her head to one side to observe him a little more closely, “You worried about that Meeting she and Peggy  Dayton are involved in on Saturday?”

 

“Yes, I am.” Joe replied, and he pursed his lips and shrugged, twisted his hat round and round between his fingers, “I am, Bridie.”

 

“So you should be,” Paul grunted and reached for his hat, “It’ll stir up a hornets nest.”

 

Bridie shook her head at him, as though warning him to be silent before she turned back to Joe.  “Best be prepared for trouble, Joe.   People talk, and I’ve not heard anything positive being said about this Meeting.”

 

“Mary Ann believes it to be a fair and honest cause, Bridie.   She wants the best for women everywhere, same as Peggy.”

 

“And I understand Lucy Garston has got herself entangled with it as well.  Not that I’m surprised by that, she;s a pampered young woman with too much time on her hands, and not enough to do …but she’s also a prisoner of her mother’s vile tongue and temper and her father’s dithering and ineptitude.”  Bridie patted the younger man on the arm, and shook her head, “Right now I would say isn’t the right time for this, women in the main aren’t hungry for education, for advancement, for doing things that many assume only the wealthy can possess.   Those that do .. Follow the course of wisdom and show patience.  It’s like farming, dear, one has to follow the seasons.”

 

Joe frowned, looked at her thoughtfully and wondered if she had taken leave of her senses, but she seemed to know what she was talking about because she gave him a sicnere kindly smile before turning to Paul, “I thought you were in a hurry, my dear, come along, or you’ll be late.”

 

Both Paul and Joe promptly put hats to their heads and followed Bridie out of the surgery, the door was closed behind the good Doctor, and then they parted to go their separate ways.

 

Joe clambered aboard the wagon seat and leaned back to think over what Bridie had said, he wasn;t aware of Hoss’ presence until the wagon lurched to the side and Hoss settled beside him, took the reins and released the brake.

 

“You alright, you look a million miles away?” Hoss said as the horses trundled forwards.

 

“Huh, no, just wishing I were….” Joe sighed and lowered his hat to cover his face.

 

Chapter 42

 

Returning home after a few days absence meant that Olivia had a busy morning which kept her occupied and prevented her from thinking too much and too often about Miss Godfrey.     Even with the help of Cheng Ho Lee there was still a heavy work load ahead of her plus having to accommodate the quilting session that afternoon, something she had completely forgotten about until Cheng Ho Lee mentioned it.  That meant four adults and the children to be catered for which put her into a whirl of activity.

 

Occasionally Olivia did allow herself to think of her conversation with Adam and their decision for Sofia to meet the Assistant Librarian as soon as possible.   But each time the thought of it  trickled into her head she dismissed it blithely with the excuse that she was far too busy to go anywhere ‘today’, and then she breathed a sigh of relief and got on with the task she was facing at that precise moment in time.

 

Nathaniel kept running up asking her for the cat, and looking dismayed when being told the cat was at Aunt Marcy’s which led to various questions as to why they didn’t have a cat at home, could he have a cat, why could he not have a cat and just as she was about to lose her patience with him he would change tack and ask when Hannah and Hope were coming to play, was Daniel coming too?  And was Big David as well?  He obviously dismissed his cousins Erik and Constance and placed them in the same category as the babies he had left behind, with the cat, at the Double D.

 

He became naughty, running around the furniture, knocking over an ornament which she was just able to catch in time before it hit the floor.   He wanted to go out to play, he wanted to stay indoors and sit, he wanted this and then he wanted that until she ordered him to his room to sleep for a little while before his cousins came.

 

He went to his room but he didn’t sleep.  She could hear his footsteps as he ran round and round,  thud thud thud…until in the end she had to go upstairs to see what he was doing, and found him hanging half way out of the window as he attempted to see just how good he was at climbing over the shingles.

 

Thankfully Cheng Ho Lee prepared some lunch during which Nathaniel nodded off to sleep, his exertions proving too much even for him and to her relief he caused no more trouble as he slept through the hour.

 

Mary Ann, with Daniel and Constance arrived first swiftly followed by Ann and David, then Hester with Erik and the girls.   They all wanted to know if she had had a good relaxing time with Marcy, and how was Marcy, and how were the children?  Such a babble of voices, shrill laughter, giggles,  children running here and there getting underfoot, Erik bawling because he had a new tooth coming through and Nathaniel getting excited again at seeing all the children and shrieking with the sheer delight at having company again.

 

“It was much easier when they were all small, like Constance.” Mary Ann sighed as she watched Daniel running out into the yard shrieking like a wild Indian with the other boys behind him, while Hannah and Hope sat close to Constance, playing with their dolls and wondering between themselves if Sofia would ever get a doll house of her very own.

 

Ezra came out of the stables and found a rickitty old chair which he placed in a strategic area of the yard so that he could keep an eye on the boys.   He appointed himself as overseer of this wild band knowing how little boys could get into numerous scrapes and injure themselves by climbing into hay lofts and falling out of windows or down ladders.

 

Hester rolled out the latest quilt which they surveyed with a critical eye before agreeing that it was coming along very nicely.  Hannah was called along to join them, being given her own little squares to practise on, after all she would soon be going to school and was now old enough to learn how to sew a square for the quilt.  She did it with better grace than Sofia ever had, being a biddable child she sat quietly by and sewed contentedly.

 

Hope, ever gentle and sweet by nature, looked after baby Constance who was not too bothered about being looked after as she had been well fed before leaving home and only wanted to go to sleep.  Erik had been given a cookie to test his new tooth on and was happy enough doing that…so Hope, feeling redundant, went out to find Nathaniel and play with him.

 

Talk led to how each of them had spent their weekend…so they learned that Peggy had been disagreeable, which led to Olivia telling them about Johnny Tall Bear arriving at the Double D to tell them he had met Peggy, and Mary Ann added her information, which led Ann to ask her if they were still going to go ahead with the Meeting on Saturday.

 

Mary Ann lowered her head, she sighed heavily, “Joe doesn’t want me to, and I feel so torn.  I just don’t know what to do for the best.”  she looked at her three friends, women whom she loved and trusted, “I made a promise to Peggy, and we are committed to holding that Meeting I suppose but my heart isn’t in it anymore.”

 

“Have you written out your talk yet?” Ann asked,  her voice containing just the slightest chill and she glanced at Hester who had nudged her with her elbow as though to warn her to temper her words and calm down.

 

“Yes, that’s the trouble, Joe read it and thinks I was intimating that we – that’s all of us – were oppressed women, hard done by and mere chattels.”   even as she said it she could feel the heat rising above her collar and she looked down at the quilt rather than see their expressions.

 

The other three women looked at one another, Ann bristled and pursed her lips into a tight little button of irritation, Hester shook her head and frowned and Olivia released a sigh, “I think that is a bit strong, Mary Ann.”

 

Mary Ann nodded “I have re-written it, but now I think it has gone the other way, a bit like some stupid woman  bleating about how unfair life was for us all, and how much better it would be if we could be equal to men.”

 

Ann sighed and shook her head, “We’ll never be equal to men.”

 

“Why not?” Mary Ann immediately retorted back and then she laughed and shook her head, “Oh dear, I’m sorry… I just can’t seem to stop myself. I know we’ll never be equal to men, but we should be treated -” she paused at the mutinous look on Ann’s face and the way Hester was biting her lip and Olivia was concentrating on the next square.  “It’s alright, I’ll not say another word about it.”  she looked at Olivia “What did Johnny Tall Bear have to say, Olivia, did he want to see Joe at all?”

 

“No, all he wanted was food in his stomach and his horse cared for…Luke gave him some decent clothing.  Life on that reservation has become terribly hard.”  she snapped off some thread and smoothed down her square, then picked up another piece of material “He said that the people are dying, there’s barely a handful of them left now.”

 

“Perhaps we should hold another meeting,” Ann said bluntly, “and get the people in town to rally round and help their Indian brothers, they did it once before, didn’t they?”

 

“Several times,” Hester said, “and the townsfolk were very generous but I rather think the money went into the Agents’ pockets.”

 

They lapsed into concentrated silence as they continued with their task, every so often Hester would turn to assist her daughter, before returning to her own work.  Hope and Nathaniel came indoors and began to play quietly in the corner while outside the older children yelled and played with their faithful old watchdog dozing in his chair ’watching’ them.

 

“Where is Peggy today?” Mary Ann asked and Hester shrugged and shook her head, looked at her cousin, Ann, who didn’t know, and then at Hester who suggested that she may have gone into town.  Mary Ann said nothing to that, only concentrated more seriously on her quilting.

……………

 

Daniel deQuille took his time reading through the notes that Peggy had penned down for him for his latest article about the Conquistadors.  Her comments with regard to the Indians were noted, and underlined with red ink.  He nodded and hemmed and hawed and then said he would get it printed up for her so that it would be in the next edition.

 

After that assignment had been completed Peggy strolled out to post her mail to the Smithsonian, a package containing notes, sketches and suggestions.   She then posted another letter to Maurice and was quite surprised when Eddy handed her a letter, with a smile, “All the way from England, Miss Dayton.”

 

She put it into her purse and smiled her thanks before she stepped back outside.  She looked up and down C Street.  She could hear the sound of children shouting and laughing and chattering and made her way over to the school building which she observed with some admiration.    When she had been old enough to go to school it had been one of the single roomed buildings built for the purpose, the one closest to her home and the Ponderosa.  It had been stiflingly hot in summer and freezing in winter.   She could still remember getting chilblains and wondering what had happened to her fingers and toes for them to hurt so much.

 

But her teacher had been a sweet natured young woman who had encouraged her to enjoy what she was learning.   She had proven to be an adept student, intelligent and well behaved. She had loved being at school.

 

“A nickel for your thoughts?”

 

She turned quickly and smiled as Lucy Garston nudged her arm and smiled at her, her eyes twinkling “Would you like to join me for some coffee and some cake…Whitneys has a splendid selection.”

 

Arm in arm they made their way to the Whitney Hotel and restaurant, giggling as they went and Peggy thought how they were behaving like two school girls who had skipped school lessons for the day.  But they finally found their place in the restaurant and ordered their coffee and selected their cake, then sat back and observed each other

 

“Well, have you got everything organised for Saturday?” Lucy asked, “I’ve a short talk – a discourse rather – which I thought I would deliver before we close.”

 

“Have you got it on you now?”

 

Lucy nodded and opened her purse, a rather large commodious one that surely belonged to her mother.  She produced an envelope and extracted several sheets of paper which she handed to Peggy.  She was an articulate young woman, held back by her parents and had never felt that she could ever achieve anything in her life while they were living.  She had at times contemplated murder but being a well brought  up young lady and rather squeamish as well as having a crush on Nate Carney, she had not ’gone through with it.’

 

She smiled, gazing into the air and imagining herself delivering the most wonderful oratory at this first meeting, the first, she was convinced, of many.   In her mind she was going to travel all over the States of America with the same evangelical zeal of a missionary to spread the word of emancipation.

 

“It’s very long.” Peggy said quietly after a few minutes silence while she read through Lucy’s closing comments “I thought  you were going to just do a summary of the meeting?”

 

“I Haven’t seen Mary Ann’s talk yet…and of course, the question and answer session you are conducting could be longer – or shorter – than we envisaged. I thought this would be the best length, which can be shortened if necessary.”  she smiled primly, an art she had learned from her mother.

 

Peggy nodded and slipped the pages back into the envelope “I have a feeling that Mary Ann will not be giving her talk.   She doesn’t want to upset her husband“

 

Lucy nodded, and thought back to when she was younger and Joseph Cartwright had been single and he had been her very first ‘crush‘.   She had  been a schoolgirl at the time,  and had often told her girl friends that the sight of Little Joe Cartwright riding through town on that paint horse of his, gave her the vapours.  There were others who agreed that they had felt just the same way.  Now, when she looked back on that time, which was not so long ago really, she thought it was all rather silly.   But at the same time she could understand Mary Ann‘s reluctance to upset Joe.

 

“I think a lot of women may feel just the same way,” she observed quietly, “this is all very new to them.  Quite irrational I should think …”

 

“Revolutionary.”  Peggy replied and paused as the waiter placed a selection of cakes and all the coffee fixings on the table, she thanked him and then looked at Lucy, “If she doesn‘t do her talk, perhaps you could do it instead.”

 

Lucy clasped her hands together against her chest, her eyes widened and she blushed “Do you think I could do it?”

 

“Definitely.”  Peggy nodded, and then frowned as she thought of Mary Ann; she didn‘t like to think of her friend as a back slider but her lack of enthusiasm when they had been talking the previous day did prompt Peggy to consider taking drastic action.  She looked at Lucy, and smiled, someone as eager and enthusiastic would sway an audience far more so than a rather anaemic house wife.

 

She looked at the cakes, then at Lucy “Let’s eat …” and very delicately selected a slice of frosted chocolate cake.

………………..

 

Reuben had spent the morning lessons in a morose mood.   The fickleness of his friends was rare to him and he was sensitive enough to be hurt by their dismissive remarks.  He walked slowly from the classroom with his head down and his lunch box under his arm, bumping into his class mates and not caring.   Sofia met him at the bottom of the stairs and felt doom laden when she saw his down cast features.

 

“They’re just silly, Reuben.” she said matter of factly, although she would have liked any excuse to have kicked a few shins.

 

“They weren’t interested in anything I said, even if I had gone to the moon they would have ignored me.” Reuben sighed heavily, and felt the weight of friendlessness heavily upon his shoulders.

 

They settled down on the step that was their usual lunch time space and he was about to launch into a tirade of ‘poor  me’ when he felt a hand on his shoulder and looking up saw Jimmy Carstairs grinning down at him.   His initial thought was to ask him what he wanted, and to clear off, but Jimmy settled down beside them and actually produced a lunch box of his own.   This was a ‘seldom happens event’ but he carefully unwrapped his sandwiches and smiled at Sofia, then at Reuben before leaning towards them in a conspiratorial manner

 

“What happened?  Someone said you were attacked by a bear and nearly eaten.” he whispered with his eyes keen and eager enough to convince both the children that he was sincerely interested.

 

“Oh that!”  Reuben said with an airy shrug “That’s nothing compared to having Mr Evans come to supper.”

 

Jimmy frowned and looked at them doubtfully, Sofia blinked and noticed the same hurt in the boys eyes as she had seen in her brothers earlier, she leaned forward “I had supper with an Indian, he’s a friend of ours, his name is Tall Bear.”

 

“Really?” Jimmy said and looked at Reuben “So it isn’t true about the bear then?”

 

“Yes, it was…” Reuben said very sharply and then he smiled at Jimmy and told him all about what happened, with a few embellishments, just enough not to turn truth into a lie.

 

Jimmy sat there with round eyes, and the filling in his sandwich fell out into his lunch box with out him noticing he was so enthralled, he kept breathing exclamations like ’Gosh’ and ’Wow’ which made Reuben feel like a real hero.  When he had finished speaking Jimmy sighed and shook his head,

 

“I wish I had a Pa like yours, he’s really brave, isn’t he?”

 

Sofia nodded “He’s a Prince Charming too…” she tossed her head regally “And he says I’m his Princess.”

 

Jimmy ignored her and looked at Reuben, he then turned to look over at where Davy and Tommy were sitting together with Philip and Annie Sales before huddling closer to Reuben, “I don’t know what all the excitement was about with that lot, going on about Mr Evans coming to supper.  He helped us move into the new apartment, so Ma thought – well – the only way we could thank him was by giving him a meal.  It was nothing that special.” he shrugged his thin shoulders so high that they met his ears, “Actually it was boring. I had to behave all the time …elbows off the table, don’t talk with your mouth full, all that kind of stuff.  Then they talked a lot,  and that was even more boring.  Grown  ups talk a lot of boring rubbish at times.”

 

Reuben and Sofia nodded, even though they loved Adam and Olivia they had to admit there were times when conversation around the table could be boring even with them…especially when there was kissing and holding hands involved too…Reuben wrinkled his nose at the memories of some such and nodded again.

 

Davy and Tommy sauntered over and settled down beside them, Sofia gave them both a hard cold glare but they ignored her and crowded in around Reuben “What happened about the bear, Reuben?  Did your Pa shoot it?”

 

“Nah, he would have done though, he got his gun out ready to kill it if it had charged us, but it only wanted the cubs.”

 

“Cubs?” Annie Sales squeaked, “Real little baby cubs?”

 

“Yeah,” Reuben nodded and smiled, “they were real cute, but I remembered what Pa said about not going to hold ‘em, but they still wanted me to play with ‘em and followed me into the camp and then Old Ma Bear came.  She was – “ he threw out his arms and stretched them as far apart as he could “she was that big, she was huge and when she roared – pooooh, her breath was real stinky.”

 

“Why didn’t you run away?” Davy said squaring h is shoulders “I would have run, I wouldn’t  have hung around waiting for any old bear come chasing me.”

 

“Nah, you can’t outrun a bear.  You have to stand still and if she can’t smell you, then you’re alright. Pa said we were alright just as we were, she couldn’t smell us, see, because the wind wasn’t in the right direction. Anyway, she only wanted her babies.”

 

“I wish I had seen them.” Tommy said and sighed, “I wish I had a Pa like yours, Reuben, it must be exciting to be able to go out camping and seeing things…what else did you do?  Did  you go fishing?”

 

“Oh yeah, we went fishing and we went swimming….” and on and on Reuben chattered to his audience, while Sofia got up and drifted off to play skipping rope with her friends.

 

As Reuben chattered the sound of children’s voices floated over the air, the chant of the girls skipping rose and fell…

 

“Down the Mississippi

Where the steamboats go,

Some go fast.

Some go slow.

Down the Mississippi

Where the steamboats go PUSH.”

 

And then at the word PUSH another little girl enters the game while the first exited.

 

And then the bell tolled, and lessons had to recommence. Reuben fairly bounced up the steps, such a different boy to the one who had toiled despondently down them earlier

……………….

 

Adam hauled the sack of grain from the store and off loaded it onto the wagon,  Then he stood for a moment to check off his list before re-entering the store for a box of canned goods.   “Is that all, Adam?”

 

Adam glanced again at his list and then nodded, “That’s all, Mr Anderson.”

 

He paid for the goods and then picked up the box of canned goods which he carried out to the wagon and placed with the other goods.   He was about to clamber aboard when he saw Peggy leaving the Whitney Hotel with Lucy Garston.   They were giggling like two school girls and he smiled at the thought that this was the first time he had seen Peggy laughing and happy since she had arrived in town or at the Ponderosa.

 

It must have been Lucy who saw him first for she whispered something to Peggy and both looked over in his direction and waved, before walking off, still giggling and leaving him watching them wondering what they found to be so funny.

 

He turned to take up the reins when he almost collided with Nate who smiled, then nodded over in the direction of the two young women.

 

“They seem happy enough at the moment.” he smiled, his eyes half hooded as he observed them disappearing into Ridleys Ladies Emporium

 

“Implying that they won’t be happy for too long, huh?” Adam murmured, looking at Nate with a thoughtful look in his eyes, “Anticipating trouble on Saturday are you, Nate?”

 

“Well, it‘s trouble I could well do without to be honest, Adam.   Folk in town are getting mighty het up about this Meeting.   It isn’t just the men folk either, quite a few women will be there who will want to tell them what to do with their ideas, they don’t see it as any betterment to them.”

 

Adam grimaced and shrugged “Well, maybe not, but if it gives them something to think about …”

 

“You don’t go along with it, do you?  All this talk about Voting and such?” Nate grinned, and shook his head, “Well, I guess with the wife you have at home, Adam, you don’t need to worry about it.”

 

“No, I don’t, not really.”  he sighed and put his hand on the rail of the wagon seat to haul himself up, “But don’t be too hard on those who do…”

 

Nate shrugged “I didn’t mean anything by it, I’ve read enough to know that there is a growing interest in the matter, sort of like the first rumbles to an earthquake.” he grinned now and pushed his hat to the back of his head, “Hopefully there will be enough sensible people about when the earthquake arrives to take note and do something about it.”

 

Adam nodded and smiled “Now, that’s a very practical attitude to take, Sheriff.   Let’s hope there’s some showing that same kind of sense on Saturday evening.”

 

“Is Joe’s wife still going to be performing…no…wrong word…sorry…making a speech?”

 

Adam pursed his lips into a familiar pout and shrugged “That I don’t know.”

 

Now Nate released a long sigh and shook his head “I sure hope she isn’t…” then with an nod of the head, he walked away from the wagon so that Adam could move on.

 

 

Chapter 43

 

Peggy left Lucy not long after Adam had seen them together. She had seen him take the wagon from where it had been left at the store and had hurried to catch up with him as the wagon was trundling down the main street., Deep in thought and wondering what to say to Joe about what Nate had just told him Adam was quite ignorant of Peggy being so close behind him and it was not until he had reached the outer environs of the town that he heard his name being hailed. He immediately turned to see Peggy driving the buggy towards him.

 

“I thought you might have waited, Adam.” she scolded although she was smiling as she spoke.

 

“I didn’t know when you would be leaving.” Adam reminded her and glanced at her flushed face and bright eyes “You looked to be on very friendly terms with Miss Garston.”

 

“Oh Lucy and I are great friends. We think alike about a lot of things, and people.” she said and glanced over her shoulder “I guess we’re blocking the trail some so I had best get on.”

 

He nodded and held the team back in order for her to pass him. She waved and laughed as she left him to ‘eat her dust’. But he waited awhile to let the dust settle,and thought about an 8 year old Peggy and wondered how she would have turned out had he and Laura married. Eventually he urged the team onwards, as he realised that he and Peggy had barely spoken in all the time she had been at the Ponderosa. He wondered, to himself, whether or not it had intentionally been avoiding her and if he had been, had there been any particular reason as to why.

 

It was a pleasant afternoon now, and Peggy enjoyed the ride through the trees that would lead to the area where years ago her mother and Will Cartwright had sat together to talk and to discover that they loved each other. That was the day when they had ridden on to tell Adam and been prevented from saying anything due to the accident, to that fall, that fragile moment in time when Adam Cartwright’s life had been suspended between life and death.

 

But Peggy was unknowing of all that, all she saw was a pleasant place to take the horse and buggy, to clamber down and allow the animal to graze while she sat on that rock, read her letter, which was crackling in her pocket to remind her of its presence, and enjoy the view.

 

It was not a long letter and she read it slowly …

 

“Dear Peggy,

 

Are you well? Are you finding life back where you always told me you belonged as satisfying as you had hoped?

 

I recently had a letter from the Smithsonian to ask how you were getting on with the discovery of those Conquistadors, and it prompted me to remind you that you are on a tight time schedule as we have plans of our own to execute.

 

I am organising the trip to Cairo even now, and Lord Faverhope and the Earl of Grantham are both agreeing to sponsor us. It will be the usual team, Peggy, people we have worked along with for some time now and whom we can trust.

 

Peggy, I do miss you. Do come back soon. You know, don’t you, of my hopes that your future will be with me, as my wife. I love you, Peggy.

 

Always yours,

Maurice “

 

She read it through just once more and then sat very still with her letter between her fingers resting in her lap. She stared at the blue sky, heard a bird singing as though from a great distance. It was the only sound of which she was aware, it seemed as though the whole world had stopped revolving and sound was muted, for apart from the song bird she heard nothing.

 

She didn’t even hear footsteps approaching her as she sat so very still, as though engraved in marble with not even a breeze to create a ripple in her hair, her skirts ….all she could see was blue sky, drifting back and forth. She closed her eyes and for a moment she was 8 years old once again, she could feel the drift of wind against her face as she swung back and forth on a creaking old swing, and all she heard was a child’s voice saying “One, two, three -”

 

She saw the boots first, planted firmly on the ground just inches from the hem of her skirt. She knew to whom they belonged straight away and looked up to see Adam looking down at her with a concerned look on his face and his dark eyes sombre and anxious.

 

“You want to talk about it, Peggy?”

 

His voice was gentle and dark, and she could remember how he would talk to her mother in that same tone, and how it would calm Laura so that she would lose that strident near hysterical pitch to her own voice. She could remember the evenings listening to them talk, before he would leave the house, the soft thud of the door closing and then the sound of his horse’s hooves until even they would disappear into the night.

 

She sighed and shrugged, then moved a little further along to make room for him to sit, which he did, placing his hat upon the ground at his feet. She looked down at the letter in her hands and shrugged again “Its from Maurice…”

 

“Maurice Stevens?” he asked as he glanced at it and then at her, but he didn’t reach out to take it from her, just waited for her to tell him what was so worrying about it.

 

“He wants me to marry him.” her voice was toneless, there was no emotion there, not even that of dismissing the proposal, or of derision or sorrow. “He asked me before I left England and I promised to consider it, but to be honest it really has been a case of out of sight, out of mind. I don’t love him…” her voice drifted and then she sighed and tore the letter into little pieces before standing up and tossing them into the air for the breeze to carry to wherever it wished.

 

“Does that make you feel better?” he said after a moment or so, brushing off some of the pieces of paper that had settled on his shoulders, on his legs.

 

“It doesn’t make me feel anything.” she replied and shrugged, then looked at him, “I don’t want to get married, not yet, perhaps never. Does that sound strange coming from a woman?”

 

“No. Why? Should it?” he frowned as he wondered what exactly it was that was going through her mind right now. Did she in fact even have a logical thread of sense in her head or was she just talking nonsense for the sake of it.

 

“That’s what women want, isn’t it? A man in their lives? A man for protection, security?” her dark eyes flashed and the lips thinned, patches of red blushed her cheeks.

 

He sighed, looked at her,a feeling sorrow for the lost child he had loved slipped through his mind,so that for a moment he could think of nothing to say but ‘Oh Peggy, Peggy…’ instead he heard himself say “What about love? That’s usually the reason a man and woman marry isn’t it?”

 

“Perhaps in your world, Adam.” she sighed and shook her head, “But we both know that isn’t always true, some women get married to men who don’t love them, don’t they?”

 

“Some.” he agreed and nodded, “Some think they love one another and then find it isn’t love at all, not strong enough to weather the storms, or the traits of the person which they come to find unbearable.”

 

She nodded, “And some women – and some men – aren’t capable of love, they just use people, don’t they?”

 

“Some.” he said again and sighed, looked around him and wondered where this conversation was taking them. He had a feeling that it could have something to do with Laura, and Frank, and looked at the young woman’s face with intense pity.

 

“Did my father love Laura, when he married her, do you think he loved her?”

 

She looked at him now, squarely in the face, watching every shadow, every movement, and he had to shake his head and admit that he didn’t know. “I never knew them well enough at that time, Peggy. I can’t even recall their wedding, I must have been away on some business, perhaps a cattle drive. I think you must have been at least a year old before I really had any dealings with your Pa.”

 

“And my mother? Did you have any dealings with her…before Pa died …?”

 

“That’s a rather ambiguous question, Peggy.” he said and frowned, his lips tight as though it angered him to have this veiled insinuation thrust at him, “But no, I didn’t know your mother very well until your father died.”

 

They were silent for a while, both staring down at the ground, at their feet, at the wild flowers that were growing through the lush green of the grass. She shook her head, “I’m sorry, Adam, I should not have said that….”

 

“No, you shouldn’t have, it was – unfair – to your mother, and to myself.” he chewed the inside of his cheek for a second or so before reaching out and taking hold of her hand, surprised that she allowed him to do so, and surprised also to feel her trembling, “Your father wasn’t often at home, as you know, and your mother kept herself very much to herself, as you also know. It would have been considered very improper for any one of the single men in the area to go to the Running D when your father was away from home. Your mother’s reputation would have been ruined and your father, being your father, would have considered it sufficient reason to leave her. Many men would have done so, just as many women have left husbands for the same reason.”

 

“But my mother didn’t leave him” she said simply and frowned “I don’t want a marriage like that, as I said before, I don’t want marriage at all, but should it happen I want to know the man I marry loves me – body and soul.”

 

“Every one deserves to be loved that way, Peggy.”

 

She nodded and removed her hand to brush away the little pieces of paper that had settled on her skirts. “Adam, did you love my mother like that…body and soul?”

 

“Obviously not, otherwise I would have made a greater attempt to fight Will off, once I had recovered, of course.” he smiled, although there was no humour in his eyes, just a wariness as this conversation trickled into areas he preferred left unexplored.

 

“Will adores my mother. He’s still as much in love with her now as he ever was, and it’s as though nothing and no one else really matters but her and her happiness.”

 

“Then I should expect that they are both very happy,” he smiled again, and his eyes looked at a tree some distance away as though seeing Will and Laura, standing together, close, their arms locked around each other and their lips touching. He sighed, and shrugged “Arnt you glad that your mother’s happy? I have a feeling that I would not have made her as happy as Will has done. I – er – well, I guess I wouldn’t have loved her enough to have been -” he paused as he searched for the right word but shook his head, shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows.

 

“No, you wouldn’t have made her happy, when I was little I used to hear her complain about how you made her feel as though she could never do anything right and how you expected so much from her. She would say it laughingly of course but I used to be so surprised because I thought she was happy with you, and in love, because you were just so wonderful to her, Adam. I thought she just had to be happy having you as her husband. She was so different once you came into our lives .”

 

She stopped then and shook her head, “I don’t know why we’re talking about my mother and all that past history, it isn’t really relevant to what we started to talk about , is it?”

 

“I don’t know. Isn’t it?”

 

She looked at him again, stared into the dark eyes that looked so concernedly at her, and then she turned away, “No, it isn’t.”

 

“Peggy, when I met your mother and got to know you after Frank died, you were so angry, so intense in the way you felt about your mother, you were confused and frightened about a lot of things. But, you know, your mother was feeling just the same in a way, except that she had learned to suppress her anger knowing that she gained nothing with Frank by being angry. But she was confused, frightened, very frightened. She needed your love then, but -”

 

“I hated her.” Peggy said simply and turned her face away to stare over at the lake, then raised her eyes to look at the sky, to watch birds skim overhead “Father didn’t love her, you know that – and she knew it too – and it was like a disease in a way, it spread, it blighted my life.”

 

“Yes, I think it did.” he nodded in agreement, and narrowed his eyes, “I think you’re right.”

 

“I loved my father so much, and he said we were going to go away, and I wanted to go away from her as much as he did. Even the way she loved me, and I knew she did love me, but it wasn’t enough, Adam, I didn’t want her love, I wanted my father.”

 

Adam nodded, looked down at the ground for a moment, watched an insect toil along a blade of grass and then as it bent beneath its weight drop off. He rubbed his jaw with his long fingers and nodded again,

 

“He was going to take you away, Peggy. He had it all arranged, that was why he was so happy the day he was coming home and rushed that fence without thinking what he was doing. He thought he had achieved his goal, he was going to collect you and ride off with you and -” he paused then, perhaps it would be unfair to mention about the flashy woman in the buggy who had produced the letter Frank had written to her, the woman he had intended to be his daughter’s step mother. He sighed and shook his head, then stood up “Peggy, you have to let it all go you know. All these years of keeping what happened locked up inside of you is eating you away, destroying your own right to happiness.”

 

“Happiness? Married life with children? Like that woman in the library?” Peggy said with a hard edge to her words, “Why does it always have to come down to marriage…”

 

“I don’t believe I mentioned being married, only that you deserve to be happy. That could be with a career, which you already have, or a cause, which you are pursuing – rather vigorously it seems – or in any other way you should choose. There are many, many women who lead fulfilled lives without a man, without marriage, without needing that kind of life. But there will always be as many others who do want a happy marriage, the Prince Charming to whisk them away to whatever bliss they anticipate. Why fight it so hard?”

 

“I don’t know.” she shook her head, “I suppose in a way I always have done, ever since you and mother parted, and Will came on the scene. I think I trusted you too much, Adam, and I loved you too. I wanted you to provide my happy ever after when I was a little girl, I wanted you to put my life back together, to collect up the pieces and mend them. But you didn’t – you left me – you left me alone.”

 

Adam drew in his breath and stepped back a pace or two, before reaching out and putting his arm around her and holding her close to him, and then she began to weep, just silent tears, tears of grief and misery that she had held back for years and years.

 

“I loved you so much, Adam.” she whispered in a voice thick with tears and emotion as she stepped away from him and fumbled for a handkerchief, “I trusted you. I knew that if you married Laura, you would have loved me too. But then you stepped away from her, from me. Will took your place, but he didn’t love me, he – he’s a good man, a kind man, but he doesn’t love me, and I’m not even sure he loves his own children that much, he just humours them and he loves her you see he loves her so much he has no room left for anyone else.” she released a shuddering sob, and dabbed frantically at her eyes “And she enjoys it all so much, and -”

 

“Peggy.” he spoke softly with a firmer tone to his voice “Whatever and however they love one another, doesn’t mean you would find that same love with anyone. Whoever you loved -”

 

She shook her head effectively silencing him, “You don’t understand,” she said and stared into his face, “You just don’t understand.”

 

She walked away then, her back straight and her face raised to the sun. For a moment Adam watched her as she made her way to the buggy, and it was only when she was seated and had picked up the reins that he began to make his own way back to the wagon. She never looked back towards him, never raised a hand to say farewell but drove straight on.

 

Chapter 44

 

Adam arrived home some hours later for there were other tasks to carry out once he had unloaded the goods from the wagon. Hoss needed help with loading planks onto the now empty vehicle and if he noticed that his brother was quiet and not too willing to talk he took no notice, he was used to his brother’s vagaries by now and continued whistling under his breath even though he knew it would annoy him.

 

It was good to step into his own home, however, and it was Reuben who was first to reach his side, taking the hat from his hands almost as soon as it was off his head, while Sofia hovered close by shifting from foot to foot as though performing a new version of an Indian war dance.

 

“Pa, guess what happened today?” Reuben cried his eyes shining and his face beaming with delight as he placed his father;s hat carefully in its allotted place.

 

“No, what?” Adam smiled and glanced over their heads to look over at his wife who was standing in the door way to the kitchen, with Nathaniel tugging at her apron for attention.

 

“Well, I told the gang about our camping trip and they want to come to the next one. Can they come, Pa, can they?”

 

“And me, daddy. I want to come too.” Sofia said, rushing over to him now and jumping up to wrap her arms around his neck and hug him tight.

 

He carefully straightened up, for Sofia’s onslaughts on him always caused him to bend slightly at the knees, and then untangled himself from her arms. He looked at her, at the earnest face, eager eyes, before he turned his attention to Reuben who was obviously irritated by his sister’s request.

 

“Girls can’t come.” the boy stated and folded his arms across his chest, he thrust out his chin “They can’t, can they, Pa?”

 

“Well, I -” Adam began to unbuckle his belt and roll it carefully around the holster as he glanced over at Olivia who raised her eyebrows and shook her head before disappearing into the kitchen.

 

“Pa? Only the gang can come, can’t they?”

 

Adam scratched the back of his neck and frowned “I don’t recall saying that they could, Reuben.”

 

“But, Pa, they want to come…they don’t have Pa’s like you, their Pa’s are old sticks in the mud, Mr Riley can’t even ride a horse and Jimmy doesn’t even have a Pa. “

 

“And I can come too, can’t I, daddy?” big blue eyes looked unblinkingly into his face, freckles chased over a cute little nose and her blonde curls were tousled loosely over her face. Adam had a fleeting glimpse of just how beautiful his daughter was going to be when she was a young woman. “Can’t I, daddy.”

 

Reuben turned on to her straight away, his eyes narrowed and a scowl on his face,

“You can’t, Sofia, you’re a girl. Girls don’t go hunting and camping like we do…”

 

Adam sighed, perhaps this is where it all begins, the ‘boys can and girls can’t’ business. No wonder women were so up in arms about it all now. He raised a hand upon seeing Sofia’s mouth opening in protest.

 

“Girls can, Reuben. Just think of the number of women who come west on wagon trains, who fight Indians, bad weather, who hunt and forage as well as the men.” he placed a hand on his son’s shoulders, “Apart from which they cook the meals, do the laundry and care for the children. They even have babies …” he paused and for a moment thought of Inger, of the baby (“My, he’s a big un!”) and sighed “Now, Sofia, when you are old enough, you can come with your brother and me, but only when you are old enough.”

 

He looked down at Reuben and frowned “In the meantime you can teach your sister how to track, and some of the other things you have learned. Life is changing, we all need to change along with it or suffer the consequences.”

 

“What’s them…whats con-see-quents-sis?” Sofia asked with her face looking questioningly at him

 

“You’ll see later on.” Adam answered and grinned slightly at the play on words that went right over their heads.

 

He led them into the kitchen area and kissed Olivia on the cheek, picked Nathaniel up and hugged him, thinking as he did so that the boy was growing too fast, and gave him another hug as though that thought frightened him. One day he wouldn’t be able to give hugs like this, one day little Nathaniel would be a grown man.

 

The sounds of a scuffle going on behind him alerted him to put Nathaniel in his chair and turn to regard the two children, Reuben scowled “She just hit me.” and he rubbed his chest where his sisters fist had just landed.

 

Olivia turned and shook her head “Sofia, that’s no way for a lady to behave.” she scolded.

 

“But, mommy, I’m not a lady, I’m a little girl.” Sofia said in her ‘sweet as sugar’ voice and she gave a little half smile “And he was teasing me.”

 

“I was not!” asserted the aggrieved brother and he clenched his fist but Adams hand curled around it before he could let fly in retaliation,

 

“Enough now.” he said sternly, and glared at them both, looking at first one then the other, ‘Gentlemen don’t hit young ladies, Reuben.”

 

Reuben smirked immediately “But, Pa, I’m not a gentleman, yet, I’m just a little boy.”

 

But his attempts to put on Sofia’s ‘sweet as sugar’ voice failed miserably as he got a slap on the backside and was told not to be insolent but to sit down and keep quiet.

 

Olivia felt uncomfortable upon noting that reproof, it was unlike Adam to treat his children in that manner and she was left wondering what had happened during the day to have caused her husband’s temper to be shorter than usual.

 

Food was set down at the table while Adam went to clean up and make himself presentable for the meal. He had a quiet few words, in Cantonese, with Cheng Ho Lee who bowed and nodded, and then joined them.

 

The meal passed with no further incident, although Olivia told Adam about the quilting session, because Nathaniel wanted his daddy to know that he played with the ‘big boys’ and Hope. Poor Hannah being regulated to the ‘has-beens’ like Erik and Constance.

 

Adam didn’t like to discuss adult topics around the table with the children present so the conversation was kept light. Instead they heard about Mr Evans having spent the evening meal with the Carstairs and how much Jimmy had hated it. “That’s why he wants to come camping with us, Pa.”

 

“Oh because he wont’ be told to keep his elbows off the table, huh?” Adam smiled, Sofia giggled and Reuben gave a Hoss like guffaw.

 

Afterwards they had time to spend together by the small fire, Adam helping with Reuben’s math homework while Sofia was shown, yet again, how to knit, the casting on was the hardest part she insisted but only because she wanted to sit and day dream while her mother’s nimble fingers did the casting on for her.

 

Nathaniel had a story read to him from his favourite book then Adam swung him onto his shoulders and carried him up to bed, singing a marching song as he went which Nathaniel loved as he clapped his hands in time to the tune.

 

After the little boy was settled down Adam went down to find Reuben and Sofia sitting side by side listening as Olivia told them a story. When she had finished and answered various questions the children raised, Reuben looked up and over to his father who was now settled in his own chair

 

“Pa, when are you going to learn me how to shoot a gun?”

 

Adam sighed and rolled his eyes, “I shall teach you when you are old enough, and you will learn what I teach you as and when, do you understand?”

 

“No.,” Sofia said immediately.

 

“Pa wasn’t talking to you, nit-wit…” Reuben retorted with a scowl at his sister who immediately clenched her fist ready for some swift remedial redress.

 

“Reuben, that’s enough!” Olivia said with a sharper than usual tone to her voice “Sofia, how many more times do I have to tell you?”

 

Sofia sighed and hung her head but Reuben scowled still, darting angry looks at his sister until Adam told them it was time to get to bed and to do so, promptly.

 

“Will I have to walk the gangplank if I don’t, daddy?” Sofia giggled

 

“And be fed to the sharks…” Reuben said with a satisfied note in his voice, “Sharks like little girls.”

 

“No, they don’t ..” Sofia cried, looking suddenly rather large eyed and tearful.

 

“They don’t particularly care what size the meal comes in,” Adam said sharply, “Now, off with you…right now…”

 

He jumped up out of his chair as though to chase them up the stairs and laughing, squealing, they made a rush for them, running up with thuds of the feet to their rooms.

 

It was Olivia who went up to settle them down for the night, to kiss them and give them their night time cuddles and hear their prayers. She drew the curtains across their windows and left them to sleep, peeked into Nathaniel’s room to hear him snorting in his sleep and then went back into the big room.

 

Adam was standing with her cape in his hands, and a smile on his face. He was wearing his hat and jacket and when she paused at the bottom step he raised his eyebrows and laughed “There’s a full moon outside.”

 

“I noticed…” she said as she reached for the cape and allowed him to slip it over her shoulders, drop a kiss onto the back of her neck and then take her hand.

 

“Come along then.” he grinned and then leaned towards her, narrowed his eyes and whispered “Unless you don’t trust me?”

 

“I don’t” she replied with a slight laugh, “Lead on…”

 

Hand in hand they left the house, closed the door and there was the two seater rig waiting for them with Mistral pawing at the ground. The moon was so fat and full it was as though she was bursting with light that had to be showered down upon the earth, upon this one couple who stood for a moment to gaze up at it before getting into the vehicle. Then Adam smiled, leaned down to kiss his wife, and flicked the reins.

 

As the vehicle trundled its way out of the yard Reuben peeked from his window to watch, his eyes followed the pair sitting side by side, the horse striding forwards, and then disappearing behind the trees. He sighed and fell back into his bed, closed his eyes, and slipped back into dreams

…………….

 

Peggy hadn’t returned to the Ponderosa after her encounter with Adam. She felt emotionally bruised and miserable so drove to the one place she most wanted to be…the river’s edge, the flat slab of a stone, on what had been the Running D ranch.

 

She sat on the stone and brought her knees up to her chin, wrapped her arms around her legs and stared into the water. She sat and wept, immersed in her cocoon of self pity and isolation. She had told Adam what she thought was the truth about Will and Laura…how they were so in love with each other that the children didn’t really seem to matter. From her viewpoint perhaps she was correct for as soon as they had left Nevada she had been whisked off to a Boarding School for young ladies, and then a Finishing School in Switzerland. Then there had been college. It seemed to her that as soon as they had had a chance to be a family she had been ’packed off’. That in some way, as a daughter, she had failed her new step-father and never measured up to the standards her mother required in her children.

 

Abel Greigson had seen the dust thrown up by the vehicle and watched as it had rolled towards the lake. From his vantage point he could see her clearly, but her misery was too profound, it seemed to him, for him to ride down to give her any companionship. Her attitude towards him had always been so dismissive and aggressive that he wasn’t even sure why the sight of her crying bothered him so much anyway.

…………..

 

Adam stopped the rig close by the river where the moon looked down at her mirror image and admired herself. It was quiet apart from the sounds of the rushing waters, and he helped her down, his hands around her waist as he lifted her from the wagon seat. Then he led her to the area under the tree, before returning to the vehicle to get a basket which he brought to where they were to sit.

 

From the basket came a light supper, a bottle of wine, glasses…and she sat and watched him as he poured the wine and handed her a glass before filling a glass of his own.

 

“This is a perfect evening,” she whispered.

 

“Yes, many a night like this I’ve spent walking the deck and looking at the moon and wondering what everyone was doing here, on the Ponderosa. It was probably the only time I actually allowed myself to wallow in missing home. But -” he paused and leaned down to kiss her “after I met you, I missed you all the time.”

 

She said nothing to that, just added a more passionate kiss to his, and then they sat back, smiled at one another, drank a little more wine. She told him about her day, about Mary Ann and the Meeting, and he told her about Nate and what he had advised. They were silent for a while drinking the wine, nibbling the cheese and biscuits, the grapes…she reached out to touch his face, obscured now by shadow as the moon slipped behind a cloud.

 

“You seemed angry about something when you got home, Adam.” she said quietly, “Do you want to talk about it now?”

 

“Not really, this is not the time to waste on talking about that..” he said off handedly and poured more wine into their glasses before tossing the empty bottle back into the basket.

 

“So there was something?”

 

He held the glass of wine in his fingers and looked at it, watched as the moon light bounced reflections from the ruby redness of it. Then he sighed and looked at her,

 

“I met Peggy on the way here,” he muttered without looking at her, keeping his voice soft and low, “Maurice had written to her and asked her to marry him.”

 

She frowned slightly, and watched as he pursed his lips slightly, “Well, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

 

“Peggy doesn’t think so, she tore the letter up and tossed it to the four winds…” he sipped some wine, and then leaned back a little, resting upon one elbow and nursing the wine glass in his other hand. “She has quite a disdain for marriage.”

 

“So I gathered from what Hester has told me.” Olivia said with a sigh as she regretted now having pursued the subject he had been unwilling to discuss.

 

“She’s obsessed by her feelings for her father, an overwhelming love for him. At the same time she’s obsessed by feelings for her mother, a deep dislike, almost -” he glanced at her and frowned “almost as though she hates Laura. It’s as though she feels betrayed by them both…and me too.”

 

At this he sighed, she saw the motion of his back, up and down with the depth of his sigh. Then he leaned towards her, “She made me feel as though I had betrayed her trust, by not marrying her mother. I couldn’t get her to understand …”

 

“She sounds as though she is still the little girl she was then, coming home thinking you were going to be her daddy, and finding Will had taken your place. Perhaps she’s still trying to come to terms with it. I don’t know, Adam, it’s very complex.”

 

“I remember you saying once before that many adults are shaped by the childhood they had, and it seems to me that Peggy must have had a really miserable one. I had a part in it too, I let her down.”

 

She stroked his arm then, her fingers caressed his neck, and she leaned in to kiss him, “My darling, Peggy has to grow up sooner or later, and realise that it has nothing to do with you at all.”

 

Adam allowed himself a fleeting frown, a slight wrinkle of the nose and pout of the mouth. He didn’t fully agree with his wife on that, he didn’t think Peggy would ever grow up or forgive him. But this was not the time or place, and turning towards her he pulled her into his arms, kissed her mouth, her cheeks, and felt once again the thrill of joy as she responded with a passion that always was an answer to his own.

 

 

Chapter 45

 

As the morning sky became ever more blue, and the sun rose lazily above the clouds to shine benignly upon the town, so the inhabitants roused themselves to go about their daily tasks.

 

Mr Anderson, Manager of Ridleys Mercantile and Livery, opened his doors and began to wield his broom to good effect while his assistants began to arrive, nodding good day and donning their aprons while setting out the goods for sale on the side walk.

 

Amanda Ridley unrolled the shutters to her establishment and stood in the centre of the room with her hands clasped together for her to soak in a few minutes of pride and vanity at having accomplished so much. This was her empire. She had fought her battles and come through with very good profit margins.

 

Mrs Carstairs saw her son run off to school and then made a hasty descent to the work room below. By the time Amanda had removed her bonnet Mrs Carstairs was setting out the mannequins and removing the dust covers from the counters.

 

Daniel deQuille strolled to the newspaper offices and stepped inside to the noise and rattle of the machines as they printed out various posters, tabloids and newsletters. He nodded a greeting to all there and went to his desk. He was feeling particularly vulnerable today, his mouth was dry and if there had been a bottle of whisky anywhere on the premises he would have consumed it for breakfast.

 

Dr James Corby nursed his baby son in his arms and smiled over at his wife as she poured him his morning coffee. It was a late breakfast as he had been out that night visiting a patient with consumption. It had been a difficult visit as the man had a wife and six children all of whom were beside themselves with fear of what was going to happen to them should he die. Dr Corby assured them that all was well, and then rode home despising himself for telling such a lie, even though the look of relief on the wife’s face gave him some, temporary, solace.

 

Bridie Martin bustled down to the Womans Refuge / Clinic and everything else it had morphed into being over the years since its conception. Mrs Garston met her half way looking more sour than ever and with tight lips and flushed cheeks she informed Bridie that she was about to wash her hands off her daughter, Lucy, who was clearly ‘off her head’. “And no help from my husband, Mrs Martin, no help whatsoever!”

 

In her room Lucy put the finishing touches to her speech. She muttered the words beneath her breath until she was able to repeat them by heart. Peggy had warned her not to be too aggressive in the introduction to the meeting, but to save all that for the summing up. Lucy thought she knew better. When she thought that she had knocked Mary Ann Cartwright out of the proceedings she felt a smug glow of delight. Served her right for marrying Little Joe.

 

Miss Tyndale opened the door to the library and walked slowly into the building, her footsteps echoed hollowly behind her. Rows of bookshelves, and shelf upon shelf of books. Well, what else would one expect from a library. She sighed, and looked around her as the thought of retirement came to mind. She had never intended to stay for so long and now here she was, an old spinster with no true pleasure behind her for all the years she had lived here. She found a feather duster and began to remove cobwebs – not that she found any but one never knew – and any dust from the shelves.

 

The library assistant entered the building and paused at the entrance to look around her, then stepped into Miss Tyndale’s domain. She watched the industrious little woman as she flicked her feather duster here, there and everywhere, a bundle of nervous energy if ever there was one. The spines of myriads of books stared back at her, golden letters shone here and there proclaiming the title of some, and as she approached Miss Tyndale she took a deep breath and asked, very politely, if she could have a private word.

 

She had spent quite a lot of time pondering over her decision, one moment she had thought not to go ahead and speak to the Librarian, and then would change her mind and decide it was better to do so. She had had little sleep as a result of her anxieties but had resolved that morning that the matter had to be resolved in an honest and proper manner.

 

Miss Tyndale paused in her dusting and looked first at her assistant then at the clock.

 

“We have five minutes before opening, Miss Gregory. Come to my office.” and putting down the feather duster she led the way through the bookshelves proclaiming ‘Romances’ to the left and ‘History’ to the right.

 

“Is this to do with your having to see Mr Woods?” she asked before taking her seat. “I hope, Miss Gregory, that you are not going to tell me you have been involved with anything illegal.”

 

Miss Gregory looked at her employer and sighed, she did not sit down as Miss Tyndale had not offered her to do so. She stood with her hands clasped at her waist, her bonnet perched neatly on her head, and her eyes dark rimmed from lack of sleep. She nodded,

 

“Miss Tyndale, I have a confession to make to you and ask that you hear me out before you tell me what you consider doing.” she faltered as the other woman frowned and narrowed her eyes, but she remained silent so Elizabeth cleared her throat and stared at the wall behind Miss Tyndale’s shoulder.

 

“My name is Katherine Royale. I came here because I wanted to remove myself from everything to do with my mother, and the events that took place there in Bodie, where we lived. My father was a Major in the U.S Army, he was a good man, a good soldier and when he retired we moved to Bodie. After his death, I should tell you the truth here, actually, it was after his murder, my mother took control of the town…she became its law and its judge, she also became mine. After her death I needed to get away, to make a fresh start, and I thought with a new life I should have a new name…which is why I chose to call myself Elizabeth Godfrey.”

 

She paused, and drew in her breath which she slowly exhaled for she had spoken all in a rush in order to say everything that she thought relevant. Miss Tyndale said nothing, but looked at her with an expressionless face, her eyes behind her glasses were without any show of emotion. For a moment she toyed with a small ornamental knife used to slit open envelopes then she looked at Elizabeth with more intensity as she asked her if she had anything to do with the abduction of Sofia Cartwright some while back.

 

“It wasn’t an abduction, Miss Tyndale, we found her abandoned, or so we thought, with a blizzard about to blow. We had to take her to safety and with Bodie being at such a high elevation we did not dare to delay by taking her back to wherever she may have come from, which we did not know …we saved her life.” she paused and wondered how many times she would have to repeat this story. Perhaps she should go to the Territorial Enterprise and get it published in the newspaper for all to see to save herself the bother in future. If, of course, she had a future here in Virginia City.

 

Miss Tyndale clasped her hands together as though about to say a prayer, she rested her chin upon them, and regarded Elizabeth thoughtfully, “And why are you going to see Mr Woods?”

 

“For advice.”

 

Miss Tyndale nodded and thought that was probably not all the story, that there was probably a lot more that was being held back from this little narrative. She stood up, “There are a lot of people here in this town, and no doubt in many towns similar, who hide behind new names, all wanting to make a new fresh start to life.”

 

The silence that followed that statement seemed to drag on as the seconds ticked away, and both women regarded the other with some concern. Miss Tyndale broke the silence “Do you intend to stay here ?”

 

“That depends on Mr Woods’ advice.”

 

Miss Tyndale nodded “I see, then shall we wait and see what he says. In the meantime let us just carry on as normal. I shall refer to you as Miss Gregory unless you prefer to be known as Miss Royale now?”

 

“Miss Gregory would be preferable for now, Miss Tyndale.” she looked at the older woman and gave a rather tentative smile “Thank you.”

 

It was time to start the new day so both women turned to leave the office, their skirts brushing against the wood panelled walls, their faces turned towards the myriads of books awaiting their attention.

………….

 

The morning had started well for Joe and Mary Ann. It seemed that since Peggy’s visit they had settled into some kind of truce and from thereon everything had just fallen back to how things always had been, and should be. Both of them were happy and relaxed, both of them had arrived at a decision and neither of them had discussed what that decision was in case it offended the other and caused that rift to re-emerge.

 

So Mary Ann did not know that Joe had decided to just leave the matter alone and if she wanted to give a speech at this Meeting then so be it, he would give her his support and make sure his brothers and he would be available to protect her should the need arise.

 

So Joe did not know that Mary Ann had decided to say as little as possible about anything at the Meeting. She would attend as promised and she would introduce the speakers … but say nothing else apart from encouraging the audience to pay attention and to appreciate what a good worthy cause Votes for Women was for the whole community. She would speak in her best school ma’am manner and then step aside for Peggy and Lucy to take over.

 

As they shared a good morning kiss, and Joe stroked her neck and told her how lovely she was, Mary Ann even pondered on what excuse she could offer to avoid going to the meeting all together. A little bit of guilt did remind her that it was a cause she believed in, so she couldn’t default on it now. Or could she?

 

Joe rode down to the Ponderosa ranch house and arrived just as Hop Sing was pouring out the morning coffee. Hop Sing smiled, the fact Joe always arrived in time for coffee made him think that the coffee served in Joe’s own home was still not as good as it was here, and with that good feeling he poured out a cup and handed it to the young man.

 

Adam was already seated at the table, listening to Ben out lining some plan to erect fences on the low pasture in order to prevent bears or wolves getting to the cattle he intended to over winter there. Hope had sidled onto her Uncle’s knee and was chewing on her bread, while Hannah was tickling Erik and making him chuckle and kick his legs in that gleeful manner of young infants everywhere.

 

Hester and Peggy were seated at the table, both having finished eating and now sipping at their coffee. Both were silent, and Joe remembered when he had lived there with Mary Ann for the first few months of their marriage and how much chatter there was between the two women at meal times. Ah well, Peggy was obviously not a morning type of person.

 

The men left the table, Hope was swung in the air and placed gently on her chair as her Uncle strolled over to the area where Ben had his ‘study’. Maps were pulled out of the long drawer and unfurled on the desk, they leaned in to observe it and followed the direction of Ben’s finger as he outlined where the fence should go.

 

“When do you want us to start?” Adam asked wondering if this was economically sound, after all Ben was often coming out with ideas that proved too costly in their execution and had to be abandoned. They were good ideas, really sound and sensible, but the size of their land made for difficulties.

 

“The sooner the better. Have we barbed wire?” Ben said, his black eyes looking at his sons faces, as though he anticipated some objection.

 

Adam ran a thumb over his jaw “It’s a long way to travel…I mean …putting up fencing there, it’ll take some time.”

 

“I know it’s a long way to travel, Adam. There’s a line shack close by that will be fit for purpose, that’ll cut down on wasted time.” Ben replied, seeing his plan about to get thrown out.

 

Hoss nodded “Yeah, Adam, it was you told us about the bears. Just needs one ol’ Ma Bear to bring her cubs down and rear ‘em up there to think it’s their territory and the next thing you know we’ll be getting a whole lot of trouble from ‘em . Best thing we can do is protect the herd.”

 

“Can’t you think of any way to drive the bears up to their own country?” Joe asked, thinking that now was not a good time to leave Mary Ann alone, apart from which his arm still ached.

 

“Bears can be ornery critters, Joe. You know that ?” Hoss scowled.

 

There was a nodding of heads in agreement to that, Joe was aware of Peggy leaving the room, Hester was bustling about tending to Erik and the girls. Ben scratched the back of his neck, “Best get more wire ordered. We’ll need more wood. Guess we could make a start on it next week.”

 

“I’ll go into town and get the barbed wire ordered.” Joe said gallantly and Adam nodded and said he would go with him seeing that he only had one usable arm

 

Joe grinned to himself, Adam obviously knew that a stop over at the Bucket of Blood was part of the deal. Hoss said he would go to the timber camp and check on MacManus to make sure he had enough wood available.

 

Ben smiled, nodded and congratulated himself in having got his sons to see things his way without too much argument. He relaxed and watched them leave the house, Hoss pausing to kiss his wife on the way out.

 

Peggy had decided to walk the track up to Mary Ann’s home. She was not sure as to how to go about telling her friend that Lucy Garston was going to do the introductory talk now and that perhaps Mary Ann could just ‘advise’ and perhaps sit on the panel answering questions from the audience.

 

Mary Ann was quite nervous when she opened the door to Peggy but smiled and stepped aside for the other woman to enter the house. Daniel came running up expecting to see one of his Uncles or Grandfather but seeing the woman whom he felt may create more tension in the house he backed off and returned to his play.

 

Peggy allowed Mary Ann to chatter on about nothing of any importance before she asked her if she had ever read any of Susan B Anthony’s* speeches, or even any of those by Elizabeth Stanton,* and other leading women in the suffrage movements.

 

“Of course I have,” Mary Ann acknowledged and looked thoughtfully at Peggy who appeared to her to have arrived as though ready for war. “I know that Stanton called Women’s suffrage to be the greatest revolution the world has ever known or ever will know”* and that initially Susan Anthony admitted that she wasn’t ready for the vote, didn’t want it but she did want equal pay for equal work.* of course she takes a far more aggressive role in the movement now. I believe she and Stanton are working together to bring about much needed changes in Government.”

 

“That’s right, they are…but there are a lot of women who are working for this cause now. Some States are allowing partial suffrage of course, allowing women to vote in school elections, or voting for the Mayor but partial suffrage isn’t what we want, is it? We want a voice in Government.”

 

“But isn’t that what Anthony tried to achieve when she cast a vote for the Presidential Elections in 1872*.”

 

Peggy looked at Mary Ann with renewed respect, the woman was obviously a fervent reader of events for the cause and she nodded slowly, “But she was arrested for voting, wasn’t she?”

 

Mary Ann nodded, “Yes, I remember reading about her trial, I believe she referred to the trial as a high handed outrage upon her rights as a citizen with all her rights – her natural rights, civil rights, political rights, judicial rights all ignored.* “ Mary Ann laughed and even clapped her hands together in quite girlish enthusiasm “And the Judge fined her $100 of which she has not paid a dime.”*

 

Peggy smiled and accepted the glass of lemonade that Wang Lee Sing had provided for her, she sipped it slowly, although she kept her eyes on Mary Ann who was now attending to the demands of her little girl who had wanted to ‘sip some of Mommy’s drink’.

 

“Mary Ann, I have something I need to say to you, so best I say it right now before we get too cosy.”

 

She wondered if her voice had been as sharp as it seemed for Mary Ann looked up at her as though shocked, her eyes widened and she looked startled, “Why? What’s wrong? Have you cancelled the meeting?”

 

“No, no, nothing like that…” Peggy protested.

 

“Well, what is it?” Mary Ann lifted her daughter up and settled her onto her lap, then smiled over at Peggy, “Best say it as you’ve started now, Peggy.”

 

“I saw Lucy in town yesterday, she wants to do the introduction to the Meeting. I read her script, it’s very good.” she paused, she had said all that in a bit of a rush so now swallowed and tried to moderate her breathing “She’s well known in town, and has her parents background …she’s the perfect person for doing the – the first speech. It really is a very good speech, Mary Ann.”

 

Mary Ann said nothing, she raised her chin and thought of Lucy Garston, whom she could remember teaching in her last year at the school in Virginia City. Lucy had graduated while Mary Ann was the teacher. Mary Ann lowered her eyes to stare at the far distant hills that could be seen through the window, then she nodded

 

“And what about my speech? Was that not good enough?”

 

“You hadn’t finished your speech when I last saw you, and you seemed – well – rather preoccupied at the time. I wasn’t even sure that your speech would be finished on time.” Peggy said, she frowned, “The cause for suffrage has be whole hearted, Mary Ann. One can’t prevaricate on such important issues.”

 

Mary Ann sighed and nodded “I see.”

 

“Joe didn’t want you to make the speech anyway, did he?” Peggy said, a lame comment, the last straw in her argument, a reason that could be offered to placate the other person.

 

“No, he didn’t. But he respected our views, and was prepared to champion our cause to the extent possible…for him, that is …” Mary Ann put Constance down onto the floor and watched the little girl take wobbly steps before getting back into crawl position, “So what do I do, just attend and sit in the front row twiddling my thumbs?”

 

“Oh no, not at all. I wondered if you would preside over the question and answer debate that follows Lucy’s introduction. It’s a very important role, Mary Ann.”

 

“With you providing the answers?”

 

“Of course. I thought that was already agreed upon?” Peggy replied beginning to feel that this interview was going nowhere except towards recrimination and the loss of a friend.

 

Mary Ann stood up, “Well, thank you for coming to tell me, Peggy. I shall consider what you have said and let you know in due course.”

 

It was a prim response to the snub she had been given, and Peggy accepted it as such for she stood up and nodded, picked up her purse and followed Mary Ann to the door. As she stepped on to the threshold she turned “I hope, we are still friends, Mary Ann?”

 

“Of course.” Mary Ann replied but her eyes were distant, and her lips didn’t smile their warm hearted smile “I guess I’m just not a political animal after all.”

 

Peggy thought of several things to say in reply but wisely kept her mouth shut. Mary Ann closed the door behind her and leaned on it for a moment or two, then shook her head, blinked away tears – for she felt angry and humiliated – and walked back to where her children were playing.

 

Chapter 46

 

When evening came Olivia knew that she would have to deal with this matter of Katherine and Sofia or she would never get a decent nights sleep.  It was bad enough having to get through the night with Adam going for his nocturnal prowl at 2 a.m something he had tried to control but every so often needed to do.  Old habits die hard as the expression went, and this was one that seemed to have got a firm hold.

 

She decided to raise the matter while she was helping her daughter read through her lesson for the day.  As she pointed to each word and listened to her daughter’s stammering reading she steeled herself to bring the topic up only to have Sofia look up and smile, as she informed her mother that Miss Hayward was going to take them to the library.

 

“It’s where there are hundreds of books, Mommy.  Hundreds and hundreds.  And they are all about everything.  Miss Hayward said there’s a book for everyone so I am going to look for a book for  you…” she smiled, big blue eyes and rosebud lips, pearly white teeth, “Mommy, what book shall I get you?”

 

Olivia couldn’t answer as her brain went blank.  Her rehearsal of what to say, was void.  Her lead up, her gentle probing – irrelevant.  She looked down at her daughter’s eager face and smiled back, she shook her head “I don’t know, Sofia…I like books on history, and I like poetry.”

 

“Daddy likes poetry…” Sofia said with a self satisfied little smile and then she frowned, “Are you alright, mommy?  You look sad.  Are you unhappy, lovely mommy?”

 

Olivia blinked, shivered and shook her head, ‘lovely mommy’ her daughter had called her, but how could she be if she were to let her child walk into that building and come face to face with Katherine?  What if she became upset, distraught even?  Then she gave herself a mental shake and told her self that this was the opening that she needed, even if it were a less desirable one than the one she had planned.

 

“Sofia, do you remember that lady you called Aunt Katherine?”

 

She could hardly believe she was mentioning that name, giving her the prefix of Aunt, she shivered again and looked at the child, saw the pupils of her eyes dilate, then expand, the catch of her breath and the parting of her mouth and then the slight nod.

 

“That lady who had the doll house and called me Alice?” Sofia asked and seemed to sit closer to her mother, so that her body was pressed hard against Olivia’s.

 

“Yes, that lady.  The – the nice one – not the older lady -”

 

“No, she was horrible, she was like a witch.”

 

“Well, it isn’t her, it’s the nice one …”

 

“She used to brush my hair and gave me pink ribbons.”

 

“Yes, but – the thing is -”

 

“Mom”  Reuben came into the room and frowned, looked at them seated so closely together and shrugged “I got a splinter.”

 

“I’ll see to it in a moment, Reuben.  Get yourself a glass of milk.”

 

“Will that help me get the splinter out?” he grinned, a little smirk at the thought that he was being clever, giving a smart reply.

 

“No, it doesn’t, now – off  you go and keep an eye on Nathaniel.”

 

“I don’t know where he is.” Reuben sighed and wandered out of the room looking at his hand and frowning as he wondered how to get the splinter out without having to have a glass of milk.

 

“Now, Sofia…” Olivia cleared her throat and stroked her daughter’s face, “If I remember rightly you quite liked Katherine, didn’t you?”

 

“Yes, except that I didn’t want to be called Alice and she didn’t believe me when I said I was Sofia.   She kept saying I was dreaming.”

 

“I know.” Olivia nodded and looked at Sofia again, stroked back a wisp of hair and thought that any woman would want a daughter like her, she was so pretty and smart, no wonder Katherine had loved her.

 

“Were you frightened of Katherine?”

 

“No.” Sofia shook her head and looked down at the book in her lap, she gave a slight shrug “She was nice.  She let me read books.  There were lots of books in her house.”

 

“So, if you met her again, you wouldn’t be scared, would you?”

 

Sofia frowned and stared down at the picture of a cat, she could read the words under the cat, it read “This cat is Tom.  His name is Tom.”

 

“Sofia?”

 

Olivia’s voice drifted over the little girl’s head and Sofia sighed,  “Yes, Mommy?”

 

“If you saw Katherine again, in town ..here in town I mean…you wouldn’t be frightened of her, would you?”

 

“No.  She was nice.” she bowed her head over the book and read slowly “This-cat-is-Tom.   His-name-is-Tom.”

 

“Sofia, listen to me now.” Olivia put her hand over the page and stopped the reading, Sofia looked up with a slight frown and a question in her eyes but Olivia smiled only and said rather breathlessly “When you go to the library, you may meet Katherine there.  She works with Miss Tyndale …”

 

“Doesn’t she live with the witch anymore?”

 

“No, that old lady is – she died a long time ago.” Olivia bit her bottom lip and watched her daughter’s facial expressions as the child digested the information she was being given.   “Do you understand what I am saying, dear?”

 

“Yes, Mommy….but she isn’t really my Aunt is she?  She was just pretending?”

 

“Yes, that’s right, she was just pretending.” Olivia nodded and caressed the milky blonde curls that were scattered over her arm.  Love can create pain, an ache in the heart as acute as hunger and with a sigh she dropped a kiss on Sofia’s brow and held her closer.

 

“And she isn’t here to take me away again, is she?”

 

“No, she’s here to work in the library..” Olivia frowned, trying to sound convincing, but Adam had assured her that Katherine meant no harm to their daughter and on that basis she felt confident that she and Sofia could feel safe.

 

“And she is nice, isn’t she?”

 

“You liked her before …when she was in the big house with the library.”

 

“Oh yes, I forgot…” Sofia nodded and for a moment stared down at the page in her book, “I’ll read the next page now, shall I, Mommy?”

 

Olivia nodded and was about to speak when Reuben came into the room holding Nathaniel by the hand, and a feeling of contentment stole over the mother as she looked from one to the other of them, pride and joy and love fought their own internal battles within her,  whatever could she do without them in her life, and as Nathaniel ran towards her holding a very chewed wooden horse for her to see she could have wept from the intensity of her emotions.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

A new day and an appointment that Katherine Royale dreaded but was more than ready to face.  If she wanted a new life then, in a manner of speaking, she needed to wipe the slate clean.  She left the library as the appointed time and made her way over to the Lawyers offices.

 

Hiram Woods straightened his sleeve cuffs and adjusted his collar before seating himself at his desk and pulling the papers towards him for a further scrutiny.   He had read most of the information upon them and knew that he would find no further surprises in the last pages.   He had been shocked enough while reading the first section, and thanked the Powers that be that this wretched Rosemarie Royale and Jethro Tombs had never met and formed a coalition.

 

He dashed an underline beneath a phrase here and there and then set down the pen, he closed the folder and sat back, his fingers intertwined across the expanse of his stomach and his chin resting thoughtfully upon his chest.   Rosemarie Royale’s journals had been written with an accuracy of detail that was both fascinating and terrifying to the elderly Lawyer.  He knew with a 100% certainty that had she ever been arrested and brought to trial then she would have been hanged for her crimes.

 

A slight knock on the door and his clerk peeked into the room upon Hiram bellowing “Yes!”

 

“Miss Godfrey here to see you, sir.”

 

“Show her in…and bring some coffee.”

 

The clerk ducked out of the room and then opened the door wide to allow Katherine admittance.   She paused for a moment as though she needed to catch her breath, as though nerves had got the better of her for that brief time, then she stepped to the chair that Hiram indicated was for her.  She carried a box in her hands and Hiram had a terrible feeling that there were going to be more journals within it and further disclosures of crimes committed by the woman’s dreadful mother.

 

Looking at the young woman seated now before him Hiram wondered if it were possible for her to have inherited any of her mother’s evil corrupt ways, or whether she really was as innocent as she looked.  He recalled to mind that at no time had he read of Katherine’s involvement in any of the crimes committed, rather there was more effort in concealment than anything else.  Throughout the journals Katherine had been written as a dutiful daughter, too sweet natured for her own good and totally unsuited to the life that Rosemarie led.

 

“Now then, young lady, let’s cut to the chase shall we?”  He placed some spectacles on his beak of a nose and observed her again, “You want my advice about what?”

 

“About where I stand with regard to my mother’s crimes.   You see, Mr Woods, I had an encounter in the sheriff’s office with a man who accused me of crimes I have not committed, and although he was considerate and generous enough to accept my protestations, there could be others who may not be…”  she put the box on the table and drew in a deep breath which she exhaled slowly “These are all the jewels that my mother owned.   I don’t know where she got them, although she would claim that she had inherited them or that my father gave her them as gifts.   I wondered if …” she paused and frowned “perhaps in her journals she may have mentioned them and to whom they originally belonged so that restitution could be made to the true owners.”

 

Woods smiled, although he hid it well beneath his hand which he had brought to his face to stroke his beard.  He nodded “There are some references to jewellery, your mother’s journals were very accurate to a degree that I find truly remarkable.”

 

“I have only kept the ring my fiance gave me upon our engagement, and some jewellery my father gave me.  But if you could please deal with it all, I would be most grateful.”

 

“But some of it…”

 

“No, I want nothing that belonged to her.  I want to be totally absolved from the whole matter, from anything that had to do with her.”

 

“That is why you changed your name when you came here?”  he peered at her over the rim of his glasses and then paused when the door opened and the clerk came in with a tray laden with coffee which he set down upon a side table.

 

Once there were cups of coffee placed on the desk for their convenience the clerk disappeared as silently as he had arrived.  Hiram nodded and looked seriously at her,

 

“Why did you come here?”

 

She sighed, “It seems everyone asks that same question, sir, and I can only reply as I have before and that is – to be honest – that without my mothers dictating my life I suddenly found myself unsure of what to do, responsible for my own decisions, something I was never allowed to do, not even – “

 

“In connection to your daughter?” his voice was kindly and instantly tears sprung to her eyes which she attempted to blink away.

 

“Not even then, especially not then.  Even my father was agreeable to what my mother suggested, he said  that being Alice’s Aunt meant I still had contact with her, but …but it isn’t the same…” she pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes

 

“Now then, my dear, drink your coffee while it is still hot.   Then we shall discuss this matter a little more.”

 

Katherine stared at the cup, a very pretty Japanese lacquered design on delicate porcelain, she was almost afraid to pick it up as her hand was shaking so much.

 

“So you came here because you felt you could hide among the people or because of some other reason..perhaps to do with the Cartwrights?”

 

She stared still at the cup and then frowned “It was a stupid thing to do, I know that now.  At the time when I was casting around in my mind where to go, it seemed the best place to be, because, odd as it may seem, there was a tenuous link with that family.  I was at the trial of Joseph Cartwright, and I saw the kindness and big heartedness of those men, supporting him despite anything.  I just thought that if they could overlook the matter of – what happened with Sofia – they may help me, oh, I don’t know what I’m saying now, it is just that at the time it all fell into place, made sense.”

 

He nodded “A tenuous link is better than none at all I should imagine.  A young woman like yourself should not be cast adrift in a world such as this … and your own sister and her husband would not help?”

 

“I spent months with them and was treated like a servant. My daughter doesn’t know me, she calls me Aunt as though addressing a beggar, a cast off from society.  I dread to think of what my sister has told her about me…” she paused “My sister is a lot like my mother in many respects…”

 

“Yes, I gathered that from the journals, she was often your mother’s confidante…” he paused “You did not know that?”

 

“No, I suspected it but did not want to know it for certain.  I am not surprised…” she paused “I need to take my daughter from that environment before Emily corrupts her entirely.”

 

“Did you sign any adoption papers?   I saw no mention of that in your mother’s journals?”

 

“No, there was nothing signed, no paperwork, my mother said it was better to just hand Alice over and – and leave it to nature, after all, it was among sisters, or as she said, kept in the family.”

 

Her tone was bitter, and her lips, although they trembled, were thin with anger. “Had I married then Alice would have had a most loving father, and she would have been kept safe from anything that could have harmed her”

 

The coffee had cooled, she drank it quickly and set the cup down carefully upon the saucer then looked at him.  “What should I do?”

 

He leaned back in his chair and once again stroked his beard of which he was rather proud, his eyes observed her again with consideration and then he gave a thin smile,

 

“You must do what you feel is right for you.  I shall certainly do what I can to contact the wronged people referred to in these journals and make restitution as best as one can.  As for your change of name..I think you feel more comfortable already with the name of your choice, Elizabeth Godfrey, am I correct?”  when she nodded he continued “There is no need to draw up a legal Change of Name Deed, a person is known by the name by which they are known…if that makes sense.   Many people are known by a certain name to the extent that they forget their original names…I hope you can do the same, Miss Godfrey, although somehow I doubt if you will ever forget your history, although I wish you a better and happier furture.,” he paused and smiled slowly “But, of course, if you prefer things to be water tight, in a legal manner, then I can get a deed drawn up this morning.”

 

She stood up and nodded, extended her hand and thanked him, “Is that all, Miss Godfrey?  Is there not anything else you would want to ask me?”

 

“With regard to what?”  she said, puzzled and somewhat anxious.

 

“About your daughter?  Do you not want some advice about how to get her home to her real mother?”   he smiled kindly and after a moment while she absorbed what he had said she nodded, smiled, and agreed that yes, it was time for her daughter to know her true mother.

 

Chapter 47

 

It seemed to Olivia that upon consideration of her discussion with Sofia that she should muster up the courage and face the woman whom she considered her Nemesis. Having mentioned her intentions to Adam, thereby forcing her own hand so to speak, Olivia took the children into school, deposited Nathaniel with Bridie, and then made her way to the library.

 

Reuben and Sofia had been more than pleased to have their Mother take them to school, for this had become somewhat of a rarity as Olivia’s day started early and life was busy for her even though she was not responsible in any way to the running of the ranch. Nathaniel was not do pleased when the buggy turned away from the direction he knew would be taking them to see Hannah and Hope or even Daniel. He bawled and protested until Olivia assured him of a special treat once they were in town.

 

Being left at Bridie’s was not the treat he had in mind so he bawled some more although he had been very happy to wave his brother and sister off when they ran into school. Olivia felt a twinge of anxiety as she left him and the door closed upon the sight of her son being coaxed into silence by the patient Doctors wife. But it was only anxiety piled on the previous anxiety for as she approached the library it felt like a million butterflies had been let loose in her stomach.

 

Miss Tyndale was more than pleased to see one of the Mrs Cartwrights’ present and rather regretted that there were so many other customers browsing among the bookshelves or demanding attention from her or her assistant whom Olivia was unable to see as Miss Godfrey was in another section of the building.

 

It was obviously inconvenient. Miss Tyndale became flustered when she asked if it were possible to speak in private to Miss Godfrey so she just smiled and said she would return later.

 

Once outside the building she wondered if this were not a God given opportunity to forget the whole thing but then realised that were she to abandon her purpose she would still have to go back and explain to her husband that she had given into her fears and left Miss Godfrey to the fates! For a while she stood there and dithered then decided that returning now to Bridie’s and her son would create further problems later when she would have to leave him again. Instead she strolled to Miss Ridleys Ladies Emporium and dallied for a while there. When she finally left she carried a pretty oyster coloured bag containing some rather attractive and decidedly racy underwear.

 

Miss Tyndale greeted her with a smile and an apology as she explained that Miss Godfrey was no longer available for the next hour as she had an appointment with Mr Woods, the lawyer. “Very secretive is our Miss Godfrey,” Miss Tyndale said slowly, thoughtfully, and then, as though she felt honour bound to speak well of the absent employee, she straightened her shoulders and said brightly  “but a very efficient worker and pleasant young woman.”

 

She nodded as though to emphasise the positives in case Mrs Cartwright got the wrong impression of Miss Gregory, after all, not many young ladies went to spend an hour closeted with a lawyer of Mr Woods standing, did they?

 

Alyssia Colby was weaving her way along the sidewalk with her little infant asleep in a very expensive perambulator …all the way from New York … And paused to spend a while chatting to her, the conversation revolving around the upcoming event at the weekend, the Meeting about Women’s Suffrage

 

“I personally feel it very irresponsible of any woman with young children to raise to get involved in meetings of this kind, don’t you, Mrs Cartwright. But then of course you probably disagree with me about at as your sister in law is taking quite a prominent part in the proceedings I believe?”

 

Olivia succeeded to pushing down both her irritation and annoyance at this unjustified attack on Mary Ann’s character, she smiled, rather tight lipped, and nodded saying only “To each their own, Mrs Colby.” and then strode away leaving Alyssia standing with her mouth open and looking totally confused. With a toss of her head she soon regained her poise and continued onwards.

 

Lucy Garston was the next to stop Olivia and with a simpering smile enquired into the well being of almost every Cartwright on the Ponderosa who wasn’t in diapers or at school. Without waiting for any reply to her enquiries she continued with the disclosure that she and Peggy had decided that Mary Ann had too many distractions to be truly committed to the ’cause’ and that she, herself, Lucy Garston, was going to assist Peggy at the forthcoming Meeting. “I am,” she declared resting her hand rather theatrically upon her chest “totally committed to the cause. My speech is totally and absolutely the most profound deliberation of the subject you will ever hear.”

 

Olivia thought of the many sermons Mr Garston had delivered and wondered if his daughters abilities were equally as boring and ponderous, in which case she pitied Peggy and the audience who no doubt would have among their number many who dozed off regularly during the church sermons. She extricated herself from Lucy’s companionship by assuring her she would be giving her and her sermon her closest attention and as she hurried away she could hear Lucy saying rather plaintively “But it isn’t a sermon, Mrs Cartwright, it’s far more important than a sermon,”

 

Olivia now found  that as soon as her thoughts had switched from this meeting with Katherine to considering how Mary Ann would be feeling upon being replaced by Lucy, she lost track of where her feet were taking her.   She was so engrossed with the matter that it wasn’t until she found herself on the sidewalk outside the Bucket of Blood that she realised she had strayed off course and needed to retrace her footsteps.

 

The bar keeps broom was sweeping away the debris from the floor of the saloon and she stepped aside quickly in order not to be swept up along with it.

 

“Morning, Missus Cartwright.”

 

A bright cheerful countenance at last, she smiled, nodded and wished him a good morning before turning to locate her destination. The offices of Hiram Woods…and she just caught a glimpse of Grant Tombs leaving the premises with some mail in his hand obviously on the way to the Mail Depot.

 

Alyssia pushed the perambulator along with a determined look on her face as she noticed Elizabeth Godfrey closing the door of the lawyers office behind her. She waved and called a greeting which the other young woman received with a rather defeatist feeling as the last person she wanted to see was the young doctors wife.

 

“Miss Godfrey, ” Alyssia beamed at her erstwhile friend “Where have you been hiding yourself? I had hoped that by now you would have come to call on me at least once! Surely Miss Tyndale is not such a dragon that she forces you to work day and night in that wretched library of hers?”

 

She laughed, a tinkling laugh that made the other woman’s teeth go on edge, but Elizabeth as she was known to Alyssia, smiled and apologised and then ducked down to look at the baby to exclaim to the proud mother what a handsome child he was…

 

“He resembles James, that’s where he has got his good looks”. Alyssia beamed in delight “And I heard that you looked beautiful at the dance on Saturday. Lucy told me that you were with that Abel Greigson…what a catch, my dear …he is hardly ever in town and for you to actually have him as your escort…my goodness, how did you snare him?”

 

Elizabeth forced a laugh “oh I rather think he snared me…but don’t ask me how as I really don’t know…”

 

“Well he is quite the mystery man I can tell you, and …” She paused at the sight of the woman walking towards them, “0h Mrs Cartwright, we meet again..” she turned to Elizabeth “Elizabeth, this is Mrs Olivia Cartwright….Olivia, may I Introduce Miss Elizabeth Godfrey to you?”

 

Both women slightly recoiled at this impromptu but opportune introduction. If Elizabeth thought the last person she wanted to meet was Alyssia she was wrong. She had no intentions of seeking out Olivia Cartwright, not now, not when her head was reeling with things to plan and arrange. Olivia was also caught by surprise but unlike Elizabeth she was done what grateful for the meeting as she had no clear idea what this woman looked like which had led her to seeking her out at her place of employment.

 

It was Olivia who smiled and nodded a greeting “Good morning, I was hoping to meet you today.”

 

“You were?” Elizabeth stammered with her eyes fixed on Olivia’s face and feeling the colour rush up into her cheeks

 

“Perhaps we could go somewhere more private -” Olivia suggested glancing at Alyssia with such an obvious look on her face that the younger woman had no option but to smile, bid them both good day and take herself, her perambulator and the baby somewhere else.

 

Olivia and Elizabeth watched her leave and then turned to face one another. Olivia, the elder of the two was also the taller. She had a natural dignity about her that Elizabeth lacked but would one day gain. They were both blondes but Elizabeth more golden blonde whereas Olivia had the unique milky white silver inherited from a distant Slav ancestress. They could both acknowledge the attractiveness of the other as they stood there in silence for some moments.

 

It was Elizabeth who broke the silence “Thank you for not addressing me as Katherine.”

 

Olivia smiled “That would have been unkind, and I don’t wish to treat you unkindly.”

 

“No?” The younger woman frowned then glanced across the road to the Internationale “Shall we go and have a private word over a cup of coffee?”

 

Olivia nodded and together the two women made their way to the hotel.

 

Once seated with their coffee before them the two women eyed each other contemplatively, again Elizabeth spoke first

 

“I am sorry. I truly am very sorry for what happened …with Sofia…I mean ..our intention when we found her was to save her life -”

 

“You did ..”

 

“But everything went wrong when we got to Bodie. The weather, the distance, lack of communication …everything went wrong and then … ” she looked into Olivia’s eyes and saw the pity there, no anger, just pity, ” you do understand, don’t you.”

 

“Adam explained as best he could about the situation. He knows how bad the weather was…how hard it was to send any form of communication, after all, he went looking for her…I wondered at times if I would lose my husband as well as my daughter.” she paused then picked up her cup to drink some of the coffee, then replaced it, slowly.

“What I couldn’t understand was why you insisted on changing her name, trying to stop her remembering who she really was. You took advantage of her vulnerability to twist her memories into someone she was not.” Olivia shook her head, stared at the other woman for a moment, forcing Elizabeth to lower her own eyes as she succumbed to the anger she saw on Olivia’s face.

 

“She was so ill, her memories were so jumbled and – and in the time I cared for her through that illness I grew so fond of her”  she sighed, and kept her eyes fixed to her hands that were clasped in the lap of her skirt beneath the table.   After a pause that lasted far too long she looked up to see Olivia still looking at her with a calm composed face.  Steeling herself, she said “You know, don’t you, that I have a daughter?”

 

Olivia nodded “Even so, that is no excuse nor reason for what you did …”

 

“You’re right, of course. I know that, but at the time I could not see her ever getting home to wherever she came from. You have to understand, Mrs Cartwright, that ..”

 

“No, you have to understand, Miss Royale, you put us through the most terrible ordeal. It was agonising wondering where she was, praying that she was safe, longing to get her home. You had no right to do what you were doing to her, you never even tried to return her home, you gave no thought to how we were suffering.

 

There was silence once again as Olivia struggled to control her feelings which she realised were running away with her now she that had the opportunity to vent them on the woman she blamed for causing so much pain to her and her family. Katherine gripped her hands together beneath the table do tightly that her nails dug into the flesh as she struggled to find the right words that would calm Olivia.

 

“Mrs Cartwright, I seem to have done nothing but try to explain what happened and why to various different people, including your husband. You fail to see…”

 

“No, Miss Royale, you fail to understand that. ..”

 

“You have no idea what it was like, Mrs Cartwright… No idea at all. My daughter was taken from me when a few days old. I have never held her in my arms since, nor has she turned to me and spoken kindly to me. When your daughter reached out to me for comfort, and I held her in my arms, I – I just wanted to be loved by her, to love her…”

She stared down at the table and gulped down air “you suffered a few weeks of what I Suffer every day, knowing my own daughter has no idea of the truth, that I’m her mother, that I need her in my life and ..”

 

Olivia stood up slowly and moved away from the table, paused to look down at the younger woman “Then what, may I ask, are you doing here? If you were any kind of mother you should go and get your daughter and make a home for yourselves instead of being here talking about her.” she leaned towards her “Don’t think I do not sympathise, I do … But you are failing her and yourself if you just stay here and do nothing to get her back.”

 

With one last look at the woman who had kept Sofia from her, Olivia left the room with a straight back and her head held high. Katherine, now known as Elizabeth, watched her go, saw the doors close behind her, and pulled out a handkerchief with which she dabbed her eyes dry.

 

She still sat there, watching the doors that had closed behind Olivia.  It struck her as fateful that within an hour two people had told her to do the same thing, to go and claim back her daughter.  And she knew they were right.  She knew it because she had felt the need to do just that for so long now that she could not believe she come all this way without Alice by her side.   It was fear of Emily who seemed the Nemesis she had to confront, Emily who was so like their mother that it was as though they were cast from the same mould.

 

She drank her coffee slowly, then set down the cup upon its saucer and stood up.  Of course, there was only one thing she could do now…call it fate, call it Kismet, but the time had come to face her worst nightmare.  Not Emily, but Alice – and if her daughter rejected her, she knew she had only herself to blame.

 

Chapter 48

 

They say eavesdroppers never hear anything good about themselves, and in some ways Peggy believed that to be true. As she rode into town she thought over the snatches of conversation she had overheard between Hester and Ben as they had sat together on the porch, not realising how their voices had floated up through the open window of Peggy’s room.

 

She replayed what she had heard through her mind now as she rode without seeing anything but trusting in the horse to know where it had to go. Ben’s deep voice murmuring that Mary Ann had decided not to speak at the meeting and then Hester saying how she had decided not to even attend at all.

 

“Has she let Peggy know?” Ben had said and Peggy could imagine his face, the concern for herself, the fact that Mary Ann had acted with impropriety to their guest.

 

“She did write to her.” Hester had replied matter of factly, and there had come the sound of a cup being replaced into its saucer, Erik chattering and Hester’s voice now whispering endearments to the child.

 

“I’m glad, in a way, to be honest.” Ben had then said, “I didn’t like the idea of Mary Ann being involved.” a pause, Peggy could imagine the smug look of agreement on Hester’s face, then Ben continued “I agree with Peggy in that a lot of things need to be changed with regard to how women are treated in this country…well, all over the world really. Looking at it purely from a mercenary point of view I would object most strongly if anything happened to Hoss and you remarried and your new husband claimed Hoss’ share of the Ponderosa for his own…”

 

“Oh that couldn’t happen, surely?” Hester had sounded shocked, and Peggy had shaken her head in disbelief at the woman’s naivete, “Anyway, it wouldn’t because I would never re-marry.”

 

“Hmm,” Ben had muttered “The thing is it happens to other women, and worse. Things do need to change and no matter what Peggy thinks, I am not entirely against this cause for suffrage, I doubt if any fair minded man would be but -”

 

“But?” Hester had prompted

 

“But it will take time to make those changes and I think Peggy and a lot of women are rushing things a bit, they want change now, and hard as it seems, it just isn’t going to change without a lot of heart ache. The more aggressive they are about the issues they bring up, the longer it will take.”

 

“It is the aggression I dislike so much.” Hester had agreed and then her voice was mumbled as she spoke to her little boy, the rattle of chinaware, the clink of a spoon upon a saucer. “Suffrage is a good cause, and Peggy is wrong to think we are all against her, it is just – not the time for all the changes now. But there will be a time, I am sure of that, now that there has been a start in recognising the issues involved, it will gather momentum, won’t it?”

 

“I worry about Peggy.” Ben then had said after a pause of some moments just when Peggy had turned aside to pick up her purse and thinking that she had wronged Hester in assuming her to feel only antipathy towards the suffrage cause.

 

“How do you mean?”

 

“It’s what you said earlier, Hester, the aggression …not with regard to the cause, but in connection with Peggy. I just wish I could get her to return to that mischievous happy young woman who came here several years back. That was before she went to Switzerland of course…”

 

There was silence now and Peggy had frozen to the spot, then had approached the window to listen more closely as the couple remained on the porch unaware of the listener above their heads.

 

“Something has happened to her, changed her …”

 

“I got the impression from how you spoke about her that she was always a rather volatile child, always angry -”

 

“No, not always.” Ben’s voice had softened, Peggy could almost see his face gentling, his eyes drifting backwards with memories but it hurt that she had been considered an almost always angry child. “Just a confused unhappy little girl after her father died. Frank adored Peggy, and she naturally loved her father – and then he was killed in that ridiculous accident. If he had not been drinking so much then perhaps it would not have happened but it did, one can’t turn back the clock -”

 

Another long pause and Erik now was chattering and attention was turned to him, until Ben started talking again “When Peggy came some years ago she was happy and relaxed, made Joe a whole lot better in himself too…. No, something has changed Peggy since then.”

 

“Perhaps getting so involved with this suffrage business?”

 

“Perhaps, but I’m not so sure it is.” Ben had sighed then and there were the sounds of his getting out of his chair now, scuffling sounds on the porch floor boards, “I remember saying to Adam – that time he was courting Laura – no, I asked him if he loved her, or was it because he wanted a family of his own. He loved Peggy you know, I sometimes thought he loved her more than he loved Laura and that, of course, would have been a recipe for disaster.”

 

“I guess it was a good thing Will was on the scene at the time …”

 

“Yes, a blessing in disguise. “

 

Footsteps … and then only Erik and Hester’s voices were heard and Peggy had hurried out of her room, ran down the stairs and left the house with as much courtesy as she could muster.

 

Mary Ann had indeed sent her a little note and it was still on the night stand where Peggy had left it. It was short, sweet and simple, but honest in stating that anyone with divided loyalties was worse than someone with none at all. Peggy accepted that and in some way was relieved. She had set the note down and put her mind to thinking of another replacement, one who had something that Mary Ann had lacked.

 

“Whoa there….”

 

The man’s voice snapped Peggy out of her contemplation and she drew the horse up at once, then recognised Abel Greigson reaching out to wards the horse as though to prevent it going any further.

 

“You’re on Ponderosa land,” she snapped immediately and Abel had laughed

 

“Sorry, little lady, but I’m not. You may not have noticed but you happen to be on a public highway now, just a few miles from town. But as you seemed half asleep -”

 

“I was not!”

 

“It looked as though you were.”

 

“Well, I was not -” Peggy scowled and looked at him again, smiling at her, his eyes crinkled in laughter.

 

“You nearly ran me down.”

 

“You shouldn’t have been in the way.”

 

“I was not.”

 

“You must have been otherwise -” she paused as he began to laugh, dropped his hand from the intention he had had of grabbing at her horse’s bridle “I’m sorry. You’re right. I wasn’t concentrating.”

 

“Well, I’ll forgive you this time.” Abel replied and moved his horse closer to her, his eyes now more serious as he looked into her face, “Is everything alright with you, Miss Dayton?”

 

“Yes, everything’s just fine.” she snapped, and hardened her voice. It seemed to her typical that give a man an inch and they would take a yard. “Excuse me, I have business in town.”

 

“My apologies…” he had removed his hat but now, as he backed his horse away from her, he replaced it. “See you on Saturday then.”

 

“Saturday?”

 

“At your Meeting…” he grinned, as though even saying the words made him want to laugh “G’day to you.”

 

She didn’t move but listened as the sound of his horse drifted away. He was going to be at the Meeting on Saturday? She shook her head, the thought of him being in the audience made her feel something like panic in the pit of her stomach and it took some seconds for her to control the feeling and urge the horse onwards to town.

 

It was Wednesday. Abel Greigson had an appointment to keep with a certain Librarians’ Assistant and with a smile on his lips he hastened the horse towards the designated location.

 

As Peggy neared the first houses of the town her thoughts left Abel Greigson and returned to Ben’s comments about Adam and Laura, and in some way it brought a warmth to her heart to know that Adam had indeed loved her – and was she right in interpreting what Ben had said? Had Ben really intimated that Adam had loved her more than Laura? She dwelt on that for a second or two then decided that she would return to that matter later.

 

Ben had also intimated that something had happened when she was in Switzerland. She knew he was right, something had happened. But it was before she had gone to Switzerland, it was after her return to her home from that visit to Virginia City that Ben had referred to, when she had returned to Laura and Will.

 

She dismounted from the horse and tied the reins to the hitching rail outside the Garston’s house. Lucy came out, a face wreathed in smiles, eyes twinkling as she approached her friend, then she stopped

 

“Where’s Mary Ann?”

 

“She’s decided not to come. She’s not taking part -” Peggy heard herself say as she tried to remove the cobwebs of her memories and settle down to the matter in hand now.

 

“Oh, that’s a shame.” Lucy said rather insincerely and then looked at Peggy “Still, I think we were both expecting that, weren’t we?”

 

Peggy nodded and then gave Lucy the benefit of one of her rare smiles “I know just the person who would be perfect for what we need now. Someone the town knows and respects, someone who has lived here since she was a little girl, and someone who has influence because she’s a prosperous businesswoman.”

 

“With no husband?” Lucy smiled although her eyes looked slightly confused .

 

“With no husband.” Peggy nodded and slipped her arm through Lucy’s “First of all though, let’s check on the venue. I want to make sure there will be enough seats for everyone, and that the posters are already in place.”

 

Lucy nodded again and with a smile allowed her self to be whisked down the sidewalk to the hall where the meeting was scheduled to be hosted.

……………..

 

Abel Greigson lay on his back on the grass and surveyed the clouds as they skimmed overhead. The sky was blue and its reflection made the waters of the lake as blue, some birds flew overhead and on the lake swans were gliding by.

 

After some moments had passed he drew out his watch and checked the time. Elizabeth was now half an hour late. He replaced the watch and frowned, how like a woman he thought, and closed his eyes. It wasn’t often he could slip away from the ranch, like this, but Elizabeth had been worth it. He would give her another half an hour and then, if she was not here, he would ride into town and find her, just in case something had happened … an accident of some kind, something more important, although he could not imagine anything could be more important than this moment in time.

………………

 

The Manager of the hall shook his head and waved his arms in the air. His face was going purple and veins were standing out in his neck and temples. What hair he possessed were standing on end as he exchanged angry words with the two women who stood in his office demanding to know why the hall was not available to them for the Meeting they had scheduled for Saturday.

 

“I have every right to rent out the hall to whom I please.” he yelled and thumped on the desk for good measure. “I refuse to rent it out to you.”

 

“The fact of the matter is, Mr Higgins, that you did rent the hall out to us. We paid a deposit and you agreed to let us have possession of it from the hour of 2:00.”

 

“Maybe I did then – “ he pulled out a drawer and withdrew some money which he slapped down onto the desk “There’s your money. Take it or leave it, but whatever you choose to do, you won’t have my hall for your meeting. Now – clear out – before I get the law onto you.”

 

“Oh well, Mr Higgins as we are in the right, and you are in the wrong, I think that a very good idea.” Peggy shrieked and ran to the office door, threw it open and shouted “Some one – get the sheriff -”

 

“Hold on there.” HIggins yelled and grabbed at her arm, pulling her back into his office and slamming the door shut “If anyone’s going to get the sheriff I will. You ain’t got no grievance with me, Miss Dayton. I simply double booked, that’s what happened, and hadn’t realised until a few days back. Now then, take your money.”

 

Lucy had never been in such a confrontation before, and looked from Higgins, who was one of her father’s main associates in town and a regular church goer who provided a tidy sum in the contributions each Sunday, to her friend, Peggy, who was looking angrier than Mrs Garston had ever looked in her life

 

“I think we should take the money, Peggy, and find somewhere else.” she said quietly and tugged at Peggy’s arm

 

Higgins puffed out his chest “You won’t find anywhere else.” he slid the money towards Peggy and leaned forwards, his eyes narrowed into mean little slits “No one will want to hire out a hall to you and your sort.”

 

Peggy’s lips thinned, if she had been alone with the man she would have punched him in the mouth, thrown the money at him, broken some windows… the anger she felt at this insult was stronger than she felt she could control so with a muffled cry of rage she fled from the room. Lucy collected the money and smiled politely at Higgins, (she was a Garston after all) and then hurried out after her friend.

 

“What do we do now?” she asked Peggy who was standing in the middle of the sidewalk trying to calm herself, shaking with rage and with her hand on her heart in an attempt to slow it down.

 

“Follow me.” Peggy said and marched forwards with a determination that gave Lucy a little confidence that her friend knew what she was doing.

 

Amanda Ridley looked up as her office door opened and Mrs Carstairs asked her if she had time to see Miss Peggy Dayton and Miss Lucy Garston on a matter of some urgency. Even before she had had time to nod, or shake her head, the two young ladies in question had brushed Mrs Carstairs aside and were standing in the room looking somewhat apprehensive but determined to be heard. Amanda nodded,

 

“Mrs Carstairs, could you make us some coffee please.” was all she said as she stood up and walked round the desk to stand in front of the two women. She smiled, shook their hands and beckoned to two chairs “Please – sit down.”

………………..

 

Miss Tyndale looked up as the young man approached her. She could see from his demeanour that he had not come to ask her about books, and so steeled herself to answer anything she was asked.

 

He removed his hat and nodded at her, “Ma’am, could you tell me if Miss Godfrey is here?”

 

Miss Tyndale shook her head “I‘m afraid she is not, Miss Godfrey has left my employment.” she saw the puzzled look on his face and raised her eyebrows, removed her spectacles, “Miss Godfrey has left town. She went this morning.”

 

Abel said nothing but absorbed the information stoically. His first thought was that everything was all right, there had obviously been some emergency that had caused her to leave town and she had not just forgotten about him, their appointment, there had been a good reason. He drew in his breath and nodded “When will she be back?”

 

Miss Tyndale replaced her spectacles and shook her head “She left very suddenly, I got the impression that she does not intend to come back. “

 

“Are you sure?” he leaned in towards her and she stepped back a pace, grateful that the counter was between them.

 

“Miss Godfrey made it quite clear to me that she would not be returning to Virginia City. She has personal matters that have to be dealt with -” she looked at him and shook her head, He was obviously another distraction in the life of Miss Godfrey, and looked utterly confused, she felt sympathy for him and said, quite sincerely, “I am sorry.”

 

“Did she say where she was going ?”

 

“No, but I believe she used to live in Bodie. She may be going back there.”

 

“Bodie?” he frowned, all he had heard of the place was bad, a place where gunslingers ruled and there was no law. “Are you sure?”

 

“I only said she may be going back there… that’s all I can tell you.”

 

He nodded, apologised politely for disturbing her and then picked up his hat and walked away. He sighed and shook his head once he was outside the building. He looked up and down the street and sighed again. His heart had been touched, but not deeply enough for it to have been shattered at her departure. He glanced around him once again and after replacing his hat, made his way to the Bucket of Blood saloon.

 

He was hardly heart broken, disappointed certainly, but any excuse for a glass of whiskey without his father whining about the cost was an opportunity too good to waste.

 

Chapter 49

 

Nathaniel loved the horses and was quite fearless when he was near them. When Adam was in the stables or corral Nathaniel would climb up the rails of the stalls and then slide himself onto the broad back of whichever horse was in the stall and bounce about on it . Whichever horse it happened to be never appeared to mind, although the ears would twitch and it would flick its tail quite a little bit more than usual. Adam would eventually stroll over and give him a curry brush so he would gently begin to stroke it down the animals broad neck and chatter to it.

 

The smells of a stable were all of a mix and mingle, some unpleasant and some sweet and conducive to drowsiness for a little boy. After a while he would clamber down from the horse in the same manner he had mounted her, clambering down the rails and then running over to Adam, curry brush in hand and then bend to stroke it down the legs of the animal Adam was attending to.

 

Adam would talk to him about the animals, teaching him about the beast in the most natural way possible, explaining where the animals withers were, its hock, its ‘frog’, all little scraps of information that the child absorbed without even realising it.

 

Then, if Reuben were there, talk would turn to other subjects, matters that would be more interesting for the older boy, and Nathaniel would then find bales of hay to climb over, or scramble up to the hay loft, he was just big enough now to manage the ladder. He would run about up there and send straw dust and pieces of chaff drifting through the cracks in the floorboards to fall upon his father and brother’s heads. If Sofia was there she would whine about it, ‘You’re spoiling my hair’ ‘Nathaniel, stop being naughty’ all that kind of thing. But she was usually busy collecting eggs with Mother, or in the dairy working on shaping the butter and complaining about grease on her fingers.

 

But this afternoon Nathaniel was sitting astride Sports broad back while Adam was whistling a tune and the little boy was pursing his lips and hoping to get some sounds from them when there came the sound of a horse trotting into the yard. Adam paused in his whistling, put his head to one side as though trying to decipher who was visiting, and then recommenced his whistling as he waited for the person to appear.

 

A woman stepped into the stable and immediately Adam stopped whistling, and nodded,and acknowledged the visitor with one word “Peggy..”

 

“Adam.”

 

She stood there looking at him and then noticed Nathaniel, “Hello, Nathaniel. Are you helping Daddy?”

 

The boy shook his head and said nothing; he stared at her and then looked at Adam who put down the cloth in his hand and walked towards Sports stall where the boy waited to be picked up. Adam swung him down and told him to go indoors and ask his mother to prepare for a visitor. “Tell Mommy we have a visitor.” he said.

 

Nathaniel gave Peggy a narrow eyed glance from his dark eyes and ran outside, the two adults watched him as he hurried over to the house and clambered onto the porch to disappear inside.

 

“I came to apologise,” Peggy said quietly, “I should not have spoken to you the way that I did, and I am sorry.”

 

Adam nodded and picked up another piece of rag upon which he wiped his hands, although he kept his eyes on her, appearing attentive as always. He was about to speak when Peggy continued “I wanted to tell you something. Perhaps it is something you know already, but I was reminded about it earlier today and thought that you may be able to tell me more about it.”

 

He nodded again, glanced over at the house “Would you prefer to go inside, Olivia would …-”

 

“Later.” she replied and stepped closer, a frown on her brow and her lips puckered as though she was already going through in her mind what she had already rehearsed on the way to the house from town.

 

“Very well. Say what you have to say…” he smiled and leaned against the rails of the stall. Occasionally his old leg injury pained him more than usual, and today had been one of those days.

 

“When I came last time…the time you went to Alaska I think, you were engaged to marry Barbara Scott?” she looked at him challengingly but he didn’t say anything nor nod or shake his head, just waited for her to continue “Anyway, I went home as everyone expected, in order to go to the Finishing School in Switzerland. I told Will and my mother that I didn’t want to go, instead I wanted them to come here, I mean to the Running D, to buy the ranch back and to settle into the life we had had before – before father was killed.”

 

Adam bit down on his bottom lip, but he said nothing to her and for a while there was just the silence hanging between them. Sport snorted and fidgeted in his stall, and a hoof from another horse struck against a wooden railing. Peggy tugged at the ribbon of her bonnet, feeling a little self conscious and wanting him to speak.

 

“Well, mother was furious, she never wanted to go back.” she frowned as though she could see herself in that grand sitting room confronting Will and her mother, the angry blue eyes and flushed cheeks of the still pretty woman and the calm placating face of the handsome man she had married. She could almost see a look of longing in Wills’ eyes, the look of a man thinking of home and family, being near his Cartwright cousins, “She went through a whole list of reasons why we could never go back…that included the education of myself and my brothers. But most of all it was because of all she had ‘endured’ during her marriage to my father, the memories of which, she said, still haunted her. “

 

She twisted the ribbons of her bonnet through her fingers and sighed deeply, “I – you – know how much I loved my father and he loved me. There were angry words exchanged between us, my accusing her of being hard hearted and ‘frigid’ was the word, and she flinging back words about father that were hateful and I thought then, untrue. I called her a liar, and then she flounced over to a bureau and pulled out an old letter from the drawer which she thrust at me. “Read this for yourself then,” she said, “It cost Adam Cartwright $500 but read it for yourself and see whether or not it was worth the money.””

 

She stared at him then, and he nodded, remembering the woman in the buggy , the letter, the plan to snatch Peggy away so that she could join Frank and this woman far away from Nevada. He pursed his lips, and frowned then said in his deep calm voice “Well, I thought she had destroyed that…”

 

“Oh no, anything of monetary value was kept safe where mother was concerned.” she said contemptuously.

 

“Peggy,” he paused and sighed, then reached out a hand to lightly touch her arm before dropping it back to fidget with the rag, “Peggy, can’t you just stop feeling so angry towards Laura. Whatever else, she is still your mother.”

 

His brown eyes looked into hers, a slight frown appeared on her brow but she only tightened her lips, a little button of petulant animosity. He shook his head and then tossed the rag to one side “Well? What? What else do you have to say?”

 

Peggy turned her back slightly now as though having to look at him made her feel uncomfortable, she stared out of the entrance of the stable to the yard and heard Adam move, restless, and no doubt, she thought, anxious to get away.

 

“To her I am an inconvenience. I am Frank’s daughter, nothing else.” Peggy raised her chin, “I’m proud of being Frank’s daughter, that was why I wanted her and Will to come back here to live. But she wouldn’t hear of it….” she bowed her head “She said that if it hadn’t been for you dealing with that woman and paying her off, she would have been glad to have had Frank’s scheme work out, that it was a pity it hadn’t, then perhaps I would have realised what kind of man he really was, and the kind of woman I would have had for a step mother.”

 

She drew in her breath, “As usual there was always someone else to blame for the things that went wrong in her life….and you were often quoted as the cause of all manner of wrongs, along with Father of course.”

 

Adam dismissed that comment with the contempt it deserved, he sighed again and shook his head “Your father loved you and wanted you to be with him when he left Laura. That surely works in his favour…?”

 

“Of course it does and I wish with all my heart that I had been able to go with him, instead of …of waiting for him to come home, which he never did again.”

 

“But, Peggy, at the time the woman came with that letter, you were still struggling with your feelings for your father, and your mother was truly heart broken at the fact that you were so sad and so angry. Your mother….”

 

“My mother never loved my father, and she made him know it … I was the result of what she referred to as rape. That’s it, in a nutshell.” she heaved in a deep breath and when he came and stood close to her, she felt the sting of tears in her eyes, “She hated me as much as I hated her but when I had got so I could love her, when she was happy with you, and I loved you and thought you were going to be my father, she betrayed me again. She married Will.” she bowed her head and when he put a hand on her arm, she gripped hold of his fingers “I loved you, Adam, I wanted you to be my father. I know you loved me too, I know you did…”

 

“Yes, true enough.” he nodded, agreed and put an arm around her shoulders and gave her a hug, drawing her close to him so that she clung to him, and wept.

 

Nathaniel ran into the stable and stopped, looked up at them and frowned “Daddy, you come in now?”

 

“Sure, son, we’re just coming.” Adam said quietly and pushed the young woman away with a determination that indicated that was sufficient contact between them and it was now over.

 

“Why didn’t you fight to keep her, Adam? Why did you let her go?” she whispered, wiping her eyes.

 

“Because I knew I didn’t love her, not the way Will did, it would have put her in the same situation – well, a similar situation – that she had been with Frank. And you would not have been happy having to live in an environment like that, Peggy.”

 

“I would have been, Adam. I would have been if I had been with you…” she cried, her eyes large and pleading to him to understand.

 

He did understand, only too well, but he shook his head and picked his son up into his arms, “No, it would have been miserable, Peggy, for everyone. You may even have been happier with your father and that woman -”

 

She dabbed at her cheeks now with the handkerchief and instead of following him to the door she remained standing where she was, then in her usual stubborn manner said “I met that woman.” she spoke quietly, “Some years later when I was in college. She looked out for me, asked me if I were Frank Dayton’s daughter, from Virginia City way. She’s made something of herself now, she’s intelligent and she’s prosperous. She lives in Brooklyn, and gave a lecture at the college. It was her that brought my attention to Women and Suffrage. Her name is Dorothy, Dorothy Weston.”

 

Adam nodded and walked out into the yard with Nathaniel in his arms and this time Peggy trailed along behind him, he half turned towards her “So that’s why you got involved with the movement, because of the connection with this woman and your father?”

 

“Partly, but mainly because I agree with it.” she blew her nose, adjusted her hair and drew in her breath, “She told me about my father, what a wonderful man he was, how much she had loved him. She was everything my mother was not…and she made him happy, you know.”

 

“I’m sure she did, Peggy.” he put Nathaniel down and smiled at him, nodded and watched the little boy turn and run into the house, then he looked at Peggy “My dear, you have to start living your life now, stop being that 8 year old angry little girl, grow up, be yourself, be Peggy Dayton as your father would wish you to be….don’t live your life trapped inside yourself, living your life as an angry confused 8 year old. “

 

She frowned and was about to speak when the door opened and Olivia was there, smiling down at them both, extending a hand to this young woman who years ago could have had the same claims on her husband as Sofia had now.

 

“Hello Peggy, come on in….I was wondering when you would get around to paying us a visit.”

 

As Peggy entered the house Olivia flicked a glance at Adam, saw nothing but a blank composed look on his face, and then followed Peggy inside.

 

Talk turned to the planned meeting on Saturday while Olivia deftly prepared coffee and handed out cups and plates and sliced up cake, and gave Nathaniel some toys with which to play. A completely calm and collected young woman, nothing like the blubbering mess in the stable, told them about the disaster of finding the hall cancelled. Of Mr Higgins double cross, and how Miss Ridley had stepped in to save the day.

 

“That will be interesting.” Olivia said dryly, “So will the Meeting go ahead?”

 

“Oh yes, definitely. Miss Ridley has organised it all very well. She is a true Suffragette, you know, and the Meeting will go ahead, as planned, on time, in Virginia City on Saturday afternoon.” she leaned back in the chair, and smiled, sipped her coffee and nibbled her cake, and for a moment Olivia was reminded of a little pussy cat who had really got her cake and had cream with it.

 

“Mary Ann -” Olivia started to say but Peggy frowned, looked remorseful and then shook her head,

 

“Mary Ann has resigned, she won’t be coming. With Joe having injured himself she doesn’t feel it right to attend.”

 

“Oh, what will you do?” Olivia asked and then remembered Lucy Garston’s triumphant little smile, “Oh of course, Lucy….”

 

“Lucy and Miss Ridley will rally round. It is a pity Mary Ann can’t even attend though, but it’s her choice. Better to come willingly than not… “ she glanced over at Adam who had sat drinking coffee and silent throughout the conversation “You will both be there, won’t you?”

 

Olivia looked thoughtful and then looked at Adam who said he would have to be as the sheriff had asked him and Hoss to act as deputies. Peggy looked affronted, and shook her head,

 

“Surely there’s no need for you to be deputies, it is not going to be one of those rowdy meetings, it is just going to be a series of talks about the rights for women to have the vote.”

 

Olivia sighed and shook her head, “It seems to me that you don’t realise, Peggy, that some women, and most men, couldn’t care less about votes for women.”

 

“Then they need to be put on notice that women should have that right.” she put down her cup so forcibly that Olivia winced, imagining it cracking “Men are voting in men who are totally unsuitable for the privilege of the seat they take up….if women had the vote then there would be a fairer representation of what everyone needs and wants, not just the needs and wants of a proportion of the population…”

 

Adam stood up, raised his hands “Please, Peggy, if you don’t mind… save it for Saturday.”

 

He leaned over and kissed his wife on the brow, “I have to get going, there’s work to do and I’m late already.”

 

Olivia stood up and walked her husband to the door, there was no need of words, she handed him his hat and kissed him again, then watched him as he strode out back to the stables to saddle up Kami.

 

Peggy was standing by the hearth looking at the pictures on the console table and she smiled over at Olivia “Lovely pictures, Olivia. Who is this gentleman?”

 

Olivia looked at the picture of Robert that Peggy held in her hand, and smiled. She stood beside the girl, could smell her and feel the warmth of her body, she took the picture from her and looked down at the face smiling up at her “Robert, my first husband. He was a good man, from San Francisco.”

 

“Reuben and Sofia’s father?”

 

“Yes.” she replaced the picture and continued to smile down at it, a smile of fond memories and affection.

 

“It was a happy marriage?”

 

“Very much so. It broke my heart when he died.”

 

“Then you met Adam?”

 

“Yes, totally by accident in a park on a very cold January morning. He was waiting orders for his next assignment out, and I was trying to keep my children occupied. Then I moved back to the Double D, where I had been raised. I wanted my children to have the security and peace of living here….” she turned with a sigh and took her seat, picked up the coffee pot and poured out more into their cups. “More cake?”

 

“No, thank you.” Peggy did take the cup of coffee and added some sugar, “It seems strange to me being here now, there was a time when I would have been in Sofia’s position..having Adam as my father…step-father I mean.”

 

“Sofia never knew her own father, he died before she was born.” Olivia replied, and smiled over at Peggy, “Adam is the only father she has ever known.”

 

Peggy nodded, and lowered her head so that Olivia wouldn’t see the tears in her eyes, she blinked rapidly, it was silly, immature, to be jealous of a little girl, but she was.

 

Chapter 50

 

Olivia sat back with her cup and saucer in her hand and watched Peggy for a moment or two. Then she leaned forward to get the younger woman’s attention,

 

“You loved your father very much, didn’t you?”

 

Peggy was surprised at the question, then realised that if she were to ask personal questions of Olivia then she had every right to ask such of her, she nodded

 

“Yes, I loved him. For eight years he was everything to me…” she paused and sipped some coffee before looking back at Olivia “I suppose Adam has told you all about how hateful I was to my mother? Told you the whole sorry story…”

 

Olivia noted the slightly bitter tone of voice and knew better than to deny any knowledge of Peggy’s family history so she nodded “He has told me some things, how devoted you and your father – Frank? – were and the misery his death caused you.”

 

Peggy nodded, and her face mirrored the bleakness of feeling that overshadowed her then at the memory. “I don’t think I will ever forget the day we were told that he had died. I thought my world had come to an end….” she glanced at the other woman and a little frown creased her brow “You must have felt the same, when you were told about your husband, that he had died and no matter how much you wished and prayed and longed for things to be different, you knew nothing could change the way things were going to be….”

 

“I know, yes, I felt all those feelings and no one can imagine or put into words how it feels.” Olivia heaved in a deep sigh,she leaned back into the chair and for a heart beat of time remembered those days, shock filled, lonely miserable days, “Reuben was barely three years old and constantly asking where his father was, when he was going to come home – and I was expecting Sofia, our second child…and knowing that she would not know her lovely daddy. Oh, yes, it was hard, harder than anything else that had ever happened to me.”

 

“But you were all right, weren’t you? You came through -” Peggy watched the shadows passing over the other woman’s face, the gleam of what could be tears in her eyes which she blinked hastily away. The pain of re-visiting such memories obvious in the way her breathing had changed, becoming shallower, faster. Olivia lowered her eyes and then said,

 

“Came through? What a strange expression?” she leaned back and observed the other woman with a cynical smile, her eyes darkened, “I didn’t know what to do, I think my whole being – my thinking, feeling, oh just about everything just shut down. I was very ill, even for months after Sofia was born. I just slipped down into a well of self pity and misery …” she paused and a little furrow creased her brow, then she nodded as though to herself, as though telling herself that now was not the time to sink back into those black memories, she looked up at Peggy then and continued speaking “It was thinking about Reuben and trying to help him handle his father’s death that finally wrenched me back to life.” she sighed and set the cup and saucer down on the tray, “If it had not been for him I would willingly have died, even during child birth – perhaps then would have been the best time to have just – you know – just let go of everything and gone.”

 

Peggy blinked and swallowed hard, she felt embarrassed, no one had spoken to her about their own grief so openly before, and she was unsure of what to say next. She glanced over to the pictures on the bureau and Olivia watched her face, the way the eyes roved over the pictures, the way shadows formed as emotions passed through her mind.

 

“Your mother must have suffered too…” Olivia said quietly

 

“My mother?” Peggy frowned, and then gave a rather cold, stiff shrug, “My mother was too glad to be rid of him. She hated him -”

 

“Nevertheless, she was your mother, she had had his child …it does create a bond, you know.”

 

“No, not with her. She loathed him, she never let him get near her after the first time, and even then she had the misfortune to conceive me.”

 

“She must have found that something of a relief, if her life was so loveless, to have a baby to care for, to love…”

 

“Not really.” Peggy replied quietly and glanced away to where a basket laden with knitting wool caught her attention.

 

“She must have loved you, Peggy?” Olivia voice was gentle, coaxing. Peggy felt an overwhelming desire to tell her to stop talking, but at the same time the words were probing, and making her think, and to remember a woman who had laughed, and who had nursed her and gazed down at her with blue eyes often bright with – perhaps – tears. Almost involuntarily she nodded,

 

“Yes, she did love me. But my father loved me more…”

 

“I doubt that, Peggy. He may have shown you more love, demonstrated it in a way you would have enjoyed more… perhaps as a result pushed your mother more and more into the background so that, just perhaps, you didn’t notice just how much she loved you.”

 

Peggy’s eyes widened, dilated, she shivered and wriggled a little in her chair. She was grateful when Nathaniel ran in and created some distraction. He ran to Olivia with wide smiles and his hands cupped so that he could show them an egg he had found, and Olivia praised him for being such a clever boy, and told him to take it into the kitchen for Cheng who was waiting for just that very egg. With a blush of pride Nathaniel walked almost on tiptoe to make sure he didn’t drop his precious cargo, and as he left Peggy watched, her own face softening, a slight smile on her lips.

 

For a few moments neither woman spoke, Olivia seemed unaware of the passing of time, Peggy was lost in memories of a different time…then she sighed “I grew to hate her, everything she did, the way she spoke, the way she was so pathetic when father was there….” she closed her eyes and leaned back in the chair “I wish I could show you just how it was …father was such a big personality, so noisy, he filled the room and he laughed a lot, always playful with me, always having presents for me and telling me he loved me. My mother – “ she frowned, “she just cringed from the moment he stepped into the room, cringed and whined and crept around the house as though she didn’t want him to notice her. Father said how she didn’t really love me, not like he did, he would say how one day he would take me away with him, somewhere beautiful where we could be happy together…” she sighed “It was not a happy house when he was home, although I was perfectly happy while he was there, of course. I grew to hate her, and when he died….I let her know just how much I hated her. I told her – often – How I hated her.”

 

She blinked, gulped, there were tears on her eyelashes, which she brushed impatiently away. Olivia nodded, and reached out a hand which Peggy ignored, so Olivia just sat back, and sighed “I think my heart would have broken even more had Reuben ever said that to me…Of course, he was that much younger, and surrounded by love from both Robert and I. I think I existed in a cocoon of love, thinking it could never end and that when the baby came we would be even happier than we were already. What a stupid thing to think…” she sighed, “But as I said, Reuben was that much younger, whereas you had had eight years of -”

 

“…of being totally confused I suppose. “ Peggy sighed and looked at Olivia “I suppose you must think I was a horrible brat of a child…”

 

“Oh no, not at all, children react emotionally, they hit out at things they don’t understand, better for that than to close down and lock their emotions up inside themselves – well, that’s what I always think – “ she shrugged and gave a little laugh, “Not that my opinion is that important ,of course.”

 

The clock chimed the hour and Peggy placed her cup on the saucer and put them on the tray. Olivia smiled and waited to see if the conversation would continue, Peggy cleared her throat “I didn’t like Adam at first. I told him I hated him as well.”

 

“Yes., he did tell me that…I imagine he wore you down over time.” again that quick warm gentle smile, the crinkle around the eyes and Peggy realised again what a very attractive woman Olivia was,

 

“Oh it didn’t take so long … not really. It was just that I thought he was going to take my father’s place and I resented it, then I realised that I was looking forward to seeing him every bit as much as Mother did. Once she got round to treating me like a human instead of like a china doll that might break … well, she changed when Adam came into our lives and … he was different from Father, he was someone I grew to love very much.”

 

“He loved you too, Peggy. He still does care very much for you.”

 

Peggy frowned, then shook her head, “I got to wanting him to be my Father. More than anything in the world. Then I got to notice how Mother was starting to complain about him a lot, especially when Will was around….it confused me, and I began to feel angry with her again. I can’t explain it, not really, just that she shouldn’t have been complaining, not about Adam. Then there was the accident, and it seemed – scary again. “

 

“Yes, I can imagine how you must have felt. You must have thought someone else you loved was going to leave you…”

 

Peggy shrugged again, tossed her head “Well, he did, didn’t he? He did leave me….just disappeared out of our lives and there was my Mother and Will. And life changed – yet again.”

 

“And you were angry?”

 

“Yes, I was angry. I guess in a way I just wanted Adam back in our lives. When I came here before, when Adam was at sea, and he was engaged to Barbara Scott….well, she betrayed him too, you know that, don’t you?”

 

“Yes, I know that, I know Barbara.”

 

“I loved Adam, and I wanted him to be happy … more than anything I wanted him to have a happy life, he deserved it, didn’t he? I was so angry with Miss Scott, so when I got back to my Mother and Will, I asked them if we could move back here, buy back the ranch, and I thought by the time Adam left the sea I would be a fully grown woman and he would – “

 

“Love you and marry you?” Olivia said gently.

 

Peggy blushed, and bowed her head “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that…”

 

“Why not? If it’s the truth, then why not say it?”

 

“It doesn’t really matter now, anyway. Mother and Will whisked me off to Finishing School which nearly did finish me off, and I then went to college and fought through the prejudices there, and found a cause to fight for…something worth while. Something I believe in very much.”

 

“Again, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

 

“It’s a cause. But it doesn’t wrap its arms around me at night, does it? It doesn’t whisper back ‘I love you’, or tell me how well I have done at the end of the day.” Peggy stopped, and bit down on her lip, then looked at Olivia “I – I’m sorry, I didn’t – I didn’t expect to say that – I mean – I don’t even know why I said that -”

 

Olivia leaned forward and put out her hand to take hold of Peggy’s, and this time the younger girl did not pull away from her as she had previously, instead she clasped hold of Olivia’s hand tightly while she fought back tears.

 

“Peggy, it is good to have a cause you believe in, truly it is, but what your heart is really crying out for is someone to love you. You don’t need nor want a second hand love, you need and deserve a real man to love you. You need someone to put their arms around you, to love you – you know that , don’t you?”

 

“I don’t know. I don’t know. “ Peggy whispered and wiped away a tear that trickled down her cheek, “I didn’t want to admit I was just another weak woman wanting a man in my life. The only men I ever truly loved were my father and Adam…but … I didn’t want to think that my life – “ she heaved in a deep breath, “ I didn’t want to see myself as just another woman needing a man in their life.”

 

Olivia nodded, “You know, my dear, life can be very lonely without love in it. You have to open your heart up, pull down the barriers, widen out your affections. A woman isn’t weakened by being loved by a man, rather there’s a lot of strength in it. If, of course, it’s the right man.”

 

“Like you and Adam?” Peggy said, with a slight blush to her cheeks in having to acknowledge that bond.

 

“Yes, and Hoss and Hester, Mary Ann and Joe.” Olivia squeezed Peggy’s hands gently within her own, “My mother used to say that in the bible the Law given to the Israelites forbade them having an ox tethered with a mule to grind the corn, because one was too strong, and the other too weak. Marriage is the same… it seems to me that your Father and mother were like the ox and mule, they didn’t – they couldn’t – work together well, but when you have two oxen, or two mules, then they worked together, very well.”

 

Peggy nodded, and rose to her feet, Olivia did the same and was surprised when Peggy put her arms around her, hugged her close for a moment and then turned quickly away. “Thank you, Olivia. I-I’m sorry if I took up too much time -”

 

Olivia said nothing, but kissed the girl on the cheek and released her hands as though setting a trapped bird free – at last.

 

Nathaniel ran into the room, he paused at seeing Peggy walking away and then turned to Olivia, opened up his arms and gave her his warmest smile, his cheeks dimpled, the brown eyes darkened with love as his mother caught him up into her arms and held him tight.

 

Peggy turned then, saw them together, smiled and for the first time in many years felt her heart beating to a different, more melodious, tune. A weight of which she had not even been aware, seemed lifted from her shoulders. A burden gone…hate, love, guilt, misery all wrapped itself together and blew away with the breeze of time.

 

The sun shone, soon it would be evening…another day ended, but for her it seemed as though it, and life in general, had just begun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 51

 

Friday arrived and as usual the children abandoned the wagon with customary delight at knowing the weekend relieved them of school.   Reuben ran in swinging his books by its strap and his lunch box which hit Nathaniel on the head but Reuben continued on oblivious to his little brother who stood  rubbing his head and wondering what had hit him.

 

Sofia followed like a whirlwind, knocking in to Nathaniel so that the little boy staggered back several paces before falling flat on his bottom. Not sure whether to laugh or cry, the little boy remained there, rubbing his head.

 

“Mommy, Mommy.” Sofia cried as she whirled into the big room, looked around and then headed for the stairs “Mommy, are you up there?”

 

“No, I’m here,” Olivia replied from the kitchen doorway and then seeing Nathaniel still sitting on the floor asked him why he was there,  to which Nathaniel rubbed his head a little more and looked mournful.

 

Reuben continued to rush into the kitchen to talk to Cheng Ho Lee who was always willing to listen to the boy and teach him the odd word in Cantonese.  Sofia spun round “Mommy, do you know what?”

 

Olivia smiled absent mindedly and walked over to a chair with Nathaniel in her arms and sat down.  Sofia ran over, leaned against the back and folded her arms just above Olivia’s head.   She leaned down, her head resting upon her arms and some of her hair falling over Olivia’s shoulder and tickling Nathaniel’s nose.  The child sneezed and Sofia laughed and began to tease him, swinging her long curls back and forth to brush against his face.

 

“Well, what was all the excitement about, Sofia?   Hurry up, we haven’t all night,  Aunt Hester will be expecting us very soon.”

 

“Oh,.” Sofia nodded and frowned,  she released her breath, a wisp of warm air drifted past Olivia’s cheek “Well, we went to the library today.”

 

Olivia nodded,  said nothing but swallowed a lump in her throat.   She had been waiting for  Sofia to come home with this news sometime or other,  and now waited to hear what else she had to say.  For a while Sofia seemed happy enough teasing Nathaniel before she said “That lady you said was Aunt Katherine wasn’t there.”

 

“Oh, was she out for lunch?”  Olivia decided Nathaniel had been fussed over enough and put him down, “Or  was she away for the day?”

 

“She’s gone away.” Sofia said simply, tossing her ringlets and leaving the back of the chair in order to sidle up onto her mother’s lap, “I asked the lady at the counter…”

 

“Miss Tyndale?”

 

“Yes, and she said that the other lady had left town,  she went in the stagecoach. “

 

“Did she say anything else?”

 

“No,  only that she was very busy and that it was very – some long word – but she didn’t like having all of us children there.  She said we mustn’t touch the books unless we could read them.  She was a bit grumpy.”

 

“I daresay she was, without her assistant there she would  be very busy.”

 

“Yes, she said that as well to Miss Hayward, I heard  her, and she sounded cross.”

 

Olivia nodded and looked thoughtful,  then with a sigh she reminded her daughter that she had to wash up and get ready to go to Gran’pa and Aunt Hesters.  Reuben came out with a glass of water which he drank as though he were as dry as a desert.  He looked over at his mother and after emptying the glass said “I saw Peggy in town.  It was when I had to go on an errand for Mr Evans.   She said she wouldn’t be there tonight as she was staying with a friend in town.  She said to remind you about the meeting tomorrow.”

 

Olivia sighed and nodded, thanked Reuben and rather distractedly looked around for  Nathaniel who seemed to have vanished.   “Did she say anything else?”

 

“Who?  Peggy?  No …”  Reuben turned and went back into the kitchen where he was heard chattering to Cheng Ho Lee.

 

Nathaniel emerged from the porch with his jacket in his hands which he held up to his mother, a reminder that it was time to get ready.   “Hurry up, everybody, or we’ll be late.”

 

“But where’s Daddy?” Sofia wanted to know and looking up from the book she had started to read.  She was perfectly comfortable seated on the settee with the book in her lap, her little face looked earnestly up into her mothers and seeing the resolute look on Olivia’s face she sighed and put it away, and scrambled off the settee.  “Daddy is coming, isn’t he?”

 

“Of course he is, he’s probably already there waiting for us.” Olivia said impatiently and pulled Sofia towards her so that she could tidy the child’s hair.

 

“Can I stay home, Mom?” Reuben asked, hands behind his back and trying to look winsome and innocent.

 

“Why would you want to stay home?   You know you love going to Gran’pa’s!”

 

“Well, it is a bit boring ….” Reuben sighed and hung his head “I’m the only boy there.”

 

“Nonsense there’s Daniel, and -” she paused and sighed “well, I know they’re not as old as you…”

 

“Aw, mom, they’re babies.”  Reuben groaned.

 

Nathaniel tugged at her skirts, holding up his jacket and looking sweetly up at her.  Reuben heaved another groan, “They’re all Nathaniel’s age.”

 

“No, they’re not.   Well, just a bit… “ Olivia conceded as she helped Nathaniel get his arm through a sleeve “But,  Reuben,  stop being such a fuss.   They all look forward to seeing you, and Gran’pa would be very  upset if he heard you talking like this…”

 

“But, Ma, it’s – it’s boring.”

 

“So you said.   Then it’s up to you to make sure that it isn’t…now, hurry up, stop talking rubbish and get ready.”

 

She really wasn’t in the mood for his moaning right now,  she had things to think about,  to consider.   Katherine having left Virginia City and her new life – as she had called it – leaving just like that,  could have ramifications.   Had she left to find her daughter?  Olivia tried to remember where exactly the child was living.   Was it Bodie?   Was it Genoa?   She shook her head and looked around for Sofia who had now gone into the kitchen to talk to Cheng Ho Lee,  Reuben was dragging his feet, scuffing the toes of his boots along the floor.  Nathaniel stood by the doorway patiently waiting.

 

“Sofia!”

 

Another summons,  and then Sofia appeared and joined Nathaniel at the door.  Reuben sighed, looked at his mother, and hung his head.  Olivia opened the door and pushed all three of them out,  and towards the vehicle waiting for them.

 

“If you carry on like this, young man, I shall make you walk all the way.” she hissed as she helped Sofia into her seat.

 

“But, Mom …”

 

“Don’t say another word…”

……………………..

 

They were late.   Or rather they were the last to arrive and as soon as she pushed open the door  Olivia could hear the chatter of the assembled family.  She gave Reuben a shove and then once she had ensured he was in the room she shut the door.

 

Adam was there, talking to Hannah.   He was seated with Hope on one knee while he chatted to the other little girl.   He glanced up and over at Olivia and shared a smile, before standing up, and walking over to her, Hope still in his arms.   “Have a good day?”

 

He leaned in for a kiss as he spoke and as Olivia kissed him so Hope put her arms around her Aunt’s neck and somehow managed to transfer herself to Olivia and out of Adam’s hold.   She kissed her Aunt on the cheek and then wriggled to get down,  now that she had seen Nathaniel she wanted to be with him.

 

Olivia stood by her husband’s side and leaned towards him so that she could whisper “Katherine has left town.”

 

“Really?” he raised his eyebrows and then shrugged, just slightly, before leaning in and whispering that Peggy was also absent,  not from town, but from the Ponderosa.

 

Hester came with a smile, and handed Olivia glass of wine, “Peggy’s taken herself off to stay with – you’ll never guess who?   Amanda Ridley!”

 

Mary Ann now appeared,  and as the three women seemed to group closer together Adam decided to slip out of the way.  He walked over to where his father and brothers stood, gathering Reuben up by the arm as he did so.   Hoss frowned and looked at his nephew, if ever a boy looked ‘fed-up’ this was one!   “Anything wrong, Reuben?”

 

Reuben shrugged and shook his head, then sighed.  Joe grinned “You look as though you would want to be anywhere but here just now.”

 

“I would like to be fishing right now.” Reuben said hopefully, and looked over at his father who gave him a smile but then continued to talk to Ben.

 

“Well, could do that tomorrow.” Hoss said with a nudge at Joe who shook his head,

 

“You can’t…you’re deputising tomorrow, remember?”

 

Reuben’s shoulders slumped, and Hoss looked crest fallen “Shucks, I forgot. “  he glanced over at Adam “Hey, Adam, do we need to go tomorrow?  Do we really need to?”

 

Adam nodded, and looked at the three of them…Reuben, Joe and Hoss, all three looking hopeful, guilty and hopeful in turn.  “You promised Nate.”

 

“Shucks, there ain’t gonna be no need.” Hoss groaned, “It’s only gonna be a roomful of women.”

 

Adam looked at Ben and raised his eyebrows.  Ben interceded “Peggy’s expecting us to be there.”

 

“I’m not going,” Mary Ann said with a toss of her head,  which Sofia noticed and wished she could do so as prettily.   She decided she would practise ‘the move’ when she got home.

 

“Nor am I.” Joe said with a false sigh, and drew their attention to his arm, still in a sling.  “I wouldn’t be any help at all.”

 

Hester looked at Olivia and raised her  eyebrows, “Well, I did promise Peggy I would go.   She said I might learn something to my advantage.” she glanced over to Hoss “But if Hoss doesn’t go, then I think I’ll stay home too.”

 

Ben looked anxious, he looked at his sons and their wives and shook his head “Well, you know, if you made a promise to Peggy, and you, Hoss, you made a commitment to Nate…you should be there.   Shouldn’t you?”

 

“Very true,” Adam nodded solemnly, “After all you have to think of the children…”

 

“Huh?” Hoss frowned

 

“What have the children to do with anything?” Joe asked with a frown

 

“Well,  a promise is a promise, isn’t it?  You have to set an example and keep the promises you made.”  Adam replied rather primly and smiled at them  in that ‘saintly’ way he had at times which made Joe feel like hitting him and Hoss feeling guilty.

 

“My arm won’t mend by tomorrow….with your permission I promise to take Reuben fishing.” Joe said promptly and gave his brother one of his ‘saintly’ and ‘superior’ smiles.

 

“Shucks, don’t that beat all…you get to go fishing and I have to go sit with a load of wimmin.”

 

Before another word could be said, Wang Lee Sing appeared, looking smart in his black ensemble protected by a large white apron.   With a bow of the head he announced that it was time to eat, the table was ready.

 

In the kitchen Hop Sing nodded approval,  Wang Lee was learning, and had been a good apprentice in the kitchen as he had watched Hop Sing preparing the food.  He had even been allowed to chop up some items and stir some of the mixtures and sauces.   He was learning and like many of his culture felt it a privilege to be  in such an honourable position.

 

 

Chapter 52

 

Peggy woke up to feelings of doom in her head and a myriad pangs twisting in her stomach.   Saturday.   She didn’t want to open her eyes instead she wished the day would just go away without her having to leave her bed.   Different sounds from outside the building in which she had spent the night slid into her room,  sounds of a town waking up.

 

Now she jolted upright. Had she overslept? On this day of all days, surely not?  She hurried to pull on a robe hanging from a hook on the door and made her way downstairs to where Amanda Ridley was sitting drinking coffee at the table in a sun lit room as though today was no more important than any other day.   She looked up and saw Peggy looking pale faced and tousled of hair, with panic and fear etched in every line of her features.   She smiled and nodded over to the coffee pot,

 

“Freshly brewed if you would like some.”

 

“Did I oversleep?”

 

“Not at all.”  Amanda smiled “I always wake early.  This is the best time of the day for me, and I like to have my early morning coffee now.   Sit down,  Peggy.” she smiled again, and glanced over her companion with a fond expression on her face.   “Believe it or not, I had a sister very much like you.   Probably one of the reasons why I decided to help you today.” she raised a hand to stop the flood of grateful thanks that were about to flow from Peggys mouth, “Another reason is because I believe in this cause, and the main reason for that is because I have had to step over a lot of men to get to where I am now.”

 

Peggy sat down, her knees felt weak.  If she felt like this now, she wondered, how was she going to handle a roomful of people later on? She poured out some coffee and sipped it slowly, then looked over at the other woman.  “I didn’t know you had a sister.”

 

“Oh yes, she was younger than me, prettier too.   She liked parties and gadding about,  flirting and having fun with the boys…”

 

“Well, I’m not like that…” Peggy grumbled and narrowed her eyes.

 

“No?   Well, you should be…just a little…” Amanda smiled, and then sighed, “I say that with hindsight, and experience you see.   Because I was very different from my sister, and I missed out on a lot as a result.”

 

“What happened to her?”

 

“She died.” Amanda said sharply, as though she wanted to change the subject now.  It had run away with her, seeing Peggy,  the young womans enthusiasm.   She shook her head, “Anyway, after we have had some breakfast we shall finalise the details of our meeting today.   Lucy should be here in about an hour …” she glanced at the clock and looked at Peggy again, smiled that smile that didn’t have an echo in her eyes and which so disconcerted her guest.

 

Amanda was a middle aged woman now.  No longer the attractive woman who had been caught up in the misery of her fathers racial hatred which had led to her sister’s death, no longer the woman who had had to overcome a gambling addiction and an engagement to a heartless man who bled her dry.   She had overcome insurmountable odds in a male oriented world encapsulated here in Virginia City.  Despite everything she had grabbed for every inch they allowed her and pulled in a yard, a mile, a fortune.

 

Of course she owed a lot of that to the Cartwrights for coming to her aid when they did, but it was also due to her character.  She was forceful, strong, resilient.  If she was knocked down once she would bounce back up ten times over if necessary.  She had learned to think like a man, and to seize the chances as they came, and even to create some should it benefit her.

 

She had proven to the men of Virginia City that she could do business as well as any of them.  She could lose a fortune and gain a fortune back.  She could look down on them with the arrogance of a self made woman.   But….she could never be Mayor of the town,  hold any position of office, extend further to become an elected member of Government, and she knew full well if she were to marry everything she owned, all she had worked for, would pass on to her husband.

 

Amanda Ridley wasn’t going to part with a nickel of her money if she could help it.   She had men in her life, some she even cared for, none she actually loved.  Evenso she  was determined never to marry until the law changed.

 

Her  housemaid prepared their breakfast and after they had eaten they went to their rooms to prepare themselves to face the day.

………………..

 

“You Don’t have to go,” Hoss said to his wife as she brushed through her hair and then carefully braided it to form a coronet around her head.

 

“Of course I do.  I promised Peggy I would be there, and anyway, I want to hear what they have to say.”

 

“It won’t be nothing new, nothing any different to what Mary Ann and Peggy have been talking about for weeks.”  Hoss frowned, “What if there is trouble and I can’t reach you in time.”

 

“Why should there be any trouble, Hoss?   There’s going to be a whole team of deputies,  and mostly women in the audience.”

 

“Women can be difficult, Hester.  Can you imagine if a whole passal of women decide to go on the rampage?   Shucks, I don’t even know how I’d  be able to control ‘em. “  Hoss almost blushed,  almost but not quite.   “You sure about this?”

 

“I am. I owe it to Peggy and to Mary Ann, even if she won’t be there.”

 

“And she don’t mind looking after the children?”

 

“No, she doesn’t mind.” Hester smiled at her reflection and gave her hair its final twist.  Then she looked at her husband and stood up, close to him, her hand on his chest, “Hoss,  I wouldn’t go if I thought there would be any trouble.”

 

“Funny that, I’m only going because the sheriff thinks there will be trouble.” he sighed and looked at her mournfully.

 

“Pa will be there too, and Adam.”

 

“What about Olivia, is she going?”

 

“She will be coming with me.   She’s leaving the children with Ann.”

 

“You mean your cousin won’t be there?”

 

“No,  she said she would prefer to stay home.   She said she may lose her temper if she went, and throw something…”

 

“Shucks, and you ain’t worried that a roomful of women won’t be thinking of doing just the same?”

 

She smiled again, her blue eyes brightened, she leaned in to kiss him, “Women are not like you men, we won’t do any such thing.”

 

“Exceptin’ that you said your cousin might if she went there….that don’t fill me with any confidence, Hester.”

 

She shook her head at him and laughed,  then led the way out of the room, down the stairs and to where Ben was waiting to mount up on Cinnamon,  Hoss nodded his thanks to his father for saddling up Chubb,  and Hester got up into the buggy .   She smiled again,  “Pa, I have to collect Olivia from Ann’s.”

 

“We’ll follow you  .” Ben replied, “Adam will meet us there too.”

 

She nodded and with a calm look of peacefulness on her face flicked the reins.   They left the Ponderosa (with Hop Sing looking out of the window and shaking his head dolefully.  No one had asked his opinion but he had given it volubly at the breakfast table.  No one took any notice).

 

Olivia was ready and waiting.  She waved goodbye to Sofia and Nathaniel, kissed Ann on the cheek and then hurried to clamber up into the buggy “I’m not late, am I?”

 

“Not at all.” Hester laughed, “If you are it is because I am…”

 

They drove away from Ann’s as though going on a picnic.

……………….

 

Reuben had been allowed to ride into town on Max.   Adam had made him promise that he and the rest of the gang would make themselves scarce,  would take themselves to the pool to go swimming, or even to the river to do some fishing.   Reuben had promised with his fingers crossed behind his back, and saying with great sincerity that of course he didn’t know what the Gang had planned.  Adam had looked as though he were about to change his mind about letting the boy go when Reuben had said that,  saying to the boy “Look, so far as I’m concerned you’re the only one of those lads who has any common sense, so make sure you use it and take those boys out of town.”

 

“Pa, there isn’t going to be anything to worry about, Peggy and some friends are just going to talk to some folks, that’s all.”

 

“Just do as I ask, Reuben.”

 

And that had been that, Reuben had nodded and saddled Max, then ridden out with a wave of the hand and not a care in the world.

 

When he got to town and Davy Riley produced some firecrackers and a box of matches, and Richie Bellshaw showed off the stink bombs he had made (with the help of some other lad, name unknown) Reuben realised that trying to persuade them to go swimming was a non-starter.   As they whispered together, chuckled and giggled, he became so addle pated along with them that he forgot all about his father’s plea to use his common sense, and found himself thinking it was going to be a huge amount of fun.  Even better than the pig with the flying sheet the day of the spring fete a year ago…

 

He forgot that for every action there is a reaction,  and after the reaction…the consequences thereof.

………………..

 

As Olivia and Hester entered town and their husbands with Ben rode to the sheriff’s office to report for duty as deputies, there was a strange stillness in town.  The stores were closed.  Doors were locked and shutters pulled down over their windows.  All the goods for sale that usually festooned the side walks had been taken indoor for safety.

 

Nate and his deputies were already out of the Sheriffs office and spread out,  eyes watchful and looking tense.   Even at the sight of them Hoss had great misgivings and turned to call Hester back and to tell her to get home.   He often forgot that there was a spirit of adventure locked up in his wife’s character, and that she was a fighter.  The thought of a bit of a scrap about to take place made her feel quite heady,  like a youngster again, and she gave a little giggle as she continued to advance into town.

 

Olivia was not so sure.   To her mind it seemed if the storekeepers in town had literally battened down the hatches it was for good reason.   She wondered where Reuben was and remembered Adam telling her that their son had been told to go out of town,  to go swimming or fishing.  Hoping that Reuben was being sensible and applying that admonition, she stayed where she was, although she gripped hold of the arm rest more tightly.

 

“Why, look, Olivia…Higgins’ Hall is closed.   I thought Peggy said the meeting was going to be held at Higgins?”

 

“Yes,  that’s right.  At 2 o’clock.  Perhaps we are early…”   the town hall clock boomed the hour,  and the Hall remained closed.

 

They left the buggy in the lot by the old school,  and began to walk towards the centre of town,  looking from right to left and wondering where everyone could be…and just as they were beginning to think that somewhere or other there had been a mistake the  sound of shouting could be heard…not shouting exactly, more the sound of many voices chanting and cheering.

 

They stood stock still,  others who had just arrived, men and women, joined them.  They looked from one to the other,  then several others arrived and joined them so that they became a little group of their own watching as all of a sudden a whole army (or so it seemed) of women emerged waving banners and brandishing pamphlets and shouting as loud as they could “Votes for Women.”   “Freedom for Women.” “Emancipation – we want equal rights for Women.”

 

The pamphlets were thrust into the hands of anyone just standing by, which included Nate and his deputies,  and those who had come to hear the meeting at Higgins’ Hall, had little choice but to turn round and follow the crowd, thereby adding to their numbers and appearing as though they were part and parcel of the whole thing.

 

Ben glanced down at the paper in his hand and then looked over at Adam “They’re meeting  outside the Town Hall, in the square.”

 

Adam sighed, shook his head, and looked over at Nate who nodded … all the law enforcement spread out across the road and followed the crowd.

 

Close to the town hall and hidden from view the Gang of Five wiggled their way under the side walks, keeping close watch as the crowd gathered before their eyes.  On their stomachs and with eyes wide, they grinned and sniggered.   Reuben had never realised how intoxicating  other people’s excitement can be, how their enthusiasm can blow away any common sense that may have been lingering in the remotest corner of his head.  He lay on his stomach alongside Tommy and Jimmy,  close by was David and Richie…

 

Amanda was dressed in purple.  A sober suit, her hat bore a large ostrich feather, and across her chest was a white sash declaring ‘Emancipation for Women’.   Flanking her were Lucy and Peggy,  both dressed very smartly, with sashes proclaiming Votes for Women.’   As they stood facing the crowd on a raised platform that Amanda had got Armstrong to conjure up for them,  (dire threats of loss of employment if he didn’t),  the crowd stopped chanting.

 

From various buildings and alleyways other people, men and women, emerged.  They took their place among the crowd.  Nate was quick to notice two men with wooden staves in their hands, partially concealed up the sleeves of their jackets.   They were hauled away,  the sheriff’s gun forcing them to silence as Clem led them to the jailhouse.

 

Amanda began to talk.   Her voice was very clear,  she had perfect modulation, and the silence enabled her voice to carry over the heads of those listening. Considering the lateness of her involvement it seemed only natural that her speech contained fragments taken from Susan B Anthony’s and various other energetic women, but she began by quoting, verbatim, from a speech by Lucretia Mott* which had been made in 1849

 

“There is nothing of greater importance to the well-being of society at large – of man as well as woman – than the true and proper position of woman. Much has been said, from time to time, upon this subject. It has been a theme for ridicule, for satire and sarcasm. We might look for this from the ignorant and vulgar; but from the intelligent and refined we have a right to expect that such weapons shall not be resorted to, – that gross comparisons and vulgar epithets shall not be applied, so as to place woman, in a point of view, ridiculous to say the least.”

 

“That’s the truth,” a man stated loudly, “Ridiculous to say the least.”

 

Someone laughed.  There was the stirring of unrest.  Amanda gave the culprit a glare that was enough to silence him so that she could continue and for some moments she was still able to hold their attention but when she got to the point of mentioning that God had made woman equal to man a man yelled “That’s blasphemy.”

 

Lucy quelled, recognising her father’s voice, and felt her face redden. She looked at Peggy who was glaring at the crowd and not looking at all conciliatory.   Several newcomers had arrived and were making their way into the crowd.  Peggy recognised Abel Greigson among them and lowered her eyes to look at the people in the front row among them Olivia and Hester.

 

“You should read  your bible more often, Mr Garston, instead of just slinging out your favourite quotes on a Sunday.” Amanda shouted back and a woman in the crowd yelled back “For shame.  Speaking to Mr Garston like that…for shame.”

 

Another woman called from the back of the crowd “You of all people should know better, Amanda Ridley.”

 

There was a trickle of laughter, a slight wave of agitation from the back of the crowd. Adam and Hoss began to circle the perimeters of the gathered people now, walking along the side walks, trying to peer into the assembly to see if they could pinpoint any who could make trouble.

 

Amanda continued with her speech, alluding to the fact that women gave their strength, their intelligence (some did shout ‘what intelligence is that?’) and support to what their men did, they rode along with the first pioneers, they built the forts, they created the settlements and homesteads.   It was women alongside men who fought hostile Indians, furrowed the land to plant seed, worked along with their men while at the same time having their children

 

“What children do you have, Amanda Ridley?” a woman screeched and there was laughter.

 

“None of you have any children.” another yelled

 

Peggy stepped forward and looked at them calmly, she said before she thought about it “Show me any man here who has -”

 

“I’ve six children…” a man laughed and a woman jeered back with coarse laughter “None you birthed yourself”

 

“Please…” Lucy took her place now, and raised her hand for attention “Any and every woman here with any respect for herself must realise that -”

 

“Is she saying I don’t respect myself?”  a woman yelled, “Is that what you’re saying?  That  because I ain’t wanting to vote I don’t respect myself?”

 

“I’m saying that every woman has the right to -” Lucy began and failed to see the rotten fruit winging its way towards her

 

“That’s my daughter -” screeched Mrs Garston

 

“Then what’s she doing there – “ another woman yelled.

 

An umbrella came down heavily upon the head of Mrs Garston’s nearest neighbour and immediately the man next to this woman pulled out a piece of wood heavy enough to pole axe an ox and swung it down.  Mrs Garston shrieked as it whistled pass her and hit the man standing behind her.   Hoss waded into the crowd and grabbed the man’s wrist, preventing him from using the club again while the man on the ground groaned and held his head which was pouring with blood.

 

Davy turned to Jimmy “Shall I let them off now?”

 

“No, no yet.” Jimmy whispered

 

Reuben frowned, he saw his father moving into the crowd, and what seemed like a wave of people moving about in its centre.  He tugged at Tommy’s sleeve “I think we should get out of here.”

 

Tommy nodded “Yeah, so do I.”

 

They began to wriggle away, tugging at Davy and Jimmy’s pants while Richie looked over at them “Why are you leaving, the fun hasn’t started yet?”

 

“My Pa said to leave …he said not to be here.” Reuben whispered and carried on pushing himself away with Tommy so close that his boots grazed Reubens fingers.

 

Jimmy looked over his shoulder, saw Reuben and Tommy moving away and then looked over at the crowd.   Amanda Ridley was talking again, very loudly, her voice just about carrying over the murmurs from the crowd.  He could see Adam man handling some man away, down to the sidewalk, and recognised him as a troublemaker well known in town.

 

Peggy came and began to talk, her voice wasn’t as strong as Amanda’s and some people yelled at her to speak up.  She cleared her throat, and looked from one face to the other, they began to swim in front of her eyes and she wondered if she was going to do the worst thing possible, and faint.

 

Strengthened by her determination not to do so, she gathered herself together, so to speak, and looked at Mrs Garston, then at several other women she recognised, and choosing them for her audience addressed them as though in their own parlours “Are you really content to sit at home and allow men to tell you how to live your lives?   You see men voting men into power who have no respect for women, no admiration for their qualities and yet you do  nothing.   Don’t you realise that if women had the voting power long denied us that we could vote into power men who cared for not just a proportion of the population, which is the male population, but for all …men and women….”

 

“Spare us the lectures, Miss Dayton….”

 

“Who are you to tell us what to do….”

 

“You should ask your old man what he thought of women, you wouldn’t find him voting for a woman to tell him what to do.”

 

“He wouldn’t even let his wife do that….”

 

Coarse laughter followed that comment, a woman shouted some obscenity and hurled a rock towards the platform.  Several other missiles followed.  The crowd was moving, heaving, undulating like a wave.

 

Jimmy and Davy began to move, wriggling backwards in order to reach where the side walk ended and they could head for home.   Richie looked at the fire crackers in his hand, he picked up the matches that Davy had dropped…

 

The small cache of stink bombs had been dislodged during Jimmy’s exit, and now rolled among the crowd, people trod on them, someone picked on  up and lobbed it at Amanda, it fell onto the platform…Richie decided to abandon ship and scrabbled away, but a rough looking man noticed him, grabbed at his arm and hauled  him away from the shelter of the planks the sidewalk provided him.  But the man wasn’t interested in a wriggling little boy whom he released right away, but he did like the look of the fire crackers.

 

“Please calm down…” Peggy cried

 

“This is a peaceful meeting, please let it continue to be one…” Amanda shouted, while pulling out a handkerchief in an attempt to stop the smell from the stink bomb getting up her nose.

 

Lucy was running from the platform, caught her heel in the hem of her skirt and staggered.    Adam was pushing his way towards the front of the crowd in an effort to reach Hester and Olivia.  He saw Lucy fall, hesitated a moment, and then dashed forwards to her aid.  She cried that she was alright and promptly fainted as he reached her, so that he had to scoop her up into his arms.  No sooner had he done so that he found himself surrounded by townspeople.  Shouts and yells, curses, obscenities…missiles were flung far and wide and suddenly above it all came the ripping and crackling of the fire crackers, sounding so much like gun fire.

 

There were screams and cries for help.   People were knocked down, or fell down.  They were pushed one way, pulled back another.  Hester fell and someone fell on top of her, crushing her upon the ground.   There was pandemonium everywhere and Nate with his deputies were wading in trying to restore order.

 

Amanda was knocked off the platform and had her sash torn off her, a fist crushed it, waved it under her nose and told her “This is what I think of that..” and spat on it before throwing it into her face.

 

Olivia had found Hester, and was crouched down over her, an attempt to protect the other woman without realising the danger there was to herself.   Peggy fled from the platform, fear created panic, she felt sick, she felt as though she was really going to faint ….

 

The bangers had stopped but the fighting continued almost as though they had energized the townspeople into a renewed frenzy.   A rifle shot …and then another….

 

Nate, the sheriff was on the platform, the rifle pointing skywards as he yelled for order.  At the back of the crowd another rifle shot rang out … people turned to confront Amanda Ridley, her face ashen, the sleeve of her dress torn off and hanging from her elbow, but the rifle in her hands wasn’t pointing skywards, and the fact it was pointing to one particular man began to quieten everyone nearby.

 

“Get up there and tell them to quieten down…or I swear I’ll put a hole right through you.”

 

The Mayor of Virginia City put his hands up as high as he could, and backed away through the crowd.   People began to fall back, began to realise that people, their neighbours, their friends and in some cases their customers, were hurt, injured and shocked.

 

Some discreetly took to their heels and hurried back to their homes or stores in the hope that no one would remember that they had been there.   Some stayed, too stunned to know what to do.

 

Abel Greigson looked down at the girl in his arms and carried her carefully over to the Apothecary who had the decency now to unlock and open his door to admit them.  Adam passed Lucy to her father who looked shocked and lost, while Mrs Garston was bloodied but looking ready for another fight.

 

The deputies moved in among those still present and took into custody any found with weapons, and anything they possessed that could have been used as a weapon.  And then Hoss and Adam found their wives.

 

Chapter 53

 

The boys had reached their pool situated just beyond the town boundaries. Relief that they had got away before things had got too out of hand made them a little giddy. They shoved and pushed one another as they ran or walked to the pool, talking far too loudly, laughing over nothing. When Richie came panting up to join them no one asked him where the bangers had gone, or the stink bombs. Best forgotten was the motto for the day!

 

The water was cool and refreshing as they dived into the pool. Their clothes were bundled in the reeds and forgotten for the moment. Waters covered their heads, cooled their skin and helped them escape the memories of being sandwiched in together under the planks of the sidewalk to watch Peggy Dayton’s Meeting. After a few moments they let themselves believe that they had never been there.

 

 

Nate Carney was a good lawman with the natural instincts for smelling out anything that could or would solve a mystery. Someone had set off a string of fireworks, the burnt remains of which he found near the platform. Mrs Higgins had volunteered the information that she had seen some man in a check shirt put a match to them, she said that was why she had ran for cover as she had done. The man was not easy for her to forget as he had had ginger hair and side whiskers, commonly known as mutton-chops.

 

Nate had looked over the area from the vantage point of the platform Amanda had had erected and scanned it carefully noting the discarded or dropped possessions that littered the ground. Parasols and umbrella’s that the women had brought to shield themselves from the sun, some hats belonging to some men who had either fallen in the crush or fled so fast from the scene that their hats had taken leave of them. There were gloves, handkerchiefs, the tattered remnants of the brochures that had informed them all of the change of venue. There was a pair of spectacles, with lenses broken, and most sorrowful of all were splodges of blood that Sam from the Sazarac saloon was now attempting to cover with fresh sawdust and sand.

 

It was a sorrowful business. Nate accepted that the fire cracker had not caused the chaos, but it had added to it. Feelings had just plain got out of hand, things had got too personal too soon, and he knew that quite a few men had already planned to cause trouble, even some women had come armed with missiles to throw at the women at the platform. Another problem was the fact that the crowd had not been contained in a small area which would have controlled the ensuing riot. A saloon brawl would involve several men, maybe even spread out to a few more. A meeting in a Hall would still have limited the number of people who could have been affected by the fighting. But this was in the open, and people had spilled out from the alleyways to ‘join in’, and he had to admit that he and his deputies had been totally overwhelmed by numbers.

 

He walked among the debris and picked up a discarded bag and found several smooth rocks within it. He didn’t want to guess as to whom the bag had belonged and wondered if the woman would come forward to lay claim to it. For now he was looking for a ginger haired man with a check shirt.

 

 

Abel Greigson had waved some smelling salts under Peggy’s nose and been relieved to see her eyelids flutter open and her eyes look up into his face before they closed again.

 

“She’ll be all right now,” the apothecary said knowingly, he had treated enough fainting women in his time to be somewhat of an authority on the subject.

 

“What?”

 

“I said she’ll be all right now. You don’t have to keep waving that bottle about once they’ve come to their senses.” he reached out and snatched the bottle from Abel’s hand and nodded “I’ll go and get her a glass of water.”

 

With his arm supporting her shoulders he was able to gently help Peggy into a sitting position, and quite enjoyed having her head lolling upon his shoulder for a few minutes before the apothecary came and handed him some water in a chipped glass. He was more than pleased when Peggy opened her eyes, straightened herself up and took the water. She muttered ‘Thank you’ and then drank the glass dry before handing it back to him.

 

“Where am I?”

 

“In the Apothecary’s … it was the nearest I could take you to, away from the – the mess that was out there.” Abel replied, his voice stern, rather like a teacher scolding a student but trying to be patient as well.

 

“What mess? What are you talking about?” Peggy winced and placed a hand to her brow, then to her head “Where’s my hat?”

 

“Somewhere out there I should imagine.” Abel replied and put a hand under her elbow and helped her to her feet.

 

She was surprised to discover just how weak her legs were, and swayed for a moment or two before gratefully sitting down onto the chair provided by Mr Sallis the Apothecary.

 

“You have a bump on the back of your head, you should go to the doctor and get that seen to.” Mr Sallis suggested, “You should get it seen to in case you have a concussion.”

 

“Thank you,” Peggy muttered and touched the bump gingerly.

 

“Are you feeling sick at all,” Mr Sallis asked, “If you are feeling sick it could be a sign of concussion as well. Always a good idea to go and check out with a doctor if you are feeling sick.”

 

Abel lowered his dark brows and scowled, while Peggy sat and stared into space. After a while she glanced over at Abel and asked him what he was doing there, to which he rather shortly replied that he had attended her Meeting, so – called, and rescued her from being trampled on by the crowd.

 

“You had fainted…”

 

“I don’t faint,” she replied with a toss of her head, she winced as pain shot down her back, “I think something hit me…”

 

“You fell off the platform, into my arms as a matter of fact.” Abel replied and leaned against the Apothecary’s counter to look at her with a totally blank face.

 

“That doesn’t mean I fainted…” she replied and put a hand to her face, in order to shield her eyes. She wanted to cry. Had he not been standing there so close to her she would have cried until there were no tears left. “Where’s Lucy? Where’s Miss Ridley?”

 

“The last I saw of Miss Garston was when Adam Cartrwight passed her over to her father. She had fainted as well.”

 

Peggy clenched her fists and closed her eyes. It was all coming back to her now, the noise, the shouting, the sound of gun fire…she looked at him, opening her eyes so suddenly that it caught him by surprise so that she could see the look of concern on his face for her. But she ignored that and asked who had started the shooting.

 

“There was no shooting.” Mr Sallis said very quickly, “No shooting at all until the sheriff got on the platform and fired his rifle to stop the fighting.”

 

“Fighting? But – there wasn’t supposed to be any fighting. There was just going to be a talk, a discussion…not a fight.” she wailed and put her hand to the sides of her head as though trying to stop the memories of what had taken place flooding too graphically into her brain forcing her to see, yet again, the failure of her venture.

 

“There was fighting,” Mr Sallis said and looked to Abel for some support of his claim, “I saw it from the window. I thought for sure someone would break it, my window I mean. All that fighting and people hurt too, you know.”

 

“But – no, no – you must be wrong. No one was meant to be hurt.” she wailed, she clamped her teeth together knowing that if she said another word she would start to cry, perhaps even scream. She wondered if she were going hysterical and looked at Abel who was observing her carefully, “I never wanted anyone to be hurt.”

 

They said nothing to that, but looked at one another and then observed her. She stood up, “I should go and see the sheriff.”

 

“I think he’ll want to see you, eventually. At the moment he has enough to do. I think it best you came with me, get a chance to calm down.” and he took hold of her by the elbow and helped her to stand up, “Come along, Miss Dayton.”

 

“I – I don’t want to go anywhere with you. I need to see Lucy and Miss Ridley.”

 

“I don‘t think you’ll be able to see Lucy or Miss Ridley for a while. Miss Ridley is in the cells for threatening to shoot the Mayor, and Lucy is with her family, whom, I doubt very much, will want to see you at the moment.”

 

“Then – then let me see Adam, Adam Cartwright, or Ben – “ she pleaded and again Abel shook his head, Mr Sallis did likewise, shaking his head and blinking rapidly behind his spectacles

 

“Just come with me, Peggy. It’ll be better for now….” Abel said quietly.

 

“Take the back door, young man, the back door is better … more …strategic.” Mr Sallis said and nodded to add emphasis to his words.

…………….

 

“What did you do with the firecrackers?” Davy asked Richie as they finally hauled themselves out of the water.

 

“I didn’t do anything with ‘em.” Richie replied shaking his head in an attempt to get water out of his ears. “Some man came and pulled me from under the boards and took them off me, so I just ran to catch you up. You could have waited for me…” he moaned.

 

“You mean someone took your fireworks?” Reuben asked anxiously and began to reach out for his pants.

 

“They weren’t my fireworks.” Richie protested, “It was Davy who brought them along.”

 

“No, I didn’t.” David screwed up his face in denial, “You did…”

 

Tommy Conway pulled on his shirt and slowly buttoned it up, “Doesn’t matter who brought ‘em along, we’ll all be for it if that man used them and there was any trouble.”

 

“Why would there be any trouble?” Jimmy asked “It was just Lucy Garston and Peggy Dayton spouting off…and Miss Ridley of course, but no one takes any notice of her.”

 

“Yes, they do” Tommy said as he pulled on his boots, “She’s what my Ma calls a – a -” he searched for the word and couldn’t remember it, so shrugged instead

 

“Well, I don’t suppose anyone will cause trouble, will they?” Jimmy asked and found himself looking at several anxious faces.

 

Reuben felt his heart sinking while he fumbled for buttons to do up, and laces to tie up. He knew he had been disobedient, and he had broken a promise. His Pa laid a lot of store on the importance of keeping promises. He glanced over to Jimmy and could see the same fear in his eyes, fear of having let people down, letting himself down.

 

He walked back to town without the swagger that he had ran and jumped and hollered all the way to the pool earlier. He walked back hoping that he would find the town calm and quiet, and everything just as it should be…with Pa and Mom waiting by the buggy and Gran’pa and Uncle Hoss with Aunt Hester chatting and laughing together.

 

That’s what he was hoping…

……………….

 

Paul Martin secured the bandage around Ben’s hand and then nodded, wearily. He looked up at Ben but said nothing, nor did Ben speak. There was nothing for them to say. Placing a gentle hand on Ben’s back the doctor walked his friend to the door and then stepped back for Ben to leave the surgery. He closed the door behind him and then turned to face James Colby

 

“A bad business.”

 

James nodded “I thank God that Alyssia decided not to go. She was curious about it, but chose to stay home with the baby.”

 

“What on earth got into them…?” Paul exclaimed and raised his eyes to the ceiling as though some voice from on high would boom the answer from the rafters. “Madness.”

 

“Too many came prepared for trouble, in fact, came prepared to cause trouble.” James replied as he perched himself on the corner of the desk, “I’m afraid Miss Dayton, Lucy and Miss Ridley were all three too naïve or brainwashed by this cause of theirs that they failed to appreciate the temper of the people they were going to lecture.”

 

Paul nodded “Sadly I have to agree.” he walked over to the window and watched as various deputies were beginning to tidy up the area that had been littered with the debris of the afternoons debacle, “No matter how well meaning they were, they needed to be more cautious.”

 

“More aware of the dangers…” James murmured and joined his fellow physician at the window to watch

 

“Were there any fatalities?” Paul asked quietly

 

“I’ve not heard any definite news yet. I’m praying not….”

 

“I never thought I would live to see the day Amanda Ridley would take a weapon and threaten to shoot anyone. Not with her past history. Good heavens, what was she thinking of….”

 

James shot him a sharp look from the corner o f his eye “I think she was trying to stop further trouble, she never intended to shoot the man.”

………………

 

The ginger haired man stood in front of Nate and listened to what the sheriff was saying. He tugged at the left side of his mutton chops and nodded,

 

“I know, I understand what you’re saying, sheriff. Honestly I didn’t bring them fireworks to the Meeting. I promise you I didn.t”

 

“But you set light to them, didn’t you? You knew the effect that their going off would create, didn’t you?” Nate stared at the man, he was leaning against his desk with his arms folded across his chest, and his eyes steel blue as he stared at the man.

 

“I didn’t even think about that.” the man admitted, “I just say this kid -”

 

“A kid, what kid? What are you talking about?” Clem now demanded, stepping forward and glaring at Mutton Chops

 

“There was a kid, hiding beneath the side walk, so I yanked him out and he had these fireworks in his hand and I saw the matches on the ground and anyway he wriggled himself free and ran for it, leaving the fireworks and matches behind.” Mutton Chops sighed, and then stared down at the ground.

 

“So, like a law abiding citizen you decided to turn them in to one of the deputies so that there would be no threat to life…huh?” Clem muttered standing so close to the man that he was able to see the sweat beading in the creases of his forehead.

 

“I should have done that, but things were hotting up by then. I didn’t even think about what I was doing, what would happen when I did it…nothing like that…I promise you if I had even stopped to think…”

 

“You should have, you should have stopped to think.” Nate hissed, and stood upright, his full height causing him to tower over the wretched man who cowed back and bumped into Clem standing behind him.

 

“Things could have been controlled, brought to order…but when you tossed those fireworks into the crowd it just created fear, and fear created panic and as a result there was chaos, people got hurt, injured.”

 

“But, it wasn’t my fault -”

 

“Then whose fault is it? You blaming that kid ? You going to say it was his fault?” Clem snarled.

 

“No – yes – I mean – I don’t know. I didn’t mean any trouble…”

 

“You came with a knife in your belt, a gun in your holster, a sack containing rocks, shards of glass, pieces of metal – and you came to a peaceful meeting with all that without the intention of using any of them?”

 

Mutton Chops quailed and stepped back “The word was out – we – we got told – some of the boys just told to cut it up rough, just a little bit, just a little bit of fun.” he gulped, perhaps he had used the wrong word, he saw the sheriff’s mouth tighten, heard the intake of breath from the deputy behind him.

 

“Lock him up. We’ll charge him once I can get a list of grievances written down …” Nate growled.

 

He watched as Clem led the man away, still protesting his innocence, then he

looked up at Mark Watts “Anyone else?”

 

“That’s the last of them, Boss.”

 

“Any idea who was the one giving orders – any of them let the cat out of the bag as to who organised this little affray?”

 

Mark, who had the ability to merge with the crowd, to notice the way people looked at each other or overhear a word spoken at the right time, nodded “Sure do, Boss. “

 

Nate raised an eyebrow “Who?”

 

“Wasn’t no one in charge. It was just the whole lot of ‘em got to talking, they were gingered up by their wives, well, those who were married. The women were going on at home about the wrongness of it, how it had to be stopped before there was trouble…”

 

“Huh!”

 

“Well, real big trouble they were thinking of, sort of the whole thing getting out of hand or as one of them said ‘upsetting the natural order of things’ – they were all in on it together. If you want to make any more arrests you can get warrants for Mrs Garston for one, and Mrs Higgins – she was the one forced her husband to cancel the booking of the hall -”

 

Nate said nothing and shook his head “The boy who was under the sidewalk, with the fireworks, do you know who that was?”

 

Mark frowned, and then sighed “I have a feeling it was Richie Bellshaw.”

 

“The Blacksmith’s boy?”

 

“S’right. I saw him earlier looking rather suspicious. He’s a good boy, well behaved, but can’t hide the excitement when he has a chance to get into mischief.”

 

Nate looked at his deputy and Mark Watts nodded, looked down at his boots, and frowned “Do you want me to go and have a word?”

 

Nate frowned “Were the Bellshaws at the Meeting?”

 

Mark shook his head “No, Mrs Bellshaw had toothache and stayed home, and Bellshaw himself was too busy at the Faradays place shoeing some horses for ‘em there.”

 

“Alright, you had best get Richie in….” Nate said as he took his seat at his desk.

 

He watched Mark leave the building, the door closed and left him seated, staring down at the papers on his desk. He had a bad feeling about all this, a very bad feeling.

……………..

 

Hester lay very still. The sun was warm upon her face and she kept her eyes closed as she remained on her back with her arms spread out on either side. She dreamed that she was in a field of freshly mown grass, and the wonderful fragrance of dried grass filled the air. It was so peaceful. From the distance came a low humming, like the drone of a heavily laden bee, returning home with pouches full of pollen, wings beating wearily in the warm air. She felt no pain now, everything was calm and peaceful and still.

 

Chapter 54

 

Olivia had thrown herself over Hester’s fallen body as soon as she had seen the woman fall and noticed the proximity of the wave of people to her. Feet and arms had been threshing about wildly, drawing closer and closer to the woman on the ground and without thinking, or perhaps thoughts leaping ahead of action, Olivia had sought only to protect her friends vulnerability.

 

She had put her arms around Hester, protecting her head as best she could …her own body was a barrier that would stop an unguarded boot or a cast missile to strike Hester. The fact that she was now in as vulnerable a situation hadn’t even occurred to her.

 

She had turned her face towards the crowd and called out to them to stop, to stop the brawling before someone got hurt, when she first saw the danger she and Hester were in..or had she anticipated it all along? She had raised a hand to shield her face, and turned aside before the blow fell.

………………..

Adam and Hoss had ran, elbowing people aside, pushing them back, both of them with only one objective in mind and that was to reach their wives before any harm could befall them. Adam was already regretting the time he had lost by helping Lucy Garston, Hoss was wishing he had never come at all…he hit someone with his fist and felt the crunch, heard the yell but all he could see was the crumpled body of two women laying in the ground.

 

Gentle Hoss, inside himself his whole body ached with the longing to cry out, a huge yowl of pain and anguish as he watched his brother very tenderly lift Olivia into his arms and hold her tight against him. As he raised Olivia away from Hester, Hoss was able to reach his own wife, to tenderly, everso gently, turn her onto her back and brush away the dust and grit of the road from her face.

 

Adam couldn’t feel a thing…he thought of scarlet and red and black ..colours twirling round and round in his head, soaring up through his inward parts. Too much pain, too much fear, too much terror. His wife in his arms, cradling her against his own body, wanting to kiss her bruised face and wanting to see those vivid eyes open wide, the bloodied lips part into their warm sweet smile. He caressed her cheek with his fingers, feeling the contour of cheekbone and jaw, the outline of her lips….he saw the blood on his fingertips and then bowed his head and allowed the tears to flow.

 

The colours blended and faded, seeped away like dye from a piece of silk, and when his father had come, placed a hand on his back he felt as though his heart would explode with the torment of having to face whatever came next.

……………….

Hoss had cried, not silently like Adam, but loudly, like a bull roaring in the fields for its loss … his shoulders had shaken as he had held Hester to him, and the tears had fallen down his face and splashed upon her dress making damp dark patched on the soft blue of her gown.

 

Ben’s hand upon his back had been a comfort. It hadn’t stopped the tears because grief was the overwhelming emotion he felt, not pride or embarrassment at making a public display of his misery…he wanted to cry, he wanted to bellow, he wanted to make thing better for Hester and to stop this pain within himself.

 

Adam had wiped his eyes, drawn his hand over his face, pinched the bridge of his nose, and hauled in deep breaths. Not due to pride nor embarrassment at being seen by any one there to display his misery so publicly, but because he had the sense to know that nothing was achieved by standing there weeping.

 

He held Olivia in his arms and turned to move away only to be stopped by Paul, who stood there, nodded and pointed to two men bearing a stretcher. There were other men, other stretchers, other bodies being placed carefully upon them and carried away.

 

He had blinked fast, stopped more tears from welling up and spilling over…he didn’t want to let her go, he didn’t want to put her any distance from him now. But Paul was stubborn, and caring and gentle. So he had carried his wife to the waiting stretcher, placed her upon it, and covered her with the blanket.

……………………

 

Ben Cartwright was wondering whether or not to pull off the bandage that Paul had so carefully wrapped about his hand. It was irritating to have to admit that his only injury had been a bite from some irate woman whom he had been trying to usher to safety. She had fastened her teeth upon the fleshy part of his hand quicker than a rattler and held on just as fast.

 

Cinnamon nudged him as though to wake him from his ponderings and he glanced up

to see young Reuben running towards him. The boy was looking rather confused, as well he might on seeing the debris that still littered the Town Hall area, but he smiled upon seeing his Grandfather. Wet hair and rather patchily damp clothing proved he had been to the water hole to swim and Ben felt a wave of relief wash over him at the thought that his grandson had been far enough away from the melee as to not know what had taken place there.

 

“Hi Gran’pa. Am I late?” the boy grinned, freckles danced across his cheeks and nose, his dark hair flopped damply across his brow.

 

“No, son, not at all.” Ben replied, straightening his back and standing tall. He nodded at the boy “Did you enjoy your swim?”

 

“I would have liked to have gone fishing with Uncle Joe better.” Reuben replied with a candour that always amused Ben, “But it was alright. Richie came later, he was no fun at all.”

 

Ben nodded and sighed, then put his hand upon Reuben’s shoulder, and gave it a slight squeeze “Reuben, we have to -” he paused and frowned, then leaned down a little from the waist in order to get better eye to eye contact “Reuben, something happened here this afternoon, and -”

 

“Where’s Ma? Is Pa alright? Nothing happened to him, did it?” Reuben frowned, his face flushed, he blinked rapidly, feeling tight across the chest, “What happened, Gran’pa? Why is there all that mess … how’d you hurt your hand?”

 

Ben swallowed again, nodded “Your Pa’s alright, Reuben. Something happened at the Meeting, and some people got hurt. Your Ma and Aunt Hester …”

 

The boys face blanched, his eyes widened and the pupils dilated, “They’re alright, aren’t they? They’re not really hurt, not bad, are they?”

 

His stomach was churning over and his chest felt tighter, so tight that his throat seized up and he couldn’t breathe. He felt his Grandfather’s hand tighten upon his shoulder, the dark eyes darken, and the rugged face gentled and became soft and tender, “Son, calm down now. Take some deep breaths …”

……………….

 

Nate Carney saw Ben with the boy and strode towards them. Richie had been missing, or rather, difficult to find. But the sheriff knew that where Richie had been there would be at least three or four other little boys, and Reuben Cartwright was one of them.

 

He could see the boy was distressed, rubbing his face and trying to be brave for his Gran’pa and for a moment Nate thought of turning back and chasing up the other lads, Tommy Conway for instance would reveal everything, he would always be the weak link in the chain. But it was too late now, Ben had looked up and seen him, and straightened up, stepped back a pace or two with his hand still on the boy’s shoulder.

 

“Nate? Anything wrong?” Ben asked and Reuben turned to look up at the sheriff, who always looked too tall, “Something happen?”

 

Nate nodded and looked at Reuben. He noticed the wet hair, damp clothing…he sighed and hoped he was wrong “Reuben, before you went to the water hole, where were you?”

 

Reuben gulped. He lowered his eyes and stared at the ground, he didn’t want to speak, he didn’t want to say where he had been, nor admit that he had been disobedient to his Pa. He heaved in a deep breath and Ben frowned and looked at Nate enquiringly, but Nate just ignored that and waited. Reuben glanced up and saw the sheriff, noticed the kindly eyes despite the grim look on his face.

 

“I was here in town. The Gang didn’t want to go swimming right away. I told them but – but they wanted to see what this Meeting was really all about. Davy’s Ma said she was going to be there and she was going to give Miss Ridley and Peggy a piece of her mind. Davy said it would be funny to see her – his Ma – and Richie wanted to go too. “

 

“So where abouts were you?” Nate now asked kindly, lowering himself down as though realising that towering above the lad as he did, would have been intimidating.

 

“Under the sidewalk…there’s plenty of room to wriggle in and watch what’s going on.”

 

“And did you have any thing with you?”

 

“What do you mean? What kind of thing?”

 

“Well, did you come with anything in your hands to throw into the crowd if it got a bit boring …for example…some stones, or rocks, or – fire crackers?”

 

“No. I didn’t.”

 

“Nothing at all?”

 

“No, Pa said to go straight to the water hole, and that’s what I wanted to do, but the Gang didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to go by myself…” his voice trailed away, and he felt the lump in his chest dull and heavy, his stomach clenched, he felt like he wanted to be sick at the memory of the matches, the fire crackers, the stink bombs.

 

“Well, perhaps you didn’t have anything with you, but did any of the other boys bring things with them?”

 

Ben’s hand tightened on Reubens’ shoulder and the thought crossed his mind that if he told the truth he would be ‘betraying’ the gang. But if he told a lie…. What would Pa say to that? Or Ma?

 

“No one came to cause any trouble. We just wanted to see Mrs Riley …” he blinked faster, tears came to his eyes, he swallowed bile “I feel real sick, Sheriff….”

 

“Reuben, you didn’t – or rather – your friends didn’t cause any ruckus here, did they?”

 

Reuben shook his head wildly, “No, no we didn’t….I told Tommy and Jimmy that we had to go, because people were starting to shout and I reckoned we wouldn’t have been able to hear Mrs Riley anyhow. Tommy and Jimmy came right along with me, and we ran off to the water hole, and then Davy came and the Richie was last of all.”

 

“Was Richie the one with the fire crackers?” Nate asked very quietly and Reuben realised that he couldn’t remember …was it Davy or Ritchie? Nate looked at the boy, too innocent by nature to prevent or conceal his thoughts flitting like so many shadows across his face.

 

“I don’t know, I can’t remember….but they didn’t use them, they didn’t set them off.”

 

“Did they intend to?”

 

Reuben frowned, shrugged and shook his head “I don’t know….”

 

Ben tightened his grip on the boy’s shoulder and looked at Nate, who slowly uncoiled himself and stood up. “Do you know where Ritchie is now, Reuben? Or Davy?”

 

Reuben shook his head, he glanced up to his Grandfather “I want to see Ma? “

 

Ben again looked at Nate who nodded and stepped aside. As Reuben passed him, Nate placed a hand lightly on his back and said ‘Thank you’ in a gentle voice that made the boy shiver.

…………………

 

“Where are we going, Gran’pa?” Reuben whispered as he slipped his hand into Ben’s and allowed himself to be led away from the livery.

 

“To the hospital. That’s where your Ma and Pa are, and Aunt Hester and Uncle Hoss.”

 

Again the tight feeling in his chest, he wanted to vomit, bile hit his throat and he had to stop, and spit it out into the road. He was shaking and Ben stopped walking to stand close to him and put his arm around him until he felt more under control. He wished he had stayed home and gone fishing, none of this would have happened …or perhaps he would have done anyway and it would have been worse, because the boys would have just stayed there, become a part of all the trouble, because they wouldn’t have gone swimming if he had not urged them to go with him.

 

He wished he could get to the hospital that very instant. He wished he could turn back time. He sniffed hard, tears and snot went down his throat, he coughed, he spat again. Ben waited and nodded, understood, and then in silence picked the boy up into his arms and held him tight against him

 

“It’s alright, Reuben, it’s alright. Have a good cry now, get it all out …”

 

And so he did. He cried and sobbed, and clung tightly to his Grandpa, until he couldn’t cry anymore and when he stopped, Bridie was there standing beside them, her hand on his back, and that gentle sweet look on her face.

………………

 

Chapter 55

 

No one could miss the building, the hospital was a large imposing structure,  one Reuben had never seen inside before.   He gripped tightly to Ben’s hand as they entered through the vast doors,  and was glad to know that Bridie was right there beside him.   Something about her presence gave him a comforting feeling, as though things really can’t be that bad if she were there, with her soft Irish eyes and gentle smile.

 

Ben approached the reception desk and the woman there nodded and muttered something which meant Ben had to lean closer to her to hear what she had said, before he nodded and took hold of Reuben by the hand and turned away from the counter,

 

“Bridie, perhaps – if you could take care of Reuben here, and I’ll go ahead -”

 

“No, no, I want to come, I want to see Pa and Ma, please let me, please Grandpa, please take me with you. I don’t want to stay here I want to come with you.”

 

He knew  he was sounding like a whining kid, but just right then he felt like one, he felt like he wanted to run down those corridors and fling himself into his father’s arms and be assured that everything was all right, everything was, perfectly, all right.

 

Bridie put a hand on his shoulder, not restraining him, but just to assure him that she was there, closeby and that nothing was so very b ad, was it?   But he knew, even at his young age, that things could be very wrong and that for some reason adults never let on just how bad.  He wished right now that they would, that Ben would tell him exactly what had happened and why they were here instead of going to Dr Martin’s comfortable old surgery.

 

A man strode towards them, paused and approached Ben, “Are you Ben Cartwright?”  he glanced from Ben to Bridie and nodded “Good afternoon, Mrs Martin.  Good to see you here. “

 

Bridie nodded equally as curtly in return and looked at Ben who promptly asked if the doctor could tell them how things were with the two Mrs Cartwrights and the man looked at Reuben very pointedly,  so that the boy squirmed, knowing that that look meant the man didn’t want him there to hear anything.  Again Bridie put a firm hand on his shoulder, but this time it felt heavy and cumbersome.

………………

 

Adam and Hoss had watched as their wives had been pushed through the doors beyond which they were not permitted to enter.  They stood shoulder to shoulder as they had done so often in the past when difficulties had confronted them.  But this was not so much a difficulty, it was something over which niether one of them had any control.    They had to bow to the words of others who professed to know better. They had to accept that they were ignorant and that the lives of those they loved  rested in the hands of people they didn’t really know.

 

“Do you think it will  be long – before they tell us anything, Adam?” Hoss asked in a very quiet voice, one that seemed to echo within his throat, and he turned to his brother with appeal in his eyes which faded when Adam had shaken his head, shrugged and sighed.  “Guess we’ll just have to wait then.”

 

Adam had nodded,  looked over to the window and walked to it.  He had stood there, braced his legs apart and clasped his hands behind his back just as, years before, he had stood at the bridge of his ship when facing an incoming storm, wondering whether the frail vessel would survive the savagery of the seas.  Only with this incoming storm he had no way of working out its outcome, working out a strategy to defeat it.

 

He had heard Hoss as his brother had sat down on one of the chairs that creaked.  Most chairs did, before they settled to bear the man’s weight.  Neither of them wanted to think about what was happening beyond those doors….nor did they want to think of what could happen, what they would do,  in the future.

………………..

 

Ben and Bridie, with Reuben walking between them, holding tightly to their free hand, located the floor where Adam and Hoss were waiting for news concerning Olivia and Hester.

 

Ben was struck by the dissimilarity in his sons in dealing with the situation…Adam standing so still,  formidable, stoic while Hoss sat in the chair with his face buried in his hands,  every once in a while looking up to stare at the doors at the other end of the room and then bow his head back into his hands again.

 

Reuben felt his heart turn over and over, he couldn’t stop himself as he released hold on the hands that had led him there but now ran, ran towards the figure of the man who stood facing out towards Sun Mountain, his shoulders squared and his hands clasped resolutely behind his  back.

……………..

 

Daniel deQuille put the pen down on his desk and flicked through the pages of his notes.   Pages upon pages that recorded the events of that afternoon.   He felt tired to the bone,  longed for a drink of whiskey, a bottle at least.   He put his hand to his brow and shook his head,  before standing up and taking  his notes to the stenographer to type out before it went to press.

 

“I won’t be long…”  he said quietly and left the building to go and stand outside, to smell the air, the feel the breeze in the hope that it would blow away the misery he had felt ever since he had witnessed that first attack from a neighbour upon another neighbour.  He had seen it before, many times, covered countless saloon brawls, gun fights,  even a few cat fights when women had fallen out and ended rolling around in the street pulling each others hair, scratching and spitting and swearing.

 

But this had been different, and he couldn’t exactly put into words why he felt that way.   It had just been a meeting that had ended up disorderly and in disarray.  He shook his head and watched as Clem Foster  led young Richie Bellshaw to the Sheriffs office.  He wondered why, in the face of so much trouble, they would be bothering with a little boy .

 

He shivered.  There had been injuries,  there could be fatalities.  He felt at a loss,  he, the master of words, felt at a loss! He shook his head, and heaved in a deep sigh, then returned to the office.

 

He found a notebook, and picked up his pen…there were interviews still to be conducted,  Lucy Garston for instance, and Peggy Dayton – although she seemed to have disappeared.  He had already written down Amanda Ridley’s account of events, and had had to delete a whole string of expletives … he had had to adjust his opinion of that lady over the past few hours!

…………………..

 

The sound of approaching footsteps gave both men the time and opportunity to compose themselves so that by the time Ben, Reuben and Bridie arrived they had more or less removed the lines of misery upon their faces so that they could turn to them with blank features that belied the raging tempests of emotion roaring beneath the surface.

 

“Adam?  Hoss?” Ben’s voice crackled with feeling, not exactly what either of his sons wanted at that moment, but they gave their parent a brief smile and nod of the head.

Pa?  Pa?”  Reuben’s voice, shrill and quavering and without pausing he ran to the man standing by the window, and threw his arms around his waist “Pa?  Is Ma alright?  She isn’t – she isn’t dead, is she?  She isn’t is she?”

 

All his own fears were honestly displayed upon the child’s face, and Adam drew in a sharp quavering breath and wrapped an arm around the boy .   After a moment to compose himself further he pulled the boy away and then leaned down to his level, so that man and boy could look each other in the face, eye to eye.

 

Reuben could see his father’s eyes were red rimmed, and blood shot, he had never seen them like that before,  and he blinked rapidly just in case his own eyes were showing the same ravages of grief.   He could barely breathe now as he waited for Adam to speak, the reassurance he needed to allay the fears that he had felt ever since he had seen Ben in the livery.

 

“No,  no, Reuben, what made you think that? Huh?   No,  Mom isn’t dead…but she has been hurt, and the doctors are having to operate on her and Aunt Hester too.”  he glanced over to Hoss,  who had sat down again with Bridie by his side, holding his hand.

 

“Operate?   But why isn’t Uncle Paul doing it, Pa?  Why did she have to come here?”

 

“Paul had a lot of other people to attend to, son.   Quite a number of people have been hurt ….” Adam explained, his voice, now it was being used strengthening.

 

“But why?  How did people get hurt, Pa?   Will Mom be alright?  Will she be coming home with us?”

 

He looked up into Adams face, noticed the way his father blinked, swallowed and blinked again…he pushed away “She isn’t coming home, is she?   She’s going to die, isn’t she?  Like my daddy did….she’s going to die and leave us.”

 

The tears burst forth like water that had been forced  back by a dam,  so that Ben stepped forward, hesitated as he remembered the child was not his to comfort, just yet.   Adam squatted down and wrapped his arms around his son and drew him tightly towards him, he bowed his head so that it rested upon Reuben’s shoulder, and if he did weep now, he kept his face hidden from view.

 

Bridie squeezed Hoss’ fingers “Have they told you anything?  Anything at all?”

 

Hoss shook his head and stared down at the floor,  “No,  nothing … just that we got to wait here and they’ll tell us as soon as they can.”

 

Ben approached and stood beside them, his face contorted as he thought of  the loss of his daughters, for that was how he felt for both these women, and Mary Ann too.   His daughters, the girls he had never fathered, but beloved nevertheless.   He drew in his breath and looked over Hoss’ head to Bridie who nodded at him,  and just held onto Hoss’ hand even more tightly.

 

Footsteps and everyone tensed.  Adam stood up and away from Reuben with his hand upon the boys shoulder, while Ben stood closer to Hoss who  gripped Bridie’s hand so tightly the woman winced.

 

But familiar figures appeared in the form of Paul Martin, followed closely by Jimmy Chang, both showing signs of fatigue and anxiety on their faces.   They looked at the tableau before them, the grieving men, the child, and the woman wishing she could comfort them all and give them peace of mind.   It was Bridie who spoke

 

“How is everything, Paul? “

 

By everything she meant those who had been taken to the doctors surgery, victims with less serious injuries, men and women and perhaps children, she didn’t know for sure, she had just hurried to be with the Cartwrights whom she felt were her family and with whom she knew she had to stay.

 

“Not as good as it could have been,” Paul said gruffly.

 

He came and stood beside her, and Jimmy came and stood beside Adam,  feeling rather out of place, wondering whether or not he should have come, but Adam shook his hand and smiled, thanked him for being there.

 

“What news?” Jimmy asked in a low voice

 

“Nothing yet.” came the gruff reply and Adam squeezed Reuben’s shoulder as though to reassure him that ’nothing yet’ meant nothing to be afraid of,  nothing about which to worry overmuch.

 

“Mrs Spencer died…” Paul said with a sigh in his voice, “Heart attack.  She should never have been there with that angina she’s been suffering from,  ’Spence’ warned her not to go but she was adamant.  Mrs Riley got knocked out,  you know?   She has a mild concussion, quietest I’ve ever known her. “ he paused “What a mess …”

…………………

 

The newspaperman squared his shoulders and pushed open the neatly painted gate and walked along the neatly paved path to the Garstons front door.  He heaved in a deep breath as he considered what to say should he be confronted by Mrs Garston.  With some resolution he used the brightly polished door knocker to good effect and waited.

 

Lucy Garston came to the door and looked at Daniel deQuille with tear filled eyes, but a defiant  look on her face.   The red mark on her cheek bore a close resemblance to her mother’s hand print and Daniel blanched slightly at the thought of facing Mrs Garston,  who suddenly appeared from behind Lucy and with a grip upon her daughter’s shoulder pulled her away from the door.

 

The glossy painted door was slammed in his face.

………………….

 

Abel Greigson passed the canteen of water to Peggy and waited for her to drink enough to satisfy her.   He had brought her to the Box  G and to the flat rock over the river that she had said she had an affinity for  the memories it held.   He sat and waited for her to speak for she had not uttered a single word since regaining consciousness.   All the way from town she had just stayed as still as possible and as silent.

 

Peggy returned the canteen and nodded “Thank you for that,  and for bringing me here.  I really do appreciate it, I mean, that you brought me here, away from – from town.”

 

“It looked like it was going to develop into quite a rough house.” he said quietly as he put the canteen aside, “Guess you never gave it a thought, did you?  I mean, that it would turn out to be  so crazy?”

 

“Crazy?” she frowned,  and tried to remember the chaos that had broken out around her, “Crazy!”   she nodded, yes, it had seemed to be heading that way, but she could barely remember what had happened, or how it had started.  She turned to him, her face almost accusing, her eyes wide and surprised “Why did they react like that?  Why did they become so – so hostile?”

 

“They didn’t become hostile, Peggy, they were – a lot of them – already hostile.  Quite a few came with the intention of causing trouble,  and when the talks started becoming personal…”

 

“No, they didn’t.   how do you mean, became personal?” she leaned back, away from him,  prepared to fight even then.

 

“Well,  some comments that you made, and Amanda…. You should have stuck to your speeches.”

 

She shook her head, she couldn’t remember …now she bowed her head and stared into the water, and frowned “I can’t remember.   All I can recall is seeing the people there and thinking how angry they looked.   There were some women who – “ she shivered and shook her head again “I remember thinking ‘this is how women looked at the execution of all those people during the French revolution’  “  she turned to him “Did  you know that women would  reserve seats in the front row, so that they could knit while the heads of the aristocrats were lopped off at the Guillotine?”

 

He smiled and shook his head, the thought crossed his mind that she was still in shock, that she couldn’t come to terms with the fact that what had happened was clear evidence that people did not agree with  her, that suffrage was something that not everyone wanted.   She frowned,  noticed stains on her dress, dirt and other things, which she tried to brush away with her hand, “I should get back.   Hester will be wondering where I am.”

 

“I thought you were staying with Amanda Ridley?”

 

“Oh yes, that’s right…I was, wasn’t I?” she looked at him, and then sagged,  drooped, like a wilted lily when the sun had departed and the winds had began to blow, “I’m sorry,  I feel – odd.”

 

“Odd?   Well, I guess you would at that…”

 

“They said things about my father.  Bad things.  Lies….”

 

“Well, perhaps they weren’t lies, you have to see things from other peoples perspectives, Peggy.  Your father was your father, but to other people he was – what he was -”  he placed a hand over hers and looked into her face “Why do you have to fight everything, and everyone, so hard, Peggy?”

 

“Because one has to,  to survive.”

 

“Not always.”

 

He turned away from her then, removed his hand and stared out over the river.   She moved away, just an inch or two, so that there was a distance between them.  She felt safer that way.   Abel Greigson challenged her too much,  and she was finding that her resistance was weakening.

 

Chapter 56

 

Reuben had fallen asleep.   He had not intended to,  it was just that for a little boy he had gone through  too much emotionally and now with the brooding silence in the room he had given out.  It was easier to sleep than to listen to everyone just breathing,  or watching as one or other of them stood up, shook themselves as though trying to fling off an old garment and then walk to the window to stare out over to the mountain.

 

Nestled against his father’s body he had listened to the resonant beat of the man’s heart against his ear, and felt the comforting warmth of his arm around him.

 

He didn’t know how long he had slept but when he opened his eyes Jimmy Chang had gone.  Paul Martin was striding up and down while Ben stood by the window,  his dark brows knit over his heavy eyelids which hooded the dark sombre gaze of his eyes.

 

Adam sighed; as was so often the case when he was emotionally challenged he dredged up to his mind poetry…it had saved their sanity in Alaska, and helped during his long illness from the Kuril islands.  He had his eyes closed as his memory scanned reams and reams of poetry and sometimes, just sometimes, dwelt upon the memories in which he had dipped into them before.

 

Hoss would start up every so often, exclaim aloud at the length of time everything was taking, then  go over and over the events that had taken place to bring them to this situation now.  Bridie’s voice was soothing but eventually even she realised the man just needed to release his tensions by scouring through the minutiae of that afternoon.

 

“If  Higgins had let ‘em use his hall like promised, we could have checked over what they was bringing in.  Aint’ that right, Adam?   We could have made sure no weapons were brung into the hall.  Shucks,  even the wimmin could have been searched, that was the problem…all them folk milling around, no one could see what they was bringing with ‘em.”

 

“Nate was aware that there would  be a problem,” Ben said quietly, moving away from the window and approaching them now,  he looked at Reuben and gave a brief smile, a nod of the head.   “At least being aware and doing something about it prevented worse happening.”

 

“Yeah, still wasn’t enough….” Hoss growled and sunk his face into his hands, cupped over his face, past the crying stage now,  just feeling the coils of anger and guilt that ate him up.

 

“It was as good as it could be….” Adam murmured as though waking from a deep sleep, “We all did what we could, but you are right, Hoss, if Higgins had kept the hall available we could have searched for weapons and the things they brought with them.”

 

“There were so many people…” Hoss groaned,  and looked up as though seeing the crowds again, “Never thought there would be so much interest in a Meeting about women.”

 

Bridie sighed “I think the problem was that everyone under estimated how the women felt about this issue.   I mean would you have suspected Mrs Spencer of concealing a weapon in her purse?   Would you have searched through Widow Hawkins’ bag …?”

 

“You saying they came armed to the meeting?” Ben asked in alarm, and thought of the commodious bag that Clemmie Hawkins often touted around with her.

 

“No, I’m just saying that you may have searched through the men’s possessions, and made sure they were disarmed, but I doubt if many of you would have demanded these women to permit their purses or bags or even their persons being examined.”

 

“They still had teeth…” Ben lamented and looked down gravely at his bandaged hand which brought a slight smile to Paul’s face.   A lull in the conversation followed that comment as everyone there began to think over the duties of the deputies, and just how thoroughly they had searched through the crowds.

 

“We hauled quite a few men away who had concealed weapons….” Adam muttered.

 

“I didn’t even look at the wimmin.” Hoss groaned.

 

“According to Peggy this meeting was to -” Ben stopped speaking as the doors of the room opened and a white coated thin man approached, hesitated, looked at them all and then resolutely continued on his journey towards them.

 

“Dr Wyngarde-” he identified himself, and shook their hands, looked solemnly at Reuben as though to indicate he should not have been there and then looked at Adam “Mr Cartwright,  no doubt you would like to see  your wife now?”

 

Adam  was on his feet so fast that Reuben was nearly toppled off his seat, and had it not been for Bridie grabbing his arm he would have been on the floor.

 

“How is she?   You’ve had her in there for so long….is she badly hurt? Is she going to be alright?” Adam was almost babbling, pouring out his fears and the anxieties he had been trying to suppress and which now spilled over.

 

Wyngarde put up a hand and smiled, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes and Adam was not fooled so he hauled in a deep breath, before glancing down at Reuben who was now attached to his side, holding tight to his father’s jacket in case Adam had forgotten he was there.  Ben approached now, and stood beside them, his hand on Reuben’s shoulder, ready to pull him away, aware that the Doctor would probably not permit the boy to enter the other room.

 

“Mr Cartwright, your wife sustained some injuries consistent to a severe – fall –  being trampled and also being in contact with some object,  a rock … minor abrasions, some breakage to the hand, the left hand, and some internal injuries which we had to check in case of bleeding.  Thank goodness for womens corsets …”  he was obviously of a whimsical nature and liked to soften the bad news with humour,  he glanced at the man facing him, saw the dark eyes harden and nodded “The blow to the head caused us some concerns…”

 

He noticed how everyone there suddenly went rigid, they all knew the dangers a blow to the head could cause, and now waited with apprehension as the Dr continued to speak, “but we can discuss that more in a moment, in more privacy.”

 

“What does he mean, Pa?” Reuben whispered but Adam shook his head, and moved to follow the doctor who paused and looked at the boy,

 

“I think your father needs to see your mother first, little boy, you stay here for a while, huh?”

 

Reuben bridled, little boy indeed, but he said nothing, but stepped back after releasing his hold on Adam’s jacket hoping that Adam would look back at him, give him a smile, a wink, anything….but Adam didn’t, he followed so close to the Doctors heels that he nearly stepped into his shoes.

 

Hoss sighed deeply,  and slumped back into his chair, Ben led Reuben back to his seat and sat down beside him while Bridie patted Hoss on the arm as though to reassure him that all would be well, he just had to be patient.

……………

 

Olivia was lying seemingly asleep, although Wyngarde whispered that she had had a lot of drugs  but should come out of this semi-conscious state soon.  He led Adam to a corner of the room where they could talk without fear of the patient, upon awakening, being able to hear what was being said.

 

But the sight of his wife lying so helpless on that bed had wrenched at Adam’s heart.  He couldnot keep his eyes from straying over to her sleeping form despite trying to pay attention to what Wyngarde was saying.   There were bruises on what part of the body was exposed,  her hand and arm was bandaged to the elbow,  abrasions to her face had been neatly stitched but would leave scars, her mouth was swollen but the worse thing were the bandages that covered her eyes.

 

He listened, head bowed, eyes darting over to look at her, trying to assimilate the details of what Wyngarde was saying,  internal injuries were minimal they had checked for bleeding,  there were two ribs cracked but not broken,  her lungs were unimpaired.  The main problem and concern was her eyesight.   The loss of vision could be temporary due to concussion or it could be permanent.

 

“What do you mean, permanent?  Are you saying she’s blind?”  he heard himself saying the words, but not believing them, he couldn’t even believe that he had said them.

 

“Currently, yes.   There was no visual response to the tests we  made, but as I said, it could  be temporary.  I have to just mention here, Mr Cartwright, that if it is temporary, it doesn’t mean that her vision will be as good as it had been.”

 

Adam nodded,  he thought of Olivia’s eyes, the  beauty and mystery of them, the way he could judge her moods by their colour, the cobwebs of eyelashes that would sweep over her cheekbones….oh she was so beautiful, he released a shuddering sigh and turned to look at her again “Is that all, Doctor?”

 

“Yes,  for now.”

 

“And – can you give me any idea as to when she can come home?”

 

Wyngarde raised his eyebrows and shook his head “Oh no, not for some while yet, Mr Cartwright. Your wife needs a lot of care and attention. “

 

He nodded, screwed up his eyes as though to stop them from tearing up, then nodded again “I see.   Can I stay here?”

 

“The hospital has strict rules on visiting hours, Mr Cartwright.  It would  be best if you kept to them.”   he paused and cleared his throat, anticipating an argument he leaned towards the other man in sympathy “It’s for the best.   The patient gets weary with visitors,  they try too hard to stay awake, to talk etcetera and then expend their energies which should be used for healing purposes.   You do understand, don’t you?”

 

He looked at Adam as though the man was just one step above being an idiot,  then his face softened “It’s also to your advantage as you’ll see the progress she is making each visit, sometimes that isn’t so obvious if you are here all the time.”

 

“You made your point clear….” Adam said quietly and walked over to the bed, “How long can I stay now?”

 

“Ten minutes …”   Wyngarde walked to the door, glanced at the clock on the wall as though to draw Adam’s attention to it, to ensure that he could tell the time but then he paused “She won’t be alone.   She’ll be in the same room as her sister,  Mrs Hester Cartwright.”

 

Hester  … Adam remonstrated within himself, he hadn’t even given her a thought, “How is she? How is Hester?”

 

“I’ll just go and tell her husband, Mr Cartwright….” Wyngarde replied, all prim and proper, and keeping to hospital rules.

 

Adam nodded, pulled out the chair beside the bed and sat down, reached for  the hand that lay upon the bed then remembered that it was damaged so merely brushed his fingers against the bandages before leaning towards her,  staring into that quiet  damaged face.

 

He believed that he had fallen in love with her the moment he had first seen her, when she had been so cold, in that snow laden park, red woolly hat and scarf and her nose peeking over and nipped by the frost.   Her eyes, so large, so green, so twinkling…he had been reminded of those eyes when at sea, reminded of them so often.

 

He leaned forwards and his fingers gently stroked her cheek, traced the outline of the contours of her face.   He very gently kissed her lips, swollen though they were and whispered,

 

“See the mountains kiss  high heaven

And the waves clasp one another.

No sister flower would be forgiven

If it disdained its brother.

And the sunlight clasps the earth

And the moonbeams kiss the sea;

 

What is all this sweet work worth

If thou kiss not me?”

…………………………………..

 

Wyngarde’s re-entry to the waiting room was received with exclamations of impatience and anxiety in equal measure.   He nodded over to Dr Martin and Bridie, and then turned to Ben and Hoss.  He ignored Reuben’s glower …

 

“Hoss Cartwright?”  he looked at the worried face before him, he was a short man so Hoss towered over him.   Most men would  have been intimidated but Wyngarde carried the power of life and death in his hands and was not intimidated by anyone.

 

“Come with me, sir.”

 

“At last.” Hoss groaned, and stepped away from his anxious father, his worried friends and frightened nephew.  “How is she?”

 

“Probably a lot better than you imagine her to be….” Wyngarde said with a slight smile, he felt more warmly disposed towards this frightened looking red eyed tear streaked man than to the other Cartwright who had regarded him with nothing short of hostility and suspicion.

 

He pushed open the doors to a small room where Hoss could see immediately a bed whereupon his wife was lying as though asleep.  He clutched at the Doctors arm, was about to whisper “She aint dead?” then remembered what the man had said earlier and forced his breathing to remain calm.

 

Her golden red hair was curling over her shoulder, a brightness against the white pillows and sheets.   Her eyelids fluttered, her lips moved as though she were whispering to him and he leaned over and kissed her immediately despite Wyngarde’s clearing his throat right behind him.

 

Hester remained where she was, in that her dreams had taken her  far away, to somewhere beyond pain.   Wild flowers in glorious colours swayed to the softest breeze,  clouds scudded over the blue sky and it was warm, pleasant upon her skin.

 

Wyngarde waited patiently for the man to tear himself away from his wife’s bedside and then glanced at the sheets of paper in his hand.

 

“Hester -” he smiled as Hoss looked at him and smiled, the relief so obvious on his face that Wyngarde felt another wave of friendliness towards the big man, “She’s got a fracture of the tibia, two broken ribs, and multiple bruising.  It could have been a lot worse but one can thank the instincts that drove Mrs Olivia Cartwright to protect  your wife.  She bore the brunt of the unfortunate assault you understand?”

 

Hoss nodded, he understood only too well the debt he owed Adam’s wife,  and sighed.  After a moment he whispered “And is she going to be alright?”

 

“In time.   We need to keep her under observation.    She’ll be in the same room as her sister.”  he frowned slightly, rolled his eyes, and shook his head, “Now, she isn’t entirely out of the woods yet.  She has a concussion,  a slight fracture to the base of the skull…”

 

Hoss gulped,  Joe had suffered those same injuries and had got amnesia, he looked at Wyngarde and felt panic “She will remember everything, she won’t have lost her memory only my brother did when it happened to him recently and….”

 

“No, no, calm down some….Mrs Cartwright will be under observation here for some time yet.  She won’t be released from care until she is 100% fit …or perhaps 95% if that is alright by you?”   a whimsical smile, Hoss wasn’t sure if he was supposed to smile back but did anyway.

 

“Can I stay with her now?”

 

“Just five minutes…”   Wyngarde checked the clock and nodded, that should be ample he thought.  The two Cartwrights could leave at the same time and things in the hospital could return to normal.

 

There had been other casualties to the events of that day, among them  two deaths, and one woman who would never be the same again.   He shook his head,  and quietly left the room.

 

Hoss almost tip toed over to the woman on the bed.   He held her hand very gently in his own, for Hoss of all people knew how to be very gentle.   “Hester?    Did I ever tell you lately how lovely you are?  How much I love you?   I reckon you must be the most loveliest woman on this earth.   God sure knew what He was a-doing of to send  you to Virginia City all that time along….shucks, I love you.”

 

He clung to her hand, burst into tears and blustered.  Thoughts of losing her had been too strong, too much to bear…the dam burst and he couldn’t hold the tears back.

 

 

 

Chapter 57

 

Sofia wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, but a little worm of anxiety was slowly wiggling its way around her stomach and making her feel sick.

 

She had been enjoying her  time with Rosie and David, and Nathaniel had got on well with little Samuel although he had at times drifted over to play with the girls and been told to ‘go away and play with the baby.’     Because he was in unfamiliar surroundings he made no fuss and did as he was told, having noticed that the toddler got a lot of attention  and cookies.

 

It had been a delightful afternoon.   The fact that Reuben had gone off to town to join with the gang instead of going fishing with Uncle Joe hadn’t worried her at all.  She relished having Rosie as her friend now, and the little girls had played hoops, had made a den in the overgrown part of the garden,  paddled in the little stream that ran through and had a cookie and tea morning with their favourite dolls.  It had been all the better for the weather being so bright and warm.

 

Aunty Ann was fun too,  she had read stories,  joined them for a little while with the tea party, bunching up her skirts and coming to sit down on the grass with them.

 

But then things had changed when Uncle Candy had arrived back home.  He hadn’t even said a greeting to anyone but strode into the house, didn’t remove his hat but grabbed Ann by the elbow and ushered her into the other room before closing the door.

 

After a little while they had heard Aunty Ann give a wail, such a sound that both the little girls reached out to grab at the other’s hand and held tightly to it.  David had stopped what he was doing and hurried over to stand beside his sister, while the little ones, Nathaniel and Samuel, had glanced up towards the door and continued with their play as though odd sounds from other rooms was nothing unusual in their world.

 

After a little while Candy had come out, looked at them and sighed, before coming to Sofia and placing a gentle  hand upon her arm squatted down to her level “Sofia,  I have to go and see Aunty Mary Ann and Uncle Joe about something important.  Aunty Ann will explain in a moment …”

 

He wished he were more able to communicate with children but they rather unnerved him, he gave his daughter a brief smile and patted her on the head, muttered something about ‘being good’ and hurried out of the house.  The little girls looked at one another and then made a dash for the door to the other room.

 

Ann was wiping her eyes, standing by the window and staring out through watery eyes, before she realised they were there.  It was Rosie saying “Ma, is everything alright?  What’s happened?”

 

That was when the wiggles started up in Sofia’s tummy and she felt her chest getting very tight.  She looked around the room, as t hough somewhere there was a clue that would help her through whatever it was that Aunty Ann was going to tell her.   As it was nothing leaped out to give her any help whatsoever, so she clung more tightly to Rosie’s hand and waited.

 

Ann blew her nose very delicately and dabbed at her eyes, before coming to wards them and taking hold of Sofia by the hand led the child to a chair  upon which she sat, drawing the little girl closer to her side with her arm around her waist.

 

“Sofia, you know that Aunty Hester -” she paused and cleared her throat, tears welled up in her eyes

 

“Is Aunty Hester dead?” Sofia asked in a very shaky voice

 

“No, no,  she’s not dead nor is your  Momma.”  Ann paused, saw the shadow of fear flicker across the child’s face “They were hurt, that’s all.” her face crumpled, and she batted her eyelids frantically to stop tears falling, dabbed at her cheeks again, “There was trouble at the meeting they went to…”

 

“Peggy’s meeting?” Sofia said in what she thought was a very grown up voice.

 

“Yes, that’s right.  But they were hurt, and your daddy and Uncle Hoss are staying in town with them because they are in hospital.”

 

“Daddy’s in hospital?”

 

“No – yes – well, your Mommy and Aunty Hester are hurt and in hospital and your daddy and Uncle Hoss are staying in town to be with them.  To make sure they get better.”

 

“Are they -”  Sofia felt her stomach lurch, she swallowed hard “Are they very hurt?”

 

“A bit – yes – but they will get better.”

 

“They will?  And then they will come home?”  Sofia looked into her Aunt’s face and saw the tears  in the woman’s eyes and then turned and ran out of the room.

 

Mommy hurt!  In a hospital?   The words drummed through her head and made it spin, she felt tears running down her cheeks and dashed at them with her fingers, but still she ran on, splashing through the little stream and not minding that her shoes  got wet, she ran on until she could run no further, but fell down upon the grass and sobbed.

 

She was still sobbing when Nathaniel found her and sat down by her side.  He looked at his sister’s heaving shoulders as she lay flat on her stomach in the grass, and put a dimpled hand upon her back.  Just a light touch of a hand, warm and gentle.  He didn’t say anything because being so little he didn’t know what to say, what to ask…he just sat there, his hand on her back, waiting until she stopped crying and could tell him that everything was alright, like Mommy would have done had she been there.

……………….

 

Reuben had left the hospital with Ben.   He had been reluctant to leave the building, even more so because he had not been permitted in to see his Mother which led him to imagine her injuries which in turn made him feel miserable to the extreme.  He kept his head bowed so that no one could see his face, the tears, the swollen eyes.   He didn’t want to speak because he didn’t think his voice would manage to get through his throat.

 

Adam and Hoss had talked in low voices with Paul, Ben and Bridie leaving the boy sitting on the  uncomfortable chair and feeling more isolated and guilty than ever.  He kept trying to catch his father’s eyes but failed at every attempt.  He felt a very alone, very frightened.

 

Adam had finally come over to him, sat beside  him and wrapped his arm around him to give him a brief hug before sitting back to observe the boy.   Reuben looked up, saw the blank face, the dark hazel eyes

 

“Pa?”

 

“It’s alright, Reuben, Ma’s going to get through this -” his voice wavered, and Reuben wondered if his father’s throat was tight as well.  They looked at one another, neither able to say anything nor smile reassuringly, they just looked and then Adam swept him up again into a hug and got to his feet.

 

Ben came and Reuben, head down observing the floor, recognised the familiar boots planted right under his nose. He looked up and wondered if Ben, during that chat by the window, had told Adam about what had happened, how he and the Gang had disobeyed and stayed in town.

 

“Alright, Reuben.  Time for us to go…” Ben said very firmly, “Up you get now,  we have to collect your sister and brother from Aunt Ann’s before we get  home.”

 

“Are you -” he turned to Adam “are you coming back too, Pa?”

 

“Not right now, there’s things that I need to do here first.” Adam replied in a firmer voice, as though Ben’s presence had put some steel into him, he did smile however and gave his son a wink, before he turned back to Hoss and Paul.

 

Bridie came and looked down at the boy, she smoothed back an unruly lock of hair and smiled “Your Mother and Aunt are here for observation,  that’s all.  Once the doctors think they are strong enough then they will come home.”

 

“They aren’t dying?” Reuben whispered

 

“No, no, nothing like that, nothing for  you to worry about like that….” she assured him, and noticed the way he glanced over at Adam and Hoss “We didn’t know at first how badly hurt they were,  but it will be alright, dear, it will just take time for bones to mend and bruises to heal. “

 

“Like that time the Downing boy shot me?”

 

“Yes,  only not as bad as that…” she attempted a smile, and glanced up at Ben who nodded and put a hand to the boys elbow to lead him away.

 

“Bye., Pa…Uncle Hoss…see you soon.” the boy called out from the doorway and then paused as the two men stopped talking to turn to him.

 

He wanted to be brave and walk out of the door with Grandpa, but he couldn’t, he released Ben’s hold on his hand and turned, ran to wards his father and flung his arms around his legs “I’m sorry, Pa, truly I am.”

 

Adam frowned, looked over at Ben then down at the boy, he ruffled Reuben’s hair, “There’s  nothing for you to be sorry about, son.   This has nothing to do with you.  Just go home with Granpa and we will be back as soon as possible.”

 

Reuben looked up, saw the gentle expression on his father’s face, realised this was not the right time for confession,  and then stepped back “Will you tell Ma, tell her I love her.”

 

Adam nodded, assured him that he would, told him to be good, and watched as the child walked slowly back to Ben, cast a last look over his shoulder at his father, before leaving the room.

 

The door swung shut with a soft thud.

 

Chapter 58

 

The Mayor was not the forgiving kind, apart from which he was too often beaten by Amanda Ridley during the private poker sessions that were held in town for him not to bear a grudge.   He chose this moment to take advantage of the situation and  pressed charges against her while at the same time insisting that Nate didn’t release her on bail .

 

Nate listened to the Mayors tirade and said nothing although he was pondering on  reminding the man that he had been at the Meeting from the start and had done nothing to placate the crowd, and that he had witnesses that would testify upon seeing the Mayor pick up a missile and cast it rather forcibly to wards the platform.

 

The Mayor did not stay long enough for Nate to say anything, being an intuitive man, he had recognised the gleam in the Sheriff’s eye and knew when to beat a hasty retreat.  He did just that, and slammed the door behind him for good measure.

 

Clem sighed “What are you going to do about him?  Most of those we have in the cells have told me they saw him encouraging the violence – which was why Miss Ridley took up the rifle.”

 

“I know.” Nate nodded and looked at the charge sheet on the desk “This isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.   Still it won’t hurt Amanda to cool down in the cell overnight.”

 

“I’ll get some of her cell mates to write out their statements …” Clem said and grinned, “The Mayor seems to have too  big an opinion of his status…”

 

“I think his status has just about been blown wide open.” Nate replied and took his seat behind his desk, rubbed his face and  yawned.  “I’ll be glad when this day is over.”

 

In that, he was not alone.

…………….

 

Sofia and Nathaniel were both asleep when Ben and Reuben arrived at Ann Canadays.   They didn’t hear the sound of the buggy or the horses arriving at the house, nor  Reuben calling them.   Ben eventually found them both, Sofia with her arm around her little brother as though making sure he was safe, and the little boy with his head on her chest, so sound asleep that he didn’t even wake up when Ben leaned down to pick him up and carry him to the buggy.

 

Reuben shook his sister’s shoulder and although she murmured several times for him to leave her alone she eventually opened her eyes, then upon recognising Reuben she became immediately alert.  She sat up, stared at him and then blinked, “Why do you look funny?”

 

“Funny?” he said and frowned,  “I don’t look funny.”

 

“Yes, you do.  Your eyes are all red and funny looking and …” she paused, memory of what Ann had told her trickled into awareness, she bowed her head “Oh Reuben,  oh, is it true?  Is Mommy hurt? Really hurt?”

 

“I didn’t see her.  That doctor wouldn’t let me.  He said I wasn’t allowed because I was just a child.” Reuben bristled and narrowed his eyes and  his lips thinned “I wanted to see her, I asked Pa but Pa said hospitals have rules. “

 

“But what about Mommy?”  she swallowed tears, they trickled down her throat and lodged there for a moment, “What about Daddy?”

 

Ben reappeared now, she could see him over Reuben’s shoulder and hurried to her feet.  With her arms outstretched she ran to him, held him tightly around the waist while he leaned forwards a little to stroke her hair and pat her back “Mommy will be alright, Sofia, she’ll be home soon.  Just not yet, that’s all.”

 

“But she will come home, won’t she?” she looked up at him, full confidence and faith in whatever he said because Ben had always been her special Granpa, even before they had even really known Adam.

 

“Yes, she’ll be well looked after at the hospital.   When she is strong enough I’ll be able to take you into town to see her.”  he paused “But your father will be home before then, he’ll be able to tell you more.”

 

He lifted her up into the cradle of his arms and carried her to the buggy where Nathaniel was curled up on the back seat,  and here it was that he gently set her down.  Ann Canaday, Rose and David came to stand at the gate and wave them good bye, but all of them looked solemn, and Sofia thought she had never seen her Aunt Ann look so sad.  She slipped her hand into that of Reuben’s and in silence they sat there together while Ben set the buggy in motion.  Cinnamon and Max trotted obediently behind the vehicle.

 

Mary Ann and Joe were at the house when Ben arrived.   They had taken the little girls and Erik home to the Ponderosa where Hop Sing was giving them supper and promised to take care of them until they returned.  Joe had deemed it better to say nothing to the children except that Hester was staying in town and when Hannah had said “With Bridie?” they hadn’t corrected her.

 

Nathaniel was awake when they arrived at the house and he was delighted to see Daniel.   Someone else to play with, and totally unaware of the dark clouds hovering over them  he ran away to his playmate, never wondering for a moment as to how he had arrived home when he had fallen asleep in Ann’s garden with Sofia.

 

Little Constance sat looking as pretty as ever but regarded everything and everyone with the solemnity of her age.  She looked like a doll with big eyes watching all that was going on around her.   Mary Ann carried her into the house while Joe went with Ben into the stable to see to the horses.  Reuben dithered, he knew if he went to join his Uncle and Grandfather the conversation would stop and they would make polite false comments to him that meant nothing.

 

He trailed into the house behind Mary Ann and Sofia, and then stood in the big room and looked around him, felt overwhelmed by all that had happened and burst into tears.

 

Sofia blinked, felt her nose filling with tears, and then her eyes and within seconds was following her brother’s example, crying so piteously that Mary Ann was not sure which of the two she should attend to first.

 

In the stable Ben provided Joe with all the information at his disposal, answering his questions as best he could while knowing that it wouldn’t be enough.  Joe tried to be patient but found it hard,  his eyes watched the expressions on his father’s face to gauge the seriousness of his comments,  and when Ben had said all that he could say, Joe nodded and cursed the day Peggy Dayton had ever set foot on the Ponderosa.

 

“It wasn’t entirely Peggy’s fault, Joe.” Ben cautioned his son fairly, “She believes in this cause of hers, and so did Lucy and Amanda, sufficiently enough to take part in the whole thing. Amanda arranged for the outside assembly, which in its turn was the problem because no one could fully check on what weapons were bring brought to it.  Nate and the deputies did their best, but no one suspected that so many decent law abiding men and women would react so violently.”

 

“It just takes  a few…”

 

“Yes, it does.  The fear sets in and people react, common sense just disappears -” he  paused then and looked at Joe kindly, he put his hand on the other mans arm “Just be grateful Mary Ann was not there.”

 

“I do.  As soon as Candy told me about what had happened I was so glad she was safe here …and so was she.” he rubbed his chin with his fingers, and cast around nervously to look at something other than his father’s face, he cleared his throat, “How were they?  Lucy and Amanda – and Peggy?”

 

Ben frowned, thought for a moment as he tried to recollect what he had seen and what he could remember being told.  “Well, Amanda was alright, Clem took her to the Sheriff’s office once they had taken the rifle off her.   She seemed unharmed, and Lucy fainted…I do recall Adam carrying her over to Mr Garston but before that things had got really out of hand.    I can’t remember what happened to Peggy. “  he frowned and shook his head “She was on the platform one moment and then I never saw her again.”  he shrugged and looked a little lost in reminiscence.

 

Joe merely nodded,  he turned to wards the stalls and ran a hand along Cinnamons neck, “Are you staying here ?”

 

“Until Adam gets home….”

 

“How long will he be in town?”

 

“He and Hoss are staying with Paul and Bridie tonight,  then see how things are with – with -” he paused, cleared his throat, suddenly found himself short of breath and had to turn away “it’s alright, Adam and Hoss should be back tomorrow.”

 

“In that case Mary Ann and I will go back and keep an eye on the girls and Erik …” Joe reached out and touched his father on the arm, gave a nod of the head “Are the children alright?  Do they understand what’s happened?”

 

“Sofia just knows her mother has been hurt but Reuben …he has an idea of what has happened,  he came to the hospital with me.  I think he blames himself..”

 

“Why?”

 

Ben opened his mouth then decided to close it, and say nothing, he shrugged instead and said off handedly “Well, children do…”

 

Joe just nodded, accepted that his father was holding something back but didn’t pursue the matter,  He turned away and walked back to the house where he found his wife with Sofia on her lap, crying into her shoulder and Reuben – was no where to be seen.

 

It wasn’t hard to find the boy, he was in his own room where he had thrown himself across his bed and buried his face into the pillows.  He didn’t look up when the door opened, and then closed.  It wasn’t until Joe’s hand touched his shoulder that he moved, and tried to do the manly thing of sitting up, squaring his shoulders and sniffing back the tears.  He blinked when Joe held out a square of cloth, a handkerchief, and upon this he wiped his face and blew his nose.

 

“Feeling bad, huh?”

 

“I didn’t get to see Ma.”

 

“No.   Hospitals are like that, they have rules, they don’t seem to think children – even those as old as yourself – need to be considered.  They don’t mean any harm.  Just the way they keep control of the system I guess.”

 

“They didn’t let Pa stay long…just long enough to see her.”

 

“Well, that’s better than nothing, isn’t it?”  Joe glanced around the room “Mind if I sit?”

 

He didn’t wait for an answer but pulled the chair over to sit beside the bed and look at the boy.  He frowned,  and nodded “Your Pa is going to depend on you when he gets home tomorrow.   He’ll want your  help around here, with Sofia and Nathaniel and getting chores done an’ everything.”

 

Reuben nodded, and frowned.  He couldn’t understand why Uncle Joe was talking about normal things when everything was so out of order.   He heaved in a deep breath.    “Aunt Hester was hurt too.”

 

“So I heard.”

 

“Bridie said it was like when I got hurt that time, when the Downing Kid shot me, you know?”

 

“I remember…” Joe nodded.

 

“Bridie said it just takes time for everything to heal and then Ma and Aunt Hester will be alright again.”

 

“That’s right, so they will…”

 

The boy  nodded and looked down at his boots, for a moment there was silence and then he said “Uncle Joe?”

 

“Yes, Reuben?”

 

“I – I was there – I was in the town.”

 

“I guess you were…” Joe frowned “Weren’t you going to go swimming?”

 

“I did go swimming,” Reuben nodded, and heaved in a deep breath again, “But the Gang didn’t want to go and so I went into town.  We hid under the sidewalk…”

 

“Oh.”  Joe frowned, nodded “I can remember doing just the same when I was a kid.  There’s just enough room between the ground and the sidewalk for  a bolt hole…Mitch and I used to  hide there whenever we thought we would be able to see a gun fight,  or sometimes just to see what was going on without our being seen.  It was rather like having a private view on the world without anyone else knowing….” he smiled as though the memories were pleasant ones.

 

“Did  you – did you ever take fire crackers with you and – or – I mean -”

 

Joe ‘s nimble brain caught on to what was being left unsaid, he paused, then nodded

 

“Once or twice, well, perhaps more times than that…” he frowned, “Of course we shouldn’t have but Mitch was able to get hold of them from the Chinese lads he hung around with., sometimes if it got boring and nothing was happening we would light them and throw them into the street, usually if there was -”  he stopped himself, frowned and shook his head “best not tell you anymore, don’t want you getting ideas and getting yourself into trouble.   My Pa used to tan me good and hard at times … “

 

“Did he?” Reuben’s eyes went round.

 

“Yeah, he did.   There were times when you Pa tanned me as well…you have to remember your Pa is quite a bit older than me.  He was a man by the time I went to school. “

 

“Gosh.  I never thought about that…”  Reuben frowned, he slumped back into his pillows.  “Uncle Joe,  Pa told me to go swimming and when I went into town with the boys we hid under the sidewalk, and – and one of them took firecrackers.”

 

“Uh-huh?”

 

“It wasn’t me or Jimmy….nor Tommy…and I didn’t know what they intended to do with them, I mean, if they were going to throw ‘em out and cause trrouble, but me and Jimmy and Tommy ran off soon as there was a lot of shouting, so we didn’t get to see what happened to t he fire crackers.”

 

“Well then, in that case, you haven’t anything to blame yourself for, have you?  You can’t sit here and punish yourself for something  you didnt do?”

 

Reuben shook his head “I did obeyed my Pa.  I broke my promise to him.  He’ll be mad at me.”

 

“Well, perhaps not.  I think just for now he has a lot more things that are more important on his mind.   When the time is right, tell him what you told me, he’ll understand.”

 

“But I was wrong, wasn’t I?”   Reuben looked at his Uncle and Joe sighed, nodded,

 

“Yeah,  it is wrong to be disobedient, and it is wrong to break promises.  Thing is, Reuben,  what’s done is done…” he stood up and put the chair back against the wall, “Now then, why not come down and get yourself some supper.  Sofia will need to see you, and so will your Grandpa, he’s worried about you.”

 

Reuben nodded and sighed “Were you ever disobedient and things, Uncle Joe?”

 

“Who?  Me?  What do you think?” Joe said and suppressed a grin …after all, it would never do for Reuben to get the wrong idea.

 

Chapter 59

 

Otis Fleming dismounted from his horse and led it by its rein to where Abel Greigson was standing fixing the harness to a horse that he had needed to take the buggy back to town. Otis had worked for the Box G for some years now and was a trusted and reliable hand, so Abel was pleased to see him although the smile faded when he saw the furrows on the older man’s brow

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

“You intending to go into town with that gal?” Otis jerked his head in the direction of Peggy Dayton who was standing by a big tree that grew opposite the ranch house.

 

“She can’t stay here.” Abel replied, “She was staying with Miss Ridley so -”

 

“Miss Ridley’s in jail. The Sheriff done arrest her for pulling a rifle on the Mayor.”

 

“Oh, that’s not good.”

 

“Nope…and if’n you don’t mind taking some advice from an old man, I reckon that you might reconsider taking her into town. The folk there are liable to string her up.”

 

“Don’t be so ridiculous.” Abel walked to the other side of the horse and after stroking its nose began to check the buckles on the harness

 

“I ain’t being ridiculous. Some lady died as a result of the mess that gal created, with her speechifying – and the Cartwright women are in hospital..”

 

“The Cartwright women?” Abel’s head snapped up and he clamped his mouth together while a scowl descended like a cloud over his face “Which Cartwright women are you meaning – speak plain, man?”

 

“Mrs Adam Cartwright and Mrs Hoss Cartwright – that plain enough? Shucks, Abel, you got your hands full with that one alright.”

 

Abel shook his head, then glanced over to where Peggy was now leaning against the tree.

 

“I didn’t know the Cartwright women were there, I didn’t see them.”

 

“Nope, guess your eyes were only on one person, huh? Wal, they was injured and are in hospital.” Otis rubbed his chin, narrowed his eyes “Could die so they says…”

 

Abel swallowed hard, rubbed his jaw with his hand and then looked over towards the ranch house. He then thanked Otis for bringing him the news and turned to walk over to where Peggy was waiting for him. She turned immediately and gave a brief smile,

 

“I had a swing fixed here.” she said quietly, “When my Daddy died I sat here and counted to a hundred, I was so sure that by the time I had reached a hundred he would arrive home. He always had done before, you see, so I didn’t realise that this time it was different. I don’t know how many hundreds I counted in the end before realisation dawned.”

 

Something about the look of him, the slump of the shoulders, made her stop talking, she pushed herself away from the tree and squared her shoulders “What’s wrong? Has something happened?”

 

“I can’t take you into town, Peggy. Miss Ridleys in the cells and -”

 

“And?”

 

“Olivia and Hester Cartwright are in hospital, seriously injured -” he stopped at the way she paled, the colour drained from her face and she staggered slightly as though she were about to topple over. His hand reached out immediately to grab at her and steady her up while he then waited for her to recover.

 

She reached out for the tree trunk with her hand, and upon touching it stepped back to lean upon it. Something solid at her back, something she could rely on not letting go. She looked frightened, like a child, and Abel felt a surge of sympathy for her even though the problems she faced, he felt, were entirely her own fault.

 

“I need to see them.” she whispered

 

“You can’t, they’re in hospital and I doubt very much if Adam or Hoss would want you near them just now.”

 

“But – I have to see them, don’t you imderstand?”

 

“No, and quite honestly I think you’re being mighty selfish even thinking you have a right to see them. From what Otis heard things aren’t good, and you wouldn’t be welcome in town just now. Look,” he put a hand on her arm and frowned at her to get her to look at him, “I’m saying this for your own good, do you hear me?”

 

“Then I need to see Mary Ann, or Ben -” she gripped his hand which was still on her arm, “Please, Abel, will you take me there? To the Ponderosa?”

 

“You serious? You really want to go there and face them after -”

 

“Yes, please. “

 

“You don’t expect to get a warm welcome do you?”

 

“Look, Abel Greigson, I didn’t hurt Hester or Olivia. It wasn’t my fault that they were there, was it?”

 

He looked at her, glared at her, and she had to step back, stopping only when the tree bark hit against her, he then sighed and shook his head

 

“Why else would they have been there? Because of you, Peggy, because of this stupid cause you were ranting on about, because they wanted to support you by being there. Of course it was because of you -”

 

“Are you saying -” she paused and stopped, felt tears well up and spill over, then splash upon her dress.

 

Hester and Olivia, neither of them had given her any support for the cause, but Hester had promised because she, Peggy, had asked her, almost begged her to attend the meeting. She could hear her voice now “Oh please come, Hester. No one else will be there. Mary Ann won’t be, and I doubt if Olivia will – it would help me so much, Hester if even one Cartwright would show those people they were my friend.”

 

And Hester had said that she didn’t really think it was the right time, nor that Peggy and her associates were going about it the right way – why not just write a few editorials about the cause, get people familiar with the idea she had suggested and then she had smiled, agreed to come and said she would persuade Olivia to come to.

 

She turned away from Abel, felt his hand drop away from her arm, heard him walking away back to the buggy. She could remember seeing them now, Olivia and Hester, standing in the front of the crowd, Hester in her blue dress and a little bonnet on her golden red curls and Olivia in dove grey, with its neat white collar, her hair braided like a coronet around her head. They had been standing there at the forefront of the crowd looking expectantly up at the speakers who had come onto the platform to talk down to them.

 

“Abel – please – take me to the Ponderosa.” she picked up her skirts and ran, her feet almost scampering over the grass to where the buggy awaited her with the patient horse all harnessed up and ready to go.

………………

 

It was dark by the time Abel’s buggy drew up outside Adam’s house. They had gone to the main house first and been told by Hop Sing that Ben was looking after Adam’s children in their own home. Peggy had hesitated momentarily, wondering whether it would be better to leave any confrontation with Ben until the next day, but Abel was waiting patiently and said he would take her along to the other property, so, rather reluctantly she accepted his offer and clambered back into the buggy

 

Ben was sitting by the small fire, staring down into the flames, nursing his pipe as he thought over the days events. The knock on the door startled him and he paused a moment to see if there would be another knock, upon which he did get to his feet and walked over to pull the door open.

 

“Peggy?” his dark brows rose and then his eyes looked over her shoulder and recognised Abel, “Greigson.” he nodded, and then stepped back “Come on in.”

 

Peggy, followed by Abel, stepped into the big room immediately and then swung round to grab at Ben’s hand “Olivia? Hester? Is it true? Are they hurt? Will theygoing to be alright?”

 

Abel pushed the door shut with one hand while with the other he ushered Peggy further into the room and to where she could sit down on the settee, he himself remained standing, his hat now in his hand. Ben glanced at them both, gestured to a chair for Abel to be seated

 

“I won’t be staying, Mr Cartwright, just want to know how the ladies are, is all?”

 

Ben nodded, “Thank you, Abel.”

 

The old man now looked at Peggy and sighed, then sat down, leaned forward a little “Peggy, both Olivia and Hester are in hospital, with injuries due to the – riot – that took place at your meeting – “

 

“I’m sorry, so sorry, I didn’t think it could happen in Virginia City, I thought -” she burst into tears and buried her face in her hands “I’m so sorry, Ben.”

 

“It’s not me you should apologise to, Miss.” Ben said more abruptly than he meant, “There were a lot of injuries incurred at that meeting. Oh I’ve no right to say it was your fault, that was unfair of me, but perhaps if you had cancelled it when Higgins had stopped you having the hall… “

 

“Amanda didn’t want to lose face, she said that Higgins -” Peggy’s shoulders slumped, and she shook her head “It’s not Amanda’s fault, not really. It – it should have been cancelled, you’re right, I should have cancelled. I just didn’t want to lose face, this cause was so important – I thought it would be welcomed by so many.”

 

“You thought wrongly, Peggy. Surely you have read enough about these rallies, meetings or whatever they’re called to have noticed that they are never peaceful, there have always been incidents, injuries – deaths -”

 

She twisted her handkerchief between her fingers, and wept. It was true, everything he was saying, was true. She should have had more foresight, she should have had more humility. She looked at him again “Hester? Olivia?”

 

“They were knocked down – rather Hester was knocked down, and Olivia tried to protect her by covering her body with her own. Sadly she was kicked, trampled upon and some of the things thrown in the crowd struck her. Both of them have broken limbs, concussion…” he paused and decided to say nothing about the concerns regarding Olivia’s eyes.

 

Abel nodded, “I’m truly sorry, sir. Would you tell Hoss and Adam they have my sympathies. If there is anything we can do to help at the Box G, let me know…”

 

Ben got to his feet and followed the young man to the door which Abel pulled open, in a gruff voice he thanked the younger man for bringing Peggy back and shook the proffered hand. He stood on the porch for a moment or two and watched as Abel clambered back into the buggy and was then swallowed up in the night.

 

He sighed and closed the door, looked over at Peggy who was sobbing into her handkerchief. “Would you like something to drink?”

 

It was just for something to say, although he did think with all that crying she would probably need something, so when she nodded he dithered slightly, wondering whether a stiff whiskey would be appropriate or a brandy to calm the nerves. He opted for coffee and went into the kitchen to prepare some. He wasn’t sure how to deal with her, his own emotions were in too much of a tangle. He was fussing about the kitchen when he heard a noise behind him and saw Cheng Ho Lee coming into the room, pulling his dressing gown tightly over his midriff.

 

“I make. You go. Miss Peggy need to talk.”

 

“Humph” was the only reply he received but Ben turned as ordered and went back to the other room where Peggy was staring into the flames, her face blank, exhausted of emotion.

 

“Peggy, this situation -”

 

He paused from upstairs there came the pattering of feet, a whimper, a cry.. ”Mommy?”

 

The door to one of the rooms opened, they could hear little footsteps padding across the floorboards overhead, again “Mommy? Daddy?”

 

With a sigh Ben got to his feet and strode over to the bottom of the stairs, a little night shirted figure appeared, rubbing his eyes, “Where’s Mommy?”

 

Ben mounted the stairs and picked the little fellow up, held him close in his arms, “It’s alright, Nathaniel, you’re with Grandpa…”

 

“But where’s Mommy? Where’s Daddy?” Nathaniel yawned, drowsy headed he leaned upon Ben’s shoulder, “I want Mommy…”

 

Chapter 60

 

A thick set nurse stood four square with feet set apart and hands clasped behind her back with dark eyes like gimlets. Hoss gulped and Adam sighed, the last thing either of them wanted was a verbal battle with a nurse who bore the pre-fix Dragon on her starched apron front.

 

“You have just half an hour” she snapped as she led the way to the side ward, her feet thudding upon the floor “And if there is any change in either of your wives condition you call me immediately.” she stopped at a door “Do I make myself clear?”

 

“Yesm’m..” Hoss stammered and Adam nodded and muttered something beneath his breath.

 

Olivia and Hester lay in beds that were separated by a small night stand upon which a lamp glowed. The main light in the room came from the lamps suspended from the ceiling out of harms way. It gave the small ward a quite intimate feeling and was less surgical than the room in which they had seen their wives previously.

 

They could see from the rise and fall of the blankets covering their wives that they were sleeping, so they took their chairs to the bedside of each of them, and set them down very quietly by their side. Shadows were kindly, and one could almost forget the bruises and abrasions although it was impossible to hide the bandages that covered Olivia’s eyes

 

Adam took her uninjured hand in his and held it gently within his own, he raised it to his lips and kissed the palm as he was accustomed to doing. Then he gently kissed her wrist where the blood pumped through the pale blue veins, pulsing steadily, he could feel the consistent beat of it beneath his lips. She sighed, a slight smile on her lips “Tickles…”

 

“Olivia? You’re awake?” he wanted to say more but suddenly realised he didn’t know what to say, except ask the usual inane questions, like how do you feel, are you alright when anyone could see she was far from being alright.

 

“Just …” she sighed, her voice was very low and he had to lean forwards to hear her, “You came before. Poetry? Shelley?”

 

“His poem – a Philosophy of love.”

 

“My favourite.”

 

“Yes -”

 

He didn’t want to let go of her hand, this tangible proof that she was all right, she was strong enough to beat this, she was going to be coming home. Again she smiled, although he could see that it was forced, more of a grimace really and if she were crying he could not tell as the bandages concealed so much.

 

“why is it so dark?” she pulled her hand free from his and raised it to touch her face, rough bandages grazed against her fingertips, across her face and for a moment she didn’t move. Her fingers stayed touching her cheekbone were stitches had grazed against them. “Where am I? It smells like a hospital…not Bridie’s?”

 

“No, not Bridie’s. It is the hospital. Paul insisted on having you and Hester brought here.”

 

“Hester? Oh Adam, how is she? Is she safe?” her hand fluttered down again to touch his, “Is she alive?”

 

“Yes, she’s in the bed next to yours. And you’re not blind, just that you had a blow to the head and it has affected your eyes -” he paused, perhaps he was lying but if he was then it was because he couldn’t tell her what he didn’t want to believe. Not yet anyway. “Can you remember what happened?”

 

“I saw Hester fall and then someone tripped over her. There was so much noise, people were shouting and I thought they were going to attack the platform. Hester -” she gripped his hand tightly, her breathing became shallow, faster. “I remember thinking Hester would be hurt and went to help her but I can’t remember anything else. I didn’t see you anywhere, I looked for you….”

 

Adam swallowed a gulp, a wave of guilt swept over him as he remembered that at the time she and Hester needed him, he was helping Lucy Garston off the platform. He ran a finger across his brow to wipe away beads of perspiration that had become trapped in the furrows there, he took her hand and kissed her fingers again.

 

“There were so many people, Livvy … they were coming down the side alleys just to – to be part of the fight. It became a free for all…Nate and the rest of us were totally outnumbered.”

 

“Were there many – hurt?”

 

“More than there should have been. Several deaths.”

 

“Oh -” she paused and her fingers once again tightened around his, another grimace of a smile “We came off lightly then…”

 

He said nothing yet again, he caught at a strand of her hair upon the pillow and curled it around his finger. “Adam – some water -”

 

A carafe was on the night stand beside her bed, and he carefully helped her to drink from it, before settling her back upon the pillows. She moved slightly, winced, settled back into position “The children?”

 

“Pa’s looking after them…”

 

“Is Reuben alright?”

 

“Yes, he’s with Pa.”

 

“I thought I saw him in town….”

 

“No, he was at the water hole with his gang….”

 

“Oh, I’m glad I wouldn’t have wanted him to have seen what happened….”

 

“No, he was swimming with the other lads.”

 

He looked at her face, leaned forwards to kiss her lips, realised how things would change if the worse were to happen for she was surprised by the touch of him, just momentarily, before she relaxed and returned his kiss.

 

Hoss was talking quietly to Hester, listening to her quiet voice, holding her hand and just wanting to pick her up and carry her home. She could remember nothing after moving closer to the platform and tripping, “There was so much noise I couldn’t hear what they were saying so I thought I would get closer to the platform. I fell, and then someone, something, fell on me and moved away and I was thinking I had to get up or more people would fall over me. Then it went dark. “

 

“But you do feel alright, don’t you, honey? You ain’t feeling no pain, are ya?”

 

“No, I had some pills. I feel like I’m floating …” she frowned, a little horseshoe of worry between her eyebrows “I dreamed of being in a field, wild flowers everywhere, so lovely, Hoss. It was so quiet and peaceful, I could have stayed there forever.”

 

A gong sounded. It echoed through the little ward and made each one of them jump, Hoss said ‘Dang’ very loudly and swore that the Old Dragon was out to get him.

 

“No dragons, Hoss, they aren’t real.” Hester smiled, squeezed his hand.

 

“This one is, and she’s jest hanging about the doorway waiting to nab me.” Hoss sighed and leaned in for a kiss.

 

“Are the children al lright?”

 

“Sure they are, Mary Ann and Joe have them at their place, Pa’s looking after Adam’s kids.”

 

She nodded but before she could speak the gong sounded again and when they looked at the door the Matron was standing there, arms folded across her ample bosom. Whispered farewells, promises for another visit in the morning….a final kiss.

…………..

 

Roy Coffee and Grant Tombs were in the waiting room when Adam and Hoss left the ward. Both men stood up as soon as the Cartwrights came into view, and once again Hoss was left with the feeling that Grant and Roy could have been father and son they were so alike. It almost hypnotised him as he walked towards them and nodded to their greeting.

 

“How are they?” Roy asked

 

“Doing well all things considered.” Hoss replied and glanced at Adam who nodded in agreement.

 

“They wouldn’t let us in to see them.” Grant said and Roy added “Because we weren’t related to ‘em.”

 

“What can we do to help?” Grant now asked as they turned to leave, their boots sounding over loud in the hushed environs of the hospital corridor.

 

“There isn’t very much you can do.” Hoss said, “But thanks anyway.”

 

Adam opened his mouth and closed it again. He wanted to say to them that they could go and find the men or women who had thrown the rocks or stones or glass that harmed their wives, or the feet that trampled upon them, or kicked them when they lay there on the ground. But he knew the possibility of finding anything out like that was so unlikely it was stupid even to think of asking.

 

He looked at Roy as they walked out into the night air, darkness surrounding them, light from windows scattering across the street, “Roy, you could ask around, see what you can find out….”

 

Roy looked at the younger man whose face was in shadow, but he understood what was implied, he heard the tone of voice and discerned its intention. He nodded “You staying in town? You can come and stay with us, more than welcome.”

 

“Bridie and Paul have already offered us a bed for the night, Roy. Thanks all the same.” Hoss said gruffly.

 

Adam thought of Roy’s coffee and shivered, thanked the old man who, after briefly touching Adam’s arm with his hand left the brothers standing together while he and Grant returned to their home

 

Bridie and Paul were eager to hear how they got on at the hospital. They talked as they ate the meal Tilly had provided, although to be fair it was Hoss who talked along with Bridie, while Paul listened and Adam lost himself in retrospection and remorse.

……………..

Abel Greigson arrived home to find the main room empty. His father, Walt, had made his way to bed and left a single lamp burning to light the absentee into the house. The young man was more than grateful to find the place so quiet. He removed his jacket and cast it upon the back of the settee while he made his way to the kitchen to prepare himself a drink.

 

Some letters were piled on the table for attention and he remembered that Otis had been sent to town to carry out several tasks that morning one of which was to collect the Box G mail. The man had obviously been caught up with the events of the Meeting and after Peggy and Abel had left, had taken the mail bag in for Walter to deal with.

 

He shuffled through them, placing them down as he glanced at the envelopes and a recognised the handwriting and guessed the contents as a result. One envelope that was addressed to him was in an unfamiliar hand writing and with a slight frown of curiosity on his face he opened it, failed to recognise the writing and looked at t he signature. The name he read there brought a flush of heat to his face and around his neck, and he hastened to sit down, turn up the flame in the lamp and read the letter’s contents.

 

“Dear Mr Greigson, Abel,

 

I wanted to thank you, once again, for the happy occasion of the Town Hall dance on Saturday evening. I wanted you to know that it was the first time I had enjoyed such good company, such pleasure for a very long time…being able to dance, to chatter about nothing important, to hear music and laughter, oh it was just wonderful.

 

Thank you so much for asking me to accompany you when we met in the park, total strangers as we were…and by the end of Saturday evening, I didn’t feel we were strangers at all.

 

That is why I feel so very bad at not having been able to meet you on Wednesday as we had arranged. I had wanted to see you because I wanted you advice about a very personal matter to me, but I wanted to see you because I needed to – well, yes, I just needed to see you.

 

As it happened I got advice which was very good and sound, and from two quarters. So I decided that I should follow it before I lost courage and failed to do so, and in failing, perhaps lose more than I could possibly gain.

 

I told you that I was engaged to a very dear young man – he served at Fort Ridgely and my father was his Commanding Officer. Not long before we were to be married he was ordered to go on reconnaissance into Indian Territory – perhaps we both knew that he was unlikely to return home, perhaps we anticipated the worse and took advantage of that miserable fate. As it was, he died and some months later I gave birth to our daughter.”

 

Abel put the letter down and stared into the hearth for a moment or two. He wasn’t sure what to think about that piece of news…. ‘good girls’ he believed ‘didn’t do that sort of thing’. He thought of Elizabeth Godfrey, remembered what she looked like, the way she smiled, the blue of her eyes….so demeure and so prim! He frowned, and shook his head, then picked up the letter to resume reading.

 

“My mother as I suppose many mothers have done since time immemorial, had a plan to be rid of the stigma of a wanton daughter and illegitimate grand daughter. My baby was handed over to my sister, married of course, and promptly dispatched back to their home town where she would be raised as my niece. I think she was about an hour old when the hand over took place.

 

My father, mother and I took up life elsewhere, many miles away from my sister and her ‘family’. I think I went slightly mad, I can’t remember thinking a thought or carrying out any action which wasn’t instigated by my mother. I couldn’t think, or function, not as a human being, I merely existed.

 

I am sorry, this letter is taking a long time to write, but for some reason I felt compelled to write it to you. For you to understand the sort of woman I really am…the sort of woman I want to be.

 

When my parents died I moved back to my sisters home..and life was harder than I could possibly imagine. So hard that I decided to start a new life away from them and came to Virginia City. I took on a new name, a new personna…I wanted to do honest work, and pretend that my daughter never existed. But that was so much easier said than done….

 

So I am going back to my sisters, and I want my daughter to know who she really is, I owe it to my dear fiance, and I owe it to her, and to myself…

 

Oh I hope that nothing I have written will shock you so much that you think too badly of me. You were the first person to treat me as a real human being, the first person to show some care and empathy. Please continue to do so,

 

Sincerely yours   Elizabeth Godfrey