80. The Wind Under Their Wings 

“Lil, come on! It’s our last chance – we’re leaving tomorrow!” Adam stretched out both his hands. “Now come!”

Lilyah wrapped her robes and carefully climbed down the rocky wall, feeling his hands on her legs and finally around her waist as he caught her in his arms. “You never said the waterfall is that far away…”

“Didn’t I?” he asked innocently. “I must’ve forgotten it. Come on!” He took her hand and pulled her with him on a rather treacherous path along the steep mountain side.

“Adam, your leg!” Lilyah had to halt her step to free a seam of her dress caught by the thorns of a shrubby bush growing along the way.

“Which leg? I’ve got two of them. You should be more specific, my love.”

“Oh, you!!” Still she couldn’t help laughing. She loved that teasing tone in his voice, she loved the laughing sparks dancing in his hazel eyes like mischievous little jinns, she loved the whole, playful manner with which he had dragged her down this mountain side in order to show her a waterfall. She loved how happy and carefree he was, like there wasn’t a worry in the world for him to think about. And his leg wound had well healed, it was almost eight weeks since he had received it. All his wounds had healed, every single one of them.

“Careful, love!” He put both hands around her waist and lifted her across a gaping cleavage in the path. “The next few yards are a bit tricky. Hold on to my hand.”

She did and carefully picked her way along the narrowing path, holding onto his big hand that clutched hers so firmly. A few climbing shrubs clasping to the rocky walls offered additional hold and Lilyah breathed a little sigh of relief that none of them was thorny. After a few yards the narrow path widened into a comfortably broad ledge and she got a chance to take her eyes off the ground and look up again.

“Adam, how beautiful… look at this view!” Her eyes widened at the enormity of the landscape around them. The dense bushes and trees surrounding the promontory had always obscured the view beyond, had made her forget how high in the mountains they were, but here at this ledge she felt like she was at the top of the world – even though it was a good forty yards beneath the promontory. The view seemed endless across the snow-covered peaks of the surrounding mountains, and nearly as endless into the depths below. It almost made her dizzy and she was grateful for Adam’s arms embracing her from behind, pulling her to his chest.

“We’re almost there.” He kissed her head. “Can you hear something?”

Lilyah listened. “It sounds like… splashing…”

“Yah.” He loosened his embrace and took her hand again. “Just a few more yards – come on!”

“Adam, why the hurry? It’s such a wonderful view!”

“It’s just as wonderful from a few yards ahead,” he retorted and walked on, not letting go of her hand and leaving her no choice but to follow. “Besides, it’s a terrible heat here, isn’t it?”

“Why, yes… it’s a very hot day today.” Her eyes got caught by sprouting shrubbery climbing up the rocky walls above them. “Adam, look! It’s almost like an arcade!” She glanced up the steep wall where some more resilient bushes fought for a hold in the rocks, their roots clinging to every little crack and hole they could find. And even though they literally baked in the hot sun glowing down from the sky, their leaves were greener than anyone would have thought possible at this spot. It was a truly wondrous place, and she was so fascinated by it she barely noticed that Adam had let go of her hand. The splashing sound had risen considerably in volume, the promised waterfall had to be nearby.

“Adam, where is…” She turned around to him and broke off. There he stood, unbuttoning his shirt. “Adam? What are you doing?”

“As I said, it’s a terrible heat.” He pulled off his shirt and hung it into a bush before he sat down on a small boulder and took his boots off. “The sun is glaring from the sky and the rocks are breathing the heat. It’s unbearable, really, isn’t it?” He got up again and unbuckled his gun belt to place it neatly under the bush.

“Why, yes…” Lilyah stood dumbstruck and her eyes widened as he began unbuckling his second belt. “Adam… Adam, if anyone sees you here…”

“Who would see me here?” He smirked. “A lonesome gopher on a rock five miles off? Lil, I really doubt there are any imams climbing around in the mountains here.”

Lilyah swallowed as his pants fell. “But… if Esma or the children…”

He chuckled. “They won’t come – I’ve got Esma’s word for it. Lil, you’re not going to faint, are you?”

She blushed deeply and dropped her eyes as he stepped out of his last piece of clothing, nervously clasping her hands as he came closer. “The sun is very hot, Adam… and clothes will protect you from it… I mean… you might… get a sunburn…” He was very close now and she suddenly realized what she was looking at with her gaze cast down. Her face began to glow in deepest crimson and she hastily looked up into a pair of laughing hazel eyes.

“My married wife…” A chuckle came deep from his chest. “Now don’t tell me you’re getting any doubts seeing your husband in the light of day.”

“No… but… Adam!” She gasped as he began to pull at the ribbons that held her garments in place – and by now he knew all the right ones to pull. His fingers were faster than hers, and wrap after wrap began to fall. “Adam, no!”

“Lil, you don’t want your dress to get all wet, do you?” He laughed and cheekily pulled another garment off her shoulder. “Don’t forget the waterfall.”

“I’ll keep this on!” Her hands clutched her last, thin underdress over her breasts and belly. “I don’t go… without it.”

“Alright…” He looked like he barely kept himself from bursting out with laughter. “Take your shoes off.” He knelt down and more or less forced her thin saffian boots from her feet, with Lilyah holding onto his shoulder for balance, half laughing and half protesting and using her own hair for as good a cover as it could provide, her cheeks still burning red.

“Come on!” Adam got up and took her hand. “Come!”

The waterfall was only a few yards apart, hidden behind another bush climbing up the rocks. It actually was only a tiny waterfall, merely a brook falling down about five yards onto the ledge before running down the mountain side, disappearing between the rocks, and yet its sight caused Lilyah to gasp. “Oh, Adam, this is beauti… Adam! … Adam!!ADAM!!!”

Adam laughed out loud as he picked her up and carried her right beneath the fall, completely unfazed by her wriggling and shrieking. The water splashed down on both of them and his heart sang as he watched the change on her small face – from her red-faced embarrassment and discomfort to full-hearted joy and pleasure. Within the fraction of a moment her thin underdress and her hair were soaking wet, but she laughed like a child as she turned her face towards the water, letting it splash all over her, raising her arms up to it.

“Adam, this is… oh…” She couldn’t find a suitable word, still laughing with delight as the water ran down her body. Adam held her tight and her eyes grew larger as they met his gaze. Her arms closed around his neck and she rose to her toes to reach his lips. She felt his passion rising and she felt his hands gliding beneath her wet underdress, pressing her tighter and tighter against him.

And the falling waters washed every conscious thought away.

* * *

“Are you comfortable?” Lilyah raised her head.

“It couldn’t be any more comfortable than this.” Adam smiled and brushed over her hair and shoulders. While the rocky ground he sat on wasn’t exactly a pillow, it didn’t bother him at all, and nothing could lessen his pleasure of having Lilyah’s body resting so peacefully on his lap and chest, cozily nestled in his arms, with no cares that her last underdress hung a few feet apart in the shrubs in order to dry. The sun was still hot, yet the overhanging bushes provided moving specks of shadow. It was a wonderful atmosphere to savor the tender nearness in the aftermath of passion.

Lilyah smiled to herself, her fingers gently gliding over the fading scar on his upper thigh. It already was much less visible than the one from the gunshot wound he had received in the desert, even though that one hadn’t been any worse. If only she had known more about the treatment of wounds back then… But she had used Adam’s pens and papers to write it all down, everything Esma had taught her.

“Do I sense a shade of sadness?” Adam asked softly, his fingers brushing a strand of her hair over her shoulder.

“It will be so hard to say goodbye to Esma, and to Ruby and Pico…” She nestled her head against his shoulder, just to raise it again to seek his eyes. “Why won’t she accept your father’s offer and settle down on a piece of the Ponderosa? He has learned by now the sheep do no harm to the land.”

Adam’s fingers caressed her face. “Some people are not made for settling down, Lil. They’re like deer in the woods, they need to be free. Esma is one of them. Besides, she’s right to move her flock to California for the winter, and she’s got to move them soon before the Sierras become too hard to pass. It’s the beginning of September, love.”

“Yes…” She caught his fingers and kissed them. “I’ve noticed she’s already getting restless…”

“So have I,” Adam agreed. “But I’m sure she will use my father’s offer to graze her sheep here during the summer months.” He suddenly snickered. “As she so dryly told him, she was planning to do so anyway. We’ll see her again, Lil.”

Lilyah giggled a little in the memory. Ben Cartwright’s face had been a sight to behold after Esma’s words. Yet her giggle faded as she rested her head on Adam’s shoulder again, her fingers running through the curly hair on his chest, inadvertently feeling for the scars that had been there but were long since gone. Esma wasn’t the only one getting restless on the promontory. Everybody was. Adam, too, after he had used the tools his father had brought him to literally tear down the cabin and rebuild it with a hearth at its side, even though knowing that no one would move into it for long. Even Chai and Mariah galloped circles around the grassy fields as if to demonstrate that they needed wider plains to run. The only ones who could have lived there forever were the cobs – and Lilyah herself.

“Lil…” Adam shifted a bit to have a look at her face, his fingers lifted her chin to him. “Are you really sure you want to travel after the wedding?” His eyes were warm, but serious. “For I can’t help but notice that I have a little wife here longing so badly for a real home of her own.”

“Adam, you promised me something!” She lifted herself up, resting one arm against his chest. “We’re going to Morocco first, and you will curb your male pride and accept ownership of the horses that are rightfully mine, and therefore yours. And also that we’ll make a deal with Uncle Ali about my possessions.”

“Yeah, I did.” The twinkle was back in his eyes. “Not that I had much of a choice in the matter…”

“We’re partners now,” she admonished. “Real partners – with equal rights and duties!”

“Real pardners alright!” His eyes were laughing while his hands glided down to her hips and thighs, kneading the warm flesh, pressing it closer to his own. “Speaking of male pride… pardner…”

“Oh, you…” Lilyah laughed, bringing her lips close to his. “You’ll never get enough?”

“Nope.” He grinned and pulled her tighter into his arms.

* * *

Parting from the promontory the next morning still came hard for Lilyah. Her eyes threatened to become teary when they removed their belongings from their chamber, took her veils from the rock cut walls and pulled the quilt from the bedstead. It was only a heap of sheep skins with a few blankets and that old colorful quilt, and yet it had been their first real bed together. It was on this bed where she had really discovered her husband’s body, and where Adam had helped her to discover her own. They had enjoyed so many wonderful hours in this bed, in the dim yellowish light of the lantern, and that crude cut cave chamber had been their paradise.

“Keep the quilt, child.” Esma couldn’t suppress a smile as she watched the young woman pressing the old, threadbare quilt to her bosom. “The first one is always special.”

“Yes…” Lilyah’s fingers glided over the colorful patches, many of which had long since washed out. It was special… “Thank you, Esma…”

But the old woman had already left the chamber, chuckling to herself.

Lilyah carefully rolled up the quilt and cast a last look at the rock cut walls, at the small flower bouquet in a tin can on the nightstand, before she picked up a satchel and left the chamber, the quilt pressed under her arm.

Adam was outside and had already packed most of their belongings on the two pack horses his father had sent them already two days ago. With all of Lilyah’s luggage and all the other things his brothers had brought up throughout the weeks the two horses were well needed, and no horse would be overly burdened on the long way down.

“Isn’t that Esma’s quilt?” he asked as Lilyah stepped close, handing him the satchel.

“It’s ours now!” She rose to her toes to fasten it on top of the load, only to discover that she was too short. Therefore, she detected something else. “Oh, let me have a look in that bag again – Ruby might like the violet shawl.”

Adam suppressed a sigh and still had to chuckle, putting the quilt on top and pulling out the bag for her that, of course, was the one beneath all others. “Don’t you think Ruby has gotten enough shawls and wraps and veils already? She doesn’t even wear the Arab style.”

“She can sew blouses and skirts from them, and Esma might like one or another, too,” Lilyah retorted. “They’ll never find such fine silks here in America. And I can get new ones in Morocco.”

“I see.” A good-natured smirk played around his mouth as he refastened the load and turned to the second horse to secure Lilyah’s oud and his own guitar there – the one his brothers had brought on their second visit to the promontory.

“Ah, shabaro, I don’t think you need that anymore!” Before he could even react, Esma had taken his guitar from the horse. “I think Pico will have some fun with it. You can have this one instead.”

Adam didn’t know what to say, his eyes gliding from her face to the old, battered gypsy guitar she proffered him. As old and as worn as the instrument looked, it had a sound so rich and a soul so full that his own guitar couldn’t hold a candle to it – neither could any other guitar he’d ever played in his life. He had barely touched his own instrument since his brothers had brought it up to the promontory. “Esma… this is your husband’s guitar…”

“I know. But it’s also a guitar that needs a pair of hands that can touch its soul. Pico might or might not be a good player one day, but he will always play for fun and not look for more in it. That guitar needs someone who wants to understand it.” She resolutely pushed it into his hands. “You take it and I don’t want to hear anything more about it!”

“Thanks…” He didn’t know what more to say and smiled as he noticed the twinkle in her eyes before she turned away to carry off the other guitar. From the corner of his eye he saw Lilyah watching with a smile on her face. If anyone could understand what this gift meant to him, it was her.

At long last Chai and Mariah were saddled and the pack horses packed and the moment of goodbye had come. And at long last, the tears finally welled from Lilyah’s eyes as Esma pulled her into a hearty bear hug while Adam waited with the horses.

“Lilly, Lilly, this is not the face of a young woman riding into a happy new life, eh?” Esma laughed.

“No…” Lilyah laughed through the tears and wiped her eyes. “It’s just that I’ll miss you. You’ve taught me so much…”

“We’ll meet again, child, more than once – that’s a promise!”

“But you do come to our wedding? On Sunday?”

“Of course we’ll come,” Esma laughed, “And we’ll arrive on Saturday!”

“Hey, I’m your bridesmaid, remember?” Ruby cried and they all laughed and hugged and kissed each other’s cheeks again. Even Pico received two hearty kisses and Adam gulped down his laughter as he watched the boy stealthily wiping his cheeks with all signs of thorough revulsion. It obviously was a long way from a women expert to a women connoisseur.

Still smiling, he helped Lilyah into her saddle and nodded to Esma and her grandchildren before he mounted Mariah. “Esma, like I said, I’ll send Little Joe to get you, Ruby and Pico on Saturday – with side-saddled horses!”

“But not for me!!” Pico called out in shock. “I’ll ride Bobby! Bareback! Like a man!!”

“If we take you with us at all,” Ruby quipped, nestled in her new violet shawl.

Adam laughed and nudged his mare forward, leading the two pack horses along. He too would miss the little family, they had grown on him in the past few weeks. Particularly Pico.

Lilyah threw a last glance at the sheep grazing on the promontory and followed her husband.

* * *

“Adam… Adam, wait.” Lilyah looked all around herself. According to Little Joe, it took about five hours to get down the densely forested mountain, and then a little more than one hour through less densely grown trees and more or less flat bush land to reach the Ponderosa. The five hours down the mountain had been like Joe had described, but they were riding across the flat bushland now for at least two hours, maybe even three. “Adam, you’re sure this is the right way?”

“Oh, I’m fairly sure of that!” Adam cocked his head. “Even though my sense of direction isn’t quite as excellent as yours.”

“You forget the first commandment of marriage – Thou shalt not mock thy wife!”

“Wrong, my dear.” The sparks started to dance in his eyes. “The first commandment of marriage goes Thou shalt not question thy husband!”

“Oh, you!” Lilyah couldn’t help a little laugh as she looked into his face, seeing the twinkle in his eyes and the dimples in his cheeks, but also something else hidden behind his obvious amusement. There was a very tender warmth in his gaze, a silent, joyful anticipation. “Adam, where are we going?”

The tenderness in his eyes deepened. “I want to show you something. Come, we’re almost there.” He clicked his tongue to set his mare into motion again, pulling at the lead reins to cause the pack horses to trot on.

Lilyah urged her horse forward, her curiosity getting more and more replaced by her deep joy in seeing him so satisfied and so comfortably settled into himself. His whole posture in the saddle spoke of contentment, and she admitted to herself that she could have just watched him ride along for hours on end.

After a little more than a mile, the trees and shrubberies around them opened to reveal the sight os a wide, wide plain. It was nowhere as green and as lush as the promontory had been, its grass was more yellowish-brown than green and the bushes growing far and few between on it had taken a tinge of brown, as well, and yet her heart made a giant leap. It was wide! It was so wide that she felt a tingling sensation rising inside her, with the overwhelming need to shake the reins and let her stallion run. And the wiry Arabian very obviously shared her sensation, throwing up his head, nickering and stomping. Chai had had enough of trotting through the woods – he wanted to stretch his legs.

“Adam, oh Adam, look!” Lilyah excitedly turned in the saddle. “Adam, look at this!”

Adam chuckled to himself, tying the lead reins of the pack horses into a bush. “No need to drag them along, eh?” He pressed his hat tighter and laughed at Lilyah’s bright, open smile. “Hey, Lil – race?”

“Race!” she cried and kicked Chai into a gallop, laughing with joy as she heard the thundering of Mariah’s hooves coming closer, hearing Adam’s jubilant yell.

“Yeehaw!”

“Yallah!”

They enjoyed their race with full hearts, not having to stop after the seven furlongs the promontory had measured on its biggest length, not having to care about any sheep getting in their way, but flying along on their galloping horses, holding down fluttering manes, with the wind brushing their bodies and faces, ripping at Adam’s hat and shirt and sweeping under Lilyah’s wraps and veils.

And yet Lilyah rapidly pulled up after they had overtaken a slight uphill stretch, her eyes widening as she took in the sight beyond it. “Adam! This is the lake!”

“Yes, this is the lake.” Adam had also pulled up, patting his mare’s neck, but his eyes clung to Lilyah’s small face, so shiny in its delight over the view before her, to her large, fascinated eyes, her mouth she had forgotten to close in her wondrous surprise. “Come with me, Lil – come!”

Lilyah followed him another short uphill stretch of no more than a hundred yards, watched him turning the mare when the ground flattened out again. The first foliage trees were growing around it, and little more than half a mile further off the pine woods resumed.

Adam stretched out his arm and depicted the place around him. Even though the brim of his black hat shadowed his face, she could see his eyes shining. “And this is the spot where we’ll build our Arab house!” His gaze locked with hers. “This is the land I bought, Lil, for you and me. This is where our home and hearth will be.”

Lilyah felt her eyes filming with tears, tears of joy not only for the beauty of the land and the wonderful feeling to have a place of their own, a real home, but also tears of joy for Adam. He had bought this land already months ago, had bought it even before he had drawn his plans for the house, before he had started on his fateful ride to Falls Flat – and it had taken all those months until he could finally show it to her. This was his moment, a moment which at times he had thought would never come. She silently maneuvered her horse next to his, as close as she could, to fling her arms around him.

“It’s a wonderful place, Adam… such a beautiful place! It has everything… It’s like a dream come true!” She kissed his mouth, enjoying the soft caressing of his lips. She loved that special smile in his eyes – with a part of it being the smile of a proud man, while the other part resembled that of a bashful boy. “We can see the lake from here – and the wide, wide plain!”

“I just knew you’d like it.” He kissed her nose, his hand caressing her face, gliding over her hair to play with the light back veil and the golden clips she had attached it with. “It’s good for horses. I just would’ve wished it were all a little greener. I’m afraid the drought has really gotten to it.”

“Aw…” She glanced over the yellowish grassland. “You should see the pastures in Morocco, Adam. The only time they are green and blooming is a few weeks during springtime – and the rest of the year they look much, much drier than this. During the hot summer months there is hardly any grass on them at all. Why do you think we feed our horses dates?”

Adam chuckled. “I don’t think we’ll have to import dates – we don’t have a drought every year. One good rainfall or two and you will see these plains as green as they’re supposed to be.” He gave her a hearty kiss on the cheek and picked up his reins. “Come, I’ll show you the brook. The meadows there should be a little greener than this!”

The meadows near to the brook were a lot greener than the dried out plains, with the grass standing knee high at some places. And much to Lilyah’s delight, the edges of the woods behind them were lined with thimbleberries and elderberries, even though the former were long past their harvesting date.

“Adam, just look at all those berry bushes! We will have so many berries when their time has come again. And we can make syrup when the elderberries blossom – you remember that little bottle of syrup Esma had that you liked so much? She told me how to cook this syrup, but it is from the blossoms only, not the berries…”

Adam sat in the saddle and listened while his own eyes threatened to get moist. She was so happy – and he felt a deep gratitude inside. Gratitude that he had found her at all, gratitude that she was like she was, that she loved him and understood him so well, and also gratitude towards his father who had not taken up his son’s repeated offer to put a herd of cattle on this land. The damage would have been considerable, especially with the drought already being so hard on the plains. The meadows would have ended up a morass. It would have needed more than three or four years to grow back to its beauty, if it ever could have done so.

“Adam, this grass is almost too high for a pasture.”

“We won’t use the meadows for pasture, but to make hay!” Adam chuckled as he watched how awkwardly the black Arabian stalked around in the highest grass patches. “Seems to me Chai prefers the shorter grass, anyway. Come, I’ll show you more!”

Lilyah laughed and balanced out Chai’s jumps through the high grass before they reached easier ground again.

“This wasteland will go!” Adam halted his mare and made a sweeping movement with one hand, covering a wide stretch of dried out ground overgrown with shrubs and low crawling bushes. “If that all is cleared away, I can dig a ditch for irrigation and we’ll have more good grazing land. As it is right now, we shouldn’t keep much more than maybe a hundred horses to not risk overgrazing, but we will gain a lot more land later by cultivating all this!”

“A hundred horses! Adam!” Lilyah laughed. “We want to start small, remember? Maybe ten horses, or twenty at most, but not more.”

“Ah, yes.” He smirked and maneuvered Mariah closer to her. “We’ve got to tell them all apart by their names, right?”

“And we want to breed our own horses, not buy them and fill the stables.” She could barely keep a serious face upon seeing his cheeky smirk. “And don’t forget my goats!”

“And my sheep!” He dipped his head close to hers and regarded her from under his brow. “And the chicken and perhaps a flock of geese. That’ll be a lot of names to keep in mind.”

“You’re impossible!” She laughed. “Besides, we don’t give names to animals that end up in the pot.”

“Spoken like a true rancher’s wife!” he praised. “That’ll save us discussions about whether to roast Henrietta or Amalia or Josephine or Theodor Matthew… hey! Ouch…” He laughingly fended off her pinching and tickling fingers, catching both her wrists in his hands. “And now?” he asked, putting her hands against his chest.

Lilyah was still laughing and leaned towards him, searching for his lips. Her hands, once released, closed lovingly around his neck while his softly caressed her back. It was a long and tender kiss, ended only by the shifting of the horses.

“Adam, I want to see the place again where the house will be.”

He smiled and kissed her fingers before he let them go and took up his reins, “Come.”

They cantered back to the place and dismounted, walking around where one day their home would be.

“The door will be here.” Adam drew the form of a frame with his hands. “And the living room there. Here at this side we’ll have the kitchen and the dinner table…”

“No.” Lilyah shook her head. “Put the kitchen on the other side. This place here should be your study – with a big window where you can see the lake and get enough light for your work, especially when you do any drawings.”

Adam’s face warmed, yet his brow still furrowed. “That would mirror my plan – and it would mean that you couldn’t see the lake from your woman’s garden. Unless I… hmm…”

“Adam, a woman’s garden doesn’t need a view. On the contrary, it has to be secluded from any views, so a woman can feel safe there and not be seen by any man’s eyes.”

“Except mine, I hope…”

“Except yours, of course.” She smiled. “And I can always look at the lake from the veranda above.”

“Hmm…” Adam slowly nodded his head. “If we mirror the plan, it would mean that our bedroom will be on the lake side, as well. Because the bathroom has to be above the kitchen, for plumbing and heating.”

“Wouldn’t that be wonderful?” Lilyah stepped closer to him, putting her hands on his arms. “Watching the lake from our bed?”

“Hmm…” He looked down on her, his hands brushing her hair back over her shoulders, gliding up to the sides of her neck. “I’m not sure if we’ll have any time for lake-watching at all…”

Lilyah started laughing and blushed at the same time. “Told you you’re impossible…”

Adam chuckled and closed her mouth with his.

* * *