Summary:  In a fight at the end of a cattle drive, Adam suffers a minor injury, but it is the words of his opponent that wound him the most.  He sets out on a quest to test those words because of the doubts they have raised about his perception of himself and about his vision of his future.
Rating:  T  Word Count:  25,106

Slow Burn

Chapter 1

It had seemed like it could be the best way to get things back to normal, but the devil is always in the details. Despite some worry, Ben Cartwright had sent his oldest son on a cattle drive as boss with his youngest as the ramrod. It was an arrangement that had worked well a number of time. However, Adam had recently suffered a number of setbacks in his life and wasn’t in a good frame of mind. Ben hoped that doing something routine but requiring his full attention and lots of hard work would serve to help pull him out of his depression. Hoss went along because, well, Hoss was always the one who seemed to be able to steer his brothers along a more peaceful path. Apparently it worked well, or at least, it did until they were in Stockton. There, things boiled over, and tensions that had built up over four weeks of the drive erupted in a fight between Adam and one of the drovers, Cornelius Manders, better known as Corn to his friends. It was one man who should not have been on this drive.

“Cartwright, you always been the son of the boss. You ain’t never known what it’s like to have to take orders all the time and knowing some of them orders is plain stupid.”

“You saying I’m stupid?”

“No, but sometimes you act it, and you won’t let nobody tell you nothing. You always gotta be right even when you ain’t. Everybody can make mistakes, but you act like you can walk on water. Let me tell you, you ain’t the Lord even if you act like it.”

“Apparently you don’t want this job anymore.”

“Oh, I want it and I need it. It’s just that I can’t take it anymore. Mostly I can’t take you anymore. I heard your brother Hoss there try to tell you more than once to lighten up. You don’t listen to him any better than to the rest of us.”

“I listen to him.”

“Nah, you push him around as much as you do Joe. It’s a wonder that young one ain’t shot you yet. Somebody ought to especially after you shot him. Seems an awful lot of people who cross you get shot. You’re supposed to be a good shot. It’s a wonder your little brother is still alive.”

The implication of that was too much so Adam hit him, and the fight was on. The two were relatively evenly matched making it a battle that left both bloody and hurt. When Adam’s blow knocked Corn to the ground, and he was slow to rise, Adam put out his hand to him to help him up. He realized he had overreacted and wanted to settle things.

“Is that enough? Are we done?”

“Almost.”

Corn hit Adam one more time. The sucker punch threw Adam back and off balance so much he staggered back into the blacksmith forge overturning it and falling with it. Hoss and Joe who had been watching the fight and engaging in raucous cheering like the others rushed to pull him up but not before he suffered a nasty burn.

With his eyes squeezed shut and his fists clenched, Adam grunted and refused to cry out even though the pain was excruciating. The burn was to his backside, but no one laughed knowing how awful it must be. Corn wanted to say he was sorry but knew it was too little under the circumstances. Hoss and Joe supported Adam and took him to the nearest doctor. Once he was treated, they brought him to his hotel room with a blanket wrapped around him. There they discussed what they would do next as Adam lay on his stomach on the bed with a dressing laid across his behind.

“Adam, you can’t ride or sit. You can’t even wear pants. The doctor said that dressing has to be changed every six hours at least or it could stick to the burn. He wants a clean dressing and that salve applied. Somebody has to stay with you.”

Pushing himself up on his elbows, Adam made the logical statements he would be expected to make. “You can’t, Joe, because you have to go to San Francisco. We have to have a representative at those railroad meetings. I can’t go so you’ll have to do it. Now Hoss will have to go to Sacramento for the cattle sale by himself.” Exhausted, Adam lay down short of breath even as his brothers were concerned not only for him but the tasks they had to complete.

“I know you’re too tired to think of an answer right now, but who will stay here with you? We’ve got to come up with a way to do all three things and we got to do it by tomorrow morning.”

The conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door. Hoss went to answer it hoping it was dinner. It was Corn at the door which was sorely disappointing to the big man because he had missed lunch due to the fight and the time spent at the doctor’s office and then getting Adam to the hotel which was a slow process too. He had really been hoping it was dinner.

“I know it probably ain’t a good time, but I’m guessing there ain’t gonna be a good time. I had to say I’m sorry. There’s no way to excuse me hitting a man who offered me his hand like that no matter what happened before it. I know I’m fired, but I want you to know I never done nothing like that before, and if you want to press charges or something like that, I understand. I’d do anything I could to make up for what I done. I ain’t got the sense of a gnat when my temper’s up.”

Raising his hand in a backhanded wave, Adam acknowledged the apology and accepted it. He was embarrassed to have a visitor with his behind stretched out on the bed for anyone to see so he asked Joe to cover him.

“Why? It’s hot in here and the doc wants you to keep it cool and with as little clothing on as possible or enough to stay decent and that’s it. It’s only Corn. Everybody on the drive has seen everything we all got so what’s the problem?”

“When did you get so bossy?”

“I learned from the best.”

Hoss interrupted their little spat with a suggestion for Joe. Well it was implied more than stated. “Joe, we got Corn here who wants to do something to make up for what he done. Then we got three jobs and only two of us fit enough to do them. So how you figure on us getting all three jobs done?”

“Hoss, it’s perfect. Corn can take care of Adam until one of us gets back.”

“Oh, no.” Adam raised up from the bed ready to argue but found the discomfort and his weakness defeated him, and he collapsed back onto the mattress and pillows. Muttering into the bedding, he made his point anyway. “He’ll kill me.”

“No, he won’t kill you.” Hoss chuckled at that idea.

“I don’t know, Hoss. If I had to spend all that time with him, I might. I can’t do it.” Corn grimaced at the thought of spending hours alone with Adam, and then realized it was days they were discussing and an involuntary groan escaped him.

“Now listen here, you two. Adam, you know we’re in a bind. Might be time you thought about what you can do to help us out. If you hadn’t been such a jackass on the drive, there wouldn’t have been a fight. Now, Corn, don’t be thinking I’m taking your side. You can wipe that smile off your face. Just because a boss don’t do what you say don’t mean he ain’t listening. You remember how many men are on a drive and how many give us ideas on what to do? Comes down to it, the boss and the ramrod got to make the call. Right or wrong, it’s their job, and it’s their ass on the line if they’re wrong. You get paid either way. Easy for you to say afterwards that you was right or maybe you thought you were. How many other times were you wrong?”

Joe tried to be helpful. “You two could learn a lot from each other. Corn, you could even find that our brother has a lot of good qualities too.”

Hoss picked up on Joe’s line of reasoning. “Yeah, and Adam could take some time to hear Corn out on what life is like from his side.”

There was no denying that both Adam and Corn found those possibilities unlikely to be productive. The looks they gave to Hoss and Joe were a strange combination of anger and helplessness. Corn didn’t have much choice because he needed the job and did owe a debt, and Adam of course couldn’t go anywhere without help at least for a few days. Hoss and Joe did their best to look stern and unyielding, but in their room later, both burst into uncontrollable laughter.

“I can’t help it, Hoss. It’s kind of mean to laugh about it, but Adam is gonna get some payback for how he treated the men on this drive, and Corn needs to come down a peg or two always thinking he’s smarter than everybody else.”

“I know. They’re both good men, but they need a little time together to learn a few things.”

The next morning, Hoss and Joe rode out together. In Adam’s room, Corn looked out the window watching them ride away. Adam had fallen asleep after breakfast because he had a rough night. That meant Corn had a tough night too. He sat in the comfortable padded chair in the room, put his feet up on the ottoman, and closed his eyes for a nap. A few hours later, it was back to work.

The first task was to carefully wet the bandage to make sure it came off easily. Then he had to apply the salve and then lay a fresh dry bandage over the burn which was ugly and oozing. He knew it was supposed to do that, but it was still hard to look at. Then he got lunch for them. Adam had to push himself up to eat because he couldn’t sit. When he did, Corn pushed a pillow under him so he could more easily hold that position while he ate his meal. After Adam finished, Corn helped by removing the pillow. Corn was happy that Adam had little appetite because he dreaded the part of the job that came with helping Adam with a chamber pot. He had been told that in three days, Adam would get a regular bandage, be able to sleep on his side, and be able to stand and walk for short periods of time. At that point, the hardest part would be over.

For the time being, mostly all they could do was talk. Corn was surprised to find that Adam was a great story teller. He told Corn about coming west, losing Inger, being in California for the beginning of the gold rush there, and building the Ponderosa out of wilderness.

“Did you forget what it’s like to be on the other end of someone giving orders? Do you have any idea what it’s like to live a life where a grown man gets told what to do, where to eat, how to dress, where to sleep, and even if he can have a drink in the evening or not.”

“No, I haven’t forgotten. My father tells me what to do all the time. It’s ridiculous having to follow orders from my father at my age.”

“Except you don’t.”

“What?”

“You don’t. Plenty of times you do what you’re going to do, and your father stands there with his hands on his hips and fumes like a steam engine about to blow. He ain’t got no way to stop you. Your brothers can’t do it, but you do. You’re the most spoiled one of all of them.”

“Spoiled? I am not spoiled.”

“Sure, you are from what I see. You get your way more, you get to do more traveling, you get to order your brothers and the rest of us around, you take your father’s place at meetings, and you get to be with your father whenever important people come to call. What is that if it ain’t spoiled?” Corn watched Adam for a minute as he processed what he had said. “You ain’t never thought about it that way, have you? You see, spoiled people never do. They’re always thinking on what they ain’t got instead of what they do. You see, I know I’m luckier than most to have this job. I get paid better, eat better, and get treated better than most ranch hands. I know that so that’s why I had to do this here part of the job. What have you ever done to earn your place other than being born first?”

“That’s pretty much what Joe says, but I don’t think it’s being spoiled. I think it’s having more responsibility and more work to do.”

“You thinking at all on how your brother might have a point there? Would you be worth as much on another ranch if you wasn’t the boss man’s first-born son?”

“I’d be a top hand. I worked hard to get where I am. I’ve done every job on that ranch no matter how dirty or hard it was. I’ve done every dangerous job too. There isn’t a job you’ve done that I haven’t done too.”

“Yeah, I’d give you that. All right, maybe you ain’t spoiled. Maybe that dog don’t hunt. Maybe I should of said uppish. But the rest, I don’t know how you could pull that off with the way you are. You may be good. But could you take orders and do the rest like men here have to do with you. You are a top hand with the work you can do, I’d reckon, but can you act like a regular top hand? What about getting orders you don’t like: now could you follow them without arguing back like you do with your father? You see, if top hands argued like that with you or your pa, would they have a job for long? Or would you think they was too big for their britches and let them go?”

There was no more discussion of the topic because frankly, Adam didn’t know either how he could pull that off. He even began to wonder if he would be accepted as a top hand on another ranch or if he would have to prove himself there too. With winter coming, a plan began to form in his mind that could keep him away from being trapped on the Ponderosa when the big snows came and let him test out a few theories. In addition to avoiding being trapped on the ranch by winter, he began to see some other advantages of testing his theories.

By the time Hoss and Joe returned, Adam was ready for them. They didn’t like what he told them, but mostly they didn’t like it because they were the ones who would have to tell Ben Cartwright. When they returned to the Ponderosa, it went about as badly as they expected.

“He what?”

“Adam said he had plans.”

“So Adam said he had plans, and you left him there. What kind of plans? What was he going to do? And where?”

“Pa, you know what it’s like trying to get answers from Adam when he ain’t ready to give them to you.”

“Yeah, Pa, Hoss tried. I tried too, and you know how I can pester him. He wouldn’t tell us anything. He did say he wanted to test some theories whatever that meant.”

“He wanted to test some theories? What kind of theories?”

“Pa, like Joe said, he never explained nothing.”

“I suppose we’ll have to wait until we hear from him. Did he happen to mention when that would be?”

“Ah, he told me and Joe he hoped to be back for the spring round-up but that he wasn’t guaranteeing anything.”

“That boy is going to get a good kick in the backside if he isn’t back by then. He knows how much I was counting on his help this winter. He hoped to be back. He better be back. There are meetings he was supposed to attend for me, but we’ll really need him in spring.”

Both Hoss and Joe winced a bit but remembered Adam’s parting words. “It’s about time for Pa to start treating you two like he treats me. I mean he has to start putting you in charge of things and letting you handle them. I know you’re probably not going to believe I’m saying this, but in a way Pa’s been spoiled by having me here to take over whenever he wanted me to do something. No, I can see the way you’re looking at me. We built the place together at first, so even though I was young, I learned things often as Pa learned them. So it was convenient for him to have me be the one to back him up on things. Sometimes I got my way too mostly whenever I could be more stubborn than he was. It was simpler that way, and it’s the way we’ve done it for a long time because I was here first and he depended on me for so long. I was first-born and a lot older too. I was the only one who had the knowledge and the experience. None of that is important or even necessarily true anymore. You’re not boys no matter how often he says that.”

“Pa wouldn’t like hearing you say things like that.”

“No, Hoss, he wouldn’t and he hasn’t. That’s the point. It has to be demonstrated rather than talked about. It’s up to you and Joe to show Pa it can be done.”

“How?”

“Joe, it will be more complicated to involve all three of us in running this ranch, but it needs to be done. This situation needs to get fixed, but it won’t while I’m there. He won’t want to change anything if I talk to him about this because he never wants to change things that are working, but maybe he’ll see it if I’m gone. Each of you needs to take over what you think you can do best and show him how it could work.”

Those words had left Hoss and Joe speechless as Adam had ridden away. Neither planned to mention a word of that to their father. But what their father had said confirmed that Adam had a point in what he had told them and made them think maybe things would change at least a little with Adam gone.

 

Chapter 2

Not going far, Adam only made the appearance of leaving. He still needed time. Staying in Stockton, Adam used a couple of weeks to get ready to test those theories he had mentioned. His wound needed some time to fully heal before he could ride well, and for his plans to work, he needed to be able to do that. What it did too was give him time for reflection. While isolated with Corn, he had some time to think, but often he was interrupted. There was no time to write things down and make lists either. He did have time to do now that he was alone. Wondering what a man of his age needed to know to run a ranch, he made lists discovering he knew about all he needed to know for that.

As for relationships, Adam found he was lacking as he suspected he would be. One thing he realized was that he had often backed away from relationships when another stepped into the picture. He wondered about that, but when Will moved in on Laura, it was not a first time for Adam giving up. There had been a number of others including Ross and Delphine as well as Todd and Virginia. Both times he had been involved with those ladies first but had stepped aside when his friends showed interest. He wondered why he did that, but he couldn’t come up with an answer that made any sense. There was no good reason for him to always put others ahead of himself when it came to being happy.

A more active thing he did do was change his appearance. He let his hair grow longer and grew out his beard. Neither took long to accomplish. After buying a few tools, he had something to do in the evenings tooling his gunbelt. As a further disguise, he bought some ordinary clothing in brown and gray although he was amused when he realized that in dark brown and dark gray, he didn’t look that much different than he had in black. He worked on not wearing his pistol rig quite so low on his hip moving the pistol a bit forward to compensate. He even put a few cartridge loops on his belt which he had never had before, but he liked the look of them there. If anyone thought he resembled Adam Cartwright, they were going to get a lot of other clues that said he wasn’t. He knew he needed an alias that he would answer to if called on suddenly. He decided the best was to stay simple and went with Adam Stock. He was afraid he wouldn’t answer in crucial situations to any other first name. When he felt healed and ready, he headed out in the direction of ranches well south of Stockton he had heard were in need of hands. Many cowboys had been lured by stories of gold or silver strikes leaving ranches scrambling to find enough hands to get jobs done. In that situation, Adam assumed it wouldn’t be too hard to find a job. He wanted to test his theory that he could be hired as a top hand. At his first choice, the Barstow Ranch, he was disappointed in how the quest for a job proceeded when he got there. Sent to talk to two men, he addressed them directly.

“Heard you were looking for hands.”

“We are, but you look a little old to get much work done.”

“I think we’re about the same age, you and I.”

The man next to him who looked to be the man’s brother was amused by Adam’s answer. “Hey, Rend, he got you on that one. Maybe you’re a little old to get much work done too.”

“Shut up, Lake. I’m trying to conduct a job interview here.” After quieting his brother, Rend turned his attention back to Adam. Looking at the horse, saddle, and other gear, Rend whistled. “I suppose you think you’re a top hand too and should get premium pay?”

“I should.”

“Can you break horses? Because any top hand worth that kind of money can do anything on a ranch including that.”

“I’ve done some.”

“All right, then, let’s try you out.” Pointing at a horse, he offered a challenge. “You break that horse and you got a job.”

Rend had pointed to a corral where several men were watching that horse snorting and dashing around clearly agitated and showing it in every way a horse could. He pawed the ground, snuffed, and threw his head back every time he wasn’t on the move.

“Nope, I don’t need to kill myself to get a job. That’s a suicide ride, and that horse needs a lot of gentling before anyone gets on his back if anyone ever will. He’s got great lines, but being a stud is probably all he’s good for. Well, I’ll be seeing you.”

Turning away, Adam began walking to his horse. Rend started laughing as Lake called out to Adam.

“Hey, mister, you got a job. Why you leaving?”

“I got a job?”

“Sure do. You passed the test. Rend’s way of checking a man out. You kept your temper, said your peace, and then did the only smart thing a man could do when asked to do something stupid.”

Walking back, Adam looked over at the magnificent but dangerous stallion in the corral. Rend walked over to talk to the men who were watching the horse as it did its wild antics. Lake asked if Adam had any questions.

“Why do you have that horse here? Surely it isn’t just to test new hands.”

“No, like you said, he’s got great lines. If anyone could figure out a way to gentle him some, he would make a great stud horse. The way he is, we don’t even want to put him with our mares. We’re not sure what effect he would have on them.”

“I could work with him. I’ve had some luck gentling wild ones. No guarantees though. There have been some that didn’t work out.”

“I’ll talk it over with Rend and let you know. Meanwhile, bunkhouse is over there and we have a man who takes care of it. He’ll tell you what you need to know. So, what’s your name?”

“Adam Stock.”

There was a slight hesitation when he said the last name. He was sure that Lake heard it, but the man said nothing about it. Men in the west often had histories that led them to use last names other than the ones they got from their families and sometimes quite a few of them. As long as they did their jobs and brought no trouble with them, no one was going to make an issue of it. It was that way on the Ponderosa too. As Adam walked to the bunkhouse, he saw Lake talking to Rend and the two looking at him. There had been no hint of recognition so he guessed there were other topics that interested them.

That first night, Adam was allowed to sleep all night. The next day, he worked with the men and found out where things were on the ranch. That next night, he got an introduction to how work was assigned. As the new man, he got guard duty from midnight to four. That meant he wasn’t going to get much sleep. When Lake left the bunkhouse, the other men asked why he hadn’t complained.

“My first night here, I figured they’re testing me.”

“Yeah, testing how much you’ll put up with them dumping the worst jobs on you. You gotta push back with those two or you’ll find yourself worked so hard you won’t be able to walk. Those four brothers act like we’re their servants or something.”

“Four brothers?”

“Yeah, you met the oldest two, but there are two younger ones and a daughter too. Well there’s two daughters, but one’s already married and lives with her husband on another ranch. That’s where the younger two brothers are right now.”

“Yeah, they go over there to help out, and sometimes some of us get sent over to help out too. It’s like two ranches in one.”

“You see that’s how they expand the ranch. They want the other one to marry up with another rancher so they can expand even more, but I don’t think she likes the idea.”

“She sure don’t, and there ain’t a rancher in the area wants his daughter to marry either of those younger boys.”

“Why?”

“Wait until you meet them. Adam, you ain’t never met two more spoiled boys in your life. Daddy done everything they wanted and whenever they didn’t get their way, they looked like they was gonna cry, and then he would give in.”

“Rend and Lake watch out for the two young ones though so we all gotta watch our step. Can’t cross those two spoiled brats if you want to keep your job.”

“Yeah, no matter what they do or say, no matter how bad it is, their father always forgives them and blames whoever else was involved. They could murder somebody, and their pappy would blame the dead man for standing in the way of the bullet.”

The word ‘spoiled’ had stood out for Adam as the conversation progressed. What these men were describing was nothing like what Corn had said he had. These boys took advantage. He didn’t do that. These boys avoided consequences. He didn’t do that. These boys apparently had no sense of morality. He did. He had told Corn he wasn’t spoiled. He was sure he wasn’t. He wasn’t so sure about the uppish charge yet. He was still thinking about that. There might be some truth there and maybe he could do with some change in attitude when it came to arrogance, but he had a right to be proud of what he could do and how well he could do it. There was no need to be arrogant about it and he should learn to be more careful in what he said. He guessed he might have some opportunities to test out those challenges.

“We like to rile them up though.”

“Most fun we can have with them.”

“We like to buy them beers in town too. Gets them in lots of trouble without us getting in trouble.”

“Did Rend and Lake both marry daughters of ranchers?”

“Sure did. Small ranches on either side of this one. Took over the land and added it to this one.”

“It’s a big ranch. Why the need for guards?”

“Someone has been coming around at night. Sometimes they steal things. Sometimes damage things. But the worst is that a couple of times they tried to start a fire.”

“And no one knows why?”

“Not a clue and we haven’t caught anyone.”

“Any tracks?”

“Not a man here any good at tracking. Well we better let you get some sleep now.”

It wasn’t much sleep before the first man who had the eight to midnight shift woke him. Shrugging into his coat, Adam wished he had bought a thicker one. He had thought that California was warmer than it was. But once on guard duty, he walked enough to stay reasonably warm. He stopped at the corral several times, and at one point, pulled an apple he had picked up from the grass in the orchard and carried inside his shirt to put it on a corral post. He backed up about ten feet and waited for the horse to notice. The big sorrel did and wanted that apple. Soon his apprehension over Adam wasn’t enough to overcome the temptation, and he came over to grab the apple. With a smile, Adam continued his rounds with a plan forming on how to gentle the big horse. When he got chilled, he stopped briefly in the shelter of the lean-to where the forge was. He stayed there for only about fifteen minutes until he got a whiff of coal oil. Knowing that was trouble, he following the scent until it was so strong, he knew he had to be close to whomever was intending mayhem. He saw a shadow moving by the largest barn.

“Stop or I’ll shoot.”

Adam had hoped to startle the man into showing himself but instead shots were fired at him. He ducked down and then when he heard footsteps of a man retreating in a hurry, he looked up. In the murky shadows of the barns, he didn’t see much of a target. He fired at a shadowy form but didn’t think he hit it. In a minute, there were men swarming all around him with lanterns. He pointed toward the barn wall. There they found mounds of straw soaked in coal oil and several empty tins.

“Looks like you stopped him just in time.”

“Stopped who though?”

Rend and Lake arrived last. Both were armed and looking angry.

“I smelled coal oil. I followed the smell to here. I yelled to him to stop but he shot at me instead. I fired at him, but in the darkness, I don’t think I hit him.”

“So he got away again.”

“He didn’t have time to cover his tracks. As soon as it gets light, we can track him.”

“Where are we going to get a tracker that fast?”

Even in the lantern light, they could all see Adam grin.

“I suppose you’re going to tell me you can track too?”

“Learned from my Paiute friends when I was growing up. Yes, I can track him unless he tries brushing out his tracks.”

“I sure hope you’re as good as you think you are.”

With that, Rend started issuing orders. He picked a couple of men to go with him and Lake to accompany Adam and set work for the day while they were gone. He suggested they all eat a hearty breakfast. Then he turned to Adam.

“Thanks. You saved us a lot already. If you can track him down, all the better. If you can’t, well, nothing lost.”

Lake added his thanks, and the two brothers headed up to the main house. An hour and a half later, they were back ready to go. Adam waited a little longer so he had enough light not to lose the tracks once they started. The first thing he told them made them perk up even more.

“I guess I didn’t miss. There are drops of blood along his tracks. It’s probably not a bad wound, but he’s bleeding steadily. He’s going to need help if he keeps bleeding like this.”

Between the tracks and the blood trail, it wasn’t a difficult task for Adam who was used to hunting in the mountains and had done this kind of thing for twenty-five years. When he got to the fence line, it was clear they were heading into a neighbor’s property. The Barstow brothers seemed to know immediately who they were pursuing. An argument ensued as to whether to get the sheriff first or after they tracked him to his home.

“Gentlemen, he may need medical attention. Does he live alone?”

“Yes, as far as we know, he does.”

“Then I suggest we go after him. Wounded and alone, he can’t stand against five of us, and if you went for the sheriff, he might be dead before the sheriff got to him.”

Rend made the decision. “Although, I wouldn’t mind him dead, there might be questions about how he died. Let’s go get him and bring him in alive.”

They found the man unconscious in his house. Adam bandaged him up as the others got a wagon hitched up and brought to the house. They got the man in the back and after giving him some water, he revived. Looking around, he was terrified. Adam reassured him that they weren’t going to kill him.

“If they wanted that, they would have left you to die in your house.”

“Be about the same being brought to trial in their town. My wife died because of them, you know. They wouldn’t give me the money to have her operation.”

“Giles, we told you we don’t keep that kind of cash on the ranch. Besides that doctor was a quack. There’s no way to take a tumor out of a person’s head.”

“He said he could. She was in so much pain, and you wouldn’t help.”

Adam tried to calm the man down. “Now you might die or go to jail. How is that going to help?”

“Mister, you work for the devil.”

“They’re right. Nothing could have helped her. The so-called doctor was only trying to steal money from you.”

“Are you the one who shot me? You sound like him.”

“I did. You shot at me first.”

“You are the devil. I never saw you. I didn’t think anybody was out on guard duty. You must have been hiding and waiting to shoot me. You’re all devils.”

Giles lapsed back into near unconsciousness. When they delivered him to the doctor in town, they made a report to the sheriff who was sympathetic. He didn’t know what to do about the man either. He hated to see him go to jail, but he was dangerous to leave free.

“Would he sell his ranch to the Barstow Ranch and agree to leave the state? He doesn’t seem capable of doing damage long-distance.”

Rend, Lake, and the sheriff stared at Adam when he made the suggestion. They shrugged and then agreed it might work and be the most humane way out of the dilemma. When the case went to the judge, the proposition was offered to Giles and the judge. It was agreed that it was the best solution if the Barstow family would accept it. Giles wasn’t pleased, but he avoided jail and got enough money to live. Rend and Lake found another reason to thank Adam.

While that played out during the week, Adam used every opportunity to bring downed apples to the sorrel. He got the animal to allow him to be right next to the post when he took the apples as Adam placed one and then another there when the stallion gobbled up the first one. As he did that, Adam began talking to the horse too in soothing tones saying all sorts of things but mostly getting the horse used to his voice and used to him being so close.

A number of people noticed how the sorrel was becoming calmer although none knew why except Adam. Rend watched Adam approach the corral with the big sorrel one day and was amazed when the horse ran over to the fence to greet him. Then when Adam put an apple on a post, Rend began to appreciate what was happening. He watched from inside the barn where it was dark so he couldn’t be seen. When Adam reached out and stroked the face of the animal, it was an even bigger surprise. He remembered then that Lake had told him that Adam said he had some luck in the past gentling animals like this one. So far, it seemed to be working. If he did manage to get him gentled, it was going to be worth a lot of money to the ranch.

Rend nodded in appreciation. Adam did all the tasks on a ranch very well. But he had talents but especially a demeanor that no ordinary ranch hand usually had. Although he took orders and followed directions well enough, there was that tendency to take action without waiting for direction as well as a tendency to offer options without being asked. Rend granted that those suggestions had worked out well for them, but the unusual behavior did stand out even though it was usually delivered in a respectful almost offhand way. It was like Adam was trying to downplay his natural tendencies. Rend wondered what his story was. He liked a good mystery and decided to get to the bottom of this one. Adam had already let slip one clue. He had grown up among the Paiute so he was from that area. That and the brand on the horse would help Rend narrow the search and should get him close to some answers.

 

Chapter 3

The two younger Barstow brothers, Carson and Taylor, were back on the ranch the following day. The men in the bunkhouse made it clear that was not good news especially for Adam. They tried to explain the situation to him in hope of avoiding any serious trouble in confrontations he might have with them. They went into more detail than they had earlier telling him the two younger brothers were spoiled so much because they never faced consequences of their actions.

“You see, they’re two young studs with older, successful married brothers. They want what their brothers have, but they’re not ready to wait out the time it takes to earn that respect.”

“Whatever you do, don’t shoot one or both of them.”

“Yeah, we like you, but we like working here more.”

“Yeah, Adam, you being the new man here, they’ll want to challenge you to show how big and brave they are.”

In response, Adam wondered why there would be shooting. “Why would there be shooting at all? How do you know I’d shoot them? Maybe they would shoot me.”

Laughter filled the bunkhouse. Adam decided to take a chance and ask another question.

“How fast are they? I mean, if you have ever seen a gunman draw, how do they compare to that draw?”

“I’ve seen a few, and my guess is they wouldn’t do well with someone who’s good.” That was the answer from a number of men. So Adam asked a key question to which he needed an answer before he could continue.

“Anyone ever see Langford Poole draw and shoot but mostly anyone see him in the street against anyone anywhere?”

Several had so it was time for the second question.

“Are they as fast as Poole?”

In general, there was raucous laughter at his question so that was answer enough. The comments indicated that the two were boys playing a game in comparison to Poole. Then Adam got his own question turned back on him.

“Why would you ask about Poole when there are so many gunmen who are better known?”

“He’s the only one I can judge the speed against.”

“Why Poole?”

“I outdrew Poole once.”

There was silence then as the men tried to decide if Adam was kidding them or being serious. He had that kind of deadpan delivery with jokes that made it hard to tell now if he was joking. So they asked him that too.

“No, I really did outdraw Poole. I hit him in the arm though. I was nervous enough that it threw off my aim.”

“You draw like that on those two boys, and they’re likely to wet themselves.”

The men tossed their tin breakfast plates and coffee cups in the box next to the wash basin and filed out still chuckling. Adam walked out at the last wondering how you looked like you didn’t know how to use the gun strapped to your side. He didn’t want a confrontation with any of the Barstows. It didn’t take long for the two younger Barstow brothers to notice him.

“Hey, Mister, ain’t you a little old to be working as a common ranch hand?”

“What else would he do, Kit? He looks like the wrong end of bacon on the hoof, don’t he now?”

Although Adam didn’t respond, he knew there was going to be a confrontation with the two at some point. They felt they needed to make points and saw him as a means to that end. For that day and the next, they rode him with comments and with name calling. Late in the morning of the third day when their two older brothers were at a meeting, Carson said that the men were to meet at an empty corral. There he and Taylor arrogantly said it was time to learn about shooting. With an attitude of superiority, the two of them proposed to teach the men the skills they had. They called two men into the corral with them, and of course, Adam was one of the two.

“Now first, we’ll demonstrate the advantage of the fast draw.”

Carson and the other man squared off.

“Kit, don’t you think you ought to empty those pistols first?”

Whirling on Adam, Carson was furious. “You don’t get to call me that. Only friends and my family get to call me that, and you are no friend of mine.”

Putting up his hands in surrender, Adam apologized. “Sorry. Heard you called that and didn’t know the rules.”

Mollified by that, Carson at least accepted the suggested even if he was offended by it. He tried to make it a joke and implied it was the other man who might make such a mistake. With a hateful glare at Adam, he moved to set up for the fast draw again with the other man but this time with empty pistols. Carson had his pistol out and leveled at the man before the man had a chance to fully clear leather. The young man had a victorious sneer.

“There, now if you can do that, you have a better chance of saving your life and protecting lives here at the ranch as well as protecting the property here.”

Carson then gave his version of how to make a fast draw. He went through it all step-by-step several times including where to wear your pistol for the fastest draw.

“All right, now we’ll have Taylor draw against the new guy to see how well he learns.”

Carson told Adam he was wearing his pistol incorrectly and wouldn’t be able to do a fast draw where it was. Adam replied that he was fine which gained him another sneer from Carson. Adam and Taylor emptied the chambers of their pistols and squared off. It was the same kind of result except it was Adam pointing his pistol at Taylor’s head while he still hadn’t cleared leather.

“Let’s do that again. I guess Taylor didn’t hear me well enough when I was counting off.”

So Carson counted off again with the same result.

“I guess I ought to do it and let Taylor count off.”

It was the same result, and with the snickering in the crowd of men, the two brothers were getting upset. At that point, the hands knew that Adam had been serious when he said he had outdrawn Poole. Without Carson and Taylor realizing it, Rend and Lake had returned and walked into the crowd of men to ask what was happening. At about the same time, Carson announced they were going to combine the fast draw with hitting targets.

“It’s one thing to draw fast, but you have to be able to hit something too.”

Instructing the men to reload their pistols, Carson still had a sneer, but Taylor was looking worried as he went to set up targets. He especially didn’t like being embarrassed like that in front of the hands and worried it was going to happen again. After announcing who would shoot first, Carson and Adam stood about ten feet apart and faced the opposite corral fence on which Taylor had set bottles for each of them. Looking over at Carson, Adam had a question.

“You sure you want to do this much shooting this close to the animals here? It could spook them.”

“If you’re afraid you’re going to be embarrassed, we can call this off now. I’m in charge here, and I’m telling you that this is what you’re going to do.”

Turning back to the targets, Adam waited silently for the countdown. When it was over, Adam had drawn faster and still hit five of the six targets before Carson finished shooting. Carson had missed four of the six in trying to be faster than Adam. Carson looked at him and yelled.

“Who are you?”

“Someone faster and more accurate with a gun than you are.”

“You’re fired.”

“No, he is not fired.” Rend walked into the corral then. “What the hell do you think you’re doing wasting an entire morning of work on your stupid little games? You haven’t done any work in several days and now this.”

“If you remember, we were helping our sister.”

“Carson, you should know Lake and I stopped by to see our sister this morning. Rose Mary told us you helped for a couple of days and then you were gone. You left here over a week ago and came back here saying you were too tired to do much of anything yesterday, so where were you?”

Everyone there knew they weren’t going to tell. Rend told them to get to work and told the men who were assembled there including Adam to get to work too. When they were all gone, Lake grinned.

“How much do you want to bet Adam missed that last bottle on purpose so as not to show off too much?”

Rend sneered at him then which only made Lake grin more, and he headed to the house to let the ladies know what all the shooting had been. Rend digested the additional information he had gotten. So Adam had outdrawn Langford Poole, grown up among the Paiute, and had a pine tree brand on his horse. A few more clues, and Rend was going to know who he was.

Among the men, there was admiration for what Adam had done but a warning too. Most of the men had been challenged and bested by the two younger brothers at some task or another. Knowing the two as well as they did, they guessed that they now would do something to Adam to get even especially as Rend had not allowed them to fire him. They were all willing to help him but told him to watch his back too. Rafe who ran the bunkhouse gave him the most specific warning.

“Rend and Lake won’t let them go too far, but they are brothers. A man can’t come between brothers if you know what I mean. Those two young ones had a different mama than the other ones. She spoiled them rotten. Now she was the mama of the younger girl, Rachel Leah, too, but she favored the boys, twins they were even if they don’t look so much alike. They was pretty small and weak as babies, and I guess she never got over them needing extra help.”

“So three with the first wife, and then three with the second wife?”

“Yeah, but you seem more interested in family history than the warning I just gave you. Doesn’t it bother you that they may try something?”

“Rafe, I can’t control what other people do. I can try to be ready for it. I can do my job. What else can I do?”

“I guess that’s about it. Never met a man with such calmness in him as you.”

In that regard, neither had Carson and Taylor who were surprised that Adam didn’t seem at all nervous around them. They hoped he was intimidated at least a little. When he wasn’t, they were more irritated than they were about being embarrassed at being bested at fast draw and shooting. They continued to plot but knew they had to be careful because of Rend who was even more strict than their father. Adam continued to do his work to the best of his ability, and the men waited for something to happen.

There were several incidents that led to the final confrontation. The first was innocent enough. As usual, Adam continued to bring apples to the big sorrel and was getting the animal to be fairly calm around him. Rend walked down to the corral and watched one evening letting Adam see him. When Adam walked away from the fence, the two talked.

“If that’s your way of gentling him, it only turns him into a pet like a dog. It doesn’t solve the biggest issues.”

“No, that’s only the first step. The next would be to get him used to a halter. He has to be able to be led around. He gets close enough to me now that I’m hoping he would let me put one on him. If I can’t, then it’s all been a waste of time.”

“Is that why there’s a halter hanging on a post of the corral?”

“That would be why. He should be used to the smell of it and the look of it. I’ve held it and carried it around with me several times now. He’s seen me with it and I’ve moved it around the corral so he can see it doesn’t do anything.”

“It still is a big step from there to getting it on him.”

“It is.”

“When are you going to try?”

“Right now might work if you’re willing to hang back here and call for help if he tries to take my arm off.”

Smiling at that, Rend agreed. Walking slowly, Adam retrieved the halter and walked to where the sorrel stood. He climbed up on the corral fence and leaned over holding the halter. The sorrel was curious and walked closer. Adam talked to him as he usually did. When he was close enough, Adam kept talking and positioned the halter. He guessed he had one chance at this and wanted to do it right. He moved quickly when the time was right and got the halter over the sorrel’s head and in position before the animal could react enough. He jerked then though and almost pulled Adam into the corral. That could have been a disaster as the sorrel was highly agitated moving back and then rushing back toward Adam not so sure what had happened. Pulling an apple from his shirt, Adam tried to get him to revert to a calmer state by using something familiar. It worked. After a few minutes, the lure of the apple and the familiarity of Adam overcame the sensation of the halter. He came closer and took the apple. Adam took out the last apple and held it for the sorrel to take which he did immediately. Then Adam stroked the animal’s neck surreptitiously tightening the halter in place as he did so. It took some time to do it that way but after a half-hour, the halter was on and Adam backed away as if it was an ordinary evening. When he got back to Rend, he had another question to answer.

“So, what’s the next step?”

“Do you have a mud hole around here I haven’t seen? Otherwise we’re going to have to find some deep water. The idea is to take him in and have him fight to get out until he’s exhausted and then we help him get out. By then he’s too worn out to fight, and we put a saddle on him so one of us can ride him. A couple of guide ropes to make sure he doesn’t break free and we bring him back here to the corral and have him ride around until he’s used to a rider on his back. It won’t be the end of the fight in him, but it will be the end of most of it.”

“A lot of work to break one horse.”

“Yes, it is, and it’s only worth it for an especially valuable one.”

“When do you want to do this?”

“Any day you say, boss.”

Again Rend noted that the term didn’t flow easily in Adam’s speech. But he used it properly and Rend guessed he had an idea when they would do it anyway. It was Thursday so they agreed to let him get used to the halter for a couple of days at least and try the method out on a Saturday.

“Do you want to be the one to ride him?”

“It might work because he knows me, but I’m rather heavy to be his first rider. The first one should probably be lighter so he doesn’t even think of fighting him.”

“My little brothers would likely fight over which one gets to do the honor.”

“Maybe they could have a shoot-off to decide who wins the right.”

Rend saw the smirk. “Very funny.” Rend waited a moment before prying. “Say, where did you learn to shoot like that and so fast?”

“Learned on my own. Came kinda natural to me. My father didn’t even like guns and shooting, but it was necessary to protect lives and property, so I learned.”

“Your father still alive?”

“Yes.”

“Any other family?”

“Yes.”

Rend knew better than to pry any more. “Thanks for your work with the horse. I’ll let the boys know what we’re going to do.”

Carson won the right to ride the big sorrel. Everything went according to plan until they pulled the big stallion from the deep pond. He stood looking as exhausted as they expected. When he didn’t fight the saddle being put on his back, Carson though relaxed about the situation too much despite his older brothers telling him to be cautious around the stallion. Even though Adam advised against it, Carson decided to ride him there because the stallion was so exhausted. When he climbed up into the saddle, the sorrel unexpectedly reared up before Carson was set throwing the young man back into the mud at the edge of the pond. The man holding the lead rope attached to the halter and the two holding the guide ropes quickly brought the horse under control. When Carson stood up then covered in mud, all the men there including Rend and Lake burst into laughter.

“He did it on purpose. Adam set this up to make me look foolish.”

Rend scoffed at that. “Don’t be silly. No one could set something like that up. You didn’t do what you were told. He even told you it wasn’t a good idea. Taylor, you can ride him at the corral.”

“Not after that. It’s a trick.”

Turning to Adam, Rend shrugged. “I guess it is you then.”

The group began the walk back to the main corrals leaving the two young men fuming behind them. In the corral, the men secured the horse next to corral fence. Walking up to the horse slowly, Adam talked softly and when he swung up into the saddle, quickly secured himself which was wise. The sorrel bucked a bit as soon as he felt the weight in the saddle. However when nothing he did made a difference because he was too tired to do much strong bucking, he quit because he was frustrated. He gave up. Adam took the sorrel for a number of turns walking around the corral. The idea was to keep him moving until he couldn’t move anymore. Then they would know he was tired out enough to relax and not fight anyone. That happened in about an hour. The saddle was left on him for a short time. Then that was removed and he was given grain, hay, water, and a couple of apples. He was rubbed down as well and a blanket was put over his back and secured. He actually seemed to like all the attention. Then he was going to be left alone except Adam had one last suggestion.

“It might be good to have someone here with him tonight to remind him that he’s part of the ranch now.”

“Will that make a difference?”

“It might. It won’t cost anything.”

“Except it’s Saturday night. The boys expect to be able to go to town.”

“I’ll take a shift as long as necessary.”

“I can too. I’ll ask Lake.”

“Ask me what?”

After hearing the plan, Lake agreed. He suggested that Rachel Leah might like to participate as she liked horses and her broken arm was all healed up. Adam guessed that the injury was probably why he hadn’t seen her yet if she liked horses. The wives weren’t going to like being disturbed in the middle of the night so Rend and Lake took the earlier shifts. Adam got midnight to three or four when he was going to be relieved by Rachel Leah. He guessed the brothers didn’t want their sister out there in the time frame when the hands would be returning from town. He said as much and they agreed. When he asked why they trusted him though, they said it was easy.

“You’re old enough to be her father. We figure that ought to be safe enough.”

When Adam met Rachel Leah, she was offended by hearing her brothers’ comment when she and Adam talked. She was twenty-one so that sixteen-year age difference just barely made Adam old enough to be her father. He was more like an older brother. When she met him though, she began to think maybe he was more interesting than that. She said a few things in the days after that that amused her oldest brothers but made the youngest brothers think there might be a way to get Adam in a lot of trouble. Carson had a number of grievances against him including the use of Kit, the embarrassment of the shooting contest, and especially the incident with the stallion. He was starting to get a grudging admiration for the man too though that wasn’t shared by Taylor who had only animosity.

 

Chapter 4

Although Adam noticed the attention he got from Rachel Leah, he didn’t pay much mind to it. She was quite a bit younger, and he assumed she was impressed by all that he could do. She asked him a lot of questions whenever she was around him, and it would have been rude to ignore them. The end result though was that he was engaged in conversation with her for extended periods of time and fairly often. The men in the bunkhouse noted it and teased him about her having a crush on him. He brushed off any such suggestion saying he was too old for all that.

Much of Adam’s time was assigned to working with the horses gentling, breaking, or training them as well as overseeing the breeding of the horses to get the best matches as he had a good eye for the attributes of each horse. Lake had seen that right away and recommended Adam for the job. When Adam started keeping written records of the breeding which had not been done on the ranch, both brothers knew they had made the right choice. In the future, they would know the lineage of every horse on the ranch which would help in future breeding decisions.

With Adam nearby and working with the horses, Rachel Leah got in the habit of spending a lot of time near the corrals. Often she brought a book to read or sometimes she brought her lunch and watched the men work with the horses although her eyes were always for Adam. He noticed, but didn’t mind as she was attractive to look at and pleasant to have around for conversation. He had nothing more in mind even if she did, and he thought he was the one in control of that situation so he wasn’t worried. Her comments to her oldest brothers made them vigilant, but they saw nothing that led them to suspect that Adam was in any way acting inappropriately with her. At least they thought that until Carson and Taylor decided they ought to be suspicious and began planting the idea that Adam was acting in ways that were inappropriate when they weren’t around. Finally Rend demanded to know what they had seen.

“Rend, Carson and I ain’t actually seen anything. It’s just that being younger and being with young women sometimes, we’re more familiar with the signs.”

“Signs?”

“Well, you know how she comes back to the house sometimes and her cheeks are all flame red, and her lips are all, well, you know, kind of puffed up. Sometimes she comes in and she’s adjusting her dress like she needs to because maybe she’s been doing something that got it all like not like it should be.”

It was all fictional, but the two brothers made it seem sinister so much that the two older brothers began imagining things to be there when they weren’t. Bright cheeks or hair mussed by the wind suddenly seemed far more sinister. They watched for situations where somehow Adam might be alone with their little sister. They never saw that, but suspicion is a terrible thing to have especially with Carson and Taylor stoking it with fuel at every opportunity. Rachel Leah and Adam were unaware of course that anything at all was going on behind the scenes. She was infatuated and knew it. He was at least a bit flattered by the attention but nothing more or at least told himself that.

On a Saturday night, it all came to a head. Adam had noticed Rachel Leah reading the latest book by Charles Dickens and asked if he could borrow it after she finished. That Saturday afternoon, she sought him out and found him in one of the barns to give him the book. He thanked her telling her he would be reading it that evening and that she had excellent taste in books. Rachel Leah gave him a quick hug spontaneously. Then slightly embarrassed, she ran from the barn and up to the house although she was smiling the whole way. Carson witnessed the entire event and decided he and Taylor could use it to get rid of Adam.

That night, Rend and Lake were taking their wives to a party at the home of friends. Carson and Taylor waited for them to go and for the hands to head out to town. Then they sought out Adam who was reading the book he had borrowed.

“We got something to say to you.”

“I don’t think we have anything to discuss.”

“Yeah, we do. You see, Carson saw what you did with our sister this afternoon.”

“I didn’t do anything with your sister this afternoon or ever.”

“Carson is going to say you grabbed her and she got away and ran to the house. You aren’t going to be around to deny it. You’re leaving here tonight.”

“I’m not going to leave especially with a lie like that hanging here behind me.”

“Yeah, you are leaving just like Taylor said.”

The two brothers drew their pistols then. There wasn’t anything Adam could do because he wasn’t armed. He got up and walked to the stable ahead of them and got his saddle to saddle his horse as they ordered him to do.

“Carson, is this your idea or Taylor’s? I have to think something this underhanded wasn’t something you would come up with. I thought you would face me more as a man.”

“I am facing you as a man.”

“Are you? You have a gun and I don’t. It’s two on one. Seems to me it’s set up so you can’t lose. That’s not what a man does who wants respect.”

“Carson, don’t let him talk so much. We agreed on this.”

“Taylor, I don’t know. We could get in a lot of trouble, more than we ever did.”

“He made a fool of you shooting. He made a fool of you with that stallion. He called you Kit like he was making fun of you.”

“I can shoot better than you. You could have asked me to teach you how to shoot better. I think you know why that horse dumped you. I apologized for calling you Kit.”

“I know all that. Stop trying to turn me against my brother.”

“Carson, if you’re honest, you’ll know I’m not the one doing that.”

Taylor took over then telling Carson to back off and be quiet. Ordering Adam to get on his horse or get shot, he didn’t leave Adam any other options. As unbalanced as Adam thought Taylor was, he believed he might shoot him. He turned to his horse, but before he could mount up and ride away which is what he thought Taylor wanted him to do, he was hit from behind. He had thought it was the weakness in their plan and had hoped to simply ride to town and talk to Rafe about what had happened. Apparently though their preparation was more complex than he had given them credit for planning. The blow stunned him and before he could even fight back at all, he was hit with a club and then hit many more times until he lost consciousness. His last memory was the sound of laughter.

Over the next days, Adam had many disjointed thoughts or experiences or maybe dreams. He wasn’t sure. Sometimes there were hands touching him tenderly or wiping his face. Other times there were hands or fists pounding on his back making him cough until his lungs cleared. He remembered being extremely cold and sometimes feeling so hot he couldn’t feel anything else. There were voices too but it was all like so much noise. No discernable words or anything that made any sense to his addled mind.

Then one day the voices coalesced into sensible conversation. He couldn’t respond but he could understand what they were saying. There had been some awful smells assailing him, and based on what was being said, he surmised he must be the source of the odors.

“He could sure use a bath.”

“How can we give him a bath? He’s got bandages all over and he’s rather large to lift and carry especially if he gets wet.”

“You men are so ignorant of such things. Of course he can get a bath. We’ll give him one right there in bed. We’ll change the sheets too rolling him on his side to wash him and then put a clean sheet under him and take the soiled one away.”

“Yes, his fever is broken so he should be coming out of it soon.”

“Well, all right for you ladies to do that, but I don’t want Rachel Leah to be in here for that.”

“Of course she’ll be here to help. Rend, don’t be silly. You know by now that it was all your brothers’ lying. Nothing happened.”

“But still, she’s not a married woman, and to see him with no clothes isn’t right.”

“She’s been in here taking care of him with us for three days. Rend, she’s seen it all already. Now get on out of here so we can get to work.”

Rend’s wife pushed him out the door even as Rend processed that last bit of information. He realized he should have known that because they had to place that urinal the doctor left with them. He wondered how his younger brothers were faring sitting in jail in town, but he planned to let them sit there awhile longer. They had nearly killed a man and could have been charged with murder if Adam had died. Rend and Lake had figured it all out when Rafe came to them when they arrived home from their party.

“I hate to bother you, but do you have any idea where Adam is?”

“No, I don’t. What should it matter where he is?”

Carson and Taylor had come up to them then and supplied an answer. They said they had fired him for accosting Rachel Leah that afternoon. They said he hadn’t denied it and had left. Rafe was brave enough to contest their version.

“That don’t make sense, Mister Barstow, sir. His gear is still all in the bunkhouse including his rifle and his pistol. Nobody like Adam would leave here unarmed.”

In their hurry to pack Adam off, the two brothers had grabbed the wrong gear leaving Adam’s and taking another man’s property. Rafe had an idea of what had happened so he sprang the rest of the trap.

“Now, Randy’s spare pistol rig and his rifle is missing and so is his bedroll, slicker, and his saddlebag and gear.”

At that point, Rend drew up to his full height looking fierce and Lake lost his usual smile and addressed the two after Rend asked his question.

“What did you two do?”

“You better tell Rend or the two of us are going to do what should have been done a long time ago to you two.”

Carson knew he better tell the story if they wanted to get any kind of mercy. “We only wanted him gone for good. We roughed him up a little and sent him on his way.”

“A little? So he couldn’t even go get his own gear? Show us where he is.”

Carson and Taylor had led them up into the hills where they had abandoned Adam to his fate. They found him nearly in the same spot where the brothers had left him tied into the saddle. Lake was the first to take a good look at him and wasn’t sure he would live.

“He shouldn’t ride, but we haven’t got a choice. We need to get him back to the house. I’ll take care of that if you go get the doctor. We’ll probably get back to the house about the same time because I’ll have to go slow. Say a few prayers that he’s still alive when I get there.”

“It’s that bad?”

“Hard to say in the dark, but his breathing is raspy and shallow. Could be pneumonia setting in already.”

“I’ll be back with the doctor.”

The younger brothers had asked about what they should do and Rend said they should come with him. Lake had a good idea what that meant but stayed silent. After alerting the doctor, Rend woke the sheriff and had him arrest his younger brothers. Their parents were still gone on their latest trip. They wouldn’t like hearing about this move, but Rend figured it was the best place to put them. He ignored his brothers’ pleas and the sheriff’s admonition to wait until his father returned. At that point, Carson had broken down and said it had all gone so much further than he planned.

“You planned? This was all your idea?”

“Rend, I’m sorry. I wanted to scare him and make him go. But after told him he had to go, Taylor hit him and then hit him with an axe handle and then he kept hitting him and he kicked him. I had a hard time stopping him. At least he didn’t shoot him. He was going to shoot him in the head, but I said he couldn’t do that. Then all I could think to do was get him out of there. I thought he might even die, and Taylor would hang.”

“Carson, if he dies, you both could hang.”

The look on Carson’s face had been such total shock, Rend had actually felt sorry for him. He had no idea that he could face the same punishment as his brother. Taylor had been furious that Carson would tell the whole story, but Rend had no doubt that they would patch up any hurt between them while they sat in jail.

Now Adam lay in Carson’s bed and thankfully for all concerned, it seemed he was recovering. About the time the ladies finished bathing him and changing the bed linens, the doctor arrived interrupting their conversation about Adam’s attributes. The doctor didn’t know the content of their discussion but could guess based on the embarrassed retreat they made when he showed up.

During the exam, the doctor noted Adam’s eyes blinking and that he seemed to try to move in reaction to things that were said. Breathing wasn’t as labored and the fever was broken. The doctor checked bandages and everything seemed to be healing well. He told the family all of that and added one more piece.

“He’s trying to wake up. It won’t be a sudden miracle. You’ll see his eyes blinking. When you do, say his name and talk to him and encourage him to open his eyes. Don’t be too discouraged if he doesn’t do it right away. He’s still very weak.”

After several attempts, Rachel Leah got Adam to open his eyes. It worked as the doctor said. She spooned water and then broth into his mouth. When she finished, she got a slight little smile and then he closed his eyes and slept waking several hours later. He woke more easily the second time and wanted to talk. However he couldn’t except for a few raspy words so Rachel Leah simply decided to do all the talking. She explained all that had happened including that he had been beaten and by whom. The doctor had said he might not remember that. From the frown lines when she told him what had happened, it appeared the doctor had drawn the correct conclusion. It was obvious too that Adam was surprised to hear that Carson and Taylor were in jail. His eyebrows probably couldn’t have gone any higher. Rachel Leah smiled broadly when she saw that.

“Oh, it won’t last. I’m sure Father will never let them serve any real time, but Rend wanted to make a point. They’ve crossed the line on a few other things but never as bad as this. Father will be back soon, and I’m sure he’ll have the two of them released.”

By the next day, Adam was quite a bit stronger, and they had a much longer conversation in which Adam could participate directly.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Beaten.”

Rachel Leah had left that out of the long discourse but should have known he would want to know. She took a deep breath before responding.

“They said you took advantage of me. They saw me give you that hug. But the way they wanted to tell it, you grabbed me, and I ran to get away from you. Well, I did but only because I was embarrassed by what I did. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“It was all right?”

“Of course, it was all right. You only hugged me briefly because you were happy. There was nothing wrong in that.”

“Well, what if I wanted to hug you for other reasons?”

“Rachel Leah, we’ve talked about that.” Pausing to catch his breath, Adam repeated what he had told her when she had brought it up once. “I’m too old for you. I’m sixteen years older than you.”

“Remember, it’s closer to fifteen years when we compared our birthdays.”

“Fifteen years is too much too.”

“It was an exaggeration when Rend said you could be my father. Although that is close, you would only have been a kid when it happened.”

“You need to find someone closer to your age.”

“Why? I have met men closer to my age, and they don’t interest me like you do.”

Then Adam played his ace in the hole. “Even if I said yes, what would your family say?”

Rachel had a brief smile when Adam started that sentence followed by a deep frown when he finished. “I suppose we could run off.”

“So your father could have me tracked down and hanged for kidnapping?”

“Oh, it’s impossible.”

“Yes, it is.” He paused and touched her cheek to turn her face up. “Let’s enjoy the time we have left as friends. The week will go by quickly.”

“A week? Why only a week?”

“I should be gone when your father returns and Carson and Taylor come back home.”

“You won’t be ready to travel.”

“I will.”

From outside the bedroom door, Lake heard most of the conversation and was satisfied that things were working out satisfactorily. He went to tell Rend what he had learned. He was surprised though at his older brother’s reaction.

“That’s too bad, really. They could make a good match.”

“Our sister and a saddle tramp? I know he’s a top hand, but really?”

“He’s a lot more than that. In fact, he’s a rancher, and he’s a lot wealthier than any of us. In fact, his family makes our family look like ordinary folk.”

“What?”

“I wondered who he was from the start. That fine horse with the tooled saddle and the whole way he acted didn’t fit with the top hand thing. Oh, he could do the job all right and very well, but he had the bearing of someone more used to being in charge than in taking orders.”

“Yeah, I noticed that too. It was like he was always holding back things he wanted to say. I bet he had a lot more ideas than the ones he told us.”

“No matter what the job was, he kinda natural like slipped into the role of leader.”

“Well, who is he and how did you find out?”

“I had some clues from things he said, and when he was hurt and might die, I figured his family would want to know. I had the sheriff check out what I had found out. He’s Adam Cartwright of the Ponderosa in Nevada. He could buy our ranch if he wanted to.”

Lake whistled in appreciation. “Really?” At Rend’s nod affirming it, he had one question. “So what’s he doing here?”

“I asked the sheriff to see if he could contact the sheriff there and maybe find out for us without letting anyone know what’s going on. I’m waiting for an answer.”

About that time, Sheriff Roy Coffee was on his way to the Ponderosa with an interesting letter and what he assumed was going to be an unusual conversation with Ben Cartwright and his younger sons. Ben had been grumbling for months about his eldest son being missing with no letter. Whenever that happened, Roy had reminded him that Adam would know that no mail would get through to the Ponderosa during the winter months. Now a letter was there. The question was what they were going to do. Would they honor the request in the letter, or would Ben do his usual thing and demand that things be done his way?

 

Chapter 5

It took some convincing, but Ben agreed to do as the letter asked and only sent information. He did ask in the letter if a visit by a member of the family would be well received and asked for a reply to that from all parties. All of them knew that put the burden on Rend Barstow to talk to Adam about what he had done.

“I can guess how our older brother is gonna be feeling when he finds out his new boss done gone behind his back and checked him out.”

Joe thought it was fair. “Maybe, Hoss, it’s a good thing. Adam did that to a number of people so now he gets to find out what it feels like to have it done to him.”

“I’m glad I finally know where my son is even if he is hurt. I’d feel better if I could go see him.”

“Pa, he’s hurt so you’re going to have to boss the drive, aren’t you?”

“Hoss, I suppose I will. Joe, are you available to ramrod with me as you would have with Adam again?”

“Of course, I will, Pa. This will be the first one the two of us do. You know what that means though, don’t you?”

“What?” But after only a moment, Ben did know. “Hoss will have to be the one to go see Adam and help him get home.” After another pause, he smiled. “That might be for the best. He doesn’t need my frowns if he’s already hurting. That can wait until I get back from the drive.”

“Uh, Pa.”

“Yes, Joe, what is it?”

“It’s only a short drive again. Adam may not be healed up enough for those eyebrows by the time we get back.”

The laughter lightened the mood and let them all share in planning the round-up and drive. They hoped to hear from Rend Barstow before the drive started. The request that was sent to Rend though put the man in a difficult position. He had wanted to know why Adam was at the Barstow Ranch so he could judge how to handle what he thought was a developing relationship between Adam and Rachel Leah. Now he had to possibly jeopardize that by telling the man that he had gone behind his back to investigate him. Showing such a lack of trust wasn’t much of a way to get a man to like your family or trust them. The only way to deal with it though was to face it head on, and Rend was good at that. He waited until Adam was awake and alone.

“You could have talked to me about it first.”

“Adam, you weren’t exactly able to do much talking. I figured if it started looking too bad, I was going to have to let your family know you was here. As it turned out, you got better, but we didn’t know at first that you would.”

“All right, I’ll concede that.”

“Now you see, it’s talk like that got me curious. What top hand talks like that?”

“I guess I’m not much of an actor.”

“No, you did very well. It was a few times though when you said things that didn’t quite fit with who you said you were. I guess you couldn’t help yourself. You outdrew Langford Poole! You had a way of suggesting things like you were used to being in charge and offering your ideas. In any work, you naturally seemed to assume the lead role. You had a way about you that suggested you were more than you were saying you were. It wasn’t a bad thing, but it made me curious.”

“I guess I really couldn’t help myself. I hadn’t thought about those things standing out so much. I only wanted to do right by you for hiring me.”

“And you did. One of the best hires I ever made. I’m only sorry you aren’t staying. I think I’m not as sorry as Rachel Leah though. She’s real fond of you.”

“She’s too young.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Although Rend was having second thoughts about that too.

“And I shouldn’t have complained about you checking me out. I realized I’ve done that a number of times with hires on the Ponderosa. Sometimes you have to know who’s working for you so you don’t get any nasty surprises.”

“Yeah, that’s true. Listen, my father is due home in a less than a week; maybe only a few days. I’d like you to stay and meet him.”

“I had planned on leaving before he got here. Rachel Leah said he’d get Carson and Taylor out of jail, and I don’t think I want to be in the middle of that.”

“Oh, you won’t be. Lake and I will make sure of that, and you know Rachel will speak for you too. No, I’m curious what Pa will do. He’s forgiven those two every damn thing they’ve done over the years. But this time, it’s too much to forgive. If you had died, nothing he did would have gotten them out of jail.”

“Pleased to have been so accommodating.”

The two men smiled at the gallows humor.

“Listen, I know you could still press charges, but we both know that would be a battle, and here, you wouldn’t be in a great position with my father holding all the cards. It’s not Nevada. However, I have to tell you, I think this time, the boys might get a rude surprise. Now I pulled a stunt when I was about sixteen, and Pa didn’t pull any punches with me.”

“What did you do?”

“I was really full of myself and interested in a girl. She’s my wife now, but I wanted to buy her a really nice present, and with what Pa was paying me for work I did, I couldn’t afford what I wanted to buy. So, one week when Pa left for a business meeting, I cut out a horse I didn’t think he’d miss from our herds and sold it. I used the money to buy her some beautiful jewelry. Of course, her parents happened to mention it to my parents, and of course, Rafe mentioned that someone had rustled one of our horses. Didn’t take much to put that together.”

“So what did he do?”

“Put me in the bunkhouse with the hands. Took away my pistol rig and rifle, gave me an old nag to ride with a plain saddle, and made sure I had every dirty job there was to do on this ranch. It lasted for a month. I had no Saturdays in town, and Sundays were spent in the bunkhouse cleaning. He asked me then if I liked being an ordinary criminal. I didn’t. He said if I wanted to be a Barstow, I had to live by higher standards. If I was ready to try, he was going to give me one more chance.”

“I take it your youngest brothers have been given many more chances than that.”

“Too many to count, but I don’t think Pa even knows every stunt they’ve pulled.”

“You’ve covered for them too.”

“I guess being an oldest brother, you’d know about that.”

“You think they’re going to get the bunkhouse treatment?”

“Oh, Lord, I hope so. I want to be there to witness it too. If you’re feeling well enough, I think you ought to be outside for it too. I expect Pa is going to give them a homecoming they never expect to get.”

“What about Lake? Has he run into trouble too?”

“No, Lake and Rachel Leah are the upright members of the family. They don’t seem to have that wilder streak that I got and the boys got. Lake is that man you always want at your side, steady, sure of himself, smart. Rachel Leah, well you know her. She’s one of a kind.”

“I have a brother like Lake.”

“I’d like to meet him. Got any like Carson and Taylor?”

“One who could have been, but with Pa and two older brothers riding herd, he grew up into quite a man, but don’t ever tell him that. He’s too proud the way it is. I wouldn’t want to add to it. You know, for twins, Carson and Taylor are different though.”

“You’ve seen it too. I think there’s something wrong with Taylor. Haven’t been able to get our parents to agree to that idea at all. They see Carson as the leader and think Taylor just follows along.”

“I agree that Carson is more of a leader. Under the right circumstances, he could be like you. But Taylor seems to have a more sinister attitude. He’s the one I’d be worried about more.”

“I think you’re right about that. Carson is touchy, but it’s Taylor who keeps reminding him of every little thing to keep him riled up.”

“Like the stallion dumping him in the mud.”

“Oh, and every other thing like you shooting and besting him and even you calling him Kit. I don’t know how many times I heard that talked about. Taylor can’t let anything go. If you remembered more about that night, it probably all came up in what they said to you.”

About that time, Rachel Leah came in the room with Adam’s lunch. She smiled to see Rend and Adam talking having overheard enough on her way in to know what some of the topics must have been. As long as Rend was there, she asked him to help Adam sit up more and prop him up with pillows. Once that was accomplished, Rend left, and she put the tray on the bed on his lap so he could eat. Nothing there could spill so he could manage eating by himself. She knew how important that was to him so she had made sure all the food was of a consistency that he could manage. He knew what she had done and thanked her for her consideration.

“I don’t like being fussed over.”

“Really?”

That earned the full dimple grin she loved to see. When she took the tray away, she handed him a glass of water, and after he finished that, a mug of coffee. All the while, they were able to converse. She noticed that he no longer looked so exhausted with simple tasks and knew he was recovering well. Within a few days, Adam was doing more and more things for himself.

The elder Barstow arrived home late one evening to be briefed on all that had happened. The next morning, Len Barstow decided that before he went to town, he was going to talk with Adam. Being the patriarch of the place, he knocked and then entered Adam’s bedroom to find him struggling to stand in order to pull on clean clothing. Any questions Len had about how seriously Adam had been injured by his youngest sons were answered by what he saw as he stepped forward to help the man. He offered an arm and saw the fading bruises that were still dark purple in many places. The bandages around the ribs and the long line of stitches in the cut at the back of Adam’s head were stark reminders of a vicious attack. Once Adam had pulled on a clean shirt and buttoned it sitting on the side of the bed, things didn’t look so bad, but Len was glad he had seen what he had.

“You’ve probably guessed I’m Len Barstow. I should apologize for barging in on you. I’m so used to walking into my son’s room, I didn’t think to wait. I should also apologize for my sons’ behavior. I know that they should probably serve more time in jail than the week they’ve been there, but I doubt that would teach them the lesson I plan to teach them.”

“The bunkhouse treatment?”

Surprised, Len raised his eyebrows. “So Rend admitted that to you. You two must have gotten to know each other well in this short time. Yes, I do plan to use that on them and probably for more than a month. Rend needed to get his priorities straight. Those two need to get a lot more than that straight in their lives. I let my wife push me into coddling them much too long until it got to be a bad habit. It’s as much my fault now as hers. She didn’t come home with me because she doesn’t want to see them right now. She’s going to visit friends for a time. They can’t come running to her and begging for her to help them. Their tears and puppy dog looks won’t do them any good this time.”

“You going to bring them home and then tell them?”

Len raised his eyebrows in a questioning look at Adam.

“Hmm, you’d like to hear it too, would you? Rend had the same request. Yes, I could do that. Seems fair enough considering what they did. You willing not to press charges and let me handle it?”

“Yes, from what I’ve heard from Rend and from you, that seems best in the long run.”

“Thank you. We can talk more at dinner. Do you think you could make it to the table if Rend and Lake help?”

“Yes, I can.”

“Confidence. I like that.”

Confidence is not what the ladies called it later, but they agreed Adam could probably make it to the table with help. The plan though was to get him down the stairs and outside first to hear the youngest get their punishment. Then he would be helped inside to rest if needed. Finally, he would be helped to the table.

“I’m stronger than you think.”

“Not as strong as you think you are, but if you’re foolish enough to want to try, we’ll make sure you get enough help.”

“I don’t think I’m being foolish.”

“Foolish was the kindest of the words I thought of using.”

The two older ladies smiled as Adam and Rachel Leah locked in a battle of wills. They thought this was going to be an interesting time.

Lake came up with the plan for being outside without making it appear they were there to hear the youngest members of the family get their sentence. They had a light picnic for all to celebrate Adam getting downstairs for the first time. Rafe was invited too, and they told him what the extra benefit was going to be. He appreciated being there for the entertainment value and remembered well when Rend had that experience about twenty years earlier. While they were sitting outside, Adam was surprised to find out that both Rend and Lake had children.

“Where are they?”

Lake explained and the tone of his voice indicated how he didn’t like the idea. “They spend six months in boarding school now. There are no secondary schools close enough. Except for some breaks, they’re gone from late October until early April. We each have two boys.”

“That must be hard.”

“It is. The place was a lot more fun when the boys were home.”

“You can’t start a school here?”

“We would like to do that, but we don’t have the funds to have enough teachers. It’s not like a grammar school where one or two teachers are enough.”

“You could create your own secondary school and have people pay to send their children here. It would give you enough funds to hire three or four teachers and that’s all you need. You could offer classes in English, grammar, literature, French, mathematics, geography, history, logic, ethics, civics, and science.”

“And three or four teachers could do all of that?”

“Yes, when I was being tutored to go to college, two tutors handled all of that.”

“You went to college.”

“Yes, in the east.”

“You know, we ought to talk to Pa about that, Lake. He and mother would have a project that they could spend their time on then. She would love to have a school with the family name on it.”

It gave the family a topic of discussion until Len arrived back home a couple of hours later with Carson and Taylor. The two young brothers threw some withering looks first toward Rend and then toward Adam looking a bit triumphant too to be back home. They were going to walk to the main house when their father halted them.

“No, boys, I’m not done with you yet. I’ve been telling you a lot about how disappointed I am in you. I told you how you should have behaved and how you should apologize. Now we get here, and all you think to do is scuttle off after you gave some sullen looks at those you have wronged instead of the apologies I thought you knew you were expected to make.”

The two young men had hoped that the lecture was all they had to endure. Now they knew they had to go through with the apologies too. They managed to get those done without saying or doing anything to make things worse.

“Well, I have heard less insincerity with hardened outlaws in a trial trying to avoid their sentence.” As the two were about to exit again, Len shook his head and halted them. “No, not so quick. You may think a week in jail was enough, but there isn’t an adult here who thinks that was justice. It’s not nearly enough of a punishment for assault and attempted murder.”

“We didn’t try to kill him.” The chorus by the two was instantaneous.

“Your actions say otherwise. Rafe, I’m glad you’re here. I’m sure you’re familiar with the punishment I gave Rend when he broke the law, a much less serious law.” Len turned to address his youngest sons. “Carson and Taylor Barstow, you will be living in the bunkhouse. You will not have access to any firearms. If you are found in possession of any firearm, I will personally escort you to the sheriff who will reinstate the criminal charges against you. You will follow every order Rafe, Rend, and Lake give to you. You will be on restriction until I lift it which means no Saturdays or any other time off to go to town. You will spend every minute of every day on this ranch. On Sundays, you will clean the bunkhouse.”

“For how long?”

“We’ll start with two months.”

“Two months! You can’t do that to us.” Carson was incensed.

Taylor went further. “Damn you. Mother won’t let you do that to us.”

“Three months.”

Taylor sputtered and was going to say more, but Carson grabbed his arm and slapped a hand over his mouth.

“There you go, Carson. You may be done in three months. We’ll see. Taylor, you best follow your brother’s lead. You two have a history of wrongdoing that was not punished. That has come to an end. Nothing will be ignored from now on. You have one more chance now to be men. I gave this same option to Rend twenty years ago. He lived up to the challenge. Now, let’s see if you two can do it. Your brothers will help you, I’m sure, but I will not bend. Go.”

“What about our clothes?”

“Like most hands on this ranch when they get here, you’re wearing them. You can buy extra work clothing when you get paid in two weeks. Put things on the list so Rafe can get them when he goes to town, but remember there is no credit. You pay as you go.”

“But how do we wash what we got on? We haven’t washed these since we went into that jail.”

“The boys in the bunkhouse will tell you. In fact, after that ride home with you, I’m sure they will insist on it.”

Carson knew Taylor was talking too much and forcibly turned him and began pushing him to walk to the bunkhouse. Len turned to the rest of them and shook his head seeing the smiles they had.

“You all didn’t have to enjoy it so much.”

Rend chuckled. “Pa, you can admit you did too. Mother isn’t here, and we won’t tell.”

Len smiled then as Rafe slapped him on the shoulder and headed toward the bunkhouse to take care of his charges. Adam guessed that dinner conversation was far livelier when Len’s wife wasn’t in attendance. Then he realized that she was Rachel Leah’s mother too and wondered how she felt about the attitude of the rest of the family toward her mother.

 

Chapter 6

When Adam had a chance to talk with Rachel Leah about her mother, he was surprised at what she had to say. She had a matter-of-fact kind of way of talking about her mother that showed there was no depth of feeling there. He wondered why as they began to talk but began to understand as Rachel Leah explained more of her childhood.

“My mother came from humble origins, yet you would be unable to guess that when you meet her. She has done everything she can to erase all vestiges of that. She wants all the prestige and status she can get. So, when I refused to marry to gain land for this ranch, she became colder toward me.”

“Colder?”

“She never was that happy having a daughter. She thought sons were more important to have. When I was growing up, the boys got most of her attention. I was an afterthought. It wasn’t so bad though because I got to do things I wanted to do. I loved horses and being outside. She would never have let me do those things if she was raising up a ‘proper’ daughter. It was only when she wanted me to marry a ‘proper’ young man that she realized what a failure I was.”

“You are not a failure.”

“As a daughter, I am. All she wanted was for me to be a son.”

“I think a family without daughters is missing something important. I always thought that about my family.”

“You wouldn’t mind having daughters?”

“Of course not. I would love to have daughters or sons or both although at this stage, I’m not sure I’ll ever have either. It seems I’m not very lucky in the marriage game.”

“That’s odd.”

“What’s odd?”

“That you refer to it as a game and expect it to be based on luck. I don’t see it that way at all. I thought you find someone and work out a plan, get married, and so on.”

“I wish it was that way.”

“I thought it was. I mean, I thought that was how Rend and Lake did it. I was too young when they got married to know what happened, but when they talk about it, it seems it happened that way.”

“Things can happen though over which you have no control. There are elements in life that get in the way of even the best of plans.”

“It would seem the best of plans would make allowances for things getting in the way.”

“Speaking of plans, I should start making a plan for going home. I would like to try riding a bit to see how I do.”

“As soon as the doctor clears you for riding, we can do that.”

“When is the doctor going to come for a visit again?”

“Oh, maybe in a week or two.”

“Rachel Leah, I am not waiting a week or two.”

“Oh, all right, how about if we plan for a ride tomorrow morning if the weather is agreeable. You wouldn’t want to go now anyway. The wind is picking up so rain is likely or at least some stronger winds.”

They stayed in, but someone did ride in with the wind. Rend came in with a guest. “I knew who it was as soon as I saw him and he greeted me. It had to be your middle brother.”

“Yeah, and dadburnit, I done figured you was the one wrote that letter to us too. I bet this is the gal took care of him too.”

“You’re right on that, Hoss. This is Rachel Leah.”

“Hoss, what are you doing here?”

“When I didn’t get an answer to our letter, I decided it was time to come see what was going on here. Got to talking with Rend here on the ride. We kinda figured maybe somebody lost that telegram to Nevada or plumb forgot to send it.”

Looking over at Rachel Leah, Adam frowned. She had the grace to look at least slightly embarrassed.

“Adam, I thought they would send another telegram or send another letter. I was only trying to get a few more days. I didn’t know someone would come.”

“Wouldn’t your family send someone?”

“Well, I guess maybe.”

With the weather turning bad, Rend invited Hoss to stay, and it was an entertaining evening for the family hearing his stories through dinner and for a couple of hours after that. When Adam showed signs of weariness, Rachel Leah suggested it might be time to let the brothers get some sleep as Hoss had been traveling and Adam needed rest especially if he wanted to go riding the next day. Upstairs after helping Adam to his room, Hoss got a chance to talk with his older brother privately.

“You look pretty good for a man who was near beaten to death.”

“It wasn’t the beating so much as being left on my horse out in the cold.”

“Those boys are cold-hearted.”

“You know, the more I learn about them, the more I think they didn’t actually know what they were doing. They’re impulsive and don’t think through what they’re doing.”

“Sounds a lot like our little brother until he done grew up some and found the common sense the Lord gave him.”

“Well, these two have a lot more growing up to do. They make Joe look darn good by comparison. I never knew what spoiled actually looked like until I met these two. I won’t miss them.”

“From the looks of things, you could end up with them as brothers-in-law.”

“Rachel Leah? No, Hoss, she’s much too young for me. Yes, she’s pretty and smart, and I like her, but she’s much too young.”

“You go on trying to talk yourself out of it, but that gal is in love with you.”

“She’ll get over it.”

“I reckon I heard you say that once before, and it sounds as stupid now as it did then. You sleep on things though. I need to get some sleep.”

“You can’t talk to me like that and then walk away.”

“Oh, yeah, I can.”

“You shouldn’t.”

“Is there something more I can say that would make you less pigheaded this time?”

“This time?”

“Yeah. For a man who’s smart, you can be downright stupid about women. I don’t know but you seem to think there’s a perfect woman out there for you. So every time, you find something wrong and back away. Or all it takes is someone else to show an interest, and you go running the other way like she can’t be yours unless it’s all of her right off. Well, you’ve been damn lucky in love.”

“Lucky to have lost so many?”

“Only because you let them slip away. No, but lucky because some damn wonderful women loved you. You don’t know how great I would feel to have some women fall in love with me. Dadburnit, I’d marry the first decent woman who did. But not you. You think a woman’s love ain’t enough. You got this list of other things they all got to be. The right age. The right religion. The right temper. You know, this idea you have of what a perfect wife would be. Let me tell you, there ain’t one out there. You keep looking and finding fault, and you ain’t never gonna get married.”

“Married? I thought we were talking about a romance and now it’s marriage.”

“One leads to the other, and at your age, of course you need to think on it that way. I’m thinking that way, and I don’t have no woman eyeing me up like that pretty gal is eyeing you up. Damn, she seems to think you’re quite a prize. You need to marry her before she gets to know you better.”

Hoss had a big grin with his last line and all of it served to lighten the mood. Adam never could stay irritated with Hoss and his advice for long anyway.

“I’ll think about what you said.”

“Don’t think too much. It’s what got you into trouble all those times before. Your brain is so darn big and you use it for everything. You forget you got a heart and soul in there needs to be used too. Just consider waking up next to her in the morning and going to bed with her at night. Maybe have some pictures in your mind about having her there to talk to when you got an idea in your head or you’re feeling troubled about things. Heck, what about all those times you want to talk about books or go see some high falutin play or something. I heard her talking about some of that stuff. Seems she likes the kinds of things you like. Ain’t many of those kinds of women who like horses and living on a ranch too.”

“You make a pretty good case. You could be her lawyer.”

“She don’t need one. You might though.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, cause ifn you listen to me, you gotta talk to her father.”

“It’s a little soon for that. I haven’t kissed her yet.”

“Better do that then. Gonna be a lot you gotta teach her and you ought to get started soon enough. When it’s time to kiss the bride at the wedding, you want to make sure she knows what to do.”

Hoss laughed at Adam’s sick look and turned and left before his older brother could respond. He slept well too having unburdened himself with a lot of critical thoughts that had built up for too long. Now that they were out, he could truly relax. If Adam did give in and pursue a relationship with Rachel Leah, Hoss hoped it would help him make a decision about his future that included the Ponderosa and his family there. He knew Adam was restless because he felt his life was unfulfilled. Hoss felt the same way sometimes because there was a critical element missing from it. Adam had another chance to fill that void, and Hoss hoped he’d take the plunge this time.

The next day, Adam got to try riding for the first since he had been beaten. Knowing that Adam and Rachel Leah needed to have some time with the two of them and no one else, Hoss and Rend made sure no one went with them. About a half-hour into the ride, Rachel Leah could see that Adam was tiring already and suggested they take a break. He said he could do a bit more, but after fifteen minutes conceded that he did need to stop for a time. It was a major effort for Adam to loosen the cinch on his saddle, get his canteen, and walk to a downed log to sit. Rachel joined him there and told him the shade under a nearby tree looked more inviting.

“If I go over there, I would probably fall asleep.”

“There’s no reason you couldn’t. I’ll be here to keep watch, and you look like you need a rest.”

“We’ll see.”

Rachel Leah had brought a small blanket for a small lunch. Neither was hungry yet, but the blanket was nice for sitting. Adam was startled to feel her hands on his shoulders and then not so much as she pulled him back to rest his head in her lap.

“Time to see if my patient needs his rest. Close your eyes.”

Adam felt those soft fingers gently close over his eyes and then caress his forehead and cheeks. Thinking about those sensations, he wasn’t even aware he was falling asleep. Waking about an hour later, he was slightly embarrassed, but she was matter-of-fact about the situation.

“Clearly, I was correct, and you needed to sleep. There’s no need to feel that way. You suffered a terrible beating only weeks ago.”

Rachel Leah had her hand on Adam’s cheek. Reaching up, he put his hand behind her neck and pulled her closer. There was no resistance. When she was very close, he rose up and kissed her, softly so as not to scare her away. When he stopped, she said only a few things mostly having to do with that kiss.

“Yes, you can kiss me again as often as you want to kiss.”

“I didn’t ask you that.”

“I know, but you were thinking it, weren’t you. You were wondering if you should have and if you should kiss me again.”

“I don’t know if this is the right thing to do.”

“How does it feel to you?”

“Feel?”

“Yes, feel. How did you feel when you kissed me? I felt better than I had in a long time. I thought you were never going to kiss me. I thought you were going to leave without ever kissing me. Now you have, and I think you know there’s a reason you kissed me. Let your heart guide you this time.”

“That’s what my brother said. It’s difficult.”

“Then I’ll make it easier for you.”

Moving to Adam’s side, she stretched out beside him and rested one arm across him facing him. Almost of its own volition, one of his arms came up around her to hold her close.

“There, that’s better, isn’t it?”

Without answering her, Adam kissed her again but with more passion and longer but still tenderly. Although inexperienced, she responded with enthusiasm. He pulled away after a few minutes.

“We should have lunch and continue riding.”

“Why? Didn’t I do it right?”

“Oh, you did it right. But if we do much more of that, I won’t be able to ride. Now, let’s have lunch.”

For only a moment, she didn’t understand. When she did, she grinned as broadly as she could, and then she moved to get the lunch items for them. Without talking about the kissing, they discussed a number of topics, packed up the blanket and other lunch items, and continued their ride. After a leisurely circuit of much of the ranch, they were nearing the end of the ride when Adam halted.

“Let’s take a break.”

Knowing it wasn’t a break for rest, Rachel Leah dismounted and tied off her horse to walk to where Adam stood and waited for her. She was worried after his silence that he regretted what had happened.

“Things have changed. I don’t know yet exactly what will happen between us, but I know what I hope will happen.”

Then he grinned that full dimple grin, and she wasn’t worried any more. Pulling her close with one arm, Adam touched her cheek with his other hand.

“I do think I love you. I know you are on my mind much of the time and in my dreams every night. When I’m not with you, the day seems to have lost some of its light. I didn’t want to go home because I wouldn’t see you anymore. Now, there seems to be a solution to that if you feel the same way.”

“I do. I think I started falling in love with you the first time I met you. I have never met a man who made me feel the way you do.”

“Do you suppose your family would mind if I stayed a bit longer, perhaps a week more?”

“I don’t care if they mind or not.” After a pause, she had a question. “Why a week?”

“We have things to discuss, and after we do, I may need to talk with your father. How about after dinner in the garden for time for us to talk?”

“Yes, I like that.” Her hopes had risen but she knew he had still left himself some wiggle room. She could only hope that his doubts wouldn’t make him back away from her.

When they arrived at the barns and put the horses away, Hoss was with Rend and Lake by the corral admiring the big sorrel. The three men watched until Adam and Rachel Leah walked up to the house. Rend was the first to comment and Lake responded.

“Something’s changed.”

“Rend, I think you’re right. I hope he hasn’t taken advantage of our little sister.”

Hoss knew him best. “Nah, Adam ain’t like that, but you’re right, something has changed. He won’t say nothing until he’s good and ready though.”

The three and Len were willing to accept that, but after dinner when Adam excused himself, Len told Rachel Leah that he wanted to talk to her.

“But, Papa, I was going to ask to be excused too.”

“Now, darling daughter, I know you’re busting to tell us something. What’s happened between you and Adam Cartwright?”

“Nothing yet, but he wants to talk to me in the garden.”

“Just talk?”

“Oh, Lord, I hope not.”

Lake and Hoss couldn’t help it and burst out laughing. Rend and Len kept their serious demeanor but barely.

“Well, you are excused then, my dear. Go to your appointment, but you come see me before you go to your bed.”

“Yes, Papa, and maybe Adam will come to see you too.”

When she left the room, Len looked happy.

“Well, that’s promising. I was beginning to think I was going to be stuck with an old maid daughter. Too bad that ranch of yours is so far off, Hoss. It could have been quite a union joining these two spreads together.”

“Adam’s got a knack for making money, sir. You give him a chance, he’ll help you make this spread as big as the Ponderosa is.”

“I’d like that. I’d like to be able to leave that kind of ranch to my children.”

In the garden, Adam greeted Rachel Leah with kisses. He had been thinking of nothing else since they had parted. The advice he had gotten from Hoss was driving him now as his heart was helping him make every decision, but he still needed some issues resolved in his mind before he could go forward. Moving to a garden bench, he told her he had some questions.

“Would you be comfortable living in Nevada and not seeing your family perhaps for years?”

“As long as I was with you, I could do that.”

“What if I wanted to travel instead of living in Nevada? What if I wanted to go to Europe or Australia? Would you be willing to give up stability and safety and go with me?”

“It’s the same answer.”

When Adam was quiet for a time, Rachel Leah had a question for him.

“Is that what you want to do, or is it that you don’t know what you want to do? I have to tell you that I trust you, and I would be willing to do whatever you decided as long as we discussed it first and I knew it was something you wanted to do.”

“You already understand me better than some who have known me for so much longer. No, it isn’t what I want to do because I don’t know what I want to do. I have been restless for some time unsure of what kind of future I wanted. I only want to be sure my options are open. I don’t want to feel trapped. That would be the worst. I can be terrible when I feel like that.”

“Oh, would that be a major version of what you were like when you started feeling better but the doctor said you couldn’t get out of bed by yourself yet?”

“Yes, you see you do understand me. Before I came here, I wasn’t acting like myself. I think I was striking out at others because I was angry at myself. I’m sure you saw that scar I got from a burn. That was from a stupid fight I got into because I couldn’t use my head. It was like I wanted to fight.”

“You wanted to pound on someone because you couldn’t hit yourself.”

“Something like that. It was stupid, and I don’t want to be like that again. I want to be able to talk with you and try out my thoughts and hear what you think and not be judged.”

“I think you know that about me already.”

“I do. So now you can tell me a bit more about your father because I think I need to talk to him too about all of this.”

“About what?”

“Well, if I’m going to marry his daughter, I have to ask permission to court her first and find out what he thinks about that.”

“But you haven’t asked me yet.”

“No, because I have to ask your father first. Why, do you plan to say no when I ask you?”

Adam had been pulling her closer as they talked and the last question was asked in a whisper as their lips were an inch apart. She didn’t get to answer verbally as he captured her in a kiss that went on for a long time.

“Aren’t you worried about the effect this will have on you?”

“No, it’s dark out here, and I don’t have to ride a horse.”

She laughed, they talked, and after only a short time, she thought she ought to go in because her father would likely retire early and she wanted to give him to time to meet with Adam.

 

Chapter 7

As it turned out, Len was waiting for that opportunity to speak with his prospective son-in-law. As soon as he saw his daughter head up the stairs, he walked into the garden with a cigar. Adam smelled the smoke and called out to him.

“I’m still sitting on the bench.”

“Thought you might still be here. Thought you might want to talk.” He handed Adam a cigar, and waited for him to prepare it and light it. “She’s a treasure. I’m going to miss her.”

“You know what I’m going to ask then?”

“Of course I do. Everyone at dinner knew.”

“Do I have your permission to court her?”

“Yes, but you have to wait to marry until I can get Mary home and settled about this. It’s always a guess about how she’ll react. I can’t tell her too much before she gets here. She has a tendency to jump to conclusions. I’ll tell her only that she needs to come home. That will get her worried enough. I don’t want to tell her too much. She’s easily shaken.”

Not wanting to get into too much personal discussion, Adam stuck to the practical issue. “How long do you suppose that will take?”

“Maybe a week, maybe less. She probably will think it’s more to do with Carson and Taylor which will speed her up some. She’s always most concerned about those two.”

“Will they try to use her to influence you to get their ‘sentence’ reduced?”

“You must have a spoiled younger brother. Yes, they will try. It won’t work. You know what Rafe told me. He opened up to me and said he didn’t care at this point if I fired him or not but it was time to say the truth. He said he’s worried about them. He thinks they’re going to end up outlaws or murderers or both. He said they’re not right in the head and it’s getting worse. There are days I think he may be right.”

Not able to help himself because he wanted to offer any aid he could, Adam went further than he ever expected to go in this conversation. “Sir, if I may offer an opinion as an outside observer?”

“I’ve heard enough lately that nothing you say will be any worse so go ahead.”

“I think Carson is trying but he doesn’t know how to break away from Taylor. I think there may be something wrong with how Taylor thinks. He seems to enjoy seeing others getting hurt.”

“As long as you said that, I’ll admit something else. Rafe said almost the same thing. He said the men don’t want to work with Taylor. They don’t trust him at all especially as they know what he did to you.”

“Perhaps someone should be assigned to watch them at all times.”

Shocked at first that Adam would have drawn that conclusion, Len finally shook his head.

“You know that is what Rafe wants to do too except he didn’t say perhaps. You and he think a lot alike.”

With his head down, Len had nothing more to say, and Adam knew it was time for him to leave as he had already said more than he ever intended. For Len, it was a sad but necessary thing that had to be done. After Adam left, he walked away with his head down to tell Rend to make it so. On his own ranch, two of his sons were going to be watched like criminals because they could not be trusted, and a stranger would be invited into the family because he was more trustworthy and more suitable than Len’s own young sons. It was going to be a terrible confrontation with May when she arrived home, but she always gave into him. The one thing he had was that she always accepted his authority in the family. However he was worried that her fragile mental state was going to completely fracture if those two boys did anything more than they had already done.

Over the next few days as Adam spent time with Rachel Leah and as the two of them showed some of the ranch to Hoss, they discussed the youngest two brothers. All three were worried about what they might do on the occasion of Adam marrying Rachel Leah. Then it was time for Hoss to head home to deliver the news to their father and at the same time, May Barstow arrived home. Adam had learned that she didn’t like her given name and insisted everyone call her Mary.

“Why doesn’t she like her name? It’s pretty.”

“She says she was named after a month in the year. She would rather be named after the mother of our Lord.”

So when Adam met Rachel Leah’s mother, he thought he was ready for her. He greeted her as Mary May and said he had heard she had two names and how beautiful they were gliding off the tongue like springtime. She looked at him and grinned.

“Well, I can understand why my daughter fell in love with you. Now, the question is whether you can handle my daughter. No one else ever has. She has gotten her way with everyone in her life. I can’t see that you will be any different. Many things have happened over the years and she has been the one behind them, but no one has ever been able to prove it so she gets away with things. I assume that when she saw you, she decided you were the one, and here you are.”

“I don’t think it was that simple, ma’am.”

“No, you wouldn’t. She is quite devious.”

“I don’t find her to be that way.”

“No, you wouldn’t. Devious people are good at that, hiding their true nature. Well, despite all that, I won’t stand in your way. She won’t be my problem any longer nor will any of my sons have to suffer for her manipulations. Good luck to you. You seem a fine man.”

At that point, there were so many things Adam wanted to say and none he thought he should say. All he could do was thank her for her blessing on his plan to marry her daughter and flee from her presence. Not sure of how to convey what he was thinking or feeling to Rachel Leah, he left the house to take a walk away from everyone. Rend found him an hour later.

“My sister is upset. She thinks maybe Mother changed your mind about marrying her. I hope that’s not true.”

“No, that’s not true. It was that I had to get my thoughts in order before I talked with Rachel Leah.”

“So Mother fired both barrels. We were afraid that might happen because of what Pa did to Carson and Taylor. Listen, no matter what she said, she was wrong. When she was carrying Rachel Leah, her hair fell out.”

Rend saw Adam’s look of surprise and shrugged.

“Yeah, she wears that wig because she has to wear it. So, she developed this resentment of that girl that has never gone away. Nothing anyone has ever said has made a difference. Even the doctor told her it wasn’t carrying a child that did it but that she has a skin condition. She won’t believe it. He told her if it was because of carrying a child, it would have grown back. Nothing he said or anyone said ever has made a difference.”

“So she blames Rachel for something that couldn’t have been her fault, and from what I could understand, she keeps blaming Rachel Leah for things that go wrong.”

“Yes, that’s about it. Anything that goes wrong is Rachel’s fault. Pa let on once when he had been drinking too much that the baldness on her head kept spreading over the years. Each time she said it was our sister’s fault. Now how could that be? Doctor says she’s got a condition, but she won’t believe it.”

“No hair anywhere?”

Rend only grinned. Adam agreed it was time he went to talk with Rachel Leah to start making wedding plans and alert his family about them as soon as they had a date.

“Seems to me we ought to pick a date that is sooner rather than later.”

“Probably but not too soon. That sorrel has been acting up. I’d like you to work with him again before you go. You might have to ride him again. No one else can get anywhere near him.”

“I wonder what happened.”

“I don’t know, but I suspect my brothers might know. I’m wondering if they tried to ride him or something like that. You know Carson was embarrassed so much by being thrown in the mud by him.”

“That shouldn’t bother him that much. Yes, I’ll work with him as soon as I get a chance. Now I need to go talk with Rachel Leah.”

“Good, she’ll be relieved.”

The date was set for two weeks. The night before the wedding, the Cartwrights arrived and stayed in town where Adam went with Len to meet them. Adam stayed with his father, and the next day, Adam returned to find the Barstow ranch transformed for the wedding and crowded with guests. Apparently his request for a small wedding had been superseded by Len and Mary and their desire to invite everyone who was close enough to attend.

As the day progressed though, there were some unhappy people. Mary found for the first time that she was upstaged by her daughter who on the arm of the handsome Adam Cartwright had the attention of all the guests. Her two boys were shunted off to the side for the whole event as well as kept out of the ceremony and then kept away from any alcohol too. No one even noticed when the two slipped away from the festivities because the men assigned to watch them were guests at the wedding. No one had thought they needed watching on such a day. Carson had a plan to get back into their father’s good graces. He wanted to ride that big sorrel up to the house to show off for everyone who was outside partaking of food and drink, socializing, and in general having a great time. Knowing how impressive he would look up on that big horse and dressed in his finest, he would certainly draw attention and then would present to his father the finest stallion anyone there had ever seen. He knew no one had been able to ride the horse recently, but with supreme confidence, he assumed he could. When the two boys got to the corral though, the stallion was not in a cooperative spirit.

“What the hell is wrong with him, Taylor? I thought he was saddle broke.”

“He was, but seems like he isn’t doing so well any more for some reason.”

“Well, I’ll settle him down.”

Carson never noticed the look that Taylor had nor that the stallion seemed especially skittish around his brother. From his pocket, Carson pulled his silver spurs and put them on expecting to force the animal into compliance. He and Taylor managed to rope the stallion and get him to the side. Taylor looped the lead rope around a corral post to secure the stallion and keep his head still. Though it was difficult, they did get a saddle on him once they threw a saddle blanket over his head. He was still snuffling and agitated but not as much as he had been. Carson climbed to the top rail and had Taylor do his best to get the stallion to edge closer by climbing down into the corral and walking to the other side of the horse and pushing. It put him behind the shoulder of the horse. Knowing the horse would bolt forward, he backed up more and more.

“How am I going to release him when I’m over here?”

“Don’t worry about the rope. You can take it off him as soon as I settle him down. When I’m ready, pull the blanket off and drop the rope.”

When the horse was close enough, Carson told him to move so he did but further to the back of the horse so he could be out of the way when the horse took off which he assumed would be going forward.

“Carson, you sure this is a good idea? You won’t have long to get yourself settled in that saddle before he’s likely to react.”

“He’s saddle broke so it shouldn’t take long either for him to settle down. Now get him a little closer. I want to get the reins secured before I climb on then let him go and pull that blanket off at the same time.”

“Carson, maybe I ought to tell you something.”

But then it was too late. Feeling the reins pull tighter, the sorrel began to pull away so Carson moved to get in the saddle yelling to Taylor to release the animal and pull the blanket away. None of that worked as the sorrel kicked striking Taylor with his hooves and then dislodging Carson trapping him between all that powerful horseflesh and the corral fence. Carson’s spurs raked down the side of the horse as Carson fell. Kicking and stomping, the sorrel didn’t know what was happening except he had been hurt and expected to be hurt again so he kept kicking and stomping until he was sure there was no danger. He could smell blood though and continued to pull against the rope that held him. Finally he was able to rip it loose and shook the blanket completely away. He ran to the other end of the corral and stood there. It was an hour before one of the hands noticed what looked like a mess of rags or blankets in the corral. What he found made him retch before he headed to the house with the bad news. Alerting Rafe first, he headed back to the corral with Rafe, Lake, Rend, Len, and Ben Cartwright who had been talking with the three Barstow men when Rafe came up to them.

It didn’t take long for the men to figure out what had happened. What they didn’t understand was why the boys had been in the corral trying to ride the stallion, and why the horse had acted so violently. Rend and Lake roped the horse with little difficulty and brought him to the fence to tie him off. Reasonably calm, he didn’t seem like a horse that could have trampled two young men to death. It was then that Ben noticed a number of wounds on the horse.

“Why does this horse have so many small cuts on him?”

Rafe walked up with a handful of small darts. “These are all over this corral. I’ve seen Taylor whittling small darts. I wondered what he was doing with them. I thought he was throwing darts at a target cause he wasn’t allowed to have firearms. I’m afraid now I know what the target was.”

Shocked, Len had only questions. “He was torturing this animal? Why? And why wouldn’t he tell his brother before he let him try to ride him?”

Rend had no questions left. “Damn, Pa, I know. He never took responsibility for anything in his life. Now he got himself killed and his brother. I guess it was bound to happen. We all should have seen something like this coming.”

Looking at Rend, Len knew he was right. “Wrap them up and put them in the barn for now. No one needs to see this. I’ll get Mary and take her inside to tell her. Ben, the wedding party is winding down. Could you tell Adam and Rachel Leah it’s time for them to bid the guests farewell and be on their way. I think it best they head out without knowing what’s happened. No need for them to start their life together with any sorrow and regrets. There’s time enough later for all that.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“Rend, will you take that horse away from here and shoot it. Don’t bury it on our land. Let the buzzards eat it so it’s gone forever.”

Rend agreed to do so, but out of sight and hearing of his father, he told Lake to get one of the Ponderosa men who had attended the wedding.

“Tell him to get his horse and ride wide of the buildings and meet me north of them. He’s got a delivery to make to the Ponderosa.”

“Rend, is that wise?”

“Maybe not, but that horse didn’t do anything wrong except try to protect itself. I’m through hurting anyone or anything to protect those two. They’re gone now, so no more.”

A few miles from the ranch buildings, Rend met up with Candy Canaday. They rode several miles more until Rend was sure no one would ever come to check. He handed over the lead rope.

“I’ll wait until you’re far enough away so I won’t spook him, but to be sure, in about ten minutes, expect some rifle fire. It might echo a bit in these hills. Here’s some money for expenses.”

“I have money.”

“I want to be sure you have enough. This is my plan, so humor me.”

Candy accepted the money, and ten minutes later talked softly to the big sorrel as shots did echo through the hills. He found the horse liked it when he sang to him, so he enjoyed his ride home singing a bit and otherwise having a leisurely ride until the Cartwrights caught up to him telling him Rend had filled them in on what he had done.

“What happened back there?”

Ben explained all that he knew about the incident. “I sent Adam and Rachel Leah away without telling them. I only told Adam that they might want to skip the few days he had planned down by the Bay and go directly to the cottage he had rented by the sea. They likely won’t hear any news there and get a chance to relax and get to know each other. After what happened to him, it won’t hurt for him to have more time relaxing and resting.”

“So they don’t know Carson and Taylor are dead.”

“No, but Adam may have guessed. He’s good at guessing things.”

Out on the Monterey Peninsula, Adam carried Rachel Leah over the threshold of a small cottage. It was one room but very well organized with a screen that could shield the bed from the rest of the living quarters. There was a small fireplace as well as a small stove in the kitchen area which had a small table by the window overlooking the ocean. A large couch was in front of the fireplace. Outside were wooden chairs on a porch that encircled nearly two-thirds of the cottage. Back away from the cottage was a small stable.

“Oh, Adam, it’s perfect.”

“I thought you would like it.”

“Have you been here before?”

Smiling at the suspicion in her voice, he nodded. “Alone. I came here once to get away from everyone because of some things that happened to me. I needed solitude. It’s perfect for that. That’s why we packed so many supplies in with us. It’s a long way back to that town.”

“Adam, we’ve been married for two days now, and we haven’t, well, you know.”

“I didn’t think a stage waystation was a good place to start our married life, but tonight we’re here. As soon as we get things squared away, we can, you know.”

Then he grinned, and she knew it was going to be all right.

“In fact, I can take care of the horse and carriage if you will put these things away or you can get ready, and I’ll put these things away when I get back in. How’s that?”

“I’d like that.”

When Adam came inside to put the supplies away, he heard rustling from behind the screen. He finished to pull the screen back and find his bride standing there in a new gown and appearing nervous before him. He kept eye contact with her as he began to disrobe.

“Adam, I looked through your valise and couldn’t find your nightshirt.”

“I don’t have a nightshirt.”

“But what will you wear to bed.”

“About what you will be wearing in a few minutes.”

With that, he stepped closer and began to untie the bows holding her new gown on her shoulders. It was the beginning of a night of loving and passion. In the morning, Rachel Leah had a question.

“After what we did, could we maybe be going to have a baby?”

“We could but not likely after only one night together.” He thought he knew what would come next.

“Does that mean you’ve made up your mind? I mean when we were talking about this, you said you didn’t want babies right away because it would tie us down. Do you know what you want to do now?”

“Yes, I know what I said, but when I was with you last night, I thought about being with you and a baby, and I couldn’t imagine a life without having that.”

“So what’s the plan because I know you must have one?”

“How about spending part of the year in Nevada and at least the winter months in California. If your mother is agreeable enough, then with your family. I could work on projects in both places and possibly see about setting up a small business of my own while still helping out at the ranches. I’d get to try out some ideas without cutting any ties.”

“That would work until the children are old enough for school.”

“Children?” Adam smiled though so she knew he was teasing. “By that time, we should know how things are working out and adjust our plans.”

“Did you have anything in mind for a project?”

“I thought perhaps a secondary school in Barstow would be a good start. And we need a house here and a house there. We can stay in the main houses until those are ready so that isn’t a rush unless of course we make more than love this week.”

At the end of their week, Adam and Rachel Leah were well on their way to a strong marriage so Adam decided he ought to be honest about something else. He had told her a lot about his past. She had discovered a number of scars on his body and wanted to know the story of each one. The burn scar on his behind had been the most interesting to her because it was how he had ended up with her. Now he decided to tell her about his conversation with her mother. It hurt her, but he needed to tell her because he was worried about their reception when they returned to the Barstow Ranch.

“Why did you tell me this now?”

“When we left, none of your family was there. Did you notice that?”

“I did. I thought it was odd.”

“My father was the one who said it was time for us to go. Then he said to skip the time in the city, and we should probably go directly to the cottage here.”

“Why would he do that? Oh, we’re cut off here. No news and no visitors.”

“Yes, something happened. I saw your father escort your mother from the room. I didn’t see any of your brothers. I’m not sure what it was, but there was some bad news of some kind. I saw my father and brothers so it wasn’t about them. But I’m sure they knew by the looks they had.”

“Now you’re worried because of what we may face when we get back.”

“Yes, and I thought you should know. We’re in this together. Whatever it is, we will face it together.”

When they arrived at the house, they found it draped in mourning cloth. Rachel was worried that one of her parents had died. When they got to the door, Len answered and they heard Mary yell.

“Don’t you let her in here. It’s all her fault.”

“Mary, be quiet or I will lock you in our room.”

That silenced Mary, and Len escorted Adam and Rachel Leah to his study.

“She’s been this way ever since she found out about Carson and Taylor.” Len proceeded to tell the whole story as well as he knew it. When he finished, he apologized to Rachel Leah. “I should have done something about those two for years. Out of respect for Mary, I did not. That was wrong. I don’t know what those boys were trying to do that day but it got them killed.”

“Sir, I think Carson was trying to impress you. He had been doing as well as he could for weeks trying to live up to the standard Rend had set. It wasn’t easy with Taylor there. Taylor tortured that horse. He probably got Carson killed by not telling him what he had done.”

“That makes sense. I wish I knew what to do about Mary. She seems to get worse and worse every day.”

Adam had a guess that hit the bullseye. “What did the doctor say?”

“You get right to the point, don’t you. He said to send her to the hospital at Stockton. He said it’s the only hope of pulling her out of this state.” When neither said anything, he nodded. “That’s what Rend and Lake do every time I bring it up. All right, I’ll get her committed. I can’t have her get any worse.”

Two days later, Len left to escort his wife to the mental hospital at Stockton with the hope that they could help her. He stayed with friends there hoping that she would be released soon. After six months, it was clear she would likely never be released as she became incoherent and then catatonic. Len came home. He found his home transformed.

Rend and Lake had their children home because the secondary school had opened. It only had a dozen students, but it was enough with two teachers to keep going. Adam and Rachel Leah were there as she had a belly that was swelling making it a bad idea to think of traveling to the Ponderosa for Christmas. The house was festooned with bright bows and decorations. When the Cartwrights arrived with pine boughs and mistletoe, the house smelled like Christmas too.

Len and Ben sat in chairs by the fireplace sharing brandies and cigars. Len told Ben he was going to enjoy being a grandfather. Ben raised his glass in a toast to that.

The brothers were all standing together watching the ladies and the youngsters decorate cookies. Joe looked at Adam.

“To think this all started because you had a fight and got knocked into the forge where you burned your, ah, hmm.”

And another story had to be told.

 

 

Tags:  Adam Cartwright