5

When Ben arrived at the Hansen’s just outside of town, the place seemed empty. There were no animals about and the cottage itself had a coldness to it that suggested long abandonment, although it had been little more than twenty-four hours since the children had been sent away.

“Mrs. Hansen?” Ben called out.

Receiving no answer, he stepped to the front porch and knocked on the door. “Mrs. Hansen?”

Still getting no reply, Ben tested the door. It was open.

“Mrs. Hansen?” He stepped into a darkened house. Every curtain and every shade had been drawn, blocking out the sun. “Hello? Mrs. Hansen? It’s Ben Cartwright.”

In the kitchen, he found the stove cold.

“Mrs. Hansen?”

Reaching a rear door, Ben stepped outside to the back of the cottage. It was there that he found the woman. She was sitting on the ground beside a tiny flower garden, leaning against a tree where a child’s swing swayed in a soft breeze.

“Mrs. Hansen?”

She turned her head lazily toward him without lifting it from the trunk of the tree. “Luther?” Her hair was in disarray, pulled and tangled by the bark that held some of it even now, and teased by the same breeze that played with the swing.

“It’s Ben Cartwright. I’ve come with news about…about the stagecoach.”

“Cartwright?” Her eyes opened wider, but still seemed to lack focus. “Mr. Cartwright,” she repeated then, as though the repetition would help her to remember the name. “I’m sorry. I’m just…so tired.”

“How long have you…have you been out here?”

She looked toward the barn. “Someone came for the horses. Yesterday. Yes. Yesterday afternoon.”

“You’ve been out here since yesterday afternoon?”

Her attention moved to the garden, and then she smiled. “This has always been my favorite part of the house. These flowers, they were the only things that always…always came back. And oh, how Mary loved this swing.”

Ben moved closer until he could kneel beside her. “Mrs. Hansen?” he said, gently touching her shoulder. “Why don’t you come inside with me now?”

The smile faded as she rolled her head slowly back and forth, heedless of the pull of the bark on her fine, auburn hair. “No. This is where I want to be. Just leave me right here, let me rest right here. Always.”

“Mrs. Hansen, you need to come inside.”

“Please.” A tear spilled down her cheek, cutting a trail through a fine layer of sand. “No. There’s nothing left in there.”

“Let me help you.”

“It’s too late. I’m too tired.”

“Then come inside and get some rest.”

“Rest. I’ve waited so long. So long. It…it just never got any better.”

“It will get better, if you let it.”

“No. No it won’t. For fifteen years I told myself that very thing. It will get better. It never did.”

“There’s always reason for hope.”

“I used to believe that.”

“What about your children? Surely they give you hope?”

She listlessly swiped at her tears, her hand quivering like the leaves in the tree above her. “Any hope belongs to them. I only hope…they can forget me, forget this place. They deserve…so much more.”

“They deserve their mother’s love.”

“They don’t deserve their mother’s curse.”

“You’re not cursed.”

“The past fifteen years have proved that I am.”

“When bad things happen, it doesn’t mean someone is cursed. It just means you need a little help. Let me help you.”

“Don’t you understand? It’s just too late. I’m tired, Mr. Cartwright. I’m so very, very tired.”

“Everyone gets tired now and then. It’s no reason to give up.”

“Of course. You can say that. You need to say that. Even I…I used to say that. When Luther died, that was the worst…the worst thing of all. Still somehow I knew I had to keep hoping. It was no reason to give up. I had to…to keep trying. For the sake of the children if not for myself. But….” She started to sob. “How can you? How much can you give to your children when there’s nothing left inside of you? No hope, no…no hope at all.”

Ben gently squeezed her shoulder.

“When that man came,” she went on, “to collect on Luther’s business dealings, that just…it ended for me. It ended it all. It was the last miserable thing I could let touch those…those beautiful babies of mine. I had to send them away. Don’t you see? I just had to.”

“No,” Ben said. “You didn’t have to. What you needed to do was ask for help. Now please, let me help you. You need those children as much as they need you. Why don’t I take you to them?”

When she gazed up at him, Ben saw a glimmer of hope in her eyes. “But it’s too late.”

“Come inside. Let’s get some food into you. And then we can talk about whether your children belong with you here, or you belong with your children in San Francisco.”

She stared back at him, seeming lost.

“Come.” He rose, guiding her gently by the elbow to ensure she would rise with him.

Minutes later, he stoked up her stove, his concerns about Joe certainly not abandoned, but set aside…because they could be…because Adam was on his way, and right now Mrs. Hansen needed Ben too much to allow him to turn away.

XxXxX

Adam was nearing Peter’s Station when he glimpsed movement on the hill ahead. He could almost believe the rocks themselves had shifted. Maybe the wind had stirred up a tiny whirlwind of sand.

No. The air was too still.

Slowing to a canter, Adam studied the hill. After a moment he started to make out the image of an animal…a mountain lion. It was crouched low and advancing toward something below. Tonight’s dinner, probably. Adam should just keep to the road and leave it be. Instead, he was drawn on by a bothersome sense of alarm. He kept edging forward, following the creature’s line of sight until he spotted a dark figure amongst the rocks. Closer still, and Adam began to realize the figure was not an animal. Worse, it was a child.

“Hyah!” Kicking his horse into a full gallop, Adam shouted and whistled, waving his hat and hoping to scare the beast away—or at least let it know this prey would not be the easy catch it had anticipated.

Clearly startled, the animal dropped to its hind quarters. It raised a paw to claw at the air, and opened its mouth wide, obviously voicing complaints Adam couldn’t hear over his own ruckus. Yet as Adam advanced, the creature’s defiance seemed to falter. It took a few steps backward, its head sinking low.

It could be a ploy. Adam knew he hadn’t won yet. Refusing to drop his guard, he neither slowed nor quieted.

Angered again, perhaps by Adam’s own defiance, the mountain lion started a slow run in his direction.

Good. At least it had lost its focus on the child.

Adam dropped his hat and reached for his sidearm; but before he could take aim, the animal pulled back and dashed toward the distant hills.

It might still be a ploy, but Adam doubted it. The animal would have to be starving to keep waging an attack on prey that fought back. Still, Adam kept his eyes on it as he approached the huddled figure. It wasn’t until the creature disappeared into the distance that he jumped from his horse and hurried toward the child.

“It’s alright,” he said to announce his approach. “It’s gone.”

The boy was curled up into a small ball with his arms over his head. Adam could only imagine he had been trying to hide, like Joe used to do when he’d been that age, pulling the bed covers over his head so the monsters in his nightmares couldn’t see him.

“You’re safe now.” Adam gently touched the child’s shoulder.

Slowly, the boy raised his head. “Are you sure it’s gone?”

“Yes. I’m sure.” Adam smiled. “What’s your name?”

The boy sniffed. “James.”

“Well, hello James. I’m Adam.”

“Adam?”

“That’s right.”

“Adam Cartwright?”

Adam cocked his head, curious. “Yes.”

“You’re Mr. Cartwright’s brother.”

“You mean Joe?”

The boy nodded.

Adam chuckled. “Yes, I’m Joe’s brother. And I’d guess your last name must be Hansen.”

The boy nodded again.

“Well, James Hansen, what are you doing way back here? I didn’t expect to run into you for a few miles yet.”

“You were looking for me?”

Adam nodded. “I was looking for all of you, including my brother.”

The boy pointed west. “They’re back that-a-way.”

“How far back?”

He shrugged. “Pretty far.”

“Then what are you doing here by yourself?”

The boy pulled his shoulders back and tried to sit up straight. “I’m going home.”

“Home? You mean back to Virginia City?”

“That’s right. I’m going home.”

“All by yourself?”

“I can do it. All I have to do is follow the road.”

“Of course you can. But wouldn’t you rather be with your brothers and sister?”

The boy shrugged and looked to the ground. “Yes. But I want to be with momma, too. I don’t like it out here. I want to go home.”

When James started whimpering, Adam tucked his finger under the boy’s chin. “Why don’t we go back to see your brothers and sister first? How’s that sound?”

“But I don’t want to go back there. I want to go home!”

“Don’t you think they’d like to know where you are? To know you’re safe?”

James shrugged.

“My guess is they’re pretty worried about you by now. So why don’t we go and let them know you’re alright?” Adam rose and held out his hand, silently inviting the boy to take it.

James stared up at him, sniffling. “Will you take me home, then?”

Adam knew he couldn’t make a promise like that. Still, there was something he could do. “How would you like to send a message to your mother?”

“A message?”

“That’s right. There’s a way station just up ahead. You would have passed it a little while ago to get out here.”

James gazed up the road and nodded.

“Well, they have a telegraph machine. We can use that to tell your mother you miss her, and you want to go home.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. We’ll send the message, and then we’ll go see your brothers and sister while we wait for a reply.”

Finally, the boy raised his hand, grasping for Adam’s.

XxXxX

Adam met up with Jed Ralston shortly after leaving Peter’s Station.

“Hey there, Adam!” the driver called over to him. “I was lookin’ for a stray. Looks like you found ‘im for me.”

“Sure did.” Adam smiled. “I understand you have a stray of mine.”

Jed nodded. “Little Joe.”

James Hansen swiveled himself around on the saddle to look up at Adam. “Why do you call him ‘little’?”

“I suppose it’s because he was little when we named him.”

“He ain’t little now.”

Adam’s smile widened as he imagined Joe standing alongside Hoss, but he simply said, “Names have a way of sticking with people.”

“Boy,” Jed said when they caught up with him, “that older brother of yours like to chew your head off when you get back there. What were you thinkin,’ wanderin’ off like that?”

His lower lip curling out into a pout, James silently moved his eyes to the ground.

“He’s just a little homesick,” Adam said in his behalf.

Jed turned to Adam. “How’d your brother get his self involved with those young’uns anyway?”

“Let’s just say his heart thinks more than his head sometimes.”

Jed laughed. “Well, I got to hand it him. He was doin’ a fair job of it up ’til the wreck.”

The wreck. That one word completely refocused Adam’s thoughts. “What exactly happened?”

“We hit us a couple of mean ruts, but I don’t think that’s what done it. Way the kids tell it, that Gainsby fellow started a fight with Little Joe over a cigar.”

“He’s a bad man, Mr. Adam,” James said then. “His cigar was makin’ Mary sick. Me, too. But he wouldn’t put it out. Then he started wrastling with Mr. Cartwright over it. And then we hit a bump that shot me clean up to the ceiling. And then we started fallin’ all on top of each other.”

“Sound like you had quite a bit of excitement,” Adam said.

“Mary was crying, but not me,” James announced proudly.

“I’m sure you weren’t.” Adam looked to Jed. “How does Joe tell it?”

“Can’t say as I’ve got around to askin’ him, yet. But that Gainsby fellow, he says Joe grabbed his cigar and then threw him out of his seat, slammin’ him up against the side of the coach, and that’s what knocked it over.”

“Nuh-uh,” James chipped in. “That’s what the bad man did to Joe. I mean Mr. Cartwright.”

Jed nodded. “Seems more like. It was Joe ended up underneath all of ’em, not Gainsby. Joe took the brunt of it; that’s for sure.”

“How bad?”

“Nothin’s busted as I can tell. But he’s hurtin.’ His head’s the worst of it. Can’t stand for too long on account of it.”

“So much for going to San Francisco.”

“He’s a mule that brother of yours,” Jed went on. “And about as protective of these young’uns as a mother bear. He tried to go after this one afore I got back from the station. I hear he didn’t get too far. Then he made me promise I’d find ‘im.”

“Well, if I know Joe,” Adam gazed into the distance, as though he could see across the remaining miles to where his brother was waiting. “He’s going to keep trying.” Adam turned his attention back to Jed. “We sent a wire to Virginia City. I wonder if you’d mind waiting for a reply while I get James back to his family?”

“Don’t mind at all, Adam.” He tipped his hat.

Adam nudged his horse forward, and then held tight to James in preparation for as fast a ride as he dared.

XxXxX

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