“I can’t!”

“Cartwrights don’t say can’t. You just need a little practice.”

“No! I can’t. I ain’t you, Adam.” Adam chewed his lower lip and studied his younger brother. Hoss could be mule stubborn, and he had that look on his face.

“Well, then don’t. Just go right ahead and spoil everything we planned.” Adam’s hands had settled on his hips, and he glared into Hoss’s face.

“We didn’t plan nothing; you did. You planned, and you told, and me and Little Joe are just supposed to follow orders like always, but this time I ain’t. I ain’t gonna get up in front of folks and make no fool of myself. You and Little Joe can do it.”

“I ain’t doing it if you don’t, Hoss. I don’t sing good neither.”

Hoss looked down at the four-year-old. “You don’t have to. You just have to smile and look like one of them ch..cher..baby angels, and nobody’s gonna laugh at you.”

“I ain’t no baby!” Little Joe stomped his foot for emphasis.

“You’re not an angel either, but that’s beside the point.” Adam sighed and placed his hand on Little Joe’s head. “I just…well, if that’s the way you feel, Hoss. I thought that you’d want to please Marie and Pa and… well, if you won’t, you won’t.” Adam turned on his heel and walked toward the barn.

Hoss and Little Joe stood silently and followed Adam’s departure with their eyes. A minute after he disappeared from sight, Little Joe tugged on Hoss’s sleeve. “You knowed most of the words; I knowed lots of them.”

“It’s not remembering the words.” Hoss bit his lower lip then smiled down at his brother. “You’re smart as a whip; you’d know all the words by the party.”

Little Joe kicked a stone lying near his foot. “We sing with Pa and Mama.”

“Pa and Mama ain’t all the folks that will be at the party.”

“You don’t sing very bad.” Little Joe’s gazed turned toward the barn door.

“I don’t sing very good either.” Hoss’s eyes traveled toward the barn also.

“Adam was sad.” Little Joe’s observation ended with an exaggerated sigh.

“He had ideas. It would be nice us singing to Mama and all for an anniversary present, if…” Hoss gave a disgusted snort. “It would if I could carry a tune in a bucket.”

Little Joe’s brow wrinkled. “Nobody carries tunes in a bucket. Buckets is for water, and oats, and…”

“And tunes are for Adam not for me. Adam can play and sing, and folks will enjoy it.”

Little Joe nodded. “Adam’s big; he can do stuffs by hisself; we don’t got to help him.” When Hoss failed to comment, Little Joe gazed upward to study his brother’s face. “Why’d Adam want us to help him?”

“He..he always…just because is all.” Hoss studied the barn door for another minute. “I got chores.” He turned and walked away toward the wood pile.

*****

Hoss opened the door and slipped into his older brother’s room.

“You are supposed to knock.” Adam did not bother to raise his eyes from his book.

“You don’t.” Hoss crossed the room to stand beside the bed.

“I’m older.” Adam closed the book and shifted his body to make room for Hoss. Hoss remained on his feet.

“Are you gonna sing that song for Mama yourself?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I’m just not.”

“ ‘Cause things gotta always be the way you planned or no way at all.”

“I don’t want to fight about it, Hoss. I thougt it would be nice, a present from all of us, but if you and Little Joe…”

“Don’t blame Little Joe, he…”

“I’m not blaming anybody. You won’t, so that’s that.”

Hoss plopped down on the bed, and Adam swung his legs off, so that the brothers were sitting side by side staring at the braided rug on the floor.

“I can’t do it. Not good enough.”

“And you’re the only judge of what’s good enough.” The acerbic edge to Adam’s voice caused Hoss to look at his brother.

“It would sound better if you sang by yourself. You’ve done it before in front of folks.”

“That wasn’t the point. If you don’t see that…”

“Folks will…”

“No one’s going to laugh.”

Hoss’s fingers rubbed the surface of the bed quilt. “Maybe not ‘cause most folks is polite when they’s visiting, but…” He felt the heat of friction beneath his fingertips and the heat of flushing blood in his face. “You’d be good, real good, and Little Joe would be a..ador…”

“Adorable”

“Yeah, adorable, and I… I’d just be…” Hoss’s voice faded to barely more than a breath. “Pitiful.”

Hoss felt the bed rebound as Adam pushed himself to his feet. “Don’t, don’t you dare think that!”

“Don’t have to be the one to think it; other folks will.”

“Eric Gunnar Cartwright!” Each name shot from Adam’s mouth like a bullet. “Do you think, do you really think I would… that I would…” Adam drew in a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I would never ask you to do something if I thought it would hold you up to…”

“I know; I know that, but…” Hoss’s fingers once again rubbed repeatedly over the quilt. “You wouldn’t never see it that way, even, even if the whole rest of the world did. You don’t see the same thing other folks do when it comes to me.”

Adam opened his mouth and then closed it. He tugged his left ear and sat down beside his brother. “Folks will tell you that I see things for what they are.”

“Yeah, ya do. Thing is I’m your brother.” The corner of Hoss’s lips turned upward. “Your little brother, and you don’t never see nothing else when you look at me.”

“Should I?”

“Guess not, guess I wouldn’t really want ya to, still…”

“You don’t have to sing; it was just a thought.”

“It were a nice thought, a real nice thought.” Hoss turned toward his brother. “If I could do it, well, even just passable, but…”

Adam swallowed. “I think you could. I think with some teaching and some practice you could.”

“I don’t know.”

“What if we try, if we practice and then decide if it’s good enough?”

“Who’s gonna say if it’s good enough? Like I said you…”

“Not me, no, somebody…” Adam’s right hand began tugging his ear once more. “Hop Sing! We’ll do it for Hop Sing.”

“Hop Sing wouldn’t…”

“No, he wouldn’t, but, well, we could tell if he was just being kind or if he thought it was fine, and you can have the final say. If you decide not to do it, there will be no recriminations.”

“Re..recrim…nations?”

“Recriminations.” Adams dimples flashed as he slapped Hoss on the back. “I won’t pout, not even a little.”

Hoss snorted, smiled, and then held out his hand to seal the agreement.

*****

“Do we have ta do it again?” Little Joe gave his brothers his most woebegone gaze.

“Just once more to practice. Then we’re gonna sing it just for Hop Sing.” Hoss exchanged a glance with Adam.

“Hop Sing’s not going to the party?” Little Joe’s brow furrowed with concern.

“He’s gonna be at the party sure, but he’s got things to do, and, well, we’re gonna sing it for him today just in case he doesn’t get to hear it good tomorrow.”

“Oh. Okay.” Little Joe gave an overblown sigh and stood straighter. Hoss placed his arm around Joe’s waist and pulled him snuggly into his side.

“Now, just relax and don’t strain. Let your voice follow mine.” Adam’s fingers plucked the first notes, and they began. When the last notes faded, Little Joe darted off calling for Hop Sing.

Hop Sing came down the path following the little boy who tugged at his hand. “What boys need now? Hop Sing very busy. Have much work. Party tomorrow. Much, much work. No time for foolishment.”

“This isn’t foolishment, Hop Sing. It’s a very important matter that can be entrusted to only a man of great wisdom and discernment.”

At Adam’s pronouncement, Hop Sing cocked his head and wiped his hands on his apron. “What you need?”

“We need ya to listen. Listen and tell us what you think.” Hoss’s voice carried a deep seriousness.

“Listen to what?”

“Our present. Our present for Mama and Pa.” Little Joe bounced on his toes as he went to stand beside Hoss.

“We plan to sing this for them at the party.” Adam cleared his throat. “That is if you think it would be, um, appropriate, umm, appreciated.”

Hop Sing’s eyes grew serious as his hand gestured for the boys to begin. Once again Hoss’s arm encircled Little Joe’s waist. Hoss drew in a deep breath and focused his eyes on Hop Sing’s face as the music began.

Little Joe barely waited for the final note before he bounded forward. “Were we good? Were we good?”

Hop Sing took a moment to look at each boy before him. “Good. Boys sing good. Parents be proud, very proud. Hop Sing go back to kitchen. Boys come. Hop Sing have extra sweets for boys. Have one now.” Hop Sing turned as Little Joe cheered and started for the house at a run.

Adam focused his gaze on Hoss and raised his eyebrow in inquiry.

“We’ll do it. For Mama and Pa, we’ll do it.”

Adam smiled slow and deep as he slung his arm around his brother. “Let’s get some of those sweets.”

*****

Hoss set down the cake plate in his hand and tugged at the string tie around his throat. He walked over to the table that held both punch bowls. He picked up a cup of the sweet punch that had been poured out for the ladies and children. He drained the cup in two swallows and set the dainty crystal back on the table. Gazing at the “gentlemen’s” punch at the other end, he glanced around the room and then swiftly grabbed an already filled cup. Glancing around again, he saw his mother approaching and ducked around the table and behind a curtain.

“You’re a lucky woman, Marie, a very lucky woman. Why there’s not another husband in the territory who’d throw his wife such a party and then give her a necklace like that. Why you only been married five years, and he gives your pearls.” Mrs. Pettigrew raised her glasses to her eyes and stared straight at Marie’s throat.

“Benjamin is most generous.” Marie smiled and fingered the strand encircling her neck. “But…” The smile deepened on her face. “I am indeed a very lucky woman, but these are not the reason.” Marie’s eyes caught sight of Adam dancing with Lily Anne Spenser. “They are not even the finest present I received tonight.”

Amanda Pettigrew’s eyes followed Marie’s. “Oh, oh, yes, of course, the boys… it was quite touching, there were tears in a number of eyes when they sang.”

“It was beautiful, so beautiful.” Marie’s voice was soft and caressed the words.

“Yes, but that’s no surprise. Adam has such a fine voice, such a very fine voice, and Little Joe, well, he was like a little angel, yes, exactly like a little angel.” Marie nodded agreement. The curtain behind them moved slightly. Mrs. Pettigrew took time to lift a cup of punch to her lips and take a long sip. “I was surprised though at Hoss; I hadn’t realized he could sing, not like Adam, of course, but, well, he did very well, very well indeed. You and Ben must be very proud.”

“Our sons, they…they make us proud so often.”

“Like I said, Marie Cartwright, you are a very lucky woman.” Both women set down their cups as they caught sight of their husbands and went to join them.

Adam watched the curtain move and his brother slip from behind it. He saw the cup in Hoss’s hand and was across the room in four strides.

“Hoss, have you gone stark raving crazy!” The fact that the cups for the “gentlemen’s” punch were distinctly different from those meant to hold the non-alcoholic variety was something Adam had given due consideration earlier in the evening. “If Pa finds out you…”

“I didn’t have but a sip or two.”

“You’d better hope that’s a sip or two he never knows about.” Adam snorted and grabbed Hoss by the arm maneuvering him to the opposite side of the room. “Now, don’t you dare…” Adam stopped as he got a clear look at his brother’s eyes. He drew in a deep breath. “He didn’t see, or they’d have heard the bellow in Canada. I’m not going to tell, so you don’t have anything to worry about.”

“I ain’t worried.”

“No, I can see that you’re not.” Hoss had learned to recognize sarcasm in Adam’s voice years before he’d learned the word itself.

“I ain’t.” Hoss looked at Adam and rubbed is hand against his pant leg. “That ain’t why.”

“Then why?” Adam refrained from actually mentioning the tears he had seen.

“You had a real good idea,”

Adam took a moment to follow his brother’s thought. “My ideas are always good.” Adam expected Hoss’s elbow to contact his side, but Hoss simply sighed.

“I almost ruined it.”

“You didn’t.”

“We did good. Mama was real happy.”

“Pa too.” Adam’s arm came to rest across Hoss’s shoulders. “So next time you’ll just follow orders?”

This time Hoss’s elbow did find Adam’s stomach.