Summary:\u00a0 \u00a0There\u2019s been some gossip in Virginia City about Ben Cartwright\u2019s new wife.<\/p>\n
My response to the September 2015 Chaps & Spurs Challenge<\/p>\n
Rating: K\u00a0 Word count: 581<\/p>\n
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Somebody Else’s Dog<\/strong><\/p>\n What was Ben Cartwright thinkin\u2019? A man with his looks – his money! \u2013 who wouldn\u2019t jump at the chance to marry a man like that? I could have named a dozen women, right here in Virginia City, who\u2019d have snapped him up. Instead of which, he took himself all the way to New Orleans and brought back that\u2026that Creole hussy!<\/p>\n I\u2019m not being unfair. I call it like it is. I\u2019ve heard the rumors. A little madam, that one, with her fancy ways and her air of superiority, when really she\u2019s no better than she ought to be. I\u2019ve seen her playin\u2019 the fine lady in that big ranch house out at the Ponderosa, when all the time she\u2019s flauntin\u2019 her finery and makin\u2019 eyes at any man who crosses her path. My Pa used to say, \u201cIf you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around.\u201d Reckon someone should tell that to Marie Cartwright! Put the little coquette in her place. She\u2019s no better than the rest of us, for all her pretty face and fancy dresses. And she don\u2019t treat Ben anywhere near as good as he deserves. Leastways, not in my opinion. He deserves a woman who\u2019ll look after him, appreciate what a fine man he is; not one who taunts him and tests his patience every day, and can\u2019t even cook him a decent meal. It\u2019s true. She can\u2019t, and that\u2019s common knowledge. Just as well he\u2019s got that Chinaman to look after his house and put the dinner on the table because his wife sure don\u2019t know how to do it. Considers herself way too good to be doing something as menial as lighting a stove. Instead, she spends her days riding out on that big fancy horse Ben bought for her. No sense of responsibility or decorum. I don\u2019t know why he indulges her when she behaves no better than a spoiled child.<\/p>\n Have you seen the way she parades herself through the town and flirts with all the men at the socials? I don\u2019t know why Ben doesn\u2019t give her a sound hiding and learn her a lesson in decorum. And the way she behaves with young Dan Mellish, it\u2019s simply a scandal! Making eyes at each other and trading smiles in public, like a pair of young lovebirds. If Ben hasn\u2019t noticed that, he\u2019s about the only one in territory who hasn\u2019t!<\/p>\n Men! They\u2019re all the same. Can\u2019t see past a pretty face. Even a man like Ben Cartwright who you\u2019d have thought would have had an ounce more sense, considering all he\u2019s been through. And with two young boys to think about. Surely he could have spared them a thought before he brought a woman like that back to his house. \u2018Tain\u2019t right to put someone with her reputation in charge of a couple of innocent children. And now they say she\u2019s expectin\u2019 one of her own. Well, pity the poor child! A woman like that ain\u2019t got no right to be bringin\u2019 a kid into the world in the first place, not when she don\u2019t know how to behave proper herself. Strikes me, when that baby arrives, the chickens\u2019ll soon be home to roost. If that baby grows up to look anything like Ben Cartwright, I\u2019ll eat my hat!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tags:\u00a0 Ben Cartwright,\u00a0Marie Cartwright<\/p>\n