Series: Adam in the Outback (7 of 16)<\/p>\n
Summary: This is the seventh story in my Adam in the Outback series. The year 1889 is one of many reunions among family and friends of the Cartwrights when Adam and Bronwen bring their five children to visit the Ponderosa<\/p>\n
Rated: K+ \u00a0WC \u00a067,500<\/p>\n
Adam In The Outback Series:<\/strong><\/p>\n My True Love Hath My Heart – Part 1<\/a> Not part of the Adam in the Outback Series, but set in the same realm:<\/p>\n The Adventure of the Gooseberry Pie Eating Bear<\/a> The Country of the Heart<\/strong><\/p>\n “I see Grandpa!” fourteen-year-old Beth Cartwright said excitedly as she peered out of the window of the Pullman Palace car her family had traveled in from San Francisco to Carson City.<\/span><\/p>\n “Where?” her younger sister Gwyneth demanded, peering out the window as the train slowed. She was only eleven, but already nearly as tall as her older sisters.<\/span><\/p>\n “Oh, I see him!” thirteen-year-old Miranda exclaimed.<\/span><\/p>\n “I can’t see anything,” eight-year-old Penny pouted as she tried to push her older, much taller sisters out of the way.<\/span><\/p>\n “Here, Kitten,” Adam Cartwright said, scooping up his youngest daughter in his arms so she could see over the older girls’ heads. “There,” he said, pointing. “There’s your grandpa. Do you see him, Punkin?” he asked his third born.<\/span><\/p>\n “No-oh, yes, I do! And he’s waving to us,” Gwyneth exclaimed excitedly as she waved back. “And there’s Uncle Joe!”<\/span><\/p>\n “Penny, let your daddy hold A.C. so Grandpa can see him,” Bronwen commanded, and reluctantly Penny allowed her daddy to put her down and take her sixteen-month-old baby brother and hold him in his arms instead. Her mama put her hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “You’ll be able to see Grandpa in a moment.”<\/span><\/p>\n “I wish I was tall like Gwyneth,” the eight-year-old said with a pout.<\/span><\/p>\n “I used to wish I was tall, too,” Bronwen said to the daughter who resembled her so strongly that Adam always said the only thing Penny had inherited from him were her long, slender hands and feet. Just then, the porter opened the door to their car and Penny immediately rushed forward.<\/span><\/p>\n “Penny, wait,” Adam said firmly, and she halted with obvious reluctance. “Here, take my other hand,” he said with a wink. “You and I and A.C. will go together.”<\/span><\/p>\n “Right, Daddy,” she said with a happy grin, reaching up and putting her hand in his. When she got to the steps, her Uncle Joe, whom she recognized from his photograph, was there to greet her with a warm smile and sparkling green eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n “Hello, Penny,” he said, “let me help you down.” He put his hands around her waist and swung her effortlessly onto the platform by her grandpa.<\/span><\/p>\n “Can you give Grandpa a hug, Pretty Penny?” Ben asked, bending over, his deep chocolate-brown eyes twinkling at his granddaughter.<\/span><\/p>\n “Too right!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly.<\/span><\/p>\n Then Adam stepped beside Penny, and Ben straightened up and said with an enormous smile, “Now, this must be my newest grandson. Hello, A.C.” A.C. grinned and when Ben held out his arms, the toddler let Adam hand him to Ben without any reluctance. “My, you are a big boy,” Ben said, “and I see you have your daddy’s dimples.”<\/span><\/p>\n “And your eyes,” Adam added with a proud smile, for of all his children, only his youngest had Ben’s dark brown eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Joe had been helping the other members of Adam’s family onto the platform. First, he assisted tall, gangly Gwyneth, whose unruly curls were tamed by being braided in pigtails. Then he assisted the petite Miranda, whose softer curls were brushed back from her face and held in place by a big bow. Joe’s eyes widened at the sight of his oldest niece; the last photograph Adam had sent had been taken almost a year ago and the transformation from lovely girl to breathtakingly beautiful young woman was almost complete. She might still be wearing her hair so it flowed down her back to her waist and the shorter skirts of young girls, but somehow that only emphasized her femininity. Joe had always thought he would never see a woman whose beauty could match his Annabelle’s, but now he was beginning to reconsider. He had planned to swing her off the platform just as he had his younger nieces, but instead he offered her his arm.<\/span><\/p>\n “Thank you, Uncle Joe,” she said with a coquettish smile, and then he turned to his sister-in-law.<\/span><\/p>\n “Hello, Bronwen,” he said with a warm smile. “My goodness, you look much too young and lovely to be the mother of all these children.”<\/span><\/p>\n “Still the flatterer I see, Joe,” she replied with an answering smile as he took her arm and assisted her off the train and onto the platform.<\/span><\/p>\n A.C. saw her and shouted, “Mama!” and began squirming to get down.<\/span><\/p>\n “Here I am, A.C. bach,” she said, hurrying over and taking him from Ben, who bent down and kissed her cheek. “It’s so good to see you, Pa,” she said, returning his kiss. “Well, what do you think of your grandchildren?”<\/span><\/p>\n “I think they are four of the prettiest girls I’ve ever seen, and this is one of the handsomest young men,” and Ben pinched A.C.’s chubby cheek lightly. A.C. giggled delightedly and his grandfather grinned, remembering another chubby toddler with sandy blond hair and sky blue eyes who’d had that same sunny disposition.<\/span><\/p>\n “I suppose Annabelle, Benj and Sarah are at the ranch,” Bronwen then said to Joe, who nodded.<\/span><\/p>\n “Jacob drove the buckboard into town,” he added, gesturing to the tall ranch hand who’d been born a slave but had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation while still a child. “He’ll get your luggage and bring it to the ranch.”<\/span><\/p>\n “I’ll just go give him the baggage tickets,” Adam stated and immediately Penny asked eagerly, “May I come with you, Daddy?”<\/span><\/p>\n “I’m not going very far, but you may come, too,” he replied with a grin for his Kitten, and they set off hand in hand.<\/span><\/p>\n “We’ll escort the rest of you ladies to the surrey,” Ben said, offering his arm to Bronwen. Joe offered his to Beth, who smiled at him, while her younger sisters rolled their eyes. They didn’t have long to wait before they spied Adam and Penny, who was skipping along to match her daddy’s long stride. Ben and Joe exchanged grins when Adam loosened his tie, stuffed it in the pocket of his frock coat and then took the coat off and slung it over the front seat of the surrey.<\/span><\/p>\n As the family headed for the ranch, the four adults exchanged smiles, listening to all the girls but Gwyneth chattering away. After hearing about their journey through the outback to Townsville and then their voyage across the Pacific to San Francisco and the train ride from San Francisco to Carson City, Ben commented, “So Beth and Miranda, I understand you are going to be paying a visit to Boston with your daddy and your Aunt Annabelle.”<\/span><\/p>\n “Too right!” Miranda exclaimed enthusiastically. “We’re going to meet Aunt Annabelle’s brother and his family because if I get to attend the Girls’ Latin School, then I will live with them. And Daddy said he’ll take us to visit the Harvard Yard so we can see where he went to college.”<\/span><\/p>\n “And he’ll take us to see a play at the Boston Museum. Isn’t it odd that they call a theater a museum?” Beth added.<\/span><\/p>\n “Actually, Princess, I’d say it’s pretty typical of Bostonians,” Adam commented dryly.<\/span><\/p>\n “What do you mean?” Bronwen asked curiously.<\/span><\/p>\n “Boston was originally settled by Puritans, and they viewed theaters as sinful. Calling a theater a museum makes it sound less immoral. My friend, Thomas Collingsworth, wrote me about attending Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore at the Boston Museum, the first production staged in this country. I’m hoping to take the girls to see one of their operas.”<\/span><\/p>\n “And we’re going to stay at the Parker House,” Beth interjected. “Daddy said we can eat at the restaurant and order Parker House Rolls and Boston Cream Pie!”<\/span><\/p>\n “Thomas mentioned them when he recommended the Parker House,” Adam said, a tiny grin quirking up the corner of his mouth at his daughter’s enthusiasm. “I remembered that Edwin Booth wrote me that he always stayed at the Parker House when he appeared in Boston.”<\/span><\/p>\n “I want to go to Boston, too,” Penny said with a pout, and Ben turned around to face her.<\/span><\/p>\n “But I was looking forward to spending time with you and Gwyneth and A.C.,” he said with a smile. “You don’t want to disappoint Grandpa, do you?”<\/span><\/p>\n “No,” Penny said slowly, obviously torn by her desire to go to Boston with her daddy and big sisters, and wanting to spend time with her grandpa.<\/span><\/p>\n “I have a Shetland pony for you to ride while you’re here like the one your cousin Benj rides,” Joe added with his most engaging grin.<\/span><\/p>\n “Oh, I want to see the pony,” Penny said excitedly. “I have the sweetest little pony at home. Her name is Muffin \u2018cause she’s brown like the muffins Nell bakes us.”<\/span><\/p>\n Adam sighed in relief. He hated disappointing his Kitten, but he and Bronwen had decided it was a good idea for him to spend some time alone with Beth and Miranda.<\/span><\/p>\n Joe grinned then saying, “Well, this little pony is brown as well with a mane that’s golden.”<\/span><\/p>\n “Oh, I just know I’m going to love her,” Penny said excitedly. “May I go for a ride when we get to the ranch house? Please, Daddy? Please, Mama?”<\/span><\/p>\n “I’d like to go for a ride, too,” Gwyneth said. “May we, please?”<\/span><\/p>\n “If your Uncle Joe would be willing to take you, then it’s fine with Mama and me,” Adam replied, as Bronwen nodded her agreement. “What about it, Uncle Joe?”<\/span><\/p>\n “Sure, I expected they’d want to go for a ride,” Joe replied with a grin. “What about Beth and Miranda?” and they both said they’d like to go as well.<\/span><\/p>\n “But aren’t you and Mama coming?” Penny asked anxiously.<\/span><\/p>\n “No. A.C. needs to take a nap and Mama and I would also like to rest,” and Adam turned his head so he and Bronwen could share a smile.<\/span><\/p>\n “Oh, Uncle Joe,” Beth said, “You know Miranda and I don’t ride ponies any more? We have Welsh cobs.”<\/span><\/p>\n “Yes, I remember you each wrote us that you got a cob for your thirteenth birthday,” Joe replied with a grin. “And I knew from what your daddy wrote that Gwyneth is too tall to ride the Shetland pony that she rode the last time you visited. I picked out a mustang pony for her and a couple of Quarter Horse geldings for you and Miranda to choose from. One is dappled gray and one is grullo.” His expression grew more serious as he said to his brother, “I knew you’d want to choose your own mount.”<\/span><\/p>\n Adam nodded and then added somberly, “It will seem strange not to see Sport. Of all my mounts, he was my favorite.”<\/span><\/p>\n “Not Zephyr?” Gwyneth asked in surprise, for she knew her daddy’s deep attachment to his blood bay Waler.<\/span><\/p>\n “Zephyr is my second favorite,” Adam answered, turning round to smile at his serious third born.<\/span><\/p>\n “We still have Rosebud,” Joe said to Bronwen. “Annabelle rides her occasionally, but we always think of her as your horse.”<\/span><\/p>\n The conversation turned to horses then, with the girls all wanting to tell their grandpa and uncle about theirs. A.C. fell asleep and Bronwen cautioned the girls to be quiet when they arrived at the ranch so they didn’t wake him up.<\/span><\/p>\n “He has the room across the hall from ours?” Adam asked Ben quietly, and Ben nodded.<\/span><\/p>\n When they pulled into the yard, Adam and Joe helped the girls down. Then Bronwen carefully handed the sleeping A.C. to his daddy before Joe helped her down. The girls ran straight for the corral, not even noticing their aunt and cousin sitting on the porch, which caused their mama to sigh and their daddy to grin.<\/span><\/p>\n “I’ll get him settled,” Adam said softly to Bronwen. “That will give you a chance to say hello to Annabelle.” He smiled at his sister-in-law and the blond-haired little boy sitting next to her but continued into the house. Bronwen was right behind him and said, \u2018Oh, Annabelle, it is so good to see you again! And I think this must be Benj,” as she seated herself by her beautiful sister-in-law. She had forgotten just how beautiful Annabelle was and found herself feeling very small and thin. Annabelle, however, saw with envy that Bronwen still had her petite and delicate figure even after giving birth to her fifth child. She had never managed to lose all the weight she had gained when she was pregnant with her daughter, Sarah. Joe told her that he preferred the more voluptuous figure she had now, but Annabelle felt fat next to her diminutive sister-in-law.<\/span><\/p>\n “Benj, can you say hello to your Aunt Bronwen?” she asked. Benj looked at Bronwen with big, round blue eyes and moved closer to his mother.<\/span><\/p>\n “He’s a little shy,” Annabelle said and Bronwen smiled at her nephew.<\/span><\/p>\n “He can’t be any shyer than Gwyneth,” she said. “I expect Sarah is taking a nap just like A.C.,” and Annabelle nodded.<\/span><\/p>\n Just then Ben and Joe shepherded the girls over. Annabelle remembered thinking that Beth had been an extraordinarily beautiful child six years ago, and now she was an exquisitely beautiful young woman. Of course, Miranda and Gwyneth were also very pretty girls and Penny was adorable-so dainty and vivacious.<\/span><\/p>\n “Hello, Aunt Annabelle,” Penny said with a radiant smile, bobbing a curtsey. “I’m very happy to see you.”<\/span><\/p>\n “And I’m happy to see you. My, you have certainly grown up.” Penny beamed at her aunt’s words.<\/span><\/p>\n “Hello, Aunt Annabelle,” the three older girls chorused and curtseyed.<\/span><\/p>\n “Benj, these are your cousins,” Annabelle said but the little boy only stared at the strangers timidly.<\/span><\/p>\n “There’s more room inside,” Ben suggested so they all moved to the great room. Joe, Bronwen and the girls sat on the settee while Ben sat in his favorite chair and Annabelle sat in the blue velvet chair, holding Benj on her lap. Adam came down the stairs just as they were sitting down and perched on the arm of the settee by Gwyneth.<\/span><\/p>\n “I’m glad that boy of ours is such a sound sleeper. I laid him in the crib and he never woke up,” he announced with a big grin. “Sorry I didn’t stop and say hello, Annabelle, but I wanted to put him down for his nap.”<\/span><\/p>\n “I understood,” she said with a smile.<\/span><\/p>\n “Now this young man must be my nephew, Benj,” Adam said with a friendly smile but the four-and-a-half-year-old only stared at him.<\/span><\/p>\n “I’m afraid he’s a little overwhelmed at meeting all of you,” Annabelle said quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n “We’ve shown him photographs,” Joe interjected, “but I guess it’s different, seeing you all here in person.”<\/span><\/p>\n “Gwyneth was just as shy when she was that age, weren’t you, Punkin?” Adam asked, giving one of her pigtails a teasing tug.<\/span><\/p>\n “Oh Daddy!” she said, her cheeks turning very pink.<\/span><\/p>\n “Gwyneth’s still shy,” Penny said cheekily.<\/span><\/p>\n “Whereas Penny doesn’t know the meaning of the word,” Adam said with a grin.<\/span><\/p>\n “Can we go for our ride now?” Penny asked then. “Please?”<\/span><\/p>\n “Sure,’ Joe replied, “but now remember, girls, a short ride this time since you haven’t ridden a horse for quite a while.” He picked up the carpet bag that Bronwen had given him at the train station and that he’d carried inside. “I imagine your riding clothes are packed in here.”<\/span><\/p>\n “Right,” Bronwen replied.<\/span><\/p>\n “Here, girls, I’ll show you to your rooms,” Annabelle said, setting Benj on his feet and then standing up. “Benj, why don’t you go sit with Daddy?”<\/span><\/p>\n “C’mon Pardner,” Joe said to Benj. “You wanna go for a ride with me and your cousins?” The child thought for a moment and nodded, before climbing up beside his daddy.<\/span><\/p>\n “Now girls, be very quiet so you don’t wake up your brother,” Adam said firmly as they all prepared to go upstairs.<\/span><\/p>\n “And no running,” Bronwen added, causing Ben and Joe to share a smile.<\/span><\/p>\n “Older Brother is going to have his hands full in another year or two,” Joe said to Ben with a wink. “Beth is certainly a beauty.”<\/span><\/p>\n “Yes, and I’m happy to see she’s not at all vain. Adam and Bronwen have done a good job there,” Ben said.<\/span><\/p>\n “Yes, they have, but now that she’s becoming a woman, boys and men are going to be paying her plenty of compliments and it will be harder for her not to have her head turned,” Joe said in a more serious vein.<\/span><\/p>\n “That is true,” Ben said slowly, “but I think that young lady has a level head on those lovely shoulders,” and after a moment’s reflection, Joe nodded.<\/span><\/p>\n “Can we go for our ride, Daddy?” Benj asked then, tugging on his daddy’s arm.<\/span><\/p>\n “Just as soon as your cousins are ready, Pardner,” Joe answered, tousling his son’s golden hair, which he wore longer than Ben approved of. But, Ben reminded himself, Benj is Joe and Annabelle’s son and I have no say in the length of his hair.<\/span><\/p>\n Penny came skipping down the stairs a few minutes later, her straight black hair in a long braid that hung down her back, wearing a pair of knickerbockers that were hand-me-downs from her cousin, Llywelyn, and a sailor blouse. “Look! Aunt Annabelle braided my hair,” she said as she pirouetted for her grandpa and uncle. “She said it’s a French braid.”<\/span><\/p>\n “Very fetching,” Ben said with a smile.<\/span><\/p>\n Then Annabelle and Gwyneth came down the stairs, Gwyneth dressed in an outfit similar to her sister’s, except that her pigtails were stuffed under a cap just like the ones Llywelyn wore.<\/span><\/p>\n Oh my goodness, Joe thought, she certainly has inherited Adam’s long legs!<\/span><\/p>\n With a smile Ben said, “Gwyneth, you look just like your daddy did when he was eleven,” and Penny put a hand over her mouth to smother her giggles.<\/span><\/p>\n “May we go saddle our ponies, Uncle Joe?” Gwyneth asked, grinning at the idea that Daddy had once looked like her.<\/span><\/p>\n “Well, why don’t I come with you,” Joe said, standing up. “Our saddles are much bigger and heavier than what you’re used to. Let’s go, Pardner,” he said, holding out his hand to Benj.<\/span><\/p>\n “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing girls wearing knickerbockers,” Annabelle said quietly to her father-in-law, “but I have a feeling that Joe is going to want to teach Sarah to ride astride.”<\/span><\/p>\n “I think it really is safer, my dear,” Ben said gently. He smiled inwardly for even after five years here on the Ponderosa, Annabelle still dressed as she had in Boston and was now attired in a fashionable silk dress, her honey-blonde hair carefully swept up in a knot on the top of her head with small, curled tendrils on her forehead to soften the effect. “Little Penny looks as cute as a button,” he added with a fond smile, “and Gwyneth reminds me so much of her daddy at the same age it’s uncanny.”<\/span><\/p>\n “I only had a quick glimpse of A.C., but I don’t think he looks that much like Adam,” Annabelle commented.<\/span><\/p>\n “No,” Ben agreed. “I can see a little of both his parents though. He has Adam’s chin and his mama’s eyes, even if the color is dark brown.”<\/span><\/p>\n Miranda and Beth came down the stairs then, each with her hair braided into a single plait that hung down her back like Penny’s, and wearing outfits identical to the younger girls.<\/span><\/p>\n “The others are saddling up,” Ben said with a smile. Beth was undoubtedly the most beautiful of his granddaughters, but Miranda’s resemblance to her grandmother, Elizabeth, only increased as she grew older. Ben saw with a pang that she was only a little younger than his first love when they’d met: a bashful eighteen-year-old who was third officer on her father’s ship and a lovely and spirited girl of fifteen. He watched the two girls hurry out to the corral with a wistful expression. Annabelle had seen the photographs of her father-in-law’s late wives, and said gently, “Miranda certainly favors her grandmother.”<\/span><\/p>\n “Yes, she does,” he replied. “Seeing her brings back so many happy memories. I wish Liz and I could have had more time, but then I’d never have known Inger or Marie.” He shook his head. “And now I’m becoming maudlin. Shall we wave goodbye?”<\/span><\/p>\n Bronwen looked in on her baby and saw he was sleeping peacefully so she joined her husband across the hall. The moment she entered the room, he clicked the lock into place. He’d already removed his starched white shirt, baring his muscular chest covered with black curls, and now he deftly unbuttoned her bolero jacket and frilly silk blouse and helped her tug them off. Her skirt and petticoat were the next to go and then she unbuttoned his trousers. He shucked them quickly, along with his cotton drawers, then swept her up in his arms.<\/span><\/p>\n Afterward they both drifted off to sleep, totally satisfied, but almost immediately they heard A.C. crying, “Mama! Mama!”<\/span><\/p>\n Adam sighed as he watched his wife slide out of bed. “At least he waited until we were finished,” he commented with a wry smile.<\/span><\/p>\n “Where did you put my spectacles?” she asked as she slipped on her lace-trimmed cotton drawers.<\/span><\/p>\n He chuckled and handed them to her before putting on his discarded drawers.<\/span><\/p>\n “Mama will be there in just a minute, A.C. bach,” she called as she put on her skirt and blouse as quickly as she could, not bothering with her corset or shoes and stockings.<\/span><\/p>\n Adam grinned as he buttoned his trousers, unlocked the door and walked across the hall barefoot and shirtless. He saw A.C. standing in the crib, crying hysterically.<\/span><\/p>\n “It’s all right, Jackeroo,” he said soothingly as he picked up the screaming child. “I’ll take you to Mama.”<\/span><\/p>\n Safe in his daddy’s arms, A.C’s screams quieted to hiccupping sobs but he practically jumped from his daddy’s arms to his mama’s, and then hung on with a stranglehold.<\/span><\/p>\n “A.C. bach, not so tight or Mama can’t breathe,” Bronwen said gently, patting her little boy’s back comfortingly.<\/span><\/p>\n “I hope Jacob gets here soon with our trunk,” Adam said as he put his shirt back on. “I’d like to put on some more comfortable clothes, but I know that there’s no point trying to put on any of my old clothes.” He sighed. “I’m getting fat.”<\/span><\/p>\n “You are not fat, Cariad,” she said firmly while he snorted, causing the baby to giggle through his tears. “Now, you may be a few pounds heavier, but you are not fat. You are a fine figure of a man. The handsomest man I know.”<\/span><\/p>\n “It’s not fair, you know,” he said with a grin. “The only reason I’ve gotten heavier is because you’re such a good cook, but you’re still so slim I can almost span your waist with my hands.” He grinned at his son then and said, “You know, A.C., your mama sure doesn’t look like she’s had five babies,” and A.C. grinned back while Bronwen’s cheeks turned pink. “How about that, Jackeroo, after all these years I can still make your mama blush,” he added with a wink.<\/span><\/p>\n “Oh, Adam,” she said with a mock frown, but she glowed inside. Maybe she wasn’t as beautiful as Annabelle, but she was loved, and that’s what really mattered.<\/span><\/p>\n “Daddy needs to hold you so Mama can finish getting dressed,” Adam said then, holding out his arms, and reluctantly A.C. allowed himself to be separated from his mama.<\/span><\/p>\n As they walked out the door, A.C. between his parents holding onto their hands, Adam noticed the two trunks sitting at the top of the stairs. “I guess Joe must have told Jacob not to disturb us,” he said with a little grin. “I don’t know about you, but I would like to change before I go down.’<\/span><\/p>\n “Yes, I would, too,’ she said.<\/span><\/p>\n “Wet,” the toddler announced then and Adam rolled his eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n “I guess we’ll all change clothes,” he said with a sigh. “You go ahead and I’ll change A.C. first.”<\/span><\/p>\n
\nMy True Love Hath My Heart – Part 2
\n<\/a>My True Love Hath My Heart – Part 3<\/a>
\nFamily Reunion<\/a>
\nCartwright is the Name<\/a>
\nA Son and Heir<\/a>
\nThe Country of the Heart<\/a>
\nTo Bloom in Another Man’s Garden – Part 1<\/a>
\nTo Bloom in Another Man’s Garden – Part 2<\/a>
\nIn Memoriam<\/a>
\nThe Marriage of True Minds – Part 1<\/a>
\nThe Marriage of True Minds – Part 2<\/a>
\nThe Marriage of True Minds – Part 3<\/a>
\nThe Joys of Parents<\/a>
\nGrow Old Along with Me<\/a>
\nThe Best is Yet to Be<\/a><\/p>\n
\nO’Tannenbaum<\/a><\/p>\n