Summary: Two years after he was bushwhacked, Joe Cartwright returns to Lone Pines and the Griswolds’ spread. Though he intends to stay for one night, circumstances beyond his control compel him to change his plans. Something is terribly wrong, and he is bound and determined to set it right – even if it it costs him his life. Slightly AU in that the eps ‘Forever’ never happened.<\/p>\n
Word count: 66, 499<\/p>\n
Rated: PG-13<\/p>\n
Author’s note: This story is a stand-alone not connected to any other tale or timeline I have created.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Blindsided<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n March 1873<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prologue<\/p>\n The tree looked as ancient and gnarled as the young man felt.<\/p>\n It had been a long hard ride and all he wanted to do was find some place to bed down and get some sleep, but something had drawn him into the desert to this place.<\/p>\n To this tree.<\/p>\n It was March and the tree was in bloom.\u00a0 Its yellow blossoms and sweet fragrant scent were inviting, but the young man \u2013 seasoned in the realities of the West \u2013 knew, like the desert itself, that appearances could be deceiving.<\/p>\n Most often were <\/em>deceiving.<\/p>\n Past the blossoms, beyond the scent, the tree\u2019s branches were covered in thorns.<\/p>\n He had his gloves on \u2013 just like he\u2019d had them on that other time \u2013 so he took hold of one of those branches and used it to steady himself as he knelt beside the tree.\u00a0 It was a healthy tree.\u00a0 It\u2019s feathery top reached nearly twenty feet into the sky, far beyond its normal range.\u00a0 That was because it had been watered.<\/p>\n With blood.<\/p>\n The young man let out a sigh.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t quite sure what had drawn him here.\u00a0 The path between where he was and where he intended to go was a straight one.\u00a0 Point A to point B.\u00a0 The Acacia tree was off the beaten path.\u00a0 It was a detour.<\/p>\n He snorted.<\/p>\n Or was it a diversion?<\/p>\n The cowboy reached out to scatter the sandy\u00a0 soil at the base of the tree\u2019s bifurcated trunk.\u00a0 After a moment, he removed his black gloves and dug into the dry dirt with his bare fingers, as if moving it with his flesh instead might \u2013 somehow \u2013 connect him to what had occurred here nearly two years before.\u00a0\u00a0 He didn\u2019t remember much.\u00a0 In fact, he remembered nothing at all of this place. \u00a0He only knew what he\u2019d been told.<\/p>\n He\u2019d almost died here.<\/p>\n Rising to his feet, the young man looked to the west.\u00a0 He had a choice to make.\u00a0 He could mount his horse and ride to the next town, and from there to Lone Pines, or he could take another detour.\u00a0 Tears kissed his eyes as he considered his choice.\u00a0 Life <\/em>had taken a detour the year before.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Not a detour.\u00a0 It had been derailed.\u00a0 Hop Sing often spoke of a balance.\u00a0 When one thing rises, another has to fall.\u00a0 Something is given, and something else is taken.<\/p>\n In other words, the ferryman had to be paid.<\/p>\n As he rose to his feet, he wavered.\u00a0 Striking out, he caught hold of the tree\u2019s trunk and balanced himself.\u00a0 He was tired.\u00a0 Dog <\/em>tired. \u00a0He doubted he could make it to the next town even if he wanted to.\u00a0 His choice was to sleep on the ground with scorpions as his companions, or to head for the ranch.\u00a0\u00a0 There were memories there he wasn\u2019t sure he wanted to face.\u00a0 Not of sickness or pain, though he\u2019d know that as well, but of the gentle giant who, like Atlas, had sat by his side keeping watch; the giant who had balanced his world on broad shoulders.<\/p>\n That balance was gone now.\u00a0 He was tilting, not at the wind, but toward the abyss.<\/p>\n The young man sniffed and struck tears away from his face with the back of his black glove.<\/p>\n He hated self-pity.<\/p>\n Joe Cartwright glared at the Acacia tree that had sheltered him all those months before when he lay dying of a bullet wound to the back and gave it a good swift kick.<\/p>\n Almost as much as he hated life.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n ONE<\/p>\n It was another day.<\/p>\n The young woman who stood with her hand on the kitchen pump let out a sigh before brushing a long lock of straight brown hair out of her eyes.\u00a0 She went to pick up the graniteware bowl that sat on the dry sink\u2019s top, but instead leaned both hands on its edge and closed her eyes.\u00a0 Her ma had made it clear to her when she was a little girl that life didn\u2019t just hand you what you wanted.\u00a0 That, in fact, it was downright unfair.<\/p>\n This last year had certainly proven that.<\/p>\n She was a willowy creature, tall for a woman, with a thin face, thinner waist, and long legs that put her waistline a good two inches above her ma\u2019s.\u00a0 Neither her ma or pa were tall, so she wasn\u2019t sure where it came from.\u00a0 Ma said it was great-grandma Ida on her mother\u2019s side, but there was no ferrotype to prove it.\u00a0 She\u2019d always felt awkward and shy because of it.\u00a0 Though she\u2019d only attended school for a few years before they moved to the ranch, it had been long enough to be bullied and bossed and called things like \u2018giraffe girl\u2019.\u00a0 She was shy by nature, but the treatment she\u2019d received there had made her withdraw even further into herself.\u00a0 It had come as a relief when Pa said they were going to move to the country to raise cattle.<\/p>\n The cattle wouldn\u2019t care how tall or ungainly she was.<\/p>\n She was tired.\u00a0 Not that that<\/em> was anything different from the day before or<\/em> the day before that.\u00a0 She was always <\/em>tired.\u00a0 In the last year she\u2019d had to do that thing Ma kept telling her she\u2019d have<\/em> to do one day \u2013 grow up.\u00a0 She realized now what a vain and idle creature she\u2019d been before.\u00a0 Maybe it was because of what her pa always said.\u00a0 He called her his \u2018princess\u2019 and, well, she just got it in her head that that\u2019s what she was.\u00a0 Where Ma was practical, Pa was a dreamer.\u00a0 When she should have been helping with the chores, he\u2019d swoop her up off the ground and they\u2019d go riding over the vast track of land that was their home.\u00a0 Pa talked about her future as they rode \u2013 how she\u2019d grow up to be a beauty and have boys waiting in line to court her, and how he\u2019d make enough money from the ranch that he could give her a sizeable dowry so she\u2019d be able to land a handsome, well-heeled husband.<\/p>\n The young woman opened her eyes and looked at her reddened and chaffed hands.\u00a0 Then she raised her head and stared at her reflection in the mirror that hung about the kitchen sink.\u00a0 She was nineteen, going on twenty, but she looked much older.\u00a0 The last year had aged her in more ways than she could name.\u00a0 No, make that the last two<\/em>.\u00a0 She reached out to touch the mirror, laying a finger on the shadow of a smile that curled her lips.\u00a0 Everything had changed the day he<\/em> came \u2013 the stranger her Pa had found in the desert with a bullet hole in his back.\u00a0 Up until that time she\u2019d been an innocent.<\/p>\n She was an innocent no more.<\/p>\n The sound of the door opening caused Julia Griswold to turn toward it.<\/p>\n \u201cI got the morning chores done,\u201d an earnest young voice asserted.\u00a0 \u201cIf you don\u2019t need any help in the house, Miss Julia, I\u2019m gonna head out and ride fence.\u201d<\/p>\n The young woman smiled.\u00a0 Ern was a sweet boy, but that\u2019s all he was \u2013 a boy.<\/p>\n \u201cNo.\u00a0 I\u2019m fine,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Ern\u2019s gaze went past her to the hall that led into the main bedroom.\u00a0 \u201cHow\u2019s your ma doin\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n She let out a little sigh.\u00a0 \u201cAbout the same.\u00a0 The Doc\u2019s supposed to come by soon.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s good.\u201d\u00a0 The young man paused.\u00a0 \u201cYou sure I can\u2019t do anythin\u2019 to help?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThank you for offering.\u00a0 I\u2019m gonna take this bowl in to Ma so she can get cleaned up, and then I\u2019m going to cook most of the day.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll check back come night fall then.\u201d\u00a0 He stared at her a moment.\u00a0 \u201cWith all that\u2019s been happenin\u2019, well\u2026you take care. \u201d<\/p>\n She nodded and then followed Ern to the door and watched him mount up and ride away.\u00a0 After that her eyes went to the barn with its burnt-out end, and then to the pasture where they\u2019d kept their extra horses until someone opened the gate and let them out.\u00a0 \u00a0Strange things had happened ever since\u2026well, for a year or so\u2026but they seemed to be happening with more frequency now.\u00a0 Her eyes went to the rifle leaning against the wall by the door.\u00a0 Her Pa\u2019d shown her how to use it when she was little \u2013 at Ma\u2019s insistence \u2013 but she didn\u2019t like it.\u00a0 She\u2019d never really learned how to use it.\u00a0 The idea of shooting a man \u2013 or anything<\/em> for that fact \u2013 made her queasy at her stomach.<\/p>\n She knew how to use it now.<\/p>\n As she stood there looking out, a lone figure came into her line of vision.\u00a0 Julia raised a hand and squinted against the dying sun.\u00a0 The stranger was coming in from the opposite direction their hand had taken, riding at a slow pace as if to let whoever lived on the ranch see he was coming.\u00a0 She reached for the gun and stepped out onto the porch and raised it.\u00a0 He was almost in the yard now.\u00a0 With a frown she noted the man was riding a black and white pinto and wearing an apple green jacket.<\/p>\n And that his hair was a wondrous tussle of silver and sable curls.<\/p>\n As he dismounted and turned toward her, Joe Cartwright raised his hands to a position of surrender. \u201cSo, you gonna shoot me or invite me in?\u201d he grinned.<\/p>\n Julia melted.\u00a0 She lowered the rifle and rested it beside the door.\u00a0 \u201cHello, Mister Cartwright.\u00a0 What brings you here?\u201d<\/p>\n He moved a step closer, and as he did the dying light struck those curls. They sparked just like Christmas tinsel in candlelight.<\/p>\n \u201cI was on my way to Lone Pines like before.\u00a0 I thought I would stop by and say hello.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia\u2019s eyes narrowed.\u00a0 There was something about the way he said that, that said that wasn\u2019t quite<\/em> true.\u00a0\u00a0 Or at least it wasn\u2019t all <\/em>of the truth.\u00a0 She looked at him closer.<\/p>\n Joe Cartwright looked older too.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, you\u2019re welcome here,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m afraid we haven\u2019t got much, but what we\u2019ve got, we\u2019ll share.\u201d<\/p>\n He shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t need much.\u00a0 Just a place to lay my head for the night.\u201d<\/p>\n She dared it.\u00a0 \u201cYou look tired.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe was studying her.\u00a0 \u201cYou do too,\u201d he said softly.<\/p>\n Julia reached up and pushed that stray lock of hair back again.\u00a0 \u201dI\u2019m all right.\u00a0 There\u2019s just a lot of work to do since\u2026.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Her eyes grew moist.\u00a0 She denied the tears.\u00a0 \u201cWell, since Ma took ill.\u201d<\/p>\n He was immediately concerned.\u00a0 \u201cWhat happened to your mother?\u201d\u00a0 Turning he looked around, seeming only then to note the vacant pens, the haphazardly mended fences, and the lack of ranch hands.<\/p>\n \u201cIs your father around?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n She shook her head.\u00a0 \u201cPa\u2019s\u2026gone.\u00a0 It\u2019s just Ma and me.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe nodded.\u00a0 \u201cWell, maybe before I pull out I can help Ern\u2026he\u2019s still with you, right?\u201d\u00a0 At her nod, he continued, \u201cMaybe I can help Ern fix up a few things.\u00a0 I\u2019m in no hurry.\u00a0 The horses I\u2019m picking up are already paid for.\u201d\u00a0 Joe paused and then added, his tone hushed.\u00a0 \u201cPa wouldn\u2019t let me come carrying money.\u201d<\/p>\n They\u2019d thought that was why he\u2019d been bushwhacked nearly two years back \u2013 his pa and big brother, Hoss, that was.\u00a0 Joe was carrying a large sum of money.\u00a0 In the end, it had been greed that had almost killed him, but that greed had nothing to do with the Ponderosa and everything to do with them.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t need to do that \u2013 \u201d<\/p>\n Joe\u2019s look stopped her.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t need to.\u00a0 I want <\/em>to.\u00a0 You and your parents\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 The handsome man drew in a breath.\u00a0 \u201cYou saved my life.\u201d<\/p>\n She hesitated and then nodded.\u00a0 \u201cOkay.\u00a0 Thank you.\u201d\u00a0 In truth she would have done just about anything to get him to stay for a few days.\u00a0 She\u2019d been a child when Joe Cartwright rode away nearly two years before.\u00a0 She was anything but <\/em>a child now.\u00a0 There\u2019d been boys who had come out to the ranch to see her.\u00a0 Even one who had asked for her hand before\u2026.\u00a0 Julia looked out to the east where she could just see a rider heading that way.\u00a0 Ern was in love with her.\u00a0 She knew it and he knew <\/em>she knew it, but there was nothing there.\u00a0 There couldn\u2019t be.\u00a0 Her heart belonged to the man who had occupied her bed for nearly a month, the one she\u2019d fear would die in it \u2013 the one who stood before her now and whom she had feared she would never see again.<\/p>\n \u201cMiss Julia?\u201d<\/p>\n She started and then laughed.\u00a0 \u201cJust Julia.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen you have to call me Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh, no!\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t do that.\u00a0 You\u2019re \u2013 \u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOld?\u201d he laughed.\u00a0 \u201cWell, I may be old, but \u2018Mister Cartwright\u2019 makes me feel even older.\u201d<\/p>\n He climbed the steps to the porch and came to rest at her side.\u00a0 There was about Joseph Cartwright an aura of strength and a fierce masculinity that was all but overwhelming.\u00a0\u00a0 It caused her to take a step back.\u00a0 They were of a height, though with his high-heeled boots on he topped her by a couple of inches.\u00a0 He\u2019d aged in the years since she\u2019d last seen him.\u00a0 His hair was more silver than sable now.\u00a0 There were added lines in his face and a tightness about his lips that spoke of something he would not name; something that ran deep, dark, and dangerous as a roaring river.\u00a0 His eyes were the green of the desert in spring when water is plentiful, but his spirit \u2013 and oh, how<\/em> she remembered that spirit \u2013 was dry as the bleached bones that littered the summer sand.<\/p>\n She wondered what he<\/em> had lost.<\/p>\n \u201cAll right.\u00a0 Joe, it is.\u201d\u00a0 She forced a smile.\u00a0 \u201cMa will be right happy to see you.\u00a0 She\u2019s been laid up for a while.\u00a0 I think company would be good for her.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe was fixin\u2019 a fence and cut herself,\u201d Julia replied.\u00a0 \u201cThe infectivity just won\u2019t go away.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat was your mother doing fixing a fence?\u201d he asked, his tone saying more than his words.<\/p>\n Julia dropped her head.\u00a0 \u201cSomeone had to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n The next thing she knew, his fingers were under her chin and Joe was lifting her head up.\u00a0 The electric nature of that touch shot through her and made her shiver.<\/p>\n \u201cJulia, what aren\u2019t you telling me?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnswer plain, girl,\u201d a weary voice said.\u00a0 \u201cThe man\u2019s asked you a question.\u201d<\/p>\n The young woman started and turned in place.\u00a0 \u201cMa!\u00a0 What\u2019re you doing up?\u00a0 You know Doc Scully said you need to rest!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPish-tosh!\u00a0 I\u2019m no city girl to be handled with white gloves.\u201d\u00a0 Pat Griswold pinned him with her keen stare.\u00a0 \u201cI see you managed to stay alive,\u201d she said with just a hint of amusement in her voice.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, Ma\u2019am.\u00a0 I figured I used up so much of your time and food and bed linens that I\u2019d better.\u00a0 Letting myself get killed would have been a poor way to repay you for such fine nursing.\u201d<\/p>\n Her mother nodded.\u00a0 She eyed him a moment before speaking again.\u00a0 \u201cYou look thinner, Joe.\u00a0 You better come inside and get something to eat before the wind blows you away.\u201d<\/p>\n With that, her mother turned her back on them and limped into the house.<\/p>\n Joe exchanged a glance with her.\u00a0 \u201cShe\u2019s supposed to be in bed?\u201d<\/p>\n Julia nodded.<\/p>\n \u201cAny luck keeping her there?\u201d<\/p>\n She shook her head.<\/p>\n \u201cWell?\u00a0 Are you coming or not?\u201d her ma\u2019s voice called out.<\/p>\n As she made to follow her mother, Joe caught hold of her arm.\u00a0 When she turned, it was to look directly into those eyes. \u00a0They were filled with concern and there was something in them that echoed her own pain.<\/p>\n \u201cYour father?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n The tears she had denied fell.\u00a0 Julia shook her head.<\/p>\n Then she hurried inside.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joe Cartwright took off his black gloves and tossed them on the Griswold\u2019s table before pulling out a chair and sitting down.\u00a0 Pat Griswold had indicated he should with a nod of her head and then gone into the kitchen.\u00a0 He\u2019d been mostly out of his head when he\u2019d stayed with them.\u00a0 Not only had he had the bad luck to ask a cup of coffee off of two cattle rustlers, but they\u2019d been neighbors of the Griswolds and knew where to find him.\u00a0 When a shot in the back didn\u2019t finish him off, one of them \u2013 Jim Fenton \u2013 tried to smother him.\u00a0 He\u2019d spent several weeks with the family, most of it out of his head.\u00a0 The curly-haired man smiled.\u00a0 Near the end Pa had allowed him out of bed and he\u2019d sat at this table a few times before they loaded him into the wagon and took off for home.\u00a0 As Julia moved past him to join her mother, Joe looked around.\u00a0 The woodwork was off-white; the walls papered with a blue and white stripe that matched the tablecloth.\u00a0 There were all the usual things you would expect to find in a kitchen \u2013 cupboards filled with dishes, a work table; pots and pans.\u00a0 He raised his eyes as Julia came to the table to lay an extra place.<\/p>\n There had only been two.<\/p>\n A \u2018huff\u2019 and a slight moan made him look toward the stove.\u00a0 Pat Griswold was leaning on it; both hands gripping the edge.\u00a0 He started to rise, but Julia shook her head.\u00a0 A moment later Pat was on her way to the table with two bowls of soup in her hand.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll get the other one, Ma,\u201d Julia said and hustled that way.<\/p>\n Joe watched the older woman sit.\u00a0 His eyes lingered on her face, noting the changes.\u00a0 It was drawn and her coloring off.\u00a0\u00a0 Both sure signs of the sickness Julia had mentioned.\u00a0 Pat had lost weight, which \u2013 again \u2013 was to be expected.\u00a0 But there was something more.\u00a0 Something he recognized.<\/p>\n This was a woman barely holding it together.<\/p>\n As Julia sat down, he said softly, \u201cDo you want to tell me what happened?\u201d<\/p>\n The redhead\u2019s gaze shot to her daughter.\u00a0 Julia gave a little shake of her head.<\/p>\n \u201cJulia didn\u2019t tell me, but it\u2019s obvious.\u201d\u00a0 Joe indicated the table.\u00a0 \u201cTwo places set.\u201d\u00a0 He turned and looked at the door beside which two cloaks and two hats hung.\u00a0 \u201cNo man\u2019s coat, hat ,or belt by the door.\u201d<\/p>\n Pat drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly.\u00a0 \u201cEat your supper first.\u00a0 Then we\u2019ll talk.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe exchanged a look with Julia and then did as he was told.\u00a0 Not only was he hungry, but the older woman who had done so much for him deserved respect.\u00a0 Not a word was spoken as they consumed the chicken soup and bread.\u00a0 It was followed by a piece of apple pie and coffee.\u00a0 He remained where he was as the two women returned the empty dishes to the kitchen.\u00a0 He\u2019d offered to help, but Pat had turned him down.\u00a0 When they finished, the older woman came back to the table.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve a mind to sit out on the porch.\u00a0 That suit you?\u201d<\/p>\n He nodded as he rose.\u00a0 \u201cYes, Ma\u2019am.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCall me Pat,\u201d she said as she wiped her hands clean on her apron, \u201csomehow I think \u2018ma\u2019am<\/em>\u2019 is a little formal for a woman who\u2019s seen you in your birthday suit.\u201d<\/p>\n He must have looked horrified because Julia giggled.\u00a0 He shot her a look and then stopped short.<\/p>\n Had she<\/em> seen him too?<\/p>\n Pat seemed to read his mind.\u00a0 \u201cThe girl didn\u2019t get too good a look.\u00a0 I shooed her out right fast enough.\u201d<\/p>\n Pat Griswold had this way of looking at you.\u00a0 Her face said one thing and her eyes another.<\/p>\n Right now they were laughing.<\/p>\n The older woman took him by the arm and began to draw him out of the house.\u00a0 \u201cC\u2019mon, boy.\u00a0 You look like you could use some fresh air.<\/p>\n The Griswold\u2019s porch was broad and expansive.\u00a0 It nearly ringed the house, lacking only one side.\u00a0 The land the impressive ranch sat on was flat, so there was almost always a breeze.\u00a0 Since it was spring, it was a bit chilly.\u00a0 Julia came up behind her mother and dropped a warm merino wool shawl about the older woman\u2019s shoulders before taking a seat beside her.\u00a0 He did the same, occupying a chair while the ladies sat in rockers.\u00a0\u00a0 For some time, they were silent again.<\/p>\n \u201cI lost my husband about a year back, just before winter,\u201d Pat said at last.\u00a0 Joe noted Julia reached over to take her mother\u2019s hand as she continued.\u00a0 \u201cIf you remember right, when you were shot, Tom was ready to take off on the drive.\u00a0 This was the same.\u201d\u00a0 She paused.\u00a0 \u201cOnly it wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMay I ask what happened?\u201d<\/p>\n Pat shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cNo one knows for sure.\u00a0 Tom and the others rode off like they always did and took the same route.\u00a0 Tom knew it well as the back of his hand.\u00a0 When they came back, he wasn\u2019t with them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSheriff Truslow said there was a storm.\u00a0 The lightning scared the cattle and they stampeded.\u00a0 Pa went out to try and stop them.\u201d\u00a0 The young woman paled.\u00a0 \u201cThey looked, but they couldn\u2019t find him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat was the hardest of all,\u201d Pat said as she rocked.\u00a0 \u201cHaving nothing to bury.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy was the sheriff on the drive?\u201d Joe asked.\u00a0 It seemed an odd thing.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were a few men down. \u00a0Bob went with them.\u00a0 It was only supposed to be for a couple of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSheriff Truslow actually deputized Ern to keep order while he was gone,\u201d Julia said, laughing softly.\u00a0 \u201cYou should have seen him sporting that tin badge. \u00a0He showed it off to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Her description made him think of himself as a young man when he took over as sheriff in Rubicon.\u00a0 He\u2019d been so proud and so <\/em>sure he was old enough to do what had to be done.\u00a0 In the end, he\u2019d discovered he was being used.<\/p>\n Joe frowned.<\/p>\n \u201cIs something wrong, Joe?\u201d Pat asked.<\/p>\n He shook his head, dismissing the thought.\u00a0 \u201cSo, you two have been here alone since\u2026since Tom\u2019s accident?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cErn\u2019s here,\u201d Julia said.<\/p>\n \u201cJust <\/em>Ern?\u201d<\/p>\n Pat nodded.\u00a0 \u201cWe had to let the others go.\u00a0 Since Tom\u2019s death money\u2019s been tight.\u00a0 We have to pay men to move the cattle and care for them.\u00a0 Our profit\u2019s been just about cut in half.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the neighbors have offered to help out,\u201d Julia said.\u00a0 \u201cBut Ma \u2013\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI won\u2019t be taking charity, Julia, and you know it.\u00a0 We\u2019ll get by.\u201d\u00a0 Pat rose to her feet.\u00a0 \u201cWe always have.\u201d\u00a0 She turned to look at him.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m tired, Joe Cartwright, and I imagine you are too.\u00a0 You can bed down in Julia\u2019s room.\u00a0 She can sleep with me.\u201d\u00a0 The older woman smiled.\u00a0 \u201cI think you know the way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m gonna stay up a bit longer, Ma, unless you need me to help you get to bed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI been putting myself to bed for nigh onto fifty years, girl.\u00a0 I think I can manage it myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia dropped her head.<\/p>\n \u201cGoodnight, Mister Cartwright.\u00a0\u00a0 Don\u2019t you young people stay up too long.\u00a0 There\u2019s work to do in the morning, bright and early.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe smiled and then watched as Pat walked into the house.\u00a0 Her steps were heavy as the grief she\u2019d suffered weighed her down.<\/p>\n He knew all about that.<\/p>\n They sat for a few moments; Julia rocking and him staring out at the night sky.\u00a0 After a bit she asked the question he had known was coming.<\/p>\n \u201cHow\u2019s your family, Joe?\u00a0 How\u2019s your Pa and Hoss?\u201d<\/p>\n Hearing the name was like an arrow thrust into his flesh.\u00a0 He swallowed.\u00a0 \u201cPa\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n She must have sensed it.\u00a0 Women were that way.\u00a0 You could no more hide something from them than a bloodhound.<\/p>\n \u201cIs something\u2026wrong with Hoss?\u201d<\/p>\n He pursed his lips and closed his eyes.\u00a0 It was there, whenever he did \u2013 the image of his brother\u2019s last moments alive.\u00a0 That picture \u2013 so much a part of him now \u2013 had the power to draw all strength away.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t count the nights he\u2019d lain curled up on his bed, racked with tears; unable to sleep.\u00a0 Pa was worried about him, but then he was worried about Pa.\u00a0 The last year had been hard.\u00a0 After first drawing together, they\u2019d drifted apart.\u00a0 Pa\u2026well\u2026Pa was worried the same thing would happen to him.\u00a0 His pa had always been a mother hen, but the wing that sheltered him had become a prison, and the tighter Pa held on, the more desperate it made him to break free.\u00a0 Their grief had grown to the point where the sight of one another was painful.\u00a0 It was part of why he had taken off for Lone Pines.<\/p>\n They needed some time apart to come to terms with their mutual loss.<\/p>\n Fingers touched his arm.\u00a0 \u201cJoe?\u201d<\/p>\n He opened his eyes and leaned back in the chair.\u00a0 \u201cHoss is dead,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Julia actually gasped.\u00a0 \u201cNo!\u201d<\/p>\n Joe nodded.\u00a0 \u201cIt happened not too long after we left here.\u00a0 A few months.\u00a0 There was a flood and a wall of mud\u2026.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 He sucked in air.\u00a0 \u201cI almost died.\u00a0 Hoss did.\u201d<\/p>\n She was blinking back tears.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m so sorry, Joe.\u00a0 Hoss was\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 She paused.\u00a0 \u201cHe was one of the kindest, gentlest men I ever met.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never seen a man so tender.\u00a0 The way he took care of you \u2013\u201d<\/p>\n The arrow twisted and he sucked in air.<\/p>\n Julia\u2019s grip tightened on his arm.\u00a0 \u201cOh, Joe!\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t mean to\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know.\u201d\u00a0 It took a few seconds, but he looked at her.\u00a0 \u201cSeems we\u2019ve both lost something that can\u2019t be replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia held his gaze for a moment and then rose and walked to the edge of the porch.\u00a0 Once there, she took hold of the railing and gazed out toward the horizon.\u00a0 There was something in her look \u2013 in the way she held her long, slender body \u2013 that told him there was more to learn and he wasn\u2019t going to learn it now.<\/p>\n He went to join her.<\/p>\n \u201cAre you all right?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n She turned to look at him.\u00a0 \u201cAre you?\u201d<\/p>\n He could have lied.\u00a0 She<\/em> could have lied.\u00a0 But it would have done neither of them any good.<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n Twilight had fallen and the moon risen in the sky.\u00a0 Its pale beams struck the porch rails turning them silver-blue.\u00a0 As she raised her head, the light reflected in Julia\u2019s blue eyes, revealing unshed tears.\u00a0 Her lower lip trembled as one escaped.\u00a0 He reached up to brush it away.<\/p>\n And then, she was in his arms.<\/p>\n He held her for some time, until her grief and fear ran out along with her tears and she suddenly realized where she was and what she had done.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry, Mister Cart \u2013 Joe.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t mean to\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 She reached out to place a hand on his chest.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve ruined your shirt!\u201d<\/p>\n He caught her fingers in his.\u00a0 \u201cNah.\u00a0 It needed a good washing,\u201d he said with a smile.<\/p>\n She opened her mouth to reply, but before she could a stern voice called out, \u201cJulia!\u00a0 Unless you want to sleep on the porch, you better get in here.\u00a0 I\u2019m gonna lock the door.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe probably needs help getting ready for bed,\u201d the young woman said.\u00a0 \u201cYou know Ma.\u00a0 She\u2019s not good at admitting she\u2019s less than perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre you?\u201d he asked, taking her off-guard.<\/p>\n \u201cJulia!\u201d<\/p>\n She didn\u2019t answer him.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t really expect her too.<\/p>\n Silence was part and parcel of the lie.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TWO<\/p>\n He\u2019d known it would be haunted, but he hadn\u2019t realized quite how powerful the ghosts would be.<\/p>\n Joe Cartwright ran a hand along the back of his neck as he turned from the window and the dawning day to face the specters of the past.\u00a0 During the night it had been just about all he could do not to gather up his blankets and head out to the porch to sleep in the open air.\u00a0 Darkness had fallen by the time he entered Julia\u2019s room.\u00a0 The moment he lit the lamp images of what had been, like a herd of wayward cattle, ran riot through his tired mind.<\/p>\n His father, without a face, asking if he knew who shot him.<\/p>\n Pa sitting at the end of the bed chiding him; demanding he \u2018figure it out\u2019.<\/p>\n Someone causing him pain.\u00a0 Intense pain.\u00a0\u00a0 And then a sweet smell.\u00a0 A sickening sweet smell and\u2026<\/p>\n Flowers.\u00a0 Everywhere.\u00a0 On the dresser.\u00a0 The quilted spread.\u00a0 Dancing on the walls, pressing in on him; smothering him.<\/p>\n A pillow over his face.\u00a0 His fingers clawing the air.\u00a0 No air.\u00a0 No breath.<\/p>\n Going\u2026to\u2026die\u2026.<\/p>\n Hoss.\u00a0 Saving him.<\/p>\n Joe sucked in a breath and held it.\u00a0 His gaze traveled around the room noting the coverlet and wallpaper, as well as a framed print of two puppies at play.\u00a0 A left-over from Julia\u2019s childhood, no doubt.\u00a0 He\u2019d lain in this room for several weeks, recovering from the gunshot wound to his back.\u00a0 He\u2019d grown so bored he\u2019d asked for something to do and braided everything he could think of other than Julia\u2019s long brown hair.<\/p>\n She had beautiful hair.<\/p>\n Joe snorted.\u00a0 He\u2019d felt kind of silly giving her that gewgaw, but she kept remarking on how beautiful the braided reins he was fashioning were.\u00a0 He had to admit he had skill at it \u2013 honed over twenty years and more.\u00a0 He\u2019d asked her Ma if she had any ribbons and added some color to it.\u00a0 The curly-haired man released the breath he held as he walked over to the knick-knack shelf that hung on the bedroom wall.\u00a0 The gewgaw lay on the top shelf.\u00a0 He\u2019d discovered it in the middle of the night while he was pacing.\u00a0 It kind of surprised him that she\u2019d kept it \u2013 and kept it in such a prominent spot.<\/p>\n But then women were a whole different country.<\/p>\n A knock on the door made him jump.<\/p>\n \u201cJoe, if you\u2019re decent, I\u2019ve got some linens for you.\u201d<\/p>\n He snorted, remembering Pat\u2019s remark of the day before about seeing him in his \u2018birthday suit\u2019.\u00a0 \u201cCome on it.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got more clothes on than the last time you saw me,\u201d he replied with a laugh.\u00a0 \u00a0He\u2019d removed his outer shirt and was clothed only in his undershirt and tan pants.<\/p>\n The older woman tutted as she entered the room.\u00a0 \u201cPshaw, boy!\u00a0 All I had eyes for was that hole in your back.\u201d\u00a0 Pat halted midway in placing the linens in the dresser drawer to look at him.\u00a0 \u201cTom and I thought you were a goner for sure.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know that I\u2019ve ever seen a wound so bad.\u00a0 Other than\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 She paled a bit.<\/p>\n \u201cOther than?\u201d<\/p>\n Pat shoved the drawer closed and turned toward him.\u00a0 \u201cOther than Ed Flanders\u2019 son, James.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019d heard the tale.\u00a0 \u201cPa said he was bushwhacked in a way too \u2013 killed by a man who thought he\u2019d gunned down his brother.\u201d<\/p>\n The older woman shook her head. \u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s the story.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t believe it?\u201d he asked, surprised.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew Jimmy.\u00a0 He was a good boy.\u00a0 It just doesn\u2019t sound like him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWas he shot in the back as well?\u201d<\/p>\n She shook her head.\u00a0 \u201cHe was gut shot.\u00a0 Jimmy bled out right quick.\u201d<\/p>\n So, unlike him, James was facing his killer.<\/p>\n Joe reached for his shirt.\u00a0 \u201cDid the sheriff\u2026what\u2019s his name?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTruslow.\u201d\u00a0 Pat scowled.\u00a0 \u201cRobert Truslow.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI take it you don\u2019t like him much.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHave to,\u201d Pat said as she went to the window and threw the curtains open.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s all we got.\u201d<\/p>\n He finished buttoning his shirt and then sat on the edge of the bed.\u00a0 \u201cMy pa thought he was\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cArrogant?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, that too,\u201d he laughed.\u00a0 \u201cI was going to say inefficient.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBob came here from Carson City a few years back.\u00a0 He was set to retire, but Thom Fenton and Amos Pettis talked him into taking the position.\u00a0 Orv and Jim\u2019s pas\u201d<\/p>\n Joe\u2019s jaw tightened.\u00a0 Orv Pettis, along with Jim Fenton, had meant to kill him.\u00a0 Hoss had thrown Fenton through the window in this very room when he found the rustler trying to finish him off.\u00a0 Pa clipped Orv with a bullet and lamed him. \u00a0After they got home, his father made an inquiry about the outcome of their arrest, but they\u2019d never heard what happened.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever happened to those two?\u00a0 The ones who shot me?\u201d<\/p>\n The older woman raised a brow.\u00a0 \u201cYou didn\u2019t hear?\u00a0 They\u2019re dead.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe forgot to breathe.\u00a0 While he\u2019d envisioned the pair hanging from a noose, the reality of it struck him hard.\u00a0 Orv, especially, had been young.<\/p>\n \u201cWere they hung?\u201d<\/p>\n She shook her head.\u00a0 \u201cBob was taking them into Lone Pines to await trial.\u00a0 They tried to make a break for it.\u00a0 One of his deputies shot them.\u201d\u00a0 Pat cocked her head.\u00a0 \u201cYou look kind of peeked.\u00a0 You need some water?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo.\u00a0 I\u2019m just\u2026surprised is all.\u00a0 You mentioned Pettis\u2019 father.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAmos?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWas he okay with\u2026.\u00a0 I mean, was there any kind of investigation?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere was an inquiry in Lone Pines. \u00a0The sheriff and deputy were cleared of any wrong doing. \u00a0What is it you\u2019re thinking, Joe?\u201d<\/p>\n He frowned.\u00a0 James Flanders murdered, his killer unknown.\u00a0 Him, bushwhacked and left for dead.\u00a0 His would-be killers killed in turn on Sheriff Truslow\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n Tom Griswold, missing and presumed dead on a cattle drive that included Robert Truslow.<\/p>\n \u201cWas Sheriff Truslow involved in the investigation into James Flanders\u2019 death?\u201d<\/p>\n Pat nodded as she headed for the door.\u00a0 \u201cBob found him.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe listened to the door shut behind her.\u00a0 Then he rose and went to the window.<\/p>\n He\u2019d have to wire Pa.<\/p>\n It seemed he was going to be spending a few days with the Griswolds after all.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joe was leaning over the water trough.\u00a0 After working steadily for several hours helping out around the yard, he\u2019d removed his shirt and was washing the sweat out of it using a bar of soap he\u2019d found on the dresser in Julia\u2019s room.\u00a0\u00a0 A flash of Hoss laughing his head off caught him unawares.<\/p>\n His big brother would never have let him down for smelling like vanilla.<\/p>\n \u201cHey there!\u00a0 What do you think you\u2019re doin\u2019?\u201d an anxious young voice called out.<\/p>\n Joe straightened up as he rung the shirt out.\u00a0 He hid the smile that threatened to curl the corners of his lips at the sight of the intense young man approaching him.<\/p>\n If anyone had the right name it was Ernest Goode.<\/p>\n \u201cHello, Ern,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Griswolds\u2019 hand stared straight at him and made no attempt to mind his manners.\u00a0 Ern\u2019s deep brown eyes were narrowed and fixed on him with suspicion. \u00a0The young man started to say something \u2013 probably intending to order him off the property \u2013 and then, suddenly, he grinned.<\/p>\n \u201cMister Cartwright?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s my pa, but yes, it\u2019s me.\u201d\u00a0 He held out his hand.\u00a0 \u201cPlease, call me Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n Ern moved right on up and took his outstretched hand and pumped it for all he was worth.\u00a0 \u201cI didn\u2019t figure we\u2019d ever see you again, Joe.\u00a0 You\u2019re lookin\u2019 good.\u201d<\/p>\n Somehow he doubted that.<\/p>\n Maybe Ern did <\/em>know something about manners.<\/p>\n \u201cJulia said you were still here.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad she and her ma have someone trustworthy to look out for them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI do my best.\u201d\u00a0 The young man sighed.\u00a0 \u201cWhat happened to Mister Griswold, well, it just wasn\u2019t right.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI understand you weren\u2019t on the drive?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, sir.\u201d\u00a0 His chest puffed out just<\/em> a bit.\u00a0 \u201cSheriff Truslow made me temporary sheriff while he was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe was curious.\u00a0 \u201cWhy didn\u2019t he let you <\/em>go and stay behind?\u201d<\/p>\n Ern scratched his head.\u00a0 \u201cYou know, I kind of wondered that myself at the time, but Mister Griswold told me to do it.\u00a0 Said he\u2019d feel safer with me watchin\u2019 over the women.\u201d<\/p>\n His words caught Joe\u2019s attention.\u00a0 \u201cSafer than with the sheriff?\u201d<\/p>\n The young man winced.\u00a0 \u201cDidn\u2019t your Pa tell you about sheriff?\u00a0 I don\u2019t like to talk bad about anyone, but Sheriff Truslow\u2019s not the sharpest tool in the shack.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy\u2019s he still sheriff then?\u201d<\/p>\n Ern opened his arms and indicated the land around them.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a big territory with only a few spreads, plus a one-horse town.\u00a0 Nobody else wants the job.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI see,\u201d Joe said as he pulled his damp shirt on and began to button it.<\/p>\n The young man sniffed and then his eyes shot to the soap.\u00a0 \u201cThat Miss Julia\u2019s?\u201d<\/p>\n Joe rolled his eyes.\u00a0 \u201cI couldn\u2019t find any soap that didn\u2019t smell like a woman.\u00a0 This one was at least tolerable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo you didn\u2019t want to smell like roses or lavender, eh?\u201d Ern laughed.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cMiss Julia likes to make soap.\u00a0 It\u2019s always interestin\u2019 to see what she comes up with.\u00a0 My favorite is her calendula, rose, and cornflower.\u00a0 She\u2019s got so many kinds of oil in it, you think you\u2019re gonna slip and break your neck climbin\u2019 out of the tub.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe laughed.\u00a0 \u201cI see you\u2019ve tried it.\u201d<\/p>\n Ern actually blushed.\u00a0 \u201cI didn\u2019t want Miss Julia to think I didn\u2019t like it or that I thought it was too girly.\u201d<\/p>\n He studied the young man a moment.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re fond of her, aren\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMiss Julia?\u00a0 Sure.\u00a0 I watched her grow up.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh?\u00a0 So, you\u2019re older than her?\u201d<\/p>\n Ern looked at him like he was an idiot.\u00a0 \u201cGosh!\u00a0 Sure am. A whole four years!\u201d<\/p>\n Joe sucked in a sigh of his own.\u00a0 He was getting old enough, he was beginning to understand why his Pa looked at people over twenty and scoffed, \u2018Children!\u2019<\/p>\n He nodded toward the barn.\u00a0 \u201cCan I help you with some chores?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou stayin\u2019 for a while?\u201d<\/p>\n He hadn\u2019t meant to, but something about this whole thing \u2013 Pat\u2019s illness, the \u2018accidents\u2019 around the ranch, and Tom Griswold\u2019s untimely death \u2013 disturbed him.\u00a0 Pa knew he could be gone a week or more, traveling to Lone Pines and back, so the older man shouldn\u2019t begin to worry \u2013 at least until after the telegram he sent reached him.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a few days to spare.\u00a0 This is a big place to keep up on your own.\u201d<\/p>\n Ern nodded.\u00a0 \u201cI do my best, but truth to tell there\u2019s things I just can\u2019t get to.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe slapped an arm around the young man\u2019s shoulders.\u00a0 \u201cPoint the way!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They worked until noon repairing the portion of the barn that had been burnt, and then moved on to fix and secure the fence that had been torn down; the one that allowed the horses to escape.\u00a0 As they worked side-by-side Ern told him all about the strange happenings over the last year, most of which had cost Pat Griswold money she didn\u2019t have.\u00a0 She was a stubborn woman and took each one in stride.\u00a0 The young man explained Pat had been out trying to mend a portion of the fence herself when she cut her leg on barbed wire.\u00a0 An infection followed that came near to taking her life.\u00a0 Doctor Scully, the surgeon who had saved his life, saved hers as well.<\/p>\n Ern was hesitant, but in the end admitted that Pat was close to broke and might have to sell.<\/p>\n Their conversation ceased when Julia showed up with a basket of bread and cold cuts for lunch and \u00a0three of them retired to the shade of a nearby tree to eat.\u00a0 The sun was bright and the day, beautiful.\u00a0 Its rays warmed them enough that they remained there for some time laughing and talking.\u00a0 The sound of an approaching horse caused both him and Ern to rise.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, dear,\u201d Julia sighed as he helped her up.\u00a0 \u201cMa\u2019s gonna be fit to be tied tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy is that?\u201d he asked as he draped her shawl around her shoulders.<\/p>\n \u201cEd Flanders,\u201d Ern said.<\/p>\n Joe had a vague memory of the name.\u00a0 Pa didn\u2019t like the man from what he could recall.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019s so special about Ed Flanders?\u201d<\/p>\n Julia rolled her eyes.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s been sweet-talking Ma since about six months after Pa died.\u00a0 He wants to marry her.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMs. Griswold\u2019s told him plain and simple what he can do with his proposal, but it ain\u2019t stopped him from comin\u2019 out once a week to try and talk her into it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMa doesn\u2019t want to get married again.\u00a0 She says one man\u2019s enough for one lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe was thinking.\u00a0 \u201cIt would solve her problems, though, wouldn\u2019t it?\u00a0 She wouldn\u2019t have to sell.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia was glaring at Ern.<\/p>\n The young man dropped his head.\u00a0 \u201cSorry, Miss Julia.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t blame Ern, Julia,\u201d Joe said with a grin.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m used to getting my way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, you\u2019re right,\u201d she admitted with a sigh.\u00a0 \u201cEd started showing up right after the trouble began.\u00a0 He told Ma he had enough money to keep her and <\/em>work the land.\u00a0 When she said she didn\u2019t love him, do you know what he<\/em> said?\u00a0 He didn\u2019t care!\u00a0 He said they\u2019d come to love one another in time.\u201d<\/p>\n At that moment, the subject of their conversation drew abreast them.\u00a0 Ed Flanders greeted Julia and Ern before dismounting.\u00a0 He was an average man of average height, with the kind of face you could easily forget.\u00a0 His hair was black going gray and he had pale, narrow eyes.\u00a0 Joe remembered now that Pa had<\/em> spoken of him.\u00a0 He told him he found the man to be cold.\u00a0 Apparently Flanders had refused to do anything to help in the search for the men who had bushwhacked him, and almost seemed to be interfering with it.<\/p>\n \u201cWho\u2019s this?\u201d Ed asked with a nod in his direction.<\/p>\n Joe stepped forward.\u00a0 \u201cJoe Cartwright.\u201d<\/p>\n Flanders stared at his hand a moment before taking hold and shaking it.\u00a0 \u201cCartwright.\u00a0 You related to that man who had the boy who was shot here around a year or so back?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m the \u2018boy\u2019 who was shot.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI guess you look different on your feet.\u201d\u00a0 Ed scowled.\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019re you doin\u2019 back here?\u201d<\/p>\n He could see why this man had rubbed his father the wrong way.\u00a0 \u201cI was on my way to Lone Pines on business.\u00a0 I thought I\u2019d see how the Griswolds were doing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, you seen it now, so you can be on your way.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia stepped between them.\u00a0 \u201cJoe\u2019s gonna stay a few days and help Ern out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes,\u201d he agreed.\u00a0 \u201cWe fixed the barn this morning, and are working on the fence.\u00a0 It\u2019s curious how many \u2018accidents\u2019 there have been since Mrs. Griswold has been on her own.\u201d<\/p>\n Ed was staring at him.<\/p>\n He stared back.<\/p>\n Then, like a pane of glass striking stone, Ed\u2019s deadpan look shattered and genuine concern entered his eyes.\u00a0 \u201cPat\u2019s a stubborn woman,\u201d he sighed.\u00a0 \u201cShe needs a man to look out for her.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you think you\u2019re the one?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSeems to me it ain\u2019t a stranger\u2019s place to ask.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJoe\u2019s not a stranger,\u201d Julia insisted.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat exactly?\u201d the older man asked.<\/p>\n Yes.<\/p>\n What exactly was <\/em>he?<\/p>\n \u201cJulia?\u00a0 What are you doing lollygagging about?\u00a0 You pack up that basket and\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 The older woman had been standing on the porch with her hand shielding her eyes from the sun.\u00a0 She\u2019d just taken a step forward.\u00a0 \u201cEd.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see you there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s Thursday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it is,\u201d Pat acknowledged.\u00a0 \u201cI suppose you\u2019ve come to ask your question.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I suppose you\u2019re gonna give me the same answer.\u201d<\/p>\n She nodded.\u00a0 \u201cAnd a slice of pie if you want it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t mind if I do.\u201d\u00a0 Ed started forward, then he swung around.\u00a0 \u201cYou listen to me, young fellow.\u00a0 You do anything to bring harm to these two ladies and you\u2019ll answer to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia started to protest, but he stopped her.\u00a0 Joe smiled.\u00a0 \u201cI was about to say the same thing to you.\u201d<\/p>\n Ed held his gaze.\u00a0 \u201cThen we understand one another.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe watched the sullen man walk away.<\/p>\n Yes, he supposed they did.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It took some doing to find out where Sheriff Truslow\u2019s office was located.\u00a0 It turned out it was in Lone Pines, but he used his home \u2013 which was about halfway to the city \u2013 as a base of operations when he was out this way. \u00a0Once he was done talking to the lawman, Joe intended to ride on to Lone Pines and wire both his Pa and Clem Foster \u2013 Pa, to let him know what had happened to Pettis and Fenton, and Clem, in order to see if he had any knowledge of Robert Truslow.\u00a0 He\u2019d have to stay overnight once he got there, so he\u2019d let Pat and Julia know he wouldn\u2019t be back until morning.<\/p>\n Julia\u2019s goodbye kiss still lingered on his lips.<\/p>\n The curly-haired man grinned.\u00a0 That awkward gawky girl he remembered \u2013 the one who\u2019d been afraid he would die in her bed \u2013 was still there, but the not-so-ugly duckling was quickly turning into a swan.\u00a0 Julia was nineteen now and, rather than cracking under the unexpected responsibility of taking care of her mother and running a spread the size of the Griswold\u2019s, she\u2019d embraced it.\u00a0 In the time he\u2019d been away Julia had matured and blossomed into a beautiful and attractive young woman.<\/p>\n Joe snorted.\u00a0 He could just hear Hoss now.\u00a0 \u2018There you go, little brother.\u00a0 You got yourself a mystery with dead bodies right and left and all you can think about is that pretty little filly and her long legs.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n He closed his eyes.\u00a0 His stomach muscles tensed as if he\u2019d been sucker-punched.<\/p>\n He\u2019d never hear that voice again .<\/p>\n Joe lifted his gloved fist and brought it down on the sheriff\u2019s door with more force than intended.\u00a0\u00a0 When there was no response, he cast a glance to the side. \u00a0Truslow\u2019s horse was tethered to the rail, so he knew he was in.<\/p>\n So he tried again.<\/p>\n \u201cWho is it?\u201d a gruff voice called out.<\/p>\n \u2018The man you would have happily let die<\/em>,\u2019 he thought, but said, \u201cJoe Cartwright.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to talk to you if you have a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n The door opened to reveal a man he only vaguely remembered.\u00a0 The sheriff had come out to the Griswolds to talk to his Pa before they left for home.\u00a0 He\u2019d seen him through the open bedroom door.<\/p>\n Robert Truslow made Roy Coffee look like a lean mean Texas Ranger.<\/p>\n The lawman, if that was what he could be called, was in his mid-fifties at a guess, with a pork-jowl face and piggish eyes, the color of which were indeterminate.\u00a0 They might have been blue, or they might have been an ugly gray.\u00a0 If someone had shoved him hard, he would have rolled all the way down to Mexico with his short legs and arms akimbo. \u00a0Truslow\u2019s belly protruded past his nose, while his nose dived south toward a chin that was thrust out in defiance.<\/p>\n \u201cCartwright, eh?\u201d the sorry excuse for a lawman asked as his beady eyes searched every inch of him.\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019re you doin\u2019 back here?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHello to you too,\u201d Joe said, drawing back the hand he held out.\u00a0 \u201cI didn\u2019t know I needed permission to be in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n His eyes narrowed even further \u2013 if that was possible.\u00a0 \u201cWe don\u2019t want no trouble \u2018round these parts.\u201d<\/p>\n It seemed an odd thing to say, but then Joe\u2019s suspicions were already aroused where this man was concerned.\u00a0 He knew that could and did<\/em> color his perceptions.<\/p>\n \u201cLook, Sheriff Truslow, I don\u2019t mean to cause any trouble.\u00a0 I came looking for you because I wanted to ask about Jim Fenton and Orv Pettis.\u00a0 Seems to me, since I am the man they meant to kill, that I have a right to know what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey tried to escape, plain and simple,\u201d Truslow said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you shot them down in cold blood?\u201d<\/p>\n The sheriff jammed one piggy finger in his direction.\u00a0 \u201cNow, look here Mister Cartwright, you <\/em>ain\u2019t got any more right to grill me than that pa of yours had!\u201c<\/p>\n \u201cSo you did <\/em>shoot them down in cold blood?\u201d<\/p>\n The officious lawman drew a breath and let it out\u2026real\u2026slow.\u00a0 \u201cThem two boys jumped one of my deputies.\u00a0 Got his gun.\u00a0 What do you think we should have done, asked them to dance?\u201d<\/p>\n Joe noted movement in the house behind the other man. \u00a0\u201cSorry.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t realize you weren\u2019t alone.\u201d<\/p>\n Truslow \u00a0glanced behind.\u00a0 \u201cJust a couple of boys come over for a friendly hand of poker.\u201d<\/p>\n He glanced at the sky.\u00a0 It was getting late and he had no desire to sleep in the open.\u00a0 It was too cold.\u00a0 \u201cIs it all right if I ask you one more question before I go?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d he groused.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened to Tom Griswold?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou ask an awful lot of questions for a stranger,\u201d the sheriff replied.<\/p>\n \u2018And you evade an awful lot of them for someone in the know<\/em>,\u2019 he thought.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want to ask Pat\u2026Mrs. Griswold or her daughter,\u201d he ad-libbed.\u00a0 \u201cI didn\u2019t want to stir up unpleasant memories.\u201d<\/p>\n A man appeared behind the sheriff.\u00a0 \u201cHe bothering you, Bob?\u00a0 You want me to get rid of him?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s botherin\u2019 me all right,\u201d the lawman replied, \u201cbut I don\u2019t need no help.\u201d<\/p>\n The other man was a little taller than Truslow and a whole lot thinner.\u00a0 Joe couldn\u2019t see his face, but the way he moved \u2013 slightly hunched over and quick \u2013 set his hackles on edge.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand you were on the drive,\u201d he continued.\u00a0 \u201cI thought maybe\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNow, look here. \u00a0Tom took a risk he shouldn\u2019t ought to have taken.\u00a0 I told him he was too old to try to head off a stampede.\u00a0 He should have let one of the younger men do it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI understand you never found a body?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThem cattle went straight into the river, boy,\u201d Truslow said, emphasizing the \u2018boy\u2019.\u00a0 \u201cI doubt there was anythin\u2019 left to find.\u201d<\/p>\n And with that, the sheriff slammed the door in his face.<\/p>\n So much for the people\u2019s servant.<\/p>\n Joe considered hammering on the door again, but decided it was pointless.\u00a0 While the sheriff had said nothing to confirm his suspicions, the obese little man\u2019s pat answers had done nothing to allay them either.\u00a0 Turning on his heel, Joe stepped down from the porch and headed for his horse. \u00a0Cochise snorted and nudged him with her nose when he arrived.\u00a0 As he fished in his pocket for a treat, Joe considered everything he had learned so far.\u00a0 Some time back, three years at most, maybe less, Ed Flanders son had been killed.\u00a0 The circumstances were suspicious to say the least.\u00a0 Sheriff Truslow had been the one to find him and, so far, no one had been held accountable for his murder.\u00a0 A year ago he too had been bushwhacked and, from what his Pa told him, it seemed Lone Pine\u2019s sheriff had done everything he could to impede the search for his would be killers \u2013 who were now dead themselves.\u00a0 And shortly after that,<\/em> the good sheriff had turned his badge over to Ern and gone on the drive and Tom Griswold had ended up dead.<\/p>\n All of it might be coincidence.<\/p>\n But then again, it might not.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n THREE<\/p>\n \u201cJulia Adeline Griswold!\u201d<\/p>\n Julia\u2019s head came up.\u00a0 She pivoted in her chair to look at the entrance to her mother\u2019s room.\u00a0 She\u2019d taken a break from cooking to fold some linens.<\/p>\n And apparently forgotten to turn down the fire.<\/p>\n The chair skidded back as she shot to her feet.\u00a0 \u201cSorry, Ma! I\u2019ll get it!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll get your head out of the clouds or you\u2019ll end up sitting on one strumming a harp!\u201d her mother huffed as she limped over to the stove and pulled the burning pot off of it ,and then proceeded to limp to the door and toss the spoiled contents into the yard.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t say anything \u2013 just shook her head \u2013 before taking the charred vessel back to the sink.<\/p>\n A moment later she was at her side.<\/p>\n Ma reached out a hand to touch her head.\u00a0 \u201cReally, child, you have to learn to concentrate on what you\u2019re doing.\u00a0 You could have burned the house down, and,\u201d she added with a wink, \u201cthat handsome Joe Cartwright along with it if he was here.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia blushed.\u00a0 \u201cI wasn\u2019t thinking about Joe,\u201d she said as she busied herself with the linens.<\/p>\n \u201cYou let that go.\u00a0 I need help airing this place out.\u00a0 Or hadn\u2019t you noticed the smoke?\u201d<\/p>\n The young woman wrinkled her nose.\u00a0 Now<\/em> she did.<\/p>\n Her mother winced as she lowered herself into the chair.<\/p>\n \u201cDoes it hurt bad, Ma?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had worse pain.\u00a0 Birthing you <\/em>was one.\u00a0 Who would\u2019ve expected a girl to have such long legs!\u201d\u00a0 Her mother placed a hand over hers.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYou know?\u00a0 I think maybe the Good Lord let that pot burn.\u00a0 We don\u2019t stop much to talk anymore.\u00a0 Seems there\u2019s always something to do since your pa\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Ma let out a sigh.\u00a0 \u201cHow are you, Julia?\u201d<\/p>\n She shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m fine, Ma.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFine with cooking and cleaning and managing a ranch and doing men\u2019s chores?\u00a0 Fine with wearing pants and mucking out stables?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t had to do that for a while.\u00a0 Ern\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat boy loves you.\u00a0 Do you know that?\u201d<\/p>\n Julia laughed.\u00a0 \u201cI love him too, like a brother.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot<\/em> like a brother.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh, Ma, really!\u00a0 No\u2026I\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 She was flustered.\u00a0 \u201cMa, you don\u2019t mean\u2026.?\u00a0 Ma?\u00a0 No!\u00a0 I\u2019ve known him since I was a little girl!\u201d<\/p>\n She nodded.\u00a0 \u201cAbout ten years.\u00a0 That\u2019s a long time for a man to wait for a woman to take notice.\u201d<\/p>\n Ern was in his early twenties. \u00a0He\u2019d been a boy when Pa hired him.\u00a0 They\u2019d practically grown up together.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re wrong, Ma.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m right.\u00a0 Now, I know you never looked at him that way \u2013 \u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I never will!\u00a0 He\u2019s just not my type, Ma.\u00a0 He\u2019s\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n The older woman was eyeing her.\u00a0 \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n She pursed her lips and wrinkled her nose.\u00a0 \u201cErn\u2019s a boy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhile Joe Cartwright is a man.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia scowled.\u00a0 \u201cYou keep harping on Joe Cartwright\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBecause your mind hasn\u2019t been on anything else since he came riding in the other night.\u201d\u00a0 Her mother smiled.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s a handsome man, and a good one.\u00a0 I don\u2019t hold anything against him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut?\u201d<\/p>\n Her mother leaned back in her chair and thought a moment.\u00a0 \u201cJulia, there are different kinds of men.\u00a0 There are the ones who are hard-working, whose thoughts are for their wives and children.\u00a0 There are men who are dedicated to their work and it <\/em>becomes their life.\u00a0 There are others whose high sense of justice drives them to right wrongs.\u00a0 Some are loving.\u00a0 Others, well, they shut themselves down from hurt.\u00a0 And then there are some who are just plain reckless, who don\u2019t have a lick of sense.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd which is Joe?\u201d the young woman asked.<\/p>\n Her mother snorted.\u00a0 \u201cAll <\/em>of the above.\u00a0 Joe Cartwright is a complicated man, Julia.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo\u2026.\u201d She drew a breath.\u00a0 \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t like it if I\u2026liked him?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid what I just said make sense?\u201d<\/p>\n It took a second.\u00a0 She nodded.<\/p>\n Her mother leaned over the table.\u00a0 She touched her forehead and then her heart.\u00a0 \u201cHere, but not here, <\/em>I\u2019m guessing?\u201d<\/p>\n She nodded again.<\/p>\n The older woman let out a little sigh as she rose and pushed her chair back.\u00a0 \u201cThe heart just plain doesn\u2019t have any sense,\u201d she said.\u00a0 With that, she headed into the hallway that led to her bedroom.<\/p>\n Julia called her back . \u201cMa?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhich one of those men was Pa?\u201d<\/p>\n Her mother laughed.<\/p>\n All of the above.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joe Cartwright reached for the coffee pot nestled in the coals of his campfire.\u00a0 He was beginning to regret his choice to come to Lone Pines.\u00a0 The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he was leaving the Griswold women alone with no one but Ern to keep watch over them.\u00a0 He\u2019d finished up his business around noon.\u00a0 After sending the telegram to Pa, telling him he would be about a week, and the one to Clem Foster requesting information about Robert Truslow, he\u2019d taken a turn around the town.\u00a0 Lone Pines contained the usual feed and seed stores, a mercantile, a bank, a small opera house, and several saloons.\u00a0 He\u2019d gone to the one that also served food.\u00a0 While most everyone stared, no one approached him \u2013 except a pretty saloon girl named Charlie who tried to get him to go upstairs.\u00a0 Joe snorted.\u00a0 He must have looked like an easy mark.\u00a0 He\u2019d bought her a drink and tipped her five dollars and she\u2019d gladly moved on to the next one.\u00a0 Charlie was a pretty woman with spiraling blond curls and a short, compact, curvaceous body.\u00a0 She had big blue eyes and clear, clean skin, both of which were buried under too much makeup.\u00a0 He found himself comparing her to Julia, with her silky brown hair that fell in a wave to her waist, her long willowy form and down on the farm freshness.<\/p>\n Julia won the contest hands-down.<\/p>\n Earlier in his life, when he\u2019d been that kid that Adam was always pulling out of a bar fight and tossing over his shoulder semi-conscious, he\u2019d been attracted to women who were trouble.\u00a0 At seventeen it had been anyone old enough to be his mother.\u00a0 Joe shook his head and took a sip of coffee.\u00a0 He did<\/em> not want to go there.<\/em>\u00a0 After Julia Bullette\u2019s death, he\u2019d matured enough to realize that she \u2013 along with Lotta Crabtree and Adah Menken \u2013 weren\u2019t the kind of women a man wanted for a wife.\u00a0 There\u2019d been several he\u2019d come close to marrying.\u00a0 Amy Bishop, for one.\u00a0 Laura, for another.<\/p>\n Laura.\u00a0 She\u2019d been the one.\u00a0 He\u2019d been so sure<\/em> she\u2019d be his wife and the mother of his children.<\/p>\n When she died\u2026.<\/p>\n Joe rose.\u00a0 He took hold of the coffee pot and poured the remainder of the dark liquid on the fire.\u00a0 He\u2019d never stopped looking for love, not really, but he\u2019d looked in all the wrong places \u2013 on purpose.\u00a0 He knew he would never \u2013 could<\/em> never find Laura again.\u00a0 Laura was sweet and gentle; shy with the kind of smile that made a man want to circle her with his arms and draw her in.\u00a0 He\u2019d wanted to take care of her.\u00a0 To protect her.<\/p>\n Just like he did Julia Griswold.<\/p>\n The curly-haired man shook his head as he headed for his horse.\u00a0 Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Julia had something to do with him being alive.\u00a0 Pa would tell him to consider that carefully before making any \u2018rash\u2019 decisions.\u00a0 Adam would have agreed with Pa.\u00a0 And Hoss?\u00a0 Hoss would have told him to go for it, that life was too short to over-think things.<\/p>\n It had been too short for Hoss.<\/p>\n Joe leaned a hand on his saddle, and then leaned his head on his hand.\u00a0 God, he was weary!\u00a0 All he wanted to do was to get back to the Griswolds and flop on Julia\u2019s\u00a0 feather-down tick.\u00a0 Her mother had changed the linens, but it still smelled like her.\u00a0 It smelled of rose and lavender and vanilla\u2026<\/p>\n And possibilities.<\/p>\n The curly-haired man lifted his foot toward the stirrup, but halted when he heard a twig snap underfoot.\u00a0 He was fast and he almost made it.\u00a0 His fingers brushed the pearl handle of his pistol even as the cold, hard barrel of a revolver made contact with the skin at the base of his neck.<\/p>\n \u201cNice and easy,\u201d a low muffled voice said.\u00a0 \u201cTake your gun out of the holster and toss it on the other side of your horse.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe did as he was told.\u00a0 \u201cLook,\u201d he said, \u201cmy wallet\u2019s in my pocket.\u00a0 I\u2019m gonna reach in and \u2013 \u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou just shut your mouth and get your hands up,\u201d the voice ordered before calling out, \u201cAnything?\u201d<\/p>\n Another voice replied.\u00a0 It was muffled as well, but he could tell it belonged to an older man.\u00a0 \u201cFor a rich man, he ain\u2019t got much in his saddlebags.\u00a0 There ain\u2019t nothin\u2019 worth sneezin\u2019 at.\u201d<\/p>\n So, they knew who he was.<\/p>\n \u201cI told you my money\u2019s in my pocket.\u00a0 Ouch!\u201d\u00a0 Joe winced.\u00a0 The man had struck him in the back of the head.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I <\/em>told you to shut up!\u201d the outlaw ordered as he began to pat him down.<\/p>\n Joe fought his rising anger.\u00a0 Going off half-cocked would only get him shot \u2013 or worse.\u00a0 \u201cI told you, I\u2019ll get the wallet.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGot it!\u201d the muffled man announced as his fingers closed around the leather pouch and roughly drew it out of his jacket.\u00a0 He turned and tossed it to the other man.\u00a0 \u201cCheck it out.\u201d<\/p>\n There was a moment of silence while the other man searched its contents.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s got about a hundred dollars.\u00a0 There\u2019s some papers in here too.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat are they?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCopies of a couple of telegrams.\u00a0 One to Ben Cartwright and the other\u2026. \u201c\u00a0 The man whistled.\u00a0 \u201cSent to Clem Foster, Sheriff, Virginia City.\u00a0 He\u2019s asking about Robert Truslow.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah.\u201d\u00a0 The second man came closer.\u00a0 \u201cSeems Mr. Cartwright here has a crazy idea that old Bob might not be on the up and up.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat right?\u201d<\/p>\n Joe was thinking.\u00a0 It was obvious these men knew who he was.\u00a0 They knew as well where to find him and were aware he might be carrying important papers.\u00a0 It was just as clear that they were, at the least, acquaintances of Sheriff Truslow.<\/p>\n Things were not <\/em>looking good.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat have you got against the sheriff?\u201d the first man asked.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing,\u201d Joe replied.\u00a0 \u201cI just find it suspicious that everywhere he goes, someone dies.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat so,\u201d the man holding the gun said even as he heard the rifle cock.\u00a0 \u201cFunny.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see him here.\u201d<\/p>\n Seconds later the gun discharged.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was past midnight and Julia couldn\u2019t sleep.\u00a0 She\u2019d gone to her bedroom to get a book and ended up staying there.\u00a0 She was sitting on the edge of her bed, thinking.\u00a0 Joe Cartwright traveled light and he didn\u2019t have many belongings, but his extra shirt had been hanging on the wall.\u00a0 She\u2019d hesitated, but in the end, had removed it from the peg and took it with her.\u00a0 His scent was comforting.\u00a0 It reminded her of her pa \u2013 sweat and hard work mixed with pine and bay rum.\u00a0 Lifting her feet, she positioned herself on the bed before leaning back against the pillows and closing her eyes.\u00a0 It shamed her now to think of how much of a child she\u2019d been the first time Joe came to their house.\u00a0\u00a0 Her ma told her that Pa was bringing in a man who\u2019d been shot and they were gonna put him in her room, and all she could think of was the fact that she\u2019d never sleep in that bed again if he died in it!\u00a0 Ma\u2019d upbraided her right smart at that and made her help bring him in.\u00a0 She\u2019d never forget her first look at Joe Cartwright.\u00a0 Pa was bending over, talking quietly, as they carried him through the door.\u00a0 At first, all she could see was his silver hair.\u00a0 She\u2019d thought he was an old man until Pa moved out of the way when they got to the bedroom and she helped her ma lay him on the bed.<\/p>\n This bed.<\/p>\n Julia raised the shirt to her nose and breathed in Joe\u2019s scent.\u00a0 She remembered it well though, at the time, it had been mixed with blood and alcohol.\u00a0\u00a0 She\u2019d spelled her ma keeping watch over him.\u00a0 One night, when no one was awake, she\u2019d sat on the bed and run her fingers through his curls and them along his sweat-soaked, well-muscled chest.<\/p>\n Even dying, he was beautiful.<\/p>\n A sound brought her eyes open and her head up.\u00a0 Quickly, she rose and crossed over to the rack and replaced the shirt.\u00a0 Then she turned toward the door.\u00a0 When it failed to open, Julia frowned.\u00a0 She\u2019d heard something.\u00a0 She was sure of it!<\/p>\n There.<\/p>\n There it was again.\u00a0 Coming from behind her.<\/p>\n Julia gasped.<\/p>\n The window was opening.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pat Griswold lay with her eyes open.\u00a0 The empty side of the bed next to her, like the cut on her leg, was a wound that would not heal.\u00a0 It had been over a year since Tom rode away on that cattle drive, never to return.\u00a0 She\u2019d faced it before, the idea that something might happen to him and she\u2019d be left alone.\u00a0 She knew plenty of other women who\u2019d had to.\u00a0 And yet, when it happened, it had come like a flash flood, driving everything before it and leaving her with nothing.<\/p>\n No, that wasn\u2019t true.\u00a0 She had Julia.<\/p>\n For now.<\/p>\n With a sigh, Pat levered herself up and sat against her pillows.\u00a0 She supposed she should have seen that coming too.\u00a0 Julia falling in love, that was.\u00a0 Of course, the girl\u2019d been in love with Joe Cartwright \u2013 or the idea of him \u2013 since she\u2019d tended him that last month before his pa and brother took him home.\u00a0 The man had the face of an angel, albeit a slightly battered one.\u00a0 He was charming and gracious and funny and more than willing to give a compliment where it was deserved.\u00a0 Gratitude was one thing, but the ability to express it was unusual in a man.\u00a0 The older woman reached out to caress the space beside her.\u00a0 Her Tom had been like that.\u00a0 She loved him for a lot of reasons, but his humble spirit was chief among them.<\/p>\n Pat\u2019s lips twitched.<\/p>\n She wasn\u2019t sure \u2018humble\u2019 was a word she would apply to Ben Cartwright\u2019s youngest son.<\/p>\n Though, if the truth were known, she hadn\u2019t really gotten to know Joe all that well when he\u2019s stayed with them before.\u00a0 Tom had left on the drive and she and Julia had a house packed full of guests plus<\/em> a sick man to look after.\u00a0 Still, if his pa and older brother were anything to judge the man by, Joe Cartwright would make a fit husband.\u00a0 She wouldn\u2019t want too soft a man for her girl.\u00a0 Julia needed a strong hand.<\/p>\n Just as, once upon a time, she\u2019d needed a strong hand.<\/p>\n Pat swung her feet over the edge of the bed and put them on the floor.\u00a0 She was giving up.\u00a0 Sleep simply would not<\/em> come and there was more than enough to do.\u00a0 With a glance out the window, which told her the day was dawning, she rose to her feet and headed for the bench where she\u2019d laid out her clothes.\u00a0 That bread she\u2019d left to rise last night would be ready.\u00a0 She\u2019d just start it baking.<\/p>\n The sound of her door opening caused the older woman to turn toward it.\u00a0 Her daughter\u2019s young face appeared in the crack.<\/p>\n Julia didn\u2019t have to say anything\u00a0 for her to know something was wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is it?\u201d Pat asked as she tied her robe around her waist.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s Joe,\u201d Julia replied.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen did he get back?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJust now.\u00a0 He came in the window.\u201d<\/p>\n Pat was halfway to the door.\u00a0 She stopped short.\u00a0 \u201cHe came in the window?<\/em>\u00a0 Whatever for?\u201d<\/p>\n The girl was pale.\u00a0 She swallowed over a lump in her throat.<\/p>\n \u201cYou better come quick, Ma.\u00a0 Joe\u2019s been shot.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhatever have you got yourself into now?\u201d a stern voice asked.<\/p>\n Joe was sitting on Julia\u2019s bed applying pressure to his upper arm.\u00a0 He gave Pat a smile.\u00a0 \u201cIt went through clean, if that\u2019s any help.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, it might be and it might not be,\u201d she replied.\u00a0 \u201cYou just let me take a look.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been shot before \u2013 I mean, before I was shot here.\u201d\u00a0 Joe winced.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t think that came out right.\u00a0 What I mean is, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo, you make a habit of it?\u201d the older woman asked as she sat beside him and reached for the bloody rag he\u2019d folded over and applied to the wound.\u00a0 \u201cGetting shot, that is?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIs he gonna be okay, Ma?\u201d Julia asked.<\/p>\n Joe winced as her mother probed the wound.\u00a0 \u201cSeems to me Doctor Cartwright might be right. The wound looks clean.\u00a0 Julia, go and get the alcohol out of the cupboard and some clean bandages.\u00a0 I want to clean it just to be sure.\u00a0 We don\u2019t want infection setting in.\u201d\u00a0 When Julia failed to move, her mother said sharply, \u201cWhat are you waiting for?\u00a0 Get a move on it!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, Ma.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat girl,\u201d Pat sighed as her child disappeared.\u00a0 \u201cAlways has her head in the clouds.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a pretty head,\u201d Joe said.<\/p>\n Julia\u2019s mother eyed him \u2013 like most<\/em> girls\u2019 mothers eyed him.<\/p>\n \u201cSorry,\u201d he apologized. \u00a0\u201cI didn\u2019t mean anything by that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe you didn\u2019t and maybe you did,\u201d the older woman replied as she reached for the basin and pitcher of water on the bedside table.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s no business of mine.\u00a0 Julia\u2019s old enough to know what she wants.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe met her gaze.\u00a0 When she said nothing more he nodded.\u00a0 Then he closed his eyes and leaned back against the pillows.<\/p>\n \u201cYou gonna tell me what happened and why you came in the window?\u201d<\/p>\n It was still open.\u00a0 The breeze ruffled the curtains and blew them, along with a chill.\u00a0 \u201cI was robbed,\u201d he said, and then paused.\u00a0 \u201cOr at least, that\u2019s what the men who attacked me wanted me to think.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou think otherwise?\u201d<\/p>\n Julia had returned.\u00a0 Even though his eyes were closed, he knew her scent.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t think, I know<\/em> otherwise.\u00a0 They knew who I was and that I would have papers on me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPapers?\u201d Julia asked.\u00a0 \u201cWhat papers?\u201d<\/p>\n He looked at her.\u00a0 \u201cCopies of the telegrams I sent to Pa and to Clem Foster.\u00a0 I \u2013\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is gonna hurt,\u201d Pat said.<\/p>\n Joe nodded and then held his breath until she was done cleaning out the wound.<\/p>\n \u201cGo on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cPat, what do you know about Robert Truslow?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve known him since he came here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut what do you really know <\/em>about him?\u00a0 Where did he come from before Carson City?\u00a0 Has he always been a sheriff?\u201d<\/p>\n Pat was wrapping his arm.\u00a0 \u201cWhy so many questions?\u201d<\/p>\n Joe considered his answer.\u00a0 Pat was a tough woman.\u00a0 She was also shrewd.\u00a0 If he didn\u2019t tell her, sooner or later, she\u2019d figure it out on her own.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he\u2019s dirty.\u201d<\/p>\n The older woman\u2019s brows lifted.\u00a0 \u201cBob?\u00a0 I\u2019ll admit he\u2019s not the best sheriff, but what makes you think that?\u201d\u00a0 She thought a moment.\u00a0 \u201cTruth to tell, Joe, I don\u2019t think he\u2019s smart enough to be trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOr he wants you to think<\/em> he\u2019s not smart enough.\u201d\u00a0 Joe winced as he moved his arm and balanced it on a second pillow.\u00a0 \u201cThanks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt weren\u2019t nothing.\u201d\u00a0 Pat placed the bottle of alcohol on the table.\u00a0 \u201cTell me what you\u2019re thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe glanced at Julia and then back to her.\u00a0 \u201cHas Ed Flanders told you about his son\u2019s death?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s that got to do with anything?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJust answer the question. \u00a0Please.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEd\u2019s close about it.\u00a0 Still, after Tom died, we talked a bit.\u00a0 Jimmy was coming back from delivering some cattle up north. \u00a0Robert rode out to meet him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow come?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t you remember, Ma?\u201d Julia asked.\u00a0 \u201cJames had a lot of money on him.\u00a0 The sheriff was gonna escort him back to Lone Pines.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut Truslow found him dead instead?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n Pat nodded.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s right.\u00a0 I remember now. \u00a0Bob said he was too late.\u00a0 That man had already shot Jimmy.\u201d\u00a0 She paused.\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019s that got to do with you being shot, this time or the other?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere were no witnesses.\u00a0 Truslow could have fabricated what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy would Bob want to do that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure.\u201d\u00a0 Joe shifted to find a more comfortable position.\u00a0 \u201cIt just seems suspicious to me.\u00a0 James was shot by a man who disappeared.\u00a0 Truslow is alone when he finds him.\u00a0 When I was bushwhacked, he\u00a0 did everything he could do to keep anyone from looking for the men who bushwhacked me.\u201d\u00a0 Joe met Pat\u2019s gaze and held it.\u00a0 \u201cRobert Truslow was with your husband when he died.\u00a0 And now, just after I visited him and let him know I didn\u2019t trust him, someone tries to kill me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJoe!\u201d Julia exclaimed.\u00a0 \u201cI thought you said you were robbed.\u201d<\/p>\n He regretted he\u2019d said that.\u00a0 \u201cIt was a cover, Julia.\u00a0 They were pretending to be highwaymen.\u00a0 They meant<\/em> to kill me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow\u2019d you get away?\u201d Pat asked.<\/p>\n He could remember the feel of the gun on the back of his neck. \u00a0When he heard the trigger cock, he was sure he was dead.\u00a0 Past desperation, he\u2019d whirled and brought his arm up under the barrel and managed to direct the shot skyward. \u00a0Then he\u2019d taken off running.\u00a0 He\u2019d been shot in the arm while making good his escape.<\/p>\n And he\u2019d come in the window because the men were still out there.<\/p>\n For several heartbeats Pat said nothing.\u00a0 Then, she asked, \u201cSo tell me.\u00a0 What do you think it\u2019s all about?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a man at the sheriff\u2019s,\u201d Joe replied.\u00a0 \u201cHe didn\u2019t like me much.\u00a0 He was tall and thin and slightly hunched over.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSounds like Amos Pettis, Ma,\u201d Julia said.<\/p>\n The father of the man who had tried to kill him \u2013 and in turn been killed by Robert Truslow\u2019s deputy, or so the lawman claimed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems to me that there\u2019s something the good sheriff is hiding,\u201d Joe said as he rolled over and rose to his feet.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere are you going?\u201d Pat asked.<\/p>\n \u201cI need to get my horse.\u00a0 I left Cochise in a thicket not all that far from away.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want the men who were following me to know I\u2019d come here.\u201d\u00a0 His jaw tightened.\u00a0 \u201cI won\u2019t put you in further danger.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cErn can get your horse.\u00a0 I\u2019ll have him stable her at Ed\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCan you trust him?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n \u201cI know Ed.\u00a0 He\u2019s a good man,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Joe glanced at the door.\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t stay here.\u00a0 If the men who shot me follow, it will put you and Julia in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhere are you going to go?\u201d Julia asked.\u00a0 She was obviously distressed.<\/p>\n Pat thought a moment and then came to a decision.\u00a0 \u201cJulia?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, Ma?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou remember the old Russell place?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe cabin up by the stream?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s it.\u00a0 You take Joe there.\u201d\u00a0 Pat was heading for the door.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m gonna go with Ern to Ed\u2019s.\u00a0 He\u2019s never liked Bob Truslow.\u00a0 He\u2019ll help us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re sure<\/em> you can trust him?\u201d Joe asked.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure.\u201d\u00a0 Pat halted.\u00a0 \u201cWe got about an hour or two before the sun\u2019s up.\u00a0 That\u2019s plenty of time for you to start for the Russell\u2019s.\u00a0 You take the alcohol and extra bandages with you.\u00a0 That wound looks clean, but you never know.\u201d\u00a0 She turned to her daughter.\u00a0 \u201cJulia, I think you better stay with Joe.\u00a0 If someone\u2019s watching, they could see you come back.\u00a0 Once I talk to Ed, we\u2019ll come fetch you.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe caught her arm.\u00a0 \u201cNo.\u00a0 I\u2019ll go alone.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to place either of you in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n Pat held his gaze.\u00a0 \u201cBreathing is dangerous, Joe.\u00a0 And if what you say is true \u2013 and Robert Truslow isn\u2019t <\/em>what he makes out to be \u2013 then that\u2019s a thing I need to know.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n FOUR<\/p>\n It took them most of the day to reach the Russell\u2019s cabin.<\/p>\n The older woman said it was a \u2018far piece\u2019 and she wasn\u2019t kidding.\u00a0 They rode two-thirds of the way seated together on Julia\u2019s horse.\u00a0 He and Pat agreed it was best to keep Cochise, with her distinct markings, at Ed Flander\u2019s place.\u00a0 Julia\u2019s horse was a beautiful black with three white socks, so he was pretty distinctive as well, which was why they paid a farmer\u2019s young son to take him back to the ranch and made the last third of the journey on foot.<\/p>\n The cabin was more of a log house, with dark hand-hewn beams that had white chinking between them.\u00a0\u00a0 By the time they reached it the light was fading, so it was hard to determine its size.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t small.\u00a0 From the look of the place, a lot of love had gone into building it.\u00a0 It made him wonder why the Russells left.<\/p>\n \u201cIs the door locked?\u201d Julia asked.<\/p>\n She was standing behind him on the porch.\u00a0 Joe glanced in her direction.\u00a0 The failing light hid her face, but from the tone of her voice, he could tell she was exhausted.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t tried it yet,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n Wearily, Joe reached out with one black-gloved hand and tried the latch.<\/p>\n The door wouldn\u2019t budge.<\/p>\n After examining the locking mechanism, he let out a sigh.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s no keyhole.\u00a0 My guess is it\u2019s barred from within.\u00a0 Some kid probably climbed inside and was horsing around.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe they left a window open.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe, but let\u2019s hope not.\u00a0 Who knows what critters may have taken up residence if they did.\u201d\u00a0 Joe tried the door again.\u00a0 It shifted a bit this time.\u00a0 \u201cThe timber looks dry.\u00a0 Maybe it will give if I strike it hard enough.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat about your shoulder?\u201d<\/p>\n He grinned.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll use the other one.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe turned so he was facing the dying sun and placed his right shoulder against the wooden door.\u00a0 Then he gave it a shove.\u00a0 It moved a little more, but didn\u2019t give way.\u00a0 He glanced at Julia and then tried again, putting more force and more of his weight behind it.\u00a0 This time it groaned.<\/p>\n He groaned too.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I better go look for that window,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n \u201cLet me help,\u201d Julia said as came up behind him.\u00a0 \u201cMaybe if both of us push it will give.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I can\u2019t let you do that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u201d she snapped.\u00a0 \u201cBecause I\u2019m a woman?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia glared at him.<\/p>\n \u201cAll right.\u00a0 You can\u2026help.\u00a0 Just be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMe<\/em> be careful?\u00a0 What about you?<\/em>\u00a0 You\u2019re the one who was shot!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been shot before,\u201d he growled as he repositioned himself.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, I\u2019ve opened doors before!\u201d<\/p>\n Joe looked over his shoulder at her.\u00a0 The light was on her face and Julia was indignant.<\/p>\n And beautiful.<\/p>\n \u201cOkay, you win.\u00a0 But if the door attacks, you\u2019re on your own.\u201d<\/p>\n One corner of her rose-petal pink lips quirked.\u00a0 \u201cIf the door attacks, I promise I will save you<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe laughed.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a deal.\u201d<\/p>\n As he turned back, Julia reached around his waist and pressed her body into his.\u00a0 Her close proximity caught him off-guard and aroused feelings in him that were both unexpected and intense.<\/p>\n She must have sensed something, because she asked, \u201cDid I hurt you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d he said softly.<\/p>\n At least, not physically.<\/p>\n \u201cAll right,\u201d Joe said.\u00a0 \u201cOn my count.\u00a0 One.\u00a0 Two.\u00a0 Three!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The momentum of both their bodies was enough to snap whatever had been used to bar the door.\u00a0 Joe heard a crack, and then a groan \u2013 and then suddenly he was laying on the cabin\u2019s floor with Julia on top of him.\u00a0 The impact of being sandwiched between the floor and her long, lithe body drove the wind out of him which, in turn, prevented him from crying out as his injured shoulder slammed into the wooden planks.\u00a0 Julia let out a little \u2018whoop\u2019 as they went down.\u00a0 It took her a moment to realize her position \u2013 one long leg on either side of his hips \u2013 was, well, slightly less than respectable.<\/p>\n \u201cOh!\u201d she exclaimed as she bolted to her feet.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cSorry!\u201d<\/p>\n Joe fought to keep a straight face.\u00a0 He was pretty sure Julia was as virginal as a young woman could be and he didn\u2019t want to do anything to embarrass her further.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got\u2026nothing to be\u2026sorry for,\u201d he puffed out.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m fine \u2013\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJoe.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah?\u201d<\/p>\n She inclined her head toward his left shoulder.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re bleeding.\u201d<\/p>\n He looked.\u00a0 Sure enough, the fabric of the shirt he\u2019d donned the night before was stained red.<\/p>\n \u201cDamn.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jamie Cartwright was bored.\u00a0 He\u2019d finished his chores, done his homework, and then finished more chores and there were still several hours to go until bed.\u00a0 With Joe away and Hoss\u2026gone\u2026there just wasn\u2019t much to do if his pa was busy.\u00a0\u00a0 There was no one to play checkers with.\u00a0 No one to hang out in the barn and talk to.\u00a0 No one to tell those great stories of when Joe and Hoss and the mysterious unseen Adam were young.<\/p>\n He loved those stories.<\/p>\n The day had been okay until everyone arrived.\u00a0 Pa was in the house now with about a half-dozen men finishing up a meeting.\u00a0 A lot of their steers had gone missing recently and it seemed other people\u2019s had too.\u00a0 The men were from as far away as Sweet Water and Lone Pines, so the rustling was pretty widespread.\u00a0 He\u2019d listened at the door a little bit before Hop Sing came out of the kitchen and shooed him away from the window outside Pa\u2019s office.\u00a0 The Chinese man had called him an \u2018eaves popper\u2019, which had made him laugh.\u00a0 He\u2019d heard some big words while he was listening including \u2018confederation\u2019 and \u2018syndicate\u2019.\u00a0 It seemed one of the men who\u2019d come to the meeting had the idea that the rustling wasn\u2019t being done by individuals, but by outlaws and criminals who had joined together in some kind of an dishonest organization.\u00a0 That way they could protect each other.<\/p>\n Jamie shook his head. \u00a0He\u2019d never figure it out, he guessed.\u00a0 It just seemed like some people wanted to do wrong even when it would have been easier to do right.\u00a0 It took a lot of brains and muscle and special skills to outrun the law and outsmart a sheriff like Clem Foster.\u00a0 Pa\u2019d been smoking his pipe one day and reading the paper.\u00a0 He\u2019d told him all about this man that evaded the Pinkertons for years.\u00a0 When they caught him, he told them it hadn\u2019t been about what he stole but about the fact that he could <\/em>steal it \u2013 and get away with it.\u00a0 Pa said it was kind of like playing chess.<\/p>\n Adam liked chess.\u00a0 At least that was what Pa had told him.<\/p>\n He wondered what Adam was like.<\/p>\n The red-headed boy lifted his head and closed his eyes and listened to the voice of the pines.\u00a0 It was late and they were whispering their secrets to each other.\u00a0 He loved to guess what they were saying.\u00a0 He also loved their scent.\u00a0 It was clean and sharp enough to split frogs\u2019 hair.\u00a0 Jamie grinned.\u00a0 Hoss had taught him that one.<\/p>\n He sure missed Hoss.<\/p>\n Still, he knew Joe missed him more.<\/p>\n When he thought of Hoss, it made him happy.\u00a0 The big man was always smilin\u2019 and laughing.\u00a0 Big brother sure<\/em> loved to laugh.\u00a0 Joe kind of had \u2018moods\u2019.\u00a0 He loved him, but there were times when you just had to leave him alone.\u00a0 He\u2019d always come around, but sometimes it took some time.\u00a0 Hoss only had one mood \u2013 happy.\u00a0 When the Cartwrights took him in, he\u2019d been kind of sad.\u00a0 He\u2019d had his \u2018moods\u2019 too.\u00a0 Hoss had taught him you couldn\u2019t just wait for happiness to find you, you had to create it, and so he\u2019d tried.\u00a0 He\u2019d tried so hard since Hoss died.<\/p>\n Especially for Joe.<\/p>\n Big brother Joe felt responsible for Hoss\u2019 death.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t say so, but they all knew it.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t his fault. There\u2019d been a flash flood and a mudslide and Hoss had gone in to save both Joe and a lady and hadn\u2019t come out again.\u00a0 Joe was awful sad, but Pa said Hoss would have been even sadder if he\u2019d lived and Joe had died.<\/p>\n Pa said God had his reasons.<\/p>\n With a sigh, Jamie jumped down from his perch on the fence and headed toward the barn.\u00a0 There was a new batch of kittens in one of the back stalls and he\u2019d been watching them grow.\u00a0 Pa didn\u2019t know they were there and he wasn\u2019t going to tell him.\u00a0 Hop Sing knew.\u00a0 It was kind of their secret.\u00a0 The Chinese man had given him a bottle of cream for them.\u00a0 Since he didn\u2019t have anything else to do until Pa\u2019s meeting was done, he decided he\u2019d take it to them and play with them for a while until he could go into the house.<\/p>\n Nothing could have surprised him more than to find there was someone already in the barn.<\/p>\n The man had brought his horse in and was unsaddling it.\u00a0 He was tall and had what people called \u2018salt and pepper\u2019 hair.\u00a0 He also had a scruff of a beard that had some gray in it too.\u00a0 The stranger was facing the back of the barn, so he couldn\u2019t see his face, but he was pretty sure he didn\u2019t know him.\u00a0 The coat he wore was the color of mustard.\u00a0 Jamie thought it was called a civilian great coat.\u00a0 It looked like the one military men wore, with a short cape over the shoulders.\u00a0 His hat was black like his pants.<\/p>\n He\u2019d been standing there maybe thirty seconds when the man turned and looked at him.\u00a0 \u201cHello,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Just \u2018hello\u2019, like he wasn\u2019t trespassing or anything.<\/p>\n \u201cH\u2026hi,\u201d Jamie stuttered.\u00a0 \u201cWhat are you doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n The man placed his saddle on the stable wall before replying.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m an old friend of the family.\u00a0 I was in the area and thought I would pay them a visit.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just Pa and Joe now\u2026and me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The man eyed him.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re Jamie.\u201d<\/p>\n He nodded.\u00a0 \u201cHow\u2019d you know?\u201d<\/p>\n The stranger\u2019s gaze went to his hair.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cRed hair.\u00a0 Freckles.\u00a0 Mid-teens.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anyone else here who fits the description.\u00a0 Unless Joe\u2019s curls have turned copper.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re more like silver.\u201d<\/p>\n The man\u2019s brows peaked.\u00a0 \u201cReally?\u00a0 When did this happen?\u201d<\/p>\n He shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Hoss told me\u2026.\u00a0 He said turnabout was fair play since Joe turned Pa\u2019s hair white.\u201d<\/p>\n The man\u2019s face went blank for a moment, as if his thoughts had flown a thousand miles away in just one second.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sorry I wasn\u2019t here,\u201d he said as he turned back to his horse and began to lead it into one of the stalls.\u00a0 \u201cFor Hoss\u2026but more for Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n Jamie watched the stranger go about all the things you had to do to stable a horse for the night.\u00a0 There was something about him that was kind of familiar, but he couldn\u2019t place it.\u00a0 He had a funny thought that it might be the long lost Adam Cartwright, but he let that go right away.\u00a0 The man didn\u2019t look like Hoss or Joe, or Pa even.\u00a0 As he stood there, puzzling it out, the front door of the house opened and Pa and the men he was meeting with spilled out into the yard.\u00a0 Most of them mounted up and rode away right quick.\u00a0 Barney Fuller, who was the one who had talked about the syndicate stayed the longest, but even he was gone by the time the stranger had finished with his horse.\u00a0 Pa watched Mr. Fuller go and then looked toward the barn and saw him.\u00a0\u00a0 A moment later he started his way.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t tell him I\u2019m here,\u201d the stranger said as he stepped into the shadows.<\/p>\n Jamie frowned.\u00a0 He had half-a-mind too.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t sure he trusted the tall dark man.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease.\u201d<\/p>\n The red-head let out a sigh. \u00a0Then he took a couple of steps out of the stable and into the light.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought you\u2019d be in bed by now, son,\u201d Pa said as he stopped beside him.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t sleepy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry the meeting took so long.\u201d\u00a0 Pa let out a sigh.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s a lot going on and not much known about it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid you figure out who\u2019s rustling the cattle?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo.\u00a0 It\u2019s very widespread.\u00a0 It seems the worst loses are near Lone Pines, but cattle have gone missing from Hawthorne to Lovelock.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIsn\u2019t Lone Pines where Joe went?\u201d<\/p>\n The older man nodded.\u00a0 \u201cYes.\u00a0 I tried to talk him out of it, but you know your brother.\u00a0 He wouldn\u2019t listen.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo what else is new?\u201d a voice asked out of the darkness.\u00a0 \u201cSince when has Joe ever <\/em>listened?\u201d<\/p>\n Now, he\u2019d seen a lot of looks on his pa\u2019s face.\u00a0 The older man wasn\u2019t real good at hiding his emotions.\u00a0 He\u2019d seen him happy and sad, mad \u2013 maybe even furious \u2013 concerned and worried and even scared.\u00a0 But he\u2019d never seen this look.\u00a0 There was a word for it.\u00a0 It was a funny one.<\/p>\n Flummoxed.<\/p>\n Jamie grinned from ear to ear as the stranger held out his hand.<\/p>\n No, not the \u2018stranger\u2019.<\/p>\n Adam.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDo you ever<\/em> listen?!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI always listen!\u201d he snapped back.<\/p>\n \u201cOh?\u00a0 Do you?\u00a0 Then why are you standing when I told you to sit?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t like to be told what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia let out a little exasperated sigh.\u00a0 \u201cI asked nicely first.\u201d<\/p>\n He looked over his shoulder.\u00a0 \u201cDid you?\u201d<\/p>\n She had her hands planted firmly on her hips \u2013 just like her mother.\u00a0 \u201cYes, I did, and since you were <\/em>listening, I guess you just didn\u2019t hear.\u201d<\/p>\n He let the curtain drop back into place.\u00a0 \u201cThat must be it.\u201d<\/p>\n The young woman shook her head.\u00a0 \u201cHas anyone ever told you that you try a person\u2019s patience?\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019d moved to the other window and was looking out.\u00a0 So far, he\u2019d seen no one and nothing had moved, but he wasn\u2019t going to settle until he was certain they were safe.<\/p>\n \u201cNot in so many words,\u201d he replied as he turned back into the room.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, I bet,\u201d Julia said as she approached him.\u00a0 \u201cI can imagine just what <\/em>words they used.\u201d\u00a0 She cocked her head and looked at him.\u00a0 \u201cPlease, Joe, come over here and sit down before you fall <\/em>down.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI need to make sure you\u2019re safe first.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve put a new bar in place and shoved a chest of drawers up against it.\u00a0 The windows are nailed shut.\u00a0 What do you think someone is going to do, come down the chimney?\u201d<\/p>\n His eyes went to the hearth.\u00a0 \u201cBetter light a fire\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI can do that!\u00a0 Joe\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n He looked at her.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t want to look at her.\u00a0 He was trying his best to keep so busy he couldn\u2019t even think about her.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n A tear escaped to trail down her cheek.\u00a0 \u201cPlease.\u201d<\/p>\n In war that was what was known as unfair tactics.<\/p>\n When he hesitated still, she added, \u201cHave you looked at the floor?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe floor?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLook.\u00a0 At the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n He scowled as he did what she wanted.\u00a0 The scowl deepened when he saw what she saw \u2013 he\u2019d left a trail of blood from window to window.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to let me dress that wound, Joe.\u00a0 Otherwise you\u2019re going to get sick and then you aren\u2019t going to do me any<\/em> good, are you?\u201d<\/p>\n He pursed his lips.\u00a0 And wrinkled his nose.<\/p>\n And gave in.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere do you want me?\u201d<\/p>\n She took hold of his good arm and led him across the room like a little boy.\u00a0 \u201cCome over here to the table.\u00a0 I lit a lamp so I can see what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n It was only after Joe sat down that he realized how tired he was, and how weak he felt.\u00a0\u00a0 He closed his eyes and began to sink.<\/p>\n \u201cTake off your shirt.\u201d<\/p>\n That <\/em>woke him up.\u00a0 \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t bandage your shoulder with your shirt on.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut\u2026.\u201d He drew a breath.\u00a0 \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t be right.\u201d<\/p>\n She placed a hand on her hip.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know what you\u2019re worried about.\u00a0 I\u2019m certainly not going to swoon when I see your shoulder.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen just about everything you\u2019ve got anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n His eyes went wide.<\/p>\n \u201cI said, \u2018just about <\/em>everything\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 Julia smiled.\u00a0 \u201cMa kept one of the towels in the right place when I tended you.\u201d<\/p>\n He was sure his cheeks were redder than the blood on the floor.\u00a0 \u201cJulia, I\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLook.\u00a0 You can take your shirt off, or I\u2019ll take it off for you.\u00a0 One way or the other, I\u2019m tending to that wound,\u201d she warned.<\/p>\n \u201cYou sound like your mother,\u201d he said as he complied.\u00a0 \u201cYou know that?\u201d<\/p>\n Julia took the shirt between two fingers and tossed it over the back of the next chair.\u00a0 \u201cI certainly do.\u00a0 Ma said men aren\u2019t smart enough to know when they need tending, so you have to be smart for them.\u00a0 They\u2019d rather pretend they don\u2019t need doctoring and die.\u201d<\/p>\n He laughed as he gave in.\u00a0 \u201cYour mother is a very shrewd woman.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe had to be,\u201d she replied as she went to the sink and returned with a bowl of water and a clean cloth.\u00a0 \u201cMa said Pa was one of the most stubborn men she ever knew.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYour father?\u201d he asked as she wrung the cloth out.\u00a0 \u201cHe seemed very easy-going.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMa said that was because he was old.\u00a0 She said he was just like you when he was young.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd how is that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMule-headed and cock-sure of himself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI am not \u2013 ouch!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Julia frowned at him.\u00a0 \u201cI think it needs a couple of stitches.\u00a0 I can\u2019t get it to stop bleeding.\u00a0 I wonder if there\u2019s any extra alcohol here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a bottle \u00a0of whiskey in the cabinet I pushed up against the door.\u201d\u00a0 At her look, he grinned.\u00a0 \u201cI couldn\u2019t help but notice.\u201d<\/p>\n She gave him that \u2018Men!\u2019 look women have and went to get it.\u00a0 Once she\u2019d returned, Julia popped the cork and put the whiskey on the table next to the half-full one they\u2019d brought.\u00a0 Then she went to fetch a needle and thread.\u00a0 He heard a \u2018tsk-ing\u2019 noise as she returned to the table and found he\u2019d upended the whiskey into his mouth.<\/p>\n \u201cDoc Martin always prescribed a shot before surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI bet.\u201d\u00a0 She sat beside him and frowned as she took another look.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cThis is going to hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre you up to it?\u201d he asked, suddenly concerned.\u00a0 \u201cWe can let it go\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, we can\u2019t.\u00a0 And I\u2019m fine.\u00a0 Pa and I went fishing once and he cut himself and I had to make a needle out of a hook to sew him up.\u201d<\/p>\n He looked at her with new eyes.\u00a0 \u201cAnd this is the girl who was scared a man was going to die in her bed?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI loved Pa,\u201d she said, her tone wistful.\u00a0 \u201cI would have done anything for him, just like I\u2019d do anything for….\u201d\u00a0 Her voice caught as she realized what she\u2019d almost said.\u00a0 \u201cLike I\u2019d do anything for a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThank you,\u201d he said, and meant it.<\/p>\n Julia held the cloth with the alcohol on it over the wound.\u00a0 \u201cReady?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n He nodded.<\/p>\n Even though he wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAdam!\u00a0 Son!\u00a0 What\u2026?\u00a0 Son, what<\/em> are you doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n Adam was staring at him.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t I get a hug?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n Ben laughed.\u00a0 \u201cYou mean you want one?\u201d<\/p>\n His son gazed long and hard at him.\u00a0 \u201cYes, sir.\u00a0 I do.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019d always done his best to honor his son\u2019s wishes and leave Adam\u2019s emotional barriers intact.\u00a0 Hoss had honored them as well, but had made every attempt to get his brother to lower them.<\/p>\n Joseph had tossed himself against them, determined to break them down.<\/p>\n Between his three sons there had been a great love, but for the most part it remained unspoken.\u00a0 A cuff, a shot to the arm; such simple gestures had expressed it in full.\u00a0 Joseph was the most tactile and Adam, the least.\u00a0 Touch meant the world to him as well, but he\u2019d refrained from touching his oldest, knowing it made the boy uncomfortable.<\/p>\n Perhaps not so the man.<\/p>\n Adam stepped out of the shadows to embrace him.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s good to be home, Pa.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s good to have you home.\u00a0 Are you \u2013?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m here for a couple of weeks.\u00a0 I had business in San Francisco that got delayed, so I decided to come pay you all a visit.\u201d\u00a0 Adam smiled at Jamie who stood nearby somewhat at a loss.\u00a0 \u201cI had to meet my new little brother, now, didn\u2019t I?\u201d<\/p>\n As the boy grinned, Ben asked, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you write ahead?\u00a0 Joseph\u2019s gone.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure he would have wanted to be here to greet you.\u201d<\/p>\n His son winced.\u00a0 \u201cAre you sure of that, Pa?\u00a0 I\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, I\u2019m sure.\u00a0 Whatever anger your brother had over you leaving is long since past.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat about my not being here when Hoss\u2026passed?\u201d<\/p>\n Ben sucked in air.\u00a0 He let it out slowly.\u00a0 \u201cJoseph was\u2026is <\/em>lost in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe still blames himself?\u201d<\/p>\n The rancher nodded.\u00a0 \u201cTo be honest, we both do.\u00a0 I let him go along with his brother.\u00a0 He went, and he came back when Hoss didn\u2019t.\u00a0 I think this trip to Lone Pines was as much to get away from me as to do business.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSurely not, Pa.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJoe\u2019s been awful sad,\u201d Jamie said.<\/p>\n Ben moved to circle the boy\u2019s shoulders with an arm.\u00a0 \u201cYes, he has.\u00a0 We\u2019ve all been sad.\u00a0 I think\u2026.\u00a0 Well, our grief had begun to weigh on one another.\u00a0 I think your brother needed some time away.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen\u2019s he due back?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn a day or two.\u201d\u00a0 He felt Jamie stiffen under his arm.\u00a0 \u201cWhat is it, son?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry, Pa.\u00a0 I forgot,\u201d the boy replied.<\/p>\n \u201cForgot what?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhile you were in that meeting, a man came by with a telegram.\u201d\u00a0 Jamie reached into his pocket and produced two envelopes.\u00a0 \u201cHe said to give this to you.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben looked at the envelope.\u00a0 It was postmarked from Lone Pines.<\/p>\n \u201cIs it from Joe?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think so.\u201d\u00a0 He opened the envelope, drew the telegram out, and scanned the lines.\u00a0 \u201cYour brother is at the Griswolds.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAren\u2019t those the people who took care of Joe when he got bushwhacked and almost died?\u201d Jamie asked.<\/p>\n Ben\u2019s gaze flicked to Adam.\u00a0 He hadn\u2019t told his son about the incident.\u00a0 \u201cYes.\u00a0 He says some strange things have been happening there and he wants to make sure Pat and Julia are all right before he comes home.\u00a0 There\u2019s also something\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is it, Pa?\u201d Adam asked.<\/p>\n \u201cApparently Joe has asked Clem Foster to look into the local sheriff\u2019s background.\u201d\u00a0 Ben frowned.\u00a0 \u201cRobert Truslow was the most incompetent lawman I\u2019d ever met!\u00a0 I thought Hoss was going to take his head off more than once for delaying the investigation into what happened to your brother.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd what did <\/em>happen to Joe?\u201d<\/p>\n Ben returned the telegram to its envelope and put it in his pocket.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a long story, son.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam grinned.<\/p>\n \u201cHow about that?\u00a0 I just happen to have a few weeks free.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n FIVE<\/p>\n Joe woke to the touch of a hand on his forehead.\u00a0 For a moment he thought it was his mother, but then he woke enough to realize he had left his childhood and that beloved figure behind long ago.<\/p>\n \u201cHow are you feeling, Mister Cartwright?\u201d a light voice asked.<\/p>\n He felt fine \u2013 until he moved his left shoulder in an attempt to sit up and pain exploded through it.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat hit me?\u201d he groaned.<\/p>\n \u201cA bullet.\u00a0 Don\u2019t you remember me?\u201d<\/p>\n Joe thought a moment.\u00a0 That\u2019s right.\u00a0 He was outside of Lone Pines and someone had tried to kill him.<\/p>\n Again.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope I did everything right,\u201d Julia said.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019ve got a fever.\u201d<\/p>\n Her frightened tone made him look at her.\u00a0 She\u2019d grown so competent since the last time they\u2019d met that he forgot she wasn\u2019t even twenty; that she was, in fact, a child.<\/p>\n \u201cYou look tired,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n She rolled her eyes.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t you know you\u2019re not supposed to tell a woman that?\u201d<\/p>\n He thought a moment.\u00a0 \u201cNo.\u00a0 No, I don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh, come on now,\u201d she laughed.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sure you\u2019ve known a lot of women.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMore than a lot,\u201d he chuckled, \u201cbut I\u2019ve only lived with one, and she died when I was five.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWas that your ma?\u201d<\/p>\n He nodded.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened to her?\u00a0 If you don\u2019t mind my asking.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an accident.\u00a0 Her horse fell on her.\u201d\u00a0 He paused as he fought the images that sprang to mind.\u00a0 He doubted he really remembered anything, but he\u2019d heard the story so many times it was as if he did.<\/p>\n \u201cHow come your Pa never remarried?\u201d<\/p>\n He looked at her.\u00a0 \u201cProbably for the same reason your Ma keeps turning Ed Flanders away from the door.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia dropped her head.\u00a0 \u201cI miss my pa.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe hesitated, and then reached out to take her hand.\u00a0 \u201cHe was a good man.\u00a0 You were lucky to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n A tear escaped her eye to land on the exposed flesh above her bodice.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s what Ma says.\u00a0 The Good Lord giveth and the Good Lord taketh away.\u201d\u00a0 She sucked in air.\u00a0 \u201cMa\u2019s so strong.\u00a0 I\u2019m\u2026not.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, you are,\u201d he countered.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re very strong.\u201d\u00a0 Joe paused.\u00a0 \u201cI mean, you survived seeing \u2018almost\u2019 everything I got.\u201d<\/p>\n That made her laugh, which was his intention.<\/p>\n He leaned back to ease his shoulder and looked around.\u00a0 \u201cWho were the Russells?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA young couple Pa gave some land to so they could get a start,\u201d Julia answered.\u00a0 \u201cShe was really pretty.\u201d<\/p>\n That would<\/em> be a woman\u2019s first thought.<\/p>\n \u201cShe?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaggie Russell.\u00a0 They came over for supper every month or so.\u00a0 Her husband wanted to raise cattle and Pa was teaching him how.\u201d\u00a0 Julia laughed.\u00a0 \u201cBill was from the city.\u00a0 The first time a steer bellowed, he ran like a scared rabbit!\u201d<\/p>\n Joe shifted and then had to ask.\u00a0 \u201cHelp me sit up?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre you sure you should?\u201d\u00a0 Her hand returned to his head.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cLike I said, you\u2019ve got a fever coming on.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a low one.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be fine,\u201d he replied and then favored her with the smile Hoss called \u2018angelic\u2019.\u00a0 The one brother Adam said belonged to the Devil.\u00a0 \u201cPlease?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOkay.\u201d<\/p>\n He was lying on a low bed in the corner of the room that he supposed had been the Russells.\u00a0 It looked hand-hewed just like the house.\u00a0 There were a few other pieces of furniture in the room, including a cradle.\u00a0 Once Julia had him settled with his back against the headboard, he asked, \u201cDid they have children?\u201d<\/p>\n She rose and went over to the cradle.\u00a0 Placing a hand on it, she rocked it gently.\u00a0 \u201cMaggie died before the baby was born.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Bill left.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBefore<\/em> the baby was born? \u00a0\u00a0So it wasn\u2019t in<\/em> childbirth?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo.\u00a0 Maggie was sick.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t know it when they married.\u00a0 Bill just up and walked away.\u00a0 He said he couldn\u2019t stand to be in this place, not without her and without their baby.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Julia returned to his side.\u00a0 She looked down at him with concern.\u00a0 \u201cJoe?\u00a0 Are you all right?\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019d paled, he knew it.\u00a0 A sweat had broken out on his skin.\u00a0 He felt chilled to the bone and suddenly very, very old.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m tired, that\u2019s all.\u201d\u00a0 He gave her a weak smile.\u00a0 \u201cMaybe I should try to get some sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n She was still studying him.\u00a0 \u201cAre you sure that\u2019s all it is?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSure, I\u2019m sure,\u201d he lied.<\/p>\n Julia bent down to tuck the covers up around his chin.\u00a0 \u201cIs it warm enough in here?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n He nodded.\u00a0 She\u2019d started a small fire in the hearth and it felt good.\u00a0 \u201cYou wake me if you hear or see anything.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI will.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to make us something to eat.\u00a0 Bill left the larder full.\u00a0 There\u2019s plenty of things canned.\u00a0 Are you hungry?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs a grizzly bear,\u201d he replied as he turned his face into the covers.<\/p>\n Julia hesitated.\u00a0 Then she leaned over again and planted a kiss on his hair.\u00a0 \u201cSleep well,\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n Joe listened to the swish of her skirts as she left the room.\u00a0 That was one of the memories he had of his mama, but it wasn\u2019t his mama he was thinking of.\u00a0 It was of a beautiful and innocent young woman just like Julia, so full of life and love, whom he had brought to a cabin much like this.\u00a0 A lovely young woman he\u2019d planned to love and cherish forever.\u00a0\u00a0 The young woman his brothers had thought so much of that they had carved a cradle to hold her first child.<\/p>\n His<\/em> child.<\/p>\n That never was.<\/p>\n Joe fell asleep and in that sleep he murmured a name.<\/p>\n Laura.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cJamie wasn\u2019t too happy to be left behind,\u201d Adam remarked as his pa sat down beside him.\u00a0 They\u2019d decided to follow Joe and had made camp a while back.\u00a0 Neither of them had been able to sleep, so the fire they\u2019d kindled for warmth was now brewing coffee.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a good boy, but that\u2019s just it \u2013 Jamie is a boy.\u00a0 Besides, he has school.\u201d<\/p>\n His father was preoccupied.\u00a0 He\u2019d been too polite to ask him what <\/em>about so far.\u00a0 He knew it had something to do with Joe and what had happened a couple of years back at a homestead outside of Lone Pines.\u00a0 Pa said Joe had almost died.<\/p>\n Jamie told him Joe was shot in the back.<\/p>\n \u201cPa?\u201d<\/p>\n His father started.\u00a0 \u201cEh?\u00a0 Oh\u2026.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry, son.\u00a0 Here, you\u2019ve just returned and I\u2019ve asked you nothing about yourself or your work.\u00a0 How have you been?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m fine, Pa.\u00a0 Busy and happy being busy.\u201d\u00a0 Adam shifted and reached for the pot.\u00a0 \u201cLook, we\u2019ll have plenty of time to talk about me and what I am doing once we get back home.\u00a0 If I need to, I can stretch my stay to three weeks or so.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s wonderful, son.\u00a0 I apologize for the fact that I\u2019ve got you on the road again so quickly.\u00a0 Your brother \u2013 \u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIs Joe in trouble?\u201d<\/p>\n Pa accepted the cup of coffee he handed him.\u00a0 He breathed in its scent and took a sip before speaking.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u00a0 It may be nothing.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t comfortable with Joe going to Lone Pines in the first place.\u00a0 Not after\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam wondered what the end of that sentence was \u2013 not after what happened the last time, or not after what happened to Hoss.<\/p>\n He took a sip of his own coffee and leaned back.\u00a0 \u201cWhy don\u2019t you tell me about it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot quite two years ago, your brother went to Lone Pines to close a deal.\u00a0 I had other work to do and Hoss\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Pa drew in a breath.\u00a0 \u201cHoss had a commitment in town that kept him from going with Joe.\u00a0 I assumed everything was all right until one of the hands rode in with a message from a rancher named Griswold.\u00a0 I\u2019ll never forget it.\u00a0 It said Joseph had been shot and suggested I ride fast and hard.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJamie said he was shot in the back.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the leg.\u00a0 You\u2019re brother was bushwhacked, Adam, and left to die.\u00a0 Tom Griswold was preparing for a drive.\u00a0 He, along with one of his hands, was out looking for strays where he rarely went when he discovered your brother.\u201d\u00a0 His father paused.\u00a0 \u201cJoseph had nearly bled out by the time they found him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI assume Hoss went with you.\u201d<\/p>\n Pa looked at him.\u00a0 He smiled.\u00a0 \u201cNothing could have kept him away.\u00a0 In the end, Hoss saved your brother\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam placed his cup on the ground.\u00a0 \u201cWhat was it all about?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJoe caught two men switching brands on Tom and Pat Griswold\u2019s cattle.\u00a0\u00a0 They thought they\u2019d silenced him, but your baby brother is tough and he survived.\u00a0 Once I got there and began to investigate what had happened, they tried it again.\u00a0 Hoss was with Joe at the house when one of the men broke in and tried to smother him.\u201d<\/p>\n He felt as sick as his father looked.\u00a0 \u201cGood Lord!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, the Lord was good.\u00a0 He saw your brother through a dangerous surgery and protected him from Jim Fenton and Orv Pettis\u2019 evil.\u201d\u00a0 His father looked away toward the horizon.\u00a0 \u201cThere was one point where I was sure I was going to lose him.\u00a0 Joe\u2019s fever was so high and it seemed he\u2019d given up.\u201d<\/p>\n They sat in silence for a moment.<\/p>\n \u201cPa?\u201d<\/p>\n His father looked at him.\u00a0 \u201cYes?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI thought about it, but what could you have done?\u00a0 By the time the letter reached you, Joseph would either have been recovered or\u2026gone.\u00a0 It would only have made you worry.\u00a0 Your brother is fine now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIs he?\u201d\u00a0 Adam hesitated.\u00a0 \u201cAre you?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve\u2026come to peace with what happened.\u00a0 Hoss died as he lived, giving and seeking nothing in return.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI understand he saved Joe\u2019s life?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhich has been hard for your brother.\u00a0 Joseph feels it should have been him who died.\u201d<\/p>\n The man in black smiled.\u00a0 \u201cWe both know what Hoss would have had to say about that<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHoss told me once that he\u2019d seen Joseph into the world and he refused to see him out.\u201d\u00a0 His father puffed out a breath.\u00a0 \u201cDo you know what Hoss told me?\u201d<\/p>\n He shook his head.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said he\u2019d made a pact with God that he would be first.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFirst?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOf the three of you.\u00a0 The first to die.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam swallowed over the lump in his throat.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not fair, Pa.\u00a0 Hoss was so young.\u00a0 He had so many years ahead of him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI had hoped your brother would marry and have children.\u00a0 He would have made an excellent father.\u201d<\/p>\n The man in black reached for the pot to refresh his cup.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s funny how it was always Joe who was about to get married.\u00a0 I never could figure it.\u00a0 The first time he proposed he wasn\u2019t even nineteen.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u00a0 Laura.\u00a0 What a sweet girl, and what a sad ending.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDoes Joe ever talk about her?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, but he still goes up to the old cabin.\u00a0 The men have seen him there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIs it still standing?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s repaired it.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure what he\u2019s waiting on, but it\u2019s in good shape.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam\u2019s smile was rueful.\u00a0 \u201cMaybe he\u2019s waiting on another Laura.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe.\u201d\u00a0 Pa rose and stretched.\u00a0 \u201cI think it\u2019s time you and I try to get some sleep, young man.\u201d<\/p>\n He laughed.\u00a0 \u201cYoung?\u00a0 Pa, I\u2019m over forty.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s still young to me.\u00a0 You know, Adam, there\u2019s a pretty young woman at the Griswolds.\u00a0 Maybe we\u2019ll get there and find there\u2019s nothing more to your brother\u2019s extended visit than the fact that Julia has grown up and turned his head.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow <\/em>young?\u201d he asked as he too rose.<\/p>\n Pa lifted a brow.\u00a0 \u201cAbout the same age Laura was when your brother fell in love with her.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPa, Joe\u2019s not nineteen any more.\u00a0 He\u2019s over thirty.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know,\u201d his father replied as he clapped a hand on his shoulder.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s old fools who fall the hardest.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Julia was sitting at the Russell\u2019s table.\u00a0 She\u2019d fixed some food and gotten Joe to eat a few bites, but all too quickly he\u2019d pushed the plate away and gone back to sleep.\u00a0 She really needed to check his wound again.\u00a0 His fever was still relatively low, but it was higher than before.\u00a0 She was afraid she\u2019d missed something when she\u2019d cleaned it out.\u00a0 Her ma had taught her all about wounds.\u00a0 Most often, the injury itself was of the least concern.\u00a0 It was infectivity that killed and the last time she\u2019d seen Joe\u2019s wound, it had looked angry and red.\u00a0 Ma should have let him stay put at the house.\u00a0 They could have kept him safe there.\u00a0 They had the time before.<\/p>\n Or no, they hadn\u2019t.\u00a0 Jim Fenton would have killed him if not for Hoss running into the house while they battled the shed fire.<\/p>\n She supposed it was different now too since they were just two women.\u00a0 Men like Joe felt responsible for women.\u00a0 Her pa had been the same way.\u00a0 He\u2019d treated her like she was made out of china and she\u2019d grown up thinking she was \u2013 that she was fragile and would break.\u00a0 What she went through with Joe Cartwright nearly two years before had taught her she was more like her ma than she thought.\u00a0 Ma was strong.<\/p>\n She was\u2026getting there.<\/p>\n A sound made her look up and toward the room where Joe lay.\u00a0 She listened and realized he was talking.\u00a0 Puzzled, the young woman got to her feet and headed for the bedroom.\u00a0 Outside the new day was dawning.\u00a0 The pale light that intruded through the worn muslin curtains lit the floor and her way.\u00a0 Dust danced in it.\u00a0 The Russells had been gone about two years now.\u00a0 She supposed no one had been in the cabin since then, unless it had been her pa to check on it and make sure no one had broken in and destroyed anything.\u00a0 As she entered the room, she passed the empty cradle and a sadness overwhelmed her.\u00a0 Sometimes it seemed there was more loss than gain in the world.<\/p>\n Sometimes it seemed hearts were meant to be broken.<\/p>\n Joe was tossing in his sleep, muttering words she couldn\u2019t understand.\u00a0 Julia sat \u00a0down beside him.\u00a0 She watched him a moment and then reached out to touch one of the ringlets that covered his head.\u00a0 He was young to have gray hair, but is suited him somehow, though \u2018gray\u2019 was a poor word to describe it.\u00a0 Joe\u2019s hair was a chaos of curls that reminded her of a summer storm.\u00a0 Their color ran the gamut from steel-gray to a lightning flash of silver.\u00a0 As she sat there, staring at him, she remembered the day he\u2019d arrived.\u00a0 He\u2019d felt\u2026empty somehow.\u00a0 She knew now that it had to do in part with the loss of his brother, but there was something more \u2013 something deeper.\u00a0 She\u2019d felt something like that herself.\u00a0 Her pa had died and yet she found herself thinking, not about him but about an earlier loss.<\/p>\n About Joe Cartwright and what might have been.<\/p>\n \u201cHey,\u201d a familiar voice said.<\/p>\n She smiled when she saw his eyes were open.\u00a0 \u201cHey.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe\u2019s fevered gaze rolled over to the window.\u00a0 \u201cIs it morning?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJust about.\u00a0 Are you hungry?\u00a0 I found some eggs.\u00a0 The Russells chickens are still running around.\u201d<\/p>\n He looked at her and smiled.\u00a0\u00a0 It was a lazy kind of smile, like a little boy waking from a wonderful dream.\u00a0 \u201cYou are taking mighty fine care of me, Miss Julia,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know what I\u2019d do without you.\u201d<\/p>\n His words took her off-guard.\u00a0 Quickly, to conceal the tidal wave of emotion that welled up within her, Julia reached out and placed a hand on his forehead.\u00a0 The fever was still there but it hadn\u2019t risen during the night.<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you feel?\u201d she asked as she leaned back.\u00a0 \u201cDo you want me to fix those eggs?\u201d<\/p>\n He shook his head and then, without warning, tossed the coverlet back and started to stand up!<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you think you\u2019re doing?!\u201d<\/p>\n Joe looked at her like she\u2019d sprung a second head.\u00a0 \u201cGetting out of bed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut you\u2019re sick!\u201d<\/p>\n He glanced at his shoulder.\u00a0 \u201cNo, I\u2019m not.\u00a0 I\u2019m shot.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been shot before.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut you\u2019ve got a fever.\u201d<\/p>\n He shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve had those before too.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia\u2019s hands went to her hips.\u00a0 \u201cWell, if you\u2019re not going to eat breakfast, what exactly is it you think you are<\/em> going to do?\u201d<\/p>\n Joe pursed his lips and thought a moment.\u00a0 One eyebrow cocked.\u00a0 \u201cTake care of business.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re not going out there looking for those robbers in your condition!\u201d she countered.\u00a0 \u201cWhy, if that fever was to take hold, you\u2019d be flat on your face in no \u2013\u201d<\/p>\n His hand was on her shoulder.\u00a0 Joe waited to speak until she met his more than slightly amused stare.\u00a0 \u201cJulia, I have to use the privy.\u201d<\/p>\n If she\u2019d blushed before when he told her he couldn\u2019t do without her, she turned red as a beet now.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cOh gosh!\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t mean to\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe lifted a hand and placed it alongside her face.\u00a0 \u201cJulia.\u00a0 Listen to me.\u00a0 It\u2019s okay.\u00a0 This is new for both of us.\u00a0 Maybe your ma and Ed Flanders will show up today and then your life can get back to normal.\u00a0 I really appreciate all you\u2019ve done for me.\u201d\u00a0 He paused and then asked, \u201cHey, what\u2019s wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n She couldn\u2019t help it. There were tears in her eyes.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t want life to get back to normal.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t want to leave this place.\u00a0 She wanted to stay here with Joe \u2013 just the two of them \u2013 for the rest of her life.<\/p>\n Since she couldn\u2019t tell him any of that, she shook her head and dropped her eyes.<\/p>\n Joe must have thought she was upset about her ma and Ed, or maybe about her pa dying, because he drew her into his arms and held her.\u00a0 They were so close, she could feel the beat of his heart.\u00a0 She could also feel the heat radiating off of him.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t being honest with her.\u00a0 He was sicker than he let on.\u00a0 Her pa had always been like that.\u00a0 He wouldn\u2019t admit to any weakness.\u00a0 He had<\/em> to be strong for them.<\/p>\n She wanted Joe to be strong for her.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, Julia,\u201d Joe said softly, \u201cmoving on doesn\u2019t mean we forget about people, it just means we have to decide not to stay where we are.\u00a0 Life is like a raging, rolling river.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have any control over it.\u00a0 It takes us where it wants.\u00a0 My pa sees God\u2019s hand in that, and most of the time I do too.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMost of the time?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n His muscles tensed, as if readying for battle.\u00a0 \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre you mad at God because your brother died?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d\u00a0 There was a pause.\u00a0 \u201cAnd for Laura.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019d heard him mention that name in his sleep.\u00a0 \u201cWho was she?\u201d<\/p>\n Joe shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cI hadn\u2019t thought of her in years.\u00a0 I guess it\u2019s this place.\u00a0 Laura was a woman I loved a long time ago.\u00a0 We were to be married.\u00a0 She\u2026died.\u201d<\/p>\n She moved back so she could see him.\u00a0 \u201cOh, Joe!\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n He released her and crossed over to the cradle.\u00a0 \u201cMy brothers made one like this for us.\u00a0 For our first child.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow did she\u2026die?\u201d<\/p>\n He looked at her.\u00a0 \u201cShe was sick.\u00a0 She\u2019d been sick the whole time she and her father stayed with us.\u00a0 He kept trying to keep us apart, but never said anything.\u201d\u00a0 Joe\u2019s fingers fisted in anger.\u00a0 \u201cShe died in my arms.\u201d<\/p>\n Tears were streaming down her face.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t know what to say.\u00a0 This man\u2019s grief put her own to shame.\u00a0 The loss of a parent was to be expected.\u00a0 The loss of a love \u2013 so fresh, with so much promise \u2013 was just\u2026unthinkable.<\/p>\n Joe smiled at her.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s okay.\u00a0 It was a long time ago.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why I keep thinking about her.\u00a0 Like I said, I think it\u2019s this place.\u00a0 It\u2019s very much like the cabin my pa gave us.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia approached him.\u00a0 She\u2019d taken her shoes off and Joe had his on, so she had to look up a little at him.\u00a0 Since she\u2019d \u2018seen just about everything he had\u2019 the barriers were down between them.\u00a0 It felt natural to reach out and take his hand.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m so sorry, Joe.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what to say.\u201d<\/p>\n His fingers closed over hers and his other hand went to her hair.\u00a0 He stroked it a moment and then gave her that smile, the one that looked like a wink.<\/p>\n \u201cThen don\u2019t say anything,\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n And kissed her.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n SIX<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He wasn\u2019t sure why he\u2019d done that.<\/p>\n Kissed Julia, that was.\u00a0 Ever since coming to the cabin Joe\u2019s emotions had been in turmoil.\u00a0 At first he hadn\u2019t thought about it since he\u2019d felt like grass after a stampede, but the more time he spent inside the homely structure, the more the desolation that had claimed his soul on the ride to the Griswolds took hold.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t a man to run, but that\u2019s what he\u2019d been doing.\u00a0 He\u2019d hoped travel, and spending some time in a different place, would ease the pain.\u00a0 It hadn\u2019t.\u00a0 Hoss was still dead.\u00a0 And now, he was grieving for more than Hoss.\u00a0 The name he put to that grief was \u2018Laura\u2019, but it was deeper than that.\u00a0 It was for the loss of a woman in his life.\u00a0 There\u2019s been a few he had really and truly loved \u2013 Laura and Amy Bishop chief among them.\u00a0 They\u2019d died, just like his mother had died, and while he\u2019d danced and dallied and delighted in the company of dozens of delectable damsels, he\u2019d known at heart that he would never take that step again.\u00a0 Fearless, devil-may-care, dauntless and sometimes reckless Joseph Cartwright was afraid.<\/p>\n He was afraid that, in the end, every person he loved would die and leave him.<\/p>\n Adam was gone and who knew? maybe dead.\u00a0 Hoss died for him and instead <\/em>of him.\u00a0 Pa\u2026Pa was getting older and one day he would be gone.\u00a0 Every woman he\u2019d loved, starting with his mother, had either died or deserted him.<\/p>\n Did he dare<\/em> take a chance again?<\/p>\n Everyone that knew him would laugh if he told them he was beginning to have feelings for Julia Griswold that went beyond friendship.\u00a0 \u2018Joe Cartwright?\u00a0 Why, if that boy ever marries, it will be to a spitfire!\u2019\u00a0 But he didn\u2019t want a spitfire or a fiercely independent woman.\u00a0\u00a0 He\u2019d dated wild and willful girls, actresses, and even taken a turn or two with saloon girls.\u00a0 Pa always told him they weren\u2019t the \u2018marrying kind\u2019 and he\u2019d been right.\u00a0 He wanted \u2013 what was it the Good Book called it? \u2013 a helpmeet.\u00a0 Someone who would quietly stand by his side.\u00a0 A woman who would give him children and delight in taking care of them; someone who would take care of him<\/em>.<\/p>\n Joe smiled.\u00a0 Then he laughed.\u00a0 The look on Julia\u2019s face when she thought he was going to march out and take on the outlaws had been priceless!<\/p>\n He rotated his injured shoulder as he finished the short walk to the privy.\u00a0 He had to admit, maybe he needed<\/em> a little looking after.\u00a0 Pa told him once that a woman was there to slow a man down and make him think.\u00a0 Men \u2013 all men, but him more than a lot of them \u2013 had a tendency to charge ahead and right into danger.\u00a0 Pa said, once you had a wife and children, you had to think of someone else first.\u00a0 A single man could go out and get himself killed and his family would mourn, but a married man left behind people depending on him \u2013 people who needed him.<\/p>\n He\u2026needed to be needed.<\/p>\n Joe halted when he just about bumped\u00a0 his nose into the rough wood of the outhouse.\u00a0 He shook his head and snorted and then took hold of the unlatched door and gave it a good thump.\u00a0 When he was a kid, he used to shout \u2018incoming!\u2019 and then wait for the critters to scramble out if they were in there.\u00a0 Since the Russells had been gone for over a year, he figured there might be a few of them considered the rough structure home.\u00a0 After a count of about twenty, he stepped inside.<\/p>\n Just in time to miss the movement in the trees to his right.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pat Griswold let out a little sigh as she placed the coffee pot next to the dish of pancakes on the table.\u00a0 It was something she\u2019d done hundreds of times.\u00a0 There was even a man sitting at the table \u2013 but it was the wrong <\/em>man.<\/p>\n \u201cYou worried about Julia?\u201d Ed Flanders asked.<\/p>\n Pat pushed a stray lock of red-blonde hair out of her eyes.\u00a0 She nodded as she took a seat across the table from him.\u00a0 \u201cJulia\u2019s grown a lot since\u2026well\u2026since what happened, but she\u2019s still a giddy girl not yet turned twenty.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re worried about Cartwright.\u201d<\/p>\n She blinked.\u00a0 \u201cWhat?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Joe Cartwright\u2019s a gentleman.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJoe Cartwright\u2019s a man,\u201d Ed said as he took a sip.\u00a0 \u201cRight fine coffee, Pat.\u201d<\/p>\n Her lips twisted.\u00a0 \u201cOh?\u00a0 And are men only interested in one thing when it comes to women?\u201d<\/p>\n Ed hesitated before putting the cup on the worn tabletop.\u00a0\u00a0 He looked right at her.\u00a0 \u201cNo.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sayin\u2019 that.\u00a0 But he\u2019s a young one.\u201d<\/p>\n She allowed the smile to escape.\u00a0 \u201cYou were a young man once, weren\u2019t you, Ed?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, I was.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t see no point to it.\u201d\u00a0 He reached with his fork for a pancake.\u00a0 \u201cEvery pretty filly that walked by turned my head.\u00a0 Couldn\u2019t think straight most the time.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, Joe\u2019s not so young.\u00a0 I think his pa said he was around thirty,\u201d she said as she did the same.<\/p>\n \u201cYoung enough.\u201d<\/p>\n As they began to eat a silence fell.\u00a0 She\u2019d ridden to Ed\u2019s first thing and asked him to come help her.\u00a0 He\u2019d been right happy to, if \u2018happy\u2019 was a word that ever described the homesteader.\u00a0 Ever since his son had died three years back, Ed had carried with him a sadness that sucked dry just about \u00a0anyone and anything he came into contact with.\u00a0 He was a good man, but he was wasting precious time.<\/p>\n You never knew what the next day would bring.<\/p>\n \u201cThese men after Cartwright,\u201d Ed began, \u201cthis have something to do with what happened before?\u201d<\/p>\n She hadn\u2019t told Ed of Joe\u2019s suspicions about Robert Truslow.\u00a0 She wanted Joe to do that.\u00a0 All she\u2019d told him was that some men had waylaid Joe and seemed to be following him and that they \u2013 she and Julia \u2013 needed help to deal with it.\u00a0 It was a mark of the kind of man he was that he hadn\u2019t asked any questions.<\/p>\n Until now.<\/p>\n \u201cJoe seems to think so,\u201d she replied, \u201cbut it\u2019s better I leave the telling to him.\u201d<\/p>\n Ed nodded, took another bite, and then announced, \u201cBest I go alone.\u201d<\/p>\n Pat stared at him.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m coming with you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBest if you don\u2019t.\u00a0 Could be dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf there is danger, Julia is right in the middle of it!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd what danger would that be, Mrs. Griswold?\u201d an unfamiliar voice asked.<\/p>\n Ed was on his feet with his hand on his gun before the stranger could step in the door.\u00a0 The homesteader relaxed a bit \u2013 they both did \u2013 when he was followed by the familiar form of Ben Cartwright.<\/p>\n Pat\u2019s hand was on her chest.\u00a0 Her heart was thumping.\u00a0 \u201cSorry, Mister Cartwright, you startled me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI should be the one to apologize,\u201d the handsome man in black said as he held out his hand.\u00a0 \u201cAnd it\u2019s \u2018misters\u2019 Cartwright.\u201d<\/p>\n She looked at Ben who smiled.\u00a0 \u201cThis is my oldest son, Adam.\u00a0 He came home to find his youngest brother missing and insisted we come find him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou know how older brothers are,\u201d Adam said with a smile.\u00a0 \u201cFirst we hug, and then we box their ears.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe took the liberty of stabling our horses,\u201d Ben said.\u00a0 \u201cI didn\u2019t see Cochise in the barn.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJoe\u2019s not here, Ben.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot here?\u00a0 Then where is he?\u201d the man in black asked.<\/p>\n Pat rose from her chair and headed for the stove.\u00a0 \u201cWhy don\u2019t you two men sit down and grab some grub while I tell you about it?\u00a0 You look done in.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThank you,\u201d Ben replied.\u00a0 \u201cWe rode through the night.\u201d\u00a0 He glanced at his son.\u00a0 \u201cNeither of us could sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJoe\u2019s in trouble, isn\u2019t he?\u201d Adam asked as both he and his father sat at the table.<\/p>\n She remembered the older man\u2019s presentiments about his youngest the time before.\u00a0 It seemed there was a deep tie between all <\/em>the Cartwright men.<\/p>\n \u201cFool kid got himself bushwhacked a second time,\u201d Ed said as he laid his napkin on the table and scooted his chair back.<\/p>\n \u201cA second <\/em>time?\u201d Ben asked.<\/p>\n \u201cJoe went to see Sheriff Truslow and then on to Lone Pines to send you a telegram,\u201d the older woman said. \u00a0\u201cSome men tried to rob him on the way back.\u00a0 They took his money, but he got away.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam let out a small sigh.\u00a0 \u201cWas he hurt?\u201d<\/p>\n Pat nodded as she sat another plate of pancakes on the table.\u00a0 \u201cShot him in the shoulder.\u00a0 It was a clean wound.\u00a0 He seemed to be doing all right.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhere is my brother now, if I might ask?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPat sent him up to the old Russell place,\u201d Ed replied.\u00a0 \u201cThought he\u2019d be safer there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAlone?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy girl, Julia, is with him,\u201d she replied.\u00a0 \u201cShe knows how to take care of a man in trouble.\u00a0 She did it plenty of times with her pa.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhere is<\/em> Tom?\u201d Ben asked, as she knew he would.<\/p>\n Pat sat down and looked at him.<\/p>\n And began to talk.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joe lowered himself gingerly into the chair at the table and then plastered a smile on his face as Julia turned toward him with a plate of food in her hand.<\/p>\n \u201cMm-mm,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cThat smells good!\u201d<\/p>\n She smiled.\u00a0 \u201cYou missed breakfast, so I thought I\u2019d make us lunch.\u00a0 I found some tinned meat to go with the eggs.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of a hash.\u201d<\/p>\n He really wasn\u2019t hungry, but for her sake he intended to finish every last bite.\u00a0 As he picked up his fork and looked at the mix-up on his plate, Joe silently prayed his stomach wouldn\u2019t betray him.<\/p>\n \u201cHow\u2019s your shoulder doing?\u201d she asked.\u00a0 Before he could stop her, she reached out to touch his forehead.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re still hot,\u201d she remarked with a frown.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll be okay.\u00a0 It just takes me a while to shake off a fever.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always been that way.\u201d\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a lie, but it wasn\u2019t really the truth either.\u00a0 He should<\/em> have been better by now.\u00a0\u00a0 The wound was as hot to the touch as his head, but he wasn\u2019t going to tell her<\/em> that.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019ll see.\u00a0 Tomorrow I\u2019ll be right as rain.\u201d<\/p>\n The look Julia gave him reminded him way<\/em> too much of Hop Sing.<\/p>\n Which made him laugh.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n He put his fork down and took the opportunity to delay shoveling food into his queasy stomach.\u00a0 \u201cWhen this is all over, you and your ma need to come visit us on the Ponderosa.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to show it to you.\u00a0 That way you can meet Hop Sing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWho\u2019s Hop Sing?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you ask anybody in Virginia City, they\u2019d say he\u2019s our cook and housekeeper, but he\u2019s a lot more than that.\u00a0 Pa hired him about the time he brought my mama to the Ponderosa.\u201d\u00a0 Joe paused.\u00a0 \u201cAfter she died he took care of Adam, Hoss, and me.\u00a0 Hop Sing was the one who saw we were up and dressed and washed and fed in time to ride to school.\u00a0 He was there when we got home, and made sure we did our homework.\u00a0 He took care of all of us, but for me, well,\u201d Joe paused, \u201cI guess you could kind of say he became my second \u2018ma\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia smiled, as if the picture he painted amused her.\u00a0 \u201cHe sounds like a wonderful man.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe is.\u00a0 That look you gave me a minute back.\u00a0 It reminded me of him.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I laughed.\u201d<\/p>\n She held his gaze.\u00a0 \u201cYou mean the one when you told me that whopper about feeling better by tomorrow?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhopper?\u201d \u00a0Joe gave her his best innocent look.<\/p>\n Julia indicated his plate with a nod.\u00a0 \u201cHealthy men eat.\u00a0 You can\u2019t stop them.\u00a0 Sick ones don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou never took care of my brother when he was sick,\u201d he replied.\u00a0 \u201cHoss could eat a horse and a \u2013\u201d<\/p>\n Her hand covered his.\u00a0 \u201cJoe.\u00a0 How bad is it?\u201d<\/p>\n He slumped back in the chair and let out a sigh.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I think the wound might be infected.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou better let me take a look at it.\u201d\u00a0 Julia rose to her feet and held out her hand.\u00a0 \u201cCome on over to the bed and lay down.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou can look at it here,\u201d he said, suddenly uncomfortable.<\/p>\n \u201cI can, but I can\u2019t do it properly.\u201d\u00a0 The young woman smiled.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t tell me you\u2019re afraid little old me is going to take \u2018advantage\u2019 of you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJulia\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 He cleared his throat.\u00a0 \u201cAbout before\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s okay.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure you didn\u2019t mean it.\u201d\u00a0 She shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cI imagine it was just what Ma calls a \u2018moment\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n She tugged on his hand but he didn\u2019t budge.<\/p>\n \u201cJulia.\u00a0 You need to understand something about me.\u00a0 I\u2019m not a man who does things unless he means<\/em> to do them.\u201d\u00a0 Joe rose to his feet.\u00a0 He placed a hand alongside her cheek.\u00a0 \u201cSo you see, I\u2019m not so sure it\u2019s smart for me to go lay down on that bed and have you unbutton my shirt.\u201d<\/p>\n It took her a second to recover.\u00a0 \u201cWell, I can\u2019t rightly take care of that wound with you wearing<\/em> it.\u201d<\/p>\n He nodded.\u00a0 \u201cOkay\u2026fair is fair.\u00a0 How about I take it off and stay here<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n She rolled her eyes.\u00a0 \u201cWhat am I supposed to do if you pass out and fall off the chair?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI won\u2019t,\u201d he replied as he began to work the buttons.<\/p>\n Julia watched him \u2013 a little too closely for his comfort.\u00a0 Her rose-petal lips quirked.\u00a0 \u201cYou want me to turn around?\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019d finished with the buttons and was struggling a bit to remove the shirt.\u00a0 The right sleeve had gone fine, but the left one wasn\u2019t cooperating.\u00a0 Apparently it was stuck to his skin.\u00a0 Joe wrinkled his nose and winced as he pulled at it.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I need some\u2026help\u2026here\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia stared at him a moment longer and then reached inside his shirt.\u00a0 He thought she was going to pull the shirt free, but instead she slipped her other hand inside the fabric and ran both hands up his back.\u00a0 She looked up and he saw the same deep hunger that he <\/em>felt reflected in her eyes.\u00a0 Joe cleared his throat.\u00a0 He needed to put a stop to this. \u00a0He<\/em> was the adult here.\u00a0 Julia was little more than a child.<\/p>\n Just like he\u2019d <\/em>been a child when he\u2019d proposed to Laura all those years ago.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The road to the cabin was a long one and fraught with delays.\u00a0 The four of them \u2013 him, Pa, Pat Griswold and Ed Flanders \u2013 had started out just after breakfast to head to the Russells.\u00a0 Pat\u2019s hand, Ern, was to join them later after attending to the needs of her spread.\u00a0 The day was half-gone and they weren\u2019t quite halfway there.\u00a0 On the road they\u2019d run into Sheriff Truslow and a man named Amos Pettis.\u00a0 The pair said they were out looking for rustlers, but something about their demeanor struck him wrong. \u00a0Of course, Pa had prejudiced him a bit against the sheriff and not without reason. \u00a0The man\u2019s inept investigation into who bushwhacked Joe had allowed those same men the opportunity to attempt to kill his brother again.\u00a0 If not for Hoss, Joe would<\/em> have been dead.<\/p>\n Adam closed his eyes.<\/p>\n Hoss.<\/p>\n It was so hard to believe he was gone.<\/p>\n Even though he\u2019d known \u2013 even though he\u2019d read the letter a hundred and one times \u2013 he\u2019d still half-expected to find the big galoot in the barn nursing some animal back to health, or maybe in the kitchen rustling chocolate cake for a midnight snack.\u00a0 Hoss\u2019 absence was a presence that could not be denied.\u00a0 You couldn\u2019t help but feel it every time you stepped into the house.<\/p>\n He had no idea how Joe was coping with it.<\/p>\n Of course, from what little Pa had said \u2013 in letters as well as since he\u2019d been home \u2013 it seemed Joe wasn\u2019t \u2018coping\u2019 with his emotions.\u00a0 Little brother had taken them and stuffed them in a sack and sewn it shut.\u00a0 Then he\u2019d tossed the sack into a deep, dark well.\u00a0 Pa said Joe\u2019s bursts of anger \u2013 usually directed at himself \u2013 followed by deep bouts of depression were difficult to endure.\u00a0 Adam snorted.\u00a0 \u2018Difficult.\u2019\u00a0 That was Pa.\u00a0 Steady.\u00a0 Solid.\u00a0 Self-sacrificing.<\/p>\n Long-suffering.<\/p>\n He looked like he\u2019d aged ten years.<\/p>\n They were on the move again. \u00a0Truslow and Pettis had held them up about an hour asking questions about where they were going and what they were about.\u00a0 The pair had couched it as \u2018friendly chatter\u2019, but it was more than that.\u00a0 Adam had a sense that it was a delaying tactic, and that made him even more anxious to ride on and reach the cabin just to make sure his baby brother was still breathing.\u00a0 Joe was an enigma.\u00a0 His youngest brother was one of the strongest, toughest men he knew.\u00a0 Up until his mid-twenties, Joe had been slight of build and in the featherweight class.\u00a0\u00a0 He was possessed of a natural beauty that, as a kid, had passed the handsome mark and marched straight on to \u2018pretty\u2019.\u00a0 One year they\u2019d talked him into dressing as a girl for an All Hallows\u2019 Eve party and he\u2019d won the prize for best costume.\u00a0 Everyone thought he was<\/em> a girl.\u00a0 All of this had led to a lot of fights where little brother felt the need to prove himself.\u00a0 He and Hoss had taught him how to defend himself and taught him well.\u00a0 Joe could take on a man twice his size and win.\u00a0 It was ironic that the one enemy that tough kid could not beat couldn\u2019t even be seen.<\/p>\n Infectivity.<\/p>\n It had nearly killed him a dozen times.\u00a0 Joe had been sick a lot as a child and then been shot, stabbed, and beaten a dozen times or more as an adult.\u00a0 \u00a0Worrying about Joseph Francis Cartwright was a natural state for anyone who loved him.<\/p>\n He was worried about him now.<\/p>\n Adam\u2019s reverie was interrupted when his father urged Buck on and came alongside him.\u00a0 Pa remained silent for a moment and then said, \u201cWhat did you make of Robert Truslow?\u201d<\/p>\n He pursed his lips and thought a moment.\u00a0 \u201cHe appeared to me like someone who has something to hide.\u201d<\/p>\n Pa nodded.\u00a0 \u201cI agree.\u00a0 I have never trusted the man.\u00a0 When we were here the last time \u2013 when your brother was bushwhacked \u2013 I did some asking around.\u00a0 Most of the Griswold\u2019s neighbors told me he was a decent man and a competent sheriff.\u00a0 And yet, in your brother\u2019s case, I saw nothing but an inept, belligerent individual who all too obviously wanted me to go away.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo what are you thinking?\u201d<\/p>\n His father sighed.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m not sure.\u00a0 I want to give him the benefit of the doubt.\u201d\u00a0 Pa looked behind in the way the two men had gone.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m uneasy about the fact that he was with Amos Pettis today.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the father of the man who shot Joe, right?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the men.\u00a0 It was either Orv Pettis or Jim Fenton.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if it was ever established which man shot your brother, but they were in on it together.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd now they\u2019re both dead.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes\u2026which also makes me uneasy.\u00a0 Amos could blame your brother for his son\u2019s death.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d think he\u2019d blame Truslow.\u00a0 He\u2019s the one who was there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMan is a curious creature, son, as I am sure you know.\u00a0 In order to make his son into a hero, Amos would feel compelled to turn your brother into the villain.\u00a0 Joe lied about what Orv was doing.\u00a0 Or Joe tricked him into doing something he didn\u2019t want to do.\u201d\u00a0 Pa sighed.\u00a0 \u201cPerhaps Amos would even go so far as to try to convince himself that Joe was the one who was stealing cattle and his son was blamed for it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI wonder\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Adam frowned.\u00a0 \u201cIt could be all or any of that, or it could be that \u00a0Amos and Truslow are involved.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInvolved?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWith the cattle rustling.\u201d<\/p>\n Pa was frowning too.\u00a0 \u201cWhat are you thinking?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, let\u2019s suppose that this syndicate our neighbors told you about is real and is operating out of the area near Lone Pines.\u201d\u00a0 He glanced behind at Pat and Ed who were following in their wake.\u00a0 \u201cThree years ago Ed\u2019s son was murdered on his way back from a cattle show where some of those men would have been.\u00a0 Let\u2019s say James found out something there and that someone knew<\/em> he\u2019d found it out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd had him killed to keep him quiet?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not one to accuse a man without proof, but you said Sheriff Truslow found his body when there was no one else around.\u201d<\/p>\n Pa\u2019s look was grave.\u00a0 He nodded.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, fast-forward to Joe\u2019s trip to Lone Pines where he stumbles on Orv Pettis and Jim Fenton changing the brands on the Griswold\u2019s cattle to their own.\u00a0 Joe is shot and nearly killed and, from what you have told me, Truslow did everything in his power to stop the investigation into his shooting, from ignoring your suggestions and stomping off in a huff, to refusing to use dogs to search for clues.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was odd,\u201d Pa said.\u00a0 \u201cThere was a definite feel of\u2026well\u2026conspiracy in the air.\u00a0 Even among Tom and Pat\u2019s neighbors.\u00a0 I would look out to find them clustered in groups, talking quietly as they watched the house.\u201d\u00a0 The older man paused.\u00a0 \u201cEd Flanders among them.\u201d<\/p>\n So they could<\/em> have a viper in their nest.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd now,\u201d Adam went on, \u201chere we are riding out to find Joe who was attacked again \u2013 after<\/em> he visited the good sheriff.\u00a0\u00a0 Plus, we run into that same sheriff, who is traveling with one of the dead bushwhackers\u2019 fathers, along the way.\u00a0 You know what they say, Pa?\u00a0 Coincidence, if traced far enough back, becomes inevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n His father was silent for a moment.\u00a0 Then he nodded.\u00a0 \u201cWhich means we need to get to the Russells\u2019 cabin now<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He\u2019d stepped outside.<\/p>\n Julia followed him.<\/p>\n \u201cJoe, I know what I want.\u00a0 I want you,\u201d she said as she stepped off the porch.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve wanted you since I met you that first time, two years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou were seventeen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou were seventeen once,\u201d she countered.\u00a0 \u201cWere you in love then?\u201d<\/p>\n Joe closed his eyes and drew a breath.\u00a0 Julia.\u00a0 Amy.\u00a0 Emily.\u00a0 Laura.\u00a0 At that age, he\u2019d been in love more times than he could count.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re not old enough to know what you want.\u201d<\/p>\n She came closer.\u00a0 \u201cMa was only eighteen when Pa proposed, and less than twenty when they married.\u00a0 She knew what she wanted.\u00a0 So do I.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow old was your Pa?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTwenty-six.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJulia.\u00a0 Maybe missing your pa\u2026.\u00a0 Maybe the fact that I\u2019m older like he was.\u00a0 \u00a0Maybe\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe you\u2019re scared,\u201d she said softly.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not scared.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, you are.\u00a0 Don\u2019t you see?\u201d\u00a0 She was standing close by him now.\u00a0 So close he caught the scent of vanilla on her skin; of rose water in her hair.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re scared I\u2019m going to die like those other girls you loved.\u00a0 Like everyone<\/em> you love.\u201d<\/p>\n He shook his head and started to turn away.\u00a0 She caught his hand and pulled him back.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery day is a chance, Joe.\u00a0 You take a chance just opening your eyes and breathing.\u00a0 You open the door without knowing what\u2019s outside, and walk into it not knowing what you leave behind.\u00a0 The kettle could spark and catch the house on fire while you\u2019re in the barn.\u00a0 One of the animals could spook and strike out.\u00a0 They might miss you, but you could catch your leg on a piece of rusty wire backing away and die two days later from infectivity.\u201d\u00a0 She squeezed his hand.\u00a0 \u201cThe only thing certain is uncertainty, and the only<\/em> certainty is in believing that God is watching out for you and He knows what\u2019s best.\u201d<\/p>\n God.<\/p>\n In his darkest moments, he\u2019d decided he was done with God.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything happens for a reason,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n He held her gaze.\u00a0 \u201cYou really believe that?\u201d<\/p>\n Julia smiled.\u00a0 \u201cWell, if God\u2019s not in control, then who is?\u00a0 You ever think about that?\u201d<\/p>\n He touched her face.\u00a0 \u201cHow did you grow so wise in two years?\u201d<\/p>\n She shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m not that smart.\u00a0 You\u2019re just dumber than you were.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe started and then laughed.\u00a0 Then he bent his head to kiss her.\u00a0 When he came up for air, he said, \u201cI think I could eat something now.\u201d<\/p>\n Her smile was as stunning as a May morning.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cGive me five minutes,\u201d she said and then turned and practically skipped into the Russells\u2019 house.<\/p>\n Joe moved to the fence that bordered the yard and leaned his hip on it.\u00a0 He reached inside his shirt and felt his wound, which was hot to the touch and giving him pain.\u00a0 Still, he was on his feet and that was something to be grateful for.<\/p>\n Grateful.<\/p>\n It had been a long time since he\u2019d been grateful for anything.\u00a0 He\u2019d been so angry that life \u2013 that God \u2013 had taken his brother instead of him that he\u2019d struck out at everything including Pa and Hop Sing.\u00a0 Joe glanced at the house.\u00a0 Julia was singing.\u00a0 He closed his eyes and listened and, again, his mind flew back to his youth and to his first true love and their hope for a life together.<\/p>\n Maybe, just maybe it could <\/em>work this time.<\/p>\n With a sigh, Joe kicked off the fence and headed for the house.<\/p>\n Just as Julia screamed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n SEVEN<\/p>\n Night had fallen by the time they arrived at the Russell cabin.<\/p>\n Almost immediately they knew something was wrong.<\/p>\n While Joseph might have chosen to keep the lights low in the cabin, it was a chilly night and there was no smoke rising from the chimney.\u00a0 Those two things combined with the fact that the front door was standing open were enough to pull Ben from his saddle before his horse came to a full stop and send him running toward the cabin even as Adam shouted for him not to.\u00a0 When he stepped inside it was almost completely dark.\u00a0 The only light in the structure was cast by a dim moon shrouded with clouds.\u00a0 He felt his way around, hand over hand; moving from chair to table to stove to wall.\u00a0 There were two full dishes on the table, as if Joe and Julia had just been ready to sit down to eat.\u00a0 The fire was out, but there was a lingering scent of smoke in the air.\u00a0 A pan or a kettle had burned dry.<\/p>\n He\u2019d reached the back door when a voice called out, \u201cFind anything?\u201d<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t Adam.\u00a0 It was Ed Flanders.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing. \u201c\u00a0 Ben glanced in the back room and was both relieved and disappointed to find it empty.\u00a0 He turned back.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s no one in the house.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe they had to run,\u201d Ed suggested as he stepped inside.<\/p>\n It was at that moment that Adam cried out, his tone both desperate and urgent.\u00a0 \u201cPa!\u00a0 Pa, come quick!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The rancher was through the door and out of the house in a heartbeat.\u00a0 Ed Flanders followed in his wake.\u00a0 Once in the yard he halted and called. \u201cAdam?\u00a0 Son, where are you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOver here, Pa!\u201d<\/p>\n Ben\u2019s chocolate-brown eyes narrowed as he searched the expanse of forest surrounding the cabin.\u00a0 Then he saw it \u2013 a flash of white and blue.\u00a0 Pat Griswold had stepped out of the trees and was waving him over.<\/p>\n \u201cMust have found somethin\u2019,\u201d Ed said unnecessarily.<\/p>\n His nod was curt.<\/p>\n Ben was afraid he knew all <\/em>too well what they had found.<\/p>\n By the time he arrived Adam had him halfway down.\u00a0 Joe had been stripped of most of his clothing and strung between two trees.\u00a0 The left side of his son\u2019s body was covered with blood.\u00a0\u00a0 The boy was deeply unconscious, so much so that he made no sound as Adam cut the strip of rawhide that bound his right hand and Joe fell into his brother\u2019s arms.<\/p>\n \u201cBastards,\u201d Adam cursed under his breath as he laid his baby brother on the ground.\u00a0 A moment later he tenderly reached out to touch his face.\u00a0 \u201cGod! \u00a0Joe\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n There was cause for alarm.\u00a0 There were red streaks running like rivers out of and away from the site where the bullet had penetrated his son\u2019s skin but, worse than that, someone had ground dirt and debris into the reopened wound, contaminating it further.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll go to the house and fetch some water,\u201d Pat said.<\/p>\n Ben caught her arm as she moved past.\u00a0 \u201cI didn\u2019t find Julia,\u201d he said, his tone apologetic.<\/p>\n \u201cGod will look out for her,\u201d she replied.\u00a0 \u201cYour boy may die.\u00a0 We need to see to him first.\u201d<\/p>\n What a remarkable woman!<\/p>\n \u201cPa?\u201d<\/p>\n It was Adam.\u00a0\u00a0 He\u2019d dribbled some water onto his brother\u2019s lips and forced him to swallow.\u00a0 \u201cI got him to take a little.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIs there any sign of consciousness?\u201d he asked as he knelt at his sons\u2019 side.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing yet.\u201d\u00a0 Adam scowled.\u00a0 \u201cPa, that wound is really angry.\u201d<\/p>\n He was angry too.\u00a0 Upon closer examination he could see that some of the matter pressed into the wound was diseased.\u00a0 There appeared to be animal hair as well as bits and pieces of rotten vegetation.\u00a0 It was almost as if someone had wanted Joe to be alive when they found him \u2013 but planned on him being dead soon after.<\/p>\n Ben shivered from the thought \u2013 and the cold night air.\u00a0 \u201cWe need to get your brother inside.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam nodded toward the house.\u00a0 \u201cLooks like Pat\u2019s got the fire going.\u201d<\/p>\n Smoke was rising from the chimney and there was a lantern lit and hanging just outside the door.\u00a0 As Ben watched, the interior was illuminated.<\/p>\n A truly <\/em>remarkable woman.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want to rig something to carry him in?\u201d Ed Flanders asked.\u00a0 He\u2019d been standing to the side since Adam cut Joe down.<\/p>\n \u201cNo.\u00a0 I can \u2013 \u201d<\/p>\n A hand on his shoulder stopped him.\u00a0 \u201cLet me get him, Pa,\u201d Adam said.<\/p>\n Their eyes met and in that look was a world of unspoken regret.\u00a0 His demands on his eldest.\u00a0 The boy\u2019s need to prove himself his own man.\u00a0 Adam\u2019s departure.\u00a0 Hoss\u2019 death during his absence.\u00a0 Joseph \u2013 so lost, so angry \u2013 so <\/em>alone.<\/p>\n Ben rose and stepped back.\u00a0 He nodded.<\/p>\n And watched as his eldest bore his broken and battered baby brother toward the Russells\u2019 home.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joe opened his eyes.\u00a0 He lay still for a moment before turning his head and looking around.\u00a0 It took him a moment to realize where he was.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t the Ponderosa.\u00a0 This was a simple structure with a couple of rooms, made of hewn logs.\u00a0 There was a room with a hearth and next to the hearth was a cradle.\u00a0 A woman sat beside it.\u00a0 She was rocking it with her foot while she read.\u00a0 Her head was bent so he couldn\u2019t see her face, but the firelight danced in her light brown hair turning it to gold.<\/p>\n She turned a page.<\/p>\n For a long time he lay there, wondering if it was a dream or a real woman he watched.\u00a0 Now and then she would reach down to the cradle to check its occupant.\u00a0 Every so often she would take hold of the coverlet and pull it up as if worried the child would catch a chill.\u00a0 He wondered about that.\u00a0 The room wasn\u2019t cold.<\/p>\n It was\u2026perfect.<\/p>\n Finally, with a little sigh, she rose, put the book down, and crossed over to him.\u00a0 Still, the shadows hid her face.\u00a0 It was a slender face, surrounded by a mound of curls barely contained.\u00a0 She was wearing a calico dress edged with green piping.\u00a0 She stopped by his bed and reached out to turn up the lamp before sitting on its edge.<\/p>\n \u201cHello, Joe,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s been a long time.\u00a0 Do you remember me?\u201d<\/p>\n Of course<\/em> he remembered her.<\/p>\n It was Laura.<\/p>\n He nodded, even as tears entered his eyes.\u00a0 \u201cHow?\u201d he asked.\u00a0 \u201cAm I dead?\u201d<\/p>\n He remembered the men.\u00a0 Brutal, evil men.\u00a0 He\u2019d burst into the Russells\u2019 house after Julia screamed and found them there.\u00a0 It was the same pair that had waylaid him on the road only their masks were down, which told him instantly that they meant to kill them.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t know them, but he knew their type.\u00a0 Thugs who would do anything for money and who took pleasure in the chaos they created.\u00a0 There were only two of them and he was sure \u2013 even injured as he was \u2013 that he could have taken them, but there was Julia to consider.\u00a0 She\u2019d already been struck.\u00a0 A frying pan lay at her feet.\u00a0 Apparently she had tried to take one of them out since the taller man was holding a wet kerchief to a wound on his head.\u00a0 The other man was holding her.\u00a0 His gun was leveled at her chest.<\/p>\n \u2018What do you want?\u201d he\u2019d asked.<\/p>\n The shorter man had laughed.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWe don\u2019t want nothin\u2019.\u00a0 We\u2019re here to send a message.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019d looked at Julia and waited until she looked back.\u00a0 She was scared, but she wasn\u2019t cowed.\u00a0 Not in the slightest.<\/p>\n He\u2019d smiled to encourage her.<\/p>\n \u201cYou think somethin\u2019s funny, Cartwright?\u201d\u00a0 the taller, wounded man asked.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, you two,\u201d he goaded.\u00a0\u00a0 He had to do something to get them away from Julia.\u00a0 Maybe if he made them mad.\u00a0 \u201cYou make a pretty lousy pair of kidnappers.\u00a0 I got away from you before.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh, we wasn\u2019t trying to kidnap you. \u00a0Was we, Dan?\u00a0 We was just trying to send a message,\u201d the shorter one said.<\/p>\n \u201cLike now?\u201d Joe countered.<\/p>\n Dan smirked.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYeah, like now.\u00a0 Only this message is for your Pa and this <\/em>one\u2019s ma.\u201d\u00a0 He jerked his head in Julia\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you want with my ma?\u201d Julia demanded.<\/p>\n \u201cYou shut up!\u201d Dan shouted and then he turned and struck her again.<\/p>\n That was all it took.<\/p>\n \u201cLittle Joe?\u201d<\/p>\n He blinked.\u00a0 He was back in the room with the impossible Laura.\u00a0 \u201cThey hit her,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Laura frowned.\u00a0 \u201cYes, I know.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou know?\u201d<\/p>\n She placed a hand alongside his face.\u00a0 \u201cDear Joe, I know everything.\u00a0 I know how hard you fought them.\u00a0 I know you did everything your strength would allow.\u00a0 I was there when you fell, when you were dragged out of the house and thrown to the ground.\u00a0 I\u2026watched as that evil man took his boot and ground dirt into your wound and then hung you nearly naked between two trees.\u201d\u00a0 Laura\u2019s fingers moved to his hair.\u00a0 She ran them through it.\u00a0 \u201cI was there when you died.\u201d<\/p>\n He blinked.\u00a0 \u201cHuh?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYour pa and Adam discovered it when they got you into the house.\u00a0 You\u2019re there now.\u00a0 They are working over you, desperately trying to call you back.\u201d\u00a0 Laura looked directly into his eyes.\u00a0 \u201cWill you go?\u201d<\/p>\n Joe looked around the room.\u00a0 He recognized it now.\u00a0 It was the common room of the house he and his brothers had restored.\u00a0 The cradle was the one that had been meant to hold his son \u2013 or daughter.<\/p>\n \u201cCan I stay here with you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou can.\u00a0 The choice is yours.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhere is\u2026here?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLet not your heart be troubled.\u00a0 Ye believe in God, believe also in me<\/em>,\u201d she quoted.\u00a0 \u201cIn my Father’s house are many mansions.\u00a0 If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Laura smiled.\u00a0 The gesture was so brilliant it lit the entire room.\u00a0 \u201cThis is my mansion.\u00a0 The life I desired with you.\u201d\u00a0 She looked toward the hearth.\u00a0 \u201cAnd our child.\u201d\u00a0 Laura hesitated and then moved her hand to his heart.\u00a0 \u201cI want you here with me, Joe.\u00a0 Then Paradise would be complete.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen I\u2019ll stay.\u201d<\/p>\n A tear formed in the corner of her eye.\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t let you.\u00a0 It would be selfish of me.\u00a0 You have things to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe sat up.\u00a0 He took her hand in his.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t want to do anything but stay here with you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Laura touched his face.\u00a0 \u201cWhat about Julia?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t\u2026love her like I loved you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre you sure?\u00a0 And what about your Pa?\u00a0 Would you leave him a broken man?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPa will\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n No, he wouldn\u2019t.\u00a0 Pa wouldn\u2019t survive his loss, not so soon after Hoss.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be painful to return,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cIn more ways than one.\u201d<\/p>\n He nodded.\u00a0 After a moment he asked, \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy what?<\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u00a0 Why did my mother have to die?\u00a0 Why did you?!\u201d\u00a0 Joe sucked in air.\u00a0 \u201cWhy Hoss?\u201d<\/p>\n Her hand stroked his cheek . \u201cDear Little Joe.\u00a0 Everything \u2013 everyone<\/em> \u2013 dies.\u00a0 In death we are set free.\u00a0 There is no pain here, no loss.\u00a0 Grief is unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n He reached out to touch the tear that was trailing down her cheek.\u00a0 \u201cThen why are you crying?\u201d<\/p>\n Her smile returned.<\/p>\n \u201cLove.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAnything, Adam?\u201d<\/p>\n Pa\u2019s question was desperate.\u00a0 As desperate as his own attempt to pound life back into his lifeless brother.\u00a0 He shook his head as he bent his mouth to Joe\u2019s and breathed.\u00a0 More and more the medical journals were suggesting such a thing could help revive a man and call him back from the brink.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t understand the science.<\/p>\n He was doing it on faith.<\/p>\n It had been no more than thirty seconds since they\u2019d realized Joe\u2019s heart wasn\u2019t beating.\u00a0 Thirty seconds of agony as he worked over him with Pa and Pat Griswold looking on.\u00a0 Pat\u2019s lips were moving in prayer.\u00a0 She was a practical woman and he was sure her prayers were practical as well.\u00a0 Wake Joe up, Lord.\u00a0 Make him breathe!<\/p>\n Start that generous heart beating again.<\/p>\n They knew from the last time this had happened \u2013 when Joe had been taken by a group of miners and nearly beaten to death \u2013 that they had precious little time.\u00a0 After a few minutes the brain began to die and even if his brother lived, there would be damage.<\/p>\n Adam had the fingers of one hand screwed tightly in his brother\u2019s curls.\u00a0 They were<\/em> silver.\u00a0 Dear Lord!\u00a0 How had he stayed away long enough that his baby brother\u2019s hair was silver?!\u00a0 How could he have forgotten the love he had known on the Ponderosa?<\/p>\n How could he have forgotten\u2026home?<\/p>\n \u201cAdam.\u201d<\/p>\n He looked up with hope.\u00a0 Pa dashed it with a shake of his head.\u00a0 Tears were streaming down his father\u2019s face.<\/p>\n \u201cLet him go.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam sucked in air like a drowning man.\u00a0 He raised a hand and brought it down on his brother\u2019s bare chest with killing force a half-dozen times, punctuating his words and his grief.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2026will\u2026not\u2026let\u2026him\u2026go!\u201d<\/p>\n Two things happened.\u00a0 Pa caught his hand.<\/p>\n And Joe coughed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n An hour later Adam sat at his brother\u2019s bedside watching the bruises form.\u00a0 He felt like a heel.\u00a0 What he\u2019d done might have had a hand in bringing Joe back, but it would certainly add to his brother\u2019s pain.\u00a0 Pat Griswold cleaned the wound out as best she could, removing all the foreign matter.\u00a0 They\u2019d found alcohol and bandages \u2013 plus a bucket of soiled linens \u2013 near the bed.\u00a0 It was obvious that Pat\u2019s daughter had been tending Joe.<\/p>\n They\u2019d found something else once they had time to think of something other than Joe.\u00a0 That was a note.\u00a0 It had been left by Julia\u2019s kidnappers.\u00a0 They promised they wouldn\u2019t harm her so long as he and Pa left the area and never returned \u2013 and kept their mouths shut about their suspicions.\u00a0\u00a0 It didn\u2019t mention Joe, so obviously they thought they\u2019d killed him.\u00a0 Pat was instructed to return home and await word.\u00a0 Pat was pretty sure whoever it was, was going to demand she get off her land in exchange for Julia\u2019s return.\u00a0 It was a prime piece and smack dab in the middle of all the rustling.\u00a0 If Joe hadn\u2019t stopped them two years before, the men who bushwhacked him would have succeeded in doing it by stealing cattle and slowly bleeding the Griswolds to death.<\/p>\n Adam placed a hand on his brother\u2019s arm.\u00a0 Joe had certainly paid a high price for his chivalry.<\/p>\n At his touch, his brother stirred.<\/p>\n The man in black shrank back into the shadows cast by the bedside lamp.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t sure what effect his presence would have on Joe.\u00a0 He was really sick and he didn\u2019t want to agitate him.\u00a0 The only trouble was, he was the only one in the house.\u00a0 Pat was outside hanging laundry and Pa and Ed Flanders were gone.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t quite sure what he thought about that.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t know the man well enough to trust or distrust him, but there was something about the rancher that just set wrong.<\/p>\n Joe\u2019s lips were moving.\u00a0 Adam expected the first word to come out of them would be \u2018Pa\u2019.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n It was \u2018Laura\u2019.<\/p>\n That took him back to another time, in fact, to another world.\u00a0 One where he\u2019d been a part of his brothers\u2019 daily lives.\u00a0 It hadn\u2019t taken him long, once he\u2019d left, to realize that his quest for independence came at a high price.\u00a0 So he\u2019d kept himself busy, sailing from place to place, taking on new and more complex jobs.\u00a0 In that way the years had flown by at a pace.\u00a0 Joe had been barely twenty when he\u2019d proposed to Laura.<\/p>\n Her death had broken his brother\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n Joe said the name again as his feverish eyes searched the semi-darkness.\u00a0 \u201cLaura?\u201d<\/p>\n Adam sighed and leaned forward.\u00a0 \u201cLaura\u2019s not here, Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n His brother blinked and turned his head toward him.\u00a0 He studied him a moment and then asked, \u201cI came\u2026back\u2026didn\u2019t I?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBack from where, Joe?\u201d<\/p>\n Joe looked puzzled.\u00a0 \u201cAre you dead too?\u201d<\/p>\n Adam chuckled.\u00a0 \u201cNo.\u00a0 I am very much alive and so are you.\u201d<\/p>\n His brother leaned his head back and closed his eyes.\u00a0 For a moment, Adam thought he\u2019d fallen asleep, but then he said, \u201cShe\u2019s still here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLaura.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJoe, Laura\u2019s not here.\u00a0 She\u2019s\u2026dead.\u00a0 She died nearly ten years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n A smile curled his brother\u2019s lips.\u00a0 \u201cShows what you know,\u201d he said just before drifting off.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s bound to be confused,\u201d Pat Griswold remarked as she stopped at his side.\u00a0 He looked up and saw the wash basket in her hands. \u201cI\u2019ve got fresh linens.\u00a0 I\u2019ll get that bandage changed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThank you.\u00a0 Thank you for what you are doing for my brother, and for what you did before.\u201d<\/p>\n She looked down at him.\u00a0 Pat Griswold was a handsome woman, not tall but not short, with golden-blonde hair tending toward red that she wore pulled back in a bun as severe as she pretended to be.\u00a0 She had a no-nonsense way and a competency about her that made him think of the stories his pa had told him about his own mother.\u00a0 Pat had made it quite clear that she was not to be pitied or treated with kid gloves.\u00a0 \u2018The good Lord is about His business, so I need to be about mine<\/em>,\u2019 she\u2019d said as she cared for Joe \u2013 for all of them, in fact.\u00a0 It was the lot of a woman to be left behind, but he\u2019d wondered more than once if Pa would have been better off taking Pat with him instead of the enigmatic Ed.<\/p>\n \u201cLike I told your Pa back when your brother was bushwhacked, one hand washes the other.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll find Julia,\u201d he stated as he moved out of her way.\u00a0 He intended to join his father and Ed on the hunt as soon as he knew Joe was out of danger.<\/p>\n Pat removed the soiled bandage from Joe\u2019s shoulder\u00a0 and dropped it in the bucket by the bed.\u00a0 Quickly and efficiently, she replaced it with a clean one.\u00a0 As she straightened up, the older woman paused.\u00a0 She linked her hands in her lap and looked at him.<\/p>\n \u201cYour Pa tells me you\u2019ve been gone some time.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNearly a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy\u2019d you leave?\u201d<\/p>\n He shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cA young man\u2019s fancy that he had to find himself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd did you?\u00a0 Find yourself?\u201d<\/p>\n Adam considered her question.\u00a0 \u201cI found I could function outside my father\u2019s shadow.\u00a0 Pa\u2019s a strong man with a strong presence.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve noticed.\u201d\u00a0 As she nodded, he went on.\u00a0 \u201cI felt stifled on the Ponderosa.\u00a0 I felt\u2026no one took me seriously.\u00a0 I would always be my father\u2019s son.\u00a0 I went where I could just be me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd now you\u2019re back.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor a visit.\u201d<\/p>\n Pat nodded.\u00a0 \u201cMister Cartwright \u2013 \u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAdam.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAdam then.\u00a0 Your pa tells me you never had a mother.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI had a step-mother.\u00a0 Joe\u2019s mother.\u201d\u00a0 His smile was wistful.\u00a0 \u201cFive years with Marie more than made up for twelve without my own.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe loved you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid you love her?\u201d<\/p>\n Did he?\u00a0 \u201cI believe I did.\u00a0 Our relationship was\u2026rocky.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAdam, there\u2019s something God gives a mother to do.\u00a0 It\u2019s different from a father.\u00a0 Only He knows why sometimes He takes it away.\u00a0 Most like, it\u2019s to give a man something to overcome.\u201d\u00a0 She shifted so she was facing him.\u00a0 \u201cA mother loves a child in the way no one else can.\u00a0 There\u2019s no need to measure up, no shoes to fill.\u00a0 No\u2026shadow to step out of.\u00a0 A mother draws her child close and lets them know they are accepted as they are.\u00a0 There\u2019s no need to strive.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re saying I missed out on that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m saying that what you\u2019ve been looking for has been inside you all along.\u00a0 You\u2019ve no need to wander.\u201d\u00a0 Pat turned to Joe and placed her hand over his.\u00a0 \u201cYou have a father and brother who love you and who need you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t let Joe hear you say that.\u201d<\/p>\n She brushed a curl back from his brother\u2019s sweaty forehead.\u00a0 \u201cHe knows it.\u00a0 But that\u2019s how you men are, stubborn and thick as flour paste.\u00a0 All I\u2019m saying, Adam, is that once this is over you need to look to your heart and not your head . Maybe then you\u2019ll know what\u2019s important and it will bring that ship you\u2019ve been sailing to its berth.\u201d<\/p>\n With that, she rose and returned to the stove.<\/p>\n Adam sat for sometime at Joe\u2019s side, recalling both their battles and victories, and then he rose and walked to the door.\u00a0 Stepping out, the man in black drew in a deep breath of air, nosing the scent of pine.<\/p>\n And of home.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n EIGHT<\/p>\n Ben Cartwright looked across the fire at Ed Flanders.\u00a0 Night had fallen and they\u2019d made camp.\u00a0 They\u2019d traveled, perhaps, five miles in search of Julia and the men who had taken her.\u00a0 He\u2019d been careful to mark their path as they traveled in such a way that Adam would recognize the signs.\u00a0 His eldest intended to follow once he was certain his brother was out of danger.\u00a0\u00a0 Adam was worried about Joe.<\/p>\n He was worried about Ed.<\/p>\n The homesteader hadn\u2019t said much as they traveled.\u00a0 From what Pat told him, Flanders was a man of few words on his most loquacious days.<\/p>\n He held himself like someone who had been punched and never recovered from the blow.<\/p>\n \u201cCartwright.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat are you doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n It was an honest question, if an odd one given the circumstances.\u00a0 \u201cMy son sent a telegram saying he would be delayed at the Griswolds.\u00a0 I came to see if Joe was all right.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSeems to find trouble easy, that one.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben agreed.\u00a0 \u201cYes.\u00a0 Yes, he does.\u00a0 In some ways Joseph is an innocent and I suppose that\u2019s my fault.\u00a0 He\u2019s too trusting of people.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhile you\u2019re not?\u201d<\/p>\n There was something in the man\u2019s tone that put him on edge.\u00a0 \u201cAre you saying I shouldn\u2019t be?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll I\u2019m saying is, here you are alone in the wilderness with a man you barely know.\u00a0 You\u2019re sharin\u2019 a fire with him while your gun\u2019s in its holster and hangin\u2019 on the saddle horn twenty feet away.\u201d\u00a0 Ed patted his side.\u00a0 \u201cI got mine right here.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben\u2019s eyes narrowed.\u00a0 \u201cDo you intend to use it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe.\u00a0 But not for what you think.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd what would that be?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBushwhackin\u2019 you, like Orv and Jim bushwhacked your boy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid someone bushwhack your<\/em> boy, Ed?\u201d<\/p>\n The homesteader\u2019s jaw went tight.\u00a0 \u201cIn a way.\u00a0 Jimmy didn\u2019t have a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWas the killer caught?\u201d<\/p>\n Ed shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cSheriff Truslow said he didn\u2019t find any evidence of who done it.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben\u2019s tone was dark.\u00a0 \u201cHe didn\u2019t find any evidence of who attacked Joe either.\u00a0 His brother and I had to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Ed reached forward and picked up his coffee. \u00a0He took a sip before saying, \u201cYou don\u2019t like old Bob much, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think he\u2019s incompetent at best and corrupt at worst.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you intend to find out which it is?\u201d<\/p>\n Ben let out a sigh.\u00a0 \u201cMy son has been hunted down like an animal and almost killed, twice.\u00a0 If I find out Sheriff Truslow is somehow involved, it is my intention to take him<\/em> down.\u00a0 I\u2019m surprised, considering what happened to your boy, that it\u2019s not your intention as well.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNever said it wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n It took a second.\u00a0 \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n Ed leaned back.\u00a0 \u201cTom Griswold was a good friend of mine.\u00a0 I trusted him.\u00a0 He told me, \u2018fore he took off on that drive, that he suspected Robert was dirty.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat?\u00a0 Tom knew?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe suspected<\/em>.\u00a0 Don\u2019t know as he had any proof.\u00a0 Tom wasn\u2019t comfortable when Bob signed up at the last minute to go on the drive.\u00a0 I guess we know why.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou suspect Truslow had him killed?\u00a0 Have you told Pat this?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, and I\u2019m not likely to.\u00a0 She\u2019d march herself right over to his office and demand the truth.\u00a0 Pat\u2019s smart, but she\u2019s also a woman.\u00a0 She thinks with her heart and not her head.\u201d Ed smiled.\u00a0 A rare occasion.\u00a0 \u201cI been courtin\u2019 her partly to keep an eye on her and Julia.\u00a0 Figured if Truslow and his crew saw me over there all the time, they\u2019d think twice about doin\u2019 anythin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo the accidents\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone\u2019s been tryin\u2019 to drive her out.\u00a0 That\u2019s prime land she\u2019s got and there\u2019s a lot of acres to hide rustled cattle on.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben shifted his position and leaned toward the fire.\u00a0 \u201cBefore I left the Ponderosa, there was a meeting at my house.\u00a0 It seems there\u2019s some sort of syndicate, rustling and moving thousands of head a week.\u00a0 There wasn\u2019t one rancher between here and Lone Pines that was unaffected.\u00a0 Some had small losses, but others had a majority of their cattle taken.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSeems to me it\u2019s been going on for a long time,\u201d Ed agreed.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s just got big enough that someone\u2019s noticed.\u00a0 I did some checking around before you showed up.\u00a0 It seems Bob\u2019s not the only one turning a blind eye.\u00a0 I visited half-a-dozen sheriffs in the surrounding towns.\u00a0 Half of them had nothing to say.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou think they\u2019re on the take?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat, or they\u2019re gettin\u2019 kick-backs from the sales.\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe both.\u201d<\/p>\n It made sense.\u00a0 If Truslow was<\/em> in the syndicate\u2019s pocket, he would have done everything he could to keep them from finding out who bushwhacked Joe.\u00a0 He would also have been forced to eliminate Pettis and Fenton before they went to trial.\u00a0 And, if he knew Tom Griswold suspected his involvement, the dirty lawman would have been forced to eliminate him too.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you think your son stumbled on their plan?\u201d<\/p>\n Ed sighed.\u00a0 \u201cJames was a lot like his mother.\u00a0 He was headstrong boy.\u00a0 If he caught wind of somethin\u2019, he would have taken action on his own.\u00a0 I asked around and it seems some of the ranchers were talkin\u2019 about a group of men that were rustlin\u2019 down this way and how the local lawmen were turnin\u2019 a blind eye to what they was doin\u2019.\u00a0 Seems to me that there man who shot him could have been one of them, pretendin\u2019 to be a grieving brother.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry, Ed.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry your son died \u2013 and I\u2019m sorry I suspected you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNothin\u2019 to be sorry about.\u00a0 A sorry man doesn\u2019t make it long in the West.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I suppose he doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, I\u2019m gonna turn in.\u00a0 No knowing\u2019 what we\u2019ll face in the mornin\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 I just hope Julia minds her tongue until we find her.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cReally?\u00a0 She seemed like a quiet, respectful girl.\u201d<\/p>\n Ed snorted.\u00a0 \u201cMuch as Tom was a friend of mine, he was a dreamer.\u00a0 He was always tellin\u2019 that girl a prince would come by one day and sweep her up and take her somewheres she could live a life of ease.\u00a0 When he died, she woke up from that dream.\u00a0 Wasn\u2019t too long after Tom passed that Pat took ill.\u00a0 Julia\u2019s been running the place for some time.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPat\u2019s not well?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCut herself.\u00a0 Ain\u2019t mended.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe seems fine.\u201d<\/p>\n Ed stared at him.\u00a0 \u201cYou got a wife, Ben?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI did.\u00a0 Three, in fact.\u00a0 Joseph\u2019s mother died when he was five.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe ever hurt herself?\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019d nearly forgotten.\u00a0 They\u2019d been in the middle of haying.\u00a0 It was their third cutting and they were still short of what they needed.\u00a0 The weather had been as changeable as his wife\u2019s disposition.\u00a0 It rained before, during, and after they cut and formed the bales.\u00a0 Every day when he came in exhausted and in a worse mood than the day before, Marie would be there, waiting.\u00a0 She\u2019d have his supper ready and his pipe and slippers by his chair.\u00a0 He was so tired he failed to notice the tightness around her eyes and lips.\u00a0 She was careful to keep out of the light so he couldn\u2019t see how pale she\u2019d become.\u00a0 Finally, one night as she bent to pick up a paper he had dropped, she stumbled and almost fell.\u00a0 Marie put it off to fatigue, but when he questioned Hop Sing the next day he found out she had fallen and twisted her ankle while chasing Joseph down for a nap.\u00a0 She\u2019d suffered silently for over a week and never said a word.<\/p>\n He nodded.<\/p>\n \u201cI tried to stop Pat from comin\u2019, but she wouldn\u2019t have none of it,\u201d Ed said as he arranged his bedding.\u00a0 \u201cShe gave me a \u2018pshaw!\u2019 and called me an old worry-wort and started packing her bags.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI imagine her concern for her daughter was paramount in making her decision.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat girl\u2019s flighty as a feather in an October wind.\u00a0 She needs a man\u2019s firm hand to tether her to the ground.\u201d\u00a0 Ed looked at him.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t suppose that\u2019d be your boy?\u201d<\/p>\n Ben shook his head.\u00a0 While Joseph had been chief among his sons to think of marriage in his youth, as an older and more sober man he was not the marrying kind.\u00a0 The rancher shifted and laid down.\u00a0 As he lay on his back in his bedroll, visions of Julia Griswold from that last day flooded his mind\u2019s eyes \u2013 her shy smile, her gentle and pure beauty; her tall, willowy figure wrapped in a red calico dress with a plunging neckline.<\/p>\n Or was he?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joe Cartwright opened his eyes.\u00a0 For a moment he had no idea where he was, but then he shifted and pain exploded in his left shoulder reminding him of the events of the last few days.<\/p>\n \u201cDamn!\u201d he cursed.<\/p>\n \u201cI swear I didn\u2019t do it,\u201d a familiar voice laced with irony and concern said.\u00a0 \u201cAt least not this time.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe closed his eyes, drew a breath, and then turned his head in the direction of the voice.\u00a0 Nearly ten years absence had brought almost as much gray into his brother\u2019s hair as his own \u2013 and there was less of it.\u00a0 Adam was still slender, but had bulked out as men in their forties were wont to do.\u00a0 He was dressed in his customary black, though the suit had an Eastern instead of a Western flair to it.\u00a0 Joe studied him a moment and then swallowed.<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t know what to say.<\/p>\n Adam\u2019s lips curled at one end.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s good to see you too.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSorry, Adam, I\u2019m\u2026.\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s kind of a\u2026shock.\u00a0 We thought\u2026Pa and me that\u2026well\u2026maybe you were \u2013\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDead?\u201d<\/p>\n He nodded \u2013 and then winced as his wound once again made itself known.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want help sitting up?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah.\u00a0 Thanks.\u201d<\/p>\n There was something about the touch of his brother\u2019s hands that nearly undid him.\u00a0 He was tired \u2013 dog-tired \u2013 and no matter how much he wanted to deny it, sick.\u00a0 So the fact that his emotions were on edge came as no surprise.\u00a0 What surprised Joe was the flood of relief that coursed through him.\u00a0 Adam would take care of everything.\u00a0 Adam would make everything all right.<\/p>\n Adam was here.<\/em><\/p>\n Except he hadn\u2019t been, and he wouldn\u2019t be again.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want some water?\u201d<\/p>\n Joe nodded.<\/p>\n Adam poured him a glass and then leaned back in his chair and watched him drink it.\u00a0 He took a little longer than necessary, partly because of using his right hand, but also because he was hiding behind the glass.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t know what to say \u2013 wasn\u2019t sure what he would<\/em> say.\u00a0 If there was one thing Joe Cartwright was famous for, it was blurting out his feelings in a rush of anger.<\/p>\n And he was<\/em> angry.<\/p>\n \u201cSo,\u201d older brother said, folding his arms over his chest, \u201clet\u2019s have it.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe eyed him over the rim of the glass.\u00a0 \u201cHave what?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBoth barrels.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHuh?\u201d<\/p>\n Adam sighed.\u00a0 \u201cJoe, the last time I saw you, you were mad enough to spit nails.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always\u2026regretted how we parted.\u00a0 How I\u2026wounded you.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cI was a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd now you are a wise old sage?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLook, Adam,\u201d he began as he straightened up.\u00a0 \u201cYou haven\u2019t been home for nearly a decade.\u00a0 You have no idea<\/em> who I am anymore, so don\u2019t\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Joe drew a breath as pain stabbed him.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t even try<\/em> to pretend that you do!\u201d<\/p>\n His brother pursed his lips.\u00a0 He\u2019d finally figured out why he did that.\u00a0 It kept Adam from blurting out his <\/em>feelings.<\/p>\n \u201cJoe, you need to calm down \u2013 \u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd don\u2019t start telling me what to do!\u201d he snapped.\u00a0 \u201cYou gave up the right to do that when you walked out the door and broke Pa\u2019s heart!\u201d<\/p>\n A silence fell between them broken only by his own ragged breathing.\u00a0 Joe sucked in air through his nostrils and blew it out slowly, seeking to regain control of his temper.<\/p>\n Adam was the first to speak.\u00a0 \u201cJoe, when you were twenty and you wanted to get married \u2013 why was that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you mean \u2018why was that\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy did you want to get married?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBecause I loved Laura.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd?\u201d<\/p>\n He scowled.\u00a0 \u201cAnd\u2026I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I wanted to be with her, just the two of us.\u00a0 I guess I wanted a place of my own.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTo be your own man.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe winced again as he shifted his shoulder.\u00a0 If the truth was known, he was getting awfully tired, but he\u2019d never admit that to his brother.\u00a0 Whatever poultice Pat had put on his shoulder had taken some of the fire out of it, but it was still hot to the touch and he was still feverish.\u00a0 If he was going to do what he had to do, he couldn\u2019t let anyone know how weak he was.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I guess,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n \u201cAs you know, Joe, I was\u2026burned on