Series: Adam In The Outback (3 of 16)<\/p>\n
Summary: This is the third story in my \u201cAdam in the Outback\u201d series. Adam and Bronwen learn that being the parents of two little girls only 10 months apart is not easy.<\/p>\n
Rated: T \u00a0WC \u00a022,200<\/p>\n
Adam In The Outback Series:<\/strong><\/p>\n My True Love Hath My Heart – Part 1<\/a> Not part of the Adam in the Outback Series, but set in the same realm:<\/p>\n The Adventure of the Gooseberry Pie Eating Bear<\/a> <\/p>\n I want to thank my beta reader, Larkspur1, for her invaluable assistance.\u00a0 I also want to thank Lis for allowing me to bounce ideas off her as well as for her excellent suggestions.\u00a0 Finally, I owe a big thank you to a special little boy whose antics served as the inspiration for some of Beth’s and Miranda’s.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0My True Love Hath My Heart #3<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Adam Cartwright was jarred from a deep sleep by the piercing cry of his infant daughter.\u00a0 “Bronwen,” he said sleepily, shaking her shoulder.\u00a0 “Bronwen, Miranda’s hungry.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Mm,” was his sleepy wife’s response so he shook her shoulder again.\u00a0 “I’m awake,” she muttered sleepily as she sat up and fumbled for her spectacles on her bedside table.\u00a0 While she walked wearily over to the cradle that set by the French doors leading to the verandah, he lit the lamp then turned it low so the room would be in semi-darkness.\u00a0 Once that was done, he rolled over, turning his back to his wife, who sat in a rocking chair nursing the baby, and prepared to go back to sleep.\u00a0 Just when he had almost drifted off, their older daughter’s high-pitched voice could be heard crying, “Ma-ma!\u00a0 Da-da!”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He opened his eyes and saw Bronwen was still nursing Miranda, so he reached for the nightshirt he kept tucked under his pillow for just such occasions.\u00a0 Before he slipped it on over his head, he called, “Daddy’s coming, Princess.”\u00a0 Beth continued to cry so he hurriedly jerked the nightshirt on and threw back the sheet. \u00a0(The month of December had been so hot that Adam and Bronwen never slept with more than a sheet covering them, and on the hottest nights, he’d carried their mattress and the cradle onto the verandah and the entire family slept outside.)\u00a0 He walked over to the nursery, barefoot, and found his first-born, standing up in her crib, her big hazel eyes full of tears that trickled down her plump cheeks.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Da-da!” she cried holding out her arms to him.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He scooped her up and held her tight, until he felt the damp patch on his nightshirt.\u00a0 “Princess, Daddy’s going to have to put you down so he can change your diaper, uh, nappy.”\u00a0 He walked over to the chest of drawers he’d painted lavender to match the chintz curtains, pulled open the drawer containing the neatly folded clean nappies and pulled one out.\u00a0 Still holding Beth in one arm, he leaned over and spread the nappy on the wooden floor with his free hand.\u00a0 Then he pulled out another nappy and set it on the floor beside the first.\u00a0 That accomplished, he knelt and placed Beth on the outspread nappy.\u00a0 Or tried to.\u00a0 She tightened her arms around his neck in a stranglehold as soon as he attempted to put her down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Princess, Daddy needs to change your wet nappy for a clean one,” he said firmly as he gently disengaged her arms.\u00a0 The minute he laid her down, she began to cry and it was only with difficulty that he removed the soiled cotton nightgown and nappy, placing them in the bucket Bronwen kept in the nursery for Beth’s and Miranda’s dirty nappies and clothes.\u00a0 By the time he’d cleaned her little bottom and put on her clean nappy, her cries had subsided into hiccupping sobs.\u00a0 He picked her up, careful to hold her away from the wet spot on his nightshirt.\u00a0 When he tried to put her back in her crib, she clung to him and began to cry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “All right,” Adam said with a tired smile, “you may sleep with Mama and Daddy.”\u00a0 Tomorrow-no, today, he corrected himself-was six weeks since Miranda’s birth, and the end of his enforced celibacy.\u00a0 He’d planned to celebrate by making love to Bronwen as soon as it was light.\u00a0 That plan, he realized with an inner sigh, was going to have to be scrapped.\u00a0 Well, they could always have a romantic night after the girls were both asleep in the nursery.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Bronwen had just finished putting Miranda back in her cradle so he handed Beth to her and then got his other nightshirt from their chest of drawers and ducked into the privacy of the nursery to change.\u00a0 When he emerged, he discovered his wife and daughter were in bed and half asleep.\u00a0 He got into bed with them and fell back to sleep almost immediately.\u00a0 It seemed only minutes later that he was once again awakened by Miranda’s piercing screams, although he could see the first faint sunlight in the eastern sky so he knew he must have had a couple more hours of sleep.\u00a0 Bronwen began to stir, but Beth continued to sleep.\u00a0 “Good morning, Sweetheart,” he said, leaning over their sleeping child for a quick kiss.\u00a0 Miranda increased her volume so Bronwen reached for her spectacles and put them on before hurrying to check on the baby.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While Bronwen was changing Miranda’s nappy, Adam went to the commode chest and lifted the lid on the top section, revealing the washbasin and pitcher.\u00a0 He washed his face and trimmed his beard and when he was finished, he poured the water from the basin into the slop jar, which was stored in the lower section along with the chamber pot.\u00a0 While Bronwen rocked Miranda back to sleep, he hurriedly dressed in his work clothes before heading out to the barn.\u00a0 He had to milk their cow and then water her and his blood bay gelding, Zephyr, and their two carriage horses before turning them out in the fenced pasture to graze.\u00a0 Once that was accomplished, their stalls had to be mucked out.\u00a0 Then he fed their pigs.\u00a0 (Bronwen would feed her chickens and gather the eggs after breakfast)\u00a0 That was his early morning routine.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As he headed down the backstairs, he heard their factotum, Nell, in the kitchen so he stuck his head in to say good morning.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Good morning, Mr. Cartwright,” she said with a warm smile.\u00a0 Noticing his bleary eyes she said with a little grin, “You look tired, sir.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Beth and Miranda both woke up last night,” he replied, stifling a yawn.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Well, in a few more months, Miranda will be sleeping through the night,” she said encouragingly.\u00a0 Then with a grin, she added, “Besides, as my mother would say, \u2018Those who dance must pay the piper.'”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Ha-ha,” Adam replied with a sardonic grin and then headed out the backdoor followed by the sound of Nell’s laughter.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On his return, after handing Nell the pail of milk, he stopped to wash more thoroughly using the sink in the bathhouse.\u00a0 When he entered the bedroom, both the girls were sleeping and Bronwen, attired only in her drawers, was performing her morning ablutions.\u00a0 He saw her feeling for the towel and handed it to her with a grin.\u00a0 After she put on her undervest, he asked quietly, “Ready for me to brush your hair?”\u00a0 She nodded and sat down in front of her vanity.\u00a0 First he freed her hair from its braid, and then he picked up her hairbrush and began to draw it through her long ebony tresses with sure, firm strokes.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “I love your hair; it’s like silk,” he whispered.\u00a0 He bent over and began to kiss her soft white shoulders but at almost the same moment, Beth sat up and said loudly, “Ma-ma.\u00a0 Da-da.”\u00a0 The baby whimpered, but mercifully did not awaken.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Are you hungry, Princess?” he asked, reaching for his little girl and then swinging her overhead, causing her to giggle.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018You’re going to wake the baby,” Bronwen snapped, but kept her voice low.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He put Beth on her feet and said, “I’ll take the baby downstairs so the two of you can dress,” and Bronwen nodded. \u00a0He carefully picked up the cradle and Bronwen said to Beth, “Let’s get you dressed, Beth fach<\/em>.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He set the cradle in the dining room by the open French doors leading to the verandah.\u00a0 Nell had already set the table and he’d only just sat down when she entered the room, carrying a large tray.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Here, let me take that,” he said, getting up and taking the heavy tray from her and setting it on the buffet.\u00a0 There was a toast rack with several slices of buttered toast, two soft-boiled eggs in porcelain egg cups, three bowls of oatmeal and a plate of bacon and fried potatoes for him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “I’ll get the tea,” Nell said then and hurried back to the kitchen while Adam sighed.\u00a0 What I wouldn’t give for a cup of coffee.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When Bronwen and Beth entered the dining room, he was just finishing a cup of tea.\u00a0 As Bronwen put Beth in her highchair, he poured her a cup of tea, adding milk and a lump of sugar to her cup.\u00a0 He said grace and then they began to eat.\u00a0 He watched in amusement as his daughter tried to feed herself, most of the oatmeal ending up on her face and in her hair.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Adam,” Bronwen said, and he smiled at her.\u00a0 “Adam, your elbows.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “My elbows?” he repeated raising an eyebrow.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “They’re on the table,” she said patiently.\u00a0 “You don’t want to set a bad example for Beth and Miranda.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Oh, right,” he said, a little embarrassed, and quickly moved his elbows.\u00a0 “I, uh, guess, I’ll have to be more careful.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Yes,” she said firmly, “because we don’t want the girls developing unladylike habits.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Something tells me that you’ll remind me if I do it again,” and she grinned at him.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Yes, I’ll soon have you cured of putting your elbows on the table, and your feet on the furniture,” she added with a smirk.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “So then I can cure you of your habit of kicking off your shoes and leaving them where they fall?” he asked, and she stuck out her tongue.\u00a0 He grinned broadly and then said, “I guess we both need to mend our ways so we set a good example.\u00a0 Hmm?”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n She smiled and, looking at their little girl’s oatmeal smeared face, she said with a sigh, “The first thing to teach Beth is that food goes in one’s mouth, and not on one’s face.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He chuckled and then hurriedly finished his breakfast so he wouldn’t get a late start on his ride to the mine.\u00a0 Even so, he found Rhys waiting for him.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “G’day,” he greeted Adam, adding with a little grin, “looks like Miranda woke you up again last night.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Miranda and Beth,” Adam replied with a sigh.\u00a0 “I remember Beth was about six months old before she’d sleep through the night, so we have about four more months without a good night’s rest ahead of us.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Rhys grinned and then said, “Let’s stop by the post office and see if there’s any news about our latest shipment of ore.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “I hope we get a better price than we did on the last shipment,” Adam said glumly.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After they stopped off at the post office, they headed to their mine.\u00a0 As they rode along, Rhys commented, “It’s hard to believe that Beth will be a year old in only about a week.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “It doesn’t seem that long ago I was nervously waiting for Bronwen to go into labor,” Adam commented, grinning crookedly.\u00a0 “Now, Beth is walking and she can say \u2018Ma-ma’ and \u2018Da-da’ and wave \u2018Bye-bye’.\u00a0 I don’t want to brag-Well, yes, I do.\u00a0 She is the prettiest little girl I’ve ever seen,” he said with a proud smile.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “I’m only her doting uncle,” Rhys said, grinning broadly, “but I have to agree.\u00a0 She is a little beauty.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “If we put Miranda on her stomach, she can lift her head.\u00a0 And she already smiles at us,” Adam continued, not even aware of his own beaming smile as he thought about his little girls.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “By the way,” Rhys said, “I saw that we both have letters from Tad<\/em> and Mam<\/em> and you got one from Nevada.”\u00a0 The men shared a smile at that news.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When they arrived at the mine, Rhys went into their office to check the mail and Adam began to walk around the mine to see how things were going.\u00a0 He paused to greet the young men who worked with hammers to break the lumps of ore that had been brought up from below, and the old men and young boys who picked out the richest lumps of ore and bagged them.\u00a0 (Adam didn’t like using children but Rhys had pointed out that Cloncurry had no school and the boys’ families needed the money they earned.\u00a0 Adam had agreed to hire boys but only until there was a school in Cloncurry they could attend.)<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Good job, Digory,” he said to the youngest boy as he watched him work, and the boy grinned up at him.\u00a0 Then Adam strode over to the lift so he could go down and inspect the mine. \u00a0As he entered the cage, Old Kitto Tregellas handed him one of the hard hats the miners used with a candle fastened to the front to provide light.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It was several hours later when he emerged, and Old Kitto handed him sharpened match sticks so he could clean the grime from his fingernails.\u00a0 Then he slapped the dust from his shirt and trousers and walked over to their office.\u00a0 He found Rhys working on the books, a worried frown on his face.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “I take it the news isn’t good,” he said as Rhys looked up.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “No,” Rhys said bleakly.\u00a0 “This month’s profits are down from last month’s.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “That’s the third month in a row our profit margin has decreased.\u00a0 If this keeps up, we won’t be making a profit,” Adam said, his tone equally dejected.\u00a0 He and Rhys were both silent and then Adam began to speak, slowly and deliberately.\u00a0 “Rhys, I think it’s time we diversify our interests so we can survive the hard times.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “What do you mean?” Rhys asked.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “The land around Cloncurry is basically good for two things: mining and raising cattle or sheep.\u00a0 I think we should take some of our profits and invest it in a cattle ra-uh, station,” Adam replied.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “I don’t know,” Rhys said uncertainly.\u00a0 “I don’t know anything about running a cattle station.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “But I do,” Adam replied.\u00a0 “However, what I propose is that we hire someone to manage the station for us.\u00a0 Peter Dawson might have some ideas, but I don’t think we’ll have any problems finding a good man.”\u00a0 He looked at his friend and said, “The station could supply the money to keep the mine afloat in the lean years I believe are ahead of us.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Rhys was still undecided.\u00a0 “I don’t know if we could take enough of the mine’s profits to buy the land and the cattle.\u00a0 I don’t want to take on a debt we might not be able to repay and risk losing everything.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Cartwright Enterprises is doing very well.\u00a0 I propose taking some of my share of our profits and combining it with a portion of the mine’s profits to enable us to buy the ranch, uh, station.\u00a0 A loan from me to Cartwright & Davies,” and he grinned slightly as he added, “at no interest.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “I can see you’ve put a lot of thought in this idea,” Rhys said carefully.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Ever since the price of copper started to fall,” Adam replied.\u00a0 “We both know how volatile the mining industry is.\u00a0 We may have several difficult years ahead of us.\u00a0 Luckily, we found some silver as well as copper, but we’re going to need another source of income to keep the mine afloat during the hard times.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Yes,” Rhys said slowly.\u00a0 “Even so, I fear we have other difficult decisions to make.\u00a0 We’re going to have to be honest with the men.\u00a0 If the next month’s profits continue to decline, we’re going to have to reduce wages.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “I agree,” Adam said with a sigh, “but that’s a last resort.\u00a0 In the meantime, if we lose any men, we won’t replace them.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nMy True Love Hath My Heart – Part 2
\n<\/a>My True Love Hath My Heart – Part 3<\/a>
\nFamily Reunion<\/a>
\nCartwright is the Name<\/a>
\nA Son and Heir<\/a>
\nThe Country of the Heart<\/a>
\nTo Bloom in Another Man’s Garden – Part 1<\/a>
\nTo Bloom in Another Man’s Garden – Part 2<\/a>
\nIn Memoriam<\/a>
\nThe Marriage of True Minds – Part 1<\/a>
\nThe Marriage of True Minds – Part 2<\/a>
\nThe Marriage of True Minds – Part 3<\/a>
\nThe Joys of Parents<\/a>
\nGrow Old Along with Me<\/a>
\nThe Best is Yet to Be<\/a><\/p>\n
\nO’Tannenbaum<\/a><\/p>\n