Rating: K<\/p>\n
Word Count=1799<\/p>\n
Summary:\u00a0<\/span>WHIB for The First Born. On a moonlit night, Clay reflects on the lies and deceptions that ruined his mother’s life in New Orleans but led her to happiness in Nevada.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Disclaimer: I don’t own the Cartwrights or Bonanza. No copyright infringement is intended against Judith and George W. George’s script. Original plot and characters are property of the author. This story is for entertainment and no money was made from it.<\/span><\/p>\n Ratings from the Old Library are on the last page.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fortune’s Son<\/strong><\/p>\n Joe and Clay stood at the foot of their mother\u2019s grave, moonlight reflecting off the lake\u2019s surface, casting the marker\u2019s inscription in shadow. Hats in hands, they were lost within their own thoughts as ripples gently broke along the shore.\u00a0<\/span>
\u201cCan I see that picture?\u201d<\/span>
Joe fished out the delicate silver locket and handed it to his brother. Clay ran his thumb over the intricate scrollwork and wondered how much it was worth. There wasn\u2019t enough light to see the image nestled within so he relied on his imagination to create a picture of a beautiful woman with a smile that heralded Spring with all of its warmth and promises.<\/span>
Clay wished the lies that had separated his parents had never been told. When he\u2019d met Cousin Edouard, the man had been on his deathbed and very penitent with a priest sitting nearby. Edouard had told a tale of love and tragedy yet claimed he\u2019d atoned for his complicity by paying an Irish couple to raise the baby as their own; since the little family had lived near the docks, there had been no chance for an accidental meeting between mother and son. Fortune had intervened when Marie left New Orleans for a ranch in Nevada as she would never know the child she bore from her brief marriage to Jean had lived in the same city as she. The fear of facing eternal hellfire had changed Edouard\u2019s mind about correcting the sins of the past; now he could die with a clean conscience and hope for Purgatory.\u00a0<\/span>
According to Edouard, the de Marigny name had meant Jean\u2019s debts were never repaid and all his desires had been indulged. When Marie had spurned his advances, Jean\u2019s pursuit had been likened to a stallion in rut and both his jealousy and pride had led to weekly challenges on the field of honor. Marie had finally accepted his attentions yet he\u2019d continued to challenge any man whose eyes lingered upon her.<\/span>
Shortly after returning home from informing his mother of his marriage, Jean was disgraced to find his new bride posing for a portrait clad in nothing but her thin chemise. It was then Jean discovered Marie was in high demand as an artist\u2019s model\u2014posing nude as well as barely clothed for portraits of women who feared the wrath of their own husbands or lovers. Jean, eager to restore his honor, removed his epee from the nearby stand and challenged the painter to a duel but the man refused, saying his only weapons were paint brushes and a palette. Marie begged her husband to let the man go, promising she would never pose again. Jean refused to listen and slashed at the painter with the epee, cutting wounds on the defenseless man\u2019s face, neck, and hands. The painter backed his way to an open window and leapt to safety.<\/span>
Jean\u2019s red-hot anger demanded vengeance and he slashed at Marie with his epee. Marie defended herself like a tigress, throwing objet d\u2019art at his head and using expensive silk-covered cushions to deflect his weapon. Cornering her, Jean lunged, intending to kill. Marie managed to deflect the blade and its sharpened point drew a vivid red line alongside her breast. At the sight of her blood, Jean\u2019s anger was drained and he fled their house in shame.<\/span>
When Jean had left New Orleans, his mother and friends had assumed he would pout for a few months and then return home to a regular schedule of gambling and duels. After several years without notice of his whereabouts, Jean\u2019s life took on mythical proportions and he was remembered as gallant, brave, and, above all, handsome. The wife he\u2019d left behind had been disdained as unworthy of a man who embodied\u00a0<\/span>noblesse oblige<\/i>.\u00a0<\/span>
Marie had been left to fend for herself, on the fringes of the society that had once embraced her. When she\u2019d announced her pregnancy, it had been whispered that Marie was no better than a common tavern wench as no one had believed the baby to be Jean\u2019s. Madame de Marigny had known different but hadn\u2019t corrected her friends and acquaintances; instead, she\u2019d agreed with them and had slandered the mother of her unborn grandchild. Through whispers, Edouard had heard Madame de Marigny employed the services of a\u00a0<\/span>voodienne<\/i>\u00a0to curse Marie and the child.\u00a0<\/span>
Edouard had loved his cousin but he\u2019d loved money far more. He\u2019d offered to find a home for the baby with an elderly Irish couple located in Faubourg Sainte Marie, in the American sector, for a fee. As he\u2019d expected, Madame de Marigny had rewarded him handsomely for his services and afterwards paid him a stipend to keep their secret. With this blood money, he\u2019d opened a gaming establishment and employed Marie as a hostess as her newfound occupation meant his cousin would remain the object of scorn among the wealthy French matrons.\u00a0<\/span>
Edouard\u2019s house of cards had collapsed with the arrival of Ben Cartwright. The American had revealed that Jean had worked on his ranch in a faraway place called Nevada and that Jean\u2019s dying request had been for Marie to know he\u2019d always loved her. Once Ben began poking his nose into Marie\u2019s affairs, offering his help to restore her tattered reputation, Madame de Marigny insisted that Edouard either run Cartwright out of town or kill him. Since Edouard had wanted the past to remain firmly buried, he\u2019d opted for murder by challenging Cartwright to a duel. Edouard hadn\u2019t foreseen the intervention of Jean\u2019s old friend, Marius d\u2019Angeville. From Marius, Cartwright had learned how Madame de Marigny conspired to tear asunder Jean and his new bride through vicious lies.\u00a0<\/span>
Marius faced Edouard on the field of honor but lost his life. Edouard had expected his secrets to remain buried but Ben Cartwright beat a confession from him. In a twist of fate, it was now Edouard who was ruined.\u00a0<\/span>
Ben married Marie a few short days after Marius\u2019 funeral. Afterwards, the newlyweds left New Orleans for Nevada.\u00a0<\/span>
Edouard said he knew the intimate details of the incident between Jean and Marie because he\u2019d been present. Clay had asked questions but Edouard refused to elaborate, only assuring the younger man his story was true. He then had handed Clay yellowed newspaper clippings to verify his tale. One was a sanitized version of the events that had led to Jean leaving New Orleans and the other was a brief announcement of Marie\u2019s marriage to an American named Ben Cartwright. Edouard\u2019s final gift to Clay had been a faded letter written to a relative in which Marie told of the birth of a son she called Petit Joseph\u2014Little Joe.<\/span>
After leaving Cousin Edouard, Clay had headed straight to the hall of records to confirm the old man\u2019s story and to inquire about his grandmother\u2019s will. Since Jean had been the sole heir to the de Marigny estate, Clay had hoped to find a reference to a safe deposit box or at least a treasure map leading to a fortune. Instead, he\u2019d been disappointed to find a probate record dated after his grandmother\u2018s death; it had not only listed every item she\u2019d possessed, along with an appraised value, but it had also had the date for the sheriff\u2019s sale. Her debts had far exceeded her wealth. The only thing left of Clay\u2019s birthright was the family name, which he\u2019d immediately rejected in favor of the surname of the Irish couple who\u2019d cared for him.\u00a0<\/span>
The elaborate scrollwork on the locket cut into Clay\u2019s fingers, bringing him out of his reverie.\u00a0<\/span>
It\u2019s not fair Joe has a good name and money when I don\u2019t have anything<\/i>.\u00a0<\/span>
Clay opened his eyes and drank in the moonlit capped waves rippling on the lake.\u00a0<\/span>
\u201cWhat was she like?\u201d Clay asked in a voice barely above a whisper.<\/span>
\u201cI really don\u2019t remember much,\u201d Joe said as he shrugged one shoulder. \u201cI was just a little kid when she died.\u201d<\/span>
\u201cYou have to remember something. Even if you think it\u2019s foolish, I\u2019d like to hear it.\u201d<\/span>
Joe closed his eyes and deeply inhaled the scents of pine and damp earth. His brows drew together at the memory of her funeral, the most painful day of his childhood. A gentle breezed ruffled his hair and whispered in his ear.<\/span>
\u201cWhen I was scared or sick, she\u2019d sit on my bed and hold me in her arms. She rocked me as she sang next to my ear. The song was one she\u2019d learned from her mother.\u201d A short chuckle escaped Joe\u2019s throat as he added, \u201cIt tickled when she did that.\u201d<\/span>
One corner of Clay\u2019s mouth twitched down in disappointment. He gave the locket back to Joe and wished for the memory of a mother who soothed a child\u2019s fears with a song.\u00a0<\/span>
Joe lightly punched Clay\u2019s arm. \u201cWe\u2019d best get back to the herd. Dawn comes early during round up.\u201d<\/span>
\u201cI\u2019ve got a better idea,\u201d said Clay, his eyes reflecting the glint of moonlight. \u201cHow about we drink a toast to our mother?\u201d<\/span>
\u201cI know just the spot,\u201d said Joe.\u00a0<\/span>
The End<\/span>
August 2012<\/span> <\/p>\n