It was a sunny morning in western Nevada when Kaylee Jones, more commonly known as Lee, entered Virginia City. Lee was a 25-year-old brunette, wearing the traditional cowboy's outfit; Wranglers, button-up long-sleeved shirt, boots, and a Stetson. She was riding a 4-year-old Paint Mustang, named Boomerang. Boomerang, or as Lee liked to call him, Boom, had been rounded up as a yearling on her parent's ranch 3 years earlier. Lee had taken an instant liking to the fiery young colt and her father made a deal with her, that if she could train the young horse, she could have him. Lee had jumped at the chance, and Boom had been well on his way to being one of the best horses on the ranch when a horrible accident had taken Lee's parents. Due to financial trouble, Mrs. and Mr. Jones had to have a meeting with the local banker. On the way back from town, a cougar spooked the horses that were pulling the wagon, and they bolted. One of the wheels hit a rock on the road, and the wagon crashed, breaking the wagon tongue, and freeing the horses from the wreck.
The cougar had previously killed one of the Jones' calves, and Lee was out with two ranch hands looking for it when they saw the runaway horses. Lee had sent one of the cowboys after the horses, while she and the other guy looked for the wagon. They found it in less than fifteen minutes by following the tracks made by the runaway horses but were too late to save Lee's parents.
Lee being the only relative anyone knew about, the ranch was left to her. It was very much in debt, and Lee had no choice but to sell it. She also sold all the stock except for Boom. Then she took the money that was left after paying back the bank, gotten on her horse, and left to start new somewhere else. That's how she got to Virginia City in the first place.
As she rode in, Lee was very aware of the questioning glances the citizens gave her, and she understood. A town this size probably didn't have many strangers visiting, and certainly, no young ladies dressed in what she was wearing, riding a worn out Mustang; packed saddle bags, but no pack horse.
A couple kids playing beside the road stopped to stare. The sheriff, crossing from an eating place to his office looked her over carefully, and the owner of the general store stopped sweeping the store's porch to watch her curiously.
Lee nodded to them all respectfully but with a bit of amusement clear on her face.
She walked Boom over to the livery, and dismounted, giving him a much-deserved rub on his neck.
"Can I help you?" A young man stepped out of the barn.
Lee looked up quickly. "Yes. Can I put my horse up here?"
"That's what I'm here for." The man said, looking her over curiously.
Lee led Boom into the barn and quickly unsaddled him. "My horse needs all the hay he can eat, water, oats, and a nice thick bed of straw. Maybe if he starts gettin' restless you can put him in a corral." She added as an afterthought, as she picked up a handful of straw and rubbed her sweaty horse down.
"OK, you can pay me when you collect him. The names Will Barnell, by the way."
"Lee Jones." Lee said, dropping the straw and firmly shaking the man's hand. "Pleasure to meet you."
"Pleasures all mine." Barnell said, "You plannin' on stayin' in town long?"
"Haven't decided yet. Say, how is this town?" Lee asked curiously.
"My opinion is biased, of course, but I'd say we do pretty well here. We got a good sheriff, good people, well-stocked general store... A school house with a right smart school marm. Her name is Abigail Jones. You any relation?" Barnell worked while he talked, throwing down straw into a cleaned out stall, and hay into the manger.
"Never heard of her 'till today." Lee untied her saddle bags from her saddle, checked her guns, and slipped a halter on Boom. "How about ranching? Is there some good ranch land around here?"
"Sure there is." Barnell climbed down the ladder and poured oats into a bucket. "Cartwrights own most of it, though. They're nice enough people, but they sure fight for their land, if provoked. They did build up the Ponderosa from nothing though, and it means very much to them."
Lee absorbed this information in silence.
"Why, you in the ranchin' business?" Barnell said it as if it was a joke.
"Maybe. What's it to you?" Lee asked, taking her hat off and running a hand through her hair.
"Nothin', I guess." Barnell shrugged, finished with getting the stall ready. "Just warnin' you; you don't want to get on the Cartwrights' bad side. As I said before, they're nice people, and I'd say tryin' to steal their land is the only way to get there, except for being an outright murderin' criminal. Which, you ain't?" He said the last bit like a question, and Lee chuckled.
"No, I'm not a murderer or criminal, much less both, and I'm not plannin' on stealin' their land, so let's hope I'll manage to stay on their good side."
Barnell's face relaxed a bit. "There's water out back, Ms. Jones."
"Thanks. And you can just call me Lee; wouldn't want to get confused with your school teacher." As Lee led Boomerang outside to the water trough Will mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "I bet you wouldn't!"
Lee let Boom drink desperately for a bit, then pulled his head up. "Can't let you drink too fast, kiddo." Lee scratched at the base of Boom's mane as he checked out the mares. "OK, go ahead." Lee gave him slack in the lead rope and leaned against his side as he drank again. "As soon as you're done drinking, I daresay you'll be hungry." Lee foresaw as she stared at the collection of horses in the corrals, and the people walking past on the street.
Boom finally lifted his dripping nose out of the water and dropped his head to nibble on some tender grass.
"You're as predictable as a rain storm when the sky is clouding up!" She laughed.
"Yep, horses have a way of being like that."
Lee spun around, and Boom shied at the fast movement. "Sorry, buddy." She soothed rubbing his neck until he relaxed. "Didn't hear you there." She explained to the big man who stood just outside the barn, waiting to water a sturdy horse.
The horse looked to Lee to be a Quarter Horse/Thoroughbred cross. The man looked like a first-degree giant, with big hands, arms and everything. His face, however, was what drew Lee's attention. His features were rugged but kind and gentle. Lee figured that this was what was called a gentle giant.
"Sorry about that." The man apologized.
"No problem." Lee moved Boom out of the way to make way for the man's horse.
"I'm Hoss Cartwright." The big man stuck out a giant hand as his horse drank his fill.
"Lee Jones." Lee shook his hand.
"That's a nice horse you got there," Hoss said. He had a gentle way about him, that instantly drew Lee to him.
"Thanks. Boomerang is a 4-year-old Mustang."
"He has nice conformation."
"Yes, he comes from good stock. You have a nice horse yourself," Lee asked.
"Yep," Hoss smiled. "'Call him Chubb. Kinda fits him." He gave a great big belly laugh. "You know your horses."
"I've been helping my pa train his horses since I was knee-high to a grasshopper," Lee explained.
"Where are your parents?" Hoss asked letting Chubb graze beside Boom.
"They died a couple of months ago." Lee avoided Hoss's gaze to look at Boom. She turned and started rubbing Boom's rapidly drying coat with a handful of hay.
Hoss nodded understandingly. "I'm mighty sorry to hear that, ma'am. They must have been wonderful people."
"Thank you. They were." Lee faced him. "I'd better put Boom away. It was nice talking to you, Mr. Cartwright."
"You just call me Hoss, Ms. Jones. My pa is Mr. Cartwright." Hoss had a way of waving his index finger around and scrunching up his nose when he explained things.
"And you can call me Lee," Lee answered, walk Boom back towards the barn.
"See you around, Lee," Hoss called to Lee's retreating back, then led Chubb over to one of the corrals, whistling a tune as he went.
Lee put Boom into his stall, nodded to Mr. Barnell, and stepped onto the sunny street.
She spied the sign for a saloon called "The Bucket of Blood", and decided to get some refreshments.
As she passed the general store, a man came out with a sack of flour easily slung over his shoulder. Lee's breath caught in her throat for a second. She hadn't met many men in her life who had that effect on her, but this one sure was one of the couple that had! His features were very ruggedly handsome, his black sideburns framed his face... which wore an annoyed expression. He was dressed in black: black boots, black pants, black shirt, and a black hat with silver studs. Even his gun belt was black.
The young man swung the sack onto the buckboard that stood in front of the store and turned to talk to the store owner.
As Lee walked past, she strained her ears to hear what they said.
"Did you see where Little Joe went off to?" The man asked.
"I saw him enter the saloon, Adam." The shopkeeper answered, an amused look on his face. From the look on Adam's face, Lee guessed that this happened quite a lot.
"Shoulda guessed." The man called Adam grumbled. "I'll go pick him up after I've finished loading the buckboard. What does my total come to Mr. Brown?"
By this time Lee was past the two men, and so she didn't hear Mr. Brown's answer.
As she walked towards the saloon, Lee felt Adam's gaze and quickened her stride a bit. She wasn't much for showing her feelings, and she certainly didn't want to appear desperate or something.
"I'm an idiot." She mumbled to herself in an amused manner, after overthinking the whole situation and made herself so nervous that her palms were sweating.
Then Lee stepped into the saloon.
Adam watched the girl walk past and felt that unmistakable flutter in his stomach. He felt his curiosity build, even more, when the girl dressed in men's clothes entered the saloon.
"Wonder what she wants in there." Mr. Brown said. Then when Adam didn't seem to hear him, "Adam?"
"What? Oh, sorry. What did you say, Mr. Brown?" Adam looked up startled.
Mr. Brown chuckled and shook his head.
"I think I'd, uh, better go get Little Joe!" Adam nearly tripped over his own feet as he hopped off the store's porch and strode towards the saloon.
Mr. Brown laughingly walked back into his store.
Adam stepped into the saloon just in time to witness the bartender giving the girl a beer without looking up, then noticing that the customer wasn't a man.
"Hey, what are you doing in here?" The bartender demanded to know.
Lee took off her hat, letting her long auburn hair fall down her back. "Having a drink." She took a long gulp.
"Uh, ma'am."
Lee turned around. The young man talking to her had a shock of brown almost black hair falling over his green eyes. He had the tentative, polite look of a man who desperately wanted to help you out, but didn't know how to go about it.
"Ma'am. I think maybe, well, uh. You see, this is no place for a lady." The young man was obviously pretty uncomfortable just then.
"Joe." Lee and the young cowboy looked up at the same time, to see Adam striding up to the bar. "Let me handle this, Joe."
Joe graciously, and with a bit of relief, stepped back.
"Adam Cartwright." The man took off his right glove and held his hand out to the girl.
"I'm Kaylee Jones." Lee shook his hand. "You can just call me Lee though."
"Well, it's certainly very nice to meet you, Lee." Adam stared into her eyes, a peculiar smile on his face.
Lee suddenly found herself wishing she'd cleaned herself up a bit first. She'd always figured that if guys didn't like how she looked, they weren't worth thinking about, but Adam was a little different.
"And I'm Joe Cartwright." Joe stepped forward.
"I've met you two and Hoss, and I've heard about your pa. How many more Cartwrights are there?" Lee asked jokingly, tearing her gaze away from Adam.
"Our adopted brother Jamie is the last one. Jamie's 14." Adam smiled. "You look hungry. Do you want to go get something to eat?"
"Uh, sure. Sounds good." Lee drained her beer and left some money on the bar. Then she wiped her mouth and followed Adam out.
"Hi, Adam and Little Joe." A young boy stepped out of the store and walked towards them.
"Jamie, this is Ms. Lee Jones. Lee, my little brother." Adam introduced them.
"Nice to meet you, Jamie." Lee smiled at the tall boy. She had seen how happy Jamie looked when Adam called him his little brother and guessed that he hadn't been part of the family for a very long time yet. She'd also noticed Adam's older brotherly tone.
"You too Ms. Jones." Jamie hurriedly turned to Joe. "I found the perfect pocket knife at the mercantile. Can you come look at it?"
"Sure!" Little Joe said, looking almost as excited as Jamie, "Let's go!"
"Wait a minute." Adam grabbed Joe's arm, hauling him back. "You heard the regulations on the length of the blade?"
"Of course, older brother. Pa only explained it to us four times!"Joe stuck up four fingers in front of Adam's face with an annoyed expression on his face.
"You've been known to get carried away when picking out pocket knives before," Adam smirked.
Just then Hoss walked up. "Howdy Miss Lee, brothers."
"Hi, Hoss." Lee greeted him.
"Hoss. Just who I was looking for." Adam said. "Take Joe and Jamie back in the buckboard."
"But what about the horses?" Hoss asked, surprised.
"Tie them to rig. See you later brothers." Adam steered Lee away from the other Cartwright brothers.
Lee laughed softly.
"What are you laughing about?" Adam asked, looking down at her with a slight quirk in his lips.
"You and your brothers. You're pretty close aren't you?"
"I guess so. But what about you? Do you have any siblings? Where do you live?" Adam asked as they walked towards an eating place, called "Sally's".
"No, I don't have any siblings and my parents died in an accident a couple months ago. Cougar spooked the horses; wagon flipped." Lee answered quietly.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Adam said, just as quietly. "My mother died as well."
"What happened?" Lee asked.
"She was sick even before I was born, and then after she was too weak to make it." Adam almost choked thinking about it.
"I'm so sorry, Adam." Lee grasped his arm. "I didn't mean to make you think about those times."
"It's alright. It's been so long..."
"I hope you don't mind my asking, but who is Joe's and Hoss's mother?"
"Pa met and married Inger on the way here, from New England, and Hoss was born. When I was six, she was... killed... in an Indian attack. Then Pa got to Nevada and started building our ranch, the Ponderosa. He was having trouble handling his grief, and so he went to New Orleans for a while. There he met Marie. She was Joe's mother. Marie was a beautiful, small French lady. She left us when her horse flipped over... on top of her. Those were some pretty hard times." Adam sighed.
"That's terrible! How did you handle all that?" Lee wondered.
"I went back east, to college. Majored in architecture and engineering. Kinda took my mind off things."
By now they had gotten to "Sally's", and Adam held the door open for Lee. "Sally." He called.
A blond girl wearing an apron came out of the kitchen. "Oh, hello. I didn't hear you come in, Adam." Turning to Lee, "I'm Sally Crawford. I own and run this place."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Lee Jones." Lee said shaking her hand.
"Lee?" Sally asked.
"Well, actually Kaylee. I'm just usually called Lee."
"If you don't mind, I'll call you Kaylee. Please sit down." Sally said warmly.
Over a lunch of steak, potatoes, biscuits, and lots of gravy, Adam and Lee got to know each other a bit better.
When all the good food had been devoured, Adam got up and dug in his pocket.
"No, please." Lee quickly got up as well, "You've been so kind to me already; let me pay for the food."
"Only if you come have dinner with us this evening at the ranch." Adam invited in his quiet way.
"Uh," Lee started, not sure if she should accept, but drawn by Adam's smile. "Sure, yes, that sounds good!" She finally answered.
"Good!" Adam smiled down at her.
"What time should I be there?" Lee asked, feeling a little flustered.
"6:00 is good," Adam answered, a little amused by her uncomfortableness.
To escape his gaze, Lee quickly counted out money and put it on the table.
"Was everything satisfactory?" Sally came out of the kitchen to collect the dishes.
"Everything was amazing, Sally," Adam said.
"That's good to hear! Kaylee, How long are you planning on staying in town?"
"I haven't decided yet. Maybe only a couple of days, maybe the rest of my life." Lee shrugged. Her heart pounded a little faster when she noticed how Adam looked up when she said that.
Sally looked from Lee to Adam, and back to Lee, trying to hide a smile.
"Well, if you have time, you have to come visit me. I can introduce you to some friends, and we can buy you some dresses." Sally invited.
"Thanks, Sally, but I haven't worn a dress in, well, let's just say a very long time!" Lee said.
"Then it's high time you wear one again! See you later!" And Sally bustled off to the kitchen with the dishes.
"Well," Adam escorted Lee to the door. "I better be getting home; there's a lot of work to do. I guess I'll see you tonight." He rubbed the back of his neck, reminding Lee of what her father had always done when he was uncomfortable.
"I guess so. Are you sure it's not too much trouble?" Lee asked, cautiously.
"Oh no! Hop Sing, our famous cook, loves cooking for more people; as long as he has enough time to prepare enough!"
"If you say so." Lee smiled. "See you then." And she slowly walked away.
Adam smiled back and went to the livery to get his horse.
This is my first fanfic, so please review and let me know what you think!
Cheers!
Adam's Gurl