The Steeplechase

by Pikkadylli

Story #2 in the Bridal Bonanza series; There's a wedding for Ben and an engagement for one of his sons...but since all three propose to the same lady, which one of them gets the girl? Explicit chapters will have a warning; Read & review, please.

Summary: In an Alternate Reality where Adam didn't leave the Ponderosa, there's a wedding for Ben and an engagement for one of his sons.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the second story in the Bridal Bonanza series, in which I attempt to hitch up all the Cartwright men.

The following story—in fact, the entire Bridal Bonanza series—is effectively an Alternate Universe-type...I happen to be of the opinion that any fanfiction is automatically AU, and so the precedents set in the TV series on which it's based aren't necessarily so.

The changes in my universe: the six seasons of the show span three years in "real" time and Adam hasn't left the Ponderosa. That means that the ages of the Cartwright clan members are: Ben is 53 (he just celebrated his birthday prior to the story), Adam is 32, Hoss is 26 and Joe is 20. This story is set mostly after the events of the first part in my Bridal Bonanza arc, and makes references to that first story, entitled Silver & Gold, but it is a stand-alone tale regardless.

DISCLAIMER: The following story is a fanfic—that is to say, it's a work of fiction written by a fan without any kind of recompense. It is meant for entertainment purposes only, is in NO way official to the Bonanza continuity, and the recognizable characters from the television series are not my intellectual property. Original characters in the story, however, are creations of mine, as is the story itself. If you wish to archive this story, please ask my permission.

Reviews are welcome—just please be polite.

THE STEEPLECHASE by Pykkadilly

CHAPTER ONE

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1862 – Virginia City, Nevada

"I now pronounce you man and wife." the minister intoned. "You may kiss the bride." Ben Cartwright turned to the woman by his side, bent down and kissed her chastely on the mouth.

Well...it started that way. The split-second Cassandra Callahan Cartwright began to pull away from the embrace, some kind of overriding instinct kicked in for Ben, however, and he immediately wrapped his arms around her and assumed a bit more of a passionate stance.

"Pa." Adam said, clearing his throat. "Everyone's watching, Pa...including the children." This didn't seem to make a difference to Ben. "You're in a church, Pa. In front of the minister. Pa..?"

"Mebbe you should remind him about the stagecoach, Adam?" Hoss suggested, turning pink and tugging at the starched collar of his new shirt. Joe smirked.

"Maybe we should get a bucket of water?" he said then grunted because the blond girl next to him dug her elbow into his ribs. "Ow! What was that for?"

"You men have no sense of romance!" Rebecca Callahan said with a toss of her head. Her brother Zacharias rolled his sapphire eyes.

"Mama—we're gonna be late for the stage to Omaha if we don't leave soon." he announced loudly. This didn't impact the kissing couple directly, but the words galvanized the seven-year-old twins, Gabriel and Naomi, who flung themselves at their newly-married parents and began to wail.

"You can't leave us without saying goodbye!!!" cried Gabe, clutching at his adopted mother's skirts.

"I wanna go with you!!!" Naomi sobbed, clinging to one of Ben's legs.

The newlyweds parted, each of them instinctively kneeling to offer comfort to the children.

"Naomi," Ben said gently but firmly, "You know you can't come with us...your Mama and I don't want you to miss school."

"And you know how boring it gets cooped up inside a stagecoach for hours on end, Gabriel." Cassie reminded the little boy as she tenderly brushed some of his honey-blond hair out of his face.

"But...we'll miss you so much while you're gone, Mama." Gabe whispered, blinking so that he didn't let the tears that were threatening to fall spill over. That would be a bad thing, seeing as how he now had four older brothers looking at him.

"We're going to miss you, too, dearest," the woman with the silver-and-gold hair told him, "But we'll be back in a few weeks."

"You promise?" Naomi asked anxiously, looking from her mother to her new father with cautious hope in her big blue eyes. Ben smiled and kissed her forehead.

"Yes, children, I promise." he told them sincerely. The twins smiled back.

"Let's get going, Papa," Cassandra said, straightening up and looking at Ben with a twinkle in her silver-gray eyes, "I have the feeling that Zach is now getting anxious as well." Ben chuckled, standing. He quickly thanked the minister who performed the wedding ceremony and then herded the combined Callahan-Cartwright brood out of the church, intent upon getting everyone over to the stage depot in time to catch the stagecoach going East.

Ben and Cassandra had quickly decided that a small family wedding held as soon as possible was their best option, as the specter of Ralph Foster loomed large over the Callahan family. Foster had long been a contentious acquaintance of Ben's and was often rather jealous of the respect and renown heaped upon the rancher by the citizens of the Carson Valley. Foster had also been attempting to court Cassie himself, but the way station manager had refused his advances, having eyes only for Ben.

Ben had proposed to the woman during her birthday party only two days ago at the station—however, the party had ended in a brawl that Foster threatened to use as an example to persuade his fellow Virginia City council members to authorize the removal of the children under Cassandra's guardianship. The woman still refused Foster's suit. She had also nearly rejected Ben's proposal, but he convinced her that he had faith in her motives, so she accepted the master of the Ponderosa as her husband-to-be.

Ben and Adam had done a lot of legwork for that wedding, as well as for a surprise that they announced to both families at yesterday's meal for lunch: not only were Ben and Cassandra going to be married on Saturday morning, but they would be going East to New Haven, Connecticut, for their honeymoon.

"You're gonna visit the Old States for your honeymoon, Pa?" Hoss asked. "That's an awful long trip."

"Yes, it is." agreed Ben, smiling. "But there's another reason besides the lengthy honeymoon it would grant us." He nodded to Cassie, who turned to Zach.

"Zach...Ben and I want to take you along with us." she said, smiling herself. "We want to see you settled there while you seek your fortune with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra." The young man's eyes widened in astonishment.

"The orchestra that Mr. Simmons wrote me that letter for?" he asked, gaping. Cassie's smile became a brilliant grin and she nodded. Zach let out a whoop and found himself amidst hugs from his fellow Callahans and some hearty handshakes and back-slapping from his Cartwright brothers. The engaged couple looked upon their blending family and clasped hands, basking in the happiness that abounded.

That had been yesterday. Since then, Ben had been aiding Zach in packing for what was essentially going to be his new life in Connecticut, while Cassie had been making certain inquiries of her own in regards to the station and its operation.

Now the Callahan-Cartwright group was at the depot, making sure that all the baggage was present and taking care of last minute goodbyes. Joe found himself drawn a few yards away from the rest of the family by a rather serious-looking Zach.

"What's on your mind, friend...or should I say 'brother'?" the brunet man asked the blond with an easygoing smile.

"Joe," Zach told him soberly, "You gotta promise me to look out for Becky." The Cartwright male's smile faded a bit at the tone in Zach's voice.

"I shouldn't have to promise that, Zach, seeing as how she's like my sister, too, now."

"No, Joe—I don't mean that I don't trust you with her," Zach clarified, then blew out his breath, "Okay...I have a confession to make: I deliberately misled you about how old Becky and I were. I know you thought she wasn't even fourteen yet when we met—hell, you thought I only sixteen then, too." Joe eyed his stepbrother.

"I found out the hard way that Becky's going to be nineteen her next birthday...how old are you?"

"I turned twenty-one this past March."

"You look like you're not even eighteen yet!"

"I know." Zach said. "It's been that way for all the Callahans...we look really young except for when our hair starts turning gray. I'm starting to get gray now, too." Joe eyed Zach again.

"Well...obviously you're worried about Becky, though." he prompted.

"Right." Zach agreed. "See...when I met you, you were fine...for a friend. But you're so popular with the ladies that I knew I didn't want you sniffing around Becky...so I let you think she was a lot younger than you were. However, I'm not going to be here, and Becky is going to be working days at the station. You gotta keep an eye on her, Joe. I don't like the notion that you might sweet-talk her into something...but I know you well enough to be sure that you don't go breaking hearts deliberately. And I know that you can keep Lug Dawson away from her—and he's the one I'm really worried about."

"Lug Dawson?" Joe echoed, frowning as he recalled the burly young man. Lug's family were trappers by trade, but Hoss didn't have a good opinion of them, as the Dawsons tended to set many horribly inhumane traps to get their animals. Adam and Hoss had been forced to issue an ultimatum to the Dawsons when the Cartwrights had discovered Dawson traps on Ponderosa land: stop trapping on the Ponderosa or the traps would be confiscated and destroyed. The Dawsons had capitulated, but not with anything passing for good grace.

"You're not saying that Becky is actually sweet on Lug, are you?" Joe asked, aghast at the notion of the pretty blond willingly sparking to anyone else—that was (the youngest Cartwright brother hastily corrected himself) to anyone like Lug.

"No!" Zach denied, looking horrified. "Becky has told me that she's plumb scared of him...and I don't blame her. Mama says we aren't supposed to judge people...especially on just how they look...but there's something in Lug Dawson's eyes..." The blond man shuddered. "...Joe, I personally think he's dead inside or something...and I seen him looking at Becky. You have got to protect her. I'm counting on you."

"I already told it to Becky, and I'll tell it to you, too." Joe said firmly. "I will never let anything happen to her, Zach...never." Zach looked solemnly at his friend and then smiled.

"I'll take you at your word, Joe." he agreed. The matter having been settled, the pair rejoined the extended family at the stagecoach, which was now having the baggage loaded onto the top. Zach shook hands with his other Cartwright brothers.

While Cassandra was issuing last-minute reassurances to Gabe and Naomi, Ben addressed himself to Adam and Rebecca.

"You two will be the oldest of your respective family groups." the silver-maned man told them. "I am genuinely hoping that you will work together so that your mother and I will return to one united family."

"Gabe and Naomi are ready to welcome everyone on the Ponderosa into the family, sir." Becky said with a fond smile. "It's just a matter of us all getting used to each other now. You can count on me to help out when it's needed." The young lady smiled and Ben smiled back, struck by the resemblance Rebecca had to her aunt-cum-guardian: each of the women had youthful faces, that rather arresting little mole on their right cheeks and golden hair, even if Cassandra's was liberally sprinkled with silver amongst it. The only other difference was that Becky was possessed of sapphire blue eyes, while Cassie's eyes were silver-gray.

Then Rebecca stepped forward and hugged Ben tightly.

"Take care of her, Uncle Ben." Becky bade him. "And yourself, too. We all love you so much." The rancher returned her embraced, too overcome to do more than murmur her an assurance that he would. His eldest son reached for his hand, shaking it in a tight clasp, using his free hand to clap Ben on the shoulder.

"Don't worry about a thing here, Pa." Adam told him confidently. "Everything will be running so smoothly we probably won't even notice when you finally get back to work." He smirked and winked. Ben chuckled and turned to say goodbye to Hoss and then Joe.

"We're gonna miss you, Pa," Ben's middle son enveloped his sire in a big bear hug, "But we all hope you 'n' our new Mama have a good time and a safe journey." Joe also hugged his father.

"That goes double for me." he said, adding with a rather cocky grin: "And, in case you and Mama can't make it back in time for the Harvest Festival Steeplechase, me an' Cooch are gonna win it and frame the prize money so you can see for yourself—I'll hang it over the fireplace!" The men shared a hearty last laugh.

Zach admonished the twins to be on their best behavior because, after all, they didn't want to become infamous for destroying three brand-spanking-new brothers the very day they got them, did they? The children giggled. Zach straightened up and looked to Rebecca with a mix of emotions. Strangely, he didn't hug or kiss her, only nodded. Becky nodded back with a smile and suspiciously-bright eyes.

Cassandra hugged each one of the people she was leaving behind, kissing cheeks as well. Adam accepted the show of emotion with good grace and almost no expression—Cassie had to look deep into his hazel eyes to see that he was genuinely touched, but far too much of a Yankee man's man to let it show easily.

Hoss blushed deeply when it was his turn, but his grin left no doubt that he was pleased.

Joe was an experienced man at receiving hugs and kisses, and easily returned them, adding his own good wishes for Ben, Cassandra and Zach on the trip.

Becky hugged and kissed her aunt-cum-mother and then stepped back to allow the twins one more round of hugs and kisses as well. Cassie knelt and did so, touching the faces of the youngest members of the combined family and smiling.

"Think of me often, as I will think of you." she told them. The twins were loathe to let go but finally did so, promising that they would think of their Mama while she was gone. The children turned to Ben, looking up him with huge eyes in their little faces. Naomi and Gabriel were both blond with blue eyes, but their expressions evoked three other faces at their age: one black-haired and hazel-eyed, one with sandy hair and blue eyes and the final one with dark brown/black hair and green eyes. The common denominator amongst the children of the past and present: the determination to be brave in the face of parting. Ben knelt and just swept them into a hug.

"Take care of yourselves and each other, Gabriel and Naomi," he bade the pair, "And remember to mind your older brothers and sister."

"Yes, Uncle Ben." the twins both answered simultaneously, hugging him back. Ben forced himself to let go and then turned, assisting Cassandra into the stagecoach and then, stepping up into it after Zach, got into the vehicle.

The combined members of the Callahan-Cartwright clan waved goodbye to the eastern-bound stagecoach until it turned out of sight down the street. Then Gabriel looked up at Hoss.

"We get to start bein' a big family now, right?" he asked. Hoss looked down at his newest little brother.

"We sure can!" he agreed.

"This means you can't be 'Little Joe' anymore, you know." Naomi pointed out, putting her hand into Joe's, who easily held it and smiled.

"I don't know if 'Little Gabe' has quite the same ring to it, though..." he replied.

"I'm not little!" Gabe insisted, eliciting chuckles from the older members of his family at his vehemence.

"Well, as I'm the oldest and the one officially in charge," Adam said blithely, "I say that, as our first official family act, let's all go to the International House and get some ice cream." Both Gabriel and Naomi enthusiastically agreed with this and eagerly urged the group on to their destination, which everyone anticipated with relish.

CHAPTER TWO

MERCY HARRIS STIFLED her urge to yawn in spite of being surrounded by half-a-dozen boring people.

"...then Father would make it a point to be certain to pause for the precisely proper amount of time, never more and never less..."

There spoke the number one bore, Barnabus Lathrup III, who was following his father into a career in law—and insisted on giving every last detail about how his esteemed sire (and senior law partner) was able to win so many cases. Every last detail...no matter how trivial. Having barely stayed awake through Barnabus' lengthy description of how Mr. Lathrup II had his waistcoat pressed before donning it for this particular case, as well as the exact amount and brand of snuff that was tucked into the man's "lucky" snuff box, and was struggling not to nod off now that the exciting tale had gotten up to how the senior Mr. Lathrup was inspecting his own appearance in a full-length mirror. The only thing that was sustaining Mercy through this entire somnolence-inducing soliloquy was the uncharitable but nonetheless undeniable satisfaction that the other four people present—collectively known as the Virginia City Ladies' Temperance League, that bevy of matrons led by the redoubtable Mrs. Weatherbee—were also unable to escape the fate to which they had knowingly consigned the jet-tressed teacher in yet another blatant attempt to make a match.

However, if Mercy was forced to continue to listen to the man's utter drivel for another second, she was fairly certain that she would be driven to strangling the pompous lawyer with her bare hands...and time in a Nevada state prison was beginning to look like the preferable destiny. As Barnabus segued into reassuring Mercy that he, too, cut a dashing figure in a looking-glass, she rolled her eyes in a silent appeal to Providence to kindly have something happen so that she could take the opportunity to slip away—anything...a runaway horse...a bank robbery...

...a group of familiar people strolling down the opposite side of the street..!

"Oh, my, look at the time!" Mercy exclaimed suddenly, startling Barnabus with her outburst (and waking up at least one or two of the nodding matrons.) "I had no idea that it was getting this late! I must hurry away, Mr. Lathrup, I'm sorry to say...I have a previous engagement to tutor the Callahan children—oh, and see, there they are...good morning to you all!" So saying, the young schoolmarm made good her escape, lifting her skirts a bit and hurrying across the street to where the twins were walking hand-in-hand with the Cartwright brothers. Mercy afforded herself a glance over one shoulder and smiled as her suspicions were confirmed: since Adam Cartwright numbered amongst the people in this group, the murder of matchmakers assumed that the teacher would be spending time with their number-one choice as a mate for Mercy.

Mercy's unkind chuckle of triumph was cut short when she collided into an unyielding brick wall.

"Mercy! I didn't see you there! Are you all right?" Hoss' voice sounded a bit anxious and she felt strong hands curl around her shoulders. Mercy turned her head and saw that the "brick wall" had not been an inanimate object, but, rather, Hoss himself. She groaned inwardly at her own silliness.

"I'm fine, thank you, Hoss." she told him, then smiled up at him. "I wasn't watching where I was going, I'm sorry to say...but I'm glad I...ran into you." Her lips twitched at the unintentional pun. Hoss' sky-blue eyes looked warmly upon the pretty schoolmarm and he had to admit that he was mighty glad that she was here with him now.

"Hoss...aren'tcha coming for ice cream?" the voice of Gabriel Callahan intruded on the private little sanctuary that the middle Cartwright brother had temporarily constructed around himself and the raven-maned woman he was interested in. With a soft sigh of disappointment, Hoss let go of Mercy's shoulders, then got an idea.

"Say, Mercy, we're going to the International House for some ice cream," he told her, "I'd be right honored if you could join us for the treat." Hoss didn't do much more than blink before finding himself continuing his stroll down the street towards the café, only with Mercy holding his right hand in her left. Of course, young Gabriel was clinging to her other hand as well.

"I'd love to, Hoss, thank you!" The big man snuck a glance at Mercy's face—she sure was especially pretty today, smiling and looking like she didn't have a care in the world. And her hand in his felt...right. Like it always belonged there, and always would.

"Good morning, Miss Harris." both twins greeted her. The schoolteacher nodded to the children, and her emerald eyes took in the exact makeup of the group—it seemed that Rebecca Callahan and her two younger siblings were in the company of the three Cartwright brothers.

"Good morning, Gabriel, Naomi." she replied. "Good morning, Becky. And good morning to you as well, Mr. Cartwright...and Mr. Cartwright." Mercy nodded her head first to Adam and then to Joe, whose own green eyes were decidedly twinkling with humor. She suspected that he had seen her flight across the street as well as the reason for it—something that was confirmed by his acknowledgment of her greeting.

"Good morning, Miss Harris," the youngest of the Cartwrights said with a charming smile, "I couldn't help but notice that you were in a bit of a hurry—is Barney still as boring as all that?"

"Barney? Lathrup?" Hoss asked, his face scrunching slightly at the thought of Mercy being paired up with that dandy. "The dude who joined his daddy's law firm?"

"Alas, Mr. Cartwright, you're only too correct." the teacher admitted. "I am afraid that my serendipitous accident with your brother was a result of my haste to leave Mr. Lathrup's company."

"Serendipitous?" Hoss prompted—he was pretty sure that the word meant "lucky"...but he had a specific, rather selfish desire for getting Mercy to explain herself, one that she unwittingly fulfilled even now: in thinking of how to simplify her speech, the pretty woman pursed her lips. Hoss' eyes glinted at that sight.

"Serendipitous...fortuitous, incidental, providential..." she listed, then finally added: "...lucky."

"Wow, Miss Harris," Naomi said, gaping, "Do all those words mean the same thing?"

"Yes, Naomi, they do."

Joe, however, had seen the look on his older brother's face and spotted an opportunity to tease Hoss about it. He opened his mouth to do so—and felt a familiar, sharp jab in his ribs. He glared at the cause: Becky, who was walking beside him.

"Ow—what was that for?" he asked petulantly.

"You shouldn't tease Hoss." Becky said primly.

"Of course I should!" Joe assured her. "He's my brother—that's what brothers are for!" The blond girl rolled her sapphire eyes.

"So...what are we celebrating..?" Mercy asked as the group continued its trek.

"We're all one big family!" Gabriel announced proudly. The teacher smiled, but her expression made it clear that she wasn't quite sure what Gabriel meant by it.

"Pa married Miss Cassie this morning." Hoss told her. "So the Cartwrights and the Callahans—"

"We're all one big family!" Gabe insisted, tugging on Mercy's hand. Mercy bent a bit as she replied to the child.

"Well, that is something to celebrate, indeed!" she agreed. When she straightened up, Mercy's emerald eyes glanced around her. "Congratulations to you all. Have the happy couple already left on their honeymoon?" Adam gave a nod.

"They left with Zach soon after the ceremony." he told her. "They've gone to get the boy settled in with the orchestra he's been wanting to join in Connecticut."

"The New Haven Symphony Orchestra?" Mercy asked, her eyes round.

"Yes, ma'am." Joe confirmed.

"My goodness—Zach must be pleased as punch!"

"He's a darn good fiddle player, Mercy." Hoss said sincerely. "He'll be a great musician, I'm sure."

"Here we are!" Adam announced as the group drew abreast of the entrance to the cafe. Gabriel eagerly rushed forward to hurry in, but the eldest Cartwright restrained him with a hand on one shoulder.

"No, Gabriel," he admonished the boy, "Ladies go in first, a gentleman holds the door." The youngster scrunched his nose.

"But they aren't ladies..." Gabe insisted, "...They're only sisters...!" Mercy and Becky hid smiles behind their hands, while Naomi sucked in her breath.

"I am too a lady!!!" she hollered, stamping her foot. Now the older females were covering up coughs (which themselves were hiding chuckles.)

"Naomi," Adam said evenly, fixing the girl with a pointed hazel stare, "Ladies do not yell and stamp their feet."

"Ha!" Gabe gloated as Naomi pouted.

"Gabriel," Adam turned that steady regard onto the boy, "Gentlemen do not make judgments—they treat all females like ladies...sisters or not." Gabe, chastened, frowned, then he reached up and grasped the door handle, dragging the portal open.

"After you." the brother said to his twin, who nodded in regal manner and went through the door, Becky hurrying after her in order to take Naomi by the hand so that the girl didn't get too far ahead.

"Thank you most kindly, young sir." Mercy said to Gabriel, whose face brightened as she went past him through the door.

The ice cream treat at the International House was a very successful tactic that brought the two families closer together. Adam was pleased to observe that Hoss and Mercy were obviously drawing closer together as well—the couple walked together when the entire group exited the café once they were done. Good—that should save Adam from the machinations of the Ladies' Temperance League. The matrons of Virginia City had been attempting to get Adam married off since before he went to college, but he had managed to elude their clutches so far. A ghost of a smirk flitted across his face.

"Well, well—if it isn't the Parson!"

The laconic drawl could only belong to one person: Eve Jane MacGruder, commonly known as "JJ" to most people of the area. Since Adam was almost the only person to address her by her real name, she retaliated by calling him "Parson" in a sarcastic jab at his penchant for wearing all black.

"Hey, JJ!" Becky greeted. "How are you today?" The rangy brunette—sitting atop her gray dapple mount in the street next to the group on foot—nodded to the blond.

"I'm fine, thank you, although I'm surprised to see you all here," she answered, "I was expecting at least your Mama to be at the station when I made today's delivery, but nobody was there." She eyed the entire assembly. "Has the Parson spirited you away so's he can give his very own personal sermon on the mount..?" JJ's chocolate-brown eyes danced with humor.

"Oh, I'm sorry, JJ..." Becky replied, distressed, "...we completely forgot that you'd be making a delivery today...you see, we—" Gabriel immediately piped up, cutting off his older sister.

"Adam took us for ice cream cuz we're all one big family now!" JJ's eyebrows rose, her eyes darting over the group once more.

"Oh, ho!" she exclaimed, smiling. "Apparently Mr. Cartwright didn't let any grass grow under his feet after declaring at your Mama's birthday party, eh?"

"I'm surprised you know about that, Eve Jane," Adam replied, "You weren't in attendance." The brunette's lips tightened momentarily, but her smile returned.

"No, but my brothers were, and they were happy to give me all the hairy details about the best fistfight they'd ever been in outside a saloon." JJ said. "As well as how your Pa offered up for Miss Cassie right then and there. Congratulations, then...you surely make a lovely big family." Once again the MacGruder female's canny gaze swept the group.

"Everyone's here except Zach." she pointed out. "And the newlyweds, but that's to be expected."

"Mama and our new Uncle Ben took Zach back East with them." Naomi answered. JJ nodded.

"Ahhh...how wise of your Pa, Adam." she conceded. "Zach gets to be a musician while your Pa and Miss Cassie don't have to deal with a shivaree."

"What's a shivaree?" Gabriel asked. A shivaree was the raucous serenading of a pair of newlyweds—ostensibly on their wedding night—by a group of men who would refuse to go away until they were bribed to do so, either by being led away to where beer and whiskey awaited them or be being given money...which was then spent at a local saloon on, of course, beer and whiskey.

"It's nothing you need to know about, Gabriel." Adam said quickly, glowering up at JJ, who merely lifted her eyebrows in a clearly mocking manner. "Thank you for your well-wishes, Eve Jane, but we must be on our way now...we have lots to do as one big family."

"True." the woman on the gray dapple nodded, then looked to Becky. "When may I deliver to the station, then?" Becky frowned thoughtfully.

"This afternoon." she said decisively. "We'll be at the station packing our things."

"See you this afternoon, then, Becky." JJ agreed, then nodded to each of the others as she acknowledged them, finally winding up with: "...and you as well, Parson."

"Goodbye, Eve Jane." Adam bade her, his teeth on edge. Honestly, that woman! Then he busied himself with herding his new, blended family to the livery so that they could go about the business of relocating everyone under one roof: the main house of the Ponderosa.

"Adam, I'd like to walk Mercy home." Hoss told his older brother. "I'll meet you at the station, if that's all right with you?"

"That'll be fine, Hoss." the eldest Cartwright son said, inclining his head. The day had been quite eventful already, and it was far from over.

BEN AND CASSIE'S first decision together had been to forgo a big wedding in favor of marrying before Ralph Foster could galvanize the Virginia City council to take action against the way station manager. Cassandra was adamant that she would not be parted involuntarily from the children in her care, and Foster's mean-spirited threat to take the minors away from her had likely not been an idle one, as the man was still rankling from her romantic rejection of him.

Once they had decided that they were, indeed, going to marry in a mere two days, they discussed at length the fate of Callahan Station, eventually hammering out the best way to bring the Callahan and Cartwright clans together:

Technically speaking, the station itself was the property of the Callahan children, as they had been the direct heirs of their parents' property. That meant that Zach was the de facto owner, with his siblings having equal shares, as per the simple will left by their late parents. Cassandra was merely the guardian for the children and an adult advisor. Zach, however, wanted to be a violinist in an orchestra, and would not be remaining at the station.

Cassandra herself knew she would be going to the Ponderosa to be with her husband, but told Ben of Wilson Meyers, a local who had been showing an interest in working at the station. He could be approached with the proposition of becoming the station manager himself, with Becky assisting him during the daytime hours, for Becky expressed a desire to remain working at the station.

Meyers was delighted with the proposition and agreed immediately to work as manager of the station. He was even happy to hear that Becky wanted to work days, for that way he wouldn't have to cook for the customers and would have the benefit of getting occasional advice from the girl who had more experience in running the station than he had.

This left the last detail of moving the Callahan family out of the station and into the Cartwright house at the Ponderosa, which is what most of yesterday and this day were devoted to.

Although they were sad to leave the station that had been their home since their Mama had come into their lives, Naomi and Gabriel were very excited to be moving into the Cartwright home: they had been promised their own bedrooms, a first for them, as they had slept in a loft shared with Zach and Becky back at the station.

Adam, Hoss and Joe had spent the previous day making sure that the three rooms that would be needed were emptied, for although two of them were already furnished as guest rooms, the third room had been used for storage. After clearing the room out, the brothers then went about the task of acquiring the items that were needed to furnish it.

The logistics for rearranging everything and then moving in the Callahan brood were not so difficult as they were time-consuming, but everyone involved did what they could to help—and even JJ lent a hand when she stopped by the station to deliver the mushrooms.

"You realize..." she as she came down the stairs at the ranch house after having helped transport an armful of quilts to the upper floor, "...that this means you're not going to be able to offer the hospitality of the Ponderosa to the dozens or so of travelers that you all seem to habitually run into...?" Hoss grinned, Joe guffawed and even Adam chuckled.

"The upstairs is now completely full," he agreed, "So that only leaves one guest room left. You're welcome to stay, Eve Jane, if you want." The brunette rolled her eyes, but was grinning herself.

"See? I think it's in your blood—you can't help but be neighborly." JJ teased, but the humor in her expression faded as she caught sight of the clock. "Oh, my...I didn't realize the time. I have to go."

"You sure you can't stay for supper?" Joe asked. "It's only right, seeing as how you've helped us and all." She shook her head.

"No, Joe, I can't." she said, grimacing. "I...promised Pa I'd be home for tonight especially."

"He ain't still makin' ya see Herman Voorhees, is he?" Hoss asked, frowning. JJ stiffened.

"So what if he is?" she hedged.

"Herman ain't the one for you, JJ." the big man insisted.

"Pa doesn't seem to agree with you there." she replied, then added slyly: "Sorry, Hoss, but I can already tell that you got somebody else you'd like to spark, Joe's eye still wanders the range, and the Parson is the pet of Mrs. Weatherbee and the rest of the Ladies' Temperance League. I have to make do with what my Pa picks for me." She chuckled at the expressions on the other brothers' faces and went out to mount Sirocco, her horse. Hoss followed her out.

"But you can't marry Herman, JJ—he really ain't the one for you." he said, an almost desperate tone to his voice. The young woman who had been his friend since their schooldays gave him a soft smile.

"I'm sure you've heard that old saying: you can lead a horse to water...?"

"...'but you can't make him drink'..." Hoss finished the quote for her. JJ nodded.

"Trust me when I say that I have absolutely no intention of drinking from Herman's trough." the brunette assured him, then gave a last wave goodbye before galloping north. Adam noted that Hoss still looked rather concerned as he returned to the house.

"What is it, Hoss?" he prompted his younger brother. Hoss' blue eyes were troubled when he looked at Adam.

"I don't like that JJ's choices are limited to stayin' with her Pa, who don't appreciate her none," he told Adam honestly, "Or marryin' Herman Voorhees, who's lookin' to take her family's farm over." Adam recalled when Hoss had told about discovering Herman's motives—the elder Cartwright smirked in remembrance when Hoss had added that he'd dumped Herman into a trough outside the saloon because of the derogatory terms the farm hand had used to describe JJ. Adam might find JJ irritating, but he'd been raised to respect women—he likely would have helped Hoss had he been present.

"I have to agree that they aren't good choices, Hoss," Adam replied, "But there's nothing you can do about it."

"But, Adam..." his bigger brother replied, guilt written all over his face, "...it's my fault that JJ ain't got no other choices!"

CHAPTER THREE

ADAM WAS AMAZED that Hoss could possibly believe himself to be responsible for JJ's present circumstances.

"How?" he asked, so surprised by his younger brother's assertion that he used only one word to ask the question. Hoss frowned unhappily.

"Well, y'see, Adam," he began, rubbing the back of his neck, "It happened back when we was in school together—I didn't even realize that I'd'a done it until I heard about it from Mercy." Now Adam was completely confused.

"Hoss," he pointed out gently, "Miss Harris has only been in Virginia City for a few weeks...how is it that she can know about something that happened years ago?" Hoss let out a huge sigh.

"I was walkin' Mercy back home after we was done at the International House..."

HOSS CARTWRIGHT WAS inches over six feet in height, and had a broad frame to match, so he was quite naturally a big man. Walking down the street side-by-side with pretty Mercy Harris made him feel ten times bigger than normal—but in a good way. Everything about her simply delighted him: her bright smile, her emerald green eyes, the way she subconsciously puckered her mouth when she was thinking about something—and, right now, especially the way she had one of her hands tucked into his elbow as he escorted her to her little house. She was a very special lady and she was making him feel extra special, too.

Of course, they didn't really know each other as well as Hoss would have liked—this was mostly because of interference by the Ladies' Temperance League...specifically Mrs. Weatherbee, who was convinced that Mercy Harris and Adam Cartwright were the perfect couple and was forever doing her darnedest to see those two young people together. Hoss might have completely given up had Adam been at all interested in the school teacher...but the oldest Cartwright brother had made it very clear to both Mercy and Hoss that Adam was not interested in her like that at all.

So Hoss took advantage of every opportunity to visit Mercy, and she always welcomed him.

Unfortunately, however, today's visit with each other was necessarily short, as Hoss had to get back to the way station to help move his new brother and sisters into the ranch house at the Ponderosa.

"So, I'm hopin' that you like life in Virginia City so far, Mercy." Hoss told her sincerely.

"Oh, yes, Hoss." she answered with a nod. "I love it here—the town is a friendly and exciting place, and the children that I teach are all so eager to learn!" Then she seemed to consider what she'd said. "Well...they're all eager...and most of them want to learn." Hoss grinned.

"You couldn't possibly have Billy Bendix in mind, could you?" he asked knowingly. Mercy gave him a startled glance, then smiled sheepishly.

"Oh, my...if the boy is that infamous that you know him before I name him," she said with a chuckle, "...then I shan't feel too dismayed that he managed to put a frog in my drawer."

"He put a frog in your drawers???" Hoss gasped, turning red. Mercy blinked and then laughed merrily.

"No, no—in my desk drawer, Hoss." she clarified. The big man's shade of red deepened for having made his mistake. Mercy patted his upper arm.

"There, now, don't take on so." the jet-tressed young lady soothed him. "I used an unfortunate turn of phrase—no harm, really." Mercy tilted her head. "Although I daresay, if that little rapscallion had actually done what you assumed—"

"Rapscallion?" Hoss interrupted...deliberately, knowing it would prompt Mercy to think about alternative words. Indeed, the schoolmarm paused, puckering prettily.

"Rapscallion...imp, knave, reprobate..." she listed, then came up with: "...a sneaky little varmint!"

"Ah ha." Hoss nodded, wishing Mercy needed more time before coming up with the right word...but, then again, it was starting to get to the point where Hoss was thinking about kissing Mercy while she was concentrating on her word search, and that would have been highly improper.

"If Billy had done anything like you mentioned," the woman with him continued her previous topic, "Then it would have gone on his permanent record."

"Permanent record?" Hoss echoed. "What's that?"

"Permanent records are a fairly new idea for school administration." Mercy explained. "Although from the records here in Virginia City, I see that the teachers here have been keeping them practically since the first schoolhouse was built."

"Really?" Hoss asked, not truly interested but there was something about the phrase that fascinated him...most likely the "permanent" part.

"Yes." the teacher replied nodding. "Why, there's even one particular record that is actually rather sad, in my opinion...apparently about thirteen or fourteen years ago there was a case where a girl pulled a prank on the schoolmaster at the time—I believe he wrote that she deliberately put a skunk in the schoolhouse in an effort to prevent the end-of-year examinations from being held. The schoolmaster was able to get the animal removed from the classroom, however, and held the exams anyway. He didn't find out who had done it until one of the other students told him after school was out for the year."

"And...and this went on her...permanent record?"

"Oh, yes." Mercy nodded once more. "The schoolmaster was quite explicit when he wrote about it, and I'm sorry to say that it was the basis for her being rejected for a teaching scholarship she applied for the following year." The raven-maned woman frowned. "I happen to think that Mr. Sanders—oh, he was the schoolmaster at the time—I think he was taking the whole matter too personally...but it's too late now. The girl's chances at getting a scholarship will always be hampered by her permanent record..."

"HOSS, YOU DON'T mean...?" Adam's question trailed off as he, too, recognized the unnamed girl in Mercy's example. His younger brother nodded, clearly unhappy.

"Yup." Hoss agreed. "I just know that Mercy was tellin' me about the time that JJ put the skunk in the schoolroom...because she was tryin' to help me with them fractions. So you see, Adam...I'm the reason that JJ's gotta choose between stayin' with her Pa, or marryin' Herman Voorhees."

Adam didn't know what to say, mostly because he feared that Hoss was likely correct in his assumptions. Adam's recollection of Mr. Arliss Sanders was of a rather whiny, self-absorbed man inflated with his own sense of importance. Granted, as the sole schoolmaster for the children in the then-sparsely-populated town (that hadn't even been named "Virginia City" yet), Sanders was, indeed, very important...it was just that a man of Sanders' type tended to take that importance and beat everyone he met over the head with it.

And now it seemed that JJ's misguided prank—done with the best of intentions—had succeeded only in hobbling her to a life that was less than she deserved...and neither Hoss nor Adam could do anything to help her.

"The only way out of it that I can see, Hoss," Adam admitted, "Is if JJ just leaves home...she can do that, you know—she's over twenty-one, even if she is a woman." Even as he said it, though, Adam didn't like having to acknowledge the fact that a woman alone in the West—or anywhere—didn't have the same opportunities a man would...and he downright refused to recognize the tiny little voice in the back of his brain that pointed out that JJ would likely have to leave Virginia City altogether.

"Aw, Adam," Hoss protested, shaking his sandy head, "You know she ain't gonna do that—there ain't nobody else in her family that's willin' to look after her Ma...and JJ ain't the type to leave knowin' that her Ma needed her."

This, too, was true...and it also didn't sit well with Adam.

"Sorry, Hoss." the eldest Cartwright said ruefully. "I can't think of a way to help."

"Sorry to interrupt..." Joe's voice broke into their conversation, making the pair turn to see him panting in the doorway to the house, "...but the twins decided to break in that new bed...literally." Adam was immediately striding through the front door and up the stairs. The youngest of the Cartwright men grinned, calling after him:

"Neither of them were hurt...yet." Joe chuckled, turning to Hoss. When he did so, the brunet man immediately spotted the expression on the middle brother's face and sobered. "Hey...what's wrong? Did Miss Mercy give you the mitten?" Hoss blinked at him, then looked annoyed.

"No, Little Joe," he said reprovingly, "I'd'a have to be officially courtin' Mercy in order for her to tell me to stop." Joe's instincts told him that Hoss needed to talk about whatever was bothering him.

"So what's the matter?" he asked. Hoss outlined his history with JJ and how it had adversely effected her chance to study at college.

"...and now there ain't no choices for her." Hoss summed up once more. "She can marry Herman—"

"I wouldn't allow a nanny goat to marry Herman." Joe opined.

"—or she can stay with her Pa—"

"And be servant in her own home for the rest of her life."

"—or she can leave, but—"

"—not with her Ma depending on her." Joe agreed with Hoss' conclusion about that particular choice.

"See? No choices left."

"She could always marry somebody else." Joe said with an off-handed shrug. "Anybody would be better than Herman Voorhees." Hoss nodded glumly, slumping. Then he slowly straightened up, blinking, before he nodded.

"Yeah...yeah, she can, can't she?" Hoss said hopefully. The younger brother nodded as well.

"Of course, nobody else has offered, I suppose." Joe pointed out. Hoss deflated a bit, but then eyed the strapping young Cartwright bachelor in front of him.

Joe opened his mouth to concede that it seemed that good, ol' JJ was in a quandary that had no solution—except that his older brother was looking at him in a peculiar manner.

"What are you looking at me for???"

THAT EVENING - A Way Station East of Virginia City

The stagecoach bearing Mr. and Mrs. Cartwright, Zach Callahan, and a medicine drummer bound for St. Joseph stopped for the night at a way station located in a hamlet aptly called "Stagecoach." The stationmaster greeted them and ushered them into the tired-looking building that was the station for this stop.

"Welcome to Stagecoach, folks." the balding man—maybe ten or so years older than Ben himself—smiled and waved to the empty tables of the public room. "Have a seat. I'm Ezra Newcombe, and my wife Minnie is tending to some stew for supper. You can eat and rest up by the fire—" Here he nodded at the fireplace that sported a small but cheery blaze, "—then you can sleep in the common room."

"Common room..." Ben repeated, "...meaning you have but the one room for everyone?" Mr. Newcombe nodded.

"Yessir," he agreed, "Oh, I forgot...if the little lady here wishes, we have a nice little fold-'em-up thingee that can hide off one corner for her to sleep in relative privacy." The rancher frowned, and Cassandra schooled her features into a polite mask, not wishing for the laughter at the look on Ben's face to spill over—she suspected that her new husband was not in the mood for humor at the moment.

Ben was definitely not seeing the lighter side of the present situation—he wanted more privacy than a mere folding room screen would give him and his bride. However, he was loathe to speak about what he wanted and why to Mr. Newcombe—especially with young Zach within earshot.

"Stew's ready!" a brunette woman who looked to be in her late forties—obviously Minnie Newcombe—entered the public room bearing a tray that held a stack of bowls and a small cauldron from which fragrant steam arose. Cassie sniffed appreciatively.

"Rabbit stew?" she asked, identifying the meat. The server glanced nervously at the traveler.

"Yes."

"It smells absolutely delicious!" Cassandra said with a smile. "Come, Zach, let's sit over here..." She deliberately shooed her son closer to the fireplace in order to give Ben a chance to talk to Mr. Newcombe. Mrs. Newcombe returned the smile tremulously.

"I was afraid you wouldn't think..." the stationmaster's wife began to say, then trailed off when Cassie waved her hand to dismiss the rest of the sentence.

"We wouldn't think that the fare was good enough?" the silvered blond said, then shook her glittering head. "I would never say that—I happen to run a way station myself." This information excited Mrs. Newcombe, who began to eagerly speak to Cassie as she served up the stew to the people sitting at the table.

Cassandra answered the obvious questions about where her family's station was located and how they liked—or disliked—being in the stagecoach business. Mrs. Newcombe's questions turned more to how the station could support itself between scheduled coach stops. Cassie readily told the woman how Callahan Station offered meals both on-site and packed up for the miners and any other such workers to buy and then eat on the job.

"Your best kind of pack meal is a meat roll." Cassie advised.

"A meat roll?" Mrs. Newcombe echoed.

"You roll out dough for biscuits, only instead of cutting the dough, you make sure it's shaped more or less like a rectangle." Cassie explained. "The recipe that seems to work best for me is to take chopped ham, blanched green beans and cabbage and soft cheese curds, which I spread over the top of the dough. Then I roll up the whole thing like a rug and bake it until the dough is just turning brown. Then I cut it up into a portion a man can hold in his hands and eat without the need for more than a napkin, which I wrap the meal up in."

"Ain't that a mite dry?" Mrs. Newcombe asked.

"Not if you remember to use soft cheese curds." Cassie told her. "And only bake until the dough is just turning—you bake it too long and that ham really dries out."

"Whatcha got them beans an' cabbage in there for?" the stationmaster's wife queried.

"Well, the ham is cheap enough, but the vegetables are cheaper." Cassie answered with a smile. "They help me stretch the meat and fill up the body that eats them."

"And the menfolk as eats these don't mind? I know my Ezra don't like vegetables none."

"The secret to that, my dear Mrs. Newcombe," Cassandra said in a conspiratorial whisper, "Is to blanch your vegetables in the water you soak your ham in...makes them taste more like the ham that way." The other woman moued and nodded.

"We got some cowpokes as stops by now and again to eat." Mrs. Newcombe admitted. "An' plenty of 'em apologize that they can't stay long enough to sit down to a meal...I betcha I can pack 'em lunches, though!"

"You'd be surprised who comes in for them once they realize it's what you're offering." Cassie agreed with a nod.

"Thank ya, missus!" the stationmaster's wife said. "Oh, lemme go get the coffee! And enjoy your meal!" Mrs. Newcombe bustled past Ben, who was returning from his conversation with Mr. Newcombe. Cassandra's eyes darted obliquely to his face, noting that he had a smile on it.

"It's rabbit stew, Ben." she told her husband.

"With fennel." added Zach. "It's mighty good, too." Ben took the bowl left for him and tasted, blinking.

"It surely is, Zach." he agreed. Mrs. Newcombe came by with the coffee and poured for everyone before scurrying away.

"Your wife has made a favorable impression on our hostess, Mr. Cartwright." the medicine drummer—Thaddeus Throckmorton—told Ben with a grin. "Which accounts for the very full bowl and the very fresh coffee."

"Full bowls and fresh coffee should be the standard, I thought, Mr. Throckmorton." Zach said. The drummer tilted his head.

"Should be, I suppose," the older man agreed, "But I've been drumming on this route for two years, and this is the first time Mrs. Newcombe ever dished more than half a bowl...although I must say that I do remember two other times that the coffee was fresh—once was when I came through this station on Christmas, and the other time was when she had tripped over the cat and lost the coffeepot she was carrying." Mr. Throckmorton chuckled in reminiscence.

After they all finished the meal—and Mr. Throckmorton was surprised by the pieces of buttercake that were served as dessert—Ben had Zach gather up one of his bags and then took bags that belonged to himself and Cassandra before herding his family out of the station. They walked down the road a bit to where a few buildings stood: the hamlet of Stagecoach.

"Mr. Newcombe told me of a Widow Capshaw who lives in the second house on the right—" he told them as they went, and then pointed to the building in question, "—ah, there it is...the one with the fancy shutters." Although it was already starting to get dark, they all could see that, indeed, the snug little house had shutters on it which sported heart-shaped cutouts in them.

"I can't think that those little hearts are too useful in an Indian attack." Zach said, puzzled. Cassandra glared at her adopted son, but Ben chuckled.

"Actually, Zach," he corrected the younger male's perception, "They would seem to be right handy in being able to poke out the barrel of a rifle from inside the house without you becoming a target yourself." The woman with them rolled her eyes heavenward and shook her head.

"Men!" she snorted.

The trio went to the door of the house and knocked. After a moment or so, the door opened and an elderly lady wearing spectacles stood there. Ben removed his hat.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but I've been told that Widow Capshaw is amenable to letting rooms, and I've come to inquire about letting two rooms for the night—one for my son and the other for my wife and I." the rancher informed the lady.

"I am Mrs. Celeste Capshaw." the woman told him. "But I let rooms on a weekly basis."

"That's quite alright, ma'am," Ben said, "I'll gladly pay for two rooms at your weekly rate." Widow Capshaw eyed him, but stepped back from the door.

"That will be ten dollars for the two rooms then, if you wish them." she said.

"That will be fine, ma'am, thank you." Ben replied, stepping back from the doorway to allow Cassandra to enter the house first, then he indicated that Zach go ahead of him as well. The blond young man stepped through the door, removing the hat from his head and adding his own thanks to those that had been voiced by Ben and then Cassandra.

"You are all quite welcome." the widow told them, closing the door. "But...forgive my curiosity...if you are all only staying the night, that would mean that you are travelers on the stage, are you not?"

"Yes, ma'am." Zach answered politely.

"You can sleep at the station without paying extra." Mrs. Capshaw pointed out. "Why are you paying a week for two rooms instead of taking advantage of the service already provided by the stage line?" Cassandra blushed.

"If you please, ma'am." she said demurely. "My husband and I were married just this morning. We wanted...a private room." The widow's eyebrows rose, but she merely turned around and, going to a nearby table, lit three lamps, handing one to Zach and then another to Ben. The third lamp she took for herself.

"Follow me, then." So saying, the boarding-house-keeper led the way up a set of stairs and stopped at the first door they came to.

"Young man, you may stay here." she told them, opening the door to reveal a nice little room that had matching oak furniture: a sturdy-looking bed, a desk and chair, a skinny wardrobe and a small, low cabinet beside the bed.

"The table by the bed has a few towels and a covered chamberpot in the lower part." Mrs. Capshaw informed Zach. "There are extra matches in the top drawer as well. Since you're all going out with the stage, you should know that it leaves no later than an hour after sun-up, so I will have breakfast ready at dawn. Good night, young man."

"Thank you, ma'am...and good night." Zach said, stepping into the room. The elderly lady turned to Ben and Cassandra.

"You two will be in the room on the same side of the house...all the way down the hall." Mrs. Capshaw told them, then began to slowly move down the corridor to show the couple exactly which room it was. Ben wasn't sure which of the two people with him blushed brighter—Zach or Cassie.

"Good night, Mama." Zach mumbled, giving his aunt-cum-guardian a quick peck on the cheek. "Good night, Mister...I mean, Uncle Ben."

"Good night, Zach." Ben said with a nod, stifling a chuckle as Zach fought not to slam the door. Then Ben took Cassandra's hand in his own and followed Mrs. Capshaw, who was three-quarters of the way down the hall already.

"This..." the widow said softly as she opened the door and stepped inside, "...was the room Mr. Capshaw and I shared for our fifty-seven years of life together." The lady moved to a low table beside a bed and lit a lamp there.

The combined lights of three lamps revealed the large, lovely room in all its elegance: the furniture in the room was of mahogany, its burnished red-brown surfaces gleaming and warm. The style of the furniture was simple, and yet bespoke of a sophistication that belied its lines. The furniture in this room, as in Zach's room, all matched: the wide wardrobe, the writing desk and chair, the long bureau, the chaise-lounge, the dressing-table with its beveled mirror and chair, and a pair of night tables that were on either side of the amazing bed—a four-poster whose posts held up a canopy frame decked out in a speckled green-on-darker-green canopy. But, most amazing of all, was the headboard of the bed.

The headboard was the only thing in the room that could have been called fancy, for it was carved. The carving on the headboard clearly depicted a tableau of pine trees, amongst which cavorted antelope, squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks and several types of birds, all of whom seemed to be converging towards the center of the board, where a large, heart-shaped shield stood out in bas-relief. Upon that heart where the entwined letters "B" and "C".

"Oh...my..." Cassandra breathed, her gray eyes as round as saucers. Ben blinked, then looked at the smiling face of Mrs. Capshaw.

"Your husband made all the furniture in this house, didn't he?" he asked rhetorically. He had noticed the craftsmanship of the furniture from downstairs and in Zach's room—even the fancy shutters had the telltale signs of being crafted by the same hand.

"Yes...my Byron was a master woodworker." she admitted, her facial expression as soft as her voice. "Proposed to me, he did, in the spring of 1800...but we didn't marry until the fall of aught-two. He insisted on carving out this entire room of furniture before we became man and wife. He said to me, 'Cellie...I don't know if I can provide you a castle, but I'll be demmed if you don't have the bedroom of a queen!' " She chuckled. "We took this room with us from Pennsylvania—it took up almost half the wagon, but By wouldn't part with any of it." The widow's eyes were shining as she looked upon the newlyweds now standing in the room. "My Byron went to his reward only two years ago, but I think he'd be right pleased to know that a couple so in love was starting their own married life out in our room." She withdrew to the door with a sigh.

"The night tables in the room also have matches in the top drawer, as well as extra towels and covered chamberpots in the cabinets." Mrs. Capshaw informed them. "Good night, Mr. and Mrs. Cartwright...and God bless you both."

"Good night, Mrs. Capshaw." Cassandra replied. "And...thank you." The elderly lady smiled and closed the door, leaving the newlyweds alone.

CHAPTER 3-A

WARNING: The contents of this chapter are definitely adult in nature and contain the reason why the story is categorized as M for Mature. If you are not 18 years old or older, or if you object to the graphic depictions of the wedding night between husband and wife, then continue on to CHAPTER FOUR. Everyone else...get ready for Ben Cartwright, husband and lover.

"Oh, Ben..." Cassie whispered, her eyes watery, "I think I'm going to cry." Ben placed the bags inside the large wardrobe, then went to his bride, drawing her into his arms and kissing her. As before, the buss started innocently enough, but Ben soon found an undercurrent of passion that rolled through him and was prompting him to deepen the kiss until he was groaning and eagerly waging an intimate but completely oral carnal combat with Cassandra, who was a most willing and eager opponent. He forced himself to break contact.

"Cassandra...would you like to change into your nightgown?" he asked, panting. He felt no small sense of satisfaction to see that his bride needed a moment to recover her ability to think as she, too, gulped air.

"I...have never been married before..." she said, prompting a nod from her new husband, "...but...if I guess at the...procedure correctly...we'll be consummating the sacrament placed on us at the church...and that consummation calls for full body contact, yes...?"

"Well...yes." Ben was forced to agree with her oddly concise and rather bald statement.

"Then wouldn't our nightclothes just get in the way?"

"Well...they could." Ben agreed, feeling a smile come to his lips.

"Then...why bother with them tonight?" she asked. "It's just us...until tomorrow."

"In that case, my dear," the rancher told her, "We can start off this night and our lives...by helping each other undress." She smiled back at him...and deftly began to unbutton the jacket he was wearing, pushing it from his shoulders and taking it from him to also place in the wardrobe. While her back was still turned to him, Ben reached around her and unfastened the shoulder cape she wore, removing it and passing the garment to her so that she stowed it, too, inside the wardrobe. Cassie untied the bonnet she had on, and it joined the other clothing. Ben, meanwhile, slowly, carefully unfastened the buttons at the back of her gown, then helped to lift the silver-gray garment over her head and to hang it up.

The removal of his wife's crinoline was done carefully, as he knew she wouldn't appreciate it if he ended up bending her stays. The contraption was laid aside and Ben pulled Cassandra's body against his own, reveling in the feel of her warm softness against him, one arm around her waist and the other crossing over her chest so that he could use his right hand to caress the bare skin of her left shoulder even as he bent his head and place tender kisses along the imaginary line that went from that shoulder to beneath her left ear, smiling when she tilted her head to her right in order to give him better access.

"Oh, Ben..." she sighed, moving against him and then saying in a sultry tone: "I love the way that feels...but you're still dressed." Her hands lifted and unbuttoned his sleeves at their wrists. Then the silvered blond turned in his arms to make quick work of the buttons on his shirtfront. He hissed in a breath when she slid her hands up under the shirt in order to push the material up and away from his shoulders, off his body. The shirt landed on the floor due to the fact that Ben pulled her close and kissed her passionately.

Cassandra's head spun, her hands clinging the strong, broad shoulders of her husband. Ben was fifty-three years of age but he'd done hard physical work all of his life, so the body she was molded against was hard and muscular...and still had its lower half clothed. She pushed at Ben, backing him up until the edge of the bed made him sit down. She pulled away long enough to kneel and, seizing first one heel in one hand and then grasping his thigh with the other, expertly pulled off first his right boot and then his left.

"How do you do that so easily?" Ben found himself asking, in spite of the myriad fantasies bouncing through his head at the sight of his curvaceous wife kneeling between his legs in front of him. Cassie's smile didn't erase those fantasies.

"I've spent the last two years yanking shoes off the twins, who were usually less than cooperative at the time." she explained, getting to her feet and stepping out of her own shoes as she did so. Ben's hands reached out and pulled her towards him so that he could taste her mouth once more even as his fingers plucked the ties of her corset apart. This article of clothing was also dropped to the ground, forgotten in the flare-up of amour that occurred when Cassandra's tongue enthusiastically met her husband's, her own hands exploring the contours of the work-hardened body she was squirming against. The more she wriggled, the hotter Ben got—he abandoned patience and stripped her of her chemise and drawers in short order, then abruptly pushed Cassie away so that he could stand and remove the last vestiges of his own clothing.

"Oh, Ben." He heard Cassandra breathe and looked at her. It was difficult to look beyond the ripe curves of her mature body, but not impossible, especially since his bride's expression had a loin-stirring mixture of surprise and primal desire in it—her gray eyes were angled at the stirring loins of her husband. Ben took a deep breath himself before grabbing his wife and pulling her into the bed with him, rolling her onto her back.

"Ben—the lamps?" she reminded him. He quickly withdrew from the bed and extinguished the lamp that had been left on the low bureau, transporting it to the one bedside table that didn't have a lamp on it. Then he climbed onto the bed once more, leaning over Cassandra to dim the lamp on the other side.

"You're not turning it out?" she asked, surprised.

"No...I want to see you while I make love to you for the first time." he told her, his bass rumbling through her body. "Cassandra, my love...open your legs to me." She stared up at him, blinking as the spell of his dark brown eyes cast over her, and parted her thighs at his command. The woman watched as those eyes roamed every inch of the sight before him, fire leaping within—he definitely liked what he saw.

"You are all I want, Cassandra," he told her, his hand reaching out and cupping one of her breasts, the fingertips tenderly pinching the nipple and making her moan and push up at his touch, "More than I had hoped ever to have...and I wish to pleasure you...now." In answer to Ben's words, his wife reached up and brought his head down to hers so she could murmur against his mouth:

"Yes...please pleasure me, beloved." The silvered blond cried out at the decisive stroke of his hand between her parted thighs, the calculated caress of his fingers at her breast and the relocation of his lips to her other nipple. Heat such as she'd never felt before rolled over her, through her and Cassandra was lost to the utter joy pulsing within her.

"Ben—ah, Ben!" she mewed urgently, her exposed core weeping for want of more, although she could not think coherently enough to beg for it. Her body shuddered and her hips pushed up even as she mindlessly cried out and clutched his head close to the breast he was avidly suckling. Her whole existence seemed to center on the hand between her legs, though—that clever, wonderful hand that was making her body grow ever tighter, yearning...yearning...

Something inside exploded and Cassandra arched her body up at her husband, inhaling suddenly so that she could scream her pinnacle to the world—but Ben shifted, pulling away that hand and replacing it with the rampant member between his own legs, then thrust himself deep into his wife, joining completely with her in one savage stroke as he also melded his mouth to hers, swallowing that joyful scream.

Ben held himself utterly still above his bride—this in spite of the addictive temptation of feeling that ultraslick, soft passage tighten and release his aching penis...more than anything, he wanted to simply rut until he emptied himself inside his woman. But he knew from experience that he had to wait—wait until the spasms eased...until he could tell that Cassandra's body was truly used to the presence of his swollen manhood within her virgin passage before he could complete their union.

For Cassandra, there had been an overwhelming rush of rapture that was suddenly interrupted by a moment of sharp pain, but that pain was swept away in the continued vortex of utter bliss that convulsed her body time and again. When she finally shuddered to a stop, the woman gulped air, blinking up at the concerned face of her husband above her.

"Ben, beloved...are you all right?" she asked softly, her hands lifting to his face to caress his cheeks and to brush the shock of hair that had fallen over his perspiring brow. His lips twitched as his eyes roved her face.

"I should be asking you that question, Cassandra," he rejoined, "You're the virgin, after all." She knit her brows then looked first directly into his eyes and then glanced down, to see between their bodies where Ben's hips were pressed tightly to her own pelvis.

"Oh...so that's what that was..." she said softly, then gave a chuckle, looking back up into her husband's face once more, "...Mother said it would hurt—and it did...but everything else felt so good, the pain didn't last long." Ben smiled.

"That's the idea." he admitted. Once more Cassandra's hands touched his face, cupping it so that her right thumb could stroke across his bottom lip.

"I knew such pleasure, my love...but you didn't, did you?" she asked.

"I knew pleasure in watching you reach your peak, Cassandra." he told her. "But...if your body is used to mine now...we may yet reach another peak—together this time, if we're lucky."

"Yes, Ben."

He kissed her, his lips tracing the outline of hers at first before pressing to full contact and then parting for a penetrating buss. His wife eagerly opened to him and the fires of desire stoked anew. Ben continued to just enjoy the mouth-to-mouth contact for the moment...but then Cassandra herself pushed experimentally with her hips, causing a burst of addictive sensation to spiral out and engulf them both.

Soon the couple was moving together, their tempo and passion increasing by the moment, heart rates and breathing also speeding up as well.

Cassandra clung to the taut, muscular body above her, writhing and begging Ben for more, please, more

Ben gave rein to his instincts and rode his woman, hard and deep, one hand clamped onto her hips and just pouring all his concentration on culminating their act of love.

"Be-e-e-e-e-en!" Once more Cassandra's body arched and she shuddered from within, only this time Ben felt the unmanning ripple along the length of his member—and that silky stroking served to make him explode deep inside her.

"Cassandra!!!" he bellowed, his heart and hips pounding as his seed spilled forth, gushing deep into the core of the woman he loved, who herself moaned for him, clinging to him and covering his face with kisses as they shuddered to a stop.

Ben lay there for a moment, happily paralyzed after having such an all-consuming climax. Cassandra felt as though all the bones of her body had melted...and she was oddly reveling in the weight of her husband pressing her deeply into the featherbed they were laying upon. She practically purred when Ben's hands smoothed across her skin even as his lips once more traced a line from beneath her ear to the tender spot where her shoulder met her neck. He lifted his upper torso up from her to look at her tenderly.

"You knew pleasure this time, Ben?" his wife asked him anxiously. The hand caressing her breast slid to her face, brushing gently across her cheek.

"My darling treasure," he told her truthfully, "I knew such pleasure as I'd never known before." The brawny rancher shifted to roll away from the female beneath him, but Cassandra's arms stopped.

"Oh, no, Ben—don't go...not yet...oh, you feel so good..." The silvered blond sighed her plea. Ben could feel his softening manhood still being held in place by the muscles of his wife's core...and it felt utterly amazing. Cassandra shifted beneath him, somehow managing to stroke practically the entire length of his body with the entire length of hers. Ben was feeling desire course through his veins once again, although his loins weren't as cooperative as the rest of him. That didn't matter to Ben at the moment, however—he concentrated on caressing the willing body in his bed. Eventually, however, even the greedy clasp of Cassandra's interior could not keep Ben's spent member within her and he slid from her, chuckling at her disappointment when he moved off her and rummaged through the cabinet of one of the night tables, returning to her side with some of the hand towels.

"You never hear about the sticky aftermath of loving." the rancher told her with humor in his voice. "Only about the satisfaction. Hold still, Cassandra, and I'll tend to it." He used a towel to mop up the fluid that was oozing from her, then used another that he had dampened with some water to tenderly wipe the area between her thighs as well as to clean his own loins. Ben used a third towel to dry them off.

"Thank you." Cassandra's voice was drowsy and she easily snuggled into the broad chest of her husband when he pulled her against his side to settle in for some well-earned rest.

"Thank you, my treasure," he told her, his arms cradling her against his body, "I feel complete and it's all due to you." Ben kissed her gently, but didn't follow up on it as he could tell she was nodding off. Lassitude was claiming his own consciousness as well, and he didn't fight it.

THE MORNING AFTER:

CASSANDRA CARTWRIGHT SMILED as she snuggled into the pillow under her left cheek. This was odd, however, as the pillow—while toasty warm—was rather fuzzy...and it chuckled. A fuzzy, chuckling pillow..? Her gray eyes snapped open and she lifted her head, turning it to look up and to her left a bit—

—and saw the smiling face of her husband Ben as his brown eyes warmly regarded her in the dimmed glow of one of the lamps. Her "pillow" had been fuzzy because she'd been snuggling into Ben's bared chest.

"Good morning, Mrs. Cartwright." he greeted her. She blinked, then recalled the events of the previous night. Slowly she smiled back at him, even as a bit of a blush stained her cheeks.

"Good morning, my husband." Cassie replied, then moved impulsively to kiss him. Ben eagerly responded, his arms tightening around her. His wife pushed herself up and away from him a bit.

"Ben, we have to get ready to have breakfast and get back on the stage." she said regretfully. To her surprise, Ben only chuckled again.

"The mantle clock says it's an hour until dawn." he told her, his hands tenderly caressing her. "Mrs. Capshaw said that the stage doesn't leave until about an hour after—" The rancher didn't finish his sentence as his bride eagerly kissed him, not wanting to waste any of their precious time on talking.

A night of rest and the sweet dreams that had resulted did much to prepare Ben for this morning's encounter: he pulled his wife atop him, lifting her so that she straddled the erection that was eagerly awaiting the intended session. Cassandra's gray eyes widened when she realized what her husband planned to do.

"Ben—are you sure...ahhhhh!" Her question was cut off by the feeling of Ben's penis sliding home into the heat between her widespread thighs. Ben chuckled, sucking in a delighted breath at the sensation of the woman he loved completely enclosing him.

"I'm sure, Treasure." he told her, then pushed her into a more or less upright position, his hands wandering over her breasts and torso, allowing his fingertips to dance sensuously over her breasts, ribcage, abdomen and down to the glittering thatch of hair that lay at the point where their bodies met.

"Ben!" Cassandra cried out, her body arching at the sensations. The man beneath her felt his desire—and the member deep inside her body—swell exponentially. He smiled and stroked the nubbin that would doubtless prompt his bride to follow her instincts.

"Ride me, Cassandra," Ben bade her, "Ride me, love." The silvered blond beauty did just that, moaning at the influx of pleasure from not only her movements but the hand that persistently strummed the bundle of nerves that caused her wild and wanton behavior to come forth. Suddenly Ben was at the mercy of a very determined, uninhibited goddess demanding worship from the supplicant beneath her—and worship her he did, until they both pounded to an explosive, body-wracking climax.

"We are going to be soooo frustrated on most of this trip." Cassandra sighed much later as they dressed. Ben could only chuckle and kiss her in agreement.

"Once we're in New Haven, Treasure, we'll have more time and opportunity to make love." he assured her. "Until then...we have our memory of now." Cassandra's answering sigh made him look at her face as she gazed fondly at the bed.

"Providence at work..." she said softly, her fingertips tracing the entwined letters on the headboard before she turned and smiled at her husband. "I'm famished! Let's go get some breakfast before Zach eats everything—he can have an appetite that can rival Hoss' at times." Ben laughed and opened the door for his wife, grabbing his hat and pausing to look around the room once more before following her downstairs.

Perhaps...just perhaps...memories weren't the only thing that he could take away from here...

CHAPTER FOUR

Sunday, September 7, Widow Capshaw's Boarding House, Stagecoach, Nevada (East of Virginia City)

CASSANDRA CARTWRIGHT SMILED as she snuggled into the pillow under her left cheek. This was odd, however, as the pillow—while toasty warm—was rather fuzzy...and it chuckled. A fuzzy, chuckling pillow..? Her gray eyes snapped open and she lifted her head, turning it to look up and to her left a bit—

—and saw the smiling face of her husband Ben as his brown eyes warmly regarded her in the dimmed glow of one of the lamps. Her "pillow" had been fuzzy because she'd been snuggling into Ben's bared chest.

"Good morning, Mrs. Cartwright." he greeted her. She blinked, then recalled the events of the previous night. Slowly she smiled back at him, even as a bit of a blush stained her cheeks.

"Good morning, my husband." Cassie replied, then moved impulsively to kiss him. Ben eagerly responded, his arms tightening around her. His wife pushed herself up and away from him a bit.

"Ben, we have to get ready to have breakfast and get back on the stage." she said regretfully. To her surprise, Ben only chuckled again.

"The mantle clock says it's an hour until dawn." he told her, his hands tenderly caressing her. "Mrs. Capshaw said that the stage doesn't leave until about an hour after—" The rancher didn't finish his sentence as his bride eagerly kissed him, not wanting to waste any of their precious time on talking.

"YOUR SON HAS a very healthy appetite, I dare say." Widow Capshaw told the newlyweds when they finally arrived and greeted her at her breakfast table about twenty minutes past sun-up. "You're lucky I made a double-batch of biscuits, or there'd have been none left for you."

"Thank you, Mrs. Capshaw." Cassie told the older woman, then looked around the dining room. "Where is Zach?"

"He finished his meal and went to fetch some water for me." Mrs. Capshaw said. "That's a fine son you have there, Mr. and Mrs. Cartwright."

"Thank you for saying so, ma'am." Ben accepted the praise with a smile, then held the chair for his wife as she sat down. "My...this all smells delicious and looks even better!"

"I have biscuits, soft-boiled eggs, flapjacks and sausage. There's fresh butter, honey and some preserves—I have both blackberry and strawberry on hand."

"What a fine selection!" Cassandra said with a smile. "Thank you." She and Ben bent their heads and folded their hands for grace and then quickly assembled plates for themselves. Zach came into the dining room at that moment.

"Good morning, Mama...Uncle Ben." he greeted them with a smile and a nod, and then turned to the widow at the table. "Ma'am...I've made sure that your water barrel is completely full...and I took care of that loose railing you had in the back."

"Why, bless you, boy!" Mrs. Capshaw said. "My Byron would have been spinning in his grave if he'd known I wasn't keeping up with the place." Zach ducked his head.

"Aw, well, Mrs. Capshaw," he temporized, "It sure isn't easy when there's just one person in a big old place."

"My house isn't that big...but there is only myself here." she admitted. "My daughter in Stockton has offered to take me in, but it's so hard for me to leave here—so many lovely memories, you know."

"I can certainly understand about that." Cassie said, exchanging glances with her husband and smiling in remembrance of the memories they had made before coming to breakfast. Mrs. Capshaw and Zach pretended not to notice, with Zach's face pinking and the widow's eyes sparkling.

"I...I'll go get our baggage together and bring 'em to the way station, all right?" the young man offered.

"That will fine, Zach, thank you." Ben said with a nod, giving a chuckle as the lanky musician fairly bolted out of the room. He and his bride continued to eat their breakfast and talk to the widow lady until they were finished with the meal. Ben consulted his pocket watch.

"We have fifteen minutes before the stage is going to leave, Cassandra." her husband told her. "We'd best be going now." The couple got to their feet and thanked their hostess once again.

"Have a safe journey, children!" the elderly widow bade them and waved goodbye as they departed her house with its fancy shutters. Ben grinned as he escorted his wife to the way station.

"Now that is something that I'll have to tell the rest of our family about," he confided to Cassie with a shake of his snowy head, "Nobody's put me in the category of 'children' in over thirty-five years!" Cassandra's laugh mingled with his own, but as they neared the station, Ben suddenly patted his vest.

"That's odd..." he murmured, "...my watch...oh, wait—I checked the time at the breakfast table!" He stopped and then clasped Cassie on one of her shoulders. "I'm going back to Mrs. Capshaw's to get my watch...I'll be right back."

"Hurry, Ben!" Cassandra called after him as he turned and started back. "I'll tell them to hold the stage." She scurried into the station to tell Mr. Newcombe to do just that.

"Well," the stationmaster acknowledged with a nod, "It won't hurt if the stage is a few minutes late...'sides, we're still securing the baggage on the vehicle, an' that will take a bit of time."

By the time the trunks and other baggage were lashed to the top of the stagecoach, Ben had returned, the smile on his face becoming broader when he beheld his bride waiting for him with open arms.

"Oh, good—I'm not that late, then!" Ben noted, drawing Cassandra to him and kissing her in greeting.

"All aboard!" Mr. Newcombe announced, ushering the family into the vehicle along with Mr. Throckmorton. Mrs. Newcombe handed Zach a box as he climbed in after his parents.

"This is my first batch of them meat rolls." she told the young man. "Mr. Newcombe says they come out pretty good—so's I'm thankin' your Mama for givin' me the idea to make 'em. There should be enough there for everyone on the stage."

"Why, thank you kindly, Mrs. Newcombe!" Zach said, tipping his hat and then boarding the stage. The driver whipped up the horses and the vehicle trundled eastward out of town.

Ponderosa Ranch, south of Virgina City, Nevada

"HOW DO I look, Becky?" Naomi asked her older sister, who looked critically at the shining golden braids that were now elegantly pinned across the top of the younger female's head.

"Pretty as a picture and twice as dear!" Becky told the little girl, tweaking her nose. "You're gonna be the best-looking one in the church, I'm sure."

"I like the dress." Naomi admitted, looking down on her frock, which was a sunny yellow with white daisies all over. "I like that you're wearing daisies, too." Becky smiled at her sister, tying the yellow bow at the end of the single braid that ended at a spot between her shoulder blades. The older girl often envied her younger sister the fact that both Naomi and Cassandra had hair that was waist-length—Becky's hair tended to develop frizzy ends that always needed to be trimmed away so that it never got much longer than the length it was now.

"Well, now, I'm all set." Becky announced. "And since you are, too, we can just go see how all of our brothers are doing." Naomi hopped off the chair she'd been sitting on, took her older sister's outstretched hand and together they left the room that had been assigned to Naomi for use as her bedroom. As they walked down the hall, they heard noises and yelling from around the corner:

"No, NO! I took a bath yesterday—I don't need one today!" The voice belonged to Gabriel. He was answered by the gentle but firm tones of Hoss.

"Now, Gabe, we're goin' to church, an' church means we gotta look our best...so that means a bath for you. C'mon, now—the water ain't gonna hurt you none!"

"No, no, NO!!!" There was a bang that sounded like a door being slammed shut.

"HEY—what the---GABE! Stop now! You come back here!" Hoss' voice had definitely raised in volume. By now the Callahan girls were rounding the corner that would lead them to the staircase that descended into the great room below; they saw the door to the room that was used for bathing standing wide open—Becky realized that the slamming sound hadn't been a door being closed, but, rather, one being flung open. There were thundering sounds from the direction of the stairway that led downstairs. Becky and Naomi stared at each other, then hurried there, quickly descending the steps and then halting in shock at the spectacle before them:

Gabriel—a boy who had always ever been full of excuses to avoid such "sissy" things as bathing and combing his hair—was now running all over the great room, with two of his new brothers in hot pursuit: Hoss, who was in an apron and rolled-up shirtsleeves, and Joe, who was in a dress shirt, clean pants and a string tie.

Gabe—having been in the midst of getting ready for his unwanted bath—had on not a single stitch of clothing.

"Get back here, you little scamp..!" Joe hollered, diving at the lad streaking by him, but his aim was just a bit off and he sprawled out on the floor, knocking into the logs stacked by the fireplace and dislodging a number of them. The little blond whirlwind laughed and continued to run.

"Gabe! Stop it now!" Hoss admonished the boy, himself attempting to overtake the naked fugitive, but again Gabriel's determination to avoid bathing had him easily outmaneuver the larger Cartwright as the youngster scrambled up and over the back of the sofa. Hoss ended up tripping over it and sending himself—and the couch—toppling over...the couch landing on its back and Hoss rolling to a stop on his own back as well.

Gabe ran back around to try to escape to his bedroom, but his dumb sisters were blocking the stairs—and Joe was back on his feet again. Backpedaling with speed and alacrity, Gabe reversed his intended course and headed for the front door—past Hoss, who attempted to tackle the little dynamo by launching himself forward from his current position. The big man missed his target and landed on the braided rug in the entry area, flat on his stomach, instead, while Gabe circled back around towards Joe once more.

The youngest Cartwright had also attempted to capture the boy more or less simultaneously by lunging for the escapee, relying on the fact that he, Little Joe Cartwright, had always been the fastest and most agile of his brothers. However, Joe's faith in his speed and dexterity were a tad misplaced—Gabe was definitely faster and had a reaction time that put Joe's to shame: the blond boy jumped, turning in midair, and reversed direction once again.

Hoss yelped because two things happened after he'd fallen face-down on that rug behind the sofa: the first was that Gabe literally ran over him as he lay there—the cheeky little rapscallion running up over one of Hoss' legs, across Hoss' backside and up Hoss' back...heading for the front door.

The second thing that made Hoss yelp was the fact that there were pounding footsteps behind him, then a familiar-sounding holler from Joe—and then it seemed that Hoss and the rug were suddenly racing after the fleeing Gabe...and coming up fast.

Becky saw exactly what happened: Gabe managed to avoid capture, however Joe's pursuit had Joe run onto the rug that Hoss' sprawled body covering most of, and the youngest Cartwright's velocity—combined with his attempt to keep from stomping on Hoss—now pushed the rug forward, making it (as well as the duo on it) sled across Hop Sing's perfectly-waxed floor with all the speed and control of a runaway toboggan flying down a steep hill.

"Gabe! Look out!" screamed the girls from the stairs. The boy made the mistake of looking over his shoulder to see what his sisters were trying to warn him about—and his sapphire eyes widened in horror at the human train wreck barreling at him—and catching up, sweeping Gabe off his feet to sit down hard on Hoss' shoulders.

And that human runaway train careened towards that solid oak door...

"Is everyone rea—" Adam's voice asked, the front door opening. There was another yelp and a crash...and then silence. Becky and Naomi exchanged looks and then raced to the door, almost afraid to look, but forcing themselves to do so, anyway.

Adam, surprised by the imminent head-on collision, had a brief glimpse of Hoss on his stomach, apparently with Gabe sitting on top of him and Joe standing upright. Then the college graduate's brain quickly surmised that the hapless trio were actually all on a rug that was being propelled towards Adam via rapidly-increasing momentum, in spite of Joe's leaning backwards with his arms windmilling about.

Adam had nonetheless managed to leap to one side (defying the terrifying speed of the approaching juggernaut), and narrowly avoided getting run over by the trio of males that had shot out through the door. However, the eldest Cartwright had still overbalanced and fallen on his backside on the porch under the window that was to the right of the door as one entered the house.

The rocketing rug had skidded to a stop several yards beyond the open front door with its surprised passengers: Hoss on his stomach, Gabe—now sitting on top of the big man, and Joe, whose sudden loss of inertia caused him to tumble backwards onto his own keister.

"Hey—can I do that???" cried Naomi eagerly. Becky's answer was simultaneous with the other three Cartwright brothers':

"NO!"

"Why does Gabey get to have all the fun?" the little girl demanded petulantly. Becky rolled her eyes, then glanced to Adam and the others.

"Is everyone all right?" the older female asked. "Nobody got hurt, did they?" Joe got to his feet and seized upon Gabriel, hoisting the source of chaos up and tucking the squirming lad under one arm.

"Nothing but my pride." the brunet brother said, then directed a question at his middle brother: "How about you, Hoss...anything broken?" The biggest Cartwright pulled himself into a sitting position on the rug, his large hands patting himself on the chest and stomach as he considered his physical state.

"No-o-o-o..." he drawled, still checking as he spoke, "...I don't think so."

"Adam?" Rebecca prompted. The eldest of the Cartwright brothers stood up, looking down at what used to be a clean pair of black dress slacks and a white dress shirt, but was now a set of dust-streaked clothes.

"The only casualties seem to be my church clothes." he said.

"I'm gonna have to change my clothes, too." Joe pointed out, dust and dirt on the backs of his own pants and shirt. Hoss, standing up, inspected his own state of dress and found that he had lucked out—since he had been lying on the rug as well as wearing an apron, his Sunday clothes had been protected from the dirt that had claimed his brothers' apparel.

"Gabriel, are you all right?" Becky asked as Hoss hastily removed his apron and used it to wrap up the still struggling boy, thus shielding the ladies present from the lad's nakedness.

"No, I'm not!" Gabriel hollered. "They wanna give me a bath!"

"And what, if I may inquire," Adam asked evenly, "Led to the Cartwright version of 'the Wabash Cannonball'..?" Becky had to bite her lip to keep from snickering at Adam's ironic reference to the train of American folklore legend: the Wabash Cannonball was supposedly so fast that—once it had been urged to its top speed—it had flown off into the atmosphere, where (according to legend) it still traveled to this day.

"I believe we have our culprit right here, Adam!" Joe stated, frowning as he indicated the boy in Hoss' arms.

"I was just tryin' to give the boy a bath before dressin' him for church, Adam." Hoss explained. "But Gabe here didn't seem to like it none."

"I don't want a bath—I don't need a bath!" the blond boy insisted, still trying to get away.

"Gabriel," Adam said in a stern voice, "I specifically asked Hoss to please help you get ready for church. That included a bath, getting dressed and combing your hair."

"I don't gotta comb my hair—" argued Gabe, "—I did that yesterday!"

"We are going to church, young man," Adam insisted, "And that means a bath, dressing in your good, clean clothes and combing your hair."

"I don't wanna!" Gabe yelled. "You can't make me—you're not my Pa, an' Becky's not my Mama!" This declaration made both Becky and Naomi gasp, their eyes rounding in shock.

Becky was reasonably sure that her little brother's unusually spirited protest to preparing for church was compounded by the fact that Adam had been the one to administer the discipline yesterday for the fiasco involving the unintentional destruction of what was to have been Becky's bed. The bed had been one that had been purchased from a merchant in Virginia City rather than a homemade type—the bed had a mattress that had some sort of springs inside it. Once Gabriel had figured out that the newfangled bed was, itself, springy and could provide a lot of fun to jump on, he had quickly talked Naomi into joining him on the bouncy surface and, minutes later, had escalated their amusement to the violent pogoing that had resulted in the bed frame collapsing.

Becky had almost stopped Joe from fetching Adam, but she had recalled her Mama's instructions: if the twins misbehaved, Adam was to perform whatever discipline necessary. Mama was of the opinion that the children were likely to test Adam, and they would need to know that Ben's eldest son was not a man to be trifled with...and that he was also one who would not be unduly harsh, either.

When Adam appeared in the doorway to the bedroom that held the wreckage of the store-bought bed, he had quickly gotten Gabriel to admit to being the mastermind of the entire scenario. The dark-haired man had considered the circumstances very carefully and ruled that both of the twins would have to assist Becky with her assigned chores for the upcoming week, but also that—since jumping on the bed had been Gabriel's idea in the first place—he would have to give up his own bed until Becky's could be repaired.

"Rebecca will have to sleep in your bed, Gabriel." Adam told him. "You can sleep with me in my bed until we can fix the broken one." Gabriel had pouted, pointing out that Naomi could have slept with Becky, too, but Adam stuck to his original pronouncement: Gabe would not get to sleep all by himself in his very own room—not until Becky had her bed back.

Gabriel had not liked getting that extra punishment, feeling that if he couldn't have a bed and a room all to himself right away, then certainly his twin should have suffered the exact same fate. Adam had not, in his opinion, been fair.

Now the little boy was throwing down a gauntlet for the Cartwright man to pick up...a challenge to enforce Adam's will on an unwilling person—one who seemed bound and determined to attack the man in an area that was notoriously hard to defend: his emotional heart.

CHAPTER FIVE

AS SOON AS the shocked gasps of his sisters sounded, Gabriel found himself rather suddenly deposited upon his backside on the rather hard ground between Hoss—the young man who'd been holding him aloft—and Adam, the slightly-older man who did not look like he was happy with the way that the seven-year-old was voicing his protest to being forced to bathe and get ready for church.

Gabriel Callahan gave Hoss a reproachful glare, but the blue-eyed giant shook his head in admonishment.

"That ain't no way to talk to the people you know your Mama said was in charge." Hoss insisted. "Besides, I've known Adam all my life, an' I know better than to be too close to the person who's stubborn enough to get Adam mad at 'em." So saying, the big man took a step or two backwards.

The effect on Gabriel was quick and clear enough: if Hoss—who was famous in the Carson Valley for physically engaging large creatures such as bulls and bears—was backing up from his smaller yet older brother, just how bad was Adam Cartwright when it came to dealing with little boys who did not want to listen to directions?

"Gabriel." Adam addressed the disobedient youngster. Gabriel looked up and saw...absolutely no expression on the eldest Cartwright brother's face.

"Yes...sir?" the little boy found himself responding.

"I'm not trying to be your Pa." Adam told him frankly. "Neither is Becky trying to be your Mama. We are trying to get everyone ready for church...and you are making things difficult for everyone else. Hoss is going to help you get ready. By the time you're done, we will all get into the surrey and go to the service. After the service, we will come back here...and then I will have a talk with you about your behavior. Is that understood?"

Somehow the fact that Adam was not showing anger or annoyance...actually, that the man was showing no emotion whatsoever...made the Callahan boy suddenly quite mindful that he had, perhaps, pushed the invisible boundary of childish high spirits a bit too far.

"Y-yes, sir." Gabriel capitulated. Adam nodded to Hoss, who scooped up the boy in his arms and strode off into the house.

"Gabey's in trouble, isn't he?" Naomi said unhappily. Becky glanced at Adam to see how he would choose to handle this part of the twins' test. The tall, dark Cartwright let out a breath, then came over and knelt on one knee in front of Gabriel's twin sister.

"I'm not going to lie to you, Naomi." he said honestly. "Gabriel's in trouble, and he's going to receive a punishment for it...but after we've come back from church."

"You and Joe need to change." Rebecca pointed out to Adam, changing the subject. "You'd best go do that while I hitch up the surrey. " Adam stood up as Joe came forward, frowning.

"You shouldn't be hitching up the horses," the youngest Cartwright protested, "It's something that I'm supposed to do."

"Thanks to Gabe, you and Adam have to change." Becky responded. "I'll be saving us all some time if I get the surrey ready while you two get clean clothes on. Go on, Joe...hopefully this will all work out so that we aren't late for the service."

"What Becky's saying makes sense, Joe." Adam agreed, forestalling the continued protest that had been forming on his brother's lips. "Let's just go change as quick as we can." The two young men went inside the house to go change while Becky and Naomi picked the two horses that would pull the surrey and started to get the animals hitched to the vehicle.

"Becky...?" Naomi asked.

"Yes?" the older girl answered her sister but kept most of her concentration on the task at hand.

"Adam...Adam isn't going to shoot Gabey, is he?" The sheer outrageousness of the question caused Rebecca to yank on one of the cinch straps a little too sharply so that it jerked sharply out of her hands and made her stumble back a step or two.

"Shoot Gabriel?" Becky echoed in shock. "Naomi—what in sweet heaven makes you think that Adam would do such a thing?"

"Well..." Naomi explained earnestly, "...Zach says Adam looks like a gunslinger...an' he says that Adam has fired his gun lots of times at bad guys...an' that...that..."

"That what, Naomi?"

"That...Adam even killed a few bad guys, too." Naomi said in a small voice. "I...I don't want Gabey to get shot dead just a-cuz he's silly about takin' a bath." Becky suppressed a groan.

'Thank you, Zacharias Taylor Callahan!' she thought with a derisive roll of her eyes and wondered how to allay her sister's unfounded fear. The older blond bit her bottom lip and carefully considered her next words as she continued making sure that the horses got properly hitched up.

"I can guess what Zach probably told you," Becky said truthfully, "But...well...we've both seen Adam and know him well enough so that you ought be sure that he doesn't just pull out his gun and shoot it just because he's mad at somebody."

"But he's shot bad guys when they were bad." Naomi insisted.

"If Adam was like to do that, Naomi," Becky countered, "Then he would have shot Gabriel while he was whooshing out the door." Both blonds paused a moment, recalling that spectacular scenario wherein Hoss, Joe and Gabe were sliding out the front door of the main house with all three of them shrieking at the top of their lungs.

Both girls giggled, then Becky reached down and tweaked her little sister's nose again.

"It was funny...and Adam didn't start shooting then, so I really don't think he'll do it after church, either."

The surrey was ready by the time that Joe hurried out of the house. He didn't like thinking that Becky'd had to do that but he did have to admit that by doing so, she had saved the family a bit of time, for soon Adam joined them, followed by Hoss and a very subdued Gabriel. The boy was squeaky clean, sporting his Sunday go-to-meeting clothes and his hair was combed and slicked into place.

"Thank you, Hoss," Adam said with a nod, "You've done a very good job—Gabriel, you look very nice. Let's all get going, shall we?" The eldest Cartwright brother assisted Becky into the front of the vehicle, while Hoss and Joe were in the back. The children were placed between the adults, with Naomi between Adam and Becky, and Gabriel in the back between Hoss and Joe.

Gabriel remained rather quiet all during the ride and the service. Adam knew the boy was doubtless worrying about the punishment he was due to receive, which was a good thing. If Gabriel kept the possible punishment uppermost in his mind, that meant he was also keeping uppermost in his mind the crime responsible for it, which is truly what the tall, dark Cartwright wanted...and also why he planned to let the little miscreant stew about what form justice may take for as long as possible. Adam knew full well that all the things running through the boy's fertile imagination were hundreds of times more effective than anything Adam may come up with.

And so young Gabriel Callahan squirmed all through the service, as well as through the time that the combined family spent after the congregation had filed out past the minister as he shook hands and spoke briefly to his flock. Adam took the time to thank Reverend Jordan for the sermon and to greet Mrs. Jordan, who was standing with her husband and also exchanging greetings with those who attended the service. Finally the eldest Cartwright brother herded his family group onwards so that the other members of the congregation could speak with the Jordans.

Hoss was congratulating Gabriel on being so well-behaved during the sermon when he caught sight of Mercy. Joe suddenly found himself holding Gabriel's hand as his older brother strode off in the direction of the jet-tressed school teacher.

"Miss MacGruder!" Reverend Jordan's voice caught Adam's attention and he craned his head around to see JJ shaking hands with the middle-aged pastor. She was in a simple gown made of mottled blue material with some eyelet trim—church services were the only place that Adam recalled her ever wearing feminine garb—her customary riot of sable brown curls covered by a straw bonnet that had blue ribbons on it that made it match the dress. As pleasantly surprised as he was to see the perennial tomboy wearing the clothing specific to her gender, there was something odd about it that Adam couldn't quite place.

"Reverend, thank you for the sermon." JJ told him with a bit of a smile. "It was uplifting without being overly preachy." The man of the cloth grinned.

"Thank you, Miss MacGruder!" he replied. "I know I hate it when I have to sit through a speech that not only expounds on all that is wicked in the world, but bores one to tears as well." The two of them laughed. "There is no social until next week, but my wife and I would be pleased if you could remain and take some tea and cookies with us...?" The brunette's face lit for a moment, but the light dimmed.

"Thank you, Reverend," she said regretfully, "But, no—I must return home...I'm needed there."

"And how is your mother, my dear?" Mrs. Jordan, standing beside her husband, asked. JJ shifted from one foot to another.

"She's well, thank you for asking, Mrs. Jordan." the young woman told her.

"We're sorry you can't stay, Miss MacGruder," the minister said sincerely, "But I'd like to call on your mother tomorrow—"

"You mean we would, Alistair." his wife corrected him.

"Oh, my, yes...Mrs. Jordan and I would like to call upon your mother tomorrow morning, if we may?" Reverend Jordan amended his question.

"Ma would like that very much, thank you." JJ answered.

"Farewell then, child, and God keep you." the cleric told her and JJ withdrew from the couple, hurrying away. Adam frowned, looking around. Hadn't at least one of her brothers come to the service with her? A lady really shouldn't be allowed to travel about Virginia City alone. True, it was Sunday and there was not likely to be anyone about to bother JJ, but still...

HOSS APPROACHED MERCY with a smile on his face that was reflected in the cerulean depths of his eyes.

"Good morning, Mercy." he greeted her politely. The happiness that he'd felt upon realizing that the emerald-eyed beauty was present elevated to full-blown elation when Hoss saw her spot him and beam a smile at him that was brighter than the sun.

"Good morning, Hoss!" Mercy said eagerly, stepping toward him. Suddenly, however, Hoss' personal sun was eclipsed—and the moon blocking it was comprised of Mrs. Weatherbee and Barnabus Lathrup III. The couple loomed between Mercy and Hoss with an abruptness that almost had Hoss barreling into them. Undaunted, Mrs. Weatherbee immediately addressed Mercy:

"There you are, Miss Harris!" the matron crooned. "I was afraid we'd missed you. Here's Mr. Lathrup—now that it's Sunday, and you are doubtless free for the rest of the day, I'm sure that you may finish that discussion we started yesterday...in fact, Mr. Lathrup here is available to drive you about town so that you two may do so at your leisure."

"Oh, but...but..." Mercy floundered, trying to think of something but coming up blank as the horror of being subjected to the meanderings of the self-absorbed and excruciatingly boring attorney overshadowed her normally quick wits. Hoss—comprehending that the schoolmarm was now a damsel in distress—spoke right up:

"But we're dreadful sorry, Mrs. Weatherbee," the middle Cartwright brother informed the elderly lady, "Mercy's day isn't free...she's comin' to the Ponderosa with the rest of my family. She promised yesterday that she'd come and see us."

"She did?" Both Barnabus and Mrs. Weatherbee asked, turning towards the young lady.

"I did?" she echoed, then blinked and changed her inflection. "I did! Yes, I most surely did!" Mercy stepped forward and placed one hand on top of Hoss' left forearm. "My apologies, Mrs. Weatherbee...perhaps some other time. Good day to you, Mrs. Weatherbee...Mister...Mister..."

"Barnabus Lathrop...the third!" the barrister supplied with an annoyed expression and voice, obviously put out by the fact that the schoolteacher didn't remember his name.

"Yes...Mr. Lathrop...right." Mercy agreed, nodding. "Good day." With a subtle nudge to Hoss, the couple moved off from the dowager and the lawyer. The farther away they got from the staid pair, the more Mercy relaxed, and she turned her face up towards Hoss'.

"Thank you ever so much, Hoss!" she said, releasing a relieved breath. "I thought for certain that I was about to be inveigled into remaining in the company of that man!"

"In-vay-gulled?" Hoss echoed, anticipating the explanation of the word.

"Inveigled..." Mercy repeated, pursing her full lips as she thought of alternative words, "...embroiled, enmeshed, ambuscaded...I thought for sure that my goose was cooked!" Mercy eyed the big man as he beamed down at her with an odd expression—somehow she got the feeling that Hoss was being rather calculating about...well...about what, she couldn't be sure. However, his usual air of innocence was lacking at the moment, even if she couldn't figure out exactly why that was.

"Say, that reminds me..." Hoss said, "...would you like to join us for lunch at the Ponderosa? Hop Sing is roasting some duck—he makes his extra-special, and I think you'd like it."

"Seeing as how you've already told Mrs. Weatherbee that I'd agreed to it before, then I don't see why not."

"I was recallin' when I walked you to your house, Mercy." Hoss told her easily. "I said you just had to see the Ponderosa sometime, an' you agreed." The woman with him chuckled.

"Ahhh, that I did." Mercy confirmed. "Though I don't actually remember saying that I'd do so today."

"We can always turn around an' tell ol' Barney that you don't mind spendin' the day with him after all." Hoss offered easily.

"Don't you dare!" Mercy's reply was so quick and vehement that Hoss grinned and said nothing, simply continuing to escort Mercy to where the family was gathering at the surrey. His sky blue eyes roved the group assembled.

"Say—where's Adam?" he asked. Joe shrugged.

"He said he'd be right back and went that way." the youngest Cartwright brother said, thumbing in the direction that the eldest had left. Hoss went to the nearest livery and found that there was neither a buggy nor a spare horse to be had until that evening. The big man returned to the others, telling them that they would all have to get home using just the surrey.

"If I'm to come with you, Hoss," Mercy said suddenly, "It's going to be a bit of a challenge, since your vehicle is made to fit four adults in it and I would increase the party to five adults and two children." Her comment prompted those present to start thinking of different solutions to the problem.

MEANWHILE, ADAM—AFTER a brief wrestle with his conscience—had quickly told Joe to get the family ready to return to the Ponderosa and that he would be right back, before striding off in the direction that he'd seen JJ go. He followed her a few blocks over from the church, to a fairly deserted area of the town, where she approached the gray dapple that was her horse. She stopped, petted the animal and checked him quickly, obviously in preparation for riding him.

Adam frowned again, however, as he saw that the saddle on the horse was not a sidesaddle—and if JJ wasn't going to be riding sidesaddle, then how was she planning to ride home...? He received his answer to the question when he saw JJ look first to her left and then to her right before she doubled over.

"What in the—?" Adam breathed the question, then blinked in surprise when the young lady stood up again. Once she did, he instantly recognized what JJ was doing: she had reached between her legs, seizing the hem of the rear of her gown and then stood up, pulling that material up and forward, tucking it into the belt that was around her waist, effectively improvising a pair of pants. Now Adam realized why it was that the gown had looked not quite right: in order for JJ to tuck the gown's hem up the way she had it now, she was wearing neither a crinoline cage nor petticoats beneath the dress.

"Eve Jane MacGruder!" the eldest Cartwright boomed fiercely, striding forward. The young lady was startled as she mounted Sirocco, since she had obviously not seen him when she had looked around before making the adjustment to her gown. She stared in surprise.

"Eve Jane MacGruder, what do you think you're doing?" Adam admonished her.

"I'm riding home." she answered simply.

"Astride? In a gown?" At the scandalized look on his face, coupled with his tone, JJ's own dark brown eyes swept him from head to toe and she laughed at his chagrin.

"So sorry to offend your sensibilities, Parson," she replied ironically, "But necessity is the mother of invention...I have to ride this way since I don't have a sidesaddle nor will Pa let me drive the buckboard into town just to go to church."

"What if somebody sees you like this?"

"Nobody has." JJ dismissed his outrage airily. "Well...nobody important, anyway. Now, if you'll kindly excuse me, Adam, I'd like to keep it that way." The aggravating brunette kicked the sides of her mount and moved off, cantering quickly down the street.

Adam stared after the young woman—purely out of the habit ingrained in him over decades, his face did not reflect the maelstrom of emotions that JJ's dialog had elicited. There was the moral outrage that JJ had so casually dismissed Adam's concern for her lack of ladylike modesty, as well as personal pique that JJ had referred to Adam as not being important enough to count as a witness to her unconventional solution. All this mixed with Adam's realization that it was Frank MacGruder's unwillingness to allow his daughter the merest modicum of consideration regarding her skills, desires or even, now, her basic need to get to and from church in a lady-like fashion that was forcing the vivacious brunette to such a potentially scandalous act. Adam's analytical ability drew a conclusion that was rather disturbing:

JJ was being inexorably boxed in by circumstances that were beyond her control, and that just wasn't fair.

The eldest Cartwright son was no stranger to the whims of cruel fate—he, himself, had the distinct misfortune of being robbed and left to die in the desert, and then encountering Peter Kane, a man whose calculated cruelty had driven Adam to a point where he had very nearly broken with his ability to reason...but only nearly. In the end Adam had triumphed over Kane's insane experiment...but now there was something about the way that Frank MacGruder was treating his daughter that was ringing warning bells at the back of Adam's brain. Although the farmer wasn't being cruel in the same way Kane had been, there was something about the way Mr. MacGruder was behaving that smacked of a purposeful calculation—an ulterior motive that had yet to be fathomed.

Adam resolved to go speak to Frank MacGruder tomorrow. That seemed the wisest, most logical thing to do. He returned to the surrey where he found the rest of his family attempting to figure a way to put seven people into a four-person conveyance. Adam pondered for a moment.

"If we're all going in one vehicle," he said amiably, "Then the best way would likely be for Joe, Becky and Miss Harris to occupy the back seat with myself and Hoss in the front. Naomi can sit on someone's lap in the back and Hoss can provide a seat for Gabriel." Hoss had been hoping for a way to sit next to Mercy, but he had to admit that Adam's suggestion was the best way for them all to get back to the Ponderosa.

Once the family was back at the house, Adam shooed them inside—except for Gabriel.

"Gabriel can help me with the horses and the surrey." the eldest of the Cartwright men present said mildly. The blond boy gulped, sending a beseeching look to his older sister.

"We'll see you when you're done, Gabriel." Becky said with a pointed look and a nod that, after a moment, her brother acknowledged with a bob of his own head.

"All right." As the lad turned and climbed back into the surrey, Becky noted the ghost of a smile on Adam's face and was hard-pressed not to chuckle, for Gabriel sounded as though he had just been sent to his certain doom. The eldest Callahan female turned around and went inside the house, leaving her apprehensive little brother to face his fate alone.

Adam and Gabriel took the surrey around by the barn, unhitching the horses, putting the surrey off to one side and then making sure that the animals were tended to. The man didn't speak much except to direct the boy in helping with the horses. Gabriel's nervousness caused him to stretch out brushing down the horse he was tending in a bid to put off the inevitable.

It didn't work.

"Gabriel, I think you're finished with Thunder now." Adam told him. The boy lowered the brush and turned around to look up at the man who was standing with his arms crossed and seemed to give the impression he was leaning even though he was nowhere near a wall or a post.

"I've seen your Ma when she's getting an accounting from you—" the older male began.

"Excuse me...she's Mama." Gabriel corrected him. "My Ma...is dead." Adam regarded the boy for a moment, then inclined his head.

"All right, then," the man corrected himself, "I've seen your Mama speak to you after an incident, so I figured I can start off the same as she: Gabriel, can you please tell me what you did wrong?" The blond youngster held the grooming brush in his hands, twisting it a bit as he answered the question.

"I...I ran away from the bathtub when I wasn't supposed to...I disobeyed Hoss when he told me to stop...an'..." Here Gabriel swallowed before finishing, "...an' I sassed you back when you told me I had to get ready for church." Adam nodded.

"That's about it." he agreed, then he squatted so that he was eye-to-eye with Gabriel and placed his hands gently on the boy's shoulders. "Now...before we go on, there's something about all that which I need to make sure you understand: in running away from the bathtub and making Hoss and Joe chase you all over, you were not only disobedient but you were also putting yourself at risk."

"Risk?" Gabriel echoed, tilting his head.

"Yes, risk." Adam repeated. "Remember, please, when I opened the door to the house and you—along with Hoss and Joe—came sliding out so that I had to jump aside? That part of the whole affair could have ended badly, Gabriel. If I hadn't opened the door, you all might have slammed right into it...and if I hadn't jumped aside when I did, you all might have slammed into me. If either of those happened, Hoss or Joe...or especially you...might have ended up seriously hurt."

"I—I'm sorry, Adam." Gabriel choked out, his eyes tearing up. "I didn't think..."

"No...you didn't think." Adam agreed. "And you are very, very lucky that nobody got hurt. Now...there are two things left—the first thing is that you need to tell me how you're going to make amends for that ruckus you created. The second thing is that I need to let you know that, because you put yourself and others at risk, you'll get a tanning." Gabriel's body stiffened, but then gradually relaxed a bit.

"I...don't like knowin' I'm gonna get paddled." the boy admitted. "But...you're right, Adam...I coulda hurt somebody without meanin' to." He sighed. "I'm gonna make it up to everyone by helpin' Hop Sing with the laundry, seein' as how I got your clothes all dirty...exceptin' for Hoss." Gabriel's brows knit as he tried to think of something specific for Hoss. "I...I guess I can give Hoss my share of the cookies Hop Sing made for us to have after lunch."

"That sounds reasonable to me." Adam said with a nod. "Anything else?"

"Well...I hafta 'pologize to Hoss an' Joe, too." Gabriel replied. "Mama says you always gotta say sorry if you did somethin' wrong." He looked at Adam. "I'm sorry, Adam."

"You've already apologized to me, Gabriel." the man reminded him. "And I accept your apology because I truly think you've learned something from all this." The boy's sapphire eyes glanced hopefully at Adam's face. "However, you're still getting paddled." Gabriel's expression sobered, but he nodded acquiescence.

"Yes, sir."

CHAPTER SIX

INSIDE THE HOUSE, Becky checked with Hop Sing about the progress of the meal he was planning to serve—Duck with Spicy Orange Sauce. The Chinese man assured her that there was plenty to support the extra guest and that he'd made a double batch of molasses cookies as an after-lunch treat. The blond girl returned to where Mercy, Hoss and Joe were sitting on the sofa and chairs surrounding the fireplace. The men stood when Becky approached the area.

"Where's Naomi?" Becky asked, not seeing the little girl in immediate sight. Joe looked around.

"That's odd—she was right here a moment ago." he said, puzzled. Becky thought for a moment, then went over to where Ben's desk was, bending down and looking into the knee space of the furniture. Sure enough, her little sister was huddled within the space there. Her older girl silently berated herself for not realizing that Naomi had still been upset about Gabriel's possible punishment.

"Naomi." Becky said softly. "Come on out."

"I don't wanna see Gabey." Naomi said, shaking her head. "He'll be hurting." The youngster wrapped her arms around her knees, hugging them to her body.

"I know you don't like to think about that, Naomi." her older sister told her gently. "But Adam isn't the kind to hurt Gabriel that way." Joe suddenly appeared in the little girl's line of sight.

"Becky's right, Smidgeon." he assured her, using the nickname that Hoss had dubbed her with. "I can tell you for a fact that Gabriel may not like what happens, but he isn't going to be hurt. Well...not so's he can't handle it." Mercy stepped over to stand beside Hoss, who had moved closer to where Becky and Joe were trying to allay his littlest stepsister's fears.

"Hoss, is there some way I can help...?" the schoolmarm asked, laying a hand on his forearm. The middle Cartwright brother turned his attention to her.

"I don't know, Mercy." he told her truthfully. "It kinda sounds like Naomi's scared." Even as Mercy opened her mouth to reply, the door from the outside opened up and Gabriel walked into the room, followed by Adam.

"Hey, Smidgeon!" Hoss called out. "Gabriel and Adam are back from the barn. Take a look for yourself." Adam closed the door and glanced at his younger brother's face, sensing that something was amiss.

"No." Naomi insisted, not moving from under the desk. "Gabey's hurt, an' I don't wanna see that." The male twin went over to where his sister was hiding and ducked down into the space near her.

"Naomi, I'm all right." he told her. The little girl—who had hidden her face against the knees that she hugged to herself—looked up at the sound of his voice, her eyes round.

"You are?" she asked. "Adam didn't shoot you?"

"Shoot him?" Adam echoed, shocked. Becky shook her head, indicating that she would explain about that assumption later.

"Don't be silly." Gabriel snorted. "I got paddled, but I'm right as rain. C'mon..." He held out his hand and helped his twin out from under the desk. Then he turned to Joe.

"Joe, I'm sorry that I made you chase me all over."

"Well," the youngest Cartwright brother admitted with a lopsided grin, "You sure gave me a run for my money, but no hard feelings, Gabe." Gabriel looked over at Hoss.

"I'm sorry I didn't listen to you, Hoss." he said somberly. "Adam made me see that any of us coulda been hurt."

"I reckon that's so, little brother," Hoss replied, rubbing his chin, "But none of us were, so I'm right happy to accept your apology." The blond boy smiled his gratitude, then led his twin sister over to the sofa.

"Let's sit here." Gabriel told her, adding in a whisper that was clearly heard by the adults in the room as he gingerly lowered himself onto the cushions: "I don't think I can sit anywhere else."

"What was that all about?" Adam asked Becky in a low voice, but the older blond glanced over to where the twins were on the couch and frowned. Then she glanced out the window and beckoned, heading around the corner and out the front door. The eldest Cartwright exchanged looks with the remaining adults in the room.

"I'll stay with the twins." Mercy offered, then went and joined the youngsters. The three men joined Becky outside, where the slender young woman was now leaning against one of the fence rails, contemplating the remnants of the flower garden in front of the house.

"Why was Naomi convinced that I was going to shoot Gabriel?" Adam asked. Becky didn't answer right away—she didn't even look at him for the space of several seconds. Then she sighed softly and her sapphire eyes lifted to his face.

"The part about shooting Gabriel is because my silly older brother has a big mouth." she told him. "Zach has spoken of those times when...you had to use your gun to defend yourself or others." Adam drew in a breath and released it in a sigh of his own.

"There's more to it, though, isn't there?" he prompted.

"Yes." Rebecca's eyes closed for a moment, and when they opened once more, her eyes were dark with an anguish that seemed horribly familiar to all three of the Cartwright brothers. "When...our parents died...you...you all do know how they died, don't you?"

"We weren't in the territory at the time," Adam admitted, "But we heard after we returned from our trip...they died when a fire destroyed your original homestead."

"True enough." Becky agreed with a nod, then her eyes turned away as she continued: "We were all at the cabin then...when it caught fire. Zach managed to grab hold of Gabe and carry him out, while Ma and Pa helped me escape the cabin, too. The only one who wasn't with us was..."

"Naomi." Joe breathed, the heart in his chest squeezing fearfully even though he well knew that, quite obviously, the little girl was alive and sitting in the large living area of his home right now.

"Yes." Becky said, then looked directly at Adam. "I'd never seen Ma and Pa so...scared. Naomi wasn't with us and the cabin was burning. Pa yelled at us to stay right where we were and ran back inside. After a moment of hearing Pa scream for Naomi, Ma went in after him." She swallowed hard. "We heard them both hollering for Naomi...and the fire ate up more of the cabin...and then...nobody was yelling anymore...Pa came running out—" Here the blond broke into a relieved sort of half-smile.

"He was carrying Naomi...she was still asleep." Becky gave a short laugh. "We never could wake Naomi up...Pa always complained that she slept—" The girl's breath hitched. "—she slept like the dead." Tears were gathering in Becky's sapphire eyes, but she grimly continued the explanation:

"Pa came back out and gave Naomi to Zach...then he asked where was Ma? We...we told him she had followed him into the cabin. That's when Pa ran back in. The cabin collapsed before he could come back out with Ma." She blinked, tears trickling down her face.

"Naomi had slept through the whole thing...but it was the neighbors who kept saying over and over...if only Pa hadn't gone back inside...if only Ma hadn't followed him...they wouldn't have died." Becky said flatly. "Naomi...heard that part. She doesn't sleep soundly any more. Any little thing will wake her up now. She also thinks that...if someone goes away...if someone gets taken away to face some kind of trial or pain while she's there—" The blond girl faltered to a stop.

"If they leave, they don't come back." Adam finished for her softly. Becky squeezed her eyes shut and nodded, lifting one hand to stifle the sob that broke from her. Although Adam was a bit closer, Joe was a bit faster—he stepped forward and drew Becky into his arms so that she could cry against his shoulder.

"Aw, Adam..." Hoss said, "...that's downright terrible...Naomi thinkin' that her brother wasn't gonna come back from gettin' a necessary talk."

"I know." Adam agreed tersely, definitely not liking the fact that he had inadvertently subjected the girl to such pain simply for applying the necessary discipline to her twin. "But now the question is, how can we avoid this in the future?"

"Time." Becky's reply was muffled against Joe's shoulder, so she lifted her head and used the back of her right hand to swipe away her tears before repeating it. "Time, Adam. Naomi acted that way right after Mama came...and for some time after. By the time we were all calling her 'Mama', though...Naomi didn't get upset when Gabe had to go to the wood shed."

"Then why is Naomi upset now?" Hoss asked.

"You're new." Becky pointed out, then expanded on that answer. "Before she left, Mama told me that I had to let Adam take the lead on how discipline was going to be applied, because Adam is the one usually left in charge here. She also told me to watch the twins, because she was sure that they would kick up some kind of fuss some time to test Adam...and Gabe sure did that this morning!" Becky gave a watery chuckle. "I didn't think that Gabe would pull something like that this soon—but then, that's Gabriel for you."

"So...Cassie knew I'd be tested?" Adam said thoughtfully. Becky gave a nod.

"She was pretty sure." the blond replied. "After all, she went through a test or two from them herself. Mama said she had faith that you'd do the right thing, Adam...and I think Mama was right. You did do the right thing. I'm just sorry about Naomi—I thought I explained everything to her this morning...but I guess it's one of those things that she needs to learn all over again." Becky chuckled again, this time not so watery.

"At least you got the fact that Gabriel came back from his talk on your side." she reminded Adam. "That will go a long way with her."

"Well, now we know." Adam conceded. "I'll keep that in mind if there's a next time."

"Trust me—with Gabe, there will be a next time." Becky said confidently. Joe grinned down at her.

"Trust me—with Adam, Gabe is going to at least think twice before that next time." The girl in his arms smiled up at him. That's when the youngest Cartwright brother suddenly realized that he was still holding Becky against him...that he'd been doing so and gently rubbing her back from the time he first put his arms around her. He hastily dropped his arms and took a giant step back from his stepsister, all while mentally clubbing himself with the reminder that Becky washis stepsister.

"Let's go have lunch." Adam proposed, herding everyone back into the house.

The meal was pleasant enough, as Gabriel's presence was the reassurance Naomi needed to dismiss most of her fears. Mercy complimented Hop Sing on the duck, making the Chinese man beam with pleasure. Hop Sing produced the cookies that were for desert and hastened away to the kitchen, leaving Gabriel to sit and contemplate the little plate in front of him that held six delicious molasses cookies on it. Then the boy picked up the plate and walked around the table to where Hoss sat, placing the plate next to the big man.

"What's the matter, Gabe?" Hoss asked the boy. "Don'tcha like molasses cookies?"

"They're my favorite." Gabriel admitted. "But I have to make amends to you for this mornin'...so...here are my cookies...for you, Hoss."

The sky-blue eyes of Hoss met the hazel glance of Adam over the dining room table. Once more, that sibling mental telepathy came into play:

Ain't no way I can eat this boy's cookies, Adam. No way a'tall.

It's part of his discipline, Hoss—you have to accept the cookies.

"Why, that's right nice of you to do this, Gabe." Hoss said out loud.

"Well...it's right, anyways...I gotta make amends." Gabriel said, obviously parroting what both his Mama and Adam told him.

How about I leave the boy with some of his cookies then? Hoss rubbed his face with four of his fingers prominent as he did so. Adam gave a slight shake of his head.

"I gotta tell ya, Gabe, Hop Sing's Molasses Cookies are the best in the world...an' I really love to eat 'em m'self." the big man told the youngster, now tapping his chin thoughtfully with three fingers. Adam suppressed a sigh and bent his head.

You're soft as mush, Hoss Cartwright.

So are you, Adam Cartwright.

"Tell ya what, though," Hoss said to the boy as he was about to wistfully take his leave, "Much as I just love his cookies, I know I ain't gonna be able to eat alla mine and alla yours, too." Hoss removed three cookies from Gabriel's pile and slid the boy's plate back towards him. "Here. You eat these." Gabriel reached for the cookies eagerly—then halted, and drew his hands back.

"No, sir." he said firmly. "Thank you, sir...but I can't take these cookies. I said I'd give them to you as part of my amends."

"But...but, Gabe..." Hoss said, thinking fast, "...you just gotta eat these cookies—I know that I can't, an' if they stay on the plate, why...Hop Sing will think that I don't like his cookies no more...an' that would hurt his feelin's real bad!" Adam brought his coffee cup up to his twitching lips at the mournful tone that his younger brother's voice took. Gabriel, however, glanced up at the big man's earnest expression.

"Well..." the boy hedged, "...Mama says that it's not nice to hurt a person's feelings..." Hoss clapped Gabriel on the back.

"See? There ya go! Every boy gotta listen to his Mama!" the middle Cartwright brother insisted. Gabriel returned to his seat with his three cookies in his plate, just in time for Hop Sing to come back from the kitchen with milk for the children to have with their treats. Naomi ended up giving her twin two of her own cookies and Becky gave Naomi one of hers, and the youngsters soon finished off their dessert and were dismissed from the table to go play outside. Becky looked from Hoss to Adam and back again.

"What?" Hoss asked innocently, still working on his eighth cookie. The blond girl rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"You two are just lucky that the twins didn't hear all that." Becky told them, laughing because she had seen and perceived the silent communication between the brothers, as it was the same mode of "telepathy" that she and Zach often engaged in.

"Hear all what?" Joe said, finishing his cookies. Then he noticed that Hoss still had one left and pointed to it. "You gonna eat that, Hoss..?" Becky groaned, realizing that, while she no longer had Zach here to give her a headache, she now had to contend with the mental workouts of three new older stepbrothers.

"Lord, give me strength!" she prayed under her breath...then she gave Joe her last cookie.

HOSS TOOK MERCY on a tour of the Ponderosa, showing her the immediate house and the nearest buildings, as well as some of the various aspects of the horse and cattle operations, and then finally capping it with showing her one of his favorite places by the lake. Mercy was entranced by the vista.

"Oh, Hoss—it's so...so..." the pretty school teacher was at a loss for words, which paradoxically filled Hoss with both pride and annoyance. He was secretly proud that he, Hoss Cartwright, had finally managed to leave a college-educated person speechless...but there was another part of him that was annoyed because he wanted Mercy to come up with a word that he could ask her to explain...and then watch her lips as she thought over what to say next.

"It's...so..." Mercy tried again, and failed to find the words to convey her feelings. She instinctively turned to the man with her, leaning forward to look at him while those selfsame emotions were still fresh within her. Hoss, at that very moment, turned towards the young lady with him, leaning down to emphasize that she should try to think of some words.

They came together and froze for a moment, suddenly realizing that...oops, hey—they were kissing each other. In that moment sky-blue eyes blazing with unexpressed desire looked deeply into the depths of emerald green ones glowing with abiding love and peace.

Then their eyelids mutually fluttered shut and the couple spent more time at the lakeside than originally planned.

LATER THAT EVENING, MacGruder Farm, approximately two miles east of Virginia City, Nevada

SUNDAY DINNER AT the MacGruder farm was far better than the noon meal had been, but this was because the lunch had been the result of James MacGruder's attempts at cooking. Dinner was the culmination of JJ's work after she had arrived back at the house after church. Her day, so far, had consisted of JJ waking up, milking the cow, feeding the cow, chickens, pigs and Sirocco, collecting the eggs laid by the chickens, helping her mother to wash and dress, preparing and then serving breakfast for the entire family, getting herself ready for church, saddling Sirocco, going to church, returning to her home, making sure her mother was comfortable and then fixing the food that had been left for Mother to eat, cleaning up the unholy mess that James had left behind, helping Mother with a knitting projecting in between the various parts of dinner JJ had to prepare, cooking that dinner and then serving it, and now, finally, clearing the dishes away and washing them now that the MacGruder men had eaten and were relaxing from their day out...presumably in the fields, even though JJ damn well knew that, for all his adamant refusal to go to church on a Sunday, Frank MacGruder was not the type of man to give up his day of rest.

No, most likely, Frank had gone on his version of a fishing trip, which consisted of taking his sons and his jug down by the nearby creek and dunking poles in the water while they drank. They never caught anything because they never bothered even to bait the hooks. Hell, no—that might have been productive, JJ thought to herself, then closed her eyes and recalled the commandment about honoring thy mother and thy father.

"JJ!" Frank called to his daughter from beside the fireplace. "Yer Ma wants to go to bed now. Hop to it, girl!" The brunette's closed eyes squeezed even more tightly shut for a moment, but then they opened.

"Yes, Pa." she answered, removing her hands from the water and drying them on the cloth that hung from her waist as she moved across the room to scoop up the frail frame of her mother from the chair that she occupied in spite of the woman's protests.

"Come along, Ma," JJ said, bearing her over to the smaller of the two bedrooms, "It's no trouble for me at all." She deposited the invalid gently on the double bed that dominated the room and then went to close the door.

"But...but...you shouldn't be—oh!" Elvira MacGruder's agitated movements on the bed nearly caused her to tumble off so that JJ sprang away from the door in a hurry to catch her mother before she had a bad fall.

"I told you, Ma—it's no trouble." the brunette chided the older female, helping the woman out of the calico dress she was wearing and into a clean nightgown. JJ was brushing her mother's hair when Elvira said out loud:

"Eve Jane...he knows you're planning something."

The brush faltered to a stop, but then resumed its rhythm.

"He doesn't know anything."

"If he doesn't know—then I'm sure that he suspects."

"He can suspect all he wants, Ma." JJ said softly. "There's no way that he can know—I do my chores and give him all the money he demands from the mushrooms. He cannot know."

"He's offered Herman half the farm on condition that you live your married life here with him until he dies." Elvira told her. The brush halted once more, then again continued. Elvira felt the tremors in her daughter's hands and body now, however.

"I thought something like that had happened when Herman suddenly started showing up on my delivery runs." JJ said.

"But you didn't know?"

"Not for sure—not until you just told me." JJ didn't bother to tell her mother that she had already picked up the scuttlebutt about Hoss Cartwright tossing Herman into the water trough outside the Bucket of Blood Saloon. The rumors had included different motivations for the action ranging from both Herman and Hoss being interested in the same girl through to Hoss finally running amok and acting like a wild man...and just about everything in between. However, one of the in-between things had included Herman's assertion that he was going to marry himself into the farm that had the best potential for profit in the entire Carson Valley in spite of the fact that he'd be allying himself with "the coldest, ugliest bitch" in the state.

JJ knew Hoss well enough to know that Herman spouting off that way about her would put the big gentle giant into enough of a temper so that he would pick up the farmhand and dump him in a trough.

But now Elvira had just confirmed that rumor to actually be true.

"You must be even more cautious now, Eve Jane." her mother exhorted her. "If your Pa even suspects that you will get away..." Elvira didn't finish the sentence. JJ put down the brush and hugged her mother with a tender fierceness that made Elvira heartily wish there something she could do for her daughter. The young brunette scooped up her mother once more and tucked the woman into the bed that she would soon be sharing...with JJ, as Frank no longer slept with his own wife these days.

"I've come too far to allow him to stop me now, Ma." JJ vowed. "I have a plan, and that plan is going to work—all I need is five dollars and Sirocco, and I'll be able to take you with me when I go."

Elvira smiled and hugged her baby girl when JJ bid her good night.

Neither of them saw the door to the bedroom silently close up the half-inch gap that had existed from since before the start of the womens' conversation.

CHAPTER SEVEN

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1862 – Golden, Colorado Territory

ZACH CALLAHAN SETTLED down into his seat on the train, grinning from ear to ear. He had thought that the trip across the country from Virginia City through to Omaha would have taken almost a month, but apparently the neophyte railway system had been making enough progress so that he, his mother and his stepfather could actually take the huge Colorado and Clear Creek Railroad steamer engine from the city of Golden and go east from there. There was not yet a definitive path that totally linked the western half of the country to the eastern half, but being able to take a train even part ways definitely cut a lot of time off the twenty-eight hundred total mile trip.

"My goodness gracious." Cassandra, Zach's adopted mother, exclaimed, looking around her with awe in her voice and face. "This is certainly a far cry from having to spent months on end inside a stagecoach." The man sitting next to her laced his fingers through hers and smiled, bringing her hand to his lips.

"Oh, I don't know," Ben Cartwright hedged after kissing her hand, "I wouldn't have minded spending that time with you in a tiny, enclosed space." Zach rolled his eyes and coughed.

"Only if you two were the only ones on the stage." he reminded them, looking very much like a teenager who was embarrassed about being seen with his parents. Cassie laughed.

"All right, Zach, you needn't worry." she teased him. "Ben and I are the souls of tact—we will do nothing to shame the family honor." Her grown son kept a straight face for about two seconds before having to chuckle.

"You two newlyweds had better remember that." he teased right back. "I'd hate to have to report any shenanigans to the rest of the family back in Virginia City—I'm sure that you two would face a whopper of a trial, led by Adam, no doubt!" All of them laughed, then Ben grew pensive.

"I sent them a wire updating our itinerary." he said. "But still I wonder what's happening back home..?"

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1862 – Ponderosa Ranch, south of Virginia City, Nevada

"Wave goodbye to everyone now," Rebecca Callahan bade her younger brother and sister, "We have to get going if you're to arrive at the schoolhouse in time."

"Goodbye, goodbye!" both Gabriel and Naomi yodeled from their seats on the buggy that was being used to drive the twins to school, waving as they did so. The men they were waving at acknowledged them each in their own way: Adam lifted one hand in greeting and aimed a brief but bright smile at the departing trio; Hoss grinned and hollered out a warning for the children to be good and mind their teacher. Joe was at the reins of the surrey himself, being the one who was driving the Callahans to their respective destinations.

Normally this action would have sparked a protest from at least Adam, who was ever-mindful of the amount of work that all three of the grown brothers had to accomplish on the ranch, but Joe had told both of his siblings of the concerns about Lug Dawson that Zach had voiced to Joe just before the blond musician left on the stage with their Pa and new Mama.

"Zach simply doesn't like Lug at all." Joe told them. Hoss frowned.

"I ain't one to pass judgment on nobody," the largest Cartwright said, "But none o' them Dawsons ever seemed to be neighborly a'tall." Adam stroked his chin as he gave the matter consideration.

"I've been at the station once or twice when Lug was there." he told his brothers. "From what I've seen...I would have to agree with Zach's assessment—Lug isn't to be trusted. So I guess you get escort duty, Joe. Drive Becky to and from the station every day she goes there."

The entire week since Ben's wedding to Cassie had been eventful, first with Gabriel's testing of Adam's authority, and then with settling into the new routine of escorting the twins to school and Becky to the way station, as well as a succession of projects that needed doing one after the other. It hardly gave any of the Cartwrights time to think, let alone get away from the Ponderosa to do things not strictly related to running the ranch.

This morning Joe was driving the surrey as there were errands in town that needed doing besides delivering the twins to school and Becky to the station. Joe had to admit that he preferred following Becky on Cochise as opposed to being in the surrey with her. In the buggy, the pretty blond girl would be sitting next to him, close enough that he could feel the warmth from her body and be tempted by that beauty mark of hers that seemed to taunt him whenever he snuck sidelong glances at her as they drove along. At least when he was on Cooch, he could look at her without worrying about getting caught looking.

The youngest Cartwright brother sighed. That whole train of thought was just plumb hopeless.

Becky was his sister now...his sister—the sister that his new brother had entrusted the care of to Joe, who had given his solemn word that he would never let anything happen to her. And, if nothing else, when Joe Cartwright gave his word about something, he kept it. Which brought him to that other little bit of nagging conscience: the promise he made to Hoss.

Joe's mind went back to last week, when he and Hoss were pondering about JJ's predicament: her choices for her own life had narrowed down to either remaining an unmarried spinster at her home (thus becoming a virtual slave to her father and whatever brothers might remain there) or marrying Herman Voorhees—which would actually just add Herman to the crop of slave drivers that JJ would be at the mercy of.

However, Hoss had come up with an idea:

"You could propose to her, Joe." the middle Cartwright brother told him earnestly after Joe had seen that look on Hoss' face that had set off alarms in his head. Joe stared at his bigger brother.

"I can't marry JJ—she's older than me!!!" Joe protested. Hoss made a face that expressed annoyance.

"Don't be so danged silly, Joe." he said. "JJ is only maybe five years older than you. Besides...I didn't say you gotta marry her—you only gotta get engaged to her for a bit."

"And how long is 'a bit', Hoss?"

"I dunno...until her Pa or Herman or both of 'em get that fool notion outta their heads that JJ oughtta marry Herman." Hoss said with a shrug. "Now, c'mon, Joe...what d'ya say?"

"I'm not too sure about this Hoss." Joe said, leery of the whole plan. His older brother eyed him, frowning. Then Hoss shrugged and sighed heavily—the youngest Cartwright knew the sound...it bespoke of extreme disappointment.

"Well, then, Joe," Hoss replied with another gusty sigh, "I understand. Truly, I do. After all, it's not like you ain't already got a passel of pretty women all fallin' all over themselves whenever you go into town."

"True." Joe agreed warily.

"And you already know the trouble you can touch off when you get jealous womenfolk all mad at ya."

"That's true, too." Joe had to nod.

"I...guess I can't really blame ya for bein' too scared to do anything but what all them women want." Hoss added sagely.

"True agai—hey!" Joe started to agree once more but then realized that his brother—his very own biggest brother—was implying that Joe Cartwright was a coward.

"Come to think of it, Joe," Hoss noted with a nod of his head, "I don't rightly think that you're exactly what JJ looks for in a fella."

"And why not???" Joe demanded, his masculine pride truly stung now.

"Why, JJ is impressed by how hard a fella works, you know."

"I work hard!"

"You keep comin' up with ways to get out of your chores, an' you know it." Hoss reminded him. "Besides...you're probably a little too short for JJ, anyhow."

"I'm not short!" Joe protested indignantly.

"She's taller than you by about an inch, ain't she...?" Hoss stroked his chin and gave his blustering younger brother a sidelong glance which Joe—in his chagrin—completely missed.

"Nooooo...it's the other way around!" the youngest Cartwright insisted.

"Oh, right, right." Hoss agreed, nodding. "Well, never you mind—it was silly to think she'd agree to accept a proposal from you anyhow. I'll go ask Adam."

Afterwards, Joe never could quite figure out just how it was that Hoss—the brother whom Joe could always talk into just about any scheme that appealed to him—had managed to well and truly turn the tables on him. All he knew was, as soon as Hoss implied that Adam could do what Joe could not, the third Cartwright son was leaping to his feet and vowing to propose to JJ as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

He watched as Becky turned to wave a farewell—he would soon be going on to town to drop the twins off at the school. The pretty little blond was smiling as Joe left, unaware that he was driving to what he perceived to be his doom: Joe Cartwright planned on keeping his promise today and proposing to JJ MacGruder.

God help them all.

JJ MACGRUDER, UNLIKE the rest of her family, wasn't always easy to locate, Joe found out. Inquiring after her at her father's farm revealed that she was already gone. Jim, her youngest brother, was the only one who could give Joe any clues as to where.

"After she's done with her morning chores," he told the youngest Cartwright brother, "She goes check on the mushrooms an' hauls whatever harvest is ready into town. She got a good, maybe, six or eight places she go to with them things. I think she's also gonna be checkin' in with Mrs. Mackey about some material for Ma's dress, too."

So off Joe went back into town, shuttling from one establishment to another, finally getting a clue to JJ's whereabouts from one of the kitchen help at the International House, who told him that JJ had just been at the cafe and had spoken of going to the Palace Hotel to deliver the last of the mushrooms she'd harvested that day. Joe left the surrey at the livery, knowing that he'd be able to walk over to the service entrance to the hotel a lot faster than trying to guide the vehicle through the traffic-clogged streets of the town.

'Oh, right—it's the Harvest Festival.' the young man recalled as he made his way to his destination. 'There's that Steeplechase me 'n' Cooch are gonna win.' He grinned at the reminder and turned into the alley that led to the back of the Palace Hotel. Joe hadn't gone halfway down when he ran into JJ, who was obviously leaving the area to go back to the street.

"Whoa—sorry about that." she said, coming up short in an effort to not run into Joe. "Say, what brings you here, Joe?" He cleared his throat, not exactly sure how to start.

"Well...uh...JJ...I...uh..."

She was staring at him, which didn't help. It suddenly occurred to Joe that making a proposal of marriage in the middle of an alley wasn't the most romantic thing in the world to do.

"How about I take you over to...the International House?" he asked.

"I just came from there."

"No, no...I mean...how about I take you there...for lunch?" The brunette's dark eyes swept Joe from head to foot, clearly questioning his sanity.

"Joe," she said carefully, "While I am presentable enough to deliver mushrooms for their daily menu, my current attire is not what the International house wants to see on their clientèle." The youngest Cartwright brother stared for a moment, thinking that JJ sounded an awful lot like Adam. Then he blinked, suddenly seeing what she was referring to: JJ was dressed in overalls and a patched chambray shirt. They were relatively clean—and that patch was intact—but she was looking decidedly working class. While this made no difference to Joe himself, he knew that restaurants and cafes were a mite picky about their patrons.

"Oh. Right."

"What is it, Joe?"

"What?"

"You obviously have something on your mind, Joe." JJ said evenly. "Something important enough to ask me to lunch. What is it?" As they were having their conversation, JJ was still walking up the alley. Now she was about to step back out onto the sidewalk near to where her gray dapple horse was waiting for her.

"Well...I...uh..." Joe balked, and was annoyed at himself for balking—Hoss had explained the whole sorry mess that JJ was in and Joe wanted very much to help her, even if it was going to inconvenience himself for a bit. He had proposed marriage before—so why couldn't he make himself say the words now?

'Because when you did it before, blockhead, you were in love. You aren't now.' his inner voice reminded him. The MacGruder woman, however, eyed him with a bit of impatience and then went to her horse, mounting the beast.

"Listen, Joe—when you can remember whatever it is that you wanted to say to me," she told him, settling into her seat, "I'll be at my home for the rest of the—"

"JJ, will you marry me?" Joe blurted out. JJ shook her head—the movement, Joe could tell, wasn't so much as a negative response to his proposal...it was more along the lines that she couldn't believe her ears.

"I beg your pardon, Joe?"

"JJ MacGruder...will you marry me?" he repeated in a firm voice. JJ MacGruder stared down at the third Cartwright son.

"Marry you?" she echoed. "Joe...did you just ask me...to marry you?"

"Yes, I did."

That's when JJ MacGruder fell off her horse.

"ARE YOU GOING to tell me what's got you in such a good mood, Hoss?" Adam asked his younger brother. Hoss' big blue eyes widened innocently.

"What makes you think I'm in an especially good mood, Adam?" he asked with a grin that was only one of many clues for the eldest Cartwright son. The man in black smiled back.

"We're almost two hours overdue for lunch after taking all this time to track down and round up those three strays," Adam pointed out, "During which your new shirt got ripped—" He nodded to where the telltale damage at the left shoulder of Hoss' shirt appeared.

"—And yet, in spite of all that...you're still smiling." Adam summed up his clue list. "You've been in this elevated state of being ever since...oh, say...you finally came back from driving Miss Harris to her house on Sunday. The only time during this past week that I've seen you be anything less than happy was when Naomi mentioned that Barney Lathrup had paid a call at the school...but you perked right up again when she added that Miss Harris put a flea in his ear and made him leave as soon as she realized he was there." Hoss had a sheepish expression on his face by the time Adam was done.

"Aw, Adam...I think you already know what's got me so happy." Hoss told him. The eldest Cartwright brother grinned.

"Is there an announcement imminent?"

"I'd like to wait until Pa gets back." Hoss replied. "I wanna have the whole family together when it's official." The big man's brows drew together for a moment. "Well...Zach won't be there, but you know what I mean."

"Yes, I do." Adam said with a nod. "I'm happy for you, Hoss."

"Thanks, Adam." There was a companionable silence, broken by a sigh from the younger man.

"Well, let's get the steers to moving so's we can have somethin' to eat." Hoss suggested in a change of subject. "We ain't had lunch yet and I'm starving!"

Colorado and Clear Creek Railroad Company didn't exist until 1865 and, even then, it wasn't until 1868 that the thrice-reorganized company finally set aside the budget to start building their rail system—I am taking a page from the original writers of the television series and fudging dates for the sake of getting my characters across frontier-era America in a reasonably timely fashion.

CHAPTER EIGHT

JOE CARTWRIGHT SPRANG forward, anxious about the female who had just toppled from her position on her gray dapple horse. As he rushed around the mount, Joe cursed himself six ways to Sunday: he had been an unthinking dolt, springing his proposal of marriage on JJ MacGruder the way he had. The poor girl had likely been overwhelmed by the sheer unexpectedness of such a stupefyingly magnanimous offer, swooning at the mere thought of being his wife.

"JJ...JJ..!" he cried, going down on one knee beside where his would-be fiancée lay face-down in the street, her head bent as she tried to push herself up, her entire body shaking with the effort. Now Joe really felt bad, for obviously the hapless damsel, to judge from the oddly-choked sounds coming from her as she shook, was suppressing sobs of joy for her good fortune. He took one of her shoulders in hand and cautiously turned her over—then recoiled as he was suddenly blasted...

...by a gusty bray of laughter.

"Y-you...asked...m-me...to m-m-marry you?" JJ repeated, giggling between words. Bewildered, Joe nodded.

"Yes, I did."

JJ collapsed on her back, laughing. She looked up at Joe, obviously trying to say something, but, upon glimpsing his face, only laughed harder. The youngest Cartwright brother's confusion was slowly giving way to irritation. He failed to see what was so funny about it. JJ tried to regain her composure but, upon looking at the expression on his face, could only wag an impotent finger in Joe's direction and continue howling her hilarity.

"I guess this means 'no', JJ..?" the brunet man said with an annoyed mien. Once more the woman on the ground made a concerted effort to get her reaction under control.

"J-Joe...oh, Joe..." JJ replied, coughing, "...please forgive...my...my...unfortunate lapse here..." She laughed again but cleared her throat sharply. "I'm...I'm sorry, Joe—I'm not laughing at you, really—" The young lady sat up, looked at him again and choked back another chuckle.

"Okay...I'm laughing at you." she admitted, but laid a hand on his arm when Joe shifted in preparation to jump to his feet and walk off. "No...I'm sorry, Joe...I'm laughing at you because I can tell that proposing to me is the last thing in this world that you truly want to do." The young man started, surprised that she could read him that easily.

"Why wouldn't I want to propose to you, JJ?" Joe countered defensively. "You're smart, pretty and anyone could see that you're not afraid to give anything your all." JJ tilted her head and looked at Joe with canny brown eyes.

"But you haven't said that you love me." she pointed out, her unwavering gaze causing him to shift where he was. "You don't love me...but you obviously seem to think I need to have a proposal from you. C'mon...tell me why you're doing this, Joe."

For a moment he balked—there was that additional sense of chivalry that reminded him that no woman wanted to hear that she wasn't wanted by a man. This stab of conscience was outweighed by Joe's innate honesty, however.

"We don't like that your Pa is trying to make you marry Herman Voorhees." he admitted. JJ's eyes narrowed.

" 'We'?" she echoed.

"Hoss and me." Joe clarified. JJ considered this for a moment, then smiled at the noble Cartwright beside her.

"Both you and Hoss have hearts of gold." she told him, then leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "But...I don't need that kind of help. I won't let my Pa push me into marrying Herman. I have a plan." Joe, bemused by the buss on his cheek, eyed her curiously.

"A plan? What would that be?" he asked. She grinned at him then nodded at the gray dapple beside them.

"I'm entering Sirocco and me in the Steeplechase this Saturday." she said. "We're going to win it. The money I get from the race will be enough for me and my Ma to go to Reno. I'll be able to go to college there." Joe blinked.

"I know there's a two hundred dollar prize, JJ," he replied carefully, "But that wouldn't be enough for both you and your Ma to live in Reno and have you go to college, too."

"I've already got enough money saved up for that." JJ informed him with a smile. "Took me all this time to do it, but I did. And when I win the Steeplechase, I'll have what I need to be able to make sure that Ma can come with me."

Joe stared at the smiling brunette sitting on the ground in front of him and could see that she believed every word she said.

"I'm entering that race with Cooch, you know."

"I know." she acknowledged with a nod. "You've both won the races for the past—what, about six years or so?"

"About that, yes."

"Not this time." JJ said firmly. "Cooch is fast—and you're the best rider I've ever seen...but Sirocco is faster. I know it. We'll win." Again there was that conviction that seemed to Joe to be fixed in stone. He gave a laugh, grinned and then put out his hand to help JJ to her feet.

"So...you have a plan, JJ." he said as she took his hand and let him pull her to a stand. "Does this mean you won't marry me?" The brunette grinned back.

"Thank you most kindly for your offer, Joe...but no." JJ told him. Joe took the rejection in stride, nodding.

"I hope your plan works, JJ." He started to turn away, then paused, giving her a rather penetrating look. Joe lifted one of his hands, holding it horizontally over the top of JJ's head and then over his own, as though measuring their comparative height.

"You're...shorter than I am, right?" he asked. Not knowing what prompted this question, JJ eyed him and then nodded.

"By about an inch...not quite two inches." she agreed. Once more the youngest Cartwright grinned.

"Thought so." he said smugly. Then the pair parted as friends rather than fiancées.

HOSS AND ADAM were just finishing up a late yet excellent lunch back at the Ponderosa when there was a knock on the door. Hop Sing went to answer and, moments later, returned with two telegrams for Adam. The eldest Cartwright opened the first message and read it out loud, as it had come from Ben:

Taking train from Golden. Will send messages from future stops. Expect message from Mrs. Capshaw, Stagecoach, Nevada. Love from all of us. Pa.

"Who's Mrs. Capshaw?" Hoss asked, clearly stymied. Adam shook his head, opening the second telegram and scanning it.

"I've never heard of her before, Hoss," he admitted, "But this must be the message Pa was referring to, because it's from a Mrs. C. Capshaw." Adam read the second telegram out loud:

Delivery on the way. Should arrive at Ponderosa Saturday, September 13th. C. Capshaw.

The two brothers exchanged looks.

"What d'you reckon that's all about, Adam?" Hoss asked.

"I can't even begin to imagine, Hoss." Adam said. "But we're probably going to find out when that delivery gets here tomorrow."

GABRIEL AND NAOMI Callahan were playing Cat's Cradle when Joe pulled up in front of the schoolhouse in the surrey. Mercy Harris, the teacher, smiled a greeting as she closed and locked the door to the building.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Cartwright." she said after both the children had raced noisily to the vehicle and then resolved a brief tussle over who was sitting next to Joe on the ride to go pick up Becky from the way station. Joe smiled and tipped his hat at the lady.

"Good afternoon, Miss Harris." he answered. "I must apologize for being late—there was some confusion at one of the places I had to visit, and it took them a while to sort it out. I hope these two haven't been giving you a hard time for the past hour? They seem to be a bit of a handful at the moment." Joe turned to the children and scowled—but the effect was ruined by merriment dancing in the verdant depths of his eyes. The twins giggled.

"They are very much a handful, Mr. Cartwright," Mercy agreed, her own emerald eyes glowing, "But they've been good as gold all day today."

"That's a relief!" Joe said. "I'm sure that Adam will be pleased to hear it—Hoss as well." He watched her as he deliberately added that last part, for—as had his eldest brother noticed—Joe, too, had gotten clues about how Hoss and Mercy felt about each other, and he was seeking to confirm his suspicions. The pretty teacher's face lit up.

"How is Hoss?" she asked eagerly. "Do you think he'll be bringing the children to or from school anytime next week?"

Yup...smitten. Both of them. Hopelessly, too. Joe grinned.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't do so Monday, Miss Harris." the youngest Cartwright brother told her, planning to ask Hoss to do just that. No doubt the big man would jump at the chance. Why, Joe might even get Hoss to agree to do chores for the honor. Yes, indeed...this could work out very nicely for Joe.

"Really?" Mercy asked, her voice breathless. Then she blushed, clearing her throat. "I mean...I shall look forward to seeing him, then." Her last words were said demurely, and Joe (being the gentleman that he was) nodded and pretended not to notice her obvious anticipation.

"We must be going now, Miss Harris." he said mildly. "Good day."

"Good day, Mr. Cartwright." Mercy replied. "Good day, children...see you at church Sunday."

"Goodbye, Miss Harris!" the twins chorused as the surrey set off for the way station. Once they were on their way, both Gabriel and Naomi were full of news about how their day at school had gone. Joe listened and nodding, feeling a sense of familial connection to the youngsters that amazed him. The children hadn't even been with the Cartwrights an entire week and already Joe was relishing the exuberance and warmth that his stepsiblings were bringing to the household.

The way station hove into view, prompting the man at the reins of the surrey to recall that he would soon be sitting side-by-side with Becky. He both anticipated this and dreaded it. Becky was pretty, kind and had a love of life shared by the twins, but it was akin to torture for Joe to be so close to her and have to remain so far. But Becky was his stepsister, and he would just have to keep their relationship strictly in that vein.

Joe reined the surrey to a stop and put on the brake, thinking to himself that it was odd that Becky hadn't come out of the stationhouse already. Usually, if she wasn't already in the front of the way station waiting for him, the sound of the surrey jingling into the courtyard area was enough to bring the young woman out. Joe grimaced, tying the reins off as he moved to get out of the vehicle.

"You two stay here while I—" he began to tell the twins, but a sound from the stables grabbed his attention, causing his blood to freeze: a scream that sounded as though it were suddenly cut off.

Becky..?

"Go inside! Tell Wil there's trouble in the stable!" Even as Joe barked the order, he was off and running, praying that his fears were not founded...

REBECCA CALLAHAN SURVEYED her handiwork, then nodded approval at the rows and columns of figures that all totaled up exactly.

"You're getting better at the bookkeeping, Mr. Meyers." she said brightly, turning a smile on the man whom Cassandra Cartwright had hired to become Callahan Station's new manager. Wilson Meyers smiled back.

"Thank you, Becky." he replied. "I'm grateful for all the help you're willing to give me."

"You're welcome, sir." she said, glancing over at the clock in the corner of the public room of the station as she closed the ledger. "That's odd...Joe should have been here by now. School's been out for over an hour."

"Perhaps the teacher needed to talk to Joe about Gabe or Naomi?" Wil suggested with a twinkle in his eye. "After all, I do believe that it was last year that your Mama had to visit the schoolhouse after the bird's nest incident..?"

"That was an accident." Becky automatically defended her younger brother, but her lips were twitching when she recalled Cassandra's own mirth at the teacher's outrage over Gabe's bringing in an actual bird's nest—complete with an egg—for the class to see. Gabe, however, had tripped and fallen, the egg in question sailing through the air and splattering on the teacher's desk. This would have been bad enough but everyone in the classroom found out the hard way that the egg had been in the nest in the first place because it was rotten.

"Still and all, you never know what may have come up." Wil pointed out. There was the sound of horses in the stable stirring a bit. "Betcha that's Joe coming in with the surrey now. I can go see—"

"No, no, Mr. Meyers," Becky assured him with a wave of her hand, "I'll go take a quick look. If it is Joe, though...I have a pot of Mulligan Stew at the back of the stove—there's plenty there for the six o'clock stage that's due today. In case the stew...disappears again..." Here Becky gave Wil a pointed glance, at which the man smiled benignly, for he knew quite well that her previous batch had "disappeared" after he had tasted it and had polished off the entire pot. Of course, that particular batch hadn't been as large as the one keeping warm on the stove now, but it had been sizable enough that Becky had asked if her brother Hoss hadn't come by while she wasn't looking.

"...IF the stew isn't enough for everyone," Becky continued, a smile hovering on her lips, "Then there are also about half-a-dozen meat rolls in the larder."

"Thank you, Becky." Wilson responded. "You keep safe now, hear?"

"Yes, sir."

"See you tomorrow."

"Yes, sir—goodbye, Mr. Meyers."

The lithe blond slipped out the door and over to the stables. She sighed, as there was no sign of the surrey. However, the horses within the building stirred up, so Becky went in to see about it for herself.

"Hey, sweetie!" Becky greeted the bay that was closest to the door, stepping up to the stall the animal was housed within and looking to see if there was a snake or something disturbing the equine.

"Hey, darlin'!" came the answer—from behind her. Becky whirled, her stomach clenching because she recognized the voice even before she saw the man it belonged to: Lug Dawson.

"What are you doing here?" the young woman demanded, but her sense of dread made her tone breathless rather than commanding. The burly trapper grinned at her, revealing a yellowy-gray, mottled-looking set of teeth.

"Just callin' on my girl, that's all." he said in a suggestive purr, his eyes looking Becky up and down in a lecherous manner that served to make her feel as though she were naked in spite of the fact that she was wearing a long-sleeved gown with a neckline that reached to the base of her throat. Frightened as she was, Becky concentrated on the anger she felt when Lug expressed his possessiveness.

"I'm not your girl!" she practically spat at him.

"Not now."

"Not ever!"

Suddenly he pounced on her, his large hands grabbing her shoulders.

"We'll see about that..."

Becky was hauled into a neighboring stall—an empty one. She struggled, but Lug was certainly bigger than her, and stronger. She sucked in a breath and started to scream, but the sound was cut off by the horrifying sensation of the man mashing his mouth against hers. Still, she struggled, her fists flailing as she twisted and turned and tried to kick him.

Nothing was working—and Lug now had her wedged in the far corner of the stall, his rough hands grabbing and squeezing. Almost mindless with sheer terror, Becky changed one of her hands from a fist to a claw and raked her nails down one side of Lug's face. Her assailant roared, instinctively flinching away.

Becky screamed until she felt the heavy hand of Lug smack her across the side of her own head, making her right ear sting from the blow and sending her reeling.

She was a bit confused after that, as the ringing in her head interfered with her ability to concentrate beyond it. However, she eventually became aware that Lug was in a fistfight—with Joe.

Joe had burst into the stables in time to see and hear Lug getting his face clawed by the girl he was molesting. The trapper didn't have time to do more than strike Becky away from him before Joe seized the back of his shirt, spinning Lug around and driving his fist into Lug's face. The larger man snarled and went after the interfering Cartwright, flailing out with his ham-sized fists. Joe was the faster of the two, however, ducking and weaving and avoiding most of the blows. The punches that did land damn well hurt but Joe's outrage wouldn't allow him to feel the pain; he just kept punching back at Lug.

Both combatants had seized a handful of shirt and were winding up to launch wicked left hooks when the sudden blast from a shotgun got their attention.

"That's enough!" bellowed Wilson Meyers as he levered the rifle once more and aimed it at Lug. "Move, Dawson! You get the hell off this property, and don't you or any of your kin come back. You do and I'll shoot first and ask questions later. You hear?"

Lug Dawson slunk out of the stable, silently cursing the luck that had turned on him. Lug had been in the stable originally in order to see what tack and tools he could pilfer but had thought he'd been blessed by providence when Becky Callahan came into the stable. Lug had been lusting after the pretty little blond ever since her family originally settled here about seven or eight years ago, but her Pa wouldn't let Lug court his daughter then, claiming Becky was just a child. Lug knew better, though. He hadn't any better luck trying to persuade either her brother Zach nor her aunt/adopted mother Cassandra into allowing him to call on Becky, either. Both of them claimed that Becky didn't want his attention.

Lug knew better though. Becky wanted his attention, all right—she just wanted to play hard-to-get.

He would have been able to get the girl to change her tune if that stuck-up pretty boy Joe Cartwright hadn't interfered. Well, now it was a point of Dawson pride—whatever it took, and however long it would be, Lug would get Joe Cartwright for his interference today.

And he'd get Becky, too. It was only a matter of time.

CHAPTER NINE

ADAM AND HOSS were deep in conversation about the details of the roundup that was going to be taking place next week when the front door was opened by Gabriel, who scooted around the portal and held it open.

"Hey, Gabe, how was—" the biggest Cartwright began to greet the boy but was struck silent by two things: the look of worry on the lad's face...and Joe coming in through the door, carrying Becky in his arms. The brunet man's face was grim as he swept by his brothers without saying a word, but toted the blond in his arms up the stairs. Naomi came in through the door and Gabriel closed it. Adam and Hoss saw identical expressions of anxiety on the youngsters' faces. Adam went to the children and knelt down.

"What's wrong?" he asked earnestly. Naomi burst into tears, throwing her arms around her oldest brother's neck and burying her face into his shoulder. Adam automatically hugged her, his hazel eyes going to Gabriel's face, shocked to see tears swimming in the boy's sapphire eyes even as Gabriel reached out and rubbed his sister on her shoulder and back.

"Mr. Dawson was mean to Becky." the boy explained simply, blinking hard so that his tears would not fall. Hoss gasped and Adam found himself having to fight to not stiffen in anger—he didn't want Naomi to get any more upset than she was.

"Becky isn't hurt, is she?" Hoss asked, aghast.

"Becky says she's okay." Gabriel answered. "But Mr. Dawson hit her and scared her bad. Joe ran to the stable and made him stop."

"M-Mr. Meyers ran to the s-stable and...and f-fired his ri-rifle." Naomi stuttered, reining in her tears with effort. "Mr. Dawson had an ugly face when he left." Hoss came over and picked Gabriel up, giving the lad a good, tight squeeze before loosening his grip and looking directly into his face.

"You and Naomi weren't hurt, either, were you?" the big man asked.

"No, sir." Gabriel answered. "We'd stopped in front of the station but then Joe jumped out an' told us to go tell Mr. Meyers that there was trouble in the stable. We did that, an' he got the shotgun and ran outside. Me an' Naomi went, too...we saw Mr. Dawson leave." He frowned in thought. "Naomi's right—Mr. Dawson had on an ugly face when he went away."

Adam and Hoss spent the next few minutes calming down and reassuring the children. Joe came down the stairs and quietly suggested that Hop Sing might have some snack in the kitchen for the twins. After the children were safely away to the kitchen, Joe explained what had happened to his older brothers.

"There was some silly mix-up at the bank, Adam," he said angrily, "It took them almost an hour to straighten it out and finish with the account, so I was late in picking up the twins...and we were late getting to the way station. I only just pulled up when...when I heard a scream. I ran for the stable and...and there was Becky with Lug Dawson. She was fighting him, Adam—scratched him on his face as I got there. I saw him hit her...and..." Joe's lips compressed, outrage pouring off the young man in waves.

"Go on, Joe." Hoss encouraged soberly.

"I yanked him off her and wanted to kill him with my bare hands!" Joe declared. "Lug put up a fight until Wil came in with the rifle and fired off a warning shot." Adam and Hoss could both see that Lug had obviously not meekly gone his way—Joe was sporting a shiner under his right eye and lumps and bruises in various parts of his body, as well some of those parts showing through ripped and torn places of his shirt.

"Naomi says Lug was wearing an ugly face when he left." Hoss commented. Joe's lips twisted.

"He sure was uglier than I am at the moment." he agreed. Adam's face and voice were neutral as he asked the question that was uppermost in his and Hoss' minds:

"Was Rebecca hurt in any other way, Joe?"

"No, thank God." the youngest Cartwright told him severely. "I had Wil bring the twins back to the surrey and then I asked if that bastard had touched her at all. Becky said that I came before anything like that had happened, but she's still badly shaken up about it. We both knew that if I hadn't come along just then, Lug was going do more than just hit her."

"Then it's a good thing you came when you did, Joe." Hoss said firmly. Joe glared at his older brother.

"Becky shouldn't have been in that position in the first place." he grated. "She wouldn't have been, if I'd been there on time." Both of his brothers exchanged glances.

"How were you supposed to have been there any earlier than you were, Joe?" Adam pointed out. "You weren't responsible for the delay at the bank, and you had to collect the children from the school first." Joe pushed his hands through his hair, shaking his head.

"I don't know, Adam..." he said then sighed heavily. "...I know you're right...but I still feel like there was something that I could have done differently...to keep it from happening."

"Is Becky coming downstairs?" Hoss asked gently. Joe's green eyes went to the staircase.

"She said she wanted to be alone for a bit." he told his brothers. "I promised I would knock on her door when supper was ready."

Joe did go knock on his stepsister's door when Hop Sing announced that supper was ready. It was a pale-faced Rebecca who opened the door.

"Are you all right?" Joe asked anxiously. "I can bring a tray up if you don't think you can..." His voice trailed off at the thought of Becky still feeling so fearful even in the bosom of her family.

"I'm okay, Joe." Becky told him firmly. "Lug...scared me really bad, but not so bad that I can't join my family for dinner." They went downstairs, where everyone was waiting until Becky arrived before sitting down for the meal. Naomi and Gabriel went over to their sister.

"We need an everyone hug." they said in unison. The Cartwright brothers exchanged uncomprehending glances, but Becky's wan face suddenly broke out in a wide smile.

"Why, you know what—I do believe you're right about that!" she agreed, then looked around the room. "Hop Sing! Hop Sing, can you please come here for a moment?" The Chinese man hurried out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel at his waist.

"Yes, Missy Becca?" he asked, then came closer when she beckoned.

"Hop Sing, I need you here for a minute." Becca told him, then looked to her stepbrothers. "An 'everyone hug' needs to have everyone in it."

"What's an 'everyone hug'?" Adam asked curiously. The blond girl gave him a smile.

"We'll show you." Becky said. "Gabriel...Naomi..?" The twins immediately hugged each other, but they didn't let go.

"I think the easiest way next is if Hoss hugs them." Becky suggested. Hoss' face looked momentarily confused, but then brightened.

"Aw, I get it!" he said enthusiastically. "An 'everyone hug' means everyone hugs—all together!" He then bent and scooped up the hugging twins, encapsulating them in a big bear hug.

"That's exactly right, Hoss." Becky assured him, then stepped up and spread her arms to encompass the hugging trio, her left arm draping mostly across Gabriel, partly across Naomi (whose back she was snuggling up to), and her right arm embracing Hoss.

"Don't just stand there." Becky said, clearly addressing the non-huggers. "An everyone hug needs everyone in it...Hop Sing, Joe...Adam." The houseman blinked, then stepped up to the group and put his arms around the knot of people. Joe did the same, finding himself snugged up against Becky's back, his own arms encompassing Hop Sing and Hoss to either side of her.

Adam hesitated for another moment, not sure of what to make of this unusual formation.

"C'mon, Adam," Gabriel urged, "Everyone hugs only work if everyone hugs!" Becky's eyes twinkled at him; clearly the girl didn't think Adam had the courage to join in. He stepped up to the group and joined the hug, his arms enveloping Hop Sing on his right and Hoss on his left, his own arms lying alongside Rebecca's and Joe's respectively as well.

It was the oddest sort of feeling, this everyone hug...Adam felt a warm current of emotion flow through him and he tightened his embrace at the same time everyone else in the group did.

"Okay, that's good!" both the twins said suddenly. Everyone released their hug at the same time, with Hoss retaining the children for as long as it took for him to place them on their feet once again before letting go.

"Thank you." Naomi said in a whisper. Becky bent down and kissed her little sister on the forehead, depositing a buss on Gabriel's, as well.

"No...thank you..." the older girl corrected, "...I needed that very much." She straightened up and then gave Hop Sing a bow. "Thank you, too, Hop Sing...as Gabriel said, an everyone hug doesn't work unless everyone is in it—we couldn't have done it without your help." The Chinese cook bowed, smiling—and immediately reminded everyone that dinner was ready and they'd all best sit down, chop, chop! He then hurried to the kitchen, no doubt to fetch forth whatever he was serving for that night's meal.

"Where'd you learn to do something like that...that everyone hug?" Joe asked after the meal had been put on the table and the family had said grace. Becky grinned.

"Mama taught us." she said proudly. "The rule is that anyone can ask for an everyone hug at any time, and when it's asked for, everyone who's there must join in. So, if anyone's feeling really happy or really sad—"

"Or really scared." Naomi put in. Her older sister glanced at her, then nodded.

"Or really scared—" Becky agreed, "—they can ask for an everyone hug."

"The person that asks for the hug gets to say how long you do it." Gabriel added around a mouthful of vegetables.

"Gabriel, don't talk with your mouth full." Adam admonished, but aimed his hazel eyes at Becky.

"Most unusual." he commented. "But...I'm glad that it seems to have helped you." She smiled back at him.

"If you think about it, Adam," Becky pointed out, "It's helped everyone here."

All of the Cartwright brothers didn't say anything out loud...but they each privately acknowledged that the group hug had, indeed, left them all feeling better.

THE CARTWRIGHT BROTHERS stayed close to the main house Saturday because of the delivery that they'd been apprised of in the telegram from Mrs. Capshaw of Stagecoach, Nevada. At the moment, Hoss was overseeing Gabriel and Naomi as they tended to Petey, the one-eyed pygmy rabbit that was their pet. Joe was nearby, replacing straw as he had just finished mucking out the stalls in the barn. Adam was in the house, balancing accounts, and Becky was at the way station, a fact that still had Joe a bit riled—he had been downright horrified when she announced that she'd be going to work there this morning at breakfast.

"Shall I drive myself to the station or do any of you need the buggy?" Rebecca had asked calmly after grace had been said over the platters of eggs, flapjacks, bacon, steak and biscuits that crowded the table. Hoss continued piling up food items on his plate, Adam had paused while reaching for the bacon, and Joe had dropped his steak onto the platter in shock.

"You can't mean that you're going back there again?" the youngest of the Cartwright brothers demanded testily. Becky's calm sapphire eyes met his own blazing emerald ones in an unflinching gaze.

"Of course I am." she answered him. "I promised Mr. Meyers that I'd be there today. I can't go back on my word."

"Are you kidding?" Joe expostulated incredulously. "After what Lug tried yesterday???"

"Joseph! The children!" Becky's voice and expression were reproving. He subsided a bit, glancing at the twins, who didn't seem to be paying attention to the grownups.

"Little Joe got a point, there, Becky." Hoss said in an amiable tone. "It'd be sort of temptin' fate to go back to the station, wouldn't it?"

"I refuse to let the likes of Lug Dawson dictate where I can go and what I can do!" Becky said vehemently.

"Adam, you can't allow her to go!" Joe complained. "Tell Becky she has to stay home!" Adam swallowed the bacon he'd been chewing before addressing the issue at hand.

"Well, Becky," he said evenly, "It looks like I'll be driving you to the station today...but I suggest that it be Little Joe who picks you up—that way you two can go on to town and report what happened to Sheriff Coffee after you're done there." Joe's mouth gaped in disbelief, and Becky nodded her acceptance of Adam's decision.

"Adam, you can't mean—" Joe protested hotly, drawing censuring looks from the other adults at the table.

"Joe—the children!" Adam, Hoss and Becky reminded him simultaneously. The youngest Cartwright brother had no other recourse but to drop the subject, and Becky was, indeed, driven to the station by the eldest.

Joe was still stewing about the whole thing when there was the sound of approaching horses. A quick peek out the barn confirmed that a freight wagon was approaching the house.

"Delivery's here." Joe announced, touching off a stampede of children out of the barn and into the front yard. Hoss made sure that Petey was secured and followed them, with Joe bringing up the rear. The wagon rumbled to a stop in the yard just as Adam emerged from the house.

"Hey, Adam." the freight driver greeted the eldest of the Cartwrights present—the driver turned out to be Sam Vernon, a local whom Adam often played cards with in town. "Got a delivery for you...and a guest." The redheaded man hopped down off the wagon and then aided an elderly lady to the ground. She was a little on the short side, but held herself erect in spite of her years. At the moment, she was eying Adam up and down with a calculating look in her eyes.

"How may I help you, ma'am?" Adam asked politely. The bespectacled lady stared for a moment before her face softened considerably in a wide and genuine smile.

"You must be Adam." she said warmly.

"Indeed, yes, ma'am." he confirmed. "I am Adam Cartwright...could you be Mrs. Capshaw?"

"Indeed, yes, my boy." the widow nodded as she spoke. "I have a letter for you from your father..." She fished through her small handbag and gave Adam an envelope, "Here you are...he asked that you read it right away." Adam looked at her and then quickly opened the envelope and read the short message within:

Adam,

Mrs. Capshaw will give you all the details. I ask that you accept the delivery, pay the driver and offer the widow hospitality until her stagecoach to Sacramento is due to leave. You also need to make sure that Mrs. Capshaw receives two thousand dollars for the furniture I've bought from her.

After noting that the letter had his father's signature at the end, Adam folded the letter up and put it back in the envelope, looking to the little old lady who was now a guest of the Ponderosa.

"Mrs. Capshaw," he said, "My father says you'll give me the details...if I may prevail upon you to tell me what is being delivered, please?"

"Of course, dear boy," the widow answered with a smile, "Your father, bless his romantic soul, saw fit to buy the bedroom he and his bride shared at my house. He wants you to empty his room and put the furniture that my Byron carved in there."

"Wow, Adam," Hoss said from inside the covered wagon, "You should see this! These things are downright purdy!" Adam's mouth quirked.

"Well, Sam, I think this is likely going to be an all-day project for all of us, then." Adam told him. Sam grinned and winked at him.

"No worries, Adam," he drawled, "I know you Cartwrights is real good tippers!"

THE REST OF the morning and an hour or two into the afternoon saw the men first removing the furniture from Ben's room and then transporting the hand-carved mahogany pieces from the wagon into that chamber one floor up. Fortunately that room—as it was the master bedroom of the house—was large enough to house the large bed, wardrobe, bureau, chaise-lounge, writing desk and a dressing-table that had a beveled mirror on it. There were matching chairs for the desk and dressing-table as well as a pair of night tables made to flank the bed.

Adam was utterly amazed at the exquisite craftsmanship of the furniture—especially the headboard of the bed, which was worthy of being in a museum in the eldest Cartwright son's opinion.

The family had a late lunch during which the delightful Mrs. Capshaw explained exactly how it was that Ben Cartwright came to purchase the furniture:

"You see," she said with a fond smile, "Your parents came to my boarding house to spend the night last week, and they told me they was just married. I took one look at them and knew they was in love with each other, just as my Byron and I had been when we got hitched in aught-two. I showed them to the bedroom that used to be ours—By's and mine, that is. I told them all about how my By wouldn't marry me until he, himself, carved out the bedroom we would be sharing. He also refused to leave any of that bedroom behind when we moved out west. He was quite the romantic, my By." Celeste Capshaw paused and sighed, the tender expression on her face giving Adam a very good idea of how attractive the elderly lady must have been back in 1802.

"Anyhow, your Pa and Ma and brother left in the morning to get on the stage, but your Pa, he come back to my house and tells me that he knowed my bedroom was beyond price to me, but would I kindly sell him the whole room for two thousand dollars?" Mrs. Capshaw chuckled. "I was right surprised that he would give me that much, but he said that he was so taken by the love that had gone into the furniture he just had to see if could buy it for your Ma." The lady looked sharply at Adam.

"Now, 'taint the first time a body offered me money for the furniture," she told him firmly, "But there was two things that made me accept your Pa's offer: he was the first one to offer for the entire room all at once...and he recognized the love that my By put into the work. I told him I'd be right honored to sell him the room, since it was clear that he and his lovely bride would only invest even more love into it."

Everyone at the table was utterly rapt by the tale that Mrs. Capshaw told them. Adam smiled and nodded.

"Sounds exactly like what Pa would do." he confirmed. "Although I'm surprised that he didn't just pay you half right there."

"Oh, he offered to, my boy." Mrs. Capshaw said quickly. "But they'd told me before that they was going to Connecticut, and I knew he'd best retain whatever cash he had during the journey. So I told your father to let me have about twenty dollars so's I could put the furniture on a freight wagon and to write a letter to you so's you'd know that I was to get paid. I knew your Pa was good for it—Stagecoach might be little more than a stopover, but we all still heard of Ben Cartwright. He agreed to my terms...and here I am!"

"Here you are, indeed, ma'am!" Adam agreed. "The letter mentioned that you're going to Sacramento?"

"My daughter lives there." Mrs. Capshaw explained. "So I've sold my house, booked me passage to Sacramento, and rode along with my room here to your ranch. My stage to Sacramento leaves on Monday."

Mrs. Capshaw was entertained by the twins while Adam and Hoss made sure that Ben and Cassandra's bedroom was put into proper order. Joe went to pick up Becky and drive into town with her, where they saw Roy Coffee, reported Lug's attack on Becky and stopped at the bank to withdraw the money to pay to the widow for her furniture. Becky agreed that the mahogany pieces were wonderful when she, too, finally got to see them. She remarked that the newly married couple were going to just love the way that Adam arranged the furniture in the room—the layout was such that it was almost as though the furniture had been made for that particular room.

"...or that the room was made for this particular furniture!" Becky added with a laugh, one of her hands tenderly touching the exquisitely-detailed headboard. "This is just so amazing, Joe, don't you think?"

"Yes. Amazing." Joe agreed. Since Becky was marveling at the headboard, however, she didn't see that Joe wasn't looking at the furniture nor the walls of the room when he said it, but at the young blond woman herself. Becky smiled and sighed.

"I hope wherever they may be, that they're all having a pleasant time."

Last Chance, Colorado, 1143 Miles East of Virginia City, Nevada

BEN CARTWRIGHT HAD been napping but he was being teased awake by the warm, wet tongue that was delicately lapping at his earlobe. He chuckled without opening his eyes.

"Cassandra..." he sighed, still more asleep than awake, a smile gracing his face when teeth began to nibble at that same earlobe. He began to stir in more ways than one when those selfsame teeth went from nibbling to an outright painful nip.

"Cassandra!" Ben bellowed, his eyes snapping open and his head whipping around so that he could glare reproachfully into the face of the bitch that bit him...because the face belonged to a beagle puppy occupying the otherwise empty seat next to him.

"Gee, sorry, mister," the little boy to whom the dog belonged bounded over and scooped up the dog, "Sheba's only been weaned a week—she still goes lookin' for milk sometimes. She didn't mean nothin'!"

"That's all right, son." Cassandra's voice behind him said soothingly. "You go catch up to your parents now." The boy hurried away with the puppy in his arms as Cassie looked down at Ben, who was frowning over being mistaken for a canine feeding station.

"Sorry, Ben, but I was making sure that Zach had all our baggage." she explained, then leaned down to add in a whisper: "I'd never do that to you in public...but I'll keep that in mind for after we retire tonight." For a moment Ben scowled up at her before one of his hands lashed out to cup the back of her head and bring them together in a swift but passionate kiss.

"Apology accepted." he replied, his grin returning. His wife's gray eyes sparkled at him and she returned his smile before disengaging herself from his grasp and leading the way towards the exit where Zach was waiting for them.

"This is a tiny little town." the young man noted as they walked to the only hotel in the place, which was just across the street from the train station.

"The railroad is likely going to make it grow soon enough." his mother said, looking around her. "That's almost a shame—it's a rather scenic little town." They checked in, stowed their bags and went to have their dinner in the dining room of the hotel.

"Hard to believe that we're one-third of the way to New Haven already." Zach chattered excitedly as the family waited for the food they'd ordered. "Now that Lincoln's signed that Pacific Railroad Act, transportation from one coast to the other is only going to get better. Why...I bet that in practically no time at all, the railroad will be able to get you from the East to the West and back again in only one week!" Ben and Cassandra exchanged glances, with Ben recalling the time it took him to cross from Boston to California with first Adam and then Hoss in tow.

"No doubt you could." he agreed, then grinned and added: "Then you could fly to the moon, as well."

"Even better—fly from one coast to the other?" Cassandra teased. Zach frowned at the couple.

"Okay, maybe it would take one week to get from East to West...and then another week to get back again." he conceded. Their dinner arrived at that moment, so they waited until the server had left before continuing the fanciful conversation.

"Wouldn't it be something if we could fly to the moon?" the lady in the party asked dreamily. Ben considered it for a moment.

"I suppose it would be." he agreed. "But then, anywhere I went with you would be as Heaven." Cassandra smiled at him and Zach was wondering if he'd have to excuse himself from dinner early...again. Then he shrugged and finished his dinner, figuring that he'd already interrupted more than enough of his own meals during this trip.

CHAPTER TEN

Sunday, September 14, 1862 – Virginia City, Nevada

HOSS CARTWRIGHT SHIFTED on the hard surface of the pew, deep in thought. Unusual for him: his deep thinking was completely unrelated to the sermon at hand, which was incorporating the message of how there was a time for everything, and everything should be accorded its proper time.

No, the middle Cartwright brother was thinking about how to save his friend JJ from her father's intentions to marry her off to Herman Voorhees, a hardworking but unappreciative farmer.

Hoss had asked his younger brother Joe to go save JJ by asking her to marry him, but Joe told him that the independent brunette had laughed herself off her horse and refused him. Hoss wanted to know if Joe had any idea why JJ could have said no to Joe, but right at that moment, Mrs. Capshaw (a guest at the Ponderosa) had interrupted the conversation and Joe had been obligated to turn his attention to the old lady.

This morning hadn't afforded them an opportunity to talk further about it, either. In spite of the fact that young Gabriel was now a lot more cooperative when it came to bathing, dressing and combing his hair in anticipation to going to church, it had still been a time-consuming job.

So now Hoss was sitting at the end of the family pew and worrying about how to help his childhood friend.

First of all, however, he was still at a loss as to why JJ had turned Joe down. In spite of the way Hoss had teased Joe about the youngest Cartwright's habit of trying to get out of his chores, Joe worked hard and was really good at the tasks around the ranch. Certainly Joe was physically attractive: he had curly dark brown hair, laughing emerald eyes and a manly physique that all of the young ladies for miles around Virginia City were drawn towards—in droves, sometimes! Yes, Little Joe surely was beating the womenfolk off with a stick. And Joe was one of three heirs to the huge Ponderosa spread, so lack of money couldn't have been it.

Yet JJ had still turned Joe down. Hoss was stumped, then he finally figured that perhaps it had, indeed, been the five-year age gap between JJ and Joe. JJ probably needed someone a bit more mature than Joe. Hoss' blue eyes looked his left, down to the other end of the pew, where sat the eldest of the Cartwright brothers: Adam.

Now there was a marriage candidate that JJ couldn't possibly turn down, Hoss reasoned to himself. Adam was a fine figure of a fella—tall, dark, handsome...Hoss had seen and heard many of the town gals sighing after Older Brother. Adam was also the kind of man who could appreciate JJ's quick wits and intelligence. However, a big drawback was the fact that both Adam and JJ tended to antagonize each other. He insisted on calling her "Eve Jane", the name she was born with, instead of the "JJ" that everyone else in the Virginia City area knew her by. She retaliated by calling him "Parson" because of the way Adam favored dressing in all black.

Still and all, Adam would be a good choice to send on the errand of proposing to JJ—it was entirely believable that he'd pop the question about now...he was the oldest of the three brothers and over thirty. He couldn't afford to wait much longer if he planned to have children before he became too old to keep up with any of the tykes.

Besides, if Hoss could explain it to him right, Adam didn't even need to worry about actually getting married to JJ—he only needed to remain engaged to her long enough so that her Pa forgot about trying to make her accept Herman. The sandy-haired man frowned to himself once more, recalling that Adam was a man of distinct honor...and his honor would doubtless keep him from actually offering for JJ unless he meant to really marry her.

JJ MacGruder was a pretty brunette with warm chocolate eyes and a heart as big as all outdoors, but Adam was more often than not utterly annoyed with her. No...Adam would never go in with Hoss' plan.

That left only one option, and it wasn't one that Hoss liked at all...but JJ had made a huge sacrifice on his part over a decade ago—could Hoss really do any less for his friend now that she needed help?

He sighed and resolved to find JJ as soon as the service was over. If he didn't find her quick and corner her to get this done, JJ would go get her horse and ride home, as her Pa never let her remain for the church socials that often occurred after all the preaching was finished.

JJ MACGRUDER WAS grinning from ear to ear this Sunday. Soon that Harvest Festival Steeplechase would be held, and she was anticipating winning that race. The two hundred dollar prize for first place would be the amount she needed to complete her relocation fund. Once she had that money, she could take herself and her Ma to Reno to live while she studied at college and got her teaching certificate. Then she wouldn't have to worry about whether Elvira MacGruder was receiving the care she needed—JJ could make sure of that herself.

All she needed was five dollars for the entry fee and Sirocco, and all of her years of toil would pay off.

Anticipation for this upcoming Saturday was half of why she was in such high spirits...the other half was that Joe Cartwright had actually proposed to her. That Joe—such a sweet young man. He was a handsome rogue with a heart of gold...but a rogue, nonetheless, and not one that JJ could love the way he deserved to be loved.

Still, it was a sweet gesture.

Joe had admitted to her that he had proposed because neither he nor his older brother Hoss had liked the fact that Frank MacGruder—her father—was trying to push her into marrying a man that she clearly did not love. They were both such sweet men...unlike their brother, the Parson. No, Adam Cartwright was a sanctimonious know-it-all who lived to irritate JJ no end. She wasn't at all sorry to have dubbed him "Parson". That ought to show him, the prig!

JJ suddenly realized that the congregation was singing now and struggled to at least appear that she was singing as well. There would be a passel of chores for her to do when she got home, but she could lose herself in the hymn at hand, even if her singing more resembled a frog croaking than a bird twittering.

All too soon it was over. The brunette filed out door, saying her goodbyes to Reverend Jordan and his wife and then starting off towards the place where she'd hitched Sirocco.

"JJ?" Hoss' voice behind her made her stop and turn around. Sure enough, the biggest of the Cartwright trio stood there in his Sunday best, looking a mite anxious.

"Hey, Hoss." JJ greeted her friend, smiling to put him at ease. Instead of relaxing and smiling back at her, he seemed to only get more nervous. "What can I do for you?"

"Well...JJ..." Hoss said, gulping and casting a nervous glance over his shoulder at the milling crowd that was a few yards away.

"Well, what, Hoss?" she prompted, started to get irritated—her Pa never liked it when she spent too much time away from the farm when he could be off somewhere else on a Sunday and she didn't want her Ma to have to be exposed to his petty sniping about how long it was taking JJ to get back home.

"JJ...there's somethin' that I need to ask ya..." the big man said, each word sounding as though it were being dragged from him against his will. The young woman tamped down the wave of annoyance she felt and put her hands on her hips.

"Well...go ahead...ask me already." JJ told him, her chocolate eyes catching the approach of a familiar figure. Hoss grimaced, then one of his hands whipped out and took one of hers within it.

"JJMacGruderwillyoumarryme?" he blabbed all in one breath. JJ's mouth hung open.

"What?"

"JJ...will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?" Hoss repeated. JJ's eyes widened.

"Oh no."

Hoss had been mentally smacking himself in the head and reiterating the fact that he was going to explain to his friend his plan to keep her from being pushed into matrimony. JJ was really smart—just like Adam—she'd understand and play along, he was sure. However, her barely audible "oh no" was not what he'd been expecting. Neither was the suddenly bloodless expression on her face as she stared fixedly past him. Hoss turned around...

...and saw Mercy Harris standing not two feet away from him.

"Oh no." Hoss breathed—all he could register was the jet-tressed lady's eyes: the emerald orbs were brimming with unshed tears.

"Mercy!" he said urgently but even as he did so, the school teacher wheeled away and fairly ran from the scene, bumping abruptly past Joe as he and Becky were drawing near, causing the youngest Cartwright brother to stumble back a step or two.

"Hey, ouch—what was that all about?" Joe asked, rubbing his right shoulder—the one that Mercy had banged into in her flight away from the area. Becky immediately saw the look of sheer misery on Hoss' face.

"Hoss? What happened?" she asked. Hoss opened his mouth and a sort of choked-off croak issued from it.

"Hoss just proposed to me." JJ answered, watching Mercy disappear into the throng. Joe eyed his brother.

"But, Hoss, I thought you were sweet on Mercy." the brunet man pointed out. Hoss made that noise again.

"He is." JJ said emphatically. "But he proposed to me anyhow—Joe, didn't you tell Hoss what I told you yesterday?"

"I meant to," Joe replied, looking sheepish, "But I...sort of got sidetracked." He turned to Hoss. "Neither of us have to propose to JJ, Hoss...she's got a plan." Hoss again tried to articulate, but only the sound of his complete defeat came out.

"Joe!" Becky admonished the youngest Cartwright brother. "I think you've definitely left that bit of news a little too late—JJ?" She turned to the older female.

"Oh, yes...I'm afraid that Miss Mercy Harris heard Hoss proposing to me and is not at all happy about it." JJ confirmed Becky's suspicions, frowning.

"I...I gotta find her..." Hoss finally managed to say, "...I gotta let her know..."

"Leave it to me, Hoss." JJ said soothingly, then stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. "Thank you, my answer is no, Joe will fill you in on the details...and now I'll go explain things to Miss Harris. Good bye." So saying, the brunette hurried away in the direction she'd seen the tearful school teacher rush off towards.

Mercy, meanwhile, had headed as far away as she could with all the haste she was capable of in her state of agonized shock, knocking and bumping into people without so much as a "by your leave". She couldn't understand it—she loved Hoss, she knew she did, and she had been so utterly sure that he had feelings for her, too. She halted under a cottonwood tree, leaning against its trunk and panting in an effort not to scream and wail her heartbreak out loud, and her mind turned back to the time she had shared with the big, gentle man by the shores of the lake last week.

They had both surprised each other when their mouths met, at first wide-eyed with shock, but then the sweetness of the contact had prompted them to close their eyes and savor the thrilling contact. Never before had anything felt so completely right for Mercy than when Hoss had put his arms around her and pulled her close, his lips raining kisses all over her face, wandering from her mouth to her eyelids to her temple, her cheek and to the pulse beating wildly beneath her ear. It was all Mercy could do to cling to him, one hand clenched against the broad strength of his back and the other raking up into the sandy silk of the hair on his head.

"Mercy, aw, Mercy..." he murmured, cradling her close as he nuzzled the side of her neck. Then he chuckled. "I dunno if I mean to be callin' your name, or beggin' for mercy from the feelin's I'm gettin' with you in my arms." Hoss pulled away from her so that he could look into her face, and she could see his eyes twinkling at her in a warm azure glow.

She'd known it for sure then: she loved Hoss. She loved him even more after a few more kisses and then his gentle insistence that they desist. Mercy, he said firmly, was a lady and he wasn't going to do anything that could possibly jeopardize that. He would see her next Sunday—sooner if he could manage it.

Mercy knew with a deep sense of shame that—had Hoss asked it of her at that time—she would have gladly chucked away all pretensions of being a lady and lived with the consequences. But he hadn't asked. She'd been sure at the time that he hadn't because he was a consummate gentleman...but now...after hearing him propose to JJ MacGruder...now it was obvious that he had just been making sure that he was free to get engaged to the woman he really loved.

"Miss Harris?" a voice behind the suffering schoolmarm asked solicitously. She blinked to insure that no tears were building up in her eyes and turned around...to face her—the Jezebel who was the object of her Hoss' affections. For a moment Mercy seriously considered scratching the hussy's eyes out...but then she recalled her upbringing and drew in a deep breath.

"How may I help you, Miss MacGruder?" Mercy asked with icy courtesy. JJ blinked as the evil daggers the teacher was willing her way were almost palpable.

"Please allow me to explain what you thought you overheard." the taller woman said earnestly. Mercy clenched her teeth and her hands but didn't move.

"Thank you, Miss Harris." JJ nodded as she spoke. "Now...first of all, I am so sorry that you heard it at all, because clearly this has hurt and upset you. Secondly...Hoss proposed to me by accident." The raven-maned woman stared at the brunette, almost forgetting her emotional wounds.

"...'By accident'...?" echoed Mercy a bit scathingly. "Forgive me, Miss MacGruder, but you're a tall, strong, pretty woman who has grown up in a similar way to Hoss...how can he have proposed to you...'by accident'..?" JJ's lips twisted.

"Because he thought he had to save me from my Pa." she replied, humor warming her voice at the absurdity of the whole situation. "You see, Miss Harris, Hoss will do just about anything to help a body in need—so he asked Joe to propose to me, but I turned Joe down when he did that yesterday. Joe was supposed to let Hoss know that I don't need their help, but Joe forgot...so Hoss, still thinking that I needed help, proposed to me today." JJ coughed a bit. "I...uh...I turned Hoss down, too, I'll have you know."

"Why would you do that?" Mercy demanded. "Hoss Cartwright is the nicest, kindest, most handsome man in Nevada!" As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Mercy's face turned red, and she had to wonder what in the world was she trying to do—make the other woman change her mind and accept??? The brunette she was facing merely grinned at her discomfort.

"For the very same reason I turned Joe down, Miss Harris." JJ told her. "Neither of them are at all in love with me...they're only offering out of a sense...of chivalry."

"Chivalry?" Mercy echoed again, hope beginning to bloom in her broken heart...after all, Hoss was the kind of man who was extremely empathetic towards others, even people who got into trouble...like Miss MacGruder, to judge by whatever her present situation may have been, not to mention her past escapades with the former school master. Come to think of it, Hoss had seemed awfully absorbed by that story when Mercy had related it to him some time ago.

"Are you telling me that Hoss proposed because he feels sorry for you?"

"Yes, Miss Harris...he's sorry for me and nothing else. And...I said no."

"I think you're being foolish for saying no." Mercy told her honestly.

"But...'no' is still no." JJ replied, smiling. "So...don't doubt anything that happened between you and Hoss...or the way you feel about each other." Mercy's emerald eyes looked warily at JJ. The taller young lady sighed.

"Listen," she said, "I can't stay—my Pa is expecting me home as soon as possible. Just...go talk to Hoss. He's really anxious...and I can tell he really loves you. Please don't make him suffer because he let his sense of chivalry overcome him." The school teacher hesitated, then looked around, finally spying Hoss in the distance. The Callahan-Cartwright family had set up their picnic blanket and Mercy could see that Naomi and Gabriel were trying to get their biggest brother to eat some of the food, but he just shook his head.

"I...I..." Mercy began to respond, then turned to JJ and reached out, squeezing the brunette's hand. "Thank you, Miss MacGruder." Then JJ was left alone under the cottonwood tree. She smiled, then remembered that her Pa was still expecting her back, and hurried away home.

"HOSS..." GABRIEL SAID plaintively, "...if you're not gonna have that johnnycake, can I have it, then?" The big man gave the boy a twist of his lips that was supposed to be a smile and handed over the cornbread he was holding without a protest. The blond boy eagerly reached for it, but found it plucked from his grasp by Adam. Gabriel turned shocked sapphire eyes up to meet probing hazel ones.

"I think you're taking unfair advantage." Adam told him. "However...there's something that you forgot to say, don't you think?" The little boy's brow furrowed a moment.

"Oh...right..." he recalled, brightening a bit. "Please?" The eldest of the Cartwrights nodded down at him.

"Much better." Adam agreed, giving the lad his johnnycake. "There you go."

"Thank you." Gabe said, then bit into the bread.

"You're welcome." Adam replied dubiously, turning his hazel regard onto his middle brother. "Hoss...aren't you going to eat?"

"No." The monosyllabic answer was rife with depression. Frowning, Adam was about to respond when another voice interrupted them:

"Does this mean that I can't interest you in this cheese pastie, then...?"

Hoss turned his head and saw Mercy standing close by, holding a plate that had a puffy-looking pastry in it—no doubt the cheese pastie that she spoke of.

"Mercy, Hoss doesn't like—" Joe began to say, but felt a sharp shove on his right shoulder. He turned and glared at Becky, who glared back at him. Adam hid a smile, realizing that he didn't need to be concerned about his bigger brother any longer.

Hoss got to his feet, his eyes and face full of awe-struck hope. Mercy smiled at him and held the plate out. Without a word, the big, tall man plucked up the food and ate it in three bites. The jet-tressed young lady touched him on one forearm.

"Let's go get some lemonade." Mercy proposed. Hoss followed her away.

"But we have lemonade here, Hoss...Hoss—OW!" Joe called and, once again, got jabbed in his tender right shoulder. "Becky, what the heck is that for? That hurt!"

"You..." Becky grumbled at Joe, "...have no sense of romance, Joseph Cartwright."

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Monday, September 15, 1862 – Virginia City, Nevada

Adam looked down on the brief-yet-revealing telegram in his hand, as it was another message from his newly-married father. Ben, Cassandra and Zach were now at Fort Kearny in Nebraska. Ben anticipated that the trio would reach Omaha in another day or two, and would be sending another update then, at which time Ben would also be expecting to hear confirmation about the delivery he was expecting at the Ponderosa.

The eldest of the Cartwright sons was actually smiling at the missive, although any passerby on the street wouldn't have known it by looking at him, for his face was his usual neutral mask. Adam was a man who felt deeply but his years of living had taught him the harsh lesson of guarding his emotions against exposure, for exposure meant that those emotions could—and all-too-often did—get savaged by circumstance. This had happened to varying degrees with various women in his life: Inger, Marie, Regina, Sue, Ruth and Laura. Each of these women were females that he had opened his heart to and had suffered heartbreak for doing so.

In the cases of Inger and Marie, they had been women who—each in her own unique way—had become loving mother figures to him. Unfortunately, they had also suffered unique demises, leaving young Adam to cope with profound loss.

In the cases of the other four women, Adam had formed emotional attachments that had been deep, although the distance provided by time made him realize that they had been emotions that had been akin to love, but not love itself. Regina had appealed to Adam's deep-seated notions of how violence should never be the answer to conflict, and so his attachment to her was a bond of nobility. Sue had definitely appealed on a physical basis, as well as being a very nice person, so his attachment to her was a bond of passion. Ruth had stirred up his innate instincts to protect people who had been hurt in the past, and so his attachment to her was a bond of compassion.

Laura had been the most puzzling of all Adam's romances, for he was a trifle bit embarrassed to admit that he had no true attraction to the blond except for his feelings for her daughter, Peggy. Oh, she had certainly been pretty enough and he still recalled her kisses with fondness...but the unflinching beacon of honesty turned upon that relationship forced Adam to concede that it had been his instincts for fatherhood that had formed that attachment—their bond had actually been a paternal one on his part.

Although all four of the emotional attachments were aspects of love, none of them were the all-encompassing pastiche that love itself was. Each of them had hurt, and the wounds had scarred, leaving Adam wondering if he was destined to ever really find true love for himself.

"It's good news, then." The voice that interrupted his mental musings belonged to Celeste Capshaw, seated in the surrey parked outside the telegraph office. Adam stuffed the telegram into his breast pocket and climbed into the vehicle.

"Yes, ma'am." he told the widow. "My father will be arriving in Omaha soon—and he's looking forward to my wiring him that the bedroom's been delivered to the Ponderosa." Mrs. Capshaw smiled as Adam clucked to the horses and the buggy started moving.

"I knew my instincts were right about that man!" she said proudly. "He and his bride will cherish my By's handiwork almost as much as they obviously cherish each other." The elderly woman's voice and face were soft with the memories of her own marriage. Adam kept his hazel eyes on the road but couldn't completely banish the tiny streak of envy he felt—both Widow Capshaw and his father had been lucky to find love...just when would it be his turn?

"Good morning, Parson!" another voice greeted him, only it held the bite of irony in it. Adam suppressed a long-suffering sigh—the speaker was JJ MacGruder. The exasperating female—dressed in clothes that were obvious hand-me-downs from her brothers—was astride that gray dapple of hers and easily trotting along beside the surrey.

"Good morning, Eve Jane." he replied politely, if a bit defensively.

"Aren't you going to introduce us?" the brunette prodded, her chocolate eyes twinkling with devilment.

"Eve Jane MacGruder, this is Widow Capshaw." Adam made the introductions perfunctorily. "Widow Capshaw, this is Eve Jane MacGruder."

"Please, ma'am—it's just Jane." the younger female spoke firmly.

"Pleased to meet your acquaintance, Jane." the widow said, her voice and smile friendly.

"What are you doing in town—besides pestering honest folk, that is?" Adam asked aggressively. JJ just gave him a smile.

"Pa asked me to meet him at Fernell's Dry Goods after I got through with my deliveries today." she answered easily. The man in black hid his irritation—that particular shop was right next to the stage depot where Widow Capshaw would be boarding her Sacramento-bound stagecoach...which meant he'd have to suffer through JJ's company all the way there.

"Kind of unusual that your Pa is in town, isn't it?" Adam seized upon what was obvious to both himself and JJ, as they both knew Frank MacGruder's penchant for not doing any more than was absolutely necessary to maintain his vegetable farm. There was no obvious reason for him to be in Virginia City at this time.

"Yes...it is." JJ agreed. Adam's eyes immediately went to the young woman's face—it wasn't so much her words but how she said them that had tipped off the sable-maned Cartwright that JJ was finding this uncharacteristic behavior a mite disconcerting. He saw that one of JJ's cheeks was slightly concave—as though she were biting the inside of her cheek.

She was worried.

"Maybe he's finally buying you a dress for the social after the Steeplechase this Saturday." Adam found himself saying. The instant the words left his lips, he was wondering what in the world possessed him to say such a stupidly ridiculous thing? He braced himself for the scathing zinger that JJ would certainly fire at him in response.

"Hope springs eternal." JJ said with a wry chuckle. Adam spared the female another glance, confused that his childhood neo-nemesis hadn't chosen to totally decimate him with an attack on his intelligence, given that they both knew Frank MacGruder never spent money on buying frivolous items for anyone else in his family...and, because JJ was clothed in her brothers' hand-me-downs, a new dress for her would have, indeed, been frivolous to her father's way of thinking.

"A social?" Mrs. Capshaw said brightly, "My, oh my! That sounds exciting. Will you be taking Jane, Adam?" Adam found himself jerking the horses to a stop, and convinced himself it had solely been because the buggy was now in front of Fernell's Dry Goods, and his own destination right next door.

"Me?" he asked incredulously. JJ's sardonic laughter halted anything else Adam may have followed that up with.

"Don't get your knickers in a knot, Parson!" the brunette told him with a cheeky lilt in her voice. "The Widow Capshaw doesn't know that I don't attend socials." JJ reined in her big gray dapple and addressed the older woman directly. "My Ma needs me home as much as possible, ma'am, so I don't go to the socials and such...so the Parson here isn't obliged to take me...much to his relief!" The MacGruder female slid down nimbly from Sirocco's back and hitched the horse to the rail. Adam, his teeth clenched in the effort to will his face from blushing, got out and handed Mrs. Capshaw down from the vehicle.

"As much as I've loved conversing with you, Eve Jane," Adam said with dulcet barbs in his voice, "I'm afraid we'll have to part company, as I must see Widow Capshaw on her stage. Good day." He pointedly wrangled the old lady's baggage from the back of the surrey. JJ gave him and Mrs. Capshaw a jaunty salute.

"Widow Capshaw," JJ said pleasantly, "It's been nice meeting you. I hope you have a quick and safe journey." She turned to Adam, sweeping her nigh-shapeless gray hat from her head and giving him an exaggerated bow (she was mocking him, he just knew it!) "Good day, Parson!" Straightening up, JJ redeposited the hat upon her wavy mass of brunette hair, pivoted on one heel and strode into the dry goods shop.

Adam escorted the widow to the stage depot office, confirming that the stage to Sacramento was being readied for its journey and that the venerable lady had a seat on said stage. He made sure that her baggage was loaded and turned to the woman.

"That's taken care of, ma'am." he told her. "Is there anything else I can do for you?" The bespectacled woman's canny eyes swept Adam from head to toe.

"Yes, young Mr. Cartwright, there is." she remarked. "First, kindly convey my regards to your father and your stepmother. Second, you can stop being afraid of what you're looking for." Adam blinked in surprise.

"Widow Capshaw, I don't underst—" he began to say, but was interrupted by the stationmaster announcing that the stage to Sacramento was ready to be boarded.

"Goodbye! God bless you and your family, Mr. Cartwright." Mrs. Capshaw bade him brightly and moved away to allow the stationmaster to assist her into the stagecoach. Adam looked on, bemused, until the ponderous vehicle was shut up and lumbering westward. Then he shook his head as he thought over the elderly lady's last request: you can stop being afraid of what you're looking for.

He still didn't understand it, but he had to get back to the Ponderosa—there was too much work that needed doing and he'd dawdled about in town long enough. As he strode over to the surrey, however, the door to Fernell's shop opened and out of the building barreled Frank MacGruder. The man stormed over to where Sirocco was hitched and began to fumble with the reins. The gray dapple snorted and began to dance nervously.

"Pa! Pa!" JJ called sharply, following her father. "Stop it—what are you doing?" Frank MacGruder turned a stern face to his daughter.

"You heard the man, Evie." the farmer snarled. "Your mama needs that medicine as soon as possible, an' there's only one thing we got that can git us the money that fast..." He turned his attention to unhitching the horse. JJ looked aghast.

"Pa! I can't sell Sirocco!" she ejaculated in shock.

"Oh? You'd rather your mama suffer, then?" Frank snapped back. Adam decided he'd heard enough when the blood drained from JJ's face and her normally lightning-fast lip seemed to have deserted her.

"Is there something I can help you with, Mr. MacGruder?" the eldest Cartwright brother asked in a polite yet commanding tone.

"Only if you have twenty dollars to buy this horse." the older man grated. If JJ had been aghast before, she was positively horrified now.

"Twenty dollars? But, Pa, Sirocco's worth a lot more than—"

"Girl!" Frank yelped, whirling and jabbing an irate finger at her. "Twenty dollars is what we need an' twenty dollars is what I'll git for this nag, even if'n I gotta unload him for glue."

"NO! I can—" JJ protested hotly, stamping her foot. Her father's face darkened in rage and his right hand lifted high in the air, swinging down towards the brunette female's face—

—and getting halted before his open palm connected. Frank MacGruder turned with bared teeth to look at the man who dared interfere with his intentions.

"Cartwright, this ain't none of your business!!!" snarled the farmer. Adam's hazel eyes looked coolly back at the older man.

"But it is, Mr. MacGruder...if you'd care to look." Adam said implacably, nodding specifically at Frank's halted hand. The father's angry gaze went to where his open hand was still pushing against the object that had stopped it: Adam's own fist. Frank pulled his hand hesitantly away, allowing Adam to slightly turn over and slowly unfurl his clenched fingers, revealing the twenty-dollar double eagle that lay within.

"For the horse, Mr. MacGruder." the man in black told the farmer smoothly. Frank paused, then turned narrowed eyes at JJ.

"What do you say, girl?" he asked the brunette. "Here's twenty dollars for the medicine your mama needs. Now...are ya gonna let her suffer a-cuz ya wanna haggle over how much your horse is worth?"

There was a long pause as JJ was clearly thinking very, very hard about something. Finally, however, she nodded. As soon as her head bobbed, Frank snatched the gold coin from Adam's palm and went back inside Fernell's. JJ continued to stand immobile, blinking in an uncomprehending manner. Before Adam could say anything, Frank returned, approaching his daughter with a swagger in his walk and a gleeful grin on his face.

"There, now, girl," he announced with great satisfaction, "Your mama will have the medicine she needs. Mr. Fernell will give it to ya, and you can run it on home her right away. I got me somethin' I gotta do here in town." Adam couldn't put his finger on exactly why, but there was something about the absolutely smarmy way Frank spoke that put Adam's teeth on edge. JJ stiffened.

"You heard us." she said suddenly, then lanced her father with a hard, reproachful look. "You heard me talking to Ma last week, didn't you?" Frank MacGruder's face lit with a smug, vile smile.

"Try to race now, girl." The farmer turned to Adam, saluting the young rancher with a mocking touch to his hat brim. "Thank you kindly, Cartwright, for helping me keep my daughter in her place." Then Frank MacGruder turned and sauntered down the street, whistling a merry tune. JJ stood still for another moment, then turned to Adam.

"You'd best let me tie Sirocco to the back of the surrey, Adam." she said in a voice that was curiously flat. "Sirocco doesn't like men handling him." Adam frowned, not liking the JJ in front of him—she sounded and acted utterly defeated, her usual brand of provocation gone from her voice, her expression—from the very way she moved, as her stiff, jerky motions while unhitching Sirocco confirmed.

"You don't have to do that, Eve Jane." he replied. "I'm not taking your horse."

"You bought him, fair and square." the brunette insisted dully. "Sirocco doesn't belong to me anymore." She led the gray dapple to the back of the surrey and tied off the reins there.

"But I heard your father, Eve Jane, and it wasn't fair—"

"No, Parson, it wasn't fair!" she agreed vehemently, cutting him off, the fire returning to her as she glared angrily up at him. "But it simply—is..." JJ brushed a hand over her suspiciously-bright eyes. "It...doesn't matter now. It's a matter of honor for me—I agreed to sell Sirocco for twenty dollars. I won't go back on my end of the deal."

"I...I don't know what to say, Eve Jane." Adam's voice was low and tinged with genuine regret. "I thought I was helping you."

"I...know." JJ told him, then sighed. "At least I know you'll treat Sirocco well, even after you try to work with him. If Pa had gotten hold of some stranger off the street, God only knows what kind of person he'd have sold Sirocco to."

"Are...are you sure there isn't anything else I can do for you—some way I can help?"

"Could...could you give me a ride out to my ho...to my place, please?" JJ asked, deliberately avoiding calling Frank MacGruder's farm her "home". The eldest Cartwright brother nodded.

"Of course, Eve." he answered, shortening the usual name he called her by due to the somber realization that he could do nothing more for her.

JJ went into the store and returned with the bottle of medicine. She climbed into the seat and sat down beside Adam. After the horses started off, the brunette spoke.

"Sirocco doesn't like to be handled by men." she explained. "I think it's because the man I bought him from originally may have abused him. All I know is that anytime a man tries to handle him, Sirocco will get more and more wild. You...have to understand that."

"Look, JJ..." Adam said with a sharp sigh, "...how about if I sell you your horse back? If you gave me twenty dollars..."

"No." JJ replied stiffly. "We both know that Sirocco is worth at least two hundred dollars...and I happen to be conceited enough to believe he's worth closer to two-hundred fifty."

"As the seller, I'd get to set the price, just as you did." Adam countered, irritated that the stubborn female wasn't allowing him to help her.

"But you're not selling under the same circumstances that I was." JJ pointed out.

"I'm not taking two hundred and fifty dollars from you, Eve Jane!"

"And I'm not taking charity from you, Parson!"

The rest of the ride to the MacGruder farm was made in silent acrimony, neither one of them willing to concede to the other. Adam pulled up in front of the house, still trying to find some way to make things right. JJ hopped down from the surrey as soon as he put the brake on, and the Cartwright man was further annoyed by the obvious fact that JJ wouldn't even allow him to help her down from the vehicle like a gentleman was supposed to assist a lady.

"Parson." JJ's voice broke into his frustrated reverie—she had walked around the front of the horses and was on his side of the surrey now.

"Yes, Eve Jane?" he answered sharply, then was startled when she placed one of her hands over his own.

"Thank you...for trying." JJ told him earnestly. He stared for a moment in utter surprise. A sad sort of smile flickered over her face before she turned and hurried into the house, leaving Adam to gaze rather wistfully after her.

DURING LUNCH, BOTH Hoss and Joe asked Adam why Sirocco was in the Ponderosa's barn, so Adam related exactly what had happened in town that morning. The look exchanged between his two younger brothers immediately told him that they knew something that was important about the occurrence. Adam didn't hesitate, but demanded to know what it was that they knew.

"Well, y'see, Older Brother," Hoss explained, "I told you about how JJ's Pa wants her to marry up with Herman Voorhees..?" The eldest Cartwright brother nodded. "That idea never did sit too well with me—or with Joe, neither. So I came up with the idea to have Joe ask JJ to marry him."

"What?" Adam exclaimed, appalled.

"Yeah, well, she turned me down." Joe told him wryly. Hoss grinned at the youngest Cartwright son.

"You forgot to mention that she laughed herself off her horse, Shortshanks."

"Thank you for the reminder, Hoss." Joe retorted acerbically. Adam's disquiet about hearing that his very handsome and romantically-accomplished brother had proposed to Eve Jane MacGruder was considerably abated by the revelation of the brunette's reaction to the proposal. However, Adam's chagrin returned tenfold when Joe added hotly:

"She turned you down, too, as I recall."

"What???" Adam's exclamation this time around was positively stupefied.

"Well," Hoss admitted, flushing a bit, "That was why I was actin' so funny at the picnic yesterday, Adam...I proposed to JJ but Mercy heard me an'...well, she was mighty hurt. JJ told me no an' went after Mercy. I dunno what she said, but Mercy came over..."

"That was why you ate that cheese pastie." Adam said wonderingly. Hoss grimaced in remembrance of choking down that awful thing, but his immense relief that Mercy had forgiven him would have been worth eating an entire bushelful.

"It was the least I could do, Adam." the second Cartwright brother conceded with a nod. "Anyhow, Joe here told me that neither of us needed to propose to JJ cuz she had a plan that would make enough money for her to get herself and her Ma to Reno." Hoss turned his intensely blue eyes Joe's way.

"Right..." the youngest of the trio said, "...JJ said she was planning to enter the Steeplechase this Saturday. She was convinced that she would win, even though I'm riding in it, too...because she'd be riding Sirocco." Adam's brow furrowed in thought for a moment.

"So that's what he meant when he challenged Eve Jane to try to race now that she has no horse." the dark-haired man murmured with a frown. "And his taunt about keeping her in her place." Adam was especially not happy knowing that his intentions to help had only succeeded in removing JJ's only remaining hope of achieving her dream.

"If JJ ain't got a horse to ride, then she ain't got a chance to win that money." Hoss pointed out unhappily.

"And without that money, JJ won't be able to take her Ma with her." Joe added. All three Cartwright men spent the rest of the day doing their chores and working around the Ponderosa, each of them preoccupied with trying to think of a solution to their friend's problem. Finally Joe thought of something that might work.

"Adam," he asked his older brother, "What if I rode Sirocco in the Steeplechase?" Adam paused in the middle of setting the fence post and contemplated for a moment.

"I'm not really sure that you can do that, Joe," he said carefully. "Eve Jane warned me that Sirocco has an aversion to being handled by men—and she's right. I saw how he acted when her father tried to unhitch him...and that horse did not appreciate me taking him and putting him in the barn."

"Good!" Joe said with a nod and a smile. Adam raised an eyebrow. "Well, think on it, Adam—if we have a horse that seems to require extra-special training or handling, and it's a horse that we especially want to keep—what do we do?" Adam opened his mouth but Hoss interrupted him as he idly held aloft the sledge hammer he held in one hand.

"Don'tcha dare say 'shoot it,' cuz I'm armed." the biggest Cartwright warned in a deadpan voice, completely ruining the chance for making a joke. Adam rolled his hazel eyes and squinted at Joe.

"Okay...all jokes aside, then," the oldest of the brothers said, "We would hire an expert..." Adam's voice trailed off as he suddenly realized what Joe was thinking. The grin on Joe's face infectiously spread to Adam's, who then turned to Hoss.

"Hoss...looks like we'll be hiring a special trainer for Joe's horse—the one he'll be riding in the Steeplechase this Saturday." Hoss looked momentarily confused before also figuring out what was happening.

"Why, dadgummit, Li'l Joe, that's a great idea!" the big man crowed. Joe looked at his pocket watch.

"Hey, I'd best get a move on, too," he said, backing up and starting for his horse, "I have to go pick up Becky and the twins. I'll swing by the MacGruders' place and give JJ the good news."

JJ MACGRUDER CHOPPED the last of the potatoes that were going into her pot roast dinner and added them to the slab of meat in the roasting pan, covering the vessel and placing it within the oven. She straightened up, wiping her hands on the cloth that was tucked into the waistband of her pants. While the slicing and dicing of the mushrooms, celery, onions, carrots, turnips and potatoes had been a bit cathartic, she was still seething over this latest twist of fate that had complicated her life.

Last week, after soothing her mother's fears over JJ's intentions to leave the farm, JJ had returned to make sure that the kitchen area was cleaned and found that the bedroom door wasn't quite shut all the way. She'd thought nothing of it at the time, since none of the three MacGruder men present had so much as stirred when she came back through the living area, finished her cleaning and then left to go to bed. Now, however, it was painfully obvious that the door had been open and that her father overheard her telling her mother that all JJ needed to complete her plans to leave was five dollars and Sirocco.

Frank MacGruder then figured out that he needed to get rid of JJ's horse, and so had doubtless inveigled the circumstances that had JJ go to the dry goods store. The really sore point for JJ was that her father had deliberately taken advantage of the fact that Elvira needed that rather expensive tonic sold at the shop. Had JJ been allowed to go home and get her private savings, then Sirocco would not have had to be sold...but, then again, this was the crux of Frank's clever plot—Elvira couldn't afford to wait the extra time that it would have taken, and thus was JJ forced to comply with Frank's intentions.

The only bright spot for JJ at all was that the Parson had been the one to buy her beloved horse. Having been victimized by Frank's manipulation of her life once before, JJ had absolutely no doubt whatsoever that he would have made good on his threat the sell Sirocco for glue. At least with her gray dapple as part of the Ponderosa herd, JJ could hope to see the spirited equine once in a while and also know that he was being properly cared for. She would have to see if she could come up with some way to get the money to buy him back someday, too...but she was already straining her available time to do things as it was—between caring for her mother, keeping up with the household chores and tending to the mushroom harvesting, sales and delivery, JJ barely had enough time to collapse into bed and get some sleep before having to rise before dawn to start all over again.

There was a knock on the door that startled the brunette out of her reverie, so JJ went over and pulled it open.

"Joe?" she asked, surprised to see the youngest Cartwright standing there.

"May I come in?" he asked. JJ stepped back.

"Sure, come in, sit down..." she invited, then quirked a smile, "...I just might change my mind about your proposal from before." Joe favored her with his trademark little-boy-smile.

"Sorry, JJ, only one of those to a customer and you turned yours down."

"Damn."

The exchange was humorous, but JJ could tell that the youngest of the Cartwright brothers was about to segue into something more serious, so she sat down in the rocker by the fireplace while he took a seat in a large, worn armchair opposite her.

"I'm glad you'd told me about your plan, JJ," he said earnestly, "Because we were able to figure out that your father has made things more difficult for you to do what you had outlined now that Adam's bought Sirocco...so I've come here with a business proposition for you."

"Oh?"

"Yes..." Joe said, nodding, "...I want to ride Sirocco in the upcoming Steeplechase."

"What?"

"People will be expecting me to ride Cochise, so if I ride Sirocco, then the odds aren't going to be quite the same."

"I get that, Joe," JJ said, "But...I also know that Sirocco has a really bad attitude with men. I told your brother that I believe the man I'd bought Sirocco from may have abused him as a colt—or some man did. That was how I was able to get Sirocco for a song...he was refusing to cooperate with his former owner at all. You'd need to overcome that in less than a week, Joe." Her tone was doubtful.

"I know...that's why I wanna hire you as the trainer for Sirocco." Joe replied firmly. JJ's chocolate eyes stared at him.

"Are you kidding?"

"No, come on—it makes perfect sense!" Joe insisted. "Sirocco knows and trusts you...if you help me with his training, he's much more likely to learn that the men on the Ponderosa can be trusted, and I'll be able to ride him in the Steeplechase." JJ still looked unconvinced, so he added: "Of course, as the trainer, I not only pay you for your time, but you also get fifty percent of the prize money when he wins." The brunette stared suspiciously at Joe, who looked innocently back at her.

"How much are you planning to pay me as the trainer?"

"Well, a trainer is a highly specialized person, JJ..." Joe hedged.

"How much?"

"One hundred doll—"

"That's way too much for one week and you know it." JJ cut him off.

"It's for the month, actually."

"It's still too much." the young woman said emphatically. "Fifty a month is more in line with a trainer's pay." Joe rolled his emerald eyes, silently cursing the stiff-necked pride that JJ was displaying.

"All right, then—fifty a month." the youngest Cartwright brother capitulated. He'd rather have been able to completely make up for JJ's losing her horse the way she did, but Joe figured that if he placed a few bets on her behalf on the outcome of the Steeplechase, then she ought to be able to make up the rest of what she needed with the winnings.

"So...do we have a deal, JJ MacGruder?" Joe asked, leaning forward and extending a hand towards her. She eyed the hand and then the man, and then a sudden grin blossomed across her face.

"We have a deal, Joe Cartwright!" she agreed, her hand slapping solidly into his and firmly shaking on it.

CHAPTER TWELVE

JJ MACGRUDER SHOWED up at the Ponderosa every morning after breakfast. Adam and Hoss agreed to split Joe's chores in order to free his time up so that he and JJ could work with Sirocco. Joe found out that Sirocco did, indeed, have a very bad attitude when it came to men handling him. It took every bit of his skill with horses—as well as JJ's own knowledge—for him to eventually get the big gray dapple to remain calm with Joe holding the reins.

"I think it's a matter of Sirocco getting used to you, is all." the brunette told Joe. The youngest of the Cartwright brothers privately agreed, but also seriously wondered about whether or not Sirocco would get that used to him by the time of the Steeplechase. This would be the first race that Joe would have to win, it seemed: the race against time, with Sirocco being the odds-on favorite.

Joe was driving the surrey from the way station after having picked up the twins from school on Thursday when Becky noticed that he was shifting on his seat rather strangely.

"What's the matter, Joe?" she asked, immediately concerned. Joe glanced at his stepsister's face quickly before returning his attention to driving the horses.

"What makes you think something's the matter?" he inquired, looking for all the world as innocent as a newborn babe. Becky's arms folded across her torso.

"The fact that you've answered my question with another question, for one." the blond pointed out. "For two: you're moving around in your seat as though your backside was hurting you."

"Did you hurt your backside, Joe???" Naomi asked, her voice dripping with anxiety. The youngest Cartwright son hesitated in his answer.

"Uh-oh...Joe got a tanning, I betcha." Gabriel stated positively. "I just knew that Adam was gonna find out about how you loosened the top on the salt shaker."

"I did not get a tanning!" Joe defended himself. "And Adam doesn't know about the salt shaker—unless a certain little boy told him." The young man's green eyes pointedly glanced over his shoulder at the boy behind him.

"I didn't tattle on ya!" Gabe said indignantly.

"However, I just may tattle on you if you don't tell me what's wrong, Joseph Cartwright." Becky threatened.

"All right—all right!" Joe capitulated. "I've been training with JJ...trying to get Sirocco to allow me to ride him in the Steeplechase this Saturday." The girl sitting beside him stared at Joe as though he'd suddenly sprouted fur, fangs and was growling like a wolf.

"Are you crazy???" Becky's voice squeaked. "There's no way that Sirocco would let you anywhere near him—he hates men!"

"Well...he's been letting me sit him...sometimes." the young man told her, shifting in his seat again.

"You should let Becky rub ya with some willow oil." Gabriel suggested suddenly. "It always works on my backside when I get a really bad tanning." Joe almost choked. He definitely heard Becky gasp.

" 'Specially when the oil's warm." Naomi chimed in ingenuously. "It feels real good then." As much as Joe may have been blushing on the inside at the unintended suggestion made by the children, his positively wicked sense of humor prompted him to tease Becky.

"That sounds like a fine idea, Gabriel...Naomi." he said with a grin. The young lady next to him gave him a look that should have had him toppling from his seat in the advanced stages of rigor mortis...however, Joe merely laughed. Becky, on the other hand, was seriously considering handing the man some chile oil instead of willow oil.

"Whether or not you get any help for your...seat, Joe," Becky pointed out with a toss of her blond head, "It's going to take a miracle for you get Sirocco to allow you to ride him for that Steeplechase by this Saturday. It's too bad that JJ can't just ride him like she planned. Zach says that not a body in Virginia City could touch her while she's on that horse."

Joe nodded, only half listening. Realistically, he also had his doubts that he could get Sirocco accustomed enough to him to allow him to race the gray dapple in a mere two days. However, hearing Becky speak of Zach's assessment of JJ and her horse got the Cartwright man to thinking...what if JJ did get to ride her horse in the Steeplechase? As the rider, she'd be entitled to the full two hundred dollar purse and not just half.

Hoss often called a particular expression on Adam's face his older brother's "thinking mask." If he had been able to see the look on Joe's face now, he may have dubbed it Joe's own "thinking mask."

IT WAS THE Thursday after Sirocco had been sold that the next obstacle for JJ's overall plan to get herself and her mother out of her father's house loomed large. JJ hustled the pan howdy she'd made for dinner from the stove to the table and was setting out the johnnycakes when her father scowled down at the meal.

"Girl...what is this slop you tryin' to pass off for dinner?" Frank demanded. JJ's head snapped up. "Pan howdy" was a recipe that JJ had more or less created—it consisted fried potatoes that got combined with cubed meat that was also fried up in a separate skillet, to which she added vegetables and then made a gravy to go with it. The potatoes, meat, vegetables and gravy were all combined at the last minute and served hot, usually with johnnycakes or biscuits. She'd made the dish because it was faster than trying to put together a roast or stew.

"It's pan howdy, Pa," she answered carefully, "We've had this before—"

"I damn well know that we've had this before!" Frank cut his daughter off. "You made it with beef on Tuesday, and with chicken yesterday. What I'm askin' is why aren't you givin' me a real dinner instead of some slop that you slapped together in a hurry?" JJ's chocolate brown eyes narrowed.

"It isn't slop." she said with dignity. "It's a quick meal that—"

"That is exactly what I mean!" Frank's voice was now up to yelling volume as he cut JJ off again. "You're not spendin' time on seein' to my needs, girl! You're supposed to be makin' sure that I get what I want after I come home from a hard day's work...not wastin' time at the Ponderosa messin' with a horse that don't belong to you no more!"

"I'm not wasting time, Pa." JJ defended herself. "I'm getting paid to train Sirocco for the Steeplechase."

"You ain't riding that horse in the race, I made sure of that!"

"Joe Cartwright is riding him on Saturday."

"I don't care!" Frank bellowed. "It's high time that you just accepted your life, girl—you supposed to marry an' stay here with your husband an' look after me through my golden years! Ain't nobody else left as can do the job proper!" The brunette's hands on the johnnycake skillet she was holding tightened ominously as she was sorely tempted to brain the man with it...but he was her father, and she refrained from the urge.

"So that's why you've been making sure that I can't go to Reno to study for my teaching certificate?" JJ countered. "That's why you made Luther tell Mr. Sanders about the skunk—that's why you made me sell Sirocco...so that you have someone to look after you when you get too old?" Luther—who, along with Jimmy, had been silent witnesses to the argument—had the grace to look ashamed.

"I'm thinking of me, girl." her father admitted baldly. "But I'm thinking of you, too—Herman Voorhees is the hardest-workin' fella I've ever known. He'd make sure the farm supported you...an' he's willing to make sure that I get looked after, too. But you gotta stop avoidin' your womanly destiny an' marry the man!" JJ put the pan down, nonplussed.

"Pa..." she said earnestly, "...do you actually believe that I'd allow you to grow old without making sure that you had help when you needed it?"

The gamut of emotions that marched across the farmer's face gave JJ the hope that her father would realize that he didn't need to enact his particular plan for insuring a comfortable retirement. It was a hope that died a quick and painful death.

"You need to get married." Frank said firmly. "And Herman is the man who will support both of us."

"I'm not going to marry Herman." JJ argued. "I don't need him to support me."

"You'd make me suffer—your Ma suffer, too—because you don't wanna do your God-given duty as a fertile female?"

"I'm not going to marry Herman!" JJ insisted. "I'm going to train Sirocco and earn the money to go to college!"

"That hayburner of yours will never win that race!" Frank taunted. "Joe will never be able to sit him long enough to finish the course, much less win!" His daughter bristled—it was bad enough that her father didn't have faith in her, but now he was denigrating her horse.

"Sirocco is the best there is!" JJ shot back. "He'll run that race, and win it, too, I bet!" So emotional was the outburst that the young woman was making that she completely missed the canny look in her father's eye. Had she seen it, JJ would have known to shut up and walk away at that moment. However, years of being thwarted in achieving her dreams was driving her thinking process.

"Oh...you bet he will, eh?" Frank echoed. "All right, Miss Brainy, tell you what...if Sirocco wins that race, I'll forget all about gettin' Herman to marry ya."

"Good!"

"But..." Frank continued slyly, "...if Sirocco don't win that race, you gotta forget objectin' to doin' your womanly duty an' get married. Do you promise..?" For a moment, JJ almost sensed a trap.

"Do you promise?" insisted her father with an expression on his face that goaded her pride in Sirocco's abilities and her faith in Little Joe Cartwright's talent with horses. She stuck out her hand.

"I promise!!!" she declared firmly and Frank MacGruder immediately clasped his daughter's hand and pumped it firmly...then he sat down.

"Well, now," he drawled, "Let's get to sayin' grace and havin' us some dinner!"

Saturday, September 20, 1862 – Union Street Train Station, New Haven, Connecticut

BEN CARTWRIGHT MADE sure that all of his family's baggage was present before assisting the porter with piling it up on a hand truck and weaving their way to where his wife Cassandra and stepson Zach were waiting for them at the street side of the station. When he emerged from the large building, Ben looked around at the cobblestoned street flanked by elm trees. Yes, he was in New England again—specifically New Haven, also called the Elm City.

"It isn't Boston, I admit," Cassandra said to her husband, "But New Haven is quite the city of industry, and the co-capital of the state."

"It's certainly busy enough to qualify." Ben agreed, eying the traffic. "Are you sure that your friends are here? They may not have been aware of the delay on the train." The lady with the silver-and-gold hair smiled up at him.

"Trust me, Ben," she told him humorously, "Joseph would have been highly aware of any delay in the train schedule."

"Cassandra! Cassandra, dear!" a female voice trilled, causing all three travelers from Nevada to look for the source.

"Mama...that lady over there..?" Zach asked, nodding his head in the direction of a handsome woman who looked to be not quite threescore years in age and dressed in a rather elegant gown was serenely approaching the group.

"Maria!" exclaimed Cassie, who moved towards the newcomer and then embraced the woman warmly when they were within range of each other. "It's so good to see you again!"

"I can say the same about you." Maria replied with a smile.

"Ben, this is my very dear friend, Maria Sheffield." Cassandra introduced the woman to her husband. "Maria, this is Ben Cartwright, my husband." Maria's eyes widened in surprise then she put out her hand to Ben, who took it and bowed as he swept the hat from his head.

"I'm honored to meet you, sir." the lady told him.

"The honor is mine, madam." Ben said politely, noticing that Mrs. Sheffield—for Cassandra had earlier told Ben about sending a telegram to New Haven in order to let the Sheffields know they were arriving—was studying him rather critically. He was relieved to see her smile after her scrutiny.

"Handsome and courteous, Cassandra." Maria opined to her friend. "I must congratulate you both, then, on your marriage. I know that Joseph will be delighted to do so as well...he'll be with us shortly." The older woman turned to look Zach over, her eyes widening once more. "My goodness...could this possibly be Zacharias? He is the image of Jason at twenty!" The blond young man blushed and ducked his head a bit, his hands fidgeting with the hat he had also removed from his head when it was clear that the snow-haired matron was the family friend that Cassie had been expecting to meet them at the railroad station.

"Zach, this is Mrs. Sheffield," Cassie introduced her adopted son to the woman, "Your father and I knew her because we were friends with her own children. Maria, this is Zacharias...or Zach, as we call him."

"Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Sheffield." Zach took the lady's hand and bowed just as Ben had done. Maria's face wreathed in a smile of delight.

"And I, you, Zach." she responded, then looked about. "Ah, I see that Joseph has brought the carriages up. Follow me, please." Maria led the travelers to where two very expensive-looking carriages were waiting.

"Joseph!" Maria called. "We must offer our best wishes to Cassandra, she is married! Mr. Ben Cartwright, may I present my husband, Mr. Joseph Earl Sheffield. Joseph...this is Ben Cartwright." Ben found himself looking at a man of about sixty-five to seventy years in age who was dressed in a very well tailored suit. One could tell by the cut that it was an expensive set of clothes, but the style itself was not overly ornate. Joseph Sheffield himself was a quietly elegant man from the looks of him. Ben shook the hand the man extended, noting that he had a firm grip and that the hand itself was neither soft nor smooth—Joseph was a man who knew what physical work was.

Both Ben and Joseph politely acknowledged each other before Joseph turned his attention to Zach. He, too, expressed delighted surprise at Zach's appearance, agreeing with his wife that the young man looked exactly like his father had at that same age.

"You have your baggage, Mr. Cartwright?" Joseph asked.

"It's on this hand truck here, Mr. Sheffield." the man from Nevada said with a nod to the porter controlling the cart beside them. The porter was directed to load the baggage onto a second vehicle that Joseph had the foresight to bring along.

"My wife wants to show Cassandra the changes in the cityscape on our way back to the house." the wavy-haired gentleman told Ben. "And, please...call me Joseph. My family has known the Callahans since we first came back to Connecticut back in '35." There seemed to be something about the way the unassuming man spoke that smacked of a secret joke, which got Ben's curiosity up.

"Then I am Ben, Joseph." the rancher told him. "You knew Cassandra's family from when she was a child, then..?" Joseph smiled.

"Indeed, yes." he confirmed. "Not to make things awkward for you, but I had originally hoped that Cassandra would wed one of my sons." The smile became a grin. "However, it seems my son refused to be married to a girl who was better at skipping rocks than he was, so it never came to pass." Ben—whose heart had skipped a beat when he heard the first part of Joseph's dialog—found himself chuckling at the man's sense of humor.

After the baggage was secured on the extra carriage, Mr. Sheffield sent it on its way to his house and then everyone boarded the first carriage, which also set off from the train station, only with Maria directing the exact route.

"Here's the Green, Cassandra—" the snow-haired lady said excitedly, "—look to the right...New Haven has a brand new city hall...it was designed by Henry Austin!" The family from Nevada all looked to see a very noble-looking building built in Gothic style. The distinctive feature of the city hall was the impressive clock tower that rose several stories into the air—it had a rather unique design of horizontal stripes on the steep incline of its roof, made by alternating two different types and colors of shingles.

"My, oh my, Maria!" Cassie commented. "That certainly is impressive."

"Indeed...and the City Hall isn't the only building Mr. Austin has worked on." Maria replied, smiling. Joseph shifted at this and Ben noticed that his cleanshaven cheeks were tinged with pink.

"Here's what I really wanted to show you, though, Cassandra..." Maria said after the carriage had traversed along a few more streets, "...do you recognize the building?" The silvered blond head tilted as she eyed the structure in question.

"Wasn't this the Elm Grove Hotel?" Cassie asked.

"It was." Maria answered. "But Joseph's had it redone and donated it to the university. It's called Sheffield Hall now...and just last year the university honored Joseph by renaming their school for the study of science—it's now called the Sheffield Scientific School." Cassandra turned to the now rather red-faced Joseph and patted his hand.

"There, now, Joseph—no blushes from you!" Cassie insisted. "Knowing you as I do, I'm certain that you earned the honors being accorded to you. I'm not surprised that you would be so generous when it comes to encouraging scholars in pursuit of expanding their education—you always did have an avid interest in all kinds of science."

"I would rather that my wife not boast so." Joseph said quietly. "I am only repaying Providence for all the opportunities that I'd been given." Ben found himself liking Joseph Sheffield even more than he had with their initial meeting, for it was quite clear that Joseph was a modest man with a generous nature. The carriage continued on for a while longer before pulling up in front of a large mansion whose architectural style seemed familiar to Ben, although he couldn't quite figure out why.

"Oh, now I know why you were hinting around about Henry Austin, Maria." Cassandra exclaimed after she was assisted out of the carriage. "He's the one who did the work on your house as well, isn't he?"

"Yes." Maria answered with a bit of pride. "I don't mind the occasional bit of gloating...but this shall be the end of it for your visit—you know how humble Joseph is." The women shared fond smiles.

"Humble men make the most wonderful husbands." Cassandra agreed, reaching out and taking Ben's arm as he came up beside her. The burst of emotion within him made Ben want to kiss his wife, but he satisfied himself with covering her hand with his own. Then, to distract himself, his brown eyes glanced around at the intricate architecture of the mansion, noting the similarities and the differences between it and the City Hall the family had seen earlier.

"Adam would have loved to have seen this." Ben murmured to his bride, who nodded in agreement.

"That he would." she replied. "I wonder if his day is going as well as ours?"

Virginia City, Nevada (approximately 2793 miles west of New Haven, CT)

ADAM CARTWRIGHT WAS having a very busy day. Joe and JJ were largely involved with making sure that Sirocco was ready for the race. While the horse was still a bit skittish, it was clear that Sirocco was getting more and more used to Joe, realizing that this particular male human wasn't going to harm him. Still, Adam would have preferred that Sirocco had at least another week before Joe rode him in a race of any kind.

Hoss had ridden off to town in one of the surreys in order to collect Mercy and accompany her to the day's Fall Harvest Festival events and Rebecca had gone to Callahan Station to assist Wil with an incoming stagecoach that was supposed to arrive that morning. This left the eldest of the Cartwright brothers with the task of getting the twins ready for attending the festival before taking them in another surrey to pick up Becky so that the entire family could cheer Joe on in the Steeplechase. Adam noted with no small amusement that Gabriel was a lot more cooperative in doing that for this particular occasion than he usually was for going to church.

"All right, let's see how well you did, then." Adam said when the twins were lined up at the front door, eager to be on their way. The children held their hands out and turned up bright, shiny faces for his inspection. After complimenting them both on a job well done, the man in black led the squeaky-clean children out to where the surrey was waiting, along with JJ on Cochise and Joe riding Sirocco. The gray dapple shifted from time to time but didn't otherwise appear nervous.

"You two have done a lot of good with Sirocco." Adam told them as he helped the children into the vehicle. "If he maintains that kind of control, Joe will easily win the race."

"That's what we're hoping for, Older Brother!" Joe agreed, grinning from ear to ear. "I didn't want to admit it at first, but Sirocco just may have beaten Cooch if they'd raced against each other." JJ arched an eyebrow.

"We ought to have a private race after the Steeplechase, Joe," she told him with more than a hint of irritation, "Just to settle the matter." The youngest Cartwright brother beamed his smile at the young lady.

"I just might take you up on it, JJ," he practically purred, "If you make it worth my while." There was a wealth of meaning that could be read into the suggestive phrase. Adam suppressed a flare of annoyance at his baby brother's display of charisma.

"Let's get a move on, Little Joe." the sable-maned man said a bit sharply, climbing into the driver's seat of the surrey and snapping the reins to get the horse going. He ignored the glances aimed his way by both Joe and JJ and kept his eyes on the road to Callahan Station, where Becky eagerly met the group.

"You're gonna win that race for sure, Joe!" the blond said emphatically, going to Sirocco's head and patting the horse on his nose. Sirocco nuzzled Becky's palm, making her laugh. Joe smiled down at the picture they made.

"JJ's helped out with Sirocco a lot." he admitted. "He's gotten a lot better at having me ride him because of the way she's worked with him."

"It's all Sirocco." JJ replied. "He's the one working out whatever happened to him before." Adam—who had gotten out to help Becky into the surrey—now held out his hand.

"Then let's get going so that we can see this horse run that race." he said firmly. Becky took his hand and stepped up into the surrey, thanking her stepbrother as she settled into her seat. The eager and encouraging banter lasted all the way through the journey until the group arrived at the site of the start of the Steeplechase.

"I'll go check in." Joe said as he dismounted from Sirocco. JJ sprang down to the ground, taking the gray dapple's reins.

"I'll keep an eye on him." she offered. "I'll hitch up Cooch and take him over to the starting area for you."

"Good idea." Joe agreed with a nod, heading for the table where the officials for the Steeplechase were seated.

"I see Hoss!" Gabriel cried just as Adam was helping him down from the surrey. "Hey, Hoss! Over here!!!" The boy waved wildly, making Adam chuckle and put him down quickly.

"Try not to do that when I've got you in the air next time, all right?" the man chided the child gently.

"Yes, sir. Sorry." Gabriel told him, then ran to meet Hoss and Mercy as they approached. "Did you see Joe on Sirocco? I bet he can outrun the wind!" The big man grinned down at his littlest brother.

"Wouldn't surprise me none." Hoss agreed.

"Sirocco means 'swift west wind', you know." Mercy added with a smile of her own. Gabriel's eyes widened at this intriguing new information. It seemed that one could, indeed, learn something new every day.

"Becky, are you all right?" Naomi asked her older sister. The girls had been the first ones that Adam had assisted off the surrey and had moved a few steps away so that Adam could go drive the vehicle to a designated parking area. The little girl asked her question after feeling her sister suddenly shudder violently.

"I...I'm fine, Naomi." Rebecca Callahan answered. "I just...I just thought I saw...someone, that's all." Becky's hand tightened around Naomi's. The smaller blond blinked up at her sister, then tugged in the direction of her twin, Hoss and Mercy.

"Let's go with Gabey." Naomi suggested. Becky readily followed the advice, pondering about whether or not she ought to tell Hoss that—for just a split-second—she'd been positive that she'd seen Lug Dawson in the crowd.

"Sure is a lovely day for the race, ain't it?" Hoss said by way of greeting Becky and Naomi.

"It's such a pretty day—Joe's gotta win!" Naomi piped up with seven-year-old logic, making the grown-ups with her laugh. The mood was light and optimistic, so Becky opted not to spoil it by telling what she thought she'd seen. Thinking it over, Becky had to concede that even if Lug was present, he had every right to attend the Harvest Festival, too. Besides...it had only been a glimpse, and Becky could easily have been wrong.

JOE WAS IN line waiting to check Sirocco in with the Steeplechase officials when his friend Rob Hollister joined him. He had seen Rob briefly the other day after being inspired with an idea that he was sure would allow JJ to earn all the money she needed for her plan.

"Hey, Joe." the lanky redhead greeted.

"Hey, Rob." Joe answered. "Did you get someone for me?"

"Yeah, I did." Rob told him, then frowned. "I still gotta say that I don't know if this idea of yours is gonna work...getting someone to fight you just before the race starts seems a bit...well...hokey to me."

"It'll work." Joe assured him. "And it has to be a bit hokey—I have to make JJ believe I can't race so she'll get on Sirocco and ride him herself. That way I can talk her into taking the entire purse when she wins."

"Well," Rob said with a shrug, "It's your face, I suppose."

"As long as you got someone that nobody can suspect, it should go off without a hitch." They had decided that Rob wasn't right for the role of opponent in the mock fight, because everyone knew that Joe and Rob were friends, and Joe couldn't think of anyone that he wasn't also already friends with to ask.

"Well, I managed to get a guy that nobody will suspect—" Rob began to tell the Cartwright man, but just then the officials called for the next person checking in, and Joe had to turn his attention to that.

"Fine...go tell him that he can start in five minutes." Joe told Rob, sending the redhead on his way and then registering Sirocco for the Steeplechase. He was feeling pretty proud and congratulating himself on how clever his plan was as he casually strolled back towards the starting area. Any moment now, Joe figured, any moment—

A heavy hand clamped down on one of Joe's shoulders and he was spun around to face the stern expression on Herman Voorhees' face.

"Oh!" Joe said, surprised by Rob's choice. He hadn't thought that Herman would cooperate in a plan that would circumvent his intentions to marry into owning the MacGruder Farm. As the farmer's large fist swung Joe's way, he heard Rob shout to him and his emerald eyes shifted, seeing Rob hurrying toward him with Charlie Hausen at his side. Charlie Hausen and Joe had been rivals for Parthena's affections a while back...Charlie would have made the perfect pretend opponent for the pretend fight...

...in the split-second before Herman's punch landed, Joe Cartwright suddenly realized that Herman had no idea that this was supposed to be a pretend fight.

ADAM SIDLED UP to where JJ was checking Sirocco over before the race.

"He's fine, Eve Jane." he assured her. "Between the work you've done with him and Joe's ability with horses, I'm sure that he can ride Sirocco to first place in the race." The brunette glanced over at the eldest Cartwright brother, then smiled slightly.

"Thanks for your blessing, Parson." she said with a chuckle. "I certainly appreciate it...and the chance you and your brother are giving me." Adam's lips twitched in an almost-smile.

"It's a chance that you've worked hard for." he reminded her. JJ's mouth opened as she glanced away from him, but then she stiffened to attention.

"What the hell...?" the brunette swore softly, her eyes narrowing. Adam turned, following her gaze: Herman Voorhees suddenly punched Joe right on the jaw, sending the younger man sprawling on his back some yards away. Adam came running. So did Hoss. So did JJ.

LUG DAWSON'S EYES narrowed as he realized that the opportunity that he'd waited for had come. His original plan had been to taunt Joe Cartwright in full view of the crowd and get the Cartwrights' attention centered on himself, but this was even better because now he wouldn't even be suspected of the foul play he had in mind. He hauled up the anonymous guttersnipe he'd snatched from the crowd earlier and bent low, pressing a jackknife into the lad's hands.

"Now, boy—ya go do what I told ya now, or I'll find ya, boy...I'll find ya an' I'll break every bone in yer body! Now, git!" Lug released his terrified victim and watched from a safe distance as the boy approached the untended gray dapple horse and bent to the task Lug had charged him with, accomplishing it with shaking hands while everyone else's attention was taken up by the assault in progress.

HERMAN VOORHEES HAD no more than landed his one punch when he found himself hauled around and receiving a similar roundhouse—this one administered by Hoss Cartwright. The farmhand went down like a bag of wet cement while the middle Cartwright brother turned glowering eyes towards another man standing close by...a man that JJ called out to.

"PA!" JJ shouted angrily, storming up to the man. "What are you doing?"

"Protecting my future." Frank MacGruder said roughly. "No way can that horse race now...not without a rider." JJ looked over to where Becky was kneeling and holding Joe's head in her lap—Joe wasn't quite unconscious, but he was in no condition to mount a horse, either.

"Riders to the starting line! The race starts in one minute!" hollered the booming voice of one of the officials. JJ scowled ferociously, then whirled to face Adam.

"I can ride Sirocco!" she proposed. Frank scoffed.

"You can not—he ain't yours to ride no more!" he pointed out.

"No...he's my horse, Mr. MacGruder," Adam countered evenly, immediately deducing JJ's intentions, "And as such, I say who may ride him. Eve Jane, if you want to ride Sirocco in the race, I give you my permission to do so." JJ didn't hesitate but was off like a shot, mounting the gray dapple and moving to the starting line over her father's protests.

"It's no use, Mr. MacGruder." Adam told him coldly. "Your daughter has picked the path she wants to follow in spite of your efforts to keep her from it." Frank lanced the younger man with a look of frustration.

"Easy for you to say, Cartwright," he vented, "You got a big family an' the Ponderosa...all I got is my daughter an' a farm my own sons wanna abandon." Before Adam could get Frank to elaborate, the

sound of the starting pistol firing off interrupted, and the farmer turned away to see about Herman recovering from Hoss' punch as the horses at the starting line thundered off down the race course.

"Hoss," Mercy's hands plucked at his sleeve as she spoke to him, "You didn't hurt your hand, did you?" The sandy-haired man allowed her to take his right hand in both of hers and inspect it. It was fine except for some slight redness across the lowest set of knuckles. Since he was more than happy to keep having the pretty schoolmarm hold his hand, he allowed her to fuss over him and draw him over to where she could dip her handkerchief in some water and press it in place over his knuckles. He even got to stoically reassure her that he'd be just fine, really—Hoss just had to keep remembering to hide his delighted grin from her.

As was usual for such dramatic circumstances, Naomi and Gabriel were shooed to one side and ignored as the various elements unfolded. Since the fistfight had ended after Joe and then Herman were knocked down, there wasn't anything else interesting for them to watch—until they heard the announcement about the race starting in one minute, which reminded them of the race they were here to see.

"Let's climb into the loft at the livery!" Naomi suggested. "We can see if we open the door at the top!"

"Good idea!" Gabriel approved. The twins clasped hands and ran to the nearby building, quickly finding and climbing the ladder to the loft above. Gabriel moved to the door and opened it, flooding the area with light. He looked eagerly down at the race course.

"We can see the first half of the course from up here!" the boy told his sister. Naomi wasn't listening, though, for she saw a little boy she didn't know huddled by one of the hay bales nearby. She went over to him.

"What's the matter?" she asked, concerned because it was obvious that the boy—who looked to be close to her own age—was crying, thanks to the tears that had cleared tracks on his dirt-streaked face.

"Nuthin'." the little boy insisted.

"Then why are you crying?"

"I ain't cryin'."

"Your face is wet."

"I ain't cryin'."

"You look scared."

"I ain't scared."

"Then why are you hiding up here?"

"I ain't hiding!"

"Then I guess I can just go get my big brother Adam Cartwright and he can find out why you're scared and crying."

"No!" the little boy cried in a panicked voice. "You go get a Cartwright, an' he'll kill me for sure!"

"Who will?" Naomi asked.

"Lug Dawson!" the boy answered, not bothering to continue to try keeping up appearances. Naomi frowned—Lug Dawson was the mean man who made Becky cry and got into a fight with Joe and made Mr. Meyers fire his rifle in the barn at the station. If Lug Dawson was making this boy cry, too, then her big brother Adam needed to fix things so that the boy didn't have to worry anymore.

"You need to come with me." Naomi said, taking the boy's hand. "Mr. Dawson is mean, and we can't have him scaring you. My brother Adam can fix him good!" She tugged the boy over towards the ladder as she spoke. The boy was reluctant, but he also had heard of the Cartwrights and knew their reputation for helping folks out...and Naomi sounded utterly convinced of her big brother's powers of intervention.

"Come on!" Naomi insisted. The boy let himself be led from the livery and over to where Adam stood as the signal to start the race was fired off.

"Adam!" Naomi said, reaching up and tugging at the back of his shirt. The man's hazel eyes immediately swept down to meet the girl's somber sapphire ones.

"What is it, Naomi?"

"Adam...he needs your help." Naomi pulled forward the boy whose hand she held. Adam saw a bedraggled urchin who could have been anywhere from six to ten years old.

"Hello. What's your name?" The eldest Cartwright squatted down so that he didn't appear so intimidating to the smaller male. The boy eyed him warily.

"I'm Oscar." he capitulated.

"Well, Oscar, I'm Adam." the man said mildly. "How can I help you?" Oscar's tear-streaked face showed a battle of instincts: one to accept the help being offered, and the other was clearly fear.

"Oscar's afraid of Lug Dawson." Naomi prompted. Adam drew in his breath.

"Lug Dawson isn't here—not that I can see." the man in black pointed out.

"He made sure you didn't see him." Oscar blurted. "He got me an' told me to do it or he'd break all my bones!"

"He got you to do what, Oscar?"

"To use the knife on the cinch strap...the one on the gray dappley horse."

"Naomi, get Gabriel and both of you stay with Hoss." Adam ordered the girl immediately. Naomi ran off. Adam smiled at Oscar. "Oscar, I'm taking you to be with my brother Hoss, too...as long as you're with him, Lug Dawson can't do anything to you." Adam stood up and hurried the boy to where his middle brother was being tended to by Mercy.

"Hey, Adam!" Hoss greeted him as Adam and Oscar approached. "JJ's got a real big lead already—ain't no way none o' the others can catch her now."

"Miss Harris, can you clean Oscar's face, please?" Adam addressed the jet-tressed woman with his brother. Mercy automatically sensed that Adam needed to talk to Hoss in private, so she herded Oscar a few steps closer to the water pump.

"Hoss," Adam said sharply, "Keep an eye on the children—I've got to stop Eve Jane." Adam ran for where Cochise was hitched, practically leaping into the saddle. Regardless of the awkward stirrup length, he kicked the pinto into a gallop. Every second would count now because if he didn't stop JJ in time, the sliced cinch strap would snap while she was riding at full speed, causing her to fall off Sirocco and directly into the path of all the other horses galloping behind her!

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

JJ MACGRUDER'S SPIRITS soared at the sound of the starter's gun. Sirocco responded immediately, leaping forward and giving his all, the surrounding scenery of the circuitous racecourse blurring by them as they ran. The brunette crouched down low in the saddle, her right hand clapping her nigh-shapeless gray slouch hat to the top of her head—exhilarated that she was finally, finally getting her chance to fulfill her lifelong desire. All she had to do was hang on and cross the finish line—Sirocco would do the rest.

She took a moment to look over her shoulder and grinned at the sight—she and her mount were a third of the way down the street and all of the other horses in the Steeplechase were practically still at the starting line. JJ had been correct about Sirocco—he had speed as well as spirit. There was no stopping them now! The young woman let out a yodel of anticipatory joy and egged the horse to even greater speed, barreling around the first turn in the course...

ADAM BROKE OUT in a cold sweat as the painful vision of a broken and injured Eve Jane flashed across his mind's eye: the doctored cinch strap would no doubt snap apart while Sirocco was at full speed, and not only would the fall be liable to cause maximum damage, but it was all-too-likely that the other riders in the race would be going far too fast to stop or even swerve around her once she was on the ground. Getting smashed to the ground and then being trampled by multiple horses was an excruciating way to—

No. Nothing was going to happen, damn it! The eldest Cartwright son used the reins to whip Cochise to even greater speed—horse and rider were handicapped by the fact that Eve Jane had started seconds earlier than they had...but Adam was also not obligated to follow the racecourse, so his skills in engineering immediately had him urging the pinto along a straight line that would intersect the official course, hopefully at a point ahead of Eve Jane and before her saddle fell victim to the sabotage wreaked upon it. To this end, Adam forced Joe's horse to run through a street that had traffic on it, down a length of boardwalk and jump a hitching rail as well as some stacked crates in order to get to his intended destination in time.

The pair burst onto the designated racetrack, Adam reining Cooch to a halt long enough for his hazel eyes to assess the fact that Sirocco and his rider just rocketed by. The man didn't stop to think, but whipped the pinto into full gallop, his entire being straining to catch up to the gray dapple in time to avert disaster, and oh-so-slowly inching closer to running duo—was it his imagination, or were they slowing down?

Then his heart stopped when he very clearly saw Eve Jane lurch to her left just as Sirocco was turning right to continue following the course. Adam spurred Cochise forward and fervently prayed that he wasn't too late...

HOSS HAD ALL three of the children with him, as well as Mercy (who was still fussing a bit over the hand he had used to punch Herman Voorhees with) and Little Joe, who was still sprawled out on the ground, although he had his head in Becky's lap and the blond was bent over him, stroking his face and trying to make Joe focus on her in order to see if he had a concussion. The big man, however, wanted to know why Adam was all het up about needing to stop JJ, and the only people he could ask were the children.

"Why is Adam riding out after JJ?" Hoss asked. The little boy that Naomi had befriended looked at Hoss with frightened eyes, too scared to say anything and Gabriel shrugged.

"Oscar told Adam that Mr. Dawson made him cut Sirocco's cinch strap." Naomi supplied. "Mr. Dawson is a mean man...he said he'd break Oscar's bones if he didn't do what he was told." Hoss recoiled in horror at the revelation. Mercy gave a choked sort of gasp, too.

"My God...if that strap breaks while she's racing, Hoss..." the teacher's voice trailed off in alarm. Realizing that he couldn't leave the children unattended—not in the face of Lug Dawson's threat against the little boy—all Hoss could do was stay right there...but his arm automatically wrapped around Mercy's shoulders and he drew in his breath when she turned in towards him, hiding her face in his shoulder and trembling at the terrifying thought of what might happen to the feisty JJ if Adam was too late to stop her. Hoss' free hand reached up and stroked the silky jet-tressed head pressed to his shoulder in an attempt to sooth her.

"It's gonna be all right." he said in an implacable voice. "Adam's gonna make it in time." Hoss prayed to God that what he was saying was true...he prayed very hard.

JOE WAS IN Heaven...or, at least, it was his idea of what Heaven would be like...he was lying with his head cushioned against a pillow that was just right—not too soft and not too hard. He smelled the scent of lavender around him and, even with his eyes closed, he could tell the hands stroking his face belonged to a girl. Smiling, he captured one of those soft hands against his cheek, then pulled it to his lips so that he could kiss its palm, nuzzling the skin instinctively.

"Joe!" The previously cajoling tones of the dulcet voice suddenly turned sharp, startling the youngest Cartwright brother into snapping his eyes open. For a moment the face before him swam in a haze, but he concentrated and focused on the concerned expression on Becky's face.

Becky...his sister through the marriage of his father to her adopted mother...whose palm he was teasing with his lips. Panic swamped him and he released her hand, sitting bolt upright as the enormously grave sin of his actions hammered through his fuzzy brain.

"Becky!" he gabbled in horror, wincing as the pain in his head added to his woes. "You...I...we...what happened?" The blond hovering over him blew out a breath.

"Herman Voorhees punched you." she told him, then looked away. "Joe, Adam's gone after JJ...she's riding Sirocco, but Lug had the cinch strap cut. I think he was trying to make sure that you'd get hurt."

"What???" Joe was instantly leaping to his feet—and his head retaliated with a lance of pain that made him wince once more. It was no less than he deserved, the curly-haired young man thought guiltily—not only was he having totally inappropriate urges towards his stepsister, but one of his best friends could well get killed because of him.

Joe Cartwright's prayers for JJ's safety were added to those from Adam as well as Hoss, Becky, Gabriel, Naomi and even Mercy and little Oscar, too.

JJ GRINNED—SHE could see the completely stunned look on her father's face when she crossed the finish line, and she hadn't even passed the second turn on the racecourse yet. This was going to be so sweet!

Approaching the second turn in the course, the brunette turned her head to glance over her left shoulder—and was stunned herself to see Cochise coming up on her. JJ's instinct was to use the reins to spur Sirocco ahead even faster, because there was no way she'd let Little Joe Cartwright beat her today...but then she remembered that Joe couldn't possibly be riding now, and she turned her head again in order to see who was on the horse, her chocolate eyes narrowing when she recognized the midnight-clad form of the Parson.

Something was wrong.

JJ began to rein in Sirocco even as they took the turn—when her saddle slipped abruptly to the left, as though the cinch was suddenly loosened. The young woman continued her pressure on the reins but felt a wrench as the cinch seemed to completely let go. Her stomach somersaulted with the unpleasant sensation of being ejected from a running horse, and JJ automatically released Sirocco's reins, not wishing to drag the horse down with her. In a weird kind of slow-motion perspective she saw Sirocco continue to run down the street, as well as her hat tumble off her head. She had a split-second to pray that Adam could stop in time so that she didn't get trampled before all the air rushed out of her on impact.

Amazingly enough, JJ impacted not with the compacted dirt of the street but Adam's own body. Her head was spinning a bit, but she realized that, somehow, the man in black had managed to get Cochise to pour on a burst of speed and close the remaining gap between the horses so that he caught the airborne female. JJ instinctively threw her arms around his neck as the eldest of the Cartwright brothers reined the pinto they were riding to a stop to the left side of the road.

"Eve—are you all right?" he demanded anxiously, his free hand passing over her body to quickly check for broken bones or other injuries. She nodded, her eyes wide as she stared up into Adam's face.

"My...my right side is going to be achy where I slammed into you but I'm...I'm fine." she told him, then peered behind him, seeing her saddle and the saddle blanket on the ground yards away. "What...what happened..?"

"Lug Dawson had the cinch on your saddle cut." Adam said tersely. Before he could say anything else, the rest of the racers appeared, thundering by the couple on the pinto. JJ gasped and then gave a sharp whistle that hurt Adam's ears.

"Ow! What—?"

"I have to win the race!" JJ cried by way of explanation as Sirocco returned, trotting up to Cochise and whickering a greeting to the other horse. Adam gaped at her.

"Woman—you were just nearly killed!"

"Adam...I have to win the race!" JJ insisted, pushing herself away from him and, grabbing a fistful of Sirocco's mane, pulling herself onto the gray dapple's back. She hastily snatched at the reins, getting them after a couple of tries, and then kicked Sirocco back into motion, leaving Adam to stare after her in consternation. She'd never be able to make it—Eve Jane was behind and riding bareback. It would take a miracle. Adam turned Cochise in order to get back to the rest of his family...then turned again. Cochise obligingly trotted off along the racecourse, following the other horses by breaking into a loping sort of run at Adam's urging.

Damn him if he didn't have to see whether or not Eve Jane won the race.

JJ'S HEART POUNDED along with the rhythm of Sirocco's hooves, and the sweat pouring from her forehead was getting blown into her hairline and ears, but she didn't dare waver in her concentration—the promise she made to her father was echoing in her head like a harbinger of doom. She caught up to the pack of racers at about the halfway mark and exhorted Sirocco to pull out all the stops.

Her horse didn't let her down—he ran all out, his legs churning like windmills in a hurricane. JJ passed the largest knot of horses and came level to a bay that she gradually passed as well. Only two other horses were in front of her: a chestnut ridden by someone she didn't recognize and a palomino that she knew belonged Wayne Rutherford. Wayne had been a very sore loser to Cochise for the past six or so years of races in the Virginia City area, and the brunette pegged him as her biggest obstacle to passing the finish line first.

"Hyah!!!" JJ shouted encouragement to the gray dapple that was straining even harder simply because he knew his mistress wanted him to...needed him to. They thundered along, creeping up on and then passing the unknown chestnut.

Again JJ urged her horse to give that little bit of extra effort as the home stretch yawned before the two lead horses. The gap between her and Wayne went from ten yards to eight...to five...to three...to two...to almost one...to...

HOSS AND THE recovered Joe herded their group to the finish line in order to see who would win.

"Here they come!" someone in the considerable crowd screamed.

"Is JJ there?" Hoss shouted over the increasing volume of the throng, as the spectators, getting caught up in the exciting competition, were cheering and yelling encouragement.

"I don't—no, wait—yes!" Joe hollered back as he ducked around in an effort to keep jumping and shifting people from blocking his view. "Yes...JJ's still in the race—looks like she's riding bareback!"

"Hoss, Hoss!" Gabriel yanked at the big man's shirt. "Lift me up! I wanna see!" Hoss immediately put the blond boy on his shoulders. Gabriel turned his attention to the three lead horses.

"I see Mr. Rutherford...JJ...and a man on a chestnut!" he called out. "I don't think that chestnut's fast enough—no...it's just JJ and Mr. Rutherford now! Wow! They're both runnin' all get out!" Gabe squinted. "Oh, boy! JJ's behind but she's catchin' up fast!"

Hoss, by virtue of his height, could see that JJ was in second and, as his littlest brother had enthusiastically pointed out, was quickly closing on Wayne Rutherford's palomino.

"C'mon, JJ—you can do it!" he yelled encouragement. "C'mon, Sirocco...go!" Joe was also shouting his support of the brunette and the gray dapple, pumping his fist and willing the pair to go even faster.

The entire crowd was likewise in the midst of hopping up and down, screaming for their particular favorites and anticipating the herd of horses stampeding for the finish line. So was Gabriel, whose excitement was such that his wildly waving arms unbalanced the boy and he had to grab Hoss' head to keep from tipping over—unfortunately, this resulted in the middle Cartwright brother's hat being pushed down over his eyes and he missed the finish of the race.

"WINNAH!!!" bellowed one of the judges as another one wildly waved the huge green banner that was being used to signal the end of the Steeplechase. The crowd was in a cheering frenzy, but half the people were saying that Morning Star, Wayne Rutherford's palomino had won, and the other half were equally sure that Sirocco had managed to pull ahead at the last second.

"Joe...Joe, did JJ win???" Hoss asked, dislodging his somewhat crushed hat from his head. Joe blew out a frustrated breath.

"I didn't see—this big palooka stepped in front of me!" Joe answered angrily, causing the man he'd just indicated with his thumb to turn around and scowl down the smaller male. Joe, however, scowled back. The man was tugged away by the lady with him, just as Joe's arm was snagged by both of Becky's hands.

"Don't you dare even think of getting into a fight, Joe!" the blond girl warned him. "Herman Voorhees has already managed to knock you down—I'll never forgive you if you get hurt worse!" Joe blinked startled green eyes and didn't resist the pull of her hands as she tugged him in the direction that Hoss, Mercy and the children were heading.

JJ slowed Sirocco down to a stop, reining the horse around and coming face to face with Wayne Rutherford.

"Did I win?" he asked.

"I don't know." JJ answered honestly. The sandy-haired man sat on his horse and shook his shaggy head with half a grin on his face.

"Damn me if that wasn't the best race we ever run!" he admitted. "Shoot, JJ—if ya hadn'ta stopped there, ya woulda won it hands down." Wayne's gray eyes swept over horse and rider. "Damn, JJ...what happened to your saddle?" She opened her mouth to explain but saw the judges waving their arms and indicating they wanted her and Wayne to come back to the finish line.

"Guess we're gonna find out who won." JJ said, hitching her head in the officials' direction. "C'mon, Wayne." The two contenders trotted back to the finish line, where the head judge beamed at them both.

"That was the most exciting race we've had in Virginia City in years!" he declared, then held up a brass cup and a pouch. The crowd's applause was deafening and the cheers reverberated through the streets...

ADAM TROTTED UP to the finish line, hearing the jubilation of the crowd—apparently the winner of the race had been declared, but the sheer mass of people between him and wherever JJ had ended up made it impossible for him to ride Cochise forward, so he dismounted and hitched the pinto nearby, then fought his way through the tightly-packed throng until he reached where his family had gathered around JJ.

JJ didn't hear anything but the echo of the judge's decision ringing in her ears:

"I hereby declare Rutherford's Morning Star the winner by a nose!"

Adam eyed JJ with a healthy amount of concern—she looked pale and shaky. Perhaps she was suffering a delayed reaction to being thrown off her horse?

"Eve?" he asked, reaching out a hand to gently clasp her shoulder. When he did, she turned disbelieving chocolate eyes up to him. Adam was inundated by a sudden urge to hold her close and comfort her—she had run an incredible race, regardless of the outcome. Even as he moved, a voice interrupted:

"Eve Jane, it's time for you to keep your promise."

Frank MacGruder stood only a few feet away, the grin on his face immediately prompting Adam to double his fists, especially since the brunette with him began to tremble as she shook her head. Adam noticed the same thing that she was apparently reacting to: on Frank's right stood Herman Voorhees, who was nursing a bruised and swelling jaw—on the farmer's left was a bemused Reverend Jordan.

"Pa...please...don't do this." JJ begged, looking utterly trapped. "I would've won if the saddle hadn't been tampered with!"

"That don't make no never mind, girl." her father told her. "You made me a promise, an' now ya gotta keep it!"

"Promise? What promise?" Adam demanded sharply, privately debating whether to punch both Herman and Frank for making JJ go through what she was going through at the moment.

"She's always been Miss High-N-Mighty, thinkin' she's better'n her own kin," Frank said smugly, "So proud that her horse would win the race—not so high-n-mighty now, though, are ya? Ya made me that promise, girl, and we're here to make ya keep your word! I got your rings..." The man produced a pair of small gold bands from his pocket, "...I got your groom..." He nodded to Herman, who leered at JJ, "...and I got the preacher. You promised you'd win or get married—and marry you will!"

"Now wait just a doggone minute, Mr. MacGruder!" Hoss objected. "We found out that JJ's saddle was doctored—she coulda got thrown from her horse!"

"Yeah!" Joe added. "It isn't fair to hold her to a promise when it wasn't her fault she didn't win!"

"Ya can all caterwaul to High Heaven, boy," Frank dismissed their arguments, "But I been raised to always honor my word—an' I expect for my children t'do the same. She gave me her word to win or marry...an' she didn't win. An' a promise is a promise, girl, no matter what ya promised nor when." JJ was the picture of utter defeat as her shoulders sagged at the realization that there was no way for her to avoid her father's plan for her—she had, indeed, promised...and she always honored her word, no matter what.

"Mr. MacGruder," Reverend Jordan temporized, clearly seeing the reticence that JJ harbored, "I think it would be best if you would reconsider—"

"Meanin' no disrespect, preacher-man," Frank drawled, "But ya got no call to butt in—yer here to marry my daughter to the man she promised to wed."

"Excuse me, Mr. MacGruder." Adam said emphatically. "But my brothers and I have incontrovertible proof that Eve Jane would have won that race had not exigent circumstances intervened."

"Uh, what?" Frank asked, looking and sounding completely blank.

"He means he's got proof positive that I would have won the race—it's not something I'm just saying, Pa." JJ explained for him. Frank waved a dismissive hand.

"Don't matter if the Almighty hisself appeared and told me that JJ woulda won." he persisted. "She made me her promise first, an' she knows she gotta keep it no matter—"

"No matter what she promised?" Adam interrupted.

"Yup."

"No matter when she promised?"

"Yup!" Frank confirmed. Hoss noticed that Adam's thinking mask settled intensely over his face. Frank MacGruder reached out a hand and latched onto JJ's wrist.

"Come on, girl..." he growled, "...we're gittin' ya to the church before any of these Cartwrights give me more lip!" Swallowing hard, JJ turned to Hoss and silently handed him Sirocco's reins, as the big man was the closest to her left. Hoss felt his heart twist in the wind, knowing that JJ didn't want to marry Herman but would do it anyway since she was too honorable not to keep her word. He was completely helpless to aid his friend and he didn't like the feeling.

"I'm sorry, Mr. MacGruder." Adam said suddenly. "You can't take JJ anywhere until she keeps another promise...one she made long before the promise she made to you." Frank glared at the tall dark man, while his daughter looked at Adam in consternation.

"Your father says that you're honor-bound to keep your promises no matter what you promised or when..." Adam explained, then almost off-handedly addressed Frank: "Isn't that so, Mr. MacGruder?"

"Yup, i'tis." the farmer agreed, scowling because he was getting suspicious.

"Then I'm afraid you can't have Eve Jane marry anyone until she gives me the answer to the proposal I made to her several years ago." Adam announced. Everyone else in the immediate group was stupefied...including JJ.

"Adam...what are you talking about?" she asked, utterly bewildered.

"Hoss was there, he should remember." Adam reminded her. "You, he and several other people wanted my father and I to judge your frog-catching contest. You had, far and away, the biggest frog in the Carson Valley, and—" JJ's mouth dropped open as the memory of what Adam was talking about dimly blossomed within her head.

"My God, Adam...you were...what...fifteen years old?" the brunette recounted. "I was eight...no, wait, it was right after my ninth birthday—Adam Cartwright...you can't possibly be serious!"

"Heyyyy..." Hoss said, snapping his fingers, "...I was there—an' you're right, Adam...you proposed to her!" Frank snarled.

"You're just sayin' that!" he insisted. "You're just tryin' t'be clever a-cuz my daughter ran out o' her high-n-mighty ideas to keep from obeyin' me!" Both Adam and Hoss took exception to being called liars, but Adam shook his head at Hoss, who had bristled but stood down at his older brother's signal.

"To be completely honest, Mr. MacGruder," Adam told him mildly, "The exact response your daughter had to my proposal was to tell me...'I can't even answer that 'til I'm all growed up!' And since Eve Jane is definitely...'all growed up' now...I'd like the answer to my proposal before you try to marry her off to someone else." He turned to JJ and gave her an oblique look. She stood there as though shell-shocked, then she gulped audibly.

"Sure. Yes. I accept..?" The lack of conviction irritated Adam, but he understood the circumstances Eve Jane was laboring under. He also anticipated that Frank wouldn't be satisfied with the development.

"Now wait a goshdarn minnit!" Frank protested. "I...ain't calling ya liars...but kids can remember things funny. How can I be sure that this actually happened?"

"My father was very much an adult when he witnessed this." Adam pointed out. "If you wish, you may ask him yourself."

"He ain't here!" Frank growled. "He's gone to the Old States with that Callahan woman he married." None of the Cartwright brothers liked the farmer's tone when he spoke.

"Have a care how you refer to our stepmother, if you please." Adam replied coldly. "Now, if you want to ask my father, I'll happily send him a telegram on your behalf. You may compose the telegram yourself. We'll wait for the answer. If my father confirms your suspicions, then Eve Jane is free to marry..." The sable-maned man's hazel eyes swept Herman from disheveled head to dusty foot. "...whomever you had in mind. If he confirms my story, however, then Eve will remain my fiancée. Is this agreeable to you?" Frank's face wrinkled in deep thought.

"Only if your whole family comes to my farm to wait for the answer." Frank insisted. "I don't trust that one of yas won't just try t'send a second telegram to tell your Pa what to say to me." Adam's eyes narrowed, but he inclined his head.

"Very well."

Sheffield House, Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT (approximately 2793 miles east of Virginia City, Nevada)

The Seth Thomas Regulator clock on the wall gently chimed the fourth hour of the afternoon as Maria and Joseph Sheffield sat in their front parlor and conversed with Zach Callahan. The married couple were pretending not to notice that the nap which Ben and Cassandra had excused themselves to take at about ten o'clock that morning still wasn't finished yet, as they had yet to reappear downstairs. Zach, however, wasn't dwelling on that, as his conversation with Mr. Sheffield was holding his interest.

A native of Southport, Connecticut, Joseph had completed his formal education by the time he was fourteen years old. He traveled to North Carolina around 1807 and originally trained as a druggist, eventually moving to New York where he attempted to run a dry goods establishment.

"I was an abysmal failure at it." the man recalled, chuckling. "However, I viewed it as a learning experience and followed my nose to Mobile, Alabama. I got into the cotton industry by becoming an exporter and found my niche...I am proud to say that I became the top exporter of cotton in a rather short time."

Maria added that it was in 1822 that she and her beloved Joseph married, proudly informing Zach that they parented nine children. The entire family eventually returned to Connecticut, to live in New Haven. Once they were here, Joseph turned his business acumen from cotton to transportation, first financing the Farmington Canal, a waterway that ran from New Haven to Northampton, Massachusetts, but then replacing that canal with a railroad, and from there developing the railroad that ran from New Haven to New York City.

"I had the good fortune of throwing in my lot with Henry Farnham, an engineer with remarkable vision." Joseph explained. "He helped design the canal and then assisted in the railroad projects as well." Mr. Sheffield and Mr. Farnham cooperated further in completing the Michigan Southern Railroad, over which the first train from the East entered Chicago in 1852, and in building the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, including the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River, in 1855.

"No wonder Mama said you, more than anyone, would have known the arrival time of our train!" Zach said, laughing. "You used to run the railroad we were traveling on."

"Indeed," Joseph agreed with a smile, "Although I am retired from that...I've been pursuing a life of philanthropy since...oh, since after creating the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad. I have had numerous blessings in my life—my wife, my children and those astonishing successes in business, that I truly feel that it's a sacred trust for me to try to help as many other people as possible." As he spoke, Joseph shared a loving smile with his wife, who happily smiled back. Zach shifted uncomfortably, thinking that it was quite possible that Mr. and Mrs. Sheffield might, in their own way, be as sentimental as his stepfather and mother.

"Maria! Joseph!" Cassie's voice sounded from the parlor doorway as she entered the room, looking a bit flustered. "My apologies, please...Ben and I didn't realize we were so...tired." All three people got to their feet when the silvered blond went to the matron with her hands outstretched. Maria smiled at her, a smile that was at once amused and understanding.

"That is quite all right, dear," she assured the younger woman, "As long as you are both rested now, that is all that matters." Maria drew Cassandra down onto the sofa next to her. "Let us catch each other up on our lives. You must elaborate on the members of your expanded family...they sound like fascinating young men..." The women discussed their respective families, while Zach enthusiastically filled Ben in on the astounding things that Joseph had accomplished in his life so far.

"Please, please!" the humble neo-septuagenarian said modestly, "The cotton and railway accomplishments are fine, but I truly hope that my efforts to further education are what may be remembered of my life." Ben was struck anew by how self-effacing the man was even after achieving all that he had. It was too bad Adam wasn't here to meet Mr. Sheffield, the rancher was sure that his eldest son would have enjoyed the experience.

Joseph was intensely interested in Ben's views on managing the Ponderosa so that the land remained as preserved as possible while being suitably productive for the needs of the population. Joseph was speculating on the effectiveness of selectively harvesting timber when the butler interrupted.

"Excuse me, sir," the servant said politely, "But a telegram has arrived for Mr. Cartwright." The uniformed man held a silver tray out towards Ben, upon which sat the message in its envelope. Ben thanked him and took the missive.

"I have been told that the messenger has been asked to await a response from you, Mr. Cartwright." the butler told Ben, who exchanged a surprised glance with Cassandra before opening the telegram and reading the message within:

Writing for truth about frog contest involving your son and my daughter. Send reply to Frank MacGruder, MacGruder Farm, Virginia City, Nevada

Pa: Above message from Frank MacGruder. Refers to what happened after we ruled Eve Jane caught the largest bullfrog in Carson Valley. Please reply your version soonest. Will explain later. Adam

The expression on Ben's face was so peculiar that Cassie stood up and went over to where he stood, laying a hand on his arm.

"Ben?" she asked anxiously. "Is something wrong? It isn't one of the children, is it?" His wife's apprehensive tone immediately snapped him out of his (for lack of a better word) stupor.

"No...no, there's nothing wrong and the children aren't mentioned." he told her. "But...something odd is going on, though I can't even guess what it may be." Ben showed her the message. After reading it, Cassie frowned thoughtfully.

"The messenger is waiting for your reply, though, Ben." she reminded him. "So you'd best do as Adam asks. We'll just have to wait until he can explain about it to find out what this is all about." The man from Nevada grimaced in agreement and spent the next few minutes composing his reply to the telegram. He left to pay the messenger and returned, chuckling.

"What is it, Ben?" Cassandra asked, using both her hands to clasp one of his. The ivory-maned man heaved a sigh.

"I can't help but wonder what kind of circumstances may have generated this." he said wryly. "My boys seem to be able to get into the most...extraordinary situations. The last time I got a telegram about—and then from—Adam, he had managed to get himself thrown into jail because the authorities of the town suspected him to be a stagecoach robber who was mentally unstable." Cassandra's silver-gray eyes widened in disbelief.

"Adam?"

"Yes, my dear, Adam." Ben confirmed. "Of course, it turned out that it was all a misunderstanding—there was a man riding about the countryside in a suit of armor who figured into the whole thing." His wife did a double take.

"Ben Cartwright," she said, eying him with suspicion, "I should hope that such events are few and far between!" Ben's hands went to her shoulders.

"Cassandra, I have a confession to make," he admitted in a low voice, "I'm afraid that particular adventure was only one in a continuing series...have I ever told you about the time Hoss discovered some leprechauns on the Ponderosa..?"

Cassandra Callahan-Cartwright spent the next few hours wondering how in the world she could have allowed herself to marry into such a family?

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

AFTER COMPOSING THE message to be sent to Connecticut, Adam suffered the indignity of Frank MacGruder reading the telegram form before he was allowed to hand it to the clerk. The telegram was sent with instructions for an immediate response. Frank eyed the tall dark Cartwright.

"Now we all go back to my place an' wait for the reply." he ordered gruffly. "I want your brood where I can keep an eye on all of them." Adam took umbrage at the implication that anyone in his combined family would act dishonestly in this given situation, but again he nodded. So it was that the curious procession to the MacGruder farm consisted of Adam riding Sirocco, Joe riding Cochise, Hoss driving the buggy with Mercy, the surrey being driven by Becky with herself, Reverend Jordan and the twins in it and Frank MacGruder following up the mini-parade in his battered buckboard with JJ beside him and Herman Voorhees in the back. Pulling up to the farmhouse, Frank bellowed for his sons. Jimmy stuck his head out of the front door, but had to go back inside to keep an eye on the meal he was making for midday.

"Where the hell is Luther?" the MacGruder elder grumbled. "He's a-posed to be here, too!" JJ jumped down from the seat.

"I'll take care of the wagon, Pa." she offered. The man none-too-graciously shoved the reins into her keeping.

"See that you do, girl." he acknowledged, stalking into the house. JJ led the team around the side of the house and unhitched the horses, getting unexpected help from Adam. She turned around and tilted her head back to look up at him as he took one of the horses from her.

"Show me where he goes." Adam said, nodding to the barn. Sensing that he wanted to talk to her in private, JJ took the second equine and led the way into the barn. As they cared for the tired animals, she spoke first.

"Adam..." the brunette's voice was low and somewhat choked, "...I...I have to apologize. I don't know how this whole thing got so out of hand. I never meant for you to...to...get involved the way you have." He could tell that she was very upset—she'd forgotten to call him "Parson" in that ironic way of hers.

"Don't apologize, Eve." he assured her. "I'm lucky I remembered about that frog contest at all...and I couldn't very well stand by and let your father bulldoze you into marrying Herman, now, could I?"

"Couldn't you?" JJ replied. "Adam...unless your father has a bad memory—which I doubt—he's going to send a message back that confirms exactly what you told my Pa...that I promised to answer your proposal after I was grown. Since I said 'yes' in front of everyone, he's also going to expect me to marry you...and we both know you don't want that." Adam drew in his breath, but then gave JJ a sly smile.

"Just because you said 'yes', Eve, doesn't mean we have to get married right away." he pointed out. "After all, it's customary for couples to have engagements that last months—even years." The young lady with him halted in grooming the horse she was tending, and then smiled back.

"Why, Adam Cartwright..." she marveled, "...you're completely correct! We can be engaged...and a long engagement ought to give me the time to talk Pa out of his fool notion that I'd let him grow old without anyone to care for him." JJ smiled to herself and finished grooming the horse in the stall with her. The eldest Cartwright brother frowned.

"You mean to tell me that your father has been doing all this to you because he feels he needs to insure he has a live-in caregiver for his golden years?" Adam couldn't even begin to express how appalled he felt when he saw the brunette's head bob as she replied.

"I'm sure this all started back around when Ma first got sick," she explained, "She lost the use of her legs, and then I took that exam to get a scholarship...I didn't get the scholarship but Pa made sure I was busy around the house. I got the idea for adding income by cultivating the mushrooms and I saved all my money—I even earned more here and there. Then I bought Sirocco. Just about then Pa started making noises about how I ought to marry and me and my husband could take over the farm. I was paying more attention to Sirocco than my Pa, though, because I knew I'd be able to race Sirocco one day and win." She frowned thoughtfully. "Well...I thought I'd be able to win."

"You would have won if it weren't for Lug Dawson trying to get even with Little Joe." Adam assured her. JJ's chocolate eyes met his cool hazel gaze in sudden comprehension.

"Lug's blaming Joe because Becky doesn't want to spark him?" she asked. Adam hesitated, then explained how Lug had attacked Becky at Callahan Station but that Joe had stopped the trapper. JJ frowned.

"That explains that." she agreed. "Lug's got a mean streak in him a mile wide...we're lucky he didn't take it into his head to cut Sirocco's ankle." The man in black grimaced.

"Well, he didn't, so we can be grateful for that." Adam said, finishing with grooming the horse in front of him. "Let's go join the others." JJ, also done now, took the brush from him and stowed it away along with the one she'd been using.

"Best we'd hurry, Parson," she teased, "With the way Pa tends to bore everyone, I'm sure they'd all prefer to hear a sermon of yours by now." Adam looked heavenward but chose to ignore the jibe, following JJ from the barn. Neither of them were aware of the shadows stirring in the loft.

THE PEOPLE INSIDE the cramped farmhouse looked none too comfortable to be there, although their discomfiture had nothing to do with the lack of space, but more with the ill grace of Frank MacGruder. Elvira MacGruder was seated in a padded chair near the hearth, her son Jimmy alternating between keeping an eye on the meal that was on the stove and making sure that his mother had whatever she needed. In spite of not being able to move from the chair, Mrs. MacGruder spoke kindly to the twins and proceeded to tell them the story of Cinderella. As she spoke, however, her husband glowered at Hoss, Mercy, Joe and Becky, as did Herman Voorhees, who leaned against the wall behind where the patriarch of the MacGruder family sat in his rocking chair. Even though he wasn't the recipient of the truculent stares, Reverend Jordan was feeling very ill at ease himself.

"About time you two came back!" Frank's sour voice greeted Adam and JJ as they came in through the door. "Where's Luther? He with you?"

"No, Pa." JJ denied. "We haven't seen him at all."

"Make yourself useful, then, girl, an' see if'n ya can't make your brother's stew somethin' we can swallow." her father grumped, hooking a thumb in the direction of the stove. Jimmy frowned, but his sister patted him on the shoulder as she approached, saying something to him in a low voice. The young man subsided, instead turning to where their dishes were kept in order to rummage through the storage space and try to make sure they had enough for everyone present.

JJ ended up adding dumplings to the stew and between herself and her brother Jimmy, they served up the food to everyone there. As this was being done, the door opened up and Luther came in, carrying a rifle that he put away, muttering about how the hunting was bad. His sister glanced at him, frowning.

"Sit yourself down, then, if you can find a spot." she bade him. "And I'll get you some stew and dumplings." Luther did as she asked, eagerly grabbing the plate she handed to him and greedily tucking into the food. Surprisingly there was a big apple cobbler for desert, after which JJ suggested that it would likely be best if everyone waited for the incoming telegram outside, as there was more room and it was a lovely day anyway. Frank begrudgingly agreed. Everyone went outside except JJ, Elvira, Mercy and Becky, as the latter two volunteered to aid JJ in cleaning up the kitchen and doing the dishes.

"Eve Jane," Elvira said after the men and children had been gone for a few minutes, "What's happening? Your Pa come in looking none too happy, an' you're here, too...but you don't look like you won the race." The younger MacGruder stared at her mother.

"Didn't he say when he came in, Ma?" she asked.

"Your Pa don't explain nothin'." Mrs. MacGruder reminded her daughter. "Especially if he didn't get what he wanted." JJ rolled her eyes and sighed.

"You explain, JJ." Becky told her. "Miss Harris and I will clear the table and start on the dishes." Mercy nodded, then went with the blond to go get started on the chores. JJ, meanwhile, knelt next to her mother's chair and told her the entire story about how her saddle had been cut and she'd lost the race.

"Child," Elvira said with a gusty sigh, "Perhaps it's a sign from the Lord—perhaps you're meant to marry Herman Voorhees."

"No!" the brunette objected vehemently. "I am not meant to be a brood mare for a man who will never respect me. I refuse to believe that!" JJ forced herself to calm a bit before telling her mother the rest of the story.

"...so now we're all here waiting for the telegram from back East." she explained. "Once Pa is convinced that Adam and I were telling him the truth, he'll forget about having me marry Herman. Adam and I will remain engaged for as long as it takes for me to convince Pa that he doesn't have to worry about when he gets too old to care for himself." Elvira looked at her daughter.

"I hope you're right, child," she said softly, "I truly hope you're right."

OUTSIDE, JIMMY WAS tending to gathering more firewood for inside the house. Adam and Reverend Jordan were in conversation, Hoss and Joe were nominally keeping an eye on the twins, and Frank was listening to his son Luther as the younger man was apparently talking to him about something that was putting a rather cunning look on Frank's face. Joe nudged his older brother in the ribs.

"Hey, Hoss...what do you make of that..?" he asked, nodding in the direction of the conversing MacGruders. The big man glanced over and frowned.

"I dunno." he admitted. "But I don't like it."

"Me, neither." Joe agreed. Hoss moved over to where Adam and Reverend Jordan where speaking together.

"Excuse me, reverend," the Cartwright second son addressed himself to the preacher and then turned to his older brother, "Adam, me an' Joe seen Mr. MacGruder talkin' to Luther. There's something about the way he's lookin', Adam...he's got somethin' up his sleeve." Adam glanced over at the older man—sure enough, Frank MacGruder looked like the cat that swallowed the canary.

"He does seem downright smug, doesn't he?" Adam conceded.

"I must admit, Adam, that I don't like the circumstances under which I may perform today's ceremony." the minister voiced his opinion firmly. "Although I genuinely hope that you will be the bridegroom—you, I can sense, will at least have the natural respect that is a wife's due from her husband."

"If all goes as planned, Reverend Jordan," Adam told him, "Then you won't have to perform a ceremony today." Both Hoss and the man of the cloth looked at Adam in surprise.

"Whatcha mean, Adam?" his younger brother asked, puzzled.

"You can't mean to abandon Eve Jane to the mercies of her father's plans for her?" Reverend Jordan queried. "She's such a lovely and generous soul...don't you want such a one for a wife?"

"Well, actually, Reverend Jordan, I woul—" the eldest of the Cartwright brothers began to explain but was interrupted by the arrival of a rider on a horse.

The telegram from his father had arrived.

Frank MacGruder all but snatched the message from the rider's hand and immediately tore into it, snapping the folded paper so that it opened up and squinting at the telegram's contents.

"Eve Jane MacGruder!!!" roared the farmer. "Get your skinny ass out here!!!"

"Mr. MacGruder!" chided Reverend Jordan, shocked at the coarse language. Frank merely gave the minister a baleful glare. The door of the log home opened and JJ hurried out.

"Yes, Pa?" she asked, wiping her hands on a dish towel tucked into the waistband of her oversize work pants. He shoved the telegram under her nose:

ADAM WAS FIFTEEN WHEN WE JUDGED JJ WINNER OF THAT COMPETITION. MY SON ALSO ENDED UP PROPOSING TO YOUR DAUGHTER. SHE LAUGHED AND PUT HIM OFF UNTIL SHE WAS GROWN. THIS IS ALL I REMEMBER.

BEN CARTWRIGHT

"I told you that we weren't lying to you, Pa." JJ said with dignity. Frank scoffed.

"So you was tellin' the truth...then." he jeered. "But you and your fake fee-ann-see there—" Here he nodded at Adam while grossly mispronouncing "fiancé", "—was schemin' out in the barn to break your word to me!" The brunette's mouth dropped open.

"Don't bother to deny it, you little witch," Frank told her loftily, "Luther weren't huntin'...he was lollygaggin' in the loft an' he heard the whole thing. Well, Little Miss Smartypants, ya got three choices now: ya marry Cartwright—" He pointed at Adam, then pointed at Herman. "—ya marry Voorhees...or ya hit the road an' never darken my door again, cuz I don't cotton to liars an' cheats—not even if they're kin!" As he spoke the last option, Frank pointed to the road that led away from Virginia City.

Meanwhile, JJ stared at her father, her mind boggled because yet another clever plan had gone up in smoke. Could it be that her mother's wistful admonition was correct: was it simply that JJ was fated to be tied to Herman Voorhees? JJ certainly didn't want Adam paying for what was essentially her own bad luck...but being banished from her home meant that she would not be allowed to see her own Ma.

"Pa...Pa...please..." the brunette begged, fighting the tears that threatened to swamp her. Years of frustration and toil and plans that didn't pay off drove her to her knees. "Please..."

"Choose..." Frank demanded implacably, "...now..!" JJ turned her face up to speak to her father—and found Adam in front of her, bending a bit and holding his hand out to her.

"Eve Jane," he said mildly, with the faintest trace of a smile on his lips, "Let's not keep Reverend Jordan waiting, shall we..?"

JJ saw Adam standing there holding out his hand and also saw his lips moving. Her brain rolled over the options: leave, never to see her mother again...marry Herman...marry Adam.

Herman was not an option. She could leave...but to never see Ma ever again..? Also not an option. Marry Adam? But...she knew he didn't love her...he was just being his usual noble, Parson-y self. Still, this was the only option left to her—Pa hadn't said that he wouldn't allow her to see Ma again if she married Adam.

The brunette stared uncomprehendingly at him for a moment, but, as he knew logic would ultimately dictate, she put her hand in his and allowed him to pull her to her feet. Good—she'd been looking entirely too...broken for a moment. Adam flicked away the distaste he held for Frank MacGruder, a man willing to utterly crush his own offspring in order to obtain security for himself, choosing instead to carefully guide Eve Jane to stand in front of the Reverend. However, there was one thing he needed from Frank...

"Mr. MacGruder." Adam said sharply. "The rings..?" The farmer was standing in shock, then he reached into the pocket of his work clothes and pulled out the two gold bands he'd gotten in anticipation of his daughter's wedding, the scowl returning to his face as he realized that his own bluff had been called. Obviously MacGruder had counted on Adam's refusing to marry Eve Jane and the big blowhard didn't know what to make of Adam not acting the way he'd figured.

"Hoss," Adam turned to his younger brother, "Would you kindly go get Mrs. MacGruder? I'm sure she'd like to be present at her daughter's wedding." The middle Cartwright brother immediately went into the house and came back out presently, bearing Mrs. MacGruder forth, chair and all. The woman was set down near JJ.

Reverend Jordan cleared his throat then performed the wedding ceremony. JJ's ring fit well enough on her finger but the ring for Adam was a couple sizes larger than it should have been, as his fingers and hands were considerably more slender than the thick-fingered farmhand, Herman Voorhees. Big ring or not, however, the deed was done.

To JJ's recollection, one moment she was gaping up at Adam, who kindly helped her to her feet. The next, she was being taken down from the back of Sirocco—again by Adam. The brunette frowned as the glitter of gold on her left hand caught her eye.

"What happened, Parson?" she asked, her chocolate brown eyes looking from the band of gold to his face in a very suspicious manner. Adam's own hazel eyes seemed to glow with laughter.

"Ahhhh...back again, are you?" he teased. "You looked rather out of it before."

"Before what?"

"Before you married me, Eve." Adam told her, enjoying her belligerent confusion a little too much.

"I...I...oh." She blinked. Married? Hadn't there been any other option? Any at all? She hated to think she'd trapped a man into marrying her. Especially Adam Cartwright.

"Are you all right?" JJ heard him ask her, and flushed because he'd taken her down off the horse by putting his hands on her waist...and they were still there. She pulled away from him.

"I'm fine." the brunette declared with a haughty toss of her head. Then she turned took two steps towards what she suddenly realized was the main house of the Ponderosa and it sank in:

She was now Mrs. Adam Cartwright.

Then she fainted.

"ADAM!" JOE CALLED out in warning. His oldest brother whirled in time to see Eve Jane crumpling to the ground and sprang to where she'd dropped, chiding himself for not escorting her into the house and making her sit down before going back to tend to Sirocco. He had seen that the events at the MacGruder farm had definitely overtaxed her, and her inability to recall that they had actually exchanged vows in front of Reverend Jordan had been more proof that the tensions of the past few days had caught up to and overwhelmed her. Adam scooped the young lady up, standing up in time to see Joe approach with Mrs. MacGruder in his own arms.

"Eve Jane isn't ill, is she?" Elvira asked anxiously. Adam looked down at the pale face cradled against his own shoulder.

"No, ma'am," he assured the older female, "I'm sure it's just a case of...the shock of how everything turned out today...I believe that Eve's just a bit over-set by all that's happened." Adam looked directly at Joe. "Please make sure that Mother MacGruder is made comfortable in the guest room, Joe." He turned and carried the woman in his own arms inside, hesitating as he strode to the middle of the living space in front of the huge fireplace. Adam needed to put Eve Jane down and give her a chance to recover, and his initial instinct was to put her on the comfortable sofa here, but he also knew that he desperately needed to speak to her in private, and the very public family space here would not do for the conversation he intended to have with her. He frowned, his hazel eyes falling on the stairs that led up.

Ah, well, he reasoned to himself, they were man and wife now, after all. So thinking, Adam Cartwright bore his unconscious bride up the stairs and to his bedroom.

EVE JANE MACGRUDER couldn't identify the scent that assailed her now...there was the omnipresent but pleasant scent of pine—but there was something else that tickled her nose and she couldn't put her finger on what it was...all she knew was that she liked it, and it seemed strangely familiar.

"Mmmmm..." she hummed approval of the unknown scent even as she felt that she was in bed—ah, she'd had a really weird and disturbing dream about losing the Steeplechase and her Pa sending a telegram East and ending up married to Adam Cartwright. Right—fantastic dream that, but she had to get up and get breakfast for everyone and make sure her Ma was settled before getting over to the Ponderosa to get Sirocco ready for the race. The brunette's eyes opened even as she languidly stretched and turned to her left to see if her Ma was up...

...and instantly realized that she was neither in her room, nor in her bed.

The young lady sat bolt upright, looking wildly around her—it was a larger room than the one she shared with her mother, it lacked the vase of flowers that she made it a point to keep arranged where Ma could see it and there were additions to this room that weren't in her own: a writing desk and what looked to be a drafting table...and there was also a guitar parked in the corner as well.

This had to be Adam's room.

The door opened and the young lady on the bed stared for a moment before scrambling in a less-than-graceful manner to her feet.

"What am I doing in here?" she asked immediately of the tall, dark man who stepped through the door. She tried not to swallow hard when he closed the door behind him.

"You fainted so I put you up here to recover." Adam told her mildly.

"I don't faint." the young lady insisted. The eldest of the Cartwright brothers kept a neutral expression on his face, sensing that his smirk would not be welcome at the moment.

"Well...it looked to me like you'd fainted," he amended, "So I brought you up here and then made sure your mother was comfortable in the guest room."

"Ma? Ma is here?" the brunette asked, confusion on her face. Adam's hazel eyes darkened a bit with concern.

"You must have been a bit more...upset than I realized." he commented, then nodded. "Yes...I told your father that I'd be looking after Mother MacGruder from now on, as she is my mother-in-law now." His bride's eyes were drawn to the gold ring glittering on her left hand as she slowly lifted it. Her chocolate gaze then lifted to his.

"Oh, God...that was real, wasn't it?" she asked.

"Yes, Eve...we're married. For real."

"Oh, Adam...I'm...I'm so sorry..." she said plaintively, "I never meant to drag you into all this..."

"Look...we need to talk about this, Eve." he told her.

"Could you...start with what happened after the ceremony..?" she asked him in a bit of an embarrassed tone. "I...I honestly don't remember much after you helped me to stand up."

"We were married by Reverend Jordan." Adam explained. "As soon as it was done, I told your father that you had voiced concerns about being separated from your mother...so I told him I'd be taking Mother MacGruder to the Ponderosa to put your mind at ease."

"And...and Pa agreed to this?" Eve's voice as she asked this was incredulous. Adam's teeth flashed in a brief smile.

"Let's just say that he couldn't very well argue with Hoss picking your mother up and transferring her to the surrey." the man in black admitted. "Besides, I pointed out that if I left Mother MacGruder with him, he'd just have the burden of taking care of her himself, as I was definitely taking you to the Ponderosa with me."

"And...did you mean it, Adam?" the brunette asked him. "About Ma staying here with us?"

"Of course." he replied in a voice that left no doubt. "You've shown your dedication and concern for your mother all these years, Eve—there was no way that I could have allowed her to stay with your father when all he's concerned about is himself."

"What if...what if he comes here to get her back?"

"He won't...trust me." Adam didn't tell her that, after Hoss had removed Mrs. MacGruder to the surrey, he'd threatened Mr. MacGruder with physical violence if the man so much as addressed either Eve or her mother in public with anything less than respect, much less attempted to contact either one of them without being invited to do so first by the female in question.

"Before we left," he did go on to say, "I had Becky and Miss Harris gather your mother's and your own clothing and personal items." He nodded towards a bureau. "Yours are on top of the chest of drawers over there." Eve glanced over at the stack of clothes that graced the surface, as well as the comb and brush that belonged to her.

"And you said you brought Ma here?" she asked eagerly.

"Yes." Adam answered emphatically. "She's been settled into the guest room downstairs." His wife brushed past him towards the door.

"I have to see her!" she said eagerly, opening the door and pausing, as she'd never been upstairs in the house before. "Which...which way is it...?" Adam paused—he'd really wanted to have a private discussion with her, but he could tell that she was still a bit off-balance thanks to the events of the day.

"Go straight to the end of the hall," he told her, crossing over to Eve and nudging her along with a hand to the small of her back, "The first turn on the right leads to the top of the stairs...I do believe you know the location of the guest room on the first floor, yes...?"

"Yes..." Eve was already three-quarters of the way down the hall, "...Thank you!" She turned the corner and hurried from view as Adam closed the door behind him.

Later, then, he resolved, they would speak later.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

JJ MADE HER way to the first-floor guest room...and found it empty. She blinked in shock but then whirled when she heard her mother's voice behind her.

"I'm over here, child." Elvira said mildly. The younger woman's chocolate eyes widened when she noticed that her mother was sitting in a chair that had wheels on it. Mrs. MacGruder further surprised JJ by wheeling the chair forward under her own power.

"Ma!" JJ gasped, a grin lighting up her face. "How...?"

"Adam said he once needed to use this chair." Elvira explained. "He got better, but since he still had the chair, he had Joseph fetch it for me. Now I don't have to have ya carry me everywhere." JJ heard something in her mother's voice that hadn't been there in years: self-respect.

"Aw, Ma..." the brunette came forward and squatted down so that her mother didn't have to look up at her, placing one hand on the older woman's knee, "...I didn't mind that at all...but I see that you're glad you can move yourself around. I'm happy for you." Elvira's own hand cupped her daughter's cheek.

"As I'm happy for ya, dear." Elvira said sincerely, then she turned her head and beamed a smile upwards. "Thank ya kindly, Adam." JJ glanced up and over her right shoulder, seeing that the eldest of the Cartwright brothers had come downstairs and was now walking up to them.

"I'm glad that this chair is able to help you, Mother MacGruder." he replied warmly. JJ stood up and, overwhelmed by the positive change in Elvira, threw her arms around Adam's neck and hugged him tightly, whispering as she did so:

"I can never repay you for this...thank you so much!" Then Eve released him, turning to her mother. "Ma...it's been such a long time...can we take a turn outside? I've missed our walks so."

"That would be so nice!" Elvira agreed. Adam went to the front door and held it open.

"You should be able to circle around the house, I think." he told them as Elvira slowly wheeled herself to the door. "But don't go farther than that—I doubt that Joe and Hoss ever got to clearing away and leveling any other paths on the ranch."

"I'll remember!" JJ acknowledged before leaving with her mother. Adam stood in the doorway for a moment, gazing after the mother and daughter as they carefully skirted the flower garden together.

"Adam?"

The man in black turned away from the front door, closing it as he faced his stepsister.

"Yes, Becky?"

"We need to talk." Rebecca said simply. Adam waved her over to the sofa nearby, looking around as she sat down.

"Where are the twins?" he asked as he perched on a chair opposite her.

"Joe's watching them." the blond answered. "Adam...are you going to take JJ somewhere so the two of you can be alone?" The raven-maned man blinked at her.

"I don't see how that's any of your business..." he began, but stopped when Becky rolled her sapphire eyes.

"No, it's none of my business," she conceded, "But it's also none of Gabriel and Naomi's business, either...and they don't always knock when they're supposed to—you remember last week, don't you?"

"It's burned into my memory." Adam responded acerbically, recalling the incident where Naomi had gone into the bathing room to take her bath—only Little Joe was already occupying the tub. The little girl hadn't seen anything, thanks to the suds that Joe had generated during his typical horseplay in the water...however, Naomi had halted a good six feet into the room and was shrieking in her version of maidenly affront. (Being only seven years old, however, Naomi's objections were that she was in the presence of..."ewwww...a boy in the bathtub!") Her screams had caused Becky to come running to see what was the matter. Poor Joe had no choice but to attempt to shrink down into the tub as Becky, after several attempts, finally managed to grab Naomi and haul her from the room, closing the door firmly shut while regaling her younger sister with the parable about looking before one would leap.

"You surely wouldn't want either of the twins interrupting you, that's for sure." Becky pointed out the obvious with a frown. Adam opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again...and then closed it again.

"No. I wouldn't." he agreed. "But...I don't know if there's anywhere that I could take JJ at the moment—we just got her Ma settled here."

"How about if I take the twins to the way station?" Becky offered. "I know we don't have any possible overnight stages due until this upcoming Friday. The twins and I could stay in the guest house." Adam thought hard.

"I don't like that Lug is still on the loose, though." he commented. Becky moued.

"How about if Hoss or Joe stays with us?" she counter-offered. Adam scratched the back of his head.

"That would be acceptable." he agreed. "You'll have to ask Joe, though—Hoss escorted Miss Harris back to town and I don't know when he'll be back." The blond young lady nodded and went off to find Joe, leaving Adam with his thoughts.

He was feeling a bit guilty in not correcting Becky's supposition that she needed to take the youngsters away from the ranch...he knew there would be nothing for either Naomi or Gabriel to interrupt, since he believed that JJ would wish to continue her original intentions of bringing her mother to Reno with her, where she wanted to study at the college there and qualify for her teaching certificate.

Adam was thinking that he definitely needed to talk honestly with Eve Jane, because there was a good chance that she may not want to have this marriage be a permanent one. If this was the case, then they would have to organize themselves so that that union could be annulled. But he had to speak to her about it first, and so far the opportunity hadn't arisen yet. However, he had every expectation that he would be able to explain what needed to be done and how it could be accomplished with a minimum of fuss—nobody outside their family need know that he and Eve Jane were man and wife, which is exactly what he was hoping for, as Adam intensely disliked having what was essentially his private business made public.

He was fairly certain that Eve Jane would heartily agree with him that it would be best to get an annulment as quickly and quietly as possible. After all, a union under these circumstances would hardly work—between her unfeminine attire and the way she sought out opportunities to mock him whenever they met, Eve Jane irritated him no end. Hardly the basis for a marriage, even if she had the sharpest wit this side of the Mississippi...or a brain that could come up with several different solutions to a single problem in the space of a few moments...or a thirst for knowledge that rivaled his own...or the fact that she'd felt really nice when she hugged him a few moments ago.

Adam grew very still—actually, he and Eve Jane were compatible on many different levels, but she was the kind of girl who would want somebody to love her, and not just a husband whom it made sense to be married to. Adam had been chasing that elusive idea of a love match for quite some time now, and had always wound up hurt. No, he couldn't offer Eve a marriage based on love, and he couldn't blame her for not wishing to settle for anything less.

He really needed to talk to her. Soon.

AS ADAM HAD advised them, the two women taking a walk around the area found that the wheelchair could navigate the immediate perimeter. JJ smiled as she watched her mother eagerly—if a bit slowly—push the wheels of the chair to travel forward. It was clearly a bit of a struggle for the older woman to do so, but it was a struggle that Elvira MacGruder wanted to go through because she'd felt as though she were an albatross around the neck of her family ever since contracting the polio that robbed her of her ability to walk.

"Look, Ma...those are rose bushes, I think." JJ said, stopping and pointing out some of the easily-identifiable plants. Elvira halted, smiling.

"We both know they're rose bushes, Eve Jane." she rejoined fondly. "But thank ya...I can use the rest. Not used to makin' my own way."

"You're doing just fine, Ma." the younger woman assured her, her cocoa-colored eyes warm with emotion for her mother. "It's just so fortunate that Adam had that chair for you." Elvira's head tilted to one side.

"Are ya ever gonna tell him, Eve Jane?" she asked her daughter suddenly.

"Tell who what, Ma?"

"Tell Adam...that you love him." JJ started suddenly, then glanced around to make sure that nobody else was around. She saw only her mother sitting in the wheelchair...nobody else was around.

"Ma!" the brunette blustered. "The man's a smug, supercilious prig! How could I possibl—"

"Eve Jane," the older woman said sagaciously, "I've lost the use of my legs, but not the use of my brains—ya been in love with the young man ever since ya was hollerin' that ya was 'Just Jane'." Her daughter's mouth worked for a moment before her shoulders slumped dejectedly.

"It's that obvious?"

"It is to me, Eve Jane, but then I'm your Ma." Elvira told her. "What has me flamboozled is why ya never did anything about it."

"What's to do, Ma?" JJ replied softly. "Adam Cartwright is the smartest, handsomest, bravest man in the state...his family owns a spread the size of Rhode Island...and I...I have never been at all in the same class he's in."

"You're married to him now, child." Elvira pointed out.

"Only because he was being noble." JJ answered, giving a wry chuckle. "His entire family is noble—you know that both Joe and Hoss offered to marry me before this whole stupid thing at the Steeplechase happened?"

"See, child?" prompted her mother. "If the others offered for ya, ya can't be as unwanted as you seem to think." JJ sighed, going to Elvira's side and crouching beside the chair.

"They both only did it because Hoss feels responsible for what Mr. Sanders did." she told her mother, who cried softly in disappointment.

Eve Jane MacGruder had eagerly shared her plans for her life with Elvira and both of them had anticipated the results of the exam JJ had taken to qualify for the scholarship to go to college in Reno. Elvira had only just contracted the disease that was keeping her bedridden, and even then JJ knew that her mother would need to come with her, as her Pa's behavior had gotten increasingly self-centered. The scholarship would have made that possible, although going to college and looking after her Ma would have been hard, it wouldn't have been impossible for the fifteen-year-old girl.

Then she was visited by Mr. Arliss Sanders, the headmaster of the only school in the territory. Mr. Sanders had never liked JJ as a student—she suspected it was because, for all that she was a student, she was likely a lot more intelligent than the man who was supposed to be in charge of teaching the children of the area. JJ certainly had more enthusiasm for learning and sharing that knowledge than Mr. Sanders did. Regardless of her suspicions, however, JJ could prove nothing. Besides, after passing the examination, the brunette knew she would never have to even think of Mr. Sanders and his bullying nature ever again.

But Mr. Sanders' visit to the MacGruder house was made for the specific purpose of informing JJ that she would never get that scholarship despite the fact that her academic record was sterling and she had passed the scholarship exam with the highest score ever achieved in the history of the test. He had taken a very personal and vicious pleasure in telling JJ that she was being passed over because her own brother had reported that she'd been responsible for putting the skunk in the schoolhouse two years earlier. The headmaster had gone on in a tirade that had been rather scary at the time—his face turning beet red as he scathingly denigrated JJ's desire to go to college, something that was a complete waste of time for a female. He had ended his diatribe with the prediction that JJ would never amount to anything more than a dirt farmer's wife, as she wasn't even pretty enough to attract a husband with any kind of discerning taste.

Ma had heard the entire thing and had consoled the heartbroken JJ, who hadn't appeared to be upset about the older man's attack on her desirability as a female so much as realizing that her hopes for going to college were all but squashed. However, Elvira now recognized that her daughter had likely always felt more than a little inferior to such a lofty sort of man like Adam Cartwright.

"That may be so, sweetpea," Elvira's voice was thoughtful and her hand reached out to stroke through the dark brown curls of her daughter's hair, "But we both know enough about Adam Cartwright to know he wouldn't do nothin' that he didn't really want...an' he did offer for ya...an' he did marry ya. He coulda just offered to buy off your Pa..."

"I couldn't let him do that!" JJ gasped in horror.

"Ya got pride as well as smarts, Eve Jane." her mother admitted, then cupped the girl's chin in her hand and tipped JJ's face up so that they could look directly at each other. "But you're forgettin' one important thing: you're married to the man now. That counts for a lot. You love him. That counts for even more. I think you can make this work...many women been married to men as don't love 'em and they made a go of it."

"Many more didn't." JJ's voice was soft. Elvira knew the reason was because her daughter was compelled to be truthful, but she didn't want to remind her mother of the mistake Elvira herself had made in marrying Frank MacGruder.

"Too true." Mrs MacGruder conceded. "But remember, child—I was convinced I could change your Pa...and we both know how that turned out. You don't mean to say you're gonna try to change your own husband now, do ya?" JJ drew back, a startled look on her face.

"No! He's perfect the way he is!" she declared, adding with a sidewards bob of her head: "Even if he can be a self-righteous automaton."

"Then give it a chance, Eve Jane." Elvira advised her daughter. "I think ya'll have a darn good marriage. Who knows, ya just might discover that your husband isn't as much an automaton as ya think." JJ stood up and the two ladies completed their circuit around the ranch house.

JJ'S CHOCOLATE BROWN eyes noted that the only people at the dinner table were herself, Elvira, Adam and Hoss. She waited until after grace before broaching the subject.

"Where is everyone?" the brunette asked mildly. Adam's hazel eyes met hers briefly while he answered.

"Joe has accompanied Becky and the twins on a trip." he said smoothly. "They'll be away until the middle of next week." JJ's brows drew together.

"I don't understand," she replied thoughtfully, "Aren't the twins going to miss school? Nothing's wrong with them, is there—they're not sick or anything, are they?" Hoss looked startled.

"Why, shucks, no, JJ." he assured her. "Gabe and Naomi are fine, just fine. They're all just spending a few nights at the way station, is all." Elvira's furrowed brow smoothed over, as she realized why the children had likely been sent on the trip. JJ, however, still didn't understand.

"That's rather odd." she pointed out. "Why should they be at the way station rather than here, where their home is now?" Adam glanced around the table, noting that Hoss was blushing because he was pretty sure that he knew why the children had been moved out of the house for a few days. The eldest of the Cartwright brothers also saw that Mother MacGruder was under the same impression as Hoss and was clearly bemused. Eve Jane, however, was patently clueless. Adam wasn't sure if he ought to have been amused or irritated at the notion of his wife's innocence on this subject.

"That's actually something I need to talk to you about." Adam told her. "After dinner. Alone."

"Oh." JJ said in a tone that told Adam that she still had no clue. He opted to be amused and chuckled at himself. The topic of their conversation then turned towards Hoss offering to make sure that a nice level pathway was cleared through the portion of the trees that were closest to the house so that Mother MacGruder could enjoy excursions without too much trouble.

"I would love that, Hoss!" Elvira said warmly. "If it's not too much trouble, that is—I'd hate to think I'd be putting you out unduly."

"Why, it's no trouble a'tall, ma'am." the second Cartwright son told her with a smile. "As long as you're gonna be here at the Ponderosa, we might as well make things easier for you to get around by yourself." The older woman thanked him effusively.

"Well, I believe that dinner is over." Adam said after they'd enjoyed one of Hop Sing's excellent apple pies. "Let's move and allow the table to be cleared away." He led the way to the sofa in front of the fireplace, checking on the fire within before turning around to speak to JJ—whom was nowhere in sight.

"Hoss...where did Eve Jane go?" he asked. The big man looked up from the checkerboard he was setting up for a game with Mother MacGruder.

"She grabbed up a mess of them plates an' went into the kitchen." Hoss told him. Adam went to the kitchen, where he saw the brunette up to her elbows in the dishwater, chattering away to Hop Sing about how she had liked the braised venison that had been part of the meal. The Chinese cook was drying the dishes that had been rinsed so far and smiling and nodding back at the woman in his kitchen rather than shooing her away. Adam sighed and retreated, deciding to finish up some paperwork that needed tending.

Adam's intentions to have that private discussion with JJ were delayed—she helped Hop Sing clean up the kitchen while Adam balanced the ranch accounts, and then Mother MacGruder wanted to retire to bed after a few games of checkers, so JJ helped her with that. When she emerged from her mother's room, however, the plucky brunette's elbow was firmly seized in Adam's grip and he escorted her past Hoss, bidding his brother a good night as they climbed the steps to go upstairs in spite of JJ's sputtering protests.

"All right, then!" she said sharply after Adam pulled her into his room and closed the door. "What is it?" The man in black turned to her, crossing his arms and seeming to lean in place as he addressed her.

"We need to talk." he replied. "But it's a topic that I knew you'd rather not have everyone else listen in on...we need to discuss how we're going to handle our being married." JJ's mouth opened...and then closed. Adam tried not to smirk at her speechlessness.

"You wanted to go to Reno, didn't you?" he prompted. "You mentioned wanting to go to college there, I seem to recall Hoss telling me..?"

"Well...yes..." JJ agreed slowly, "...I was saving up so that I could do that and take Ma with me."

"You can still do that, you know." Her cocoa-colored eyes darted quickly to his face.

"How?" she demanded. "I lost the race...I don't have the prize money I needed."

"You didn't lose." Adam corrected her. "You came in second, which has a one-hundred dollar purse attached to that position...but, more importantly, you're married to me now—I can give you the money you'd need to go to college." JJ's eyes and mouth rounded in surprise.

"Oh, Adam...I couldn't possibly accept something like that from you—it's too much!"

"You forget—a husband may give anything he wishes to his wife. It wouldn't be too much." He watched her closely, his face impassive. Adam's expression didn't betray the anxious interest he had in her answer. He'd had all day today to think on what he'd offer the young lady: he would gladly provide her the means to achieve her life goal. Not only was it a worthy goal, but she was definitely worthy of achieving it. However, ever since the brunette had revived from her fainting spell (and Adam once again mentally smirked when he recalled her stubborn persistence that she hadn't fainted,) she'd been demonstrating rather endearing traits that made the raven-maned man wonder if he couldn't simply persuade her to remain with him...to be his wife in fact, and not just on paper.

She'd be perfect for that, Adam conceded, for she was used to being self-sufficient and she got along very well with the rest of his family. It was very clear that Eve Jane was loyal to her mother as well as to those she considered her friends—it had been her loyalty to Hoss that had brought her to the situation as it was now—and Adam was fairly confident that she would show him the same loyalty so long as he treated her with respect and offered her his own friendship and loyalty as well. It was the least he could do, as they were legally married.

"I have to tell you something." JJ said, the expression on her face foreshadowing that her words may not be something that Adam wanted to hear, but he girded himself, preferring honest rejection to false hope. Suddenly she glanced around at the western window in the room. "What's that noise..?" Adam concentrated, registering the sound of...voices?...singing in a rather overloud, exaggerated manner.

"Mother of God, don't tell me..!" his wife exclaimed, horrified. She rushed to the window and pushed the curtain aside. "Oh, no!"

"What? What is it?" Adam asked, his stomach dropping at the sound of her tone and stepping closer to the window. JJ straightened up, letting the curtain drop back in place as she turned to face him with a stricken expression on her face.

"It's my brother, Luther," she told him in an aggrieved voice, "And he's at the head of one of the biggest damn shivarees I've ever seen!" Adam's insides froze as he crowded next to JJ and looked for himself.

A shivaree was a tradition that called for the friends and neighbors of a newly-married couple to pay a call on the newlyweds on their wedding night—all things being equal, the shivaree's purpose was to temporarily and good-naturedly interrupt the couple until the bridegroom provided the shivaree participants with drinks, either by having alcohol available for them on the premises or by giving the shivaree enough money to go to a local saloon and drink there. However, Adam almost quailed upon seeing the size of the shivaree Luther was leading to the house: there had to be at least twoscore men in it...perhaps closer to fifty!

A shivaree of that size could get embarrassingly out of hand in a hurry.

Adam was abruptly snapped out of his stunned paralysis by the feel of JJ's hands hastily unfastening the buttons on his shirt.

"Wh...what are you doing?" he asked, his eyes widening as he looked down at her brunette head bent to the task at hand.

"Getting your shirt off." she replied tersely. "You stick your head out that window with all your clothes on and I guarantee Luther will be the first one in the house...and we both don't want that, I'm sure." She moved around behind him, yanking the shirt off. "There! That should be good enough. I hope you got enough money to get rid of them." Before Adam could answer, the ever-louder chorus of voices were suddenly joined by the clanging of metal—obviously some of the shivaree members had brought along some pots and pans to use as noisemakers—and there were a few shots fired, as well. Adam launched himself at the window, throwing it open.

"Gentlemen!" he shouted down to the crowd. "What can I do for you?" The question was met with guffaws.

"Hey, Adam," Luther called up to the man in the window, "We figured you might need some help—JJ can be a real wildcat at times!" Hooting and catcalls accompanied this. Adam kept a firm grip on his temper.

"I don't need that kind of help, thank you." he answered. "However...I'm surprised that you have this many...volunteers, Luther." The younger man grinned as the shivaree once again burst out laughing.

"Hey, this weren't my idea!" Luther responded. "I was gonna keep it to just some of my own buddies, but Sam, here, got wind of what happened when Reverend Jordan filed the marriage certificate at the town hall in Virginia City!" Adam's brother-in-law jovially punched the shoulder of Sam Vernon, the man whom had driven the mahogany bedroom and Mrs. Capshaw to the Ponderosa only the week before.

"Like Luther said, Adam," Sam teased him, "We all just figured that you could use some...moral support—that JJ can be a handful!" This elicited some suggestive agreement amongst the crowd.

"How IS the blushing bride?" someone called out from amongst the crowd. "She up to makin' a request..?" Raucous laughter accompanied this. Adam grit his teeth, trying to keep in mind that the men assembled were trying to be funny and not disrespectful.

"She's...not available to come to the window, I'm afraid." he told the men below, shifting and rummaging in one of his pockets for a small pouch, which he produced and held aloft. "However, if any of you are in the condition to catch this, you may toast to our happiness at the Bucket of Blood in Virginia City."

"Naw, naw, naw!" Luther nixed the suggestion, laughing. "We gotta sing her at least one song, you know that, Adam! Now—is she gonna ask us...or do we gotta go in there and ask her in person?" Adam opened his mouth but then stiffened in shock as a pair of soft, bare arms encircled him from behind.

"Hey, fellas—do you know 'Sweet Betsy from Pike'?" JJ asked, peeking out at the crowd with her chin resting on top of Adam's right shoulder. He was completely rigid with surprise—the fingers of her right hand were playfully combing through the hair in the middle of his chest and he could feel her body pressed tightly to his bare back...thank God she was still wearing...something. He couldn't tell what, but the impression to the men below was that she had likely gotten out of bed and was not wearing any clothing, since all they could see was her face and naked arms. The crowd shrieked with laughter, then began to warble the song in varying degrees of volume, speed and ability to remain on-key.

"What do you think you're doing?" Adam hissed over his shoulder at the woman clinging to his back, his friendly smile remaining plastered on his face for the benefit of the raucous inebriates below.

"I'm doing whatever it takes to get them the hell out of here as quickly as possible." his wife retorted in his ear. Adam's hands clenched on the window frame. He did not like the idea of fifty or so men seeing his naked wife—even if he knew that those men were not actually seeing her in that state, but only thinking they were. It still rankled. But even more exasperating was the fact that Adam wasn't sure he'd be able to stick to his resolution of letting JJ go to college and annulling their union if she continued to rub herself against his back the way she was...

"That was right purdy, fellas!" Hoss boomed out as the shivaree concluded the song, having come out of the house during the serenade. "How's about we all go celebrate in town, now, huh?" The big man turned to look up at the window and waved up at Adam.

"Got something for the crowd, Older Brother?" he called with a grin. Adam grimaced and tossed down the pouch he still had in his hand, which Hoss caught with alacrity. "Thank you kindly—and good night!" So saying, the second Cartwright brother pointedly herded the shivaree back onto the road to town. Adam breathed a sigh of relief, shivering in the sudden chill from the open window.

Oh—Eve Jane had pulled away from him, that was why he was cold. He pulled in his head, closed the window and whirled around in order to take her to task for pulling such an exhibitionist stunt like she had. His admonition stuck in his throat at the sight of his wife: she had peeled off her own oversize flannel shirt and was now, from the waist up, dressed only in a thin chemise, over which was cinched a front-tie corset.

With the faded flannel shirt on, JJ's figure had always appeared to be boyish. Now Adam could see that her contours were anything but—even if her pressing her front to his back hadn't already rather uncomfortably confirmed that fact for him. He blinked, conscious thought completely evaporating from his head.

"Look, Adam, I know this whole situation has gotten completely out of hand," JJ said, struggling with turning the left sleeve of her shirt right-side-out again as she spoke, "So I don't blame you at all for being testy, but I'm sure we can discuss the matter like two reasonable adul—" The brunette had done no more than shrug the oversize flannel shirt back on when each half of the still-open garment was seized in Adam's fists and he cut off her reassuring speech by hauling the delectably exasperating female against his body and very soundly kissing her.

The suddenness of the action took JJ completely by surprise—she stood stock-still for a good five seconds, doing nothing more than instinctively clutching Adam's shoulders and staring at Adam's left temple, eyebrow and closed eye.

Gosh, he had eyelashes she'd kill to possess, didn't he?

No, wait—he was kissing her, and this wasn't conducive to having a reasonable discussion about how the two of them could go about...

Gosh, he certainly knew how to kiss, didn't he?

No...now, she really did have to get a grip on herself—but, Adam seemed to have shifted his own grip so that his hands slid around her and up her back, stroking her skin through the thin material of her chemise, his touch tender for all that his hands were work-roughened. Her own eyelids fluttered shut and one of her hands shyly explored the contours of the muscles on his bared back while the fingers of her other hand slid up to tangle in the silky waves of his hair.

Gosh, talking was overrated.

CHAPTER 15-A

WARNING: The contents of this chapter are definitely adult in nature and contain the reason why the story is categorized as M for Mature. If you are not 18 years old or older, or if you object to the graphic depictions of the wedding night between husband and wife, then continue on to CHAPTER SIXTEEN. Everyone else will get to read about Adam and Eve's wedding night...and the morning after.

IN THE BACK of his mind, Adam conceded that he was deliberately overloading Eve Jane's senses with the pleasant sensations of being thoroughly kissed and caressed, but he was beyond debating right and wrong—the facts were that they were husband and wife and Eve Jane was definitely a desirable woman who appealed to Adam on more than just one level. There was nothing wrong with acting like husband and wife if they wanted...and Adam was surely making certain that it would be something that Eve Jane wanted.

JJ moaned, though not in pain, and heeded an instinct to part her lips. Adam's tongue quickly but tenderly explored the unimpeded cavern of her mouth, soft sounds issuing from him as he did so. The woman in his arms clung to him, moving restlessly as her newly-awakened body prompted more from him. Adam pushed her shirt from her shoulders, then turned with her and moved them both towards his bed, all the while his passion was growing by leaps and bounds.

Suddenly Eve was wrenched away from him and he snarled before realizing it was due to the fact that the back of her calves had smacked against the side of his bed and she had fallen backwards onto the mattress. Adam immediately bent and pulled off first her boots, then her pants, and finally he plucked off her undergarments as well, kissing and caressing the skin he exposed as he progressed, coming to lay beside her on the bed.

She called his name softly, her body arching when his fingers stroked her between her legs. He lifted himself partially, eager to see the picture Eve made when he brought her to pleasure. His hazel eyes glowed with anticipation as he noted that her face was flushed, her lips curving in a silent circle of perceived pleasure, and her hands had lifted, burying themselves in the short, silky curls that haloed her head. Eve's breasts rose and fell with the quickening cadence of her breathing, tipped with rose-colored nipples jutting invitingly up at him, but Adam merely continued to look his fill as his hand kept up the rhythm between her thighs.

Eve's belly fascinated him—in all his travels, in his scope of experience with other women, the few he'd actually gotten physically intimate with had possessed bodies that were, for the most part, the epitome of the ideal nineteenth-century woman: soft and rounded. Eve's body was rounded in all the right places...but it wasn't soft. Not at all. Her belly, for instance, rippled with the same groups of muscles that were often in evidence whenever he or his brothers or even his father had to strip off their shirts. He found that, rather than be put off by the sight of the well-honed muscles, he was getting even more excited by the sight of them.

His eyes dipped downwards to where his hand was stroking through the nest of curls between her legs, seeing as well as feeling just how hot and wet Eve was. He breathed in through his nose...and almost exploded at the scent that drowned his senses: aroused woman. Adam shifted instinctively, and likely would have simply shoved his clamoring member into the well of womanhood before him...if not for the fact that he still had his own lower garments on.

His curses were nearly-incoherent muttering beneath his breath as the sable-maned man briefly turned his attention to yanking off his boots, socks, pants and underwear, tossing them to unknown destinations on the floor. Adam turned back to his bride, who was now propped up on her elbows, quite avidly ogling the body he had just revealed. He felt a surge of masculine pride when he discerned that Eve obviously liked what she saw. Adam reached out and caressed her between her legs again, eliciting an excited cry from his wife. Immediately he was on the bed beside her, his fingers still probing, but his mouth fastened securely over hers.

"Best be silent, Eve..." he bade her in his low, rumbling baritone, "...this is our moment—ours alone—and I don't ever want to share it with my brothers, not even in jest." Eve's chocolate eyes widened slightly as the hand at her core shifted so that the fingers there sank sensuously into it while Adam's thumb continued the addictive stroking that was prompting such wild and wanton urges within her. More than almost anything she wanted to shout out the joy he was bringing her—but Adam's preference for keeping his emotions private was something she respected even if she didn't agree with it. Eve's head fell back and she spread her legs, tilting her hips up to the hand that fondled her...and her teeth clamped onto her lower lip in an effort to keep from vocalizing her own feelings.

Adam's hazel eyes lit once more, blazing with the triumph of not only getting Eve to acquiesce with his need for personal privacy, but also with her willing surrender of her body to him. Such total capitulation needed to be rewarded, so he lowered his head to do so.

Eve's eyelids snapped open and she nearly screamed out loud when she suddenly felt the fluid rasp of her husband's tongue along her engorged genitalia. She stared in shock at the sight of his sable head between her widespread legs, then felt utterly enthralled by the orgasmic sensations radiating from her loins. In spite of wishing to scream her mounting excitement, Eve instead communicated her approval and demand for more of the same by threading her fingers into his hair and cradling Adam's head against her heaving pelvis. He responded by suckling the tiny organ that he'd been lapping at earlier.

All-encompassing rapture burst forth from her trembling body, and Eve sucked in a lungful of air, ready to give vocal praise to God for the feelings that were pulsing through her. Adam, however, felt her body's sudden response and tore himself away from his position, quickly shifting and covering her convulsing body with his own, his mouth once again swallowing his wife's outcries by sealing itself to hers in a passionate open-mouth kiss.

He also shoved his rampant penis into her gushing feminine core, sinking its entire length to the hilt in one forceful stroke.

Eve's mind and body were a maelstrom of conflicting thoughts and feelings. She shuddered and convulsed with the rapture that seemed to pulse through her and thought she could never remain silent about it, how could Adam ask that of her? It was a good thing he had kissed her, then, or Eve would have screamed her ecstasy to the world. Then she realized that his lips and tongue carried on them a different taste—herself. Goodness...she was tasting herself. It was strange, as it was a bit repulsive and yet oddly arousing for her as well. She had felt a split-second of burning pain...but then wave after wave of the rapture her husband's mouth had brought her had swept it away. Now Eve was twitching slightly and feeling...full.

Good God—Adam was inside her! Even as she realized this, her husband lifted his head.

"How are you?" he asked. "Does it hurt?" Eve thought about it for a moment, licking her lips, then shook her head.

"No...not anymore." she whispered. Adam's lips quirked.

"Good." he replied, then his hazel eyes searched her face. "Only pleasure from now on, Eve." Then Adam moved his hips and Eve clung to him, swept up in a passionate storm of sensation that stripped all conscious thought from her until it culminated in an exhilarating explosion of euphoria. Her husband bent his head once more to hers, kissing her with sizzling ardor.

Everything about their physical union wrought all the passion and intensity out from deep within him—things that he'd thought he'd lost when both Sue Ellen and Regina had gone from his life. Something about Eve simply tapped into a wellspring of emotion that Adam had thought he no longer possessed.

And, God, she was tight—squeezing the life out of him through the male organ stroking in ever faster and harder thrusts. Adam clamped one hand on her hips, bearing the majority of his weight on the forearm curled around and under his wife's heaving body. More, they both needed more—deeper, faster, harder...more! He almost exploded when she simultaneously sucked on his tongue and he felt her fingers clenching on his buttocks. The impetus of mating had caught her up in a fervor that equaled—perhaps even exceeded—his own, as Eve was moaning and grinding her pelvis up to meet his.

It made him all the more desperate to bring her to orgasm...and the feel of her fingertips just at the perimeter of his clenching sphincter was serving to prompt him to shove into her all the more forcefully.

Neither of them knew exactly how it happened, but happened it did—between the frantic gyrations of Adam and the spasmodic clenching and unclenching of Eve's fingers gripping his butt cheeks, one of Eve's fingers suddenly plunged completely into his rectum, the pad sliding very firmly across an unknown ridge within--

Adam's eyes flew open and he would have roared the sudden, all-encompassing explosion that bloomed across his body and mind had he not been passionately kissing Eve at the moment. Ecstasy flooded through him and into her, both of them shuddering and gasping at the maelstrom of sensation.

"Oh!" Eve cried and pulled her hands away from her husband's body, removing her finger from within his ass. "Adam—did I hurt you?" The man sagging against her stirred a bit.

"No." he answered, sounding surprised...because he was quite surprised—not that he hadn't been hurt, but that his penis (still ensconced within her body) was still hard. Somehow that amazing maneuver that Eve had managed to discover had prevented the usual deflation of his organ. He smiled. This could get very interesting. For the moment, however, he bent his head once more and kissed her deeply, slowly rekindling the flames until the firestorm that had claimed them earlier roared back to life and immolated the couple, who were ecstatic about their fate.

This time, however, Adam took his time, using strokes that were measured in cadence, but built up in force so that, by the time he was able to touch off another orgasm, he was slamming into her with enough strength to make his entire oak bed creak under protest.

The culmination came for Eve first, which filled Adam with a deeply primal pride—then he, too, was wracked with the spasms of ultimate pleasure, his moans of delight muffled by the kiss he was still sharing with his writhing bride.

His bride...she was his now. There was no turning back.

HE OPENED HIS eyes. The darkness in the room confirmed that it was pre-dawn, perhaps just a bit earlier than he usually rose for the day. The very comfortably solid wall of warmth that bathed Adam's entire left side was due to the fact that Eve was snuggled against him. He was lying on his back with his wife tucked against him; she was lying on her stomach with her head on his shoulder and her left arm and leg draped across him. Adam simply remained where he was for a moment, reveling in just how right she felt against him. Unfortunately, however, reality intruded with the sudden urge to relieve himself. He grimaced, then carefully slid away from her and off the bed, reaching for the covered chamberpot that was in his night table.

As he used it, Adam's mind turned over the incredible events of last night. He had always known, deep down inside, that Eve Jane was a person that he respected, regardless of the silly name game he and she played all these years. She was not only generous and kind, but loyal and trustworthy. He hadn't been aware that her clothing—hand-me-downs from her brothers, mostly—had hidden a wonderfully delicious feminine bounty.

As he had noted earlier, Eve's life of hard work had left her with a body that was not the ideal for nineteenth-century beauty—instead of the rounded softness that was preferred by most men, Eve's body was sculpted, shaped by the hours of toil she put in every day...and Adam found himself fascinated by the sight. Her breasts were high and proud, and larger than the masking effect of her flannel shirt had allowed to be seen. Her arms were well-toned, as were her legs, which were longer than Adam had expected. Adam's impression was that Eve was a cougar compared to the pampered housecats that most women he'd met seemed to embody. Eve wasn't afraid to do whatever it took to live.

Adam turned around and looked down at the brunette in his bed—she had shifted, moving into the warm depression he'd left behind when he got up, but was still more or less sprawled spreadeagled on the bed. His hazel eyes intently roved the picture she made with her trim, fit legs parted wide enough for him to see the pouting lips guarding the entrance to her woman's core. The sight stirred him in more ways than one.

Good thing it was earlier than he was expected to get up to start a day of chores on the Ponderosa.

Adam bent and reached out his right hand to caress his wife, tracing gentle circles on the skin of her thighs and buttocks. Eve stirred but didn't awaken, so he shifted the circles to her inner thighs, keeping his touch light. The brunette under his hand shifted, her legs spreading further apart, but still slept on. Adam grinned and moved his caresses to the petal-soft skin of her labial folds, slowly increasing the intensity of his touch as well as slowly but surely slicking his fingertips closer and closer to the inner opening and the sensitive nubbin just above it.

Eve's body shifted again and Adam heard his wife's breathing change. Her hips lifted, tilting to allow him better access to the parts he was insistently caressing. Oh, yeah...this was going to get really good. Then his fingers began to work Eve over in earnest.

Eve moaned and came awake, lifting her ass in the air and feeling the heavenly strum of Adam's hand as he stimulated the throbbing button and teased the bubbling orifice that clenched desperately at the digits that danced around its edges.

"Quietly, Eve," he murmured, pushing her lower half onto her knees, "We must be quiet." Then she buried her face into the pillow to muffle her scream of bliss because Adam's mouth relocated itself in order to tongue the weeping furrow and suckle the clitoris pulsing with need. She shattered apart in ecstasy, quaking as spasm after spasm of fulfillment gripped her. She was just starting to push herself up on her hands and knees when she felt her husband move behind her again—and the sudden thrust of his huge, hard member touched off another irresistible instinct to yield to him...Eve lowered her upper torso to the bed and muffled her new cries in the pillow below.

Adam was filled with primal pride—his woman was eager to be possessed by him, and he wanted to insure that she would always remain so. He ground into her from behind, his thrusts hard and deep, his hands gripping her hips that he may hump into her willing body all the better. More, more, they both wanted more—Adam angled his pelvis so that each of his thrusts allowed him to grind his tightening scrotum into the sensitive clitoris that was exposed by his wife's vulnerable position. She cooperated by lewdly rubbing herself against him when their bodies slammed together.

When her screams of utter joy (appropriately muffled by the pillow) signaled her orgasm, Adam followed her into the state of bliss, instinctively continuing to pump in spite of emptying himself completely into her and losing all rhythm to the movements, knowing only that it all felt entirely too good to stop.

And through it all, he'd made not a single sound louder than the harsh breathing required to replace the oxygen in his lungs. He sagged and then tumbled to the bed beside her, drawing her against him and whispering against her ear: "Thank you...and good morning."

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Sunday, September 21, 1862 - New Haven, CT

Ben Cartwright exited the church with his family, thanking God for the love he'd been blessed with yet again. The blond on his arm smiled warmly at him as they entered the carriage that awaited them.

"Where to, Treasure?" he asked of her as he, his wife and Zach Callahan settled into their seats. Cassandra's cheeks bloomed a pretty shade of pink when he used his pet name for her, derived from when Ben had romantically referred to the silver strands within her golden hair as "the most valuable treasure of silver and gold any man could hope to possess."

"We're going to Grove Street, Ben." she answered. "I've promised to show Zach where his grandparents are." The rancher nodded, recalling that Cassie had told him that the Reverend Alloysius Callahan had been buried next to his wife at the cemetery located there. The trio were soon at the pretty, peaceful place, and Cassandra explained to her nephew-cum-son the history of his grandparents.

Reverend Callahan was known to his children as a fount of infinite generosity and wisdom, but he was also a man, and he let them know that he had once been a rather condescending and sanctimonious seminary student until he met a feisty barmaid named Gertrude Fenway. Being a man who was studying to become a minister, Alloysius felt that it was his duty to try to save the young lady who served the drinks at the Rusty Scupper Ale House from her woeful fate in the fiery hereafter if she didn't repent her sinful ways.

Gertrude thought that Alloysius was rather cute for a man who resembled a spectacled crow. She more or less tolerated his pontificating speeches as he walked her home from work. Reverend Callahan would wink at his children and add that she didn't say much during his one-on-one sermons, which should have been his first warning—but he was a brash would-be man-of-the-cloth, and determined that Gertie would be at the Pearly Gates as opposed to writhing in the lake of fire that he was sure would be her doom.

One day, the couple were walking along the street when they happened to meet Bishop Winthrop, one of the teachers at the seminary and Alloysius' personal role model of clerical correctness. They stopped and the bishop asked the seminary student what he'd been discussing with the young lady.

"Oh, sir," Alloysius told him emphatically, "I have been emphasizing the path of moral fortitude and sobriety to Miss Fenway, as I have for the past five months." The bishop nodded sagaciously.

"And you, Miss Fenway..." the older man prompted, "...have you taken his words to heart?" The blond-haired, blue-eyed barmaid smiled.

"I have listened with my heart, sir," she replied, "And have yet to hear Mr. Callahan actually reveal his own. Until he does, I leave him with this..." Then she turned to Alloysius and, seizing his face in her hands, kissed him quite soundly on the lips. Gertrude then bid the shocked gentlemen a good evening and walked homeward. The bishop was the first to recover, his lips twitching as he noted the completely flabbergasted look on his favorite student's face.

"Would I be amiss to suggest that you were unaware of the young lady's feelings towards you?" he asked.

"N-no, sir." stammered Alloysius. "I...I had no idea, sir..."

"Would you be willing to listen to my advice, then?"

"Y-yes, sir."

"When next you meet up with Miss Fenway, my son," Bishop Winthrop told him, "You'd best ask for her hand in marriage—a man would be a fool to ignore the qualities of a woman who can listen to bluster and discern true meaning from it."

Alloysius Callahan and Gertrude Fenway were married six weeks later.

"Father always claimed that his compassion and Christian spirit came not from the lessons he learned at seminary school, but the lessons applied to him by Mother." Cassandra finished her tale with a laugh.

"Pa always regretted he couldn't come when you sent us the message Grandpa and Grandma were gone." Zach told Cassie with a sigh. His adopted mother hugged him tightly.

"I know, but I also knew that he was with me in spirit, and that helped me an awful lot." she assured the younger man. "He wrote as often as he could and that went a long way to sustain me as well."

"What's next, Mama?" the young man asked as the trio exited the cemetery.

"We'll be taking lunch with the Sheffields." Cassie informed him. "Then there are other sights that I'd like to show you, and introduce you to some friends of the family."

As Cassandra had proposed, the rest of the day passed pleasantly, with the trio spending time with their hosts as well as meeting with a number of people who had known Jason and Cassie during their younger years. Almost everyone seeing him agreed that Zach bore a very striking resemblance to his natural father. Many of them weren't surprised when Cassandra informed them that Zach was a talented violinist, for Jason had been musical himself, playing not only the guitar but also the piano, the organ and the flute.

"There was even that weird instrument..." Mr. Peter Mitchell, a former classmate of Jason's, was trying to recall, shaking a hand and then snapping his fingers when he remembered the subject: "...you know, Cassie—the one that was actually made up of a bunch of little flutes tied together?"

"The pan pipes?" Zach prompted. The woman with the silver-and-gold hair chuckled.

"Jason learned to play that one a little bit." Cassandra told him. "Although these days, it's Rebecca who plays that instrument." The conversation turned to the other Callahans in Nevada and how they were doing. Although his wife fielded the questions well enough, Ben found himself wondering about the last telegram he'd received from his eldest son and wonder what it had been about—it had been such a cryptic message. Ah, well, doubtless Ben would get the answer to that soon. By this time, Adam likely was sitting in church with the entire blended Cartwright-Callahan brood...

The Ponderosa Ranch, south of Virginia City, Nevada

EVE COULDN'T REMEMBER a time when she'd felt more safe, sheltered...satisfied with life as she did now lying in bed with Adam spooned against her. She heard him sigh.

"Time to get up—we've got chores to do before we get ready for church." he said regretfully, his lips brushing her ear as he spoke and his arms tightening around her briefly. Eve was no stranger to rising early in order to get things done. She smiled, completely empathetic to Adam's reluctance to face the day—however, chores were chores...the sooner they were done, the sooner they could do the things they'd rather be doing.

"All right!" Eve agreed, practically bouncing out of bed. She lit the lamp on the nightstand and went to the bureau where her clothing was still stacked from yesterday, pulling out some drawers and a chemise. Adam bemusedly watched the brunette as she put the clothing on, not sure what to make of a bride who seemed chipper at the prospect of having to leave her bed early the morning after her wedding night. Eve, unaware of his regard, hunted around the room until she pounced upon the object she'd been looking for with a cry of triumph—her corset, which Adam vaguely recalled pitching carelessly over one shoulder last night.

"You really should be more careful with this, Adam." his wife told him while inspecting the corset. "I only have one of these, and I don't fancy having to stick my head out the window to see whether you've accidentally chucked it outside." She gave him a smile and a saucy wink before returning to the pile of her clothes on the bureau. Adam rose from the bed, a thoughtful frown on his face as he haphazardly pulled his pants on. He saw her don work pants and another flannel shirt.

"Do you not have gowns, Eve?" he asked mildly. She shook her head, then shrugged.

"None that are mine." she told him. "I borrow Ma's to go to church in." Eve glanced to make sure that her husband's modesty was preserved before pulling open the door. "You told me before that your room for bathing was at the top of the stairs, right?"

"Yes."

"Good. I'm going to wash up." she told him. "And then borrow a gown for church from Ma." Eve began to leave, then hesitated, turning back towards her husband.

"Adam..?"

"Yes, Eve?"

"Could..." she began to ask, pausing to bite her lip, and then continuing: "Could we bring Ma with us to church?" Adam nodded.

"If you think she's well enough to go, I don't see why not." he answered evenly.

"She's always been well enough to go." Eve told him. "That is...after that first year, she's been well enough...it was just that I couldn't manage my chores and carrying Ma on Sirocco, too..." Adam drew in his breath, then brushed aside the anger at Frank MacGruder that had flared up and nodded once more.

"As I said, Eve," he assured his wife, "We should be able to take Mother MacGruder with us to church if she'd like to go." Eve's dazzling smile lit up her face for a moment before Adam suddenly found himself on the receiving end of a tight hug.

"Oh, thank you!" the brunette said, her lips brushing his cheek. "Ma's missed going to church ever so much!" She dashed away before he could follow his impulse to clasp her to him and return her quick buss with a deeper, more intimate one. His hazel eyes watched her as she disappeared down the hall and around the corner without remembering to shut the bedroom door after her.

ADAM WOULD OFTEN ponder the philosophy behind the sermons given by Reverend Jordan as the minister expounded on his weekly message to the masses, but this week he had to admit to not thinking at all about the sermon...he was contemplating the family that completely filled the Cartwright pew.

Hoss was at one end of the pew, looking earnest and occasionally sneaking glances around to meet the emerald eyes of Mercy Harris when he did so. Both he and she would smile and then pretend to listen to the cleric's speech for a while before seeking eye contact again.

Joe—who had brought himself, Rebecca and the twins from Callahan Station—was next to Hoss, his own attention span notoriously short and usually for almost the same reason the middle brother was preoccupied this time around: oftentimes Adam would check on his youngest brother only to see Joe indulging in some pantomime games with whichever of the pretty local ladies had caught his eye recently. This week he wasn't...in fact, now that Adam thought about it, for the past few Sundays in a row, Joe hadn't been acting as he normally would in church. Adam frowned a bit at the revelation.

Rebecca was sitting next to Joe. She was an attentive listener—when allowed the luxury of listening. Adam felt a little sorry for the pretty blond, because Gabriel was on her immediate left and Joe on her right...and the males were pinching each other behind Becky's back. The eldest Callahan frowned down at her brother, which allowed Joe to sneak his hand over and tug on Gabe's ear as she returned her attention to the minister at the pulpit. Gabe would scowl and then reach over and tweak Joe's arm, making him squeak and/or jump, which would earn the young man a glare from Becky. Joe would merely smile angelically back. Neither of the males had gotten caught...yet.

Fortunately, Naomi was fairly well-behaved even if she had a habit of swinging her legs during the sermon.

Adam was on the other side of Naomi, and—when Ben wasn't present at services—he usually anchored the end of the pew that exited on the center aisle of the church. However, when he had wheeled Elvira MacGruder up the aisle, he realized that she would have to be removed from the chair and put into the pew, as the church hadn't taken the possibility of positioning wheelchair-bound worshipers when the building was constructed. It was no matter for him to pick up the woman and put her on the end of the pew, then go wheel the chair to one side of the church where there was room for it. When he came back, Adam stepped into the space and arranged himself with Naomi on one side and Eve on the other, with her mother in the space he normally occupied.

Adam had been telling his mother-in-law the truth when he'd assured her at breakfast that bringing the paraplegic was a pleasure—the look of joy on her face at the prospect of attending services once again after so many years of being away was more than reward enough for what little Adam'd had to do to get Elvira here. He saw the light in Elvira's eyes and glanced down to see the way mother was clutching daughter's left hand in both her own. His hazel eyes shifted to Eve's face as well, noting that her own expression was happy as well. He turned his attention back towards the pulpit—then nearly yelped himself when he felt a hand reach into his lap to curl around his own left one.

Eve was holding his hand. He instinctively interlaced his fingers with hers.

Adam scanned her profile, noting that she hadn't taken her eyes from the preacher as he continued to expound on the concept of "love thy neighbor." Anyone around them would look and see a nice, large, happy family sitting together and paying attention to the service. Adam, however, was completely distracted by the warmth of Eve's hand in his.

Being surrounded by a supportive, loving family was something Adam was used to...but the brunette siting beside him with her hand in his represented the chance for him to become the true head of his own family. Adam was finding this prospect more and more appealing—but what if something came along and took that chance away? After all, it had been Eve's lifelong dream to continue her education...to go to college and become a teacher. It had been the oddest series of events that had thwarted her time and again. Adam knew he couldn't stand in her way because he wanted something for himself. He would have to let her go...and he would have to do that soon.

What he really ought to be doing was keeping his distance from her—last night had been a mistake...Adam had allowed his base urges to overcome his usual logic and common sense. He should return to that logic and distance himself from Eve and her mother so that, when they left, it wouldn't hurt him. He ought to—

Eve shifted in her seat, her hand holding Adam's tightening and face tilting up towards him briefly, a brilliant smile and an emotion that he dared not name beaming at him for a moment before her eyes and attention turned to the pulpit once more.

Adam decided that he ought to just sit back, listen to the sermon and enjoy the day with his family.

AT THE USUAL picnic that followed the service, Hoss and Mercy met and went walking off together. The twins roped Joe into a game of Blind Man's Bluff. Mother MacGruder was visited by many neighbors who were delighted to see her once again after over a decade of absence. Adam thought he might broach the subject of what Eve intended to do in the near future, but he found his wife and his stepsister deep in conversation as they knelt to unload the baskets they'd brought from home. It was apparently something quite serious, for Becky looked rather pensive. He paused and decided to catch up with some of his friends over at the horseshoe pitching site instead.

"You look nice in that dress, JJ." Becky told the brunette as they'd begun to spread the blankets for the combined Cartwright and Callahan families. "Pink's your color, I do believe."

"Thank you, Becky!" Eve replied, smiling as she looked down at the gown she was wearing. "I didn't even know that Ma had one like this. It's simple enough to not look so dated but nice enough for church." The older female eyed the younger for a moment. "You, on the other hand, look rather serious. Is something bothering you?" The blond gave her a swift glance but then nodded slowly.

"If it's obvious enough for you to notice, then it would be silly for me to deny it." Becky said. "I'm worried...because I have to give Parthena Applegate her dress this week." Eve paused in her removing a crock that contained Hop Sing's cold potatoes and lanced Becky with a penetrating glance.

"You mean that dress that you promised to make for her as atonement for that fight that you two had at your Mama's birthday party?" the brunette asked. Becky nodded.

"You see...I'm almost done with the dress." she explained, looking a bit embarrassed. "But...I'm not the best seamstress in the world...and I can't really embellish it. My embroidery skills are horrible."

"How about sewing on some rickrack or eyelet?" Eve suggested.

"Ugh! More stitches?"

"Tack on an appliqué?"

"Still more sewing."

"Well..." Eve said, pursing her lips as she thought it over, "...you only promised to make the dress for Parthena...you didn't promise that you had to be the one to put any designs on it. How about I just put on some beading? Nothing too fancy...a design or two should be fine. How about a whorl or two in those purple bugle beads? I noticed she likes artsy kinds of patterns like that."

"Could you?" Becky asked, relief very evident in her voice. "Like I said—the dress is complete except for that. I made it out of lavender jersey with a white collar and cuffs."

"She should look nice in that."

"Yes, she should." Becky conceded, making a face. Eve giggled. "Thank you for helping, JJ."

"You're welcome." she replied to the blond. "And...it's Eve, now. No sense in my insisting on not being paired with Adam when I'm married to him, now, is there?" Becky tilted her head as she regarded her stepsister-in-law.

"No. I guess not." the younger female agreed. "Um...Eve..?"

"Yes?"

"Are you staying with Adam?"

The unexpectedness of the question made Eve pause once again in her unpacking of the volume of foodstuffs Hop Sing had prepared for the family. Her wide brown eyes met the questioning regard of Becky's gently inquiring gaze.

"Why wouldn't I stay with him?" Eve countered in a cautious tone. "We're married now."

"I remember you always talking about going to college and becoming a teacher." Becky reminded her. "You sure are smart enough to go do that. Don't you want to do that anymore?"

Didn't she? Eve sat back on her heels, suddenly realizing that, after last night, there was no way she could even consider leaving. After her mother had spoken to her about giving her marriage to Adam a chance, Eve had been willing to talk about how the two of them might handle life as husband and wife...but, suddenly, simply talking about it seemed to be rather...moot. Eve felt a flood of heat in her face. Indeed—Adam had completely taken command...but Eve had willingly relinquished the control...because, deep down inside, she knew Adam would never abuse the privilege.

"I wanted to go because I felt I had to." Eve said with a smile.

"You don't think you have to anymore?" Becky asked.

"No." the brunette confessed. "I noticed that there are lots of books at the house on the Ponderosa. I can read them and learn more. And I bet if I asked, Adam wouldn't mind getting more books about other things if the ones at the house aren't interesting."

"Adam loves reading." Becky agreed. "There are a lot of different things he likes to read about, too." The blond speared her sister-in-law with one more telling look. "So...you want to stay with Adam? You're not just saying so...just because of the books?" Eve's own glance at Becky was clearly questioning.

"I want to stay with Adam." she told the other female emphatically. "And not just because of his books." Eve turned her attention back to the jugs of lemonade that were being removed from the baskets now even as Becky counted up tin cups and plates, never once realizing that, not even ten feet behind her, Adam had halted, having heard the conversation between the two young ladies ever since Becky had pointed out that Eve was smart enough to become a teacher now.

"I want to stay with Adam...and not just because of his books."

The words had been emphatically spoken in Eve's soft tone, but they had the power to breech the considerably thick defensive walls that he'd erected around the most vulnerable part of himself, sweeping through them as effortlessly as a straw broom brushed aside accumulated cob webs. He watched thoughtfully as Eve got to her feet and went in search of Elvira to see if her mother wanted to join the rest of the family as the food was ready to be served, not exactly certain as to what to make of this new self-revelation.

Becky totaled up the silverware that had been packed, careful not to laugh out loud or even grin at the look on Adam's face. Adam had always been a very private sort of individual from the very first days the Callahans had met him, but, oddly, even more so since Mama had married his Pa and the Callahans had suddenly been melded into the Cartwright household. It was almost as though he were afraid of giving his heart away, Becky thought to herself, as though Adam feared that he would lose something in doing so.

Becky allowed herself a knowing smile as she shut her eyes and turned her face up to the sun to absorb its light and warmth. People could be so silly sometimes...Becky had been taught—first by her parents and then by Mama—that you had to give your heart away or you would never know love, for love wasn't something you kept to yourself...you had to share it in order to make it grow stronger and deeper.

"Wanna share...?" Becky's contemplations were interrupted by a humorous drawl and a distinctive laugh. Her sapphire eyes popped open and she smiled brightly up at the speaker: Joe.

"The silverware..?" Becky prompted, holding up the serving spoons she had in her hands. The brown-maned man bent over and took them from her, shaking his head and rolling his eyes.

"I meant share your secret, because it looked like you definitely were happy about something." Joe clarified, chuckling as he dropped to one knee beside her and began sticking spoons into the potatoes and then the mixed vegetables that had been brought to the picnic.

"I am happy." Becky agreed, then recalled something. "Say...where are the twins? Weren't you playing with them?" Joe smirked.

"I was." he confirmed. "I left Naomi on the verge of finding Gabe over—" Even as he turned to wave a hand in the direction where the blindfolded little girl had been left to audibly track down her twin, Joe suddenly found himself with an armful of Naomi as she stumbled into him, having followed the unique sound of his voice and laughter. He had to react quickly to catch her before she could fall into the food—the little girl was still wearing the plaster cast that Doc Martin had put on her left arm after she'd broken it falling out of a tree a few weeks ago and it unbalanced her.

"Whoops! I gotcha!" Joe assured her. Naomi giggled and removed the blindfold.

"No, silly goose, I got you!" she insisted. "You get to be the blind man now!" Joe and Becky laughed as Naomi giggled. Gabriel bounded up to the group on the blanket.

"Oh, goody!" he said. "Joe lost. Can we eat now?"

"I don't see why not." Adam said, approaching. "Eve's coming with Mother MacGruder, and I see Hoss and Miss Harris coming this way, too." Once his mother-in-law had been wheeled to a stop, Adam demonstrated how to place a specially-fitted board over the arms of the chair so that there was a surface to put Elvira's dishes on, that she may eat without the need to find a table. Once he made sure Mother MacGruder had her food, Adam lowered himself beside his wife and said grace, thanking God for the blessings of good food, good fortune and family near and far.

"Amen!" Gabriel stated emphatically. "Pass the fried chicken!" Adam looked at him and the silently chastised little boy added: "Please!"

The meal passed pleasantly enough. Adam noted that Hoss and Mercy were definitely dancing attendance upon each other, but not to the point that they snubbed the rest of the family. Gabe, after his initial lapse of manners, remembered to say "please" and "thank you" for the rest of the meal. Naomi had Joe wrapped around her finger by convincing him to give her half of his strawberry tart even as Becky hid her laughter about how blatantly her little sister was manipulating the man. Eve made sure that her mother didn't want for anything.

After the repast, Mother MacGruder was off again to visit with more of her friends and neighbors, Hoss and Mercy took another walk, the twins joined a group of children who were playing tag nearby, and both Joe and Becky drifted off to their respective cliques to socialize. Adam's hazel eyes watched his wife covering the nigh-empty container of cold potatoes and stack together the used plates into one of the baskets. He leaned over and clasped her left wrist.

"Adam...?" Eve asked, her cocoa-colored eyes curious. He favored her with a smile.

"That will keep for the moment." he told her easily. "Come here—you've earned some rest."

"What? You want to use my lap for a pillow?" Eve teased, smiling back at him as she allowed him to pull her closer. Adam shook his head, scooting back a bit so that his back rested against the trunk of the tree they'd picnicked under.

"No." he told her. "I want you to use mine for a pillow. I told you that you earned a rest, didn't I?" He caught her by the shoulders and supported her as she laid down on her back, her head in his lap.

"This...this isn't usually what happens on picnics...is it?" Eve asked, a bit bewildered. "I mean...I'd always thought that the women clean up and the men are the ones who get to lie around." Adam's lips twitched.

"Usually."

"Aren't...aren't you afraid...that people will think you're strange..?"

"I've been raised to do what I believe is right, Eve." Adam told her, his right hand once more encircling her right wrist, and his left hand gently combing through the short, silky brown curls of her hair. "Right now, I can't think of anything more right than to have you relaxing with me like this...can you...?" His eyes glowed because her own were beginning to take on a dreamy sort of look as he stroked her scalp.

"...can I...?" Eve echoed, unable to concentrate on anything truly coherent because her husband's fingers were simultaneously giving a slow, methodical yet light massage to her scalp even as the thumb on his right hand was rhythmically sweeping across her inner wrist...all while she found herself drowning in depthless hazel eyes.

There were certain worse ways to spend a Sunday, Eve Jane Cartwright decided...and no better way to spend the rest of her life. A smile curled her mouth as the realization hit her:

She'd lost the steeplechase, but had won so much more.