Singular Deliverances and Blessings
Book 9 of A HOUSE UNITED series
By Sarah Hendess
Ponderosa Ranch
Nevada Territory
November and December, 1863
As the cold November air descended on Virginia City, the Cartwrights doubled down their efforts to finish Hoss's new house before winter set in. Everyone in town was excited about President Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation, and as they worked, the Cartwright men discussed their plans for their Thanksgiving feast on the twenty-sixth. By the middle of the month, they had finished the interior of the house and started moving in the furniture Hoss had ordered from San Francisco.
At the end of one long day, Adam found himself alone in Hoss's living room. He gazed around, pleased with how the house had turned out, but sad that his younger brother would be moving out of the main house in just over a month. Not counting the three years Adam had been away at college, he and Hoss had lived in the same house for twenty-four years. He had been Adam's first and only friend for six years before Little Joe had been born, and even now that Hoss outweighed him by eighty pounds, Adam was still protective of him. When Indians had attacked their wagon train and killed Hoss's mother Inger, Adam had thrown his skinny six-year-old body over his newborn baby brother to shield him. A year later, Hoss had taken his first steps across a room because he wanted to reach his big brother. They'd rescued each other, gotten into trouble together, and comforted one another, and now Hoss was moving on. Adam sighed and gathered his hat and gun from the gleaming new coffee table. Just as Adam turned to leave so he could go home for supper, Little Joe trotted down the stairs.
"Well, that's the master bedroom finished," he said. "They'll need more furniture for all those extra rooms, but it looks like everything's set for them to move in."
"I expect Patience will do some decorating, but yeah," Adam said as he gazed around at the bare walls. He'd modeled the house after the main house, but on the first floor he'd widened the dining room a bit, and upstairs he'd cut a door between the master bedroom and the washroom so Patience and Hoss could access the facilities without having to step out into the hall.
Joe sidled up to Adam and followed his older brother's gaze around the living room. "I can't believe he's really moving out."
"Me neither," Adam admitted.
"So how about you?"
"How about me?"
"Yeah," Joe said. "How long until you move out, too?" When Adam didn't respond, Joe continued, "I'm not blind, Adam. I've seen the way you look at Molly. You can't tell me you're plannin' to stick around the old homestead much longer." Joe forced laughter into his voice, but his eyes gave him away. Adam put his arm around his baby brother's shoulders.
"I'm not. But we're not leaving you, Joe. Me or Hoss. We'll all still be living here on the Ponderosa, working together to keep her strong. And we'll always be there if you need us. No matter what."
Joe swallowed hard, and Adam could see him fighting tears. Much to the surprise of both men, Adam wrapped his arms around Joe and pulled him into a hug.
"Come on, little buddy," Adam said when he stepped back. "Let's go home." Leaving one arm draped around Joe's shoulders, Adam led his brother out of the new house.
Ben and Hoss had gone into town that day to get fitted for new suits for Hoss's wedding. Not being able to choose between his brothers, Hoss had asked Ben to be his best man, and he insisted on buying his father a new suit. The two men had arrived home before Adam and Joe, and when the latter pair arrived home that evening, they found Josie curled up next to Ben on the settee. She glanced over her shoulder at them as they came in the door, and both men noticed her red-rimmed eyes. They nearly collided as they rushed over to her, asking in unison what was wrong. In response, Josie handed them a letter she was holding. Adam snatched it from her and began reading with Joe peering over his shoulder.
Tobin Furniture
San Francisco, California
November 3, 1863
Dear Josie,
I've been thinking about this real hard for a while now, and I've decided that I'm not coming back to Virginia City when my apprenticeship is up next summer. Mr. Tobin said I'm a great furniture maker, and I could do real well for myself if I set up shop here.
But I miss you, Josie. You're the only thing missing here in San Francisco. Please come to me. There's the prettiest little church here where we can get married, and I promise I'll make you the happiest woman who ever lived.
Please wire me back right away.
I love you.
Yours always,
Simon
Adam took a deep breath to stem the flood of curse words that tried to charge out of his mouth.
"He's got a lot of nerve!" Little Joe blurted.
Adam winced as he swallowed hard; his throat had grown dry and scratchy during the day. "Pa, did Simon ask you for Josie's hand?" he asked.
The color that had risen in Ben's face when he'd read the letter had faded, but his jaw was still clenched. "No, he did not," he replied, crisply punctuating each word.
"Do you think he wrote to Uncle Jacob?" Joe asked.
"Doubt it," Hoss said, coming down the stairs and joining his family. "He wouldn't even know where to reach Uncle Jacob."
Everyone turned and looked at Josie, who had not yet spoken. She just sat next to her uncle and stared at her hands. Adam laid a hand on her shoulder, and Josie reached up and laid her hand atop his.
"Are you gonna go, Josie?" Joe asked.
Josie's head snapped up. "Of course not!" she snarled. "He can't just abandon me and then expect me to go running to him months later!" She switched to a mocking, damsel-in-distress voice. "'Oh, Simon, I'm so grateful you could finally be bothered!' Why would you even ask such a stupid question? Geez, Joe, you are so thick!" Josie yanked the letter from Adam's hands, ripped it into hundreds of tiny pieces, and flung them into the fireplace. She watched the little shards of paper curl in the flames for a moment, and then she burst into tears and raced up the stairs.
When they heard Josie's bedroom door slam, the four men stared at each other, trying to figure out what should be done next and who should be the one to do it.
"Pa, do I need to apologize?" Little Joe asked at last.
"No, son," Ben sighed. He gazed up the empty staircase toward the dark hall. "She's not upset with you. You're not the stupid one here." He glared into the fire where the last shreds of Simon's letter were blackening. "Let's just all wash up for supper. Give Josie a few minutes to collect herself."
The three younger men nodded and headed upstairs to take turns in the washroom. Adam ducked in first, and when he was finished, he knocked on Josie's door. She grumbled "Come in!" and Adam let himself into the room. Josie was sitting at her writing desk and scribbling furiously on a small piece of paper.
"Supper's ready," he said.
Josie didn't respond, so Adam crossed the room and laid his hand on her shoulder again.
"You ok?"
Josie sighed and turned around to face him. "Yeah. I think I always knew he wouldn't be coming back, but part of me still hoped…" She dropped her gaze to her lap.
"Yeah," Adam said. He paused. "You can go, you know. If that's what you want, we'll support you."
Josie snapped her gaze back up to her cousin. "I'm where I always wanted to be," she answered. "I'm where I'm meant to be. Simon knows that. He should have known better than to ask me to come to San Francisco. No, this is a chapter of my life I just have to close." She glanced at the piece of paper she'd been writing on when Adam had entered the room. "Are you going to town tomorrow by any chance?"
"I wasn't planning to, but I can."
Josie handed him the paper. "Would you send this wire for me, please?"
Adam's heart broke for Josie as he read the sheet in his hand:
To: Simon Croft, Tobin Furniture, San Francisco, California
From: Josephine Cartwright, Ponderosa Ranch, Nevada Territory
Message: I'm sorry but you know I can't leave my family STOP Best of luck in San Francisco STOP Your friend Josie
"Why don't you come to town with me tomorrow?" Adam suggested. "We'll get lunch at Annie's, and you can order some more books for the library." The Virginia City Library had opened to great fanfare a couple days earlier, and nearly all the books had already been checked out.
"All right," she agreed. She looked up at him and squinted as she studied his face. "Are you feeling all right? You look a little pale."
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired. Been a long couple weeks getting Hoss's house finished."
Josie said nothing, but Adam could tell she was skeptical. He said he'd meet her downstairs and zipped out of the room, leaving her telegram on her desk.
As the family sat down to dinner, Josie gave Little Joe a hug and apologized for snapping at him. She then made a brief announcement to everyone that she would certainly not be moving to San Francisco and asked them to please not bring it up again. The Cartwright men quickly turned the subject to the plans for their big Thanksgiving feast in a couple of weeks. The O'Connells, Marquettes, and Lovejoys had been thrilled to accept the Cartwrights' invitation, and Ben and Adam discussed setting up a second dining table to accommodate all the guests. Josie had to bite her lip to keep from bursting out with the news of Delphine Marquette's pregnancy. Dell had passed the first trimester, and Josie was increasingly confident that she would carry the baby successfully to term. But Ross and Delphine still weren't announcing it, so Josie had to tamp down the urge to break the news.
Josie kept an eye on Adam throughout the meal. He flinched now and again when he swallowed, and when he dozed off on the sofa right after dinner, Josie knew for certain he wasn't well. No matter how tired he was, Adam always managed a chapter or two of whatever book he was reading before turning in for the night. Josie got up from her seat at the checkers table where she was giving Hoss a good thrashing and stepped around the settee behind Adam.
Adam nearly leapt out of his skin as Josie's fingers dug into the sides of his neck just under his jawline.
"Yow!" he hollered. He cast about wildly for the source of his rude awakening, and his eyes landed on Josie, who was smiling smugly behind the settee. "What did you do to me?!" He massaged his neck where the swollen glands still sang out painfully from Josie's probing.
"Your lymph nodes are swollen," she said.
"So?"
"So you're sick. Go to bed."
Adam started to protest, but Ben jumped out of his seat and strode over to his son. "How long have you been feeling ill, Adam?" he asked.
Adam looked up at his father and cousin, and then over to his brothers, who were now staring at him with concern, too. He sighed. "Since this morning, Pa. But it's just a sore throat. I'm fine, really."
Ben laid a hand on Adam's forehead and was relieved to find it cool. "Do as Josie says," he ordered. "Go to bed."
Adam sighed again and trudged upstairs. When they heard his bedroom door close, Ben turned to Josie. "Do you think it's serious?"
Josie shook her head. "No, Uncle Ben. He's not feverish. I'll check him out in a few minutes, but I expect he's just got that cold that's been going around. A couple days in bed, and he'll be fine."
Josie gave Adam some time to change into his nightshirt before she went upstairs and knocked on his door. Knowing she would threaten him with chloroform if he resisted, Adam sat still and opened wide so Josie could look down his throat.
"Yep, you caught that cold everyone's had," she announced as she tucked her stethoscope back into her medical bag. As she had expected, Adam's lungs were clear, but she had wanted to listen to them anyway, just to be safe. "The sore throat should subside in a couple days, but you'll develop a runny nose, some nasal congestion, and a headache. Probably a bit of a cough toward the end as everything loosens up."
"Wonderful. Something to look forward to."
Josie giggled. "Aw, it's not so bad, Cousin-Cousin. You get to spend the next few days in bed reading your books. And I'll take good care of you." She patted his head. "Normally, I'd offer a patient in your position some willow bark tea…" She giggled again as Adam screwed up his face. "But perhaps in your case hot chocolate would be more appreciated."
Adam grinned. Maybe being under the weather for a few days wouldn't be so bad after all. "Thanks, Josie."
Josie kissed his forehead. "Anything for you. I'll go make that hot chocolate."
Having Adam to dote on did wonders for Josie's spirits. While Adam slept in the next morning, she trotted out to her clinic and retrieved some camphor, onion syrup, menthol, and Epsom salts, and she sent Little Joe into town with her telegram and a request for a few jars of honey and two bottles of whiskey. When Adam woke up midmorning, Josie was ready with a bowl of steaming oatmeal drizzled with maple syrup. She delivered this to him in his room and chatted about Molly's progress with her bridesmaid's dress while he ate.
"Hey, would you mind sending Pip over to Molly's to let her know I won't be able to come see her this week?" he asked. "I was supposed to take her to dinner on Thursday, and I don't want her to think I've stood her up."
"Already done," Josie replied. "I asked Joe to stop by her shop while he's in town."
Adam smiled at Josie's thoughtfulness and handed her his now-empty oatmeal bowl. As he let go of the bowl, he flexed his fingers and frowned.
"Do your hands hurt?" Josie asked.
"They ache a bit," Adam admitted. He rolled his neck and shoulders. "Everything aches a bit, actually."
"That's a Stoddard trait, I'm afraid," Josie said. "Illnesses settle in our joints. Happens to me and Mama and Aunt Rachel, too." She grabbed his left hand and began massaging his fingers. Adam dropped his head back on his pillow and closed his eyes as a broad smile spread across his face. Josie giggled. "Learned this trick from Papa. It feels amazing, doesn't it?" Adam just nodded his agreement. "I brought some Epsom salts over from my clinic," Josie continued. "Give me a minute and I'll put some in a hot bath for you."
She disappeared, and Adam heard her pumping water into the bathtub across the hall. When it was ready, Josie told Adam she'd be back upstairs in fifteen minutes and then headed down to the kitchen to help Hop Sing with the breakfast dishes. Adam groaned with contentment as he settled his aching body into the steaming water. He sank to his chin and wondered for the hundredth time how the family had ever survived before Josie moved in.
His first two days in bed weren't so bad, but by the third, Adam's cold had settled in his sinuses. His nose was running like the Truckee River, but he was so congested that sniffing did no good – he couldn't draw air through either nostril. He had to keep a handkerchief held to his nose to catch the runoff, and Hop Sing sighed when he came up with some soup at midday and discovered that Adam had dripped through his entire supply of clean handkerchiefs and was now working his way through Little Joe's. The cook gathered up the soggy cotton squares and took them downstairs to wash, muttering in Chinese all the way.
When Josie came in from her clinic that evening and skipped up to Adam's room to check on him, she had to purse her lips to keep from laughing. She felt bad because she knew he was miserable, but he cut such a pathetic figure sitting there in bed with his red, watery eyes and a handkerchief pressed to his nose. He sniffled about every five or ten seconds as he stared glumly at the pages of Frankenstein. He looked up at Josie with a hangdog expression and asked her to please shoot him, though with as stuffy as he was, it sounded like "Please shoo be."
"I'm sorry you feel so terrible," Josie said, crossing over to his bed. She laid a hand on his forehead to check that he hadn't developed a fever and noticed the puffy bags under his eyes. "You sleep at all today?"
Adam shook his head. "Couldn't get comfortable. My whole face throbs when I lay down, and then I start coughing."
"That's the congestion," Josie said, frowning. "Let me draw you up another hot bath. It'll help."
Josie again filled the bathtub with hot water and put a pot of water on the stove in the washroom to boil, hoping that the extra steam would give Adam some relief from the sinus pressure. While Adam reclined in the tub, Josie sat down at her writing desk and whipped up a salve her father had concocted some years ago. Once Adam was back in bed, Josie popped into his room, a little jar in one hand.
"Bath help?" she asked.
"Yeah, a little."
"Good. Lie back and unbutton your shirt."
Adam raised an eyebrow but did as he was told. "Just hurry up with whatever you're gonna do," he said. "It's cold."
Josie smiled and unscrewed the lid of the jar. Adam's nose wrinkled as the salve's powerful aroma drifted across the room to him.
"Hey, you can smell something!" Josie cheered. "That's wonderful! Here." She reached into the jar, scooped out a large blob of gooey salve, and slathered it across his chest.
"Josie, what in the wor- Hey, that feels warm!" Adam said, his eyes lighting up. Josie just smiled and applied more salve, massaging it up onto Adam's throat. The fumes made his eyes water, but when he sniffed his nose again, he made an exciting discovery. "I can breathe through one nostril! What is this stuff?! It's a miracle!"
Josie giggled and handed him the jar. "Mixture of camphor and menthol," she said as Adam inspected the container's contents. "Papa came up with it years ago. It's amazing what it can do for a head cold. It's gonna make your shirt stick to your skin, but it's worth it." She took the jar back from Adam and set it on his nightstand. Comfortable for the first time that day, Adam was fighting to keep his eyes open, so Josie buttoned his nightshirt back up for him. "It should help keep you from coughing, too. But if it doesn't, I'll bring you some whiskey or onion syrup."
"Inger gave me onions once," Adam muttered as his heavy eyelids drooped.
"I'm sorry?"
Adam's eyes stayed closed as he nuzzled into his pillow. "When Pa and I first met her. I was sick, and she gave me salt pork and onions. Perked me right up. I miss her. She was a real nice lady…" His voice trailed off as sleep overtook him.
"So I've heard," Josie whispered. She smiled at Adam, blew out his oil lamp, and went downstairs for supper.
Having slept through supper, Adam woke up the next morning with a raging appetite. The restful sleep he'd gotten had worked wonders, and Josie let him eat breakfast in the dining room with everyone else. She caught him glancing longingly at his hat and gun on the sideboard and roundly informed him that he was not going out in the cold November air for at least another two days. Adam looked to Ben for support, but the older man shook his head and told his son to listen to Josie.
"The last thing we need is you coming down with pneumonia," he said.
Adam had never been good at being shut up in the house, so after breakfast, Josie hung her "Please call at the house" sign on her clinic door and spent the morning playing chess and checkers with Adam in the living room. After lunch, Adam went back to his bedroom for a nap, so Josie decided to go to her clinic for a bit. She didn't get many patients out here at the ranch once the weather turned cold – people tended to venture out only for true emergencies – but she thought she'd make up some more of the menthol salve to take with her to Dr. Martin's clinic the next day. With as many cases of that head cold as she and Dr. Martin had both seen, Josie knew they could put it to good use. She was pulling on her coat when Pip pressed his nose to the front door and whined.
"What is it, Pip?" Josie asked.
Pip glanced up at her, his tongue hanging out of his open mouth and his tail beating a cadence against the sideboard.
"Fionn's here, isn't he?"
Pip barked.
Josie giggled and opened the front door. "Well, go get him!"
Pip shot out the door and reached the barn just as the O'Connells' wagon drove around the corner and into the front yard. Conall leapt down from the back, and he and Pip took off running toward the duck pond.
"Hey, You!" Fionn called as he pulled his team to a stop.
"Hi, Josie!" Molly chimed in, waving.
Josie waved to both of them and waited on the porch as Jimmy, fully recovered from his bout of appendicitis, came out of the bunkhouse to take care of Fionn's horses. Fionn and Molly, their breath casting smoky puffs before them, mounted the porch and greeted Josie. Molly and Josie exchanged quick cheek-kisses, but Fionn grabbed Josie around the waist and swung her around.
"What brings you out this way?" Josie asked, still giggling from Fionn's greeting.
Molly held up a round, brown-paper-wrapped package. "I felt bad that Adam had to miss our dinner tonight, so I brought a bit of dinner to him. Irish soda bread. Made it meself just this mornin'."
"He'll love that," Josie said with a grin. "He's asleep, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you woke him up."
"Aye, I bet he wouldn't," Fionn muttered just loudly enough for Josie to hear. Josie tittered as she led Fionn and Molly into the house.
Hop Sing scuttled into the great room to take Molly's and Fionn's coats, and Josie waved Molly toward the stairs, indicating that she should help herself to Adam. Fionn and Josie stood at the bottom of the stairs and listened as Molly knocked on Adam's bedroom door.
"Oh, my poor darlin'!" they heard her cry when she was granted admittance. Fionn laid a hand over his heart and batted his eyelashes while Josie pretended to vomit. The friends caught each other's eyes and dissolved into laughter.
"Shhhhh!" Josie said as she gasped to catch her breath. "They'll hear us!"
"Oh please, they won't notice anythin' outside of that bedroom." Fionn wrinkled his brow as he realized all the possible interpretations of his statement.
Josie snorted. "Oh, if you only knew," she muttered under her breath.
"What's that?"
"Nothing. Would you like some coffee?"
Josie fetched them both some coffee, and they sat on the settee and caught up. They'd seen each other at the library's grand opening, but that had been a busy day, so they hadn't had a chance to really talk since the night they'd gone overboard with the apple cider a few weeks ago. Josie had planned not to breathe a word to Fionn about Simon's letter – she didn't want to make Fionn feel bad about the whole thing all over again – but sitting there on sofa with Fionn's arm around her shoulders, Josie blurted out the entire story. Fionn just stared into the fire while Josie talked.
"If you love him, you should go," he said quietly when Josie had finished the tale.
"That's the curious thing about it," Josie said. "I did love him. Fiercely. And this is the letter I'd been dreaming of getting from him. But when it came, I wasn't relieved or overjoyed. I was just angry."
"What about it made you angry?"
Josie reached up and twiddled Fionn's fingers absently while she thought about this. "That he asked me to leave my family," she said at last. "He knows how important my uncle and brothers are to me. To ask me to leave them after all those years we'd already been apart just felt so, so… inconsiderate."
Fionn shifted in his seat. "If he were comin' back to Virginia City, would your answer have been different?"
"I don't know," Josie said honestly. "Maybe. But maybe not. He'd really have to prove himself. Prove that he wasn't going to be suspicious every time a man came into my clinic. I dreamed my whole life of becoming a doctor, and I can't give up my profession for a jealous husband. I just can't."
"Nor should you." Fionn gave Josie's shoulders a little squeeze, and she smiled at him.
"Thank you," she said.
"For what?"
"Just being you. We had a rough start, but you're my best friend, Fionn." Josie draped an arm across Fionn's stomach and laid her head on his chest. They sat quietly, Josie never noticing the huge grin spread across Fionn's face. He pulled her tight to his side and gave her forehead a gentle kiss.
