A/N: This is the sequel to Karen's Rescue. I hope that you have read that one if you're reading this.
Karen sat on the seat of the wagon next to Victoria Barkley as they approached the school that she had chosen to finish her education at. The Stockton Academy for Fine Young Ladies was building quite a reputation for itself as an educational facility for girls of good family.
"Ms. Victoria?"
"Yes, Karen, dear?"
"I will admit. I'm more than just a little nervous. I went to my other school for so long and to be starting at a new school where I don't know anyone is a bit intimidating."
Victoria patted the teenager's hand. "I understand that, dear. I think you've made a fine choice for finishing your education. I have personally known a few young women who have attended this school and they are becoming quite well known for their ability to educate young women."
"That is comforting. And the fact that the entire family has come along to help me settle in is even more so."
"We made a promise to you and to your father. And we Barkleys do not go back on our promises easily. Plus, Heath would never even dream of letting you do this alone. Not if he plans to have a relationship with you." Victoria smiled at her. "After all, how would it look to people if he abandon you to your own devices at this point?"
Karen giggled. Victoria did have a point. It wouldn't look good to anyone, much less her Pa and brothers if the family left her to her own wits with no help. Pa would probably lead the boys out immediately to collect her and bring her home if that happened now. She would probably never leave the house again after that.
"May I help you folks?"
"My name is Victoria Barkley and I and my family have come to settle in your newest student, one Karen Cartwright."
"Yes, Mrs. Barkley. I have your name right here. If you would proceed to the main building, just up this drive, the headmistress will be waiting for you. She has been looking forward to your arrival all day." The man at the gate gestured and another man opened the gate to allow the wagon and the rest of the family through.
"Thank you," Victoria said as she clucked to the team to get it moving. Once clear of the gate, Victoria turned to Karen. "I think it's a very good sign that they have a guarded gate here. And from the looks of things there is a fence all the way around the school. Looks to be very secure here."
"I agree, Ms. Victoria. I think I'll be very safe here. Of course, with your family helping to look out for me, I would be safe anywhere. I don't doubt that."
"Thank you, Karen. I'm glad that you feel safe with us. That means a great deal to myself and my children. Especially Audra and Heath. They both share a close bond with you. And Jarrod and Nick would be honored to know that you feel that way."
Karen looked at the main building for the school which was coming into view. "It's huge!" she breathed. Then she noticed that several young women were sitting on the front porch watching them approach. Karen looked down at her hands in her lap. "So many watching us. I'm more than a little frightened, Ms. Victoria."
Victoria's hand reached over and covered Karen's. "No reason to be frightened, dear. If this seems an ill fit, we'll just take you back to our house and see about one of the other schools another day."
Karen sat up a little straighter. "I think this one will work, Ms. Victoria. I'm just nervous about meeting so many new people."
"I can understand that, my dear. But just remember, you are a Cartwright and you have nothing to be ashamed of. You are Ben Cartwright's daughter in all the manners that count the most. If you weren't, you would not have been able to escape that evil woman that took you from your old school. And, yes, Adam and Ben told me how long you'd been on the run from her when Adam found you. And yet you survived. You survived when others would not have. You helped your brothers to find you and you stayed alive long enough to get somewhere they could help you. You remembered everything they taught you and used it to your greatest advantage in that situation. You have nothing to fear here." Victoria smiled at the teen next to her. "In fact, in comparison, this should be easy."
"Thank you, Ms. Victoria. You knew just what to say to make me feel better. Thank you."
"My pleasure, dear. Now, let's go meet your new headmistress."**
Victoria pulled up in front of the building and put on the brake for the wagon. Jarrod had come up next to the wagon and helped his mother down while Heath had stepped to Karen's side and helped her down. Meanwhile, Nick had escorted his sister to the porch with everyone else.
"Mrs. Barkley, how wonderful to see you!" gushed an older woman. She walked to Victoria and took the woman's hand. "How are you?"
"Fine, Mrs. Anderton. And yourself?"
"Just fine. I understand you've brought us a new student. And your three handsome sons and beautiful daughter have come with you to introduce her. Would this be the young lady in question?" she asked turning to Karen.
"Yes. May I introduce Karen Elizabeth Cartwright? Karen, this is Mrs. Jocelyn Anderton, Headmistress of the school. She will be the one you will speak to if there are any problems."
Karen stepped forward. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Anderton. I'm truly honored that you would consider allowing me to attend here."
"Our pleasure, my dear. Helping young women educate themselves is a hefty obligation. And one that I take on gladly. It is my belief that one day women will be able to use such education to run their own lives and perhaps even businesses."
"Mrs. Anderton, no man will ever allow a woman to run a business," one of the young girls on the porch stated.
"Gladys, you can not make any guarantees in that arena. Someday girls will not be as hindered as they are now. After all, Mrs. Barkley runs a rather large property not far from here."
"Do you really, Mrs. Barkley? Or do your sons run it for you?"
"Oh no, young lady. Our mother runs the property all by herself. I am there only to provide assistance if she should need it in the legal arena. My brothers and I help with doing the work and we report to her if there's anything that's needed on the ranch. She then looks at the books and makes the decision if we can afford it or not," Jarrod was quick to point out.
"Thank you, Jarrod." Victoria was polite. But her son knew that she could speak for herself. And she was quite good at it.
"I want the young lady to understand that not one of us boys would ever contradict your authority when it comes to the ranch, Mother. Father left it to you, to come to the rest of us only when you were gone. And hopefully that won't be for many years yet."
"And who are these other fine young people with you, Mrs. Barkley?" Mrs. Anderton asked.
"We have my oldest son, Jarrod. The next is my middle son, Nick. My daughter, Audra. And my youngest son, Heath. All four of them assist me wherever needed on the ranch."
"And do I understand correctly that Miss Cartwright will be spending weekends at your ranch?"
"You do. She enjoys time spent with Audra. As well as the rest of us. And I shall enjoy having her. I promised her father that anytime she wished to come to the ranch and stay with us, she would be more than welcome. Equally, she is welcome to spend weekends here at the school if she feels extra study time would be beneficial. I have it on good authority that she is a very conscientious student."
"We would be glad to have her here as one of our students. Gladys, would you be so kind as to show Miss Cartwright to the empty room on the second floor?"
Gladys stood up and stepped forward. "If you will follow me?" Karen followed Gladys into the building and up the stairs, a little nervous at being away from the Barkleys in a strange place.
Gladys led her up the stairs. "I do hope you don't think badly of me for doubting that women will ever be allowed to run businesses. It just seems like men do everything in their power to keep us under their control."
"I don't think badly of you for that. But I believe that one day women will run businesses. It may be a long ways off but I believe that it will happen. My Pa even thinks so. He admires Mrs. Barkley for running the ranch so well on her own the way she does. He says lots of men have tried to take the land from her but she holds her own against all of them."
"What's your Pa's name?"
"Ben Cartwright." Gladys stopped and turned around.
"Ben Cartwright is your Pa?" Karen nodded. "Wow! I never thought I'd meet anyone from that family! Your Pa is famous out this way."
Karen nodded. She'd heard that before. But she would never think of him as famous. He was her Pa and she loved him. That was all that mattered.**
"Don't you think it's wonderful that your pa's famous?" Gladys asked.
Karen shrugged. "Famous or not, he's my Pa and that's all that matters to me. I love him and my brothers."
"That's a good thing. Will they be coming to visit at any point?"
"I really don't know. I think it all depends on how things are going back home. I know that my brother Adam plans on keeping in touch with me through the Barkleys. He even told me that he was thinking about coming out to visit at some point. Maybe close to Christmas time."
"Do you think he really will?"
"When Adam says he's going to do something, he usually does it unless there's a very good reason for him not to." Karen smiled. "He's a lot like Pa in that way. And Adam plans things out to make sure that he has everything in place for things to work out right for him."**
"Is he really that thorough?"
Karen nodded. "When I was kidnapped, he, Hoss and Little Joe spread out looking for me. Adam was the one who set up a litter with extra blankets and food so that he could take care of me if he were the one that found me."
Gladys' eyes went rather dreamy. "To have a brother as handsome and smart as Adam must be tough."
"Actually, I find it absolutely wonderful. He and I share so much in common that we always have something to talk about. And he always understands when I just can't lay in bed and let people take care of me. Just not who I am." She shrugged.
"Oh I don't know. I think I could really get into having people take care of me all the time."
"It gets boring. And when it's because of a head injury you have to deal with that pain on top of anything else that comes along."
"A head injury? How bad was it?"
"Well the first one, I received when I escaped from my kidnapper. A rock fell off a cliff and hit me right in the head. That one healed well. Had disappeared completely when the second one happened. I had gone out to my mother's grave. I tripped and fell, hit my head on her tombstone. Mrs. Barkley's youngest, Heath, found me. That one I had several headaches from."
"Heath is so cute." Gladys turned and started up the stairs again. She came out on the second floor and walked about halfway down the hall before stopping in front of one room. "This will be your room. When you start your final year here, you'll be moved up to the third floor. That's where the oldest girls sleep." Gladys showed her where the bathrooms were on the floor and explained that there were outhouses nearby if they were needed. But that it was rare that someone had to go out to them. "We all take baths every other day. The headmistress will let you know which days you will be able to get a bath. I guess that's everything here that I need to show you. I'll walk back downstairs with you so that you can start bringing your things up to your room."
"Will it be alright if the Barkley's help me to bring up my things?"
"I think that Mrs. Anderton will allow that. At least for today. But you'll have to ask her to be certain. Oh, I should tell you. Until you move to the third floor, this room will remain your room. We don't move around to different rooms each year like some schools do. Your things will remain in this room until you move to the third floor. Even over summer break. Each of us has our own room. No roommates. Mrs. Anderton says it distracts us from our studies. We can study together of course but we don't have roommates."
"I can work with that." Karen followed Gladys back down the stairs and went right to Mrs. Anderton when they got back to the front porch. "Mrs. Anderton, I would like to ask permission for the Barkleys to assist me in bringing my things up to my room."
"I think that would be quite alright. But no dawdling, dear. We must finish quickly so that we don't disrupt the meal schedule too much."
"Of course, Mrs. Anderton. We will be as quick as possible."
At that point, Heath, Nick and Jarrod had already each grabbed Karen's things and were ready to follow her up to her room. They placed her things in her room and before they went back downstairs to the porch, each of them gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
"I'll see you on Saturday to bring you back to the ranch, Karen," Heath said before the family left.
"I'll be watching for you, Heath. I look forward to spending time with all of you over the weekend."
"I'll make sure that Silas knows you'll be coming, dear," Victoria said gently. "He'll have a room ready for you when you arrive." Victoria leaned in and kissed Karen's cheek before climbing back onto the wagon. "Until then, Karen."
"Yes, ma'am." Karen stepped back from the wagon as Victoria put the horses in motion and turned the wagon. The three boys stepped up onto their horses and each rode past Karen, smiling at her.
"Karen, lunch will be served just momentarily. You will be joining us?"
"Yes, ma'am." Karen realized that she was definitely getting rather hungry and was hoping that the food here could at least compare to Hop Sing's cooking. She turned to go into the house and followed the others to the dining room.