Blue Spanish Eyes

We, Tauna Petit-Strawn and Ghostwriter85, do not own the copyrights to Bonanza.

Chapter 9

Laughter filled the air as Rosita slapped the pond's water causing it to fly upward into Adam's face. "I'll get you my little darling." Adam swiftly blocked her path before Rosita had a chance to escape.

"Mercy, sir, have mercy!" Rosita tried to sound serious, but cracked up laughing yet again as Adam found a very ticklish spot and decided it needed to be disturbed. They're fun lasted for hours, but then they were dressed and riding towards the surprise Adam said he had been saving for her.

The Ponderosa Pine guarded the two as they rode; small animals smiled as they rode by, and the one ranch hand that was riding within the vicinity quickly turned his head away when Adam pulled his horse closer to Rosita's in order to give her a kiss. "Young love." The older man chuckled and continued to ride towards his destination.

"Surprise!" Adam stopped their horses in front of a small two-story home. Unbeknownst to anyone, he had been using a lot of his spare time building the home his instincts had told him over and over would be needed someday. He'd have told his family about it, only he knew they thought his thinking damaged as it was. If they had known about the house, they would have surely insisted on having him committed.

"Oh, Adam, it's beautiful!" Rosita let out a squeal of delight and hurried to the front door. However, she was stopped from entering when she found herself lifted up into Adam's arms.

"A bride can't walk over the threshold, darling." Adam was smiling ear to ear as he headed for the door. "Her groom has the duty to carry her." Adam put on the most serious diplomatic face he could and carried out his responsibility.

"Thank-you, kind sir." Rosita tried to be serious, but the amusement in Adam's eye got her to giggling. It was only after he'd set her down upon her feet that she'd managed to reign things in did she look around.

The front room may not have been overly huge, but it was still big enough to wrap a warm cozy arm around anyone standing in its domain, along with a few guests. A simple light-tanned couch was pushed up against the wall and underneath a window. Expensive white and blue curtains hung over both windows and the third wall held a built-in bookshelf. A fireplace stood across from the couch and a sturdy light brown rocker stood in the corner not far from the wood box. The last item in the room, other than an oval braided rug, was a fancy oval-shaped silver-framed mirror which hung above the mantle.

"Oh, Adam, I love it!" Adam's smile again spread from ear to ear as Rosita was not paying attention to the expensive curtains, rug, or mirror, but was lavishing all her attention on the rocker he'd made by hand. His wife then hurried into the kitchen.

It held a dark black pot-bellied stove lined with silver metal. The cupboards were of the same light wood which had offered itself to be used in the makings of the rocker. A hutch stood comfortably against the wall facing the kitchen window while the sink lay comfortably underneath. Rosita had expected to find the cupboard doors one solid piece of wood and gasped when clear glass was encased within its wooden frame.

"Oh, Adam, you shouldn't have." Rosita covered her mouth in astonishment over the sight.

"You always said being able to see the dishes was an extra motivation to keep them clean." Rosita wasn't sure whether to hug him or slap him; she chose the first.

"Aren't you going to look at the rest of the house?" Adam teased her when she didn't move.

"Ya, ya…" Rosita scrunched up her nose and laughed yet moved towards the small hallway sporting a set of stairs on one side with a door underneath them, and a door to her right.

The door to her left was an oversized linen closet. That did not surprise her, but what did was what sat in the far right hand corner. She couldn't believe what she was seeing! It couldn't be! She turned wide-eyed to Adam who was leaning against the door with his arms folded and a smug grin on his face.

"There's a lot about your century I grew tired of," Adam said, but continued to grin as he tacked on, "but *indoor plumbing wasn't one of them." His chest shook as he chuckled and then said, "Nonetheless, you still get to use the hand pump for the kitchen and anything else. Having a few luxuries is okay, but too many makes for one solid spoiled brat." Rosita knew full well he was referring to her cousin and wasn't about to argue the fact.

She stopped thinking about Camilla and hurried to open the door which had been to her right. It was clearly her and Adam's room. It sported full-sized brass bed with a dark blue cover. A few hooks hung on one wall and one dresser holding eight drawers, four on each side, also occupied the space. Rosita couldn't help it; she started giggling.

"And pray tell, my fine lady," Adam said as he raised an eyebrow, "just what have you found which doth amuse you so much?"

"Your poor father, your poor brothers, no wonder they thought you permanently delusional, telling them all about me and how I'd show up someday."

In spite of himself Adam cracked up laughing. "Yes, I'm afraid without you visibly around, no one could fault them at that."

"What's upstairs?" Rosita wrapped her arms around Adam's waist.

"An attic easily turned into two rooms unless," He whispered and winked, "you have some strange desire for our future children to sleep in our room until they're adults." That got a playful slap from Rosita. "I'll take that as a no." Adam lowered his head and covered her mouth with his; they never did make it upstairs.

~oOo~

*The first flushing toilet was actually invented by Sir John Harington back in 1594 for Queen Elizabeth. Unfortunately, he penned a book about his new invention entitled A New Discourse of a State Subject, Called the Metamorphosis of Ajax – full of bad puns and off-color humor. He was ridiculed to scorn over the book, and never manufactured another toilet. After, the world was toilet-free for almost 200 more years.

The toilet reemerged and was patented in 1775 by Alexander Cummings. Its design was hugely improved by one Thomas Crapper, who garnered 9 patents during his lifetime, 3 of them for improvements to the flushing toilet, though indoor plumbing was actually not widespread in the U.S., though some families did have it, until the 20th Century. That is, unless it was the large, fancy hotels and big cities like Boston and such. Those places were using indoor plumbing by the 1880's.

Authors' note: We know most of the westerns, including Bonanza didn't show indoor plumbing, but since the Cartwright family was supposed to be one of the families who were better off financially we figured it was a good way to show that fact.