Weeks passed and before anyone knew it was October, Ginny has been getting to know Laura Dayton incase her Cousin-in-law Will Cartwright ever comes to town. And letting Izzy play with Peggy. Adam knew what she was doing but said nothing. Ginny wasn't even talking up Will, since she'd never met or trying to get anyone else to talk him up. Just offering honest friendship.
"Not that I'm complaining Ginny, but why me you haven't exactly, personally extended the hand of friendship to anyone else it's always been your family not you."
"I've been where you are, Laura. Only I had a small child, and two younger sisters to take care of, my husband who I'd been in love with since I was 15 was gone, and I felt completely lost. He helped me raise my sisters who I love like my own, and gave me my own baby. He was a good and decent man and even now I still think of him but it's no longer out of pain and sorrow when he enters my thoughts now, it's only looking back on the happy memories, even the ones when he was being completely unreasonable or annoying which wasn't often but it happened. I love Adam, I love him very much he's allowed me to move on and heal, I'm not sure I could ever truly look back on those memories with complete and utter happiness with him. He knew I would never stop loving Bobby and said he was alright with that, he wasn't sure he could accept loving a woman who would stop loving her husband because he died, his father was married three times, widowed three times you know and he still loves all three of his wives. Adam understands that, accepts that. I see a lot of myself in you, Laura…."
"Except you didn't have a farm to run…."
"I had my own river to forge believe me."
"I don't doubt that so what's your advice?"
"Three things, double check and triple check anything having to do with your ranch right now, especially anything financial, but do it discreetly no one likes being second guessed, being that you're a woman you can use the other woman and the other gossiping women in the town for a lot of that….You can also use Hop-Sing I'll translate for you….a lot of workers are Chinese and they hear things…..."
"You speak Chinese?"
"I was a tutor and a governess before I married my husband at 21, and after I lost him, before I came to live with the Cartwright's. His father was a family friend of the Cartwright family, and so was Bobby, Papa felt we needed help and maybe some matchmaking was involved I'm not sure, he could have just been helping us out and nature just took its course you never know with that man. Anyway several months later, Adam and I, and Hoss and Willow were married, and Joe and Livy developed a Big brother/Little sister relationship…..she's been dating the new Cabinetmaker/Carpenter's Son, Jasper Norris She absolutely adores him….."
"The one with the eye patch?"
"He's a nice, young man and the way she talks about him you'd think he hung the moon, she's really head over heels she thinks the patch makes him look rakish. They share a love of Woodworking, it's her hobby it has been for years most boys find that off-putting or think no girl should do that, he doesn't he finds it attractive, helps her on occasion they're making a ten pin bowling set together at his father's shop together as we speak. They have the same sense of humor, they just understand each other. I think he's going to propose….."
"Would you allow them to marry?"
"I would, so would Adam, he likes the boy. I think the Norris's are for the union as well. They didn't think Jasper would get a chance for a marriage because of the patch, he lost his eye on the trail when he was 14, some kind of accident. I never asked for the details they're none of my business that's all Livy would tell me. And like Good parents they just want him to be happy. Moving on, also, human hair around your property will keep the dear away, so they don't eat your crops, I am also going to teach you something very important how to read facial expressions." She was lucky she took that course. It was well worth it Deception Detection was a little known science at the time, but it certainly helped her dealing with the politics of the Army wives who protected each other and backstabbed each other depending on the day of the week, and who they were talking to. It also helped Bobby at all those dinners they had to go to with her and his arm, whispering in his ear. And once he taught him, it helped him in the field. "And teach you self-defense you never know when you're going to need it."
A week after Laura Dayton and Ginny had their tea, her lessons were well underway since she was going to be family she wanted her to be as prepared as possible, meanwhile Becky, Peggy, and Izzy were becoming close. Also a week after the lessons, Adam had gone into town to have lunch with Jasper Norris who had invited him to the International house, they met and He noticed the young man was dressed in his Sunday best. He looked nervous. "Mr. Cartwright, Sir, Please join me….."
"Jasper, what is going on?" As if he didn't know, Adam knew from what Ginny said, Livy told her that Jasper would ask him for her hand. Adam because he was married Ginny and Ginny was the closest thing she had to mother. So he was the closest thing he had to father. He told his Pa, and the silver haired man laughed and told him to have lunch with the boy. Then meet him at Norris and sons Cabinetmakers and Carpentry, and they'd all have a nice talk.
"Sir, I'd like to marry Livy, I'd like to marry her and be her husband and partner in life. To raise a family with her and build really amazing things with her, and not just out of wood, but out of trust and love…." His one good eye sparkled as he babbled on…..
"That sounds nice, Jasper." Adam said trying to stop the babbling young man, but to no avail.
"….I make a good living, I make 3 dollars a week, plus commissions on whatever I build it's only a 10% commission but when I become a Journeyman in July it will be a 50%, and when I become a master carpenter the commission will mine, My father and I have already begun to build a house on our property it's just outside town about 40 minutes from here. it's a small cabin, a total of five rooms, a kitchen, a Main room and dining room, three bedrooms, well two regular bedrooms and a loft bedroom, we share the property with my parents, so we have a large barn, that holds our 4 horses including my own Sarsaparilla, a Milk cow, A Dozen chickens, and some hogs, we also have a smoke house, and My father's large work room on the property, it's not as big as the Ponderosa but it's a nice size property, please, Sir, I love her, She makes my life better just by being there, I can't imagine a future where she's my wife."
"Son….I love that girl like she's my own daughter, you understand that right?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Ginny and I talked about this, we know that if you were ask she's say yes, and both of us think you'd make a fine husband. But your Both Young when do you become a Journeyman?"
"July 4th, on My 19th Birthday."
"You'll marry after that."
"Yes, Sir."
"Now, let's order." Now after the meal which was good, the cook was from New Orleans and Adam got a nice reminder of his childhood they both walked back to Norris and Sons Cabinetmakers and Carpentry. Ben and George were waiting for them.
"Jasper and Adam, welcome we were just waiting on you, Now I'm sure Adam told you, that you'd be married after you became a Journeyman which George tells me is in July, which works out because it gives Ginny time to plan a nice wedding, Now as for the dowry which Ginny and Adam insists I don't need to pay but She is one of Adam's girls so I am insisting that I do. I will pay for the completion of the House for Jasper and Livy, Adam I'm sure will want to add his special touch as well, I happened to know he built our house to stand for a 150 years, and I will upon the date of the marriage give George 10 head of cattle, and 2 horses. I would will also continue to allocate limber for Norris and Sons Cabinet Makers and Carpentry at a reduced price, from my regular customers from every limber shipment. I believe Livy calls it the friends and family discount."
"That will help us immensely." George said. "We are a new business and most men who can afford it have things shipped in from out of the area, or if they can make it themselves, the fact that we have two Negros on the payroll doesn't help. But Daniels and Crawford are loyal and good men who have been with me for 13 years. I agreed to apprentice them when they were mere boys with nothing but a 5 dollars a piece in their pocket and the clothes in their backs I consider them my sons as much as Jasper and Thad. They're master carpenters and cabinetmakers now, if they were white they could go anywhere, but they know their options are limited….they're free to go whenever they like, but I won't turn my back on them."
"You're a good man George."
"I'm just a man who follows his Bible, Matthew 25:35…..I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in."
"You did more, than that. Mister George." A deep voice said. Suddenly a 24 year old Negro man about 6'1, slender but somehow muscular, with closely cut hair, dressed in black boots, black pants and red shirt, a brown apron over him, covered in saw dust. "You gave me and Daniels a life we might never have had, and Mrs. Enid taught us proper English, Arithmetic, history, literature, all the things children like us couldn't learn…..and we don't stay with you just because our options are limited."
"I know." George says with a smile.
"Now the bed for the younger of the Mister Cartwright's and his Wife is done, do you want the Misters Cartwright to take a look at it?"
"That will be great Crawford, soon, but first we have some marriage details to go over."
"Of course, I take it the Lovely Miss Olivia is going to be Mrs. Norris soon enough?" Crawford asked.
"They'll be married when he makes the switch to Journeyman."
"It is prudent to wait, His pay will go from 3 to 8 dollars a week, and his commission will go from 25 to 50 percent. Speaking of which, I want to thank you Mister Cartwright for letting me and my brother work on the furniture for your job, many men would insist on only having Mister George and his sons work on it. Despite my brother and I being Master Carpenter and Cabinet makers."
"You've been through your training, it didn't seem fair to penalize either one of you because of the color of your skin."
"If more men thought like that, the world would be a better place." A shorter Negro man with an even deeper voice, and a pair of spectacles entered.
"Daniels this is Mister Adam Cartwright and Mister Ben Cartwright, one of Adam's girls is going to Marry Jasper."
"Miss Livy, I would presume. She's a good person, she treats us like there's no difference between us and everyone else. I think because she sees no difference, I think she might be the first truly color blind person I've ever met."
"She sees no difference in me either." Jasper says with a dopey grin on his face. "She thinks I'm handsome and my eye patch makes me rakish…."
"She was raised to believe we are all God's children, all made in God's image, and Christ died for all our sins not just some of us Mister Pratt." Adam said remembering a discussion about his wife's take on the difference between true Christians and people just pretending to be Christians. "No exceptions, you are as much a child of God as she is, there for in her eyes you are exactly the same."
A few days later, It was a Saturday Afternoon, Jasper and Sarsaparilla picked her up, at the Ponderosa, he had a picnic lunch Jenny made and the ten pin bowling set that he and Livy had made together. Becky, and Izzy were playing outside.
"Ooh, Jazzy and Livy sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first comes love then comes marriage, then comes Jazzy with the baby carriage…." Izzy mocked. Then Becky took up the rhyme and started mocking her as well.
"Ginny!" Ben stepped out.
"Sorry sweetheart she's at Laura Dayton's, what's going wrong?" to the two girls who were still mocking and singing. "That's enough girls." Ben said. "Why don't you go play?" they both knew it wasn't a request and ran off. "Now where are you two off to?"
"We're going on a picnic, Adam said we could use the spot by the river." Jasper said
"Of course, I'll make sure to spread the word give you two your privacy, and you should join us for dinner." Also wasn't a request.
"I'd be delighted sir." He grabbed his picnic basket and the ten pin bowling set which was boxed up.
"I'll take care of your horse and cart son." Ben said. "Go on…."
"I'll take the basket that box looks heavy." Livy said. They walked to the river and He spread the blanket down and they said on it and unpacked the lunch, they enjoyed themselves while they ate then they bowled.
"I knew we did a good job." He said.
"Yes, we did. We always do a good job when we work together." She said.
"About that, Livy…..I want us to work together for always."
"You got me a job in your fathers shop."
"Not exactly." He handed her a ring. "It was my mother's. Look, I tried this speech in my head." He got down on one knee, but it comes down this I want to marry you, I want to be your partner in life, I want to build a life together, I want to build beautiful pieces of carpentry with you, and have beautiful babies, and spend the rest of my life making you happy."
"I want that to. Your first boy who I ever wanted to marry, wanted to have babies with. But there's something you need to know before I say yes. I wasn't born in 1846."
"You're older?"
"No."
"Younger, how much younger."
"About 150 years, my sisters and niece and I came here, last June, it was an accident we don't know we came here, or how to get home. We appeared one Sunday right in front of the Cartwright's, they agreed through some miracle to protect us, and Willow and Hoss, and Adam and Ginny fell in love. I'm not sure how but they did. Joe and I developed sister/brother relationship, expect to be threatened by him when he realizes we're getting married."
"Well, he already threatened me when we started spending time together."
"Are you going to break up with me now?"
"What no? Whatever it is that makes you the way you are, I love you more for it. And I don't think you're crazy and would explain a few things about your sisters. Your sister Ginny is educated isn't she, really educated."
"She's a history Professor, she can't prove here, and she's not going back to it, but part of her is very happy to be in the thick of it, she's filled journals with notes I don't know whoever's going to read them, she won't let any of us see them."
"And Willow?"
"She was going was always split between plants and animals no one was sure what she was going to do. For me it was always woodworking I like toys and puzzles that's what I love most, I was still in school it goes to 18 then, but I had a side business and I also made things for the church every Christmas, I was big on that."
"So you'll marry me?"
"Yes, I will."
