Bearer of Bad News
Early the next morning, Roy Coffee stopped by the Ponderosa.
"Come have coffee with us," Ben said. He gestured to the table where they were just finishing.
"Why thank you," Roy said. "Don't mind if I do and if it's all right, I'd like a few of them biscuits and some of that gooseberry jam. I left town so early this morning I only had a warmed-over cup of bitter coffee – my own coffee, and you know how bad that is." Roy sat down but not before he greeted Marina who sat at the table, her face tense. "Morning, Mrs. Cartwright."
"You have news, don't you? Bad news. I know."
"Marina," Adam said, "news doesn't change in a few moments. Let Roy settle down and fill his belly first. Manners go a long way."
"Actually, it's not all bad news. If you like, I can talk while I eat – if you'll excuse my bad manners, talking while my mouth is full."
"Full – empty – I do not care. Just tell me! Have you come to take me to the Waverlys? To turn me over to them? Have you?" She was paler than usual and her lips quivered.
"According to the judge in Pennsylvania, the warrant is legal. He did state that he didn't hold much with the idea of indentured servants, but Mrs. Cartwright had, or so it seems, broken the contract. The warrant is on the up and up; he did issue it. I sent a wire back telling him that Mrs. Cartwright was in the custody of a deputy and we were waiting on a hearing. But, Adam, I don't know what to tell you; seems you haven't got …" He noticed Marina's fearful expression. "That Mrs. Waverly, she musta been waiting like a vulture because as soon as Ross brought me the telegram, she showed up in my office, just lordin' it over me, claiming she had the right to drag…" Again, Roy caught himself. "To take custody of the girl."
"You mean my wife."
"Yes, your wife - sorry. Look, I've decided I don't care how much that Mrs. Waverly howls, I'm leaving your wife here unless I get a direct order from the circuit judge to release her to the Waverly's custody. Seems they got a lawyer too and he's on his way. Or so she said. Threatened to have my job and I was tempted to give it to her!"
Marina stood up and paced in the great room, wringing her hands. Suddenly she spoke and all three men turned to her. "Sheriff, what if they die – are killed?"
"Who?" Roy asked, puzzled.
"Mr. and Mrs. Waverly. What if they happen to die or someone kills them? How would that affect my case? Would I be free of them?"
"Well, I suppose unless…" Roy looked to Adam for help.
"They're not going to die and no one's going to kill them," Adam replied to Marina, "so there's no reason to consider the possible consequences. Thank you, Roy. I appreciate that you came all this way."
Roy claimed it was no trouble and after finishing up the last three biscuits in the basket and downing three cups of hot coffee, left to return to town, reminding Adam of the hearing in the morning. Adam walked him out and when he returned, he could see the strain on Marina's face.
"Pa, would you mind?"
"What? Oh, no…I have to tend to something…I have to speak to foreman before they head out." Ben wiped his hands with the napkin, and half-rising, gulped down his coffee before he left Adam and Marina alone.
"I know they will come for me, take me back with them. I will not go, Adam. I will slit my own throat before I will go back with them. I won't leave here unless I am dead." She touched her throat as if wondering how much effort it would take. "Or you throw me back – give me to them."
"They won't take you, Marina. I've told you that. Do you truly believe I would allow it? And I won't hand you over to them; people shouldn't 'own' others. I fought a war defending that basic human right." Adam's patience was short; he himself was worried about the Waverly's legal claim and found it burdensome to try to calm is wife as she resisted all his efforts. But he knew he had to try. To see her upset distressed him; he wanted to give her a good life, to see she was happy since he found such delight and pleasure with her - and then this happened.
"Perhaps you should not have married me, Adam." Marina's cheeks suddenly flushed and her eyes glittered as if feverish. "But I have an idea." She rushed to him, grabbing his shirt front. "We could go somewhere – you and I. Not tell anyone, just leave. I could be, to others, your daughter. It would be believed. But at night, I could still welcome you to my bed. No one would know different. Think of it, Adam!" She implored him. "No longer would we have to worry!"
"Marina, that's a mad idea. This will all be settled legally. I won't be on the run and have every lawman after us because I took you away before all this matter was resolved. How could we find happiness living a lie?" But he wondered, as he looked at her desperate face, if they could find happiness at all anymore. "The truth is important to me, Marishka, obviously more important than it is to you. I won't do anything dishonest." He had been a "goddamn fool," he told himself, to have married so quickly, to have fallen in love with such a naïve woman. Yes, he admitted to himself in a flash of sudden insight—he loved Marina, no matter what. But had he made a foolish mistake? He could have hired a Pinkerton and found out about Marina's past before marrying her. But he hadn't thought at all. For the first time in his life, Adam realized, he had acted on pure emotion.
Marina's small hands dropped from his arms and her face was as if a curtain had dropped. Her eyes revealed nothing. She shrugged. "Lie but remember – that is a…what is the word? A precept. Then what is said becomes the truth and no one will doubt us. And what good has the law ever done for me?"
Adam was puzzled. He wondered if honesty, self-respect and all those other traits he had always valued were important at all to her. "I won't lie about our marriage or anything else. We'll let the law take care of it." He waited but Marina didn't look at him. She just moved away from him and began to pace nervously; her outward calm had deserted her.
"I am…I cannot sit. My being is too… too … I feel as if I will scream – go crazy! I need to walk about. I will not go far but I need to move, to feel I am doing something."
"Marina." Adam didn't use her "name of affection," as she called it; he wanted her to know he was serious. "I have to go out to the mine and my father needs to check on the mill so don't walk far. I know you've been taking walks in the afternoon but you can still become lost if you're not paying attention; one tree looks the same as another."
~ 0 ~
Hop Sing and Ben Cartwright were in the yard when Adam rode up. He knew that something was wrong – Hop Sing was rapidly talking, leaning in, his hands flying, and his father was still holding the reins of his horse. The kitchen half-doors were open and the chickens were just beginning to settle down, feathers still floating gently; they had been disturbed.
Both Ben and Hop Sing looked toward Adam and he read the concern in his father's face, the distress in Hop Sing's.
"Mistah Adam," Hop Sing said, rushing to him as he still sat his horse. "Missy Cartwright, she take buggy - go. I try to stop, tell her no, but she say she lady of house – she go where want. Been gone now two hour – maybe more."
"Oh, hell," Adam said.
"Now, Adam," Ben said, "she probably just went for a drive. Maybe she just lost her way."
"You know better than that," Adam said. "Did she pack a bag? Take anything with her?"
"No, just small purse. No bag. Her take road to town," Hop Sing said. "I run after, say you be very angry but she just keep going."
"I'm going to go find her," Adam said, jerking on his horse's rein to turn its head toward town. "Pa, just in case Marina's only lost, will you just ride about the property? Just in case."
"Of course, Adam."
Adam kicked his horse and left to take the familiar road to town, following the buggy's fresh ruts.
He found Marina on the road heading to the Ponderosa, struggling to hold back the horse who knew home was close. Marina had hitched up one of the older mares who had a foal waiting for her in the corral. When Marina saw her husband, she pulled mightily on the reins, leaning back for leverage – her bonnet slid off her head and hung behind her. The mare slowed enough that Adam reached out and grabbed the tracings.
"Where the hell have you been?" Adam demanded.
Adam had never been this angry with her before and fear crawled up Marina's spine. She swallowed deeply, gaining control of herself before she answered. "I have been to town."
"Did you see the Waverlys?" She nodded indifferently. "And? What did you say to them?"
"Just that if they took me back with them, I would tear their throats open with my very teeth while they slept."
Adam groaned and shook his head. "What did they say?" Marina merely shrugged and turned her head aside. "What did they say?" Adam demanded. He shook the tracings but wanted to shake her, she frustrated him so.
"Mrs. Waverly, she laughed, but she did not laugh with humor but with fear. I know. I could tell."
"And?" Adam waited. He was having to pull every word from her and the sky was turning orange indicating imminent nightfall; he fought the urge to dismount and pull Marina off the buggy seat and stand her before him. His stature alone would intimidate her – or not; he had his doubts.
Marina only shrugged again, looking out in the distance. "She said she would tell the sheriff I threatened to kill them, that it was against the law and that I was too stupid to know. That is almost all we said." She turned to look at Adam, his face dark with rage as he was sure there was much more that had been said. "Then I left, was coming home, and you stopped me. The horse is eager to nurse her foal. We should go now."
Adam sighed and was about to release the horse's head when he noticed an unbuckled strap on the tracings. "Look at this," Adam said angrily. "You didn't buckle this stay strap properly! The prong isn't in the hole!" He slightly raised the strap for her to see. "Do you know what could have happened? The horse could have broken free or pulled you out of your seat. Goddamn it, Marina! You could have broken your neck!"
Marina looked on him as if annoyed. "But nothing happened. Why worry now about such matters? What is the point? Or are you wishing it were so and then you would be free of me?"
Adam and his wife stared at one another. "If I wanted to be free of you, trust me, you'd be gone by now. I'd have hog-tied you and tossed you to them – and I still might. We need to get home." With his one free hand, the other holding his horse's reins, Adam awkwardly adjusted the buckle and then released the leather trace. Marina lightly snapped the reins while Adam turned his horse in the road. He followed the wagon, not wanting to turn his back on Marina; he had no idea what she was truly capable of doing.
In the middle of dinner, while Ben and Adam discussed postponing bidding on a new timber contract, Adam stopped, cocking his head. "I hear a buggy pulling up." They waited and the brass doorknocker sounded throughout the house. Adam and Ben looked at one another and then both looked to Marina who continued to smoothly spoon up her soup.
"I'll get it," Adam said, placing his napkin on the table and rising. Marina had yet to look up.
A sheepish Roy Coffee stood at the door. "Adam, I hate to come out here but…"
"Come in, Roy. I've half been expecting you," Adam said resignedly.
Roy apologized again, removed his hat when he addressed Mrs. Cartwright, and declined joining them although, no, he had not eaten. He said he had unpleasant news and an unpleasant job.
"I know why you're here – Marina's little visit to the Waverly's. She told me she threatened them but it's ridiculous – tear out their throats with her teeth. Who could believe such a thing?" Adam chuckled uncomfortably, Obviously Roy took it seriously.
"Adam, I have a problem and so do you. You were supposed to keep Mrs. Cartwright on the Ponderosa but not only did she ride into town and threaten the Waverly's lives, she waved around a gun – said she'd shoot them both right then and there if they insisted on enforcing the contract."
"A gun? No, Roy, Marina doesn't know how…" Adam turned to see Marina watching them closely; by the look on her face, he knew. "Marina, did you take a gun with you? Did you threaten to shoot the Waverlys?"
"If they said it, there is no point in denying it. Yes. I took a gun I found in the desk drawer – a small gun – I doubt it would have hurt them much."
"The derringer," Ben said. "That small pearl-handled one Marie owned. Was that it, Marina?"
"I suppose," she answered.
"Adam," Roy said, "I have to take her in; she subverted custody and then threatened the plaintiffs. I can't have that, Adam. I have to jail her. Sorry."
"Now, wait a minute, Roy!" Adam almost grabbed Roy to spin him around but Marina was already getting her hat and coat off the rack by the door. "Marina, just wait – Roy, can't you wait until the morning? I'll bring her in to town myself for the hearing. I'll lock her in a bedroom tonight."
"No, Adam. I can't wait, but her case is 2nd on the docket. Mrs. Cartwright hopefully will only be in jail overnight. But why don't you pack a few of her things and bring them out to her. I promise I'll make her as comfortable as possible and I brought a buggy. I'm gonna have to cuff her though."
Adam was going to protest but realized that were it he conveying her to jail, he'd cuff her too; otherwise, God only knew what Marina might do. "Roy, can't you put her up in the hotel instead? Post your deputy outside her door. I'll pay – you know that."
"In the same place as the Waverly's? Adam, she's made things such a mess that I'll be lucky if I get to keep my badge after all this. I bent the rules making you a deputy and letting her go home with you and now I have to follow the rules, the same as I would for anyone else. Sorry. Mrs. Cartwright, you ready to go?"
"Yes." She held the strings of her bonnet and Adam pulled her to him, embraced her, kissed her hair and then her mouth. Both Ben and Roy dropped their eyes, embarrassed at witnessing such open emotion.
"I'll be there soon. Don't be afraid." Adam released Marina and then, shaking one finger at her, said, "And don't try to escape or do anything stupid, do you understand?"
"Yes." She pulled her reticule off the chest where it lay next to the rolled gun belts, and Adam realized it was the one that had been on the seat beside her in the buggy.
"Marina. The bag."
She hesitated and then handed it to Adam. He opened the clasp and pulled out the pearl-handled derringer; he checked for bullets.
"It's not loaded, Roy. Here. Look. Now you're a witness."
"Adam," Roy said, his anger rising, "it doesn't matter and you know it! They thought it was loaded. And here she was going to bring it to jail with her."
She shrugged. "I forgot it was there."
Adam shook his head. His wife was incorrigible and he wondered if his beloved Marina would ever change, if he would ever be able to relax anywhere or at any other time than at night with his head resting on her bosom, his arms about her. Only then could he be sure where she was and what she was doing.
