The first meetings of the preparatory committee were now regularely taking place. Miss Graham and Charlie had decided for one of Mozarts piano duets and would open the performance with that lively piece. Mrs. Whittlinger and the other ladies from the committee were quite satisfied with their choice as well as their performance. The subsequent presentations would be accompanied at the piano alternating by Miss Graham or Charlie.

It was another Saturday afternoon and Charlie came to the town hall for another rehearsal. Already when entering the room she realized that the atmosphere was quite different and realized in the same instant why: Adam Cartwright leant against the grand piano and apparently oozed his charm on the mostly elderly ladies of the committee, which surrounded him giggling and chuckling.

"Oh Charlie my dear, please do come here!"

Mrs Whittlinger welcomed her cheerfully.

"Look who joined us today! Young Mr. Cartwright has kindly agreed to add a rather male ..." Mrs. Whittlinger blushed a bit upon this word "... attitude to our little program. And he has quite a superb idea what: Do you know that little Mozart duet, what was it again Mr. Cartwright?"

Adam fixed Charlie with his eyes and quoted : "'Là ci darem la mano, là mi dirai di sì*'. Unfortunately I don't know more of the Italian text, but I heard Doctor Mathews had an English translation of it."

"Very good my dear, do you have it here, so that we can try it?"

Charlie sat down on the piano bench, searched for the respective page in her music book and asked: "Who will be the Zerlina?"

Before anyone could do a thing, Patricia Calston jumped up, grabbed Charlies music book, thumbed careless through it and proclaimed: "I want to sing that!"

"Give me back those music sheets!" For the first time during her various encounters with Miss Calston Charlie seemed to loose her temper.

Miss Calston however was not easy to be convinced: "Don't be that pathetic! It's paper after all!"

"It is my paper, hand it back at once!"

"Why? What's so very special about...?"

She had not finished yet her question, when Adam had approached her from behind and took the music book softly out of her hands.

"You have been asked politely, so please do what you have been asked for!"

Patricia made a pout and asked miffed "Why is everybody so special about that old yellowed stuff? I wouldn't have made it look worse!"

Charlie pressed the papers to her chest. "I do not ask for your understanding or acceptance; just remember that I do treasure this 'old yellowed stuff' very much and I will not allow that you handle it inattentive. So much for that! You want to sing the Zerlina-part Miss Calston? Then come here please, we'll try it! Adam, can you see the lines from there?"

Adam seemed not very happy: "But I ..."

Assistance came from Mrs. Whittlinger: "No, wait a minute Doctor Mathews my dear! I understood you and Mr. Cartwright already know the song? Then please be that kind to sing it together once, that we all can get an impression about it!"

Adam agreed rather enthusiastically and took place beside Charlie on the little piano bench. She gave him the entry and he began:

"There will my arms enfold you, there will you say I do ..."

Charlie continued while playing also the piano accompaniment: "I want to go, but should I? Be still my trembling heart..." and on the duet went until the end when both sang together:

"Let s go, let s go my treasure to satisfy with pleasure the painful joys of love!"

After they finished the duet,it was quiet in the town hall. When Adam finally broke loose his eyes of Charlie he looked around and noticed the rather uncomfortable silence and asked surprised:

"Didn't you like it?"

Mrs. Whittlinger cleared her throat: "Well Mr. Cartwright, you and Doctor Mathews are really very gifted singers, it was quite a pleasure to listen, but don't you think this is a little too ... well let's say frivolous for our festivity?"

"Frivolous? What makes you think that Mrs. Whittlinger?"

"Well, errrr ... this ... gentleman talks a young girl into going with him, and he succeeds in the end. I mean, this is not exactly the best example for a young girl to behave!"

"It is clearly a seduction Mrs. Whittlinger, a successful seduction", most ladies from the preparatory committee winced a bit when Adam pronounced that 's-word', "you are completely right so far, but I honestly doubt that the lyrics of such well known song will be taken by anyone in the audience as an actual instruction how to behave. Think of all the Shakespeare plays! In them characters are murdered in every scene: They would have all to be banned from the stages! On the other hand, aren't music and poetry intended to seduce people? Seduce us to see the beauty of a sunset or a star-studded night for example. As the young girls of Virginia City are usually carefully guarded by their families, I do not fear for them, but what was wrong with a little seduction between married couples? You and the whole preparatory committee will be praised to have charmed the evening and brought beauty and romance to Virginia City!"

"Oh Adam, what a charming rogue you are!" Clementine Hawkins chuckled like she was a young girl again. "Margery, our dear Mr. Cartwright here is very right, we should let the young people sing that lovely duet and they look at each other as if it had been written especially for them anyway!"

Charlie, who had been listening to Adams speech quite amused, deeply blushed upon this statement. Mrs. Whittlinger, who still looked quite lost in thoughts, cleared her throat again: "Yes, I think you are right, in light of that we should not be more royal than the king, but didn't Miss Calston claim to sing the girls part?"

Adam looked as if he had been knocked into the stomach - should all his oozing have been in vain? Rescue came however from an unexpected side. Patricia Calston jumped up and stated as loud as she could:

"No, thank you very much, I would not stand in front of the good people of Virginia City and perform such kind of indecent stuff. This is probably the perfect part for someone, going in and out a whorehouse in broad daylight!"

Patricia could hardly have achieved a better effect with this disclosure. The only things to be heard in the town hall were the gasping of the attendants. It took a few moments until Mrs. Whittlinger had gained her senses back and asked:

"What is this suppose to mean?"

Charlie rose from the piano bench. "I think I am presumably the culprit in this. Although I do not owe anybody here a justification about my professional activities, except you were my patients of course, I will explain it. Miss Calston is right. I have been in broad daylight as she put it, and more than once, at Miss Bulettes place, how this house is usually called, although it is run now by a Miss DuVall. I was fully aware what kind of house I entered and I would do it again at any time I am called there. I had to take care for a sick person."

"Phhhh, what kind of treatment can be needed at such a place?"

"Although this is hardly of your business Miss Calston, I can tell you that I administered the very same treatment any other person with the same disease would have to expect from me."

"I really doubt that decent people would have the same diseases as the ... people in such a place!"

Charlie now began to become really angry: "You are again completely wrong Miss Calston. The patient there had a highly inflectional disease, which could have easily spread all over town. Besides the treatment I gave the women there some hygienic advises to prevent the infection from being spread, which was apparently successful, as no other case of that disease has appeared since then."

"This is rather easy to explain, as nobody of the good people of Virginia City has to do anything with that kind of people in there!"

"Maybe or maybe not - would you bet your life on that? Besides this there are a lot of men living in and around Virginia City you would surely not count among the 'good people' of the town and therefore you might not be too surprised finding them in a brothel. You could be infected just by standing at the same counter in the mercantile shortly after such guy. Would you like to get sick by such coincidence or rather let me take medical care for the all citizens of this town who are asking for it?"

Charlie referred now to the other ladies: "Please, let me make this perfectly clear: I will not excuse for going to that house and when I am called, I will go there or to any other brothel again. I have sworn an oath to help the sick and I am taking this very serious, wherever I find them. It had been a great honor and much fun for me to take part in the preparations for the festivities, but if you want me to leave this committee, I will go without any hard feelings, but I will not change my mind."

Adam rose, offered Charlie his arm and asked: "Will you please do me the honor and allow me to escort you wherever you decide to go from here?"

Before anybody else could do a thing, Mrs. Whittlinger rose and declared determined: "Now there's an end to this inappropriate humbug! Doctor Mathews, Mr. Cartwright you will stay right here! Nobody will be sent away from a committee chaired by me because of some nasty, hypocritical gossip. Miss Calston you should know that everybody in this town is aware about the existence of such places. Ladies however do not mention them at all and much less to insult a hard working, upright, real lady like our Doctor Mathews here. If you want to work further on in our committee you will apologize to her!"

"Apologize? What for? I did not do anything wrong!"

"Not anything wrong?" Mrs. Whittlinger had to gasp for some air. "I'll consider in your favor that you have grown up for the most part without a mother, who could have taught you the basic principles of a decent behavior. You tried to denigrate a respectable person from our midst or why did you come up just today with an observation, you have probably already made a while ago? Besides this there would have to be asked wherefrom you knew the nature of the house you saw Doctor Mathews enter if you are that innocent as you claim to be? Apologize or leave!"

Patricia Calston swallowed. Probably she never had been reprimanded like that. However she went over to Charlie, looked gloomily at her and said in a hushed tone: "I'm sorry."

Charlie nodded and reached out her hand, but Miss Calston had already turned around and ran away.

"Well that decides it I think, the duet will be sung by Doctor Mathews and Mr. Cartwright. I expect you both to deliver a splendid performance!" and with these words the issue was clarified to Mrs. Whittlinger and she returned to the remaining agenda.

To Adams delight he had to meet Charlie from now on at least twice a week to practice for the performance. Mrs. Whittlinger had decided to make their duet to be the final presentation, so the impression of it would be most remembered by the audience. They managed the pure singing part rather easily, but Adam insisted on more rehearsals as they would also have to act to make the seduction convincing. As Charlie would not be able to do the piano part, they had additionally to rehearse with Miss Graham. Adam acted as a kind of stage director for the scene.

During the first part, where Zerlina still withstands the persuasions of Don Giovanni, he wanted to stand behind Charlie, keeping her hands in his. In the second part, when Zerlina gives in, he wanted to embrace Charlie from behind with one arm and grab her over and over with the other hand. It took him quite a while to demonstrate Miss Graham exactly how he figured the scene. 'Just for the purpose of rehearsing' how he assured again and again with his most impish grin.

Charlie was not too happy about both ideas and with the assistance of Miss Graham she was at least able to suggest another scenario for the second part of the duet.

"I cannot sing with your arm so tight around me, I do have to breathe for singing, you know?"

"Yes Mr. Cartwright, our dear Doctor Charlie is right here. Besides this I think, well ... you see this gentleman is a skilled seducer, isn't he? In that case I think, when the girl agrees, well, I mean now that he has won her over, he will surely not longer act that devoted as you portray him Mr. Cartwright, don't you think?"

"You are right!" Charlie agreed and asked herself quite amused, where the old maiden had gained that knowledge from; apparently she had had her days! Little Miss Graham was quite engaged about that issue and went on arguing:

"After Don Giovanni has convinced the girl, he needs to take himself back a bit in order to keep up her attention!"

Adam looked quizzing at both women: "Does it really work that way?"

"Yes it does!" Miss Graham assured them that vigorously that both Adam and Charlie looked amazed at her. She blushed a bit and continued blushing a bit: "At least that's what I ve been told ..."

After such profound inside into the essence of seduction, the second part was presented in a way that Don Giovanni now pretended to turn away from Zerlina, not without taking care that she realizes his feigned disappearance and is eager to follow him. In the very end they had to embrace each other Adam insisted and Miss Graham agreed. Charlie very much enjoyed the rehearsals in a way, it was fun to sing and to play with Adam and she also relished the physical closeness to him.

During the nights however the fear subdued her again and again, and she cried herself to sleep nearly every night. There was no happy ending possible, the only decent thing was to leave Virginia City. But of course she could not leave now, she had think about that after the celebration would have been over. Unfortunately Adam had to leave town in the middle of the preparations for a few days, but business always came first, how he assured.

At the Ponderosa Adam was constantly teased by his brothers about rehearsing with the Women's association and what he would wear on stage.

"Buy yourself tickets and you will see everything. If you do not stop molesting your elder brother, who is contributing selflessly to the success of the cities' celebrations, I will have a word with my dear friend Margery Whittlinger: Maybe she needs someone for whom the sewing circle can make funny costumes and who will be displayed at the celebrations as a curiosity!"

His thread was not too effective, as Hoss and Joe were delighted from now on to mock Adam about his good friend Margery. However this brought up for Adam the question of a costume and he asked Charlie:

"You do not want me to present the duet on stage in my usual - how did you put it once? - 'gunslinger uniform'?

Charlie blushed a bit but agreed and made sone suggestions: "You could stick your jeans into knee-high boots, which will look then a bit like britches. Besides this a white shirt with frills would be suitable. Is there anything like that on the Ponderosa? Furtheron a rather long vest or jacket would be good. Besides this a ponytail would make the costume perfect. See whether you can find some real ponys black hair, which you can use. Maybe Hop Sing can help you with all that."

In fact Hop Sing found some old clothes from Ben, which were altered as per Charlies suggestions. Regarding the ponytail Hoss and Joe laughed again their heads off, but Hop Sing had actually managed to collect some hair from real black ponytails and succeeded in fixing a surprisingly real looking tail on the back of Adams head.

The talk about the costumes reminded Charlie that she had to take care for her own stage outfit as well. Jillian was thrilled to assist in that and had a lot of ideas for low cut dresses, which were all refused by Charlie.

"No Jillian, this is not me, I will wear one of my usual, but finer dresses. That has to be sufficient."

"But dear, all your dresses are ... well of course they are very tasteful and do suit you very much, but being such a beautiful young girl, wouldn't you like to wear something more daring?"

"No, one of my usual dresses, I will not present myself in any other way!"

Jillian realized that this was final and wondered again why Charlie was that strict about her clothes, as she seemed not to be too happy about them herself. In the end they could agree on Charlies brightest dress in a cream-like color, which made Charlies hair shining like a sunset. Additionally Jillian was allowed to apply some lace around the neckline as well as on the skirt and the end of the elbow-long sleeves, to give it a more bridal appearance.

Regarding the hair it had been Charlies idea to style it like a teased rococo whip, which was easier said than done. In the end they agreed that the people of Virginia City would probably not be aware about every detail of rococo hair fashion and decided to make a little bun on the back of Charlies head from where her curls could fall down over the back.

So the big day arrived. To her own surprise Charlie was really nervous, although she had felt quite sure about their performance during the various rehearsals. The final dress rehearsal was scheduled for three in the afternoon.

Shortly before that time, the town hall was filled with a noisy bustle. There were helpers arranging the chairs for the evening, ladies from the Women's association decorating the stage, exited school children, waiting for the dress rehearsal and in the midst of all that Jillian trying to finish Charlies hair.

In the end both Jillian and Charlie were surprised how good the fake-rococo outfit Charlie suited. They were both still arranging the laces at the dress when they heard a kind of uproar of screaming, giggling and laughter at the entrance. Adam had arrived at the town hall and Charlie was reminded to her first barn dance in Virginia City, when she had watched the line-up together with Joe. So much had happened since then. Should she have foreseen all that? However, there was no use in musing about past times, she had to pull through this evening; any further consideration had to wait until the presentations would have been done.

She caught Adams eye above the heads of the ladies surrounding him and was pleased to notice that he obviously enjoyed her looks. He made his way over to her and whispered in her ear: "You look splendid today, knock on wood!"

Charlie nodded; she liked what she saw very much as well: He wore just the kind of clothes she had suggested and the ponytail suited him surprisingly well. Before she was able to say anything Mrs. Whittlinger reminded everybody to start with the dress rehearsal!

The course of festivities had started already in the morning of the day with the usual competitions for children like an egg-and-spoon or sack race or shooting contests for the adults. After the performances in the town hall there would be held a dance and a picnic at the next morning would be the end of the festivities. Hoss stole the show at the cake eating contest and Joe won one of the shooting competitions. Ben did not take part in those activities, he enjoyed strolling through the city and talking to a lot of the neighbors. So the mood of the Cartwright bunch was a real good and relaxec one when they entered the town hall to attend the top event of the festivities.

Mrs. Whittlinger welcomed the audience and presented the program. The opening with Miss Graham and Charlie worked quite well and Mrs. Whittlinger nodded benevolently. After the school children had presented their recitations and songs, Charlie did the Chopin Etude, witch was applauded to very much.

After a little break Charlie opened the second part of the program with the Cherubino aria accompanying herself on the big piano. Joe was to his own surprise honestly impressed, he had considered operas so far to be something extremely boring, but he liked both the melody as well as Charlies singing.

After some other performances Mrs. Whittlinger announced the final entry of the evening. Charlie had not seen Adam since the dress rehearsal. To her surprise he had altered his appearance a bit: His shirt was now open up to the waistband. When they met shortly before their entry Charlie whispered:

"What is that suppose to mean?"

"Mrs. Whittlinger asked me to do something to look more rakish, I think it will work. Don't we have quite a tradition with unbuttoned shirts?"

It was too late to answer anything to that; they had to do their performance. Miss Graham took place at the piano bench and Charlie entered the stage closely followed by Adam. Miss Graham started to play giving them the entry, so Adam began to sing*:

A: "There will my arms enfold you, there will you say I do, and if you let me hold you, your dreams will all come true."

C: "I want to go but should I. Be still my trembling heart. He'd change my life or would he deceive me and depart?"

A: "Come then, you must come with me!"

C: "(Masetto won't forgive me!)"

A: "You shall be poor no longer."

C: "Yes then... I can't be stronger!"

During this interaction Adam stood behind Charlie, keeping one of her hands in his as they had practiced it. Deviating from the rehearsals however he had carried a red rose with himself on the stage with which he swept along Charlies arms and neck when they were singing the lines of the first part. Charlie managed to hide her surprise and to keep her voice straight, which was a real challenge as there seemed fires to be burning where the soft rose petals touched her skin.

The second part began with their jointly sung "Let s go!" upon which Adam handed over the rose to Charlie and now pretended not to be too much interested.

After the closing lines

A und C: "Let's go, let's go my treasure, to satisfy with pleasure, the painful joys of love!"

Adam hugged Charlie as they had rehearsed it, and when Charlie just wanted to sigh in relieve as everything was over now, he bend her down just like in a dramatic dance move and kissed her right on stage and in front of practically whole Virginia City. Charlie had not yet completely digested the surprise when he ended it, lifted her up and blinked at her.

A short moment Charlie wondered where all the noise was coming from. Then she realized that the audience was applauding and stamping as much as they could! It had been a downright success! All participants were called to the stage and thanked the audience again and again.

The mayor presented beautiful bouquets to Mrs. Whittlinger, Miss Graham and the other soloists of the evening. Adam, who was awarded a bouquet as well, again much to the entertainment of his brothers, handed over one of his flowers to every lady, who had contributed to the success of the evening, not forgetting those from the sewing circle. That took him quite a while as a lot of people kept him back and wanted to congratulate him for the singing.

Ben was downright proud and moreover touched. Clementine Hawkins, who had succeeded in sitting beside him during the program, hugged and congratulated him over and over for having such talented sons. During the duet - when she had luckily remained silent - he had remembered how much his little boy had always wanted to play an instrument and how hard he had to calculate to give him finally his first guitar; apparently it had been worth all the efforts.

'Oh Elizabeth, how much I wanted you could have seen and heard this!' Ben mused.

Finally the confusion started to disperse and only the helpers, who had to rearrange the furniture in the town hall for the subsequent dance, stayed. Now Joe and Hoss took the chance to speak to their brother. Although they still had to laugh a bit about his appearance, they had been honestly impressed by his singing abilities.

"Well elder brother, I have to confess that - quite to my surprise - you did not completely disgrace the family tonight! Not even your flouncy shirt and your ridiculous pigtail were a disgrace, and that really means a lot!"

"This is probably the nicest thing I have ever heard from you Joe!"

"Because this was probably the nicest thing you have ever done!"

Adam rolled his eyes and was caught in a huge hug from Hoss:

"Well done, big brother, well done, whereby with Miss Charlie there could not much go wrong! She really sings like an angel."

"And she looks like one, you should really secure her for yourself very fast elder brother, otherwise I might change my mind and elope with her eventually!"

Adams gaze told Joe more than words: "Alright, understood, you will skin me alive if I should do so, but hurry however! Do not blame me, if someone else will be faster than you. I think she has stolen quite some hearts tonight!"

"Where is she by the way?" Adam inquired.

Ben had managed meanwhile to get clear from the grip of Clementine Hawkins, approached his sons and answered

"I think I've seen her over there with Paul and Jillian, do not worry son, I don't think, anyone who has seen you with her tonight would dare to come between the two of you."

"Was it that obvious?"

Ben smiled: "Do you really think I needed this performance to know what you feel about her? And don't you think I would not have suspected why you had to go to Carson City twice during the last four weeks at all costs? Good luck son, tell me about the outcome, I will surely be over the moon!"

Charlie had received her congratulations from Paul and Jillian and as the both of them did not intend to stay for the dance, she had asked Jillian to take her flowers to the house safely. Although she was happy that the people had apparently liked their program, she left the town hall to escape the noisy crowd.

She had to think. Unknowingly her strolling had led her to the livery stable. This place was as good as any other. She went in and sat down on a feed box. There were no excuses left and she had to decide whether to leave Virginia City or to do what? Tell them, tell him? He would surely try not to judge, about that she was sure meanwhile, but the others? And even if he would not judge, would he look at her ever again with the same affection or would she see someday the same disgust and rejection she was feeling all the time for herself? No, she could not bear that, then rather leave.

Additionally a confession would put them all in danger, could she avoid that at all without leaving?

During her musings she heard an only too well known voice approaching her hideout.

* Don Giovanni Mozart/da Ponte Act I, duet Don Giovanni / Zerlina