I do NOT own Bonanza or any of the original Cartwright characters.
A/N I never saw an episode that showed the back of the Cartwrights house so I am putting a staircase and a back down there.
His Wild Irish Rose
Chapter Twelve
Scene Twenty-Three
Pepper sat on the porch and watched her father in law, Hoss and Candy disappear. Spring time always had everyone around the Ponderosa jumping; even Adam was behind the desk looking over contracts. She wished she could feel as relaxed as they all seemed to be. She couldn't get herself to do that though, something was amiss; she could feel it, and she didn't like it.
Putting her things down, Pepper went inside and found Adam still at work behind the desk. He looked up when he heard the door open. He smiled at the woman who had, more than once since the wedding, proved a man didn't have to have the ability to walk to have a woman satisfy his every need. "You look troubled; what is it?"
"What is goin' on, Adam? Yer pa is hidin' somethin'; I can feel it." Her ability to feel things never ceased to amaze him. When she had 'them', Adam had a hard time covering anything up. But, this time, for her sake and his, he had to.
"I'm sure he'll tell us what it is, if he thinks it's our business. Tell you what," he looked at his papers, "as soon as I'm done here we can go on a ride. I can still set a horse; okay, you might have to help me up on it, but since when did that matter?"
"Okay." Pepper still didn't like the feeling she was getting, but she turned and went back outside to retrieve her things. Maybe, if she found things to do it would take her mind off the uneasy feelings she kept getting.
While Adam worked, and Pepper brought her things in and forced herself to keep inside the house, Hoss was talking to his father. "Think we oughta told Pepper what was goin' on?" Hoss looked at his pa as he and Candy followed Ben onto a trail that led back to the house. Hoss wished Little Joe hadn't had to go down to Salt Flats. He'd have preferred for his little brother to be with them.
Ben sighed, "I pray everything goes the way it's supposed to, and that she'll forgive us. For now, she has to stay in the dark. It's safer for her this way."
Hoss still couldn't believe what his father had told him the night before; he was also wondering how his pa could be so sure of the plans he'd talked about. Hoss had wanted to question his father about it, but hadn't. Ben Cartwright had never, purposely, led any of his sons astray.
Candy was having pretty much the same thoughts as Hoss, "If what you were told is true, why are we doing this?"
Ben gave the man a look of disbelief, "IF is the key word. I'd rather be prepared for the fact that I may have been lied to, though I admit the chance of that is low, than to find it out with no extra help." Ben had a point there and they all knew it. That being the case, they continued riding the alternative route back to the house.
Scene Twenty-Four
The sun was sending its warming rays down upon the five riders. Peter was on the left; next to him were Michael, then Tyler, then Thomas and James. "You know," Tyler looked at Thomas and spoke up, "There's one thing I don't understand. If it's only going to be Adam, the wife Thomas says he's taken and that cook of theirs, why do we need five men?"
Thomas answered, with disgust in his voice, "I told you before. We have another job after this one. We hit the Cartwrights before they see it coming, then get out of there and go to the next job; which will require five of us and, no, we wouldn't have time to meet up afterwards."
Peter, thinking only to make sure they got Adam, turned on Tyler, "I told you that when I wrote you. Look, we're all here paying debts, of some kind of another, so why worry about anything else?"
Tyler didn't have to be reminded of that. He was just eager to get 'it' over with; after all, he had other things to do. As it was, he was just glad he'd be out of Peter's debt after this. Following Peter around was not something Tyler exactly enjoyed.
When they drew near the house Thomas, Michael and James dismounted their horses, "Once Michael and I get in the house, and James gets up in that loft give us five minutes, then come." The idea being that James would keep an eye on things while Michal forced Hop Sing and the woman upstairs while Thomas kept his gun on Adam. Peter wanted, for whatever reason, to come in afterwards and take care of things. Tyler was supposed to stand beside the house and help keep an eye on things.
"Are you sure this is going to work? What if he gets the drop on you?" Tyler still wasn't sure of this plan of theirs.
Once again Thomas made himself sound disgusted, "Do we really need to go over this again? Maybe," he looked at Peter knowing full well what his and Tyler's reaction to his next words would be, "you pulled the wrong man into this job."
Tyler exploded, and Peter's face showed his agitation, "He got the right man! Just get moving!" Within minutes, James was up in the loft, Peter was on the right side of the house, Tyler on the left and Michael and Thomas were standing at the front door.