14

The soft breeze from the open window lightly caressed their bodies, drying the sweat glistening on their skin. Adam and Ultima lay side by side on her bed and held hands, both sated from their exertions.

"Adam?" Ultima quietly asked. He mumbled a response. "Would you still want me…if something happened to me?"

He opened his eyes and looked over at Ultima who was staring at the ceiling.

"What do you mean—happened to you?"

"Suppose I was in an accident and it scarred my face. Would you still want me?"

Adam let go of her hand and turned on his side. Ultima looked over to him as he scrutinized her face, his brow furrowed. "Why are you asking me this?"

"I was just thinking and it made me wonder. That's all. Can't I wonder about things?" She rose off the bed and went and stood at the window looking at the garden below. The widow sheers floated and danced about her.

Adam admired her smooth skin, the curve of her back into her rounded buttocks and the firmness of her thighs. "What is it? Are you still bothered by something Forsyth said or is it something else?"

Ultima turned to look at him and laughed lightly. "It's nothing in particular. Just tell me one thing—if you ever found out who was behind my assault, what would you do?" She pushed a strand of loose hair from her face. Her hair had come down from the pins that had held it up while she and Adam had grappled with each other in their passion.

Adam swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. He went to her and Ultima felt his arms wrap around her from behind and the heat of his lips on the back of her neck and along the top of her right shoulder. He then whispered in her ear, "You don't want to know what I'd do."

Ultima turned in his arms to face him. "I would want you to turn him in to Sheriff Coffee."

"Oh, I would—whatever was left of him, that is."

Ultima gently pushed him aside and slipped on her silk wrap that was over a chair. She bent over and picked up her clothing from the floor and tossed the pieces on the foot of the bed. "If we're going to be at your father's for dinner, I need to dress and fix my hair. Would you have Amanda come up and help me?"

"So I'm dismissed?" Adam stood with his hands on his hips.

Ultima sat at her vanity and pulled the remaining pins from her hair. "I need to get ready." Adam swept his clothes up off the floor and put on the dress trousers he had worn to church and with the jacket, shirt and tie in one hand, his boots in the other, he left Ultima's room.

Adam didn't know how it happened, how Ultima could desire him so much, thrill him to his toes with her tantalizing mouth, hands and tongue, touch him in places to make him groan and writhe in pleasure and then—like a door shutting—close him out. But he had remembered his father saying not to ever try to understand a woman—it will addle your brain as women were unfathomable.

Ultima looked at her reflection in the mirror. She imagined what she would see reflected if Forsyth sent men to slice her cheeks or cut off her nose. She shuddered and rested her head in her hands. There was a knock on the door.

"Come in."

Mrs. Fontaine walked in. "I've come to help you dress and with your hair." The housekeeper was happy to see the Missus in a lighter mood. The past three days hadn't been easy and if it hadn't been for the Mister, Mrs. Fontaine was certain that Mrs. Cartwright would still be weepy and keeping to her room.

"Where's Amanda?"

"It's the third Sunday, Missus. She has the day off, remember? This morning she packed a picnic basket and Old Cletus drove her into town. I think she has a beau? I've seen her talking out front to a young, handsome ranch hand—don't know if he's from the Ponderosa or not—and when I teased her a bit about him, Amanda just blushed and smiled." Mrs. Fontaine raised her brows knowingly.

"A beau? She's only sixteen." To Ultima, Amanda seemed a mere child.

"In these parts, a girl of sixteen is usually married and popping out children already. You were only eighteen when Mr. Lafferty took you as his wife. I still remember how you cried the next morning—you said that your youth was over and that now you were an old married woman and if I remember correctly, you asked me if things ever became pleasant doing your wifely duty. I suppose you know the answer to that now." Mrs. Fontaine grinned at Ultima's reflection in the mirror as she stood behind her.

"Yes, Mrs. Fontaine." Ultima sighed and ran her hands through her hand to find any hidden pins. "Fetch me some warm water then, would you? I need to wash." And Mrs. Fontaine who had noticed the mussed sheets and the coverlet hanging halfway off the bed, smiled to herself and went back downstairs to heat water on the stove.

The next morning, Ultima woke with the sun slanting into her bedroom and she glanced at the painted French clock under the bell jar that had come from the house in San Francisco; it was past 10:00 in the morning. She stretched and then lay quietly until there was a knock on the door.

Come in," she said and Mrs. Fontaine came in, standing at the foot of the bed looking disturbed. "What is it?" Ultima asked.

"Mr. Hoss is hitching up the buckboard and asked Cletus to help him—he's in a hurry. He said that the Mister sent him for a fresh shirt and a blanket. He said to tell you that they would be late and when I asked why, he said they had to go back into Virginia City."

Ultima sat up and stretched her arms over her head, yawning. "Why are you telling me? If Mr. Cartwright tore his shirt or soiled it and wants a buckboard in a hurry, why is that news?"

Mrs. Fontaine bit her lip. "Well, I asked him if it had anything to do with Miss Amanda—she didn't come home last night but I thought, well, no reason to bother you with it since you and the Mister came home from his father's so late, and then I figured that she would slip in during the night but her bed hasn't been slept in. Anyway, when I asked him, he looked…well…odd and said that he didn't have time to talk—he had to hurry—and he didn't even take off his hat when he talked to me and you know yourself how mannerly Mr. Hoss is."

Ultima sat and pondered. Then she climbed out of bed. "Help me dress—quickly. My riding habit, please—oh, but first, have Cletus saddle my horse." And Ultima shed her gown and began to draw on fresh underclothes, her mind troubled.

Adam had told Ultima that he would be leaving before sunup and joining Hoss to ride into town for breakfast. There was banking business to be done and then Adam and Hoss were going to ride over to Aaron Child's to see his new hybrid Brahman bull brought up from Texas.

The two brothers were heading to the Ponderosa after their visit to tell their father that they both agreed that it would be in their best interest to see about purchasing a few of the full-blood Brahmans to enhance their own stock; the breed was odd looking but they were hardy and withstood heat better than any other breed since they had been brought over from India. Down in the southern regions, Louisiana and such, the Brahmans were being bred and proved themselves to be of sturdy stuff. But then Bill Fortson was promoting Texas Longhorns and the Cartwrights had been breeding them; they were also a hardy breed and desired for their tasty beef.

"I dunno, Adam," Hoss said as they slowly rode their horses; they were close to the Ponderosa and decided that they had to come to an agreement on what to advise their father. "What about breedin' a Brahman bull with a Longhorn heifer? What do you think that would look like?"

Adam chuckled. "A Chimera."

"A what?" Sometimes, Hoss thought, Adam didn't realize that not everyone was an educated as he and Hoss saw no reason to learn such things. Hoss initially suspected that Adam was just showing off but came to realize that it was just Adam.

"A mythical beast that had a lion's head…never mind. It would look odd but it might be one tasty side of beef. Think we should suggest Pa try it?"

Hoss laughed and then became serious and pulled up his horse. "Look there." He pointed. "Looks like buzzards circling. I bet we got a steer down."

"Oh, hell. That's all we need; wolves or bears looking for an easy meal." The two brothers trotted over and realized that it was near the well-worn passage over the terrain, their usual short cut bypassing the common road.

Hoss stopped a few feet away and saw something strange in the tall grass. "Adam, what the hell is that?" There were a few buzzards hopping across an odd looking carcass while a few circled above.

Adam stopped, raised himself in his stirrups and craned his neck. "I don't…" He swung down from his saddle and walked his horse over to where something lay among the grasses and the wildflowers. "Oh, hell. Jesus fuckin'…goddamn it all to hell!" Adam rushed at the buzzards and they reluctantly flew off and landed a short distance away, waiting and watching Adam with their beady eyes. But there was nothing he could do about the flies that swarmed and crawled over the body, their buzzing becoming the hideous sound of death. Hoss dismounted and Adam turned, his hands on his hips and paced a step and then back again and while Hoss watched, Adam pulled out his shirt tails, unbuttoned his shirt, removed it and laid it over Amanda's naked corpse; the buzzards had already started on her, pecking open her belly. The shirt covered her face and breasts but her lower torso was still partially exposed and Adam noticed the dirt and pieces of grass stuck to her. They had both noticed the bruises on her face, the slash across her throat, the dried blood on her chest and belly and the rope that was still tied about her ankles, but there was also a smear of blood on her inner thigh.

"Here," Hoss said. "Let me take off my vest and…"

Adam stopped him. "Just go to my place, it's closer, and get the buckboard and a blanket. We'll take her in to Doc Martin. Ask Mrs. Fontaine or Mao Li for the blanket and another shirt for me. Get back here as soon as you can and whatever you do, don't tell Ultima about this—just let them know I might be late tonight."

"Okay, Adam. Be back as fast as I can." But Hoss paused and looked at the body. "Adam, she's got blood on her thigh there. I think she's been…"

"I know, I know. Just hurry." Hoss nodded and then mounted his horse which wasn't happy about leaving the lush grass, and rode off quickly. Adam dropped down in the grass, his back to Amanda's body and stared out over the Ponderosa grasslands, ready to chase off any more buzzards. "You goddamn bastards are just going to have to find your meal elsewhere." Adam pulled out his gun and taking aim, shot one of the buzzards. It fell and the other birds scattered but the smell of death was too strong for them to resist and they landed a few yards away and then began their slow approach again.

Amanda had been placed, Adam knew, where one of them was sure to see her, beside the worn shortcut to Adam's place and then the Ponderosa beyond it. He or a member of his family was certain to come across her body or to at least see the buzzards circling and investigate thinking it was a downed steer. This time, Adam thought, he would kill Rollo even if he had to wait and pick the man off his horse with a rifle. He was sure it had been Rollo's knife that had slit the girls' throat.