Chapter Twenty-Five

This particular day, everyone, including the hands, rested. Today was Thanksgiving Day, a holiday declared by President Lincoln three years prior, and one the Cartwrights felt was fitting…a day of giving thanks for their family and friends and for all they had.

Hop Sing, with help from the ladies, prepared twelve turkeys with all the fixin's and delivered Thanksgiving meals to the hands of the Ponderosa, the Lake House, and the Flying W bunkhouse.

Lo had insisted on sitting in the kitchen and chopping vegetables. As much as he wanted to be in the middle of the activities, his sprain was bad enough that he couldn't stand very long. He ended up embarrassed as the ladies tried their best to take care of him.

Jim Tyler had declared the Lake House, stables and barn in fine order before the big storm hit, so Shiloh and Adam were back home with their boys. But Thanksgiving Day would be spent with the rest of the family at the Ponderosa ranch house.

Micah and Rachel stayed on at the Ponderosa house while Etta 'slept'. The Flying W ranch house was, for the second time in only a few years, unlivable. This time, the house would be torn down as the fire had gutted most of it. The Whitney family would rebuild in spring and be in their new house by summer if all went well.

Now, all the Cartwrights, including Willow Wayne, the Whitneys, Edwin, Amalee, Angeline and the Freemans were gathered around the table of the Ponderosa, laughing, eating, telling stories of the recent storm, and finally sitting quietly while Joe announced he had proposed to Willow, and she had agreed to be his wife.

The family had a great deal to be thankful for.

XXXXXXXX

Now, with everyone becoming tentatively settled into winter, there wasn't much to do on the ranch unless the weight of the snow collapsed a shed or building. Those weren't immediately rebuilt, but the feed and supplies in them had to be moved to shelter. The cattle were in the valley with a crew there to stand watch.

The Cartwright men visited the hands every other week, taking supplies, and making sure there had been no rustling issues.

Adam had been slow to heal, and had just recently started moving between the house and the barn to check on Sport. He felt guilty for taking him out in the storm, and thankful at the same time that Sport came through it relatively unscathed. So, despite Shiloh's objections, Sport got a few lumps of sugar with each visit.

Much to Shiloh's dismay, Adam's chest looked much worse before it looked any better. She also knew he was moving slowly, sitting carefully, and standing just as carefully, then walking slightly bent to wherever he was going to sit again.

He spent much of his time in his office working on Slater and Cartwright business. He let Micah handle the business of the Flying W. Though he sometimes took a buggy to the Flying W to check in with Hank, Adam felt it was better for Micah to have the work to keep his mind off Etta, who still had not awakened.

The mine was back in business, though the part of the mine with the crack lay dormant in the hopes that the spring thaw would bring the water back deep underneath. Another tunnel had been opened on the opposite side. The vein there would be shorter as it went diagonally up the ridge, but it was enough to keep the men working through the winter.

Chuck had arranged for canvas tents to be set up during the winter, so the men would have a place to rest and sleep until the snow on the road to Virginia City gave way enough that they could get to town to see their families. Heavy snow came and went, so they did not get home often.

Somehow, Annie was managing to get broth in Etta, but it had been two weeks since the accident. Every day that passed now brought a smaller chance she was going to wake up before her body gave way to malnutrition.

Rachel spent time reading to her mother, ending with a plea to wake up. The little girl always made her exit quietly with her head hung low.

Shiloh worked in her music room when she wasn't entertaining her boys. She could no longer go out in the snow with them to play, leaving that particular pleasantry to Amalee. Shiloh had given a list of names of the women who wanted to work in the dairy to Angeline, including in which saloon they last worked. She also suggested Angeline speak with the woman called Nell at the Silver Queen. Shiloh had promised Nell a decent job at the dairy when it opened. She was sure Nell had passed the word among the women she knew in the saloons.

When Adam came in for the evening, he went upstairs to wash up, came back down and went directly to his office until dinner. Shiloh generally brought him a cup of coffee, and when she did this evening, she lingered until he finally looked up at her.

"Something on your mind?" he asked.

She had met his eyes, but now looked away, not knowing how to breach this particular subject again.

Laying his pencil on his desk, he slowly pushed himself up, walked around to the front and pulled two chairs to face each other on the opposite side of the desk. Taking her hand, he guided her to one of the chairs, then sat down in front of her. "Not that I would mind sitting here looking at you, but I do need to finish a drawing."

"I'm sorry, Adam. I shouldn't have bothered you."

When she moved to stand, he moved his hand to the top of her knee and slightly squeezed. "I could use the break. Now what's eating at you?"

"Adam, when we came back from San Francisco before, you ended up getting hit on the head and…we'd almost given up."

"You gave up on me?"

She looked down at her fidgeting hands on her lap. "Annie and Paul had begun to prepare me for that outcome." She broke what seemed like a long silence. "Abel was my last…hope." That last word was unsteady.

Adam smiled wistfully as he leaned back and crossed his legs.

"Then Jakey hit you on the head and knocked you out twice. Now, you're in the mine when part of it collapses, and most recently you…your…" She moved her hand to her mouth and looked away. "You have a successful business in San Francisco."

"I have a successful business in San Francisco, and a successful ranch here, Shiloh." Adam leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "I work with animals here all over the ranch, and I do the same there. I work in a city that has earthquakes where buildings collapse, and I have a mine here that's collapsed in an earthquake." He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his thighs. "I've even been shot at in San Francisco, if you'll remember. I don't see much difference in being in a building or a mine when the ground starts shaking." His words had a bite to them.

Clasping her hands, she looked up and met his eyes with stone sober eyes of her own and pursed lips. "Pardon me for bothering you," she said as she stood.

He reached for her hand, but she jerked it away and kept walking to the door.

Just as she opened it, his hand pushed it closed. His other hand moved to the door near her shoulder, and now he moved the hand that had closed the door further down near her other shoulder.

Stepping into her back, he whispered in her ear, "You don't like San Francisco. You've said yourself this is your home. It always has been. And I agree with you. I want our boys to be raised here. I want them to work the ranch when they're young, like I did. They'll grow up right here. San Francisco…could…corrupt them."

"They won't grow up right if their father isn't around to raise them," she answered back.

His hands moved to her shoulders. He gently turned her around to face him, then moved his hands back to the door, but leaned down a bit to look her in the face. "I'm not going to die, Shiloh, not yet anyway. And even if you think I am, living in San Francisco isn't necessarily going to change anything."

She never looked at him, but Adam could see tears welling up in her eyes.

"Sweetheart, we have to consider this fear you have is heightened by your condition." He could see her jaw moving, but remained silent while she chewed on that.

She said through gritted teeth. "My condition does not diminish my concern."

"I didn't say it did. I said it heightens your fear. Either way we are not moving to San Francisco permanently."

"Without any discussion at all? You've made the decision…on your own?"

Her voice was elevated, but her eyes were moist, so he knew this was, once again, her condition. "Shiloh…" He scratched his upper lip and looked back at his desk, covered in drawings and notes. "Come on," he said, taking her hand. It was limp, and she was dragging her feet, so he was more than aware he was pulling the little girl she sometimes reverted to in her condition behind him. At the dinner table, he said, "Sit here while I go ask Lo to bring more coffee."

At the hallway to the kitchen, he stopped and looked back to make sure she was still sitting there. Then he rushed, as much as he could, into the kitchen, spoke quickly to Lo and then walked out more quickly than he'd moved in several weeks just in time to point her back into the chair.

Before he even sat down next to her, she was talking. "I don't see the point in talking about it anymore. You've made the decision for both of us." Under her breath, she said, "So much for a partnership."

He took a deep breath and smiled as he took her hand. Before he spoke, he kissed it. "Well, I do," he said very slowly. "Look, we won't be going anywhere for a while. With the weather like it is, it's too dangerous. So, we have a few months before we have to worry about where we're going to live, and," he said with a slight bow of his head, "by that time, the baby will be here, and things…well, they'll seem…different."

Her nostrils flared.

"Shiloh, are you going to be going any further than town anytime soon?" he asked with raised brows.

She looked away and said very quietly, "No."

Lo limped in with the coffee service, poured two cups and left.

Adam prepared his, then pushed the sugar and cream next to his wife who made no move to prepare hers.

After taking a sip, Adam gently set his cup on the table. He looked at her for a moment, then moved a finger under her chin and raised her face to his.

Her jaw slightly dropped at the look on his face. His eyes were smiling, not the way they did when he was joking around, but rather when he was at his most tender. His lips were slightly turned up at the corners which didn't help. Though she fought it, her nose wrinkled, her bottom lip quivered, and by the time she bowed her head, she was in full tears. When she rose to leave, he rose with her and wrapped her up in his arms.

"Sweetheart, I've been hurt a lot worse…falling off my horse…in a gunfight…in the wrong place at the wrong time. Moving to San Francisco isn't going to change it." He moved her hair out of her face as he caressed her cheek. "I'm all right."

"This time," she said sadly, pushing away from him and walking to the stairs.

He watched, but let her go. Maybe some time with the children would break this mood she was in.

XXXXXXXX

Answering a knock at the front door, Lo smiled and bowed when he invited Joe into the house.

"Hello, Lo. Is Miss Shiloh available?" asked Joe.

Lo's brows creased. Joe usually knocked quickly as a warning, then came right in and yelled for whoever he wanted to see in the house.

"Missy Shiloh upstairs. I go tell her you here," said Lo, as he bowed again and climbed the stairs more slowly than normal.

Joe looked around the downstairs. It seemed nothing was ever out of place in Adam's house unless the children were downstairs playing, and that didn't happen unless Shiloh or Adam were with them.

"Joe, is everything all right?"

Joe's head snapped to the top of the stairs in the middle of the back of the big room. Now his brows furrowed. "Why wouldn't it be?"

Shiloh lightly laughed. "Lo was concerned because of the way you asked to come into the house."

"Oh. That. Well, I thought I would try to do all the right things seeing as I've come to ask a big favor," he said, slightly blushing.

Shiloh had just stepped down off the last step and now walked toward him. "And what would that be?" she asked, tiptoeing to kiss him on the cheek.

"Uh. Willow and her parents have never heard you sing. I thought it would be a nice surprise if you might see your way to singing at the wedding."

She turned away to hide her mouth of which the corner had inexplicably turned up. "Well, Joe, I don't usually sing at social functions…unless it's for charitable purposes."

She watched disappointment creep over his face.

"I…I understand," he said with a forced, closed-lip smile.

"And, of course, if it's for family," she added and immediately laughed at the way his eyes widened to almost as big as his grin.

"Shiloh, this will be the perfect wedding present. I don't think there's anything else in world you and Adam could do for us that would be more special," he said as he hugged her.

"Wait…wait. I didn't say anything about Adam. He's never really been willing to sing in public, and I'm sure there will be more of the public than family at the wedding." She turned and looked at the office door, though Adam hadn't been there for hours. Rather, he had decided it was time to go supervise men watching over docile beeves. "Then again, miracles do happen."

"It's enough, Shiloh. Don't you go getting into any trouble with Adam over this."

"I won't. I promise," she said. "Now, have you set a date?"

"We have," said Joe, crossing his arms and smiling. "April the first, 1867."

"Oh. All Fool's Day?"

The color left Joe's face. "I didn't think about that."

"How about April second? That will be a Sunday. You can get married in the evening without disrupting anyone's services. Are you getting married at Pa's house?"

"No. Her mother wanted a church wedding."

"The church," said Shiloh contemplatively. "St. Paul's?"

"Is that a problem?"

"No," she said. "I just have to think about how the music will sound. It should be fine, but I'll have to practice, at least once, at the church."