A/N: Thank you all for such wonderful reviews of the last chapter and welcome to the new readers. Special thank you to those that have added me as an author and those favouriting this and some of my other stories. It makes me smile when other people enjoy what I write as much as the person the story is written for. Thanks as normal for my awesome beta Dalm, who makes the time to change what I write a bit more palatable for your eyes and also to my friend Islaboe for being supportive all the time. To those who leave guest reviews as well, please don't think I don't value your comments too. I do take onboard all reasonable suggestions and comments!

For those reading this that read my other stories. Please don't think they are forgotten. I intend to finish them off but real life has been not good for the last few years and time to get what is written down ready for reading is not always there. I will eventually get it done! The next update for those interested will hopefully be Mischiefmakers.

Now without further ado lets see what Annabel is up to...


Oblivious to how much trouble she was in, Annabel skipped down the dirt track running and jumping over roots and low branches. She stopped suddenly to study a pretty yellow flower and then turned when she heard a slight rustling to her left. A pair of furry ears emerged followed by a small head, with a black nose and with a pink spot on one side. The whiskers were long and the face showed that it was a youngster. The rest of the brown coloured bunny poked up through the fallen leaves on the ground and both bunny and little girl studied each other for a moment.

"Ooh, bunny!" Annabel squealed excitedly, frightening the small rabbit, which quickly turned and began hopping back the way it came, as fast as it was able.

"No, bunny, don't go!" she pleaded as she started off the track and pushed her way through the branches after it.


"Bellie? Annabel? Come on, Annabel, you have to come back to the meadow with me or you'll be in trouble with Pa!" yelled Abraham. "We'll play something you want to play, if you don't want to play hide and seek!" he offered as he ran down the track past where his little sister had previously wandered off from.

Adam ran as fast as he could over the meadow looking hard for signs of his youngest to be hiding in the grasses, there to mess with her brothers heads, just in case she had told them that she did not want to play hide and seek, on their terms. Seeing no sign of the little blonde head, he stopped at the top of the track that lead down the slight hill, away from the meadow, towards the old shack that he had told the children to stay away from, several times in the past, as it was unsafe.

"Annabel? Annabel, if you are hiding up here in this meadow come on out now, please!" he yelled.

Not really expecting to see her head pop out, he wasn't surprised when she didn't appear. He waited for 30 seconds to be sure, then ducked under the tree branches that covered the entrance to the track and he started down it.

However, whilst it was easy for the children to pass down the track at a run, for Adam he had a much more difficult journey, due to his height.

"Annabel? Annabel, come on, stop hiding from me," complained Abraham. "Bellie, if we don't go back together now then when Pa finds us he will be mad at both of us. Do you want another spanking today?" Abraham yelled searching amongst the bushes, now that he was near the bottom of the trail.

The old abandoned shack was practically right in front of him now. Its broken veranda was less than 30 feet away. Abraham gulped hoping that his little sister hadn't ventured inside. He well remembered the tanning he got when he last tried to explore the place with his friends Thomas, Edward and Carlos, when he was a few years younger. The boys all thought it was an exciting place that they could make into a clubhouse for future enjoyment.

Unfortunately for them they had all lost track of the time, so Emma had sent Adam out to find them to call them in for their supper. Not finding them at the pond where he thought they might be, Adam had decided to see if they had gone exploring the exact place that he had warned them to stay away from. Having some experience himself of the way that young boy's minds worked and that sometimes the sense of adventure overruled their parent's rules and their common sense, especially when they were with others. Adam had hoped that his eldest was smart enough to stand up to his friends and would have lead them away from doing something he knew would get them into trouble with him. Especially since Abraham knew from past experience, that Adam had never made a threat or promise that he had not followed through on with the children.

Tom who was 'playing lookout' had warned the others and then tried to move back hurriedly inside the window, to hide himself from Adam, as soon as he spotted him coming down the track through the woodland. Unfortunately for Tom it was then that the old latch holding the window open had broken, causing the heavy wooden window to crash down on the poor boys' left arm.

The 2 younger boys with him hadn't the strength to move the wooden window off their friends arm, but Adam reacted quickly to raise the window. After freeing the poor screaming boy and getting him back to the Cartwright's, so Emma could treat and bandage it, ready for the trip into town for the doctor, Adam had made sure that all 3 boys were reminded that playing in abandoned and ramshackle buildings was not just dangerous to their overall health, but to that of their backsides, too. He had only used his hand on all 3 of the boys but all of them were convinced that Adam used something else, as the fire he had created in their behinds was one that was long lasting and not just physically.

Abraham absentmindedly rubbed his behind as he remembered the events and that at that time it had been the worst tanning he had ever received from his father. He smirked too, when he remembered the conversations that he,Thomas and Eddie had had later that night, when they had been banished to bed straight after supper. The other boys had remarked that his (Abraham's) father had a hard hand that was more like the wooden paddle that was used by their teacher at school, then a normal father's hand.

Stirred from his reminiscences by rustling from behind, he turned hoping that it was his sister who had been hiding from him, but it was Adam.

"Oh hey, Pa. I ain't found her yet."

Adam gestured towards the shack with his head, "Have you checked inside?"

"No sir, I was gonna but I was thinking back to when the boys and I were gonna make it a club house," Abe replied, as he bit his lip and looked embarrassed. "I didn't wanna get in trouble again with you."

Adam ruffled his son's head, "You wouldn't have been if you were in there looking for your sister."

Adam looked at the dirt leading from the track. "However, look at the dirt, son. There hasn't been anyone out here for ages. Your sister won't be in there, so we need to go and look in the woods instead."

"Yes sir. Do you think maybe she got distracted by looking for some animal? You know how she is with little ones that she thinks are cute and can be made into a pet!"

"I think that is just what is likely son, so let's go and find her. You go left and I'll go right. Yell if you find her, alright?"

"Sure, Pa."

They separated and ran off in the direction agreed, each calling out for the little girl.


Annabel chased after the bunny she had her eyes on. "Come back, little bunny. Come back!" she pleaded.

The bunny however was not in the mood for being around humans and so it hopped as fast as it could towards safety and eventually it dived head first down a rabbit hole.

"Ooohh no, that's not fair. Come back, little bunny, me not hurted you," she called, her head stuck to the hole trying to look down into its dark depths, to see if she could see where the rabbit has disappeared to.

When the rabbit failed to come up at her pleading Annabel harrumphed and stood up to stomp her foot into the woodland floor. "I want a bunny. I wanted a bunny!"

As she looked around her she didn't recognise exactly where she had come from, so she started off in the direction she thought she had come.


"Oh, I hope for your sisters sake she has not gone off to explore that old shack that your father warned you all to stay away from," said Emma as Zach helped her pack away their picnic things into the large picnic basket.

"Me too, Mama. Papa will be real mad at her iffin she has."

"Did she say anything to you about where she was going, Zach?"

"No, Mama, it's just as I said. She just said she was tired of playing hide and go seek and wanted to go exploring. I told her no, we were supposed to not go too far and she just ran off. Abe tried to call her back but she just ran off so he started off after her and he shouted at me to come and get Papa."


Although it wasn't a very big area of woodland Annabel had never been in it on her own. She soon became upset when she kept coming back to what she thought was the same area of rabbit holes in the ground. She had in fact been circling around and that was how she managed to avoid her brother as well as her father.

Both had randomly been calling for her and on hearing Adam's tone getting increasingly angrier, Annabel wanted to find her own way back to the picnic area. That was in her mind, the only way she would be able to persuade him that she was just playing with her brothers and was not defying him by wandering out of bounds. She had also realised that she was further away than she would be allowed to be if Adam was looking for her and he would not be very happy about it.

When she began hearing rustling in the brush on one side of her and the snapping of dry sticks or branches from the other, she became even more upset and started running off to the north, which at that point seemed a safe option. However, as she was not paying as much attention to her surroundings she tripped over a low branch and fell face down on the ground. On the way down to the ground her face was scratched by the prickly bush grounding there and as she landed heavily she did so on her left arm, which buckled at the wrist and the little girl screamed out in pain.

Being nearer than his eldest and a better tracker, Adam ran towards the direction of the scream and subsequently he heard whimpering.

"Annabel? Its Papa, call out to me baby so I can come and find you."

"P...pa..." sniff, "Papa! I'm..."sniff. "..Her...here, P...pa...papa!" she managed to call out to him between her whimpers, as she sat on the ground bleeding lightly from the scratches to her face and cradling her arm to protect her now throbbing wrist.

Adam quickly arrived upon her. "Oh, sweetheart, what have you done to yourself?" he asked crouching down to her to examine her face, as one scratch was near her eye.

"I felleded o...ov...over, P...pa...papa," she cried. "I hurted my... a...arm!" she added pitifully as Adam used his handkerchief to stem the bleeding of the worst scratch.

"So I see, sweetheart. Hold your arm as still as you can against your body and Papa will take a look at it in a moment to see if he can see how it is before I take you out of here. Then we can take a better look.

"Pa...a...aa?.. Annabel...llll?" Abraham called from not far away.

"Over here, son, follow my voice. I have found your sister. She has fallen over and hurt herself a little."

Abraham followed his father's voice to emerge out of the bushes and he ran over to them.

"Hey Bellie, what happened?" he said, immediately getting down on the ground to see her. "Can I help, Pa?"

"I hurted my arm..." sniff, "Abey."

"Yeah so I see you have, Bellie. Pa, shall I take a look at her arm while you do that?"

"No son just let me see to this cut and then I will take a look in case we need to immobilise it. Do you have a clean handkerchief on you, Abraham?"

"Uhm, I have one but I don't know how clean it is Pa," as he went to pull it out of his pocket as he talked.

"Papa, my head hurts," Annabel whined.

"Did you hit your head when you fell, sweetheart?"

"Uhm, no, Papa…. but my head still hurts."

"OK, sweetie don't worry, we will get you out of here in just a minute." Adam took a quick look at the cut and seeing that the bleeding had slowed a lot he said, "Abe, come here and hold this here for me please, whilst I check her arm over."

"Sure, Pa." Abraham swapped places with his father so he could stem the bleeding from the cut and Adam could check Annabel over.

"Oww! Papa, nooo don't! That hurted me..." whined the little girl and she tried to lean away from her father's administrations, which consisted of small movements to try and identify if her shoulder was dislocated, or the injury was just to her wrist and or lower arm.

Eventually Adam decided that he needed a better look at the arm in the light and he probably should immobilise it but he needed to see if she was hurt anywhere else first.

"Sweetheart is there anywhere else that hurts? Your knees or your legs?"

Annabel nodded and pointed with her 'good' arm to her right knee which was covered in a lot of dirt. Adam gently touched it and Annabel whimpered so he wasn't sure how badly it was injured.

"Sweetheart can you move your feet about without moving your legs?" Annabel was able to do so.

"Can you bend your left, leg, baby?"

"Yes..." sniff, "Papa," she answered and moved the leg without a whimper.

"Now try your right, sweetheart but slowly and stop if it hurts."

Annabel tried to move her leg but winced and so Adam stopped her, "Its ok, sweetie don't move it, any more. Abe, how is that cut now? Has it stopped?"

The young boy lifted the hankie cautiously and he nodded, "Yes, Pa it looks like it."

"Good, give me that hankie and yours as I need to immobilise your sisters arm." The boy handed over his and his father's slightly bloodied one and Adam tied them together. "Annabel, look at your brother please. Abe, talk to her, distract her for me, please."

Abraham nodded and he started making faces with his fingers in his mouth and soon his sister's face went from sad to smiling, to a little giggle.

With his daughter distracted by her brother's antics, Adam had fewer problems tying her arm up to her small body than he would have and he soon tied the final knot.

"All done, thank you, son." Adam patted Annabel's left thigh, " Right, young lady let's get you back up to mama where we can get you looked at a little better, hmm?"

He first raised himself up off the ground and then crouching down he scooped her up into his arms.

"Abraham, do you know the way back to the pond from here?"

"Uh...yes, sir. I think so."

"Then run ahead and tell your mother that we found your sister and get her to boil some water and tear up some cloths to make bandages. Tell your mother that I do not think it is too serious, but she needs some cut cleaning and I think there might be a bad sprain, at worst a break in the wrist."

"Yes sir." Abraham smiled at his sister as he patted her 'good' hand, "Don't worry Bellie, Pa's going to look after you."

Annabel managed a weak smile for him then she buried her head in her father's chest whimpering about her arm.

Abraham immediately took off as fast as he could manage through the woodland. Adam meanwhile, precious cargo in his clutch, followed at a much slower pace, as he picked his way carefully amongst the undergrowth until he reached one of the clearer trails and where he could see more clearly where he was putting his feet and then his pace picked up.


"Ma... P…pa... s….said..." panted Abraham, as he tried to catch his breath back, as he returned to the picnic area by the pond.

"Abraham, please take a few deep breaths and calm down, I can't understand you," encouraged Emma softly. Although she was worried about what he might say to her, she also knew that she needed to help him first. She walked to him and started helping him to breathe by holding him up and holding his shoulders square, "Slow breaths now, sweetie."

After a few deep breaths the colour returned to the young boy's face and he felt he was able to string his words together.

"Ma... Pa has found Bellie but she's hurt her arm and scratched her face all up... Pa says also to tell you to boil up some water and to rip up some cloths for bandages."

"Alright, Abraham, thank you for helping search for your sister."

Emma gave him a quick hug then set him and Zach to tearing up some of the cloth napkins whilst she went to get some water from the pond. She set it on the fire to boil then she also started tearing up the cloth napkins.

As the water on the fire started to boil, Zach noticed his father walking across the meadow through the bushes.

"Mama look... its Pa with Bellie."

Emma looked to where her son pointed. She removed the water from the fire to cool with a cloth, and telling the boys to stay there as she went off to go and meet her husband.


"Oh, sweetie," she cooed when she reached them and saw that her daughter's face was red and puffy from her crying and the nasty scratches. Emma went to touch the girl's hair, giving it a light stroke to offer her love and some reassurance to the child in one go. She also ended up removing some of the dirt and leaves away from the hair in the same action.

"She'll be alright, darling but it's her left arm I'm concerned about," said Adam and Emma fell into step beside him, as he carried their daughter the last 100 yards back to where her brothers were.

"My arm hurts me, Mama," Annabel sobbed as Adam walked with her.

"I know, sweetie but Mama and Papa will make it feel much better soon, sweetie."

They soon arrived back at the pond and Emma helped Adam lower their little girl down on the blanket.

Then whilst Emma used the now cooled boiled water and strips of clean cloth to clean the cuts as best she could, Adam had a better look at the little girls arm.

"Noooo, Pa...Papa... noooo, it hurts..." Annabel complained, as he moved it as gently as he could.

"I'm sorry, baby but Papa wants to see if we need to take you to the doctor. Zach, talk to your sister please or give her, her dolly. Abe, find me some sticks about 6 inches long. I need 5 or 6 of them to splint up your sister's wrist."

"Yes, sir, Pa." Abraham jumped up to do as he had been asked and Zach grabbed his sister's doll from the blanket and gave it to her to clutch to herself, in her right arm.

"Here's Penelope, Bellie, she will make you feel better if you hold her and if you want to you can squeeze my hand, too."

Sniff..."Tank..." sniff..."you...Zachy," sobbed Annabel. "Ow...Mama!" she screeched when Emma wiped at the last of the cuts on her leg.

"I'm sorry, baby girl," as she put down the cloth. "I'm all done cleaning your cuts now," said Emma and she leaned forwards and she gently kissed her on the forehead. "There now, all clean, it will stop them being so sore, I hope."

Annabel looked at her mother with pitifully sad eyes, she was feeling sore in so many places and she was feeling very sorry for herself indeed, all she had wanted to do was to play with the bunny.

When Abraham ran up with the pile of sticks Adam needed a moment later, Emma sat down on the blanket next to her daughter. She lifted Annabel onto her lap to hold her as her father fashioned a splint to immobilise her forearm, which he then bandaged. Then tying lengths together, he made a long bandage to tie Annabel's arm up to her torso. He did so as comfortably as he was able to, for the little girl.

"I know it still hurts, sweetheart but this is just to keep your arm from getting worse until we can get you into town to see Doctor Martin," he told her, as he tied the knot.

"No doctor," sniff... "Papa," she whined.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart but you need to have your arm looked at properly by a doctor so we can get you better." Adam looked around at the others.

"Ok, let's pack up and get home. Boys, I'm going to need your mother with me to take Bellie into town, so I am going to drop you off at Uncle Hoss' place on the way, alright? We'll fillet the fish when we get home later, for now they'll go in the barrel in the yard."

"Sure, Pa. Zach, let's go get the fishing stuff. Ma, I'll come and carry the basket back for you after, if it's all ready."

"Thank you, son but I think you will have enough to carry with all that fish. You just help your brother carry the fish and poles back and I will manage everything else. Your father will carry your sister," said Emma, proud of how helpful her eldest was becoming.

"OK, if you're sure, Ma?"

Emma smiled at him, "I'm sure. Now go help your brother."

"Yes, Ma'am." The two boys ran to collect up the fishing poles and strings of fish, while Adam put out the fire with the left over water and then he kicked lots of dirt over it to keep it from relighting.

"Ready to go home, baby?" Adam asked, crouching down beside his daughter.

Annabel nodded tiredly. All of the crying had made her feel very sleepy.

"Alright then, I'm gonna lift you off Mama now, sweetheart. Your arm is now supported by the bandages, but I'm going to need you to put your other arm and legs around me to keep them out of the way, alright?"

"Yes..." yawn... "Papa!"

Adam stood and reached down for her at the same time Emma lifted her up. Annabel whined a little until Adam had her set on his hip. After holding on where she could and wrapping her legs out of the way around his torso, she laid against him. Adam wrapped his arms around her to hold her firmly and then Emma stood up and shaking out the blanket she wrapped it around her daughter.

"There, now that will keep you nice and warm, sweetie until we get you to the doctor."

Adam adjusted the blanket so it wouldn't affect his walking and as soon as Emma had gathered up the basket and the boys were ready, they all walked back home.


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