Eleven ~ The Reluctant Suitor
After setting the brake of the buggy, Adam looked back at the two men who had followed him at a respectable distance, all the way in. It had taken Adam almost 40 minutes to drive the buggy from the Ponderosa to Mansfield's house and the two men had met him, one on each side of the dirt road, about 10 minutes into the M Bar property. Before Adam stepped down from the buggy, he pushed the rifle under the buggy seat with one foot. He had polished his dress boots from years back and the right one was pinching his toes; he should have worn thinner socks.
Adam leapt down from the buggy and walked to the front door, pulling down the brocade vest. His suit fit across the shoulders but was looser across his torso and the vest, a gray satin with silver brocade, was also loose but soon enough, they would fit if Hop Sing kept up his urging to "Eat more food. Mistah Adam skinny like stringy rooster!" He rapped his knuckles on the fresh wood as there was no fanciful knocker on the door. The two men looked at one another and then rode slowly away and Adam relaxed, releasing a deep breath.
"Oh, Mr. Cartwright," said the maid, Violet, who had served lunch the day before. "Do come in-you're expected, and don't you look the handsome one. May I take your hat?" She smiled up at Adam, cocking her head flirtatiously and looking him over. She was round and lush with a kittenish face, and dark curls trying to escape from the stern bun.
"Thank you," Adam said, handing her his hat.
Cammie came down the stairs wearing a pale-yellow dress with a sweetheart neckline, and smiled broadly, putting out both hands. "Oh, Adam, come sit down. Dinner will be ready in a moment." Adam took her hands in his.
"I hope I'm not late."
"Oh, no, not at all. This gives us a few minutes to talk. Would you like a drink?"
"No, thank you, but don't let me stop you."
"Oh, no. I'm fine without one." Cammie looked at Violet who gazed admiringly at Adam, swaying a bit. "Violet!" Cammie said sharply. "You may go. Call us when dinner is ready." Violet nodded her head and smiling once more at Adam, turned and left, giving her hips an exaggerated swing. "I don't know why she's still here—so saucy! I'd fire her in an instant but my father claims that help is difficult to come by out here. But when we build the larger house, she'll be confined to the kitchen, peeling potatoes and chopping onions for Cook." She smiled at Adam. "Please sit down, Adam."
Adam did, unbuttoning his jacket but rose again once Jarvis Mansfield walked into the parlor.
"Oh, father," Cammie said, "this is Adam Cartwright. I told you about our meeting this morning."
"Good evening, Mr. Mansfield," Adam said putting out his hand, determined not to address the man as "Colonel". Mansfield looked at him closely as he took his hand.
"Sit down, Cartwright. We have a few minutes before dinner." Mansfield looked Adam over, noticing his suit of clothes and boots. "Well, you're older than I thought. Now, tell me the truth—why did you ask my daughter to the dance in town tonight? What is it you want?"
"Father!" Cammie looked horrified but Mansfield ignored his daughter's protest. Adam saw her blush deeply, her neck becoming mottled with red blotches. It was easy to read her emotions since they literally showed on her skin.
"All I want, Mr. Mansfield, is a pleasant time. I met Cammie yesterday morning and since I don't know any single, young women hereabouts anymore…" Adam noticed Mansfield's look of victory and quickly added, "at least none I couldn't put on my arm in public, I asked Cammie and she accepted. She also doesn't know many people and that can make a person feel isolated." Adam wondered if Mansfield knew about his visit to the whore, Louanne. He may have sent a man to follow him even that early into his return to the Ponderosa; it was unsettling.
"And your asking her to go with you had nothing to do with her being my daughter?"
"Father, please! I'm old enough…"
"That's just the trouble," He said, turning to her. "You so want to marry that you pick the most unseemly of men. Here, in my own home, sits the son of the man who's been trying to ruin me for the past two years, invited by you. Cammie, that's exactly why I think you should go live with your Aunt Amanda in Philadelphia. You would meet so many more eligible men there."
Cammie stood up. She was shaking with humiliation. "I see nothing wrong with going to a dance with Adam. I haven't been anywhere, done anything since…"
"Now, don't you bring him up again! I told you, he was like all the others before him! He just wanted money, hoped by marrying you, he'd get his hands on some. But no daughter of mine is going to marry some common cowboy! I told you that."
Adam stood up. "Perhaps I should leave. I seem to be the cause of some acrimony."
"No, Adam," Cammie said, hurrying to slip her arm through his. "I invited you to dinner and I want you to stay. I hope this little tiff hasn't made you reconsider…"
"I'll tell you something that may make you, reconsider, daughter! This man standing here in our parlor, this man whose arm you're clinging to, frequents whores!" Mansfield was livid.
"Well, I would expect that, Father, seeing that he's a bachelor." Cammie's jaw jutted out on defiance.
Adam was unsuccessful in suppressing a smile and Mansfield, obviously flustered, made odd sounds of repressed fury. Out of the corner of his eye, Adam saw Violet standing just inside the dining room entryway, listening. She calmly stepped out into the parlor.
"Dinner is served." She stepped politely aside but glanced slyly at Adam with just the barest smile playing about her rosy mouth.
The dinner was a creamy vegetable soup, roast beef and small, red potatoes cooked in butter and fresh baby peas. Yeast clover-leaf rolls were piled in a basket and both Adam and Mansfield used them to wipe up the excess gravy on the plate. Mansfield had three glasses of the very good claret, but Adam casually sipped the red wine at his place setting, admiring the well-cut crystal. It was an awkward meal considering the earlier quarrel between daughter and father, but Adam found the family dynamics interesting. Just how did a man with an unattractive daughter keep her from marrying a fortune-hunter? Perhaps he exerted too much control in the wrong area in order to cull them out; he should, Adam thought, let the prospective groom know his daughter would inherit nothing until she was 40 and then see if the man still wanted Cammie's hand.
Adam declined dessert, a pudding, but Violet made a point all through clearing and serving, to intermittently let her bosom touch Adam's upper arm. She wanted his attention but Adam wasn't quite sure why until he felt her hand slip her into his jacket pocket. He met her eyes then and she quickly looked away.
Finally, Cammie excused herself, ordering Violet to accompany her upstairs to adjust her hair and freshen her face. Looking back once at Adam, the maid reluctantly left.
Mansfield lit a cigar, offering one to Adam.
"No, thank you. I'll pass."
Mansfield shook his lit cigar at Adam. "I've seen you before, Cartwright. I know you were in the war…"
"Just as you know…how did you put it? I believe you said I frequent whores."
Mansfield puffed on his cigar. "I felt my daughter should know."
Adam smirked. "And how did you know, unless you were also upstairs being entertained at the time. But I guess you were having me followed," Adam said, sitting back comfortably. The cook came in to clear the table, Violet's usual task.
"Mrs. Hodges, later! You can clear later!" Mansfield waved her off and the woman scurried back to the kitchen. "Of course, I had you followed."
"Why?"
"Well, because one of my men saw the three of you—you and your two brothers-ride onto the Ponderosa. I was concerned your father was hiring a gun hawk; I have to watch my back, you know, and I worried he was upping the ante. And you look…what was it Caesar said about Cassius...?"
" 'Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; he thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.' Do you think I'm a danger to you, Mr. Mansfield?"
"Your steady gaze makes me think your blood runs a little cold."
"Well, to give the devil his due, the war taught me not to think too hard before I shoot a man, especially if he's trying to shoot me—and to look him in the eye as I do it. Made me realize what a burden a conscience is."
Mansfield tried to size up Adam but was confused. But he did know one thing, this man wasn't for his daughter. "You better have a conscience as far as my daughter is concerned." He was going to say more but they heard Cammie's voice and both men rose to go into the parlor. Cammie came down the stairs, smiling, her hair adorned with yellow silk roses and a short, velvet cape about her shoulders. Violet sulkily followed behind.
"Why, Cammie, you look lovely," Adam said. He considered it the truth as she was far more animated, the excitement of going into town bringing a flush to her cheeks.
"Yes, my dear, you certainly do." Mansfield smiled. His wife had been no great beauty and theirs was not a love match, but he wanted better for his daughter. Unfortunately, Cammie had inherited the worst features from both parents. In his sons, it hadn't been as noticeable, but in his daughter, her plainness was obvious. Perhaps a purchased husband for his Cammie was preferred over none. But the sooner he sent Cammie away from this dark-haired man, the better. She had basically only her virtue to recommend her, well, that, and his money.
Standing on the front porch, Jarvis Mansfield watched the buggy carrying his daughter to Virginia City with the eldest son of the man he was trying to destroy; Mansfield wanted the Ponderosa. He would sell all his property to the railroad and then he would move into the ranch house he would build on the Running D and be the lord of Nevada, the wealthiest man this side of the Mississippi. He slowly exhaled the smoke from the cigar, its end glowing in the falling darkness. He turned at the sound of bootheels on the side of the long porch.
"Evening, Costello." James Costello was a tall, handsome man and most charming. Initially, he had displayed an interest in Cammie as well but although Mansfield had no qualms about hiring the man away from the Pinkerton Agency, he didn't want him as a son-in-law.
"Would you like me to follow them?" Costello asked, watching the buggy.
"No, not tonight. Let them be. I'm sure Cartwright will treat her well. Just as long as she's home by ten and not a minute later.
"All right," Costello said. "Think I'll go help myself to a cigar and brandy." Costello walked into the house and Mansfield wanted to order him out, demand more respect from him. After all, he had been a distinguished colonel in the Union army, bravely led many men into battles, successful battles. But Costello would only laugh in his face. Costello knew about the purloined gold, had found it all on his own after Mansfield had hired him and being a good detective, had put certain facts and elements together to arrive at the proper conclusion. Costello had called it, "job security" but Mansfield knew it was nothing more than extortion. Mansfield finished his cigar alone, trying to remember how and where he knew Cartwright's face…and those eyes with their defiant, disdainful, and deadly gaze.
~ 0 ~
Cammie apologized for her father. "He's overly protective, especially since my mother passed, but it is embarrassing."
"A father has to watch over his daughter. Can't let her just go off with anyone, especially a scoundrel like me." Cammie laughed and slipped an arm through Adam's as he held the reins. "So why did he, then?"
"You mean let me go with you?" Adam nodded. "I insisted. When he found out I'd had you over for lunch, he was furious, threatened again to send me back east to my aunt again. But I told him I wouldn't go and that you were to be judged on your own merits." She looked up at him but Adam looked straight ahead. "He knew who you were, that you were a Cartwright and had served in the Union Army. I think he had you followed by Mr. Costello, a man he hired who'd worked for the Pinkertons." Adam glanced over at her. "Do you mind?"
"Actually, I do. But you seem to know quite a bit about all the machinations, Cammie."
"I told you-I listen at doors."
Cammie talked, knowing she was talking too much but Adam listened to her, seemed to be concerned and although she knew it would anger her father that she revealed so much, she couldn't stop herself. Adam had a sympathetic way about him, a gentleness that a woman could trust. She told him of her fiancé who had been killed one week into the war and he offered his condolences. And then the tragedy of losing her brothers had broken her mother and when her father finally returned home a surprisingly wealthy man, her mother tried to shoot him for an unexplained reason, but it was a wild shot and broke a lamp instead and almost set the room on fire. Her mother was sedated for days and afterwards, her health rapidly declined. When the end came, her father was already making plans to move out west.
"Why out here?" Adam asked.
Cammie paused for the briefest moment. "He has a friend on some railroad board and apparently, he told my father that they were expanding the railroad all the way to the Pacific. That's why." She waited but Adam didn't ask anything else and so she talked about how lovely it was to finally dress up and go out somewhere, and although the dress she was wearing wasn't new, having been made in Baltimore before they left, that night was the first time she wore it. It was the finest she owned, being overlaid with Chantilly lace. "If it were white, it would pass as a wedding dress."
Adam smiled to himself, but his thoughts went back to what Violet had slipped in his pocket and if it was of any great importance.
The Presbyterian church community hall was decorated with hanging, twisted crepe in bright colors and Chinese lanterns were strung in an arc across the entryway. Inside, tables were set along one wall and held huge punchbowls and platters of cookies and little iced cakes; at the end of each table was a decorated jar to hold any donations "For our Downtrodden Brothers, Both Red and White." The musicians were on a dais, already playing to the dancers as by the time Adam and Cammie appeared, the festivities were underway. No one really seemed to notice the couple at first and after offering to fetch Cammie some punch, they stepped out on the dance floor to the sweet tune of some long-forgotten waltz. And then either Adm was recognized or Cammie, because people began to look at them and talk to one another, not outwardly pointing, but indicating the couple with motions of their heads.
"Adam, that is you, isn't it?" Adam stopped dancing and grinned when he saw it was an old friend of his, Zak Newsome. The shook hands and Zak introduced his wife, Maybelle. "Four children at home-two girls and two boys. And right now, they're with their Grandma Newsome so I can court my wife anew." He winked at Adam. "Might be another Newsome in nine months if things go as planned." His wife slapped his arm and blushed. Others also came over to renew their acquaintances with Adam, telling him they were glad he was home and setting invitations to their homes. But when Adam would introduce Cammie Mansfield to them, they seemed confused but were polite. And they didn't include her by telling Adam he could bring her to their homes with him.
Hoss stepped into the large room, glanced about at the dancers and the women sitting by the wall, waiting to be asked to dance. Since the war, there were less available men due to the great number of casualties, and despite two of the Ponderosa hands dancing, there was a dearth of men. Hoss nodded at one of the young "fillies" who smiled at him but headed straight to the refreshment tables on the opposite side of the room. He took a cup of punch, downed it, and picking up a plate, filled it with cookies. He left two bits in the donation jar, having to dig some coins out of his pocket.
Turning Cammie about in the dance, Adam caught glimpse of Hoss standing on the sidelines. "There's my brother, Hoss. Let me introduce you," Adam said, stopping, and with his hand on the small of Cammie's back, guided her to where Hoss stood.
Hoss grinned broadly. "There you are, older brother. Still know how to shake a leg." Hoss looked again at Cammie and was taken aback as he and Joe had talked about the mysterious Miss Mansfield who Adam was escorting to the dance. They had been certain that she must be quite a beauty for Adam to risk being backshot, taking her anywhere. They had asked Adam if Mansfield's daughter was beautiful, "C'mon, Adam, you can tell us. We ain't gonna steal 'er from you." But Adam had just shrugged and replied that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
"What the hell does he mean by that?" Hoss asked Joe at the time.
"I guess…I don't know, Hoss. Maybe he just means that if you think someone's pretty…" Joe shrugged. "If a girl's pretty, she's pretty. I don't see that other people would see her differently unless they're cross-eyed and can't see straight."
"I think he just don't want us to get to her first. You know how Adam is."
"Yeah. I know," Joe said, frowning.
Now, looking at Cammie Mansfield, Hoss hoped his face didn't show his surprise at her unattractiveness.
"Cammie, this is my brother, Hoss. Hoss, this is our new neighbor, Cammie Mansfield." Adam could see Hoss was unsure of how he should behave, seeing who Cammie was.
"Nice to meet you, ma'am," Hoss said. "Adam said he'd be takin' you to this here shindig-I mean dance."
"Thank you, Hoss. It's a pleasure to meet you as well. And it's quite the shindig, isn't it?" Cammie put out her hand, smiling, and then she realized that Hoss had his right hand full with the plate and napkin; he quickly switched hands and the few cookies left almost slid off the plate.
"Oh, Hoss, I…don't drop your food!"
"Ma'am, do I look like I drop much food?" Hoss, grinning, put out his large hand and Cammie shook his.
"Where's Joe?" Adam asked, looking about. Joe rarely missed any event where young, attractive women would gather.
"Oh, he didn't want any girl to see him all bruised up after…" Hoss stopped himself and Cammie dropped her eyes before she looked up at him again.
"I know my father set his men on your brother, Hoss. I apologize for that."
"Um…yes, ma'am. Well, Joe ain't really hurt much, just vain-vain as a schoolgirl who finds a pimple on her nose." Hoss smiled but he noticed Adam motioning for him to do something, and then he realized what it was. "Miss Cammie, iffen Adam will take these last two cookies from me—and they're good, Adam, lemon crisps-I'd be honored to have this dance. Looks like ever'one's movin' to square dance."
"Oh, I don't know-I haven't had much experience…"
"Just lissen to the caller and do what others do. Adam, take my plate." And over her protests that she knew nothing about square dancing, Hoss maneuvered her onto the floor and found them a spot in a square set of four. Cammie looked pathetically at Adam but then the fiddler started up and the dance began.
Adam walked over to the last table and placed the plate on the tablecloth. Mrs. Delaware moved towards him. "Can I get you anything, Adam?"
"Oh, no ma'am, I'm fine but…here." Adam dropped a few coins in the jar. But Mrs. Delaware didn't move away. "Is there something, Mrs. Delaware?" Adam asked.
"I don't mean to pry, Adam, but I heard that was Colonel Mansfield's daughter you brought, the one who's dancing with Hoss."
"Yes. That's who she is."
"And your father approved?"
"Well, actually, I didn't ask him for his approval." Adam grinned and Mrs. Delaware flushed and moved back to her spot serving punch.
Adam slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out the paper Violet had slipped into it. Meet me at the lovers' tree near Frenchman's Creek at 10:30 tonight. Adam returned it to his pocket and pulled out his watch. He would have to leave within the next half-hour to get Cammie home and to meet with Violet at the tree. At least he hoped it would be Violet. But he had learned not to assume anything.
He sighed and gazed about and through the swirling and moving square dancers, Adam saw Agent Kelley standing outside the open doors and smoking a cigarette. Kelley looked at Adam, flicked his cigarette aside, and raised two fingers to the brim of his bowler in acknowledgement. Then Kelley turned and walked away down the steps.
