CHAPTER NINE

Josie was still furious with Adam the following afternoon when he came by the dormitory to walk her to the train station. The house mother who answered his knock was, fortunately, not the same woman he'd winked at last night and was delighted to meet one of Josephine's cousins from the Nevada Territory.

"I declare, you could be her brother!" the lady exclaimed.

"Yes, ma'am, we do hear that often."

When Josie reached the door, she gave Adam an icy glare, but she waited until they were on the sidewalk well out of earshot of any nosy dormitory mothers before she laid into him. She unlinked her arm from his and spun to face him.

"You, Adam Cartwright, are an incorrigible rascal!"

"Moi?" Adam asked, his hazel eyes wide and his right hand pressed to his heart.

"Vous! Do you have any idea what an ear-blistering I got last night? It's a miracle they let me out today, even to meet my own parents!"

This was too much. Adam's innocent expression vanished, and he howled with laughter all over again. Josie brandished the small handbag she was carrying.

"It's! Not! Funny!" she hollered, clubbing him with the handbag after each word. Pedestrians around them turned and stared, but Adam kept laughing.

"I'm so sorry, Josie," he gasped between peals of laughter. "But if you had seen the look on your face last night–" He broke off laughing again.

Josie cast him a disgruntled look and waited for him to compose himself. Adam's laughter eventually faded but left behind a huge, dopey grin on his face. She raised the handbag again, but her rage dissipated in the light of his smile.

"That's something Little Joe would have done, you know," she grumbled as she fought the smile playing about the corners of her mouth.

"I know. You think he'll be proud of me?"

Josie rolled her eyes at her cousin, who rubbed his shoulder where Josie had struck him with her handbag.

"That hurt, by the way."

"Good, I hope it leaves a bruise." She tried to sound stern, but her smile broke free, and she giggled and shook her head. She linked her arm back through his, and the pair set off once more for the train station, Adam still beaming with pride and Josie silently plotting her revenge.

Jacob, Hannah, and Rachel's train arrived right on time, and all three of them greeted Adam with enthusiasm. Adam suspected, however, that if Aunt Rachel knew he was taking Josie west next week, she would have been less excited to see him. While Rachel barked orders to the porter about their luggage, Hannah pulled Adam and Josie aside and told them she intended to give Rachel the news over dinner that night.

"I hope that if she is in public, she will keep her choicest comments to herself," she explained. Adam and Josie doubted this but kept silent, not wanting to dash Hannah's hopes.

Throughout supper that evening, the cousins waited for Hannah to broach the topic. But every time the conversation headed that direction, she changed the subject. Jacob and Josie threw her increasingly anxious glances, and Adam fidgeted in his seat.

"What is the matter with you, Adam?" Rachel asked. "Is there something wrong with your chair?"

"No, ma'am." Adam cast his eyes down to his plate like a child. Rachel stared at him suspiciously but let it go.

"Anyway, Josephine," she said, "I thought I would let you choose which bedroom you would prefer, though I think you will find the corner room most to your liking. It gets the most daylight and has that lovely fireplace that makes it so cozy in the winter." She beamed at her niece, who replied with an uncomfortable grimace. Josie nudged her mother's foot under the table.

"Actually, Rachel," Hannah said. "Josie is not returning with us to Boston."

Rachel's hand flew to her throat as she gasped in surprise and horror. Her eyes shot over to glare at her brother-in-law.

"Merciful heavens, Jacob Cartwright, you do not intend to take the child to Washington, do you?"

"Of course not," Jacob huffed. "I would not place my only child directly in the path of the war! Quite the contrary, in fact. I intend to send her far away from this dreadful conflict."

Rachel's face lit up with joy. "Oh, Jacob," she breathed. "You are finally sending her to Europe!"

Adam inhaled the wine he was sipping and set off coughing and sputtering. Josie slapped him on the back. She didn't think it would help, but it gave her an excuse to turn her face away from the table so no one could see how hard she was fighting to contain laughter. Hannah hid her face behind her napkin.

Jacob flushed. "Not exactly."

"Where then?"

Jacob glanced uncomfortably at his wife, who stepped in to rescue him.

"She is returning with Adam to Nevada," Hannah said.

There was a pregnant pause as Rachel digested this bit of news. Surprising everyone for a second time in as many minutes, she laughed.

"Oh, Hannah," she said when she got her mirth under control. "You had me going there for a moment! Sending Josephine to Nevada. How ridiculous!" She laughed again, but she trailed off as she noticed everyone else's serious expressions.

"It's true, Aunt Rachel," Adam said. "Josie's coming back to the Ponderosa with me."

"You're serious!" she exclaimed, looking from Adam to Jacob to Hannah and back again.

"Yes," Josie said. "Mama and Papa wanted me to go to Boston, but I felt I could be more useful out west."

"Useful?" Rachel echoed in bewilderment. "My dear child, you are a woman. The most useful thing you can do is find a husband, and believe me, you will have much more luck among the gentlemen of Boston than you would among those crude men out west."

"Like you did, I suppose," Josie muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Rachel snapped.

Adam laid a hand on Josie's arm. The last thing they needed was for her to repeat herself more audibly. "Nothing, Aunt Rachel," he said.

Jacob realized he had better take control of the situation before it got out of hand. "Rachel," he said gently, turning to his sister-in-law, "Josie will receive her medical degree on Saturday, and it is important that she is able to use it. Boston is full of doctors, while the West is nearly devoid. Hannah and I have discussed this, and we have decided this is the right solution for our daughter, and that is the end of it."

Rachel looked as if she had just lost her best friend. Remembering a conversation he'd had with her many years before, Adam spoke up.

"I don't mean to take her away from you, Aunt Rachel," he said, catching Rachel's eye. "We all want Josie to be safe and happy, and you and I both know she would not be happy in Boston. I promise that my father and brothers and I will do everything in our power to keep her safe."

Josie, Jacob, and Hannah all beamed at Adam.

"Yes," Rachel agreed as she gazed back at her nephew. "I know you will. And you might just find our Josephine keeping you safe, too."

Josie was stunned. In her entire twenty years, this was the first compliment she'd ever received from Rachel. She draped her arm around Adam's broad shoulders.

"Don't worry, Aunt Rachel," she said brightly. "I will keep an eye on him."

Rachel smiled. "Then it's settled. Now, where is that waiter with our dessert?"

The family would never understand why Rachel Stoddard chose that day to be magnanimous, but none of them was willing to question their luck. They all tucked into their ice cream with fanfare, grateful that the family was united in both body and spirit, at least for a few more days.

Josie's graduation two days later was beautiful. True to her prediction of eleven years earlier, she graduated with highest honors as valedictorian of her class. Even Rachel beamed with pride throughout the ceremony, her previous objections to Josie's vocational choice seemingly forgotten. When the college president announced "Doctor Josephine Elizabeth Cartwright, summa cum laude!" the Cartwright clan burst into rapturous applause even as they dabbed at their eyes. Jacob was nearly overcome as his baby girl accepted her diploma and became a physician in his footsteps.

Adam could not have been prouder as he watched Josie uphold the Cartwright family tradition of accomplishing something people had said was impossible. Ben had heard that word "impossible" countless times as he and Adam journeyed west, yet he'd built the largest ranch between California and Colorado. Josie had been rejected from several medical schools who had told her women could not become doctors, but she found a school that would train her, and she became a physician anyway. The Cartwrights—male and female alike—did not take "no" for an answer.

After the ceremony, they returned to Josie's dormitory to help her move out her belongings. Hannah and Jacob accompanied Josie upstairs to her room while Rachel waited outside in the carriage with Adam, who was still not allowed inside even though all the women were moving out. While they waited, they chatted about Adam and Josie's travel plans. Rachel was pleased that Adam had been able to secure a two-bedroom suite with a balcony for the journey from Philadelphia to Colón aboard the SS Morning Star. She was so interested in learning about the journey that she even suggested she might like to make the trip herself someday. Adam nearly fell out of the carriage in surprise.

Upstairs in the dormitory, Josie gazed around the room she had called home for the past two years, empty now except for the bare furniture. She and Michaela, assisted by their families, had packed quietly, unsure of what to say. Josie once more found herself swept over with guilt that Michaela's own happy plans had been postponed. She also realized she was about to say goodbye to her best friend.

The fathers carried the heaviest items to the porch, where Adam helped load them into the waiting carriages. Michaela and her family were spending the night at a hotel and departing for Boston at noon the next day on the same train as Jacob, Hannah, and Rachel. Once the carriages were loaded, the families boarded, giving the two new doctors some privacy to say their farewells.

Michaela and Josie embraced for several long moments, tears flowing down their faces.

"You must write me and tell me all about the West," Michaela whispered into Josie's ear as they clung to one another.

"I will, I promise. And you must let me know when the wedding is rescheduled. I don't care how long a journey it is. I will be there."

They stepped apart and faced each another, still holding onto one another's arms.

"Good luck, Josie."

"Good luck, Michaela." Josie kissed her friend lightly on the forehead, clasped her hand a final time, and joined her family in the carriage. She sat next to her father, tears streaming down her face. Jacob put an arm around her shoulders and drew her close. He beckoned to the driver, and they pulled away.

The family was staying at the swanky Continental Hotel, where that night they had an enormous celebratory dinner. They made toast after toast to the newly minted Dr. Cartwright, to Adam and Josie's upcoming journey, and to the safety of the Union. Heady from all the champagne, Adam thought his eyes were playing tricks on him when he saw the waiter carrying a gigantic cake to their table. He figured it must be for Josie, but the waiter placed the huge confection in front of him instead. Looking down, he saw the words "Happy Birthday, Adam" scrawled in icing across the top.

"Happy birthday!" the rest of the family cheered.

Adam blushed. He was flattered the family had remembered his birthday, but they shouldn't be making a fuss over him. Not tonight.

"O- Oh," he stammered. "You really shouldn't have, I-"

"I told you he'd protest," Josie interrupted with a smug smirk.

Adam shot Josie an exasperated look. "Today is about you, not me."

Jacob laid a hand on Adam's arm. "This was Josie's idea."

"Happy birthday, Cousin-Cousin." Josie leaned over and gave Adam a quick hug around the neck. As she reached for him, her index finger swiped up a large blob of icing from the edge of the cake and deposited it neatly in his left ear. He cried out in surprise.

"Josephine!" Jacob, Hannah, and Rachel declared in unison.

"That's for the other night," Josie said sweetly and planted a wet kiss on his cheek.

"No, no," Adam said in response to the horrified expressions on his aunts' and uncle's faces. "I deserved that." He swabbed his ear with a corner of his napkin and wiped his cheek with his shoulder.

"Yes, you did," Josie said. Her father raised an eyebrow in her direction. "It's a long story."

"Thank you for the cake, anyway," Adam said to Josie as he dabbed the last remnants of icing out of his ear. He glanced back down at the cake and smiled. "This really does look delicious."

Adam reached for the knife the waiter had brought and cut into the cake. He passed around slices —even the usually abstemious Rachel accepted one—and everyone dived in. For at least one more night, they could forget the war and enjoy something as simple and innocent as a birthday.