Chapter 8
June 5 - Black Butte Ranch
"I'm...I'm a little worried about him. He's been sleeping off and on since he got here."
"That's sorta normal for a man's been shot. Let me get a good look at him and we'll see what he needs."
"You say it was buckshot, Miss?"
"Uh..yes. I'm sorry, it was my brother Jamie that shot him."
"Good of you to take him in." Hoss said, sitting on the coffee table in front of the settee and putting his fingers against Adam's forehead. "Little bit of fever, but it ain't too bad. He's sleepin' right peaceful."
"Yeah…" Joe said thoughtfully. "He's best that way. Less cantankerous."
"I can't tell you how good it was to see your wagons comin' down that ranch road. I've been terrified that you'd show up late and he'd be dead and…"
"Him?!" Joe giggled. "Lightning couldn't kill him, Miss. He's been in cave-ins, shootouts, indian raids, thunderstorms. He's indestructible."
Adam sighed. "And he's awake."
Hoss smiled, resting a giant paw gently on his brother's shoulder. "Hey there, Adam. You been sleepin' about twenty-four hours, how do you feel?"
Adam moved a few body parts experimentally, winced and said, "I think I'll sleep some more."
"I'd be happy to let you do that...but could you maybe do it in a bed?" Wendy asked quietly. To the looks she got from Joe and Hoss she said, "I figure we'll need this space for the children that are well. We can put the sick and...and Adam up in the bedrooms upstairs."
"That's perty good thinkin', Ma'am." Hoss said, gently pulling on Adam's arm until he was upright. Adam groaned, practically asleep again already, but with Hoss' urging he put an arm over the big man's shoulder and got to his feet.
The eldest Cartwright managed a soft, "Oh dear.", as he felt the blanket start to slide off. Joe reacted swiftly and caught it before too much had been revealed, wrapping it around Adam's waist and bunching up the ends, pushing them into Adam's free hand.
"Don't have any clothes on." Adam told Hoss.
"We...we seen that, brother." Hoss said. "Here we go."
Adam turned bleary eyes to Joe and said, "Get me some clothes.." In a harsh whisper that anyone in the main room of the house could easily hear.
"If you've got any kinda whiskey you might get him some of that, too. We didn't have any to give him." Wendy said, wincing as the blanket bowed lower and lower until it no longer covered Adam's backside. It was to her shame and delight that she didn't say anything, though she did look away when Joe caught the slip and corrected it.
"S'chilly in here." Adam commented as they headed up the stairs.
"Shore it is, Adam. That's what comes from bein' buck nekkid."
"I should get some clothes on."
"Well yeah but...no, no no. Clothes are this way. Right through this door here."
Hoss took over settling Adam in a bed and Joe came back down the stairs with the blanket. "He should be alright, Ma'am." He said, offering Wendy a smile. He stood awkwardly in the room with the blanket in his hands, smiling at Wendy, who stood just as awkwardly, blushing hotter than a stove. Joe thrust the blanket out to her and said, quietly, "I'll go get him some clothes."
June 6 - Black Butte Ranch
"I ain't never seen a girl so happy to make bread." Martha commented, hands on her hips. She'd just finished hanging the last of the clothes on the line when Wendy cheerfully brought out another bowl of dough, setting it in the sun to rise.
"You'd be happy too if it had been two months since you had flour."
"What you been eatin?"
"Jerky, eggs, chicken, preserves. And more jerky." Wendy said, brushing the flour from her hands and apron.
"Eggs?" Maudie asked. "Those poor creatures give you eggs?"
Wendy put her hands to her thin hips and watched the hens pecking eagerly at the first grain they'd seen since February. "Small ones, yes." Wendy grinned.
"I think I could get more out of a flock of crows." Catherine commented and the girls laughed together. "Ye poor thing. Stuck here with only your brother. I can't imagine."
Wendy shrugged her shoulders. "It's better than shipwrecks and train rides and indian raids and…" Wendy paused and looked around her. "Anyway...this ranch is all I've ever known. Taking care of it, the house at least, that's second nature. That part though.." Wendy pointed to Little Joe, Dan Good and Tom Cannes as they rounded the barn with shovels and picks. Wendy shook her head, "Rather bake bread."
The girls of the train laughed, following Wendy into the kitchen. Joe, Dan and Tom sat down on a bench that had been built into the barn wall and drank from a dipper of clean water, passing it up and down the line. They watched the laundry flutter in the wind, the kids playing in the dirt with sticks, the mules in the corral beyond them.
"If you boys ever wanted to get a glimpse of the Ponderosa...this is it." Joe said, shaking his head. "We got the barn, the main house. Give it a bigger kitchen, take away some of the little'uns, add some trees, a bunkhouse and some ranch hands. That's it…"
"Sounds nice." Dan said smirking at the kids before he started patting the dirt and lime out of his pant legs.
"Sounds like home." Tom said. "I got ten brothers and sisters back in Kansas."
"You're from Kansas?!" Joe asked.
"It ain't as far away as New Orleans, what's the shock for?" Tom asked.
Joe shrugged, mumbling, "I don't know." He looked a bit chagrinned and kicked at a clod of dirt with his boot. "Just the way you act sometimes...wouldn't have expected somebody like you out of...Kansas."
Tom laughed. "I choose not to take offense because I know what you mean. Not everybody out of Kansas is a narrow minded dirt farmer, though."
"Clearly." Joe added, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. "You never know, do you. Not till you get to know a person."
"Like these kids." Dan said, ignoring the fact that he was only a few years beyond being a kid himself. "They're a wonder."
"Aren't they?" Joe asked. He watched Harry leave the main house with a giggling Alma Gruber riding on his shoulders. "Take Harry for example. We don't even know if that's his real name. He doesn't hear anything, doesn't say anything. Yet he's one of the most reliable kids on this train. He loves Alma, Boris and Rhody to death. They probably don't even come from the same country but they're as close as Hoss and Adam and me."
"Hoss and Adam and I…" Adam corrected, carefully crossing the porch and settling himself down on the edge. He was dressed, at least in pants and boots, and had a colorful quilt over his shoulders and the mummy-like bandages. "Grammar, Joseph, grammar."
"You look a lot sturdier today, Mr. Cartwright."
"Thank you, Dan. I certainly feel it. I take it from the lime on your boots that you took care of that horse."
"We had to take care of the mule, too, Adam." Joe said. "That hay it was eating, and the sores on its legs. As soon as we tried to move him, he lay down and wouldn't get up again."
Adam dropped his head down in thought then flicked a fly off his ear and said. "I hate the idea of leaving these two with no stock at all."
"I thought you invited them to come with us." Tom said, looking miffed.
Adam could sense the unwashed stench of military logic coming off the man and he smiled. "I did...but Wendy is thinking about her brother's mood, and his limitations, and I think she won't budge from the ranch without a very good reason."
"What kind of reason?" Joe asked.
Adam stared out at the ranch road, the line of wagons that had been parked against the corral fence. "I don't know. What would make you leave the Ponderosa behind?"
"Next to nothing." Joe said.
"Yeah."
"We can't spare any of the mules from the train." Hoss said, stepping out of the barn and tugging the bandanna down from around his face. "And…" He threw his thumb over his shoulder. "There isn't a blade of straw in that barn fit for an animal to bed down in."
"They have any money for supplies?" Joe asked.
Adam shook his head. "I don't know."
"Sewell and Jane say the kids will only need a coupl'a more days to be well enough to travel." Joe said. "If we're gonna do something for these two, that's the time we've got to do it in."
Adam sighed and leaned on the porch support he had sat beside, thinking for a moment. "Not that I'm suggesting we break out the spurs, straps and rowels, but I did see about a dozen horses in the southeast pasture on the way in."
"Wild...horses?" Joe asked.
Adam's bottom lip popped out and he shrugged.
"That would take more than two days." Joe said.
"Yeah…" Adam sighed.
Hoss scratched at his head. "You told me Wendy had kin not too far from here."
Adam winced. "That's another sore subject. Wendy told me they last heard from their Ma a few months ago. From Lebanon. Which happens to be on our route."
Hoss shrugged and moved to sit on the porch by Adam. "Pack Wendy and Jamie up in the wagon, take 'em to Lebanon."
"What if they don't want to go to Lebanon?" Joe asked.
Bucky's arrival on the ranch road ended the conversation before anyone could answer. "Adam! You look a lot better!"
"Thank you."
Bucky stepped down from the horse he'd been riding and walked it to the corral fence where he tied the reins. He headed for the bucket and dipper, draining it twice before he poured water over his head.
"Found them graves, Adam. No markers on most of 'em. The only one labeled was their Pa's."
"They still in good condition?" Adam asked.
Bucky sighed and shook his head. "All but...their pa's. That grave was shallow, and they didn't put much more than dirt over top him."
"Yeah..I figured that."
"I did what I could to cover it all up again. Put some rocks on top."
"Rocks and lime are the best you can do out here." Joe said.
"After dinner…" Adam began, "We'll have a serious talk with our humble hosts. See if that gets us anywhere. If it doesn't. If Wendy, or Jamie, decides they don't want our help...then so be it. We leave them here and we move on."
Dan and Tom exchanged a glance before they looked to Joe, who looked to Hoss. Hoss leaned away from Adam, getting a good look at him. "You don't believe for one second that we're gonna leave them kids here on their own, and neither do I."
Adam pursed his lips, squinting out at the ranch road for a long time before he slowly levered himself to his feet. He turned toward the porch saying, "No. But they might."
June 9 - Enroute to Camp Sherman
"What was New York City like?"
Catherine whipped at the mules, rocking easily on the wagon seat. "It was...loud. Always movin'. Even at night there was somebody on the floor above, or out on the street. Ships comin' in and goin' out every day. There were so many horses and wagons in the street they had to have a police man there with a great paddle, telling one side to go, while the other side had to wait. And every stripe of person you could imagine.
Great tall buildin's. Huge bridges across rivers that looked like oceans. People every which way. And...oh the stink of some of them places."
Wendy grinned, eyes wide.
"Everything moved fast. You know...Wee Ren had a job sellin' papers for a bit. There would be a new paper three times a day, with all different articles in it. Aleen was out shinin' shoes and never saw the same pair twice.
You could go from one block to the next and they might be speakin' a whole different language."
"I always thought the cities out here were big. Scary with so many people and buildings and animals. Can't hardly imagine anything bigger."
"If you and your grouch of a brother were coming all the way with us to Portland you'd see more than your eyes can handle."
"What are you going to do when you get there?" Wendy asked.
"We were told when we left New York that there was a lady and a man there who wanted to take us in. The shippin' company wants to dump us all at an orphanage and the sisters are supposed to deliver us to our new family."
Wendy peered closely at Catherine and waited a long moment. "That sounds..nice."
"Don't be daft." Catherine laughed and Wendy joined her.
"You're right, it sounds terrible. Like a jail sentence." Wendy mused.
Catherine smirked and dropped her voice. "Promise to keep a secret."
"Promise." Wendy whispered.
"They'll be a jail break before we get there. Don't know how or when, but we won't be taken to the Sisters of Perpetual Suffering, no ma'am. Among us we've got money enough, and Sewell is nearly 18. We'll buy our own land and start a colony before we get ourselves parceled out to slave driver's masquerading as parents."
June 11 - Enroute to Santium Junction
"I'd rather fall under the wagon wheels and die than see that woman!"
"Jamie, keep your voice down."
"What for? They wanna sleep, oh well. I can't sleep cause of that wagon seat. Them kids drive those wagons like they was racin' 'em."
"Would you rather they drag you behind the wagon in your chair?" Wendy hissed.
"I want to ride a horse. I told you I could sit a saddle."
"You can't sit a saddle and you won't ride a horse, so stop asking."
"I can. I'll prove it."
"Get...get back here." Wendy ordered, then threw her blankets to the side and grabbed her brother by the armpits, dragging him back to his bedroll. "Quit actin' a fool, Jamie." She pushed her brother down against the pillows they had brought with them from the house just for this purpose, threw his blanket back over his still legs and lay back down.
Her brother was silent for a bit and Wendy prayed as hard as she could that he would just fall asleep.
"I hate it out here."
"You hated it back there." Wendy argued.
"Back there was different."
Wendy sighed and turned so that she was facing him.
"Jamie...back there we had bare bones chickens, a half-dead mule and acres of empty land. Here I've got friends. We've got food. We're going to find what's left of our kin. Whether you like it or not at the moment, we're better off leaving that ranch, than staying. And we ain't left Black Butte for good. Once I get a job. Once we get some money, we can go on back. Start the ranch up again."
"We go back, you won't have your friends no more." Jamie said, petulantly.
Wendy barely resisted the urge to smack him, turning with a grunt to lay facing away from him.
"And you won't have Adam."
"I swear I'll beat you into the ground and bury you toes up, Jamie." She hissed angrily.
"Good night…" Jamie sang, pleased with the damage he had done.
"And I won't dig you back up neither." Wendy ground out through tightly gritted teeth.
June 12 - En route to Santium Junction
"I..I think I've lost every penny I ever had on me to that kid, Joe." Bucky said. The two were a half-mile ahead of the train on horseback.
"Stop playing poker with him." Joe said. "Can't you tell when you're licked?"
"Yeah but...how can he be that slick? He can't hear, he can't talk. He bets with hand signs."
"Try plugin' your ears next time, maybe you'll win." Joe said, bursting into giggles.
"It ain't funny. I owe him part of the $5000 already."
"Really?"
"It ain't funny, Joe!"
"Bucky…there's an easy way to solve all this." Bucky stared at Joe, waiting. "Play a different game."
"I don't know any other games."
"Then I'll teach you. Tonight, we'll start a game of vingt-et-un, you'll get your money back in no time."
"Vain-et-what?"
"Vingt...never mind, it's French. It means 21."
"Why don't you just call it 21?" Bucky asked.
"Be...because the game is french. If the game were american we'd call it an american name."
"This is America. And we're playing it in America."
"Bucky…" Joe stared hard at the man riding beside him. "Do you want to learn the game or not?"
"Will it get me my money back?"
"Yes Bucky, for heaven's sake, yes."
"Teach it to me."
June 12 - Enroute to Santium Junction
"And then he punched me." Joe said, his hand cupped over the swollen and bruising eye.
"After you took all that time and effort to teach him the new game?" Hoss asked, wincing sympathetically.
"It...it wasn't the game that made him punch me. It was...teaching the game to Harry and Jamie and Sewell, and then Bucky losing $250 dollars of his share of the $5000...that...made him punch me."
"No wonder he was sore this mornin'..."
"He was sore?!" Joe asked, pointing dramatically at his own eye. "All I did was teach them a new game."
"Well...sometimes that's a little like the serpent in the garden of Eden, Joseph. With great knowledge, comes great power." Hoss said sagely. Joe made the same face that he made when a skunk was around and Hoss smiled sweetly at him.
"You're no help."
"What do you want me to do?"
"Tell Bucky to stop playing with those guys. Tell him to stand guard or, sing to the mules or something...anything."
"If losing all his ready cash and-"
"Four hundred and sixty-nine dollars and twenty-seven cents…" Joe said as if it had been tattooed on his swollen eye.
Hoss whistled softly. "If losin' all that money didn't convince him to quit, what makes you think I will?"
"You're bigger than he is, Hoss."
"Now you want me to fight him?"
"No." Joe stared glumly at the trail ahead before he said. "We need a distraction. Something that will get the whole train involved. Something...like..like that foot race we had. Get everybody so wore out by the end of the night, they won't have the energy to play cards."
"That foot race near killed us." Hoss said.
"What about...what about a game of rounders or something?"
"We ain't got the equipment for that." Hoss said.
"We can make some. Get a branches for the bat and the posts, and have the girls make the balls. Or shin ball! You remember! There's all kinds of games we can play."
"I don't know…"
"Hoss, if we don't do somethin', Bucky'll be a pauper, and I'll be blind before we make it to Portland."
"Well…" Hoss looked at Joe and was given the same face that he knew surely land him in jail someday, but he simply couldn't say no to in the moment. "I'll talk to the girls tonight, see if they don't mind helpin' us get the equipment together."
Joe brightened instantly. "You won't regret it. And Bucky will kiss your boots, he'll be so grateful. I'm gonna go tell Adam."