TWENTY-SEVEN
Adam pulled his horse up short. He suddenly thought of what Piper had said; Percy had brought them cookies that Mrs. Delaney had baked and Nash had eaten quite a few and he was ill. Hoss became ill as well but then both he and Pa had eaten the same food as Hoss. But Mrs. Delaney served them herself and now that Adam thought about it, she had always served Hoss from the other side of the platter than she served him. Adam broke out in a sweat. He had to go back before Piper ate any of the cookies. He would take the remaining cookies to Roy Coffee and Paul Martin; they needed to know about the suspicious illness that began shortly after Mrs. Delaney came. And Adam was angry with himself that he hadn't connected the events earlier.
Damn," Adam said out loud. He turned his horse back in the direction from which he had come and kicked the animal to spur him on. He had a terrible feeling about Piper being there alone with Nash being ill. And the half door; he should have told Piper to close and lock the top half and to bolt the door. If he hadn't been so busy groveling in his own misery, he thought, he would have.
Adam saw two horses tied to a tree in front of the house. Adam dismounted and drew his gun, looking around. And then he heard Piper scream as if in pain. The front door had been thrown open and as he entered, Adam saw a man straddling Piper as she lay on the floor, struggling. He saw a mass of her dark hair in a pile on the floor beside her and the man was wielding a knife that had fresh blood on it.
"Get off her!" Adam yelled. Orton turned and saw Adam. Orton paused, looking for his gun but it was now too far away and the gun from the dead man's hand would take too long a stretch. Orton shifted the knife in his hand and then threw it. Adam felt it slice his left arm as it flew by. He fired. Orton fell backwards, a small spot of blood on his chest, and landed partially on Piper. She gave a gasp and began to make small cries as she tried to push the dead man off her. Adam moved further into the room when he noticed movement from the corner of his eye and turned. It was Percy pressed up against the wall, his hands up to show that he carried no gun. Adam pulled Orton off Piper and he saw that she had a slashed cheek. Her hair hung unevenly since Orton had sawed at her thick hair to cut it off.
"Adam, he killed Nash." she said. "He shot Nash and he…he hurt me." Seeing Adam's face and hearing his voice caused her to almost break down. He was here now. Adam was here.
"Piper," he said, placing his kerchief on her cheek. "Hold this. Press it against your face." Piper did as he said but she couldn't think. All she knew was that Nash had been killed and the screaming, searing pain in her body and face took all her attention.
Percy looked around trying to see how he could escape-but there was no way-he would have to go past Adam to get out. Panic almost overtook him but he was frozen to the spot. "You had to come and ruin everything, didn't you, Adam?" Percy was breathing heavily. He glared at Adam.
"What do you mean?" Adam ventured closer to the small, thin man pressing himself against the wall. "What the hell do you mean?"
"I detest you," Percy practically spat. "We had only just started on her, just began when you had to come in and play the hero. But look at her. She's not so very pretty anymore is she? Her lovely, rich hair is practically gone and her face is slashed. She was going to lose her nose and her ears as well as that tongue of hers. How would you like to hear nothing but guttural grunts from her as you lay with her? Your true love. And her husband is dead now. There would be nothing to stand in your way. You could have her." Percy began to giggle, almost hysterically. "But you wouldn't want her anymore. That's the joke. The grand joke. Don't you see it, Adam? The joke would have been on you. All that beauty lost and you would reject her, turn your face to the horror that she would become. Now that you could have her with a clear conscience, you wouldn't want her!"
Adam grabbed Percy's shirt front with one hand and stuck his pistol up into the hollow below Percy's jawbone and Percy's eyes widened in terror.
"I didn't touch her," Percy said. "I didn't do anything to her or her husband. I have no weapon. I couldn't stop that monster, Orton, from doing what he did—look at the size of him and then me. You can't kill me."
"Oh, I think I can," Adam said in a low voice, his jaw clenching. "And I'll enjoy seeing your brains splattered against that wall behind you.
"I don't even have a gun. And besides, I'm your brother. You may not like it but I am." Percy felt the pressure from the gun reduce. He was hitting Adam in his vulnerable spot-family. "We both have the same blood running through our veins, you and me. You wouldn't kill your own brother-murder your own brother. What kind of man are you?"
Adam pushed Percy away and Percy almost lost his footing. He backed up against the wall again and rubbed the spot where Adam had pressed the gun barrel. Adam looked at Percy; he hated him with a vehemence he had never felt in his life and as he glared at Percy who stared back in wide-eyed fear, Adam heard a blast and saw Percy's look of disbelief as he gazed past Adam. Percy's hands raised slightly, his palms upward and he tried to speak before he collapsed on the floor, the look of incredulity still on his face as he stared vacantly ahead, a spreading spot of red on his chest.
Adam swung around and almost directly behind him was Piper standing with Nash's pistol in her hand; she was so close she couldn't have missed Percy had she tried. He looked at her and she calmly returned his gaze, almost as if she was unaware of what she had done. Adam gently wrested the gun from her hand and pulled her to him, the blood from her face now spreading on his shirtfront.
"He wanted to ruin you, Adam, hurt you. He told me so. I couldn't let him do that. I couldn't let him hurt you-not anymore. I had to kill him."
"It's all right, Piper. C'mon. We'll go to the kitchen and you can sit down. I'll hitch up the wagon and we'll go to the Ponderosa. We'll do that first. Then I'll get the sheriff and the doctor."
"Yes," Piper said, "get the sheriff. I murdered him, didn't I? I've killed someone and now I'm damned. But I'll gladly spend all eternity in hell to save you, Adam."
Adam steered Piper to the kitchen and sat her on one of the kitchen chairs. She looked as if she was going into shock. Her face was still bleeding. Adam went to the sink and wet a cloth; he needed to staunch the flow. The bodice of Piper's dress was soaked with her blood.
He pressed the wet cloth against her face and she winced. "Please, Piper, don't talk anymore and keep this against your cheek. Please. I'll be back in a minute-just wait. I'll be back." But Piper just gazed at the floor as she held the cloth to her face. He went back into the sitting room and pulled an afghan from off a chair and bringing it back, wrapped it around her. He had to hurry and bring his horse to the back; he didn't want to take her through the front room with the bodies and he decided not to bother with the buggy.
Doctor Martin gave Piper a large dose of laudanum and with Adam pacing in the back of the bedroom, he carefully stitched the long slash on Piper's face. He took two sets of stitches-one set inside and then a few on the outside. "Less chance of scarring," he had told Adam. He also told Adam that there may be nerve damage-time would tell-but that most of the slash was superficial as if the perpetrator hesitated; only a small section was deep. Nevertheless, she would sleep for quite a while with the laudanum and if she woke and complained of pain, she was to be given the usual gram dose. And as for the assault, other than bruising and tearing, her injuries would be more emotional than physical.
"Yes," Adam had said, "and with her husband killed…"
"Let's hope that having your support will help her. It's all so sad, Adam. Terrible and sad." Paul Martin started to leave. "I'm sorry about your…brother. Your father didn't take it well."
"Yes. Thank you," Adam said and then walked Paul downstairs.
Adam sat by Piper's bed and watched her sleep and thought about their marriage so long ago—another lifetime ago-and how much they had loved one another. Adam had given up on ever feeling such consuming love again but now it all came back and the emotions were even stronger and almost knocked him down, they were so overwhelming. He was determined to ensure that no harm would come to Piper again.
When Adam had carried Piper inside and up the stairs of the Ponderosa, Ben had followed to see what was wrong. That was when Adam told him that Percy was dead. He told his father no more than that; Ben had to sit on the bed on which Piper lay, he felt so weak at the news and Adam felt that his father couldn't take any more. The time to let him know all of what Percy had done could wait.
When Paul Martin finally arrived, Adam and Paul had undressed Piper and put her in a tub of warm water and Adam washed her hair that hung in ragged hunks. Not only would the warm bath help wash all the blood off her and any fluids left by Orton, but it would warm her; her skin was like ice. Then Adam slid one of Joe's nightshirts over her head, helping push her arms through the sleeves as she barely responded to his voice, and he lifted her up and tucked her in the bed. Paul gave Piper a heavy dose of laudanum and when she slipped into the painless sleep, he stitched up her cheek. Then he bandaged it with a plaster and told Adam to keep her warm and quiet. He would check in tomorrow.
Adam had sent Thad, one of the ranch hands, to town for the doctor and Sheriff Coffee as soon as he had brought Piper home. She was sitting in front of him on his horse and he was holding her tightly to keep her from toppling from the saddle. After helping Adam with Piper, Thad took off for Virginia City following Adam's instructions to send Sheriff Coffee over to the Jefferses and Doctor Martin to the house.
Sheriff Coffee showed at the house and Hop Sing answered the door.
"Hello, Hop Sing. Heard you were gone for a while-glad that you're back. Can I see Adam?"
"He upstairs. I get him but first, you wait." Hop Sing rushed off to the kitchen and Roy stepped inside and closed the door. Hop Sing returned with the creased brown paper and explained how he had found it in the kitchen. It was poison, Hop Sing said and Mrs. Delaney, if that was her name, had been "poisoning Mistah Hoss and Littul Joe." Hop Sing said that he was certain that it was Mr. Percy's idea. Sheriff Coffee, his jaw raised, just nodded and put the packet in his vest pocket and patting Hop Sing on his shoulder, assured him that he would find out for certain and asked again if he could see Adam.
Hop Sing went up the stairs and soon, both men came down.
"Roy," Adam said as a way of acknowledgment. "Sit down."
"What the hell happened out there, Adam? I got three men shot to death."
"It's a long story, Roy. I'll explain what I know. How about some coffee?"
"Don't mind if I…" but Roy couldn't even finish before Hop Sing showed up with a tray holding coffee and a plate of his special almond cookies and placed them on the table before them.
"Why, thank you, Hop Sing and I got something to show both of you." Roy pulled a folded packet out of his other pocket. "This was on your-well, your deceased relative and this is what Hop Sing found." Roy placed the packet on the table and carefully unfolded it. "Looks to me like it might be that same powder," Roy said as he placed the other unfolded piece of paper beside it.
"It look same," Hop Sing said, pointing at the papers. "I say that she poison Mistah Hoss and Littul Joe."
"Now just calm down, Hop Sing. Adam, who's this woman who was cooking here?" And then Adam began to relate the events to Roy; Adam said that all he knew was that he killed the man who had slashed Piper's face and assaulted her. Both Roy and Hop Sing carefully listened and each wondered what Adam was leaving out.
Roy came back the next day and told Ben and Adam that the man who had assaulted Mrs. Jeffers was a drifter named Johnny Orton. He and Percy had been seen together a few times, the last time in The Silver Dollar. And the saloon girls who worked there also said that a plump, dark-haired woman who they thought was a whore at Miss June's, had been talking to them. And one of the girls added, "Don't none of them look like they was up to nothin' good."
The woman's body had been found in an alley; it appeared that she had been strangled from behind. Whoever it was had obviously followed her and taken her by surprise. So Adam rode into town with Roy and identified the woman as Mrs. Delaney, their short-lived cook. The only other thing, Roy said, was an inquest on the shooting of Percy Chadwick since the dead man had no gun or any other weapon. But Adam remained silent on the subject; he told Roy that at the inquest he would tell what he knew. And then he went home to sit with Piper.
Slowly, Piper recovered but not as quickly as Hoss and Joe did. Hoss was soon back to eating and enjoying Hop Sing's cooking and Joe followed soon after although he had his "eating arm," as he put it, in the sling.
"Now don't you never leave us again," Hoss said the first night he was back to sitting at the dinner table.
Hop Sing grinned; he was happy to be back. And he stood beaming at Ben's side. "You eat more, Mistah Cartwright. Eat potatoes- more gravy."
"I'll eat, Hop Sing. Watch. Another fork-full." Ben swallowed the mashed potatoes. "You don't need to stand here and watch every bite I take."
"You eat. Hop Sing be back. You eat all on plate."
Adam smiled but his thoughts were really upstairs with Piper. She was in the depths of melancholy and barely spoke to anyone except Adam and she said very little to him. Sheriff Coffee had interviewed her when Doctor Martin said it was all right and he had stayed in the room for a half hour. Adam had paced in the hall outside the door.
"What did she say?" Adam asked Roy when he came out.
"Well, Adam, she says she killed Chadwick." Roy told Adam that Piper freely confessed to having shot Percy. She was dispassionate. Roy asked her if it was because of the death of her husband or her assault but Piper said, no, it wasn't for that. Percy hadn't committed those acts although he was behind them but he performed neither of him.
Roy had swallowed deeply; he had tried to give Piper Jeffers a way out but she refused to take it. Piper said that she shot Percy because he had told her that he wanted to destroy Adam and if he had lived, he would have certainly done so. She told Roy that she couldn't allow Percy to live because of that-she had to rid the world of him. Roy told her that the law considered that murder and was she sure that she didn't want to change her story.
Piper said that she was sure since it was the truth. And so Roy left Piper sitting in a rocking chair in the back bedroom of the Ponderosa. And once Roy left after talking briefly with Ben and Adam and telling them that she needed a lawyer but he would leave her with them, Adam rapped on Piper's door and then went in.
"Piper?" He walked over to the bed and sat on the side of the bed to face her.
"Are they going to hang me?" she asked quietly.
"Piper." Adam leaned toward her. "Can't you say that you shot Percy because Nash was killed and that you didn't know what you were doing? That you had been hurt, dishonored-can't you say that?" He needed to plead with her. If she went to trial, he wasn't sure how it would resolve itself and she had suffered, had been horribly victimized.
"Nash died to me so long ago, Adam. I grieved for him then. When he came back home after being blinded, he was no longer the man I knew, the kind gentle husband I had. I've lost two husbands now, haven't I?" Piper said. "I lost you and I grieved for you then. Oh, Adam, how I grieved for you. I think I did lose a bit of my sanity. And now look at me." Piper still had a plaster on her cheek although the lesser wound had healed and left a light pink mark. Hop Sing had given her a scarf for her hair and she wore it with the ends tied at the nape of her neck. She didn't like looking at her hair-it just reminded her of that day. Adam, in trying to comfort her, had told her that it was only hair and that it would grow back and it would be as it had been given time.
"Nothing will be as it was. I'm not the same person I was and I never will be again. I thought that the war had changed me but this-this went to my very core, Adam. Nothing will be as it was. You must hate me now-have revulsion for me."
Adam tried his best to assure her that he loved her, loved her more than he ever had. She would just look at him, her eyes large and sad and he knew that she didn't believe him. And when he tried to talk to her about the assault, she wouldn't. But to Adam, nothing mattered except that she was there, safe and healing. Yet she went through each day just doing what needed to be done. And Adam would bring up her meals and sit with her and try to get her to talk. And one night, Piper woke up screaming from a nightmare and Adam crawled into her bed and held her and crooned soothing words to her, telling her she was safe and he lay there for the rest of the night, staring at the ceiling and cursing the men who had brought his beloved Piper to this state.
Roy Coffee returned a few days later and said that an inquest was being held but if things turned out the way he guessed they would, he would have to arrest Mrs. Jeffers and take her to jail. He should have done so already but with her delicate condition, he had put it off. Adam promised Roy that he would have Mrs. Piper there but he saw no reason for it; he had shot Orton and Nash had shot Percy.
"Now, Adam," Roy said, "that's not what Mrs. Jeffers said and that ain't what you told me."
"Yes, it is," Adam said. "Didn't you write it down?" Adam stood with his hands in his back pockets.
"No, I didn't write it down but I'm beginning to think I should've." Roy pressed his lips together and shook his head. "Look, Adam, you ain't fooling me. I know what you're doing and it's not going to work."
"I don't know what you mean. Look. Other than my gun, the only other gun fired was Nash's, correct?"
"Yeah, that's correct. So what? You expect me to believe that a blind man fired and hit his target."
"Lucky shot. Nash Jeffers shot Percy Chadwick and I killed Orton. Piper was in such a state that she doesn't know what happened. I'm sure that she feels guilt about her husband so she wants to think she shot Percy. She was hysterical. I'll testify to that."
"I just bet you would. I bet you'd testify that the sky was green and the grass blue to help her, wouldn't you."
"I saw what happened. I know what Mrs. Jeffers was going through-had gone through. She can't be put through any more. I shot Orton and Jeffers shot Percy and that's the way it happened. Now call your inquest."
Roy shook his head and turned to leave, his hand on the latch. "I swear, Adam, if you aren't the most…" Roy pulled open the door and walked out and Adam pressed it shut behind him.
Adam leaned against the door and breathed a sigh of relief. He knew there would be no inquest; Roy wouldn't call one-couldn't now. He knew that Adam could paint a picture of a helpless woman who was in such a state that she had no true idea of what had happened and he would look an incompetent sheriff, a fool.
And so Adam, blowing out a deep sigh of relief, climbed the stairs back up to Piper's room. He would tell her that everything was going to be fine, that the past was over and that their life together would be sweet. It would take time, but they had time for that's what life was made of and they could spend the rest of theirs together.
~ Finis ~
