Thank you to everyone who has read this story. I am having a great time writing it and sharing with everyone. I want to say a special thank you to islaboe and gaben for their reviews and help on writing this story. I hope you enjoy this chapter and enjoy our visitors. This is a really long chapter and we have some trouble for Joe in here.

Chapter 4

It had been 3 days since Joe had found his way into the lives of Kathleen and her sisters. Today was the first day that Joe had been able/allowed to get up and walk around. He was determined to start pulling his weight around the farm. Joe couldn't wrap his head around the fact that these 3 lovely ladies lived here all by themselves and ran this small farm without any assistance. They were women for crying out loud and weren't supposed to do this kind of work. If his Pa could see this he was sure he would have a heart attack at the sight of these girls. With these thoughts Joe pulled himself up slowly out of bed trying to avoid his sore side. Kathleen had just been up to check on his bandages and replace the inner most ones. She had said he was healing nicely and soon should be able to go back home. After Joe dressed himself he walked downstairs. No one was in the house at moment so he decided to explore a bit. Since he hadn't quite been awake or aware when he was brought in he hadn't gotten a chance to see where these pretty ladies lived at. The house was small, quite small. The living, dining room, and kitchen were all one small room with designated corners for each one. As he reached the living room he noticed the run down patch work settee and the broken table next to it. The table was uneven with a crooked nail the only thing holding the table leg in place. The dining room table didn't look much better with three different chairs sitting at the barely wide table. From talking to the girls he had no idea that they were this bad off. Joe's heart sank thinking of the trouble he must have caused showing up like he did and interrupting their work. He would have to talk to Pa about helping them out since they had been so kind to him. From looking over the kitchen he could tell that it was Isabelle's domain, she had all her spices and pots organized just to her liking. Looking closely at the bottles he didn't recognize many of the herbs. They must be wild he thought to himself, which would make sense seeing where they lived.

"Girls would you just shut up arguing. How about you both tend to the chickens. No I don't care if it was Lila's turn this time. Isabelle you might be older, but that doesn't mean you get out of cleaning the chicken pen."

Bits and pieces of the girl's conversation came through as Joe walked over to the door. As he reached out to open the door for the girls Isabelle walked right into him.

"Ooff, oh Joe I didn't see you there, I'm so sorry. Are you ok, I didn't rip out the stitches did I? Oh if I did you would start bleeding bad again. Oh I can't stand the sight of blood, I pass out."

Joe bent down to help the bumbling girl up," Isabelle I'm fine. I'm actually feeling much better today and figured I would help out around the house some."

The girls stood there dumbfounded at what Joe had just said. For a minute he thought that maybe he had spoken some other language to them until Kathleen spoke up." You help out here? I'm sorry Joe, but I think you would only hurt more than help." The last part had come out more of a suppressed giggle.

"I'm not so sure about that, I do help my brothers and Pa run the Ponderosa. I'm sure I could run this teeny tiny farm with my eyes closed.

Isabelle was the first to burst out laughing then the others joined her. Joe just stood there trying to figure out what was so funny. Did they seriously think he couldn't help out around here?

"Come on Kathleen just let me help. I promise I'll do everything you ask."

Joe's POV

After Kathleen stopped laughing she agreed and sent everyone to work. Lila was to start on the chicken pen and Isabelle was to take me and tend the garden. As Isabelle grabbed my hand to lead me over to the garden I watched her for the first time. Isabelle was quite the beauty. Her soft blonde hair was just the right shade to bring out her hazel eyes. She had the spark of life in her that I hadn't seen in anyone else. She just loved life. All the way over she kept looking back at me as she rambled on about her life here with her sisters. She had this high pitched voice that made her sound a lot younger than she was and it differentiated in pitch as she spoke. When we finally got to the garden I was surprised at the size. It wasn't huge, but it wasn't small either like everything else was. There were several rows of all kinds of different vegetables. Kinds I had never even seen before. Of course Hop Sing was always the one who took care of the garden and never allowed anyone back there. Coming back to reality I noticed that Isabelle had been giving me instructions all this time.

"Well it's just gardening", Joe thought to himself," How hard could it be?"

Very hard as Joe would soon find out.
About halfway down the line of tomatoes Joe found a small worm crawling around the base of the tomato plant. Thinking nothing of it Joe picked it up and placed it on the plant's leaf and went on hoeing and pulling weeds. About an hour later Joe was exhausted they had hoed the entire garden and brought up the water from the creek to water all the plants. Joe was just walking back up the creek bank with the last bucket of water when Joe heard Isabelle scream. He immediately dropped the bucket and took off running back toward the garden. Isabelle was crouched down next to a half eaten tomato plant. Joe slowed down his running to look around and saw that over half the garden was now in ruins. Everywhere he looked there were chewed leaves and broken stems and any veggies that had been almost ripe were now filled holes that had little green worms burrowed inside.

"Hey those little worms look like the one I placed earlier. Aren't they little cuties?"

Isabelle froze, her eyes widening and narrowing with anger. Her face changed from horror to rage within seconds.

Isabelle rose and quickly turned all in one motion to face Joe. " You did what?"

"I found one of these worms crawling on the ground. It looked tired and hungry so I put it on one of the tomato plants."

"JOE THATS THE TOMATO CUTWORM. THEY EAT TOMATO PLANTS AND APPARENTLY OUR ENTIRE GARDEN. HOW COULD YOU BE SO STUPID. YOU JUST DESTROYED OUR ENTIRE GARDEN A YEARS WORTH OF WORK AND WAGES AND OUR ENTIRE WINTER FOOD SUPPLY!"

Isabelle blew up she had never got so mad at someone or something before, but this garden was her baby. She had nurtured and grew every plant from a seedling and spent most of her savings on getting some of the more exotic plants. And now everything was lost. Isabelle had totally stopped thinking and started to act on pure, blind rage as she walked toward Joe picking up the hoe with her. She started swinging the hoe at Joe, yelling and screaming profanities about how she was going to chop him into teeny tiny pieces and feed him to the worms as an offering to the plant gods to save her precious garden.

Joe's POV

I didn't think I had ever seen a girl, or anyone for that matter get so mad so quick. She went all to pieces mad right before my eyes. I tried to calm her down as I backed up slowly, but as soon as she picked up that hoe and started swinging it at me and talking about sacrificing me to some plant gods I decided it might be better to just get out of there quick. So I turned and ran for the house to try and find Kathleen to calm her down. As soon as I started down the little wooded path I tripped and went face first into the dirt. I picked myself up with only one thought running through my mind, my brothers laughing at me, and of course that fact that I had some crazed lady chasing me with a hoe because I fed her precious garden to some worms.

Before I could get back up or even wipe the dirt of my face Isabelle had caught back up to me and had stuck her hoe right in my face. The blade was resting right under my nose and could clearly smell the chicken manure that had been mixed in. I noticed I had been holding my breath and was trying to figure out how I was going to talk my way out of this mess. Usually I was pretty good with ladies, but at this moment I had decided that these 3 ladies were just a special breed of women that needed to come with some sort of warning side. Seriously Joe how did you get yourself into such a mess? I could hear Adam in my head now saying those exact words while shaking his head which would be resting in his hands. Well brother I really wish you were here at the moment to save my hide once again, but I'm not sure even you could handle this mess, or more importantly these women. After I took in a big breath and prepared to beg for my life I heard salvation in the form of Lila Rae Roberts running up damning her sister to hell for trying to chop up her future husband. Lila looked down at me on my knees before her and smiled as she shoved the hoe out of my face and in that moment I would have kissed her.

"Isabelle what in God's good name are you doing?"

That voice came from none other than the other voice of salvation Kathleen.

"Lila, Kathleen you have to get that good fer nothin' cow out of my garden. He has destroyed EVERYTHING. He fed my precious babies to tomato cutworms. There is nothing left."
"HE DID WHAT?" All three girls looked at me with fire in their eyes.

Well I stand corrected I am as good as dead now. As I made my piece with God and prayed for a quick death, Kathleen informed the girls that they could not kill me.

"Isabelle I don't care if he destroyed the garden, as much as I want to punish him it wouldn't be right. He is still our guest and was shot no more than 3 days ago. Besides men never were good gardeners any way. So how about we send Joe to do something more suited for his gender strengths and let him help Lila clean the chicken pen."

Lila's eyes lit up with this statement and she hurried over to Joe and grabbed his hand. Joe smiled down at Lila trying to calm his nerves, as Lila led him away to the pen.

"Now Lila you behave yourself, I want ya'll actually working and not you know what. Remember big sis knows all." Lila turned her head around to glare at Kathleen as she winked.

Isabelle, still fuming, bent down to pick up a big rock to throw at Joe, but Kathleen caught her in the act and dragged Is back to the garden to assess the damages.

"Now just hold your horses and calm down Is, blowing up on him isn't going to help anything."

"But Kathleen you don't understand this is all his fault, he did this on purpose." Her eyes went wide and she gasped as a thought hit her an she turned to Kathleen," Kath what if the fairies are after me again?"

Kathleen shoved her away," Isabelle we are not going through this again, there are no such thing as fairies and they are not after you."

"But Lila said she saw them."

"And you believe everything your sister tells you? She's just tricking you again Isabelle."

"Oh, but that's mean."

Gosh I cant believe that we are related sometimes, Isabelle sure isn't the brightest star in the sky that's for sure, and I'm going to have to have a long talk with Lila when we get back about telling her sister these stories. Fairies really? And they're out to get her? Just thinking about it gives me a headache, God was really testing me by giving me these two for sisters. As we arrived to the garden I could see why Isabelle had been so distraught. Everything was destroyed, a complete and utter mess. I walked over to examine some of the plants and could see nothing was salvageable. All this years hard work and last years was gone. In a matter of a few hours. Isabelle had sat down next to her prized Japanese cabbage plant and was crying, so I walked over to her and hugged her. She had paid over $40 for that plan and now it was bug food. I remember her telling me about it the day she brought the little plant home from town how she was going to grow it and turn it into sauerkraut for the food competitions this year and beat Gertrude. How could one man really come along and make such a mess of everything? It's not like I sent him to end the war just pull weeds and water plants. It's like trouble just follows him around.

"I'll stay here and help you clean up then you can come back to the house and help me fix supper."

"What are we having?"

"Beef stew."

"Can I put arsenic in Joe's?"

"No Isabelle."

"Please?"

"I said no."

"But Kath.."

"Isabelle Skye Roberts, I said no and that is final."

Isabelle, sullen, quietly agreed and addressed it no further as they worked. After a few minutes.

"You know you will have to forgive him."

Shocked that her sister would even suggest such a thing Isabelle started to interrupt, but Kathleen interjected," You will Isabelle I will talk to Joe and get him to apologize and pay for the damages."

Quietly," Alright."

"And just for your information, just because Lila is rebelling and acting up doesn't give you the right too, you may be 18 now, but I am your guardian and I'm only looking out for you. This place is rough and mean and not a easy place for women. I have had to learn that a lot quicker than you two have and I hope to keep it that way. After Pa and Ma died I had to grow up real quick and take care of two human beings and figure out how to survive out here with no ones help. That's how I've tried to raise ya'll. To be able to survive out here without a husband. I know that goes against how everyone else believes, but I believe that it is better this way."

Isabelle held her head down as she listened, Kathleen could see tears streaming down her face. Kathleen lifted her face took look into her sisters eyes." I love you and Lila so much, I would do anything to protect you, you know that right?"

"Of course Kathleen, it's just sometimes you forget how to be our sister. You just get all serious and lose yourself in trying to take care of us and stop being fun."

"I never thought of it like that, I promise to try to be a better sister to you two ok? You just remind me ever so often ok?"

Kathleen took her sister into her arms and they hugged for what seemed like forever until Kathleen broke the silence.

"Well this garden won't clean itself up and if we hurry we might still be able to get some plants this year."

With a smile Isabelle replied," Alright, hey Kath? How do you think Lila and Joe are doing?"

"Alright Joe now all we have to do here is shovel out the old hay and replace it and feed and water the chickens. Oh and remember to lock the gate back when you enter and exit. They are some tricky little hens in here."

As Lila threw a shovel to Joe and they started working Joe studied Lila. He hadn't really noticed her before like he had her sisters, but to be only 15 she was quite beautiful. She had a small frame that was still developing but she had some curves. She had her red hair in 2 braids that fell a little past her shoulders. She in her rebellion to Kathleen was wearing a torn pair of pants and a green button up shirt with a pair of red boots. Lila had turned to cross to the other side of the pen when she snatched Joe's hat from his head and put it on herself. Joe only looked up and smiled at her then got back to work.

I had hoped that by taking his hat he might chase me to get it back. But he didn't he just smiled at me. That smile god I love his smile. Everything about him just gets me. I've never felt like this before about anyone. Although I've never really been around any men either except the few times I've snuck into the saloon when Kathleen had sent me to town, but we won't mention that. There is just something different about Joe, he doesn't see me as just some kid like others had. It's like he actually see's me. He's kind and such a gentleman and just siigghhh so handsome and well just perfect. I can see his muscles flexing from underneath his shirt while he works. I really wish he would just take it off. Hmm maybe I could cause him to have to take it off but what can I do. Oopps he caught me staring, act natural act natural. Oh that smile again, that smile could make anyone lady just melt into his arms. I wonder what it would feel like in his arms, to have him hold me with those arms and to just be wrapped up. And to kiss him, I bet he's a great kisser too.

"Lila are you ok over there?"

Dadnabit I've been daydreaming. "Uh yeah sorry I just got distracted." Great now he's laughing at me.

"How about you go get us some water and I'll finish up in here ok?"

"Ok that sounds good."

"Oh that Lila, I think I'm making her nervous. Well now I'll just go get the fresh hay and bring it in here and we'll be done" Joe walked out to go look in the barn for the fresh hay. He finally found it after a couple of minutes and as he was walking back with a barrel of hay stacked on the cart he heard a scream.

"Oh no not again."

"WHO LEFT THE CHICKEN PEN OPEN!"

Upon arriving to check in on Lila and Joe I happen upon the hens scattered around the yard being chased by a fox it is evident that several hens have already been killed and Lila or Joe are no where to be seen.

"Isabelle run inside quick and get me my shot gun."

Isabelle took off inside as I searched for the 2 lovebirds.

"I swear if they are off somewhere being all lovey-dovey I will hang them by their toe nails."

Just as I finished that sentence Joe came running up with his horse and buggy full of hay and from the other corner came Lila with a pail of water.

"Which one of ya'll left the pen open we have a fox lose on the hens?"

"It was closed when I left it Kath."

"Joesph..."

Just as I was about to strangle Joe Isabelle arrived with my gun. Joe tried to take it from me saying that this was no job for a woman. But I quickly informed him that he hadn't been able to do any job so far and not to try me.

"Let me show you Joe how a real woman handles a gun."

I took aim at the fox that was running after my prized hen behind the wagon. I fired once and hit it directly in the chest, then took a second shot to the head just to make sure. I must admit to secretly wishing the fox was Joe.

Lila made the first move to start gathering up the dead hens as I walked over to a wide mouth Joe.

"What is it? Never seen a lady shoot?"

Joe only shook his head. I was extremely annoyed by this time so I took his bottom jaw in my hand and shoved his mouth closed and went over to Lila.

"We lost 11 hens Kath."

"11? We only had 20 to begin with."

"I'm really sorry ladies. Ya'll have been so kind to me and I'm causing more trouble for you."

"You are just noticing.."

Joe winced at Kathleen's comment and started moving to pick up the dead fox.

Kathleen took Lila aside and whispered in her ear," I don't care where ya'll go or what ya'll do just . AWAY from MY home and farm."

"Kath he's not meaning to just give him a chance."

"I am Lila, I'm not shooting him. Just get him away from here. Take him and just leave. Be back before sundown but GO NOW."

"Ok sis. Joe let me take you to my favorite fishing spot."

Joe looking over to where Lila was standing. She was dragging her boot along the dirt as she spoke. Joe looked over to where Kathleen stood staring him down with the most hate filled glare he had ever seen. If looks could kill he would be dead right now. Not wanting to cause more trouble Joe hurried to Lila's side as she grabbed her cane pole's and line. Joe grabbed Cochise and they were off.

Nervously Isabelle approached Kathleen from behind as she dug a grave for the chickens, Isabelle started to speak, but before she could utter a word," Don't talk to me, just go away."

"But sis.."

"I said to GO!"

Isabelle turned and walked toward the house, but before she went in she looked out at her sister. She could have sworn she saw tears.

LATER THAT EVENING AROUND 7PM

Joe and Lila had just got home and everyone was washing up for dinner. Everyone had a smile on their face and were swapping apologies and stories of the day, except for Kathleen. As Kathleen walked over to the stove to get the pot of stew Joe approached her.

"Look Kathleen I'm truly and deeply sorry for all the damages I've caused you today. I know I don't deserve your forgiveness and if you don't forgive me I understand why. I promise that I will pay for the damage and then some. You and your family have done so much for me already. " The girls at the table stared at the two holding their breath, waiting to see what Kathleen would say.

Kathleen turned around and looked at Joe. She could see the hurt in his eyes and just how truly sorry he was. "It's alright Joe, I forgive you, but I'm afraid that I'm going to have to insist you stay with us a few more days to help with the repairs." With that the household erupted in cheers and hugs.

"Ok ok everyone settle down. Isabelle and I have worked hard on this stew and everyone is going to sit down and enjoy this as a family." Kathleen served everyone with a smile and Lila and Joe shared their story of the fishing trip. They laughed and for the first time in a long time there was happiness at the dinner table.

After dinner Isabelle was sitting on the settee reading a book to Joe and Lila, as Kathleen washed up the dishes. A knock came at the door. No one heard it at first but it was persistent and grew louder. Everyone stared at the door for a few seconds as Kathleen made her way over. As she opened the door there stood 2 men looking back with worry and determination in their eyes.

"Who are you and what do you want here?"

The oldest one removed his hat when he spoke," I'm sorry to have bothered you tonight Ma'am. I'm Adam Cartwright, and this is my brother Hoss Cartwright. We have been looking for our younger brother and have followed his tracks here. We we're wondering if you might have seen him."

Kathleen opened the door the rest of the way to reveal the others on the settee. A smiling Joe waved over to his brothers," Hey brothers it's about time."

Well I hope you like it and as usual please review and if you like PM with some ideas for how Adam and Hoss with react to Joe and the girls.