Part 3

As Adam drew closer to home, watching the sun rise higher in the sky, he surprised himself by feeling nervous; it had been a little over five years since he had seen his family and he wasn't certain how to behave toward them now and wondered how they would behave toward him, When he rode into the front yard he dismounted, and called out, "Pa? Anyone home?" and he waited-hoping that someone would answer him.

He stood for a few seconds and the front door opened and there was his father. Adam grinned widely-his father, Pa. Adam put out his hand but his father bypassed it and pulled Adam to him, putting his arms around his son and crying out, "Oh, Adam, Adam. You're home at last. Oh, Adam." Adam felt tears start to come and then quickly suppressed them; his own emotion shocked him and he was glad when Hoss and Joe came out of the barn and grabbed him and Hoss called him a "no-count hornswoggler" and clapped him on the back and Joe called him a "pirate." Even Hop Sing came out, wearing his white apron and his ever present blue cap, and greeted "Mistah Adam" and promised him his favorite meal that night since he had come home.

All through dinner Adam answered their questions and Joe and Hoss listened fascinated as Adam regaled them with tales of derring-do and beautiful women.

"Sounds like you had your pick of women from all over the world," Hoss said.

"Yeah," Joe said. "so tell me, Adam, which country had the best women. You know, the ones who are best on their backs or on their knees?"

Ben intervened. "Not at the supper table, Joseph. Besides, you have a fiancée now and shouldn't even be having such thoughts!" Ben looked disapprovingly at Joe. Then he looked across the table. "You don't know about Joe's impending nuptials, do you, Adam?"

Joe wasn't finished asking questions yet and responded to his father's chastisement. "I may be engaged, Pa, but if French women are better than here, and I think our pirate brother here would know, I may take off for the continent and taste a few before I get locked down for life. So tell us, Adam, which ones are better?"

"It would be hard to judge, Joe, hard to judge-different women offer different things. But I did hear some horrible rumor in town that you were getting married to Polly Sampson. Does Pa want a family discount at the mercantile's? Hoss eating too many canned peaches?"

They laughed and Joe told Adam that, yes, he was engaged and that luckily, Adam was back in time for the engagement party and hoped that Adam would stay for the wedding. "But you're such a cheap bastard that we better get a good wedding present from you."

"Well, even though I didn't know about the impending nuptials, I think I have something in that sea chest I sent ahead that'll serve the purpose. Where is it, Pa? Did it come?"

"Yes, it came last week. We put it up in your room."

Adam stood up from the table. " Hoss, come help me carry it down so we can go through it."

"Now, you just sit yourself down, older brother. Me 'n Joe'll bring it down. Can't have an old man like you carrying down a big, ol' heavy trunk." And although they smiled, Adam knew that they were still considering his back and although he appreciated it, it rankled him at the same time; would no one forget? If they couldn't, how could he be expected to stay and not to relieve his pain each day, both physical and emotional.

As Joe and Hoss went up the stairs, Ben looked across the table at Adam, seeing the weariness in his son's face and Ben thought that Adam did look older than his years and there was an eternal sadness to his eyes.

"Where did you hear about Joe and Polly?' Ben asked.

"Little Tag-Along Lucy. I saw her in town as I was going to the livery stable. I'm surprised she recognized me but she did-from behind even. She said she recognized my walk."

"Ah, yes, Lucy-your one time shadow." Ben smiled remembering the little girl who used to follow Adam around. Ben knew she had a schoolgirl crush on Adam and when she became too old and Ben felt that her attraction to Adam might become too serious, might be dangerous, Ben had visited her parents' ranch and asked them to keep Lucy at home. She was becoming a woman, Ben said and he feared that Adam may change the way he looked at her now that she was blossoming. Lucy's mother had said that she hadn't realized what was going on and that, yes, she agreed with Ben that they should put a stop to it. It was improper behavior for a girl her age. So they ordered Lucy not to visit the Cartwright's anymore but she slipped away to the Ponderosa the very next day so they shipped her off to school and there she stayed until she was eighteen, went on the grand tour of Europe, and when she returned, Adam was engaged to Laura Dayton and try as she might, Lucy couldn't get Adam's attention except for a quick hello after church. Lucy knew that she couldn't compete with Mrs. Dayton and so her heart was broken but she still dreamed of Adam Cartwright and still longed for him. Her only compensation was that Laura once remarked to Adam that Lucy was pretty and Adam had remarked that, yes, Lucy was pretty and always had been, even as a child.

"Pa," Adam said, "she seemed a little sad that Joe was getting married. I thought of all the girls, Joe and Lucy would end up together; they were inseparable as children. Did Joe break her heart?"

"No, no, not that I know of." Ben sat and paused, thinking. "Lucy and Joe…there was never anything serious between them. They've always just been friends. As a matter of fact, Lucy broke off her second engagement about, oh, must be a half year now. Caused a lot of talk since it was her second. People were saying that Lucy thinks she's too good for any of our local boys since she was schooled back east, went to Europe and such. She's given her parents fits, I'll tell you, Adam-but then she always has; that Lucy has a mind of her own. They fear she'll never marry-she's as old as Joe remember, and men can stay single quite a bit longer than women and some people are even wondering if Lucy's still marriageable. But she certainly is a pretty one-makes me smile whenever I see her."

Adam sat musing over what his father had just told him when Ben stood up and said, "And here they come now."

Joe and Hoss brought down the trunk, Joe complaining that Hoss was coming down too quickly and that he almost missed a step and Hoss complaining that Joe's legs were just too short, that was all. Then they set the trunk down in front of the settee, Ben having pushed the table aside, and Adam pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the trunk.

"Hop Sing," Adam called out. "C'mere. I brought you something." Adam winked at his father.

"What Mistah Adam bring Hop Sing?" he said coming out of the kitchen.

Adam pulled out some of his clothing and found several small packets and held them out to Hop Sing. "These are some very rare spices from China along with some tobacco," Adam said, "and these are some delicacies." Adam pulled out boxes with Chinese writing on them and illustrations of various animals including one with a tiger and one with a snake on the lid.

Hop Sing began to talk in Chinese, obviously pleased. He smiled and bowed slightly to Adam and said, "Hop Sing say special prayer of thanks tonight for Mistah Adam."

"Ah," Adam said," don't leave yet." Adam felt around to the bottom and pulled out a book, wider than it was long, and handed it to Hop Sing.

Hop Sing's eyes lit up when he saw the illustration on the cover, a Chinese woman in disarray, her hair coming loose from her top knot and her robe falling off her shoulders. "Oh, Hop Sing thank Mistah Adam again. Much thanks!" He made another little bow and took off for the kitchen smiling, carrying his spices and such and the book tucked under his arm.

"What was that?" Joe asked. "A cookbook?"

"No. Adam laughed. "It's a book of erotic Chinese art. I looked through it myself and those Chinese are quite...how shall it put this…exact in their detail."

"Damn, Adam," Hoss said. "You shoulda let us thumb through it afore you gave it to Hop Sing. Now we'll never see it."

"Hoss," Ben said crossly, "that's enough and Adam, I don't know if that's a proper present for Hop Sing."

"Would you rather I had given it to you?" Adam asked with a look of feigned innocence.

At Ben's flustered look, all three sons laughed, enjoying Ben's discomfiture. Adam remembered finding a book of translations of "questionable" French literature in his father's room when he was a mere teenager and he stole it away to take to his room making certain to return it in the exact spot. And then one day Adam went to get it and it was gone. His father had never said anything about it, but Adam always suspected that his father knew that he had been the one taking it for his own pleasure.

"But not to fear, Hoss. Here." Adam flipped a pack of cards to Hoss. "French playing cards. I guarantee that if you use those in a poker game, you'll win. Everyone will be so busy checking out the backs of everyone's cards, no one will play attention to their hand or anyone else's."

Joe peeked over Hoss' shoulder as he flipped through the deck, looking at the women in various states of undress on the backs of the cards, a wide grin on his face. "Thanks, Adam," Hoss said. "I don't suppose you got a marriage manual for Joe in there. I think he may need it on his honeymoon, you know, lay it open on the bed beside 'im and follow the instructions."

"Very funny, Hoss." Joe said. " But I'm not the one who can't find their way around a girl."

"Now just wait, little brother; ol' Hoss here could teach you many a thing 'bout women, especially how to avoid getting hooked and pulled in."

Adam laughed with the rest of them and he realized that he had missed them and missed being in a warm room with people who loved you and a full belly and a soft bed waiting for you. But yet, as Adam sat in the midst of them, he felt alone and as if they were just people he knew well but who barely knew him at all anymore-but then, he barely knew himself anymore.

TBC