The next morning was as beautiful as a spring morning could be. Joe awoke rather early and felt to be completely recovered. The reprimands, with which his family tried to keep him in his bed and which became more and more noisy, made Charlie finally wake up. She looked around rather confused because of the unfamiliar surrounding, but shortly she remembered where she had spent the night. She jumped on her feet as fast as she could manage. Her shoes were not to be seen, but this did not bother her much, she just rushed into the hallway and into Joe's room. The moment she entered, the men stopped yelling at each other and looked at her.

"Good morning, I am so sorry, apparently I have overslept, please forgive me." "No problem at all Doctor, but could you please tame your patient here? He does not listen to anything, which is not coming from you directly it seems!" Adam scratched his face. Apparently he had not shaved yet, as he was full of whiskers, which made him look even more interesting. 'Goodness, what am I thinking about?' Charlie had to upbraid herself. Hoss contributed: "I will go down and see whether breakfast is ready."

Meanwhile Charlie had gained her senses back: "Of course, I take over here." She sat down on Joes bed, which calmed him down instantly. At first she checked his heartrate, which was a little fast, but 'absolutely within the normal range' how she ensured Ben. Then she tended to investigate his throat: "Joe I need you to breathe now very calm and very steady, irrespective what I do, is that clear?" He nodded. At first she did nothing, but after a few gasps from Joe, she covered the opening of the mouthpiece with her thumb.

Joe went on breathing, heavier but without too many difficulties. "Very good, it seems the swelling is shrinking. Let me have a look into your throat!" Joe opened his mouth. Could you please raise a bit, it would it make easier for me." Charlie asked. Joe moaned and pretended to be too weak to rise, whereby he had already been out of his bed before Charlie had entered the room. "No, this will not work; can you put your head on my lap Joe? Maybe I can see better that way."

'I bet he can put his head on a beautiful womans lap, that little scoundrel.' Adam felt his temper rise, but that very moment he asked himself if he had not used the opportunity in this or a similar way and felt his anger vanishing. His brother could be a scoundrel, no doubt, but a clever one, one had to admit.

"Very good Joe, the bulge has actually become smaller; your trachea is not longer blocked." Joe tried his best radiant smile on Charlie, still resting with the head on her lap and formed a 'Thank you' with his lips. "You can take your head back to the pillow now." Sighing he crawled back. "I need to remove the mouthpiece now and close the cut. It will not take many stitches, but I have to do them. I will give you something that will make you sleep so you will not feel any pain." Joe nodded.

After he had swallowed a few drops of the sleeping drug, Adam had fetched last night from the practice in Virginia City, he dozed off very shortly. "Can I help you?" Adam inquired. "Yes, that would be kind Mr. Cartwright; could you please bring me some of the Marigold paste from Hop Sing? And please, as I have learned about its use only yesterday, please tell him I want it as an anti-inflammatory medicine for Joes cut, just in case I would mix things up. Thank you very much!"

"I am the grateful party here; I have to thank you for healing my brother! Although he can be quite a nuisance at times, I would rather miss him." Although his words were not too affectionate, his voice had become hoarse, as if it would break and his face showed an expression, she had never seen before. In that instant he looked older than his years and strikingly resembled his father, full of care and worries for the youngest.

At this moment Charlie felt as if she had a look right through Heathcliff's tough exterior into the soft core of Adam Cartwright. Under the snooty surface there really seemed to be a caring and gentle person. A prson who tried to establish a library because he probably remembered how it had been when his father could not afford the books he longed for. Maybe Jillian had been right about him.

Although she could use more liking for that guy like a third foot, she could not help feeling happy about that and she smiled at him. "It is a pleasure Mr. Cartwright!" When he returned with the paste from Hop Sing she had already closed the cut. Together they bandaged Joes throat after applying a bit of the paste on the freshly sewed wound. "This should do it." Charlie whispered, "we can let him sleep now." and they left Joes bedroom.

When they had closed the door behind them Charlie felt the need to leave the house as soon as possible. "Just give me a few moments to pick up my shoes and a short attempt to arrange my hair." Adam nodded "I'll see you downstairs." Charlie grabbed her shoes, went down the stairs, greeted the men sitting at the table shortly with "Good buy!" and headed to the door. This was the moment when a booming voice made her turn around:

"Where do you think you are going to, Doctor? Ben Cartwright had risen from the breakfast table and came over towards her. "Well home, to town, the Martins will already be waiting for me. I suppose my buggy is still in the yard?"

"You will very surely not leave my house without having had a decent breakfast and after that we will see. Come on, sit down here with us!" "This is very kind Ben, but I am not hungry and I do not want to impose on you. Jillian will already be worrying about my absence."

"No way Charlie, come here and have a cup of coffee at least!" Adam added: "Please Doctor Mathews have mercy; Hop Sing will return to China for ever if he becomes aware that we let one of our guests leave without breakfast. Do you remember what devastating results would be caused by that?"

She could not help but smiling: "Alright then, I must not risk any bad blood with Hoss." So she sat down at the empty place of the table. "Bad blood with me? Why with me?" Hoss was concerned. "Just a silly joke Hoss, I was told that you would suffer most from Hop Sings leaving." "Oh Lordy, Miss Charlie, please do not make fun of that, the matter is much too serious." "You see? You really have a responsibility here!" How could she avoid those eyes, that smile, that dimples? Probably it was the best to look strictly on the table and to eat the deliciously smelling biscuits.

Adam went on: "You do not have to go back to town right now; Jillian gave me along some of your personal things in case you would have to stay here longer. On that occasion I learned that you have spent already the night before this awake at the Collins. Maybe you would like to catch up some sleep? And later, when your impatient patient will be awake you are probably the only one, who can tame him again."

"No Mr. Cartwright, I cannot stay here just to rest for some hours, I need to go back to Virginia City." "But you would come back later today and look for Joe?" "Of course, he has a fresh wound; I will be back this afternoon for sure."

"And then you'd go back to Virginia City once more?" "Yes, because this is where I live!" "Now tell me Doctor Mathews, how many hours would you spend driving back and forth by sticking to that schedule? Cautiously calculated I think you would waste at least 5 hours by driving through the landscape instead of getting some sleep or looking for your patient. It would be most unreasonable and illogical not to stay!"

"He is right Charlie, just stay with us and take care for Joe or get some rest for yourself." Ben agreed. "Yes please!" Hoss came forward as well: "Hop Sing will make a special meal when we have a guest, please do stay for dinner!" "There we go again; don't let Hoss become your arch-enemy!" Hoss protest went under in the general laughter.

After breakfast Charlie shortly checked about Joe who was sleeping soundly. "Have some rest Doc Mathews, one of us will watch him and fetch you when he awakes." "I will take this armchair, so I'll surely realize when he awakes and you can do your usual work." "Please Doc do not let us argue again. No one of us will do his usual work when Little Joe is ill. Make yourself comfortable in the room over there, or choose another one if you prefer, but get a real rest! You really look not too well."

"Thank you so much for reminding me" she answered while she tried to put her hair in order, whereby she could not help to feel a little sting, "but I am fully aware of that." Adam rolled his eyes: "That's not what I mean, and you know that."

She just took a breath to make another refusing reply but hesitated because of a new idea: "Mr. Cartwright, Hoss told me about your library. I wonder whether you would you consider it insolent of me if I had a look at your books and maybe borrow one? I will surely be careful with them."

"I might be capable to endure such insolence but there are two conditions I have to insist on: Firstly you need to call me Adam! I always expect my father to stand behind me when I hear 'Mr. Cartwright'." "I will, if you call me Charlie." "Charlie? No, undoubtedly not, Charlie was one of our foremen and Charlie is a barkeeper in town; I will not call you with a mans name for certain!"

"But all my childhood I have been called Charlie and it suited me well: lanky, dowdy and always on the back of a horse!" "Maybe it did suit you once, now it is completely out of place. Would you answer to Charlotte?" "It s my given name after all, sure!" "So it will be Charlotte, I like that. Secondly you owe me a talk about every book you read, choose as many as you want." he blinked at her. "Well I should be able to agree about this as well, whereby an argument also counts." "Oh, we are going to argue again?" "Just for the unlikely case we should disagree about anything." "Alright, I'm fine with that, so we do have a bargain it seems."

He guided her to his room and opened the door: "Help yourself and take as many as you want, it is my pleasure!" then he left. Being alone in that puzzling mans room her curiosity got the upper hand of her and she dared to have a more detailed look around: The first thing to notice was the amount of books the room contained. In a kind of caressing way she let her fingers stroke about the spines of the neatly arranged volumes. It was like a reencounter with some long-lost friends and carefully she took out a volume of Shakespeare.

Once she had had the same issue, but this had been among the many things she had to leave behind. On the walls there were no bright colored landscape paintings like in Joes room but etchings of famous antique buildings. On the desk was quite a lot of paper, but everything again neatly and clearly arranged. Suddenly she felt like an intruder and left, however taking the Shakespeare volume with her. For a short while she enjoyed dipping into the fate of the Danish prince Hamlet, but very shortly she dozed off again.

A few hours later Adam entered the guestroom to wake Charlie. He could not resist watching the sleeping girl again and again it struck him, how much younger she appeared without her usual severe expression. Now there was just sleeping an apparently very tired and very lonely girl. Adam softly touched her shoulder and the very same moment she jumped up and threw her hands protective around herself.

"Easy Charlotte, easy. There's nothing to fear. Joe's awake and as predicted he ignores any instruction, that is not coming from you. Can you please see after him?" "Of course!" Although still a bit bleary, she rushed as fast as possible to her patients room.

"Well Joe, how do you feel? Can you tell me without speaking?" He nodded and gave her a 'thumbs up'. "Alright, then let's have a look at your wound." Carefully she took away the bandage. "Very good, this is looking really very good! No infection at all, proper healing, you will be your old self in no time."

"Does it really have to be his old self? Couldn't you make us a new, more careful Joe, who does not bring himself every now and then in serious danger?" "I am a physician Adam, not a magician!" The others laughed but Joe sent - as he hoped - intimidating gazes to his brother. "Now please try your voice, say something!"

"Leave my room!" The words came out in a rather husky tone, but were perfectly understandable. "This was very good Joe, now please do not overdo it. Short sentences at first and your voice will be back also very soon." "I meant it, leave my room, well not you of course!" he whispered while sending an admiring gaze in Charlies direction. Charlie turned to the three other Cartwrights as well as to Hop Sing, who were all together crowding the room.

"Maybe it would be better to leave me alone with the patient for now. He still needs some rest, I will let you know everything later." Three of the men turned towards the door, but Ben looked hesitantly at his youngest with the young women sitting on his bedside. "Ben, if this was your daughter and I was Paul Martin would you trust him? Please have the same trust in me!" "Of course!" he nodded and left with the others.

"Are you sure Pa had trouble trusting you? Maybe he did not trust me!" "Short sentences Joe!" Charlie took the marigold paste and bended over to Joe to reapply the bandage. "I love you Charlie." "This is better, because it is a short sentence, but content wise it is of course nonsense." "I am perfectly serious; this is no nonsense at all. You are the most beautiful and wonderful woman I've ever met and I am desperately in love with you! You are the one I want to marry and spend the rest of my life with!"

"If you do not stop oozing much too long sentences like the last one I will probably have to strangle you with that!" she replied, wrapping the bandage around Joe's neck. He tried his best sad-puppy-look on her. It took his effect also this time, Charlie sighed. "Oh Little Joe, this is very, very flattering and I don't want to make fun of your feelings at all, but are you sure you don't mix up things? We just met a few days ago and you want to spend the rest of your life with me?"

"Yes I do, it is for good this time!" "This time? So you have already made some proposals before? Tell me, how many had there been hitherto?" "Just a few, but that didn't count, it's never been the real thing." "Believe me Joe, your real thing is still to come! I think I am quite a bit older than you; do you really want to burden yourself with an old woman?" "I've already fallen in love with elder women before, I like a bit of maturity." "Oh fine, that's quite a relief!" "Yes, it is!" Joe agreed cheerful, which made Charlie sigh.

Slightely stricter she went on: "Be quiet Joe, Doctors orders!" Joe ignored that completely: "Charlie come on! You can't love me not at all! At least a bit? You see, in the main people think of me as an extremely amiable guy! I have always been told it is rather easy to fall for me!" "I bet you've been told so, apparently a bit too often my dear! Look: of course I like you, but this - will you please listen carefully to me and just keep your hands where they belong - is not enough for a marriage!"

"Sure thing it is! I would fulfil every wish you have and we would become unthinkable happy!" "But Joe, this is exactly what I am talking about: I am not looking for someone, fulfilling my wishes; I am used to take care for this by myself!" "Do you mean that doctor thing, yes, you seem to be quite good with that. Of course you may go on with that if you want, as we have Hop Sing for the household stuff - you see there is no problem at all!" Charlie sighed in disbelief: "You are really incurable and have honestly rather childish ideas about happiness. Believe me, it is surely not me you are looking for!"

Joe intended to contradict again. But but now his voice was finally overstrained, he was just able to whisper: "Please do an ill man at least one little favor: There will be the spring barn dance in town Saturday in two weeks, please let me be your escort!" "A dance? I m not sure; I am not too keen on such social events." Upon that Joe started to gasp for air dramatically and Charlie gave - inwardly smiling - in. "Alright, I'll go with you to that dance, we have an appointment. However I have a condition as well: No proposals until then and at this evening are we clear?" Having received that promise, Joe took peacefully another portion of the sleeping drug and leaned back into his pillows.

When Charlie left the patients room this time she found the family in the great room, again sitting around the dining table. "Is it already that late?" she was startled. "I'm sorry I did not mean to sleep that long. Joe does really fine and will probably sleep until the evening; I will go meanwhile to the Collins' place and see how Mrs. Collins and the baby are." The three men at the table looked at her and when Ben rose, Charlie objected herself: "But I am not supposed to leave the house before I had something for lunch, because Hop Sing would otherwise go straight to China, am I right?"

Everybody smiled and Ben, who helped Charlie to the empty chair added: "You seem to become quite accustomed to us Charlie!" Hoss inquired eagerly: "You will also stay for dinner Miss Charlie? Hop Sing promised to make something special if you do." "Well Hoss yes, I think it makes sense to stay until tomorrow morning. But then I will have to go back to Virginia City."

"You want to go to the Collins place after lunch?" Adam inquired "Yes, Mrs. Collins and the baby were fine yesterday, but being that near to their farm I'll take the opportunity and have a look after them." "Mind if I accompany you? The fences at the pasture near the Collins' place have to be checked anyway and as Joe mentioned that you liked riding you could go by one of our horses. In case anything would not work out I might be of assistance."

"You mean we could ride there? Oh that would be great, may I? It has been such a long time I sat on a horse but I do hope I did not forget everything!" On her face appeared an expression, none of the men had seen before, she was all smiles.

Adam felt a lump in his throat; he was surprised how much it touched him to see such a pure but apparently rare outbreak of happiness. He cleared his throat: "Sure, there are enough riding horses in our stable. Besides this we could have our first book discussion; Shakespeare it was?" Suddenly the happy expression was gone, as Charlie said to herself that she really should not go on a ride with him, she should not go on a ride with neither of those Cartwrights, which were kind of eating her up with all that kindness. But after all they were part of her new world and she would have to deal with them. "It will be my pleasure Adam!"

To Adams astonishment Charlie had not only fiercely refused to take a side saddle: "I am not sitting on a horse because I want to show off a new hat or a parasol, I want to come forward! If you are offended by the view of female lower legs in decent stockings, just keep your eyes away from them!"

Apparently she was also a rather practiced rider. "It seems you have not forgotten anything, you are quite an expert!" After a short gallop Charlie and Adam were now riding at a moderate pace. "Yes it feels as if I had never stopped riding."

"May I ask why you did stop at all? To take an occasional ride is not a big issue." "Basically you are right, but the circumstances were just not allowing it. The more I can enjoy it now. Thank you very much for that gift!" "Well I should have probably mentioned it before, but the horse is just lent!" The grin and the dimples were back!

"You know perfectly well that I am talking about the ride, not the horse. If I wanted to have a horse of my own, I would be absolutely capable of buying one for myself!" "I do not doubt that, I just wonder why you are defending your independence that fiercely even if it is not threatened. When we tried to take care for you this morning, we did not intend to deny your general ability to take care for yourself."

"You are probably right, I did not want to offend anyone, it is just .. well, I am not used to such an all-embracing kindness." Adam swallowed and thought 'What an incredibly sad thing to say!' and continued loudly: "So you should now make yourself get used to it, when you are around us, this will be just as important as your independence!"

"Please do not make fun of that Adam! Independence is everything; would you like to live without it?" "That is quite a question for a man, living under his fathers roof."

"Please Adam; do you take me for a fool? You are quite an independent person. You live under your fathers roof - which was by the way literally created to some parts by you - because of your own decision, not because anyone else forced you to. You could leave all that still today if you really wanted to. Apparently you do not and that is that." "And that is that..." Adam repeated the words and shook his head in disbelieve.

"Did I say anything wrong? I did not mean to offend you at all, sorry if..." "No, no, not at all, it is just...you do have a way to give simple answers to big questions... You see, I am already quite a while quarreling with myself whether I should leave the Ponderosa or not. I always assumed that this would be up to numerous issues which have to be considered, but in the end it is just my decision. I have never seen it that clear. Thank you very much!"

For a while they just looked at each other, until Adam harrumphed and asked: "Now, what about Shakespeare, which of the plays have you been taken with the most?" "Hamlet of course, don't you think it is the most comprehensive of all his plays?" "Apparently I am haunted, another father-and-son-story!" he replied in a rather desperate tone but a short look at her companion told Charlie that he was not serious, as grin and dimples testified. So they made their way discussing lively the fate of the rather desperate Danish prince.

A while later Charlie looked around and realized that this was not the way she had made from the Collins' farm to the Ponderosa. "Are we lost or do I have to assist you with the fences first before you will deliver me to the Collins?" "Would you, I mean assist me with the fences? No, I am kidding of course. I wanted to show you something, one of my favorite spots on the ranch. The detour is not too long."

He was right, a few minutes later a clearing spread out before them. The first wildflowers were blooming and in the background the intensive blue of Lake Tahoe competed in glowing with the crisp white of the snow on the mountains. Charlie was honestly flashed: "Oh my goodness, what a view! I can understand that you do not intend to leave such a place, such pure, untouched beauty makes one feel humble, does it not?" Adam hummed something in consent, whereby he did not look on the countryside.

"What is that over there on the right? Is there a construction going on?" "Errrr ... well not actually going on, once I wanted to built a house here. But I gave up that plan, I just did not break down the shell yet or maybe I should burn it."

"Can we have a look at it?" "There is not much to be seen, really..." but Charlie had already set her horse into motion and Adam followed with a sigh, he should have foreseen this, so why not. Standing on the yard-to-be of the unfinished building Charlie was imagining the final outline.

"The idea was to have an open view from here to the lake and the mountains, right? You'd had light from sunrise to sunset and behind there you could have constructed stables without taking anything of the light and the view. This will become a gorgeous place!" She turned around to ask Adam, why he did not finish the works, but seeing him approaching the construction site rather unenthusiastically, she realized the reason the very same moment.

"Oh Adam I am sorry, this was probably connected with your intended marriage lately. I am truly sorry, this is none of my business, I should not have forced you to come here." "Apparently you have already been introduced to that rather unfortunate episode?" She nodded "How could I not, the Cartwright family seems to be one of the most fertile sources for gossip in town." A little lower she continued: "Sorry Adam, I did not want to bring up a matter that is hurting you, I meant no harm. Please do forgive me if I did."

"No Charlotte, please do not worry yourself" he smiled with a calm shaking of his head, "rather you hear it from me, than from some gossiping spinsters. To be honest the whole thing does still hurt, but not because my heart would have been broken It's more because of a broken idea of having a family of my own and the general fact of having been abandoned. Besides this I was rather keen on constructing something again. It was such a pleasure to do all the designing and sketching, it is a pity that the plans will not be realized."

"And why is that, I mean why will they not be realized?" Was she seriously asking that? Maybe she was not that smart as he had assumed. "Well, if you heard the story until the end then you should know that the wedding did not take place!"

"Yes sure, I am aware of that, I mean what has that to do with the house?" It seemed to be worse than he had thought, a real pity. "Well, I intended to live there with my own family." Now Charlie rolled her eyes.

"I have got that of course, but who says you won't have a family someday later? Didn't you tell me that the plans for the house had been made by you alone? So the design reflects probably just you, not the woman you did not marry. Of course it is solely up to you, but if there are not too many sad memories, why not finishing it at least as your house alone? If you do not want it for yourself then maybe someday one of your brothers could become happy here. Why waste the - apparently good - ideas you already have invested?"

Adam looked at her with a startled expression and had to fight the strong impulse to hug and to kiss her. "This is the second time today that a simple sentence of yours makes an issue I was carrying with me for quite a while just vanishing. How do you do that?"

"I just have another, unbiased perspective because I am hardly more than a stranger to you, nothing special." "Probably true. If you want to benefit once from an unbiased perspective yourself, I would be glad to be of help." "Sure!" Charlie turned back to the horses "Now, let us go to the Collins." and off she rode. Adam mounted his horse as well and followed her; obviously she was still far away from trusting him.