Thank you everybody for your encouraging comments! Please excuse that I do not reply individually to everyone. I am however very grateful to everyone of you! Have a Happy Easter!

One day, when Charlie was sitting in her examination room and doing some paperwork, as there was no actual patient, someone knocked at the door and upon Charlies "Come in!" Jillian entered.

"Charlie, my dear, do you have a moment for our women's association? Would you mind coming to our parlor for a minute?"

"Sure, let me just finish my sentence here, I'll come over at once!" Charlie had so far only heard about the Virginia Cities' women's association, she had a challenging and time consuming day job! But of course one would never let such a request unheard - they were potential patients after all.

When Charlie entered the parlor a few moments later she saw eight or ten women sitting there, their eyes focused on Charlie full of expectation.

"How do you do ladies, what is it I can do for you? I hope you are not ill?"

"No Charlie dear, today we are not asking for your medical skills but for everything else you can and know."

"That sounds exciting!"

Mrs. Whittlinger, the stately sized wife of the local bank manager, answered: "The women's association of Virginia City intends to organize some festivities for the occasion of the Independence Day this year, which will be the first after Nevada had been granted the statehood and also to celebrate the end of that horrible war."

"This is a remarkably good idea Mrs. Whittlinger, how can I help you with that?"

"We will need a lot of prizes for the several competitions we are going to organize, so we wondered whether you could be kind enough to assist us in baking some cake or pie of donate some self-made jellies or preserves or anything you might find suitable."

"It would be a real pleasure for me to contribute to the success of the celebrations by donating something, coming from my hands but unfortunately my cooking skills are practically non-existing. I never learnt to make jelly or to bake. I am so sorry. Wouldn't there be anything else I could make myself useful for?"

With slightly raised eyebrows Mrs. Whittlinger went on: "Of course, my dear, there are still a lot of possibilities: We need also decorations for the pavilions and for the stage in the town hall, maybe you could assist the ladies from our sewing circle."

"Oh." Charlie swallowed. "I am afraid I will become a real disappointment to you ladies, but sewing is unfortunately - despite when it comes to a human limb, which we hopefully can exclude in this connection - also beyond my abilities."

Mrs. Whittlinger had to digest this bad news first; she was momentarily out of words, but another voice mad itself heard:

"Isn't there anything at all you are able to do?"

Charlie focused on the speaker, who was nobody else than Miss Patricia Calston: "Seems as if you did not learn too much in college, did you?"

"No Miss Calston, you are completely right, I have to admit ashamed that baking and sewing had not been taught at medical school, at least not at mine! Maybe other colleges find it necessary for physicians to have their own jelly made!"

Wasn't there any ability, which was needed for these celebrations, just to silence that hostile Calston girl? Well maybe there was and Charlie asked: "Mrs. Whittlinger you mentioned a stage in the town hall, do you intend to have made some performances there?"

"Yes, this shall be the highlight of the festivities: The citizens of Virginia City will entertain their fellow citizens with recitations or music, we still have to sort this out in detail."

"Well, it is a long time since I have played the last time, but I had piano and singing lessons when I was younger, maybe I can contribute with that?"

"The music will be done by Miss Graham!" Miss Calston pointed with her head to the elderly maid, who was usually playing the harmonium in church.

"But Miss Calston my dear, I would be very much delighted, whether I had some assistance in that, my eyes you know; they are becoming worse and worse and my fingers are neither that lissome as they used to be! I think this was a really good idea Margery," Miss Graham tended to Mrs. Whittlinger "whether our young doctor here could help us with the music."

Mrs. Whittlinger, who looked much kinder now than at the beginning of their conversation, bowed her head graciously towards Charlie and announced: "Very good my dear! So I am pleased to welcome you in our preparatory committee. Our next appointment is on Saturday afternoon in the town hall, where you can try the grand piano there."

"I am very much looking forward to that Mrs. Whittlinger. Do you have already something in mind, what kind of music there shall be performed? I could bring along some music books and we could go through them to see whether there was anything suitable in them."

"That would be very kind my dear, please bring along whatever you might find. We haven't thought of something in particular, but with some classic songs one can never go wrong I would think, can't one?" and Mrs. Whittlinger looked around suspiciously whether anyone would dare to contradict. "I could not agree more Mrs. Whittlinger" Charlie confirmed.

When the delegation of the women's association left the Doctors house, Jillian tapped Charlies shoulder: "It seems you have made some new friends! But I had no idea you played piano, I'd like very much to have heard that."

"Apparently you will hear it soon. I do hope that I will not disappoint you and the other ladies from the association too much. It has been so long that I tickled the ivories; please keep your fingers crossed, that I will not completely disgrace myself." Charlie said thoughtful and continued in a rather sarcastic tune: "Well, in that case at least Miss Calston will be pleased. If I only knew why she acts so snappish and hostile - I really have no idea what I might have done to her."

"Don't you really? She is envious of course!"

"Envious of what? My frizzy, always messy hair, my nothing-but-functional nun-like clothes or... I mean, why should a pretty, wealthy girl with hardly a thing in the world to worry about envy someone like me?"

What was that? Jillian had wondered already a couple of times, why a young, beautiful woman like Charlie did not take more care for her appearance. She had assumed it was not important for her and as her beauty had apparently been noticed by the right person, there was not much to worry about. But now it seemed as if Charlie herself was unhappy about it.

"Are you asking seriously Charlie? Exactly because you have things to worry about! You have a passion in life; you achieved something on your own. Miss Calston has nothing of that kind, she is just bored by everything because nothing really interests her. And then there is of course..." Jillian hesitated

"What Jillian?"

"Well, I've told you once that Adam is considered to be biggest catch around here and he seems to be at your hook now. For a person like Patricia Calston this is most probably a challenge because she seems to think she alone had a right to hook the biggest catch and nobody else, and for that scheme you are a real thread."

Charlie looked surprised at Jillian "Do you think I could spoil him a romance?"

"Of course you do and you are right to do so! You are by far the best match for him I have ever seen! I doubt that such a shallow person like Miss Calston could pique his interest in the slightest. Why do you ask? Have you still doubts what he feels for you? He is really the right person to have faith in, if anything worries you, speak to him. He is just waiting for a chance to help you!"

Jillian tapped Charlies shoulder again and left rather satisfied with the outcome of their talk.

Charlie on the other hand could only think: 'What have I done? Is it too late?'

The following Saturday afternoon the preparatory festivity committee met as agreed at the town hall. Charlie went straight to the grand piano and struck a few keys. "It hadn't been tuned quite a while, had it?" she inquired.

"Oh, are you already looking for excuses?" Miss Calston had apparently followed her.

Charlie decided to ignore her "This is a wonderful instrument, which just needs some tuning to be perfect. May I try it?" with this question she tended towards Mrs. Whittlinger.

"Of course my dear, go ahead!" Charlie set down and tried cautious and a bit anxious the first beats of one of her favorite pieces. But as soon as the music flew out of her hands the old certainty was back and the women's association delegates listened impressed to the passionate tunes of Chopin s Revolutionary Etude.

"Oh Charlie, what an artist you are my dear, this was wonderful!" Jillian was honestly touched and hugged Charlie after the piece was over.

Mrs. Whittlinger also came over to Charlie and took one of her hands in hers: "Wonderful my dear, I am so glad that you will assist us with our intended performances! Could you play this composition for the opening of our little program, I think this will attract everybody s attention!"

"Yes of course, it would be an honor to open the show!"

Miss Calston, who had been able to contain herself so far, now interfered: "I think the opening should be done by someone, who is already longer a member of the Virginia City community, the audience might otherwise assume this would not be related to our town."

"Well I cannot see that this was a real problem, but of course if you all agree we'll have Dolly Graham to be the first performer."

The tiny Miss Graham however interjected: "No please Margery, after having heard our dear Doctor Mathews here, I would not dare to let you hear my bungling at all!"

That was of course not what Charlie had intended: "No Miss Graham, please do not hide your light under a bushel, I heard you playing in church, and you are not bungling a bit! Maybe we could play something four-handed for the opening. Maybe we will have both a bit of stage fright then it is a good thing to be not alone up there."

Mrs Whittlinger apparently liked that: "This is a very good idea my dear Doctor Mathews! Dolly I suppose you two will find a suitable piece for that purpose?"

Miss Graham nodded and sent a grateful gaze in Charlies direction. For Mrs. Whittlinger this special topic was finished and she went on: "And could you please find some suitable pieces for more performances?"

"I have brought with me practically all my music sheets because I love all the pieces. I thought we'd better choose something for the celebrations together."

"This is very thoughtful of you my dear, let us see what we have here!" and the ladies of the preparatory festivity committee went through Charlies music sheets, whereby for one or the other piece the first tones had to be played at the piano to recognize the melody. In the end they decided for one of Cherubino's arias from "The marriage of Figaro" to be performed by Charlie and some more folk like songs to be performed by one or the other Lady from the committee and accompanied by either Miss Graham or Charlie at the piano. Mrs. Whittlinger showed herself pleased with the outcome of their meeting:

"Very good, so the program is basically fixed, for the remaining performances the school will be responsible."

Clementine Hawkins coughed tentatively: "I think Margery, there is missing something. We have the songs from our wonderful Ladies here, we will have the chorus from school, but we don't have any men's voice. Don't you agree that we need something male in the program?"

"Maybe, but can you imagine any of Virginia Cities men presenting himself, singing on a stage, Clementine? Who after all would sing good enough for such performance?"

"Oh that nice Mr. Cartwright is quite a singer, the dark one I mean; I am always so exited when I see him!" Miss Graham assured very eagerly. She blushed upon this statement and continued calmer: "In church I mean, because when he attends service, every hymn sounds so much better when he is singing along."

"Why not Dolly, this is quite an idea, do you think you could persuade him to play a part in our program?"

"I will ask him!"

Mrs. Whittlinger nodded quite satisfied upon this voluntary offer coming from Patricia Calston.

"Yes, please do that my dear! He will be probably much more willing to agree in case a young girl asks him to take part."

Patricia looked triumphantly around, very much satisfied with the praise of Mrs. Whittlinger and left the meeting place walking taller than ever.

When Jillian and Charlie went home, the former seemed a bit uneasy: "Why did you let that nasty girl take up the question with Adam, when you will be at the Ponderosa tomorrow, it would have been the perfect opportunity and he would surely be glad to do you any favor you asked for. I don't know whether he will listen to her at all!"

"He surely will Jillian, this is a question of pure politeness and she is quite attractive, so why shouldn't Adam listen and agree?"

"Sometimes you really seem to push him into the arms of another woman, why is that? Don't you like him?"

"Of course I like him Jillian, but please do not try to make a match, there is no purpose in that!"

"But why not? Charlie, if there is anything you would like to talk about, you can trust Adam with everything! He is not the judging type, he has those two younger brothers and one of them is Little Joe – believe me, he is perfectly used to understand and to forgive! If you rather want to speak to a woman, you can try me, but please do not bury your sorrows until it might be too late and you have scared him off."

Jillian hesitated a moment, but decided to go on: "Probably I should not mention that, but I often hear you crying at night, Charlie, you should really speak to someone, confide in your friends!"

Charlie blushed to a deep pink and when turning away she whispered barely hearable into Jillian s direction: "Sorry Jillian, but this definitely none of your business!" and ran away into the house and her room, which she did not leave for the remaining evening.

On Sunday morning there was a little tension perceptible in the Doctors house, but as everybody was rather busy preparing for the church service, the mood returned to normal soon. At church they were already expected by the Cartwright party as they had been invited for Sunday lunch to the Ponderosa, which had become a rather usual habit during the previous weeks. The first that greeted them was Hoss:

"Howdy Doc and Mrs. Martin, howdy Miss Charlie! So glad to see you, Hop Sing has promised something very special for today - a special meal for a special lady he said."

"I have two special ladies here Hoss, which one did Hop Sing mean?" Paul Martin looked smiling at Hoss, who became a bit uncomfortable, he had not foreseen that!

"Hop Sing will make various special courses, at least one for each special lady!" Adam threw in.

'Thank heavens!' Hoss thought in relieve, 'Sometimes elder brother's bubbling could be quite useful!'

"Good Morning Charlotte, I've been looking forward to seeing you all morning!" Adam took Charlies hand, kissed and kept it, like he usually did when they met. Before she was able to answer a word, Adam was grabbed from behind and turned around. His surprised gaze met the eyes of Patricia Calston, who smiled beamingly at Adam. He felt rather annoyed about the inconsiderate disturbance during an ongoing conversation, but this did not seem to bother Miss Calston:

"Good morning Adam! I need a word with you, shall we meet after the service?"

"I am sorry Miss Calston, but I have already an appointment after the service, what is it you want to talk about?"

"The matter needs a bit of explanation, I'd prefer to do this more unhurriedly."

"Adam, maybe after church is the best opportunity, there are Cartwrights enough to take us to the Ponderosa, whether you come a bit later it will not matter too much." Charlie interfered.

"It dies matter to me, but well, if you will not resent me for leaving you alone...alright then Miss Calston, after church I will walk you home and during that you can talk to me about the matter you have in mind, agreed?"

Although Patricia was not completely satisfied with the situation - of all people that doctor cow had to speak up in her favor - she agreed, one would see what there could be made out of this beginning.

XXXXXXXXXX

"The Virginia Cities women's association wants me to sing on a stage?"

Adam had contemplated during the whole service, what this girl could want to talk about, but he had never suspected something like that. He still felt annoyed, not only that he had missed a ride home with Charlotte, that girl had presented her request like an order.

"Yes, why shouldn't you? People are talking you had singing lessons back East and that you would play guitar!"

"People are talking...that makes sense of course. And what am I to sing or will I have a word in that?"

"Well...I don't know..." Patricia had not been prepared for such minor details; she just had been thrilled about having an official reason to speak with Adam Cartwright in private. "...that Doctor woman had some music sheets, where some pieces had been chosen from, but if you do not like her stuff, you can of course perform whatever you want, you just have to ask me and Mrs Whittlinger."

"Just you and Mrs Whittlinger? Well that makes it really easy to reject ... wait a minute, did you say Doctor Mathews was a part of all that?"

Again that Doctor cow... "Well...yes, she will play something on the piano."

"I see." This was the perfect opportunity! So music would become his ally in receiving Charlottes trust. He could have kissed that silly girl, but this would surely be rather unwise!

"Well Miss Calston, so it will be an honor for me to be of assistance to the Virginia Cities women's association and perform something, provided I will have a word regarding the piece!"

"Very good Adam! The next meeting of the women's association preparation committee will be on Tuesday morning. I assume we will see you there?"

"No, you will not, I have to leave Virginia City for a couple of days starting from tomorrow. As soon as I will be back I'll get in touch with Mrs Whittlinger to agree about the next dates and steps."

"Fine then...will you come inside with me for a cup of coffee?"

"No thank you very much Miss Calston, we have guests at the Ponderosa as you might remember, I have to hurry home."

"Good bye Adam, we'll see each other then!" and Patricia presented her hand for the kiss that was falling due in her opinion. To her surprise Adam just took and shaken her hand.

"Good bye Miss Calston!"

Well, one would see Patricia said to herself...

After a rather hard ride Adam arrived at the Ponderosa not long after the others, who had not started the meal yet.

"Very good that we are complete already now" Ben stated "Hop Sing would have very much disliked serving in portions!"

"I sometimes wonder Ben, who actually is the patriarch of the Ponderosa" Paul Martin mused, while the starters - Chinese dumplings with Hop Sings special filling - were served.

"What do you mean Paul?"

"Well of course your boys do what you ask them to, but everybody here, including you, seems to be most afraid of the possibility, that Hop Sing might leave you some day!"

Everybody at the table laughed, except Hoss, who looked at the Doctor with a devastated look: "Please Doctor, do not make fun of that, the matter is far too serious!"

Charlie agreed: "I very much understand your fear Hoss, these dumplings are incredibly delicious! I probably should have asked Hop Sing to make something for me, which I could have donated for the celebrations!"

"No Charlie, no way! By this we'd never learnt what a splendid artist you are!" Jillian contradicted.

This was Adam's keyword and he asked Charlie with one raised eyebrow: "By the way, what kind of plan is the woman's association plotting about and what have you to do with that? Miss Calston wants me to sing in public, what are you scheming for?"

"This is nothing to mock about," Charlie replied "but a rather good idea of the women's association." and Jillian and she explained the plan to the others.

"This is really a good idea!" Ben agreed. "What have you decided about yet?"

"We will have some contributions from the school; the children will recite and sing something and so will some of the ladies from the preparatory committee." Jillian explained. "You should hear Charlie, she is incredibly gifted, I am sure we will get something real good going there!"

"Oh yes, and the best part will surely be elder brother in the midst of the women's association! Will you sing a love duet with Clementine Hawkins? Oh no, you wouldn't put this on Pa!"

"Joseph, watch your mouth!" Bens voice was still at a moderate level.

"Yes and will you play a breeches part or wear one of Mrs Whittlinger dresses, maybe there had to be something taken in to make it fit?" After that remark from Hoss, he and Joe bubbled over with laughter.

Although he had to suppress a smile, Ben raised his voice to his usual 'Patriarch-of-the-Ponderosa'-level: "Stop that at once! I will not tolerate such flimflam at my table, the more when you two are insulting not only kind and decent women from our very neighborhood, but also your brother! I think it is an honor for all of us that he had been invited to take part in that table of events!"

The reprimanded Cartwrights mumbled something like "Sure Pa" and "Yessir" but still had to take strong care for the corners of their mouths.

"You really should watch your tongues brothers, if you do not stop teasing me because of that, I will - with Mrs Whittlingers consent - perform an aria where I may officially torture the two of you live on stage and in front of all citizens of Virginia City, and believe me I will make it a real convincingly performance!" Adams gaze and voice had become really intimidating during his last words.

Joe, however not fully convinced, tried to counter: "You're making this up, in all that classic stuff there is no such aria, they are just singing of love all the time!"

Adam managed to look even more dangerous when he started to hum "Non piu andrai...*"

Charlie, who had followed the brotherly banter with amusement, added: "Oh, I know what you mean Adam! Yes, that would really be the perfect part for all of you."

Adam nodded slowly, without taking his threatening gaze from his brothers and Charlie continued reinforcing Adams threat:

"Oh my boys, be careful, this could become really dangerous for you!"

At this point both Adam and Charlie busted with laughter and Joe complained full-throated about being threatened at his home by his next of kin. Before Ben could raise his voice again and demand a proper behavior Hop Sing came in and cleared the air by serving the next course. The rest of the meal passed by in peace.

After lunch Adam and Charlie went off for a ride and Adam soon started to 'play' the 'music card':

"Will you tell me what you will perform for the celebration?"

"Of course: A fourhanded piano piece together with Miss Graham, the Revolutionary Etude by Chopin and one of the Cherubino arias from 'The marriage of Figaro'."

"Which of the two?" Adam inquired. Charlie was at first surprised about the precise question, but told herself that she should have learned not to be surprised by anything when it came to this guy.

"The second one."

Adam started to hum a tune "'Voi che sapete che cosa è amor...'** Oh yes, this is really one of the most wonderful melodies I've ever heard."

"Yes it is, but I will sing it in English."

Adam inquired amazed: "Did you translate that yourself?"

Charlie negated smiling: "No, with my Latin I could just guess roughly what the Italian lines mean. Luckily I have an English libretto."

"Oh interesting! Do you have by chance any other librettos in English?"

"Yes, I have a piano score with an English libretto of all three da Ponte-operas."

"Wow! That wouldn t be a very common publication, would it?"

"No, this is a very special edition; I inherited it!"

Adam looked inquiring at her: "That sounds as if there was a story behind it?"

Charlie hesitated and showed no intention at first to talk, then she took a deep breath and answered in a low tone: "It comes from my Grandfather, who was a musician. He was in Vienna and Venice as a young man, where he fell for these operas and later he translated the lyrics himself."

Adam was nearly shocked to hear that little story - she had disclosed to him a completely private detail. Before he had recovered and was able to respond to this breakthrough, she continued in her normal way:

"Do you ask for a special reason?"

Adam felt that the window had been closed again and answered as if nothing special had happened:

"Yes, as soon as I was asked to take part in this, I thought of something from Don Giovanni, the duet where he steals away the bride from her wedding***, but I have heard so far only the Italian text."

"Oh yes, this is really a wonderful song and your voice matches the pitch of Don Giovanni quite well. It will surely work fine if we find you a suitable Zerlina."

"Well I thought this was clear, I'll sing with you and only with!"

"No not that! Why me I mean, I have already three appearances in the program, this will be too much, the audience will be bored or it puts me too much into the center of attention!"

"You haven't decided yet whether you will bore the audience or attract too much attention?"

"You know what I mean, I do not feel comfortable with that."

"What exactly makes you feel uncomfortable? Charlotte, please talk to me!"

They had descended their horses and walked through the clearing where their first ride together had led to. He came very close to her, took her arm and turned her around.

"Please look at me! What are you hiding? Believe me, there can't be anything in the world that would be that awful or scary or disgusting that you could not speak to me about it. Why don't you trust me, you know that you can!"

Charlie could not stand the gaze of those amber eyes; she looked at the ground and answered very quietly:

"I do trust you Adam, more than anybody else in the world, but there is no use in forcing me."

"Sorry if it felt like that, forcing myself on you is the last thing I want! But you see, I am courting you as seriously and as cautiously as I can, which is by the way rather difficult coevally. And whenever I think now we have a breakthrough, now she will show some trust and will open up what's on her soul, you back down and I wonder what I was thinking. I need to know this Charlotte - do you feel anything for me or shall I leave it?"

Charlie sighed and heard herself saying: "You are the best thing that has ever happened to me."

When he took her in his arms and kissed her she realized that her former statement had not been completely true. THIS was the best thing that has ever happened to her.

When they parted a while later, Charlie took a deep breath:

"Adam, I meant every word I said, but you need to stop courting me."

"No! Please Charlotte what kind of caprice is this again?"

"This is not a caprice, it is a necessity. Just please do me the favor and stop inquiring, leave it as it is, I cannot and will not tell you more."

She mounted her horse and set it in motion towards the Ponderosa. Adam followed her with some distance, trying to find out what he should think about this. She felt something for him, she had said so herself. No, after having heard that confession, after having kissed her, he would not give in, not yet!

* The marriage of Figaro Mozart/da Ponte Act 1, No. 10 aria Figaro

**The marriage of Figaro Mozart/da Ponte Act 2, No. 12 arietta Cherubino

***Don Giovanni Mozart/da Ponte Act I, duet Don Giovanni / Zerlina