XIX

The stage took two and half days to travel from Sacramento to Virginia City and the rocking, swaying motion of the coach lulled Adam to sleep and made Nell sick. The other riders were sympathetic to the beautiful young bride, especially after Adam had to hang out the coach door and slap the side to get the whip's attention; his wife was ill, Adam yelled up to him and could he pause for a moment. The driver reluctantly did, the horses stomping and snorting impatiently as they waited, while Adam pulled Nell from the stage just in time to keep her from spewing the lunch he had persuaded her to eat, over all the other passengers' feet. Nell began to cry and Adam's heart went out to her.

"It'll be all right, Nell. It won't be long until we're home." And Adam attempted to comfort her, giving her his handkerchief to wipe her mouth as she kneeled in the dirt.

"You'll be home," Nell managed between sobs, "but I won't be! I want to go home—my home, our home." Nell sobbed more strongly. She wanted to be back in her own room, in her own bed and be waited on by Margery and Mrs. Chevy. She wanted sweet, hot tea and jam sandwiches made with soft, white bread served to her on a tray. She wanted to have no worries to gnaw at her and she wanted most of all to have Adam back, her loving, laughing, gently teasing Adam who thrilled her in their bed at night.

Adam said nothing to Nell's plaintive cry, just helped her back on the stage and when the driver whipped up the horses and the coach jerked into motion, Nell grabbed Adam's arm, her stomach roiling. Adam gently pulled her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his other arm about her and it seemed to ease her somewhat; he felt Nell relax in his arms and felt twinges of guilt for having been so snide to her the past few days. He kissed her hair softly.

They managed to ride the rest of the way to Virginia City without another incident but that was because Nell wouldn't eat anything but some hardtack shred by an older man who looked like a dispirited gold miner. She would let the tasteless piece of cracker dissolve in her mouth and it seemed to settle her stomach for a bit. Other than the hard tack, the only times Nell felt any better were when the stage would pause at a way station and she could debark and sit and her dizziness and nausea retreated. At one way station, the manager's wife gave Nell chamomile and ginger tea and she became drowsy and slept for the next few hours, her breathing even and calm as well as her stomach as the coach traveled on through the darkness of the night and Adam held her next to him. They would be at the Ponderosa the next day.

"It's so good to see you again—such a nice surprise!" Ben kissed his daughter-in-law who tried to smile after Hoss, upon greeting them, had lifted her down bodily and deposited her in the yard and them bent down and kissed her. Ben had noticed the dark circles under Nell's eyes and the way Adam was watching her but Hoss and Joe didn't seem to notice anything and just stood grinning at the unexpected visit of older brother and his beautiful wife.

"Well, I would have sent a wire but decided to just surprise you. Hey, you two, make yourselves useful and get our bags," Adam said as he put out his hand which was immediately lost in both of Hoss'.

"Soon as you get home you try to boss us around," Joe sad grinning, clapping Adam on the shoulder but went to pull the bags off the rented buggy.

"Please don't think I'm rude," Nell said softly to Ben, "but may I be shown to a room to lie down?"

Hop Sing had come out and stood smiling at "Mistah Adam's" return. And here was his bride, a woman he had never seen and he was taken aback but how young she was and then, by how weary she looked.

"You come with Hop Sing," he said as he lightly took Nell's arm. "I show you room with best bed and make fire up so that you be warm. Too cold for Missy to be outside and not be well. You come. You like tea? Hop Sing make good tea for Missy."

Nell looked up to Adam as if asking his permission. "You better go along with Hop Sing," he said. "He lets us think the Ponderosa is ours so we'll do all the work, but it's really his." Nell smiled at Hop Sing—his face was so kind and sympathetic-and started to leave but Adam pulled her back and quickly kissed her on the cheek. "Try and get some sleep." She smiled weakly and continued with Hop Sing carrying her satchel and tenderly guiding her into the house.

Ben watched Adam as his gaze followed Nell until she was in the house.

"How long you stayin', oldest brother?" Hoss asked, jostling Adam with a bag he carried.

"Well, if I was staying until I tired of your company, I'd turn around right now and head back to Sacramento, but I'm just staying two nights. I brought Nell to give her time to know you two better and to change her mind about the two of you after your visit last summer. But now that I think of it, if she gets to know you better, it may work against that."

"Hey," Joe said as he carried two bags, "we were on our best behavior—well, except for that one night." And Joe grinned. "But she'd forgiven us by the time we left though."

At the end of a trail drive to San Francisco, Hoss and Joe decided that they would stop in Sacramento on their way back home and surprise Adam and his bride whom they'd never met.

"Pa said she was mighty pretty but young enough for you," Hoss said to Joe as they approached Adam's house. Although there were many cowboys in Sacramento and they weren't an unusual sight, there weren't many in this side of town, the part where the genteel society lived so Hoss and Joe raised eyebrows among the people who were out. The brothers had made it a game of tipping their hats to every woman on the streets who glanced at them and then smiling broadly as they rode through Sacramento.

"Maybe she'll take a shine to me and for once, oldest brother will have to play second fiddle to me," Joe said grinning.

"You best hope not," Hoss said. "Iffen she does, Adam'll probably twist your balls off right before your eyes and hand 'em to you. Look, there it is." Hoss pointed out the house. It was the house number that was Adam's return address on his letters home. In the dusky evening, the brothers could see the lamp glow from the open windows and the lace sheers fluttering in the light breeze.

"Now that's a nice house," Joe said with an appreciative whistle.

Hoss and Joe dismounted and tied their horses to one of the hitching posts, one on each side of the paved front walk.

"Well, ain't these fancy?" Hoss commented as he looped his horse's reins though the large ring that ran through a hole in the mouth of the cast iron horse's head atop the tall iron post. "Maybe we need a few of these on the Ponderosa," Hoss said, grinning. 'We don't want anyone to think we're backcountry ya-hoos, now, do we? 'Specially not Adam's wife!"

"Especially not her!" Joe said and he and Hoss laughed, Joe in his high-pitched giggle and Hoss in his loud guffaw. Then with Hoss slinging his huge arm across Joe's shoulders, they walked up the brick walkway lined with greenery and turned the bell, hearing it ring inside. It was opened by a young woman.

"Nell?' Joe asked. She wasn't near as pretty as he had been led to expect and he was disappointed.

"Oh, heavens, no. Have you come to call?" Margery stared from one to the other. "Do you have a card?"

"No'm," Hoss said, pulling off his huge hat, "We come to eat, sleep and see our older brother, Adam but we ain't got no card 'cept maybe an ace brother here forgot to slip outta his sleeve in a poker game."

"Oh my," Margery said, stepping aside while Hoss and Joe walked past her, Joe tipping his hat and grinning. Margery felt a little thrill at the cowboy with the green eyes and the curly hair—he was pretty and lively.

"Adam," Hoss bellowed. "Where're you hidin', you hornswoggler!"

"In here," Adam called back, "and you better have wiped your feet or I'm wiping up the cow shit you dragged in with your sorry ass!"

And Nell was dumfounded as the two cowboys came in and Adam clapped them both on the backs amid their boisterous talk and laughing. Nell didn't know what to make of them. Apparently, they were her brothers-in-law.

Over the next day, Nell never quite knew where she stood. She reprimanded Adam for his comments on Hoss' appetite—she was sure that Hoss would be hurt—but he just laughed the loudest and told her not to worry; Adam was being "mild" out of consideration for her. And Mrs. Chevy adored Hoss and his appetite and how he raved over her cooking and practically ate a whole gooseberry pie by himself. The fact that the men talked with their mouths full and their elbows on the table didn't offend Mrs. Chevy at all but Nell wondered how Adam could have grown up to have such practiced manners and Hoss and Joe didn't. When she had later mentioned it to Adam, he had said that his brothers could be the perfect gentlemen when called for but around family, around each other, they were just three brothers with no pretensions, three men who enjoyed each other's company. That's who they were.

And their conversations! Nor just at the table but at all times the three men were together It seemed to Nell that they were constantly saying "Excuse me, Nell," and "Pardon my language, Nell," because curse words would come out during their conversations which were loud and full of deep laughter, one brother talking over the other, all three constantly animated. Once Joe laughed so hard that he rocked his dinner chair back and Nell feared he would fall over

The last evening of Joe and Hoss' visit, the three brothers went to town. Adam said they were going to have a few beers and maybe play a bit of poker but it was after midnight and they weren't yet home-Nell couldn't sleep. She worried about them. She had seen how rambunctious they were and kept picturing scenarios of gunfights or fisticuffs. Nell had tried to read but couldn't concentrate and then she heard three loud voices singing from downstairs,

"I ride an Ol' Paint, I lead an Ol' Dan
I'm off for Cheyenne to do the hoolihan.

Good-bye, Ol' Paint, I'm leaving Cheyenne
Good-bye, Ol' Paint, I'm leaving Cheyenne.

Ol' Paint's a good pony, he paces when he can,
Good-bye, my little Annie, I'm off for Cheyenne…"

Nell grabbed her wrap and quickly put it on. She rushed to the top of the stairs and saw the three brothers, one arm thrown over the shoulder of the others, Joe in the middle and obviously the drunkest as he was being held up by Hoss and Joe, attempt to maneuver up the stairs.

"What is going on?" Nell asked, staring in wonder.

"It's all right, Nell," Adam said, grinning at her worried look. "Joe's just a little bit drunk."

"I'm just a little bit drunk, Nell." Joe said, confirming Adam's report. "Don't worry. I will be fine after I throw up." And then Joe made an odd noise and he vomited on the first few stairs.

"Dang it, Joe," Hoss said. "You got that shit all over my boots. Now I'm gonna stink like sour beer!"

Adam stifled laughter as he shifted his grasp on Joe whose knees were buckling under him.

"Got news for you, Hoss," Joe said. "You already stink like sour beer." And he giggled.

Hoss and Adam dragged Joe up the stairs. Joe tried to find each step but had trouble; his feet kept slipping. As they passed Nell on the landing, Joe said to her, "You oughta get those stairs fixed—they keep moving away." Adam roared with laughter while Hoss guffawed and Nell fumed.

She went into the bedroom and when Adam came in, she was determined to reprimand him and chastise him for bringing his brothers home drunk and who did he think he was to come home drunk as well? But she never had the chance. When Adam came into the bedroom, he grabbed her, kissed her and pulled her to him as he fell on the bed. "They took whores," he said as he ran his lips down her throat, "but I just wanted my beautiful Nell…my own private whore with the sweetest, most luscious body I've ever known." Nell wanted to resist Adam, to punish him but his mouth was too demanding and his hands found all the right places and soon they were both naked and tussling on the bed. Nell found herself crying out in pleasure, not even considering that Adam's two brothers were also in the house.

And now she was in Nevada and there were five men with whom to contend. Nell felt helpless. She wished she had Abby to console her—Abby would understand.