Author's Note:

Thank you for the kind reviews, they really mean a lot. It's easier and much more enjoyable to write when you know folks are enjoying it. There is a bit of mild violence in this chapter - but you may enjoy it ;)

Points for you if you can name the classic western I lifted one of Eula's lines from.

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Adam knew it was wrong to spend as much time as he was back at the Ponderosa with Blythe blissfully - well, was Blythe ever really blissful? - unaware that Eula was not only still in town, but staying at the ranch. And only three doors down from his own room, a fact he played over in his mind a great deal.

Still, it wasn't as if there was no work to be done. He was desperately needed for many projects and his brothers kept him busy, to say nothing of the long conversations with his father in the evenings about finances, day to day operations, and the schematics of a new mill Ben was considering investing in.

Some days he saw Eula only in passing. At the supper table or leaving the barn just as he was coming in. The Ponderosa was down two hands who had decided to try their luck at a nearby silver strike and she was determined to help fill the gap, to "work off her bacon and beans", as she put it.

That afternoon, she was helping Hoss apply a poultice to a lame horse. The mare was particularly rank and it was at least a two man job. After Eula had nearly been kicked three times she exclaimed in frustration it might be a six man job, if only that many could be scared up.

Just as they were finishing up a buggy hitched to a smart bay horse came trotting up the dirt drive, which had yet to get dusty thanks to a few overnight frosts.

"That's Blythe," Hoss said, removing his hat.

Adam's wife pulled up alongside the corral and reined in. When she realized that Eula was Eula and not one of the hands, the fake smile she greeted Hoss with disappeared from her face.

"Hullo, Blythe. We wasn't expecting you today."

"Clearly not. I'm here to see my husband, I do believe he's here. It's been so long since I've seen him I've lost track of his whereabouts."

"He's here ma'am, I'll go fetch him."

Blythe stepped down from the buggy and came up to the corral, careful not to touch the rails. She looked at Eula with utter disgust on her face, crinkling her nose as Eula wiped her dirty, poultice-sticky hands on her pants.

"And to think you once turned my husband's head," she said with disdain, casting her eyes over Eula with all the assurance of someone who believes themselves superior to others. "Look at you. You're filthy, you smell like a manure pile and you're gallivanting around like a street urchin in those clothes."

Eula slipped her hat on her head and came over to lean on the fence, one foot propped up on the bottom rail.

"My, my, you don't care much for me, do you?" she said coolly. "But, I get the feeling you don't care much for anyone but yourself."

"You shut up! You think I don't know you're in love with Adam? A woman knows these things. A wife knows."

She used the word "wife" as a knife to be twisted.

Eula climbed over the fence, dropping down in front of Blythe. Truly they were opposites, she thought, looking at her blonde hair and fine clothes. Her face was impassive but she felt an undeniable satisfaction when Blythe seemed to flinch beneath her hard gaze.

Adam came out of the house and felt a sinking in his stomach, seeing Blythe standing there in the yard only inches from Eula.

"I'll not deny it," he heard the dark haired woman say. "I've been in love with him nearly all of my life. But I don't see what difference it makes when he's married to you. He's an honourable man and there's the end of it."

Adam stood stock still, shocked at her words. He'd always thought she'd gone to New Mexico because her feelings for him had changed, that she'd gotten tired of waiting for him and fallen out of love. He sometimes wondered if she'd really felt love for him at all, or if he'd only wished that she had. The emotion of love, in himself and in others, was something he had struggled to understand and express since his youth. So many nights since he'd married Blythe he had lain awake in bed, going over every moment of his and Eula's courtship. Every touch, every kiss, every look he had played over and over for himself, wondering just when he'd been the damned fool who let her slip away.

"Yes, he's married to me and so I own him, and don't you forget it!" Blythe exclaimed, snapping him from his reverie. "He's a weak and foolish man, and I intend to keep him on a short leash and out of trouble. If I suspect for even one moment that he has any ideas about you I'll whip him senseless and enjoy every minute of it."

For the first time Eula felt a flash of anger. She and Adam were alike in their emotions, she couldn't remember the last time she'd been goaded into a reaction, but hearing someone she cared so deeply for abused and derided struck a nerve. There was a tenderness in her heart for the man that would never cease, and any insult or injury against him stirred a fury within her.

"Adam ought to box your ears you nasty little wench," she said, in a voice even Adam could tell from a distance was dangerously quiet.

Blythe reached out quick as lightning with her right hand and slapped Eula's face, following it up with a vicious scratch with her left. Then she laughed humourlessly. "A Cartwright man strike his wife? You said yourself, the idiot is honourable."

Eula could suffer the slap and the scratch, she'd been hurt worse by mud daubers. If it were only the physical assault she would have laughed in the woman's face. But the contempt for Adam in Blythe's words fanned her temper again and for the first time in years, Eula let it get the best of her.

"Well I'm neither a man nor a Cartwright, and somebody oughta belt you in the mouth."

Eula drew back her fist and, despite a small and not very convincing voice at the back of her mind that tried to reason against it, drove it into Blythe's face. She heard a satisfying pop and blood erupted from the miserable woman's nose. Blythe dropped to the ground so quickly she didn't have time to so much as squeak.

Adam rushed forward, feeling for a moment he wasn't sure which woman he should go to.

Eula made it easy for him, brushing past him and jabbing her thumb over her shoulder. "Your wife needs some assistance."

She paused in the doorway of the ranch house, looking back over her shoulder. "And probably a doctor!"