Summer 1863
Twenty-one! Ben could hardly believe it. His two youngest children were now officially adults. He felt a great sadness as he watched them scurrying around, preparing for the big party that night. Never again would he take part in their little games, soothe them when they were sick or injured or chivvy them to school. Dream about the future. They had been longing for freedom for so long and now they had it. The time for childhood was past.
Little Joe had now grown as tall as he was ever going to be. At five foot nine he was way shorter than the rest of them, but he was hardly a dwarf which he had feared he would be. Light, slender, he was nevertheless becoming very muscular in his upper body. He was breathtakingly handsome and the girls would flock around him. If he had been any other sort of boy, he would have become vain, but he was too good-natured to succumb to arrogance.
The most change he had seen was in his daughter. She had allowed her hair to grow slightly so it reached her upper shoulders. She still resembled her brother so much it was almost painful to see. Ben had always thought twins of different sexes grew less alike as they got older. The opposite seemed true of these two. Her eyes twinkled with beauty, shifting from jade green to a warm honey brown with the light. They were so beautiful one could almost lose oneself in them. Many boys were smitten with her but she was still completely uninterested in them. She treated them like chums. She had acquired a couple of female friends for the first time in her life and they would occasionally hear them giggling in her bedroom, much to Joe's disgust.
"What are they doing up there?!" he demanded.
"Talking. Gossiping. Laughing."
"Yeah, I can hear that. It sounds dumb to me."
Ben smiled at his jealousy.
But she was changing in other ways. Shortly before her twenty-first, she gravely informed her family she would like to use her real name from now on.
Her brothers choked in astonishment but Ben reacted in his usual calm, measured way. "Why, Scamp? You've always hated it."
"Well, Ava and Beth, they..." She blushed, staring at the others as if daring them to say anything. Her eyes narrowed at Joe as he recovered from his surprise and he saw the threat of dire retribution if he so much as tittered. He bit down hard on his tongue. "It's just...well, they...I guess it's a nickname for a kid, in't it? And...and...put it like this, Pa. Take it as a small gift to Ma. She was so beautiful and she wanted me to have her name."
Ben had a mix of emotions but he solemnly held out his hand and waited until she had taken it. "Welcome to the family, Miss Marie."
"Thank you, Mr Cartwright," she replied dryly.
"Of course, you'll have to forgive us. We've been calling you the same name for the last twenty years. We will forget quite a lot, I expect."
"I don't mind."
She took out the dresses she had stowed away three years before after her disastrous adventure with the broncs. Joe was finding her harder and harder to understand.
"What is it with her? This is completely unlike her!"
"She's growing up, Joe," Ben said gently. "It's about time. She's not a little kid any more. Neither are you."
"I preferred her as a kid."
"She won't change that much, son." He winked. "She'll still beat your butt so I wouldn't give her a hard time if I were you."
Here they were, a few months later, preparing for their summer party.
