Ben and Adam met the Winters at the hotel restaurant shortly before five thirty. Once they had placed their orders, Margaret decided it was time to talk to Ben about the way he was raising Cat. "Ben, we need to talk about the way you are raising your daughter. Catherine should not be dressing like a boy. She should be wearing dresses, not buckskins. It doesn't matter if she wants to or not. If she won't wear one all the time, put her over your knees and use your belt or a razor strop on her bare bottom until she does. Those puppies should not even be allowed in the house and they certainly should not be sleeping in her bed. I don't know what's wrong with you that you're not only allowing them in the house but you allow them in Catherine's bed. And she most certainly should not be playing with Indians and calling one of them her brother. I can't believe that you are allowing that child to associate and play with heathen Indians. You didn't allow your sons to run wild like that so why have you allowed Catherine to do that?"
Ben fought to control his temper. "Margaret, didn't you listen to a thing I said when you were at the Ponderosa for supper? Catherine is my younger sister's daughter and I will raise her the way I think is best. Her father was killed in the war and she has been raised by his oldest brother. The whole idea behind meeting for supper tonight was so I could tell Susan about Catherine and what to expect from her when school starts. Considering that your ten year old sons are some of the worst behaved children in Virginia City, you are one of the last people who should be trying to tell me how to raise my sister's daughter. When your sons can behave as well as Catherine does, then I might listen to your advice, unwanted as it is!"
Margaret fumed at Ben's comments while John could hardly keep from laughing. Ben was right. Margaret had not paid attention to what Ben had said about Catherine being his sister's daughter and only recently moving to the Ponderosa. His sons were very badly behaved because his wife only reluctantly allowed him to discipline them but he was not allowed to use physical punishment. The one time he did spank them, she had taken the boys and gone to her parent's in Sacramento for a month until they tired of the boys' misbehavior, but here she was telling Ben that he should whip his daughter until she started wearing dresses all the time.
Ben ignored Margaret and turned his attention to Susan. "After Catherine's father was killed, my sister took her and went to live with our father. About four months after she was widowed, my father forced her to marry a man she didn't love and go to Australia with him. How he forced her is unimportant but he told her to leave Catherine with him and he would raise her himself. If Cat got to be too much for him, he would send her to live with our older sister in California. My sister had no intentions of letting our father or sister raise her child, so she took Catherine to one of the two people she knew would not give her daughter to our father when he demanded she be returned to him. Kate took Cat to Dodge City and gave her to her father's eldest brother to raise.
Matt Dillon is a United States Marshal and considering his job and the fact that he had to be gone from Dodge quite a bit, did a very good job raising Cat. When she was four, he took her to Arizona to visit his other brother who is an Army officer. Someone left the side gate to the fort open and Cat wandered out into the countryside where she was found by two Apache chiefs who adopted her as their daughter and granddaughter. They have a legend that says a white child with an Indian name will help bring peace between the red man and the white man. They believe Catherine is that child. She stayed with them, learning their language and ways for almost a year before they took her back to her uncle. He agreed to let her spend two weeks with them every summer and that agreement has been and will continue to be kept.
Two weeks before Cat's ninth birthday, my sister and her husband showed up in Dodge to take Catherine back to Australia with them. My sister was only pretending to try and get her daughter to go with her. Instead she was filing for divorce because the man she was married to was abusive and she feared for her life. Several days after their arrival in Dodge, my sister and her husband were murdered. Catherine was standing next to her mother when she was killed and has been blaming herself for her mother's death because she refused to go to Australia. I adopted Cat and gave her the adoption papers on her birthday. Except for Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, dances and other special occasions, Catherine has been wearing buckskins since she was four. I am not going to force her to wear a dress. She has a quick temper but knows that she is not to start a fight if someone teases her about wearing buckskins. If someone tries to hurt her, she is allowed to defend herself to keep from being hurt. She hates being cooped up and becomes bored easily. She and two friends skipped school three times when they were five because they were bored."
Susan laughed. "Cat and I are more alike than you know. John can tell you that I pulled some of the same stunts when I was a child."
"She sure did Ben. I can't remember how many times I kept her out of trouble by covering for her with the teacher and our father. She used to skip school, especially when she was quite young. She hated being cooped up and was bored. She also used to get into a lot of fights, some of which she started. Getting her to wear a dress was next to impossible. She preferred wearing pants and no matter what our father said or did, she would only wear a dress on Sundays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas."
"As you can see Ben, Cat and I are going to get along just fine. I know that she's going through a huge adjustment so I'll be as patient with her as I possibly can. I've looked at the school roster and from what I can tell, I'll only have two girls in the fourth grade, Cat and Laura Ingalls. Depending on what Laura's strengths and weaknesses are, I may allow them to work together. I have found that by pairing students who are weak in one subject with students who are strong in that subject, the weaker one's grades improve more than if I am the only one working with them."
"Cat, Laura, and her older sister, Mary are very good friends and I'm sure Cat and Laura will enjoy working together. I appreciate you being patient with her as she adjusts to a new way of life. There are a few things I forgot to tell you. First, Catherine will not lie. Matt said she lied each time she skipped school. I don't know what he did to get her to stop lying, but I do know that part of her punishment included not being allowed to ride her pony for two weeks. To Cat, not being allowed to ride her own horse is a fate worse than death. The other thing is that she has nightmares about her mother's death. I can't even begin to imagine how traumatized she was to be standing next to her mother when she was murdered. If she comes to school looking as though she hasn't slept and has a hard time concentrating, that will most likely be the reason. I haven't made up my mind yet, but I may allow her to sleep in the morning after a nightmare and send her to school late. If I do, I will most likely bring her myself or send somebody with her. It's a long way to town and I don't want her riding alone if she isn't fully rested. I will also be sending extra food with her. Although Catherine will eat breakfast before leaving for school, it is a long ride and she may be hungry when she arrives at the school."
"I remember how much she ate at supper the other night so I can imagine she would be hungry after the long ride to school in the morning. Don't worry about school the morning after a nightmare. If Cat is unable to attend, I'll mark it down as an excused absence. Laura can tell her what the assignments are and give her any papers I return to the students. You can just send a note with her the next day so she won't be embarrassed by having to tell me in front of the whole school why she wasn't there. I hope and pray that the nightmares end soon. I am curious, how did her uncle get her to stop skipping school?"
"Actually, it was my sons who did it. She spent her school vacations here and they told her that if she skipped school, she would have to spend her school vacations in Dodge instead of on the Ponderosa. She won't skip school now because Matt told her that she would not be allowed to spend her school vacations in Dodge."
Margaret sat there, not saying a word and frowning while Ben was talking to Susan. She was very angry about the way Ben had dismissed her ideas of how he should raise his daughter and that he said her sons were badly behaved. Both Susan and John laughed when Ben said how the family has managed to ensure that Cat will attend school.
"I can picture the look on her face when Adam, Hoss, and Joe told Cat that if she skipped school, she would not be allowed to spend school vacations on the Ponderosa," laughed John. "She must have been devastated when she realized that she could not skip school any more. I know Susan would have been."
They finished eating and John said he would walk the ladies home and see Ben and Adam at the school board meeting. Roy and Paul were in the restaurant so Ben and Adam joined them at their table. While John was walking his wife and sister home, Margaret said, "I can't believe that Ben just dismissed what I said about how he should raise Catherine. He is letting her get away with too much and needs to crack down on her now before she becomes uncontrollable. And how dare he say that our sons are badly behaved? There is nothing wrong with the way Seth and Jackson behave."
"No Marge," said Susan. "You were wrong. You didn't pay a bit of attention to what Ben said about Cat when we were at the Ponderosa for supper. Also, you attacked him about the way he is raising his sister's daughter without knowing any of the facts. He was right about Seth and Jackson. They are very badly behaved because you refuse to let John do his job as their father and discipline them. I guarantee you that if they misbehave in school and deserve it, I will use the rod on them. Catherine was very well behaved when we were there and did not argue at all when she was told her time on the swing was up, or to come in from the pasture. Nor did she argue when she was told to help Hop Sing bring the food from the kitchen and to help clear the table. Your sons would have had temper tantrums over the first two things and would have refused to help bring the food to the table and help clear it after supper. Even though Cat has never had her own bedroom before, it is very neat while Seth and Jackson's bedrooms are a total disaster. I'm not very good at quoting Bible verses, but somewhere in at least one of the Gospels, Jesus says something about not trying to remove the speck from your neighbor's eye before removing the log from your own. I suggest you locate that passage, read it and ask Reverend Long to explain it to you."
Margaret started to reply to her sister-in-law when her husband said, "Sue is right. You attacked Ben over the way Cat has been raised. However, she was very well behaved while our sons are not. When we were at the Ponderosa for supper, we were late getting there because our sons had a fight just before we were supposed to leave. They are ten years old and still having temper tantrums if they don't get their own way. You didn't listen to a thing Ben said about Cat only having been on the Ponderosa for about two weeks. All you heard is that she rarely wears dresses, her puppies sleep in her bed and she has an Apache brother. Those three things offended your sensibilities, so you decided to attack Ben about them. You're lucky he's a gentleman and we were in public. Otherwise, he probably would have had a lot more to say. Now I need to get back to the meeting house for the school board meeting"
While John was walking his wife and sister home, Ben and Adam joined Paul and Roy at their table. "What's new on the Ponderosa?" asked Paul. "Are you having any luck keeping that little Wild Cat of yours from running?"
"I'm having some luck," answered Ben. "Hoss threatened to put hobbles on her. As for what's new, all four of my children are angry at me right now."
Paul and Roy looked at each other and laughed. "What did you do, make Hop Sing angry so he's going back to China?"
"No, nothing that serious. I yelled at Cat for something I thought she did but she had no idea what I was talking about. That girl is so much like Joe, I forget that she isn't Joe and start acting as though she is." He told his friends what he did to make everyone angry at him.
"Ben, how long has Cat lived with you?" asked Paul.
"She's been on the Ponderosa about two and a half weeks."
"Then why do you keep forgetting that she has no idea what your rules are or what you expect from her? David told me that you were ready to punish her on Sunday because she didn't want to go to church. Did she attend church every Sunday when she lived in Dodge? Did she play marbles for keeps when she lived in Dodge? If she did, does she know you consider it to be gambling?"
"No, she didn't always go to church in Dodge and she didn't even have her own marbles when she lived in Dodge. She didn't even know what I meant when I asked if she was playing for keeps."
"Then stop comparing her to Joe and treating her like she has or is going to do the same things he did when he was a boy. They are two different people and should be treated like that. I guarantee that if you keep yelling at her and wanting to punish her for breaking rules she doesn't even know exist or for things that Joe did when he was a boy, you are going to lose her. She is very independent and I wouldn't put it past her to try and make her way to her uncle in Arizona."
"Don't forget," added Roy. "I still have the money she gave me to hold so she can send telegrams to her uncles. If you don't ease up on her, I will send those telegrams for her. You have got to remember that she has not lived with you her whole life and was raised a lot differently than you raised your boys. Yes, Cat is a lot like Joe but that doesn't mean she's going to do the same things he did. When was the last time she lived in a family situation?"
Adam sat back, grinning as his father was scolded by his friends. He knew his brothers would enjoy hearing about the confrontation.
"I don't know if I would exactly call her time living with my father a family situation, so I would have to say that the last time Cat lived in a family situation was before her father went off to war."
"Ok, and the last time she lived with one of her parents was about eight years ago before her mother took her to Dodge. But you are treating her as though she has always lived with you. How is that fair to her? If you don't change your attitude immediately, you are going to wake up one morning and find her gone. Remember, she doesn't think she needs people. The Apaches have taught her how to survive on her own and I wouldn't be surprised if she knows how to hide her horse's tracks. If she does, not even Hoss will be able to track her horse. Is that what you want? Are you willing to risk the life of a nine year old child on the trail alone because she's a lot like your youngest son? Don't answer that question. You need to spend some time alone and do a lot of soul searching. The school board meeting will be starting soon. We need to leave so we're not late. Reverend Jonas is going to address the school board tonight so I'm planning to sit in on the meeting tonight."
"What is your, Hoss, and Joe's take on all of this Adam?" asked Paul as they were walking to the meeting house.
"My brothers and I are in complete agreement. If Pa continues to scold and threaten to punish Cat for things that he thinks she might have done just because Joe did them when he was a boy, the three of us are going to take her back to Dodge. We love our little sister, but it's not fair for her to be accused of doing things just because she is a lot like Joe. She thought that playing marbles for keeps meant keeping the ones you've won until the end of the game so the players know who won. Pa knew that Cat didn't have her marbles with her when she and Joe went to the Devlins. He also knows that she didn't have any toys until I bought her some in Denver. When she played in Dodge, she used other children's marbles and toys and returned them when she was done playing."
"Well, there you have it Ben. If you don't stop treating Cat like she's Joe all over again, you're going to lose her. If that's what you want, just take her back to Matt after Millicent's trial. Otherwise, start treating her like she's a nine year old little girl who has been through Hell these past several months and has no idea what it's like to have a parent or be part of a family. I know that Matt told you how he raised her but you seem to want to do everything backwards and drive that poor child back to living in the Dodge City Marshal's office where at least she knew she was loved and what was expected of her! Scolding and threatening to punish her for breaking rules she didn't know existed is wrong in every sense of the word and it needs to stop now!"
Ben sighed. His friends and sons were right. He wasn't being fair to Cat by treating her like she was Joe all over again. This was at least the third time in less than three weeks he had yelled at her about something she hadn't done or because she didn't know a rule. He knew if it happened again, he would lose Cat forever and she probably would not even spend school holidays on the Ponderosa. When she became too old to share the little room with Matt, he would send her to Rip and she would spend her school holidays in Dodge.
The four men walked over to the meeting house. When Ben saw Reverend Long, he asked if they could talk for a little while after the meeting. Reverend Long agreed and they took their seats. Mr. Miller called the meeting to order and Reverend Long gave the blessing. Then Mr. Miller said, "The reason I called this meeting is to discuss the condition of the school building. Since he is an architect and engineer, I asked Adam Cartwright to inspect the school for us, which he did. Adam, will you please tell the board what you found when you inspected the school?"
"My brothers, Mitch Devlin and I inspected the school on Friday and it needs a lot of work. The entire roof needs to be replaced. It has a lot of holes in it and there are several weak spots. One post and two beams under the school also need to be replaced. The walls and stairs are sound but a dozen desks need to be replaced. They have been damaged beyond use due to the leaky roof. A large portion of the floor also needs to be replaced due to the leaky roof. Also that building needs a good coat of paint inside and out. I am recommending that the start of the new school term be delayed by at least a week to allow time to complete the repairs. I spoke with my father and the Ponderosa will supply the timber needed, however my brothers and I will not be able to do the repairs. We have a large ranch to run and do not have time to do the repairs on the school. I have all of the measurements written down and I am quite certain that there are enough able bodied men in Virginia City to do the work. If time and our work load permit, my brothers and I may come and help with the repairs, but don't plan on us. We'll be starting the fall roundup in a few weeks and we need to start preparing for it. We have a lot of cattle that have to be moved to their winter pastures." Adam handed the list of necessary repairs and the measurements to Gerald Miller and left the meeting. Several parents who were attending the meeting and some of the school board members said that they would help do the repairs. The school board members discussed Adam's recommendation for a few minutes and voted to delay the start of the new school term by one week. After the vote, Mr. Miller asked if anyone else needed to address the school board. He was very surprised when Reverend Jonas stood up and said that he did.
Reverend Jonas said that with the exception of the members who had been elected after the last term ended, he was extremely upset with the school board. He scolded them for ignoring the complaints of the parents and allowing his niece to continue teaching the school. He asked how they could think they were being loyal to him by leaving her as the teacher when he would have removed her from the position himself if he had known what she was doing. He told them that as a man of God, he could and would never condone leaving anyone in a position of leadership if they were harming the people they were supposed to be leading, especially if those people were children. Then he apologized to the parents for his niece's actions and assured them she would never be in a position to harm children again. When a parent asked what was going to happen to Miss Smith, Reverend Jonas said he was taking his niece back to Oklahoma with him and when he could find a minister to cover his parish for a month, he was going to take her to a specialist in Boston to see if anything could be done about her problem.
After the meeting, Ben and Reverend Long walked over to the parsonage so they could talk. Ben told him how he kept scolding and threatening to punish Cat for things she hadn't done or rules she didn't know existed because she was so much like Joe. Reverend Long sighed. "Ben, you knew when you adopted Catherine that she was wild and now because she's wild, you're comparing her to your youngest son. How is that fair to her? Roy and Paul are correct. You need to do some soul searching and decide if you really want Cat to be part of your family. If you don't, take her back to Dodge after Mrs. Warren's trial. She'll miss the Ponderosa but not as much as she misses her friends in Dodge."
"Of course I want Catherine to be part of my family. Why wouldn't I? She's my little sister's little girl. She's family and belongs with me and my sons."
"If you honestly and truly do want her as part of your family, every time she does something that reminds you of what Joe did when he was a boy, this is what you need to do. Take a deep breath, close your eyes, count to ten and slowly let your breath out. Open your eyes and look at the child in front of you. Tell yourself that is Catherine, not Joseph and she doesn't know what is expected of her yet. When you ask her a question and she answers, don't assume that she's trying to get out of trouble and start yelling at her. Ask her to explain her answer and listen to what she says. Above all, do not yell at her unless she is doing something dangerous and stop yelling at her when she stops.
Do not scold or punish her because she says she says she wants to go back to Dodge. Catherine is not happy here and it's only natural for her to want to go back there. She had friends there and felt safe. Even more important, she knew and felt that she was loved. She had a lot of freedom there and you've taken that away from her. You tell her that you love her but as far as she's concerned, those are just words. You don't show her that you love her. Instead, you yell at her, scold her, and threaten to punish her because you assume she has done something wrong because your youngest son used to do those things. You have also told her that you don't trust her to do the right thing, so she always has to have someone with her. How do you think that makes her feel?
Adam told me that she had another nightmare last night but wouldn't let him put her in your bed because she was angry at you. When I asked him why, he said it was because you scolded her and weren't going to let her have dessert because she talked about getting revenge on Mrs. Warren. You could have let her express her feeling then talked to her and explained why exacting revenge is wrong. Instead you dismissed her feelings as nonsense, scolded her last night and said she couldn't have dessert. This morning, you scolded and punished her for running and having a bad attitude, including not wanting to come to church yesterday, wanting to get even with Mrs. Warren, and saying she was going to go back to Dodge. Just because Catherine is only nine years old doesn't mean her feelings are nonsense. Think about what you have done to that child in the last two and a half weeks and figure out how to change it. You're the only one who can change the way you are doing things. Do what I suggested and every time you look at Cat, remind yourself that she is not Joseph, has only been on the Ponderosa a very short time, and does not know what is expected of her. I can guarantee you that if you don't change your attitude toward Catherine, you are going to lose her forever and you'll have nobody but yourself to blame. Take time away from your ranch work, go someplace quiet where you can be alone and pray for help. God will help you, but you have to ask Him for the help you need."
The two men said goodnight and Ben rode toward the Ponderosa, thinking about everything that he had been told by his friends and the minister. It was after midnight when he walked into the house. Instead of going straight to bed, he lit the lamp on his desk, took out his journal and began writing in it. Just as he put the journal away and blew out the lamp, he saw a flash of lightning and heard the rumble of thunder. It was still raining the next morning so Hoss carried Cat to the outhouse so she wouldn't get her feet wet while Joe carried her puppies out and put them in the grass. During breakfast, Ben suggested that it would be a good day for his sons to go and check the mining operations since the weather was too bad for logging operations, fence mending and other ranch chores.
"Adam, can I go with you too?" asked Cat.
"Not this time Kitten," replied Ben. "There are two reasons for my saying no. First of all, mines are very dangerous places and miners can be a very rough bunch of men. The five of us will go there together one day soon, but not today. The second reason is because of the weather. I know that you are an excellent rider, but you are not used to riding in this kind of weather. If your horse gets startled, loses his footing, and falls on you, you could be very seriously hurt and nobody wants to see that happen. We'll all go to the lumber camp one day soon also, but you need to be patient for now."
Cat played with her dolls and read for a while but soon grew bored. She looked out of the dining room windows, walked to the door, opened it, looked outside and walked back to the dining room windows. Ben recognized the signs of a bored child and said, "I've got a job to do that nobody likes doing, so we save it for a rainy day. If you will help me do it, I will pay you for your help. Go and get your rain slicker and boots. Then we'll go out to the barn and I'll show you what we're going to do. When Cat came back downstairs, she found Ben ready wearing his rain slicker and ready to go outside. "Put your boots and rain slicker on, get one of your puppies, and come with me. I'll take the other puppy. We need to try and keep from tracking mud all over the house or Hop Sing will yell at me. He won't yell at you, but he will yell at me."
Cat and Ben walked out to the barn. "We're going to be working in here, so you can take your rain slicker off. I've got to go and get some buckets of hot water, so why don't you say good morning to Fury? I'm sure he misses being outside playing with you." Ben picked up two empty buckets and walked to the kitchen.
Cat opened Lady's stall door and Fury, seeing the open door, ran past Cat and almost knocked her down. "Fury come back here. You can't go outside today because it's raining." The colt ignored her, raced for the open barn door, and ran out into the pouring rain. Cat put her rain sicker on and went out into the yard after her colt. Because the ground was so wet and Joe's old boots were too big for her, Cat had a hard time chasing Fury. She walked around the yard, calling him as she chased him but he was having fun and ignored her. Cat got angry and said, "Go ahead, stay out here and get soaking wet! See if I care!" and started to walk back to the barn.
Ben walked out of the kitchen carrying a bucket of hot water in each hand and started laughing when he saw Cat chasing her colt around the yard. He carried the water into the barn, grabbed a rope and walked up to Cat. "I see that you're having some trouble catching him. Would you like some help?"
"Yes please."
Ben roped Fury and handed the rope to Cat. "Take him back into the barn and I'll get some towels out of the tack room to dry him off with." Cat took Fury back into the barn and Ben went into the tack room to get some towels. "I'll help you dry him off so you don't hurt your rib. I want to close the barn door first so he doesn't run off again." Ben closed the barn door and helped Cat dry her colt off. She started to put him back in the stall with Lady but Ben said, "You can leave him out. The barn door is closed so he won't run off again. He reminds me of a little filly I happen to know who got bored on a rainy day and was ready to run outside and play in the pouring rain without even so much as boots on her feet." Cat giggled when she realized he was talking about her. "Now, give me a minute to get some things out of the tack room and I'll show you what we're going to do today." He went into the tack room and returned with a bucket containing some sponges, scrub brushes, and soap. He was also carrying a harness over one shoulder. "We are going to clean bridles and harnesses today. Since the Ponderosa will be yours some day, this is something you need to know how to do but as I said earlier, it is something that nobody likes to do. You will not be doing this by yourself for quite a few years, so I am going to pay you for helping me. I will pay you fifty cents for every bridle or halter we get done and since the harnesses are so big, I will pay you one dollar for every harness we finish. After we wash them, we'll hang them in the tack room to dry and once they're completely dry, they'll have to be oiled so the leather doesn't dry out and crack."
Ben showed Cat how to clean the harness and told her to let him know if any holes had become long. While they were working, Fury kept trying to get Cat to play with him. Ben laughed as the colt kept putting his head between Cat and her work. She gently pushed him away and said, "Quit. I can't see what I'm doing if you put your head in the way." When he grabbed a piece of the disassembled harness and trotted around the barn, Cat had to chase him but her boots made it difficult.
"He wants your attention," laughed Ben. "Take your boots off, get the piece of harness away from him, and spend a few minutes playing with him otherwise he will just keep bothering you." Cat spent a few minutes playing with Fury, and then he started playing with Lassie and Silver Chief so Cat went back to helping Ben clean the harness. While they were working, Ben said, "I need to talk to you about what is going to happen tomorrow and Thursday. "Mrs. Warren's trial is going to be on Thursday. You are going to have to tell the judge and jury what she did to you. Tomorrow morning, we are going to see Dr. Martin and when we're done there, the prosecutor and Mrs. Warren's lawyer are going to show you the courtroom and explain what will happen during the trial."
"Is Mrs. Warren going to be there?"
"When, tomorrow or Thursday?"
"Both days."
"She will not be there tomorrow but she will be there on Thursday."
"I don't want to go there on Thursday. She will hurt me again."
Ben hugged Cat and said, "I understand how you feel Sweetheart, but you still have to go. I promise you that Mrs. Warren will not try to hurt you again. Roy will be there to make sure that doesn't happen and so will your brothers and I. Roy said he has an idea that will help make you feel safer during the trial. He's going to talk to the prosecutor and if Mr. Parker agrees, he will tell me what his plan is. Since it will be something that isn't usually done during a trial, Mr. Parker will have to ask the judge if it's ok with him."
"Why does Mr. Parker have to ask the judge?"
"Because the judge is in charge of the courtroom and he makes the rules that have to be followed."
"Oh, ok. But I still don't want to go on Thursday."
"I understand and I promise that you will be safe. If you don't tell the judge and jury what happened to you, Mrs. Warren won't face any consequences for her actions. Now I know you don't want that to happen, now do you?"
"No, but I wish someone else could go instead of me."
Ben hugged Cat, kissed her on top of her head and reassured her that she would be safe in the courtroom.