Summary: Part eleven of A Battle of Wills
Word Count: 11,800
A Battle of Wills
Ghosts of the Past
“You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy.” Erica Jong
Chapter 1
Virginia City
1871
Dear Katie,
I’m will write down all those recipes you asked for and send them off to you by the end of the week. I even have your mother’s chocolate cake recipe waiting for me to copy.
Glad to hear you all are doing well and Joe is coming along. I can’t believe he is as thin as you said. Maybe some nice home cooking will plump him up again.
That fancy dance sounded grand ! I can’t wait to hear all the details. And see your dress. So you finally got Joe and Emily together. You clever girl. Bet he never even suspected your maneuvering.
Stop worrying about Adam’s old lady friends. You know he loves you more than you even love him, you silly goose. It takes those Cartwright boys along time to make up their mind about a lady but once they do their mind is made up. Except maybe Kissing Joe. Ha ha.
So tell me all about him and Emily. Think she may be your new sister in law ?
I heard from Bonnie Newkirk just the other day. She and the babies are well but I suspect she is regretting ever going back to Ohio. Her father is ailing ( doesn’t he drink a bit? ) and the fellow she was corresponding with has decided he is going off to China to be a missionary. Can you beat that? She leaves here thinking she will get to be in a nice peaceful civilized town in Ohio and that preacher wants to marry her and take her and the babies off to bring religion to heathen savages in China. Even Hop Sing said he was crazy and should mind his own business and stay in Ohio.
Hays and Rebecca told Daddy that they hope she will come back here with the babies.
Tell Joe he had better send Casey Newkirk a letter as the poor boy is missing him terribly and is taking fine care of Cochise. Clem saw him the other day and said for a minute he thought it was Dean and his hair stood on end.
Love to all,
NancyPS I am sending the baby sweater with Ben and pink and blue ribbons both. You can add whichever when the baby is born. I am expecting to see that baby wear that sweater when you get off the train here !
London, 1871
Emily Darling,
Please tell the housekeeper to ready all the guest rooms for our return. I met a lovely family on our voyage and I have invited them to stay with us for a while upon our return. Please have them set up Ethel’s old crib as they have the dearest baby.
Also make sure Dennis has purchased the tickets for all of us for the Opera opening night this fall. I would hate to have him conveniently forget loving opera as he does.
Thank you again for dealing with Robert. I don’t know what we would do with out you tutoring him and keeping track of him.
I found you some lovely champagne colored silk moiré for a new gown and a bolt of delightful cashmere for some new fall clothes. I also found some dear embroidered baby things for Kate and Adam. You will be sure to swoon of all my purchases. As will Dennis over the bills.
And what is going on between you and Adam’s dear brother?
Best to all the Cartwrights.
Affectionately,
Amanda
Chapter 2
Ponderosa Ranch
1871
Ben Cartwright was clearing off some paperwork at his desk as dinnertime approached. He would be leaving for Boston the next day and wanted to be sure every detail that he could was taken care of before he left. Hays Newkirk, his foreman would come by after dinner to review everything. He heard a horse approach outside.
Hop Sing opened the door for Phil Bartlett.
“Phil, good to see you ! Come in. I was just finishing up here. I am headed for Boston tomorrow, to visit with Joe. I hope we will be coming back home soon. “
”That’s great news, Ben. Kate wrote that he is doing very well. And so is she.” Phil smiled broadly. “I’m glad to help her out by minding the Enterprise but I am itching to hit the road again. And Ben, don’t tell Adam I told you this but Katie is itching to get back here to the Enterprise and their own house.”
Ben laughed shaking his head. “I suspect he knows already.”
“It is a fine house that Adam built but it is far to big for to stay in alone. The carpenters finished up the baby nursery too. Nancy Foster was bossing them around from Katie’s letters.”
“What brings you out here, Phil ?”
”This,” Phil Bartlett handed Ben a newly printed flyer announcing an auction sale in Elm Grove. “The entire live stock inventory of the late Otis Massey’s well known ranch will be offered for sale by Thackery and Sons Auctions. The livestock offerings will include cattle and horses, poultry and sheep, and so on and so on. It is all listed on this broadside.” he read to Ben. “A couple of the Thackery Auction people came in and ordered them and has been posting them all over town . Thackery said he was headed up to Carson City to post them too. Seems like Andrea’s foreman has been getting on in years and is ill and can’t really keep up the place. Andrea sent them word thorough the attorney to get rid of the livestock and put the ranch on the market in the fall so the new owners could take over in the spring.”
”I suppose that means she isn’t coming back here.” Ben clenched his jaw.
”I guess not Ben. That’s all Thackery said. “
Ben looked at the date on the flyer. “That’s not even two weeks from now Phil. I won’t get back from Boston before then.”
“ I can ride up there and check, may be there is a story. I would like to see that infamous Otis Massey palace, mansion house anyway. I heard from Roy Coffee that it was pretty unusual looking. All pink and turquoise and gee gawed up with elaborate gingerbread and naked statues and all.”
“Good idea. I would truly appreciate what ever you can find out.”
”That Otis was quite a character. I thought maybe I could get a good story out of it. I’ll be more than glad to nose around for you. Hoss was a good friend of mine and I know what you have been struggling with.”
”Thanks Philip, I can use the help. The trail is cold and unless I can get the name of Andrea’s attorney or some miracle happens and she decides to contact us on her own, we have hit a stone wall.” Ben clapped him on the back. “And please do me another favor, Phil and stay for dinner. It’s darn lonely out here at mealtime with everyone gone. I would be glad for the company.”
”I’d be delighted to stay. And you can do me something in return, Ben? Could you stop by the Enterprise tomorrow and pick up a package I am sending out to Kate. I want her to get all the issues from the last couple of weeks and some of my chapters for her to edit. It will sure get it all there faster than me shipping it. Why don’t you stop by the Enterprise office on your way to the station tomorrow and pick up the package and some of the new issues they are running off right now? You can read them on the trip and save me another trip to the post office. I bet they get to Boston faster that way.”
“Just call me the Ben Cartwright Pony Express.” Ben laughed.” I’ll stop by early in the morning on my way to the train. Now let me go tell Hop Sing to set a place for you.”
Chapter 3
Virginia City
1871
The next morning Ben stopped by the Enterprise. Phil was sitting by the desk with Doc Martin tending to him and Clem checking around the disrupted office. Trays of type and papers were scattered about the area. Clem’s heavy boots crunched on the broken glass that was scattered about.
“What happened, Philip? Ben was shocked to see the mess.
”Someone was hiding in the alley when I came in and they slugged me. They said that they wanted Foster’s papers. Guess we did the right thing sending them out to Boston right off.” Doctor Martin wrapped a bandage around Bartlett’s forehead.
Ben nodded. Both Phil and Ben realized they had been talking in front of Paul and Clem. “I guess now the four of us know Foster’s papers are in Boston, “ Ben observed.
“Not the first secret I’ve been asked to keep and I am sure it won’t be the last,” Paul Martin said seriously as he finished bandaging Phil’s head. “Now you go rest for the balance of the day. That’s quite a knock you got there Philip.”
”Hey I have a hard head. It’s my glasses that got the worst of it” Phil put the bent and twisted glasses on his face where the rested crookedly on his nose. Paul Martin laughed despite himself.
“So now four people know that Foster’s papers got sent to Boston.” Ben said seriously looking around the office. “You and me and Paul and Clem.”
“Five, if you count Miss Barbara. She said that we should be careful when she saw me at the post office. She told me that my pressmen had told her we found the papers. Six. And the kid who sweeps up too. Seven.”
“Anyone else?” Clem asked. He started making a mental list of suspects.
“The guys who hit me. That was two, maybe three more. And if they were working for anyone.”
Ben raised his eyebrows and chuckled “I guess it isn’t a secret any more. Quite a few people know those papers were shipped out.”
“Well they may think they have them now. Ben, I’m not so sure. Maybe they think we made up that we sent the package to Boston.”
”What do you mean?” Clem Foster asked.
“They took that package of back issues that I wrapped up for Ben to take to Katie. That may hold them for a while. I had some of my chapters about Muir and.” he started to laugh. “Reverend Felcher insisted on including all the sermons Joe missed while he was gone. I thought it might be inspirational for him. I’m suppose Joe needs something to help him sleep.” Felcher was notorious for overly long sermons and more than once one of the Cartwright boys had dozed off in church. The most frequent offender was Joe, especially after a wild night in the Silver Dollar.
“And Nancy sent a few pages of recipes for Kate too. She thought she could fatten Little Joe up with some home things,” Clem Foster added.“ And some letters from my boys for Sam. They miss him something fierce and both wrote him a nice long letter.”
They all started to laugh despite the seriousness of the situation. “I suppose it will take a while before they realize that the secret of Cherry Creek doesn’t lie in a rice pudding recipe or Reverend Felcher’s sermon on worldly sins and being patient for your heavenly rewards.”
Chapter 4
Boston
1871
“The doctor said I had to stay in bed one more day, but I’m going to the jail with you tomorrow. I feel much better.” Joe told his father. “I have to see Will and make sure he is ok. Doc Meyer said the guards gave him a real bad beating, Pa.”
Ben sat on the edge of Joe’s bed and looked at his son’s thin face. Ben wasn’t so sure about Joe making the trip as he still looked pale and shaky. However, according to Kate he was clearly better than he had been the last few days. He seemed chipper too. He was moving around much better and a great deal more energetic than when Ben last saw him. At least Joe had a fresh haircut and looked neat. Joe had even bragged to his father how he was learning to shave with one hand and not slit his throat.
Joe was trying hard to make his father laugh and could see that he was weary from his long trip from the Ponderosa.
“Pa I just can’t figure this whole thing out. If we only had that note that she sent to Will. The one saying to come to the house.”
”The note Will claims she sent…”
”No Pa, “ Joe interrupted emphatically. “Will is not lying. I know he isn’t. I know for sure. And when he is free, we are taking him home with us. “
”If that is what he wants to do, Joe.”
“Kate agrees with me too. Even Adam believes in Will now and you know it takes a lot to convince your first born about anything especially regarding Will. Adam, said he was going to go over to the Stoddard house and look around. I saw him go.”
”What do you mean, you saw Adam go over there?”
Joe explained how as he sat looking out of the window watching the trees and the construction next door, he saw his brother poking around the back of the Stoddard House. “Go sit by the window and you’ll see what I mean. It is getting sort of dark right now, but you can get the idea.”
Ben walked across the room and looked out into the dusk.
“Look out to the next street. See the blue house? And where they are setting bricks on the new house? Now look just beyond, that’s the Stoddard house. It’s been empty since the murder. Guess the family didn’t want to stay where the woman died.” Joe commented.
Ben stared where Joe had indicated. He hated that house; even decades later it made the hair stand on the back of his neck. Adam’s mother had died in that house when he was born and it was the same house that Ben Cartwright had left carrying his screaming baby out in his arms. Despite Ben’s serious misgivings, Adam had lived there with his grandfather during college and he too been deceived and mistreated by Captain Abel Stoddard. Ben’s son also escaped out of that house after a vicious argument with Stoddard and also never returned there in his grandfather’s lifetime.
Ben saw a light moving through the Stoddard house as if someone was walking around with a lamp or a candle. “Son, I thought you told me the house was empty? Looks like someone is walking around in there.”
”Are you sure Pa?” Joe got out of bed but by the time he stood near his father, Ben could no longer see the light through the Stoddard house window. “Maybe it was just a reflection of the sun going down or a light in another house,” Ben suggested.
“Joe, tell me what you think.”
They stood side-by-side, shoulders touching in Joe’s room looking out into the darkening city neighborhood. Joe slung his arm around his father.
“I saw Adam go into that house and I didn’t see him go out.” He repeated simply.
What do you mean, Joe? Ben asked him again. They were all concerned at Adam’s abrupt trip to Albany.
”Pa, I was sitting right here on this window seat and I saw him walk over to the Stoddard house and I never saw him leave. I just must have fallen asleep. The boys say the spooks stole him.” Joe chuckled.
Ben gazed through the window, a grim look on his face. Joe felt him tremble for an instant.
”Pa, I’m just joking. Robert, that big dunce keeps saying that the house is haunted from the murder and from old Captain Stoddard dying there. Sam is beginning to believe him so I promised we would all stroll over there in the morning and look around for Adam.”
“That house is haunted.” Ben stared out of the window at the house his in-laws had lived in decades earlier. It was a terrible house he never thought he would ever enter again.
“Pa, remember when I was little, maybe just after my mother died and I asked you if there were ghosts? Remember you told me they didn’t exist?” Joe’s voice trembled as he spoke in a grim whisper. He had never seen his father so upset. Pa was his rock and it was very disconcerting for Joe to see him so rattled by childish foolishness about haunted houses.
“Yes, I remember,” Ben nodded wondering to what Joe was referring.
“Come on Pa, It’s only a big old fancy house. Just because Adam’s grandparents lived there doesn’t make it any different.” Joe put his hand gently on his father’s shoulder. Ben didn’t turn around. He stood staring out of the window. Joe could see their reflection mirrored in the night-darkened windows, Ben’s silver hair and his own thin face.
“I know son. But I have a lot of bad memories of that place.”
“I understand, Pa” Ben stared off into the dark.
“I don’t really know if you can, Joe. In a way Abel Stoddard was responsible for Adam’s mother dying. They had argued and she fell and she died shortly after giving birth.” Ben sighed and was silent for a moment.
” Then he tried to steal my son from me. Joe, he tried to take Adam from me when he was a baby. Then again years later, he tried to steal him away from us when your brother came to Boston. Remember that winter when we all were so worried he wouldn’t come back to the Ponderosa? You were about the same age Sammy is now and you were pretty upset at the prospect. You and Hoss wanted me to come here to Boston and drag your brother home. “
“We all were pretty upset. You told us he had to make up his own mind and come home on his own choice. Katie helped me write to him. For a long time we thought it was that letter that brought him home, not Stoddards rotten trick.”
“Did you know, that after Elizabeth died, Captain Stoddard wanted to keep my son as his own child?” Ben’s deep voice sounded far away.
Joe shook his head. He knew his father had fought with Captain Stoddard but never knew the details.
“Abel wanted to raise Adam as his own, to raise him as a Stoddard, not a Cartwright, to keep him, Joe. He wanted my Adam, my son. Stoddard wanted to give me money so I would leave and never see my own son again. Abandon my child. That is how greedy that man was. He wanted to buy my child like he was a crate of import goods on one of his ships. Like a case of fine wines from France or blue and white dishes from the orient. I had to force my way into the house in the middle of the night and snatch my baby away. Did you know that?”
Joe never knew this part of the story. No wonder his father hated the Stoddards so much. He could never quite understand why Pa would have gone off with such a newborn baby and no mother to tend to it. He especially came to understand that seeing how long Bonnie Newkirk waited for the baby to get big enough to travel before leaving for Ohio. He knew his Pa was a very special father but now he really was amazed at how heroic he was. Joe couldn’t imagine how brave his father was in protecting Adam. And Ben was all alone, with no money or family and far younger than Joe was now when he went west with a tiny baby.
“ Adam’s grandmother helped me leave with him and Abel didn’t talk to her for a long time. Years I wager. I think she was afraid I would kill Abel so she handed me my baby so I would go. Abel was an greedy, evil, bitter man.”
Joe nodded. He could imagine his Pa breaking down the Stoddard’s door and demanding his baby. It took a lot to set Pa off but when he built up to a boil and his family was at risk, Ben’s fury was notorious. Joe was confident his entire life that his father would always protect his family no matter what and he had seen Ben always fight tooth and nail for his children.
Joe suddenly understood that was part of why his father was unyielding on trying to find Hoss’s baby. Pa couldn’t bear to loose another child. They had lost Hoss to Striker’s gang and there was no way Pa was going to let that baby be stolen from them.
Ben continued staring out of the window. He rubbed his chin as he continued to tell Joe the horrible story.
“Then Captain Stoddard tried to get Adam to stay here in Boston when he finished college. When your brother said he wanted to come back to the Ponderosa, that son of a bitch tried to trick him into staying. You know what he did to Amanda and Dennis?”
Joe nodded. He remembered what Adam had told him years earlier about Abel and Mr. Bruce trying break up Dennis and Amanda and trick her into marrying his brother. Stoddard and Bruce were looking for a merger of sorts, just like a business deal between the two partners, my daughter for your grandson. To hell with Dennis and who he loved. To hell with Amanda and that she wanted Dennis even more.
Adam found out their plot and never spoke to Stoddard ever again. Stoddard’s plot was like Emily marrying Richard to please the family but far worse. Adam hadn’t even known he was being bought and sold like a breeding bull to improve a herd’s bloodlines.
Joe stared up into his father’s troubled dark brown eyes and he could see all the years of sadness in his father’s heart, how much he had loved Elizabeth as much as he had loved Joe’s own mother but in a different way. Adam’s mother had been the innocent love of his youth. Marie had been the passion of his maturity. No one still alive remembered Elizabeth Stoddard Cartwright but his Pa.
“Guess it really is a ghost house for you Pa.” Joe hugged his father.
Ben wrapped his protective arms around his youngest son and pulled him close. “I’ll go over there tomorrow with you and the boys. I suppose we all have to face down our own ghosts.”
”Or maybe it really is a ghost Mr. Cartwright!”
Ben and Joe turned to see Robert Charles O’Mara standing by the door in his nightshirt. His blonde hair stood up in cowlicks. “Maybe the ghosts really got Adam, Mr. Cartwright.” The husky blond boy who usually looked so defiant and sullen looked terrified. “Please be careful Joe. Don’t let them get any of you.” He whispered. “Bring Adam back for Sam and Katie.”
Chapter 5
Boston
1871
Kate lit the lamp in the bedroom, it had been a long day and she was very tired. The baby must be tired too as she felt it dancing much slower and she only did one loop dee loop in the last half hour. It was dancing more of a waltz than a jig.
She had gotten the note that Adam would be gone for a few days and missed him already. She looked longingly at the bed but knew she wouldn’t be able to rest until she had checked on his father. Ben had scarcely spoken to her since he arrived at the house. He had sat upstairs with Joe for most of the evening catching up on his health and telling him about the work on the Ponderosa.
Joe kept insisting that Laura had something to do with the accusation against Will. Kate couldn’t make up her mind if she agreed with him because he was right or if she agreed with him because she still was jealous of her husband’s blonde former fiancée. She had run a newspaper and had always been able to keep the line between fact and opinion but she never had to deal with the likes of a Laura Dayton before.
After a late dinner, Ben had retired to his room, leaving Kate and the rest to have dessert without him. He promised Sam that he would spend some time with him the next day after he and Joe visited Will in the jail. Fortunately Sam didn’t make a fuss and accepted that Ben needed to be with Joe for a while tonight.
Tapping softly on the door of her father in law’s room, she heard Ben approach the door and open it, standing aside for Kate to enter, Ben closed the door behind him.
“Is everything all right Katie?”
“I just came to say good night to you Ben and to see if you needed anything” even as Kate said the words she could see that Ben was far from alright, he looked exhausted and worried.
Ben sat down on the bed and looked at his daughter in law “I’m just tired,” he told her smiling weakly. “Nothing a good nights sleep won’t cure. I just checked on Sammy and he was sleeping. He got so grown up since he’s been here.“
“Ben, I know you most of my life. You can’t fool me. What really is bothering you?”
“Besides Joe’s condition? And resurrecting the Cherry Creek business? I told you about Phil being attacked. And Andrea.” his voice trailed off.
”There is more?”
Ben looked at Kate who would never give up on getting him to answer. It was too late at night to play cat and mouse with her. He needed to tell her fully what he was thinking. “This is not at all like Adam to forget to meet me at the train or to go off without saying good bye to you and Sam. He didn’t even pack a bag. I don’t feel right about this Katie. ”
“Robert Charles insists that ghosts stole Adam. Sam wants to go over to the Stoddard house right this minute and look for his father. I can’t believe that boy is purposely frightening Sammy.”
Ben smiled. “Tell Sam to hold his horses. I am sure there is a good explanation for this entire situation. Joe and I will walk around there after we get back from visiting Will in jail. I’m sure Adam is fine and he and young Preston are just checking some witnesses in Albany, just like the note said.” Ben lied. He was very sure there was something very wrong but there was no way he was going to upset his pregnant daughter in law. He had lost one grand child and there was no way he was going to endanger this one.
Kate looked at Ben. She knew he was full of beans and was just pretending that everything was fine. She was sick to death of all these Cartwright men treating her like a fragile porcelain figurine. Didn’t any of them realize she had been pregnant with Sam and no one hovered over her and she had even been supporting herself and Al working at the San Francisco Examiner until Sam was born ? They didn’t even have enough money to pay the doctor bills and they paid him off a bit each week until Sam was almost walking.The baby even had to sleep in a dresser drawer and she managed. Katie couldn’t understand why they were suddenly treating her like one of the bubble headed girls Joe used to chase after. Didn’t they realize that despite all that was going on how much easier and happier her life was with Adam as her beloved husband?
“Ben something is very wrong here and you telling me otherwise won’t change it. Adam would never go off like this. Never. If we don’t hear from him by tomorrow afternoon, I am going to the police. If you like it or not. I am Adam’s wife and he would never leave like this.”
Chapter 6
Boston, 1871
Emily had been watching Joe for quite while before he realized she was there. She delighted in watching how agile he was as he moved around checking the horses, selecting a harness, adeptly adjusting something on the carriage wheel. He lifted the feed bin and held it open with his shoulder as he efficiently scooped out some grain for the horses. He really was looking so much stronger.
Joe looked up from the horse he was feeding to see Emily O’Mara glide into the stable. His heart stopped when he saw her approach. She was wearing a soft silky canary yellow blouse and the breeze from the open window lifted the ruffled collar up against her the curve of her slender neck. “Katie told me that you would be back here in the stable with the boys.”
“I sent them back up to the house to clean up and study their Latin all morning. They must be hiding from you again” Joe smiled.” Could you make sure they don’t bother Katie? Pa and I are going to go check on Will. Maybe you can help her sift through Foster’s papers while we are gone.”
“Dennis left early this morning to check out something Adam found about our father’s ship.”
Joe looked up. What could the Sea Breeze have to do with anything? Maybe it was just some Stoddard and Bruce work that had nothing to do with Will or Cherry Creek or Joe.
Emily saw that Joe was all dressed up in his dark blue suit and looked so much better than he had the day before. The suit jacket fit smoothly across his broad shoulders and the white shirt was a sharp contrast to his curly brown hair. She saw the bruise on his cheek was a bit faded but she still had no clue how he hurt himself.
“What happened here, Joe?” She raised her graceful hand and gently touched his cheek with one finger.
Joe ignored her question not wanting her to know the dangerous situation her nephew had instigated at the Golden Shamrock. He also did not want Kate to find out about the brawl.
“I must have hit my elbow into my eye shaving.” Joe grinned, his eyes twinkling.
She laughed knowing that was anatomically impossible even for a circus acrobat or one of Sammy’s monkey house primates. She thought longingly of the time in the hospital that Joe had teased saying that he had shaved so he could kiss her. She would gladly have him rub her face raw today given the invitation.
”I feel better when I am out here in the stable even though Dennis only has these two carriage horses. I sort of pretend I am back home in our barn with Cochise. Now that I’m feeling a whole lot better, I’ll get stir crazy sitting in the dining room waiting for Pa to finish his breakfast.”
Good thing she couldn’t read his mind because just as she had walked in the door Joe had been day dreaming about how nice it had been cuddled up next Emily when she came home that day in the rain with her hair smelling so nice. She would probably slap his face if she knew the details of his daydreams.
“Do you miss your ranch?”
Joe picked up a pitchfork from where it was hanging on the wall and with his left hand tossed some straw into the stall. “More than you can ever imagine. I can’t wait to go home. I hate everything here in Boston.” He turned his back to her so she couldn’t see his flushed face. He felt like he was a schoolboy peeping at Miss Sylvie in the Altamont Saloon. Joe pitched the straw as fast as he could with one hand trying to keep his suit clean and his mind distracted from Emily.
“Everything? And everyone?” Emily bit her lip. She was hurt by his snappish remark.
Joe turned toward her and leaned the pitchfork on the wooden stall partition. “Not everything or everyone. I like certain people an awful lot.” He waited cautiously to see what she would say. Joe was afraid to buy more trouble than he could handle by admitting how he was longing for her and getting totally fed up with being so polite and patient. He nervously picked up the pitchfork and tossed some more bedding into the stall.
“These horses are mighty nice too, a matched pair. They are good tempered too. You need that in carriage horses that go through crowded streets. And I’m sort of even getting fond of Robert.” Joe laughed nervously. “Pa will be out shortly to help me hitch up the carriage. I still have trouble doing the fastenings with one hand.” He patted the horse on her nose. “I feel like a corpse at funeral wearing this suit and stiff collar.” He ran his finger between his neck and the stiff white collar realizing he was just blathering on and on.
Emily moved closer to him and put her hand on his strong forearm to stop him. “It looks to me, Joseph Cartwright that you would rather joke around than have a serious discussion.”
”Me? Me joke around? No, M’am. Never. “ Joe laughed at her nervously. He had been taken totally off guard by her coming out to look for him. Now he was alone with her in the stable and he knew she was a very proper lady. He really wanted to kiss her or even do more but certainly didn’t want to be disrespectful to Dennis’s elegant little sister. He wondered if he started kissing her if he would be able to stop himself or if he would drown in her warmth and the sweet rain smell of her wavy chestnut hair. This was the exact scene he had been daydreaming about when Emily walked into the stable.
She moved very close to him and put her hand on his chest. His heart was beating very fast for some reason. “Why do you always have to be so flippant?”
” Flippant?” Joe remembered Adam using that word on him and tried to remember what it meant. ”I guess it’s always been easier for me to joke around than say what is really on my mind or face all the things that are troubling me or…” he stumbled over his words realizing how very close Emily was standing to him. He could smell her flowery perfume that was even nicer than he remembered. He swallowed hard. “Or who I’m thinking about all the time I am awake.” His stiff collar seemed very tight and he ran a finger between the starched cloth and his neck. All his clothes seemed suddenly tighter.
“Or what you are afraid of?”
Joe blew out his breath and swallowed hard. Joe stared at Emily with a heat and a hunger that came from deep inside him.
“Are you afraid of Dennis or me? Or yourself?” She moved even closer to Joe and flipped a bit of straw off his shoulder. “I’m telling you that I am in love with you and you are making jokes, Joseph.”
”Em, are you falling in love with the real me or who you think I might be? I’m a rancher, a fence riding, horse breaking, beer-drinking cowboy. I work outside when it is blazing hot or freezing cold or raining like a river. Em, I’m not that fairy tale Little Joe, the boy Sheriff of the Ponderosa from Adam’s bedtime stories. And I’m not a one armed city guy in a dark blue city suit who lays on the settee in the parlor quietly reading books either.”
”I know that.”
” I go to barn dances and picnics not formal dinners in fancy dress suits and a top hat. I bet I read more books since you met me than I probably did in my entire life put together. I quit school as quick as my Pa let me to go raise horses and cattle and cut timber and work outdoors. That’s my life. The Ponderosa, not Boston.”
“Are you telling me you changed being in Boston into someone you aren’t?” Her gray eyes flashed and she tossed her head defiantly. She knew he hadn’t. From all these months sitting and talking with him and watching his courage as he slowly recovered she knew Joe Cartwright far better than he appreciated. He was certainly as smart as Adam even if he didn’t have the education. She had seen he was hard working and loyal and beyond reproach in character. Joe had even somehow managed to get her willful nephew Robert to start behaving. What more did she need to know?
“Who cares what kind of dancing you like or if you take a nap under a tree on your ranch or on the parlor settee, Joe? That is not who you are! That is what you do, not who you are inside, Joe.”
Joe stopped talking and thought about what she just had said. He had changed an awful lot the last year. His heart had been ripped out by Hoss’s death. Then he was laid up for months on end. Joe had lots of thinking time this year.
Circumstances had forced him to take things slower and be more patient, to use his brain more than his brawn. He was getting pretty good at going over contracts and figuring timber bids. All the things he had avoided his whole life and was sure he couldn’t do, he suddenly was attending to from his bed. He wrote his Pa long letters discussing work on the Ponderosa and decisions that had to be made. He was debating things he had read in the newspaper with Adam and Kate that had nothing to do with horses or Nevada. Will’s defense lawyers had even deferred to some of Joe’s observations over Adam’s suggestions. Joe realized that he had changed quite a bit.
“Maybe I changed some, but I still am basically who I have always been, just older and wiser, slowed down.”
That was precisely what she was trying to tell him. Joseph was basically who he had always been, a good and decent man, a clever fun loving fellow who had just been forced by circumstances to become slower and older and wiser instead of the flirtatious overgrown boy he had been. She knew whom she had fallen in love with even if Joe Cartwright couldn’t believe it himself.
Emily tossed her head and gave him a smile that made his heart melt. “Uncle Sean told me that real love is believing in someone until they can believe in themselves, Joe. I never really knew what he meant until I spent time with you.” Her gray eyes stared deeply into his hazel eyes.
He was totally afraid to touch her at this moment. Joe thought if he put a finger on Emily, he would never be able to let her go and move away from her. She was so beautiful and so clever and calm. Emily stood so close to him in a place totally alone and private. They had never been so alone together in all the months he was in Boston, at least not while he was awake.
“People don’t change unless they want to change or they have to change,” she whispered. He stepped closer to her. Now they were inches apart. A wisp of hair had come out of her upsweep. The long brown curl brushed against her pink cheek and he reached out his finger to touch it. ”Have you changed Joe? Did you want to change?” She whispered looking directly at him.
”I don’t want you thinking I’m someone I’m really not. I don’t want you falling in love with some imaginary man and getting your heart broken again. I don’t ever want to hurt you Emily. I don’t want anyone ever to hurt you.”
Like a flash of lightning it suddenly hit Joseph Francis Cartwright that Em had just said that she loved him. “I love you Emily. I love you too!” his hazel eyes widened in delight.
She really had come to him in her own good time, just as Adam had told him she would.
But to hell with being someone else or a new Joe Cartwright or a different patient person. He was who he was and he couldn’t go on being so polite and slow moving.
Just as he had at the Golden Shamrock when he jumped into the fight, he yanked his arm out of the sling.
Joe wrapped his strong arms around Emily pulling her close to him. She melted herself into him and he felt her heat against him as she threw her arms around his neck. Joe kissed her with all the fire he had been keeping in check all these many months being patient and polite and waiting for her like a gentleman. Emily pulled him closer reaching her hand inside his jacket to rub his back.
Just as he leaned over to kiss her again, the white planked door swung open and Ben and the two boys walked noisily into the stable.
“Please go over to that haunted house right now, Grandpa.” Sammy argued loudly. “Go look for my father and take us with you,” he demanded.
“Sam, your father is in Albany. I have to make sure Will is attended to and when Uncle Joe and I get back we will walk over to the Stoddard house and look around.”
”It’s a ghost house Mr. Cartwright. The ghosts got him and you better be careful.” Robert insisted.
Chapter
Angry eyes spotted Ben and Joe Cartwright as they drove down the street in the O’Mara Carriage on the way to the jail.
“Well, look who just drove past us in that fancy carriage,” Snake Kelly declared to the rest of the workers at the construction site.
“There he is that guy who we fought with in the Golden Shamrock. The guy that poked his nose into our business when that boy took our beers.”
“Can’t be him. Them is fancy rich folk in that carriage, Snake,” said Danny Sullivan his cousin. He picked up another brick and set it in place on the foundation.
“That s him all right and he had the police questioning us too.”
”Maybe he works for the rich folks. What would he be doing the the Golden Shamrock. Maybe he is the coachman or the stable man.“
”No he was all fancy in a suit and high collar. It was him all right. He had that plaster cast on his arm. And the other man was driving.”
”Just let me at him, Lads.”
“Next time I see him, I’ll give him and those sassy boys a what for they won’t forget,” added Snake. He spit tabacco juice onto the ground.
“Well now we know where he lives and we can wait for him and that other fella to get back.”
Chapter 6
Ben’s expression was livid but he didn’t dare go against the wishes of the head guard, Caleb Oakland at least until Laurence Preston showed up with the Judge or the retraining orders or both. Reluctantly, Ben and Joe were led the way down into the very bowels of the imposing Municipal jail building. They walked silently down the dank and depressing stone corridor off of which were a dozen heavy strapped iron doorways that led to the solitary confinement cells, windowless, airless rooms where difficult prisoners were locked up.
“Pa? They didn’t have him here before. What did Laura do? They said she just was visiting and Will went for her throat. She must have done something.”
His father shook his head and cautioned Joe by the look in his eye not to say a word. “Mr. Preston is supposed to meet us here. Let him handle this, son.”
“Pa she did something to him and she did something to Adam too…”
”Joseph.” Ben cautioned his son to be quiet as the head guard approached the man standing at the locked gate. Ben put his hand on Joe’s shoulder.
The floor guard, Simon Morrison came forward promptly “Sir?” he addressed the chief guard.
“Open up William Cartwright’s cell.” On his wide black belt a huge brass ring of keys jangled against his lead cored black billy club.
The burly guard moved to unlock the door and then stood aside for the men to enter the area on the other side of the bars.
”You people stay on this side of the bars. We can’t let you in the same area you know that. Will Cartwright is an extremely dangerous and violent man. After the incident with his wife yesterday, we had to bring him down here. You people don’t understand what a violent maniac that man is.”
Ben and Joe watched from the holding area as the guard went to Will’s cell.
The cell was tiny, no more than six foot tall, six foot long and barely three feet wide, the same dimensions as a freshly dug grave. Moisture from the hot air dripped off the battered stonewalls. There was not even a window in the cell. The space was dank and dark and very hot. The only illumination was coming from a flickering gaslight in the hallway.
Will was too tall to stand up in that space but it didn’t matter because he was too injured to stand. He lay crumpled on the bed facing the dirty wall. Heavy chains shackled him to iron rings attached to the wall. Even from where he stood, Joe could see that his cousin had been badly beaten.
“Pa look at what they did to him.” Joe exclaimed indignantly.
”Joseph, I told you to stay quiet.” Ben knew there was nothing to be gained at this moment by antagonizing the guards at least until the lawyers filed the paperwork.
“ You two can come in this area now.” The guard opened the heavy iron gate allowing the Cartwrights into the next area. Ben was first into the space, hardly believing what his eyes told him. “Will?” he said softly “Will!”
From inside the cell, Will turned at the familiar voice, he couldn’t see properly, his left eye was swollen shut but he knew his uncle’s deep resonant voice.
“Ben” he whispered thankfully. “Joe? Is that you too?” He moaned as he tried to sit up and see his visitors. The chains rattled against the stone floor.
Suddenly there was a flutter of noise at the stairway. Laurence Preston Junior, followed by Judge Seymour Nickerson came down the hallway. “Let those visitors in to the cell and then when they are ready, move him back upstairs into his regular cell. We have witnesses that your guards beat this man for no reason.”
A different guard opened up the cell and let Ben and Joe into the tiny space Will Cartwright had been confined. Ducking their heads, they both crowded in to see Will close up.
Ben reached down to help his nephew sit up; as he touched Will’s arm, he flinched in pain. Ben saw with horror that his nephew’s face was covered with deep, dark bruises and oozing cuts. Looking closer he realized that Will’s arms also bore bruises and bloody welts. His blue chambray prison shirt was stained with blood and grime. Will’s hair was matted down with brown crust from an oozing wound in his head. They must have beaten him again even after Dr. Meyer had examined him.
“My God!” Ben said angrily “What’s been going on here? You can’t treat a prisoner this way. Even if he is on trial for murder.”
Joe squeezed in behind his father. He also caught sight of Will’s battered face and body, he turned angrily to the gray uniformed head guard, who had backed away and now stood against the far wall. Joe gritted his teeth and unconsciously clenched fists enraged at the guard for beating his cousin.
Fearing that his son would start a fight and get hurt himself as well as make Will’s situation worse, Ben ordered “Joe get over here, right now.”
“Mr. Cartwright, Joe. We’ll make sure William gets proper care. My father has already filed the restraining orders and sent complaints in to the warden and the district attorney.”
Ben breathed a sigh of relief but still kept his hand on Joe fearing he would attack the guards. “I want a doctor in here immediately to tend to my nephew also.”
”How was your trip to Albany? Did you and Adam find what you were looking for?” Joe asked the young lawyer.
“Albany? I haven’t been in Albany. And I haven’t seen Adam since the fireworks at the O’Mara house on Independence Day.”
Joe angrily turned to his father. “Pa, I told you that Laura had something to do with this. She set Will up. And now Adam is missing too.”
Chapter 7
“Now, we go find Adam”
Joe was still raging from the experience at the jail. All the fury he had been holding back was boiling and he was ready to put his fist through the stable wall.
Ben helped him unhitch the horses and put them up in the O’Mara Stable
“Joseph, how to propose we get inside? Knock on the door and say we came for tea?
”Why not Pa? Just watch me.” Joe boasted defiantly.” They never met me. I was too sick to ever go to court. Smith never met you either. Just follow what I’m doing and we’ll walk right in and see if Adam is inside. If the house is empty we can go around back and find a window or door that I can climb in and.”
”With one hand?”
“Pa, I’m going to find my brother with two hands, one hands or no hands. Are you coming or not? I know he went in there.” Joe bellowed.
Ben looked at Joe. He had broken into the Stoddard house once before to get Adam and was ready to do it again. “All right, we’ll do it.”
Joe grinned, “ Ok, now we can’t be Cartwrights or they will know we are Will’s family. Who do you want to be Captain Newkirk or Governor Flanagan? Or maybe Reverend Felcher?”
Some straw fell onto Ben’s head. They both looked up, anxious that someone was eaves dropping on them from the loft. Ben picked up the pitchfork wishing he had his gun belt strapped on his hip.
“Who is up in the loft? “ he demanded loudly. “Show yourself.”
Two smudged faces hung over the edge of the loft. It was Sam and Robert hiding in the loft.
“Take us with you.” Sam pleaded. Robert nodded. He was wearing Adam’s tan jacket having misplaced his own.
“No you stay here. “ Ben ordered. “Uncle Joe and I will be back shortly. And get down out of the loft. You are lucky this only was a pitch fork.”
Joe sent Robert and Sam into the house with strict orders to make themselves scarce until he and Ben got back. Fortunately for all the Cartwrights, Robert Charles Bruce O’Mara and Sam Cartwright disobeyed them.
Chapter 8
“Sit down Captain Newkirk” Wilkes Harrison Smith invited the Cartwrights, indicating the chairs beside the late Captain Stoddard’s imposing desk. The man was about Adam’s age, thin and blonde. He was handsome in a dandified sort of way. He watched as Ben seated himself.
“I hope you don’t mind me coming in and visiting. This was the home of … of some friends when I was at sea. Captain Stoddard and his family and I have such fond memories of the place I couldn’t resist coming by to see the house again. “ Ben lied. Joe looked admiringly at his father amazed at what a believable actor he was. The elder Cartwright went off on some tale of his voyages and elegant parties that had been held in the Stoddard house.
Engrossed in what Ben was saying, Wilkes was unheeding of Joe who rapidly took advantage of this opportunity to look around for signs his brother.
“Big house you have here.” Joe said walking around. “When I was growing up in…. in. China my father, Captain Newkirk here used to tell me about visiting this house. He would say how remarkable it was.” He stood up and started to walk around the room as if he was admiring the furnishing. There on the edge of the desk where he had left it, was Adam’s black hat. In the middle of the room was a rug rolled up in a lumpy cylinder the size of a man’s dead body.
Joe swallowed hard and continued his lies. “He would say, Dean, my son, when we go to Boston I will have to take you to visit dear Captain Stoddard.” Joe stared at the rolled up rug.
Joe sat down next to his father and hoped that Wilkes didn’t notice how his hand was shaking.
“Mr. Newkirk,“
”Just call me Dean,” Joe smiled as charmingly as he could as he eyed his missing brother’s hat.
“Dean, how did you injure your hand? I see you have a cast on your arm.”
”Oh this?” Joe held up his right hand. He was getting anxious thinking his brother could be lying dead, rolled up in a rug not five feet away. Joe smiled nervously. He was out of practice keeping a poker face.” I was um bitten by a shark when I fell overboard from my father’s boat, er, ship.”
A velvety female voice responded from the doorway. “Shark bitten? Shark bitten? My Aunt Lil’s bustle you were shark bitten. Wilkes that shark bitten liar is Joe Cartwright and Captain Newkirk over there is Ben Cartwright of the Ponderosa. Will’s uncle and Adam’s dear old father.”
Laura Dayton stomped into the room wearing a ruffled blue silk dress that matched her eyes.
“Liar?” Joe stared at her. “Gosh Mrs. Cartwright isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black? Or is it the kettle calling the pot black? I can’t remember so well since I’ve been shark bit. And poisoned too.”
Ben’s jaw dropped. Joe had been right. Laura Dayton was some how involved with this whole mess. Why else would she be in the house?
Chapter 9
Once again, Simon slammed Joe against the wall. “You’re gonna pay the price” the enraged man hollered as he reached past the Cartwrights and opened the massive door behind him and shoved both of them into the cellar coal bin. As Wilkes held Ben and Joe at gun point, Simon roughly shoved them through the doorway as he slammed the door behind him. The Cartwrights heard a dead bolt slide in place on the other side.
“Where are we, Pa? It feels like a mine shaft.” Joe asked. Ben reached into his jacket and pulled out a match and lit it against the rough wall.
“I think this is the coal bin. See the chute and the door up there. We are on the street side of the house under the stair way to front entrance, if I recall correctly .” A slit of daylight shined under the door above there heads at street level. Before match burned his father’s fingers Joe turned and saw what he was talking about. There was a street level trap door connected to a narrow wooden chute that Joe was leaning on. Coal could be dumped from a wagon in the street in front of the house and it would tumble into the cellar and be stored in the coal bin. This was were they were they were captive.
As the Cartwright’s eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness and they could make out a bit of the coal bin. It was mostly empty, being summer, and a small heap of shiny black coal were scattered in the corners. The walls were sturdy wooden partitions and the door was heavy and clearly bolted from the other side.
“Pa, Adam was here in this house. His hat was on the desk.”
”You were right Joe. He did come into this house.”
To Joe, there was no real satisfaction in proving his point. He was afraid Adam was already dead.
“ Did you see that rug rolled up? I hope that wasn’t him.” Joe’s voice trembled in the darkness.
Ben sighed, “ I thought that too, son. I hoped it wasn’t him either. But it wasn’t long enough. I looked and measured it out when a walked past it. I know exactly how long my step is and the rolled up rug was not even six feet long. You can’t hide a man who is over six feet tall in there. His feet would have been sticking out.”
”You sure, Pa?”
“Joe, I measured off more miles of fence and hay fields and ship decks in my life time. That rug was too small to hide Adam, dead or alive.”
Joe was relieved. But that still didn’t answer where Adam was.
Chapter 10
Sam Cartwright looked up into the furious countenance of the bricklayers and knew there was no escape.
Robert had hatched this plan and ten year old Sam’s earlier confidence turned suddenly to fear. Robert had got him into trouble before with Uncle Joe’s gun and with the bar room brawl and Sam feared that Robert had taken him down the wrong path again. Maybe they should have waited for Grand pa and Uncle Joe to come back like they said. They had said they would be right back and now it was almost dinner time and they had disappeared into the Stoddard house. They went in and didn’t come back, just like his father. The ghosts did have them. It was up to him and Robert to save them from whatever was in the house.
“Look who we got here!” A husky workman grabbed Sam Cartwright’s collar.
These were the same men Uncle Joe had fought with in the Golden Shamrock. They were going to try to stop the boys from getting to the spook house and finding Uncle Joe, his father and his grandfather. They were blocking the sidewalk.There was no way Sam and Robert would be able to walk to the Stoddard house on the next street with them in the way.
“Robert, what are we gonna do?” Sam looked plaintively at the older boy.
For once in his life, Robert’s brain was working. He was sure the ghosts had Sammy’s family and it was up to him to rescue them. Joe Cartwright had saved him and now he had to rescue Joe in return. Young O’Mara had picked a path and nothing was going to deflect him from that goal; that task and keeping Sammy safe or Joe would disembowel him like he had promised. Robert suddenly realized that maybe these fellows would be just what they needed. “ Follow me, Sam.”
“You embarrassed me in front of my friends” The bricklayer stated “and nobody does that to Snake Kelly!” With only hatred in the blood shot ice cold blue of his eyes, Kelly reached down and pulled the boy toward him. “You little rich brats better tell me where that other fella is. The good looking one with the bum arm.”
”The one with the bum arm who slugged you pretty good,” the other bricklayer chortled. Snake turned to his friend and told him to be quiet.
“You got the coppers after us telling them we poisoned him too,” The third man growled. “You think I want the Boston Police questioning me? I left Dublin to avoid that.”
“So where is this fella, this Joe Cartwright?” Kelly’s cousin Danny Sullivan asked. He pushed his face right into Sam’s. He stunk of sweat and rotten teeth and chewing tobacco.
Robert pushed himself between little Sam and the angry workman. He was almost the same size as Snake Kelly. “Leave this little bug boy alone.”
”Why should I, you fancy pants, rich boy?” Snake demanded looking at Robert’s expensive, clean clothes. The other men laughed at the remark.
“Joe is looking for you too, Pal. He said he was looking to fight you and all your friends any time you were willing. He said he would even lick you with no hands!” Robert needled the man. “Let go of Sammy and we’ll show you where he is. I would put money that you all are afraid of Joe. He killed guys out in Nevada. He’s a cowboy.” His family had always complained that Robert was annoying and could cause a fight anywhere he went. Now he was using that talent to his advantage. He needed to stir up a fight and save Joe.
Sam nodded “My Uncle said he would fight all of you if you could find him over in that house.” Sam pointed at the Stoddard house. “You might have to hunt him up but he is there waiting for a rematch.”
Kelly let Sam go. He stepped behind Robert’s bulk.
“He wants to fight us again you say? Where is he?”
”He is right over there in that house. He said we should tell you to come over and find him. Joe Cartwright is his name. He is Sammy’s uncle and he said he would wait for you.”
Sam realized what Robert was doing” My uncle said he would kick your skinny rear end into next week. One at a time or all four of you together or bring all your friends too. And some bricks to throw at each other. And clubs too.”
”You go over to that house over there and knock on the door. The guy there might not want you to know where my uncle is but you can … you can push by him. He’s a fancy pants sissy. And he lies too.”
”Punch him in the nose and knock him down. Push him down and kick him too. He don’t want my uncle fighting you in his house and knocking things over but you just hit him and shove him aside and call my uncle’s name and he’ll come fight you and all your boys.”
“Yeah my uncle said if you beat him up he would buy you all a lot of whiskey and beer to celebrate in the Golden Shamrock but the guy in the house said not too because you were…”
”Because you were all Irish !” Robert O’Mara , son of Dennis Sean O’Mara and nephew of Sean Patrick O’Mara originally from County Cork blurted out.
Sam and Robert smiled watching the brick layers getting angrier. ” Well don’t that beat all. Son of a sea monkey. Bet he favors Queen Victoria too. That cowboy uncle said that?”
”Yes sir. He sure did. And the guys in the house said it double. Those guys said Irish are the ruination of Boston. You just push past anyone that tells you that. I would go right now if I were you. Unless you are afraid.”
Snake Kelly pushed past Robert “Afraid ? You think Snake Kelly is a feared of some fancy rich boys? Snobs who hate Ireland and my people? Let’s go fellas. I want to show that Joe Cartwright a lesson.”
Snake and his three burly angry pals picked up some loose bricks and a few lengths of board and a hoe. They swaggered across the street to the front of the Stoddard house hollering “Joe Cartwright come out here now you one armed fancy pants fool and meet your maker!”
Robert grabbed Sam’s arm and they ran the other way and climbed over the fence and headed for the back of the house. As they ran Robert thrust his hands into the pockets of Adam’s tan jacket and felt the strings of fire crackers that Adam had stuffed in there when it started to rain on Independence Day.
Continue on to Battle of Wills Part 12
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