Summary: Part five of Home
Word Count: 8360
Home
Chapter 1
Virginia City
November 1871
Kate Wallace Cartwright sat in her dining room as the difficult day wore on to evening. The housekeeper had left to help out her sick sister. Kate had lit the lamps in the room as it got dark and the room was bathed in a golden glow. She sat with her back to the newly installed stained glass window and looked up at the lovely still life painting of fruit that her brother in law Joe hated. He insisted on teasing Adam about his “ugly painting” and Adam teased him back that he had the stained glass window made just for Joe to enjoy when he came to dinner. Kate’s husband insisted Joe had to sit with his back to the painting so he wouldn’t have to hear his complaints and gripes about losing his appetite.
Katie sighed wearily as she looked at the piles of papers she had been examining most of the afternoon. The deep wooden crate sat in the middle of her dining room like a coffin at a wake since the family had returned from Boston at the end of the summer. She had been sitting there holding her baby on her lap trying to make some sense from the confusion. There was just too much to go through and her eyes had become too tired to continue. Before they returned home to Virginia City from Boston all of them had sifted through the mess and pulled out all the nonsense and scraps of party invitations and other unimportant things from the significant papers. Now she was trying to unravel the rest of the puzzle.
Flanagan’s henchmen had almost killed the former editor of the Enterprise, Phil Bartlett for the information he found in the Federal land records office in Boston. Then the same men had snatched Sam and Emily O’Mara from the street and attempted to silence Ben and Joe when they came hunting for Philip by stranding them at sea in a small catboat. It was only by the grace of God that Ben had managed to keep that leaky sail boat afloat until the Coast Guard found them and brought them all safely back to Boston harbor.
Sam insisted that he was sure all along that his grandfather was going to get them home and had hardly been frightened the entire time. He thought it was all one big adventure and Kate was thankful that everyone came home safely.
Flanagan had disappeared without a trace after he abandoned the Cartwrights at sea. The authorities assumed he sailed off to hide in Europe or else the schooner sank after he sailed past Cape Cod and hit a late summer hurricane in the Caribbean.
“I hope you don’t mind but I am so tired, I’m going to take you upstairs and we will both turn in early. Both of us Cartwright ladies. I can’t look at these old papers any more,” Kate told Elizabeth as if the baby could give her an answer. Elizabeth was four months old and had just begun to sleep some of the night.
“Your brother and your Papa won’t be home for a few hours while they double check some things. You will just have to go to sleep without Papa singing to you, Elizabeth. Until then you and I are on our own this evening.” She smoothed Elizabeth’s dark curls. The baby yawned and stuffed her fist into her mouth.
Kate was a bit nervous in her empty house but she was sure all the doors were locked and she did have a pistol in the desk across the room. Katie looked at the clock on the mantle and decided that she really wasn’t tired enough to go upstairs and would wait down stairs until Adam came home. She hated to go to bed without him. She put the baby down in her cradle and walked over to the desk and pulled out the pistol. She laid the weapon on the desktop and waited to hear Adam’s familiar footstep on the porch.
“Oh I’m not too nervous from this business.” She said out loud to her infant daughter in the empty house.
Chapter 2
That fall, Sam Cartwright had been suspended from school for the “Infamous Embarrassing Long John Incident” as Adam called it. For those three days, Katie had brought him with her to the Enterprise office. Elizabeth had her own little crib in the office in back and came to work with her mother much as Sam had done years earlier.
Each day he could not attend school, the boy worked hard for his mother. He had swept up and put used type back into the wooden sectioned cases and helped straighten out the storeroom. He filed papers and dusted the shelves.
Eventually he got bored with cleaning up and started poking through the stacks of old advertising posters and maps that were piled up in one of the cabinets. Sam was delighted by the discovery of the old ratty maps and spent an hour unrolling them and spreading them out on the worktables. Sam was fascinated with maps ever since Adam gave him an atlas for a gift when he and Kate first married. The boy loved to plot out all the locations his father visited while he traveled on business. Adam even showed him how to draw his own maps with pen and ink and they would often make pretend treasure maps together for pirate games or maps of foreign countries that Adam had visited over the years.
”Look what I found Mama. A big map of Nevada Territory before it was a state. Can I have this to hang in my room?”
“Sure, why not? It must have belonged to Aunt Mim long ago. She would be tickled that you want it, Doc.”
Sam decided he would trace the map and put all the houses and ranches and towns on that he knew. Kate showed him where Virginia City would be on the map and they both penciled in the Ponderosa, Reno, Carson City and Elm Grove. He leaned the original map against the front window and put a big sheet of newsprint over it. The sunlight shined through and he traced the old map with a sharp pencil.
Could I put in some of the other ranches? And the other towns?”
Kate showed him how to look up some of the other locations in some of the records.” The Virginia City Hall of records as all the land titles in the county and they show the exact location of every piece of property and who owns it.”
“Really?”
”That is how all the land claims or transfers are recorded when someone buys or sells a piece of property. When Aunt Mim died, and I inherited the house they recorded it. When Grandpa bought the land that the Ponderosa is on years ago they record each parcel of land so no one can come on the Ponderosa or into our front yard and build a cabin or dig a mine and say that they own it. Or even graze cattle on it without the owners permission.”
Sammy laughed at the thought of someone grazing hundreds of cattle in his front yard and the cattle climbing up on the front porch steps.
”Can I go there and look up the papers? What are they called?”
”Deeds. That is the special official form that shows who owns some land and the boundaries and it gets entered in a big huge ledger.”
“ I have to go down to the hall of records to get some facts on the story about the new schools they are building. They need to set the districts for which part of town will use each building. Want to go along Sammy? I can show you the record books.”
”I would like that Mama. That is much better than going school.”
”Don’t let your father know how much fun we are having. He is still pretty mad that you got suspended.”
Sammy laughed and hugged his mother. “No M’am. Uncle Joe said the same thing. He said my Pa used to holler when he didn’t do his school work as much as Grandpa did.“
Some how Kate lost track of what her son was doing when the printing foreman ran into a problem with one of the presses. Sam sat at one of the big wooden tables in the Enterprise office drawing maps and coloring things for hours.
Eventually Sam showed Kate the maps. She could not believe what the boy had turned up and insisted that Adam double check what he did.
Chapter 3
Ponderosa Ranch
January 1872
Was Flanagan still alive?
Left alone in the living room Ben suddenly felt very disturbed. He took out his pipe and lit it, throwing the match into the dying fire. He poured himself another cup of coffee and sat back and stared in the firelight at the papers spread out on the low table in front of him.
These were men who played for keeps and had nothing to loose.
Ben was so convinced that the whole business had been laid to rest when the Cartwrights finally left Boston. He and his sons had hoped Flanagan’s ship had sunk and he had drowned at sea. Now, he was not so sure No one really knew where Ted Flanagan or Retired major Chadwick had gone. Ben Cartwright didn’t like the idea that Kate was pursuing all this awful business and his sons were encouraging her. There was too much at stake for her to be so fool hardy and she even had Sammy get involved. The night Adam and his son appeared at the Ponderosa with the map and all the notes on the properties and showed it to Joe and him was forever etched in his mind.
After Kate and Sam had sorted through all the land records and discovered the pattern, Ben had spent the intervening week sending telegrams to everyone he knew in the state capitol, in Washington, in San Francisco. He wired the president of the Union Pacific and the Secretary of the Interior and the Director of Indian Affairs. Both Phil Bartlett and Levi Victor contacted every government agency the two of them could to get information Even Roy Coffee offered a few names of old retired lawmen who were around years ago when all this mess started.
The more they found the worse the information became.
Ben was disheartened when they all confirmed that the deeds were in the name of Flanagan or Chadwick or Harrison even though much of the land was deeded to the Indians or recorded as public lands or as part of the railroad right of way. All the records had been tampered with or altered in the Nevada land offices to show the three men owned land that really was not theirs. Some one, most certainly a Flanagan appointee had filed cleverly forged deeds for years.
The current state government and the Federal officials would finally launch an investigation and it would take months, if not years to get the records straightened out and returned to the accurate land titles.
Ben’s heart lurched in his chest. These greedy men had perpetuated a fraud on the government, on the Indians and on the railroads to obtain all this land. The more the Cartwrights looked, the more extensive the conspiracy appeared. They had even attempted to tamper with the title of the Ponderosa. Had he and Adam not been more vigilant with their legal records over the years, Flanagan could have devoured the boundaries of his ranch like locusts. The Ponderosa and the Cartwright holdings were undamaged but how many of Ben’s friends and neighbors had lost their land deeds or the land in reality?
Ben walked over to the dining room table and looked at the big map that his grandson Sammy had colored in with the fancy pencils Joe had bought him in Boston. The red Flanagan deeds and the blue Chadwick deeds and yellow Harrison deeds made an evenly patterned checkerboard surrounding the Ponderosa and leading up along Cherry Creek. One red, one blue, one yellow in alternating concentric rows that took close to three decades of murder and plotting to build. He stared at it in disbelief. No wonder Flanagan’s men had tried to kill Philip Bartlett and the Cartwrights. Flanagan had tried to murder all of them rather than let the source of his wealth come to light. How big was this conspiracy? How long had it been going on?
“Good Lord,” Ben thought putting his hand to his mouth. “Marie was still alive when Dayton had been murdered because they wanted that ranch. How many people had they killed to acquire their paper Empire of stolen ranches and homesteads? How many men had Major Chadwick sent out to fight and murder the innocent Indians to keep thing stirred up so people would blame the Paiutes for things Flanagan and Harrison had done? When Ka-Pusta had seen through the lies and rebelled, they set him up to take the blame.
Suddenly Ben remembered Carl Duprey and his daughters. At that time, Little Joe had insisted that Indians hadn’t murdered them. He and Dean Newkirk had even gone to Sheriff Coffee with the idea that the same men who had attacked Dean on the range had murdered the Dupreys. No one had listened to his boy then insisting it was all his imagination. Everyone thought that Joseph was just insane with grief because the boy had been in love with Amy Duprey and had wanted to marry her. Ben shivered at all the “what ifs’ that spun around in his mind. They probably would have been married many years now and had children of their own. Dayton, Duprey, Foster Wallace were all long dead, all victims of the same set of men.
Chapter 4
Nevada Territory
1859
Will Cartwright swaggered into the small saloon. The place was crowded with noisy, hard drinking cowboys and miners and the wranglers from a recently ended cattle drive. It was the most disreputable establishment in a town that was one cut above Sodom and Gomorrah.
Now matter how desperate his situation was or how empty his pockets and stomach were, Will Cartwright always gave the illusion of being in total charge of the of the space he was in and the life he was leading. He was a tall, well built man with dark hair and a moustache. Women found him attractive and men found him good companion over a card table. Will had broad shoulders and narrow hips and had a knack for making even the shabbiest suit of clothes look like they were custom tailored. Even though he needed a bath, a shave and a fresh shirt, Will still gave a neatly turned out appearance compared to the other noisy, hard drinking trail hands and miners filling the Rusty Spur Saloon.
Cartwright was down to his last few dollars and knew he needed to find work, legitimate or otherwise or he would be in bad trouble. Winter would be coming on very soon and the thought of sleeping outside in his thin jacket was not in the least appealing. He hadn’t had a decent meal in a couple of weeks and the soles of his boots were wearing pretty thin. The horse he was riding was an old nag he had won in a poker game in Cheyenne after his own horse pulled up lame and had to be shot. Maybe he could put together some cash playing cards.
Risky as this was, he had done it before and danger and risk never much bothered Will Cartwright. Matter of fact, he preferred risk taking any other way of living. Will thrived on excitement and living an unsettled life of adventure and dangerous companions. He had been on his own for many years and loved living each day as it came. He was never a man to make long term plans or commitments or settle down in one place for more than he needed.
He could always work the mines or sign on some ranch as a hand but that seems too boring and too much dirty hard work for the pay. Thirty dollars a month and a place in the bunkhouse with a dozen other men didn’t hold great appeal to Will Cartwright. Since he left the east, Will avoided doing anything that meant breaking his back for small change. He was usually looking for an adventure or a chance to strike it big.
He leaned on the bar and ordered a beer eyeing the crowded place for some conversation that might lead to some sort of cash. At least he could spend some amusing time with one of the bar maids if nothing else worked out.
A slender young man with brown curly hair squeezed through the loud drunk crowd. He stood next to Will and ordered himself a beer. The cowboy looked vaguely familiar. He was about seventeen, wearing a green jacket and had a handsome face and curly brown hair. Will watched his reflection in the fancy mirror hung behind the bar and tried to figure where he knew the kid from. Eventually, he decided that the young fellow reminded him of his Uncle Ben’s youngest boy, Little Joe. It wasn’t Joe for sure but the guy standing next to him drinking a beer sure looked a lot like him. Probably the guy looked more like Little Joe than his own brothers did. But as he looked at the young fellow, he noticed this young man had a sour angry look and a hardness in his eyes that bespoke a rough life.
Joe always had a grin on his face and a certain carefree happy go lucky attitude. As his Uncle’s youngest, Little Joe Cartwright had been pretty well protected by everyone around him. He was sort of everyone’s pet in the family even though the rest of them would never admit to it.
Will remembered his mother saying that Uncle Ben spoiled that boy and would have the devil to pay when Joseph grew up. “Spare the rod, and spoil the child” she would always say as she laid a tanning on Will. His father had died and Will was pretty much disconnected from any family or folks back east. He had visited his uncle on his ranch a couple of years earlier and despite Ben’s offer of a job, Will really wanted no part of staying in one place permanently. There was too much of the world to see to stay on the Ponderosa for longer than a couple of weeks. When Will rode out his uncle hugged him and slipped him some cash and told his nephew that he should stay in touch. “We are all the family you have son and if you ever need anything you know I am here for you no matter what. My boys too.”
Will thought Ben Cartwright was a nice guy but a bit self-righteous for Will’s taste. He always was preaching that honest hard work was the only way to achieve anything. Will thought that might be fine for Ben and his boys, but not for him
Chapter 5
Danny Lowell moved forward to grasp Will’s hand in a friendly grip. “Glad to meet you, Will.”
”Glad to meet you too.” Cartwright smiled at Danny Lowell.
”Cartwright you said?”
”Yup.” He took the last sip from his beer and signaled the bar tender for another round.
“Where you from?” Danny Lowell asked. “I knew some Cartwrights one time, long ago.”
Will looked at the kid from over the rim of his beer mug.” Long ago?” The boy didn’t look much older than seventeen or eighteen. “I grew up back east but the last few years I’ve been rolling around out west, California, the Sierras, fighting in Mexico. Was down in Texas for a while working on a horse ranch. Going from one thing to another.”
Danny recognized someone living on the edge. He had spent most of the last few years getting by on his own. Things had been pretty rough for him and his sister, Andrea once they left Virginia City six years earlier. She eventually wound up in San Francisco and he was still scrambling for nickels and dimes in Nevada Territory with his buddy Cy. Danny had managed to survive doing what ever he could do and easily recognized Will’s thin wallet, threadbare jacket and worn boots as signs of a man experiencing hard times. ”What you doing now? Looking for a job?”
“Was there any doubt?” Will smiled, hoping his friendly voice didn’t betray his nervousness. The last round of beer took a big bite of his remaining cash. “You know of someone looking for ranch hands or to hire on for something better?”
”Got some friends who may be looking for some men who are good with a gun and willing to work long hours. But there is a lot of money to be made from what they are saying. You interested Will?”
“Are you going to introduce me to your friends?” Will was clearly interested. Maybe his luck had just turned around.
Danny directed Will to follow him to a back room where a group of men were sitting around a table. They were drinking whiskey and had plates of dinner in front of them.
“Danny? Who’s your pal?” The neatly attired oldest man asked. He had a ram rod straight back and a military bearing.
”Will. He’s looking for work.”
The heavyset man with a moustache stopped eating for a minute and looked up at Will. He stared at him and tried to size him up. “You good with a gun?” He put a bite of steak in his mouth and chewed loudly.
”Good enough.” Will smirked. Will hadn’t had a decent meal in days and the steaks the men were chomping down looked mighty good.
“Want some dinner?”
”I could do with some.” Will Cartwright smiled appreciatively hoping his stomach wouldn’t growl out loud.
The man gestured at the barmaid. “Bring these two some food. “Sit down.”
The second man at the table, a red head spoke and wiped his greasy chin on his sleeve. “Danny Boyo, so who did you bring us?” He chewed with his mouth open.
Danny Lowell smiled anxiously, and introduced Will to his boss. “This here’s Mr. Harrison, and over there’s Colonel Chadwick. And that’s Cy.“
“We work on the inside of our little project. You’re going to be our bodyguard, like a Brinks detective. You’ll protect some of our men and work moving some of our merchandise. Danny will be the one who makes the deliveries and picks up odds and ends.” Will thought this sounded pretty vague and confusing.
“Danny didn’t quite say what your business is.” Will reminded the other man quickly. He was pretty hard up but needed more details. He had learned that most dishonest schemes were vague in the details but he also had learned to watch out for himself.
Cy leaned toward Will menacingly. “It seems to me you ask too many questions, Pal,” he hissed. “Your job is to be the delivery boy and guard what we tell you to guard, that’s all. Too many questions could get you in a lot of trouble.”
Will drew himself up and braced himself for a fight, but Danny Lowell quickly put his hand in between the two men. “Now, Cy, you’re being a mite unfriendly,” he said. “Will here has a right to want to know what he’s getting into, don’t you, Will?”
“Cy, calm down. Will seems like a pretty smart man. “ Harrison liked this fellow. He looked tough and strong but hungry enough to do a job that was not so legal without missing sleep over it. “We are in the land transfer business. We buy land and develop it. But we have lots of cash and documents that we need protected from unscrupulous sorts. You know how dangerous things can get in these rough undeveloped areas.”
Will nodded.
Harrison chuckled at Will’s silent nod. “But Will here also knows how to keep his mouth shut, don’t you Pal? He seems like a man of few words.” The last sentence had taken on such a tone of menace that Will blinked quickly, not sure if he had imagined it or not. He looked at Harrison who met his stare.
The bar maid had brought Danny and Will platters of hot food and they both dug in. She poured them drinks and smiled warmly at them all but especially at Will. “Hope every thing is just fine, sir.” She winked at Will who wasn’t quite sure if he just had been hired for a lucrative job or if he had just signed on to dig his own grave.
Chapter 6
Nevada Territory
1872
She stood on the wooden sidewalk and watched him through the front window of the hotel. Joe and an older man with bright blue eyes were seated at a table going over a pile of papers and cash with some of the men he had with him at the auction. The older man must be the foreman. Mr. Newkirk was his name, she remembered from very long ago. The other men must have been the crew who had brought up his horses from the Ponderosa. Joe and Mr. Newkirk seemed to be counting out wages and sending the hands off on the town for the evening. The men were all backslapping and laughing as they left the lobby. The older man walked over to the hotel dining room and Joe headed up to the desk. The clerk handed him a key and he walked up the stairs.
She was totally positive that Joe Cartwright was just the man she thought he was when he introduced himself. She remembered from so long ago, his hazel green eyes and his curly brown hair and that he was left-handed. For some foolish romantic reason her sister had always been fascinated that Joe Cartwright was left handed. Meg was surprised how much about Joe she remembered so very many years later. But then again, Little Joe had stayed around for weeks helping her mother take care of things before they sold their ranch.
She wanted to apologize to Cartwright for the misunderstanding over the man she had just fired. Meg didn’t realize Stanley, the drunk, had just tried to hit her when Joe had jumped in. His cousin, William had come back to the office after Joe had left the auction corral and explained what had happened. Meg was terribly embarrassed that she had been so wrong about his bravery and how harsh she had been to him. She had just assumed he was some cowboy who liked to brawl and show off.
Meg decided the best thing was to come over to the hotel and apologize to Joe Cartwright. She certainly didn’t want to do it in front of a gang of cowhands in the lobby and now she would have to go up to his room. It wasn’t quite proper for an unescorted woman to go up to a man’s hotel room but Meg never much cared about what was proper or what other people thought. Besides, if she scooted past the desk clerk quickly enough she could go up without anyone knowing any better. She could see there was only one key missing from the rack behind the desk. After all there were only six rooms in this shabby hotel. And Meg could easily see what room Cartwright was in by looking at the key rack as she walked past.
Chapter 7
Joe unbuttoned his tan yoked shirt and pulled his shirttail out of his pants. His shirt was all dirty from his dealings with the drunk down at Thackery’s and he wanted to change into a clean shirt before he headed out to meet Will at Miss Ivy’s. Just as he was about to pull off his shirt, someone knocked at the door of his room.
”What’s the matter Will? Couldn’t find the place on your own?” Joe laughed as he swung the door open. It wasn’t his cousin standing there it was the attractive blonde woman from Thackery’s.
Joe stood in the door way half dressed with a surprised look on his face.” Well hello.” He smiled.” I thought you were my cousin coming back to hunt for me.” He wasn’t sure if he should finish changing his shirt or rebutton the one he had on or just stand there and do nothing. Joe didn’t want the young lady to think he was being rude or forward. On the other hand it wasn’t that often in recent days that Joe had an attractive woman just knock on his hotel room door while he was half dressed or even fully dressed.
“Mind if I step inside, Mr. Cartwright. I don’t think it would be in anyone’s best interest for someone to see me standing in the hallway talking to a man who is not quite fully attired. Not that I mind. I have three brothers and spend most of my time with cowhands around the stock yards.”
Joe smiled at her self-confidence and spunk. She was here and wasn’t flustered by anything she saw. Miss Emily O’Mara would have been stammering with embarrassment and swooning with dismay. Bonnie Newkirk would have turned a bright pink if she even was able to say a word and certainly neither would have come anywhere on their own. Certainly neither would be arguing with a drunk and firing him for beating on a horse.
”Please, come in,” Joe opened the door wide with one hand and buttoned a few of his shirt buttons with the other. At least his shirt was partly closed, even if his shirttail was still out and he was covered with dirt and sweat. “What brings you here, Miss um. I don’t know your name. Miss or Missus?”
”Miss Thackery. Margaret. People call me Meg. I came by to thank you and to apologize about yelling at you this afternoon. I was positive that you just were beating on that man I had just fired to show off or amuse yourself or something. I hadn’t realized what had happened when my back was turned. I really was positive.”
”So you were positive? Do you know what my Pa always said about positive?”
Meg shook her head. Her hair was honey blonde and she had combed it smoothly into a braid. She had changed into a soft sapphire blue wool dress that reflected her eyes and had a short navy blue coat over it. Meg looked even more attractive to Joe than she had earlier in the day when he was staring at her by the corral. “What does your father say about being positive?” She tilted he head and lifted her chin.
“Positive means you are really wrong but at the top of your lungs.” Joe laughed. “Guess being positive wasn’t enough in this case. What changed your mind?”
”Your cousin William came and hunted me up at the auction and explained what had really happened and that Stan was looking to whack me over the head with a stick and you jumped in to rescue me. I just wanted to say thank you for your help. “
She waited for him to say something. Joe looked surprised for an instant then he shook his head a smiled broadly. He ran his fingers through his curly brown hair. He really hoped he didn’t smell too bad.
“So, Will came back to tell you what had really happened? I’ll have to thank that cousin of mine. I owe him for this.” Joe rubbed his chin and wondered if Will had the nerve to tell the young lady to come up to the hotel to speak with him or Meg Thackery had thought of all this on her own.
”He told me that he owes you quite a bit.”
”Did he?”
“Yes, but he wouldn’t say why. What happened?”
”It’s a long story. Will went through a bad stretch in Boston this past year.” Joe shrugged. There was no need to go into detail of Will being in jail on murder charges and embarrass Will if he hadn’t told Meg himself. Will was innocent and hopefully that was all behind them.
“I don’t know how to say this, Mr. Cartwright.”
”Joe. Joe is fine. I sort of expect people to be talking to my father or my brother Adam when I hear Mr. Cartwright.”
”Joe, I don’t know how to say this,” she started again.
“Say what?”
”This isn’t the first time this happened.”
”You mean that guy went to hit you before?” Joe was angry again.
“No, not that. Oh no. No one tries to hit me a second time. Usually not even the first time. That’s not what I meant, Mr. Cartwright. Joe. I meant to say Joe,” she corrected herself.
”I don’t understand.”
”Long ago, you helped my mother and me. Very long ago. Before my mother married my step father.”
”Fred Thackery is your stepfather? I knew you were far too pretty to have him as a relative.” Joe flirted.
My brothers are step brothers but I love them all just the same. Daddy adopted me and Mother adopted the boys so we could be all one family.“
”My brothers are half brothers too but it never made any real difference to us either. What were you saying about me helping you out before? I don’t even remember seeing you at any of the auctions and I’ve known Fred for years. I would remember if I had seen you at any Thackery sale. You are far too pretty to forget.”
She smiled at his compliment. She knew that she was very pretty but it was fun to have Joe Cartwright try to flirt with her. He was terribly charming and Meg enjoyed having a good-looking man notice her.
“I really haven’t been working the auctions for long, not since Daddy got hurt awhile back. My brothers don’t really have much business sense and they needed me for that. And I love working with horses.”
”So when did I help you out?”
”You helped my mom and me back years ago. I was a little girl. Joe, you helped us out years ago. My family owned the Circle D. “
”Meg Duprey?” Joe’s jaw dropped. “Meg Duprey? Your mom married Fred Thackery? Imagine that. Little Meggie. You used to give me a such terrible time.” Joe leaned over without thinking and gave her a kiss on her cheek. “Meg Duprey.”
Just as fast Meg threw her arms around Joe Cartwright’s neck and hugged him close. She kissed him hard on his lips and then kissed him again, but slower and softer. The second time Joe pulled her closer and kissed her back, holding her against him. She smelled like the purple flowers that had bloomed on the Circle D ranch, the ones Joe could never remember the name.
She pulled away from him and before he could do anything she spun around and opened the door to the hallway. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come here.” She slammed the door shut and ran down the hotel hallway.
Joe remembered the names of the lacy purple flowers with the nice fragrance. When she had kissed him, Meg Thackery smelled like those purple lilacs.
Chapter 8
Pierce Winslow stood in the shadows waiting to see where Meg had gone. She walked quickly out of the hotel entrance and headed back towards the Thackery home on the North end of town.
“Meg, what were you doing there?” Winslow jumped out of the shadow and blocked her path.”
“Pierce! What are you doing spying on me? You are lucky I don’t carry a gun or I would have shot you !”
“Meg, what were you doing in Joe Cartwright’s hotel?”
”I needed to talk to him,” she was about to tell him about the error she had made and how she had come to apologize to her former neighbor when Winslow grabbed her arm.
“Meg what were you doing there?” He questioned her again angrily and put his face right into hers.
Meg’s dander was raised.Who did he think he was spying on her and ordering her about? “What I do and who I speak to is none of your business, Pierce Winslow!” She sputtered as she pulled away from him. Either he was sulking about indecisively like a limp noodle or he was grabbing her and have a jealous temper rage like a spoiled child. She was totally sick of his sullen moods and infantile ineptitudes.
“You are my business, Meg. We are supposed to get married.”
”Well just you forget about that you nagging spying dictatorial fool! I wouldn’t marry you if you were the only living man west of the Mississppi!”
”What are you talking about?” he shouted.
“I’m not marrying you or anyone!” She turned and stalked off towards her house. As furious as she was all she could think of as she turned her back on the speechless Pierce Winslow was why had she done everything she did that night? Meg had just kissed Joe Cartwright and broken her long time engagement to one of the most eligible young men in the state. She was totally confused and needed to get home and try to figure this entire thing out.
What she didn’t realize was just as she and Pierce were arguing in front of the hotel, Sheriff JD Cabe had gone upstairs in the hotel to talk to Joe Cartwright. She had forgotten that earlier in the day she had filed a complaint with the sheriff over the incident with Stan.
Up in the hotel room , the sheriff questioned Joe about the incident with Stan. “The feller said you pounded on him for no reason. I asked Miss Thackery right after it happened and she said you just jumped on Stan when she was firing him.”
”Sheriff, he was about to take a stick to Miss Thackery. Ask her or ask my cousin Will or any of the cowboys who were around the corral.”
”Is that so?”
“Meg and I straightened it out ask her. Will told her what happened and she came by and she apologized to me.”
“I will. You jest watch your self here, son. You ain’t in Virginia City. This ain’t Roy Coffee’s town. This here is JC Cabe’s nice peaceful town.” He moved across the room so that his back was to the window.
”Well, guess that is really lucky for me,” Joe muttered sarcastically.
“Stan is a drunk and a troublemaker so I suppose it is likely you are right.”
Joe looked past the husky sheriff and could see Meg and Pierce arguing in the street in front of the hotel.
“Look Miss Thackery is down there why not ask her if we didn’t straighten this whole thing out,” Joe pointed out the streaked window to the couple standing on the wooden side walk below.
“Sounds fair to me. Just keep out of trouble,” growled the sheriff.
“Yes sir. Joe shook his hand and nodded. He wasn’t looking for trouble. “I’m just here to sell some horses and see if I can get some breeding stock.”
The sheriff left Joe’s hotel room and the rancher could hear the sheriff’s heavy boot step going down the hotel hall.
Joe walked back to the window and looked at the sheriff striding down the street to catch up with Meg. She seemed in an awful big hurry to get away from his hotel. Joe pulled off his dirty shirt and washed up. In a few minutes he put on his clean shirt as he had intended to do a half hour earlier. Joe threw his jacket back on and headed out of the hotel towards Miss Ivy’s to meet Will and the rest of his men from the Ponderosa. Joe was going to have a few beers and whatever else the evening brought him.
Chapter 9
“Hey, Meg, do you think we could go someplace? It’ll only take a little while, but there’s something I kind of want to talk to you about, just you and me.”
“What’s this all about, Cartwright?” Pierce put his hand possessively on Meg’s arm. He had come by the auction yard as if nothing had happened the night before. This wasn’t the first time he and Meg had argued and he still didn’t believe she had dumped him.
“Is your name Meg?” She tossed her hair and pulled her arm out of Winslow’s grip. “The last time I looked there was the only Meg standing here, Mr. Winslow and it was me.” She smiled defiantly at Pierce than gave the same angry look to Joe.” If it only takes a minute, then you have a minute. One minute. I have a lot of work to do and a lot of livestock to sell.” She followed Joe past the corral as he pushed through the crowd of buyers and wranglers milling about. Her golden hair blew out from under her blue gray Stetson.
“Don’t take too long!” Pierce hollered after them knowing full well that Meg would do just what she pleased. She always had.
As they rounded the shed, Meg reached over to Joe Cartwright and pulled on his jacket. “Now that you caused a scene, Mr. Cartwright, what is this all about?”
”Me? Cause a scene? You are the one telling Pierce Winslow that there just might be something going on between us. He gave me a hard time as soon as I came on the property this morning. “Their breath made steamy clouds in the chilly air around them.
”Well, isn’t there?”
”Is there? You tell me.” Joe leaned casually on the side of the shed and crossed his arms. “What is going on between us? First you threaten to have me arrested for pulling some drunk off you and then you show up and apologize and …” His eyes met hers and he grinned his best charming grin. “I liked your apology the other night very much.” Joe ran his tongue over his lips and reached out to take her hand.
”Well I was really sorry about what happened the other day.” She held his hand and took a step closer. Meg Thackery stared directly into his eyes. Her blue eyes meeting his in a defiant challenge.
“Sorry about telling the sheriff that I slugged your drunk or sorry about kissing me?” Despite the crowds of people rushing around and the he pulled her closer to him and wrapped his arms around her. “Which are you sorry about?” Joe started to lean forward to Meg, excitement moving his blood.
”OK Cartwright! Let her go! You said you needed a minute and your damn minute is up!” Pierce Winslow stormed around the corner of the shed and yanked Meg toward him.
“Let her go, Winslow” Joe ordered taking a step forward.
”Meg, let’s go, Now.” Winslow pulled her close to him and stared angrily at Joe.” I told you Cartwright, stay away from her.”
“Meg? Do you want to go with him?”
Meg pulled herself away from Winslow. “Well isn’t this just a fine thing. The two of you thinking I can’t manage for my own self. Well here is something for the both of you. You two hot heads can keep each other company.“ She turned around and stomped off toward the main corral. “See if I need the either of you fools. I have livestock to deal with and you two bulls can go stomp on each other.”
Pierce Winslow balled up his fists and for an instant Joe wasn’t sure if he was going to swing at Meg or at him. The taller man opened his mouth and no words came out. She spun around and both men stared at her back as she marched away from them.
”Meg sure straightened all this out for us both. Didn’t she Pierce?” Joe through his head back and started laughing. “Guess she isn’t interested in either of us or she just wants to make us both dance to her wicked tune. Want to go for a beer, Pierce?” Joe had known Pierce Winslow since they were boys. Even though Joe tried to be friendly over the years, Pierce despised him for no real sane reason.
Winslow didn’t take this business with Meg as lightly as Joseph did. ”Are you kidding? Go for a beer the likes of you? Things were perfectly fine between Meg and myself before you showed up around here!” Winslow stepped forward angrily and stared at Joe.
“Hey, Pierce cool down. I came here to buy some horses and that’s it. Not look for trouble or trying to steal your thunder or your gal. You should ask Meg what is going on.” Joe took a step backward and held up his two hands.
“Joe you just stay away from her and get out of here as fast as you finish your business or you will be answering to me. We were all set to get married and …” Pierce closed the distance between them.
”Were you now? Both of you were all set to get married? Don’t seem like that to me. If thinks were so hunky dory I don’t think me looking to buy some horses would have broke you two up as charming and good looking as I am. Don’t seem like Meg is looking to marry anyone. Even you Pierce Winslow. “ Joe laughed. “Not often a Winslow doesn’t get what he wants in this part of the state.”
Joe pushed Pierce one step too far with this snappy remark. Pierce had never liked Joe Cartwright. His own father would tell Pierce how lazy he was and that Ben Cartwright’s boys worked just as hard as the cowhands even if the Ponderosa was a bigger ranch than their place. Every time Pierce would mess up or ask for something, Mr. Winslow would say that Joe Cartwright and his brothers would have earned it by working hard not by asking their father for a hand out. Now Joe Cartwright was trying to steal his Meg. He even saw Meg leaving the hotel Joe was staying in and then she wouldn’t tell him why she had been there. Pierce was furiously jealous.
Winslow decided he would end the conversation the way he had wanted to in the first place. He swung his fist and caught Joe in his mouth. Joe’s head snapped back by the force of the taller man’s punch. For an instant Joe’s ears were ringing.
Blood was pouring out of Joe’s split lip and splattered on his last clean shirt. Joe whirled around and delivered a solid left to Winslow’s jaw. Pierce staggered backward but came back with his own fists ready. Joe dodged the first swing but caught the second on the side of his head and his tan hat flew off into the mud. He almost fell to his knees but caught himself before he lost his balance. Pierce got hold of Joe’s green jacket and pulled him towards him as Cartwright struggled to jerk away. Joe drew back to deliver a gut punch knocking the Pierce backwards into a group of cowboys looking at the horses in the main corral. One of them grabbed Pierce and shoved him back hard at Joe Cartwright.
Joe bent over and barreled into the other man’s midsection knocking him into the mud. Pierce grabbed at Joe’s shirt as he fell over pulling Cartwright down to the wet ground with him.Joe fell on top of him and they rolled over each other in a furious battering battle of angry flying fists.
Both men grappled briefly on the ground, each trying desperately to gain the advantage, neither willing to let go of his opponent. The fighters stumbled and rolled to their feet. Without warning, Pearce grabbed a piece of fence rail and smashed it across Joe’s chest knocking him flat. Joe fell to the ground blood running down the side of his face.
”Quit. Both of you” A voice bellowed. Joe heard the sound of a rifle being cocked and looked up to see both the sheriff and Fred Thackery holding rifles on them. “Both of you. Get off my place. You two tom cats quit fighting over my daughter and disrupting my sale and stirring up the stock.”
Joe slowly got to his knees and put his hand to the blood running down his face. Thackery’s oldest son Peter roughly pulled Joe to his knees.
“Winslow get out of here and go home to your own place. And you, Joe Cartwright either you buy what you came here to buy or clear out. Right now!”
Joe tried to stand up but his legs were rubbery and the next thing he knew he was flat on his back looking up at Hays Newkirk and his cousin Will. He was lying across the bed in the hotel and Hays was holding a cold wet rag against his forehead. Joe started to sit up and a firm hand pushed him back down. “Let the doc check those ribs, Joe. Pierce sure gave you one hell of thrashing, boy.”
“Joe what was it you like so much about that Meg?” Will asked as he stepped aside to let the doctor finish bandaging Joe. “I sort of forgot what you said.” Will laughed.
Hays Newkirk shook his head. The Ponderosa foreman knew Joe his entire life and loved him like family. “Told your Pa we would be back tomorrow night but I think you won’t be goin’ no where for a day or so. You think you would learn by now, son. I’m getting too old for all this folderol with you Little Joe and patching you up. Time you settled down, Son.”
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