Summary: Part nine of The Cherry Tree Saga
Word Count: 4950
The Cherry Tree Saga
Part 9
Adam Proposes
“No one has anything to fear when they are doing the right thing and telling the truth.” Ben Cartwright
Chapter 1
Adam couldn’t stop thinking about Kate. Now all he wanted was to marry Kate and make his life beside her. He left Boston telling his business partner Dennis O’Mara that he had found the woman he wanted to marry but had not yet told Kate his plan.
There was no doubt in his mind that he wanted to marry her. He had spent the last few years traveling and visiting exotic places and remaining unattached to any person or place. Adam had been with beautiful and talented women all over the world but had never had any desire in making any long-term arrangements with any of them. He certainly never entertained the idea of marrying any of the ladies despite some of their attempts to convince him otherwise.
One night at dinner at her kitchen table, Adam tried to find out if Kate would be interested in going east with him and living in Boston. He waited until Sam had gone into the other room to play with the parquetry blocks and soldiers Adam had brought him from Boston.
“Maybe Kate and Sammy would even be interested in travelling around the world with me,” Adam thought to himself. Then he could write to Dennis and tell him that he would take on the London project or the other things the company had offered. He wasn’t brave enough to take the risk of proposing to her quite yet. The engineer in him needed more data before he could develop his complete plan. He needed to investigate further before he took action.
“Katie did you ever think about living somewhere besides here in Virginia City?”
”Yes, but that is not for me right now. Maybe when Sammy is grown.”
”But that’s a long time from now.”
Kate nodded. “Adam I am so glad to be here in Virginia City and be at one address for the rest of my life and running the paper. The last few years have been one problem after another and one change after another, I am glad to have one thing be the same.”
“Did you realize that the only real home I knew was Mim’s house?” she continued. ”Before we lived in Virginia City, my father moved us every few months from mining town to mining town. My mother said that the first year of my life I slept in a laundry basket or a dresser drawer. Then when we left here, I moved, let me see.” She counted on her fingers. “Oh ten or eleven times more between my parents moving around Northern California and being married to Al Striker. Even Sammy wound up sleeping in that dresser drawer a few times.”
Adam laughed. “I guess you were pretty foot loose.” He held her hand in his. She smiled at him and squeezed his hand.
“And you moved around a lot too Adam.“ He nodded thinking of how long and far he and Hoss had travelled with their father until they reached the Ponderosa Ranch, living in Boston with his grandfather in college and the numerous ports of call he had seen in the last few years.
”But you always wind up back here too at the Ponderosa “ He had never thought of that until she pointed it out. The Ponderosa and his family always brought him home.
Now all he wanted to do was come back to Virginia City and be with Kate for the rest of his life. Adam Cartwright also knew that if he didn’t take this opportunity now, he would probably never do it and would spend the rest of his life regretting it. He did not want to think of Kate in his old age as “the one who got away”.
The next morning he stood watching his brother Hoss replacing a wagon wheel. “I may have to leave soon. Dennis sent me some projects in London and another one near Denver.” He realized he was beginning to get very scared of proposing.
Hoss looked at him and shook his head.” Sounds like you ain’t that interested in either one, Adam.”
“I’m not sure. They are both great opportunities for the company.”
”For the company? Adam, what about opportunities for you?” Hoss looked at him again. “You sound like you are invited to be the guest of honor at a hanging party more than to some great opportunity.” Hoss pulled the wheel off the axel. “You sure look nervous these last few days about leaving.”
“How so, Hoss?”
“You can travel all over the world, Big Brother, but you still take yourself with you.” Hoss had pointed out to him. “Hand me that wrench, Adam.”
Adam raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean?” He passed the tool to his brother.
“You tried to be the wild adventurer, but you still are the feller you are, Adam. You like to put your feet up on the hearth and strum your dang guitar or read one of those Shakespeare books. You know the Ponderosa Ranch is where you belong. Every few years you think you need to runaway from home. But once you get that out of your system you always wind up back here. Kind of like a crazy fever.” Hoss turned back to repairing the wagon. “Guess you spent too much time growing up being the sensible one and needed to get some of that running around out of your system now.”
Adam had never thought of that. As the oldest he had always been the responsible, dependable son from the time he could remember. He was his father’s right hand and watched out for his brothers.
Adam just knew he dreaded leaving Kate. Time was passing and he needed to ask her about getting married. Should he bring her roses and read her a sonnet? What about dinner in the finest restaurant in Virginia City with sparkling champagne and dancing in his arms? He tried to think of one romantic scene after another and rejected each one in turn.
Adam only had another week before he was scheduled to leave the Ponderosa and go back east to continue his work for Stoddard and Bruce. He had to decide if he was going to work on the projects or to tell Dennis to assign them to someone else. Dennis had sent him the information on two pending situations. One called for him to design another railroad trestle for the expanding Union Pacific Rail Road while the other would take him to London to arrange a new docking facility for their ships. Adam despised both choices. A year earlier, he would have been trying to arrange working on both.
One night, after dinner he sat staring at the fireplace trying to figure out what to do next. His brothers had gone into town for the evening and the house was quiet.
”Son, are you all right?” Ben asked. He had sat down in his chair to read and Adam was so preoccupied that he hadn’t even realized his father had come into the room.
“I’m not sure what to do, Pa. But I need to decide this one on my own.”
Ben stood up and put his hand on his oldest son’s shoulder. He could see that Adam was lost in thought. “Are you sure?”
His oldest son nodded. He realized that this was something he had to work out by himself.
Adam remembered the words his father had said years before ““No one has anything to fear when they are doing the right thing and telling the truth.”
Chapter 2
Adam knew he could not put it off any more. He wanted to marry Kate. He loved her with all his heart and knew she loved him. He had to do what he had to do or it would never happen. He had tried to figure out all sorts of elaborate and romantic ways of asking Kate to marry him and none of them were quite right. Finally, with time running out, Adam decided to just be direct.
He decided that it was just like diving into Cherry Creek from one of the overhanging willow trees. Just jump in but remember to push off or you can crash headlong into the bank of the creek and break your neck. Adam decided he should just jump in. He hoped he would not break his neck.
Adam planned that he would get up first thing in the morning and ride in to Virginia City before anyone awoke on the Ponderosa Ranch. He would be at Kate’s front door just after Sam left for school and then he would propose. It sounded so simple but he was more nervous than he had ever been in his life.
Adam tied his horse to Katie’s fence and climbed the porch steps. He anxiously knocked at her front door. He took a breath and pushed off.
“Adam, what are you doing here so early?” She reached up and kissed him. He was suddenly pale and sweaty. “Adam, is everything all right?” She couldn’t imagine what brought him to her door so early looking so scared.
“Come inside.” Kate was alarmed that he looked so distressed. “I’ll make you a cup of coffee…”
Adam Cartwright had faced armed bandits, stampeding cattle, gunslingers, prairie fires, hurricanes at sea and bands of marauding Apaches but he was now facing a far more frightening situation than he had ever faced. He opened his dry mouth and for a second the eloquent Cartwright was speechless.
“Kate I love you more than I can ever say. Would you marry me?” He stammered.” I need to go back east, to Boston and take care of finishing off some things there and then I’ll come back… Do you mind?”
She stood for an instant looking up at him in total shock. Her cheeks were flushed with excitement. ”No” Kate answered.
His heart dropped into his boots. “No?” Adam repeated hoarsely. She said “no”. He was clearly upset by her negative response. “No?” Adam turned red. “I uh I.” He was at total loss for words. He had never thought that Kate would refuse him. He had only worried about how he would ask for her hand. Now he stood there, like a callow schoolboy feeling like a fool.
Kate looked at his distress and suddenly realized what she had said and what he had misunderstood about her response.
“Adam,” She grabbed both of his hands. “No, I don’t mind you going back to Boston for a while… YES, I will marry you. Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! “ She threw herself into his waiting arms. She drew his head down so that, standing on tiptoe, she could kiss him. “Adam Cartwright, I love you. I always have and always will!”
They would marry as soon as he got back home, home to Kate.
Chapter 3
Two years after Adam had returned from college in Boston, the group in favor of the Cherry Creek dam had finally managed to get the issue on the ballot on Election Day. It had taken two long acrimonious years rife with debate at almost every Cattleman’s Association Meeting. Eloquent editorials by Kate’s Uncle Foster in the Enterprise raged against the project saying “We can not allow what nature has created be changed with such a vile plan. We will endanger all those who are down stream to benefit a few ranchers upstream. I urge all citizens to speak out against this selfish plan.”
The morning after the editorial appeared, Foster Wallace received a number of threatening letters. One note was wrapped around a rock and thrown through the window of the newspaper office. A frightened Phil Bartlett told Adam that even though the Enterprise had been threatened before on other editorials, this time it seemed different and more ominous. The two sides grew increasingly more hostile to each other. Sheriff Coffee filled the jail every Saturday night with men who had pounded each other during heated barroom debates. Some of the ranchers in favor of the dam had hired new hands that looked more like armed Pinkerton detectives and gunslingers than cowboys. Ben continually warned the boys to be cautious and watch their step when they left the Ponderosa Ranch. He especially worried about Little Joe who often spoke his mind with out thinking and spent time with Kate at the Enterprise after school.
“Joe walk slower, your legs are longer than mine and I can’t keep up,” Kate complained as she and Little Joe walked towards the Enterprise office. “And I have my uncle’s dinner to carry.”
“So give me the soup pot Kate, my Pa said to be a gentleman when they all left for that concert.”
“He meant that you shouldn’t be flirting with every girl in town and trying to mess up my work at the Enterprise with your stupid “Attention Girls of Virginia City! Joe Cartwright is the best kisser” inserts when you are helping me set type.”
”It was funny wasn’t it?” he tried to melt Kate his best wink and smile but quit when he realized these tactics never worked on her. As Philip had pointed that out to him, Kate was totally immune to his numerous charms.
“No it was not, you big dunce. And don’t you ever remember you have to spell things backwards when you set type. You wrote that Joe Cartwright is the best “ressik “in town. Girls really look for “ressik” in a beau. Now I have to go back and redo all those pages instead of going with everyone else to that concert. I’m going to have to reset all that type about the voting on the Cherry Creek dam thing.“
”Dam? Dam?” Joe grinned.” Gee Kate stop your cussing.” He turned around and walked backwards so he was facing her.
”Joseph Francis Cartwright! I was not cussing. I’m talking about the Cherry Creek vote. If you want to hear me cuss I can use more cuss words than you know,” She hollered. “But if you don’t quit you are going to be wearing the contents of this dinner pail on your head. How do you think Miss Miranda or Miss Emily would like to see “Kissing Joe” with soup and noodles poured over his handsome curly hair?”
“Emily? Miranda? Gee Kate did you get to talk to them?” Joe grinned. He stopped dead on the boardwalk and managed to rest the soup pot from her grasp. “Which one should I ask to the dance? Tell me.”
”Neither one Mr.” Kissing Joe”. “ She continued walking toward the Enterprise office.
”Neither? Hey you said if I let you ride Cochise you would tell me which girl would be the best one to ask.” Even though no one rode Cochise but Little Joe. Kate had made a deal with her friend. She would get the scoop on all the pretty girls for Little Joe in exchange for the use of his horse.
”Well Mr. “Kissing Joe”, the one you should ask to the dance is neither.”
”Neither?”
”The girl who will be the most delighted by your attentions is Miss Melissa Peters. She thinks you are just so so handsome and just can’t wait to bat her eyelashes at you and dance in your arms. She loves your curls and thinks you look particularly handsome in that new jacket of yours. And she said if she was going to let any boy walk her home in the moonlight it would be that handsome Joe Cartwright.” She then sacked her lips and made some smoochie kissing noises. “Oo la la “Kissing Joe” My job is complete.”
Nicholas sighed appreciatively. He would never have thought to ask the beautiful new girl to the dance had Kate not done the spying for him.
“Just watch out for her father who makes sure he checks both the back porch as well as the front porch for good night kisses, Mr.” Kissing Joe.”
”Melissa? Wow Kate. Thanks for spying. I owe you two rides this time. What a pal.”
“Joe, a promise is a promise and we shook on it. I get to ride Cochise and you get to be “Kissing Joe”’ she giggled. Her mother would be furious if she found out that Kate was galloping around the Ponderosa Ranch astride Cochise but it didn’t matter to Katie.
“Come on Joe. It’s your fault that I don’t get to go to the concert tonight too.”
”Gee Kate since when do you like opera?” Joe slowed down so she could catch up with him “You don’t like that type of music?” He started to sing in a high-pitched siren like voice as he imagined an operatic soprano sounded. “ AHHHAAH Ooooo! That’s like coyote howling, Kate. Only Adam likes that kind of music.”
Kate’s cheeks turned bright red at the mention of Joe’s oldest brother. She hated opera but wanted to attend the concert to sit between her Aunt Mim and Adam Cartwright. Her uncle Foster had given Adam his ticket when he realized he had to work late at the newspaper. Katie planned that if she scooted the right way when they got to their seats she could manage to sit right next to Adam all evening.
“Katie-bird why are you blushing? Saying that Adam likes opera makes you blush?” Suddenly Joe realized why Kate wanted to go the opera and was so miffed that she had to go to the Enterprise office and correct his “Kissing Joe” prank.
“You like my brother?” Joe stopped in the middle of the wooden sidewalk. He put the dinner bucket down on the ground and stared at his friend laughing.
Kate giggled foolishly and looked away. Only Joe had figured it out. She thought that Adam Cartwright was the handsomest and smartest man in town. “Don’t tell anyone, Little Joe. Please, please.” She begged with her hands clasped together as if she was praying.
“You like Adam?” Joe started to laugh. “Adam? My brother Adam?”
“Please Joe. Don’t tell anyone.”
”Sure, Kate.” Joe put his free hand on her shoulder. “You are my friend, just because you don’t realize that “Kissing Joe” is really the handsomest Cartwright brother…”
“Joe it’s getting late and we have to get this dinner to my uncle before it gets cold.” She was embarrassed to continue talking about being smitten on Adam Cartwright and wanted to change the subject. She also mentally calculated that if she and Joe got the work done she still had a chance to get home and have some after concert refreshments with Mim, her parents and the Cartwrights. Maybe she could see Adam then.
Kate followed Nicholas down the alley to the back of the Enterprise office. They could hear the loud thunk of the presses as Phil tried to finish the printing of the last edition.
“Hi Phil” Joe hollered to his brother over the noise of the presses. Philip turned, startled to see them. He stopped the machinery and asked, “What are you two doing here so late at night?”
”We brought Mr. Wallace’s dinner ‘round.” Joe put the soup pot on the back table and started to take off his coat. Through the glass panel in the door, Joe could see that Foster Wallace was in his office with two mean looking cowboys. The two men were leaning over his desk and arguing with him.
“And I had to fix that mess that Little Joe made with the center page.” Kate scowled at her friend.
“Oh I hadn’t really noticed any problems and I ran all of it Kate.” He took his glasses off and wiped them with his shirttail. He had a big black ink smudge on his cheek.
Kate’s face fell. “You didn’t?” Her uncle would never allow her back in the office if his Cherry Creek editorial went out with advertisements for Little Joe Cartwright’s kisses inserted smack dab in the middle.
Phil started to laugh at her panic. He shook his head. ”Hey “Kissing Joe”, go give her a hand. The pages are set up at he back table Kate. It shouldn’t take you more than a half hour to fix ‘em up. Then I can run them for real.” Phil turned his back on them and the rhythmic thud and thunk of the machinery filled the storefront again.
The two youngsters walked around the open wooden shelves that divided the press area from the work area. The ceiling high shelves were open from both sides allowing access from both the press area and the worktable side. The battered wooden shelves were crammed with trays of type and assorted jars of glue and bottles of ink as well as sample books for print jobs. Joe sat down at the table and made an attempt to remove all of the mess he had made in the page.
“I need another tray of type.” Kate realized. She pulled over a chair and started to climb up one of the lower shelves. She put her foot on a shelf and started to reach up for the case she wanted. The entire set of shelves swayed slightly.
“Wait Katie, I’ll reach it for you. Those shelves are wobbly and you shouldn’t climb up like that.” He stood up and reached to put his arms around her waist.
The storefront was suddenly silent as Philip Cartwright turned off the presses. “I’ll be ready as soon as you two are done. Maybe we can get out of here at a reasonable hour tonight”
Suddenly a shot rang out. Through the space in the shelves, both Joe and Kate could see Foster Wallace fall across his desk. The two men bolted out of his office and headed towards the front of the Enterprise Office to the street entrance.
“Hey you! Stop!” Phil ran towards them and the second man turned and fired a shot in his direction. Phil ducked behind the press and hollered “Kate, Joe get down.”
Hanging on to the open shelves, horrified Katie could see the entire scene. Just as the first man rushed past her perch, she gave the shelves a mighty shove and the entire contents tumbled on top of him burying him in an avalanche of wood, glass and trays of type. Kate fell back wards into Joe’s arms knocking the two youngsters backwards. They crashed into the worktable and fell into the floor in a tangle.
The man who shot Foster was bleeding from the head and clearly unconscious having been hit by a piece of a heavy shelf.
The broken shelves and the front counter now blocked the second man’s exit. He pulled his gun from his holster and bolted for the rear door just as Sheriff Roy Coffee came up the back alley. The Sheriff had heard the gunshot as he was checking the doors of the building next door and raced over to investigate.
“Hold it!” Roy hollered as he came through the alley door. Two armed men faced each other. “Put the gun down and raise up your hands.”
The man looked furiously at Roy Coffee. “No way Sheriff. “ He cocked his pistol. The Sheriff faced the trapped man’s gun barrel. They stood for a very long minute staring at each other in a standoff. Who would fire first?
From where he had ducked behind the press, Phil realized the gravity of what was going on. He was unarmed but knew he had to do something quickly. Little Joe Cartwright and Kate Wallace were inches from the two angry armed men and directly in the line of fire. The man who was buried under the shelves was armed and appeared to regaining consciousness. Phil grabbed the heavy ink can that was sitting next to him and cautiously got up. He threw the can as hard as he could toward the glass around Foster’s office shattering it with a crash.
The man facing Roy whirled around at the sound and fired toward the front of the store shooting out the newly replaced plate glass street window. Roy grabbed him from behind and wresting his gun from his grasp and shoving his own Colt into the man’s ribs.
Joe jumped up and ran over to the semi conscious man under the shelves and grabbed his pistol from his holster. The boy stood wide-eyed holding the pistol aimed directly at him. “Don’t you dare move, Mister.” Joe swallowed hard. His Pa had said never to aim a gun at a man unless you intended to fire and never fire unless you intended to kill him. Joe prayed he would not have to shoot.
Phil scrambled over the counter and took the gun out of the boy’s hand. Pointing it at the trapped murderer he directed “Go get the doc Joe, Foster’s hurt bad.” Stepping over the shattered glass, Joe threw open the front door and dashed down the street to Doctor Martin’s clinic.
Kate ran into her uncle’s office. He was sprawled halfway across his desk. Blood was pouring from a bullet hole in his chest. She had never seen a dead person but she knew her uncle was dead. There was nothing any doctor was going to be able to do for him.
Chapter 4
Philip and Mim made sure the next edition of the Enterprise was printed with Foster’s last editorial against the damming of Cherry Creek bordered in black. The citizens of Virginia City were so outraged by the murder that the dam proposition was soundly defeated by a huge margin.
“It won’t bring my brother back, but at least he didn’t die in vain. His legacy will live on in the Enterprise and in this communities stewardship of God’s natural creations.“ Hank Wallace eulogized his brother at the funeral. Auntie Mim sat with Kate’s hand in hers. The Cartwrights sat together in the pew behind them. Joe stared straight ahead. Philip sat with tears streaming down his face for the man who had first recognized his ability to write. He leaned forward and patted Mim’s shoulder.
Kate, Joe and Philip Bartlett were called upon to testify at the murder trial. Adam and Sheriff Coffee spend hours reviewing what they should say and making the two youngsters comfortable with what would happen in the courtroom.
The night before Kate and Little Joe were scheduled to give testimony, they were both scared to death. Ben sat with them in the parlor of Mim’s house and told them “No one has anything to fear when they are doing the right thing and telling the truth.” Joe nodded. He was ready to face any challenge with his father’s encouragement, but Kate was more frightened. The image of her beloved uncle lying dead in a pool of his own blood haunted her. They needed her as the key witness as only she knew who had shot her uncle. Both of the defendants had accused each other of the murder and both of their guns had been fired.
Kate knew she had to testify for her Aunt Mim. Mr. Cartwright was right. The truth had to be told even though Kate was forced to relive the worst experience of her life from the witness stand.
It was an easy conviction as the Sheriff had caught the two men right at the scene and there was no question about their guilt. The jury convicted both men and sentenced the murderer to hang at the Territorial Penitentiary.
By the time the trial was finally over, Kate’s parents knew they wanted to leave Virginia City. “I am not going to live where my daughter can get killed in the middle of a shoot out’ Kate’s mother told Mim. Mrs. Wallace had also discovered that Kate had been riding Cochise when she was with Joe Cartwright and was furious at both of them. Hank Wallace got an offer of a job in San Francisco, and his wife insisted that they leave Nevada by the end of the summer.
Kate was devastated. She loved living in Virginia City and had no interest in becoming a “fine young lady”. The only way her parents got her to stop threatening to run away was by promising she could stay for a few weeks with her Aunt Mim each summer. Katie tearfully conceded.
Before they left, Hank Wallace sat down with Joe Cartwright. Kate’s father told him in no uncertain terms that he would personally hang the boy by his thumbs if he found out that Kate was riding Cochise or behaving in any unseemly fashion when she came to visit. Then he stood up and wrapped his arms around Joe hugged him.” I don’t know how to thank you for watching out for my Kate when Foster was shot. Katie and I hate to leave here but you know her mother is right.”
Joe nodded. He hardly remembered a time when Kate was not his friend and he hated for her to go to San Francisco. He promised he would write but in her heart Kate knew Joe wouldn’t with any regularity. He was still Little Joe and she knew he would pay more attention to his horse and the pretty girls in town than putting pen to paper.
And she knew most of all she would miss seeing Adam Cartwright.
Continue on to The Cherry Tree Saga Part 10
WomenWritersBlock 