The Separation
by
Janice Sagraves

This is for Brenda, who helped me to see some things in the past story that needed straightening out.

ONE

Lucinda Harper flitted about the house like an overachieving bee, giving orders to servants and helping out herself. The news from that morning brought with it the knowledge that her mother and sisters would surely be coming to Bangor, and, being the oldest living daughter, they would naturally stay with her even if most of her family wasn’t away. It had been almost three months since she had seen them and everything had to be perfect. She didn’t know if the husband would come, but it was of little concern to her. She didn’t know the man all that well and, other than his being not so hard to look at, she had instantly disliked him. To this day she couldn’t understand why her sister had married him, and maybe she never would, but it didn’t bother her one way or the other. She only hoped that Angelica didn’t come to regret it.

*******

A light skiff of snow lay across the ground and decorated the last remnants of fall foliage as a preamble to the coming winter. Heavy clouds hung in the sky like slabs of slate, and the afternoon sun darted among them like a playful sprite. October had come and November would arrive in its own good time, it was just best to be ready for it when it did.

The Angel ranch had changed little since Adam Cartwright and his bride had made it their home in August. Finding men to hire this time of year wasn’t the easiest thing since it was definitely off season, and so far only three had been taken on, and he had managed to find a cook. The bunkhouse, which still bore the faint smell of fresh wood, finally had occupants and things were getting underway, though slowly.

The sleek red chestnut reined up in front of the large white, two-story house and Adam Cartwright climbed down and gave him a healthy pat on the neck. He wrapped the reins around the hitch rail, and his boots clomped on the steps as he rushed up them and onto the long porch.

“Angelica!” he shouted as the front door swung open. “Angelica!” He hung his coat and hat on the free standing rack just inside, and his dark hazel eyes searched around him. “Angelica!”

Angelica Cartwright, a couple pounds plumper these days, came out of the bedroom at the head of the stairs. “Adam Cartwright, I’m sure they aren’t interested in hearing you in Bantree,” she said sternly as she started down into the parlor side of the large ell-shaped room.

He dug around in one of his coat pockets and came out with an envelope. “You got a letter.”

“From whom?” she asked as she went to him.

“Lucinda. According to Mr. Huggins it came in on today’s stage. It’s a good thing I decided to go into town.”

“I hope nothing’s wrong,” she said as she took it from him and carefully tore loose the wax seal. “She doesn’t write as often as the others do, and then only to impart something dire or reprimand me for something I have or haven’t done or not being there or some such thing.” Carefully, she removed the sheet of paper and unfolded it.

“I don’t think she’s forgiven me for marrying you. I broke up the family. Until you met me all the Cadence’s lived in Bangor, and she seems to think I’m at fault for your mother staying and keeping Fiona with her.”

“Well, it doesn’t really matter if she does, I love you and that’s all that counts.” She gave him a peck on the mouth then her dark head dropped.

He watched her as her deep violet eyes traced the lines of words on the page. He couldn’t tell if it was good news or bad, but her expression did change. “Bad news?”

“Not totally, well, not really at all.” She finally looked up at him. “I’ve inherited five thousand dollars.”

“A relative die?”

“Before my father died he put back five thousand dollars for each one of his children, but they couldn’t collect it until they were married. I had forgotten all about it until right this minute.”

“But we’ve been married since July. I would’ve thought you would’ve gotten it then.”

“You would’ve had to know Daddy to know that he didn’t always do things like other people. He worked hard for his money, and he spent it and invested it wisely. When he passed on he left us financially sound. Not wealthy by Cartwright or Banning standards but well off enough so that we could live comfortably, and you can’t ask more from a man that he takes cares of his family even after he’s gone.” She folded the paper and put back into its envelope. “Now don’t ask me why he did it that way because he never told anyone, not even Les Tillman, the family attorney for the past twenty-two years.”

“But wasn’t Lucinda and some of your brothers already married when he was killed?”

“Yes, but they still had to wait the mandatory three months before it was theirs, they just got it sooner than me and Patricia since we wed afterward.”

“And how do you get it?”

“There are papers that need to be signed and other legalities to go through, and for that I have to… go back to Bangor.”

“I see, and I suppose you have to do that now.”

“Not really.” She put her arms around his waist and looked deeply into those inviting hazel eyes. “I’d rather stay in my home with my husband. I have no desire to go back to Bangor; this is where I live now. It could wait until next year, but I would rather get it taken care of now and not have it hanging over our heads through the winter and have that trip to look forward to.” Her nose wrinkled with distaste. “The money doesn’t mean that much to me, but it did to Daddy and this is the last gift I’ll ever get from him.”

“Then, by all means, go back and get it taken care of, but I can’t go with you. There’s still plenty I need to do here before foul weather closes in on us. I lost valuable time when we had to be away last month, not that I would’ve had it any other way. And I must insist that you not go alone.”

“Oh, I won’t. Mother will be coming since she has to sign as well and that means Fiona too. I know they’ll both love getting the chance to see the family again. I just don’t like leaving you alone. Do you realize that this will be the first time we’ve been separated since our wedding?”

“I’m well aware of it, and I don’t like it a bit better. Things come up sometimes, though, that we simply have to handle, like it or not, and you might as well go now and get it done.”

“I know, but I just don’t think I’ll handle being away from you very well, especially now.” She leaned her head against his chest and listened to his heart beat.

“Why especially now? Because of the baby? I’d think you’d be better off with other women, and I’m not particularly indispensable.”

“You are to me,” she said as her arms tightened around him. “Maybe I should wait.”

He raised her head and looked into her face. “What do you wantta do?”

“Never leave you.”

“Do you remember what I told you when we went back to the Ponderosa, when we saw that Hoss was gonna pull through?”

“That wherever I am you’ll always be by my side.”

“And even though I won’t be in Bangor in the flesh, I’ll still be with you.” His finely sculpted mouth spread into an encouraging smile. “We’ll be together.”

“Yes, we will,” she said as she put her head back against his broad chest and felt him caressing her silky dark brown hair. “But it just won’t be the same,” she thought.

TWO

To Angelica, the trip back to Bangor, Maine seemed to drag just as it had when she had gone to Nevada with her mother, maybe even more so. They were met at the train station by Lucinda’s husband, Charles, and driven in a glossy black landau carriage to the stately two-story brick house in one of the affluent parts of the city. Tall trees, already shedding their vermilion leaves, lined either side of the long winding drive that cut through the neatly manicured front lawn and ran past the entrance portico.

The inside of the house was as impressive as out and glistened and shone in typical Victorian opulence. A fine floral area rug muffled footsteps as Angelica and her mother and little sister came into the large foyer. Lucinda Harper abhorred cold, bare, hard floors and insisted every room have one.

Maggie O’Shea came down the polished oak staircase adjusting her white linen cap over her gray-streaked mahogany hair. Her nutmeg brown eyes lit from behind the moment she saw them but being a servant she knew her place. “Madam Cadence,” she said with a robust Irish brogue.

“Maggie,” Verina Cadence said as she turned. “How long have you been working for Lucinda and Charles?”

“Right after Miss Angelica’s weddin’, and ya decided not to come back to Bangor.”

“You’ve been a part of my family for so long; I wish you had come to Bantree.”

“I know, mum, but I’ve lived here a good part of me life, and I’m not about to go traipsin’ off to that heathen land.”

“It’s not so bad,” Angelica said as she untied her bonnet ribbon and took it off and fluffed her flattened hair. “We’re quite happy.”

“Miss Angelica, or should I be sayin’ Mrs. Cartwright?” Maggie shook her head and reddish-brown tendrils jostled on either side of her oval face. “I never coulda thought of ya marryin’ an Englishman.” A hint of impishness glowed in her face tinged with dead serious.

“Adam’s people have been in this country for a long time, and he’s as American as any one of us. I think you’d like him if you’d give yourself a chance and not take Lucinda’s word for it.”

“Maggie,” said a small voice.

“Miss Fiona.”

Fifteen-year-old Fiona Cadence threw her arms unreservedly about the woman and hugged. “It’s so good seeing you again.”

“Mother.”

Attention went to Lucinda Harper as she wafted past the staircase. Angelica had never understood how her sister always seemed to keep every hair in place. She looked like one of the ladies from Godey’s Ladies Book, a perfect fashion plate.

At the sound of her big sister’s voice, Fiona released the maid and backed away. Lucinda made no bones about the fact that familiarity with the hired help was something she felt beneath them and not to be tolerated.

“Mother, I knew you would come too,” Lucinda said as she embraced her mother then little sister.

Angelica got the distinct impression that Lucinda definitely had not forgiven her for disrupting the family as those keen gray eyes turned on her, and she couldn’t miss the stiffness in the hug either.

“You’ve filled out, Angelica,” Lucinda said as she looked her sister over.

“It’s only natural when you’re three months expecting, but then you would know that if you’d ever had any.”

“I don’t have time for children. Where’s Charles?” Lucinda asked as she looked toward the front door.

“He’s waiting for the man bringing the luggage. Lucinda, it’s good seeing you again.”

“And all of you. I have much to tell about what’s been happening while you’ve been away. That’s all, Maggie. I’ll show them to their rooms.”

“Yes, mum.”

It remained quiet until the maid left then they started upstairs, exchanging the usual pleasantries.

“The family will be so sorry they missed you,” Lucinda said as she turned back to her mother.

“I know that Patricia and Brian and their children and Daniel are still in Europe,” Mrs. Cadence said.

“Hiram Jr. had to go to Philadelphia for business, and he decided to make a holiday of it and took Grace and the children with him. But Phillip and Meagan and their small brood are still here. In fact they’re coming to supper tonight. Now I’ll show you to your rooms.”

They started up the wide staircase, and Angelica brought up the rear with Fiona and paid close attention to her older sister’s tone and every word she said.

“You have so much catching up to do,” Lucinda said as her gaze stayed on her mother. “I guess the thing that has the whole city of Bangor agog is that Hazleton Greenwood has been keeping company with Drusilla Cuthbert.”

Angelica felt as if she had been slugged, and she couldn’t miss her older sister’s eyes flit back to her.

“And her family isn’t the slightest bit happy about it, I might add,” Lucinda went on.

“I don’t wonder,” their mother said. “She’s only seventeen, and he’s getting close to thirty, not to mention what we all know he is. Angelica, I’m so glad you pulled yourself away from him before it was too late.”

“Yes, Mother, so am I.”

The trip had been long and tedious, and Angelica was tired, and she missed her Adam so much already that she couldn’t stand it, and she wasn’t in the mood for any of this. Bouts of unexplained happiness and sadness, with intermittent spurts of temper marked the third month of her pregnancy, and the thought of unleashing it on an unsuspecting Lucinda filled her with sadistic glee. And if she started in on Adam, Angelica’s older sister was going to get both barrels.

*******

Adam’s first day without Angelica had been bad enough, but with the passing of each subsequent one things only got more unbearable. The big house was cold and empty as a mausoleum without her bright presence and melodic voice. He wished he hadn’t been so insistent on her going and waited until the following year when he could have gone with her. He had never been to Maine before and it would have been a nice trip for them. Filling his days hadn’t been so much of a problem but keeping himself from missing his wife so unmercifully had turned out to be more of one than he had suspected it would be. The work helped marginally and friends were a blessing, but when the sun went down he always found himself dismally alone again. Being faced with another night in that empty bed with his arms reaching achingly for her, and finding her not there was worse than he ever imagined it could be.

The big chestnut came through the trees and out onto the road that would lead straight to the Haymes place. He had been thinking on something for a while and today would be the day he would act on it. Lee and Becky were two of his dearest friends and their son Kip was what he could hope for in his own son, and baby William was growing like a weed into a fine boy. He hadn’t seen them in a couple weeks and a visit was overdue, though this one wasn’t strictly pleasure.

Chris McCutcheon was in the barn taking care of his yellow dun mare when he heard a horse come into the yard. Lee had been out with the other two hands all morning checking on his growing herd so it was about time they got home for dinner. The smell of Becky’s cooking floated on the autumn air and made a man’s mouth water. Turning around, it dawned on him that he had heard only one set of hooves, and he removed the leather loop from the hammer of the pistol on his hip.

He got to the doorway just as the big black-haired man was stepping down, and though his back was to Chris no one had to tell him who this was. “Boss.”

“Mornin’, Chris,” Adam said as he walked toward him leading the chestnut. “It’s been a bit.”

“Yeah, it has, but then I guess you’re busy with your own spread.”

“I sure am, and that has something to do with why I’m here.” He shook the boy’s hand and glanced around him. “Where’s Lee?”

“Him, and Jip and Henry rode out to see about the herd. Nothin’s wrong, is it?”

“No, nothing’s wrong. I just need to talk to him and you.”

Chris’ teal eyes searched Adam’s face and grew sharp. “I didn’t do somethin’ I shouldn’t’a, did I?”

“No, it’s nothing like that,” Adam said with a chortle and rested a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “But so you won’t worry, it’s about your leaving here. You’re still a Ponderosa hand, you know.”

“Yeah, and I’ve been givin’ that a lotta thought lately, and me and Mr. Haymes’ve even talked about it. Since he hired those two I think I can go now.”

“Well, since you’re already thinking about it I’ll go ahead and ask. How would you like to come to the Angel? I sent a wire to Pa, and he thinks it’s a wonderful idea, that is, if you want to.”

“Me?” His jaw dropped. “You want me to come work for you?”

“Actually more than just work. I want you to be my foreman.”

“Me, a foreman? Are you sure about that, I mean…”

“Look, if I didn’t trust you and think you could handle it I wouldn’t be asking, now would I? But you can have a little time to think about it, and we’ll talk to Lee first. Okay?”

“I don’t need no time to think about it. As long as it’s all right with your Pa and Mr. Haymes don’t need me, I’d be right honored to work for you.”

“And it’d put you that much closer to Bantree and Miss Amelia, right?” Adam said with a sly wink and gave him a jab with his elbow.

“Ah, Boss,” Chris said as his cheeks reddened, and he ducked his head.

Adam laughed and gave him a slap on the arm. “All right, we’ll talk some more about it when Lee gets here, but right now I’m gonna go see Becky and the boys, and maybe get a cup of her good coffee.”

“All right, Boss.”

Chris watched him as he went toward the house. He couldn’t believe it, him, foreman of the Angel ranch and working for Adam Cartwright. It was hard to fathom how his luck had turned for the better when he first came to the Ponderosa. He pushed his hat back and a caramel-colored hank fell over his forehead. Good pay, though not so much with Mr. Haymes, good food, a roof over his head, honest work, good friends and a beautiful girl to call his own, what more could any man ask for? And the only really truly dark spot in it all was when they had thought the Boss was dead. He grinned as Adam went up onto the porch and knocked. Strange how things went.

“Stretch!”

THREE

Angelica was just closing the doors to the big wardrobe when someone knocked, and she bade them enter. Lucinda brushed in and Angelica instantly didn’t care for the look on her sister’s face. She had seen it too many times and knew that whatever was lurking behind those cunning eyes she wouldn’t like.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come right back up but I’ve been overseeing things in the kitchen,” she said airily. “You know how these people will shirk their job if you’ll let them get away with it.”

“No, I don’t. We never had any problem with Maggie and Hop Sing has worked for the Cartwrights for years without any complaints, and they love him like family.”

“I don’t know that I would want someone with a name like that working in my home.” She cringed and shivered as she shook her head. “Sounds too foreign.”

Angelica could feel her blood threatening to boil. “Well, he’s a wonder around the house, and when it comes to his cooking he’s a wizard. I wish I had one just like him.”

“Well, dear, you’ve always been more pedestrian in your tastes than I have.”

Angelica had to bite her tongue to keep from saying something cutting. Not there a day and already her sister had started. She sat on the ivory brocaded fainting couch in the corner near one of the leaded glass windows, spreading her skirt about her and clasping her hands demurely in her lap.

“I was surprised that your husband didn’t come with you. I would’ve thought that he wouldn’t have let you out of his sight.”

“He wanted to, but Adam’s very busy trying to get things ready for winter.”

“Isn’t that just like a man to find a way out of something he’d rather not do?” she said with a sicker.

Angelica’s fingers knotted in the fabric of her skirt. “It’s not that he didn’t want to come with me, but running one of the largest spreads in the state can be very demanding.”

“Spread?”

“Ranch, dear, which you would know if you came out and stayed longer than two days.”

She couldn’t miss the fire blaze up in those gray eyes.

Lucinda whirled in a froth of taffeta ruffles and lace and trounced to the door then turned back to Angelica. “I only came up to let you know that Phillip is here and supper will soon be served, and we dress.”

“Yes, dear, I know, I only hope what I brought with me isn’t too pedestrian,” and butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.

Lucinda flounced out and closed the door hard behind her. Angelica let go her breath and leaned against the tufted back of the couch. Had she conveniently let herself forget what a snit Lucinda could be when her back was up or had she hoped she had changed in the short period since the wedding? Lucinda did have her moments when she could be considerate and loving but this wasn’t one of them.

Someone else knocked. “Come in.”

Mrs. Cadence poked her head inside, and her beaming smile soothed away some of Angelica’s ire from the confrontation with her sister.

“Lucinda came out of here with an expression as black at the deepest mine. Have you two had words already?”

“With her it can’t always be avoided.”

Mrs. Cadence crossed the room and pushed her daughter’s skirt aside then sat next to her. “The both of you have never seen eye-to-eye on so many things. And now she sees it that you have disrupted things for her.”

“Can I help it that I fell in love with a man she doesn’t approve of? And what’s more, do I even care?”

“It’s not Adam so much she disapproves of, but the fact that the family split up, and he’s the reason.”

“That’s what Adam said, and I guess way down inside I know it too.”

“Well, what she doesn’t want to accept is that I had decided to move out west before you even met Adam. I had planned to live in Virginia City and then you got married and went to Bantree, and I wanted to be close to both of you. I’ve tried telling her but it’s better to blame an outsider.”

“I don’t think Lucinda minds me being gone as much as she does you and Fiona.”

“That’s only because I’m her mother, Fiona’s dependant on her, and you stand up to her and always have.” She took her daughter’s hand. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way. You’re both headstrong and determined to have your own way, though you have mellowed since your marriage.”

“When you fall so completely in love with someone, what’s important to him becomes important you because he’s important. That’s something that I don’t think Lucinda understands, and, to tell the truth, I didn’t either until I met my Adam. We’ve all seen how she twists Charles around her little finger to get what she wants. I know he loves her, but for the sake of me I can’t understand why.”

“And that’s why he lets her, though she doesn’t as much as people think, and she always knows when she’s gone too far with him. Love is a funny thing and theirs is unique. We can’t help who we’re attracted to. Some people couldn’t understand what drew me to your father, but I saw things in him others didn’t simply because they didn’t care to look.” She cupped Angelica’s chin in her hand. “You have a good marriage, I can see that, and don’t ever let anyone or anything destroy what you have. Pettiness and false pride won’t keep you warm at night or be there when you cry. And selfishness makes a poor substitute for a father.”

“I know that, and I know that I would cut off my right hand before I would ever deliberately hurt him.”

“And it’s the same with him; he’s told me so in pretty much the same terms.” Gathering her skirt, she came to her feet. “Now you’d better get dressed. You know how your sister is about punctuality.” She kissed her on the forehead then left the room.

Lucinda wasn’t the only one with a cunning mind in the Cadence family, and the wheels began turning in Angelica’s. Her head tilted to one side and the corners of her mouth crooked mischievously. She got up and went to the wardrobe and opened it, and her eyes went right to the gown on the right end. She didn’t know why she had brought it along until right now and it was perfect.

*******

Everyone had been seated at the long, ornately carved ebony wood table in the lavish dining room when Angelica finally made her grand entrance. She drifted in like a Sierra breeze and all eyes lit upon her. Mrs. Cadence covered her mouth with her napkin and coughed as her eyes darted briefly away.

“Angelica,” Charles Harper said as she was seated between her mother and little sister, “you look lovely tonight.”

“Thank you, Charles,” she said coyly. “I don’t get to wear this gown very often and when Lucinda told me to dress for supper I knew it would be perfect.”

“That’s the dress you wore to the party at the Ponderosa the night you first met Adam,” Fiona said innocently.

Angelica wanted to kiss her baby sister; she couldn’t have said it better. “Yes, it is, and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to wear it again.”

“It’s very… pretty, but a bit ostentatious for supper with your family, don’t you think?”

“Not at all, my dear Lucinda. I felt happy, I had the dress, and I wanted to wear it, so I did.”

“Maggie, you can serve now.”

“Yes, mum.”

Angelica could tell by the look directed at her from the other side of the table that she had zinged Lucinda, and it felt good. The soup was brought in and placed in front of them and conversation was light and devoid of Lucinda Harper’s opinions.

*******

Adam sat at the little table in the kitchen having what laughingly passed for his supper. The potatoes were too brown, the beans were scorched and the cornbread could’ve been used to dam up the Humboldt. His cooking was usually passable, but tonight, just like all the others since Angelica had left, a well-bred hog would have turned his snout up to it.

He took a drink of water and washed down the gritty lump caught in his throat and wondered what she was eating right now. She had told him about Lucinda and Charles Harper’s lifestyle and that only the finest meals were ever served at their table. His own food forgotten, he imagined her in the sumptuous surroundings dining in lavish style and it made him smile.

A bit of crunchy potato crackled in his teeth, and his upper lip curled, and his eyes dropped to his plate. “That’s enough,” he said and let his fork drop with a clatter. “Tonight I’m eating with the boys.”

He pushed himself away from the table then went out through the dining room. Gibby was first-rate in the kitchen, so he had been told, and the men held high praise for his grub, and Adam was tired of his starvation diet, so tonight he would eat with them. He would enjoy the company of the hands and the new foreman and one cantankerous cook out in the cook shack and take pleasure in every minute of it. And maybe a little ribald humor and a bottle of whiskey would dull the ache of separation, at least for a short while.

*******

A scant bit of moonlight came in through the slightly parted draperies and cast a shaft of pale gray light across the room. Hungry though she was a good part of the time these days, Angelica had never been so glad to get through a meal. The food had been delicious, her supper companions, with one big exception, had been delightful and the atmosphere refined, but the sharp gray eyes had detracted from it. She knew when she went downstairs in the elegant rose satin ball gown what it would be; in fact that’s why she had done it. Also, she couldn’t miss the looks shooting to her from her mother with a hint of amusement mixed in with the chastising, and the ones coming from her brother Phillip made her nearly burst out, and he knew it. But if you wanted to get on Angelica’s bad side, and with Lucinda that had never been hard, start taking shots at her family, and that now included Adam.

With the thought of her husband she felt the emotions well up inside of her. She let her arm fall to the side of the bed where he always slept at home, and he wasn’t there. Grabbing the other pillow, she held it to her and tried pretending it was him but it simply didn’t work. The hardness of his muscles, the whisper of his breathing, the smell of his Bay Rum, and the heavy black hair that she loved running her fingers through wasn’t there. With a whimper she slammed the pillow up against the tall headboard and flopped over onto her stomach and looked away from the window.

“I miss you so much.” The words dissolved into sobs that filled every crack, crevice and corner of the darkened room. Until she was back with him, she knew all the nights would be like this, and the days wouldn’t be any better so Lucinda had just better watch her step.

*******

Adam peeled out of his shirt and threw it across the back of the rocking chair in their room then began unbuttoning the fly of his britches. He always sat down to take them off but tonight his whiskey clouded mind didn’t allow for clear thinking. Balancing on his left foot, he raised his other leg and started working it free, but as he did he lost his balance and pitched forward. Fortunately, there was nothing for him to hit except floor, and he just lay there in the partial altogether. A few choice cuss words blued the air but he made no effort to get up. In his current state, things weren’t registering as they should, and he just wanted to stay there.

In stages, he finally managed to get onto his back and stared at the ceiling. “You’ve had too much to drink, Cartwright. If Angelica was here she’d have your hide.” He laughed as only a drunken man could and ruffled his hair. “If she was here you wouldn’t’ve had too much to drink.”

The sudden need to go to sleep overtook him, and he yawned. He knew there was something he had to do but for the life of him he couldn’t remember what. Another yawn came, and his eyelids felt like lead weights. What on Earth was it he needed to do? Miss Angelica? Nah, he was already doing that. Really, the floor wasn’t so hard. With a grunt he turned onto his side and let his eyes close. Tomorrow he had work to do, and he needed to get to bed. Bed. Really, the floor wasn’t so hard.

FOUR

The thought of breakfast made him about half ill and the smell of the coffee didn’t do his stomach any favors either. He blinked and wondered if his eyes looked as red from the outside as they did from the inside. Oh, what he wouldn’t give for a little hair of the dog that bit him.

He went to the breakfront and groped for the handle for nearly a minute before he got the door open. The cup just slipped from his fingers as if someone had buttered it and broke against the floor and without thinking he bent down to pick it up. A groan ran through the kitchen that sounded like a dying man, and he grabbed his head with both hands to make sure it was still there and wasn’t going anyplace.

“What did I do to deserve this?” He leaned back against the breakfront and waited for the wild horses to finish stampeding through his head.

After a couple minutes to compose himself, he managed to get a cup out in one piece. He could take care of the broken one later when he could focus his eyes and bend over without the imminence of death. Carefully, he poured some of the boiling coffee so as not to spill it; all he needed was to scald himself, and took it out to the dining room.

He had just set down in his favorite blue chair in the parlor when someone began banging on the front door, and he could feel the fissure parting his hair. Carefully putting the cup on the little oval topped table, he got to the sturdy oak door as quickly as he could and jerked it open. “Chris.”

“Mornin’, Boss. I didn’t think anybody could look worse ‘n I feel.” He rubbed the heel of his hand against the side of his head. “I can see I was wrong.”

“What is it?”

“Don’t you remember? You wanted to show me around the place today, and told me to remind you if you forgot.”

Adam’s brow puckered into a frown, and he seemed to be cogitating what went on last night. “Oh, yeah, right. Well, why don’t you on come in?”

The boy thanked him then took off his hat and came into the house, and Adam closed the door.

“Want some coffee?”

“No thanks. Gibby’s give me enough ‘til my eyeballs and back teeth are floatin’. He’s made three pots an’ we all slosh when we walk.”

“You don’t mind if I have some, do you?”

“Nope, just so’s I don’t havta drink any.”

Adam eased back to his chair and sat down just as gingerly. The thought of putting that stuff down his gullet wasn’t the most pleasant notion, and he just stared at it. “Well, find a spot and put yourself in it.”

“No thanks, I’m fine right like this.”

Adam watched as the teal eyes ran about the room, and he could tell that his new foreman was uncomfortable in the boss’ house. “If you just sit down and keep your hands in front of you I don’t think you’re gonna break anything. And if Angelica can put up with this bull in a china shop I don’t think she’ll mind you.”

Without saying anything Chris found a nice overstuffed chair close to the door and parked himself.

Adam’s attention returned to the steaming cup, and his nose wrinkled. With a sigh he reached for it but abruptly changed his mind. He jerked himself up from the chair and instantly regretted the rash action and it registered in his face. Deciding that it was prudent to move more slowly, he went to the liquor cabinet to the right of the large stone fireplace. He brought out a carafe of fine Irish whiskey, gladly supplied by Steve Balasco, and went back and sat down again. He took a good swallow of the coffee then filled the deficit with the whiskey. He was about to put the stopper back when he caught Chris’ sick expression.

“Some hair?” he asked as he held the cut glass decanter aloft.

“I don’t mind if I do.”

“Then get yourself a glass.”

Chris’ eyes darted about him, and his fingers tightened on the brim of his hat, and he came to his feet and just stood there.

“Don’t be so danged timid about it, just go get one. We ain’t got all day.”

As if walking on eggshells, Chris went to the cabinet and pulled out a crystal glass that matched the carafe. Adam filled it about half full and the kid returned to the safe haven of the chair.

“Here’s to women,” Adam said as he raised his cup. “We think we can live without ‘em until we try, and they we see that we can’t.” He took a good slug.

“To women,” Chris said and took a generous gulp.

*******

“Good morning everyone,” Angelica said brightly as she wafted into the atrium where breakfast was being dished up.

Her greeting was acknowledged by her mother and little sister but not Lucinda, who had just taken a seat in a teak chair. Angelica went straight to the buffet table and took the lid from a chafing dish and found it filled with scrambled eggs.

“I could eat a horse,” she said as she picked up a plate and began mounding eggs on it. “I don’t know when I’ve been so hungry.”

Anyone who paid close attention to Lucinda could see that she was still disgruntled over the night before. “Did you sleep well?”

“Like a log,” Angelica lied as she took several strips of crisp bacon, totally ignorant of the glare she was receiving. “That was a splendid supper. I love terrapin soup, and haven’t had any in such a time.” She poured herself some tea and added cream and lemon then snagged a crumpet and joined her family. “Where’s Charles? He hasn’t eaten already, has he?”

“He wanted to check on the new carriage first. It was delivered late last night, and he didn’t get a chance,” Lucinda said as she primly took a sip. “This is really excellent tea. You must try it.”

“I fully intend to, but if you want to taste wonderful tea, you should drink some of Hop Sing’s,” Angelica said as she took a seat on a small bench next to a potted plant. “He keeps several blends on hand and uses spices and honey like a magician.” She took a bite, and her eyes closed as she savored it.

“Well, everything checks out fine,” Charles said as he briskly strode into the room. He tugged at his weskit then stroked his dense tawny mustache then smoothed his lighter hair as he went to the table and began serving himself. “This one should give us many years of good use, but then at that price it should.”

“Charles, must you do that. It’s boorish to mention how expensive something is in front of guests,” Lucinda said priggishly.

“Oh, come now, Lucinda,” Angelica said as her wicked eyes flitted to her, “we both know that that has never bothered you in the slightest. And last time I checked, we were family and not just guests.” She bit into the crumpet.

“Well, I see you so little anymore that it’s easy to forget.”

Angelica shot a glower at her that Mrs. Cadence knew spelled trouble if she didn’t intervene. She had gotten between these two before and probably would again. “It’s not like we live across the street, Lucinda, and Angelica has her own home and husband to take care of now.”

“In Nevada.” Lucinda sneered and shook her head. “Such a coarse sounding name, and I have heard stories about it.”

“And have you heard that a good part of the country’s wealth comes out of Nevada?” Angelica asked, with emphasis on the last word and forgetting her food.

“You mean silver.”

“Yes, I mean silver and gold and cattle and timber, and some of the finest people in the world live there.”

“Like miners and cow people and saloon girls?”

Angelica bolted to her feet. “Well, some of the women who work in the saloons could teach you a few things about pleasing a man and treating him like he’s worth something.” She slammed her plate on a little bamboo table then stormed out.

Mrs. Cadence could tell by her oldest daughter’s look that that remark had hit home. “Lucinda, must you?” Then she rushed out after Angelica.

When she got upstairs Angelica’s door was ajar, and she could hear her crying inside. Quietly, she went on in and found her sitting on the fainting couch with her hands over her face and sobbing like a whipped child.

“I don’t know what makes her that way when she gets mad about something,” Mrs. Cadence said as she sat next to Angelica and put a hand on her back. “None of my other children are like that. Although my dear Hiram could be a bit of a bear when he got worked up about a thing.”

“I shouldn’t have said that to her, but sometimes she just makes me so mad and…”

“And right now it doesn’t take much. I know, dear, I went through it nine times myself. You cry, you laugh, you get angry, and you don’t always know why.”

“But I still shouldn’t have said such a hateful thing.”

“And it’ll hurt all the worse because you said it.” She began brushing her daughter’s hair back from her face. “Now I want you to stop this crying. It doesn’t help a thing, and about all it succeeds in doing is making your face red and puffy.”

“I just want to go home to Adam,” Angelica threw her arms around her mother.

“I know you do, dear, and after tomorrow we can any time you get ready. Now, why don’t you put your head in my lap, and I’ll play in your hair like I did when you were a little girl. It always seemed to make the crying stop then.”

Angelica did as her mother said and brought her feet up after her. It felt so good for it to be like it was when she was small. Her mother’s fingers soothed away some of the ache caused by the confrontation. She took a deep breath and the hurt began to fade away. Maybe if she went to sleep she could dream about home.

Fiona had finished her breakfast, though it hadn’t been easy, and went to Angelica’s room. She hated seeing her sisters go at each other that way and it had spoiled her desire for food. Quietly, she eased the door open and looked inside. Her mother was sitting with her daughter’s head in her lap and playing in Angelica’s hair as she had with all her girl’s. Fiona knew her sister had fallen asleep as they had always done under their mother’s loving touch. She went in and sat on the edge of the bed, and her mother glanced up at her and put one finger to her lips. She loved both her sisters but she had felt sorriest for Angelica. Lucinda had pushed too far and Fiona had secretly been glad when Angelica had struck back. Leaning against the footboard, she just sat and watched her sister sleep.

FIVE

The rest of the morning Angelica had spent picking around like a chicken. She hadn’t finished her breakfast, and the mid-morning meal didn’t help. She was going through the hungry stage of her pregnancy and had difficulty filling up. She had also avoided Lucinda, though not so much that she was angry with her sister as she was ashamed of herself for saying what she did. Granted, she had been provoked, but still she felt what she had said in retaliation had been uncalled for. It wasn’t like they hadn’t clashed before, but in the past Angelica had never tried to humiliate her.

Lucinda was in the pantry checking on the larder when Angelica came in nibbling on a piece of buttered bread.

“Lucinda.”

“Yes,” came back icily and Lucinda didn’t turn around.

“I’m sorry for what I said this morning. It was cruel, and I should have been slapped for it.”

“Yes, you should have,” Lucinda said as she took down a bag of flour. “It was inexcusable.” She finally turned around, and her eyes were keen as razors. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so hurt in my life, and by my own sister. Did it make you feel better to say such a thing, and in front of my own husband?”

“No, it didn’t.”

“Then why did you?”

“Since the baby my moods swing like a pendulum, and sometimes they run away with me. You just caught me off guard.”

“Do you think that makes everything all right?”

“No, but I think it explains why things got so out of hand. You know I would never purposefully try hurting you, and I certainly wouldn’t want to belittle you in front of Charles.”

“That doesn’t help.”

“Lucinda, I’m trying to apologize. Why won’t you let me?”

“Because what you did simply cut too deep. Maybe later but not right now.”

“Lucinda, we’re sisters.”

“Well, that I can’t do anything about.”

Lucinda stomped out, bumping her on the way and giving no apologies for it. Angelica felt as if she had indeed been slapped and hard, right across the face. She and Lucinda had never been what you would call close but not enemies as they seemed to be now, and she didn’t think it was entirely her fault. She looked at the half-eaten bread and put it down, her appetite smashed.

She didn’t know how long she had been standing there when Maggie came in. “Yes, Maggie, what is it?”

“You have a caller, Miss Angelica.”

“A caller? Now who would be calling on me?” Something in the woman’s face set off an alarm bell, and her heart took off. “Maggie, who is it?”

“It’s Mr. Greenwood, mum.”

“Hazleton? Hazleton’s here? But how did he even know I was in Bangor? Did he say what he wants?”

“He wants to see you, mum, and he’s waiting in the study.”

“All right, I’ll see him.”

“Do you need for me to come with you, Miss Angelica?”

“No, Maggie,” she said with a smile and gave her a pat, “I’ll be all right.”

She went out through the kitchen and along the hallway that led to the study, where she found her mother and Charles waiting for her.

“You don’t have to see him, Angelica.”

“Charles is right. This man is no longer a part of your life, and you aren’t obligated to have anything to do with him.”

“I don’t mind, and this will give me the chance to put the whole thing to rest once and for all.”

“Are you sure about this?”

“Yes, Mother, I’m sure.”

“All right,” Charles said as he stepped closer to her, “but we’ll be right here if you should need us. I don’t trust the man, and I never have.”

“Thank you,” she said as she placed a hand against his cheek then turned to the door.

She fluttered inside, wondering how she would react to seeing him after all this time. This was the man that she had been so dead set on marrying and thought she had loved so much until a trip west had changed that idea. Taking hold of the crystal knob, she turned it quietly and stealthily opened the door.

He stood before the fireplace in the walnut paneled room thumbing through a book that he had taken from one of the built in shelves, and she felt a shock. He wasn’t as tall or as handsome as she remembered him, and his suave now seemed more seedy than charming.

“Hazleton,” she said as she pushed the door together.

“Angelica,” he said as he looked up at her and closed the book with a thump. “I wondered if you would see me.”

“I wanted to…. I needed to, though not for the reason you would want to think.”

“You’re just as beautiful as ever, though you have put on a little weight.”

“That happens when there’s a baby on the way,” she said calmly. “It can’t be helped.”

“His baby?”

“Who else’s?”

He laid the book on the mantle and grinned like a Cheshire cat. “You know, you’re the only woman that ever turned away from me.” He snorted. “And for one of those savages that lives where no decent human being would ever consider.”

“You had better watch what you say, Hazleton, my mother and little sister live there now, and you know this temper of mine, and how I feel about my family, of which he is now a part.”

“Well, maybe not everyone. Is he wealthy?”

“Fabulously.”

“And handsome, I suppose.”

“Extremely.”

“I see.”

With the swagger that she had before taken as confidence and now saw as cocky self-assuredness, he came to her. Looking into her eyes, he put his arms around her, and she felt his lips on hers and they only registered repugnance. Then he drew his blonde head back and his eyes narrowed as he looked her over.

“Does he make you feel the way I do?”

“No,” she said evenly, “and that’s only one of the reason’s I married him.”

A harsh light streaked through his bronze eyes, and his arms tightened around her, and she found herself glad that Charles was right outside the door. Releasing her roughly, he went to the window and peered out past the damask draperies.

“You know I don’t like being jilted.”

“Few of us do, but I don’t think it’s anything you have to worry about. Given time and other women’s money, you’ll get over it.”

He whirled on her. “Maybe I don’t want to.”

“Maybe you should. It’s only your ego that has been bruised, and bruises heal.”

“Maybe I should come out there and meet this husband of yours.”

“I wouldn’t recommend it. He knows some very powerful and influential people.”

“So do I.”

“And he’s very good with a gun.”

“I’ve fought my share of duels.”

“And, as you said, he grew up in a savage land. His father raised him to take care of himself and those he loves, and he learned a lot from his close association with the Paiutes.”

Some of the blood drained from his face and his eyes darkened. “Indians?”

“Yes, they practically helped raise him, and he learned a lot from them. So if you’re as smart as you think you are you’ll stay well away from him, and if you’re planning on trying to get any money from us, I must, out of clear conscience, warn you against it. But if my word isn’t enough to convince you, go ahead and try it and when he kills you I’ll testify that you pushed him into it, and he was only protecting himself and his family. Considering that he is close friends with the governor of the state I don’t think there’ll be any problems.”

He stood in stony silence, and she could see the cogs turning behind those crafty eyes. Her breath held, and her hands clasped tightly at her waist as she waited to see if he would call her hand.

“No woman is worth the trouble. And, as you pointed out, there are plenty of other fish in the sea, and only a woman’s money is worth killing over but not dying for, so I’ll get my coat and hat and you’ll never see or hear from me again.” He stepped to her and touched her face, and his voice came low and cold. “Good-bye, Angelica. It’s been good seeing you again, and you know how to find me if you ever get tired of him.”

“That’ll never happen.”

“Don’t be so sure. You got tired of me.”

“Not tired, I just got my eyes opened to something better.”

For a second she thought he was going to say something else then he left without another word.

“Well, thank goodness that’s over with,” Mrs. Cadence said as she came to her daughter. “Angelica, you’re pale as a ghost.”

Angelica felt an arm go around her shoulders, and she brought a hand to her mouth.

“Why you’re trembling. He didn’t hurt you did he?”

She shook her head as she choked back the bitter taste that the whole episode brought with it. For the first time since meeting him, she was afraid of what that awful man would do, and it wasn’t for herself that she worried. He had said she would never see him again but a tiny voice in the back of her head cautioned her against believing him. There had been something sinister about his presence and prowling just beyond his words. Her arms tightened around her mother, and her heart beat so hard that it thought to suffocate her. She hadn’t known fear like this before, and she didn’t know what to do about what was causing it.

SIX

Adam and Chris rode into the yard and stopped in front of the big barn and dismounted then started inside.

“This is some spread you got yourself, Boss,” Chris said as they entered into the shadowy interior. “And I think you’ll do a lot more with it than Glover ever woulda.” He began unfastening the cinch to his saddle. “He coulda done all right with this much but he got too greedy.”

“And in the end it got him killed,” Adam said as he hung Sport’s breast collar from a peg on the wall. “So, do you think you’re gonna be happy here?”

“I know I am.” Chris took his saddle, blanket and all, and put on a stand. “Workin’ for you and your missus and bein’ foreman to boot is more’n I coulda dreamed of. And the wages’ll go a long way in gettin’ me and Miss Amelia set up some day.”

“And when the time comes to build the house you just let me know.” Adam finished rubbing the big chestnut down then put him in his stall. When he turned around he caught a look that Chris had apparently been hiding all day. “All right, out with it. What’s wrong?”

“Oh, there’s nothin’ wrong with me, I’m livin’ in the tall cotton, but I’ve known you long enough to know that somethin’s eatin’ at you right enough. Is it you missin’ your missus or somethin’ else?”

“I can’t keep anything from you, can I?” He clapped a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I guess with Angelica away and me staying in that big, empty house, I’ve gotten to thinking about Pa and Joe and Hoss more is all.”

“I know how that is. Sometimes I miss mine so powerful bad that I don’t think I can stand it. Maybe some day I’ll head back that way. So you gonna eat with us again tonight? Juva’s got another bottle o’ whiskey.”

Adam winced and rubbed his temple. “After last night I think I’ll forego that pleasure, but some more of Gibby’s cookin’ doesn’t sound half bad. And maybe I’ll bring a nice pitcher of buttermilk.” He gave the boy a thump on the back then started out toward the house.

Chris stopped from giving Dunny her rubdown and watched as the Boss crossed the yard. He had seen men miss their wives before and Adam Cartwright was no different in that respect and he hadn’t been able to miss the light go on in his eyes every time she came up. The big man was lost without her and evidently felt no compunction to try to hide the fact. Chris’ mouth crooked into a grin at the thought of how he had become since marrying. He had never thought of the Boss as anything but independent and now he acted like his functioning half was gone. He snickered as the Boss drug himself into the house then he went back to taking care of Dunny.

*******

Adam hadn’t stayed long in the cook shack after supper this night, for some reason he had preferred solitude. Now he sat in his favorite blue chair not only missing his wife.

He took a sip of the cognac that his father had given him as a wedding present, just one among many, and grinned. Pa had gone all out on his first-born’s wedding and lavished all sorts of gifts on him and his bride. A shiny gray carriage with a brace of fine horses to pull it, a cook stove for the kitchen, several bottles of fine wines from the cellar, the suite of furniture in their bedroom brought all the way from New York, and a cradle to be filled many times. But his favorite among it all was the well-worn blue chair that had graced the parlor of the big roughhewn log house on the Ponderosa for years. He rubbed his hand over the soft arm and took another sip. The new had gone off it a long time ago, the fabric was worn in places and it wasn’t as bright as it had once been, but he cherished it all the same and maybe all the more for it.

He leaned his head back and closed his eyes and let visions of his father and brothers come to keep him company in his lonesomeness.

Pa had always been there for him through his formative years and still today. In fact, he credited that with his becoming the kind of man that a woman like his Angelica could love. This wasn’t to say that he and Pa hadn’t butted heads and harsh words had never been between them – they had in both cases – but that was only because they were so much alike in so many ways. Pa had told Roy Coffee once that he had trouble dealing with his eldest son’s stubbornness, and Adam understood that maybe more than anyone because he had himself been on the receiving end of his father’s and knew. Still, Adam could usually out stubborn his father by sheer hardheadedness and because Pa had trouble denying his sons anything.

His grin broadened, and he took another sip. Some might call Joe the outlaw of the family but that wasn’t how Adam saw him at all. Joe had grown up with none of the deprivations that his brothers – especially the oldest one – had known. For six years the curly headed little boy had known the love of his mother and his father and brothers had watched over and protected him like three watchdogs. His life had been more settled with none of the wandering rootless for days and weeks and months on end. Where and when he would get his next meal or where he would sleep that night was never an issue. And all this, along with the nurturing of a loving family, had bred a spirited maverick so much like the mustang that couldn’t be broken. This had also led to confrontations with his much more serious minded, studious oldest brother and it had come to blows more than once, even though Adam had never returned them. That was, until the past June in the barn. Adam had been going through a rough period then, though he hadn’t been sure why at the time, and had lashed out and struck his little brother, knocking his flat. Adam’s hand came up and pinched the bridge of his nose. But Joe hadn’t held it against him; in fact, his youngest brother had matured so much since the summer when life had dealt them all a hard blow that sometimes he barely recognized him. “I’m sorry, Joe.”

He raised the delicate snifter to his lips and let the warm liquid run down his throat. And then there was Hoss. Hoss, bless him, was built like a mountain in boots but had the gentle nature of a child. Simple in his ways and thinking but not simpleminded, Hoss always seemed to be able to see the side of a thing that others had missed. When Adam had killed Ross Marquette, Hoss had come to him and through his words, taken away some of the guilt and softened the sharp edge of grief. It had been Hoss who had sat with him on the edge of the hole that had been the grave of the man they had thought him and told him it was going to be all right. And when his older brother had returned home from the black time when they had thought him dead, Hoss had been the one who had had trouble dealing with it most. Some people saw the largest of all the Cartwrights as a ham-handed buffoon, but Adam knew better. He knew his brother, and he knew his brother’s heart, and the man that only the family did.

He couldn’t help but giggle as he saw the round face of Hop Sing. The diminutive Chinese firecracker had worked for them since Adam was fourteen, and had kept the household of four men going as well as any woman could. The man that had become like a second father to three growing sons had been there to fill the void when Marie had been killed. Adam could still remember him bringing ginger snaps and milk to his boys that night after the funeral. And when Pa, in a need to just get away, had ridden off, Hop Sing had still been there. An indispensable part of the family, Hop Sing kept things humming like a well oiled machine, and he could always be counted on to show up with a doughnut or a cup of tea when it was needed.

Secure in the warmth of the familiar chair that wrapped around him like a comforting friend, Adam took another sip. The house was quiet and his thoughts were warm and loving and held back the loneliness. But then the time from last month when Hoss had come so close to dying seeped in. A serious accident had very nearly taken from him one of the things he lived for. He would never get over the image of his brother, normally a healthy, strapping man, lying there so ill, so injured, and so helpless. Suddenly, his eyes shot open and his fingers tightened on the fragile stem of the glass.

The night of the day he had told Pa he would be heading home in three days, he had been waylaid by Hoss on his way to bed. His brother had wanted to talk, especially about the baby, about which Joe had told him he had been so excited, and Adam, thoroughly exhausted and eager to get to bed and Angelica, had brushed him off. He had never done that in his life, and it had taken him this long to realize what he had done. Hoss must have been terribly hurt but had said nothing about it.

“I’m sorry, Hoss, I didn’t mean it. I wouldn’t deliberately hurt you for anything. I was just so…” He shook his head hard and ran his fingers back through his hair. “There’s no excuse for hurting his feelings. Just because you’re married and on your own now doesn’t mean you don’t need them and they you.” He emptied the glass in one slug and got up.

He went to the fireplace and put the glass on the mantle, thrust his hands into his front britches pockets and looked down into the dancing flames. They dazzled and flirted with him in an effort to take his mind from what tormented him but it simply wasn’t working. How he wished he had given in and gone with Angelica, things could have waited until his return.

“No,” he said, “you needed to stay here and get some things done, and she understood that.” With an onerous breath he leaned a hand on the mantle and let his head drop. “But do you?”

SEVEN

At ten o’clock the next morning Angelica and her mother, along with Charles had gone to the law office of Lester Tillman. He had been the family attorney for twenty-two years and known Hiram Cadence even before then. They weren’t kept waiting and ushered right in, being friends and such valuable clients.

Angelica hadn’t seen him in probably close to a year and could have sworn that he had added some weight to his already ponderous three-hundred pounds. His hair looked a little grayer and his mustache that joined into his full beard a little heavier but she still recognized a dear friend. He shook their hands then took his seat behind the immense cherry wood desk and the chair creaked and groaned.

“Now that only leaves Fiona and Daniel,” Tillman said as he picked up a small stack of papers from the blotter in front of him. “And I know that if Hi were here he’d be delighted with the news of a child on the way.”

“I know he would be too,” Angelica said as she fussed with the handle on the little velvet balloon purse.

“Now why don’t we get this business taken care of as quickly as we can so you can get back outside and enjoy this lovely fall day some more. I don’t mean to rush you off. I would love for you to stay and visit, but I have an important appointment and don’t really have the time much as I wish I did. Maybe I’ll get to before you leave. I have some papers for you to sign Angelica, and I’ll need your signature as well Verina.”

He got up and came around the desk and put the stack of papers in front of Angelica and gave her a pen. As she signed and then her mother, he would take the top sheet away and the procedure would be repeated with the next one until they were finally done.

“Now that didn’t take long,” Tillman said cheerfully, “and it was relatively painless and the money is yours.”

“I don’t like the idea of them traveling all the way back to Nevada with five thousand dollars tucked into a valise for any miscreant to find,” Charles said as they got ready to leave. “Don’t you think a wire transfer to their bank in Bantree would be much better?”

“I certainly do,” Tillman said with a nod, “and I was about to suggest it myself. I’ll do that right today and when you get home the money will be waiting for you.”

Thank yous and handshakes were exchanged then they left. They came out of the small brick building onto the walk to wait for a cab, since Charles had sent the carriage back to the house since they hadn’t known how long things would take.

It was certainly beautiful today but Angelica was having trouble enjoying it or seeing nature’s glory around her. The run in with Hazelton Greenwood from the day before still disturbed her, and she feared what the man would do to right the wrong he thought had been done him.

“Well, the foul deed is done,” Charles said briskly as he stuck the bowler on his head then buttoned his coat and straightened the collar. “Now, do you want to go back to the house or do you want to get something to eat?”

“I’m famished, aren’t you Angelica…? Angelica.”

Angelica vaguely heard her own name and felt the grip on her arm.

“Angelica, you’ve been in a cloud all morning.”

She looked around into her mother’s concerned gray eyes. “I want to find Hazleton Greenwood,” she blurted out without really thinking about it.

“What? Why?”

“Mother, I have to see him and talk to him.”

“But why? Does it have something to do with his coming to see you? Angelica, sweetheart, what did he say to you?”

“Oh, Mother, please I just need to see him, and I can’t go home to Adam until this is straightened out.”

“No, Angelica, I’m sorry,” Charles said vehemently. “I’ve never been one to overstep my authority over Lucinda’s brothers and sisters and their families, but in this I’m afraid I must. That man is dangerous and I don’t want him near you ever again. I wasn’t happy about his coming to the house and letting you see him alone.”

“Charles is right, dear. We’ll just go home and you can tell us what all this is about and anything that needs to be done about him Charles can handle it.”

“But Mother…”

“No, dear, I won’t hear anymore about it until we get back to the house.”

“Why don’t you go back inside and wait while I find a cab?”

Mrs. Cadence agreed, and he waited until they were safely in the building then he went off in search of a way home.

*******

Adam’s day had started out a little brighter than the last few since Angelica’s leaving, simply because he knew she wouldn’t be gone much longer. After all, how long could something like that take? And it wasn’t like she had left the country which could take months. He cringed at the thought and put it away from him as he left the house and started across the yard.

As he went into the barn he found that he wasn’t alone. “Juva. I thought you were out helping Linc and Noah finish the line shack out by Pointer’s Ridge.”

“I was,” sapling thin Juva Bailey said as he turned around, a small wooden keg in his hands. “We ran outta nails, and I hadta come get some more. It’s takin’ more’n we thought it was gonna since Noah keeps bendin’ ‘em.” He snickered. “I swan, that boy’s got more thumbs ‘n a box full o’ gloves.”

“Yeah, and I bet he’s hit ‘em all,” Adam said as he went to the stall to get Sport.

“He sure has, and some that ain’t been his.”

Adam couldn’t miss the pain register in the young man’s freckled face. Juva had only been on the Angel for a couple months, and when he first came he hardly knew a thing about ranch work. But the little man had proved to be a fast learner and a rapt pupil as well as a hard worker, and Adam hoped he made this his home.

“I tell you what,” Adam said as he swung the saddle onto his horse’s back. “Why not after supper you break out that other bottle Chris told me you have and pour it on your thumb.”

“That’s an idea, Boss, but I’d rather pour it in me.”

“I see what you mean, it kills the pain better that way, and you don’t give two hoots and a holler if the nail does come off.”

“Shoot, you don’t care if the whole hand comes off and takes the arm with it.”

“That you sure don’t,” Adam said with a laugh.

From there hearty male laughter filled the barn and drifted out to the caramel-haired kid that rode in on the little yellow dun mare. This was the first time Chris had heard the Boss laugh since he had come to the Angel and it made him feel good. He grinned as he stepped down and just stood and listened.

*******

Angelica could see by the looks on the faces before her that they were not happy, and that was putting it mildly. She hadn’t wanted to tell them but this was something she felt she couldn’t and shouldn’t keep to herself any longer.

“How dare him,” Mrs. Cadence spat. “He had no right to treat you that way and to frighten you like that.” Then a dark entity took over her mother’s face. “And if he harms so much as one hair on Adam’s head he’ll rue the day that he ever heard of Verina Cadence. I’ll use every bit of money I have to destroy him.”

“And I certainly wouldn’t put it past him,” Charles said as he rubbed his mustache thoughtfully. “He wasn’t lying when he said he’d fought his share of duels, because he certainly has, and the fact that they’re illegal doesn’t bother him in the slightest, and no reason it should. When I was digging up all I could about him I found that six men have died facing him and one maimed for life. He’s a dead shot, and he doesn’t seem to mind pulling the trigger.”

“I kept trying to tell myself that it’s only my imagination and that he meant what he said but…” Angelica’s hands wrung together, and she bit her lower lip, “something in his manner, something in his eyes and the way he looked at me told me not to believe all he was saying to me.”

“That’s smart,” Charles said. “Too many women have believed him and they’re all the poorer and brokenhearted for it. He’s good at what he does, and he knows it.” Methodically, he went to her and firmly took her arm. “When you broke it off with him and married Adam Cartwright, I saw no purpose in telling you one thing I learned about him but now I think you need to know…. Four people that he has come into contact with, that are known of, have died under mysterious circumstances, usually accidents, but there’s no proof that he had anything to do with it, only suspicion.”

A small moan escaped Angelica as her hands went to her mouth.

“Charles, you don’t actually think…” Mrs. Cadence started.

“I don’t know, but, like I said, I wouldn’t put it past him. His ilk will do whatever it takes to accomplish what they set out to do, and if that means murder, then so be it.”

“Oh, Mother.” Angelica couldn’t control the intense shaking that took over her body.

“Try not to worry so much,” Charles said as his fingers tightened on her arm and a reassuring smile peeked out beneath his mustache. “I’ll take care of it. He’ll not do anymore harm to my family than he already has. Owning and running a large import company has its advantages. It throws you into contact with all kinds of people from all walks of life.” Then he kissed her as he would a sister and left the study.

“Oh, Mother, how could I have been so blind and stupid as to think that I ever loved such a creature?”

Mrs. Cadence raised her ample figure from the maroon leather davenport and went to her daughter and cupped her chin in her hand. “You were lonelier than I realized, and he knew just the right things to say.” She put her arms around her daughter and began running her fingers over the dark brown ringlets. “It’ll be all right, sweetheart, we have to believe that it will.”

Angelica closed her eyes and held on tight as she began to cry.

“Mother, what’s going on?” Lucinda asked as she floated in. “Charles just rushed out as if the house as if it were on fire.” Then she took a good look at her sister. “What’s wrong with Angelica?”

Mrs. Cadence’s sharp eyes flicked to her. “We think that Hazleton Greenwood is plotting to kill Adam.”

Lucinda’s face dropped, and she went to her sister.

EIGHT

Angelica sat on the fainting couch in her room watching leaves – darts of red against the blue of the sky – swirl past the window as the wind tossed and played with them. Since shortly after Charles left the house she had been sitting here pondering what was going on. Sometimes life was so unfair but she couldn’t imagine it being so harsh as to let someone like Hazelton Greenwood take her Adam from her.

Her train of thought was disturbed by a light knock. She wasn’t really in the mood to see anyone right now but she knew this was family and they meant well so she couldn’t ignore them. “Come in.”

The door opened and Lucinda stepped in holding a delicate cup and saucer painted with bright anemones. “I brought you some of Emmaline’s ginger tea. It always helps me when I’m feeling bad.”

“I doubt anything can help the way I feel right now.” She turned her attention back out the window.

Lucinda sat down next to her and put the cup in her sister’s hands and gave her the best comforting smile she could.

“How could I have been so naive? Everyone tried telling me what Hazleton Greenwood is, but I thought I knew more than anyone else, and I wouldn’t listen…. If Adam dies because of me I’ll hate myself for the rest of my life.”

“You really do love him, don’t you?”

“Why do you sound as if that’s so hard to believe? You love Charles, and I’m capable of that emotion too.”

“Of course you are. I didn’t mean it to sound that way.”

“Adam is every beat of my heart, and right now I’m missing him so badly that it makes me ache. Until I met him I didn’t realize that part of me was missing, and he makes me whole.” She looked down at herself and rested one hand against her belly. “And carrying his child brings me the greatest joy.” She looked back at her sister. “Can you understand that?”

“Better than I think you know. Charles has always wanted children but for some reason I’ve never been able to give them to him.”

Angelica’s eyes widened. “I thought it was because you didn’t want them.”

“We both know that I’m not a motherly person, and maybe that’s why I was made so I couldn’t bear them, but if I could I would just to please Charles, and maybe myself, just a little.”

“Now I’m even sorrier for what I said yesterday. Can you forgive me?”

“If anyone needs to be forgiven it’s me. The truth is that I haven’t liked Adam from the start, even before I met him. I’ve only seen him as the one who broke up the family, and I have blamed him terribly…. He came along and you and Mother and Fiona went out there to live.… It took this to make me see that I may have been unfair. You’re entitled to your happiness as much as anyone… even me.”

“We’ve never been as close as I would like for us to be. Maybe it’s because we’re so different.”

“Or so much alike.”

“Maybe…. I’m glad you came up here.”

“So am I. We haven’t set together like this in a long time.”

Angelica took a sip of her tea. “Not since we were only girls. I think we’ve both been too busy with our own lives to have time for each other.”

Angelica turned her gaze back out the window and took another sip then sat the cup in the saucer. As she did she felt strong fingers clasp around hers, and she looked into her sister’s face. She felt some of her burden ease though a feeling of guilt for bringing that odious man into all their lives still resided inside her. How she hoped that Charles was able to do something. And how glad she was that Lucinda was sitting here with her.

*******

Adam couldn’t explain his cheerful, enthusiastic mood except maybe to say that his wife would be returning to him before too long, and he had been this way since shortly after dawn. Getting up to the usual doldrums, while he was out in the barn getting ready for his day’s chores he had perked up. It had been as if a shade had been raised, allowing the bright rays of the sun to penetrate the gloom and wipe away the shadows.

Since that night when he had first eaten with the men he had done so with every meal but tonight he decided to have supper in his house, Angelica’s house. He felt like maybe he could cook this time without burning the whole lot, and it gave him something to do. Ham sizzled on the stove and eggs fried in the same skillet with the bacon while coffee came to a boil. The smells reminded him of days and evenings when he would come in and hear her in the kitchen. He would stand outside the door and listen to her soft, musical voice as she hummed. One side of his finely sculpted mouth turned as he bent down and opened the oven door to check the biscuits.

“Early one morning just as the sun was shining,
“I heard a young maiden in the valley below.”

He went to the breakfront to get a plate and cup, and his rich baritone continued in song.

“Oh, don’t deceive me, oh never leave me,
How could you use a poor maiden so?”

*******

It was drawing close to time for supper to be served when Charles finally came in. He had been gone ever since right before noon when he had left to see what he could do about the threat of Hazleton Greenwood. Angelica and Lucinda were just coming down the stairs as he gave his hat and coat to Maggie, and she went off with them.

Charles Harper wasn’t one to exhibit his emotions in his expression but his eyes were dark and the light caught in them and only accentuated them.

“Charles,” Lucinda said as they reached the bottom step of the wide staircase. “I can see it in your eyes. What’s happened?”

“Where’s your mother?”

“In the kitchen helping Emmaline.”

“I want both of you to wait for me in the study while I get her.”

A lump grew in Angelica’s throat and threatened to strangle her. “Charles, what…”

“Please, Angelica, just go with your sister. I’ll tell you all of it when I get back. Now go on.” He gave her a nudge toward Lucinda then started toward the back of the house.

They did as he asked and waited quietly until he returned with their mother. He closed the door then slowly turned to them.

“I think it’s best if you all sit down before I tell you what I have to.”

“Charles, does this have anything to do with what I suspected?”

“Angelica, please, won’t you sit down?”

“No, I want to know!” Her mother and sister got on either side of her and tried settling her. “I don’t want to calm down; I want to know what’s going on! Is that hideous man still in Bangor?”

He took her hands and held them tightly and looked straight into her eyes. “He hasn’t left, and he isn’t going to.… He’s dead.”

Angelica let out a shriek, and her legs began to buckle. The room whirled around her, and she didn’t feel the strong arms catch her, and she hardly noticed when she was scooped into them and carried to the davenport and put down on it. Everything melded into a blur, and the voices were more of a dull roar in her ears. Her mind spun in her head like a top, and her disjointed thoughts slammed into one another like river ice breaking up in the spring thaw. A bitter liquid ran into her mouth and down her throat, and she choked and coughed and tried pushing it away.

“Angelica, dear, it’s all right.”

She felt cool fingers pushing her hair back from her face and touching her cheek.

“Mother.”

“It’s all right, sweetheart, I’m right here. I’m right here.”

Gradually, the haze left her eyes and the focus returned, and she could make out three grim faces. Her mind started to clear, and what she had been told slowly registered. “Dead…. Hazleton’s dead? What… What happened?”

“He was challenged to a duel by Marshall Cuthbert, and Marsh killed him. He’d been repeatedly warned to stay away from his sister until finally Marsh had had enough and took matters into his own hands. Greenwood should have known that someday he would run into a better shot and a cooler head, and I think the son of Colonel Archibald Cuthbert fits that description quite well. The authorities will no doubt come into this but Marsh’s being the son of one of the most respected men in Bangor will play in his favor.”

“When did this happen?” Mrs. Cadence asked.

“This morning, right after dawn.”

“Adam’s safe?” Angelica asked meekly.

“Yes, dear, our Adam’s safe. That loathsome man can’t hurt him or you now. So you just lie there and rest. Close your eyes and put this behind you, and soon you’ll be home with your husband. That’s right. It’s all over, and you can know some peace.”

Lucinda stood next to her husband as she looked down at her sister, and his arm stole around her waist. Until this minute she hadn’t completely realized what this man, this cowboy, meant to Angelica. She had never seen her in such a state, but believing his life in danger and being told that the threat had been removed had driven her to collapse. “My poor little sister,” she thought then put her head over on her husband’s shoulder and felt him kiss the top of her head. Maybe this would be the beginning of a new relationship with Angelica, and maybe now she would let herself get to know Adam. Anyway, she would try.

NINE

The night had been fairly restful for those in the big brick house on Bleaker Street, but it had seemed to do Angelica the most good as far as getting her sleep. She had fallen into a deep slumber of exhaustion from the second she had laid down. Her mother, like an ever-present sentry, had slept on the fainting couch so that she could be nearby if her daughter should need her. But Angelica had slept through, only getting up a couple times to use the chamber pot, and this morning she seemed brighter than previously, though the pall of Hazelton Greenwood did still hang over her.

The family had once again gathered in the atrium for breakfast and was just sitting down to their food when Maggie announced that they had a caller who wouldn’t give her name and thoroughly refused to leave without seeing them.

“All right, Maggie, show her in,” Charles said as he finished dishing up.

When Maggie returned a slim, comely young woman of probably twenty-three or so was with her. Her clothes were not what one would call stylish by the day’s standard and the feather boa around her neck had seen better times. A rosy blonde curl dangled over her forehead from beneath the brim of her bonnet, and she clutched a shabby little purse. A harsh life betrayed itself in her cherubic face and dulled the sparkle in her crystal blue eyes.

“That’ll be all, Maggie.” After the maid left Charles approached the girl with his plate of food. “Please, come in. I’m Charles Harper, and these ladies are my family. What’s your name?”

“I am Gerta Braun,” she said with a light Germanic accent, “und I need to talk to Mrs. Cartwright.”

“Would you like something to eat?” he said as he ushered her into the room.

“Nine, danke. I only vant to talk to Mrs. Cartwright.”

“I’m Mrs. Cartwright,” Angelica said as she put her plate aside and stood. “What do you need to talk to me about?”

“I vish to talk to you alone.”

“Anything you have to say to Mrs. Cartwright you must say in front of us,” Charles asserted. “You see, Miss Braun, I know who you are.”

The girl’s eyes darted warily to him.

“You’re just one of the things I know about Hazleton Greenwood.”

“Hazleton?” Angelica burst out.

“This young woman knew him quite well. Word has it that he was her paramour.”

“Zat is vis a married man.”

“And how many wives did he have?” Charles asked bluntly.

The girl’s eyes lowered for a second or two. “I don’t know.”

“Please, won’t you sit down?” he said.

“No, I only came to tell zee missus somezing zen I vill go.” With timid steps the girl approached Angelica and stopped in front of her. “You are very pretty. No vonder my Hazleton come to you.”

“You’re very pretty too,” Angelica said with a slight smile.

“Not so much anymore, but zat ist not vy I come here.”

“Please, go on,” Angelica said as she reached out to the young woman but pulled her hand back.

“Hazelton vas no good, I knew zat, but I could not help how I felt about him. He made me laugh, but he also frightened me…. Ven you left him for somevon else he vas furious und it frightened me even more. He even hit men ven I told him he should forget about you…. He vanted your money und he vanted to hurt you in the vorst vay he could sink of.”

“But I’ve been married for three months. Why did he wait so long?”

“He knew about zee five sousand dollars you vere to inherit und he vanted zat too.”

A cold chill ran through Angelica, and her hands knotted together. She didn’t feel her mother take her arm or notice Lucinda standing protectively at her other side. “Go on.”

“He vas going to go out vest und make it look like your husband vas killed in an accident or robbery und zen come back here. I vas to say he vas vis me should anyvon get suspicious und ask. Und zen after a short time he vould go to you und tell you how sorry he vas zen be vis you und take all your money. He vanted to break you und tear you down for leaving him und zen he vould go…. Ven he vould talk about how he vould kill your husband... I could see how much he enjoyed it und vanted to do it. I have never been so frightened of him as zen.”

“Then why didn’t you leave him?” Angelica asked.

“Because no von left Hazleton Greenvood, he left zem…, und I loved him.”

“If he hadn’t been killed… would you have told me this?”

Gerta studied for a moment then sighed. “I sink not. I loved him…, und I have known zat he has killed ven he has come to me before.”

Angelica could feel a burning creep along her spine and into her brain. “And you would have let him murder my husband when you could have stopped it!” she screamed inside her head and clamped down on the inside of her bottom as she stared at this sad being, and felt no sympathy.

“Thank you for coming to tell us, Miss Braun,” Charles said as he came to her. “I know it took a lot for you to come here and tell this. Are you sure you wouldn’t like something to eat?”

“Ja, I am sure, und I did not come here for money.” The girl tittered nervously, and her hands clutched the purse like a life line. “After all, I do still have some pride, but maybe not as much as I vonce did. I don’t know vy I had to come, but I felt I could now. I vill go now, und I vill not come again.”

“Let me show you out.”

“Danke.” She started to go then turned back to Angelica. “I am very happy zat you did not lose your man.” Then she went out with Charles.

The room suddenly seemed to be sucked into a vacuum and for what felt like an eternity no one even breathed, let alone spoke. Then, with a quick jerk, Angelica pulled free and bolted from the room.

It took almost fifteen minutes for anyone to locate Angelica after a thorough search of the all the rooms and it was her mother who found her standing under a tree down from the back of the house. Her daughter stood so still and quiet like a stone statue caught in a shower of leaves.

“Angelica,” she said and touched her girl’s arm and what met her was a pair of the most haunted eyes she had ever seen. “We’ve looked everywhere for you, and we were beginning to get worried.”

“I just had to get out of the house for a little while. I felt like it was going to crush me if I didn’t.”

“I understand that, dear, after all you’ve been through these past few days and then to hear what that terrible girl had to say. Now, you’ve been out here long enough to get thoroughly chilled so why don’t you come in and finish your breakfast?”

“Believe it or not, for a change, I’m not hungry.”

“Well, you need to come inside anyway before you catch your death.”

A heavy breath shuddered through Angelica, and she wrapped her arms around herself. “A man is dead, and all I can feel is relief.”

Mrs. Cadence stepped in front of her and gripped her arms. “He was not a man,” she said vehemently. “No man would have done what he was planning. He would have murdered Adam in a way so that no one would think that it was anything but a tragic accident or a random robbery then he would have come to console you in your grief and proceeded to take everything he could get his hands on. He would have ruined you, he would have ruined the ranch and everything Adam had worked so hard for then he would have left like the thief he was with his revenge tucked securely under his arm. But he’s dead and you and Adam are safe from his machinations, and you have absolutely nothing to feel guilty for. As a matter of fact, I’m glad he’s dead.”

“Mother!”

“Hazelton Greenwood wasn’t fit to shine Marshall Cuthbert’s shoes, and if I can do anything to help him I will.” Mrs. Cadence’s brow drew down, and her mouth pinched in. “I can think of that monster killing my Adam and tearing your heart out and it makes me so furious that had I known before I could have shot him myself to prevent that.”

“Not you, you’re too gentle.”

“When it comes to her children a mother will fight and use any and all means to protect them. If it had meant my being sentenced to hang I would have done it with no regrets.” Some of the anger drained out of her and her mouth was softened by a warm smile, and she took Angelica’s face in her hands. “It’s over and you don’t need to think anymore about it. Hazelton Greenwood is out of your life for good and all this time, and he doesn’t deserve any afterthought. It’s time to move on with your life and think only of the wonderful man that is waiting for you.”

“I don’t know if I should tell Adam about this.”

“Well, that’s a decision that I think only you can and should make. But he’s a very strong person and so are you, and I know you‘ll make the right one.”

“Mother…, I’m ready to go home.”

“I thought you were. Now let’s go back into the house. I don’t know about you, but I’m cold.”

Angelica’s face said it all as she took her mother’s arm then they started for the house where Charles waited by the back door. A dark chapter in Angelica’s life had closed and a bright one was just beginning, and she could hardly wait to get back to the big white house among the pines and start forward again with her Adam by her side.

TEN

Angelica was in the process of packing for her trip home that would begin in the morning when someone knocked at the door. “Come in,” she said as she took one of her dresses from the wardrobe.

“Miss Lucinda said I should help you,” Maggie said as she came in. “Not that you can’t do it on your own but it’ll go much faster with two.”

“Thank you, Maggie; I’d like that very much. Why don’t you take care of this one, and I’ll get another,” and she handed the woman the dress.

For nearly a minute they worked without any conversation, and then Maggie broke the silence.

“Mum.”

“Yes, Maggie.”

“Have you thought about hirin’ on a servant or housekeeper?”

“Yes, we’ve thought about it, but finding someone all the way out there isn’t the easiest thing.” Angelica folded up a pair of pantalets and handed to her.

“Well, you’re gonna be needin’ help right enough and livin’ all the way out there in that heathen land and what with the baby acomin’ and all … well, I do know a thing about babies and keepin’ a house and…”

“Maggie, are you offering to come with me.”

“Well, you said it yourself that you don’t have any help around the house, and you’ll be needin’ it with the little one, so yes, I am. That is, if you want me.”

“Want you? I would love for you to come with me. I think you could learn to love it as much as I do, and you would adore Adam.” Angelica’s brow drew into a frown. “But what about Lucinda? What does she think about you leaving her employ and coming all the way out to Nevada?”

“Frankly, mum,” Maggie said in a lowered voice as she leaned closer, “it was her idea, and your mother was all for it, but please don’t let ‘er know I told you. Miss Lucinda’d have me skin for sure.”

“All right, your secret’s safe with me. But you really don’t want to come, do you?”

“Well, mum, this has been me home since I was but a girl, and I do kinda hate to leave it.”

“Then you don’t have to.” Angelica folded a chemise. “Adam and I can manage just fine until we find someone.”

“When I was a little girl me da used to tell us that if we were afraid to try new things we would be afraid to live a full life. Living should be gone at like the adventure it is, he would tell us.”

“I remember. I got that lecture from him a couple times myself when I wandered out to the stable. And he was right. Just think what I would have missed out on if I hadn’t gone west with Mother. I have a fine home in the most breathtakingly beautiful place on the face of the Earth, am carrying my first child, and I am blessed to have a wonderful man love me and to love in return.” She clutched the garment to her like a dreamy schoolgirl thinking of her first crush. “And all because Mother is more stubborn than I am.”

They shared a laugh and temporarily forgot their chore.

“But I don’t want you doing this because of me or because my sister told you to,” Angelica went on. “Do it because you want to and no one else. I think I can guarantee you, though, that if you do, you won’t be sorry for the decision.”

That spark of Irish cussedness that Angelica had seen so many times before came into those nutmeg eyes, and she swiped at a hank of mahogany hair that had fallen free of her white linen cap. “Faith and Begorrah, I’ll do it. Life has been gettin’ a bit stale, and, after all, it’s not like I’ll be with a stranger. Of course, the mister I’m not too sure about. Just exactly what is a cowboy like?”

“I must admit that I haven’t met that many myself, but this one would be right at home here in Bangor. He’s polished and educated and handsome beyond words.”

“Then pray, tell me.”

They lapsed into girlish chitchat as Angelica told her about her husband and her home, and Maggie hung on every word. The packing continued as they talked but the folding wasn’t as neat as usual but they didn’t care. They were enjoying each other’s company and that was all that mattered.

*******

Shortly after supper, Angelica was on her way into her room so that she could turn in early when she was intercepted by Lucinda.

“Can we talk for a few minutes, there’s something I need to say to you?”

Angelica had always had trouble reading her older sister, and now was no different. “All right.”

“You know that I’ve never been one for apologizing or saying I’m sorry. I guess I’ve always believed that it’s a sign of weakness…, and I know we’ve always had our differences…. What I’m trying to say is, that I’ve been unfair to you and Adam and I… I want… I need to say… I’m sorry.” Lucinda took her sister’s hands. “I can see how happy this man makes you and how happy you are out there. I didn’t until yesterday and then again today when I watched you.”

“Lucinda.”

“Let me say this. I put myself in your place, and I felt your fear and anger. When you were listening to what that vile little creature was saying today I wanted to protect you from it. And when you collapsed yesterday when Charles told you that that louse of a Hazleton Greenwood had been killed, I knew relief.”

“Why this sudden reformation?”

“It’s not so sudden. After we returned from Nevada after the wedding and it sank in that you were really gone I began to honestly think about our relationship and everything was all mixed up. Sometimes I wanted to lash out at you and the man who had taken you away and broken the family apart. I even hated him for it and yes, you too, and maybe I’ve even envied you.”

“Envied me?”

“Yes. You’ve done something that I would never have the courage to do. But these past two days have changed many things…. I hope I’ve grown into a sister that is worthy of you…, and I hope to get to know Adam better.” She reached out and laid her hand against Angelica’s belly. “And your child too.”

“This visit has been a learning experience for me as well, and I think I’m beginning to know my older sister. A lot of what I have seen through the years has been a portrayal. Like letting everyone believe you didn’t want children instead of showing the woman who does but isn’t able. Well, you can take your mask off now, because I’ve seen behind it, and I like what I’ve seen.” Then Angelica read something in her sister’s face that she had never caught before and could see the tears rising in the gray eyes. Putting her arms around her, she held onto Lucinda. “I love you too.”

“This is what I’ve always wished for.”

Angelica and Lucinda looked around as their mother finished coming up the stairs.

“To see my two oldest girls as sisters and not adversaries.”

“We were just saying goodnight,” Angelica said.

“I know what you were saying. I heard most of it, and it makes a mother very happy.”

“There are parts of me that will never change,” Lucinda said as she stepped back from Angelica.

“I know that, dear,” Mrs. Cadence said as she got between her daughters and took their arms. “And I wouldn’t change them if I could because then you wouldn’t be my Lucinda, but this is more than I even dared hope for. Now we do need to get to bed. Goodnight, sweetheart.” She kissed Lucinda then Angelica. “Goodnight.”

They wished her the same then watched as she went to her room. Then Lucinda turned back to her sister.

“This doesn’t mean that we’ll ever share giggles and girlish stories, and bossiness is my nature and a leopard could sooner change its spots.”

“I know, but that you understand and are willing to try meeting me halfway is enough to make me happy.” She kissed Lucinda on the cheek and hugged her. “Goodnight…, big sister.” Then she went into her room and closed the door.

Lucinda looked to see that no one was watching then took a white linen handkerchief from her sleeve and dabbed the tears from her eyes. Angelica had grown so much from the self centered child, and she placed it all at the feet of one man. He had taken her sister and made a woman out of her, and a man whose love could bring about such a transformation couldn’t be so bad. With a sniffle and a swipe at her nose, she went back downstairs. Charles was still in the study, and she felt the need for him right now.

*******

“Fiona, hurry or we’ll miss the train.”

“I’m coming, Mother,” Fiona said breathlessly as she scurried down the stairs, her blue carpet bag in one hand. “I almost forgot a few things.”

“Well, we’re about to run late.”

The girl joined her mother and sisters and Maggie as Charles came into the foyer.

“Everything is packed into the carriage, and we’re ready to go,” he said.

“Not quite everything,” Mrs. Cadence said as she shot her youngest child a scolding look.

“It’s all right, Mother, I can carry it to the station,” Fiona said as she gripped the soft satchel close. “It isn’t heavy and won’t take up much room.”

“Then we’d better get going,” he said as he opened the front door. “I’ll wait outside while you say your ‘good-byes’.” Then he went out onto the portico.

“This has been an interesting few days, I will say, but it has been good to be with you and Charles again,” Mrs. Cadence said as she went to her oldest daughter. “And you must come west and stay with us a little longer this time.”

“We will when we can get away. Charles is always so busy, you know. It isn’t easy being the largest importer in the city.”

“I know.” Mrs. Cadence put her arms around her. “I love you, sweetheart.” She stepped back and brushed her fingertips over her eldest daughter’s chin. “I’m not going to cry.”

Fiona went to her big sister and unreservedly threw her arms around her neck. “I love you, Lucinda, and I wish you could come back and live with us.”

“I’m afraid I’m too old to make that kind of an adjustment, but I’m glad you’re happy. And I love you too.”

“All right, Fiona, let’s wait outside with Charles.”

“Yes, Mother.”

After their mother and little sister had gone Lucinda and Angelica hugged each other as if for the last time.

“I’m glad I came,” Angelica said with a twinkle to her violet eyes. “It’s been hard being away from Adam, but I found my sister again, and even he would tell me that that made it all worth it.”

“I’m glad you came too. I’m afraid I was a bit out of sorts with you at first, but I’ve gotten over that.”

“Well, I will admit that I gave as good as I got.”

“That you certainly did.” She gently touched her sister’s face. “You take care, and let me know how things go with the baby.”

“I will.” She kissed Lucinda on the cheek then rushed out.

“You take care of them on the way, Maggie. And I’ll expect you to watch after my Angelica.”

“I will, mum, just like I always have.” Then, with a sly wink, she went out and closed the door.

Lucinda just stood staring at the door for a few seconds then the handkerchief came out and she cried into it, something she didn’t do so very often but expected to do more, now that her secrets were out.

ELEVEN

Adam was just getting out of the buckboard near the stage depot when a familiar voice caught him from behind.

“I didn’t expect to see you in town this morning.”

“My ladies are coming home today,” Adam said as he stepped onto the boardwalk and went to where Steve Balasco stood. “And I’m getting one more back than I sent.”

“Oh, really. That sounds like a good deal,” Steve said with a smirk and his charcoal eyes sparkled deviously. “Who?”

“Her name’s Maggie O’Shea, and she’s worked for the Cadences for a long time and now she’s coming to work for us. We need someone to help around the house and especially when the baby comes, and Angelica says she a jewel.”

“That’s good. I tell you what,” Steve gave him a slap on the arm. “The stage isn’t due for some time yet, so why don’t we go on over to Miss Elberta’s and get a cup of coffee? I’ll buy.”

“I could go for that,” Adam said as he put an arm around his friend’s shoulder and they started up the street, “just so long as I get back and don’t keep them waiting.”

“Oh, you can count of me.”

“Yeah, I’m sure I can,” Adam said dubiously then broke into laughter as did Steve.

*******

Angelica was disappointed that Adam wasn’t standing right there waiting with open arms when the stage pulled in. She and the others had just been helped down by the driver and were waiting when she felt a hand on her back and looked around into those dark hazel eyes that made her heart pound.

Since coming to America with her family when she was fourteen and settling in Bangor, Maggie hadn’t been out of the city or the state of Maine, for that matter. She had heard about places like this but had never actually seen one. Her nutmeg eyes scanned the rustic buildings, and her nose took in the scent of the town. A new adventure was beginning, and she looked forward to it, even though it was with some trepidation.

“Maggie O’Shea, I would like for you to meet my husband, Adam Cartwright.”

Maggie turned around and gasped as her hand flew to her throat. “Saints preserve us.”

“How-do-you-do, Miss O’Shea,” he said as he tipped his hat.

“It’s Maggie, sir,” she said with a slight curtsey. “Ya can just call me Maggie.”

“All right, Maggie,” he said with a broad toothy grin. “If you’ll hand me your valise I’ll load it into the buckboard, and we’ll be on our way.”

She gave it to him and without a word he went off with it. Lowering her head, she stepped next to Angelica. “Why didn’t ya warn me?” she whispered.

“Warn you?” Angelica said with a frown.

“That hasta be the most handsome man I’ve ever seen in me life. He about took me breath away.”

“Do I have a reason to be jealous?” Angelica said as one corner of her mouth crooked.

“Oh, no, mum, I would never…” Then Maggie’s brow knit. “Ah, you’re teasin’ me.”

“I couldn’t help myself.”

“All right, ladies, that does it. We’ll stop by your house first, Mrs. Cadence then straight out to the ranch. I think you’re gonna really like it here Maggie. This country is like none you’ve probably ever seen before.”

“I’m sure I will, sir.”

“And it’s Adam.”

“No, sir, I couldn’t be so familiar. I’m only the hired help.”

“Then Mr. Adam will do if you’re more comfortable with that,” he said as he took her hand. “And you’re family now.”

He helped her into the back seat then got in the front one next to his wife. “It’s so good to have you home. I trust everything went smoothly with the money.”

“Just fine. Mr. Tillman wired it to our bank here and it should be waiting for us. I enjoyed seeing Lucinda and Charles and Phillip and Meagan and their children again.”

“Pretty settled, huh?”

A stormy cloud crossed over Angelica’s face. “I’ll tell you all about it when we get home…. Something happened that you need to know about, but it can wait. Right now I just want to get back to my house.”

“Then we certainly will.” He let his eyes drink her in. “You don’t know how much I’ve missed you.”

“Not anymore than I’ve missed you.” She took his arm and scooted close to him.

With a snap of the reins, they started for the little house where Mrs. Cadence and Fiona lived.

*******

After depositing Mrs. Cadence and Fiona and staying long enough to help them unpack, Adam drove out to the ranch at a good clip. He and Angelica talked while Maggie sat quietly behind them listening and taking in the magnificent scenery around her.

It wasn’t long before they came into the yard and Maggie couldn’t help displaying her awe at the house she would now call home. “By all the saints, I’ve never seen such a house.”

“I trust you’ll be quite comfortable here,” Adam said as he alit. “And you’ll have your own room just off the kitchen.” His long legs wound him around to the other side, and he helped the ladies down.

“You don’t havta build a special room for me.”

“It’s already there. I designed it that way. I knew that someday we would need somebody to help us with all our children,” he said with an ornery glint in his eyes.

“Adam Stoddard Cartwright, must you be so brazen?”

“Oh, I don’t think Maggie minds. All the Irish I’ve ever met are very broad minded. Now why don’t you two go on into the house, and I’ll get Chris to help me bring the luggage in.”

“Chris?” Angelica said with a hint of surprise.

“I’ve got something of my own to tell you. You don’t own all the surprises in this family.” Suddenly, he put his arm around her waist and pulled her to him and his raven head lowered. “Don’t you ever do that to me again. The next time you leave I’ll be right with you regardless of what needs to be done here. It can wait…. I can’t.”

Angelica felt herself kissed hard and it took her breath, and wiped away any remnants of Hazelton Greenwood from her lips. She was home with him once more where her life truly meant something.

“Now you go on like I told you to,” he said as he abruptly released her and put the key in her hand. “Scoot. Chris!”

She and Maggie got as far as the front porch then stopped and turned around as he went off in search of the young man.

“He is indeed a fine one, his being an Englishman not withstanding.”

Angelica couldn’t miss the elfin light in the woman’s eyes. “I’m happy with him. Now we’d better do as he said, and I can hardly wait for you to see the inside of the house.”

As Angelica unlocked the door and went inside, Maggie looked back around. A truly finer place to call home she had never seen or been in, and she instinctively knew that she would be happy here. She had known Miss Angelica since she was a child and had a hand in her upbringing, and Adam Cartwright she looked forward to getting to know. She would do her best to serve these two people to the best of her ability, and give them no reason to regret her coming.

“Are you coming, Maggie?”

“Yes, mum.” Then she turned and followed her mistress into the house.

THE END

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