by J. Rosemary Moss
Genre: Fan-Fiction (Bonanza)
Rating: Mature Content
LINK TO PART ONE: http://jrosemary.blogspot.com/2008/02/for-want-of-brother-part-one.html
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I could guess what it cost Adam to give me a choice—and to offer to aid and abet me if I chose to escape. I reckon his Pa raised him to believe in the sanctity of the law, so he would not have made his offer lightly.
He could have offered merely to look the other way while I escaped. And if he had done that, I think I would have taken him up on it. After all, he had no legal responsibility to bring me to justice. He wasn’t a lawman. He wouldn’t have suffered any consequences for his actions—or lack thereof.
But once he decided to offer me the chance to escape, I suppose he couldn’t leave it at that. It would have felt dishonorable to him, I think. If he was willing to help me at all, he was willing to help me to the best of his abilities—and if he was going to play fast and loose with the law, he wouldn’t do so by half measures. Merely looking the other way would have been, to him, obeying the letter of the law but not the spirit. And that would have been more contemptible than breaking the law outright.
That’s how I figured he was thinking. And that put me in a damnable spot.
How would Adam face his Pa again if he helped me escape? Or his younger brothers—especially Little Joe? Joe fought like the devil with Adam, but I knew that he looked up to him and relied on him to do the right thing.
What was Adam going to do—lie to his family? Lie to Sheriff Coffee?
And then there was this fellow Drew. Blind or not, Adam had told me that he was just as ruthless as Jack Clayton had been—maybe more so. If he guessed that Adam had helped me escape, would he come after Adam? Would he bring the law down on Adam’s head?
Damn.
I hadn’t bothered to hide my crime, I reminded myself. I had known all along that I couldn’t risk having someone else accused of what I did. I had been determined, from the first, not to leave a mystery behind me.
Well, I couldn’t leave Adam behind me either. And if I escaped with his help, I’d be doing just that. That was no way to treat a brother. I could try to escape without his help, I supposed, but I knew that Adam would never leave it at that.
All these thoughts were running through my head late the next morning as we saddled up Sport. It had stopped snowing—I think we both figured that we could make it back to town. Unless I chose to escape, that is.
Adam looked at me from the opposite side of Sport. “Well?” he asked.
It was the first time he’d asked me for my choice. He hadn’t spoken a word about it after laying out my options last night.
“We’ll have to take turns riding Sport back to Virginia City,” I said. “And we won’t be able to ride at all for most of the way—we’ve still got to watch for the ice.”
I had been resting my hand on Sport’s saddle as I spoke. Adam responded by covering my hand with his own.
“We’ll go to the main house,” he said. “My family will know how the roads are. If they’re safe, we’ll get fresh horses.”
I nodded and together we led Sport out of the shelter.
And that’s as much as either of us ever said about my choice. And that was fitting, I suppose. I wasn’t sure how much time I had left in this world, after all. There were better things to talk about.
LINK TO PART EIGHT: http://jrosemary.blogspot.com/2008/02/for-want-of-brother-part-eight.html
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