Better Loved, Part Six

by J. Rosemary Moss

Genre: Fan-Fiction (Bonanza)
Rating: PG

LINK TO PART ONE

~

Antoinette Charlotte slid into the coffee house when no one was looking. Her eyes darted around the room until she spotted Adam. He was facing away from her.

She was glad that Maman had insisted on Adam staying with their family, for she was already fiercely attached to him. Therese was furious, of course—but Therese was always furious at something.

She crept toward his table. He was sitting with the young Irishman he’d met a few days ago. The pair of them had become inseparable.

Therese didn’t like Kevin any better than she liked Adam. In fact, she despised all the Irish who were flooding the city. She considered them a drunken, shiftless race. There was little good to be said for them—although she grudgingly admitted that they were more devout than the Creoles.

Kevin did nothing to dispell her prejudice. He was bright and--according to Adam--surprisingly well read, but he earned his keep selling sketches to the paper. That meant that his pockets were empty more often than full.

Nonetheless, Therese was alone in her dislike of him. The rest of the family warmed to him instantly, especially Maman. She said that left to himself, Adam was too serious. Kevin would keep his spirits up.

Antoinette could hear the two men talking now. “I wonder how her father pulled it off?” Kevin mused in that gentle lilt of his. “But mayhaps it’s more common than we think. Haven’t I seen plenty of quadroons who are as near to white as makes no odds?”

“That was certainly the case with my stepmother,” Adam told him. “Her eyes were as green as your own.”

They were talking about Marie. She ducked around a waiter and crept closer to them.

“We have to do something about Miss Therese,” Kevin said as he tapped his fingers on the table. “There must be someway to win her over. It offends my vanity to know that she’s wishing us at Jericho.”

Adam smiled. “I think she’s wishing us someplace worse!”

“Probably,” he owned with a shake of his head. “She’s a formidable woman. I don’t think the bloody queen could be as imperious. But Maman, Monique and Antoinette adore us. Why can’t Therese see what darling boys we are?”

Antoinette choked back a laugh. It was funny that both boys had taken to calling her mother ‘Maman.’

“I don’t blame her for wanting to keep us out of her family’s affairs,” Adam said with a tolerant shrug. “And she’s right about her sisters. If it weren’t for Therese, Maman would bring Monique to the quadroon balls—and Antoinette too, when she’s old enough.”

She watched Kevin set down his cup. “Would that be so terrible?” he asked. “That family is still scraping to make ends meet, even with the money you’ve given them. Why shouldn’t each of the girls find a wealthy man to take care of them?”

Adam shook his head. “They deserve better than to be some white man’s mistress.”

“I suppose,” the Irisher acknowledged. “A pity Maman has no sons to support her.”

“She had three,” Adam explained, “but they all died of fever one July—one right after another. There was also a fourth, and he's grown, but I don't know what happened to him. He headed west and lost touch with the family.”

Kevin frowned. “Three dead from fever--can’t say I’m surprised. New Orleans summers are brutal. It’s no wonder the rich flee the city.”

Adam gave a grim laugh as he tugged the collar of his shirt open. “It’s brutal even now—I’ve never missed the Ponderosa so much.”

Kevin opened his mouth to respond, but then he caught sight of Antoinette. She tried to shrink back into the shadows, but it was too late.

He grinned at Adam again. “I think I’ve discovered a spy,” he said, nodding his head toward her hiding place.

Adam turned toward her and rolled his eyes. “Come here, my girl,” he said, holding out his hand.

She ran up to him and scrambled onto his lap. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

Antoinette shrugged. “Therese said I was in the way. Monique isn’t feeling well.”

“Does Therese know where you are?” he persisted.

She hesitated and then shook her head. “No, but she said to go outside. So I did.”

“You know she meant for you to stay right outside the house or in the courtyard,” he said, frowning at her. “Haven’t we had this talk before? I don’t want you roaming the French Quarter by yourself.”

She bit her lip and tried to look repentant. “I’m sorry, Adam. Are you angry?”

He kissed her forehead. “Angry enough to give you a good spanking when we get home,” he informed her.

Antoinette sighed as she rested her head on his shoulder. She had already learned that Adam didn’t make idle threats.

But when the three of them returned to her house on Rampart Street Adam forgot all about her punishment. Therese met them at the door. Her face was drawn and her eyes were red.

Monique was sick with fever, she told them—very sick. The two boys might want to stay elsewhere.

Adam and Kevin exchanged glances. “What can we do?” they both asked at once.

LINK TO PART SEVEN