by J. Rosemary Moss
Genre: Fan Fiction (Bonanza)
Rating: PG
LINK TO PART ONE
~
There was an awkward moment when Adam woke up again. I had drifted off to sleep myself, but I felt him stir at my side. And then I heard--and felt--him yawn. That’s when I realized that I still had an arm around him, due to my efforts to stop him from shivering so much. And he was still slouched against me.
“Drew?” he said, his voice still groggy with sleep. “Is it just me, or have we gotten closer?”
There was a smile in his voice--I could hear it. But I was in no mood for his teasing. “You were shivering,” I informed him as I pushed him away.
I think he grinned outright at my reaction. “And here I was about to ask you to the next social.”
I rolled my eyes, but I let the matter drop. I forced myself to reach out and feel his forehead, however.
I wanted to know if his fever had broken.
“You’re still warm,” I said, frowning. “But at least you’re not delirious any longer. I suppose that’s an improvement.”
“I don’t remember the delirium,” he commented. “How bad was it?”
I shrugged. “You took me for Little Joe.”
“Did I?” he asked. “I suppose that’s not surprising.”
“Do we resemble each other so much?” I asked with pointed irony in my voice. I knew it was no such thing.
But Adam took the question seriously, or at least pretended to. “No, you don’t look much like him--except that you both have green eyes.”
“They can’t be that much alike,” I retorted. “You asked me--that is, you asked `Joe’--what was wrong with my eyes.”
Now why did I mention that? Why was I determined to let him know how much that question had annoyed me?
“Your eyes have more white in them then Joe’s,” he said easily. “And you’re at least a head taller than he is and your hair is sandy instead of dark. And your features are more classic, I suppose.”
“And yet you focused on my shortcomings,” I said, “Like the whites in my eyes.” I couldn’t quite keep the reproach out of my voice.
“If I had been focused on your shortcomings, I would have asked why your teeth are crooked,” he retorted. “Joe’s are straight.”
I managed to smile despite myself as I ran my hand along my jaw. “Yes, they’re crooked,” I owned. “They match the flaws in my eyes, I imagine.”
“Neither your eyes nor your teeth mar your looks,” Adam informed me. “You’re like Joe--almost too pretty for your own good. God help me, when I think of the all girls who have set their cap at him…”
But that was an experience I had never had. One or two respectable girls considered throwing their handkerchiefs my way--they were willing to overlook my handicap, I suppose, in light of my wealth--but I gave them no encouragement. Jack was always after me about that. He wanted to see me settled with some nice girl. But even if a woman could bring herself to accept a blind husband, how could I expect her to understand the amount of privacy and solitude I require? Any wife would be bound to resent that eventually.
No, where women were concerned I had found it was better to seek out less-than-respectable females. They had no expectations of marriage and therefore didn’t care what sort of handicap I had. Nor were they offended when I didn’t want their company.
“Drew?” Adam was saying.
His prompting called me back to our conversation. “I’m sorry,” I said. “What was that?”
“I was asking what I said--while I was delirious, I mean.”
“You kept apologizing for leaving ‘me’ to go to college--especially so soon after Marie Cartwright died.”
He fell silent at that, so I presumed that he was mulling that over. “To this day I regret that,” he said at last.
I raised my eyebrows at him. “You would give up your college years?”
He didn’t answer that. “Adam?” I prompted.
“Sorry--I was shaking my head,” he said. “No, I wouldn’t give them up--not for the world. But I should have waited one more year before I left. How would you have felt if Jack left you when you were six, only a few months after your mother died?”
I smiled a little. “It would have been disastrous for me,” I owned. “Back then I wouldn’t speak to anyone but Jack--most people thought I was deaf as well as blind. But Joe had your father and Hoss, remember. I didn’t have anyone else.”
Adam seemed startled by my revelation. “When--when did you start speaking to people other than Jack?” Adam demanded.
I shrugged. “I don’t remember. When I was twelve or thirteen, I suppose. Perhaps a little older.”
“Why did you wait so long?”
I grinned at him. “I don’t like most human beings, Adam. Haven’t you figured that out?”
He laughed. “Fair enough,” he said.
We both fell quiet after that. I started mulling over my scheme again. It involved the man Jameson--I wanted to make some quiet deals which would render it impossible for the man to climb out of debt. Then I could seize his business and sell it at a tidy profit. Adam, however was determined to rescue the fellow. This despite the fact that he scarcely knew Jameson. He just wanted to reform me, I suppose.
At length I decided to give him fair warning. “Once we get out of here, you’re going to be laid up with that leg of yours,” I said. “But I’ll be free to take another stage to San Francisco. I’m going to crush Jameson. And I’ll wager I can cause any amount of mischief to the Ponderosa’s interests while I’m out there.”
There was a long moment of silence between us. “Why?” he asked at last.
“To remind you that I’m neither your little brother or one of your strays,” I said. “I don’t require your chivalry or your guidance.”
“So you’re going to ruin a man to prove a point to me?” he asked.
He spoke with deadly calm. I almost smiled--I certainly had his attention. “Yes,” I said simply.
“Then don’t worry,” he said, his voice deceptively soft. “I won’t be showing you any chivalry.”
LINK TO PART THIRTEEN
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