The Old Deringer, Part Sixteen

by J. Rosemary Moss

Genre: Fan Fiction (Bonanza)
Rating: PG

LINK TO PART ONE

~

Adam sat on the bed, stroking Liam’s hair while the kid cried softly into a pillow. Adam wasn’t surprised at the tears. He had just given the kid a pretty firm tanning, after all. In fact, Liam had let him know, in no uncertain terms, that the tanning had been worse than getting shot.

Adam had smiled at that. Thank God the bullet had done so little damage to the boy. It might be another month before Liam could walk properly and a little longer before he was completely recovered, but that was a small price to pay for a gunshot in the leg.

He continued to stroke the boy’s hair. At length Liam's tears subsided and he turned his head toward Adam with the ghost of a smile.

“Sorry `bout the figurine, Adam,” he whispered.

Adam sighed. “You’d better save your apologies for Mr. Harris.”

Liam frowned. “What if he wants me hauled off to jail?”

“I won’t let that happen,” Adam promised.

Liam twisted toward Adam a little. Then he bent his elbow and propped up his head.

“I don’t like Mr. Harris,” he said. “And he don’t like me. Are you sure it’s such a good idea for me to go with you tomorrow?”

“Sorry, kid,” Adam said, giving him a look of sympathy. “I know you’re going to hate apologizing to Mr. Harris, but I’m not letting you off the hook.”

Liam made a face. “Please, Adam? It’ll go better if you just tell him how sorry I am.”

Adam stopped stroking Liam's hair and gave the kid what he hoped was a stern look that brooked no argument. It must have worked, for Liam let himself fall back down, face first, onto his pillow.

“Guess I’ll go with you tomorrow,” he mumbled.

“Yes, you will,” Adam agreed.

There was a long moment of silence. Adam thought that Liam had drifted off to sleep, but no such luck.

“Hey Adam?” the kid said drowsily. “Can I ask you something?”

“What’s that?” Adam returned.

“Do you think you’ll need a valet when you go back to your ranch?”

Well, there it was. The question of what to do with Liam was out in the open now. Adam couldn't avoid it any longer. But a little to his own surprise, he found himself answering without hesitation.

“Yeah,” he said. “I think I will. You’re going to have to learn to do some ironing, though.”

“Oh, that’ll be a snap,” Liam promised, coming more awake. “And I can draw your baths—I know a valet is supposed to do that. And you can let me shave you each morning.”

Adam smiled. “When you’re a bit older, maybe. How did you learn about a valet’s duties, Liam?”

“From my sister,” he said. “She used to be in service in a grand mansion for someone just like Mr. Harris. The fellow had a valet, a butler, a cook and two parlor maids. Katie was one of the maids.”

“Katie is your sister?”

“Yeah.”

“What happened to her? Is she still in service?”

“Nah,” Liam answered. “She got, um, in the family way—I think by her master. The fellow’s wife wasn’t so happy, so Katie got dismissed. Up till then, Katie’d been giving me and my brother enough money to live on, but she said she couldn’t afford it anymore. She said that my brother should be helping her.”

Liam paused and sighed. “That’s why my brother and me helped this older kid, Donovan, rob a house. Donovan’s the kid who took your gun from me.”

He paused again and sunk his head further into his pillow. “But it all went bad,” he explained. “The owner came home and he shot my brother—and then Donovan shot him. Me and Donovan had to get out of there fast—we couldn’t even take my brother’s body with us. But I grabbed the old Deringer that my brother had on him. That used to belong to our Mam. My Da wanted her to have something to carry in her reticule.”

Adam peered down at Liam. He had delivered that story in a chillingly matter-of-fact tone.

“Are either of your parent’s alive?” Adam asked.

“No,” Liam answered. “My Mam died in childbed, along with the baby, and my Da died in a saloon fight. That was all a few years ago.”

‘I see,” Adam said softly. “What about Katie? Do you know where she is?”

Liam nodded. “She found a new man. He was willing to care for her and her baby—but not for me. She gave me a little bit of money and told me I’d have to fend for myself or try an orphanage.”

Adam cringed at that. Well, it didn’t sound like he’d need Katie’s permission to take Liam back to the Ponderosa with him. He would track her down eventually, but that could wait.

“Adam, you’re not going to tell on me, are you?” Liam asked, looking up at him with soulful eyes. “That robbery was a long time ago—almost a whole year back. And I didn’t shoot anybody.”

“No, I’m not going to report you,” Adam promised. “Liam, were you born here or in Ireland?”

“Here,” he answered. “Katie and my brother were born in Liverpool, though. My folks went from Belfast, to Liverpool, to San Francisco.”

“What’s your last name?” Adam persisted.

Liam took his time about answering. “It’s O’Donnell,” he said at last. “I wasn’t going to tell you—I’ve been using Flynn since the robbery. Donovan told me it’d be safer not to use my real name for a while, since the law probably found out who my brother was. But I think Donovan just didn’t want to risk me telling on him to some lawman.”

“Liam O’Donnell, huh?” Adam said, smiling a little as he tousled the kid’s hair. “That’s about as Irish a name as I’ve ever heard.”

“It’s a fine name, isn’t it?” Liam asked.

“It is,” Adam agreed.

“Do you think it’ll be safe to use it in Virginia City?” Liam persisted.

Adam considered that. At length he decided to answer honestly. “You can probably use it. If the law bothered to look for anyone, I’m sure it was Donovan. But, ah, since they had one robber dead on the scene, they were most likely satisfied. But that doesn’t change the fact that your thieving days are over, my boy.”

Liam relaxed a little and put his head on Adam’s shoulder. “I know,” he said. “I won’t rob anymore—I promise.”

He paused and then started a new line of questions. “Is Virginia City like San Francisco?” he asked.

“No,” Adam admitted. “It’s much smaller.”

“Oh,” Liam said, not bothering to disguise his disappointment.

Adam smiled at that—he had already figured out that Liam was a city kid through and through. It was unlikely that he’d ever make a rancher out of the boy. But the Ponderosa wouldn’t do him any harm. It’d be just as well for the boy to learn something of the great outdoors while he was growing up.

Truth be told, though, Adam could sympathize with the Liam’s love for the hustle and bustle of city life.

“I’ll bring you back to visit San Francisco every now and then,” Adam told him. “And someday, when the war is over, I’ll take you on a trip to New York—that’s even bigger than San Francisco. Maybe you’ll want to go to college in Manhattan.”

Liam grinned. “Rich folks don’t send their valets to college, Adam. Besides, I don’t think I’d like school.”

“Hate to break this to you, but you’ll be going to school in Virginia City,” Adam warned him. “Not right away—I’ll have to catch you up on your learning first—but eventually.”

“Valets don’t need to go to school,” Liam insisted.

Adam smiled. “You won’t be my valet forever.”

The kid bolted up at that, panicked. Adam rolled his eyes as gently pushed him back down against the pillows.

“Calm down,” he told Liam. “I’m not going to kick you out of service. Someday you might grow tired of being my valet—that’s all I meant.”

“I won’t grow tired of it,” Liam said with a fierce determination in his voice. “I won’t leave your service unless you throw me out.”

“Well, I’m not going to throw you out, so don’t worry about it,” Adam told him.

The kid relaxed at that and seemed to drift off to sleep. Adam sat on the bed for a while, thinking back on the story about Liam's brother and the robbery. This Donovan that Liam had spoken of was still on the loose, but Adam didn't see any way of fixing that fact. Not without getting Liam tangled up in the law, and Adam wasn't about to risk that.

Adam sighed. At length he stood up and started getting ready to catch some sleep of his own.

LINK TO PART SEVENTEEN