The Monstrosity, Part Seven

by J. Rosemary Moss

Genre: Fan Fiction (Bonanza)
Rating: R

LINK TO PART ONE

~

Jack arrived home soon after the mirror incident. I tried to think how I’d I answer his questions about the bandages on my hand, but I needn’t have worried. He didn’t notice them. I should have remembered that Jack was oblivious to anything that didn’t concern himself or his little brother.

He was anxious to show off the Monstrosity to me, however. I think he was eager to hear me, especially, heap accolades on it. When he first decided to build a mansion, he had offered me the opportunity to design it. I leapt at that--I didn’t have many chances to put my architectural studies to use. The Ponderosa kept me too busy.

I came up with several designs for the mansion, but Jack rejected all of them as too cold and austere. He was determined to have lattice and turrets, so I bowed out and he hired an architect more amenable to his taste. Now that his dream was realized, he wanted to teach me a lesson.

Drew took hold of me as Jack led us on the 'grand tour,' allowing me to guide him. But then he began squeezing my arm each time Jack bragged about some new horror we encountered in this ornate, over-stuffed nightmare. He wanted to make sure that I bit back any stinging comment.

But I didn’t need the covert warnings. I was determined to remain tactful. That said, I couldn’t bring myself to ooh and ah at the maze-like structure, the narrow, winding staircases, or the plethora of rooms. Drew was right, I thought. It would be hell to teach him the layout of this place.

Nonetheless, I found at least one item to compliment in each room. That satisfied Jack--he seemed to be under the impression that I was in awe of his castle.

I took some time to study Jack over dinner. He didn't have Drew’s beauty, but there was a strong resemblance between the brothers regardless. Jack was as tall as Drew, but more filled out. His face was broader and his manners had a bluff easiness to them. That made for a pleasant change from Drew’s reticence and sarcasm.

If I didn’t know what a ruthless bastard Jack was, I would have been taken in by his charm. But his friendliness only served to mask his cutthroat instincts. Jack cared for no one but himself and his brother--everyone else was a pawn to be used or ignored.

I was of some use to him at present. I’m sure he wondered what Drew saw in me, but the fact that Drew wanted me as a guest was enough to satisfy him. In fact, he seemed pleased by the friendship between myself and his little brother (if friendship was the right word.) Drew did not make friends easily--or at all, so far as I could tell--so I imagine that Jack was happy to see him breaking out of his shell.

At length the dinner conversation turned to the upcoming war. A fight between the North and the South seemed inevitable now.

“I’d as soon let the South go,” Jack opined. “I can’t see us spilling our blood over their darkies or their cotton. It’ll hurt us some, I admit, but we’ll be trading with this new Confederacy soon enough.”

Drew shook his head at that. “We have to fight to hold the Union together--and we have to fight for emancipation. Those darkies are people, Jack, the same as you and me.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Lincoln hasn’t said a damn thing about freeing the slaves.”

Drew shrugged. “I know. But he’ll have to come around--the radicals in the Republican party will see to that.”

Jack took a sip of wine and then glanced at me. “You agree with my brother, I take it? And you’re as firm a Republican?”

“I do and I am,” I said as a footman refilled my wine glass. “Abolition is one of the few subjects that Drew and I had never argued over.”

Jack grinned at that. “Ah, but you don’t realize just how radical my brother is. Did you know that he favors the suffragettes as well?”

I didn’t know that. I looked at Drew with some surprise. “Is that so?”

“It is,” Drew owned. “I see no reason to deny the vote to half our population. Do you agree?”

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “What made you decide in favor of the suffragettes?”

He shrugged again. “It seems mad to me to fight for abolition while we ignore the fact that, legally speaking, our wives and daughters are little better than slaves.”

I considered that. “There’s some truth there, I suppose. I’d be in favor of laws that give women more control over any money or property they bring into a marriage. And I wouldn’t mind seeing more schools of higher learning open to them.”

Drew turned his head in my direction. “You think women have the intelligence for higher learning--but not the intelligence to cast a vote?”

I grinned. “I said that I’m undecided about giving women the vote--not that I’m against it.”

He kept staring in my direction. Even though he couldn’t see me, I knew that he was ‘looking me over.’

“Well,” he said at length, “perhaps I can convince you before you leave. That gives me a week or two.”

“I’ll be interested to see if you succeed,” Jack commented, looking from one of us to the other.

“So will I,” I muttered. Then I allowed the conversation to turn to business.

But I couldn’t help but be impressed by Drew’s convictions. It seemed odd that such a selfish, petty young man held to such noble ideals--even if one of those ideals was wrongheaded and impractical. That’s part of the reason I was so fascinated by Drew, I suppose. He could be spiteful and cruel, but he was also courageous in the face of his disability and ready to fight for the rights of people he’d never met.

Perhaps he was better at dealing with universal causes than with individuals--that might account for it. But I admired him all the same.

It was well past midnight by the time we finished our dinner, our brandy and our cigars. Drew walked me to my room for one last nightcap. He promised to put Brian at my disposal once he was finished with him in the morning--the lad would draw a bath for me, blacken my shoes and iron my clothes. I raised no objection to that. I just made a mental note to tip Brian well for his services.

I tried to help Drew across the hall to his own room, but he shrugged me off. I rolled my eyes at that--I was going to have the devil of a time teaching him his way around the Monstrosity if he meant to be prickly about accepting my help. But he was the one who had asked for it. Hopefully he would remember that come morning.

I collapsed into bed soon after Drew was gone. I had drunk more wine and brandy than usual--I was hoping the excess alcohol would put me into a deep, dreamless sleep.

But I had no such luck. The nightmare began almost as soon as I shut my eyes.

LINK TO PART EIGHT