by J. Rosemary Moss
Genre: Slash Fan-Fiction (Bonanza)
Rating: PG-13
LINK TO PART ONE
~
In the end, it was Ben and Adam who negotiated the terms of the deal with Gregory Miller. They agreed to help Miller gain amnesty and they agreed to the ten thousand dollars—but Ben insisted that only one thousand of that would be paid up front. Miller would have to wait for the rest, contingent upon his testimony.
Ben arranged to put Miller up in Virginia City. He told Roy Coffee what was going on—but Roy didn’t like it one bit. Well, Ben wasn’t surprised. Roy’s job was to see criminals brought to justice, not to see them make unsavory deals.
But Ben explained that they were after a bigger fish than Miller. If they could bring Niles to justice—and even with Miller’s testimony, that was a big if—it would make the unsavory deal thoroughly worthwhile.
And then Ben and Adam had to line up their lawyers. They needed hard-nosed men who could figure out how to square the unsavory deal with the law.
Meanwhile, Ben had Josephine to contend with. Josephine was not overjoyed at the prospect of allowing her son’s would-be-assassin to roam free. Ben knew that she understood the reasons, but that didn’t stop her from attempting to make Ben’s life sheer misery.
On the other hand, it gave Ben an opportunity to coax her out of her wrath—which, with Josephine, was always a challenging and enjoyable exercise.
He was driving her in his buggy when his coaxing finally paid off. He pulled over to the side of the narrow road and the couple enjoyed a long embrace, witnessed only by the birds and the trees and the wind.
When they finally broke apart, Ben smiled down at her. “Josephine,” he said, “I want you to marry me. This time I won’t take no for an answer.”
She sighed. “Benjamin, I must have my own space—”
“I’m not denying you a house in town,” Ben cut in. “By all means, buy one so you have some place to retreat to on occasion. But I want you to make your home on the Ponderosa.”
She opened her mouth to raise another objection, but he smothered her words with a long, passionate kiss. By the time he was through, she seemed to have forgotten whatever she had been planning to say.
“Listen to me,” Ben said softly, keeping his face close to hers. “If you won’t marry me for my sake, then marry me for your son’s sake.”
“For my son’s sake?” she said blankly. “What does David have to do with it?”
“Miller knows about Adam and David,” Ben reminded her. “I think he’s smart enough not to try to capitalize on that information—but we can’t be sure. The more excuses we give Adam and David to spend time together and grow close to one another, the better.”
That arrow struck home. Ben could see Josephine turning his statement over in her mind.
“It wouldn’t seem odd for two step brothers to be so friendly toward one another, would it?” she asked. “And it’d only be natural for David to visit at the main house while I’m living there.”
“Precisely,” Ben agreed.
She slanted her eyes at him. “Benjamin Cartwright, you may be the most unscrupulous man I know. I can’t believe you’re bribing me with my own son’s welfare—especially when you don’t even like my son!”
Ben laughed. “You’re wrong, Josephine. I do like David. I like him quite a bit. I won’t ever be happy about his relationship with Adam, but that’s not the boy’s fault.”
She leaned forward a bit and touched her nose to his. “You think that I let David grow up without any discipline,” she reminded him. “That I held the reins too loosely as a mother.”
“I never said that,” Ben objected. “I said only that the boy could have used a tanning or two growing up—but his father should have seen to that. I know that you were a wonderful mother. I can tell that from the love between you two.”
Her eyes sparkled with amusement. “That was a good recovery,” she said, complimenting his adroitness. “Are you going to try to enact the role of father to David?”
“The boy could use a father figure,” Ben replied lightly.
“The boy is quite stubborn and extremely hostile to father figures,” Josephine warned him.
Ben shrugged. “Well, he’s part of the family now, so he’ll have to put up with a fatherly lecture now and then.”
Josephine cocked her head at him. “Do you really feel that way?” she asked him. “Do you really believe that David is part of your family?”
“Of course,” Ben answered, surprised by the question. “I have no choice about that—Little Joe made that clear.”
She smiled and put her hands on his cheeks. “In that case, my darling, unscrupulous man, I accept your proposal.”
Ben drew her back into his arms. When they parted, he took a long moment just to stare into her eyes. But those eyes were snapping with mischief, he noted.
“Now that’s we’ve settled that,” Josephine said, turning away from him and facing front again, “let’s discuss an engagement ring. Diamonds are the trend, but I’ve always been partial to emeralds…”
Ben grinned as he realized that Josephine was going to take him for quite a ride.
LINK TO PART 102
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