The Silver Coin, Part Six

by J. Rosemary Moss

Genre: Slash Fan Fiction (Bonanza)
Rating: PG-13

Link to Part One

~

Adam sat at the table, eating his meal quietly. He was only halfway through his plate, but Hoss was on his second helping of steak already.

Since he couldn’t work up any appetite for himself, he raised his eyebrows at Hoss. “You sure that steak’s raw enough?” he asked him.

Hoss looked up from his plate and smiled. “This is the perfect steak.”

Joe frowned from across the table at the almost blood-red meat. “I don’t know how you can eat that—I think Hop Sing just kind of waved it over the fire.”

“The cow stood out in the sun,” Hoss said judiciously. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s cooked enough.”

Little Joe blanched at that and put down his fork. Adam couldn’t help but smile a bit—his little brother looked like he had just lost his appetite.

Adam glanced up at his father’s seat, forgetting that Pa wasn’t there. He was escorting David’s mother—the famous Josephine Levine—to dinner and the theatre. That brought a smile to Adam’s face. He liked Josephine and he was happy that his Pa had found such a charming, if scandalous, companion.

In theory, Pa was engaged to her, despite her past career as an actress. Whether they would make it down the aisle, however, was sometimes in doubt. She was fiercely independent and she had a handsome fortune of her own. She had no need of a husband. Moreover, she had more than one divorce to her credit. It would seem that matrimony didn’t agree with her.

But she was in love with Pa, despite what she considered his ‘tiresome bourgeois morals.’ Perhaps that would make the difference.

Adam felt his grin deepen. Compared to his mother, David was almost straight-laced.

“Bet you that’s not even healthy,” Joe said to Hoss, jarring Adam out of his thoughts.

Adam opened his mouth at that, intending to come to Hoss’s defense this time. But the front door opened and David strolled inside. Adam stiffened—he and David hadn’t had any civil words for each other today. Hoss and Joe both greeted him warmly, however.

“Hey—tell these two that there’s nothing wrong with my steak,” Hoss told the newcomer.

David walked over to the table and cast a critical eye on the meat. “It looks like the perfect steak to me,” he said. “I like `em nice and rare.”

“Ha!” Hoss said, pointing his fork at Little Joe.

Joe made a face at David. “How could you eat meat like that?” he demanded. “I thought rare meat wasn’t even kosher.”

Adam cocked his head at his little brother. “None of the Ponderosa beef is kosher,” he reminded Joe.

Little Joe rolled his eyes. “I know that—that’s not what I meant. Josephine said kosher meat has to be really cooked.”

David let out a long-suffering sigh. “Kindly don’t get your information on Judaism from my mother. I doubt she knows the difference between Passover and Yom Kippur.”

“What is the difference?” Joe asked.

David grinned. “We eat a ton of stuff on Passover and nothing on Yom Kippur.”

Hoss laughed. “Sign me up for Passover then,” he said between mouthfuls. “So you can have rare meat?”

“Of course,” David answered. “As long as the meat is kosher you can cook it as much or as little as you like. Or not cook it at all—I’ve heard of French kosher restaurants that serve steak tartare.”

“What’s that?” Hoss demanded.

“Just what he said,” Adam explained. “Meat that’s not cooked at all.”

Joe’s face went pale again. “You mean raw meat?”

Adam and David nodded in unison.

Hoss looked delighted at that—Joe, on the other hand, looked ill.

“It’s quite good,” David said meditatively. “Although, not as good as escargots. I used to eat that before I started keeping kosher—or at least semi-kosher. It’s one of the few, ah, ‘forbidden’ foods that I miss.”

Adam found himself smiling up at David. “I don’t imagine there’s any way to make snails kosher.”

David smiled back and shook his head. “No, there isn’t. More’s the pity.”

If possible, Joe turned even whiter. In fact, even Hoss set down his fork at that.

“Snails?” Hoss repeated.

“Snails,” Adam agreed. “And it is quite good—pity you can’t get escargots around here.”

“Excuse me,” said Joe, getting up from the table with a sickly expression on his face.

Hoss stared at his plate for another moment and then reluctantly pushed it aside. Apparently the thought of eating snails was too much even for his appetite. “Reckon I’m done too,” he said in a voice of regret.

Adam watched as both his brothers vacated the room. He turned to David with an appreciative smile. “We seem to have bought ourselves some privacy.”

David winked at him as he took Little Joe’s seat. “So we have,” he agreed. But then his expression turned more serious. “So what now?”

Adam gave him a measuring look. “Now we agree to a truce,” he said evenly. “I don’t want us to be after each other’s throats—especially when we’re out stocking all the line shacks.”

“Agreed,” David said. Then he paused and gave Adam a tentative smile. “We’ve come a long way, haven’t we, since I rode out here looking for revenge.”

Adam smiled. “We have,” he agreed.

David pushed Joe’s plate out of the way and then leaned in toward Adam. “Are we—are we done keeping each other at arm’s length over this disagreement about Joe?”

Adam considered that. At length he leaned toward David and took one of David’s hands in his own.

“We don’t have to stay at arm’s length,” he said quietly. “But I think it’d be best if we didn’t talk about Joe—and it’d be better still if you’d stop worrying about him. I know he’s a reckless kid, but he doesn’t need you to curb his poker habits.”

To his surprise, David nodded. “I agree with you there—Joe and I have been partners in crime too often for me to correct him. I should have realized that.”

He paused and took a deep breath. “You ought to be the one checking up on him, Adam,” he continued. “He’d listen to you if you told him he was in too deep. I’m not saying that he won’t give you a hard time about it—but he has the utmost respect for you.”

“Don’t tell me how to treat my little brother,” Adam said as he bristled up and released David’s hand.

David sighed. “I care for Joe too, Adam. I’d hardly put myself through an argument with you—not to mention a bruising poker match with him—if I didn’t.”

Adam felt his gaze soften at that. “I know. Look, let’s let it drop for now, all right?”

David stared down at his hands for a moment and then shrugged. “All right.”

Adam leaned further toward him and kissed him gently on the mouth. When they broke apart, he settled back into his chair and picked up his glass of wine. He should have felt relieved, but somehow he knew that he was only putting off more problems—with both David and Joe.

LINK TO PART SEVEN