by J. Rosemary Moss
Genre: Fan Fiction Crossover (Bonanza-Gone With The Wind)
Rating: PG
Link to Part One
~
“Did you fight with the Yankees, Adam?”
Scarlett put down her pen and slammed her account book shut. How dare Wade ask the man a question like that? Adam was fool enough to answer her son honestly and the last thing Scarlett wanted to hear was that he had marched with Sherman.
Sometimes her son had no sense at all. Well, thank God Adam had taken such a shine to Wade and Ella, for he knew just how to handle them. But she wished that he wouldn’t encourage them to come to the mercantile so often.
“Wade, stop pestering Mr. Cartwright while he’s working,” Scarlett snapped.
Adam smiled at her. “Afraid you won’t like the answer, Mrs. Butler?” he asked with a wink.
She tried to give him a stern look in return, but the teasing light in his eyes coaxed an answering smile from her. “Will I?” she asked.
“Probably not,” he owned, turning back to Wade. “I wasn’t in that long, but I did fight for the Union. I was in the cavalry, under Buford.”
Wade gave him a look of grudging respect. “Under Buford?” he repeated. “Were you at Gettysburg, sir?”
Adam nodded. “Yes—we held the high ground on that first day.”
“I know,” Wade said eagerly. “I wish you hadn’t—no one ever talks about Buford, but I think he might have made the difference for the Union.”
Adam grinned. “You’re right, he doesn’t get enough credit. But of course the boys on Little Round Top did their part on the second day,” he commented.
“Yes, I suppose they did. But Buford had a different notion of cavalry than our Gen. Stuart did, didn’t he?” Wade persisted.
Adam agreed and from there the conversation turned to tactics. Scarlett soon lost interest. She felt an odd pride in Wade, however, that was quite foreign to her. Why, her boy must be reasonably intelligent to hold up his end of the conversation.
She did glean an interesting bit of information from their talk—Adam let slip that he had known Buford before the war. He had met him back when the officer had been stationed in the Utah Territory.
“Are you from Utah, Mr. Cartwright?” she asked him later as they were closing up shop.
They were alone now. That might be scandalous—but Scarlett didn’t worry her head over it. Adam was only hired help, after all. Why, it was just like being alone with Pork. Or with Will, before he went and married her sister.
“I was born in Boston,” Adam replied. “But my Pa and I made our way out west soon afterwards. We ended up settling in Nevada. We own a ranch by Lake Tahoe.”
“We?” Scarlett repeated. “Do you mean you and your father?”
Adam smiled. “My father, myself and my two brothers,” he answered.
“Oh,” she replied. She had been hoping that Adam didn’t have any family to speak of. The fact that his people were in Nevada meant that he might pack up and leave one day.
Of course, he was now involved in her publishing venture. Adam had tried to convince Ashley to contact the publisher in New York, but Ashley sided with Scarlett out of loyalty.
Once Adam saw that Ashley’s mind was made up, he shrugged and agreed to take part in the publishing. Scarlett was quite pleased with this outcome—it would keep Adam here for a little while, at least.
“Why—why didn’t you return home after the war?” she asked, trying to keep her voice casual and disinterested.
“I did,” he answered. “Joe and I didn’t reenlist after Buford died—we went home to the Ponderosa. That’s our ranch,” he added.
“Is Joe one of your brothers?” Scarlett prompted.
Adam’s eyes took on a far-off look. “Yes, Little Joe’s my youngest brother. His mother was a French Creole from New Orleans—Joe’s sympathy was with the South.”
Scarlett gave him a puzzled look. “But he fought with the Yankees too?”
“Yes, he did,” Adam replied softly as he leaned back against one of the shelving units. “He—I couldn’t believe it when he told me that he was joining up with me. But then he explained his decision…”
*
Joe was sitting on the settee with his head in his hands. He knew that Adam was going to join the Union Army—he just knew it.
He closed his eyes and thought back to the day that Adam left for college. Joe had just lost his mother and he was convinced that Adam would go away and never come back. He had clung to Adam and begged him not to leave. He had pleaded and cried with all the passion a five-year-old could muster.
Adam had picked him up and held him. He had done his best to comfort him. But in the end he still left.
Joe opened his eyes and abruptly stood up from the settee. He began pacing the living room.
Adam believed in the Union. He didn’t want to see his country torn apart into separate squabbling nations. Moreover, he believed that a Union victory would end slavery. The war wasn’t about slavery but you couldn’t get Adam to see that.
Joe sank back into the settee. Pa would scream and holler at him, of course. He would remind Adam that a war back east had nothing to do with them out here on the Ponderosa. But Adam would holler back and in the end he would go.
God damn the Yankees, Joe thought savagely. Why couldn’t they leave the South in peace? Why not just let the Confederate states go and allow them to settle their own problems?
He sighed. His brother was just as thick-skulled and stubborn as the rest of the Yanks. But Joe was not about to let him walk out on him again. This time he would go with him.
If Adam signed up, then so would he. They both had experience fighting Indians—maybe they could get a commission in the cavalry.
In fact, it might be worthwhile to get in touch with that Buford fellow again—the one who had fought the Indians in the Utah Territory. Buford was a Kentucky man and both Adam and Joe had gotten on with him.
Joe shook his head. The thought of wearing a Yankee uniform disgusted him. But he would do it for Adam’s sake.
But what about Hoss? He didn’t care about the war one way or the other—but he wouldn’t just watch his brothers march off without him. And how could Joe survive without him? Hoss was practically the other side of himself.
Joe cursed the war again. He hated anything that threatened to tear up the Cartwright family.
Well, they couldn’t ask Pa to send three sons off to war. No, he and Adam would have to convince Hoss to stay behind. Pa would need him and the Ponderosa would need him. Besides, they wouldn’t be gone long. Joe would see to that. They would enlist only once and for the shortest term available—he would force Adam to agree to that.
This time Joe would be laying down the law—not older brother.
*
Scarlett felt something catch in her throat as Adam explained why his youngest brother had enlisted with him. She pretended to examine something on a shelf so that she wouldn’t have to look him in the eye.
“It—it sounds as if your family is quite attached to you, Mr. Cartwright. Why are you in Georgia now? Did your ranch fail?”
She thought she heard a smile in his voice as he answered. “No, the Ponderosa does well enough,” he assured her. “Some friends of mine from the Freedmen’s Bureau asked me to come to Georgia as a teacher.”
She sniffed contemptuously. “I don’t think much of the Freedmen’s Bureau,” she informed him. “If you want to educate our former slaves—well, that’s your business, sir. But the Bureau is corrupt and mismanaged.”
“I know,” Adam replied. “But for all that, a few of us still managed to do some good. But my work here is over. I mean to return home soon.”
“I see,” Scarlett managed, keeping her voice light. She couldn’t let him know that his departure would in any way affect her. “What are you waiting for? Just our publishing venture?”
She heard him walk over to her. The next thing she knew, he was standing in front of her, looking down at her.
He took her chin in his hand, forcing her to look up at him. “I’m waiting to find out if your marriage is over,” he replied.
Scarlett stared at him, speechless.
“You—you misunderstand,” she said at last. “Rhett is just away on business—”
But Adam shook his head. “Don’t,” he said. “I may be a Yankee outsider, Scarlett, but I have ears in my head. If I’m crying for the moon, just say so and I’ll leave tomorrow. Otherwise—well, I’ll stay a bit longer.”
Scarlett was so shocked that she didn’t even notice that Adam had used her Christian name. Her brain seemed to be frozen.
“I—I can’t think about this now,” she managed, pushing his hand away as she rushed to gather her things. “I’ll think about it tomorrow.”
LINK TO PART FOUR
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