Thank you to those who have left kind comments or messaged me. I hope you enjoy the last installment.

Chapter 3

Maria knew her boy had been up to something for the last couple of days. He had been distracted and vague in his answers to her questions. She screamed when he pushed open the door to their cottage and a stranger walked in behind him with another man propped against his chest.

"What are you doing? Why is this man here?"

Luis ignored her and pushed aside a curtain to reveal a bed. Adam eased Joe down onto the bed and gently swung his legs up onto the mattress.

"Luis! This is the man that El Jefe is searching for, is it not?" She stood with her hands on her hips and glared at her son.

"He is, Mama."

"Have you lost your mind? He can't be here!" Fear shifted her voice up a notch and she was almost screeching at him.

Luis spun back towards his mother. "El Jefe was wrong!"

Maria stared at her son as if he had gone mad.

"El Jefe is a good man. How can you say such things? Do you not know what will happen if they find this man here?"

"Si, Mama. I know and I am very afraid. But I am more afraid of not helping him. He is innocent and these men hunt him like a rabid dog. What kind of man would I be if I did not help an innocent man?"

Maria stepped back as she stared at her boy. In the years since his father had died, he had been the man of the house. For the first time, she saw him as the man he had become instead of the boy who had sobbed over his father's lifeless body.

Adam had been ignoring the argument going on behind him, but he suddenly pushed his way past Luis.

"Ma'am, I'm truly sorry to bring this trouble to your home, but my brother needs that bullet out of his leg and we can't get a doctor for him. I need boiling water and a knife and something for bandages.

Maria's hands flew to her lips as she realised what the stranger was saying. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she shook her head.

Adam tried again. "If this was your son, would you let him die?"

The image of her husband lying dead in the street, having been gunned down over a mistake made her breath hitch. Suddenly Maria felt something shift inside her and she strode towards the stove to stoke the fire. If Luis said the man was innocent, she would believe him.

Adam headed back to where he had left Joe and debated whether to rouse his brother or not. Joe's skin was beaded with sweat and he could hear his brother's ragged breathing. Three days, Luis had said. Three days his brother had that damned bullet in his leg. Adam unbuckled Joe's gun belt and laid it on the table beside him before he gently eased the bloodied pants off Joe's legs. Joe moaned as he did so, but still did not wake up fully. The skin around the wound was red and puckered.

"Senor … have you done this before?"

Adam glanced up to see the young man's anxious face.

"I have." He didn't dare say he had dug a bullet out of Joe's shoulder many years ago. The memory of that day arose in his thoughts and his lips drew into a tight line. Joe had fought to live despite his poor doctoring skills.

Maria carried a bowl of steaming water in and placed it on the small table beside the bed. She pulled two knives from her pocket and held them out to Adam.

"I have these two for what you need."

Adam nodded as he slipped both knives into the bowl of water.

"Do you have any whiskey? Or brandy?"

Maria shook her head, but she waved Luis over to a small cabinet. "I have pulque. It was my husband's and is old, but will that do?"

Adam almost smiled at the thought. Joe's last run in with pulque had not ended so well.

"It will be fine." His face sobered as he scooped one of the knives out of the water and wiped it on a cloth. "Now, I'm going to need you both to help me. Joe's out at the moment, but he's going to wake up. I need you to hold him down while I …"

"Si, senor." Luis looked sick as he edged closer, but he knew what was being asked.

Maria crossed herself and whispered something as she moved to the head of the bed. "We are ready, senor. Do what you must."

Adam stared at the dregs of the coffee in his cup. He couldn't remember drinking it, but Maria had pressed it into his hands at some point. His body ached with a tiredness that threatened to drop him to the floor and yet he refused to close his eyes. Somehow, he had dug the slug out of his brother's leg while Joe had screamed and bucked under his hand. Luis and his mother had done their best to hold him still, but Joe was stronger than they expected and he had kicked Luis and knocked the boy to the floor before passing out.

Adam looked at his fingers as if he could still see the blood that had stained them. There was too much blood. He slowly looked up to watch his brother's chest rising and falling. Joe still hadn't woken up and a voice kept whispering at him that he never would. Adam shook his head to clear his thoughts and he reached for the washcloth to wipe down Joe's face and neck again.

A knock at the door startled him out of his thoughts and he heard a woman's voice outside on the small verandah. He reached for the flimsy curtain and pushed it around the bed space before frantically looking for somewhere to hide out of sight.

Luis shoved him behind a cabinet and Adam held his pistol in his hand as he prayed the woman would go away. Maria's voice carried through, but he could not make out the words clearly. Suddenly the door pushed open and he could hear Maria pleading with somebody. He saw a small blonde woman in the kitchen and he would have stayed hidden if Joe hadn't chosen that moment to wake up. His brother's groan of pain was loud enough that the woman pulled aside the curtain and gasped at what she saw.

"Mistress, it is not what you think!" Maria was pleading and crying as she tugged at the woman's sleeve."

"Maria!"

Adam strode out from behind the cabinet and pushed himself between the stranger and his brother's bed. He held his gun aimed in her direction, but made no overt move towards her.

"These people have done nothing wrong. I forced my way in here."

Lydia's face was as white as a sheet. "This was never supposed to happen. I'm so sorry, but this should never have happened."

"You mean your husband shouldn't have tried to kill my brother? You're damn right about that!"

The implied threat in his tone wasn't lost on her. "Your brother?"

Lydia's hands twisted together as she tried desperately to salvage an impossible situation.

"You don't understand. The man I killed was my husband once. I believed he was dead. He was a cruel and vindictive man and he threatened me. I shot him in self defence!"

Adam had pieced together as much of the story as Luis could tell him, but this part was new. "Then why cover it up? Why not just tell the truth? And why try to kill my brother?"

"I tried to get him to leave town. He's too stubborn for his own good."

All eyes turned to see the sheriff standing in the doorway. "Lydia, I tried to deal with this and he should have just left town."

Adam stared at the man who had so callously tried to murder his brother and was now trying to justify it. He noted the man's hand on his holster and he lunged towards the sheriff. He could hear screams as he grappled with the man. They were an even match in height and weight and each was desperate, if for very different reasons. Adam felt himself being shoved backwards and he slammed into a shelf full of plates that slipped and shattered on the floor. He pushed back and felt both of them tumbling towards the table. It gave way under their combined weight and Adam suddenly found himself pinned under the sheriff's knee in his chest. He saw the muzzle of a pistol looming towards him and he tried to push the man off him. He could hear Lydia pleading with her husband to stop before a shot rang out across the small room. The sheriff toppled sideways and his gun clattered to floor. Adam shoved against the man's legs and scrambled out from under him to see blood trailing down the side of Gideon's arm.

At first, he thought it was Luis who had fired, but he looked up to see Joe raised up on one elbow with his pistol in his hand. His face was coated in sweat and his hand was shaking violently. Adam was afraid he was going to shoot again.

"Joe! It's okay. Put the gun down."

Before Adam could move, two men burst through the door with drawn guns. They took in the scene before them and rushed towards the sheriff. One of them aimed his gun squarely at Adam while the other checked out his boss.

"You okay, Gideon?"

The sheriff sat slumped against the wooden cabinet, amidst the shattered pieces of pottery. He clutched at his arm as blood dripped through his fingers.

"Walt, you need to write up an arrest charge."

"Sure thing. What's the charges?"

"Attempted murder. Perverting the course of justice. And whatever I think about on the way back to town."

One of the deputies was moving towards Adam with his handcuffs as the sheriff waved him off.

"Those charges are for me, not them." Gideon hauled himself up off the floor with Lydia still clutching his waist. "These men have done nothing wrong besides defend themselves."

Walt looked at his boss as if he'd gone mad.

"It's a long story. I'll fill you in on the way back to town. In the meantime, somebody needs to get that man a doctor."

Gideon pointed towards where Joe had slumped back onto the bed and Adam hurried over to check on him. His brother's five minutes of adrenaline had long since subsided and he was once again unconscious.

Ben watched as Hoss fussed again with the edge of the blanket and straightened it across Joe's shoulders. His middle son was still carrying a world of unnecessary guilt for the hasty words he had spoken against his youngest brother. That first telegram telling them that Joe was delayed had riled Hoss no end. He had moaned that Joe was an expert at wasting time and shirking his share of work and several other things that Ben knew he didn't mean. The fact Joe had mentioned a coroner's inquest had him concerned, but his son had assured him there was no need to worry. Now he wished he had followed his gut and left Warbonnet the moment he received the telegram. Instead, he had carried on with their business and kept scouting out new bloodlines for breeding stock.

"Another couple of days and Joe should be ready to travel." Adam handed his father a mug of coffee and waved a second one towards Hoss. "He can't wait to get out of here."

Ben had heard the ugly details of what had transpired and was still amazed at it. A good man had chosen a desperate path to save his wife. He couldn't find it in himself to condemn the man for his actions. He might have done the same thing himself once. Ben sipped at his coffee and looked at his son sleeping soundly for the first time in days. The same son who had once tried to run from a murder charge to save his mother's reputation. Love could make a man do some reckless things.

"Did you speak to Luis and his mother yet?" Ben looked across at Adam, who smiled back at him and nodded.

"I hope you like the name El Jefe." Adam grinned as he recalled the excited response from the boy's mother as she went off in Spanish. He could only pick out a few words, but her tears of joy told him all he needed to know.

Ben frowned at the words as he knew it was the name Gideon Yates had been known by. He had no wish to be associated with the man in any way.

"I think Mister Cartwright will be just fine, thank you!"

"It might take a while to change that habit."

Ben nodded as he thought about that while watching his son sleep.

"Pa, did you hear the news about Loomis?"

Adam had been down at the sheriff's office, dealing with the deputy who had signed off on all his and Joe's paperwork. "It seems he was wanted with a reward on his head. Dead or alive."

Ben reached towards Joe's forearm as he took in the news. What a tangled web he had wandered into!

"So Gideon's wife could have collected a reward for shooting him, but instead her husband will be going to prison."

"What a mess!"

Hoss leaned against the window and lifted the curtain as he stared across the street. The young man who had saved his brother's life was greeting a rider at the door of the livery. He smiled at the thought he'd soon be working on the Ponderosa, helping Joe with the breeding program for their army contracts.

Nothing could ever repay the young man's courageous choices, but it was a start.