Authors note: This is a story dedicated to Islaboe who encouraged me to write something about Adam as a father.

Anniversary

It was early Saturday morning in the Cartwright household and Emma and Adam were lying in bed, with Emma lying in the crook of Adam's arm.

"Adam, do you remember the day we first met?"

"Yes Emma, of course I do. I remember that day very vividly. I was sitting enjoying a cup of coffee at a table outside the Marriott Hotel on the Champs Elysees, when you fell into my lap." He laughed at the memory.

"I did not fall into your lap Adam Cartwright! I was pushed from behind," retorted Emma.

Adam laughed again; "If you say so my dear. Anyway, as I remember it, you ended up landing in my lap and then you stole my heart."

"Adam, you know when I looked up, I was so embarrassed. I couldn't believe how I was practically lying face down in a stranger mans lap! A wonderfully handsome, soft spoken, dark haired man's lap, but still a strangers," said Emma blushing a little at the memory.

"Yes. I well remember your face, it was as red as a beetroot and you didn't know where to put your hands to push yourself up. I remember being very surprised but amused and, I lifted you up by holding you under your shoulders. You shyly looked into my eyes and I realised right there and then, that for the very first time, I believed in 'love at first sight'."

"Is that right? Well, when I looked into your deep brown eyes I felt like I just couldn't breathe anymore. Although I was still embarrassed, I felt that it no longer mattered as much. Your handsome smile and the dimple in your strong chin drew me in and it was all that I could do to stop myself from kissing you!"

"Really? I didn't know that…. I remember helping you into a chair and calling the garcon for a glass of water as I believed at first, that you might have fainted as you walked past my table. "

Adam kissed Emma lightly on the lips. "My love, before we met, I never believed in fate and the stories that the cloth of life is weaved for you, but on that day I questioned whether or not I was wrong. It seemed that we were indeed fated to be together."

"I agree Adam. After you had so gallantly escorted me back to the apartment I shared with my mother. I couldn't stop thinking about you. Mother made me lay down after chasing you off, she believed that you were beneath us you know. I did lie down, but my restless dreams were only of the handsome young man that I had met that day.

So when mother retired for the evening, I rose and wrote that short note for you that I had delivered to your hotel the next morning. I returned to bed and tried to return to my dreams but I couldn't. All I could think of was would I ever see you again and my heart ached at the thought that I would not. Oh I hoped that you were staying at the Marriot on the Champs se Elsee but what if you weren't and had only stopped at the café just for the coffee? How would I find you then?"

Adam chuckled, "I must admit I was concerned that your mother thought that perhaps I had done something to put you in the state you were in when I returned you home. I did try and explain but she waved my explanations off and just thanked me for bringing you home. I wondered though if I was going to wake up the next morning to gendarmes knocking on the door! As it was the knocking on the door, that did wake me up was my alarm call with breakfast. When I saw the handwritten note under the upturned coffee cup, my heart truly was in my mouth. It was address to 'Adam the dark haired American hero.' The maid laughed when she handed over the tray, saying that the boy on reception knew exactly who the note was meant for. Apparently the young man had seen the whole thing when you and I were out on the pavement. He was the one who had called for the horse driven cabby who drove us to your apartment and returned me to the hotel afterwards. I sat down on the bed and after I poured myself a coffee I opened the note.

'My dear dark haired hero. Thank you for looking after me and returning me safely to my apartment yesterday. I hope that you receive this note as I am unsure whether or not you are staying at the hotel. I would like to meet to apologise in person for falling on you and spilling your beverage. I truly hope that you were not injured. I will be in the hotel lobby at 11 o'clock; I hope that you can join me. Yours in friendship and hope. Miss Emma Lorraine Wells.' Well with such a well written note how could I resist?"

"Obviously you couldn't. I arrived at the hotel on time and waited in the lobby. You strode down the stairs and greeted me with that lovely smile of yours. 'Miss Emma Lorraine Wells, I presume?' you asked and I nodded. 'My name is Adam Stoddard Cartwright you said, and I am pleased to formally meet you. Shall we?' and you led the way into the parlour and ordered us both coffee. It was so innocent and yet effortless, we talked for hours. For lunch, you asked if I would like to accompany you to a little restaurant that you had discovered a few days before and I accepted. We left the hotel and you guided us down the street to the restaurant and I just couldn't resist placing my hand in yours as we walked. You never questioned it as it just felt so natural and right."

"Yes Emma and we have not been apart since. I knew then that you felt the same way about me as I did you. I remember looking into your deep blue eyes over lunch and I felt like I was failing into them. As I looked into them they became large blue pools that enticed you inside. We held hands across the table and I don't think that we ate much. Afterwards, we walked in the park and sat on the grass just talking about our families; you telling me about living in England with your mother and I you, about my father, brothers and the ranch."

"You made ranch life sound so exciting Adam. Oh it sounded like hard work but living on the wild frontier seemed so much more exciting than my life of constant social occasions. My mother was always trying to marry me off to someone rich and important. And yet all I wanted was to be loved. I wanted to love the person I was to marry and to raise his children, not to be his trophy wife whilst he went off to practice his political life or be a doctor or something else that would leave me alone. Mother was against our union but could not object legally. I wish that she had attended our wedding though Adam, as well as your family but I understood that the journey would be a long one. I did not want to wait any longer to be your wife. Still, I do wish that perhaps we should have had some formal ceremony for your family when we arrived in Virginia City."

"Emma, the most important thing in my life then was you. And, Pa and my brothers knew and accepted that. As you saw, they were overjoyed to meet you and were not worried about any ceremony being performed just for them. I wrote them that I was going to marry you from Paris and sent a picture on of us togather so that they knew what you looked like. Pa told me when he first met you, that the black and white photograph did not tell the whole story, that you were even more beautiful in person and that I was a very lucky man, of course he didn't have to tell me that!"

Emma kissed Adam hard on the lips, "Thank you for all the memories from that day to this. I love you Adam Stoddard Cartwright and I love your present. The leather bound album I can record the life of our family in, is a truly wonderful gift."

"Thank you for my present too. The fob watch with the picture of all of our children and you, together with the inscription will allow me to always have you with me, even if I have to go away on ranch business. I love you so much Mrs Emma Lorraine Cartwright. Happy 10th anniversary."